The Cost of Being a Disciple

A Sermon on Luke 14:25-35

ME — Those unfinished building you see around

There was this unfinished house by where we used to live that I would drive past every once and a while. It was a bigger house by the river. It had nice gates in the front, a good size driveway, but it was unfinished. There was the vapor barrier on the house, but no siding, a few windows, but not all of them, a front door and a roof on it, but the rest of it was not done yet. 

And it had been that way for awhile, the weeds were growing up around the house, the driveway was being reclaimed by the grass and plants. It was a rather odd sight. 

Every time I would drive past it, I would wonder what had happened. Did they not have someone to figure out the total cost before they started, so they ran out of money before they finished? Why did they put up the nice gates at the entrance before they even finished the house? 

Normally, when you start a project like that, you have a ball park estimate on how much it’s going to cost. It may not be an exact number, but you have a good idea of how much it’s going to cost so you know if you can do it or not. 

No one starts out a big project like that unless you sit down and plan things out and know the cost of what it is going to take to finish it. 

Transition: "Jesus actually uses this exact kind of story — and he uses it to talk about what it means to follow him."

WE — What does it cost us to follow Jesus?

Have you sat down and figure out the cost of what it takes to follow Jesus?

I think most of us get into the deep end of Christianity before we realize the full cost. It’s difficult to know the full cost of following Jesus because we haven’t done it before. 

Jesus is giving us the “ballpark estimate” of what it will cost those who follow him. The estimate he gives is their whole lives. That is about as high of a cost as we can pay. It’s probably a cost that if we were honest, we don’t want to pay. 

We would rather have had the “ballpark estimate” cost be something like, well, it would cost you a Sunday morning, maybe another evening or a few hours in the morning throughout the week if you really want to be serious about your devotional life. At some point, it might cost you a little bit more time, if you are called to be an Elder or Deacon. But, for the most part, your life probably won’t change very much. 

That would be easy, that would be comfortable for us, but that isn’t what Jesus says here to the crowd of people following him, and that’s not what he says to us here this morning. 

Transition: “This is one of the hardest calls to discipleship, if not the hardest call to discipleship that Jesus gives us.”

GOD

Context

Jesus thins the crowd (v. 25)

Transition: "Of all the things Jesus could have said to a growing crowd, this is what he chose.”

The Cost (vv. 26-27) 

Hate your family

Hate your own life

Carry your cross

Transition: "And in case that wasn't clear enough, he gives them two pictures of what he means.”

The Parables (vv. 28-32) 

The Builder

The King

Transition: "Don't start what you can't finish. And then he tells them what's at stake if they do."

The Warning (vv. 34-35)

Salt that looses it’s saltiness

Transition: "A half-committed disciple doesn't just struggle; they become useless."

YOU — Counting the Cost to Follow Jesus

Have you actually counted the cost? 

It probably doesn't look like a dramatic moment where you sell everything and move to a foreign country. 

For most of us it's quieter than that and maybe that's why it's so easy to avoid the question.

It looks like asking yourself: is there an area of my life where I've put up the gates and the driveway but never finished the house? Where I've got the exterior of faith — I show up on Sunday, I know the right answers, I'm involved enough, but I haven't let Jesus into the rooms I keep closed off?

Maybe it's your time. You've carved out a comfortable amount for church and faith, but the idea of it asking more than that makes you nervous.

Maybe it's your reputation. Following Jesus faithfully in your workplace, your neighborhood, your family would make things awkward and so you've quietly kept that part of your life separate.

Jesus isn't asking you to have it all figured out before you follow him. But he is asking you to be honest. To sit down and reckon with what this actually costs and then choose him.

The half-finished house by the river is a sad sight. Not because someone tried and failed, but because someone started without ever really counting the cost. Don't let that be your faith.

Transition: "And here's the good news we don't count this cost alone, and we don't pay it alone either.”

Jesus calls his disciples to take up their cross, but he doesn’t tell them to go and died for him, he calls them to take up their cross and follow him. He goes before and gives his life for us. 

Jesus’ cost for us is his life, he is only asking the same of us in return. The life of a disciple, the cost of discipleship is willing to give everything up because Jesus is more priceless to us than anything else in this world. 

WE — 

What does a church look like that has actually counted the cost?

It looks like a church full of people who have sat down, reckoned honestly with what Jesus requires, and said yes anyway. People who are still in process, still being formed, but who have stopped negotiating with Jesus about what they're willing to give.

Think about making that marriage commitment, you make that covenant with your loved one before you really know what that will require of you. But as you live into it, you become more aware of what you promised. And you don’t give up. You keep going. 

That's what a church that has counted the cost looks like. Not a church without struggle, but a church that decided before the struggle came that Jesus was worth it.

It looks like people serving in ways that are inconvenient showing up for each other, because they've given that part of their life to Jesus too.

It looks like generosity that actually costs something. Not giving from the excess but giving in a way that requires trust.

It looks like honesty. People willing to say "I'm struggling" or "I need help" because they've stopped performing faith and started actually living it.

It looks like neighbors being loved. People on the margins being welcomed. The Gospel going out from this congregation not because we have a program for it but because the people sitting in these pews have decided that the mission of Jesus is worth their actual lives.

That's the salt that doesn't lose its saltiness. A community of people who counted the cost, chose Jesus anyway, and are being transformed by that choice together.

And here's what makes that possible: we don't pay this cost alone. Jesus didn't ask us to carry a cross he himself had never carried. He went first. He counted the cost of our redemption, went to Jerusalem anyway, and paid what we never could.

The cost of discipleship is real. But we follow someone who paid it first and who walks with us as we pay ours.

Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me.”