Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In chapter 13 Jesus was asked are there few who will be saved?

In reply He answered make every effort to enter by the narrow door for wide is the way to destruction.

In today’s passage we have a multitude of people.

I cannot imagine any preacher today doing what Jesus did or said.

I cannot imagine that in some large church where success is measured by the number of people coming through the doors that anyone would say: OK, you lot, listen up!

And then go on to try to discourage them from coming.

You see, Jesus doesn’t want the hangers-on.

He does not want the half-committed.

No, the challenge was; if you will follow Me, Jesus said, then I have to take number one priority over everyone and everything.

Jesus was not wanting to take emotional responses to Him which, anyone with feelings know, can change again in a heartbeat.

We may feel positive towards Jesus now but could turn complacent in the next week and maybe even hostile in two weeks, if we were to reply upon feelings.

No, Jesus wants us to sit down and count the cost.

He wants us to know that it will cost us absolutely everything to follow Him.

He doesn’t want starters He only wants finishers.

For, He says, what use is salt if it loses its saltiness.

We read in John’s Gospel (John 6.66) when another crowd of so-called disciples were following Him that that was enough for them and they turned back from following Him.

Jesus is trying to thin the crowds so that the only ones following Him are the genuine seekers and followers.

Some relish the challenge and others are not sure.

If Jesus were here right now, physically standing before you all, and said you must hate all your family and your own life, how many of us would continue to stay?

What did Jesus mean by hate?

It is such a strong word.

The opposite of live, right?

Well, not quite.

Christ was not saying that one’s family and one’s self were to be literally hated.

The true believer is to love even his enemies (Lu.

6:27).

What then did Christ mean?

Very simply …

⇒ Christ is to be first in a person’s life: before family, even before self.

⇒ Christ is to be put before family: even if one’s family opposes his decision to follow Christ.

⇒ Christ is to be put first: before the companionship and comfort and pleasure of family and home.

⇒ All—even family and self—are to be put behind Christ and His mission.

All must be denied and put behind a person’s love and devotion to Christ and His cause.

To hate, then, is to love everyone and everything else a great deal less than our Saviour.

And then we are told to bear our cross.

The cross was a well-known instrument of death in Jesus’ day.

Everyone had seen a crucifixion.

To bear one’s cross was not simply about coping with the things of life and its troubles - in fact, it does not mean this at all.

To bear ones cross is to know you are going to your death.

This changes our priorities and the things that we think are important.

Jesus then tells two parables which are told to make us think.

One about building but not finishing.

This is the easier of the two to get.

It is daft to start if you cannot finish.

Though we do see this happen.

There are always unexpected costs but are we wiling to pay whatever it would to finish?

To start the Christian life and not carry it through reveals our commitment wasn’t really there in the first place.

The second parable about the army with 10,000 coming against the one with 20,000.

This is about resources and consequences.

Is the king going to fight and accept the loses that come with going to battle or is he going to surrender?

The king has to make a decision.

The battle is inevitable for those who follow Jesus and you may suffer the lose of all you have, be injured and may even be killed.

It is either this or capitulate.

But once the decision is made to go to battle there is no way out.

We are in a better place than the people there that day when Jesus presented His argument.

We have the benefit of hindsight in that we recognise that Jesus went to the cross and paid the ultimate price for our sin but the people in the crowd that day had no such insight.

This makes them all the more impressive who decided that Jesus must be the One to whom they should give their lives.

And it makes it all the more shameful for us who have not fully set to follow Jesus knowing all that He has done for us.

To follow Jesus requires our everything for He gave His everything for us.

It is not that Jesus wants to turn away anyone; not at all.

He wants everyone to follow Him but He just cannot bear with complacency and halfheartedness.

Indeed we read of such a Church in Revelation to which Jesus speaks through John:

The good thing about a lukewarm Church is that it is able to repent, it still has time.

Indeed it is urged to be zealous in repentance.

But the door to allow Jesus to have full control in our lives is for us to open.

I know that this passage is often used for evangelism but this is written to Christians who used to be on fire for God and have instead become comfortable with their Christian lives and their hearts now have multiple allegiances.

Indeed James, the half-brother of Jesus said this:

C. S Lewis had it right:

The Christian way is different.…

Christ says, “Give me all.

I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you.

I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.

No half-measures are any good.

I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down.

I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out.

Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit.”

For people who will realise their need He has come.

Jesus loves people and loves to spend time with those whom society, on the whole, want nothing to do with.

In Jesus’ day that was the prostitutes and the tax collectors.

But it was to these that Jesus came to seek and save.

Yes, these were sinners for sure but they were not self-righteous, they did not think themselves to be of much worth and that made them more open to the message of good news and of a Saviour who could deliver them.

Indeed Jesus makes it clear that if one of these repents the rejoicing in Heaven reverberates throughout the kingdom.

And who is doing the rejoicing?

Ah, yes It is God Himself rejoicing in the presence of the angels.

What an amazing thought!

When we came to Jesus there were shouts of joy!

And when we fall along the way, perhaps lose our way and we come back to Him, guess what?

Again there is rejoicing.

There’s no room to be stuck up and look down our noses at people.

We are in as much need of a Saviour as the worst person in society, and indeed the worst person has a better chance of coming to Jesus than those who think that everything is alright.

The parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin reveal a Saviour who cares for His sheep and thinks that we are valuable as this woman’s coin was valuable to her.

The shepherd put great effort into his search as did the woman.

Hills were searched, the sheep’s name was called out, every nook and cranny was searched and in the dim light everything was moved and dusted to search out for the coin.

There is a desperation.

Perhaps you have had the experience of becoming separated from a young child while in a large department store or sporting event or whatever.

You look for the youngster frantically, feeling confident that the child is all right but also fearing the worst.

And when the two of you are reunited, what joy!

And such is our Saviour when he finds us!

The earliest Christian statue dated from the 3rd Century is of a shepherd with a sheep across his shoulders.

Great comfort was taken from this picture.