The Gospel of the Better Than

Luke 14:25–33 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Everybody loves a sale. Black Friday, as we call it, has a reputation for large crowds. Of people clamoring to get the elusive deals so they can give the hot gifts for Christmas. I normally try and avoid it. Online shopping has made this easier, but there is an energy and excitement in the crowd, but there can also be danger. There are videos online that you can find of glass doors being shattered by the crowds. Videos of fights between customers. People want a deal. People want the best things for the lowest price. Nobody fights to pay more. Nobody breaks down doors to gain the lesser things.

Our text today can be a difficult text, not because it is hard to understand, but because it can be, at times, hard to live out. What a great way to start the Christmas season! While this passage is quite sobering, I believe that when you peel back the surface message, there is something beautiful here.

Before we do that, we must examine what is before us in the text. The first thing we need to see is that following Jesus is an Expensive Discipleship.

I. An Expensive Discipleship