The Cost Of Discipleship

Text: Luke 14:25-35

Introduction

This morning we talked about how revival can only come through having the mind of Christ, which is one of humility and obedience. Tonight, we focus on what that obedience should look like in our lives. Tonight, we attempt to answer the question: “What does God expect of us as Christians?”

I. Counting the cost

A. Our “fire insurance” gospel is incomplete.

1. We must count the cost.

2. If Christ is who He says, and if He did what the Bible says, then the only proper response is complete dedication of every aspect our lives to his glory. Romans 12:1-2

3. Christ does not accept half-hearted devotion

B. Our obedience to Christ must be unconditional. (vv. 16-24)

1. When Christ calls, do we attach a list of conditions?

2. “I’ll obey, God, as long as…”

a. I don’t have to move

b. I don’t have to sell any of my possessions

c. I don’t have to take a cut in pay

d. I don’t have to leave my family

C. The Cost is much higher than we like to think

1. Discipleship may cost us our material possessions and money.

a. Luke 12:33-34

b. Matt 13:44

c. We are to love Christ in such a way that selling our possessions and giving our money to His Kingdom is a natural outpouring of our love.

2. Discipleship may cost us our relationships

a. Luke 14:26

b. We are to love Christ in a way that makes our closest relationships on this Earth look like hate.

3. Discipleship may cost us our lives.

a. Luke 14:27

b. We are to love Christ in such a way that we die to ourselves daily. And, if God asks our physical life, we do not hesitate.

4. Jesus was not talking in hyperbole, as we like to think.

a. Luke 9:57-62

b. The early church DID sell their possessions and distribute to those in need (Acts 4:32-35)

c. The disciples DID forsake their family relationships and obligations.

d. Many in the early church DID give their lives for the furtherance of the gospel.

i. Save Judas (suicide) and John (natural death), all of the disciples were martyred.

ii. Paul was beheaded, Peter crucified, etc.

iii. “Jesus is worthy of all our devotion”

D. We have watered down the Gospel

1. Our only financial sacrifice is likely our tithe

a. The word “tithe” is only mentioned twice in the (KJV) New Testament

b. Luke 11:38-44

c. Jesus mentions tithing while condemning the Pharisees for their legalism

2. The only ridicule or persecution we endure is from those who think we’re nuts to go to church on Sunday morning.

3. We don’t forsake our family and relationships because, after all, Jesus wouldn’t want us to do that! Or do we believe that “Jesus is worthy of all our devotion?”

II. Is Jesus worth it? The sacrifice that is no sacrifice.

A. Jesus doesn’t promise Earthly wealth, but he does promise heavenly wealth.

1. Matthew 19:16-22

2. Jesus immediately diagnosed his spiritual condition—his true love was his money.

a. It is wrong to assume that Jesus always asks us to sell everything we own.

b. It is equally wrong to assume that He never asks us to do so.

i. “That Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would issue that command.”

ii. Is our trust in our money/possessions, or in God?

3. But, Jesus was not asking the man to be miserable—he promised heavenly wealth in return! (vv. 21—“…and you will have treasure in heaven…”)

4. Luke 12:31-34—“Sell your possessions…and you will have treasure in heaven”

B. God asks us to give up our Earthly possessions because he loves us!

1. Illustration of dogs and treats

2. God wants to bless us, but he can’t when we hold onto our junk.

3. Luke 12:13-21

4. Heavenly treasure is the only thing that lasts.

5. I Tim 6:6-12, 17-19

6. Jim Elliot, martyred missionary to the Auca Indians of South America: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot loose.”

III. We must give our time, money, possessions, and abilities for the furtherance of the gospel

A. It is urgent!

1. Some estimate that around 1.7 billion have never heard the gospel.

2. ~26,000 children die every day of preventable causes

3. 50% worldwide live on < $2/day

B. We must throw away our minimalist gospel.

1. Christ is not satisfied with one or two hours per week

2. We do not have time to spend in idleness!

3. Christ is not satisfied with our minimal tithes

4. Christ is not satisfied with our minimal obedience

5. Matthew 8:18-27

6. Man is the only of God’s creations with the audacity to tell him “No.”

C. What would it look like?

1. If your church began selling its possessions and/or distributing them to those in need? Gave ‘til it hurt?

2. If your church set an income limit and gave everything above that away?

a. John Wesley

b. At one point made over $160,000/year, but lived on $20,000.

3. If your church decided to pray for every country in the world over the next year?

4. If your church began sending people into the world to deliver the gospel to those who’ve never heard?

5. If your church dove into God’s word, and read it cover to cover over the next year?

6. If your church decided to get serious about your faith through radical obedience to God?

Conclusion:

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.”

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)