Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Luke 14:25-33

Theme: Total discipleship is giving supreme allegiance to Christ.

As we come to the 14th chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus is only months away from arrest and death.

He is now going to begin to instruct and admonish those who followed him, but did not fully understand what would be coming.

Many who followed Jesus had their own agenda.

They believed he was the Messiah, but expected him to set up an earthly kingdom, reigning from Jerusalem.

The believed it would be Israel’s second golden age.

They wanted to be a part of the Messiah’s reign having important positions in his kingdom.

After all, every king needs counselors and administrators and court officials — a bureaucracy for ruling a kingdom — that affords the possibility of wealth and prestige, and career advancement.

Even the Twelve regularly argued about which of them would be “most important” in Jesus’ kingdom.

Jesus is about to do some serious “bubble bursting” with his comments on the cost of discipleship.

“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “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.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

(Luke 14:25–27, ESV)

These words are meant to shock, and no doubt were shocking to those following him along the dusty roads of Judea.

In a culture where family was pre-eminent these words come across as harsh, and even antithetical to Jesus other commands to love pre-eminently.

The attitude that Jesus seems to recommend goes against our nature, and it seems to go against the law of love which Jesus emphasized and radicalized (i.e.

see the Parable of the Good Samaritan).

If “neighbor” is extended to include our enemies, then surely it must include our own family.

Jesus tells his followers that those who wish to follow him must abandon all, and must be prepared to carry a cross.

That’s an extraordinary statement.

Everyone in Jesus’ day knew one thing ... if you saw a person carrying a cross, you knew that was the last thing that person was ever going to do.

What does Jesus mean in these verses?

I. SALVATION IS A CALL TO TOTAL DISCIPLESHIP

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

(Luke 14:27)

ILLUS.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who opposed the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany, wrote a small book in 1937 called The Cost of Discipleship.

It has never been out of print and is considered a “Christian classic.”

In it he regularly refers to what he calls cheap grace.

Among other things, he says that cheap grace is grace without discipleship.

He writes, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

1. this is exactly what Jesus does when he calls a disciple to bear his own cross

a. it’s a reminder that grace is costly

2. for much of the past one hundred years a cultural Christianity has existed right next to biblical Christianity

a. Cultural Christianity is religion that superficially identifies itself as “Christianity” but does not truly adhere to the faith

b. a “cultural Christian” is a person who wears the label “Christian,” but the label has more to do with that person’s family background and upbringing than any personal conviction that Jesus is Lord and Savior

3. Cultural Christianity quickly secularizes in an attempt to remain relevant to the broader culture

a. but as it secularizes the realization that grace is costly gradually fades

4. ultimately cheap grace is characterized by belief without obedience, hearing without doing, and intellectual assent without life commitment

a. the Apostle James said it like this ...

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”

(James 1:22–24, ESV)

5. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die ... die to self ... die to culture ... and if necessary, die to family

ILLUS.

The audience of that day knew what carrying one’s cross meant.

The convicted criminal, in an act of total humiliation, carried his cross publicly to the place of execution..

It was a very public admission of guilt and acknowledgment of the rightness of the Roman government.

a. to carry our cross daily, means to identify with Christ in shame and suffering and surrender

1) it means death to self every day ... death to our plans, our ambitions and a demonstration of an open willingness to serve Him in any way He directs, even to the point of death

b. carrying our cross shows that we love Him more than we love ourselves

c. carrying our cross is not something forced upon us, but something we freely choose to do because of what he did for us

ILLUS.

Robert E. Lee is perhaps best known as the daring commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during our American Civil War.

What most do not know is that he was a Christian man who despised slavery.

During a visit to New Orleans shortly before the war, Lee happened to pass a slave market.

On the block was a young man, naked and fearful.

Lee's heart went out to the him.

He entered the bidding and bought him.

To the young black man's astonishment, Lee then set him free.

As Lee went out to stride his horse he noticed that the young man to whom he had just granted freedom was following him.

Lee began riding down the street, still the former slave followed.

Finally, Lee stopped, turned to the man and said, "Don't you understand, I bought you to give you your freedom."

"I understand."

replied the man.

"Then why do you keep following me as if I were your owner?" Lee asked.

The man replied, "When you set me free, was when I became your servant."

6. we ought to be willing to pay all we have for Him because He paid His all for us

A. JESUS IS NOT CALLING FOR A MAKE-OVER BUT DEMANDING A TAKEOVER

1. in much of 21st century America Biblical discipleship has been replaced by a consumer-friendly counterfeit

a. cultural Christianity has given way to consumer Christianity

ILLUS.

In his book Hard to Believe pastor and author John MacArthur writes, “Today this ... consumer mind-set has invaded Christianity.

The church service is too long, you say?

We’ll shorten it.

Too formal?

Wear your sweatsuit.

Too boring?

Wait’ll you hear our [worship] band!

And if the message is too confrontational, or too judgmental, or too exclusive, scary, unbelievable, hard to understand, or too much anything else for your taste, churches everywhere are eager to adjust that message to make you more comfortable.

This kind of Christianity ... does away with old-fashioned authority, guilt trips, accountability and moral absolutes.”

2. the true gospel is a call to self-denial, not a call to self-fulfillment

a. that puts much of Western Christianity in opposition to the Scriptures

3. consumer Christianity perceives God, as what German theologian Ludwig Feuerback, called a Wunschwesen —literally a "wish-being"

a. in much of the church today Jesus is presented as a utilitarian genie — you rub the lamp, and Jesus jumps out to give you You’ve Best Live Now

4. Biblical Christianity produces genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ

B. IN ORDER TO HAVE THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN WE MUST FLEE THE KINGDOM OF EARTH

1. just as property can come between us and the kingdom of God, so can family ties

a. just previous to this passage Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet

ILLUS.

In the story a man gives a great banquet and invited many.

He sent a personal servant to all on his guest list inviting them to the party.

But they all began to make excuses.

If you read the story, you see that they are all pretty flimsy excuses.

When the servant reported back with no RSVPs the man became angry and told his servant to go and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’

He did so and still there was room and so he went out to, as we say, beat the bushes bringing in even more.

Those who were originally invited will never, ever have a part in this man’s banquet.

b. those originally invited snubbed the invitation because they had “better things to do”