Counting the Cost

Intro

Good evening guys, I hope you have been keeping up with your journals. Its been really fun for me to see what God has been teaching me through my readings. Its really interesting to see how God uses His word to lead and teach us. I do wanna say this though. If you have not been doing any of the readings and journals you are really missing out on what God has to say to you. Also if you cant find margin to do 5 days then please do at least 3. I promise you it wont hurt you.

So, we are back in our study of Luke and we will be wrapping it up very soon and moving into the book of ACTS for a short time. But if you remember one of the things we said about Luke is how organized he is. That doesn't mean that is necessarily chronological but instead topical in his approach to Jesus life. This week we will see Luke lay out the cost of following Jesus.

I’ll never forget the day I found out I was going to be a parent. The overwhelming excitement, the joy, the lets go tell my parents right now. Which happened being that I only lived .5 miles away. Now all of that was great and the thought of it still rings true to me. but all of that took a brief backseat as I listened to people who had kids tell me how hard it was going to be. The same with marriage, the glitz and glamour of it has its moments where you go, I’m not sure I am ready for this at all.

I truly believe that same principle idea works with being a Christian as well. I really think Jesus backs this idea up in our passage tonight. Because I think if we are honest we’ve thought like this or even been told this. “God has such a wonderful plan for you” or “Or be a Christian and God will make all things better.”

But often times it seems that the adverse is actually true. Just like finding out your going to be a parent, there is joy and excitement and then its often followed by some moments where you go man I didn't know it was gonna be this hard. But also like being a parent there is no greater joy than knowing Jesus. We will look at both of those instances tonight.

This week we will be in Luke 14:25-35

Luke 14:25–35 (CSB)

Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, 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, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

“Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? It isn’t fit for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

Jesus Above Other Relationships

The first thing Jesus is going to tell those who are following Him is actually quite radical. As we set the scene here Jesus has all of these people following Him around. Luke does a masterful job of letting his reader know throughout the gospel that Jesus is quite popular among the people. This is one of the few times he turns and addresses the crowd like this. Up to this point he has addressed the disciples personally and there were probably just people around that heard him. But this address to the crowd is designed to get right to the point.

To be clear Jesus isnt beating around the bush about the next few statements He is about to make. So then comes the first part of His statement.

Luke 14:26 ““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.”

Why say this? I mean from all the things we have been told about Jesus and all the things we probably have in our head about what Jesus was about, this statement seems so anti-everything we know about Him. It also seems to go against His own words of “honoring your father and mother.” You might also think Jesus would then say “I don’t mean actual hate by the way” but we don’t get that at all. We just get Jesus saying this very bold and broad statement and moving on. The question then arises then, what is Jesus doing?

There have been many blasphemous authors who have tried to use this quote from Jesus to disqualify him. But failing to recognize that Jesus in facts uses startling paradoxical statements to drive home a point. As Kent Hughes states “Jesus wanted his listeners to think.

Jesus wanted these hearers to understand that love for Him takes top priority over all other relationships. No other relationship can ever come above Him. By Jesus using the most radical of statements it drives the point home. That all other relationships are pale in comparison to the love shown to Him. I think we need to make this statement as well, this is just limited to parents and siblings but ALL relationships.

Now, we should know that in Muslim run countries if you choose Christ you lose your family and then your family has an obligation to their faith to kill you. Now we may not face this kind of choice in our country, so then how does this play out for us. It means that any relationship you have that is steering you away from Christ it has to go.

This means guys that you may lose some friendships, I know that is a tough thing but I can promise you Jesus is better.