"... cannot become my disciple" | Luke 14:25-33
Sermon Transcript
Good morning. Well, let's have another round of applause for our worship band that did such a great job every week. Everybody's in such a happy mood today. The Tigers won. The Gamecocks won. Our Georgia fans didn't play because they're gearing up for Alabama next week, and Alabama fans the same way. So seems like we have Georgia, Alabama, Gamecocks and tigers. That's why we have in our church. I don't know why, and I'm not forgetting Charleston, southern and the Citadel, but anyway, it's good to have you today, a hog and a hen were sharing the same barnyard, and they heard some talking at the church next door about the program to feed the hungry. And so the hog and the hen discussed what they could do to help alleviate that need. And the hen had a great idea, and she said, I figured it out. We can both contribute. We can have eggs and bacon and the and so the hawk thought about it for a little bit and said, you know, there's only one problem with your your bacon and egg solution. For you, it only requires a contribution, but for me, it means total commitment. And it was that bad of a joke at 830 as well. It was so bad at 830 no joke. Watch the video. There was silence at the punchline. So anyway, but the story underscores true discipleship, that it is a it is a total commitment, a total commitment. We're looking at a section of Scripture today where three times Jesus says, If you don't do this, or if you do this, you cannot be my disciple. So we're in the third week of a five week series on the words of Jesus. When we stop that, we're then going to go into the fall. We're going to have a series on all about Jesus's betrayal and his crucifixion and the end of the year, on his resurrection on a high note, but we're still talking about some of these words he's saying as he gets to the end of his life. And he says this things, these things about what you can and can't do if you're going to be my disciple. And so we are in Luke chapter 14, starting in verse 25 now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned to them and turned and said to them, this, 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, deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000 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, Heavenly Father. As we look at this passage today, we read this, and it leaves us confused, because we see you telling us things like we have to hate our family and and we know God, that you're a God of love, and that you've told us to love everyone and even to love our enemies who hate us. So we get confused when we read this. So show us today what that means. Give us some insight as to what you're talking to us about, about what we have to do, what disciples truly do, how they truly live, Lord, as you've called us to follow You, Lord, I pray that that you'll speak through me today, and that that we will hear from you today as our congregation and we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen. I want to show you today three attributes here in this passage that Jesus says disciples will have three attributes that disciples will have. First, disciples must prioritize Jesus. Disciples must prior. Jesus and we understand what it is to make priorities. And he's not saying make Jesus a priority. What he's saying is make Jesus the priority. Look at verse 25 now, great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, now this is interesting. They're following him great crowds. And so he turns and he says something that will intentionally weed out the crowds. He tells them something they don't want to hear. If anyone comes to Me, follows me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters. Yes, in his own life, he cannot make me be my disciple. Now, there might be a few people there. They're like, Oh, I already hate all them, so I can follow you. There might have been a few souls that way. Probably not. That's not the intention. The intention is, he knows they're going to say, What? What are you talking about? He says, Unless you hate your parents and your wife and your children and your family, what the world is he is he talking about? Well, he's being what they call hyperbolic. He's being exaggeratory. He's being shocking. He's exaggerating and he doesn't mean hate in the sense where he expects you to utterly despise and loathe your family. That's not what he's talking about. Any reading of scripture would understand that's not God's heart. It's not what that word means in this context. It doesn't mean you have to be completely disgusted with your family and and hope they perish and and wish ill will upon them. No, he's saying that you have to love him more than your family. In the biblical world, there was contrast made all the times. There was contrast made between love and hate, and so hate didn't always mean to detest someone or or loathe someone. Just meant that we love Jesus, but we don't love our family the way we love Jesus. He says, to be my disciple, you'll need to prioritize your relationship with him over all relationships in life. So he uses this word to shock them into thinking, What do you mean by this? That loving Jesus should be our most important relationship in our lives. It should be more important than your relationship with your husband or wife. You should love Jesus more than you love your children. If you love Jesus more than you love your love your siblings more than your parents. In fact, you can't have a family the way God intended. If that's not happening, if you're not loving God above all, you're not going to love your wife or your husband or your children the way he wants you to. You'll love them with a misplaced love, a misplaced emphasis, a misplaced direction. So he says, You need to prioritize the relationship with me. Look at Matthew 633, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Follow me first, and all these other things will fall into place. Colossians three, if then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that on Earth again, eternal perspective, seeking Jesus first. Philippians three. Paul says, Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ Paul renounced it all, all his of his worldly ambitions, all of his accolades, all of his everything he had done, all of his motives, all of his goals, so that he may be a follower of Christ. He took all his ambition that God gave him, and he put it all into following Jesus. That's what he means. You prioritize your relationship with Jesus, just like you prioritize any relationship. If you have someone you want to be with all the time, you make ways and you make time to be with them. Now you can't text Jesus. You can't call him on the phone. There's no face timing with Jesus, because he's seated the right hand of the Father. You. Him, but you can spend time with him, and it amazes me how much little time we spend with him, whether it's in prayer and he's told us how to pray, he's told us what to pray for, but how often do we struggle with what to pray for? Well, I don't know what I should pray for. He's told us what to pray for. He's told us how to do it. We can spend time with him, reading His word, meditating on scripture, thinking about what he said. Our student ministry teaches a method of Scripture learning called soap. It's an acronym you read the Scripture. That's the first S, you write down your observations. That's the O. You then write down how you apply those observations to your life, and then P, you procrastinate. No, I'm joking. That's not what it is. P, you pray about it. How often do we procrastinate, right? You pray about it, gets a journal. Get a Bible journal, use your notes app on your phone with technologies. There's so many ways now, back in the day, like if I had to study my Bible, I had to take it with me everywhere I go, and I still like taking it with me, but if you forget, you can still read a Bible on your phone. You can still read a Bible on your phone. You can you can still write it on a Notes app, right? They are everywhere. There's lots of way to do this, but the main way, the main barrier, is that we do not prioritize Jesus because we don't have the time we don't make the time. You know, my wife always tells me, You have time what you want to have time for Amen, you do. You have time. Secondly, disciples must endure hardship. Disciples must endure hardship. Look at verse 27 whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Now, what does he mean by bearing his own cross? We've heard this phrase before. It's it's used in in all sorts of you know, I heard in a country song the other day. It's used in all sorts of places. Jesus's death on the cross saved us from our sins. It made us right with God, but it also modeled to us the life that we should be willing to live. So it's a metaphor. It's referring to facing those difficult challenges in life, those hardships, those sufferings. It involves facing head on, the struggles, the difficulties that come with following Jesus. It's a reminder that following Him is not always easy. There's a struggle there, but it's ultimately rewarding and it is ultimately worth it, and this gets lost in our Americanized versions of Christianity. One historian says this, that Christianity in modern America is in large part innocuous. It tends to be easy, upbeat, convenient and compatible. It does not require self sacrifice, discipline, humility and other worldly outlook as zeal for souls, a fear as well as love for God. We don't challenge American Christians to live the way Jesus has taught us to live. So we get these easy believeism, and so we have a weak church. We have a weak body of Christ. Discipleship includes enduring hardship. We're not called to be soft Christians. If we're soft, we're not growing, we're not going through the hardships that Christ has told us to do. So I'm give us four truths about enduring hardships. First, hardships are temporary. Amen, praise the Lord. They're temporary. What you're going through now, if it's a hardship we'll end will not always be there. You might feel like it's never going to end, but it will look at second. Corinthians four, for this light momentary affliction, is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. He says, Whatever, whatever your affliction you're going through right now is preparing you for this eternal, this weight, this heavy. Of glory that is beyond comparison of whatever you're dealing with right now is nothing compared to the glories that await you in Heaven, nothing compared to the glories that await you so they're temporary. Secondly, hardships are beneficial. Something I feel like our world has lost the lesson of is not teaching our children when, you know parents nowadays, we never want our kids to suffer. They have to suffer or they're never going to grow. They're never going to be the person that God wants them to be. We don't make them suffer, but we teach them how to endure it. Hardships are beneficial. Look at James. He says, count it all. Bad luck, my brothers when No, it's not what it says, count it all. Joy when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing you of your faith produces steadfastness, and steadfastness has this full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking and nothing hardships are beneficial because it produces this perseverance. Yesterday, I just was able to watch a bunch of football. It was great on Saturday. Now watch these incredible plays that these athletes make. You know, they didn't just do that. They didn't just learn to do that on the field. They had to practice and they had to train. They had to go through this, these hardships, these trials, so they could be the complete ball player. There's no just super talented player at the high school level, at the college level, at the pro level, in the pros, they are all incredibly hard workers, and they're talented, which is why none of us are there. They're talented, and they work hard, and through that hardship, they become the best version of themselves, athletically speaking, and it's no secret why Paul uses these athletic analogies all through Scripture. He says, hardships are beneficial because you become complete through that third, hardships are productive. Look at Romans five, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Hardships are productive. Suffering helps you learn how to endure through them. And then when you get an idea of how to endure, then your character develops. And when that character is developed, then you can have hope in Christ, it produces things. Hardship produces character development in your life. It's a productive and finally, fourth another, praise the Lord that hardships are shared. They're shared. God did not save you to be a Christian by yourself. Praise the Lord. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation by yourself. You're saved into a community. That's why our church gathering services exist. That's why our small groups or in Sunday School exist. That's why our ministries exist. It's all communal. Look at Second Timothy two share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We share in it together. We share in the suffering Jesus suffered in, and he calls us good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Now we're on some type of Battlefield. We know this. The war is over. We are victorious, but we still have the battles to face, and a good soldier doesn't go AWOL, a good soldier doesn't talk back to his commanding officer. A good soldier does what the officer tells them and becomes a good soldier, and that's what he says. We share in this together, hardships are shared. Number three disciples also must count costs. Must count costs. Then he goes and tells a couple analogies. Look at verse 28 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. Yeah, and he wasn't able to finish. You've probably seen houses that are built halfway. There was a house near my in laws house in sparberg. We would go up, and we would go to the house, and they were building it, and they kind of quit, and then, like, a year later, the house is still there. The year later, the house is still there. And I finally asked my father in law, what happened to this big house that they were building this like never been finished. You know what? He said, they ran out of what? They ran out of money. I don't know the whole complication. I don't know if you got lost a job or I don't know what the deal was, but you see this, there's a construction that started and it quits because there's no funding. And he says nobody does that on purpose. Nobody gets ready to build something without saying, Okay, now how much is this going to cost? And they don't do that because they don't want to hear, in verse 30, someone say, look, he couldn't finish. They don't want they don't want to be mocked about it. Says, Nobody starts a house this way is not able to finish. Then he says in verse 31 or what King going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000 and if not, while the other is he had a great way off. He sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. The second metaphor he says, is what king goes to war thinking he's going to win if he's outmanned. He has 10,000 troops, and his enemy has 20,000 What king goes to war? They don't, because it's all a numbers game. At that point you're out manned, they would try to settle peacefully. So then Jesus makes this connection. He says this verse, 33 so any one of you who does not renounce all that he has. Cannot be my disciple. To renounce means to give up, to forsake, to withdraw from something, to leave something. Here's the connection with these two metaphors. This is what he says, just like a builder who realizes he can't finish the project, withdraws from it. A disciple of Jesus must realize that he must withdraw from the life that he was building before he became a believer. You were building a tower, and now you are a believer. You are building a life, and now you are following Christ, and now you have to renounce that, just like a king who realizes he's under man, withdraws from the battle plans. So new believers must withdraw from their plans. If you've been saved, your life's trajectory, your life's motivation, your life's goals, has been turned. It's been changed. And that's what Jesus says when you decide to follow Jesus, you must count the costs. Now many do, and they walk away. They count it, and they said, No, Jesus is not for me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian theologian and scholar who lost his life to the German Nazi regime before World War Two, he lost it because he would not swear allegiance to the Reich to Hitler and Bonhoeffer called this costly grace. We have a picture of him. He says this costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner above all. It is costly because it costs God the life of his son. You were bought at a price and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace, because God did not reckon his son to a dear price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us costly grace is the incarnation of God. I. When we follow Jesus, there is a cost, and that cost is losing the allegiances of the first life. Salvation is free. It's a gift. That's what it means. We turn from our sins. We receive it. It's free for us, but it costs Christ his life, and it costs Christ. It costs us our life in some level, in some way, you we may find ourselves, hopefully not in our lifetime, living in a country that we love yet doesn't love our Lord. Are we willing to renounce our allegiance to our country if that ever happens, as Christians, we may find ourselves in a family that loves us but that doesn't love our Lord. Are we willing to renounce the family over our leads us to Jesus Christ, who have saved us. We might find ourselves in a friend group that wants us to be loyal to them, but will not allow us to be loyal to Christ. Are we willing to walk away from the friend group? Disciples must count the cost every exchange has a cost our salvation. Cost Jesus his life, and it cost stuff our life, in a way, our old life. The reward for our new life is the death of our old life. Look at Romans six. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. In Christ, Jesus, Colossians, three do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, you've put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. It's this imagery of taking off the old clothes and putting on the new clothes. The new clothes fit us much better than the old clothes did on the lost person. Every now and then, I'll dress my little five year old, and he wears a five tee, and I'll put a 3t ON. It doesn't fit well, and his belly button hangs out because a short shirt is too short and it looks silly. I says he can't wear that. He's too big for that. But also in our own lives, every now and then, we try to take the old man, the things from our old life. We try to make it work with the Christian life, the Christian version of who we are, and it doesn't fit, doesn't work. That's what he's saying. Our old lives are gone. Our new lives are here. You have to count the cost. You can't wear those clothes anymore. You're going to want to you might even try em on, but just like me, trying on something from 2006 is not going to look good on me. Your old old ways don't work. I want to close with a story we find our Bible. Look at Mark chapter 10. As he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up a knelt before him and asked him, Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud. Honor your father and mother. He said, Teacher, I've done all these since I was a little boy. I've done them all since I was in a one on Sunday school. I've been a model Christian. I've done them all. Verse 21 and Jesus looking at him, loved him. You know, sometimes when we love people, it's loving to tell them something that they don't want to hear. And that's what he does. He loved him. And said to him, this, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me and dishearten the saying. By the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Now this is not an indictment on being wealthy. Jesus says it's hard for the rich, wealthy to come to the heavens. Somebody's saying, for this man, this is what was going to keep him from the heaven, from from eternal life. This is what was going to keep him from following Christ. He was unwilling to do what Jesus asked him to do, unwilling to sell the earthly things and help the. Four and have heavenly treasures and great possessions. He was unwilling to change who he was. He was unwilling to make changes to his identity. His identity was stuck in his material possessions, just like our identities are stuck in everything, some people's identities are stuck in their profession. Some people's identities are stuck in their sexuality. Some people's identities are stuck in their family. That's not who we are. We are new creations in Christ, and that's our identity. This man walks away from the one man, the one God who can make him right, because the cost of discipleship is real, so disciples must count the cost. See, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Through His death, through His burial, through His resurrection, he purchased eternal life for all who believe. Doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you look like. We all have equal opportunity to respond to the gospel when we hear it, and the gift is right there, laid out for us, all we gotta do is pick it up and unwrap it and open it up. But in a weird way, there are strings attached, not in a sinful way, but an interesting way, that when we open up that gift, we become new, and the old person leaves, and the new person is following Christ. And many people don't want that but praise the Lord. If you know Jesus, you did Amen, and the Lord led you into receiving that. That is the cost of discipleship. And as we close today, where in your life are you trying to put on those old clothes you're trying to go that direction used to go. Jesus says, Follow me if you would be my disciple, Heavenly Father, your clothes are time together today. So many ways, the Christian life is easy. So many ways. It's simple. Follow Jesus, DO what He tells us to do, but Lord, we get tired sometimes because our heart's not right. We try to do it on our own power. We don't let you help us and let you lead us, and we don't spend the time with you we need to spend. We don't turn from the sins we need to turn from. We don't we don't cling to you when things are tough and trust in you when things are hard, we get caught up on all the things the world tells us we need to be worried about. And Lord, You've saved us from having to worry about those things. You've saved us from having to worry about all those things that bother us, that stress us. He said, Give me your burdens and follow me. But it's going to cost you your life. And Lord, I thank you that you don't make us change completely overnight, because it would be hard for many of us to do that. But you work in us, and you work through us, and you're patient with us as you conform our hearts to yours. So Father, if there's one here today that's never placed their faith in you, never received that gift of salvation, that today they would and you would start them on their new journey, that they would be born again. And Lord, for those of us, as we leave here, show us where we're trying to live the old life and show us how we can endure those hardships through your grace, Lord. We love you. We ask these things in Jesus, name Amen.
