Unlike most of us, Jesus was not impressed by numbers of people. Instead, when large crowds followed Him, He sifted them, and thinned the ranks. He did this by telling them the Cost of Radical Discipleship – they must give up the people, comforts, and things that were most dear to them in order to follow Him. Then Jesus enforced this teaching by giving them three illustrations of the Dangers of Rashly Embracing Discipleship. Those dangers are Ridicule, Destruction, and Uselessness.
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Counting the Cost of Following Jesus
Luke 14:25-35
In the parable of the Big Dinner that we studied last week, salvation is pictured as a lavish feast that God provides freely for all who will come and enjoy it. Those that come to this feast do not pay an admission price. They don’t bring anything to the feast. They don’t add anything of their own to the feast. They simply come, feast and enjoy. Salvation is a gift of God. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). The work of Jesus Christ is finished. It is complete. It has been fully accomplished. We simply rest in the work that Christ has already worked out on our behalf. All of that is gloriously true. However, this morning we are going to look at the other side of the coin.
Although it is true that salvation is a free gift, it is also true that it will cost you everything you’ve got. Let’s suppose your heart has become very weak and sickly, and it’s only a matter of time until it is unable to pump the blood through your body and you die. However, a very rich, and healthy young friend of yours hears of your plight, and offers to let his heart do the work for the both of you. He’s rich and will pay for all of the hospital and surgeon’s fees. However, there is one catch. The only way that he can have his heart work for you, is to have a tube go from his heart and attach to yours. So, if you want life, you can have it, but from now on, wherever he goes, you go. This gift of life, is free, but it’s going to cost you everything you’ve got. No longer will you ever be able to go wherever you want. Your will will be be subject to his will for the rest of your life. Now, that’s what has happened in salvation. The gift of eternal life is absolutely free, but when we receive it, we are united to Jesus Christ, and we discover that it will cost us everything we have. We discover that we are not our own. We have been bought with a price, and now must glorify God in our body.
Notice, who it is that Jesus is addressing. Verse 25 says, “Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them.” Jesus is not addressing His disciples here, and teaching them how they can experience the deeper life. Jesus is not speaking to “carnal Christians” and teaching them how they can become spiritual. Jesus isn’t speaking to those who have accepted Him as Savior, and teaching them that they need to go on to accept Him as Lord. Jesus is speaking to lost people! He’s addressing large crowds of people that are going along with Him because they are hoping to see a miracle. Jesus is the best entertainment of the day, and they don’t want to miss out. In this passage Jesus is teaching a large crowd of lost people what their heart attitude must be in order to be His disciple. They must value Him supremely, and surrender to Him completely. Period. No argument or debate. This is really a call to salvation. This is an evangelistic call here. In the Book of Acts, there is no difference between a believer and a disciple. Acts 11:26 says that disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Disciples and Christians are exactly the same thing. So, when you hear Jesus say that you must do this, and this, and this to be His disciple, don’t equate that with some kind of super saint or spiritual marine. Jesus is saying, if you want to be a Christian, this is what you must do.
In this passage, Jesus gives 3 terms of Discipleship, and then He gives 3 illustrations of the dangers of not meeting those terms. The 3 terms of discipleship are given to us in verse 26, 27, and 33. In all three of those verses, Jesus tells this crowd that unless they do this, this, or that, they can’t be His disciple. Look at the verbs in those verses: they must hate, carry, and give up. They must hate their family and their own life. They must carry their cross. They must give up all their own possessions. In other words, Jesus is telling this crowd, that they can’t be His disciple unless they are willing to give up the people that are dearest to them, the comforts that are dearest to them, and the things that are dearest to them. Of course, the only way that anyone would be willing to give up everything for Christ, is if they came to see that Jesus is more valuable than any person, comfort or possession. He is our Priceless Treasure.
Jesus here, is warning this large crowd of something. He’s warning them against Nominal Christianity. Pollster George Gallup contends that fewer than ten percent of evangelical Christians could be called deeply committed. Most of those who profess Christianity don’t know basic Christian doctrines, and don’t act differently because of their Christian experience. George Barna found that almost half (46%) of evangelicals read their Bible only once a week or less, many not at all. This is simply the dangerous disease of Nominal Christianity. Jesus is warning here that many will try to follow Him without giving up the people, comforts, and possessions most dear to them. Then He explains the disastrous results of doing that in three illustrations – the builder of a tower, a king about to enter a battle, and salt that has lost its saltiness.
First, let’s look at The Radical Cost of Discipleship. Then we will look at The Dangers of Rashly Embracing Discipleship.
1. The Radical Cost of Discipleship
We Must Give Up The People That are Most Dear To Us. In verse 26, Jesus says, “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.” Who are the people in your life that are most dear to you? I would venture to guess that it is your family. If you are not yet married, it is probably your mother and father and brothers and sisters. If you are married, it is probably your spouse and your children. However, there is someone that it is even more dear to you than even your own family. Do you know who it is? It is yourself! Jesus adds, “yes, and even his own life.”
Now, this word “hate” confuses and stumbles many people. Did Jesus really mean that we had to hate our family and ourselves? No, not if you understand “hate” to mean show contempt or malice toward them. The Bible says that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. The Bible says that we are to honor our father and mother. In Titus 2:4, Paul says that the young women are to love their husbands and to love their children. So, if Scripture commands us to love our families, what does Jesus mean when He says we must hate them? In the Bible, the word “hate” carries the meaning of preferring someone or something over another. In the parallel passage in Matthew 10:37-38, Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” In Luke, Jesus says we must hate our family. In Matthew, Jesus says we must not love our family more than Him. Therefore, when Jesus says we must hate our family, He means that He must have our supreme loyalty, allegiance, and devotion.
If push comes to shove, and our family members want us to do one thing, and Jesus wants us to do another, we must obey Jesus. If parents want their son or daughter to remain at home where it is safe and comfortable, but Jesus is calling them to the mission field where there will be danger and sacrifice and suffering, that young person must obey Jesus. If a parent tells a child they are stupid and foolish to give so much of their time and money to serving the Lord, they must not heed their ridicule or obey their ungodly counsel. If a spouse tells you that you should stop going to church, praying, or reading your Bible, you must obey God rather than man. There can be no contest, no tug of war, as to who will command our loyalty and allegiance.
We Must Give Up The Comforts That Are Most Dear To Us. Jesus says in verse 27, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” In the first century, a cross was an instrument of death. If you saw a man carrying a cross down the road, you knew one thing – he wasn’t coming back. To carry our own cross is to die to our sin, and to accept the hardships, sufferings, and persecution that arises from following Christ. Of course, in our flesh, we would much rather live a comfortable, pain-free, easy life. But following Jesus will probably include trials, difficulties, and ridicule. The key question is whether we value Christ more than our comfort. Is He a far greater treasure than a comfortable life? Are we willing to die to sin and accept suffering, rejection, and persecution, as long as we can have Him? Are we like the man in the parable who stumbled upon a treasure in a field, and who for the joy over that discovery went and sold everything he had to buy the field? Jesus is very clear. You can’t be His disciple, unless you carry your own cross, and accept the suffering and pain that comes to you because of your allegiance to Him.
We Must Give Up the Things That Are Most Dear To Us. In verse 33, Jesus says, “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.” Now, if we were to understand this in a strictly literal fashion, we would have to conclude that no one can be saved unless they give up all their possessions. However, that’s not what we find in the lives of the earliest Christians. They owned homes and property. Yes, Jesus did command the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, but this was the exception rather than the rule. So, what does Jesus mean here?
Well, I like the way Juan Carlos Ortiz explains it in his book Disciple. “A man sees a pearl of amazing size and beauty in a jewelry shop. He says to the merchant, “I want this pearl. How much is it?” The seller says, “It’s very expensive.” “How much?” “A lot!” “Well, do you think I could buy it?” the man asks. “Oh, yes,” says the merchant, “everyone can buy it.” “But I thought you said it was very expensive.” “I did.” “Well, how much?” “Everything you have,” says the seller. “All right, I’ll buy it.” “Okay, what do you have?” “Well, I have $10,000 in the bank.” “Good, $10,000. What else?” “That’s all I have.” “Nothing more?” “Well, I have a few dollars more in my pocket.” “How much?” “Let’s see … $100.” “That’s mine, too,” says the seller. “What else do you have?” “That’s all, nothing else.” “Where do you live?” the seller asks. “In my house. Yes, I own a home.” The seller writes down, “house.” “It’s mine.” “Where do you expect me to sleep—in my camper?” “Oh, you have a camper, do you? That, too. What else” “Am I supposed to sleep in my car?” “Oh, you have a car?” “Yes, I own two of them.” “They’re mine now.” “Look, you’ve taken my money, my house, my camper, and my cars. Where is my family going to live?” “So, you have a family?” “Yes, I have a wife and three kids.” “They’re mine now.” Suddenly the seller exclaims, “Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine—wife, children, house, money, cars, and you, too.” Then he goes on, “Now, listen, I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don’t forget that they’re all mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them, you must give them up, because I am now the owner.”
You see, the issue really comes down to this – will you pursue a life of materialism, or a life of obeying Jesus Christ? What are you really living for? Let’s be honest. Do you value that new car or computer or home or boat more than Jesus? What do you find yourself thinking about most? Where is your heart? What are you really pursuing? Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Mt. 6:24). I’m afraid that our churches are filled with people who say they are Christians, but whose hearts are in love with their possessions.
If the Lord made it clear to you that He wanted you to give up one of your possessions, and you couldn’t immediately let it go, you have a real problem. The whole issue boils down to this – what has your heart? Does Christ have your heart, or do your things have your heart. If things have your heart you are an idolater. You can’t be Jesus’ disciple unless you relinquish ownership to Jesus of everything you have, and determine to use those things according to His will.
Summary. So, what is the cost of following Jesus Christ? You must give up the people, the comforts, and the things that are dearest to you in this world. In other words, it will cost you everything! The hymn writer, Isaac Watts, put it like this, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!”
2. The Dangers Of Rashly Embracing Discipleship
Although large crowds were going along with Jesus, He wasn’t impressed. Most pastors today would be ecstatic if large crowds began to attend their church services, but not Jesus. Jesus wasn’t looking for quantity, but quality in His disciples. He was only interested in disciples who were willing to forsake all to follow Him. The large crowds that were going along with Him, were not of that caliber. They were superficial hearers. They were going along with Him, because it was the exciting thing to do. However, if a circus came to town the next day, that’s where they would be next. They were not following Jesus because they were supremely devoted to Him. Now, Jesus helps us to see the dangers of rashly embracing discipleship, by giving three different illustrations.
Person Building a Tower. In verses 28-30, Jesus says, “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, `This man began to build and was not able to finish.´” The first danger Jesus points out is that of ridicule. The person who jumps into a building project compulsively before he even figures out if he has enough money to complete it, will become the laughingstock of the town when they pass by his half finished tower every day.
So too, the person who rashly professes faith in Jesus Christ, or who compulsively gets baptized without truly understanding what kind of a commitment is necessary for him to make, will often fall away when trials or temptations arise. He’s a superficial, nominal believer – in other words, he’s not a true believer at all. This guy shows up at work carrying a big black KJV Bible, gathers all his friends together and announces, “I’ve been saved! I went to church last week, and gave my life to Christ. It was wonderful. I felt such a weight roll off my shoulders. All of you need to give your lives to Jesus Christ, too!” And so, for a time, he enthusiastically witnesses to others about his faith. He even moves out of the apartment he was sharing with his girlfriend, stops drinking, and stops using profanity in his speech. However, soon the newness and excitement of his faith wears off, and he begins to spend time in prayer and the Word less and less often. Then he learns that those employees who will not work on Sundays will not be receiving raises and promotions. He justifies working on Sundays, thinking to himself that it’s not that important if he meets with the church on Sundays. After all, he can worship God any where, at any time. Slowly, he finds himself slipping right back into the same worldly, sinful life that he lived before. The profanity starts showing up in his speech. He begins to drink again, and finally he moves back into the apartment with his girlfriend. Now, what do you think his friends at work are thinking about all of this? They may not say anything directly, but in their hearts they are snickering at him. They’re thinking, “That fool was trying to get us to give our lives to Christ, and look at Him now. He’s a hypocrite, just like all the rest!”
King Going to War. Now, Jesus changes up His illustrations, and speaks about a king setting out to meet another king in battle. He says in verses 31-32, “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” If you are commanding an army of 10,000 men, and you realize that the army coming against you has 20,000 men, you better believe you will stop and do some hard thinking. You need to know if you have a good chance of winning the battle, because if you rush into it rashly, your whole army and its king may be slaughtered. The stakes are much too high to rush into battle, without sitting down and carefully counting the cost. The danger in the first illustration was ridicule. The danger in this illustration is destruction.
Brothers and sisters, if you rashly make a profession of faith in Christ, and get baptized, without understanding what it will cost you, and determining whether you are willing to make that kind of commitment, you are in for destruction! Any semblance of profession will end up being destroyed in this life, and your soul will be destroyed in the life to come.
In both of these illustrations we find a common phrase. In verse 28, it says “sit down and calculate the cost.” In verse 31 it says, “sit down and consider.” To sit down and calculate or consider means that you are stopping to carefully and deliberately think about all aspects of what you are getting into before making the commitment. This is the opposite of making an impulsive decision based on intense emotion. In modern evangelism in America, we are good at getting people to make quick decisions based on strong emotion. We hold huge crusades in stadiums where famous movie stars or athletes share how Jesus changed their lives. They hear a preacher promise that Christ can meet their every need. Then they are called to come down to the front “and give their hearts to Christ.” Counselors are even trained to get up out of their chair and come to the front, hoping that others will think they are coming to Christ for the first time and encourage others to get out of their seats and come as well. The worship band plays a song of invitation over and over. In the swell of the emotion, many people get out of their chairs and come to the front. Did they get saved? Thankfully, some do. However, Billy Graham’s workers have concluded that only about 5% of their “converts” will continue on in their faith. Their decision was based, for the most part, on the emotion of the moment, instead of carefully considering what kind of commitment God was calling them to make, and whether they were ready and willing to make it.
Salt that has Lost its Taste. Jesus gives us the third illustration in verses 34-35, “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Imagine taking your salt shaker and sprinkling some salt on your popcorn. When you bite into it, you are surprised to find that there is no salty flavor. There is no flavor at all. If that were the case, what would you do with that salt? What good is it? What can you use it for? Jesus says in verse 35, it is useless for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown out. This tasteless salt will do no good for the soil. It doesn’t contribute one bit to the minerals needed to grow crops. It will also do no good for the manure pile. It doesn’t break down into compost. This tasteless salt is absolutely useless. And that is Jesus’ point. The third danger of rash discipleship is Uselessness.
A nominal, half-hearted professing Christian is useless! He is useless in the world, because his compromising life will not lead anyone to Christ. He is useless to God and His church, because He is not devoted to Christ above everything else. What do you do with a professing Christian who hasn’t surrendered their life to Christ? You can’t do anything with them! They are useless! My friends, none of us want to be useless in our service to Christ! In 2 Peter 1:5-8, Peter lists several Christian virtues such as faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Then He says in verse 8, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, that is the kind of description of a Christian I want to embody. I don’t want to be useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. How about you?
Conclusion
So, are you considering becoming a follower of Jesus Christ? If so, sit down and count the cost. It will cost you everything. Everything in your life will change. Jesus Christ will become the center of your universe. All the people, comforts, and things in your life will become subservient to Him and His will for you. You need to carefully consider whether you are willing to make that commitment. If so, then by all means, come and welcome! Let us know, so we can rejoice with you. You’ve been forewarned. There will be trouble, trial, and hardship that will come along with your Christian life. But Christ is more than worth it! John Calvin once said, “I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ.”
Maybe you have already made that commitment to follow Christ. How does this passage speak to you? It teaches us how to bring a new believer into the kingdom. We’ve got to be careful not to be one-sided when we witness to people. Instead of telling them only of the wonderful blessings of being a Christian, we need to be honest, and also tell them of the trials and persecution they may experience as well. Before you baptize them, make sure you let them know that when they make this commitment they are saying that they fully intend to give Jesus Christ their supreme love, devotion and allegiance for the rest of their life. Before they make a rash profession of faith, have them sit down and count the cost. You will be doing them a huge favor!
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