COUNTING THE COST (1): SECOND TO NONE

(Luke 14:25-35)
January 24, 2016
Read Lu 14:25-35 A couple got married, but soon after, Paul stopped
wearing his wedding ring. His wife asked, Why dont you ever youre your
ring? He said, It cuts off my circulation. She replied, I know. Thats
what its supposed to do. Well, this passage is about the same issue as it
relates to our marriage to Christ. Many people claim faith in Him, but theyve
taken off the ring. Theyre still flirting with other idols.Their commitment is
half-hearted at best, and Jesus point is, that just wont do. Youre either in or
out. Disciples cant sit on the fence.
A lot of people believe there are two levels of Christians those, like
themselves, who believe the facts but are unchanged in life, moderates and a
few Marine types, like pastors and missionaries and a few others who are a
little on the fanatical side. Disciples. Radical Christians. The all-ins! Theyre
suggesting you can be a Xn without being a disciple. One commentator says:
Jesus seems to make a distinction between salvation and discipleship.
Salvation is open to all who will come by faith, while discipleship is for
believers willing to pay a price. Salvation means coming to the cross and
trusting Jesus Christ, while discipleship means carrying the cross and
following Jesus Christ.
I dont know where he got that, but he didnt get it from Jesus. Jesus never
says or implies, Okay, those of you who want the easy way, just believe. But
I also need a few Green Berets. Never says that. Never implies that! In fact,
look closely and you will when talking about disciples, Hes addressing the
whole crowd here not just the 12. The whole crowd must choose to be His
disciples or be left out altogether. Theres not two levels. Just one.
Neither Jesus nor the Bible know anything about multi-level Christianity.
Theres no class distinction between regular Christians and hard-core
disciples. Jesus nowhere says, as some advocate, that you can accept Jesus as
Savior now, and maybe as Lord later. There arent two standards. Full
discipleship is a requirement for everyone. But the Bible says, If you
confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord . . . you will be saved (Rom 10:9).
Lordship is not optional. To be a disciple is to be a Christian. And to be a Xn
is to be a disciple. You cant say, Well, Im a Christian, but Im not into all
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that. There arent two standards. If someone has taught you that, you have
been sorely misled. That is precisely what Jesus is warning about here.
As this passage opens, Jesus is finally leaving the extended lunch He had at
the home of a leading Pharisee. As He does so, v. 25 tells us, Now great
crowds accompanied him. There are lots of people. But there is a dilemma.
They think he is on the way to Jerusalem to claim His empire as Messiah.
Actually He is on His way to Jerusalem to die to pay the price for entrance
into that empire, and these people dont get that not one little bit. They think
they are in because they are Jews and keep the law. Jesus knows differently.
So three times we find the phrase, cannot be my disciple. So guess what the
theme is? Doesnt take a rocket scientist. This is one more way Jesus defines
saving faith. Salvation is by faith alone. But faith is costly, and Jesus is not a
seeker-friendly evangelist who tells His followers, Lets just get them in first
well tell them about the cross later. He is no bait-and switch specialist. He
believes in full disclosure. Count the cost NOW if you want to be mine!
If youve looked at your phone bill lately, you know exactly what I mean. Get
a line for $19.95 a month. But when the bill comes, suddenly its $50 filled
with extraneous state, local and federal taxes, and other totally unintelligible
access charges. A lot of people advocate thats how we should entice
people to Christ. But Jesus never goes there. Hes up front. Nothing hidden.
Now, to get the sense of this passage, lets start back to front. Vv. 34-35: Salt
is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is
of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who
has ears to hear, let him hear. What is this all about? It is a solemn warning.
Modern table salt is generally pure and does not lose its savor. But in Bible
times, salt, often from the Dead Sea, was mixed with impurities. Salt could
waste away to a residue that was worthless for either preservation or spicing
things up. So Jesus uses salt as to represent a professing disciple who starts
off with great enthusiasm (salty), but who lacks staying power. His faith was
never real. He wanted the blessings, but not the person of Christ. In hard
times he fails and is thrown away a Biblical term for lacking salvation.
This is the third soil in that parable where the seed starts to grow but is choked
out by the cares of this world. Remember? They looked real at first, but never
were. They didnt lose their salvation. You cant lose that gift. These never
had it in the first place. John says of such people in I Jn 2:19-20, They went
out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would
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have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that
they all are not of us. Youd have sworn they were true Xns. Never missed a
Sunday. Always gave an offering. Even taught a class. But when the going got
tough, they left town. The writer to Hebrews makes a really sobering comment
about such people: 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once
been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the
Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers
of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to
repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own
harm and holding him up to contempt (Heb 6:4-6). People who have seen the
truth of the gospel in all its glory and outwardly subscribed to it for a time
only to turn their back on it for those there is no hope. So Jesus is warning,
Dont be salt that has lost is savor. Salt thats not salt. Be real.
Now, to prevent that, you must count the cost before you commit. He gives
two examples. Vv. 27-31, 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple. 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all
who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build and was not
able to finish. 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war,
will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to
meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? We were in
Edinburgh, Scotland a few years ago. There is an incomplete monument in a
hill there that is known as The Great Folly. Whoever started it didnt have
enough money to finish, and so its an apt description. For years in SoCal we
used to drive under a set of lanes that came to a dead end right over the top of
the freeway. Going nowhere because money ran out. Jesus point is, if youre
going to follow me, you need to consider what that really means. Hes not
trying to talk anyone out of it; but He refuses to mislead anyone as to the cost.
So, Hes asking, are you real? Do you really want to follow me? Then here is
what saving faith will cost you. You cannot be my disciple, claim my name,
unless you renounce three things Relationships, Rights, and Riches.
I.

Renounce Relationships

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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. Wow! Sound radical? Well, it is radical. Jesus meant it
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to be radical. He is shaking people out of the lethargy of self-righteousness.

He is saying, Youre in Fantasyland. Reality is over here, and here is what
it looks like. To be my disciple is costly, and the first thing it costs is your
relationships. Now, Beloved, before you panic, understand this is the only
way to truly straighten out damaged, broken, fallen, entangling relationships
that can strangle us anyway. In the end, what Jesus asks is freeing and
energizing and uplifting but it all must come Jesus way.
So is Jesus saying we must literally hate our families? No. One of the Ten
Commandments is to honor father and mother promoted by Jesus several
times (Mt 15:4-6; 19:19; Mrk 7:10, etc.). Jesus loves and affirms families.
So why does He say we must hate father and mother, wife and children? Its
bc Hes doing what He often does. He is using hyperbole exaggerated
statement to make a point. And His point is He must come first in our lives.
Our love for Him must far exceed any other in our lives. His point is that top
priority in relationships must go to Him alone and by a large margin.
Turn Gen 29. Remember how Jacob fell in love with Rachel, agreed to work
for 7 years for her hand in marriage? And remember how Laban tricked him
into marrying sister Leah first, so Jacob worked another 7 years for Rachel?
Thats a long time, but he loved her so it seemed like a few days. Now Gen
29:31, When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but
Rachel was barren. So did Jacob really hate Leah? Back up to v. 30: So
Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served
Laban for another seven years. See, hatred here means loved less. Do you
see? And that is exactly what Jesus is saying. Hes not saying you just literally
hate your family but its still a big requirement. Jesus is saying, I must be
your Rachel. If you come to me, you must love me more than anything if it
comes down to them or Me it must be Me.
This was a devastating challenge in a society where family was everything.
These people would do anything not to shame or disgrace family. To go
against their wishes was unthinkable. So in claiming allegiance above family
first, Jesus is staking a staking a claim at the highest possible level. I must
be your Rachel. Do you love me more than family? Our question, too!
A few years ago a Muslim man in Chad named Baki heard a taped message
about Jesus. He reports, I told Pastor Musa I wanted to give my life to
Christ. He urged me to think about it before I made a decision. Knowing
the cost would be high, Baki chose Jesus. Trouble came immediately. His
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father-in-law seized his wife and boys. Baki was told they would only be
returned if he renounced his Xn faith. He couldnt even see his family. For
over a year, Baki followed his wifes nomadic cattle group, often sitting under
a tree reading his Bible while the cattle grazed. As hostility grew, Baki
eventually left without his family. A couple of years later he made another try,
but in the course of this confrontation, the father-in-law killed Bakis first
born, Joshua, by poison. Still Baki would not renounce Christ. Baki later got
his 2nd son, but never his wife. Well probably never face anything like that,
but people all over our world have been disowned and turned out and
sometimes turned in by family members because they chose Christ first.
Now no one is going to kill us, but some of you know what it means to suffer
the ill-will of close family members because of your faith in Christ. Hang in,
Beloved. Its often part of the cost of loving Jesus more.
I think of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, lesbian womens right activist and
tenured professor at Syracuse living her lifes dream, who once, in a kind
manner, told a group of easy believism Christians, I gave up my girlfriend
and my career for this. What have you given up? I think of my Uncle and
Aunt who gave up the teen-age years with their daughter to continue as
missionaries in Africa. I think of a friend who gave up a girl he loved because
she was not a Xn. People who love people deeply but love Jesus more. For
those who truly come to Him, Jesus stakes a claim higher than any other.
Now some of you are thinking Hate my children? No way. Nothing is
more important to me than them. Others are thinking, Hate father and
mother or hate sister or brother no problem. I already hate them. Either
of those positions is a huge problem. Both are signs of a wounded life. Either
will eventually cause great heartache, anxiety and pain if it hasnt already.
Neither is compatible with a true commitment to Christ. And to simply say,
Well, thats just the way it is will not do, Beloved. Jesus will accept you as
you are, thats true. But as Lord, He will not leave you there.
C. S. Lewis depicts Jesus as Aslan, the great lion, in the Narnia Chronicles. At
one point the two girls Susan and Lucy want to bury their heads in his mane.
But they go all trembly at the sight of him. Lewis describes Aslans paw
touching the girls and says, Altho it was velveted, it was very heavy. Hes
telling us while Jesus is very good, He demands our all. He is not safe. He is
good and terrible and sharp at the same time. We simply do not know Him that
way and we must. Thats why He says If anyone comes to me and does not
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hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters .
. . he cannot be my disciple. His love makes great demands.
Why? Because Jesus is needy?! No -- its all for our good as well as His
glory. See heres what Jesus knows that we dont. He knows that whatever
our relationship issues too much love in one direction hatred in another
all are a human tragedy waiting to happen He knows that the solution to all
of it is to love Him above anything. He demands our outmost affection way
above anything else, even our spouse or children because He knows that is
the only thing that will set all relationships right in our lives. To live at peace
with ourselves and with others, our loves must be rightly ordered beginning
with Him. When we look to the opinions of others for our self-worth, and put
expectations on others to be our healers, we are asking of people what only
Jesus can give.
We may hate our parents for demanding too much but spend our lives trying
to meet those expectations. Or we die inside because the imperfections of our
spouse fall way below our expectations what we need and want. We fear our
children will be stunted if we do not give them every opportunity the world
says is important even at the cost of their spiritual development. We are
enslaved to what people think of us and what we expect of them. [Repeat].
But there is a solution a solution to every relationship issue we face. The
solution is to look at the cross to see how Jesus took upon Him there every
doubt, every fear, every anxiety, every disappointment, every burden, every
sin. And now He asks, Love me most. It is the only way to put the other
loves and hatreds in your life into perspective. It is the only way to deal with
the fear of failure, the fear of loss and the anxiety of not meeting
expectations. I must be the love of your life. I am the only one who will
never fail you. All other loves must be as hatreds beside the love you have
for me. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. It is a heavy demand,
Beloved. But it leads to a freedom you can find nowhere else as you find and
build your true identity in Him. Well never get this perfect in this life, of
course. But our heart must be perfect loving Jesus above all.
Conc The story is told of how Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian
Empire, once captured a prince and his family. When they came before him,
Cyrus asked, What will you give me if I release you? The prince replied,
Half of my wealth. And if I release your children? Everything I
possess. And if I release your wife? The prince replied, Then, your
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Majesty, I will give you myself. Cyrus was so moved by this devotion that he
freed them all. As they returned home, the prince said to his wife, Cyrus was
certainly an impressive, handsome and just man, wasnt he? To which she
replied, I did not notice. I could not take my eyes from you the one who
was willing to give himself for me. Disciples of Jesus have that same
devotion for the same reason. He gave His own life to pay our penalty. How
could we fail to love Him most. And when we do, it puts every other
relationship in life into perspective. What would you give up for Him? For
true disciples the answer is anything and anyone. Are you a disciple? Lets
pray.