Five Marks of a Real Disciple
Luke 14:25-14:35
• One of the jobs Jesus left us to do was to make disciples.
• There is a difference between a believer and a disciple.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus provided five vivid images, and used each one to teach a lesson about discipleship. Let’s number them as we read the text:
Luke 14:25-35 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: [26] (1) "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. [27] (2) And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. [28] (3) "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? [29] For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, [30] saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ [31] (4) "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? [32] If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. [33] In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. [34] (5) “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? [35] It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
People interacted to Jesus on several different levels. It’s like a set of concentric circles.
• On the outside you have the crowd. The mob following Jesus knew who He was, but they would soon be gone
• A deeper level of commitment is the congregation. These are people who attend church on a fairly regular basis. In other words, they “congregate” with other people to worship, but are not an active member of any local church. They never really committing themselves to serve Jesus.
• A deeper level of commitment is the church. This circle represents those who have affiliated with a local church and have a deeper level of intimacy with Christ and His body.
• But there is a level deeper than that which we could call the committed. These are the ones within the church who are real disciples–they are radical Christians–sold out to Jesus. Like in many organizations, in our church about 20% of the people do 80% of the work and give 80% of the financial support of the church. That’s the committed core.
I. A FAMILY: LOVE JESUS SUPREMELY
a. Are you surprised Jesus said that to be a disciple you must hate your family?
I read about one pastor who entitled his message on this text, “How to hate your wife.”
b. You may be asking yourself, “Doesn’t He talk elsewhere about loving everyone, including our enemies?”
c. Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration to emphasize a point.
My wife uses hyperbole all the time when she says something like, “I’ve told you a million times to put the seat down.” I know it isn’t a million times (only half a million).
d. the Greek word is “sane”, which means “to prefer above.”
e. To be a disciple, you must love Jesus more than you love anyone else–even family members.
f. It is also true that sometimes your love for Jesus will alienate you from others, even your family.
A few years ago, a former Muslim, Ergon Canner, came to know Christ and joined a Baptist church. It was a tough decision for him because he knew the moment he became a Christian, his family back in Iran would not just disown him, they would have a funeral for him and consider him to be dead. He had to make the hard choice, but he followed Jesus–even though His family opposed it.
g. If you truly follow the Lord, you won’t have to look for people to ridicule you
h. Matthew 10:22,37 “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved…Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Heather Mercer and Dana Curry were arrested by the Taliban and held prisoner for 128 days in Afghanistan. They both attended Baylor, and surrendered their lives to be fully devoted followers of Jesus. A couple of weeks ago, Dateline interviewed Heather Mercer’s mother. It was the kind of story the media likes because they discovered Heather’s mother was totally opposed to Heather’s decision to work in Afghanistan. The media really tried to play up the story to show Heather’s commitment to Christ had divided her family. They wanted to keep asking her how she could do something her mother opposed. In her new book, Prisoners of Hope, Heather wrote: “We answered hard questions posed by our families and friends. Extraordinary are the parents who don’t balk at the idea of their child moving to a third-world, war-ravaged, drought-stricken country–and, in this case, a country serving as a hub for international terrorist activity. That we had decided to go as Christian aid workers to a country where a harsh, unpredictable regime severely curtailed religious freedom gave most of our loved ones pause at best, and otherwise prompted serious alarm. We were asked: ‘Aren’t you being foolish? Why would you jeopardize your own safety?’”
II. A CROSS: LIVE LIKE A DEAD PERSON
a. A real disciple is someone who carries his cross.
b. Gladly, the Cross I’d Bare
Many Christians are just as confused today about what it means to carry a cross. I’ve had someone say to me, “I have migraine headaches, but I guess it’s just the cross I must bear.” Or I had someone take off their shoe one time and show me their ugly big toe. They said, “I have an in-grown toenail, but I guess it’s just the cross I must bear.” I always wanted to say, “Why don’t you have that nasty thing worked on by a doctor?” The cross is NOT a headache or an ingrown toenail.
c. The true message of the cross is death.
How many of you are either wearing a cross today, or have a cross on your Bible? How nice. But what if we began to wear little miniature models of an electric chair, would you wear one? Or what if someone made a syringe of poison and started offering it as jewelry to wear? Can’t you hear someone walking up to you saying, “I love your electric chair, where did you get it?” Or would you say, “Have you seen my James Avery lethal injection syringe?”
d. The cross has become a benign piece of harmless jewelry.
• In the Jesus’ time, it was a horrible, agonizing tortuous mode of execution.
• It was the noose, the electric chair, the lethal injection of His day.
• In the time of Jesus when you saw someone carrying a cross it meant one and only one thing–they were as good as dead.
• A few years ago, there was a book and movie called Dead Man Walking. When a death row prisoner is walking from his cell to the place to be executed, the other prisoners say, “Dead man walking.” He’s alive and walking–but he’s as good as dead.
e. Paul understood what it meant to carry a cross.
i. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...”
ii. Galatians 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
iii. Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
That means there is nothing the world has to offer you that interests you–it’s as if the world is dead to you and you are dead to the world.
For a disciple carrying a cross, the world can’t offer a thing we want.
In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
f. In many ways, a dead man is set free.
III. A TOWER: CONSIDER THE VALUE OF A GOOD FINISH
Jesus presents the image of a man who plans on building a tower. Before he begins the construction, he must “count the cost” to see if he has enough resources to finish the job.
a. the cost of discipleship
b. It’s not our resources that are necessary–God provides all we need. Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.”
c. Jesus is talking about the cost of total commitment.
d. Actually, it’s better to think in terms of the value instead of the cost. A good finish as a disciple is the key. A lot of backslidden Christians may go to heaven when they die, but they won’t be finishing well.
e. In verse 29 Jesus spoke about the man “who was not able to finish.” Jesus says everyone will look at the uncompleted project and ridicule the one who didn’t finish it.
I once saw the concrete block shell of a church someone had started building years earlier. The project had been halted. There was no roof on the building and trees and shrubs had grown inside the shell. One of the pine trees growing inside the uncompleted church was at least 15 feet tall. I’ll never know the full story about what happened in that little church. But to everyone who passes by, for years that uncompleted building preaches a sermon: Someone started this, but they didn’t count the cost, and they weren’t able to finish.
f. There can never be any “coasting” in the Christian life.
g. The pages of the Bible are littered with great men and women who didn’t finish well.
i. Noah and his family were saved from the flood, but poor Noah ended as a drunken man who got naked and cursed his son.
ii. Solomon was the wisest man in all of history, but he didn’t finish well–his many wives turned his heart from God.
h. The good news is none of us are finished yet. It doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, you still can finish well. The finish line is still ahead.
Billy Sunday was the Billy Graham of his generation. He was a former professional baseball player. He once said: “Stopping at third adds no more to the score than striking out. It doesn’t matter how well you start if you fail to finish.”
IV. A WAR: SURRENDER TO THE STRONGER KING
a. Jesus describes two kings. One is outnumbered, so he wisely approaches the stronger king and makes peace before the battle ever begins.
b. Because we can never win against God, we must surrender to Him.
c. In Jesus’ time a surrendering king could be made into a slave of the opposing king, so it required great humility to bow down and ask for terms of peace.
d. It takes humility today to surrender to Jesus.
e. You cannot be a disciple unless you are willing to give up control of your life to Jesus.
I once read about a lifeguard on a beach who saw a drowning man. He walked into the surf but didn’t go out to rescue him. People gathered on the beach and yelled and screamed at the lifeguard to go out and rescue the drowning man. The lifeguard waded a little deeper, and kept his eye on the drowning man, but the yells and screams of the onlookers didn’t motivate him to swim out. Just when it seemed the man was going down for the last time, the lifeguard swam out with strong strokes and grabbed the man and brought him back to shore. After some spitting and coughing, the man was conscious. But rather than hailing him as a hero, the onlookers were angry at the lifeguard and said, “You coward! You saw he was drowning, why didn’t you go out sooner?” The lifeguard patiently explained, “You can see that he is much bigger and stronger than I am.” If I had gone out sooner, he was thrashing and kicked so violently that he would have probably drowned both of us. As long as he was trying to save himself, I couldn’t save him. But when he got tired, and gave up, then I knew I could save him.”
f. As long as you think you are strong enough to save yourself, you won’t surrender to Jesus.
g. It’s only when you give up and realize you are hopelessly lost, that Jesus can come and rescue you.
V. SALT: STAY PURE TO PRESERVE GOODNESS
Salt was very valuable during Jesus’ time. Roman soldiers were paid with salt rations. Even today we speak of someone who is “not worth their salt.”
Salt was used as a preservative. Salt would be applied to fresh meat to prevent the meat from rotting. The salt created a chemical reaction that slowed down the process of decay. It retarded corruption, so as a consequence, it preserved the goodness of the meat.
a. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?”
b. We live in a nation suffering from moral decay at an alarming rate.
c. As salt, we must be the ones who stand up and say
i. taking “under God” out of the pledge of allegiance is not acceptable.
ii. that abortion is murder
iii. homosexual behavior is perversion.
d. If we don’t speak out against moral evil, we’ve lost our saltiness.
e. Have you ever noticed how salt stings when it gets in a wound?
f. Salt irritates, but in addition to being a preservative, it is also an antiseptic–and our society needs a good cleaning!
Disclaimer: The work found here comes from a multitude of sources including but not limited to Sermon Central, personal sermon collections and others. In all cases where similarities may occur I have taken materials such as outlines or creative ideas and added my own illustrations as led by God. There is no attempt to claim sole authorship for anything offered here. Enjoy and God Bless.
