"The Price is Right”
Luke 14:25-35
Picture this with me. The disciples are standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The have just finished a long night of fishing and they’ve got nothing. Ever had a fishing trip like that? And Jesus walks up and says to them, go back out and take the net and cast it into deep water. The disciples are no doubt tired; they are weary from working all night. Fishing can be fun but not when you aren’t catching anything. It is Simon who speaks up first and he says Lord we have worked hard all night long and we have nothing. But then he says but if you say so we will let down the nets. And they did. The Bible says that they caught such a great number of fish that the nets were literally breaking and when they placed all the fish in the boats… we know there was more than one…they began to sink. Now I have never had that much success fishing before but I think I would like it. And it was there that Jesus said to them, “from now on I want you to be fishers of men.” We then read that these early disciples made a life-changing decision. The Bible puts it this way… “Then they brought the boats to land, left everything and followed him.” Did you hear that? They left everything. Think for a moment about what they would have left behind to be his disciples.
• They left their jobs. They were fishermen. It was more than a hobby. It wasn’t something they did to relax. It was work. This is how they made a living. And they quit their jobs right there to follow Jesus.
• They left their families. Mark speaks of Simon’s mother in law so we know Simon was married. Paul confirms that Simon was married. So this was not only a commitment for the disciples but also for their families.
• They left their security. They left a lifestyle that was all they knew to follow someone who had not even told them where they were going. I think most of us would say that we kind of like security. We like to know that things are going to be taken care of. We like to feel some level of control in life. But one of the things that happens when we decide to be a follower of Christ is that we have to give up some of that control.
So these men left their jobs, their families and their sense of security…why? Because they chose to invest their lives in something that was much bigger than them. I want that. Don’t you? Because everything is not about us and anything we do in life that is worth doing will cost us something.
I looked through our church membership file this week and I thought about each of you and the work you do, the job you hold or have held and I thought about your background. I found a band member, barber, bankers, bus driver, a butcher, billing and insurance worker, car salesman, construction people...carpenters, plumber, construction worker, a chef, dentist, receptionist, locksmiths, several nurses, physical therapist, tire salesman, city workers, assembly line mechanic, piano teacher, pizza maker, postal worker, sales people, school teachers, stock clerks, ticket-taker, truck drivers, x-ray tech and even a pastor. And I thought about each of those professions and they all have at least one thing in common...they all require training. Some require a lot of training. A lot of hard work. A lot of sacrifice. There is a price to be paid.
Now this morning we are looking at two parables, very simple but with a profound truth we need to get hold of: There is a price to pay to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and the price is right. The price is high and it should be high. Because the calling to be a disciple is the greatest calling anyone can have on their life.
Now one of these parables deals with constructing a tower and the other deals with government and going to war. Jesus told us these stories for two specific reasons: (1) He told us these stories to teach us to count what it would cost to be a disciple. (2) He told us these stories to teach us to count what it would cost if we choose a different path.
The setting for these two stories was during the time of Jesus when there were large crowds following Him around from Galilee to Jerusalem. They loved following him as long as the miracles were being performed and the crowds were being fed. They were ready to make Him king. Some of his closest friends, Peter, James and John all wanted positions in His kingdom...they even argued over who would be able to sit at His right hand. But Jesus knew that things were about to get tough. Things were going to get hard. His ministry would come under attack. He knew this road was taking Him to the cross. He knew that for someone to follow Him that life could be difficult.
When we come to Christ, unfortunately not all of us completely understand the commitment we are making. I’m not sure the disciples did either which is why that some dropped out. Our commitments change but that doesn’t change what Jesus demands of us.
Now in this passage he shows us what he wants from us as disciples by giving us 5 words….. Each one is like a snapshot, an image of a true disciple.
Snapshot #1. A Family. Vvs. 25-26. Jesus speaks a startling message here. He says in verse 26...... In the parables Jesus would often use figures of speech to give His words a greater impact. It is called hyperbole. He said if your right hand offends you, cut it off. He talked about it being harder for a rich man to enter Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. We do the same thing. We exaggerate in order to make a point. In this passage Jesus is telling us we must love Him… we must love him more than anything else-including our family. I must love Jesus more than my children, I must love Jesus more than my wife and they must do the same. Your love for Jesus should be much greater than your love for your family.
I read recently about a man who was Muslim, now living here in America. Recently he came to know Christ. His family is back in Iran. They will now disown him; they will actually consider him to be dead. If you truly follow the Lord, you won’t have to look for people to ridicule you; they will find you-and they may be your family members. Matthew 10:22 “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.” Tough verse. The idea here is that we love Jesus above all.
Snapshot #2. A cross. Verse 27. Look at this. A real disciple is someone who carries his cross. Now the disciples understood what this meant much better than we do. We complain about certain physical ailments we have and we say well I guess it is just my cross to bear; my cross to carry. Today the cross has become harmless; for most it is just a piece of jewelry we wear. But in the time of Jesus it was a horrible form of execution. In that day when you saw someone carrying a cross it meant one thing-they were as good as dead. Paul understood what it meant to carry a cross. He told us in his letter to the church in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” There was nothing the world had to offer that was of interest to Paul. He was saying it is as though I am dead to these things…..because he had found true freedom through the cross. The idea here is we are to live as though we are dead to sin. Sin can no longer control us.
Snapshot #3 A tower. Verses 28-29. Jesus gives us a picture here of a man who plans on building a tower. Before he starts he must count the cost to see if he has enough materials to finish the job. Now when you get started in the Christian life, if you were to stop and ask do I have what it takes to finish…..the answer is probably no. That’s because we are looking at our own resources not His. Jesus is speaking here about the cost of total commitment. He is talking about finishing strong. In verse 29 Jesus spoke about the man who was not able to finish the job. He says everyone will look at this tower and see that it wasn’t finished and they will ridicule him. House on my street growing up...bricked about halfway. They stopped. For at least ten years it stayed that way. Always looked odd. I saw it every day when I walked home from school. One pastor tells the story that back years ago he drove through a small town and saw a concrete block/shell someone had started years earlier. A church. But the project had been stopped. There was no roof on the building and trees and shrubs had grown inside the building. One of the pine trees growing inside the uncompleted church was at least 15 feet tall. I don’t know the full story about what happened in that church but to everyone who passed by-for years-that building preached a sermon. Someone started this church that didn’t count the cost and they weren’t able to finish it. Jesus says when you start something finish it. Finish well. The older I get the more I realize we cannot coast in the Christian life. There is no such thing as spiritual retirement. And we need to ask ourselves: how will we finish? That’s The Big idea here: Finish well.
Snapshot #4. A war. Verses 31-33. In this picture Jesus describes two kings. One of them is clearly outnumbered so in his wisdom he approaches the stronger king and makes peace before the battle ever begins. In that day when he surrendered he could have been made into a slave to the opposite king...so it required great humility on his part to bow down and ask for peace. Here is the message. You cannot be a disciple unless you are willing to give up control. And that’s hard to do. None of us wants to give up. The idea here is that we have to learn to surrender.
Snapshot #5. Salt. Verse 34. Salt was very valuable in the day of Jesus. Roman soldiers were actually paid, at least in part with salt rations. We hear people often say when someone has not done a good job or they have dome inferior work, “he’s not worth his salt!” Since there was no way to refrigerate meat they would apply salt to the meat to keep it from going bad. It preserved the meat. That’s why Jesus said in the sermon on the mount “you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses it’s saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
Lanny Bridges works as a chemist for Morton salt. He works in the salt mines every day. He says that pure salt actually never loses its saltiness. According to him you could take a pure salt crystal and 10,000 years later it would still be just as salty. Pure salt never loses its flavor. The salt used in the time of Jesus wasn’t mined; it came from the Dead Sea. When the water evaporated it left salt. But the salt was so mixed with other minerals that even though it looked like salt...it didn’t taste like salt. When it was placed on food, there was no flavor. When it was used to keep meat fresh the meat went bad. So the only thing to do was to put it on the road and use it for gravel or to walk on it. (Verse 35). Basically it was useless. The Big idea: stay pure.
I read this week of a lifeguard on a beach who saw a drowning man. He walked into the water but he didn’t go out to rescue the man. People gathered on the beach and yelled at the lifeguard to do his job and rescue the man. The lifeguard stepped out a bit deeper but still did not respond. Just when it seemed that the man was going under for the last time, the lifeguard swam out and grabbed the man and pulled him back to shore. After some CPR the man was fine but instead of being a hero the crowd was angry; they couldn’t understand why the lifeguard didn’t respond quicker. The lifeguard explained “you can see that he is much bigger and stronger than I am. If I had gone out sooner, the way he was thrashing and kicking so violently he would have probably drowned us both. As long as he was trying to save himself, I couldn’t help him. But when he got tired and he gave up, then I knew I could save him.
Jesus can do a whole lot more with us once we realize He has to be in charge. Who is in charge of your life?
