Discipleship: How Much Does It Cost
11/5/95 Luke 14:25-35 Psalm 91 John 6:60-71
Everybody loves a winner. This year the Cleveland Indians drew crowds as never before. People everywhere were singing their praises and wanting to be identified with them. Why were people flocking to see the team? Was there a genuine heart conversion to love the team.
Well for some, in the beginning it wasn’t the Indians they were crazy about, they just wanted to see the new Jacob’s field. For others it wasn’t the Indians they were crazy about, but their own merchandise. The more games the Indians won, the more money they made from T-Shirts and gadgets.
There were some in Indian T-Shirts and Sweat Shirts, who had no love at all for the Indians, but they wanted to jump on a winning band wagon. If the Indians lose next year, they will quickly throw away their T-Shirts and claim they never were really Indian fans. For some, the Indians have always been there team, whether they ended in fifth place or first.
Whenever there is a winner on the scene, people try to get close. In the first century, large numbers of people flocked to Jesus. They came to him for various reasons and with different expectations. Some just wanted to see him, others wanted to be healed, some wanted their lives to be changed, and some wanted to be near him because he was a winner at the moment.
But Jesus had a problem of being truthful and painfully honest with people. When they came to him, he wanted to sit down with them and discuss such painful topics as, "the cost of discipleship". It was as though, he wanted people to follow him, but did not he want them to be surprised at the kinds of demands that He would make upon their lives.
There are many different things that attract us to Jesus Christ. Some are good, some are not so good. Jesus does not call out, "Hey, everybody, Yoo Hoo, come over here. It’s me. I’ve got the secret to joy and happiness, as well as to health and wealth." No, sometimes Jesus says things when he shouldn’t have said them if he wanted people to come hear him. One thing that Jesus appeared not to know was how to keep people coming to hear him preach.
Just when he had a large crowd following him in our New Testament reading, Jesus went and said something that the people didn’t like. They told him, "this is a hard teaching, who can accept it." A few verses later, the word says, "from this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Jesus still had not quite gotten the message, so he made matters even worse by looking at the 12 he had left and asking them, "Do you guys also want to leave."
Now Peter could have been bold enough to say, "Jesus you need to tone down these messages you’re preaching on discipleship. Give the people time to let it soak in, or there won’t be anybody left for you to preach to and all your work will be down the tubes. But I thank God that Peter didn’t say the wrong thing this time around instead, when Jesus asked them if they wanted to leave, Peter said, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.
Peter’s statement is critical. Either Jesus is the Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life as Jesus Himself claimed to be, or we’re living in dream world by putting our faith in Him. If Jesus is who He claimed to be, then we may be in danger for taking the cause of Jesus Christ too lightly, yet if Jesus is not who he claimed to be, why bother with the cause of Christ at all. The cost of discipleship depends on whether Jesus is who he claimed to be. If He is the Son of God, the cost of discipleship is whatever he demands it to be. If He isn’t, we can set the cost as little or as high as we want it to be.
Let’s open our bibles to Luke 14 starting at verse 25. We will see what kinds of costs Jesus put on the privilege of being called one of his disciples. Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. I want you to keep in mind that Jesus is never inpressed with the size of the crowd. He is more concerned with the depth of a person’s commitment. God can do more with 10 people who are willing to do anything for Christ, than He can with 10,000 who are staddling the fence.
Because of the hard work and sacrifices that are made by some of you, we are able to do things that churches two and three times our size cannot. It’s not the size of the crowd Jesus is after, it’s the heart of the individual where Jesus is seeking to do the change. A disciple is one who has had a change in the heart so that his or her desire is to seek to please God in his or her life..
Look at verse 26 "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." Jesus puts the cost of discipleship at a very high premium but going straight to those we love the most. He lets us know that discipleship has a higher value than things, its even higher than our most important love relationships.
Now Jesus is not saying that in order to follow him, you must literally hate your family members, because elsewhere he tells us to love one another as He has loved us. What Jesus is demanding as a cost of discipleship is our allegiance to Him above all others.
Jesus is saying look, if you want to be a disciple, you’ve got to choose who are you going to be loyal to me or them. That’s why the world hates Jesus, because it knows that He has priority over all things and relationships. Jesus insists on possessing our deepest affection. What has Christ done on our behalf, that He could have the nerve to expect us to respond to such a call?
Jesus could say, well I saw that you had disobeyed God through the wrong that you’ve done. I call it sin. The penalty for sin is death. Once you died, you would have no alternative but to spend eternity in hell for that is where the devil and his angels are going to be. But even though you had been disobedient, I loved you and I wanted more for you. I willingly gave up my life by paying the penalty for your sins.
My death paid for you not only to escape the fires of hell, but to give you eternal life which can begin right now. Right now I can began the changing process that will result in your spending eternity in heaven. Now if I willingly gave my life for you to have life, don’t you owe your life to me? If you answer no, then I will let you continue on the course of destruction for which you are headed. If you answer yes then give me your life that I might live in you.
Notice that Jesus says, "if anyone comes to me." There is a choice involved in becoming a disciple. None of us are born disciples of Jesus. None of us simply slowly grow into a disciple. We make a choice in life to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus expected that some would say yes Lord, whatever the cost. Jesus expected some to reject the choice outright and for others to try to make the choice but not we willing to pay the cost.
When Jesus says unless we hate family and ourselves, what is it that he wants us to do. Jesus is not saying that when we have to choose between doing a good work for Him or doing something for our family, we should always choose to do some good work for Him.
Sometimes, the best way to do a good work for Jesus is to make our families one of our highest priorities. If you had to choose between being a great leader of the men’s organization and doing all kinds of programs, or being a simple loving husband or father at home, Jesus would say be what you ought to be at home at the expense of the programs.
You see the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5:8 "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." What Jesus wants us to understand is that our commitment to Him and to His word is greater than our commitment to our family.
For instance, we do not stand up for wrong simply because it was our husband, or our wife, or our children who did it. We must ask the question, "What side is the side of Jesus in this matter, and that get over to that side even if it means standing against those we love.
We can’t justify our child selling drugs, because he or she is our child, or make excuses for their sin, because he or she is our child. At times we are upset and angry with the teacher, when we need to be upset and angry with our children. We can’t allow sexual abut to take place in our homes, because we do not want our husband, or our brother, or our son to get in trouble. It’s hard to want to admit it, but if statistics are true, than some of our own Angelic Voices and Girl Scouts are being sexually abused.
Jesus is demanding that we be willing to turn our backs even on those we love the most, when they would have us side against Him and His word. We cannot compromise our commitment to Christ for the sake of a family member, when others need our help. It’s not cheap being a disciple when you’ve got to choose between doing what’s right, and protecting one that you care about. Instead of being concerned about offending a family member, the cost of discipleship means being even more concerned about offending Jesus.
There’s a tragic verse in John concerning some followers of Jesus. The verse says, "Many of Jesus’s followers no longer followed Him, because they loved the praises of men and women, more than they loved the praise of God." If we seek the approval of others, more than we do that of Jesus, Jesus is saying, "Don’t waste you time with me, keep on moving for you cannot be my disciple." Saints, at times your faith in Jesus is going to hurt, because it will mean making decisions for your life that are going to be painful. It’s not easy breaking close relationships.
Look again at verse 26. Jesus goes a step further when He says at the end of verse 26--yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Do you understand that Jesus is saying, we can no longer simply ask the question, "what’s in it for me? What do I get out of this." When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, Jesus expects us to live them in the way He wants us to live. It’s no long an issue of simply what do I want to do.
The cost of discipleship asks the question, "what does Jesus want me to do." I found for myself, having the most difficult time with this question, either in the middle of an argument or right after an argument with another person. The tension is high inside of me, and I want to be right, rather than Christ like.
Jesus says in Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, he or she must deny him or herself and take up his or her cross daily and follow me." Jesus is the only leader I know that gives an invitation to come and die. The cost of discipleship is to come and die.
The bad thing is that you don’t have to do it just once or twice, but probably several times a day, everyday for the rest of your life. What you have to do is to remember that the costs of discipleship produces a lot of positive benefits for your life, both on this side of the grave as well as eternal life in the future. But from the beginning, Jesus wants you to know up front that those benefits are going to cost you something.
Look at Luke 14:27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. It would be pretty simple if Jesus simply meant each Christian should wear a gold or silver cross around his or her neck to show that he or she was a Christian. This interpretation is very far removed from the meaning of this text.
Perhaps a better translation for us would be, anyone who does not carry his electric chair for execution and come follow me, cannot be my disciple. You see when Jesus spoke this statement, the picture that came to mind of those in the first century was a person carrying a heavy wooden cross on His way to be executed. At any point, the prisoner may be stopped and nailed to the cross.
Jesus is letting us know that when we follow Him, our selfish nature is going to rise and demand to do what it wants to do. The moment it does He says, "I’m going to put you into your electric chair and kill that desire within you." After we’ve had to sit in that chair a number of times, one to two things will happen. Either we will find a better way to control that selfish nature from rising to the top, by eagerly wanting the things of God, or we will leave that electric chair at the last stop so that it won’t be available to put our desire to death."
Jesus wants us to see that one of the cost of discipleship is the understanding that there is a higher calling on our lives, than doing what we may want to do. The disciple does not tell God, that I’m only available these two hours on Sunday. The disciple simply appears and let’s the Lord know, "Here I am God, ready to be used by you."
Jesus couldn’t get away from us counting the cost of discipleship. He says in Luke 14:28 "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? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 14:30 saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ There’s a large church on Wade Park and 66th Street that was begun and not finish. Somebody didn’t count the cost adequately.
There are many things that we build today, that we fail to sit down and count the cost in advance. We build towers of material possessions through debt on our credit cards. We don’t talk about should we buy it, but rather how low is the monthly payment. We may even claim that God has blessed us with a new so and so even while the bill is just starting to come in the mail. Because we did not count the cost, we may find ourselves with more bills at the end of the month than money to pay them. That car we claimed the Lord blessed us with is now being repossessed, . We’re embarrassed and humiliated by it all. We even blame God for not meeting our needs.
The real problem is that we did not properly count the cost to pay for the lifestyle we were seeking. I laugh when I here teenagers say how they can’t wait until they turn 18 so that they can get their own place and do what they want to do with nobody telling them what then can or can’t do.
Most of them have failed to factor in, that your food, phone bill, rent, utility payments and a host of other things are a lot cheaper when you are under 18 living at home, than they are after you’re 18 and living on their own. The amount of money you have or don’t have, will do a lot of telling them what they can and can not do. Count the cost of what it is you want to have, so that you can prepare for it today.
Jesus wants us to know there is a price that we must consider before following Him. His calling is not cheap. When we take a stand for Jesus Christ, the wrath of others is going to come down upon us. The issue of partial delivery abortions. (Where will it stop. On the bed once delivered)
If our faith never brings us into controversy with values of our society, then we are not being true to the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus lets us know, if you come and follow me, people are going to laugh at you, they are going to make fun of you, you’re going to lose your job, you’re going to lose some friends, you’re going to get pretty angry at me for things not working out in the way you had hoped.
Jesus gives us another illustration in Luke 14:31 "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? 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. How many of you think this was a wise thing for the king to do?
Again Jesus is getting at the idea of the need to count the cost of discipleship and do it as soon as possible. Everyday the king with the 10,000 men waited, was one more day working against him. The odds were against him and time was against him, but if he didn’t do something, defeat was almost inevitable. The odds are against us becoming disciples of Jesus Christ because the cost is so high. It’s not an easy thing to say no to our desires. Someone has said, the Lord does not need to lead me into temptation because I can find it all by myself.
Not only is there the problem of temptation. There is the problem of persecution. Jesus tells us to be ready for rejection and know that hostility is coming. I offer you a lot, but you can’t get it without paying the price for it. We have the promise in the book of Acts that says, "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." You cannot be faithful to Jesus Christ without occasionally getting beat upon. It comes with the package.
Then Jesus had to go and throw in, "oh yeah, by the way, whatever they do to me, they will do to you also." Communion reminds us that they killed Jesus. Hebrews lets us know, that we as Christians do not have a right to complain until like Jesus, we have given our lives for the cause.
Jesus seems to have gone out of his way to discourage people from coming to Him just to be able to say that they were with Him. Look at verse
:33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Jesus just lost the rest of crowd. He’s saying it is an all or nothing situation, and the decision is totally in your hands to decide what you want to do.
What do you have that you consider yours, that you absolutely refuse to give to God? You want to know something. God has it already. He just has yet to show you that it’s His, but He will. One day you will probably try to use it as a bargaining chip to get off a bed of illness, or to get out of one set of circumstances into another. God I’ll give you this, if you just do so and so.
Why is the cost of discipleship so high? Because nothing good comes cheap. God paid a tremendous price, the death of Jesus Christ, God’s own son, to make the possibility of us becoming a child of God possible. What’s at stake in choosing to be a disciple or not is whether we will spend forever in pain in the lake of fire, or in peace in heaven in the presence of God. It’s choosing whether to live a life of selfishness with the delusion that we are in control, or to live the life of a servant in submission to the will of Jesus Christ.
Discipleship: How much does it cost? It costs everything we have to be entrusted to a Savior who loves us, who wants the best for our lives, who has a plan and purpose for us in the kingdom of God, and who wants us to spend eternity with Him. I don’t know of anyone that we should be more willing to entrust ourselves and our possessions to, than to Jesus Christ.
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