Sermon Cloud

The Cost Of Discipleship Luke 14:25-35

I. (25-27) A Description Of The Cost

A. (25) It Is Not Popular

Matthew 10:37-39 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. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

1. Said To The Great Multitudes

2. Disciple Not Just A Follower

It is possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple

It is one thing for us to sit in the lectures of Jesus but to be a disciple requires your whole life.

It is one of the supreme handicaps of the church that in it there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.

3. Following This Standard Is Not Easy

John Chapter Six

John 6:25-26 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”  Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

John 6:35 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6 - After feeding the multitudes with a small lunch" Eat my flesh and drink my blood"

John 6:66  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Ultimately everyone did desert Him when He was alone in the garden and then arrested and put on trial.

B. (26) It Effects All Relationships

1. What Did Jesus Mean By This?

Literally hating one’s family would have been a violation of the Law. Since Jesus on several occasions admonished others to fulfill the Law, He must not have meant here that one should literally hate his family. The stress here is on the priority of love (cf. Matt. 10:37).

Indeed, those who did follow Jesus against their families’ desires were probably thought of as hating their families.

C. (26) It Includes Our Whole Life

1. This Is What The Father Wants From Us

John 5:30 .... I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

II. (28-32) A Consideration Of The Cost

In 1845, the Franklin expedition came from England, with only Her Majesty's Navy issue uniforms to protect them from the polar cold. Headed by Sir John Franklin, 138 officers embarked to find the northwest passage across the high Canadian Arctic to the Pacific Ocean. They traveled in two three-masted ships, carrying an auxiliary steam engine each and a 12-day supply of coal for the entire projected two or three years' voyage. What they did bring, however, is a 1200 volume library, a hand organ, china place settings for officers and men, cut-glass wine goblets and sterling silver flatware. Engraved in the handles of the sterling flatware were the individual officers' initials and family crests.

A Whaling Ship coming back to England two months later were the only Europeans to ever see them alive again.  Years later rescue missions in talking with the Inuit Eskimos learn of men pushing life boats on sleds. When they finally found the frozen men some were still carrying large amounts of the silver dinner ware.

A. (29-30) As Compared To A Building Project

1. Planning

2. Other Real Life Examples

Before I do a wedding I require a 7 week pre-marriage course with the couple.

Marriage is not to be entered into lightly but passionately with a lifelong commitment.  A man and woman must count the cost.

B. (31-32) As Compared To Waging War

1. Sacrifice

III. (33-35) The Implication Of The Cost

A. (33) We Must Forsake All For Jesus

1. Forsake

Means: to put something aside (in its correct priority) to prevent it from being a hindrance or gaining excessive control in our life.

2. Following Jesus Requires Forward Moment

Hebrews 12:1-2  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

B. (34-35) We Must Retain Our Usefulness

1. The Picture Of Salt

(i) Salt was used as a preservative. It is the earliest of all preservatives. The Greeks used to say that salt could put a new soul into dead things. Without salt a thing putrefied and went bad; with it its freshness was preserved.

   That means that true Christianity must act as a preservative against the corruption of the world.

(ii) Salt was used as a flavoring. French fries w/o Salt. So we must be the people who brings flavor into life. The Christian is the one who, by his courage, his hope, his cheerfulness and his kindness brings a new flavor into life.

(iii) Salt was used to ruin the farmland of enemies. A Christian is one who stands for Christ and as a result is an enemy of Satan in this world.

2. The Basic Lesson

Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (14) “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. (15) Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.(16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

What Jesus is saying is this—when a thing loses its essential quality and fails to perform its essential duty, it is fit for nothing but to be thrown away.