The Cost of Discipleship

September 6, 1992 AM

Text: Luke 14:25-35

Introduction

The disciples were absolutely ecstatic. The Jesus Christ Evangelistic Team was really going big time. True, they hadn't built their own separate temple yet, but there were multitudes— no, GREAT multitudes in attendance every service! The portable Score Board said,

Money was coming in for the poor- people were being healed— the whole country side was involved. What a great excitement!

I. TO WHOM WAS JESUS SPEAKING?

Jesus said these words NOT to people who were antagonistic- not to obviously wicked people- but to great multitudes who were attending His ministry; who were "going along"...

  1. "Success" is not always what it would seem:
  2. A "sifting of motives" was indicated:
    1. Jesus began to speak. He was not unkind, but He was not being very diplomatic, either! It seemed as though Jesus ought to get them committed little by little— to tell them the really hard stuff after He had their names on the membership roll. But no, He was saying some really strange things:

      If any of you people want to do more than just tag along for the loaves and fishes— if you really want to come after Me— and you do not hate your father and mother and wife and husband and children— and your own life, too— you cannot be My disciple!

    2. This was a challenge to 'commitment-to-the-death'!

      As if "hating father and mother" wasn't bad enough, Jesus began to talk about death- of the need to be willing to die for Him, or with Him— even the shameful death that the Romans reserved for the lowest of the low, He said:

      And if you do decide to come after Me, then you have to take up your own personal cross— be willing to lay down your life— and you have to follow Me.

  3. The honest meaning of these heavy words: I do not seek to soften the force of the hammer-blows of Jesus words. But it is obvious at the beginning of our response and reaction to these words that Jesus is not preaching hatred of any sort. He is NOT saying that his followers should go home and tell dad and mother, "I hate you now— I am following Jesus— so 'Good-Bye'"

[This, then, is something else than a demand that Christians hate everything and everybody but Jesus and God. If that were so, then TASMANIAN DEVILS would be a good model for our Christian disposition. We have enough Tasmanian Devils in this world— and not a few in the church, perhaps!]

II. WHAT WAS JESUS SEEKING?

The answer is obvious, even trite: JESUS WAS SEEKING COMMITMENT AND LOYALTY. But I am afraid that the depth and scope of this challenge escapes us. We SAY we understand, but:

  1. THE COMMITMENT JESUS DEMANDS IS ABOVE EVERY OTHER COMMITMENT.
    1. A Christian who has not settled that there is only One Person to obey, ultimately, may do many good things— may be highly organized and Bible-trained— may even be ordained and well thought of by fellow Christians. But a Christian who has not made the supreme commitment of loyalty to Jesus Himself is like the Jetliner hurtling through the skies— when the announcement came over the intercom:

      This is your captain speaking— we have some GOOD NEWS and some BAD NEWS today. The good news is that we have a jet-stream tail wind, and we are making over 600 miles per hour ground speed. The bad news is that our Loran (radar) is broken, and we don't have any idea where we are going!

    2. This COMMITMENT underlies and undergirds all we ARE and DO for Jesus.
      1. WE CANNOT LOVE GOD'S PEOPLE AS WE SHOULD APART FROM THIS

        Jesus clearly intends that we love our fathers and mothers— that we love each other. It was His great concern the night He was arrested. "Love one another!" was His commandment— we call it the Great Commandment.

      2. WE CANNOT SHARE GOD'S LOVE WITH THE WORLD WITHOUT THIS

        Jesus also intends that we love the world, even as God so loved the world when He gave His only begotten Son. Just before He rose into the glory, Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Good News to every creature!"

      3. Both of these commitments— to the church, and to the world— rest on the strength of an absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ Himself!
  2. JESUS ACKNOWLEDGED DIFFERENT LEVELS OF COMMITMENT.

    He was not denying them, nor was He interested in destroying them.

    1. The legitimate commitments of life: Look with me at some levels of commitment— on an increasing scale: like
      1. buying a car on time; like
      2. enlisting in the military service; like
      3. enrolling on an academic program— or, like
      4. saying to a girl or a boy some enchanted evening, "I love you!", or like
      5. following that strong commitment up with vows at an altar; or like
      6. looking into the face of a newborn baby and saying, "God help me, I will be a good father, or good mother!"

      These are all valid commitments, but the most important, by far, are those that involve the lives of other people. We call them relationships; but every relationship has some measure of commitment.

    2. Life needs/demands a Master Commitment: An "agapé focus" that gives a life staying power: Jesus demands this level of commitment to Himself.

      Deverne F. Fronke, wrote in his book Ultimate Intention: "Believers may not often realize it, but even as believers we are either centered on man, or centered on God. There is no alternative. Either God is the center of our universe and we have rightly adjusted to Him, or we have made ourselves the center and are attempting to make all else orbit around us and for us."

      The great Henry Drummond once told a class of theology scholars, "Don't touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek the Kingdom of Heaven first. I promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second."

      The only thing wrong about that statement would be IF we limit it to preachers and missionaries or "special Christians!"

III. WHAT RESPONSE DID JESUS GET WHEN HE SPOKE THESE WORDS THEN?

[Resume narrative:]

Luke does not tell us exactly what the response of the great multitude was that day. But we do know what happened to the Jesus Christ Evangelistic Crusade.

John tells us that one day Jesus was preaching like this, talking about His own death, and the fact that He alone is LIFE and that He is the Bread of Life— and the people simply got up and went home.

And there was a scandal— the treasurer was stealing from the offerings— and he reported Jesus to the authorities— and you know the rest. From great multitudes it boiled down to just a few— and they weren't too steady.

But Jesus loved them! And he turned to the disciples— you can read about it in John 6— and He said, Are you going to leave Me, too?

Peter's heart was broken! He said, "Lord, where else in all the world can we Go? YOU have the words of eternal life!" And THAT was what Jesus wanted to hear!

Jesus knew that "great multitudes" do not do the heavy work of the Body of Christ, the Church. We enter that Body on personal decision, one-by-one! That is how Peter and the others decided then; that is how we must decide now! IT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

Oh, the PERFORMANCE of the disciples after that was far from perfect. They had to go through the fires and the ten-day-prayer-meeting, and to experience the Descent of the Spirit. But they LIVED for Jesus and they DIED for Jesus and the world has not been the same since!

IV. WHERE ARE YOU IN YOUR COMMITMENT TO JESUS?

Conclusion:

  1. God knows that the very good things in YOUR life can be rivals to the best. Our order of priorities has to be settled once and for all. Jesus demands our first and highest allegiance!

    Will you quietly say to Jesus right now:

    • I give my life to You!
    • I will give it in a dramatic, public martyrdom
    • I will give it in small, daily doses in a rural place where no one knows but You.
  2. This allegiance means a PERSONAL, DAILY FOLLOWING:
    1. A LOVE THAT FOLLOWS JESUS (27) -the only dynamic, power, that can carry out such a commitment is a personal relationship, the knowledge that Jesus is near and that He approves!
    2. "Going along" is not the same as following. Count the cost! Carry your cross to your own crucifixion. Die NOW! Live forever! Come after Jesus!

Prayer - Help me to hear this challenge as for the first time! Help me to give to You everything I have— and everything I am— for time and for eternity. Amen.

Hymn #63 I Am Thine, O Lord