Luke 14:25-35

Good evening, friends.

We have before us this evening a difficult passage,

so I'd like to invoke the Lord's help before we begin.

Let's pray.

Lord, I do pray that you would speak to us from your word

and that you would clarify our confusions

and that you would lead us into a deeper love of you

through your words this evening.

And I pray that you do with me

the meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth

would be acceptable to you.

In the name of Jesus, I pray these things.

Amen.

Amen.

How's it?

Yeah.

Hi, everybody.

So, our passage this evening is Luke 14, verse 25 to 32.

Luke 14:25–32

You can turn there with me if you would.

Luke 14, verses 25 through 32.

Luke 14:25–32

When I was a little boy and then in my teenage years as well,

I had this vivid memory of living in this old sort of farmhouse.

I moved from the city to a farmhouse.

And no matter where we lived, every time I would go to bed at night,

I remember one last thing.

This was my dad walking around the house to lock all of the doors.

And he would rattle every single door.

And when I was young enough,

I thought this was just the most heroically brave thing I could possibly imagine.

This man not only locked up our house,

but even locked up his office, which was in the dark out there.

He went out every single night and locked up all of the doors.

And then he'd come back in.

And I understood this to be something like the epitome of fatherliness.

To go around and make sure all of the entrances

by which somebody could come in undesired were closed and secured.

This to me was a down payment of my dad's love for his family

and his desire that we'd be secure.

He went around and he looked at all of the vulnerabilities in the house

and secured them.

The passage before us tonight is Jesus telling us to count the cost of following him.

And I think another way of asking this question

or thinking about this question of the cost of following Jesus

is asking this question of,

where are the vulnerabilities in our souls?

Those things that we are particularly tempted toward?

Where are the dangers that we ought to be on guard against?

Because from those sides, danger might come.

What are the things that we would be willing to trade Christ for?

This is the question I want to have in the back of our minds as we read this text.

Luke 14, verse 25 through 33.

Luke 14:25–33

Now great crowds accompanied him.

And he, Jesus, turned and said to them,

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters,

yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost,

whether he has enough to complete it?

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish,

all who see it begin to mock him, saying,

This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war,

will not sit down first and deliberate,

whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off,

he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

As I said, these are hard words.

I think the main point of this passage

is that we are to count the cost of following Jesus.

So here's how I think this passage is working, just a broad overview.

Jesus has got, notice, great crowds with him,

and he says harsh words to great crowds.

He's not interested only in getting a large audience.

He's interested in people following him for the right reasons

and understanding what it will cost them.

So great crowds accompany him,

and he turns and says to them,

if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife

and children and brothers and sisters,

yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

The first thing, hate your family.

We'll come back to that.

Second thing, take up your cross and follow me.

I think these two things are the things that are necessary for following Christ.

And the rest of the passage is examples.

So the foundation, the tower,

is about preparing yourself beforehand before you begin a task.

And the going to war against the other king

is about preparing yourself beforehand before you go and undo a task.

It's about making sure you're ready to do the thing you're going to commit to doing.

And I think one of the ways we can judge our hearts

and see if we're willing to pay the price of following Christ

is to ask,

what's the price we would pay to abandon him?

Where are we most tempted to abandon him?

Temptation.

Temptation comes in all shapes and sizes

and not every temptation is effective on every person.

So I'll ask you the question,

which door of your soul

is the one through which the danger would come?

The danger being forsaking Christ.

What's that temptation?

I think Jesus has an idea here

of two big categories of temptations.

Reasons we would be inclined to abandon and not follow Christ.

I want to look at those two broad categories,

say what it is that we have to give up in order to follow him,

and then say how we can use these categories of things

actually to wing our way toward God,

to encourage us in our following of him.

Okay?

So, I suggest there are two main things

that Jesus says gets in the way of our following him.

Pleasures and pains.

The pleasures of life,

I think, are represented by the things

Jesus tells us to hate.

Look at the things he tells us.

Mother and father,

wife,

children,

even your own life.

The natural question is,

what's wrong with these things?

And the correct response is,

nothing's wrong with them.

They're good things.

They're joys.

They are pleasures.

But then why does Jesus tell us to hate them?

I think it's because this is one direction from which danger might come.

We might be tempted to enjoy these pleasures more than we enjoy Christ.

Look also at the parable above ours here.

Beginning in verse 15 there,

you see this parable of a man who invites his friends to a banquet.

And all of his friends give reasons why they can't come to this banquet.

They say,

oh, I've taken a wife and I can't do it.

Oh, I have to do some business ventures and I can't do it.

Again,

these are all good things.

So the question is,

what's Jesus got against mother and father

and brother and sister

and children?

I think he's aware that one of the dangers

that would incline us away from following him

is our pleasures.

And the second category of things comes in the verse right afterwards.

Take up your cross and follow me.

If anyone's not willing to take up his cross,

he can't follow me.

Now,

this phrase,

take up your cross,

has become a relatively common one.

When we hear this phrase,

take up your cross,

we realize that we're talking in religious vocabulary.

And I want to sort of get away from that idea a little bit.

I want to give you a sense of just how strange this might sound

to Jesus's hearers.

Remember when Jesus said these words,

he wasn't crucified yet.

The cross didn't have any religious significance whatsoever.

So read it like this.

If anyone is not willing to take up,

to strap himself into an electric chair,

he won't follow me.

If any man's not willing to blindfold himself

in front of a firing squad,

he can't follow me.

If anyone's not willing to kneel down

on the executioner's block

before a person with an enormous sword

is going to decapitate you,

he's not ready to follow me.

These are the sort of things that Jesus says

are necessary for following him.

I think what's going on here is Jesus is aware

that one of the dangers

from the other side

is the danger of pains.

The dangers of pleasures

and the dangers of pains.

These, I think, are the two broad categories

that Jesus sees

as being able to turn our affections

away from him.

What does it mean

to hate these good things

and to be willing to take up

these bad things?

Here's what I think it means.

The life of following Jesus

means that nothing else

can evermore hold our highest allegiance.

Nothing.

Not family, not country,

not political party,

not even allegiance to our own life.

Nothing.

And the corollary,

the implication of that is

we cannot have lives designed

to flee at all costs from pain.

We cannot have lives

that seek only the good

of other allegiances

and we cannot have lives

that flee away from pain.

If anyone would not take up his cross,

he cannot be my disciple.

If anyone does not hate his family,

he cannot be my disciple.

We have the problem of pleasures

and the problem of pain.

Jesus tells us

that we are to count the cost

of these things.

And so what I want to do

for the rest of our time together

is ask the question,

how can we use pleasures and pains

in such a way

that they do not steer us away from God,

but steer us toward God?

That's the question I want to spend

the rest of our time together on.

So, the questions of pleasures.

Jesus says,

hate your mother and father

and brother and sister,

wife, children,

even his own life.

What does this mean?

This is certainly

the most difficult passage

in our verse,

in our passage for tonight.

Here's what I don't think it means.

I don't think it means

really hating our family members.

Which is to say,

I don't think it means

what it pretty clearly seems to mean.

Why do I not think it means that?

Well, for the simple reason

that it doesn't make a lot of sense

of other parts of the Bible.

If we say that the part,

the essential feature

of being a Christian

is that we hate our family members,

there's a lot of the Bible

that seems not to make any sense anymore.

For example,

Jesus says,

the first commandment of the law,

the most important one,

love the Lord your God.

The second one,

love your neighbor as yourself.

Well,

if we are to hate our neighbors,

hate our family,

we can no longer

obey that second commandment.

This introduces

all kinds of strangeness

if we interpret this passage

as literally saying

that we ought to hate our family.

Or again,

in the book of 1 John,

where we learn that love,

not hate,

is the defining feature

of the Christian.

John says,

Beloved,

let us love one another

for love is from God

and whoever loves

has been born of God

and knows God.

Anyone who does not love

does not know God

because God is love.

That seems to fly in the face

of what's being said here.

We have a straightforward

contradiction

and so what we have to do

in order to make sense

of this contradiction

is follow

an old rule

in scriptural interpretation.

Almost as old

as the Bible itself

and the rule is this.

Christians interpret

the difficult pieces

of scripture

in light

of the easy pieces

of scripture.

It's a nice rule.

It goes back

as old as the church fathers.

They recognize

there are some ambiguities

and difficulties

in the text

and what we're to do

is we're supposed

to interpret

those difficulties

through the lens

of the easier texts.

I think doing that

with this passage

ends us up

with this interpretation.

We ought to be

so committed

in our love

for Jesus

that in comparison

the love

of family

and indeed

of our own lives

looks like

hatred.

hatred.

We ought to be

so in love

with Jesus

that in comparison

all of our other

loves look like

hatreds.

It's a comparative

claim

that he's making here.

Some examples

of this.

How do you love

Jesus in a way

that makes

your love of family

look like

hatred?

A big one

I can think of

is converting

away from a religion

that has been

in your family

for decades

and is against

Christ.

Some of you

may have stories

or your parents

may have stories

like this.

I know mine

do.

When my parents

became Christians

and went in their

excitement to tell

their parents

their parents

first response was

what's wrong

with the way

I raised you?

They thought

they were hated

by my parents

because my parents

knew love

for Jesus.

Now my grandparents

never tried to

kill my parents.

In some parts

of the world

that's precisely

what happens

when you abandon

the family's religion.

Your love

for Christ

makes your other

loves look like

hatreds.

Or what does it

mean to love Christ

so much that it

looks like your

own life is hated?

How about

martyrdom?

the idea that

I will not

abandon Christ

even if it

costs me

my own life.

Again

so many

examples

of ways

that our

love for Christ

reorients

our other

loves.

You see

I don't think

this text

means that

we're supposed

to love our

families less

than we do.

I think this

means we're

supposed to

love our

families and

our own

lives better

than we do.

And how

does a

Christian

do this?

The Christian

loves his

own life

and the

lives of

the people

around him

by ordering

his loves

rightly.

Ordering your

loves rightly.

Here's an easy

example of this.

It's good

to eat a

hamburger.

It is

also good

to save

a drowning

child.

but it's

not good

to eat

a hamburger

while the

child is

drowning.

Right?

So there

are two

good things

that you

ought to

love doing

but they

ought to

be ordered

in a

particular

way.

Such that

if you

have to

pick one

of them

don't pick

the hamburger

over the

drowning

child.

Now you're

not going to

forget this.

Alright.

Here I think

is what Jesus

is trying to

tell us.

That the

love for

God

orders the

rest of

our

loves.

That the

love of

our family

or indeed

of our

own lives

over him

results in

idolatry.

And all

our other

loves

will end up

being skewed

in service

of our

highest love.

If you

love your

career more

than anything

else

then everything

you have

will be

skewed

in the

direction of

career advancement.

And if you

love money

more than

anything else

then everything

in your

life will

be skewed

in terms

of how

you can

get more

money.

So on

for fame

and so on

for your

own safety

for good

health.

Notice

this.

This is

the way

we work.

We love

so many

different

things

but that

thing we

put in

our position

of highest

love

has a

tendency

to attract

all of

our other

loves

to it.

There's

an implication

for what

we put

at our

highest

love

on the

rest of

our

loves.

perhaps

you

might

know

a

woman

or a

man

a

child

or a

parent

who

loves

their

child

more than

anything

else in

the world.

And the

result is

that that

child is

not loved

well

that child

is turned

into an

idol.

Or again

a person

who loves

their spouse

more than

anything else

in the

world

is turned

into an

idol.

You can't

see it

properly.

You can't

relate to

it well.

You turn

it into

an

idol.

But the

claim of

Jesus here

is that

when we

put God

in that

position

of our

first love

then that's

the only

right way

to order

all of the

rest of

our loves.

God

when we

love God

we love

everything

for God's

sake.

So we

love our

wife and

husband and

children and

parents,

brothers and

sisters,

even our

own lives

for the

sake of

loving God.

What might

this mean?

Well,

it means that

we ought to

love everything

in our

life

in so

far as

it helps

us love

God

and in

such a way

as to

help them

love God.

There is

plenty of

confusion in

the world

about what

love is.

And the

dominant idea

seems to be

something like

leaving people

alone to do

whatever they

want.

That's just

not the

Christian idea

of love.

The Christian

idea of

love is to

love everyone

around us

in such a

way that

their highest

joy would

be found

in God.

So what

does it

mean to

love your

neighbor or

your mother or

your sister or

your brother or

your child?

Well,

it means to

love them in

such a way as

to always point

them to

God.

Not to

allow them to

indulge in

destructive

behaviors,

behaviors,

but rather

to point

them toward

the thing

that will

truly make

them happy.

Sometimes

this will

look like

hatred,

as it does

when a

parent pulls

their child's

hand away

from the

stove,

intervening

in their

desires,

not allowing

them to do

what they

want to do.

Surely you

must hate

a person

like that.

No,

you love

a person.

And so

you love

them by

pointing

them to

the highest

good.

When the

loves of

the Christian

are ordered

properly,

the Christian

then goes

out to

try to

help all

other

fellow

Christians

order

their

loves

properly.

So the

way we

use the

pleasures

of other

people is

we use

people in

such a way

that we

might help

them on

their way

to God.

consider

some things

that the

writer of

Hebrews

says.

The writer

of Hebrews

says,

let us

consider

how to

stir

one up

one another

to love

and good

works,

not neglecting

to meet

together as

is the

habit of

some,

but encouraging

each other

all the more

as you see

the day

drawing near.

We love

each other

not by

forgetting

about each

other and

letting each

other do

whatever we

desire,

but rather

by stirring

each other

up to love

and good

works.

Or consider

again the

words of

C.S.

Lewis in

a sermon

called

The Weight

of Glory,

which I

recommend to

you if

you've

never read

it.

He says

this,

it is a

serious

thing to

remember

that the

dullest

and most

uninteresting

person you

can talk

to will

one day

be a

creature

which if

you saw

it now

you would

be strongly

tempted to

worship

or else

it would

be a

horror

and a

corruption

such as

you now

meet if

at all

only in

a nightmare

and all

day long

we in

some degree

are helping

each other

to one

or other

of these

destinations.

There are

no ordinary

people.

You have

never talked

to a mere

mortal.

You have

never talked

to a mere

mortal and

every interaction

with every

person you

meet is

helping them

become a

lover of

God or

a lover

of

themselves.

And

Jesus

says

counting

the cost

of following

him

means

loving

everything

in this

world

in such

a way

that we

help

that thing

move

toward God

that person

move

toward God

that we

love even

our own

selves

only as

we move

ourselves

toward God.

This is

the way

we use

the pleasures

around us.

We use

them to

wing us

on our

way up

to God.

We cannot

follow Jesus

and make

the pleasures

of this

world into

idols.

We can

follow Jesus

and make

the pleasures

of this

world

signposts

that point

to his

goodness.

There's a

temptation I

think among

some of

loving the

world too

much.

It's a good

temptation.

When you

love the

world too

much,

that's

called

idolatry.

Or if

you love

the world

wrongly,

it's called

idolatry.

But if

you look

at the

words of

Jesus

in the

Gospels,

it seems

like he

actually

loves this

world.

He's

come to

redeem it,

that he

loves it,

that he

sees that

there are

good things

in it,

that he

desires

to save.

If we

can see

each other

and the

things of

this world

through his

eyes,

to see

those things

as they're

good in

themselves,

that is

the way

we can

love each

other and

the things

of this

world in

such a way

as to

encourage us

on our

way to

God.

So,

the use

to be made

of pleasures

in following

the Lord

is not

to make

them into

idols,

but to

use them

as sign

posts

that

point

to the

beauty

of God.

To

understand

ourselves

as fellow

pilgrims

on the

way

moving

up

to

heaven,

we

ought

to

encourage

each

other

on

our

way

there.

That's

the use

to be

made

of

pains.

What

about

the use

to be

made

of

pleasures?

What

about

the use

to be

made

of

pains?

We'll

see there

in verse

27,

Jesus

says,

whoever

does not

bear

his own

cross

and come

after

me

cannot

be

my

disciple.

whoever

does not

willingly

accept

some

pains

in this

world

cannot

be

my

disciple.

Indeed,

the person

who is

not

willing

to lay

down

his

or her

very

life

cannot

be

my

disciple.

So

pain

is

normal

for the

life

of a

Christian.

Which

means

if you

have

organized

your

life

in such

a

way

as

to

avoid

as

strongly

as

possible

any

possible

pains,

you're

going to

have

difficulty

following

the

Lord.

Because

he

says

taking

up

crosses

and

following

him

is

just

part

of

the

deal.

So

then

if we

can't

flee

from

pain

at

any

cost,

how

do

we

use

pains?

How

do

we

use

pains

in

our

life

of

following

Christ?

we

should

see

them

I

think

as

bearing

the

cross.

The

phrase

that

Jesus

uses

here

bearing

the

cross

and

following

me.

There's

religious

meaning

in this

now.

It

wasn't

clear what

this meant

when he

first said

it.

But

what we

know

after

this

story

is that

Christ

himself

came

to

bear

the

cross.

was

that

suffering

meaningless?

Absolutely

not.

But

through

that

suffering

God

was

redeeming

the

entire

world.

And

now

he

says

bear

your

cross

as

well.

What

he

does

by

saying

that

your

pains

are

a

cross

is

he

redeems

them

and

gives

them

meaning.

Now

our

suffering

in the

way

of

following

Jesus

is

not

just

unfortunate.

It's

not

just

frustrating.

It's

redemptive.

It

means

something.

We

are

on

our

way

to

glory

following

in

the

footsteps

of

Christ.

Our

master

has

borne

a

cross

and

we

must

too

bear

crosses.

Think

about

the

way

Paul

talks

about

this.

His

own

pains

going

around

in

his

missionary

endeavors.

To

the

Colossians

he

says

this.

I

rejoice

in

my

sufferings

for

your

sake

and

in

my

flesh

I

am

filling

up

what

is

lacking

in

Christ's

afflictions

for

the

sake

of

his

body

that

is

the

church.

I

am

filling

up

the

afflictions

of

Christ.

The

suffering

that

Christ

suffered

I

am

participating

in

that

suffering

in

order

to

bring

the

church

to

its

fullness.

Paul

talks

like

this

all

the

time.

In

Philippians

he

says

I

desire

to

depart

and

be

with

Christ

but

I

know

that

to

stay

here

and

labor

is

going

to

be

difficult

but

I'll

do

it.

I'm

going

to

labor

painfully

with

you

not

because

pain

is

good

in

itself

not

because

my

pain

is

meaningless

because

I

can

share

in

the

sufferings

of

Christ.

This

suffering

with

Christ

is

what

we

picture

when

we

baptize

people.

We

are

buried

with

Christ

and

we

are

raised

again

with

Christ.

This

is

the

mark

of

initiation

into

the

people

of

God.

It's

so

unavoidably

a part

of

the

Christian

life

that

it's

the

drama

we

play

out

when

we

welcome

a

new

person

into

the

life

of

the

church.

When

a

person

becomes

a

believer

and

enters

into

the

church

we

baptize

them.

We

tell

them

guess

what

death

and

resurrection

is

part

of

the

deal.

You

don't

get

in

without

death

and

resurrection.

Both

Jesus'

and

our

own.

But

notice

what this

does

with our

sufferings.

It

means

we

embrace

them.

Not

because

we're

masochists.

Not

because

we love

suffering.

Because

we realize

that our

sufferings

are bearing

crosses.

There's

redemption

happening.

Paul tells

us in

Romans 8

that the

pangs of

this world

are not the

pangs of

death,

but the

pangs of

birth.

The sort

of pains

that you

willingly

undertake

because new

life comes

out of

them.

pangs of

following

Christ

means there

will be

pleasures

and pains.

The

pleasures

can

distract

us

or they

can

help

us

on our

way

up

to

loving

him.

The

pains

can

drive

us

away

from

him

or

they

can

be

redeemed

by

him.

The

use

to be

made

of

pleasures

and

pains

if

we're

not

going

to

allow

them

to

distract

us

from

following

him.

The

use

of

pleasures

and

pains

is

the

same.

We

offer

our

pleasures

up

to

God

as

worship.

We

offer

our

pains

up

to

God

as

participating

in

his

sufferings.

Think

about

this.

Think

of a

little

pure

joy

you've

experienced

recently.

For

me

it

was

eating

ice

cream

at

this

new

ice

cream

store.

There's

a

way

of

making

that

ice

cream

into

an

idol.

There

is.

Or

there's

a

way

of

making

that

ice

cream

into

an

occasion

for

worship.

There's

a

way

of

making

the

sunshine

outside

an

occasion

for

worship.

There's

a

way

to

make

the

beauty

of

stained

glass

windows

into

occasions

for

worship.

God

is

lavishing

his

joy

upon

us

through

the

thousands

of

pleasures

we

experience

each

day

that we

don't

even

realize.

They're

occasions

for our

worship.

And God

is also

doing

something

in every

one of

the pains

that we

experience

as we

follow

him.

he's

doing

something.

Our

pain

is not

meaningless

to him.

Listen to

the way

Paul

talks

in

Galatians

2.

He

says,

I've

been

crucified

with

Christ.

Stop.

I've

been

crucified

with

Christ.

I've

been

killed

by the

firing

squad

with

Christ.

I've

been

lethally

injected

with

Christ.

I've

been

beheaded

with

Christ.

I've

been

electric

chaired

with

Christ.

Think

of the

language

he's

using

here.

It's

vivid.

I

have

been

crucified

with

Christ.

It

is

no

longer

I

who

live,

but

Christ

who

lives

in

me.

And

the

life

I

now

live

in

the

flesh,

I