The Cost

So last week we looked at Jesus' call to follow me, right?

Discipleship starts with Jesus, and he makes a call to those who would be his to follow after him.

This morning we're looking at the cost of discipleship.

The cost of discipleship.

Here's something I've observed, and maybe you've even engaged in this in some way.

When we try to share Jesus with people that we love and we have this deep desire for them to come to saving faith in him, we tend to do something.

We tend to paint the path of discipleship with this very wonderful string of promises.

If you come to Jesus, he's going to take care of everything.

He's going to make you happy.

He's going to prosper you.

Everything you suffer through, he will remediate in your life.

If you come to Jesus, the path is paved with all of these wonderful promises.

We try our best to make Jesus as attractive as we possibly can with hopes that they'll bite and that they'll actually want to come and follow Jesus.

You see, we want to portray the path of discipleship to be as easy as we possibly can.

And we work so hard to persuade them that if they would just come to Jesus, all of their problems would be removed and taken care of by him.

I think this work is rooted in two different things.

The first one is an obvious, deep love for the person you're sharing Jesus with.

We want them to know his salvation.

We want them to experience what he is able to deliver to his people, this hope and this joy and this life.

But we also have an over-realization of the promises that we have because of the gospel.

You see, it's true that being connected to Jesus, being rooted in him, it will remediate every single problem that you suffer in this life.

But the difficulty is that we will not experience the fullness of that reality in this life.

It is a reality that is in its very nature futuristic.

For us, Jesus' promises are suspended in glory.

Jesus will deliver us from all of our problems.

But the paradox of the life of a disciple is that those problems won't be removed until after Jesus creates more problems for us.

You see, being a disciple, following after Jesus, is problematic.

And that's what he wants to help us see and understand this morning in this passage in Luke.

Throughout the gospel narratives, we we see Jesus calling those around him to believe in the gospel of the kingdom of God and to turn the direction of their life to follow this new path of following him.

And Jesus was frequently offering these generous and free invitations for people to come into his kingdom.

Even our text this morning, it comes after the parable of the great banquet, where the master of the house speaks to his servant and commands him go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled.

The invitation was generous.

It was free.

Come and sit at my table.

The life and ministry of Jesus was provocative and enticing.

It created these frequent situations where great crowds accompanied him, as the beginning of this passage states.

But Jesus did something.

Jesus often stopped to make sure that those following him knew how difficult the terrain of the path ahead of them was going to be.

How great a cost it would be to follow him.

Here in the Gospel of Luke, we come across one of these times where Jesus pauses to challenge the curiosity of the crowd by calling them to count the cost of following Him to the end.

And this call to discipleship is to follow Jesus in a new path of life.

And Jesus wanted to make sure that they didn't falsely assume that that path would be laid with some set of smooth stones and free of any difficult terrain.

No, that path was going to be rough and rugged, embedded with thorn and thistle, problematic to traverse.

You see, before we even ever come to faith in Jesus, he calls us to count the true cost of discipleship, which demands us to love him more than anything else in this life, and to carry our cross with sacrificial love into the world that we were delivered out of.

As the World War II era German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer would say, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.

Reality is this that following Jesus might cost us everything.

Following Jesus might very well cost us everything.

You see, before we're ever able to be faithful disciples of Jesus, we must wrestle with this fundamental question.

Is there gaining in losing?

Or a better way to frame that question, is gaining Jesus better than losing everything?

Because the ultimate reward of following Jesus is Jesus.

Right, we have to try to grasp that for a moment because we can be distracted by all these peripheral things, these secondary and tertiary benefits of being in Christ.

We think that having him is so that we can have this peace or we can have this joy or we can be removed from this suffering.

We think that if he can give us these other things, then oh, of course we follow Jesus.

But what we forget is that the aim, the ultimate good of following Jesus is Jesus.

It's to have him no matter what.

I love how the pastor and author John Piper writes it many of us would be too content in a heaven without Jesus there.

You see, to follow Jesus is to have Jesus.

Are we able to declare with the Apostle Paul, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Now, before you and I prematurely respond with this emotional, over-emphatic, yes, Jesus wants us to weigh the cost with sober-mindedness.

And so here in Luke 14, Jesus lays out very plainly what the cost is of following Him.

For those who desire to follow Jesus, it comes with a costly love and a costly life.

So let's look at the first one: a costly love.

A costly love.

Verse 26.

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.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I first read that, I struggle with those words.

It seems unable to actually harmonize with Jesus' teaching of radical and relentless love for others.

Right?

Throughout Jesus' ministry, he calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to love the stranger among us, to love the least worthy and the most unlovable, even to love our enemies.

How could Jesus be calling us, unworthy to be his disciples, if we do not hate our very own family?

As we first engage with this passage, we'd have to imagine or at least assume he can't possibly be meaning what the text says he says.

But if we look carefully how the Bible uses the term hate, what we'll actually discover in a bigger view of its use within Scripture is that it frequently, but not always, means simply to love less.

Now, one of the clearest examples of this is in the story of Rachel and Leah from Genesis 29.

You see, it's in this story that Jacob is tricked by Laban to marry his daughter Leah, when he's already promised Jacob his younger daughter Rachel to be his wife.

And in the aftermath of this bait and switch deceit, what we see in the scriptures is this, verse 30 of Genesis 29.

So Jacob went into Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Now, we shouldn't assume that the scriptures are divided or speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

It's using this language intentionally and purposely to help us understand that Jacob loved Rachel more than he loved Leah.

What the scriptures are working to communicate is that Jacob loved Leah less.

In comparison to the love that he had for Rachel, we could even assume or begin to wonder if Leah didn't even feel at times hated.

Imagine that for a moment.

Imagine such a passionate, relentless, intense, white hot love for someone that it appeared as if you hated others.

I don't know about you, but I struggled with this in foolish and immature ways when I was in high school.

And you have that girlfriend.

And what would happen, men, right?

When you found that pretty girl and you chased her down, uh, all of your friends would start to think you hated them.

Because you were spending all of your time with her.

You were talking on the phone with her all the time, you were pursuing her, you were abandoning plans with them to be with her.

They would have felt neglected, unimportant.

In fact, at some times they probably would have thought, why do you hate us now?

You used to love us.

But your love for her, no matter how premature, immature, or just infatuated base it was, it was so passionate that the people around you felt hated.

And Jesus is applying this kind of love not to some high school crush.

He's applying this kind of love to our closest relationships that we hold precious and dear in our life.

Our family.

Our love for him should be so intense, passionate, white hot, that it may very well cause the closest to us to feel neglected, unimportant, undervalued.

Yes, some may even feel hated.

To hear, to hate here means that Jesus alone has first place in our lives.

And every other relationship that we hold takes second share.

And if need be, it's let go of completely.

Scottish theologian Thomas Boston said it like this: He said, No man can be a true disciple of Christ, to whom Christ is not dearer than what is dearest to him in the world.

You see, a true disciple loves Jesus more than anything else he loves in this world.

More than any other person he loves in this world.

He loves Jesus most.

And unless Jesus is our highest affection, here's what he says: we can't be his disciple.

So the question is, are we willing to love Jesus with a costly love?

A love that may cost us all other things we love in this life.

Second, he calls us to a costly life.

A costly life.

Jesus continues to communicate the cost in following him in verse 27.

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

Now, if you're gonna hear these words, whoever doesn't pick up their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

If you're in the crowd and you're hearing Jesus say this, this statement is bone-shaking.

They knew what the cross was, they knew what it did, they knew its effect on people, they saw the agony and suffering of the death machine of crucifixion.

They knew it.

Sort of shaking them to their bone.

What in the world is Jesus speaking of?

You see, the cross and its suffering would have been well known to all who Jesus was speaking to.

The Romans had perfected the execution method of crucifixion, and they found great value in its very slow and agonizing process of death.

Because here's what we have to understand.

What was the main goal or purpose of crucifixion?

It wasn't just to kill those deemed guilty, it was to send a message to anybody who thought they had the spark within them to be a thief or a murderer or a rebel or a criminal with inside Rome's territory.

This is your fate.

It was much more about the message than it was about the end result.

You see, the art of crucifixion was more than the death device.

But along with it came this pageantry, as its victims would be forced to carry pieces of their demise throughout the city as they struggled to make it to their place of execution.

Jesus himself would carry the beam of his cross a half a mile to Calvary, through the city streets of Jerusalem, as they were lined with those who would be spectators or mockers, heaping public shame upon him.

Rome wanted everyone to see this is what happens to you when you come against us.

You see, the cross carried a message, and it was very effective at communicating it.

To see a man carrying his cross was to see a man going to die the worst of all possible deaths because of this.

That man died before he ever died.

What I mean is this the cross was a symbol of shame and humiliation and rejection.

It was societal death before it was ever physical death.

And that's what they wanted to communicate.

And here Jesus calls anyone who would follow him to bear his own cross in doing so.

The very image of cross-bearing reminds us that we have given up any claim to our own lives.

And we are now prepared to face any kind of suffering, shame, humiliation, rejection.

We are willing to face societal death.

And if Jesus counts us as worthy, that we would even face physical death for his name's sake.

But you see, when we think of the cross, we tend to only think of the physical death that it brings.

No, Jesus is speaking more to will you face the societal death of the cross for my name's sake.

Therefore, the first question any potential disciple needs to ask is this Am I willing to die with Jesus and for Jesus, just as he was willing to die on that cross for me?

You see, Jesus knew that there was gaining and losing, that there was eternal gain and temporal loss.

That's why he was willing to bear the cross for us.

Hebrews 12, 2 says this, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Notice the emphasis of the author of Hebrews.

It's not on the pain of physical death that he puts his emphasis, it's on the shame that the cross brought to its victim.

Jesus despised it.

So that he could have us.

You see, Jesus makes it clear.

If you desire to be his disciple, oh, the invitation is free.

His servants are sent out to the highways and the hedges, calling all to come and feast at his table.

But that chair comes with a cost.

It will demand a costly love and a costly life to follow after him.

You see, many of us we can be like the people in the crowds.

Man, we we get excited about Jesus, we get intrigued by Jesus, about the person of Jesus, right?

We hear about his miracles, we engage with his teachings, we experience his love and grace through his body, the church.

We long to believe that this offer of forgiveness and redemption are true and available to us.

Man, we are so excited about what Jesus might be able to do in our lives.

In response to being swept up into the torrent of who Jesus is and what he has done, we eagerly and prematurely proclaim, I will follow you.

You see, the blinders that we have adorned ourselves with have prevented us from seeing the great cost within the claim.

So in light of that, Jesus cautions us to count the cost.

Many of us, I think, with inside the church today, I think we fail to count the cost of following Jesus.

As we confuse being a Christian with being a disciple, we're not getting the fullness of what Jesus is calling us to as his people.

You see, there's something very loving in what Jesus is doing here.

Even though it comes through hard words.

In our soft culture, we confuse hard words with the absence of love.

Hard words at times are very loving.

Because you have a friend who loves you who's willing to say it.

That's what Jesus is doing for us here.

These words may be hard to hear, but they're loving nonetheless because he wants us to know what we're getting into.

He wants us to be aware of what lies before us before we ever lift our foot to take the first step.

And here in the passage, gives us Jesus gives us two illustrations about counting the cost.

The first way he does this is through the uh illustration of building something.

He says in verse 28, 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.

Now, I'm not sure if you've ever built anything in your life, like even a Lego set.

I don't know where you sit in this room.

I I've been a part of a lot of home building.

I've never built a home, but I have fully renovated an entire home.

And I remember Katie and I having a ton of conversations about expenses and budgets.

We both worried and we fretted over having enough money to be able to actually finish the vision of what we desired our house to be.

I even remember moments where I, in true Justin Fashion, worked really hard to persuade Katie to just spend a little bit more on these extra parts of the renovation so as to not be, if I'm honest with my own self, embarrassed or feel a sense of shame when we could eventually host people in our home.

I wanted people to be impressed with me.

I believe if we just had the right backsplash or countertop or the right wood floor, people would really be impressed by me.

By God's grace and some 0% interest credit cards.

We were able to finish the reno with wisdom and sobriety.

Um our family moved into a beautiful home.

But I've been in some places, and maybe you've stepped foot into the homes of others where it was beyond evident that they didn't fully count the cost before ever swinging the hammer to begin demo.

Their space was not just unfinished, right?

It wasn't just a product unfinished, their home was undone.

And here's what I've witnessed in those moments.

I I've seen in their eyes the shame of them trying to have to navigate the conversation to explain to me why their home is in such a state.

And I've had to show grace and love to them, like, oh, it's not that bad.

I'm sitting on a cardboard box to eat dinner over here in this uh nail-floored dining room, right?

It's okay.

I can endure this because I love you.

Jesus is cautioning us to make sure that we're aware of the cost and building our life in Him.

He wants us to consider every aspect of your life that will be spent on following after Him.

Because we don't want to be someone who failed to consider the costliness of following Jesus and never finished the journey that he calls us to as his disciples.

Because here's the reality of the gospel.

Many of you in this room, you may have heard the gospel and responded to it and you've thought thus far, man, this ain't that bad.

The demand to put someone, it's not that big.

Let me tell you something.

The gospel always does and always will demand your life.

And if it hasn't yet, it soon will.

And where will you be in your readiness and willingness to pay the cost?

May we never, church, face the mockery of the world shaming us with the statements this man began to build and was not able to finish.

Here then Jesus moves from the illustration of someone building to a king engaging in war.

Verse 31, he says, 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 twenty thousand.

And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

Now I think there's something to the nature of war that we kind of have to learn really quickly before we can dive deep into the meaning of this illustration.

War itself is essentially engaged in two different ways.

There is the war of conquest, and there is the war of attrition.

The war of conquest is an offensive war.

It is where one power who perceives that they are greater than another power invades with the intent to conquer.

The war of attrition is primarily defensive.

And it is where they are actually working to outlast the will and determination of the other power that seeks to conquer them.

Now, before you get engaged in either a war of conquest or a war of attrition, you must ask: can we win this war?

Do we have enough men?

Do we have enough artillery?

Do we have enough spirit to be able to win?

Or should we send an ambassador to the enemy and plead for terms of peace?

Now, in general, it would be considered absolutely foolish to engage in battle with a power that had twice the military you did.

That's the situation given in Jesus' illustration.

Would not a king with 10,000 men consider can he defeat the king who is coming toward him with 20,000 men?

Am I able to actually win this war?

You see, if you were not counting the cost, you would be sending your men to the slaughter.

And you would be all but handing over your people and your country to another king.

And so Jesus is asking the question Have you really thought this through?

Have you really thought this through?

You see, according to the book, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, he says, a foolish general begins a battle hoping for a victory.

Whereas a wise general begins a battle having secured it.

When the enemy forces are too great to engage with, and you're using wisdom to understand your fate, a wise general will not fight at all, but will instead negotiate for peace.

And like the illustration of the unfinished building, the illustration of the two kings cautions us to count the cost.

Only this time.

Jesus calls us to consider this.

It's not the cost of being disciple, but it's the cost of not being one.

You see, we aren't the ones engaging in the war of conquest.

No, Christ in his kingdom are engaging in the war of conquest.

We are in the war of attrition.

We in our self-will and determination run right are trying to hold off and outlast the inevitable conquering of the glory of Christ in all creation.

We are fighting a war of attrition, and Jesus is asking, have you thought that through?

Verse 31 encourages us to see things from the perspective of the weaker king who is about to be conquered by his enemy.

You see, the first illustration of the builder asks if we can afford to follow Jesus.

The second one asks, can we afford not to?

We must sit in these cautions.

The cautions that Jesus gives to us before we ever begin to walk in his footsteps.

Many of us may have failed to ever count the cost.

We may have gotten ourselves onto a path that we're unsure that we can ever even make it to the end.

But hear me this morning.

Our anxiousness and our worry must be placed at the feet of him who not only counted every cost, but joyfully paid it in full.

Jesus, our King.

Because Jesus paid the cost.

You see, for Jesus, there wasn't a cost too great to pay.

It was worth everything to even bankrupt heaven itself, that he might pay the cost for the glory of his father and the redemption of his people.

Not one step of his path to Calvary was unforeseen, unplanned, or uncalculated.

And though every step was rough and rugged and truly embedded with thorns, problematic to traverse, the Gospel of John says he loved them to the end.

He loved them to the end.

You see, Jesus joyfully paid the cost.

Jesus endured the cross, and he despises shame to embrace the joy of what finishing the course would obtain him.

And church, when we look at the cross of Jesus, do we not see in full display the cost?

His body pierced through, his blood poured out.

This is the cost.

The cost that only he was ultimately able to pay, but nonetheless it is a cost that he invites us into to share with him.

You see, the call of discipleship is to share in Christ, to share in his suffering, to share in his pain, to share in his humiliation, to share in his rejection, to share in the cost.

So my prayer for us is that we would be willing to pay the cost of being a disciple of Jesus.

Here's what I want you to know.

If someone duped you, right?

If they told you, man, if you just follow Jesus, everything's gonna be great.

And you're sitting here this morning, you're going, what the mess.

Can I be loving enough to be honest with you?

Following Jesus is problematic.

It's extremely problematic.

Yes, he will remove every problem that you suffer.

But it's not going to be before he creates more problems in your life.

You see, church, there is no crown without a cross, just like there is no grace without cost.

And so we must be a people who pray for the strength and endurance to joyfully pay the cost along with him.

I'll leave us with just one more quote from Bonhoeffer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for those of you who don't know him, he joyfully was willing to pay the cost of discipleship.

He was executed in a concentration camp because of his faithfulness to Jesus.

And he says this in his book, The Cost of Discipleship.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow.

It is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life.

And it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

Amen.