09 Aug Discipleship: Costly Invitation

Luke 14:25-35

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 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. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 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? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Have you ever got tricked by a brochure? Recently, I went to a Japanese BBQ buffet in Neutral Bay. Before I went into the restaurant, I looked at the price of the buffet that I was going to have. And I thought, “Oh that’s expensive.” But I was already there so might as well try it. And I love it. I think it is one of the best I had in Sydney. However, while I was eating, I saw the brochure that the restaurant put on the wall. And the price that they put on the brochure was almost half of the price that I saw earlier. And I thought, “that’s weird.” Until I saw a small asterisk next to the price. Do you guys know what I am talking about? “iPhone 11 max for $99*” or “Holiday to Hawaii for $499*”. That small asterisk tells us that the price you see is not necessarily the price you pay. They don’t tell you all the additional cost. They only tell you the basic price to get your attention. It is called marketing. Let’s be honest. How many of you ever get tricked by it? I raise both of my hand.

Here is good news for us. In regards to following Jesus, there is no asterisk. Jesus tells us exactly what it will cost us to follow him. Jesus is not trying to hide anything. Jesus is not saying to the crowd, “Follow me and I will give you abundant life,” and turn to his disciples and say, “Don’t tell them about the cross until they have signed up.” That is not how Jesus works. Jesus is not a salesman trying to con people to buy his product. He is very upfront about what he demands from his followers. Look at the context of this passage. In verse 25, Luke tells us that there are great crowds that follow Jesus. It is no surprise. Jesus is the GOAT of his days. Just think about it. If you are sick, he heals you. If you are hungry, he feeds you. And he does it for free. Free healthcare and free buffet. Who does not want it? So many people follow Jesus because of it. Some are attracted to his miracles. Some are attracted to his teachings. Some are simply following the crowd. With another word, Jesus has many fans and followers. If Jesus has an Instagram account, he probably follows 70 people and has over a million followers. This is good, right? If I was Jesus, I would probably keep on doing what I am doing and continue to increase my followers. But not so with Jesus.

This passage contains one of the hard sayings of Jesus. This is the sort of things that you should not say if you want to increase the number of followers on Instagram. But Jesus does not care about the number of followers he has. Jesus is not interested in having followers but making disciples. At this time, there are many fans of Jesus who think that they are disciples of Jesus. The crowds have witnessed what Jesus can do. The crowds have listened to Jesus’ sermons. And they like what they see and hear. They are Jesus’ biggest fans. And now Jesus turns to them and says, “Are you sure you want to follow me? Because it is going to cost you a lot. Are you sure you are up for it? Have you counted the cost? I am not interested in making followers. I am all about making disciples. And if you are not ready to renounce all that you have you cannot be my disciple. Go home.” How many of you realize that this is not good marketing?

Here is why it is important for us. There is no Christianity without discipleship. None. Jesus does not have double standards, one for followers of Jesus and another for disciples of Jesus. That distinction does not exist in Jesus’s view. The call for discipleship is the call for every follower of Jesus. What I see happen a lot of time is that we think that there are two categories of Christian: A regular Christian and a devoted Christian. A regular Christian is one who comes to church every Sunday and keeps their involvement minimum, and a devoted Christian is one who is highly involved in the church. And discipleship is reserved for the devoted Christians. But in this passage, Jesus breaks that distinction. You cannot be a believer and not a disciple. You are either a disciple of Christ or you are not a believer in Christ. Here is the danger for many of you. If you are not careful, you can trade familiarity with Jesus for costly discipleship. You like to flirt with Jesus. Flirting is fun. You come to church once a week. You come to MC every Wednesday. You sing a song about how lovely Jesus is. And that’s it. It does not change you. You are simply flirting with Jesus. But Jesus is not interested in flirting with you. He wants a committed relationship with you. And a committed relationship changes you. You cannot be in a committed relationship with a person and remain the same. If you try to live your dating or marriage life like when you were single, the relationship is not going to work. Guys, if you are in a relationship and you think you can play games as much as you did when you were single, you are being delusional. Am I right ladies?

In this passage, Jesus will tell you in advance the demand of discipleship. Jesus wants you to think. Following Jesus is extremely costly. Are you sure you are up for it? There are three demands that Jesus makes in this passage. Jesus demands your love, your life, your all.

Jesus demands your love

Luke 14:25-26 – ²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 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.

This is a shocker. Jesus says that you must hate your family to be his disciple. Some of you might think, “This is why I do not follow Jesus. He makes absurd demands.” Or some might think, “Oh, that is easy. I hate them already.” But what does Jesus mean by hating your own family? You need to understand that Jesus is speaking to a family-oriented society. Jesus is not speaking to a modern western society where individualism is the normative view. The Jews are a lot closer to the eastern worldview where the bond of family is seen as the most important social bond. And to these people, Jesus says, “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate your family.” What does it mean? We know that the word “hate” in this passage cannot mean that Jesus is telling his followers to have malice intention toward their families. It is not consistent with what being taught in the Bible. In other parts of the Bible, Jesus teaches his disciples to give their lives for their brothers and sisters. Paul tells husbands to love the wife as Christ loved the church, wives to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord, parents to not provoke their children to anger and children to honour their parents. So what does it mean to hate your own family? I think the clue is found in the way that the Bible used the word hate sometimes.

Genesis 29:30-31 – ³⁰ So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. ³¹ When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Did you see what happen? When the Bible says that Leah was hated, does it mean that Jacob had malice intention toward Leah? No. Because the verse before that tells us that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. In the Bible, the word hate can mean hate actively or hate comparatively. In this case, what the author is telling us is that in the light of how much Jacob loved Rachel, his love for Leah was like hate. Now, do you see what Jesus is saying? Jesus is speaking to the family-oriented society that unless their love for Jesus is so much more to the point that it makes their love for their family looks like hate, they cannot be his disciples. The love that Jesus demands of his disciples supersedes all kinds of natural earthly relationship. Every relationship in your life must look pale in comparison to your love relationship with Jesus. What a demand. One author puts it this way. When good rivals the best, then the good must be hated.

Let me give you an example. I have picked on guys and girls relationship a lot. So this time I’ll pick on parents and children relationship. Parents, I know you love your children. I know they are your treasure. I know you have invested countless hours and money in raising your children. I know that no one can love your children like you. But I want you to hear Jesus’ warning here. Unless you love Jesus in such a way that it makes your love for your children looks like hate in comparison, you cannot be his disciple. And Jesus is not kidding when he says it. Let me just be very blunt. Parents, you need to stop idolizing your children. I have lived long enough to know that many parents put enormous pressure on their children to be good. You already prepared them for life since they were very young. Some of you even asked me for a church recommendation letter to apply for school and your child is not even one year old. I applaud you for that. But here is my concern. You can be so busy in preparing your kid for their future. You take them to the gymnastic lesson, swimming lesson, piano lesson, math lesson, soccer lesson, drawing lesson, dance lesson, and all of them are good. But what happens is that you slowly begin to idolize your children. You want them to be the best in everything. You want to protect them from every pain. You want them to perform well in life. You want them to go to the best school. You want them to have the best job. You want them to marry a person of your choice. And I am not saying it is wrong. But I am saying that if you are not careful, you have idolized your children. They have become the most important thing in your life and unless they do what you want, you are devastated. And there are two possibilities that can come out of this relationship. Either your children become fully reliant on you or they rebel against you. And both options are not good. Parents, you are to teach your children in the fear of God. You are to train them to love God above all, not you. But your love for them has suffocated them and make them either over-reliant on you or hate you.

Do you know what’s the problem? According to Jesus, the problem is not that you love your children too much but you love Christ too little. What you need is not to love your children less but to love Christ more. Do you see it? The only way for you to love your children rightly is to hate them because of your far greater love for Christ. It is only when you love Christ supremely that you can love your family in the best way. It is only when you love Christ supremely that you can teach your children to do the same. So the focus of raising your children is not your love for them but your love for Christ. You no longer try to live your life through your children. You no longer need them to perform to make you look good. You are no longer devastated if your children do not do what you want. Your desire is not for your children to please you but for them to love Christ above all. This applies to every form of relationship. Unless Jesus is your highest affection, you cannot be his disciples.

It also tells you that Jesus not only wants your obedience but Jesus wants your love. There are many reasons why people come to follow Jesus. But unless it is because you love Jesus supremely, you cannot be his disciples. With another word, Jesus wants you to follow him for him. Don’t follow Jesus because he can give you what you want. Don’t follow Jesus because he is relevant. Don’t follow Jesus because he is exciting. Follow Jesus because you love Jesus. Obey Jesus because you love Jesus. Jesus is not after your begrudging obedience. Jesus is after your heart. Discipleship is not simply about doing things for Jesus because you have to but because you love to. You know this on a human level. Husbands, let say you come home from work and your wife opens the door for you and you give her a big kiss. She is surprised and says, “What’s that for?” What are you going to say? The wrong response is to say, “Oh, I read on page 99 of the manual on how to be a good husband that you should kiss your wife when you come home from work.” If you say that, your wife will take the manual and make you kiss the manual instead. Right? You understand this on a human level. But yet somehow you think that God is pleased by you simply coming to church, read the Bible, pray and do your Christian duty. No, he is not. To be a disciple of Christ you must love Christ above all. Jesus demands your love.

Jesus demands your life

Luke 14:27 – ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

This is a very radical demand. I think a lot of time we miss the weight of this demand because we think of a cross as something beautiful and glorious. But that is wrong. Crucifixion is a long and painful death. Cross is a symbol of rejection, humiliation and excruciating pain. It is not a happy thing. When Jesus knows that he is about to be crucified, he does not say, “Woohoo. The day is finally here. I can’t wait to be crucified.” Do you know what happens to Jesus? He sweats blood. He is in extreme agony just thinking about what he has to go through.

Carrying the cross also does not mean the way we often use it in our conversation. Sometimes we use the phrase carry the cross when things did not go as expected in life. “I did not get promoted at my job. It is a cross I have to carry.” “I am only getting distinction and not high distinction. I am bearing the cross.” “I got rejected by the love of my life. I am carrying the cross.” But that is not what it means to carry the cross. To carry the cross is to endure suffering for the sake of Christ. It is when you are made fun of at school because you remain a virgin out of your love for Christ. It is when you missed out on promotion at your company because you cannot support the company stance toward LGBTQ out of your love for Christ. It is when you are disowned by your family out of your love for Christ. I know some people whom their family hold a funeral for them while they are still alive and consider them dead because they become Christians. This is what it means to carry the cross.

Jesus is not interested in watered-down Christianity. Jesus is not interested in easy-believism. This is very different from what we often see happening today. What is happening a lot today is that many churches try to make the invitation to follow Jesus as easy as possible. Many churches try to make Christianity as appealing as possible. There is a megachurch in America that did a sermon on God’s creation. And you would not believe what they did. They used real exotic animals on stage. There were actual giraffes and elephants. And for their Easter sermon, they had actual lion and lamb for their presentation of Jesus as the lion and the lamb. It was a great attraction to draw crowds. And when the crowds were gathered, the church would give an altar call invitation after a short inspirational message. “Are you in a tight spot and you need some cash? Come forward and receive Jesus and he will give you some cash. Are you sick and you need healing? Come forward and receive Jesus and he will heal you. Are you in need of a breakthrough? Come forward and receive Jesus and he will give you your breakthrough.” Can Jesus give you cash, healing, and breakthrough? Of course, he can. But you are fooling ourselves if you think that by simply walking forward on altar call and asking Jesus to meet your needs is equal to receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Jesus is not interested in having great crowds. Jesus wants disciples. And to be disciples of Christ, Jesus demands your life. To carry the cross means that you are a dead man walking. Only a criminal condemned to death carries the cross. It means that you are dead to your own dream. You are dead to your own plan. You are dead to your own ideas. You are dead to your own pride. You are simply nothing. This is the demand of Jesus. Jesus demands your life.

Kelle puts it this way. To carry the cross is like you are under arrest. What happens when you are under arrest? You lose control of your life. You follow the officer no matter what. And carrying the cross is not self-hatred. It is self-forgetfulness. It means that your life is no longer about you. Your life is about Christ. There is no such thing as “I’ll follow God if…” There is no if. It is either all or nothing. You are either free or you are under arrest. You are either crowd or disciple. You either alive to self to die to self. There is no middle ground. Jesus does not have two standards. You are either a disciple of Christ or you are not a believer in Christ. So the question you need to ask yourself is not, “Am I in church or not?” That’s shallow. That’s the crowd. The question you must ask yourself is, “Am I willing to die for Christ?” Unless you are willing to die for Christ, you are not ready to live for Christ. You cannot be Christ’s disciple. Unless you die, you will continue to live for self. You are self-centred people by nature. And the invitation of Jesus is for you to die to yourself. Jesus demands your life. Some of you are thinking, “This is a really bad Sunday for me to be in church. I should have stay at home and watch the sermon online.” Wait. Jesus is not finished. It is going to get worse.

Jesus demands your all

Not only Jesus demands your love, not only Jesus demands your life, but Jesus also demands your all. And Jesus does not hide anything from you. He tells you upfront what he demands from his followers. Salvation is free but discipleship will cost you everything you have. And now Jesus will give you two illustrations to make his point. He wants you to think. He wants you to consider. He wants you to count the cost. He doesn’t want you to make a rash decision. He wants you to consider your options carefully. These two illustrations make a similar point but with different emphasis.

First illustration. Luke 14:28-30 – 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? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Here is the point of the first illustration. Consider the cost of discipleship. Jesus is clear. To be his disciple is going to cost you a lot. So before you make a decision, take time to consider the cost. Jesus wants you to do accounting before you begin. Do you have what it takes to be his disciples? Do you have the money to complete the project? Have you done your homework? Otherwise, you are going to make a fool of yourself. You will be like a businessman who invested in building a tower but does not have enough money to finish the tower. People will make fun of you because of it. Or, let me put it a different way. It is like a girl who is obsessed with her wedding day. She’s been dreaming about her wedding day ever since she was five. She imagines herself in that white wedding dress in all its splendour and beauty. She is excited about all the pre-wedding pictures that she will take. She is thrilled with the cake and the guests that she will have on the wedding day. But she never considers her life after the wedding day. She never considers the character of the man she is marrying. She is only obsessed with the wedding day. And a week into her marriage, she filed for divorce because she can’t bear the man she married. Jesus does not want you to make that mistake. He is asking, “Have you consider the cost of discipleship?”

Second illustration. Luke 14:31-32 – ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. The point of the second illustration is slightly different. Consider the cost of non-discipleship. Do you realize whom you are up against? Before you enter a war with another king, you have to consider your strength and his strength. If he is much stronger than you, then why fight? Why fight a battle that you know you will lose? It is much wiser to surrender and ask for terms of peace. It is like me picking a fight with Mike Tyson. It does not matter how much faith you have in me, it does not matter how hard I train and how much spinach I eat, I am going to see Jesus face to face in less than 15 seconds. So, why bother fighting? Jesus is asking, “Do you realize whom you are against?” You are either on Jesus’s side or you are not. You are either Jesus’ disciples or you are his enemy. You either surrender wholly to him or you fight against him. And if you choose to fight against him, do you have what it takes to defeat him? If not, then you should consider the cost of discipleship. Do you see that? In another word, what Jesus requires of his disciples is a total surrender of all they are and all they have. There is only one kind of disciple, one that renounced everything to follow Jesus. That is why Jesus ends the illustrations by saying in Luke 14:33 – ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. The cost of discipleship is all that you have. Not partial, not a lot, not most, but all. To become the disciple of Jesus will cost you all you have. Jesus demands your all.

I love the way C.S. Lewis puts it. He is paraphrasing Jesus. “Give me all of you! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want you! All of you! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self—in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange, I will give you Myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart.”

So here is a question for you. Have you renounced all that you have? Let me pick one area of life that Jesus loves to talk about. It is the area of money. Do you know that Jesus talks a lot about money? Jesus talks more about money than he does about hell. And Jesus talks a lot about money not because he needs money. You need to be clear on that. God does not need your money! Just think about it. God created everything out of nothing. God created anything he wanted and as much as he wanted, and he did it all out of nothing. He doesn’t need raw material. He made raw material. He is not limited like we are. God did not create the universe out of existence but he called the universe into existence. He gets whatever he wants with a snap of a finger. There was one time where Jesus needed money to pay for temple tax and he told Peter to go fishing. This is weird. What Jesus needed was a gold coin, not a fish. Yet when Peter caught the fish and opened its mouth, he found a gold coin. It tells us clearly that God does not need your money. Yet, isn’t interesting that Jesus talks so much about money? Here is the reason why.

Matthew 6:21 – For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus talks so much about money not because he is interested in your money but because he is interested in your heart. If you want to know what is in a person’s heart, check their wallet. Check their bank statement. Your bank statement is a great indicator of where your heart is. You can know whether someone is truly saved or not by paying attention to their wallet. You can say you love God with all of your heart 10x a day but it means nothing if your wallet disagrees with you. So, my question tonight is, “Have you given your wallet to Jesus?” One of the greatest indicators of true disciples of Christ is how they used their money. In this season of pandemic where there is no offering bucket to pass around and obligation to give, are you still giving faithfully and sacrificially to the church? Are you using your money to help others who are in need? Or do you keep everything for yourself since there is no one looking? If you are not generous with your money, then you have not renounced all you have for Christ. How can you renounce all that you have when you are stingy with your money?

At the end of the day, the question you must ask yourself is not how much you can give to Christ but how much does Christ deserve? And if your answer is not all you have, then you are not his disciple. Discipleship is a costly invitation. You are not always called to the same form of discipleship. For some of you, it might be in the area of money. Some in the area of relationship or work. Some might be in the area of security and comfort. For those who are watching online live streaming, why are you doing so? Is your decision based on your love for Christ and others or is it based on your personal comfort and security? Whatever it is, the question is the same. Whatever Christ demands, are you ready? Is Christ worthy of your love, life, and all? You only have two options: Jesus minus everything or everything minus Jesus. Which one do you choose? There is no middle ground. This is the costly demand of discipleship.

Now, I know what you are thinking. “Yos, this is absurd. Who can live like this? What right does Jesus has to demand my love, life and all? How am I supposed to do all that?” Before you throw the towel and give up on Christianity, let me give you reasons why you should not. First, consider the cost of not following Jesus. There is only one other path beside the path of discipleship. It is the path of eternal condemnation. Are you sure you want to make Jesus your enemy? Have you considered the outcome of it? Second, consider Jesus. Jesus is not telling you to do what he has not done himself. Jesus considered the cost. He knew exactly what it would cost him to make you his disciples and he paid the price for it. Jesus left his glory and became one of us. Jesus was mistreated by his earthly family. His brothers and sisters thought he was crazy. Jesus was neglected by those closest to him at the time he needed them the most. Jesus was betrayed and sold by his friend. Jesus sweated blood at the garden of Gethsemane thinking of what he had to endure. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father at the cross. Jesus gave up his own life. Why did he do all that? For you. These are the cost that Jesus had to pay for your sin. Jesus did the math beforehand. And Hebrews 12 tells you that Jesus considered the cost and counted it as joy. Jesus looked at everything he had to go through for you and he said, “It is more than worth it. It is a joy.” He paid the cost of your life and your future with his life. He gave all for your sake. And now he wants you to imitate him. That is what discipleship is. Imitating Jesus. Jesus looks at you and says, “Worth it.” The question for you now is, “Is Jesus worthy?” And my hope is that you answer together with apostle Paul, Galatians 2:20 – 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 live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. This is what discipleship is. You have died with Christ. You have nothing to prove. You accepted and loved by Christ and now Christ is living in and through you.

One last thing and I am done. Jesus ends his call for discipleship with strong words. Luke 14:34-35 – ³⁴ “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? ³⁵ It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  Salt that lost its saltiness is useless. It is no good for anything. Jesus is saying that followers of Jesus who are not disciples of Jesus are useless. They are no good for anything. There is only one kind of Christian. Christians who are disciples of Christ. Christians who love Jesus supremely, carry their cross and renounce all they have for the sake of Christ. And this Christian is salty. They make people around them savour the flavour of Jesus and thirsty for Jesus. This is the kind of life that Jesus wants you to have. A lot of time when you come to Jesus, you have your own script on how life should look like. And Jesus is saying to you, “Give me your script and I’ll give you my script.” Jesus did not come to make your life better. Jesus came to make your life matter. Will you be his disciples?

Discussion questions:

1. In your own words, explain the difference between fans/followers and disciples.
2. “The love that Jesus demands of his disciples supersedes all kinds of natural earthly relationship. Every earthly relationship in your life must look pale in comparison to your love relationship with Jesus.” How would you apply Jesus’ demand for love in your own life?
3. What does it mean to carry the cross? Give some examples from your own life.
4. Why did Jesus want us to consider the cost?
5. In which area of life do you find it difficult to surrender to Christ? Why?
6. How does the gospel empower us to live as Christ’s disciples?