"The cost of being a disciple"

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So it's page 1 0 4 8, and we're in Luke chapter 14, and we're starting at verse 25. Luke 14 verse 25. Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them, he said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose 1 of you wants to build a tower.

You won't first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you just saying this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. Well, suppose a king is about to go to war against another king, why don't you first sit down and just consider whether he's able with 10000 men to oppose the 1 coming against him with 20000? Filly's not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything You have you have cannot be my disciples.

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? This fit neither for soil nor for the manure heap. It is thrown out. Reference ears to hear, let them you. So how does it go?

My children arise and call her blessed. More like my children arrive late and say, what's for breakfast? So, I understand that last time I spoke, I was a bit short. Not you understand in height, but in, in time. So I'm going to make up for it today.

So all your mothers are looking forward to a lovely cooked lunch, which you've probably cooked yourself. Well, that's not gonna happen. So we come to some words of, Jesus in, Luke 14, and they are very surprising and challenging, because we're going to see that Jake Jesus gracious call to follow him is, a very costly call. And so I've called it costly grace. So let's pray and ask the lord to help.

Lord, Jesus Caesar, your words, and they're precious, and they're powerful, but they bring life. Please help us to understand them, and, give us your spirits, your spirit to help us live them out in Jesus name, amen. So we find Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. And when he gets there, we know that he's going to face a terrible ordeal. And for all the world looking on, as it does today often, it will look like defeat.

He's just a dying man, rejected, deserted by his followers. It will seem like 1 of those flares that bursts into life shines brightly for an for a while. And then gradually fades as it sinks down into the water soon to be forgotten. And, we know, but we know what appeared as defeat, what appeared as a life that ended in disillusionment was in fact a momentous victory, so profound that it was to change the world forever and change the destinies of all human beings. But the point is that his path to victory was through the cross, a path of suffering, path of defeat, and what appeared defeat, death, and self sacrifice.

But all that lies in the future. We find him to today in our passage accompanied by great crowds. He's very popular. He's at the height of his popularity. Perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands are following him.

And he turns and explains to them that if they really want to follow him, this is what it's going to mean. And so let's have a look at verse 26 and read that again. Yes. First 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life.

Such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Now as shocking as that language is to our ears, it's unlikely the people of his day would have taken him literally. They would have understood him to mean that if you're going to follow me, I have to come first. And that means before even your closest relationships, your family, your children, your brothers, and sisters, and even before your own life.

Whoever does not bear his own cross cannot be my disciple. Cross, of course, being a, symbol of death, the worst form of death dreamt up by humans. So what does he mean? What does it mean to put him first and bear our cross? Well, he explains that in 2 illustrations, and you'll see that they're linked by this phrase.

First, sit down. The first one's about cost. Let me read it. Verse 1 of you wants to build a tower, won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. For if you lay the foundation and not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying, oh, that person began to build and wasn't able to finish.

So Jesus says, just before you follow me, just pause a second. Think about the cost involved because, it's going to look foolish if you start and then are not willing. To pay that cost. And then in verse 31, the second illustration is about war. Let me read that.

Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. 20 first sit down and consider whether he's able with 10000 men to oppose the 1 coming against him with 20000. And if he's not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off. And will last for terms of peace. So the second 1 is about he imagines a a king going to war, and he says, don't start a war or a battle if you're not prepared to finish it.

If you're not prepared to do everything and anything, including death, to finish that battle because if you stop halfway, you're going to have to sit down and make some kind of arrangement with your enemy. So it's these 2 illustrations that we're going to explore this morning. So first then, the first illustration, the call to follow Jesus will be a costly 1. Are you ready for the cost? Now the call of Jesus is always a gracious 1 first and foremost.

It's a call to undeserving sinners. We're no merit of our own, nothing to offer him, but he calls us to follow him out of his own goodness. Come to me, he says. All who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest in Matthew 11. Noziah, we read, come those who are thirsty.

Come to the waters without cost. It's free. It's a free unmerited gift to the undeserving which justifies us declares us righteous and reconciles. And if you're exploring Christianity and you're wondering how Christianity differs from other religions, you're under you're trying to work out what the essence of the Christian messages. It really can be put in 2 words.

Look and live. Look to Jesus Christ hanging on across. See in that death, not a tragedy. But a man who is God taking the punishment for your sin upon himself. And live.

Live a life free of guilt knowing that you can face the judgment and God will declare you righteous because your sin has already been punished. The law of God has no hold on you. Look and live a life that does not fear death. You will die, but beyond death, you will live again and live with him for eternity. And that differs from every other ideology and religion, which calls you to do certain things to achieve life.

Jesus just says, look to me, am I dying on the cross, am I rising again? Believe that, and God will count you righteous and receive you into relationship. It is a gracious call, but it's also costly. It costs Jesus everything, of course, including his life to carry the terrible burden of the wrath of god, but it's costly because it calls us to a life of discipleship. And the first disciples, in the early days of Christianity, Jesus' own disciples understood this only too well.

Most of them would pay an extremely high price for following Christ. Many of them would be executed for their faith. Perhaps only John escaped, who lived in exile and also suffered. But even the early church Christians beyond that, suffered terribly for holding to the name of Christ and following down that route. Hebrews, if you turn to me, turn with meter Hebrews 11, and verse 36.

It's on page 1 2 1 0. It's worth reading this. We'll come back to it again. So verse 36, some faced years flogging, even chains and imprisonment, They were put to death by stoning. They were sawn in 2.

They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goat skins destitute, persecuted, ill treated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains living in caves and in holes in the ground. That was what characterized the early Christian's walk of discipleship.

And yet, they're suffering would bring a tremendous victory. Just like Jesus victory lay through the cross. So for them too, their suffering, carrying their cross would lead to the transformation of the entire culture that known world. The whole Roman world was transformed, to follow Christ. And even Roman emperors came to kneel before Christ.

Such was the victory that those Christians won through their suffering. But this message of grace, that led to cost leaders discipleship that brought victory gradually became cheapened as time went on in the Christian church. As the world was transformed by the Christian, so it's probably true to say the church also was affected by the world. And the call of Jesus became forgiveness of sin without the need for discipleship. Cheapened grace was preaching forgiveness, but no need for repentance.

Come and be baptized into church membership but you don't need to worry about church discipline. In other words, you could get forgiveness, assurance of heaven added to your lifestyle without it affecting your lifestyle at all other than perhaps to turn up at church on a Sunday. Indeed, some might argue and perhaps did argue that if grace is grace, then why don't I sin even the more? Because god's grace looks even better. The more I sin, the more he forgives me, great arrangement God looks glorious in his forgiveness.

Once time went on, the monastic movement developed, as you know anything about it, I guess you know about monasteries, really as a protest movement. Christians wanted to recapture what costly discipleship looked like. And so they left everything, left the world, left their money, left their family, and friends, and they entered the monastery. Really to show again fresh what total commitment to Christ looked like. But monasticism had an error, and we might say a lot of what they did in monasteries, the harshness of their life and, even just isolating themselves wasn't really truly what Christ intended, but that wasn't the worst of the eras.

The great error of monasticism was that in the end, it became a series of, activities designed to prove to others and to themselves that they merited god's forgiveness. It became a means of earning grace So it they turned it right around costly discipleship in order to earn god's forgiveness. So along came Luther, the great reformer, and he also entered the monastery for exactly the same reason he really wanted to vote everything to God. It was genuine. But he realized after a time that the humble work of discipleship had actually become activities designed to prove his holiness before god, very like the pharisees of Jesus' time.

And he realized that all his desperate attempts at holiness, and they were brutal achieved nothing before God. But in reading the scriptures, he suddenly grasped grace, and he understood that Christ's coming was really God reaching out his hand in mercy to save, and he grasped that hand. And he believed nothing we can do is of any merit, whatever before God. Doesn't matter what kind of life we'd lived. As the hymn goes, nothing in my hand I can bring to god, but simply to the cross, I clean.

He entered the monastery to leave the world behind, but he realized the world had come with him in his pride, in his arrogance that he could somehow prove himself worthy of God. All of monastic life was just proving that they were worthy. And he left the monastery knowing that only trusting in Christ goodness would he find acceptance before God and peace. But he also realized, and here's the important thing, that grace rescues the sinner as well as forgives the sin. Receiving the grace of God means accepting the call to costly discipleship.

And those wanting to use grace to avoid costly discipleship are deceiving themselves. Indeed, many say the secret of the reformation beyond the gospel of grace, being recovered, was that the gospel of grace rescues the sinner as well as forgives the sin. It calls us away from our old life, away from that selfish, self indulgent life, to a new life of following Christ. Which, after all, is a good life, but as we will see, will be costly. So costly grace, the first illustration.

Grace because he did all that was necessary to save me. Costly, because it requires all of me to follow him by way at the cross. And Jesus says, are you ready? Are you ready for that cost? Have you sat down before you rush into following Jesus?

You think we might say, come, oh, no, come in, sign up, get baptized. But Jesus says, just sit down first and think about what you're doing, and whether you're willing to, pay that cost. So we'll move on to the second illustration. Is everyone still still following? Is anyone still there?

Oh, here we are. Good. So this is where the second illustration comes in, and it's, important. And Jesus says true discipleship in the world is a battle. It's a war.

And you need to sit down and consider that if you're going to follow him. Now in the scriptures, we learn the nature of this war. The first battle is an internal spiritual 1. Course 1 were first converted. The spirit of God comes to live within us, and we rightly rejoice in the good things that we've received.

Our forgiveness, our new life, our relationship with Jesus. We grasp the full time, this idea of justification, meaning declared right before God. We're not right, of course. We're sinners, but God declares us right. Because Jesus has taken our rightful punishment.

We learn that we're reconciled to him. It's not just about God forgiving us. It's about him welcoming us into his family. John puts it this way. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

But as we go on, we learn that even though the spirit lives in us, sin still lives in us, and the spirit makes us aware of that sin, and so the battle begins. And if you turn with me to Romans chapter 7, verse 21, Paul describes that battle in painful detail. So it's page 1 1 3 4 And he's speaking to Christians here, and he's a sure he's trying to assure them. Christians who have discovered this, that there is a terrible battle going on, their old life versus their new life. And Paul says I find this law law at work, although I want to do good.

Evil is right there with me. In my inner being, I delight in god's law, but I see another law at work in me. Waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, at work within me? What a wretched man I am? Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks, Peter God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our lord. And it's easy to get disheartened in that battle. But the very battle itself is a sign that the spirit is at work. So that's the first battle that we will face and we'll we'll come back come back to that. But the second battle is the external battle for the kingdom of God.

We pray that in the lord's prayer. I will be done thy kingdom come. We battle for the souls of people, which are, as the Bible instructs us enslaved in sin alienated from god, as we all once were, and we're given the, weapons of the gospel and prayer with which to set people free. It's easy to get disheartened in that battle. To think that it's never gonna happen.

People don't seem to be seem to be so hard. But Jesus said it would be a battle. But more than that, we we are battling in against the structures of the world in which we live, which have been set up to oppose us, the principalities and powers that are behind the world powers, so that if we live out a faithful Christian life, Soon or later, inevitably, we will face opposition, persecution, imprisonment, even death. And that may sound extreme living where we live, but if you spoke to the Darlington nurses, those of you know about them who took a stand by saying, 1 of which is a Christian, by saying it was wrong for a man to be in their changing rooms. And despite everyone against them, the authorities in the hospital, and all kinds of others, they they stood firm, but they paid a huge price for that stand for truth, for declaring truth.

To the world. Christian teachers, and many have lost their jobs and their careers, because they simply refused to peddle lies. And spoke the truth. The world was against them, and would do everything it can to destroy them. Those who take their stand against pornography or against trafficking will pay a huge cost for that.

But those evils need to be brought under the rule of Christ. Indeed, I think my generation have often thought this has to ask, why has the church been so ineffective in stopping the moral slide we see around us. Maybe we gave up the battle. Maybe we simply decided it was too tough, and we'd have to settle and make an arrangement with the enemy. And the consequences have been terrible.

Life shaped Christianity is life shaped by the cross. I'm going to read 3 quotes that I hope will help us understand this. Christians often treat their work as a means for achieving a comfortable life. We avoid discomfort. We find ways to cut corners and avert our eyes and assimilate, so we don't risk anything.

Whatever Christian Living is, it's not riskless. It always involves witness and witness is potential martyrdom, but martyrdom is victory. Christianity is not nor has it ever been merely a personal lifestyle choice. To public commitment, Jesus Christ claims lordship over every area of life, including politics, economics, and justice. To follow him is not simply to attend church or pray privately.

It is to live out a radical public allegiance to truth, mercy, and righteousness. And lastly, Christian is not a private hobby or a cultural relic. It's a truth claim. It shapes all of life in a world where spin is rewarded more than sincerity, where silence is preferred over conviction Christians must listen carefully, live faithfully, and speak clearly, not with anger or arrogance, but with grace, humility, encourage, and courage in private and in public. So those are the 2 illustrations he gives, pause and, think before you follow Jesus.

It's gonna be costly. There's a battle to be waged. But through the cross lies victory. So how does this speak to us today? Well, maybe you're exploring Christianity, And I just want to say, as we've said, the call of Jesus is a gracious call.

There is no more gracious call. There is no other ideology or religion like it. But his way is the way of the cross. Will you follow? As a Christian, are you still in the battle?

Maybe with that stubborn part of your character, that you're still fighting, well, you need to go on fighting because the very battle is the sign of God at work. But it's easy, isn't it to sort of settle down and make an arrangement with it and just say, well, that's just me. As parents, are you engaging in the costly work of raising children, especially in our culture today? You have to fight hard for their minds and hearts. And it's easy to get tired of that.

I always think child 1, you're really on it. Everything by the book. Child 2, you're feeling okay. It's fairly, fairly good. Child 3 can best be summed up as a picture of Joshua sitting in his high chair with a half eaten Salero running down his chest.

You kind of lost the will to live by then. But parents, you know what it's like when your children at school. They're hearing lies all the time. Lies fostered by our enemy, and those need to be fought easy to just throw them the iPad and, leave them to it. In your calling every day at work, whatever it is, are you ready to speak for truth?

Knowing it may cost you your job, increasingly it will, especially in public service. Do we keep engaging in the fight for men's souls and women's souls? As I said, easy to give up. And the war for god's kingdom to come in every aspect of life. This is an area I've talked to Bart about, but I feel evangelical churches largely withdrawn from.

The idea that all of life belongs to god, and we must bring all of it under god's rule. I'm just gonna turn back to Hebrews, and, you don't need to. I'm just gonna read you the bit before. What I read, but it shows that through that suffering that was described there comes victory. First 12, it says, what more shall I say?

I don't have time to tell about Gidi and Barrick Samsung and JETtha about David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms administered justice and gained what was promised, who shut the mouth of lions quenched the fury of the flames and escaped the edge of the sword whose weakness was turned to strengthen who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. And it may be some of you some of you young ones will grow, and you will change the course of kingdoms. I hope you will change the course of this kingdom of Great Britain.

But it will come at a price just like those who tackled slavery in this country paid a very high price for bringing that terrible thing under god's rule. And so Jesus finishes the work, of this little illustration of the salt of the earth. Jesus has committed his his work of to his disciples to us, but only if we remain assault, only if we do his work. If we give up, if we stop, if we get tired of the battle or just aren't willing to pay the cost, then we're useless. We're not good for anything, just to be thrown away.

And what's the key to all this? Well, I think probably the key. The place to start is to see his value of Fresh. Spend time meditating on the lord Jesus, who he is, what he's done, how amazing he is. And as we see his value, we'll be willing to pay any price, any cost that we might have him.

And we might love him and know his love for us. May the lord have mercy upon us? Oh, man.