The Cost of Discipleship

The Cost of Discipleship
Luke 14: 25-33
“25 Now great multitudes went out with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yes his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28” For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it- 29. “lest, after he has laid the 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 to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and ask conditions of peace. 33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

V.25 Most of the multitudes that followed Jesus saw the miracles that He preformed and wanted the same in their lives, they too wanted to be healed. They saw Jesus as the one to drive out the Romans and establish His kingdom on earth.
People still do the same when we see a church that is vibrant and people being healed. We flock to churches that please us and have preachers that say all the right things, tickling our ears with the goodness of God and never challenging us to grow.
This is not to say that all churches growing are like this, there are many that are on fire for the Lord and are growing with God’s help. Choose wisely where you are going to worship, and do your part to continue that growth. If you ask God He will guide you to a place that He desires you to be. It may not make any sense to you, but to Him it does.
V.26 Was Jesus telling us to forsake all others and follow Him, and even to hate our own lives for the sake of serving Christ. A truer meaning to this verse is found in Matthew 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Or in Romans nine verse 13 “Jacob I have loved, but Esau have I hated.” The meaning is simple; I have loved Jacob more than Esau. This is meaning Jesus takes in the verse that the love for Him needs to be greater than the love for family or even ourselves.
Jesus was saying in the strongest language available to Him that family ties could stand in the way of the Lord’s will for your life. It would be a sin for us to forsake the needs of our families when it is our responsibility to care for them. God would never ask us to walk away from the care of our families, but He does ask us to follow Him above our families.
When I first started giving to the church, I took a lot of heat from family members that said I needed to care for my family first. They could not see that by giving to the Lord I was taking care of my family. I believed that God would bless me, and did, by my faithfulness to Him. Years later a relative came to me and told me of his concern and confessed that I was right in what I was doing.
Could the cost of discipleship cost you the relationship with a family member? Indeed it could and does. Spouses, children, and parents that have not accepted the Lord as their savior, don’t understand your devotion to Jesus, and may misunderstand it as a rejection to them. I feel that I am able to love my wife more because of my relationship to God, through His Son Jesus. Following the will of God has led to some interesting discussions with her, some of which she is right, and others that we agree to disagree. This does not mean I love her any less, but cherish her opinion.
This verse can be summed as, who would you rather loose face with, your friends, family, customers, church, or Christ? For Jesus said in Matthew 10:33 “But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before My Father in heaven.”
V.27 A lot of people use the expression; “It’s my cross to bear” for every bad situation that comes along. This is not what Jesus is talking about. Troubles will come our way because of our stance on Christianity, but trouble can also come upon us for no reason at all, or better yet for our failing to pick up our cross. Job was persecuted by Satan because of his love for God, and Jonah met with trouble because of his unwillingness to follow through with God calling on his life. Still others will invite suffering in their lives, thinking that by suffering they are bearing the cross of Christ.
Picking up the cross of Christ means examining the benefits and hardships that come along with living a life centered on Christ. In Luke 9:57-62, we read of a story where potential followers of Christ are examining the cost of following Christ and found the cost too great, turning back to their old lives. Jesus tells His disciples in verse 62, “that no one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Christ does not ask us all to become preacher, teachers, or missionaries, but he does ask us all to follow Him and deny our old lives, for a life centered on Him. I know that in the ME generation that is hard to take, but it is not all about us, but all about Christ.
In verses 28-32, Jesus tells a parable to illustrate how absurd it is to attempt to become disciples of Christ with out first considering the hardships that they would endure, for both hell and the world, who are not a friend to the church, will come against them to destroy not only them, but their witness as well. When Satan is able to destroy our witness, he makes others to doubt if what we have been saying is true or not. We are to also consider what strength we have to go on to walk with Christ, realizing that we can not walk in our strength alone, but must rely upon the strength of God. Jesus has already taken the journey that He requires us to take, to be true disciples of His, and knows what we must endure. Just as God strengthened Him for the cross, so does He strengthens each of us to endure the hardships that come from making a stand for Christ.
We must be willing to lay aside our ambitions and desires for our life and call upon God for guidance, and the strength to go where He wants us to go. In John 21:18, Jesus gives these words to Peter; “Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked were you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” God does not ask us all to go to the cross for our faith in Christ, but He does ask us all to be ready to endure it. Now that you are a new creature in Christ, you must not look to the past and what you were, but must go on to perfection in Christ. He is with you in the person of the Holy Spirit, guiding you and strengthening you for this journey that we call Christianity.