The Cost of the Cross
I. Introduction
Play a game with grocery items. Each ‘contestant’ will have a designated amount of money to spend. They will need to spend as much money as possible without going over their allotted amount.
The illustration is that the game is tough when you don’t know ‘up front’ what price you will be asked to pay.
II. Transition
The Lord calls each of us to follow him wholeheartedly. It is a costly decision, but he has told us up front the price to be paid. With that in mind, let’s consider THE COST OF THE CROSS.
III. Text—Luke 14:25-33
Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is 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, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
IV. Prayer
V. The Cost of the Cross
A. Author Calvin Miller writes:
“Many Christians are only “Christaholics” and not disciples at all. Disciples are cross-bearers; they seek Christ. Christaholics seek happiness. Disciples dare to discipline themselves, and the demands they place on themselves leave them enjoying the happiness of their growth. Christaholics are escapists looking for a shortcut to nirvana. Like drug addicts, they are trying to “bomb out” of their depressing world.”
1. The good news of Jesus is that we don’t need to “bomb out” of our depressing worlds. He has promised to always be with us. We have also been given an invitation to confidently approach God in our times of need.
2. Life can be a difficult journey. However, difficulty does not negate happiness or blessing. In fact, difficulty often helps us better appreciate the good things in life.
ILLUSTRATION: (from the March 2000 issue of GOLF DIGEST)
In 1997, Reilly Rankin, was an all-American golfer as a freshman at the University of Georgia. In her sophomore year, she was set back by an appendectomy, hernia repair and treatment for endometriosis. Having recovered from these procedures, her and a group of friends ventured out onto Lake Martin, just north of Montgomery, Alabama. They were looking for a place called Chimney Rock. It was a popular site from which to jump and dive.
It only took them 10 minutes to find Chimney Rock. When Reilly saw it, her first thought was, “It’s not that big.” She swam to the rock and climbed past a cautious-jumper’s ledge 20 feet above the water. She went all the way to the top, 70 feet up. From there, she looked down at her friends in the boat and thought, “Whoa, this is high.”
Once on the ledge, she realized she had no where to go but into the water; it seemed riskier to climb down than to jump. But she couldn’t bring herself to do either.
Two young boys climbed up when they saw her peer over the edge. They showed her the running start needed to clear the cliff’s edge. In the air, one said, “Be like a pencil [when you enter the water].
After half an hour, Reilly threw herself off the rock. Right away she knew she’d done it badly. She wasn’t being a pencil. She was running in the air. She wouldn’t slide into the water. She would crash into it.
She landed on her hind end and flipped forward smacking her upper body against the water, which at her falling speed was like concrete. She had two broken vertebrae, a broken sternum and bruises to her heart, lungs and aorta. She might have been paralyzed had either of the two broken vertebrae moved another half centimeter. She wanted to know two things, “Am I going to die?” “Am I going to be able to play golf again?”
Today, she is practicing with the golf team again. She says, “Chimney Rock is the best thing that ever happened to me. If I hadn’t broken my back and bruised my heart and cracked my sternum, I’d have never known how family, friends and love can bring you through anything. With this and the surgeries the year before, people say, ‘Oh, you’re the most unlucky person.’ They’re wrong. I’m the luckiest person alive.”
B. DIFFICULT may not be the proper term to describe discipleship (the cost of the cross). But at the very least, the proper term is DEMANDING. This is what Jesus was dealing with in our text for today.
C. Background
1. Jesus is being followed by a large crowd of people. We see this to be the case many times as we read the NT. Usually, the crowds were there to see what the commotion was all about. They were wowed by the miracles. The teaching sounded good, but many never made a real commitment. It was always one-sided—I’m in this for what I can get out of it. Most would never use those words, but their actions spoke loudly.
2. It is with these people that Jesus stops what he is doing and tells what it means to be a disciple. He tells them about THE COST OF THE CROSS.
3. As we survey this passage from Luke, we see that Jesus addresses the high cost of discipleship. He speaks of three areas: personal relationships, personal goals and desires, and personal possessions. Let’s take a look at each area and the price that has been set.
D. Personal relationships
1. Jesus says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters…he cannot be my disciple.
2. Those are strong words. In fact, they seem to directly contradict other things in the Bible.
a. The Golden Rule—Treat others the way you want to be treated.
b. Love each other (John 15:17)
c. Serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13)
d. Live a life of love (Ephesians 5:2)
e. Husbands love your wives (Ephesians 5:25)
f. Women, [are to] love their husbands and children (Titus 2:4)
g. Love one another deeply (1 Peter 1:2)
3. The 1st rule of interpreting the Bible is to take all that it says on a subject before drawing a conclusion. By doing this, we know that Jesus was NOT telling us to hate our parents, spouses, children or siblings. HE had something else in mind.
4. A Matter of Priority
a. Jesus was telling the onlookers, “If you really want to be my followers, I must be the #1 priority in your life. I come before everyone else!”
b. This was a tough teaching for those people.
c. This is a tough teaching in 2000. But one that was beautifully illustrated this week on NBC’s news magazine DATELINE.
(1) TELL STORY OF LADY WHOSE HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER WERE KILLED BY A DRUNK DRIVER ON THE WAY HOME FROM WORSHIP BAND PRACTICE. SHE PLEADED WITH THE JUDGE TO SHOW MERCY AND LENIENCY AFTER GOD HAD ASKED HER, “ARE YOU READY TO FORGIVE THE PERSON WHO DID THIS?”
(2) Where are our priorities? Is Jesus at the top of the list…even when it’s hard to keep him there?
THE 2ND THING JESUS ADDRESSED WAS…
E. Personal goals and desires
1. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate … his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
2. Again, Jesus used strong words. But they were necessary. Remember, he is talking to people with their own agendas. Most are following him for the benefits they want to receive. This has happened to him since his ministry began.
3. Jesus drops a bomb by saying that being a disciple is more than enjoying the ride. It is laying down your agenda and picking up his.
The saying is, IF HE’S NOT LORD OF ALL, HE’S NOT LORD AT ALL!
4. OUCH! That’s not what these people wanted to hear.
a. A similar thing happened after Jesus fed 5,000 people.
(1) While teaching, he told them that there was no life without him. He went as far to say that without him people would totally miss God.
(2) Many of these “followers” began to grumble about the price being too high. Many stopped following him altogether.
(3) Jesus’ response to his 12 closest followers was, “Do you want to leave too?”
b. Jesus was up front about the cost of being a follower. He didn’t pull any punches. In the words I learned on the playground basketball court, he was saying, “THERE’S A TIME TO PUT UP OR SHUT UP!”
(1) Is Jesus Lord of your life?
(2) Do you live what you say you believe?
(3) Are you living by your own agenda? Are you ready to accept his?
c. This is just like the comments about personal relationships—it’s a matter or priorities.
NOW WE TURN TO THE 3RD AREA JESUS ADDRESSED…
F. Personal possessions
1. He said, “If anyone does not give up everything he has he cannot be my disciple.”
2. Ugh! He we go again. Another tough statement. However, it is not anything new. Jesus had much to say about possessions and wealth during the course of his ministry.
a. A man’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15)
b. You cannot serve both God and money (Matthew 6:24)
c. Where your treasure is there your heart is also (Matthew 6:21)
d. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:23)
3. One of those statements, from Matthew 6:21(Where your treasure is there your heart is also), helps us understand what Jesus is saying here
a. He is NOT saying that to be his disciple you must sell or give away everything you own and live in abject poverty for the rest of your life.
b. The primary issue is not money or possessions. It is the attitude of your heart.
(1) We can see this in the story of the rich man:
AS Jesus was walking down a road, a man ran up to him. He knelt down, and asked, “Good teacher, what can I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. You know the commandments. ‘Do not murder. Be faithful in marriage. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Do not cheat. Respect your father and mother.’ “
The man answered, “Teacher, I have obeyed all these commandments since I was a young man.”
Jesus looked closely at the man….and said, “There’s one thing you still need to do. Go sell everything you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come with me.”
When the man heard Jesus say this, he went away gloomy and sad because he was very rich.
(Mark 10:17-22 CEV)
(2) Jesus told him to sell everything because he knew where the man’s heart was. It was with his money not God.
4. When Jesus says a person must give up everything to be his disciple, he means it’s okay to have stuff and money as long as stuff and money don’t have you.
a. “Corrie ten Boom,…who endured…brutality from the Nazis at Ravensbruck during World War II, once said that she had learned to hold everything loosely in her hand. She said she discovered, in her years of walking with [the Lord], that when she grasped things too tightly, it would hurt when the Lord would have to pry her fingers loose.”
b. Let me add another thing here. Money and possessions can have a hold on you even if you don’t have them. If you are always focusing on the “what if” or if you are always upset about the unfairness of what others have that you don’t your heart is in the same place as the man in Jesus’ story.
5. Where is your heart today? Do you have your money and possessions or do they have you? Where are your priorities?
VI. Conclusion
If you’ve noticed, Jesus’ entire teaching about the COST OF THE CROSS revolves around priorities. He clearly tells us that if anyone or anything other than himself is the #1 priority in our lives we’ve got it all wrong about following him.
It is a tough teaching. It is a high price to pay. But the return is like nothing you’ve ever known. No relationship, no achievement, no amount of money or prized possession can compare with life as a committed follower of Jesus Christ. I do not say that as theory, but from experience. That’s the only way you can know it to be true—by living it yourself!
As we prepare to share communion this morning, we would all do well to heed the apostle Paul’s words and examine ourselves. Let me suggest some questions to ask:
Do I know Jesus as my savior?
Is Jesus the Lord of my life? Is HE the #1 priority?
Is evidence of his lordship seen…
…in my relationships?
…in my goals and desires?
…in my finances and possessions?
If you answer NO to any of those questions, I would encourage you to use this time to talk to God about your priorities. Ask him to help you sort them out. Ask him to let his power be known in your life so that you can enjoy the rewards that only come with living as a committed follower of Jesus Christ.
