Supreme Sacrifice
Text: Luke 14:25-35
(Read Text and Open with Prayer)
Now we read this text last Sunday and we talked about how if this Book is true, then it should impact the way we live our lives, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money, and the way our church operates. We talked about the fact that if the Bible is true, then what it says about the Church and the eternal destiny of the lost is true, and that should also impact all of those things as well.
Now my job as a pastor; when I’m preaching, is to expose what the Bible teaches. Sometimes that can make us feel uncomfortable; sometimes it can even sting a bit. It’s not necessarily what we want to hear, but what God wants us to hear. It’s what we NEED to hear. And so when we look into the text of the Bible we should always ask ourselves, “What is God saying to me in this portion of His Word?”
I think another question we should probably ask ourselves is, “Does God really want this from me today? Or was this just something Jesus was demanding of His followers 2,000 years ago?” And what I hope to do in this study is avoid getting too specific. And the reason I don’t want to get too specific is because we have created a system of Christianity that consists of a bunch of boxes to check off. That’s what legalism does. If you look at legalistic religions that’s the sort of thing you see. Take Islam for example… pray five times a day facing Mecca – check. Make the hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca) – check. Participate in ritual fasting – check. And they go down the list of boxes to check off. The danger in this is that we hear the Word of God and then we crave these boxes… because we wrongly assume that if we can check off boxes, we can have assurance; but like I said, that’s legalism – and that would be a false assurance. Instead; what I hope happens, as we go through this series of messages, is that they drive us to wrestle with God in hours and hours of prayer, so that we can get a true Word from God, for ourselves and for our church. The problem we have with that is that we will do everything necessary to bypass spending time with God to find out what He has for us. I think that if most people were honest they would find that they do that… and if they were really honest, they would admit that they avoid spending time with God, and avoid finding out what He has for them, because they quite simply, don’t want to do it. As the saying goes – “Ignorance is bliss.”
But I hope that we… each one of us… will get alone with God, and wrestle with Him and find out how His Word is applied to us personally as individuals.
So I want to begin today by asking you this question – are you willing to come to Jesus on His terms? You see; the brand of Christianity that we’re all familiar with allows us to come to Christ on OUR terms. We hold on to what we’ve been told: “Walk an isle – say a prayer – ok; you’re good to go…” There’s no counting the cost, there are no demands, and truth be told; in many instances there is no change in ones life to speak of. But look at what our text says are Jesus terms for being His follower. Have we counted the cost of being a Christ follower? Did we count the cost of following Him before we walked an isle? Or a better question would be – were we told that there would be a cost? Sure we were told the benefits of being a Christian. Forgiveness of Sin, being made right with God, an eternity with Jesus in glory. But that’s only half of what it means to be a Christian. The latter half… the reward half.
Many weren’t told that when we were rescued from sin that we had been drafted into the Lord’s army and that we were to go out and rescue others in the same way that we ourselves had been rescued, by sharing the Gospel with them.
Can you imagine standing in that crowd that day listening to Jesus? I’m sure there were some who were thinking to themselves, “Who does Jesus think He is? He’s asking us to give up everything, and then we’re supposed to pick up an instrument of torture and death, that’s only used for the worst of criminals, and follow Him?” You see how different this is compared to what we do today? And here’s what I find interesting, this is how Jesus introduced people to Himself. This was the initial invitation. There was no “easing them into it.” In other words; He taught a little while, did a few miracles and then said, “Be prepared to give up everything, grab a cross and follow me… but be sure you’ve counted the cost, because you very well might have to give up everything. And you very well might have to die on that cross.” And you notice; this initial invitation wasn’t given to mature believers… this wasn’t something that someone who had been a Christian for a long time was required to do… this was the initial invitation. It was the elementary; basic truth… the beginners steps of being a Christ follower.
So what’s that say to us? Do we even know what it means to be a disciple of Jesus today? And don’t get into that idea that you can be a follower of Jesus and not a disciple. Man has made that distinction, the Bible doesn’t do it! And so what we do is… we flirt with Jesus on our terms, we give Him lip service wile simultaneously telling ourselves that this doesn’t really apply to us today.
Jesus is using this as “Evangelism 101” but today we are saying we’ve got to make the church less like the Bible portrays it and more like the American culture demands it to be… more “seeker friendly.” Let me just tell you something – seeker friendly is just another name for worldly.
So… what are His terms?
Well I think first of all, He requires that we Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. He requires a superior love. Turn with me to Matthew 22:36-38 (Read). Now that’s a conversation between Jesus and an expert teacher in the Law. And the Pharisee asks what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus answers him by saying, “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind.” And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. This debunks the idea that there are to be priorities in our affection. We are to love God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, ALL of our mind, and then love for each other springs from our love from God. Now turn back a few chapters to Matthew 10:34-39 (Read). Sound familiar? In-other-words; our love for Him, should be far greater than our love for anything else. And what the Bible teaches, when we take all the Scriptures that pertain to this, is that our love for Him should be so supreme, that every other love is so far less – that it looks like hate in comparison. It’s not that we don’t love one another… it’s just that we love Him so much more. And our love for others, flows from our love for Christ. Do we love Him like that? I’m not asking if you go to church regularly. I’m not asking if you read your Bible regularly. I’m asking… do you want HIM? Do you want Christ? Let me give you an example how this love plays itself out in real life. I just heard this the other day. It was from Ligon Duncan, the pastor of the 1st Presbyterian Church in Jackson Miss. and he heard it from John MacArthur; the pastor of Grace Community Church in California.
This is how the story goes: There is a young girl, 17 years old, who is attending the Masters College, which is the college and seminary that Grace Community Church founded some time ago. Now this young girl is from a Muslim country, but she converted to Christianity. But luckily her father is more open minded than most of the people from his country and he loves his daughter very much. And so he has sent her to the United States to go to college, she chose to go to the Master College, but she’s studying Computer Technology because it would be against the law for her to study the Bible or any religion other than Islam. Now this young girl is very smart, she speaks 4 languages, remember she’s only 17, but what she absolutely loves is Biblical Greek. It’s her goal to learn it so well that she can return to her country and translate the NT into her own language and share it with others. Well not to long ago, the semester was over and she returned home for break. When she got to her house, her father wasn’t home but her uncle was, and somehow he had found out that his niece had converted to Christianity. He asked her point blank, “Is it true that you have left Islam and converted to Christianity?” She said, “Yes!” So her own uncle proceeded to beat her with his fists. After she collapsed to the floor, he picked up a chair and began to beat her with a chair. Just before he beat her to death, her father returned home and stopped her uncle from killing her, and rushed her to the hospital. As soon as she was well enough to walk again, she went out and met in a secret location with the only 150 other Christians that she knows of in that entire country. Her father was so afraid that she would be found out, he immediately put her on a plane and sent her back to the U.S.
When she returned to school and Pastor MacArthur found out what had happened, he went to her and asked her, “What were you thinking, as your uncle nearly beat you to death.” And this young girl… she said, “I just kept thinking that my uncle has a religion that he will kill for, and I have a Savior that I will die for.”
So Jesus requires a superior love… but He also requires an exclusive loyalty.
What exactly does it mean to carry your cross? Does it mean that you have to endure sickness or bad relationships, or stressful situations? Well; that’s not the way these people who heard Jesus’ words understood it. They knew that the only time you would carry a cross was when you were a convicted criminal, sentenced to die, and you would carry it on your way to your execution. If you were carrying a cross in the 1st Century – you were a dead man walking. There was no more pride, no more honor, all that remained and all you hoped for – was that the Romans guards might spear you and show you mercy rather than let you hang on that cross.
So what Jesus is saying here is; that through the cross we are to die to the life we live. Die to your ambitions. Die to your hopes and dreams. Die to your desires. Now people say, “Why does Jesus want us to do that?” And it’s because when we die to our desires, then His desires replace them. His desire become our desires, when our desires are put to death. That’s what Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Dead! Dead to self esteem thinking. Dead to self-centered planning. Dead to self-comforting lifestyles.
Alive! Alive to Christ centered living. Alive to Christ centered planning. Alive to Christ centered thinking.
You see Jesus warned those listening to Him. He told them, and He tells us, to estimate the cost… to count the cost. In-other-words, He’s warning about making hasty, emotional decisions to follow Him. Again, let’s just compare that to our modern evangelists. It’s basically two questions that they ask you.
- Do you know you’re a sinner? – and we say, “Well yes. I suppose so.”
- Do you believe Jesus died on the cross? – and we say, “Sure, I guess.”
- Welcome to the kingdom son! We’re so glad you’re a part of us now!
The problem with this is that the devil can answer yes to both those questions as well. Satan knows that he’s sinned against God, in his rebellion; and he knows that Jesus died on the cross. He was the one that entered into Judas and set that into motion.
You see; what we don’t understand is that we’re in a war. We see this picture all throughout the NT. It’s not a war fought with guns and tanks and missiles – it’s a war fought with sacrificial love. It’s a spiritual battle for holiness in our lives and a battle for mans eternal soul. And the stakes in this war are so much higher than any physical war ever fought in history. Because the stakes in this war have eternal consequences.
So Jesus requires superior love and exclusive loyalty, but also – total commitment.
If Jesus called you or me to give up something, what would we be willing to give up? A little here and a little there? Or would we be willing to give it all up?
Would we give up jobs, or dreams, or passions, or habits, or hobby’s? Would we give up our wealth, our possessions… what about our lives? It’s so hard for us to even fathom that because we are so inundated with STUFF! But show me; where in the Bible does Jesus call us to live this American style of Christianity? Ya’ll understand what I mean by that don’t you. I mean this brand of Christianity that says once we get saved we can sit and basically do nothing for the Kingdom. We’re fine coming to church once in awhile, and giving once in awhile, but don’t ask us to do much more than that or give up too much, or change our lifestyle too much. That’s the American style of Christianity I’m talking about. It’s the style of Christianity that says its ok to go out and spend hundreds, or maybe thousands of dollars on something we really don’t need, but 10% of our pay check seems a bit too steep to give to the church. It’s the style of Christianity that says, “I’ll spend a bunch of money to go on vacation, but don’t ask me to go on a missions trip.” That hits close to home, because we’re fixing to go on vacation, but I’ll tell you that I’ve already purposed in my heart to witness to at least 2 people a day, for every day we’re gone, and more if the Lord opens the door to do so.
What would our nation do… and the rest of the world do if they saw an America that loved Jesus more than STUFF? You think that would make an impact?
And yes, it seems like a lot. It’s asking a lot for us to give up our way of living, or our STUFF. But I think that part of the problem is that we either don’t believe the Bible, or more likely; we don’t understand that the rewards make the sacrifice seem trivial. So yes, it’s a call to supreme sacrifice, but it’s also a call to supreme reward!
Now I know and understand that this sort of thinking doesn’t make any sense to the world – to be willing to sacrifice and give up whatever the Lord tells you too, doesn’t seem like the most effective Public Relations plan to get people to follow Jesus… in-fact; the only reason a person WILL DO THIS is if the Spirit of God moves upon our hearts and changes us. And you know what? I’m praying that happens to all of us. That’s right… I’m praying for God to do that to us. To show us the need of the world and then move us, by His Spirit to meet those needs. Again; like I said last Sunday, we do what we can with what we’ve got and leave the results to the Lord. That’s my prayer.
