I’m convinced one of the reasons so many people were attracted to Jesus was that He offered them purpose for living. Yet Jesus wanted to make sure they really understood what He was all about. They could indeed find meaning and purpose in life, but first they had to commit to following Him as His disciple.
Likewise, to find our purpose we must commit ourselves to following Jesus. Because Christ died for us and was raised from the dead for us, through faith in Him, not just so we can find ourselves in His presence one day, but so we live with a sense of purpose as we follow Him as His disciple today.
1. What it means to follow Christ as His disciple - vs. 25-27
A. I give Him the devotion of my life – vs. 25-26
Here’s a place where the Bible doesn’t mean what says, it means what it means. This is what’s known as hyperbole. Jesus made an outlandish statement to make a point. His meaning is, “To follow me as a disciple, your love for others must pale in comparison to your love for me.”
In following Jesus, sometimes that love will be put to the test.
“Sometimes a decision for Jesus means refusing to offer support to a family member for a decision that may be immoral in God’s eyes. Taking that stand may be painful, but necessary. It may mean refusing to endorse a relationship before God that has been conducted in a way that dishonors him. It may mean telling a brother, sister, relative, or friend engaged in adultery, in the painful act of confronting love, that God is not pleased with his or her actions. It may mean discussing destructive behavior at the risk of never speaking to that person again. It may be perceived as loving God over family or friends, when ironically it means loving both.”
- Darrell L. Bock, The NIV Application Commentary
B. I give Him the direction of my life – vs. 26b
“ ... yes even his own life …” Luke 14:26b (NIV)
As believers, we all say we want Christ to guide us, but usually we are talking about specific situations we’re concerned about. In other words, we “pick and choose” when and where we want the Lord’s guidance. But Jesus’ intention is that everything be under His direction.
“I think that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel (though we do not put it into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do, and we should be obliged if He would leave us alone. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what he intended us to be when he made us.
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.
But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.
You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.” - C. S. Lewis
Hating your own life means when your hopes and dreams come into conflict with Jesus’ direction, that you subordinate your desires to His.
C. I give Him the destination of my life – v. 27
The people of Jesus’ day understood the implications of carrying a cross. It meant execution. If you saw a man carrying a cross, you knew he was on his way to die. There was no going back for him.
Likewise, the mark of a true follower of Christ is the commitment to follow Christ no matter where it may lead. There is no going back for him. That’s what the cross was all about. Are you willing to follow Christ no matter where it might lead? Have you set you course completely in God’s direction with no intent of ever turning back?
I recently had the privilege to meet Olan and Lynn Burrows, missionaries to Kenya. What impressed me about this couple was not their willingness to go to the foreign field to serve the Lord, but what they said were their retirement plans. They shared that they had recently retired from the International Mission Board, but felt the Lord wanted them to remain in Kenya to continue to serve as they drew their retirement pension. In fact, they shared that they planned on dying and being buried in Kenya.
They explained that in Africa, where one is buried is considered to be their home, and they wanted, even in death, to testify of their love, and God’s love for the people of Kenya. In following Christ as His disciple, they had given Him their destination.
I wonder, are you willing follow Christ as His disciple, no matter where it might lead?
2. What if we don’t follow Christ as His disciple?
Failure to follow Christ as His disciple brings . . .
A. Disgrace - vs. 28-30
The tower that Jesus spoke of wasn’t an imposing structure. They were usually rickety and made of stone and some wood. The owners of vineyards would build them to keep watch over their crops to keep out thieves. For us it’s the equivalent of building a shed or storage building out back. Before we do it we sit down and figure out what materials we need and if we have the time to really complete the project.
Many years ago, a man by the name of Evans P. Dick had a dream of building a castle. He located a site on the Hudson River and laid the foundation for his dream home. To make sure of its quality, he imported his supplies all the way from Spain. Unfortunately, he ran out of money. He didn’t have what it took to finish the job.
Today that partially built castle still stands. It’s glassless windows stare out at the Hudson like the eyeless sockets of a skull. People now refer to the project as Dick’s Folly. What was supposed to be a symbol of success came to be a monument to stupidity.
A failure to follow through can lead to disgrace. It can also bring . . .
B. Disaster - vs. 31-33
How foolish it would be to not think through a battle. When the fighting starts it’s too late to ask for peace. You’d better follow through in fighting or asking for peace because everything is at stake. Failure to follow through with Jesus Christ can result not just in disgrace, but also a life that ends in disaster.
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes about his fellow workers. Writing from prison, he knows he will soon be executed. In this letter he tells us about individuals who’ve been helpful in his ministry. One is named Demas. At one time, Paul listed him as a fellow worker (Philemon 24).
But when Paul is put in prison this last time, the stakes are higher. Demas, by his association, might lose his life. So he fled. Paul’s last word on this man as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:10 was: “Demas has forsaken me.”
What an epitaph to have written across your life: “Demas has forsaken me.” Not following through with Jesus results in personal disaster.
3. Only through following Jesus as His disciple leads to life with purpose - v. 34 - 35
To understand our Lord’s point here, we need to understand that the people of His time used salt they’d dug out pillars of salt from the Dead Sea. Usually it was salt mixed with other substances. They used it to preserve food and for fertilizer in the soil and manure. Many times they’d stack these pillars of salt outside for several months at a time. If it rained, occasionally the salt would leach out of the substance, leaving only white outer material. This stuff was useless. It was good for nothing, not even the manure pile. All you could do was throw it out.
Jesus point is that a life not spent in following Him is worthless. It has no purpose, no meaning. The cost associated with following Jesus as his disciple is high, but the alternative is a wasted life.
Please understand that anything you commit your life to will cost you. It’s just that Jesus spells it our in big bold letters. Other things have the cost in fine print. In the words of Haddon Robinson: “You’ll give your life for something or you’ll throw it away on nothing.”
It will cost you everything to follow Jesus, but it’s worth it to find your purpose. Missionary Jim Elliot explained it this way: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to obtain that which he can never lose.”
