When we drive down the highway and see a lot of cars in the parking lot of a restaurant, we assume that it is a great place to eat.
Many of us would admit that we have eaten at places where the parking lot was filled with cars, but we were not impressed with the food or the service.
We make that same mistake when it comes to churches. You can ride by some churches where the parking lot is filled with hundreds of cars, but when you go inside and hear the preaching of God’s Word, or the lack of the preaching of God’s Word, you cannot help but wonder what the attraction is.
We are impressed with numbers, but numbers never impressed the Lord Jesus.
Look at verse 25 in our text. We read, “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them”.
As we read this passage of scripture, it is not hard for us to visualize what took place.
Maybe as the Lord was walking along, He looked back and He saw the multitudes following him. He stopped, and the Bible said, “He turned, and said unto them”.
WHAT DID HE SAY TO THEM?
He did not say the things that many of the liberal preachers are saying today. Today’s preachers are so impressed with the crowds, they will say anything the crowd wants them to say.
For example -
• If the people want to believe that it is God’s will for them to be healed, the preachers will tell them it is God’s will for everyone to be healed.
• If the people want to believe that it is God’s will for them to be rich, the preachers will tell them it is God’s will for them to be rich.
• If the people want to be told they can have anything they want, the preachers will tell them just, “Claim it and grab it!”
WHY DO THEY TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR?
Because people will keep coming back to you, if you tell them what they want to hear.
And if people keep coming back, the money flows in by the thousands.
But the Lord Jesus was never impressed with the large crowds.
In fact, in this scripture passage, it seems like He deliberately tried to thin the crowd down.
Look what He said in verses 26-30. We read, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
WAS THE LORD JESUS DELIBERATELY TRYING TO THIN THE CROWD DOWN BY SAYING THESE THINGS?
No! The Lord wants multitudes to follow Him, but He wants them to follow Him for the right reason.
He knew that many in this crowd were following Him for the wrong reasons.
I want to say again, the Lord Jesus has never been impressed with the large crowds like we are.
However, the Bible tells us He does rejoice over one sincere sinner that comes to Him.
In fact, I believe we can truthfully say that the Lord would rather have one sincere saint follow Him, than a thousand people who were following Him for the wrong reasons.
The Lord Jesus is seeking sincere believers.
In this passage, He shows us some important facts about what it takes to be a REAL BELIEVER! For example:
I. DISCIPLESHIP COMES WITH A PRICE
Anytime we use the word PRICE, we have to be careful.
As President Richard Nixon used to say, “Let me make something perfectly clear.”
When we say, DISCIPLESHIP COMES WITH A PRICE, there seems to always be someone hiding in the bushes, that that will rise up and say, “He is teaching salvation by works!”
Well, anyone who knows anything about this Bible, knows that we are saved by grace alone. And anyone who preaches salvation by works, is preaching false doctrine.
Eph. 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
It doesn’t cost us anything to be a child of God, it cost Christ His life. He paid the full price for our salvation.
But once we become a child of His, it does cost us to be a follower of His.
Illus: Suppose the Lord Jesus sees a blind man, and he heals Him. Does the Lord Jesus turn to him and say, “Bartimaeus, the charge for my healing is going to be a thousand dollars.” Nowhere in the scripture do we see this taking place. The fact is, the healing did not cost Bartimaeus one penny.
But we would not expect that same blind man, that the Lord Jesus healed, to return to the streets, to sit on the road side with his eyes closed, and to beg for alms.
This is what the Lord is saying. When the Lord Jesus opens our spiritual eyes, He does not expect us to return to our old paths. This is not permissible!
Once we are saved by His marvelous grace, IT COSTS US SOMETHING TO BE A FOLLOWER OF HIS.
Illus: For example, when a child is born to royalty in Britain, that child had nothing to do with being born into a royal family. But once that child is born into royalty, he/she must learn to live like a child of royalty. They cannot live like other children.
God will save us by His marvelous grace, but God is not going to save us and allow us to go back to our old paths.
DISCIPLESHIP COMES WITH A PRICE.
II. DISCIPLESHIP COMES WITH PERSEVERANCE
What kind of a price do we pay? The Lord Jesus shows us THREE things in this text. Notice:
(1) OUR LOVE FOR HIM MUST BE FOREMOST.
Look at verse 26. We read, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
IS GOD TELLING US THAT WE MUST HATE OUR FAMILIES TO SERVE HIM?
Absolutely not! This is a figure of speech the Lord is using. It is called hyperbole.
What is hyperbole?
Hyperbole is an exaggeration of something for the purpose of emphasizing it.
• Suppose I said, “I ate so much at supper, I am about to explode!”
• Suppose I said, “I was going down the road the other day, and John past me so fast, it was like I was standing still.”
These are exaggerations to place the emphasis on something I want to put the emphasis on.
For example, when I said, “I ate so much at supper, I am about to explode”, the emphasis is on how much I ate.
When I said, “I was going down the road and John past me like I was standing still”, the emphasis is on how fast John was going. I did not want you to believe I was standing still, I was trying to illustrate how fast John was going.
When the Lord said, for us to be His disciples we had to hate father, mother, wife, children, brother or sister, the emphasis is on how great our love for Him should be, compared to our love for our family.
We should love our family, but our love for God should be so great, that our love for them looks like hate.
For example, sometimes Christians forsake worship service to go to a family re-union. This is not the way it is suppose to be. We need to tell our families, “I love you, but you planned this family re-union on the day that we go to the house of God for worship, and we won’t be coming. God is first in our lives!”
There is a PRICE to discipleship. And that PRICE means that OUR LOVE FOR HIM MUST BE FOREMOST. He comes ahead of the family, job, or anything else.
But notice something else about the PRICE OF DISCIPLESHIP.
(2) OUR LOVE FOR HIM MUST BE ENDURING.
Look at verse 27, we read, “ And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
We have some people in our society who wear a cross around their neck, as a good luck charm.
But I can assure you, the cross is not a good luck charm. The cross was a place of execution!
And we as Christians, in order for us to be His disciples, have to be willing to bear HIS CROSS.
Notice, He does not say we have to be willing to bear OUR CROSS, He said, we have to be willing to bear HIS CROSS.
Look at His cross:
• He was rejected.
• He was despised.
• He was mocked.
• He suffered.
• His cross was one of death to the flesh.
He is not talking about that little cross around your neck. He is talking about HIS CROSS.
OUR LOVE FOR HIM MUST BE ENDURING.
(3) OUR LOVE FOR HIM MUST BE EVERLASTING.
Many people’s love for the Lord, reminds you of some of today’s teenagers. They can be madly in love with someone one day, and the next day they can’t remember their name.
The same goes for a lot of professing Christians. One day they are madly in love with the Lord, and then they walk out of these church doors and forget about Him.
God says our love for Him has to be like a man who builds a tower.
Look at verse 28. We read, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”
It would be foolish for a man to set out to build a tower, and not count the cost. Before he would begin to build, he would sit down and consider what it is going to cost him.
And the same thing applies to His disciples, we have to sit down and count the cost.
True Discipleship is a lasting thing...it lasts for life.
Anything lasting is more expensive.
Illus: You can go down to Lowe’s, or Home Depot, and buy some floor tile for your kitchen. They have all kinds of floor tile on display. All of it looks good, but all of it is not the same quality. That is, some of the least expensive tiles are just as pretty as some of the most expensive tiles.
But here is the difference. The least expensive tile looks good, but it has a thin layer of color on top. After a little bit of wear, the covering will wear off, and your floor will begin to look bad again. But if you buy the more expensive tile, you will discover that the coloring you see on the top, is the same coloring that goes all the way through the tile. So as you walk on it, and it begins to wear, you have that same color throughout the life of the tile.
This is the way true discipleship is. It is not thin layered, it is solid throughout.
Conclusion:
If we do not count the cost, our testimony becomes a joke.
Look at verses 29-30, we read, “Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
I. Discipleship comes with a price
II. Discipleship comes with perseverance
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach many of these sermons on Youtube. Just type Youtube Lykesland
