8-19-18 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Luke 14:25-35 [Build on the Rock Summer Series 12] Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace-Tucson

August 19, 2018

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 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. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. 34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

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Dear Friends in Christ, The words of our Savior Jesus before us today do not teach us to estimate building costs if you are planning to build a tower or any other building! I’m not saying you don’t need to do such things, in fact, I think we ought to do that! You can support counting those costs from other things God says about managing the gifts that he has given. But it wouldn’t be right to say that God is teaching here, in Luke 14, that you must estimate the costs of your construction projects—like houses and churches.

Estimating the cost of a building and thinking about how you’ll pay the bill is knowledge Jesus just expects all of us to have. So as we talk about our next Bible building project today, we are not drawing from these words doctrines about building churches or towers or anything like that. What Jesus is doing in these words is comparing the way you estimate building costs to the way you are to estimate the costs involved with following him. A life that is built on Christ, that includes faith and following, is something that requires thought and planning.

Cost estimates are part of any major building project. You expect that. None of us were surprised at recent Member Feedback Meetings or the Voters’ Meeting to hear that there were cost estimates for our church building and child learning center in Sahuarita. But have you thought about estimating the cost of following Jesus? Jesus tells his followers to do that—this means you and me also. He is stressing that it is necessary for you to…

Estimate the Cost of Following Your Savior 1. Know that there IS a Cost 2. Realize that the Price Tag is Worth It! It is important to know that there IS a cost to being a disciple of Jesus. As he began this explanation, Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Wait, the cost involved with following Jesus—not just knowing who he is, but actually living for him—involves hating my family?! How can that be? Aren’t we supposed to love others? Aren’t there Bible passages that say to honor your father and mother and to care for your children? And, hold on a minute— we’re not supposed to hate at all!

Did this ever happen to you as a kid? Someone would say, “I hate”…cats or grape jelly or another person or whatever, and someone would say, “Oooooh, God says we’re not supposed to hate!” I’m not sure where we got the idea that God doesn’t hate or doesn’t ask us to hate. It’s in the Bible—God hates. In Malachi, God says that he hates divorce. In Jeremiah it says that he hates idols. In Isaiah, it says that he hates empty worship—mindless and faithless going through the motions at church. And right before your very eyes this morning, you see Jesus telling YOU to hate!

You may have also heard people try to soften the blow by explaining that the words in the Bible really don’t mean hate like we think of hate; they mean “to love less.” Maybe a better English translation would help. But I have to tell you, the words in the original languages of the Bible are pretty strong. Hate means hate, to detest, to dislike to the point of aversion or hostility. Hate means hate just like you think it means.

So the question is, why does God hate something or someone and why would your loving Savior call you to do the same? It is always because of the rejection of God and his Word and his ways. That’s what stirs up God’s hatred. And that’s what stirs up the hatred of Christians. Lest we think that this is new with Jesus, look back into the Psalms and you find this: Let those who love the LORD hate evil…(Psalm 97:10) And that is really what this is about. The God of love does not want to hate. Godly people do not want to hate. But know this, says Jesus—if you’re going to follow me…trust in me…put your hope in me…adhere to my ways…one of the costs you need to be aware of is that you will hate even those closest to you if they reject God and make your following of Christ difficult.

And it gets worse! Another cost to following Jesus is to hate your own life! And Jesus doesn’t mean that you are to be dissatisfied with your life. That can be fairly easy and have nothing to do with being a disciple of Jesus! You might hate your job or your hectic schedule—or that you don’t need a calendar because your life is so boring! You might hate your financial situation or your class schedule or your loneliness or your health problems. But none of that is what your Savior is talking about. He’s talking about something we don’t exactly want to face—he’s talking about our sinful nature and our sinful ties to our wants that are in conflict with the will of God. Just like we are to hate it when a close family member rejects God and presents an obstacle for us to follow Jesus, we have to hate even our own lives when we put ourselves above our Savior. Our sinful nature does not want to do this; it is supremely selfish. As disciples of Jesus, we have to hate this part of us, this sinful nature that lives in us. As God explains elsewhere, it is impossible to live for him and to live for something or someone else—even if that person is us.

How wonderful it would be, we think, if we could not be bothered by the things we do wrong and still follow Jesus. How great it would be to live unconcerned with pagan friends and family while we happily follow our Savior—thinking that they don’t need to know about Jesus or that they don’t really influence our faith. Unfortunately, that is a fantasy world that some people live in. Maybe that’s where you’re at today even.

Certainly, we all are guilty of not estimating the cost of following Jesus and not always bearing the cost or the cross of Jesus.

To bear our cross doesn’t simply mean to live with the difficulties of life, to suck it up and smile because Jesus loves you. To bear our cross means to accept whatever suffering comes our way because we are committed to Jesus and following him. Your cross may come to you in the form of a parent, a spouse, a child, a sibling that makes your life more difficult because you are a Christian. This is a cost Jesus wants you to know about up front. You and I need to factor this in as we estimate the cost of following our Savior.

You see that Jesus ended up telling that crowd of people who were thinking about following him that there must be a willingness to give up everything if necessary to follow him. Family, self, possessions—a person must be willing to part with all of it, to hate, or reject, all of it if that’s what it takes to hold onto faith and to live as a disciple of Jesus.

Jesus is reaching out to all of us today to be sure we understand that there IS a cost to following him. He wants us to give that some thought.

Well, that is all kind of tough to think about it, isn’t it?! We all have to fight the urge, just like everyone else, to say it’s not worth it; the price tag attached to following Jesus is too high. We want to say, “Nothing comes before family!” or “It’s my life; I can do what I want!” or “You only live once.” Why fight those inner thoughts and desires? Why is following Jesus worth the high price? Why would I give up friends, family, money, and things in order to do things that Jesus says his disciples do?

This is why: Jesus says that he loved you so much that he came into this world to live in a way you can’t. He perfectly lived in a way that showed that his heavenly Father was more important that Mary and Joseph—or his brothers who thought he was crazy.

He perfectly lived in a way that trusted his Father for his daily needs. He was not attached to the things in this world and did not prize them over his Father in heaven.

And as for his cross? Well, that’s where we get the image for our endurance of unjust suffering for the sake of God! That cross held perfection when it held Jesus’ body. God the Father doesn’t count our sinful thoughts or words or actions against us because he received Jesus’ life of perfection in our place. The blood of Christ on the cross was the sin offering that frees us from sin and prevents eternal suffering in hell, separated from God.

Jesus is the Savior of the whole world; his sacrifice paid for the sin of the whole world.

The forgiveness earned by Christ’s life and death is there for all people and it is applied to those who trust in him. Those who trust in him listen to him and follow him. They listen when he says, “You are forgiven.” They listen when he says, “I am preparing a place in heaven for you.” They listen when he says, “Obey everything I tell you.”

As a Christian hears these things from Jesus, they put their confidence in his promises and they make every effort to honor their Savior with every word spoken and every action taken: no matter the opposition from family and friends, no matter their sinful urges, no matter the lure of worldly things. Why? Because it is worth it! Whatever cost there is to bear is worth it!

What is more valuable, the love of Christ or the love of people? What is more valuable, your brief time in this world or eternity in heaven? What is more valuable, the things you can enjoy here or the rich blessings promised in heaven? When you step back from your sinful nature and remove emotional earthly ties, the answers are obvious!

The question really becomes, “Why would I let anything get in the way of following my Savior?! I have a Savior who loves me and saves me!” Whatever I have to endure during my brief stint in this world—whatever the price tag is—is worth paying! It is the way to show my love back to him!

What a blessing it is to go to Jesus when we stumble in our following and know that we are forgiven. In that forgiveness, we continue then to follow Jesus, honoring him with our lives and living as examples to those around us. We pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work on our hearts and minds so that we are not shocked and surprised to find out that there is a cost to following Jesus but instead we accept that—and so that we realize that the price tag for discipleship is worth it! Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.