Come and Die: The Call of the Cross! | Luke 14:25-35

INTRODUCTION

We are at a time of the year when the majority of Christians are going through the season of Lent, a time traditionally set apart by the Church to remember Jesus’ journey to the cross. This season is a powerful opportunity to reflect on the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lent is a journey of surrender in which people reflect, surrender, and deny-self to draw close to God and learn the meaning of discipleship and sacrificial obedience to Christ. The Assembly of God encourages spiritual disciplines such as fasting, prayer, and repentance, which are in line with the heart of Lent, but does not prescribe specific seasons or practices, leaving them to the conviction of individual believers.

Today’s passage from Luke 14:25–35 presents one of the most challenging teachings of Jesus. He turns to the large crowds following Him—not to invite them into easy belief, but to call them into costly discipleship.

Luke 14:25-35

The Cost of Being a Disciple

²⁵Large 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. ²⁷And 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? ²⁹For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰saying, ‘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? ³²If 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. ³³In 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? ³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

What does Jesus mean when He says: Luke 14

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.

²⁷And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

³³In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

ILLUSTRATION

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1905-1945), a Lutheran Pastor from Germany wrote the book ‘The Cost of Discipleship.’ Bonhoeffer wrote this book at a time when he was just a young Lutheran pastor, caught off in the turmoil of Nazi German. Bonhoeffer had boldly preached against the heresy of The National Socialism and its dangers to the people. He was against Hitler’s policies and he preached against it in the seminary, churches and even on the radio. Several years before his British friend had asked him, “When war comes, what would he do?” Bonhoeffer responded that he would pray that Christ would give him the power not to take up arms.

Jesus answered that prayer not by removing Bonhoeffer from conflict or a place of seclusion or safety, but rather by thrusting him right into the centre of things, into the heat of battle.

When war broke out, Bonhoeffer was in the US and many of his friends advised him not to return to Germany for his safety. But he insisted that his brothers and Sisters in Germany, his Christian friends needed him and he returned. The Nazis prohibited him from teaching, he was banned from Berlin. He lost his lectureship and finally they shut down the seminary.

In 1943, he was implicated in a plot to kill Hitler, and Bonhoeffer was finally arrested. He would not recant and said, “As a Christian it was his duty to stand against idolatry as the leader was raised up as an idol.” Bonhoeffer was then sent to prison. He faithfully witnessed to Jesus Christ in the prison and to the guards. In April 9, 1945 Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging just 11 days before the prison was liberated by US troops.

In his book, “The Cost of Discipleship” Bonhoeffer says: “The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus, it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

What does God want us from us?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests that “What God wants is you.”

He wants all of you. He wants your life. He wants your volition. He wants your priorities. invites us to come and die with him.

The Context of Discipleship; Luke 14:25

Jesus speaks not to a select few, but to the large crowds—His radical call is for everyone.

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die on the coming Passover. The audience is a large crowd that is traveling with Jesus.

• Jesus has been inviting people to the Kingdom of God; Luke 10:9; Luke 17:20-21.
• Jesus is talking to the crowd about the Kingdom and the cost of discipleship; Lk. 9:2; 9:57-62
• The kingdom of God is a narrow door; Luke 13:24
• The Kingdom of God will have people from all places; Luke 13:29
• The kingdom involves people from all spears of life; Luke 14:21. The invitation to the kingdom is for all people but entry into the kingdom of God is for the disciples of Jesus.

Now, in Luke 14; Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship.

Discipleship may include:

• Relational Cost.
• Suffering & Sacrifice.
• Material Cost.

Therefore, One Has to Count the cost; v2833

Jesus gives the Salt Analogy of discipleship; v34-35

What is the cost of discipleship?

The cost of discipleship can be divided as:

• The Personal Cost.
• The Material Cost, v33

The Personal Cost of Discipleship

Personal cost or relational cost of following Jesus.

Luke 14:26

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.

• This is not a target or objecting for the Christian life.
• This is not when we meet Jesus face-to-face.
• It is a prerequisite. It is a requirement to being to follow Jesus. It is beginner Christianity that Jesus has in mind. This is a message addressed to the crowds. This is for anyone who belong to Jesus. It is for you; it is for me.

Luke 14:26

“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.

What does Jesus mean when he says, “We must hate all of these persons in our life?”

This does not contradict the demand of God’s people from Genesis to Revelation that they should love one another. Jesus was once asked to summarize the whole OT: Luke 10:27 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

All the scripture hangs on these 2 commandments. If you love got God you got to love everyone else. It is not either or.

John 13:34-35

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus insists on radicle love. Like Jesus loved us, we are to love one another.

Jesus is not taking of hatred of family relationships.

Remember, Jesus at the cross said to his mother:

John 19:26-27

²⁶When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” ²⁷and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”

Jesus cares for family and he wants us to love one another. I know our text is a passage that has been misquoted.

He is not talking about disaffection, dislike. It is not that we are to hate our loved ones. Instead, it is a term that is used in the covenant context to express in the most vivid possible way that these persons must be dethroned and demoted in terms of our priorities that Christ would reign in our life without rival. It is not an emotional language it is a covenantal language.

This is how Jesus uses the word on another occasion in the gospel of Luke.

Luke 16:13

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Jesus is talking about convent love. When we talk about master, there is only one. A man with two different loyalties will contradict. To choose one master is to disregard the other, it is in a sense to love on and hate the other. You will love God, then you will hate money. If you love money, then you will hate God.

It is the same in the OT in respect to marriage. In the OT Jacob had 2 wives. If you have 2 wives you cannot love them both equally. You cannot get into a covenant relationship with both. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Gen. 29:30-31.

By definition if you love one, you cannot love the other the same way,

Now, the church is the bride of Christ. Church is in a marriage relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We in this marital relationship can have no rival lover. We must leave all, forsaking all others, cleave only unto him. To have any other love in our life, is to be unfaithful to Jesus and to hate Jesus.

Matthew 10:37

³⁷“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Here we find Jesus helping us to understand this. It is a matter of who it is that we love more, is it Christ or is it members of our natural family. If you want to be a disciple of Christ, every other loyalty must be subordinated to his.

Jesus must be the number one priority of our lives, without rival.

If you want to be a disciple of Christ, no one, no matter how close they are; no one, no matter how much you need them or how much you think they need you, no one can come between you and Jesus Christ.

But the wonderful thing is if you will follow Christ by putting him first, the reality is ultimately loving Jesus means we become better to one another. It means that we will be better sons and better fathers to our children. It means that we will be better husbands and wives.

We will be like Christ. We will be self-less. Forgiving each other like Christ forgave us. More forbearing, less judgmental. So if we put Christ first, it enhances our relationship with one another.

The requirement is still there, Christ has to be first in our lives without rival. You cannot allow your father or mother to come before him. We are to be like James and John, when Christ called them, they were fishermen repairing their nets. They left their father, the nets, and fishing and followed Jesus.

In the OT, newly married were excused for showing up from war, Deut. 20, 24 (one year’s exemption). In the NT, joining the Lord’s army, even that excuse will not work. Only one loyalty, to Christ. Christ comes even above our spouse.

On one occasion Jesus’ brothers came to him:

Mark 3:20-21

²⁰Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

There will be times when our loyalty to Christ will be tested by family members, friends, employers or even beyond these people.

Christ has to be first in our lives without rival.

The Material Cost of Discipleship

Cost of Discipleship Our Money and possessions.

Luke 14:33

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Christ demands our exclusive loyalty and all our material possessions, all of our commitments materially got to be devoted to Christ. Everything else has to be removed.

Money has the great potential of bringing out the worst in people and also the very best.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you.”

Where you spend most of your thoughts on is what you love, anything you spend less time is what you hate by Biblical understanding.

Luke 16:13

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Christ demands our exclusive loyalty and all our material possessions, all of our commitments materially got to be devoted to Christ. Everything else has to be removed.

One starts to serve money when you trust in it other than God. If you have money and bring it under subjection of Jesus, it is Jesus you serve. But the moment you put your money above God, it is money you are serving. Now it is an idol. Now it is going to take the place of Christ. And you cannot serve both God and money.

The NT did not have major problems with idolatry. We no longer hear about Baal worship or Asherah pole or offerings of Molech, the so-called Canaanite idolatry. Now money had come to take the place of idols. The love of things has become the most dangerous kind of idolatry. The Pharisees loved money.

How do some people look at money?

Some people think money makes the world go around. It becomes the basis of their happiness and their security. They feel well and assured when they have money, they become worried and anxious when they don’t have money It sets them free or it places them in bondage. Money gives them power. It provides them a sense of self-worth where they get a sense of identity. It becomes the basis of determining the worth of others.

So Jesus tells his disciples that money is an idol that you must be converted from before you can be following Jesus.

Luke 14:33

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Jesus applied this principle of total renunciation; absolute get rid of to at least one individual:

Mark 10:17-21

¹⁷As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²²At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Jesus’ response here is so surprising.

The way man evangelizes is a little different. We first bring people to Christ, make them a disciple of Christ. Later on, we come to the subject of stewardship. Jesus is insisting in this passage as well in our text today, what is Christ’s view in all that is ours is under the Lordship of Christ.

If it was any other person, they would have called this rich young ruler back, “You have misunderstood what I spoke. I was speaking metaphorically.” Jesus did not say, “I am speaking to you if you are going to be full-time employee. I see that you are a regular Christian. A regular Christian can keep 90% and I just need the remaining 10%. Jesus does not do any of that.

I was thinking what some of the disciples could have been thinking:

Judas would have told, “Lord let him give whatever he wants to give.”

Peter would have said, “Good thing I don’t have any money.”

They did not respond like this. But the disciples responded in amazement, “Who then can be saved?”

This means what Jesus wants absolute, nothing less is accepted. It is not just one day out of 7 that we give him, he wants it all. It is not just a 10% out of 100. He wants it all. It is not just a compartment in your life where Jesus is with you, but you have other interests of politics, science, technology. That is not enough but he wants your whole self. He wants you, your life. He wants everything you have, every resource that you have. He wants it all. If he is not in control of all, he is not Lord at all. He is not interested in anything less.

Having said that on another occasion, Jesus does not literally does not require his disciples to give up everything. In his conversation with Zacchaeus.

Luke 19

Jesus was passing through Jericho in Luke 19: There was a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus.

Luke 19:8

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus did not tell him that he is half a Christian. But Jesus said:

Luke 19:9

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.

Our text assumes that there are some people who have large wealth.

Luke 14:28-30

²⁸“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower.

There are people in the audience who are very rich.

Luke 14:13-14

¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, (that means you are rich) the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

In this evil world, sadly riches are not distributed evenly. Some are very poor, some poor, some rich, and some very rich.

1 Timothy 6:17

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Here is a positive view of Wealth. When wealth is understood as gifts from God, that all belong to God. everything that we now have needs to be stamped, “Gift from God, belongs to God, to be used in the service of God, at his behest.”

1 Timothy 6:18-19

¹⁸Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Luke 14:33

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Give up – This word sometimes is given as renounce in other translations.

There is a better way to understand what Christ says here is: ‘Say farewell to.’

Live as though we are using the things of this world, without laying claim to it.

1 Corinthians 7:29-30

²⁹What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; ³⁰those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

These are hard things for us to be honest. What is out attitude to money?

Money is so tricky. You can get caught up in it, whether you have a little or whether you have a lot. I have seen those who have little thinking all the time on money. Every sentence in their house is of money. I have seen others who have lots of money who are just so greedy of money as well.

We need to examine our hearts before the Lord, does he have first place or is that which we own owning. Are we able to give it away some money?

Earn all you can, save you can, give away all you can. – John Wesley

Actually Jesus wants to be our Lord when we are earning it. It is a matter of heart attitude. Are we doing it in order to get rich or are we doing it in order to serve him? Are we doing it as those who are serving the Lord?

Is our heaven in wealth or is our wealth in heaven?

Christ demands our exclusive loyalty and all our material possessions

Live as though we are using the things of this world, without laying claim to it.

Counting the Cost (v.28–32)

Discipleship is not impulsive. Jesus calls us to think carefully, like a builder or a king preparing for battle.

We’re talking about a tower. It might have been a watchtower. In ancient days, enemies attacked by burning fields. So towers were often built in big estates from which the people could protect their land. A man is going to build a big tower and everybody in the community is going to know it. Nobody would do that if he was going to wind up with nothing but a foundation and everybody laughing at him.

That is a huge element of dishonor in the thinking of the ancient Near East. When you’re going to build a tower, he says in verse 28, you’re going to sit down and you’re going to calculate the cost to see if you have enough to complete it. You want to make sure that you can finish, that you can complete it.

V29-30 see the word finish.

So what’s Jesus saying? Don’t come to Me on some emotional level. Don’t come over some temporary matter. Come to me if you have the commitment to finish your life with me. Come to me only if you want to stay with me during your good times and bad times.

If you do not count the cost, the project will not be completed.

Public mocking underlines the failure to count the cost.

There is a cost for following Jesus.

Some people are persecuted for followed Jesus. But there is a cost for all of us as well.

“The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of …half-built towers, the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow Him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. This is the great scandal of Christendom, so-called nominal Christianity.” – John Stott

Dander of Half-Heartedness; v34-35

Useless and thrown out.

Jesus Calls for Exclusive Loyalty

We are to hate our own lives. The world says to love yourselves, love your body. No hate our own lives. Give Jesus more priority than your life, your job, your hobbies, etc.

The problem is we love ourselves too much. There is too much self, too much pride, too much readiness to justify ourselves, put ourselves in the best light. We want to lift ourselves but God wants us to humble ourselves and bring our lives in submission to his will. God wants us to pray like Jesus, “Not my will by thine.”

Take up your cross, carry it and follow Christ.

What is the cross? It is not something that comes to you by circumstance. It is something that you voluntarily take on yourselves like Jesus.

John 10:18

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus gave up his life, we must be willing to give up your life for Jesus. It is a cross of self-denial. It is a cross of our willingness in submission to the will of God to lay down our lives for one another. That is the cross to which Christ is calling us. One of self-denial and self-sacrifice as we lay our lives on the altar of service to serve one another.

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus, it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

What does Christ want from me? He wants you. He wants all of you. He wants your life. Jesus must be above all your relationships. Jesus has to be prioritized above your wealth and possessions. He wants you to come and be crucified with Christ and be able to say with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

“Everything in our life must be demoted, Christ must be promoted in our life.”

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

Evaluate Your Priorities

Surrender Daily

Hold Possessions Loosely

Live with Eternal Perspective

Be a Salt That Preserves