Challenges of Jesus

Our study of the life of Christ tonight we are in Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter 14. Last week we saw the Lord Jesus in the home of a Pharisee and he was invited there for dinner. He was really invited, really to be set up and to be trapped if possible, which is not possible, but they tried anyway. They tried it so many times, seemed like they would have learned their lesson by now. But they tried again to trap Jesus and set him up with a man that Jesus did have compassion on and healed. It was a Sabbath day. And so Jesus ends up recognizing obviously what's happening and taking the initiative to expose the Pharisees pride and so on. He's pride and self-righteousness and legalism and all the excuses that they used to not be a part of the kingdom of God. And so that's what we saw last time. So remember that Jesus has just been in a dinner situation where he has taken control of the situation and exposed the sinfulness of the Pharisees and the religious leaders. Obviously that will not endear him to their heart. And we have seen that increasing opposition to our Lord and his ministry in recent weeks. In chapter 14, verse 25 tonight is where we begin. And what we're going to see tonight is some of the most demanding statements that Jesus makes. Some of the most demanding statements in all of the Bible. Some of the most penetrating, some of the most exacting words in all the Bible. To some degree, some of the most confusing, some of the most challenging words in all of the Bible. Jesus will issue in what we will see tonight. In chapter 14, verse 25, Jesus is challenging those who are following him to commitment. Verse 25 says, large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them, he said. Now Jesus has just left the house of a Pharisee for a meal. He is traveling throughout Javia and the Pariah and the southern part of the land. And there are large crowds that are traveling with him. He's drawing great crowds. But the Lord Jesus is not impressed with the size of the crowds. In fact, the Lord Jesus knows that most of these people are not the least bit interested in spiritual things. In really following him, in what discipleship really means. He knows that most of these people are not the least bit interested in that. There are a multitude of motives and reasons for people to be following Jesus. What are some of them? Can you suggest some reasons why people might be following Jesus at this time? Curiosity? Yes. Miracles? Right? See what happens next? Yes. There's a lot going on around the Lord Jesus and just that kind of fascination with what might happen next. Some people might want to hear the Pharisees get told off again. Some people might want to see a miracle. Some people might want to get fed. Some people might want to know what he's going to say next. Lots of reasons why people might be following him. And Jesus knows that most of them are surface reasons are not genuine. And so Jesus is going to issue some of the most demanding words in all of scripture about what it means to be a disciple. What it means to be a follower of Jesus. So this is a challenge to commitment. And Jesus is going to describe what commitment looks like. Three times he is going to say, unless you do this, you cannot be my disciple. Can you remember? He's speaking to a crowd that is following him and he's basically preaching them away. He's saying, you can't be my disciple. You can't be my disciple. You cannot be my disciple. Unless these things are true and what we're going to see is they're pretty startling statements. What commitment looks like to our Lord is first of all what it looks like in personal relationships, verse 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. Wow. I mean, that is really heavy right off the bat. He turns around and looks at this huge crowd and says, if you don't hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, I would hate your family and your own wife too. You can't be my disciple. Does Jesus really mean that? Does he really mean you have to hate your family? What is he talking about here? One of absolute commitment. Put him above everybody else. Is Jesus talking about literally having feelings of hatred for your family? That doesn't sound like Jesus does it. In degrees. In comparison then, your love and commitment to Christ in comparison that your family ought to look like this. We will come back to that in a moment. I think you are right. A number of you were responding and shaking your heads that no Jesus cannot literally mean to have feelings of hatred for your family. Why is that? Why would Jesus not mean that? That is the opposite. The other thing he says. The 10 commandments say to honor your father and mother. That doesn't sound like hating them. There are many passages in the scriptures that talk about loving your children, loving your family, disciplining, and so forth. There are other verses that say if you do not provide for those of your own household, first of the five eight, if you do not provide for your own, especially those of your own household, you are worse than an infidel, as the old King James word, worse than someone who has denied the faith. There is a balance here that we must take into account which would lead us to believe, and I think correctly, that Jesus is not saying that we must have feelings of hatred, that we must despise our families. Really, Jesus is using love and hate as Jews often did in that day. You are familiar with the word idiom, not idiot, but idiom. An idiom is a manner of speaking that is unique to a particular culture. It is something that is understood by that culture, but may not be understood in another area of the country or another part of the world, or another time in history. That is what we are dealing with here. A Jewish idiom, a manner of speaking that sounds foreign to us, but would have been very recognizable for the people of that day. It kind of ties in with what Brother Al said, when the Bible uses love and hate in these kind of relationships, it is not talking about emotional feelings, but it is talking about an act of the will. It is talking about your choice, and so it is talking about a system of priorities and your choices, your commitment. For instance, you remember the Bible says in Malachi chapter 1, it is repeated in Romans 9, where God himself says in regard to Esau and Jacob, Jacob, have I loved? Esau, have I hated? It is clear in both passages, especially in Romans 9, that what he is talking about is not emotional attachment or rejection, but he is talking about choice. He chose Jacob to be the son through whom the promises of Abraham would go, and he rejected Esau. There were reasons for that, but the love hate thing there is a Jewish idiom for making a choice of one over another. So, take that Jewish way of thinking into this passage, and I think you have got the idea. It is still very demanding. It is still as taxing. It has to do with our choices in life, that we are to choose Christ above every other love, that He deserves the ultimate commitment. The way Jesus said it in another gospel in Matthew 10, verse 37, may help us to grasp this, verses on the screen for you. 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. Obviously, Jesus is not saying you have to reject your family, but He is saying when it comes down to a choice, your first loyalty is to me. If you can't do that, you are not my disciple. You are not my follower. That is still pretty demanding. That is still pretty taxing. That is still kind of in your face. But Jesus is saying your ultimate priority, devotion must be to me. You can't be half-hearted about this, follow me stuff. You can't be half-hearted about what it means to be a disciple. And most of the people in the crowd probably were. They had a lot of other motives for coming, but not because of an all-out allegiance to Jesus Christ. And so what Jesus is saying is the kind of people I am looking for as followers are people who have an all-out commitment to me and no other commitment even comes close. We still have a commitment to our families. Yes. We still love our families. Yes. Provide for our families. Yes. We have had them as a high priority in our lives, but our ultimate commitment is to the Lord Jesus Christ. And even my own self, my own life and plans and desires and all that have to come second to Him. So it is an ultimate commitment, a choice, commitment to have Him first. That is what commitment looks like in personal relationships. And so when there comes a conflict between what God says to do and what maybe family says to do, the commitment to Christ has to come first. That is what Jesus is teaching. Any questions about that? Comments about that? Yes. Did everybody hear the question? It is, he understands the primary commitment to Christ, but in doing that, can that take away from your commitment to your family? And that is not an easy question to answer because let me say this. First of all, if you are wholly committed to Christ, then you will also be committed in the right way to your family. That is a part of being committed to Christ because if you are committed to Christ, you are committed to His Word and the Word has a lot to say about loving your wife and loving your children and focusing on your family and that kind of thing. So if you are really following Christ like you should, then you will be committed to your family as well. I think where the matter of choice comes in is if the two collide, head on. I think that is one of the problems that we should have. That is part of what he has talked about when we set up a ring of sword. There are times, for instance, when you want to follow Christ as Savior and your family members think you are absolutely crazy for doing that. And if you do that, we have this on you. What choice do you make? You are going to follow Christ or are you going to be accepted by your family? When the two collide, the ultimate priority has to be Christ. Let us say a young person is committed and believes with all of his heart or her heart that God is calling them moving in their hearts to serve the Lord in some way. Go to the mission field, to go into ministry in some way and the parents are against that. Okay, now there is a real delicate situation here. As long as the child is under the authority of the parents, then there is a primary commitment there. But when that child becomes responsible, adult and able to make their own decisions, then they have to choose to follow the will of God. There are some delicate situations there, a lot of exceptions and all. I think that is the idea. When the two collide, primary commitment has to be to Christ. Certainly, that general principle is not going to answer every situation, but comments or questions there. Okay, so understanding the priority of Christ in our lives and what he has given us will put family in the proper perspective anyway. Yes. John? Yes. Yeah. Right. And that is true. Sometimes John has raised a situation where a missionary may come home from the field in order to tend to aging parents. And that certainly is, I think within the framework of God's will, can be. Every person has to decide those things for themselves. You remember Jesus dealt with the situation in Matthew 15 with the Pharisees who were using the fact that this money was dedicated to God as an excuse for not caring for their elderly parents. And Jesus said, well, there's a biblical responsibility care for your parents too. So all these things have to be weighed out. And it's not a simple clear cut thing like, okay, you know, I'm never going to do anything for my family if it goes against something I think I want to do for God. It's not that simple, but the general principle is when the two collide head on God takes priority. Okay. That can be abused. Certainly that can be abused. And I don't want to give any room for that. I think I've said before here that the whole issue of priorities in our lives is a difficult one. And some people teach that, okay, it's clear cut God, family, work, you know, one, two, three, always in that order. I had a seminary professor one time that said something I've never forgotten. And he said that Charles Ashman never forgetting a great guy. He said, I don't see priorities that way. I see them as slices of a pie and you cut the pie a little differently every day depending on what God puts on your plate. And there are days when work has to come first, you know, there are days when something has to be done that requires extra hours. And you have to do that. Now there's no way out of it. And so you don't cut the pieces of the pie the same way every day. There are times when family must supersede work or ministry or whatever. You know, if he doesn't want God to put on your plate every day. So these are difficult issues. But the principle, the general principle is if you're going to be a follower of Christ, he is the ultimate priority. He comes first and your commitment to him takes priority over everything else. Now again, I will say if you're properly committed to Christ, then the other commitments will find their proper place. They're not going to be neglected. They will not be neglected. Because we honor God when we do our work well, we honor God when we love our families. So those things will all come into place. It's just if if your family or your work becomes an idol that is consistently before God, you're not really following him. You're not really a disciple. Okay. Any remaining concerns, questions there? Good. Let's move on. That's a tough one. But Jesus meant it to be tough. Remember, he's addressing people who are not following him wholeheartedly. Who are following him for the wrong reasons. And so he's going to make it tough. The second description of commitment, commitment looks like this in personal goals and desires or decisions, personal goals and desires. Verse 27. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. What does Jesus mean by carrying our cross, taking of our cross and following him? What does that mean to take up your cross or to carry your cross? Is this possible for your own actions? Okay. That can be included. Total submission. Okay. Let's put those together. Total submission to Christ, even if it means death. Okay. That's I think a lot of what he's saying here. Again, there is the use of something that a statement, an imagery that his listeners would be fully aware of that we are not as aware of today. When we think of taking up your cross in our idiom, in a lot of people's minds at least, my cross is some hardship I have to bear in life. You've heard it that way, haven't you? Well, this is just my cross in life. This is, you know, I have an ingrown toenail. This is my cross in life. I have to carry that burden with me. That is not what Jesus is talking about. He's not talking about some inconvenience in life. In Jesus' day, a cross was a very familiar site. The Romans put hundreds and thousands of people to death with the most cruel form of torture known to man in that day. And that was the cross. Every cross was a sign of Roman power and authority and was designed to send a message to anybody who would rebel against the Romans. A cross was an instrument of torture and death, ultimately an instrument of death. And so when Jesus talks about taking up your cross, he's literally talking about being willing to sacrifice even to the point of death, if need be. That's what he's talking about. So it is a total submission, even to the point of death. Now, let's carry that a little bit further. Could he be talking about more than just physical death? Are there other kinds of things that need to die or other things, other ways in which we need to die besides just saying, well, I would be willing to follow Jesus even if somebody kills me. What are some other ways that maybe death might be thought of? We die spiritually when we come to Christ as our Savior. We die spiritually to ourselves, the old man dies and we are made new in Christ. Anything that would block our commitment to him dying to that, okay? Our own agenda? Yeah. Okay. Now we're on a roll. Let's think about this. My own agenda, anything that may stand between me and God, my own selfish desires, my own plans, my own ambitions, me, in other words, me. Me being in control of my life, that has to be put to death to be a follower of Jesus. And that's, I think, part of what he's talking about, taking up your cross is not just be willing to die for me physically, but be willing to understand that there are things that have to be put to death. Any ambition, selfish desire, any thought that is contrary to Christ and to his will and purpose for my life, I have to be willing to let that die so that his will, his ambition, his purpose can be accomplished in my life. Now, please don't misunderstand that and take that to extremes like, okay, the only people who have ever really died to self or people who are on the mission field or people who are in ministry, there are a lot of people on the mission field in ministry who have not died to themselves. They're still very selfish. So it's not, it's not giving up stuff necessarily. You can, you can die to your own ambition and plans and be the most successful Wall Street banker that this country knows and honor God with that profession. I think you can honor God with that profession. You can, obviously, with any profession. And so it's not a matter of, okay, I have the ability and the opportunity and God's led me to do this with my life, but I've got to, I've got to die to that. I can't do what I want to do. It's not that, okay, don't take it to that extreme. But it is dying to any selfish desires that are the opposite of the desires of God. Okay, delight yourself in him. The Psalmist says in Psalm 37, forward, delight yourself in him and he will give you the desires of your heart. If you focus upon him and delight in him and you're delight and joy and pleasure in life is him, his way, his will, his word, his work, all of that. If that's the delight and joy of your heart, then he will place in your heart whatever desires he wants you to have and then he will fulfill those desires. That's what it means. Twofold meaning of, he will give you the desires of your heart. And so God puts into the desire, into some people's hearts, the desire to serve him in professions other than ministry. But they use those professions to glorify God. And that is entirely within the framework of dying to self, okay? I don't think it's worth all of that. I think it's a constant battle. He said that just as he was leading into Romans 8, Romans 7.25, oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? He says. It is that self pushing against what God wants me to do. He talks about that in Romans 7. I have the light in the inner man to do the will of God, but there is another law warring in my members, he says, which is pulling me away from the law of God. And that constant battle is there for all of us. And it is the willingness to say, Lord, I want what you want, not what I want. I delight in your way, in your will, in your work, in your word. I delight in you. And then I'm going to trust you to place within my heart whatever desires you want for me and then you'll fulfill those desires. But I want it to be under your hand and under your blessing. That I think is what Jesus is talking about, taking up your cross. Okay, and I want to draw that balance because there have been those who have taken these kinds of statements and really gone to wild extremes with them of a set of sys and denying every enjoyment and pleasure of life. You know, gone out and lived in a cave somewhere and mutilated themselves and beat themselves and all of that, thinking that that's what Jesus meant. That's not what he means. It's not what he means. It has more to do with the trajectory of your life, what you're aiming for. Who you're seeking to please. Okay, that's what it looks like in personal goals and desires, but just skip down to verse 33. This is the third time you said you can't be my disciple unless this is true. And this is what commitment looks like in personal possessions. We've already touched on this a little bit. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Okay, that's pretty extreme. Isn't it give up everything you have? Does that mean wealthy people cannot be Jesus disciples? Does it mean that? I don't know. So if you take that, give up all your possessions, then none of us in this room is a disciple. Okay. What is this? What is Jesus saying here? What is again the manner of speech, the idiom? What is the spirit of what Jesus is saying? Get a priority straight. Okay. Okay. Give it back to the Lord. Okay. Let's follow that. Surrender everything. Okay. Self. And I think in this verse, even our things, even what we have, our possessions, give up everything you have. Does giving up everything you have mean you have to get rid of it, not vest yourself of it? Hope not. You've got to have a few clothes and you know something to, you know, house full of it in and you know, doesn't mean you actually get rid of everything. What does giving up everything mean? What is Jesus talking about? Okay. Not yours to start with. Okay. All right. Several of you have hit on this, this idea. And I think that's right on target that we realize the biblical principle of stewardship. First of all, nothing we have belongs to us. It all belongs to God anyway. He just gives it to us to use as a wise steward as a King James word. Manager is a newer word that is sometimes used. Nothing I have or you have really belongs to us. How much of it are we going to take out of this life with us? None of it. None. It doesn't really belong to us. God gives us loans to us. Everything we have. And you can fill in the blank. Whatever that may be. He loans that to us to manage wisely for his glory. So like Sarah said, the real house first of all, none of it is ours. And then it is all to be used for his glory. Managed well for his glory. But in the case of some people, it may mean like Abraham that God gives you great riches. But Abraham used them for the glory of God, didn't he? It may mean that God gives you a position of great power and influence like others have in the Bible. David, Solomon, whatever. But it means that you use that for his glory. Again, this is not talking about divesting yourself of everything you have. It does mean that you realize it's not yours. You give it up to him. So if belongs to him, he can do whatever he wants to with it. If he wants to take away those possessions, that's his prerogative. If he wants to multiply them, that's his prerogative. But they're his. They're not mine. They're his. That I think comes closest to what Jesus is talking about, at least in a good biblical balance here, to balance other things that the scriptures teach. So really, again, it's an attitude to the heart and mind and spirit. And I certainly don't mean to water down the commitment by that. I think it's very rare to find people who really live that way. The question is, do I own my stuff? And if I do, then really it owns me. Do I own my stuff or does God own it? And if God owns it, he can make any adjustments in my lifestyle that he wants. That's up to him. I think that's the issue. Are we good? Are we clear on what it means? What commitment looks like in life and personal relationships, personal goals and desires, personal possessions? Those are three touch points that Jesus says, I'm going to test you on whether or not you're really following me. Those are good to keep in front of us. Why this commitment is so needed? Look at why Jesus says this kind of commitment is so needed. First of all, to get the job done, God is busy doing something in this world. God is it working this world? And in order for us to be a part of doing his work and working him working through us, we've got to have this kind of commitment. If we don't have this kind of commitment, then the job's not going to get done of reaching the world for Christ and building it. And building up his church. Notice how Jesus speaks of this first 28th. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. You're first to sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. Or if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you saying this person began to build wasn't able to finish. Let's take a look at a picture of a tower. This is a tower in Israel. This tower is made of stone. It is built piece by piece. That's the way towers in the ancient world were built. They weren't built with steel girders and beams and that kind of thing. They were built stone by stone. And so it was a long, laborious process. And so you had to make sure you could finish the thing that you wouldn't get halfway through and not be able to finish it. That's true of any building project. I guess, but a tower in that day would certainly. It would bring through. So make sure that you've got what it takes to finish it. Verse 31, or suppose the king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider. Whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000. If he is not able, he'll send a delegation while the others are still long way off and will ask for terms of peace. So the second illustration is one of a king going to war. You've got to make sure that you can finish the battle, especially if you have less troops than the person you're facing. So the illustration here is in order to get the job done, whether it's building a tower or winning a battle, you've got to count the cost. You've got to think, you've got to plan, how do I finish the job? What is it going to take to get this done? It's going to take some commitment to do that. We're going to get the job done. It takes this kind of commitment. Now, the usual interpretation of this passage is Jesus is saying, if you're going to be my disciple, then you've got to count the cost. You've got to figure out, do I really want to do this before you take the jump and do it? I would suggest to you that is not what Jesus is talking about, not at all. Who is it who's counting the cost of whether or not he can build a tower? Who is it that counts that cost? Is it the contractor or is it the guy who lays in the stones? Is it the owner or the guy who lays in the stone? Think about it. Who is counting the cost of whether or not this project can be finished? The owner, exactly. It's the owner who is counting the cost. He's got, he's going to stop paying bills. The guy's out there laying the boxes doing waste hope. He's just working his job. He doesn't care how much it costs. He's just doing his job. That's what he's supposed to be doing. But the owner, he's the guy who's counting the cost. So who's counting the cost here? The believer or the Lord? It's the Lord, isn't it? Okay. Who's counting the cost in the battle? Is it the king or is it the foot soldier? It's the king. I mean he says a king. Suppose a king is about to go to war. He's going to sit down and make his battle plans and make sure he's got enough troops to finish this thing and the right strategy to win this battle. It's the one who's in charge of the army that's making those decisions, not the foot soldier. So Jesus is not talking about us counting the cost and deciding whether or not it's worth it. We're deciding whether or not I'm willing to pay that to be Jesus disciple. No, he's saying it's the Lord who's counting the cost. He knows what it takes to get the power bill. He knows what it's going to take to defeat the enemy. He knows what it's going to take to build his church. And he knows what kind of people he needs to get the job done. He's counting the cost. He's planning the strategy and he's looking for workers that will say, yes, I will make this kind of commitment to be a follower of yours. And Jesus is saying, okay, I can take 10,000 of you and I can defeat 20,000 Satan's forces. You see, Jesus is the one counting the cost, but he's issuing the challenge. These are the kind of people I'm going to use. Don't even sign up. Don't don't even try to be a recruit if you're not of this kind of commitment that in your personal possessions and desires and relationships. You can say, I'm sold out to Jesus Christ because that's who I want in my army. That's who I want building my tower. I've counted the cost. I know what I need to finish the job. And those are the people I'm going to use. So Jesus is the one counting the cost. So in order to get the job done, he's calling for us to be that kind of commitment to enlist in his army. He's the king to help build his tower. He's the owner. And he's counting the cost. He knows what it takes. And he's saying, this is what it takes. Are you going to sign up? Are you going to be a part of my workforce? I'm going to be in my army. Okay, so if we get the job done, we've got to have that kind of commitment. Secondly, to make an impact in our world, we have to have that kind of commitment. Look at verses 34 and 35. He changes the figures of speech here. Salt is good. But if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit, either for the soil, nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out whoever has ears to hear, left them here. And that's a statement that Jesus uses sometimes to me. Now, think about this. Just think about this and make sure you understand what's being said. Let him that has ears to hear. Here. It's okay. Listen, listen carefully to this. The idea here is in order to make an impact in our world, salt. Salt is something which is useful. But in the first century, it could easily lose its potency. We're going to show you a picture of natural salt in Bible times. This is at the Dead Sea. And Dead Sea is well known for salt deposits. It has high mineral content. Very salty. And there are salt factories around the south end of the Dead Sea. I've swam in the Dead Sea before. Is it swam? Is that fast? Is that right? I swam. I swam. I swam. I did something. I laid on my back in the Dead Sea. And you don't get in the Dead Sea if you have a scratch. If you have any scratch or cut, you just don't... It's like pouring salt right into the wound. High salt content. But this salt is very unstable. And that's the reason why it needs to be processed in order for it to be useful. Natural salt like these salt deposits can break down very easily. And obviously, again, Jesus' audience knows exactly what he's talking about. He's talking about the kind of salt that was natural to their area, but which did not have much potency to it. It could easily become useless and lose its saltiness. And what Jesus is saying is unless you have this kind of commitment, you're not going to have any effect in my work. You're not going to be effective. You're not going to be useful. You're not going to be a good preservative. You're not going to be a good flavor giver to others. You're not going to make anybody thirsty, you know, like good salt. You're not going to make any unbeliever thirsty for the faith. You're not going to be a flavorful spice to believers to help build them up. You're not going to be a preservative in your culture to restrain the spread of evil. Unless you have this kind of commitment, then you are not going to be effective. To make an impact in our world, we've got to have this kind of commitment that Jesus is calling for. Okay, that's what he's saying here. Whoever has years to hear, live in here, live in here. So listen carefully what is what Jesus is saying. All right, that's the challenge to commitment and our time is up. Any question before we go, comment before we go. Okay, let's pray. Father, help us to listen carefully to what you're saying so that we don't misread it, misunderstand it. That we don't go to extremes that you never intended, but we also don't water down the kind of commitment that you're calling for. Pray, Father, that we would recognize that you are a builder building your church and you know what kind of laborers you need. You're a king commanding an army against the forces of Satan and you know what kind of soldiers you need. Help us to be the kind that have the kind of commitment, Lord, that we'll be good builders for you and good soldiers for you. Lord, we want to be used of you and we pray that we will have the kind of commitment that we would enable you to use us to do so. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.