Jeffrey Nemenzo December 17, 2016

Discipleship
Luke 14:25-35

Introduction:
Luke had just recorded Jesus' teaching about God's gracious invitation to enjoy the Messianic banquet in the
kingdom. It was free for all who would respond. Jesus taught elsewhere that responding meant believing on
Him. Now Luke recorded Jesus' teaching that though salvation was free, discipleship was costly. This is
important balancing revelation. Salvation guarantees heaven, but it also calls for complete commitment to
Jesus, not to secure heaven but to express gratitude for heaven.
In our passage, Jesus laid out the tests and requirements of discipleship. Jesus saw a large crowd gathering.
He knew that these people believed and accepted His message in principle. Prior to this point, Jesus had
shown how the message of the gospel was for everyone. He had exposed the Pharisees as the religious
hypocrites that they were. As a result, He had become enormously popular. Now He wanted to weed out
those who were following Him for the wrong reasons.

I. Love God more than Other else.

Curiosity is one thing, but discipleship is another. There were many people who were accompanying Jesus
who were not really following Him in the sense of learning from Him. They simply wanted to benefit from His
ministry.
"Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, 'So and so tells me that
he was one of your students.' The teacher answered devastatingly, 'He may have attended my lectures,
but he was not one of my students.' There is a world of difference between attending lectures and
being a student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many
distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples." (Barclay)
Jesus mentioned the qualification for being His disciple. First, one must be willing to give up his or her
primary allegiance to family and self. Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies rather than hating them
(6:27-38). He was not contravening the teaching of the fifth commandment either (18:20). He spoke positively
about loving oneself too (10:27). He clearly meant "hate" in a relative, rather than an absolute sense, here.
Compare Genesis 29:31, where "unloved" is literally "hated," in the Hebrew text.
31 When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel
remained childless. (Gen 29:31 NIV)
The language of hate is typical Semitic hyperbole (Prov. 13:24; 2 Sam 19:6; cf. Gen 29:30-33 . . .; Mal 1:2-3;
Deut. 21:15-17)
 in this context, 'hate' is not primarily an affective quality but a disavowal of primary allegiance to one's
kin. . . . Again, then, 'hating' one's self should not be taken as a reference to an affective self-
abhorrence, but as a call to set aside the relationships, the extended family of origin and inner circle of
friends, by which one has previously made up one's identity. (Green)
If ever there comes a time when the call of the highest earthly love and the cross of Christ are in conflict, the
call of Christ must prevail. According to Jesus, a disciple is someone who loves God more than anyone else—
even family and friends.

II. Self-Denial and Taking-up own Cross

"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:27).
Discipleship would require self-denial in the most fundamental areas of individuality. What Jesus said
applies to anyone who really wants to follow Him. The Jews had renounced Jesus, but His disciples must
renounce themselves (cf. Rom 14:7-9; 15:2-3). The Romans customarily compelled someone condemned to
crucifixion to carry at least part of his own cross. This act gave public testimony to his being under and
submissive to the rule he had opposed. This was both a punishment and a humiliation. Likewise, Jesus'
disciples must publicly declare their submission to the One whom they formerly rebelled against.
Death to self is not so much a prerequisite of discipleship to Jesus as a continuing characteristic of it.
(Carson)
To deny oneself means in every moment of life to say no to self, and to say yes to God.(Barclay)
A disciple must bear the burden of public identification with Jesus, even to death if necessary (9:23; cf.
Deut. 13:4; 1 Kings 14:8; 18:21; 2 Kings 23:3). Luke recorded this command in more detail than Matthew did,
perhaps because of his Gentile readers' greater need for challenge and encouragement in view of persecution
(cf. Matt. 10:37-38).
Salvation is open to all who will come by faith, while discipleship is for believers willing to pay a price.
Salvation means coming to the cross and trusting Jesus Christ, while discipleship means carrying the
cross and following Jesus. (Wiersbe)
Crucifixion was common enough in Palestine since the days of Antiochus Epiphanes and Alexander
Jannaeus. (Robertson)
Discipleship means giving one's first loyalty. (Morris)

III. Count the Cost

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he
has enough to finish it" (Luke 14:28).
Jesus then told another parable. His point was that those in the crowd, who were considering becoming
disciples of His, should "calculate (count; consider) the cost" before they embarked on a life of discipleship.
The simple fact is that the New Testament never takes for granted that believers will see discipleship
through to the end. And it never makes this kind of perseverance either a condition or a proof of final
salvation from hell.
 "It . . . is simply a theological illusion to maintain that a Christian who has embarked on the pathway of
discipleship could never abandon it. In the spiritual realm, this notion is as naive as an earthly father
who declares, 'My son would never drop out of school!'” (Zane C. Hodges)
A person who begins following Jesus, and then stops following Him, only makes a fool of himself. The Greek
word purgos can mean either tower or farm building. Probably many of Jesus' hearers were farmers.
This second parable makes essentially the same point as the previous one. However, the cost of failure in this
one is not just embarrassment, but personal destruction. It is very important to assess the strength of one's
enemy correctly. Jesus was not encouraging people to stop following Him because they feared they could
not withstand temptations. He wanted them to follow Him, but intelligently, not naively. There were
probably no kings in Jesus' audience, but the people could easily put themselves in the place of a "king."
Discipleship to Jesus Christ is not an invitation to a Sunday school picnic. It is an invitation to spiritual
warfare. (Hodges)
Jesus now applied the parables (cf. vv. 26-27). Obviously the Twelve had not literally given away everything
they owned, but they had adopted a lifestyle conducive to fulfilling their mission, which involved relatively few
possessions. Therefore, we should probably understand Jesus' command as requiring a willingness to part with
"possessions," as necessary, to follow Jesus faithfully (cf. 12:33). Elsewhere Jesus taught His disciples to
manage the possessions—that they did have—wisely (16:1-12).
A person should not begin a venture without the assurance of sufficient resources to finish it. Similarly, one
should not begin following Jesus, without being willing to sacrifice anything—possibly everything— to
complete that project successfully.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, Jesus compared a disciple to "salt." Salt was important in the ancient East because it flavored
food, retarded decay, and in small doses fertilized land. It was also used as a catalyst for burning fuel such as
cattle dung. Some of these uses are in view in this passage, but its use as a flavoring agent seems to be
primary. Most salt in the ancient world came from salt marshes, or the like, rather than from the evaporation
of salt-water—so it contained many impurities. The sodium was more soluble than many of the impurities. It
could leach out, leaving a substance so dilute that it was of little worth.
Just as a disciple can cease to follow Jesus, so salt can lose its saltiness. In that case both things become
useless. What distinguishes a disciple of Jesus from a non-disciple, what makes him or her "salty," is his or
her allegiance to Jesus (cf. Matt. 5:13; Mark 9:50). Farmers added salt to animal dung to slow down the
fermentation process, so that they could preserve it as fertilizer until they needed to use it. The disciple who
does not continue following Jesus faithfully falls under divine judgment—not that he will lose his salvation, but
part of his reward: specifically, the opportunity for further significant service.