Home › Group Notes › Luke 14:25-35 – The True Cost of Following Jesus (Apr 2nd) Again, he was put to shame because he commenced without counting the cost. What challenging teaching did Jesus give (26)? To be a child of Abraham was to be a cut above all others—at least a cut, but probably more. Happy New Year: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives, How can a person who claims to be a Christian but who is not fully committed know if he’s. Whether Jesus is referring to a false believer being judged or to a true believer being taken out of this life because of his sin is ambiguous. The political model finds its power at the polls, and thus numbers are the major consideration. Satan loves it when a Christian’s testimony is ruined because he did not consider the demands of following Christ in this evil world. What is it that family is believed to provide, about which Jesus warns? 37:4). Doesn’t the Bible say that we are to love our families? An Israelite of Jesus’ day did not measure his future security in terms of his insurance policies, or his Social Security, or even his bank account; he measured it in terms of his family (cf. These people were, as yet, only followers, on-lookers. The whole concept of the “company of the committed” collapses, simply because no one is that capable or that committed. THE CONTEXT. Luke 14:25-33 What Is the Cost? Luke 22:31-34). (1) The Jewish family provided status. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the structure of the passage. But Jesus was not a false recruiter. To believe in Jesus Christ as Savior necessarily entails following Him as Lord. Our Saviour explains this by two similitudes; the former showing that we must consider the expenses of our religion; the latter, that we must consider the perils of it. I can envision Jesus walking along the way from one town to another, encircled by His closest followers, and then, trailing along for a great distance, an animist endless stream of curious people. So He turned to the great multitude and laid out these demands of discipleship. . How can something be both free and costly at the same time?”. We saw in Luke 13 that there will be many who desire to enter, but few will enter through the narrow door. (15-24) The necessity of consideration and self-denial. God hated Esau in the sense that He loved Jacob more. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. But if we aren’t involved in the process of carrying our own cross in death to self, we are not on the path of the disciple of Jesus Christ. 1. Discipleship, like salvation, begins by recognizing the high price required, and that we are unable to meet it, and thus coming to Christ empty-handed, looking to Him to do what we cannot. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. I cannot find any basis for such teaching in the New Testament, and I can find many Scriptures to refute such teaching. The kind of person you like the first time you meet. How can we hate our family when we are told to love everyone? “But I thought you said it was very expensive.” “I did.” “Well, how much?” “Everything you have,” says the seller. At first, I thought that Jesus was, like the Marines, “looking for a few good men,” those few who would count the cost, and who found in themselves sufficient commitment and resources to follow-through in their commitment to the end. When the “going got tough,” so to speak, the disciples “got lost.” They all forsook Jesus, even Peter, who assured Jesus that he was committed, that he would never forsake Him (cf. The choir or band is playing a song of invitation. The lesson could be enhanced by inviting a child or an adult who has achieved a degree of excellence in pursuit of a goal, to share what was required of them in training, practice time and preparation. Luke 14:25-35 - NIV: Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he 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. Both the willing and the doing come from Him, and not from us. He spake a parable— The ensuing discourse is so termed, because several parts are not to be understood literally. What do the words “If anyone comes to me” imply? You receive it freely at no expense to you, but once you receive it, you have just committed everything you are and have to Jesus Christ. We see God’s compassion on Esau and on his descendants. We would rightly call such a man a cult leader, unless He were God in human flesh! In Paul’s words, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed” (Titus 1:16). Yes, I own a home.” The seller writes down, “house.” “It’s mine.”, “Where do you expect me to sleep—in my camper?” “Oh, you have a camper, do you? What man could tell people to give up all their possessions for His sake? If there is any one term that is crucial to our understanding of Jesus’ words here it is the term “hate.” What does Jesus mean when He says that one cannot be His disciple without hating? This time, I suspect, grasped what he said because Israel had no king his/Jesus’! 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