THE DANGER OF FOLLOWING THOUGHTLESSLY

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on April 14, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: April 14, 2021 from Luke 14:25-35

Theme: Jesus warned His potential followers that they must count the cost of following Him.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There’s a basic principle in life: Before you can become certain things, you must first be certain other things.

You cannot, for example, simply walk into the State Capital’s Senate chamber and take a seat, and begin to function as a senator. Before you can be a senator, you must first have become a candidate and be elected to that office. Nor can you just declare that you are a lawyer and defend a case in a court of law. Before you can serve as a lawyer, you must have been a law student who earned a law degree, and have passed the bar exam. Neither can a couple simply declare that they are married. Before they can be married in the eyes of the law and society, they must have obtained a legal marriage license and have been officially joined together by someone with the civil authority to do so.

It’s the same with being a disciple of Jesus. Someone cannot simply declare that they are a disciple of Jesus. Unless they have considered the cost, and have committed to love Him above all others, to forsake all that they have, and to take up their cross and follow Him, they cannot be His disciple. Jesus Himself said so.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem. It would be there that He would lay down His life for us and die on the cross for our sins. He met with a lot of opposition and controversy along the way; and we’ve been studying the stories of those encounters. As a result, an increasing number of people were associating themselves with Him. His popularity was growing. And in the midst of it all, Luke tells us—in Luke 14:25-35;

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “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. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 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—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Luke 14:25-35).

There were many people who were interested in following Jesus at that time. Luke told us that “great multitudes went with Him.” It wasn’t just one great multitude. It was ‘great multitudes’ in the plural. And as it is in the original language, they were in the process—even then—of following Him on an ongoing basis. It could have been considered a great popular movement. It could have been considered a success. But Jesus seemed to have discouraged people from going any further with Him in the thoughtless manner with which they were following. He turned to them and told them something that would have—no doubt—caused many would-be followers to turn away. He made the standard extraordinarily high—so high, in fact, that it demanded everything of anyone who would follow. And He made it clear that if they didn’t pay that high price, it wouldn’t simply be that they would find it difficult to be His followers. Rather, they absolutely couldn’t do it. Unless they became one thing first, they couldn’t be the other. Unless they became completely devoted to Him above all else, and took up the instrument of their own death to self, and followed Him to Calvary, they absolutely could not be His disciples.

And this teaches us that if we want to be His followers, we must first count the cost.

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Now; the message of this passage is extremely important and relevant. A failure to do as Jesus warns us to do is a main reason why so many people who start out in the Christian life end up failing along the way.

It may be that you have heard stories lately of professing Christians who are apostatizing. We are all too often surprised to hear of people who we thought were strongly devoted followers of Jesus suddenly and publicly renouncing their faith completely. There have even been some high-profile Christian writers or singers or teachers who shockingly announce on social media that they are no longer Christians. Some of them have explained that they could no longer reconcile their Christian beliefs with the values and priorities and practices and beliefs and lifestyles of family members and of the culture in which they live—that they have felt great pressure about it; and they have become weary of trying to do it—and so have chosen to simply go with the world’s values and cease being Christians.

It’s a very horrible thing when that happens. And of course, when we hear of such stories, we should pray for people who have thus denied the faith. But we can’t help but wonder how a thing like that can happen. And given what Jesus tells us in this passage, we can suspect that it was because when they first heard about Jesus or as they were raised in the faith, they didn’t heed His warning. They didn’t count the cost before they committed to Him. And when they found that Jesus demanded total devotion from them—and that they had to follow Him on a path that is utterly contrary to the flow of this world—and that they had to take up the cross and crucify ‘self’—they were caught by surprise by the hard choices they had to make, and became disillusioned, and they ended up turning away from Him completely.

This passage then is a call for us to keep our commitment to Jesus vital and real and fresh; and to consider carefully the cost. It is certainly a cost that is wonderfully worth paying. As the apostle Paul put it in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” But we must recognize that, until that time, there is a cost; and we must be prepared to pay it.

Otherwise, we may begin to follow … but end up in shame.

First, notice that …

1. JESUS DEMANDS TO BE OUR FIRST LOVE ABOVE ALL OTHER LOVES (v. 26).

In verse 26, Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “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.” He never refuses anyone away who sincerely wishes to follow Him. But He warns them that the commitment of love that He demands is higher than any other obligation on earth.

The relationships Jesus speaks of are the dearest human relationships we can think of. They would be the relationships that we would think people ought to be most committed to. But Jesus spoke in a very bold way and said that unless we ‘hate’ those in these relationships in comparison to Him, we cannot follow Him. He didn’t mean—of course—that we should disobey the command to honor father or mother; or that we should actually have malice toward members of our family. Rather, He using a figure of speech that was common among the Jewish people and that was found in some Old Testament passages. It was that we should love Jesus more than those other people; and that our devotion to Jesus should be so great that every other precious and dear relationship—though by no means literal ‘hate’—would seem like ‘hate’ by comparison.

A way to understand this is how we’re to respond whenever a dear and precious family member tells us, “You’ve got to forget about this Jesus you’re following. It’s either Him or me!” When that happens, we don’t cease to love our family member; but we choose to love Jesus more. Our love for Jesus must be first; and every other love must fall behind Him. We’re given some examples of this in Luke 9;

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62).

That’s a very high standard of devotion. But Jesus lets us know that that’s the standard for following Him … and that He will demand it of us along the way. He lets us know this in advance—before we start to follow Him.

Second, notice that …

2. JESUS DEMANDS THAT WE TAKE UP THE INSTRUMENT OF DEATH TO SELF (v. 27).

After placing Himself as first in our devotion above even the dearest of family members, He then places Himself above even our natural and normal devotion to our own lives. In verse 27, He said, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” He said this long before we ever came up with the phrase “my cross that I have to bear” as a way of describing our personal troubles and trials. Back in those days, whenever someone was made to take up a cross and carry it, it was because they were going to be actually, physically crucified on it. It was an instrument of execution. And so, Jesus is saying that if we would be His follower, we must be willing to completely die to self—figuratively, and perhaps even physically.

In Luke 9, Jesus told the twelve apostles;

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels (Luke 9:23-26).>

Following Jesus often means that our reputation in this world must be crucified. It sometimes means that our life of ease and comfort must be crucified. For many in this world, following Jesus means suffering torture and death. We have to be willing to bear the shame of this world if we follow Him in the way that He requires. He Himself took up His cross for us; and He demands that we take up our cross for Him. He wants us to know this clearly before we begin to follow Him.

Third, then, we notice that …

3. JESUS WARNS US TO COUNT THE COST BEFORE WE BEGIN TO FOLLOW (vv. 28-33).

Jesus gives two illustrations to show the necessity of counting the cost before we follow. First, He asks us to consider what it would be like to build a tower without first sitting down to add up the cost. A tower would be an impressive thing to build. It would be visible from all around. But it would also be an expensive undertaking. And if someone were to build it without adding up the figures first—and making sure they had enough to do it—then a half-built tower would be a monument to foolishness and a cause for mocking and ridicule—visible to everyone. Many people have set out to follow Jesus without counting the cost; and then, when they found it to be too hard, they became a very public cause of mocking from this world.

Or Jesus asks us to consider what it would be like to be a king who went to war with another king. Suppose you had 10,000 soldiers; but the other king had 20,000. It would be foolish to go marching off to war without first considering whether you with your 10,000 could successfully defeat him with his 20,000. More than foolish; it would be suicidal. A wise king would consider whether or not it could be done. And if he found it couldn’t be done, he’d send his ambassadors, instead of his soldiers, to broker terms of peace.

In verse 33, Jesus said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” He lays out the demands before us plainly and urges us to count the cost. Many have failed to do what Jesus has said—and have fooled themselves into thinking that they were Jesus’ followers when they really weren’t. They proved it when they fell away.

It’s vital then that, before we take up to follow Jesus, we first have considered the cost. Jesus urges us to do so. And finally, notice this important truth about counting the cost; that …

4. IT’S IN THIS WAY THAT OUR CHRISTIAN FAITH STAYS VITAL (vv. 34-35).

To count the cost, and to commit ourselves to complete devotion to Jesus, isn’t a once-for -all-time thing. It’s a commitment that we need to revisit and recommit ourselves to ongoingly.

The words that you find in verses 34-35 are sometimes set off in the Bible as if they are unrelated to Jesus’ words about the cost of following Him. But in the original language, they are connected by the Greek word that can be translated ‘therefore’. It would be as if Jesus said, “Therefore, salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.”

Salt—when it is salty—is useful. It prevents decay. It promotes healing. It adds zest. But it is only useful when it remains salty. If it loses its saltiness, then it isn’t good for anything at all. There would be no point whatsoever in wasting perfectly good salt in an attempt to ‘re-salt’ saltless salt. And Jesus has taught us that we—as His followers are the salt of the earth. In His Sermon on The Mount, He said;

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:13-16).

It’s only by our complete commitment and total devotion to Jesus that we remain useful to Him in this world. This is the only standard that He will accept for what it means to be His follower. And so, we need to continually recommit ourselves to devotion to Him.

* * * * * * * * * *

At the end of it all, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Now; it may be that you hear these words and realize that you had begun to follow Jesus without having counted the cost. You didn’t realize that He demands everything. But even if you have begun to follow in a thoughtless way, you can rededicate your all to Him now. You can begin to take up the cross as you should and follow Him as He desires.

One man who understood what it means to follow Jesus was the apostle Paul. He was a man who had—at one time—been totally devoted to ‘religious rules and regulations’; but not to Jesus. But he eventually repented and believed, and gave His all to the Savior who gave His all for him. Paul counted the cost—but viewed that cost in light of the eternal gains, and gladly paid it. And he gives us a great example to follow when, in Philippians 3, he wrote;

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).

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