The cost of discipleship

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 23 MARCH 2025 pm - MR KEITH WILSON

LUKE 14 VERSES 26 TO 35

Some say there is no comfortable way to carry a cross. The biblical reality is that we are people who say yes to follow Christ. They are agreeing to carry a cross and that will be painful at times. If you are saved tonight can you testify that the cross you are are called to carry is painful at times? When I became a Christian my problems didn't cease but just began. I discovered that I had an enemy. I had a cross and it was painful. 

The words "you cannot be my disciple" occur 3 times in this passage - verses 26, 27 and 33. These are sobering words. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never made it easy to become a disciple. Jesus certainly was not interested in drawing a crowd, he was more interested in making disciples. That is why he says "if you don't do these things you cannot be a disciple of mine." There is denial. There is a cross and there is a cost. There is nothing we can do to contribute to salvation. 

In verse 26 we learn that if someone wants to be a disciple it will cost him his family and all his life. In verse 27 it will cost us our desires. In verse 33 it will cost us our passions.

Modern society throws it at us that it is all about you attaining as much as you can, get your own self confidence, self progress. It is all about having the best family, the best children, having the most beautiful wife or handsome husband. Paul knew all about denial. He said "it is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me." True discipleship is about denying ourselves. All our desires. All our passions. It is about coming to Christ and being born again of the Spirit of God. It is about God coming into our lives. 

For some they don't understand what verse 26 is saying. Is Jesus telling us we have to hate our father, our mother, our wife, our children, our brothers, our sisters even our own life? I believe the Lord is not telling us to hate them. What he is speaking of is our loyalty. Whenever we become disciples we must think about our loyal to Christ. No-one is to take the place of Christ. Jesus must be Lord. He must be pre-eminent in a person's life. He must be over everything, be in complete control. He must direct you, protect you. Denial has to do with our personal relationship. Where do our loyalties lie? We cannot allow anyone, no matter how much we love them to take the place of Jesus Christ in our lives. We are to be influenced by Christ. No person can be allowed to compete for our loyalty. Samson was told not to marry a Philistine woman because she would take him away from the Lord. Eventually a woman did take his loyalty away. The spiritual life of a Christian is determined by our loyalty. We cannot ignore what God says at the expense of another person. The Lord Jesus speaks to us through his word - Hebrews 1 verse 1. We cannot ignore what God says. There is a cost to following the Lord Jesus. He tells us "if you want to be my disciple I have to have your loyalty." These are Jesus' own words. The gospel tells us that Jesus has done it all on the cross but there is a cross for us too. We cannot live in sin and be a disciple of Jesus. It will cost us to give up our own life. That is why Paul said "it is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me." The disciples had to give up all their personal goals and devote themselves to him and his goal. Think of the apostle Paul - he was shipwrecked, beaten, many false accusations were made against him. 3 times he sought the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh and the Lord didn't take it away. The Lord told him "my grace is sufficient for thee". 

It will not only cost you your family and your life but in verse 27 it will cost you your desires. There is a cross to bear. God does not want partnership with us but rather ownership of us. He doesn't want me to walk alongside him but he wants to control my walk so that I walk in his ways and his will. Are we suffering for his name's sake? If we deny ourselves and take up our cross it will hurt. If Christ wants to break us let him break us so that he can be praised and glorified. Denial and a cost. That is the Christian life. Carrying a cross speaks of death. The cross of Christ was necessary to save a world lost in sin. The cross is necessary for us to be a disciple of Christ. The apostle Paul counted the cost. He denied himself. He took up the cross. "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." (Galatians 6 verse 17) There is no other way for someone to be saved apart from the cross. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Peter 2 verse 24) Christ did not appeal to the intellect in convincing men or women. It took the cross to bear away the sin of the world. He bore it on his body on the tree. If we want to live for God we have to come through the way of the cross. The cross is essential if people are to be saved. The cross cannot be defeated because it defeated sin. Leonard Ravenhill said "the preaching that sinners might have a vision of hell might be entirely wrong, on the contrary he probably needs a vision of Calvary, of the suffering Saviour pleading with him to repent." We live in a world were people are not afraid of hell. They don't believe in hell. The biggest problem of the world tonight is sin. If we were to get a fresh vision of Calvary, what it cost God's Son to go there, we could really tell people to repent and come and put their faith and trust in Christ. We need the spirit of conviction across our land. How Christ died on Calvary. How he walked up Golgotha hill carrying his cross. How the crown of thorns was placed on his brow. How when he was thirsty was given a drink of vinegar. How we need a fresh vision of our sin. A fresh vision of the cross. The only way a man or woman can be saved is through Christ and the sacrifice he made on he cross. 

Verse 33 - these verses could be taken out of context. Is Jesus saying sell all you have and give to the poor. When speaking to the rich young ruler he realised he was putting things before God. For him it was his riches. For you it could be something else. It is not wrong to have riches or possessions. But when they possess us that is when it is wrong. God could be pointing out something in your life that you are holding on to. You will not let go of it. When God prises things out of our hands then we know they have a hold on us. Our hands should be open to the cross. When we live like that then we gain the whole world.