And please turn in your copies of God's Word to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, beginning in verse 25. Jesus, of course, has moved now from the banquet feast to being back on the dusty roads. And so we pick up in verse 25. Now great crowds accompanied him. And he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a 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 out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, While the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. so ends the reading of God's Word. Let us pray that the Lord might give us such ears to hear. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for the words of Christ and we thank you that we have something perhaps that many in the crowds did not have at that time. We have the Holy Spirit within us and we have Christ speaking to us not merely as his crowds but as his beloved sheep, his own disciples, and so Lord, would you give us those ears to hear and faith to receive and understand the message of this parable for our souls. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. At the heart of Jesus' teaching in today's passage is the sobering truth that before you begin something of great importance, you must first count the cost you must be certain that you can see that task to completion. Otherwise, you risk the shame of an unfinished task. That was the case with the National Monument of Scotland on Calton Hill overlooking Edinburgh. In 1826, construction began on what was intended to be this grand memorial to the the soldiers and sailors who had died during the Napoleonic Wars. It was set on this hill and it was designed after the Parthenon in Athens. So think of all of those pillars, those columns surrounding the building, upholding it. Well, construction began in 1826, but not long into the project, they ran out of funding. And so it was abandoned after only 12 of the 72 columns were completed. The unfinished monument has been a point of embarrassment and disgrace for the city, leading to its nickname, Edinburgh's Disgrace, or even Scotland's Disgrace. Because they did not properly count the cost, because they did not have the resources to finish, they began something that they could not finish. and what was supposed to be a symbol of national pride and honor became a symbol of their shame and disgrace. And this illustrates Jesus' rather startling message to the crowds who were following him. In today's passage, we see the crowds, or we see Jesus shift from being at a dinner party with these Pharisees now to being on the open road with these crowds of people following him. The setting may change, the issue remains the same, the issue of who gets into the kingdom of God, and how does one truly follow Christ? Well, rather shockingly, Jesus turns and he tells these crowds that if they are to follow him, if they are to be his disciples, they must hate their family, they must hate themselves by taking up a cross, and they must renounce all of their possessions. This is what it takes to follow Jesus, and if they begin but fail to finish, they will be thrown out like tasteless, useless salt. Well, Jesus' words are certainly striking, aren't they? How are we to receive these words? How would the crowd have received them? Well, even though we're not told immediately what the crowd's reaction was, we can rightly or probably presume that some would have been offended and left. Others, you know, just went over their heads They decided to stick around until the next miracle. But others still heard these words and decided to draw closer to Christ and ask him in faith, Lord, help us to understand. What do these words mean? Would you help us, Lord? And today we gathered here are those who will draw near to Christ, seeking to better understand his words to us through this parable. For this parable, like all parables, serves to further reveal the gospel, further reveal the king and his kingdom. And ultimately, what we'll see is that what at first may seem impossible for us, based on our own resources, is possible for God working through us. Let's consider how Christ reveals our hearts, how Christ reveals our inadequacy, and finally, how Christ reveals his own sufficiency So the first point is that Christ reveals our hearts. And we need him to do that, don't we? As fallen and sinful humans, we are so often blind to seeing the defects and the sin in our own hearts. We often presume that our condition is safe and healthy and sound. But what we need is Christ's light, his law to expose the hidden sin and the misplaced priorities of our hearts. Just as you need, if you're to clean a dusty room, you need to turn on the lights or you need to pull back the curtains so the light shines in and you see the dust and you see what needs to be cleaned. So also the law of Christ functions in that way where it shines and it reveals what is lurking in our hearts. And that's what Jesus has been doing throughout the entire chapter. He began by exposing the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. These Pharisees who believed that their status and their religious pedigree earned them a place in God's kingdom. They thought that they could earn a place of right standing before God through their performance and their pedigree. And yet Jesus revealed that no, the path into the kingdom does not come through self-exaltation. It does not come through boasting in one's works or status, rather it comes through the humility that recognizes one's spiritual poverty. We receive a place at Christ's feast, not because we've earned it, but because we've recognized that we don't earn it, and we shouldn't be there. And then in our humility, Christ lifts us up and takes us to himself. Well, our passage picks up with Jesus having now left that dinner party with the Pharisees, and he's back on the road. He's resuming his mission to go to Jerusalem, where he will be handed over to the religious leaders. He will suffer, and he will die for the sins of his people. And as he's walking with his disciples, we read in verse 25 how great crowds accompanied him. You know, it's important that we recognize the nature of these crowds. These crowds are not his disciples. These are not, you know, the group of disciples who have been committed to him in life and death. No, the crowds throughout the Gospel of Luke are really more like onlookers, spectators, people curious to see what Jesus will do next. And there's usually that pattern where when Jesus performs a miracle, when he feeds people, when he casts out demons, the crowds get very excited and they begin to expand. People want to be healed by this great teacher and healer. But when Jesus begins to teach on hard things, well then the crowds who once flocked then begin to flee. And probably knowing that the crowds are now salivating for their next miracle, Jesus turns to them and he gives them three radical conditions for being his disciple. Jesus issues the first condition in verse 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. So if you want to be Christ's disciple, you must hate your own family. According to one Greek lexicon, the word Hate here means hate. These are shocking words. Now it can also have the connotation of disfavor and disregard. But if you were to follow Christ, you must be willing to disregard all other loyalties, even the loyalty of family, to follow him. Jesus gives the second condition in verse 27. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So to these crowds who are following him, he turns and says, unless you hate yourself, unless you deny yourself, unless you take this horrible image, this horrible torture device and you bear it on your own back and you take it to your own execution site, you cannot follow me. He gives a third condition in verse 33. Therefore, anyone of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. So you must renounce all of your possessions, all that you own. The word for renounce here is actually quite interesting. It's not the word to care less about. No, it's the word for saying goodbye. Several times in Luke's gospel, when one person is saying goodbye to another, this is the very word that's used. So Jesus is saying you must say farewell, goodbye, sayonara, to all that you own, your possessions, your home, retirement account, to say goodbye and walk away from it all. Well, this is difficult teaching from our Lord. It leaves us scratching our heads. Unless you hate your family, carry a torture device on your back and say goodbye to all you own, you cannot be his disciple. These are hard sayings, but remembering the context is helpful. We'll recall how in last week's parable, the parable of the feast, there were certain guests who made excuses for not showing up to the feast. Two men gave the excuse that they had land to attend to and they had oxen to examine. And one of the men made the excuse that he was a newlywed and he had to spend time with his new family. For each of these men, possessions, pleasure, and family took the place of their first desires. These things kept them from coming to this very important feast. And these excuses that these men made revealed what they were treasuring in their hearts. These things, possessions, pleasure, and family, they cared more about these things than they did for the honor and glory of their host, who of course is Christ. Well, in the same way, when Jesus calls the crowds to hate their family, bear their cross, and renounce their possessions, Jesus is shining the light of his law on the hearts of those who follow him. And these striking, unsettling words of our Lord serve not only to expose the hearts of those who followed him 2,000 years ago, but they continue to shine the light of God's law on our hearts. Jesus is challenging each one of us to examine our hearts. His words expose what our hearts deem to be most precious. It exposes our securities, our idols that we cling to, things we may not even realize are competing for our loyalty. Now, there's nothing wrong with family or taking care of yourself or even owning nice things. In fact, each of these things are good things in and of themselves. They're gifts from God. The problem, of course, is when we take these good things, these created things, and we worship them instead of the creator who gave them to us. Saint Augustine touches on this in his book, City of God, when he prays, these are your gifts. They are good, for in your goodness you have made them. Nothing in them is from us. save for our sin. When neglectful of order, we fix our love on the creature instead of on you, the creator." This is a key aspect of Augustine's theology, this theology of desire and misordered priorities, that God has made all things good. God has made the world good. There are good things for us to enjoy. There are good things that God has given us. He has created us with desires. It's not wrong to have certain ambitions. The faculty of desire is not a wrong thing to have, right? We've been created to desire God. So even desire in its right place is a good thing. The problem is we have misordered desires. We love too much the things of this world. Reminds me of the man who had abandoned Paul in his time of need. And he wrote about him, didn't he? How he loves too much the things of this world. You know, he could have said he went after this thing, he went after that thing. Paul says he loves too much the things of this world. And that's what happens to our desires. Such that things that are good for us become things that are God's to us. Family. Family is a precious gift from God, and we all know the joys of having the precious gift of family. God created family in the very beginning. He made man and wife. Scripture calls us to obey our parents. Scripture calls parents to care for children and not exasperate them. He calls husbands and wives to love one another with respect and great care and sacrifice. And this is all good. We should love our family. We share the same DNA, after all. We all know how in our hearts we can even allow family to become something that is an idol, something that keeps us from God. At times we may be tempted either by desire or out of fear of man to put family before the Lord. Perhaps when we know family has organized some kind of event that will keep us from attending the worship of the Lord. And in those moments, maybe there's part of us that desires that more than the worship of God. Or maybe there's part of us that is too afraid to say no, fearful of what family members might say if we say, well, no, Sunday is the Lord's day. It's not your day. It's not even my day. It's the Lord's day, and it is the day we must worship him. Similarly, caring for ourselves is important. Self-care is a good thing. As Paul even says, no man hates his own body. Yet, we know all too well how self-care can very easily morph into self-obsession and selfishness, to where we see the whole world as a stage on which we are the primary performer and everybody else, even God himself, is the supporting act, that everything lives and moves and exists in order for us to have our being. for our worship and fulfillment. Even God himself is just a means, a genie to our own desires. Possessions. Possessions, of course, are necessary for life. Clothing, food, shelter, money, they all have our place. But how easily our hearts become fixated by the stuff of this world, the stuff of this life, to where we idolize material wealth. We find our security in the things we own, or we feel anxious because of the things we don't own. You see, Christ's words here expose our misplaced affections, and they show us that when we love these things more than God, these things don't secure our lives, they don't make our lives better. In fact, they can endanger our souls. Well, having revealed our hearts, the second thing Christ reveals is our inadequacy. And he does so using several illustrations. He calls us to count the cost before becoming his disciples, warning us that unless we are sure that we can finish the race, we shouldn't even begin. The first illustration is of a man who builds a tower. Jesus says in verse 28 and following, For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ha, this man began to build what was not able to finish. The point is clear. You don't start a building project unless you're sure that you can finish it. Calculate the cost, calculate your resources, and if you can't finish, don't start. Otherwise you'll be an embarrassment, much like the disgrace of Scotland. The second illustration is of a king who prepares for war. Jesus continues in verse 31. Are what king going out to encounter another king in war will not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. Well, similarly, Jesus uses an illustration of a king who prepares for battle. The king must, The king knows that the enemy army is on the march. He, perhaps through his scouts and spies, finds out how big that army is. He looks at the size of that army. He looks at his own army that he can muster, and he determines whether that battle is worth fighting. And if not, well, then he shouldn't fight the battle, and he should seek terms of peace. So with these two illustrations, Jesus makes the point that you must first count the cost of being a disciple, then count the cost of your own resources and abilities, and if you come up short, you must not even begin. Otherwise, you will be shamed and disgraced as one who could not finish what he started. Well, if these are cutting illustrations, Jesus next adds salt to the wound. Verse 34, salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Well, much like today in the ancient world, salt was used for seasoning food. If you have food that's rather bland, you can improve it by a healthy dose of salt. In the ancient world, and this time in Israel, there were different grades of salt, different qualities. And lesser qualities would be thrown into the compost pile, the manure pile, and that would be used as fertilizer to cast out on the fields. Well, Jesus says, imagine a salt that's not worthy of being table salt. It's not even worthy of scattering on your field with manure. It's useless. It's not even salt-like. Well, you just throw that away. You discard it. It's useless for nothing, less than manure. It's thrown away. What's interesting is that this phrase, thrown away, is a phrase that recurs throughout Jesus' parables, describing how one might be thrown out of the kingdom. And so in other words, the person who begins without finishing, Jesus says, is discarded, thrown away like useless salt. Well, this is a sobering message that Jesus speaks to these crowds. If you don't have what it takes to follow Jesus to the end, don't start. If you are not sure that you will endure to the finish line, Do not start the race. Otherwise, like useless salt, you will be thrown on the trash heap. Now, the more common and typical interpretation of this passage would be to wrap up the sermon here and say, well, okay, count the cost, count your own resources, and you better be sure that you have what it takes to finish until the end. That may be where the common interpretation of this passage ends, but notice that's not where Jesus ends. Look at the last line where Jesus says to the crowds, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. This line is key to understanding the whole passage. Jesus often uses this line when he is presenting some kind of mystery of the kingdom concealed in the form of a parable. For example, this is the line he gives at the end of his parable of the soils in Luke chapter 8. So in Luke chapter 8, he gives the parable. He says, let he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And do you remember who understood that parable? He told it to the crowds and to his disciples. Who understood the parable? Nobody did. The crowds didn't understand. Not even the disciples knew what it meant. the disciples drew near to Christ to understand. And that's when Jesus explained that the purpose of parables is not to make the truth plain and simple and down to earth for the average Israelite. Rather, the purpose of parables is to conceal and to hide the mysteries of the kingdom. As a result, when Jesus tells his parables, they always have this twofold effect upon the hearers. On the one hand, those who are unbelieving and hard-hearted will say, this is nonsense, and they'll walk away. They'll be done with Jesus. But those who have ears to hear will come and they'll approach Jesus, and they'll ask him, Lord, what does this parable mean? That's exactly what happened in Luke chapter 8. After the parable, the disciples had no idea what Jesus was talking about, and they said, Lord, would you explain this to us? And that's when Jesus said, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. And then he went on to explain to them the meaning of his parable. And so this phrase, he who has ears to hear, let him hear, signals to us that Jesus is conveying truth in parable form. And therefore, because it's a parable, there is a deeper truth to be learned that simply remaining in the crowds and not approaching to get closer to Jesus will not yield that truth. There is a deeper meaning here that only those of faith are able to discern. But what is that deeper meaning? Well, the emphasis of the illustrations of the builder and of the king going to war was not on their ability to fulfill their tasks, but on their inability, as one commentator notes. The illustration of the builder highlights a lack of resources and discourages starting the project. Similarly, the king is unable with 10,000 to meet 20,000, again emphasizing a lack of resources. You see, these illustrations are not intended for us to count the cost. weigh our own abilities and resources, and then come out feeling confident, yes, I can do this, no problem. Rather, the opposite is true. These parables reveal that no matter how carefully we may count the cost and recount our own resources, we will always come up short. This is designed to show you your own inability. It shows you that you cannot possibly complete this perfectly. Those who have ears to hear, therefore, will feel their own inadequacy and call out for grace. You see, our response to these conditions should not be like that of Peter, who said in his pride to Jesus in Matthew chapter 26, verse 35, oh Lord, even if I die with you, I will not deny you. Because what did Peter go on to do? Well, he went on to deny the Lord. Instead, our response ought to be like Peter, when he became a disciple of Christ. In Luke chapter 5, he witnesses the glory and majesty of Christ, and he is undone. And he falls on his face before Jesus, saying, depart from me. I am a sinful man, O Lord. And so like Peter, when he became a disciple, and like the guests invited to the banquet earlier in the parable, we are called by Christ to recognize our own inadequacy, that we are weak. We are prone to wander. We are even capable of falling like Peter. And if the cost of discipleship is perfection, that is a cost we cannot pay. So if the parables exist to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who have ears of faith, what is the deeper truth in this parable? Well, having revealed our hearts and then having revealed our inadequacy, third, Christ leads us to see his own sufficiency. When we count the cost, and we examine our own resources, we come up short. We are left feeling inadequate, insufficient for the task. And that's how we're supposed to feel, because it's then by faith that we're led to trust in Christ's sufficiency. For as you read of these conditions, who is it who fulfills these things perfectly? Who perfectly gave up the comforts of family? Jesus did. While not hating his family, he did set them aside in order to accomplish the mission of our salvation. Certainly, to the eyes of the world, even at one point to the eyes of his own family members, he seems crazy. It seems like he was hating his own family. But truly, he was acting in love for his true mothers and brothers and sisters of faith. Who is it who bore his cross and willingly laid down his life? What Jesus, the good shepherd, did, he denied himself, endured the agony and the shame of the cross, carrying it all the way to his execution. And again, what looked in the eyes of the world to self-hatred was, in fact, the greatest act of love for his people. For no greater love is there than this, than a man laid down his life for his friends. Who renounced all his possessions, Only Jesus can say he renounced all his possessions. Throughout his earthly ministry, he had no place to lay his head. His situation, his condition was more in poverty than the foxes who have holes and the birds who have their nests. And on the cross, even his clothes were stripped away as he hung there naked. He willingly made himself poor and possessionless that by his poverty, we might be made rich. And who has done all of this to perfection without falling, without faltering, without turning his hand from the plow? Only Jesus, the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Well, to use Jesus' language of parables containing secrets, the deeper secret of this passage is that we are inadequate to earn a place as his disciples. There is a cost to discipleship, but the true disciple recognizes that we cannot meet this or fulfill this in our own resources. To try would be like attempting to build a tower without bricks or fighting a war without soldiers. It is a task we cannot complete. And so, like the king who realizes he cannot win the battle and so seeks peace, well, we too must admit our defeat before the demands of the law. We must fall at the feet of the true king, Jesus. And then there, in that place of humility, acknowledging our weakness, acknowledging that we are the blind, the poor of the feast in the previous parable, it's then that Christ fills us with His sufficiency. He is the all-sufficient Savior who makes us disciples, and He is the Savior who then empowers us to live as His disciples. You see, what is impossible for us, working in our own strength, with our own resources, is possible for God working by His grace in us. And so, dear Christian, dear disciple, Because of Christ working for you and because of Christ working in you, your heart has been unshackled from the love of idols. Your heart is no longer shackled to the idolatry of family and pleasure and possessions. Now you are free to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself, not perfectly, not without hiccups and failures and faltering, but by his grace and to an ever increasing degree. Make no mistake, there is a cost to discipleship. There is a commitment required to be a follower of Christ, but we do not approach this commitment as those seeking to justify ourselves like the Pharisees, but rather we fulfill our calling as Christ's disciples not working from the position of trying to fulfill the law under the covenant of works, but rather as those who are saved by grace, recipients of grace under the rich covenant of grace, the new covenant. And so, beloved, now in Christ, you can love your family without idolizing them. always giving your first allegiance to Christ, knowing that you were adopted as his son, as his daughter. Now you can deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him along the road of sanctification, knowing that he has done all that is required for you to be justified. Now you are free from the grip of possessions. They no longer own you. Instead, you recognize that all that you own is a good and generous gift from God, and you are merely a steward. Now, you who are his true disciples by faith are able to persevere, knowing that he has sovereignly, graciously promised to preserve you until the end. You do not need to fear being cast away because He was cast out of the city for you. He faced the shame and scorn of the cross so that you in Him never will. And even when you sin and when you stumble like Peter, and you will sin and you will stumble, even then, He will not discard you to the trash heap like useless salt. Instead, by His grace, He will restore you to repentance for he will not lose even one of his sheep. May these rich realities give you courage to persevere now and until the end. May they cause you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the rich grace that is ours through Christ. We thank you for your word that leads us to see our own weakness, our own sin, our own inadequacies. Just like the blind and the lame invited and carried to the feast in the previous passage, we see that we are weak. And yet, Lord, in your grace, you have called us to be your disciples by your grace. And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us not only to be those who have ears to hear, but that we may also be those who do, that we may live out the rich salvation earned for us by Christ, applied for us by your spirit, that we may carefully consider our calling as disciples and the strength from which we live and act. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.