The Cost of Discipleship (7/23/2023)

Let's open to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8, we're continuing our series through the

Gospel of Matthew. So this week, we're going to be looking at verses 18 through 22, which deal with the subject of the cost of discipleship.

So that's the title of the message, Counting the Cost, or the Cost of Discipleship.

It really should come as no surprise to anybody that following Jesus requires commitment.

But of course, today, on the other hand, we have generations of people that have now been taught and brought up with the idea that no, it doesn't really require commitment.

All one has to do is accept Jesus into their heart, and it's kind of like this one -time transaction, and now you're sort of good to go.

And whether you do anything with that in the future, that's kind of up to you. And that's the common attitude that a lot of people have.

And then that gets into the discussion of whether or not there's a difference being a believer versus being a disciple.

And while I think there can be a distinction between the two, the question today is, should there be a distinction between being a believer and being a disciple?

So I only bring that up because if you're familiar with these questions and these discussions, you know that things can get really, really murky, really fast.

But when you read the scripture, it's different. When you read the scripture, it's very, very clear.

So that's what we want to do. Always go, what does the Bible say? So let's look to the scripture and hopefully let the word of God speak for itself.

Let's read verses 18 through 22. So Matthew 8, 18 through 22, the cost of discipleship.

It says, and when Jesus saw the great multitudes about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side.

Then a scribe or a certain scribe came and said to him, teacher, 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 another of his disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

But Jesus said to him, follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.

Okay, so we have to get the context for this to make sense.

We need to get the information of what's happening because at least on the surface, when some people read this, they see the words of Christ and they, some people will say that the words of Christ either seem unreasonable or Jesus seems to be outright rude here.

And if you ever find yourself thinking that, just be sure that you're probably lacking some information or context, because I'll just throw this out there right up front.

The man who is talking about burying his father, right? It's not that his father just died and he's saying to Jesus, hey,

I need to wait a few days to attend the funeral. That is not what is going on here. What's going on is that this man wanted to wait.

Jesus wanted him to follow him, but the man is saying, no, I need to wait perhaps years until my father dies.

That way, what's really going on, he wants to collect the inheritance. He knows if he just leaves his father's house, then he might lose out on the inheritance.

So once you understand that, it really explains Jesus's straightforward response.

This man, in other words, was not willing to risk losing money to follow

Jesus. Therefore, he was not fit to be a disciple.

I guess you could say that he counted the cost and he decided it's not worth it. So money in that case would have been like an idol.

And we know what the scripture says. You cannot serve mammon. You cannot serve God and idols.

You cannot serve God and money. So for more context, let's go to Luke chapter 14.

More is brought out in this passage in Luke, Luke 14. But speaking about Jesus speaking in a straightforward manner,

I don't know about you, but I appreciate when people are straightforward. I prefer it when someone's a straight shooter.

And that's what Jesus is doing in these passages. He's just letting people know upfront, if you want to be a

Christian, if you want to follow me, this is the situation. This is what's required.

So he's letting people know what they're getting into. You know, some religions don't do this, right?

There's some people who are not straightforward. There are some religions that are not straightforward. Just a quick example.

You know, when the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses come and they knock on your door, they don't tell you about their kind of weird, far out beliefs until you're already initiated into the group or until they think they have their hooks in you.

They wait until later to tell you what they really believe. And then, you know, there's some pastors who do this.

They don't want to be too direct because it might upset someone. This isn't Christianity, though. This isn't biblical

Christianity. This wasn't Jesus's approach. Jesus was straightforward with people. So Christianity should be a straightforward religion.

It's always a temptation for preachers, maybe, to kind of soften things up as to not offend people, sort of beat around the bush.

But I think when you do that, you're really doing people a disservice. So Jesus is just upfront and say, hey, this is the way it is.

Because when you're not straightforward, then it's unclear. Okay, so when Jesus wanted someone to understand something, he was always very clear, very direct, that's the way we should be.

I would say do it in a spirit of charity, right? But be straight up, especially about the gospel.

We want to be straight up about the gospel. This is our main message to the world that we tell people that all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was raised from the dead the third day, that in order to be saved, you must put your faith in Christ, and Christ is the only way to the

Father. Jesus said that himself. I mean, that's straightforward, it's direct. Some people don't like it, but that's what the scripture teaches.

So at this point in Jesus's ministry about the gospel and him being the only way, really

Jesus is summarizing that message with two simple words, and what are they? Follow me.

And implied in this was follow my teachings, go where I go. And you know what, guys?

It's not always gonna be a cakewalk. Who can give testimony that Christianity isn't always a cakewalk?

Yeah. So look at Luke 14, starting in verse 25. It says, 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, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And people read that and they think, wow, where did

I go wrong? How did I never see this verse before? Now that seems unreasonable.

That seemed like Jesus didn't really say that. But then we see the words in the scripture. So what's going on?

It's sort of like the man who said he wanted to bury his father, right? We need to get the context of what's really happening.

So don't misunderstand this statement. Jesus, obviously, it should go without saying,

Jesus isn't telling people, in order to be my follower, you have to hate your parents.

Does anyone really think that's what Jesus means? No, because that would contradict the fifth commandment, to honor your father and mother.

But think about it for a moment. This is where the context helps. So we need to see, okay, who's Jesus talking to?

When is he speaking? What are the situations surrounding this? Jesus is speaking to who?

Just on a basic level, who's he talking to? Multitudes, yep.

He's speaking to Jewish people. Okay, let's start with that. If a Jewish person decides to believe in Jesus and follow

Jesus, that doesn't go over too well, right? Right? So that's the reality.

Jesus is letting people know, if you become my disciple, some of you might get disowned.

And of course, that's what happened. A lot of times when a Jewish person then, even today, converted to Christ, their parents gave them an ultimatum.

Either you love Jesus or you love us. Pick, choose.

And Jesus is letting them know this is what you're gonna face. So make your choice. Now, for us growing up in the

United States, it's not really this way for most of us. Someone who grows up maybe in Israel or in a

Muslim country or in a Jewish community, this might seem very relevant, but, and it still happens today.

But if your family, for example, even in 2023, if someone is brought up in a devoutly

Jewish household and their child wants to convert to Christ, yeah, this is the same type of thing that happens.

So Jesus is telling the people, if you're going to follow me, all of these individuals might be against you, even your own family members, even your own father and mother.

So that's really the point. What's the title of the message? The cost of discipleship. That's a big cost, isn't it?

To have your own parents and your own family turn their back on you. Now, do we want to turn our back on them?

No, we don't turn our, they might turn their backs on us, but we don't turn our back on them.

But the cost of discipleship, counting the cost, you just need to resolve this in your own mind.

Who comes first? Who am I putting first? Mom and dad or the

Lord? Not that we'd have to turn our back on anyone, but again, they might do that to us.

I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but I know there's at least one or two people in this church who, when you became a

Christian, that caused serious problems within your family, from your parents.

I mean, this is just a reality. Some of us have never seen that, but others have. So Jesus isn't saying hate your parents.

He's preparing people for what they might face. And of course, the fifth commandment, honor your father and mother is very, very important, but let's not forget the first commandment.

What's the first commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart.

So if Jesus is the Lord, who do you have to love first? Jesus, he has to come first.

Incidentally, this is what people like to throw at us today. If you become a committed follower of Jesus, people will say things like, well, what if your child, like the what if questions.

What if your child, what if your family member, what if someone you love denied the faith?

Or what if they came out of the closet? What if they became hostile to Christianity? What would you do?

And they wanna kind of back us into a corner. What would you do? Would you really choose Jesus over your family member?

Well, here's the thing. I don't think we have to choose. I think we can love God and love our family, no matter what happens.

But I'm just gonna say this. If I'm ever put in a, right, counting the cost,

I would say you need to pray and resolve this in your own mind. If someone ever comes to me and says, hey, Mike, you need to deny

Christ or you need to deny some teaching in the Bible in order to have a relationship with me, guess who

I'm gonna choose? Please don't put me in that situation, but you can't beat

God. So point is, I have counted the cost. I, by God's grace, would never deny

Christ in order to make someone else happy. But that's the type of thing the disciples had to face in the first century.

Look at verse 27. And whoever does not bear his cross, this is a whole other issue that they were gonna face.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple.

So I've just resolved that in this world, we're gonna face adversity. Who's facing adversity right now?

You're facing some opposition. And we don't really use the word persecution because we feel like our affliction is very light.

So we don't wanna use the word, although it's just in some cases. But yeah, you just have to figure, you're gonna face some opposition for being a

Christian. But you know what? Heaven is worth it. Heaven is worth it. Amen? And I also believe that God protects his people.

We hear about the horror stories and the disciples that have lost their lives throughout history.

The odds of that happening to me or you are like, you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning twice,

I think, than that happening to you. But let's face it. Everyone deals with pain and hardship and adversity, but it's better to do it with the

Lord and with his help, because you have a choice. Either face that stuff in the world without God or face it with God.

And I wanna face it with God. Look at verse 28. Now Jesus explicitly tells people to count the cost.

He says, 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.

I mean, you could put it this way. How many of you who have built your own houses decided to figure it out how much money you have and how much money it's gonna cost to build the house?

I mean, you don't wanna get halfway done and then run out of money. And then there's a half built house sitting out in the elements and that you look foolish, right?

So count the cost. Lest, verse 29, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will 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 10 ,000 men to meet him who comes against him with 20 ,000.

Or else while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

Like you need to think about this before you make big decisions. And following Christ is a big decision, isn't it?

Verse 33, so likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has, what, cannot be my disciple.

And here's another statement that people like, wow, I can't be a disciple unless, what,

I forsake everything that I have? Is this really what Jesus is asking of me? Well, again, back in the first century, yeah, that's what you need to be ready to do.

Now, is that the same way today? We'll get into that. Let's turn back to Matthew chapter eight. Now, some of this sounds difficult, right?

I mean, let's admit, this is challenging. These are some challenging passages.

But some of you, maybe there's someone thinking right now, yeah, but you're talking about, or the

Bible's talking about the difficulty of being a disciple. I remember hearing sermons, and maybe

I've said this. I remember hearing sermons about how it's easy to believe in Christ. I remember sermons how it's easy to be saved.

Who remembers hearing that as well? So it's like, well, which is it? Is it easy or is it difficult?

Well, let's ask and let's answer. I mean, it depends when a pastor says it's easy to become a follower of Christ or it's easy to be saved, you have to ask, what is he trying to communicate?

Salvation on the one hand is impossible, right? Apart from God's grace, that's the first thing.

It's easy only in the sense that you don't have to work for it. Like it's easy to understand, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's easy to understand, right? It's an easy concept.

So with God's grace, it is easy in the sense to believe, you know, look and live, that's the simple message.

So it's easy in the sense that it's simple. You're in Matthew 8, right?

Let's turn back to Matthew 7 for a moment. Look at Matthew 7, 14, but we always have to balance the scripture out because there's always one verse that seems to say one thing and another verse that says something that seems to be different.

They're not contradictions, both are true. You just have to consider what's being said. Matthew 7, 14, what does

Jesus say? Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life.

And there are few who find it. So that's obviously a relevant statement to consider.

So on the one hand, it's simple. It's easy in the regard that it's simple, believe on Jesus and be saved.

But for the person at the same time who's gonna follow Jesus, living out the

Christian life is not an easy task, is it? And it certainly wasn't an easy task in the first century.

I don't think we realize how good we have it compared to what the early disciples of Christ faced.

So when Jesus is speaking to this Jewish audience, if a person believed in him, became part of the church, they were going to face serious opposition from their fellow

Jews, even their own family members. Okay, we understand that? So Jewish persecution, if you read the book of Acts, it's pretty clear.

Jewish persecution was very intense for the first several decades. Then by 70

AD, the Jewish persecution gave way to Roman persecution, which was much, much worse.

And again, Jesus is just being upfront, saying this is what you might experience.

Tradition tells us that what? All of the disciples died, right? All of the disciples except for John died as martyrs because of their faith.

You know, we say that, right, tradition. I always make that point. Tradition says that.

Do we really know that's true? We don't really know. We know about James and we know about Peter.

We know about Stephen. We don't know about the rest. So it may or may not be 100 % accurate.

But either way, there's a cost, right? Count the cost. For some people, for James, for Stephen, it was a very high price they paid with their life.

For others, the cost might be small, relatively minor.

But either way, we all must count the cost. So the point is, if the people

Jesus is speaking to back in the first century were going to follow through, this is what they needed to know.

And this is, you may say it's challenging, this is a harder passage, but there's plenty of passages about following Christ and you get what?

The fruit of the spirit, right? You get God's blessing. There's peace in your heart. You receive

God's favor, eternal life, a home in heaven. There's all these Old Testament stories about men who trusted in the

Lord and they were blessed with great riches. You think of Abraham, Joseph, Job, David, Solomon.

So don't feel like, my point is, don't feel like it's all doom and gloom, that if I'm gonna follow Christ, oh man, it's gonna be so difficult.

That's not necessarily true because other people were greatly blessed, but either way, it could be like this, it could be like that.

That's what Jesus is saying. Now the question then becomes for us, does that mean if this was the way it was in the first century, carry your cross and all the rest, does that mean it's going to be that way for us as Christians living 1 ,900 years later in the

West? Does that mean it's gonna be the same for us? No, not necessarily, although it might, right?

It could go either way. Always consider the context. This is to a first century

Jewish audience. There is application for us, but it's not necessarily the same for us.

Someone might say, yeah, but was it 2 Timothy 3 .12, yea, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Doesn't the Bible say that? Yes, but the persecution might be what? Small, might be great, you don't know.

So I would say this, that in comparison to the early disciples of Christ, man, do we have a good.

Man, do you have it easy? I know some of you don't feel like it's real easy right now, but when you compare it to them, it is.

And even your Christian walk compared to some other believers in say North Korea and Saudi Arabia, you have it better than you know, or maybe you realize that and you should thank

God for it, but either way, some people suffer back then, some didn't, some people suffer now, some don't.

Christians back in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and it kind of gets harder as you go, but earlier on in our nation's history, take up your cross and follow me and it really looked very different than what

Peter thought when he heard that statement. Peter was literally crucified for his faith, you realize that?

The end of the gospel of John makes that pretty clear. Peter was crucified. No American has ever been crucified for their faith that I know of.

Now, maybe you know of one, you'd let me know afterwards, but I don't think it's happened. So it's not the same, but it could be, right?

And there's some people living in different places in the world, it is the same. Because I think we all recognize things are starting to change in the

West, right? We've had things so good in America, Christians have been protected, it was even favorable to be a

Christian at certain points. Now things are starting to change. Being a Christian is not socially acceptable like it once was.

Things are now going in that other direction. So I would tell people, and I do tell people, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And that is a simple concept.

It's an easy message to understand, but also we need to tell people, you need to count the cost.

You need to count the cost. There's many blessings that accompany being a

Christian, but there are going to be some difficulties. So depending on where you are, how many of you in your workplace, you can be a

Christian, you can be a Christian openly, you can, you know, within reason, you can talk about it, and you face no repercussions.

You feel like you would face no repercussions. How many of you feel like that at your job? I feel like that at my job.

Okay. How many of you do not feel like that? And if you don't,

I know some of you don't want to raise your hand, but. That's my new job. So the thing is, being a

Christian, generally speaking, because Jesus is speaking generally, but being a

Christian isn't exactly going to help you climb the corporate ladder, right? Now, if you work at Chick -fil -A, it might help you climb the corporate ladder, but I heard that Chick -fil -A now opened up an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the company.

So, I mean, even they might be going in the other direction. I hope not, great chicken, but I can't eat it because I'm gluten -free anyways, so it doesn't matter.

Depending on who you are, though, the bottom line is you may have a very easy time, you may have a very hard time, but either way, we, as Christians, we need to count the cost, but it's so worth it.

Amen? Is it worth it to follow Christ? I wouldn't have it any other way. So, it's these statements about having to forsake all and having to be at least willing to lose all of your possessions, taking up your cross.

It's not really the same situation for us, but it could be. Yeah, because you have to ask, what if things,

I don't like to think about this, I don't think we should dwell on this, but we should ask the question, what if things took an ugly turn in our culture?

What if? Would you be willing to literally forsake all? And we could say, yes,

I would do it, but you don't really know unless you're in the situation, right? But some people know,

I would not be willing to forsake all, but we have to ask ourselves, what if your family disowned you?

Would we be willing to endure such affliction? So, I'm trying to apply these verses and also give you the original context.

But before we close, let's go back to this passage in Matthew 8 and more closely and look at it and hopefully maybe even answer some of those initial questions about being a believer versus being a disciple.

Or perhaps those are the wrong questions to be asking. The question

I would ask instead is number one, are you committed to Jesus Christ? And number two, how committed are you?

I think that's the real question. Matthew 8 verse 18, and when Jesus saw the multitudes about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side.

Then a certain scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Now that's commitment, right? Yeah, but Jesus knew his heart and he knew this was really just emotionalism.

It was just talk. So here's the thing. Those who followed Jesus in the first century, many of them, at least at first, believing him to be the

Messiah, their concept of what that meant is that Jesus would take the throne, right?

You know this by now. Jesus would take the throne, drive out the Romans, reestablish Israel as a regional power.

He's setting up the kingdom and those who are close to the king, like if I can get in on this on a ground level, right?

I'm gonna be close with Jesus and he's gonna be the glorious king and that's gonna mean wealth and power and all this stuff for me too.

So there is a reason why people wanted to follow him, believing he was the Messiah and some of those reasons could be selfish.

So if that was the scribe's motivation, Jesus, his words in verse 20 make a lot of sense.

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

In other words, listen, buddy, if you follow me, you're not gonna be sleeping in a palace anytime soon.

So you just need to be aware of what you're getting into and that's the problem with modern

Christianity, modern evangelical Christianity, like this self -help motivational stuff where it's seeker friendly and people are trying to lower the bar just to get any profession of faith and just to bring people through the door and they're not told all of this and I think that's very dishonest.

So if this scribe, if he recognized Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus might have seen some other motivations, but that's probably not what it is though.

I think what happened is this scribe, he just kind of got caught up in the moment, right? He hears

Jesus and he's moved. So he hears the preaching, he sees what's happening, a lot of excitement around the ministry of Jesus and he gets swept up in it all.

He has an emotional reaction and he's like, Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go. So I tend to think that's what it was and people do this, they get caught up in the moment, right, their emotions kind of get the best of them maybe.

We've had people do that here over the years. There'll be someone, maybe they show up out of nowhere and we love it when people come in, absolutely, but there'll be somebody, they come in, they're going through something in their life, they attend a service, they're caught up in the moment, maybe they're inspired, right, by the music or they're moved by the preaching.

I'd like to think it's by the preaching. And they make this profession of faith,

I wanna follow Christ and then almost immediately they fall away, you never see them again.

I just, one example, I think it was about 15 years ago, this happened, this group of people all showed up at once, there's like five, six, seven people, they all showed up at once and they all became church members at the same time and there's like at least five people, that was the last

Sunday we ever saw them. It's not that different really with this scribe,

Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go and Jesus just knew that wasn't really true.

Maybe he had good intentions at the beginning, but what, he didn't count the cost, he didn't count the cost.

Matthew Henry writes this, one of the scribes was too hasty and promising, he offers himself to be a close follower of Christ, he seems to be very determined, but many resolutions for religion are produced by sudden conviction and taken up without due consideration.

These, Matthew Henry says, come to nothing. When this scribe offered to follow

Christ, one would think that Christ should have been glad, one scribe might do more credit and service than 12 fishermen, but Jesus saw his heart and answered accordingly, he didn't count the cost.

I also think of the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking him, good teacher, what must

I do to inherit eternal life? You remember what Jesus told him? You basically need to give away all your money.

Jesus didn't tell that to everyone, but he saw that this man, his idol, what he really cared about, what he worshiped was mammon, it was money.

And it says that he walked away sorrowful. So where was his heart?

Was it with the Lord or was it with his cash? I would just simply ask you this morning, where is your heart?

Have you counted the cost? Do you love Jesus above all?

That's what it takes to be a disciple, putting Jesus first. So is there a person that you love more than God?

Do you love wealth and possessions more than God? And for many,

I think for most, it's as simple as this, they love their sin more than they love

God. And how tragic will it be if they die in that condition?

The cost of discipleship, we all have to give up something, but the good news about this, if you are willing to give up whatever it may be, we stand to gain everything.

The kingdom of God, the forgiveness of sin, God's everlasting love and eternal life.

Let's close. And Lord, how thankful we are that you loved us so much.

You left your home in heaven and came to this earth, taking the form of a bondservant.

Lord, you forsook all and you became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

And you did that for us. You gave all, you paid all. And I pray that if there is someone listening today who has never chosen to follow you,

I ask Lord that you would move their heart. I pray they would first count the cost and come to the realization that you are worth it.

Heaven is worth it. And heaven is heaven because you're there. And Lord, I pray that they would be resolute in that decision to call upon the name of the

Lord, the name above every name, the name of Jesus. And to him be honor and glory both now and forever.