Wednesday, January 5 PM

Well, good evening. Good evening. 35 versus 20 of this meal.

We may feast together and rejoice in the love that you have poured out in our. We pray tonight as we look, you would bring about a hearty amen in our hearts.

That we would be in full agreement with your truth and rejoice in it. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, verse 25. 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 10 ,000 to meet him who comes with 20 ,000.

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. All right, so the key phrase

I think in this chapter comes in one of those two short illustrations or parables, count the cost, count the cost.

And we begin, I think, with the first half of that verse 25.

And what do we see there? Now, great multitudes went with him.

Great multitudes went with him. So this might be a word that you've been thinking about lately.

What are we to think about these huge groups of people that we see here in the

Gospels? Large crowds of people following Jesus. What do huge groups of people indicate?

Well, sure there's a lot of them, but what does it mean that large crowds follow

Jesus? Is a large crowd in and of itself an intrinsic measure of success?

Well, yeah, what kind of success? Well, think about the ways in which, we have many stories in the

Gospels about great multitudes and how Jesus dealt with them.

What are some of the stories about the great multitudes that surrounded Jesus and how he interacted with them?

And maybe in some surprising ways. Right, he fed 5 ,000 men plus the women and children on one occasion, 4 ,000 men, women and children on another occasion.

Had to feed them, let's stay faint along the way as they returned to their homes.

The crowds rather like that. They were big fans of that.

You can read in John six about how Jesus fed the 5 ,000 and he went off to do more of his father's business and he went across the

Sea of Galilee and lo and behold, when he got to the other side, the next day, the whole crowd was back.

And he said, we'd like some more, please.

It's like, you could be Moses, right? You could be the new Moses giving us manna every day.

And Jesus said, what you need is the bread of life.

What you need is the bread of life. And he began to teach them in ways that were very, very challenging, even going so far to say about his body being food and the need to drink his blood.

And if there was anything that would be completely reprehensible to a Jew, it would be drinking blood.

He spoke in a very strong way so that those who would have ears to hear would hear and those who did not would not.

And then John chapter six, verse 66, many who were following after him followed him no more.

So when Jesus has a very large crowd, he questions their motives.

All right, at the end of John two, he says he didn't give himself unto men because he knew what was in the heart of men.

The big large crowd wasn't in and of itself an indicator of all of them believing in him and trusting in him and having turned their lives over to him.

Are there any other stories outside of the gospels beyond those related stories about Jesus having large crowds?

Are there any other stories about large crowds and a massive majority in the

Bible? Can we think of any? Big crowd around Jesus and triumphal entry.

How much did it mean? Seven days later. I'm thinking of a very sarcastic prophet by the name of Micaiah.

And Ahab was king of Israel and the king of Judah had come up to join forces with him and they were going to combine their armies and go out against their common foe.

And the king from Judah said, you know, I just wanna make sure that this is the Lord's will. Could you bring some prophets so that we could hear from the

Lord? And Ahab says, oh, do I have prophets? He had 400 on his payroll. And they all came out and in great harmony, they all said the same thing in slightly different ways to bolster one another.

And Ahab had himself a well -funded echo chamber. I mean, 400 experts all said the exact same thing.

How could you be disappointed? And the king of Judah said, Ahab, do you have a real prophet around here somewhere?

He knew bought men when he saw them. And Ahab says, well, there is one, but I hate him.

He never says anything good about me. So they send a messenger to Micaiah and say,

Micaiah, listen, listen, you need to come prophesy before the king. But look, everybody has said thus.

So you need to say that to Micaiah. And Micaiah's like, yeah, okay. And so Micaiah shows up and the king asks for him for the word of the

Lord. And Micaiah's like, oh, king, go do whatever you want.

It's the Lord's will. Ahab's like, stop it. Micaiah gave him the word of the

Lord, which was, don't go, if you do, Ahab, you will die. After which

Ahab threw him into the pit with measly bread and water. Said, you keep him there till I get back.

I don't believe the word of the Lord. There's lots of stories in the Bible about how the majority is all saying something or the majority decides to do this or that.

The majority of the remnant after the destruction of Jerusalem, there in the land of Israel under Jeremiah, they said, we're all going down to Egypt.

And Jeremiah says, no, don't. But they did it anyway. So just because there's a large crowd gathered around and perhaps all saying or savoring or celebrating or lamenting the same thing, it doesn't necessarily mean that there's truth there or that there's spiritual life there.

Because what happens next is Jesus begins to thin the crowd.

He begins to thin the crowd. I think he sensed some inflation. Everybody there in that great multitude would have been fine identifying themselves as a

Jesus follower, right? And that's the hip new way in big box churches to describe what it means to be a

Christian. And it's a great, me following Jesus is a biblical nomenclature. However, it's also used in grouping with a whole bunch of other descriptions that we find right here in our text.

So I think he sent some inflation. So he did an audit and this is the way he did it.

Halfway through verse 25, 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, and yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

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

So obviously Jesus is making some kind of relationship between hating family members and hating one's own life.

Is Jesus advocating divorce, abuse, abandonment and execution in order to be a disciple?

Is he saying suicide is the only way to follow me? No, that's not.

To verse 27, bearing a cross, which is the instrument of execution.

So, I mean, if you took him literalistically, how can you be

Jesus's disciple if you get executed by the Roman government? We're the only ones who would execute people in that way.

What we're dealing with are some heightened metaphors called hyperbole. Hyperbole is often just the right way to get to the heart of the matter quickly and effectively and accurately.

Does Jesus use hyperbole anywhere else to make his point about the kingdom of heaven? You'll be able to finish this for me.

If your right hand offends you, if your right eye offends you, right.

Now, is that the way of salvation? Discerning, offending body parts and lopping them off and thus you shall be saved?

No, he's using hyperbole as a way of salvation. As a way of speaking to repentance, okay?

And he's using hyperbole here to talk about where your heart needs to be. Now, Jesus was very upset with the

Pharisees who did not take care of their father and mother. They did not love their father and their mother in their old age and they said that whatever they would use to support their parents, that was

Corbin, we've dedicated it to God. And so they refused to take care of their own parents in their old age.

And Jesus was indignant, which is a word for he got really angry. It's the same word reserved for how he felt about his disciples refusing the little children to come unto him.

The same word that's used to see how he felt about what they were doing in the temple before he made the whip and cleared them all out.

So he got really upset when people did not love their mother and their father. Jesus said that divorce was wrong, that a man should love his wife and stay with her and vice versa.

Jesus loved the little children. Brothers and sisters, we read in 1

John about one who says that he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in darkness until now.

He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

So we need to love our brothers and sisters. We need to love father and mother, love wife, children.

Jesus has also instructed us and said that it is a right thing to think like this, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

And yet here he's talking about hating father and mother, hating wife and children, hating brothers and sisters and hating your own life after we have all these other passages talking about love in those very same contexts.

So what is going on? What is going on? Well, if each one of these loves, the love of father, the love of mother, the love of spouse, the love of children, the love of brother and the love of sister and the love for one's own life also, if every single one of these loves was represented by the flame of a candle, if you were to hold up these candles 12 feet from our star, the sun, they would be nothing.

They would be nothing. And this is what Jesus is getting to.

This series of hyperbole gets to the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. He is not talking about taking him on.

When he says, be my disciple, he's not saying, take me on as a passing interest or as a hobby. He's not part of a personal improvement portfolio.

Being a disciple of Jesus will mean among other things, and there's a lot there, but it will mean a series of contested choices.

And so he's saying, when you follow me, I want you to, from the very beginning, take it to the nth degree, count the cost.

What if all or some or even one of your family members insisted on you being unfaithful to me?

What would you do? And you would say, no,

I'm following Jesus in this matter. Or someone in your family is in sin and you have to say so.

And they say, you're hating on me. Actually, I'm loving

Jesus, and it may feel like I'm hating you, but I'm loving Jesus way more than I love you.

But I can only love you because I do love Jesus. I mean, what if for the sake of family, how many for the sake of family have compromised?

And of course, Jesus is talking to those in a Jewish context where the family ties were incredibly strong. What if you're a freedom where your very life was threatened?

Well, we don't need to take things that far. Pastors in Canada are going to prison because they won't stop preaching to their flocks on Sundays.

And other people in the name of Jesus are mocking them. Oh, we would never do that. How foolish is that?

There's some inflation going on about the crowd. Jesus is doing an audit. What good is it to say that you are a

Jesus follower if you stop following when persecution and opposition controversy arise?

So Jesus is saying, audit your commitment. Whoever does not bear his cross, dying to his self.

It's the idea. You can come after me, cannot be my disciple. So after doing the audit, he does say count the cost.

And there is a couple of parables to help us with a valuation. For which of you intended 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.

If you put it in a money context, this nation began to borrow and they can't ever pay back.

Right? Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10 ,000 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. So likewise, after he says count the cost and count the soldiers, watch this.

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Now, what in the world does counting how much money you have for a building project and counting how many soldiers you have for a battle, what does that have to do with forsaking all?

It's connected in the phrase count the cost. Count the cost.

Okay. What you have here is, do you understand what it's going to cost to finish the tower?

If you think it's going to cost, you know, 5 ,000 shekels to finish your tower, but it actually costs 10, you ain't going to make it.

And if you think it's only going to be a little bit difficult sometimes and I'm only going to ask you for part of your life to be

Lord over, you're not going to make it as my disciple. Here's another parable that Jesus tells about the seed cast upon the soil and the seed is the very same, but the soils are all different.

And there's some soil that is hard as a rock. And there's some soil that's very shallow. And there's some soil that's full of thorns.

And there's some soil that is good. And there are some people like in the shallow soil, they've not count the cost and they receive the word with great joy and say, man, this is great, but they have not counted the cost.

And Jesus says, when opposition arises, when persecution arises, when difficult times arises, they wither and fall away because they don't have any root.

So Jesus is saying, look, I'm, you know, I'm glad you're all here, but pay attention. You're not really my disciple unless you've counted the cost.

You may be part of the crowd, you may identify as a Jesus follower, but you're not my disciple unless you've counted the cost.

There is this theme of shame, is there not? The man began to build the tower, but he couldn't finish.

Oh, look, they mock him. The king, if he had gone out to battle, it was only 10 ,000 and the enemy had 20 ,000, he would have to surrender in a very embarrassing way.

And this is the same. The shame and destruction factor into Jesus's concern about his disciples.

The end of only posturing about Jesus is shame and destruction.

If you don't count the cost, then you don't know that Christ affirmation means self -denial.

That's why he tried to make it clear, you know, he's not putting his call to follow him in fine print.

He's making that like upfront and obvious. To follow me, it means everything, guys.

Doesn't mean just part of it. Thinking you can claim

Christ with one hand and grasping your intersectionality with the other, that's not counting the cost.

Think you can claim Christ and clan, Christ and country, Christ and career, not counting the cost.

You know, clan, country, and career represent different types of responsibilities, but those stewardships are entirely referred to Christ's oversight.

So he gets to determine how those things are taken care of. And clan, country, and career, because of who

Jesus is, all of that is completely expendable. Even our own lives, expendable for the kingdom, expendable for Christ.

Then we have a really odd couple of verses that somehow, somehow connects.

Salt, this is where Jesus starts talking about hard money.

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.

No value in unsalty salt. We could read the same analogy in a money fashion.

Money is good, but if the money has lost its value, how shall it be made worth something again? It is not fit for buying food or paying debts, but men toss it out for something else.

There's a really, really great artifact that they found from Germany when they were hyperinflating the mark.

And it got so bad, this is prior to World War II, they were, hyperinflation was initiating a crisis in which a savior could arise and take over the country and people would trade their liberties for safety and so on and so forth.

They hyperinflated the mark so much that the notepad that you would need to write your notes down to remind yourself of things cost more than the same amount of marks of paper.

And so they just took the paper money and bound it together and used that for their notepads, right?

The point really isn't about keeping salt or fiscal policy.

This is about the third commandment. This whole passage is about the third commandment. And the third commandment says this,

Exodus 20, verse seven, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the

Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. The third commandment is not primarily about cussing.

It is how we take up, put on, wear about and bear the name of God.

We take upon ourselves the name Christian. We are of Christ or we are a follower of Jesus.

We take up the name of God. If we flash all the signs that we are his people and we wear all the swag of Christianity, but if we don't have the reality of actually being born again, if we're not really committing ourselves entirely to Christ no matter the cost, that is breaking the third commandment.

That is bearing God's name in vain to no effect without purpose. Bearing the name of God in vain is like printing marks in boulevards or dollars with no backing.

Eventually people get sick of the emptiness. People get sick of Christianity because nobody likes unsalty salt.

What good is unsalty salt? And what good are un -Christlike

Christians? What good is ungodly images of God?

What good are Jesus followers who stopped following Jesus because family freedom and finances get in the way?

So Jesus is being merciful in that there's a big crowd.

And when you're in part of a big crowd and you feel like you're going the same way everyone else is going and you're surrounded by this excitement, you think everything is on the right track and going the right way and so forth.

And Jesus is saying, being a part of the crowd isn't enough. That's not what

I'm looking for. He says, if you want to be my disciple, if you want to be my disciple, it costs you everything.

But then again, Jesus, even though he doesn't want large inflation crowds, the ultimate picture is he is redeeming an innumerable multitude of born again saints who are all 100 % his.

So, let that abide in you what you have heard from the beginning. And if that what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you will abide in the son and in the father.