Luke 14:28-30
I. Introduction – Jesus tells the crowd a parable concerning the importance of calculating the cost of following after Christ before even agreeing to go on the journey. This is important because we live in a time of very cheap faith and grace.
II. Costs require scrupulous counting ahead of commencement
a. The cost needs to be counted on the front end
b. When anyone sits down for a project of any substance, he will figure what it is going to cost him.
c. Jesus was telling the ones who were following Him that it would be important for them to count the cost of their decision to follow Him.
i. It needed to be counted on the front end of the decision as well.
ii. But why was it so important that it be counted?
III. Construction receiving shoddy calculations avoids obtaining consummation
a. the builder who fails to count the cost ends up unable to finish
b. Failure to consider the cost of a project can get the one who is working on it in a lot of trouble.
i. Corners may have to be cut to try to complete it or as in Jesus’ story it may simply not be finished.
ii. While it is true that some surprises come along during a construction project, if these surprises are assumed from the beginning, they cease to be true surprises.
c. The cost of following after Christ is very high and to accept the call to follow after His is an agreement to pay the price that it takes to follow.
i. If we count the cost before hand, we can complete the journey,
ii. Failure to do so will result in an incomplete tower, a life not lived up to its potential in Christ.
IV. Completion repels social condemnation, acclaiming one’s character
a. an uncompleted tower would serve as a monument of shame
b. This builder would have his tower incomplete, standing there for the world to see. Passersby would snicker and jeer because the man had invested so much and had nothing to show for it.
c. This would also ring true for the disciple who stops short of counting the cost of his commitment and fails to abide in Christ.
i. They have brought shame upon themselves.
ii. They also, as is so evident in contemporary Christianity, bring shame upon the name of Christ, causing those who are outside the faith to question the reasoning behind being within it.
V. Challenge – We live in a day and age where TV preachers and self-help experts peddle a faith that is cheap and easy. A discipleship that is without trial nor test. This is not the faith of our forefathers. This is not the faith of the Christian martyr. And this is far for the faith that Christ tells the crowd they must have to follow Him. Have we taken stock of what true faith means?
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