The High Cost of Discipleship in the Kingdom

The text of Scripture that we will look at from Dr. Luke's Gospel this Lord's Day is extremely challenging and sobering for God's people. Of all of the many challenging sayings of Jesus, this appears to be one of the most difficult or challenging sayings of them all. In fact, there is no one who could respond to Jesus' teaching without doing so in reliance upon the grace of God found in Christ and His Gospel! Jesus teaches that there is a high cost of discipleship that must be considered when following Him; Jesus asks for our all. Because of God's loving and electing grace to His people, God gives his all to his people in Christ so that they will give their all to him.

In our passage today, Jesus speaks of our relationships, bearing our crosses, and renouncing all that we possess in order to revel in all that God has given to us in Christ and His Kingdom. We should learn that the LORD Jesus asks for everything that we have when we become his disciples; there should be nothing that we hold back from him and his Lordship. He who has ears to hear, let him hear (14:35b).