In like manner, our text for this evening's sermon draws us to focus upon God and God alone for His power and His mercy offered in Christ. Luke chapter 14 will be our text found on page 1012 in the Pew Bible. We'll begin reading with verse 25 and read through verse 33. And this text of God's Word is set within the context of Jesus in a Pharisee's house. He's dining, enjoying good food, and I'm not sure if we would say good fellowship, but he's with the Pharisees and teaching them about the kingdom. In verse 15, he continues to teach with the parable of a great banquet. And we remember that in that great banquet, many are invited, though all of them have excuses about why they can't come to the king's feast. Before we pick up from there, let us ask the Lord to bless the reading of his word. Our Father in heaven, we come this evening with many cares and many concerns. And we may come with a deep sense of familiarity with what we may hear. And therefore, we ask that you might strip away from our thoughts all those distractions which might hinder us from understanding what you want to say this evening. Open our ears then, dear Father. And may your Spirit grant us understanding and renewal of heart and affections that we might have our faith fixed more upon Jesus and the life He's called us to live. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hear now the Word of God, beginning with Luke 14. After the banquet, Luke tells us that large crowds were traveling with Jesus. And he turned to them and said, But if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, this fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. May the Lord bless the reading and now preaching of his word. Congregation of Christ, we live in a culture that is remarkably familiar with Jesus. Not long ago, we found ourselves in a store browsing through some t-shirts and we're surprised to find one of them asked that familiar sounding question anyways. Got Jesus? A little play off the creative milk ad, I suppose, but I found it to be a rather striking testimony to the familiarity that many in our culture have with Jesus. And along with that familiarity may very well come a lack of sensitivity to what Jesus tells us. Oh, we know Jesus. We know about the Gospel. We know about Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, and the call to love. And we love that Jesus. We find Him to be a fond friend. Maybe our best friend. A good example for us and our children to follow. Though we may not have the exact same conclusions in our congregation or in our families, I'm sure that you, like me and the disciples who follow Jesus, are tempted with the very same kinds of things. We've heard it before. We've seen it before. And maybe we've lost some of that sense of awe and wonder of this second person of the Trinity. Well, what is common today is certainly very present in the Scriptures themselves. Very little new under the sun, isn't there? Jesus, in His ministry, was surrounded by masses of people who found Him to be rather attractive and they were following Him, our text says in verse 25. In fact, we're told that great crowds accompanied Him. Elsewhere, these crowds are numbered into the thousands. Jesus was remarkably popular to the masses. But then we find in our text something that's rather crazy. we might wonder why Jesus says what He says. It's not a great church growth formula, this message, this word that Jesus gives. He turns to the masses and says to them, if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. now children when i read that the first time and hopefully if not the first time the second time you might have been surprised by what jesus calls us to do isn't it surprising what you see there in verse 26 this isn't the way jesus talks this call to hate what is he doing what does he mean He brings this Word into this very familiar people to a congregation of disciples and followers who knew Him, who heard His teaching, and He wants to make sure that they understand what He's calling them to do in His preaching and teaching. He doesn't want mere familiarity. He's calling for a radical allegiance to him. But before we look at that together, let's notice that this manner and ministry and message of Jesus is rather common to the Gospels. This isn't unique to Jesus, this surprising approach that he has. And so first, let's take a look at the surprising manner of Jesus. And then second, you'll see in your outline the surprising ministry of Jesus. Following that, His message, and lastly, His mission. First of all, notice this manner of Jesus. It's a surprising, confrontational, bold approach to teaching and preaching that Jesus gives. This isn't Jesus meek and mild when He turns to the masses and gives them this surprising word. And yet at the same time, it's not unique to the manner of Jesus' ministry. We hear early on, for example, in Matthew 7, when Jesus on the Sermon of the Mount delivers this remarkable sermon and message to the people, and we find that the crowds were amazed by His authority. They stood back amazed, surprised at the authority that Jesus brought with his teaching. The crowds were surprised by his authority. The church leaders, they were surprised by his audacity. The Pharisees and the scribes and the theologians of the day, when they heard Jesus preaching and teaching, they stood back and couldn't believe the audacity He had to challenge their interpretation of Scripture. Their understanding of what it meant to live a God-fearing life. Their interpretation and application of the law of God. Their anticipation of a Messiah. Jesus challenged it with an audacity and a boldness that surprised everyone who heard. The crowds and his authority, the church leaders, they were surprised by his audacity. And the disciples, though certainly they would have been along with the crowds and church leaders and some of the surprise, but for them, maybe the greatest surprise was Jesus' remarkable humility. Because the disciples, more than anyone else, had eyes to see that he was the Messiah. They had eyes to believe that the message He was giving was true and that He was the promised one. And Luke's Gospel, you may remember from Sunday school, is burdened to explain how Jesus, as the promised one, is the one who's coming to fulfill all that God had foretold. The disciples, they have eyes to see this. Their faith is budding and they're able to look to Christ. And yet, rather than this One who comes with glory and power and might like maybe David or Solomon before Him, rather than a Messiah who came to free them from the Romans and reestablish the glory of the temple, what we find Jesus doing is surprising. His humility is surprising. He doesn't command the glory of a king. He doesn't clothe Himself in robes of splendor as maybe we might have expected the Messiah to do. He isn't followed by a mass of people with swords and shields and the pomp and ceremony of royalty. But Jesus, He comes with humility. He comes in the manger. Rather than the clothes of royalty, He's guard with that of a servant. Jesus' manner of ministry is no doubt surprising. We see some of that in our text. His authority, his audacity, and yet even we'll see his humility. And though we may be surprised by Jesus' manner, we find that there's more to this man. His ministry is well, very surprising. We see in his ministry a surprising devotion to God and a surprising compassion for man. His devotion to God is witnessed to early on again in his ministry when we're told that he grew in wisdom and understanding. Even at these young years, this small boy grew in wisdom and understanding of the Scriptures, of the Word of God. This 12-year-old is in the temple teaching along with the theologians. He's devoting himself even then to growing in the wisdom and understanding of God's Word. And we find then as he grows and takes on his public ministry that he didn't preach and teach things that he himself might have found amusing or interesting, but we are told that he spoke only what the Father had given him. Absolutely devoted to the Word of God and the truth of God in His ministry. We might think that Jesus might have been absorbed with His own glory, with His own good, with His own fame, after all the crowds are following Him. But what we find in John 17 is that near the end of His ministry, He didn't seek any of that. But rather, He says, Father, I have glorified You on earth, devoted to the glory of God, having done all that You have commanded me to do. And again, at Gethsemane, when he prays, while stricken with the fear of what would follow, prays, not my will, but Your will be done. The devotion of Christ to God is surprisingly perfect and focused. Likewise, His compassion for man. Again, He didn't seek the glory or fame of a king's court, but Jesus was humbled to feed the hungry, Heal the sick. Give sight to the blind. Raise the dead. Mourn with those who mourn. He was devoted in his ministry to God which took expression and compassion to man and the least of man, the outcast and those who could not give him anything, anything in repayment. His manner and His ministry, they're surprising and they're also sweet. If we consider the manner and ministry of Jesus, these are the things that drew the crowds to Him. That like a magnet, they were attracted to Him and wondering what He might do next or what they might get next. And we read that they followed Him and looked for Him with expectation. And yet those sweet surprises were accompanied as well with what might have been a rather bitter sound to the ear and the surprise of his message. With few exceptions, rather, up to this point, we find Luke talking about the crowds. Twenty-five times he describes the crowds as following Jesus. Twenty-five times refers to how they're flocking after Jesus. And yet, following verse 25 of our text in this surprising message, with few exceptions, all we find are these same crowds. These are the ones who call for His death. Those sweet surprises of His manner in His ministry found themselves to be challenged by the surprise of His message as exampled in verse 25 in this call to hate and sacrifice to the point where Luke shows us that Jesus' ministry changed as His message began to sink in behind deaf ears and the people wondered, is this really the Messiah we want to follow? And it's this message that is at the heart of our text. That we wouldn't merely just hear it and go on our way, but that we would step back and we would wonder, what is He saying? What is it that this Jesus wants us to do? He turns to the crowds and says to them that if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, He cannot be my disciple. A radical call to follow Jesus that brought everyone up short. A radical call to follow Jesus. Not tradition, not family, not friends. No relationship, commitment, or priority. can come between Jesus and His disciple. That's a radical message. And that's something, dear friends, that we need to wrestle over. This call to follow Jesus. Many of us here have heard it and have been following it for many years. and we become familiar and with familiarity, I wonder, do we lose the sensitivity to what Jesus is calling us to do? This radical call to follow Him. Not tradition like the Pharisees. Not to ground our hope in our own heritage or family tree. For Jesus says, I can raise up from these stones, children of Abraham. Not tradition, not family, not friends, not even our own lives or what we might produce through our lives can be something that comes between us and Christ. There are many, of course, who have softened this message. And why not? It's a hard message to receive. Some will say that this is really a first century reality where if you would follow Christ, the necessary result was that you would lose your family, you would lose your prestige, you would lose your job, and very likely you would lose your own lives. After all, the apostles lost their lives, didn't they? Others, they'll talk about this call to hate as really a contrast to how much we should love Jesus. And that may be fair if you have a study Bible in your margins. It will point you to another passage that sheds light on this one in that way. That this call to hate one another is really intended to highlight the magnitude of love and devotion we should have for Jesus. But this is not a call to hate. It's not merely a first century phenomena. And it's not even a greater call to love. This radical message, this call to follow Jesus, we find in verse 27, is a call to sacrifice even death. Jesus interprets his own words of verse 26 in verse 27. Do you see that there? He calls us to hate and then says in verse 27, maybe we could say, what I mean is, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. It just got harder. The message got more difficult, even more surprising. Jesus isn't merely calling us to a life of humility, and service. He's calling us to death. And to carry upon ourselves a cross. Symbol of suffering and shame and curse. Where is the life we've anticipated? Where is the glory that we long for? Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. This is a call to give up all things. All things. All that is near and dear. Everything that we may treasure, hope in, or boast in for Christ. Now you may wonder, maybe this is taking the text too far. Maybe we're pressing and reading into the text something that Jesus really didn't intend to say. But if we read on to the example or illustration that he goes on to share, in verse 28 and following, we'll find that our interpretation is confirmed and that Jesus presses it even further. And verse 33, so therefore, if any one of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. That's the cost. That's the cost we're called to consider. That's the cost we're called to weigh. That's what Jesus wants those who follow him to understand. Look, if you follow me, what you are necessarily going to do is to give up all that is near and dear. To take upon yourself a cross of suffering and shame. To give up everything in order to have Christ. What began as a radical call to follow Him develops into a message of sacrifice and escalates then into a radically Christ-centered understanding of life. A radically Christ-centered understanding of life such that we are glad to give up all that we have, all that we know, all that is near and dear, everything we may treasure, hope, or boast in in order to have Christ and Christ alone. And isn't this really the message of all of Scripture? Isn't this teaching of Jesus in harmony with everything we read from Genesis to Revelation? What we find as we read through God's Word is that God's law comes and strips us bare of everything that we might hold dear. God's law comes and strips us bare of everything we may feel capable of doing. Of every relationship we might be tempted to leverage. Of every hope we might finally fix our faith upon. God's law comes and strips us bare of all of it. Until we are left with Him, with Him and His mercy alone. That's the function of God's law. That is the voice we hear as we read through the Scriptures. God's Word calling sinners to repent of themselves and any other crutch or security they might have tucked away for the future in order that they might be brought humbly before His throne. Left with Him and His mercy alone. And that mercy, that mercy is what brings us into our fourth and final point. The mercy that is secured by the victorious mission of Christ. While we may be surprised by the manner of Christ and the ministry and message of Christ. By far the greatest surprise of all as we've read through the Gospels with fresh eyes and open ears is this mission of Christ to personally fulfill all that He commanded us to do. You see, Jesus is not merely a better Moses. He didn't bring merely a better law. He didn't just call us to give up our lives and bear our own cross. You see, the law He preached, the sacrifice He demands in our text, He personally fulfills. You see, the story doesn't end in verse 14, does it? We keep reading about the manner and ministry and message of Christ and our eyes begin to be opened with the reality of His mission and that this preacher came to personally fulfill everything that He commanded us to do. And that is His Gospel. That is the Gospel that Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God. How in his mission, his life, his death, and resurrection, he would be the one to save sinners, as the angels said in giving his name. He would be the one to bear the cursed death he called us as sinners to carry, as signified in his own baptism. He would be the one to live out a life of perfect love and fidelity to God and confrontation against evil as he preached in the Sermon on the Mount. In his life, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the whole of God's law. And in his death, Jesus satisfied, perfectly, finally satisfied the justice of God and wiped away the curse pronounced back in Genesis 3. In His life, in His death, and finally in His resurrection and victorious completion of His mission, we see Jesus devoted to fulfill. To fulfill the will of God. He doesn't leave us with a hope that's in the grave. He doesn't leave us in that sense with a dead hope. But in His resurrection, He declares to us and to all who believe that there's hope beyond the grave and that there's more to this life than the inevitable death that is to come. In His resurrection, Jesus declares to all that there is a hope coming and a glory that will far exceed even our greatest hope, aspirations, or expectations. secured by his successful and surprising mission. Luther very helpfully drives us to read the Gospels just in this way. He writes, if you want to understand the Gospels, when reading them, before looking to Christ as your example, first look to Christ as your gift. When reading about His life, His teaching, and His service to the poor, and when reading about His death, read it as if you were the one serving the poor and dying yourselves. As if, he says, you were Christ Himself. Friends, once we come to understand this gospel of Jesus Christ, Once our minds begin to be transformed to the reality that Jesus Christ Himself perfectly fulfilled all that He commanded, all that God requires, then and only then can we come to be those empowered to live a life of loving sacrifice and devotion to God with compassion to our neighbors, even if it requires us to die. Because there's life after the grave. What did Paul say? For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our grandma turned 100 years old a couple weeks ago. And when you live 100 years, you say goodbye to a lot of things. a lot of friends, a lot of family. And in talking to her, I found that you also say goodbye to a lot of yourself. And oftentimes you find yourself laying alone in bed at night, laying alone in bed at night, wondering, might this be the day? But you see, if we have this understanding of the Gospel, we can lay in bed knowing we're not alone. Knowing we're not alone because when we come to the point where everything in life has been stripped away from us and that we are looking to Christ, we can know that then we have Christ and we have Christ alone who said, I will never leave you or forsake you even to the end of the age. And we can know this because though no relationship or commitment or duty could serve as a bridge between us and Christ what God gives can and that's faith we can know this when laying in our bed and facing our worst fears we can know that we have Christ and the glory of everlasting life because we believe in Him and have received Him and so friends when we reach that day when we stand before the judge and we're asked to give an account of our lives what cross what cross will we point to will we point to the cross of Luke 14 verse 26 or will we point to the cross of Christ? To the cross of Christ and that life and death and resurrection that we now got, that Jesus we got by faith. Let that be our hope. Let that be our confidence. And in that strength and in that power, let us then be those who go out with zeal and joy and gladness to give up whatever He wants us to give for the glory of God and the good of His people. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we do thank You for the truths of Your Word. We thank You especially for Your incarnate Word. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. help us in our weakness and in our frailty and our limited understanding to understand that your call to us is to believe in Christ alone. And in the strength that you supply then, dear Father, assure us of everlasting life and strengthen us to live a life of loving sacrifice until he returns. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.