LUKE 14.25-33
COUNT THE COST

The Lord Jesus was not a salesman. He never tried to sell Christianity. He never asked people to follow Him by telling them only the benefits they would get. On the contrary, He often told them about the difficulties and the hardships they would experience as disciples, and He encouraged them to think carefully about the consequences of following Him.
Two parables in the gospel of Luke put the question of cost in the context of discipleship. It is the twin parables of the man who wanted to build a tower and the king who wanted to go to war. They are only found in Luke in a passage that is often entitled ‘the cost of discipleship.’ Luke 14.25-33.

Luke 14.25. Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
26 “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.
27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 “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 —
29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.