Free but not Cheap

It is often said that "The best things in life are free."

What are the best things in your life? ...are they free?

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The following section has been used in Sermon S018

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When my wife and I had been married for three years we had our first baby, ...we called him Christopher. I remember the first time that I took him into my arms, and I was overwhelmed with this precious gift that God had given us. I now had a son, ...and he was infinitely more valuable than my house, or car, or anything else that I owned ...yet he was free.

But I was soon to learn that free gifts can be very costly!

To start with there were financial demands. My wife had given up a good job as a teacher, and so we had one less salary coming in. And then there was all the equipment we needed to buy... and bottles, and nappies, and creams, and things I had never dreamt of.

And then there was demands on our time. My wife and I used to enjoy going out together... but Christopher soon put a stop to that. We also enjoyed lying in bed on a Saturday morning, and he put a stop to that too, ...and to lying in bed during the middle of the night! We walked round half dazed during the first few weeks, ...and it seemed that everything we did was driven by Christopher.

And there was also demands upon our emotions ...we worried about him. We did this even more with our second child, Emily. When she was a baby, she had a series of minor problems.

- she was born with a small hole in her back;

- she was born tongue tied;

- she had bad eczema;

- she was nearly always full of cold;

- she wouldn't bear down on her legs;

- she developed very slowly for her age;

... and the list went on.

We worried if everything was going to turn out all right. And when any of our children have been ill, ...or bullied at school, ...or faced any other sort of suffering, ...we have felt their pain. And we would have gladly endured it on their behalf, ...but of course we couldn't, and we have felt helpless.

The best things in life might be free, but they are also very costly.

If someone were to ask me, "How much did you pay for your children?" ...I might reply "Absolutely nothing - they were a free gift!"... But there again, I might reply, "They have cost me everything - more than I ever imagined!" ...And both answers would be right!

And the same is true with the Christian life. We receive eternal life from God as a free gift ...and yet being a disciple of Jesus is meant to cost us everything.

The Kingdom of God is free ...but it is not cheap!

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End of section used in Sermon S018

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This paradox is described in Luke chapter 14. On one hand we have the parable of the great feast, which we have just had read to us.

Jesus is eating at the house of a prominent Pharisee, when he tells a parable about the Kingdom of God.

A man was preparing a great banquet and had invited many guests. The guests would have already received, and accepted, an earlier invitation; but it was customary for a servant to tell people when the meal was ready. But when the servant contacted them... they all had an excuse why they could no longer come.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? ...I know I have. Someone's invited you to something, and you don't want to go. But you don't want to offend them, so you say that you'll come ...and then you wish you hadn't ...But fortunately, on the day itself, you have at least five good reasons why you can't come after all!

So the banquet is all prepared, and nobody turns up. How embarrassing!

When the master hears about it he orders his servants to invite the outcasts from the town; and then he spreads the net even wider, and invites those from the surrounding countryside.

So what does this parable tell us about the Kingdom of God?

Well, in its original context Jesus was warning the Jews about the danger of rejecting God's invitation. The Jews were God's chosen people ...they had been invited to God's banquet and had previously accepted. And now everything was ready ...and God had sent his servant, Jesus, to tell everyone. But the Jews were now in danger of rejecting Jesus, and of missing out on the heavenly banquet. And so God was about to invite other people instead... the outcasts ...and to spread the net wider, even to the Gentiles. And yet these are the very people whom the Jews thought would be excluded from God's kingdom.

And it reminds us today, that we enter the Kingdom of God by invitation only. The heavenly banquet is a genuinely free gift, which is provided by an extremely generous God. It reminds us that none of us deserve eternal life ...that we can't earn our way to heaven, (whether by trying to live a good life, or by coming to church). We are saved by grace alone ...and that we can never repay God for his wonderful free gift.

"The best things in life are free" ...but they can also be very costly. And so we now look at the other side of this paradox which is described in Luke chapter 14. Here we find that the parable of the great feast, in verses 15-24 is immediately followed by Jesus's teaching about the cost of being a disciple. We shall now read this together.

A dramatised reading of Lk. 14.25-33.

The Kingdom of God is free ...but it is not cheap!

(pause)

Just like with my children, we receive eternal life as a free gift ...and yet being a disciple of Jesus costs us everything.

(pause)

We read that the large crowds were travelling with Jesus. They were probably full of enthusiasm, thinking that his journey to Jerusalem was the victory march of the Messiah. But Jesus has no such allusions, and he talks about the great cost of discipleship.

First, in verse 26, he says:

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother ...wife and children ...brothers and sisters ...yes, and even life itself, ...[he] cannot be my disciple."

What did Jesus mean by this? ...Is he really telling us to hate those whom we love?

Well helps if we understand the way in which Jews spoke in Jesus' day. They used to express things in very black and white terms. We might say, "I prefer butter to margarine"; but first century Jew might express the same thing by saying, "I love butter, ...but hate margarine". It's just the way they spoke then. (Caird - Saint Luke)

So when Jesus says, "Whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, cannot be my disciple"; he means, "You cannot be my disciple unless you give second place to your family" (Gooding - According to Luke).

One of my Church placements at college was at the Asian Christian Fellowship in Hyson Green, and about a year ago I heard their pastor, Rehmat Paul, give his testimony. Before he became a Christian, Rehmat was a Muslim priest, ...and he knew that if he was to become a Christian he would be totally rejected by his family and friends. Nevertheless, he decided to put his family and friends in second place, and to become a disciple of Jesus ...And when his father and brothers found out, they came round and beat him up.

As a disciple of Jesus, we are to love him above all others.

Then, in verse 27, Jesus says:

"Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."

Here Jesus is talking about suffering for being a disciple. He is not talking about suffering in general, ...but about suffering for being a Christian.

We must carry the cross. In Jesus day crucifixion was a means of execution which was extremely slow and painful. Many other forms of execution are comparatively humane; but when someone was crucified they would suffer agonising pain for hours on end.

They would also suffer great humiliation. They would often be made to carry their cross through the streets of the city ...as a warning to others. And there they could be mocked and jeered.

Jesus suffered pain and humiliation for us, ...and as his disciples we can expect the same treatment.

And finally, in verse 33, Jesus says:

"...none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Once again this is a very black and white statement, but other parts of the New Testament imply that it is not wrong for Christians to own personal possessions, (Acts 5).

There is, however, a very real sense in which we do all need to give up all our possessions. We need to acknowledge as Christians that we are nothing but stewards of the blessings that God has given us.

It's all tied up with our attitude towards things. Do we look upon them as being ours, or do we look upon them as belonging to God ...and we are simply looking after them for a while. And are we prepared to give them back if called upon?

Often a good test is how we respond when they are taken away, (perhaps stolen or vandalised). Are we devastated? Does our whole world crumble?

"...none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Christian discipleship is never to be undertaken lightly. In fact Jesus warns people about the foolishness of starting something that they are unable to finish. "Suppose you want to build a tower", he says "wouldn't you first sit down and count the cost, and make sure that you have enough money? ...If you don't, and you lay the foundations and then run out of money, you'll become a laughing stock."

Similarly, before becoming disciples of Jesus we should sit down and count the cost:

- am I prepared to love Jesus more than anyone else?

- am I prepared to suffer humiliation and pain?

- am I prepared to give up everything that I own?

The Kingdom of God is free ...but it is not cheap.

As with many things in the Christian life there are two wrong attitudes which we need to avoid, but I for one find it hard to steer a middle course. I find myself veering off either to the left or to the right.

The first error is that I forget that salvation is a free gift.

Many people today wrongly believe that they will get to heaven by living a good life ...or by being religious and going to church. Nothing is further from the truth. Salvation is a free gift ...we enter the heavenly banquet by simply accepting Christ's invitation. Yet even though I know this, I can act as if it wasn't true.

I can drive ourselves to extreme business in the church. I can be so busy doing things for Christ, that I end up having no time for Him.

And I sometimes suffer from what someone has called, "the hardening of the oughteries". I can spend a lot of my time feeling guilty about the things that I ought to be doing: "I ought to do this... and I ought to do that...".

And I can be very legalistic about things.

If you are like me in this respect, then we need to keep reminding ourselves that we have received eternal life not because of anything that we have done, or anything that we will do ...but because of what Christ has done. Salvation is a free gift.

The second error is that I forget about the cost of discipleship.

At times I have refused to stand up for Christ among my relatives and colleagues at work. Some people knew that I was a Christian, but others didn't. I was more concerned with what others thought of me, than of what God thought of me.

At other times I have refused to do things that I felt that God was calling me to, because I knew that it would be costly, and I wasn't prepared to make the sacrifice.

If you are like me in this respect, then we need to keep reminding ourselves that being a disciple of Jesus is meant to be a costly business ...it might cost us everything we have.

The Kingdom of God is free ...but it is not cheap.

I am going to finish by saying two prayers, but I am going to invite you to pray just one of them.

In a minutes silence I would like you to think about which extreme you might be tending towards at the moment. Do you need to be reminded that salvation is a free gift ...or do you need to be reminded that discipleship is costly. If you are like me, then from time to time you will need to be reminded of both ...but let us choose the one which is most appropriate at the moment.

We will be silent for one minute and then I will pray.

This is a prayer for those who most need to be reminded that salvation is a free gift.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus as your free gift to us. Thank you that through his death and resurrection you have invited us to your heavenly banquet. Help us to remember that we are saved by grace alone, and not through anything that we have done. And may the activity in our daily lives reflect this truth.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

This is a prayer for those who most need to be reminded about the cost of discipleship.

Lord God, your Son taught us that it would be costly to follow Him. Give us grace:

- to love you more than anyone else;

- to suffer humiliation and pain; and,

- to give up everything that I own.

We need your help Lord, for we cannot do it on our own.

In Jesus name, Amen.