Luke 14 Round Two: The Cost of Being a Disciple

A crowded Pharisee’s house. Watchful eyes. A suffering man. That’s where Luke 14 begins—and where our assumptions about religion, status, and comfort start to unravel. We follow Jesus as he heals on the Sabbath, not to provoke but to restore the true meaning of rest: trusting God while letting mercy move toward real need. From there, the room’s quiet power games come into focus as people angle for honor. Jesus flips the script with a simple practice—choose the low seat—and then points the host toward a better guest list: invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Hospitality becomes worship when it’s aimed at those who can’t repay.

We dig into the parable of the great banquet, where good excuses crowd out the best invitation. Property, work, and relationships are good gifts, but they make poor masters. The master’s response is startling: widen the invitation until the house is full. That expansive grace challenges our rhythms and our priorities. Along the way, we share a story of hidden generosity that captures the secret joy of blessing someone who can’t bless you back—an act that narrows the audience to One and turns an ordinary moment into an altar.

Then comes the sharp edge: Jesus calls for love that outruns every other loyalty, a life that counts the cost before building, and the daily courage to carry a cross. Partial surrender creates inner conflict; wholehearted surrender creates freedom. We talk about why “Jesus is Lord of all or not at all” is not a slogan but a pathway into a larger life—one where humility, mercy, and costly obedience make us salty again. If you’re wrestling with excuses, longing for purpose, or ready to trade control for deeper joy, this conversation will meet you at the table and lead you to the feast. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people discover the journey.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing Luke’s Investigation
• 2:55 Sabbath Healing and Honest Rest
• 4:53 Seats of Honor and Humility
• 7:25 Invite Those Who Can’t Repay
• 9:58 The Great Banquet and Excuses
• 13:25 Secret Generosity and True Reward
• 15:35 Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the Biblebreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to your journey through the Gospel of Luke. Today, Luke chapter 14. And remember, as always, we are looking at this idea of the Holy Spirit inspiring a guy named Luke, who was by profession a doctor, but he was commissioned by someone named Theopolis, likely a high-ranking Roman official, to go into the Judean countryside and to investigate the claims that have been made about Jesus. Now, Luke was already a believer. He was a traveling companion of Paul, which makes a lot of sense because Paul was getting beat up everywhere he went. So it would make sense that his traveling companion would be a doctor to constantly patch him up. But what's amazing is he goes and he investigates the claims made about Jesus, likely from hearing the sermons of Peter or Paul, and then writing back to Theopolis. And we know that it actually wasn't Theopolis that commissioned Luke, it was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit commissioned Luke through Theopolis because this was inspired by the Lord to give a chronological account of the life of Jesus. That's why you hear, if you've been reading with us along the way, you hear different pieces that was found in the other gospels. We just got through reading, you know, the past two to three chapters, a lot of what you can find in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount, you can hear those things because that was one of the main messages that Jesus would preach. And Luke is sharing with us that it was that this point in Jesus' ministry when he would talk about such things. And I love the idea of Luke going and investigating the claims and the healings of Jesus during the lifetime of these people and how easy it would be to refute and say, no, no, no, you know, it wasn't Zacchaeus and it wasn't in a tree, it wasn't none of that. But those things weren't able to be, you know, played downplayed because it was true. And he has he has the receipts to prove it when he's writing back to Theopolis. And I wondered today who Luke would have interviewed to come up with Luke chapter 14. You know, it's going to talk about how Jesus went to the home of a Pharisee, which is, I love this idea because remember, Pharisees were the enemies of Jesus. They hated Jesus, they hated what he was saying. And so they may have hated Jesus, but Jesus didn't hate them back. Now he had a lot of sincere and cutting things to say about these Pharisees because of how they were treating God's people, but he still loved them, even if he didn't mind telling them the truth. And we can see that by the fact that he went and he ate with them. He was trying to reach them as well. And so I just wonder, because the Bible says that most of this chapter is from that encounter at the Pharisee's house. I wonder if it was maybe one of the Pharisees that invited him to their home. And maybe now this Pharisee is a Christian and he's telling about this, or maybe it was one of the disciples, or maybe it was one of the people serving everybody else. I don't know. You can use your imagination because the Bible simply doesn't say, but I want us to read this together and kind of imagine sitting around the table with Luke. And Luke is hearing this firsthand, maybe he's writing it down as he goes. And I just I love that idea as we get into this and we read. And what really catches me the most, and that's what I want us to pay attention to today, is the last section of Luke chapter 14. He's going to talk about the cost of being a disciple. So if you got your NLT Bibles ready, you got your coffee ready, we're going to read this together and let's see what the Lord has to say to us today in Luke chapter 14. Here we go, verse 1. One Sabbath day, Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arm and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and the experts of religious law, is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day or not? When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and said, Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath? If your son or if a cow falls into a pit, don't you rush and get him out? And again, they couldn't answer. Pause for a moment. So once again, Jesus is calling out their hypocrisy because God had instituted the Sabbath day. It's amazing to think about. You go back to the book of Exodus. He had set a nation of Israel, a slave nation, free. And he one of the first things he lays down to this slave nation is you need to rest. You need to work, but you also need to rest. The Sabbath was intended to be a day of trusting in the Lord. That I'm going to take one day out of seven and I'm going to spend time with the Lord, and I'm going to rest, and then God is going to multiply my efforts in the next six. So it was meant to be a good thing. But what the Pharisees had done is they had taken something that God intended to be good and made it a law, made it something that took the life out of it. And that's what Jesus is saying. Here we go, verse 7. When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them some advice. When you're invited to the wedding feast, don't sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited? Then the host will come and say, Give this person your seat. Then you'll be embarrassed, and you will have to take whatever seat is left at the foot of the table. Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. And then when your host sees you, he will come and say, Friend, you have a better place. We have a better place for you. Then you will be honored in front of all the other guests. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Then he turned to the host. They will invite you back, and that will be your reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you. Now pause. We see this in other places in the Bible where Jesus is constantly inviting us to get outside of our comfort zone, to do things for other people because we know that our reward doesn't come from them, it comes from Him. And if you think about it, it doesn't make any sense to help people who can't help you back unless you know that you're not doing it just for them. You're doing it as an act of worship to the Lord. And you know that the Lord will take care of you above everything else. And so it really takes your audience down from everybody around you to an audience of one. Then when you do whatever it is you do for the Lord, then nothing you do is ever in vain. I think that's amazing. That's awesome. It adds value to every single thing you do. It's great. All right, here we go. Verse 15. Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, What a blessing it will be to attend the banquet in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied with a story. A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to tell the guests, Come, the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses. One said, I have just bought a field and I must inspect it. Please excuse me. Another said, I have just bought five pairs of oxen and I want to try them out. Please excuse me. Another said, I just got married and I can't come. The servant returned and told the master what had they had said. The master was furious and said, Go quickly into the streets and the alleys of the towns and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. After the servant had done this, he reported, there's still room for more. So he said, Go into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge everyone you can find to come so that my house will be full, for none of those who I invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet. Once again, Jesus doubles down on this idea of not just giving to those who can give back, but to give to those who can't give back. I tell you, I've learned in my own life that it is wonderful to bless your friends. Isn't it great? It's wonderful. And there's there's that slight bit of, you know, I'm I don't want anything in return, but there is this idea that if I'm generous to them, then they're gonna be generous to me in time, right? That that of course, you know what the best blessing is? Is when you bless someone who cannot bless you back. You bless someone in a secret. Let me let me give you a like a quick rabbit trail, as they would say. One time, a long time ago, my wife and I were coming back from a trip and we had an opportunity to stop somewhere and get something to eat. And while we were there, it was late at night, and in this restaurant, there was a pregnant lady who was serving the tables, and we just wanted to talk into her, and she was a sweet lady, and she was working a lot of extra shifts in order to get ready for this new baby. And someone had just got through giving us a financial gift. And my wife looks at me and she said, Brandon, what if we added that to the tip and we blessed this lady? And I was like, Man, that would be amazing, that would be awesome. This lady doesn't know us, we can give her this gift and we can go. So, what we actually did was is when she walked away, we wrote, you know, down the amount of our tip and we quickly left. So she couldn't, you know, she wouldn't be able to say anything to us. And you want to talk about feeling like Christmas morning. We were so excited that we hid, you know, around in our in our car and we hid and we looked to see when she was gonna find the the ticket to see how much money we had left her as a tip. And when she looked at that, she looked up, she looked around, and when she didn't see us, she just sat back down again, and we could see her just starting to wipe tears. And can I tell you, no matter how blessed she might have been, it wasn't even a little about of the amount that we were blessed. It was so exciting to be able to bless someone like that. And what was even more amazing is it it was even more because it was a complete, total act of worship to the Lord. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's saying, You want to know what it's like to truly be blessed? Bless people who can't bless you back. Okay, that's kind of a side trail. Let's get back on and let's finish it up. Verse 25, we're gonna finish this up. The Bible says a large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around to them and said, If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else. Your father, your mother, your wife, your children, brothers, sisters, yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin a construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and everyone would laugh at you. They would say, There's a person who started the building and couldn't afford to finish it. Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat 20,000 soldiers marching against him. And if he can't, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become a disciple without giving up everything you own. Salt is good for seasoning, but if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone who has ears should listen and understand. So what did Jesus say when he finished this? Well, can I tell you he said the exact opposite of what many of us in the church world say today? Many of us will share the gospel with someone, share with them the love of God, and then say, Man, come to Jesus and we'll figure out the rest from there. Can I tell you, I'm ashamed to say, I've said that before on stages. I didn't say it with any, you know, any idea to deceive anyone, but it's the idea that, man, if I can just help you see how much God loves you, man, you don't need to worry about the rest. Can I tell you that's not at all what Jesus says? Jesus says he has a plan for your life, but at the same time, he says you gotta understand following me is gonna cost you everything. Jesus is either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. Can I tell you that early in my relationship with God, the reason why I struggle with my relationship with God is because I wanted God to have 90%. I still wanted to keep like 10%. I wanted to have some of my habits I didn't want to give up. I wanted to be able to call my shots. I didn't, I didn't want to, you know, seek God in everything. I was good with Sundays, I was good with other times, but you know, I still had my own way I wanted to do things. I'd asked God to kind of bless what I was already up to. Can I tell you it was horrible? But then one day when I went all in and I was like, you know what? I Jesus, you're gonna be my Lord. I'm gonna follow you. And compared to everybody else, it's gonna look like I hate them compared to how much I love you. That's when my life changed. That's what that's that whole idea. And we even get used to the idea that verse 27, Jesus said, if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. Well, we get used to the idea of what a cross is. Now, a cross is, you know, where Jesus died. But the cross was brutal, the cross was torture. They actually, the word excruciating was a term that was invented to describe what someone goes through when they're being crucified. That's how horrible that is. And Jesus says, those who you who aren't willing to carry your cross, other words, you're not willing to lay down and die, no matter how painful it is, and die to yourself and to follow me, you cannot be my disciple. It's just not gonna work. It's just simply not gonna work. And I love that because Jesus is honest. He tells us, it's gonna be the worst battle of your life because we don't like giving up control. And you know, I want to tell you on the other side though, the more control I give to the Lord, the more freedom I experience. God doesn't take away anything from me other than my sin and my brokenness. He gives me life, he gives me purpose, he gives me hope. He actually gives me all of my dreams, but in the process, he he helps me change my dreams to what I really want. And it's it's amazing to realize that he requires us to give him everything only to find out later. He gives us so much more than we could ever imagine. But first, we have to be willing to come and die. And so, to be honest with you, I think Jesus would disagree with a lot of the ways that we talk about salvation today. Because where we say, just come give your life to Jesus and everything will be okay, and come give your life to Jesus, and we'll worry about the rest later. Jesus actually says, stop, count the cost, and make a decision. Because just either all in or it's not gonna work. I have the most miserable person I know is someone who claims to be a Christian but doesn't live like it. Because they know what's right, they know what's wrong, and they don't like it. But the person who goes all in, who really does think about it, am I willing to commit my life to Jesus? Those are the people who truly get set free. So I'm gonna ask you this question today. Have you truly given everything over to Jesus? 99 and a half won't do. Have you truly made Jesus Lord? If you have, then what you're gonna experience is life. Life of overflowing in abundance. But I'm gonna tell you something. If you find yourself as a Christ follower being miserable, then I don't know your story, but something that I would highly recommend you look at is have you given him only 90%? 99%? What if you even today, as soon as you turn off this recording, you just say, Jesus, I want to go all in with you. I want to make you the Lord of my life completely, counting the cost, and if it cost me everything, I'm gonna go all in with you. Can I tell you that's a bold prayer, but it's also the most freeing prayer you can pray? Because I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, I'm gonna go ahead and let you get it, sneak behind the curtain. When you give Jesus everything, you discover that he is more than what you could need. He actually gives you dreams that you never even knew you needed. And you go, Yes, that's what I've been trying to think of all my life. That's what I've been trying to do. He has all the answers for questions you don't even have yet. But you got to give him everything first. It's one thing to know about the love of God, quite another to experience the love of God for yourself. So let me pray for you, and then we'll end together. Father, thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy. I pray that you will make yourself real to us every day. Open our eyes to see your goodness, and we celebrate you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, God bless you. I love you. I'll see you next time for Luke chapter 15.