The Mystery

Luke 14:28-35

As promised, today is Mystery Sunday! So just what is Mystery Sunday? You shall soon find out. In preparation for the answer, I want to look at the end of Luke 14 as well as a few other verses that explain what this is all about. In our passage last week, the first part of Luke 14, we ended with the following verses:

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: "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. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. – Luke 14:25-27

We talked about last week how dying to self is really a non-optional part of the Christian life. But carrying your cross is about more than dying – it is also about living, as the next several verses show.


"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.' – Luke 14:28-30

You may have noticed that between last week and this week, a guard rail has been installed around part of the upper parking area. This has been planned for a while – we have wanted to do this in part because several times over the past several years we have had drivers completely fail to notice the stop sign on the other side of the highway, and the drivers fly across the highway, into our driveway, and down the embankment. The last time this happened, the driver completely took out our stairs, as well as grazing a utility pole. The time before this, the shed was taken out. It has been a miracle that no one has been killed – the vehicles easily could have flipped over. We will be adding more reflectors to the guardrail so as to hopefully make it so visible from the other side of the street that we will not have a repeat of these events.

What was the first step in getting this guardrail? It was to get price quotes. How did a person who wanted to do the work make his quote? Did he just pull a number out of the air? No, he sat down and estimated the cost. Did we agree to have the guard rail installed without seeing one of these quotes? No, of course not – we ourselves had to count the cost to be sure we could afford it.

"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 ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 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. – Luke 14:31-33

Jesus goes on to give the example of counting the cost before entering into war. And then He comes to His point – giving up everything. In Greek the word is apotasso, which means to say “goodbye” to something. What do we say goodbye to? You may think of possessions, or perhaps sinful habits, and I am sure this is part of what Jesus is talking about. But I think there is something else – consider the next verses:

"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." – Luke 14:34-35

The Israelites got their salt from the Dead Sea. As water evaporated, salt deposits could be found along the seashore. Do you think the salt was pure? No – it was mixed with sand. Now, if the sand is heavier than the salt and your store both in a container like a salt shaker, the salt will rise towards the top. After a while, the salt will be used up, and what you will really have is a sand- shaker, not a saltshaker. If sand was mostly in your saltshaker, you would throw the sand out too.

What does salt do to food? It preserves it. We could talk about many other possible meanings of what Jesus means by comparing disciples to salt, but I want to focus on this one. Meat stored without salt quickly spoils and is itself thrown out, but meat preserved with salt can be stored for a very long time. We disciples have a job to do beyond just dieing to self – we are to live as saltshakers – God’s desire and plan for our lives is that we be preservers of life. There is a dieing world out there – people who need preserving. But how do we do this? The Bible calls this a great mystery – hence the name, Mystery Sunday. Consider these verses:

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. – Eph. 6:19-20

The mystery is the mystery of the gospel. It is not something people figure out on their own! None of the world’s many man-made religions have figured out anything remotely like the gospel. We – every one of us – are to be salt – preservers of life. We do this by revealing this great mystery to all who will allow us. We are to say goodbye to our lives lived for ourselves and hello to lives lived as ambassadors of the gospel.

What is the difference between the church in the west, which is hardly growing, and the church in the east, especially China and India, where it is growing like wildfire? I think we could find a variety of differences, but perhaps at the most basic level, the difference is that the church in the east by and large continually shares the gospel, whereas the church in the west does not.

This is true for the western church as a whole, but there are of course exceptions. One of the largest sister churches in our association of churches is Evergreen in Minneapolis, a church that meets in 5 locations. Evergreen recently had a 20th anniversary celebration, and at the celebration ceremony one of the pastors asked those to stand who had come to Christ through the ministry of the church. About half of the people stood up! Isn’t that awesome? Then he asked everyone to stand who had shared the gospel in the last 12 months--and almost the entire congregation stood up. This is my prayer and my desire for us. Now, I wouldn’t ask this of us if I didn’t believe that we could do this. I want to briefly mention 3 things that should encourage you as you contemplate sharing the gospel. Let’s look at this passage again:

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. – Eph. 6:19-20

The first encouragement is this: If we pray, God will help us with the words. This is a huge relief! And the second encouragement is this: If we pray, God will help us to overcome our fear.

I have become its [the church’s] servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me. – Col. 1:25-29

The third encouragement is this: God desires to make Himself known through us. And the fourth encouragement is this: God gives us energy and power to share the gospel.

I have one last verse:

"Come, follow Me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." – Matt. 4:19.

How many of you have ever gone fishing and caught a fish? I still remember the first time I caught a fish – it was while backpacking in the Sierra Mountains in California with my father when I was about seven years old. I remember the feel of the sudden strong tug on my line, the bouncing and jiggling of the line as I began to reel it in, the splashing of the fish as it briefly jumped out of the water, the reeling it in the last few yards, and then, with help, the bringing it in to shore. By the time it was over, I was shaking from head to toe, I was so filled with adrenaline. It was tremendous! God calls us to be fishers of men – as exciting as fishing for fish is, fishing for people makes fishing for fish look like going to the dentist in comparison. To be used of God to change someone’s eternity – there is simply nothing on this earth that is more exciting or more rewarding.

And so what we are going to do today, on Mystery Sunday, is practice sharing the gospel on each other! First, my awesome co-pastor, Fred Custer, is going to come up here and show us how it is done. You see, I have been a little confused about the gospel recently, and Fred is going to come up here and set me straight. (Well, not exactly…, but he is going to demonstrate some things about sharing the gospel with someone.) After I get “saved,” however that works, it will be your turn! We will break into groups of four, and in each group, one person should choose to be the person who shares the gospel, and one should be the one to whom the gospel is shared. If you are not quite sure what I mean by the gospel, or if you are particularly afraid, volunteer to be the person spoken to. In each group of 4, the other two people are helpers of the one sharing the gospel. At any time they can add something or make suggestions. For those of you who are being shared to, think of good questions to ask along the way – not evasive questions, but genuine questions or concerns a seeker might have. If your group gets “stuck,” don’t worry – Fred and I will be moving around from group to group offering suggestions when this happens. Now, we have made some copies of the Navigators’ guide to sharing the gospel. You are welcome to work off of this, and I would encourage you to do this if you feel unsure of how to proceed. All right, Fred, come on up and save me!