Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, February 8, 2015 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister MESSAGE 5 in Counting The Cost Sermon Series The Obstacles To True Discipleship Luke 9:57-62 (NKJV) Today as we continue with our series of messages on Counting The Cost I would like for you to please turn with me in your Bibles to the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And let's read verses 57-62. Luke 9:57-62 (NKJV) 57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. 58 And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. 59 Then He said to another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. 60 Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. 62 But Jesus said to him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. P R A Y E R
I n t r o d u c t i o n When you carefully study the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, two things are crystal clear. For one thing, Jesus never turned away anyone who truly wanted to follow Him. In John 6:37 (NKJV) Jesus said... All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. But the other thing that is very evident is that JESUS didn't try to solicit a huge crowd of followers. Simply put, Jesus didn't want every Tom...Dick...and Harry following Him around. He wasn't out to get anybody and everybody just to swell the number of His disciples. On several occasions in the Gospels we read where Jesus weeded out the half-hearted, insincere followers from those who truly wanted to follow Him. Now how did Jesus do this? Did He sternly say, Now listen up all you half- hearted, insincere people, I don't need you hanging around here, now just get on out of here and go home! No, that's not what Jesus did.
Any time Jesus needed to weed out the half-hearted and insincere, He would simply lay down His terms of discipleship. In essence, Jesus would say, Ok, you say you want to follow Me, here are the conditions. Those conditions...those standards became huge obstacles to those who wanted to follow Jesus on their own terms, rather than His. ***************************** In our text, Luke introduces us to three men who were following along with Jesus one day as He traveled down a certain road. Let's think of these three men as job applicants who are applying for the position of a disciple. APPLICANT 1: seems very EAGER and AMIBITIOUS: v. 57 Lord, I will follow You wherever You go! APPLICANT 2: seems to have a strong sense of DUTY and RESPONSIBILITY: v. 59 Lord, first let me go and bury my father. APPLICANT 3 : seems like a LOYAL and DEVOTED family man: v.61 Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.
On the surface, all three of these men have noble and honorable virtues that everyone of us can respect and appreciate. And if it were up to us to decide, we would probably hire all three of these men to be disciples. But you see Jesus, who could read their minds and He knew their hearts. He knew that these seemingly noble human qualities were in fact OBSTACLES that would keep each of these men from whole-heartedly following Him. Let's take a closer look at these three men and the obstacles that stood in their way of becoming true disciples. ************************************************************ The first would-be disciple struggled with... I. The Obstacle of SHOWMANSHIP (vs.57-58) 57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. 58 And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. 1. If someone were to come forward at the invitation this morning and said, I have decided I want to follow JESUS anywhere He wants me to go; even if that means going to Africa or to some third world country, I am willing to go wherever He leads.
2. Our hearts would well up with tears and we would say AMEN, and after Church we would all come up and hug that person and tell them how much we admire them for this great decision. 3. Well that in essence is what this first would-be disciple said, Lord, I will follow You everywhere You go! So why didn't Jesus give this man a high five and a big bear hug and tell Him how proud He was of him for this decision? 4. Matthew provides us with a detail about this man that Luke doesn't mention. Luke simply says, someone said this to Jesus. But Matthew 8:19 tells us this someone happened to be a certain scribe. The scribes were men who copied down the scriptures meticulously, even counting letters and spaces, and making sure to cross every t and dot every i. Scribes were the equivalent of today's lawyers. Socially, they lived high off the hog. They wore the finest of clothes and lived in some of the nicest homes in town. Religiously, they were bosom buddies with the self-righteous, legalistic Pharisees. They practiced a religion of showmanship. They used religion as a means to impress others. And Jesus had nothing but rebuke and condemnation for the Scribes and Pharisees.
5. Now that you know this would-be follower is a Scribe listen again to his bold statement: v. 57 Lord, I will follow You wherever You go! 6. Jesus' response in verse 58 is very revealing: v. 58 Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. In essence, here is what Jesus said to that scribe. OK, you want to follow Me, then you need to understand this is NOT a life of comfort and ease like you are used to. I am NOT even welcome most places I go. I was chased out of Gadara after I drove the demons out of the man into a herd of pigs. I wanted to spend the night in a Samaritan village and no one would give me a place to stay. The people in Capernaum, where I lived for awhile didn't want me to live there any more even after all the miracles I had performed in their city. And I am on My way to Jerusalem and I'm not going to be welcome there either, in fact they are going to nail me to a cross. Do you still want to follow Me everywhere I go? 7. And just like that, this man vanishes from the scripture record never to be heard from again. 8. Like this scribe, many who profess to be Christians today can't seem to get past the obstacle of SHOWMANSHIP.
9. Many talk a big game when it comes to their Christianity, but when it comes to making real sacrifices and commitments to follow JESUS they aren't willing to take that next step. Well, let's move on to the second would-be disciple who struggled with... II. The Obstacle of HARDSHIP (vs. 59-60) vs. 59, 60 Then He said to another, Follow Me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. 1. Notice Jesus invited this second man to follow Him whereas the first man volunteered to follow. 2. Now when you read the man's response to Jesus' invitation, you get the impression this man's dad has just died, right? He says, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. That sounds like a very reasonable excuse doesn't it? I mean, even today, if a loved one dies, you can get an excused absence from work or school to attend their funeral. Well this poor guy was dealing with the hardship of just having lost his dad...or had he?
3. To understand this man's response it helps to know something about ancient Jewish customs. Ancient Customs For Burying Loved Ones In Jesus' day, as well as in Middle-Eastern countries today, the statement I must first bury my father is a standard cliche' one uses when he wants to get out of doing something he doesn't want to to do. It is called the hardship excuse. Many Bible scholars are in agreement on their interpretation of this man's response. They believe he was using the hardship excuse to get out of making a commitment to Jesus. Now think about it. If this man's dad had truly just died, wouldn't you expect him to be home with his grieving family instead of out following Jesus around? In all likelihood this man's father was still very much alive, so when he told Jesus, Lord, first let me go bury my father he was stalling for time. What he was really saying was, Lord, let me go home and stay with my dad until he dies. I can't tell you now just how long that may be. It could be several weeks, or months or even several years from now, I just don't know. But when that time does come, I will give my father a proper burial, and go through the 30 day mourning period, and after I receive my inheritance I will come back and follow You. money, and then I will come follow you.
4. Notice Jesus' response: Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. What Jesus meant was, Let the spiritually dead bury those who are physically dead. In other words, Make spiritual matters your top priority and let the worldly deal with the temporal issues of life. 5. Some believe Jesus was being insensitive and harsh, but in reality Jesus was calling this man to replace his excuses with action. He was calling him to sort out his PRIORITIES. 6. Many who profess to be Christians use HARDSHIPS as an excuse for not getting serious about following Christ. People like this always promise to get back in Church or to get more committed after their current hardship or crisis has passed. But with people like this, if its not one thing its another. Every crisis, every hardship just becomes another excuse for delaying their commitment to get serious about following Christ. 7. Is the obstacle of HARDSHIPS standing between you and JESUS?
The third would-be disciple in this account III. The Obstacle of KINSHIP (vs. 61-62) vs. 61, 62 And another also said, Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. But Jesus said to him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. 1. Like the first man, this third would-be follower volunteered to follow Jesus, but he wanted to do it on his own terms. 2. Basically what this guy was telling Jesus was, I'm not going to be like that other guy. I will follow you and I won't wait until my father is dead, but I would like to go home and say goodbye to my family first. 3. He wasn't talking about a long-term delay. He was asking for a delay of a few days or a week at the very most to go home and enjoy a going-away party with his family. 4. Surely Jesus wouldn't have any problem with that or would He? Notice again, Jesus' response in v. 62, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
5. What was the problem here? Jesus knew this man had a divided heart...he had split loyalties. Part of him wanted to follow Jesus and the other part wanted to be at home with his family. 6. Remember in our earlier message on How Much Does It Cost To Follow Jesus we learned that following Jesus cost our UN-RIVALED LOVE. Luke 14:26 (NKJV) 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. 7. We are to love our family, and care for our family, and provide for the needs of our family, but Christ cannot and will not take a back seat to your family. C O N C L U S I O N I leave you with these thoughts from J.C. Ryle in Expository Thoughts on The Gospels (Baker Book House, 3:339) Jesus would have no man enlist under false pretenses. He would have it distinctly understood there is a battle to be fought, and a race to run, and work to be done, and many hard things to be endured---if we propose to follow Him. He would not have us to be ignorant that we shall have deadly enemies---the world, the flesh, and the devil; and that many will hate us, slander us, and persecute us if we become His disciples. He does not wish to discourage us, but He does wish us to know the truth.