WWUTT 2372 The Cost of Following Jesus (Luke 9:57-62)

There were various occasions in which somebody said to Jesus, I will follow you, or he called someone else to follow him who did not follow. Did they really consider the cost of what it means to follow Jesus when we understand the text?

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And once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel according to Luke, we are in chapter nine, finishing up the chapter today, where Jesus has three exchanges with three persons. And through these exchanges, we learn the cost of following Jesus, the cost of discipleship.

So let me read here from verses 57 to 62. Hear the word of the Lord. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. 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.

To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.

Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now, if you've been reading through the gospels, Matthew and Mark, and you get to this point, well, these exchanges are nothing new.

We saw something like this previously in Matthew 8, but here at the close of Luke 9, it's at the close of chapter 9, but it's at the beginning of Jesus journeying to Jerusalem. Remember we read that yesterday in verse 51, when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

So about to be taken up, ascending into heaven. He's going to go to Jerusalem to die, to be buried and to rise again. And then after that, he will ascend back to his father in heaven. So this is that part of Jesus' ministry where now he's heading toward Jerusalem to accomplish the father's will.

So at the beginning of that journey, we have Luke putting here these three exchanges that Jesus has with three potential disciples. And through these three exchanges, we come to understand the cost of following Jesus.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? And not being so distracted by things in the world that vie for our attention, even casual everyday things that may take us away from the mission of the kingdom of God.

We'll consider those things in greater detail as we go through this verse by verse here. So back to verse 57, as they were going along the road, seems like they're still in Samaria, since that was the previous interaction, Jesus and a Samaritan village, maybe they're still there.

When we get to chapter 10 tomorrow, Jesus is gonna send out the 72 and he sends them out ahead of him. So as they're still making this progress toward Jerusalem, that's when Jesus sends out the 72. Anyway, we'll cover that tomorrow.

But as they're going along their direction toward Jerusalem, once again, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Now, this is not the first time that someone has said that to Jesus. Previously, when Jesus was at the Gerasenes, he cast a legion out of that man, remember that?

Those demons that were afflicting that man who lived among the tombs, Jesus cast out legion into the pigs. The man came back into his right mind and he wanted to follow Jesus. But Jesus told him to go back into the village and tell all the people of all the wonderful things that God has done for you.

So we've previously seen somebody come to Jesus and say, I wanna follow you. Anybody who wanted to follow Jesus was not automatically qualified. They were not immediately chosen. So some are called and even some who are called refuse, as we'll see here in just a moment.

But it's not for everyone who desires to follow Jesus to have that opportunity to become one of his disciples, whether it be the 12. Now the 12 had a specific calling, whether it be one of the 12 or one of the 72, as we're gonna see tomorrow in chapter 10, any of those other disciples who had followed along with Jesus.

In this particular case, you got a guy who's saying, I'm gonna follow you wherever you go. Jesus says to him, verse 58, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

What an interesting reply and why would Jesus respond that way? Most likely because whoever this man is had not really thought through what he was committing himself to. I will follow you wherever you go.

Or is he speaking too hasty here? Has he really weighed the cost? Does he really understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus? Does he know the kinds of persecutions that would even come upon him because he becomes a disciple of Jesus?

But Jesus doesn't challenge him in that way. He just very simply says, this is not going to be a cushy ride. We're not staying in the best hotels here as we're going along on this thing. Foxes have holes.

They've got places, dens that they have made where they can rest. Birds of the air have nests. They've made homes for themselves where they're even gonna have a family and young, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

He doesn't even have somewhere that he can lay down and rest. They're generally outside. It's usually pretty uncomfortable. And this is right after they were just rejected at Samaria. So Jesus was not even able to find a place for him to stay there in the town that they entered into in Samaria.

And so whoever this guy is, like, have you seen what we have to go through? Are you prepared to not even have a bed to lay in tonight? So the fact that Jesus responds with this challenges the very heart of the man who has committed to following Jesus.

You have to consider the cost. And that's something we're gonna come back to even later on in Luke, counting the cost of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Yes, we all must follow him. We have been called.

The message of the gospel has gone out as the apostle Paul preached at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17. God commands all people everywhere to repent. All of us must turn from our sin to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must all become followers of Jesus. But it's still something that you have to consider. You have to count the cost because it may sound really good. And you become a Christian and you start following Jesus.

And then something happens along the way that you were not prepared for. You didn't count the cost. And it causes you to doubt. It causes your faith to crumble. You may easily fall away. We've already heard in Matthew, Mark, and in Luke, the parable of the sower, the parable of the seed, which represents the message of the kingdom of God falling in three different soils, falling along the path, falling along the, or falling within the rocks, and then falling within the thorns.

And then of course, there's a fourth soil. There's the good soil that the seed falls into. But the seed that falls into the rocks and into the thorns does sprout up for a time. And it represents someone who has received the message of the kingdom with joy, but in the rocks, they have no root in themselves.

When persecution comes, the plant withers away and it dies. Among the thorns, this is a person who cares too much for the things of this world, whether it's the anxieties of the world, or even the promises of the world, the allure, the temptation of social advancement, of material gain, and a heart that goes after those things.

Well, yeah, they received the message with joy for a time, but then having a heart for all of that, eventually the word gets choked out and it dies. These are also people who did not count the cost. They did not consider what sorts of things you would have to give up in order to be a follower of Jesus.

So here is a man who responds hasty and is not considered the cost. And Jesus doesn't even have to tell him about all the persecution that they would face. He just simply has to say, are you ready to sleep on the ground tonight?

And the man ends up not following Jesus. Verse 59, to another, Jesus said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Now, it's interesting to consider that there were more than just the 12 disciples that Jesus had in that core 12.

There were more than just them that Jesus called to follow him, and not everybody accepted. Now, it would not have been that way among the 12. It's not like Jesus had called somebody to be among the 12, and that person had said no and wandered away.

Because as is said in John's gospel, he says to the 12, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit. And then in John 17, praying for them says, I have lost none of those that you gave to me except the son of destruction, talking about Judas.

So Judas was called to fulfill a particular purpose, but it was those 11 who were there with Jesus that he specifically chose and were given to him by the father. They did not refuse to follow Jesus. But as I have mentioned previously, and of course, as we're gonna see tomorrow with Jesus sending out the 72, there were more than just 12.

And so among those other disciples that Jesus calls to follow him, that's likely where this guy would have fit. So he may have been, he could have been among the 72. He could have received power and have gone out and done some amazing miracles as Jesus had appointed his disciples to go out and do.

But this man replies, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus says to him in verse 60, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. As Matthew Henry says about this particular exchange with this disciple here, here is another that seems resolved to follow Christ, but he begs for a short delay.

To this man, Christ first gave the call. He said to him, follow me. Religion teaches us to be kind and good, to show piety at home, to be respectful of our parents, but we must not make these an excuse for neglecting our duty to God.

Great word from Matthew Henry, a good way to understand this particular exchange. Yes, this man was doing what the law had told him to do, to honor his father. But we draw from this and understanding that piety, our obedience to the law is not an excuse for us to neglect or even delay the call that Jesus gives to us to follow him.

Several years ago, there was a man in my church who was guilty of adultery and he got caught. And I was involved in those who ended up catching him in this deceit that he was in. Well, his wife had a biblical case, biblical grounds for divorce, but she decided she wanted to be reconciled to him.

They had a marriage conference coming up that they could go to together. He only had a little bit of time off of work and this marriage conference was the perfect thing for them to be able to go to and have trained counselors be able to work with them on some of the problems that they had in their marriage and get them reconciled to one another after this betrayal that had taken place.

Well, his grandmother was dying at the same time and she could be passing any day. There was a short window for him to be able to fly out to where she was, be with the rest of the family and say goodbye to her before she died.

She was a believer and so she was going to go to be with her savior in heaven. But as he was talking with me about that, I told him, you have only this much time off of work and you've got one opportunity here.

Either you can go say goodbye to your grandmother and potentially lose your marriage, which you have already sabotaged, or you can go be with your wife. Seeing that this is what's more important out of obedience to God and even for the sake of your children and you go work on this and you let the dead bury the dead.

And he did listen to my advice and he went on the retreat with his wife and while they were away, his grandmother died. He didn't find out about it until they came back from the retreat. So he missed an opportunity to be able to say goodbye to her.

Unfortunately, later on, he did end up leaving his wife. He resented her for all of that. It's very sad, it's very heartbreaking when things like that happen, but it's a person who cares more for the things of this world than understanding the cost of following Christ and being obedient to him.

Leave the dead to bury their own dead. As for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. This is the call that is upon us as disciples that we proclaim the kingdom. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

Only by faith in him are we forgiven our sins and we have eternal life. It is the most important message in the world that we could believe and that we could share with someone else. And let there not be other things in our lives that would cause us to hesitate to share that message.

Sometimes we make the excuse of, you know, I just don't know that person that well and so I think it would come across pretty offensive if I were to tell them that they're a sinner in need of a savior and then talk to them about Jesus.

Don't we make excuses like that? We find reason or cause to not share the message of the gospel with somebody else. And we have to take those things to heart. We have to, if it is in our hearts to understand that this message of the kingdom is a life-saving message, eternal souls are on the line, then that will press upon us more the need to share it with others and not find excuses to not share it.

Not be so consumed by other things, other cares of this world or what other people think that we hesitate to share the message of the kingdom of God. And finally, we have this third exchange, verse 61.

Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And this, once again, represents somebody who they seem to be more concerned with what other people think.

What are my friends going to say about this? Let me go talk to them. Let me go say goodbye to them instead of dropping everything that they're doing and following Jesus. Remember that the first disciples that he called, Peter, James, and John, he told them to drop their nets and follow him.

And they did.

They just had this miraculous catch. We read about it at the beginning of Luke, this miraculous fish catch, unlike anything that they have ever had before. And they left all of that, boats overflowing with fish.

They just left it right there. And they followed Jesus and became his disciples. But here, Jesus is calling this guy. And he says, okay, well, fine, but let me go set my house in order first. And Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

And you get the illustration there, right? You attach a plow to a draft animal of some kind, and you're going through the field making straight rows. Well, you have to keep your head focused in the direction that you are going to keep your rows straight.

If you turn your head to the left or to the right, well, then you're gonna turn your plow, the animal is gonna turn, and now you don't have those straight rows anymore. If you have the work of God in front of you to do and to accomplish, then you've gotta keep yourself focused on the task.

And the more invested we are in things that are around us, whether it's the relationships that we have, cares of this world, any of these other kinds of things, I mean, there are things that we have a responsibility to.

We have a responsibility to wife or husband, to our children, to our church, to other, either our job, if you've got a contract with work or something like that, there are things that we're obligated to keep.

And if we were to back out of it, well, that would certainly be a stain upon our character. But the more things that you are invested in, the less focused you're gonna be on the kingdom of God. And Paul gave that warning in 1 Corinthians 7.

Beginning in verse 32, he says, "'I want you to be free from anxieties. "'The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, "'how to please the Lord, "'but the married man is anxious about worldly things "'and how to please his wife, "'and his interests are divided.

"'And the unmarried or the betrothed woman "'is anxious about the things of the Lord, "'how to be holy in body and spirit, "'but the married woman is anxious about worldly things, "'how to please her husband.

"'I say this for your own benefit, "'not to lay any restraint upon you, "'but to promote good order "'and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.'". In this particular case, Paul is even saying, count the cost of what it means to get married.

Do you understand what you are committing yourself to if you get married? You can still be devoted to the things of God, but no matter what you do, you're gonna have to confer with your spouse. You're gonna have to think about, how will I provide lodging to my spouse and my children if God calls me to the mission field or something like that?

And so these are other ways that we have to count the cost. And the more things that we give our heart to, the more divided our interests will be, and will it affect our ability to be effective in the mission that we might be called to, to share the kingdom of God?

These are just things to consider. It's counting the cost of being a disciple, of following Jesus. So once again, we have these three exchanges. You have one who says, I will follow you wherever you go, but this is a person who is being hasty and rash and has not considered the cost of what it means to follow Jesus.

You have another one to whom Jesus says, follow me, but he says, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. And this is a person who, yeah, he's doing what is responsible and good, but using that as an excuse to not be obedient to the Lord, to not respond to the call that Jesus has given to him.

And then finally you have another who says, I will follow you, but first let me say farewell to those who are at my home. And he seems to have more worldly concerns than he ought to have. His heart is divided and he could very easily enter into temptation that would distract him from the cause or the purpose of following Jesus.

These are just things that we all have to take into account and think about, so that our devotion will be fully committed to the Lord. It's not to say that we can't get married or have a family.

I do.

I have a wife and children and I'm very happy and they have been such a blessing to me that God gave me, but I still have to consider that they are my ministry first before anybody else. And there is a cost to having a family.

There is a cost to being a pastor of a church and not just in the context of a pastor, but this is for every single person that we consider those things that we have to manage in a right and orderly way and not letting those things distract us from the higher things of Christ that we've been called to do and say.

Keep your eyes focused upon Jesus. There is nothing in the world more rewarding than following Jesus. Nothing in eternity more rewarding than Christ. As we finish up here, let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us a right and ordered mind regarding these things.

How do we think about this concerning our call, the call that we've been given to follow Jesus? Do we say we'll follow him wherever we go, but we haven't really considered what that means when we say that?

Has Jesus called us to follow him, but yet we're more concerned with some responsibilities that we have here in this world? And have we said that I will follow you, Lord, but we wanna know what other people's opinions about this would be first.

Let our interests not be divided, but we are committed to Christ and sharing Christ with others that they too may follow him and know eternal life. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.