Fair Weather Christians

Luke 9:57–62 ESV

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “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 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Same account in Matthew 8:18-22.

Fair weathered friends - has anyone every had one? You know the type, the ones that want to be around when everything is going good. The ones who enjoy the benefits of friendship, at least when until hard times or troubles rear their ugly heads. Reaps the benefits, without putting forth any work.

We have a breakfast at church with a work day…and they show up to eat but then miraculously have a “previous engagement” when work begins.

Thomas Paine, a patriot during the time of the American Revolution described a set of people known as “summer soldiers”, or “sunshine patriots”. Mr. Paine was describing two types of men, ones who would plant their crops then fight the British until harvest time and would return home, and others who, when the snow started falling, and a bad situation became harsh, left their ranks to return to their hearths, leaving the battles for others to wage.

With that thought in mind, it made me think of our churches and the declines we have seen. Now, I have told our church many times that I see many Burger King humans - they attend or belong to organizations as long as they can get it “their way”. They may be seen as “persuasive” or “influential”. We have spoiled humans, those who feel they have arrived and do not need anyone else to support them. They may call themselves “independent”. We may even know of people who are leeches, always relying on others to support their activities. They may be viewed as “resourceful”. But in all these examples, we find people who are most miserable. They’ve missed the mark in so many ways.

Today, many of our churches are filled with similar people. People who come to church looking for what “church” can give them. People who exert authority during business meetings because, right frankly, that may be the only place they feel they have any authority. People who act like they are God’s private consultant. As a result, we have many churches who are failing to follow through with the great commission because they are too busy worrying about what is going on within the church to worry about those outside the church. We have turned church into a country club.

And we wonder why so many un-churched look at those in our churches and don’t want anything to do with us. We, as Christians, are called to a different life than many of us are living though. We are called to be imitators of Christ, ones who are more concerned about where the lost will spend eternity.

In these verses we find there is a cost to following Jesus. You see, He sacrificed Himself for us (forgiveness of our sins) and in return we must sacrifice ourselves for Him. True discipleship costs us everything.

What is Discipleship?

Luke 9:57–58 ESV

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “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.”

Christ has again been teaching the disciples that His life would soon be coming to an end. While the words were spoken, the disciples did not fully understand what He had told them. Jesus was focusing on His return to Jerusalem and had sent some disciples to prepare the way, but as they entered Samaria they rejected Jesus. Why? Because He was headed to do His Fathers business in a place the Samaritans despised.

Now think of this - they rejected their source of salvation because of their dislike of someone else. Shew, that could be a sermon in itself…but on His way to Jerusalem others were following Him.

Now, how many of you “follow” someone. Whether it be on social media, athlete, movie star, or a music group/band you enjoy. Many people can quote statistics , song release dates, lyrics, birth dates, we can go on and on about interesting facts and figures. The same was with Christ, people knew Him and followed Him. One such man was a fanatic fan “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go”. Do you think He really knew what He just said? He made a promise to follow the Lord. Notice the 12 Jesus had chosen. Now, this guy is wanting to choose Jesus. But do you think he really knew what he was saying? In Matthew, we learn this man was a scribe, a learned man, a scholar. Someone who normally was in direct conflict with His teaching. There was a legitimate desire to earn and follow Christ.

He enjoyed being around Jesus, and no doubt he sat at His feet and soaked up His teaching, and wanted to study under the feet of the Master. But Jesus calls this man to consider the cost. Jesus required total sacrifice. There would be no luxuries, no comforts, only denial to self. There was a sacrifice to be made - all he was and all he had. Jesus set that example as He denied himself completely. He tells the man even the animals and birds have homes, but He has not home, no place to lay His head. Would he be willing to sacrifice even his bed to sleep in at night? He had to be willing to give it all up, deny himself, to follow Christ.

Even today, we must receive the calling of God BEFORE we have the ability to choose God. We don’t just wake up one day and think, I want to be a Christian. There must be a calling, a conviction, an urging of the Holy Spirit. Once we have received that calling, we must respond, and once we respond, we must be willing to sacrifice.

I ask that you get out a pen or pencil and your bulletin or a piece of paper. I would like for us to consider the following questions:

What have I done for Christ:

Today

Yesterday

Last Week

Last Month

Last Year

And most importantly:

Tomorrow

The Rest of Our Lives

Too often, we have a different view. We ask God for our wants and desires, but we never ask God what He wants from us. We are told a few verses before this, the requirements of becoming a disciple of Jesus is to deny ourselves.

We Must Deny Ourselves

Luke 9:23–24 ESV

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

What are the requirements?

Deny ourselves

We tend to want to do what “we” want, indulging our desires. But, a Christian should be disciplined, controlled, loving, caring, giving, helping, and ministering to the needs of others. This is the example Christ set for us, and one we should mimic in our lives.

Take up His cross daily

Christ would set the example of what it was like to take up the cross. This doesn’t mean just the stuff we deal with in our lives that are burdens, but we are to literally die to self and to sin. Our minds change. Our desires change. Our lives change. We take on the mind of Christ - even to the point of death to self and instead live in Christ. His will, His desires, His wants, His ways are what we should be focused on.

Romans 6:11–13 ESV

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

If our sins are then dead by the cross, then we have been made alive in Christ.

3. As one made alive in Christ, we should then follow Him. One of the things we discussed this weekend was the fact that everything we do should have God as the central authority. If we are looking for a place to volunteer, there are plenty of service organizations and clubs out there. But fully surrendering to God is to move from volunteering in ministry to serving Christ.

Unfortunately there are some churches where people put way too much emphasis on tradition, the past, and even the pastor and NOT on the Master.

You see, to follow the Master means we must answer the call.

Answer the Call

Luke 9:59–60 ESV

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

In contrast to the scribe who wanted to follow Jesus, now Jesus calls another to “Follow Me”. What did Jesus see in this man that made him feel as though he was worthy to be called? To be honest, we ALL are valuable to God as being made in His image and likeness, and we are too valuable to not be found worthy of His calling. According to Christ’s response to him, He had a higher calling, one to preach “proclaim the kingdom of God”.

But the response of the second man was interesting. To sum it up, I reject my calling. His attention was not on his calling, but on the things of the world. “let me first go and bury my father”. He hesitated to respond to His calling because of family. Either this man’s father was dead or was near death, and he felt the obligation at home. As soon as He could take care of these problems, THEN he would follow Jesus.

The issue was not with his family obligation, the issue was with his hesitation to immediately follow his calling. Too often, we want to “fix” the problems in our lives before we answer God’s call, even the call to salvation. What we need to understand is we cannot fix life's problems WITHOUT Jesus. When He calls us, He demands immediate action.

Why was the call so urgent that he could not even take time to bury the dead? Because of the urgency to spread the Gospel Message because people are dying without Christ! If we hesitate in our calling, WHO will die and go to hell because of our disobedience? We have to make an immediate decision and we can’t look back.

Don’t Look Back

Luke 9:61–62 ESV

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Another man offered to follow Jesus. He was willing…kind of…sort of…as soon as he told those at home goodbye.

All looked good ‘I will follow you” until he said “but”. He felt the call, he thought it through, he made a decision, and he was willing to follow Jesus but he needed to take care of some things at home. Now, family is important and we are called to care for our family BUT they come after Christ. Christ calls us to put Him first.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Jesus responded by reminding this man you can’t plow a straight row if you’re always looking back. I remember as a teenager learning to plow rows of tobacco, I had to learn to follow the row and it seemed like every time I would look back at the row, I would get off track and throw soil up around the plant, only to have to go back and uncover them. Christ says to this man, you will never be able follow Christ and stay in the row He has placed us if we continue to look back and get off the row, making a mess of things. The same thing can happen in our churches - we can look back at how things used to be that we cannot see what God has in store for the future. The same thing can happen in our lives - we can take our eyes off the goal and will plow up the row God has planted. Like this man, looking BACK is unproductive and makes us unfit for the kingdom of God. We must keep looking forward, keep pressing onward, keep our eye on the goal. We must be willing to stay the course.

But what happens when we fully surrender to God, and something goes awry in our lives? Maybe it’s finances, work, relationships, illness, maybe even death that brings hardship into our lives. When we are faced with difficulties, then we pray for deliverance, and it might be that it is not part of God’s will to be delivered, or it’s not in His time, and then doubt sets in and we allow our faith to waiver. Before long, we become fair weather Christians. Life got tough, so we baled on God and try to independently go through life. God calls us to be stronger than that, and to understand what it means to deny ourselves. You see, He doesn’t call us to be fair weather Christians, but instead to be strong and courageous.

Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV

6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Closing

He will not leave you or forsake you. When life gets tough, we can’t be fair weather Christians, but instead should get our strength in this knowledge and should respond to His voice when He calls. We will persevere in Christ.

But the true question this morning is this, are you making excuses when He calls you? Have you responded to Jesus but still tell him there are things we must take care of before we can start. Or, have you finally submitted to Him fully?

Have you decided to follow Jesus?

If not, this morning you have an opportunity to respond. Are you faithfully following, or have you become a fair weather Christian?