What Does It Take To Follow This Jesus

Jesse Cook

Stand A lone Sermon @ Berean • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Luke 9:51–62

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Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to grab a Bible and turn with me to Luke 9:51-62 as we study the Word together.

Hear the Word of God this morning...

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.

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.” (Luke 9:51-62 ESV)

As we think about this text, let us go to the Lord in prayer- asking Him to open our eyes and hearts so that we may see the beauty of His word and that we may be changed.

Let’s Pray Together.

If I had to boil this passage down to a short sentence....here is what I want us to see today from this text.

Main point: Jesus is on Mission and it will be costly to follow.

As we think about this passage, we need to understand this section in light of the whole gospel of Luke. So, before diving right into this passage let me catch you up with what has happened at this point.

Luke is writing his Gospel to his buddy so that he may know and understand what he has believed. This is Luke’s way of showing his friend that the message about Jesus can be trusted. And then throughout the letter, Luke emphasizes these two major Themes. He does talk about a few more than just two…but these are the two that are most relevant for our passage this morning.

Here are the two that I am wanting us to focus on this morning.

Who is Jesus?

What Does It Mean To Follow Him?

Can you think of anything more fundamental to life than these two questions? Life and death hang in the balance with these two questions. How we answer them and understand them has eternal consequences.

What we see in the Gospel of Luke is that, after Jesus starts His ministry, we see Jesus going from village to village preaching and healing people. The Kingdom of God is starting to break into history. Jesus says that the Kingdom is at hand… but at the same time… Jesus is starting to get some enemies.

Who in the world does this guy think that he is?

And this becomes a major question on the lips of the people around Him.

John the Baptist asks this question to Jesus. He asks… “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” in chapter 7.

In chapter 8, after Jesus calms the storm…the disciples ask... “Who is this that even the storms and winds obey him?”

At the beginning of Chapter 9, we see Herod asking questions about Jesus and his identity.

Then we come to this section of Scripture.

18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”( Lk 9:18–20.)

Do you see it? Do you see how this question is driving the Gospel of Luke? And what we have here is Peter standing up and saying… YOU ARE THE CHRIST. YOU ARE THE MESSIAH. YOU ARE THE PROMISED ONE OF GOD. This is great news.

But what happens right after this great revelation… Jesus starts to clarify what exactly that means. They are thinking in terms of taking over Rome and kicking them out. They are thinking about returning to the glory days… They are thinking in the past.....and Jesus starts talking about how He has come to give His life. He starts talking about death. He starts talking about going to the cross and raising on the third day.

There are a few more things that happen in chapter 9 that we do not have time to go over this morning....but I want you to see that Jesus starts bringing clarity to who exactly he is.

So, we could say this so far…this is how Luke is describing Jesus. He is The Son Of God....Who Has Come To Give His Life and Raise Again.

Body:

We come back to our text this morning....we have to understand Luke’s point on Who Jesus is before this text makes a whole lot of sense.

Let’s look at verse 51 with me.

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.( Lk 9:51)

This is Luke’s transitioning passage in his Gospel. This is where Jesus is starting to make his way to Jerusalem. Jesus has set his face.... meaning that Jesus is determined to head to the cross....but not only to the cross…but to the grave…but not only to the grave…but to raise again....but not only to raise again…but to be taken up to Heaven. This is Jesus' goal… and no one is going to be able to deter him from doing the mission that God has given him.

The Scriptures tell us

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.( Ga 4:4–5)

This is what Jesus was looking forward to. This is what Jesus had set His face to. He was making His way to the cross and to heaven to redeem those who would place their faith and trust in Him for their salvation. He was going to the cross to die for sinners like you and me. He set his face to go to Jerusalem. He was going to do the Father’s will.

We can say this about Jesus...

Jesus Was On Mission To Save Wicked Sinners Like Us.

We read a little later in the Gospel of Luke 19:1010 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”( Lk 19:10.)

For us to understand who Jesus was, we need to understand that He was God the Son On Mission. He was coming to accomplish His Fathers will and to Give His Life for Us.

As he was going to make his way to Jerusalem… as was his custom… He sends his disciple ahead of Him to prepare for him. This is what we see happening in verses 52-55. Look there with me.

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.( Lk 9:52–56.)

You have to love this. This is so much like us, is it not?!

Jesus....they don't want to welcome you… do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? Like, what in the world? That sounds a bit much to us.... but should it? Even though we may not say something like that out loud.... is how we treat other people… those that are different than us… we give this impression that we wish that they were not around?

What we have to understand here is that the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus because he was Jesus. This was not really a personal attack on Him..... they simply did not like any Jew who was going to head to Jerusalem for worship because they felt that the right place to worship was there in their hometown. So, it is not like this is a rejection of Jesus the Messiah… this is more like a rejection because of His background. His up bringing. He is not the right type of people. They don't want him there. We can talk about this all day and how it relates to us and how we treat others....but I want us to see Jesus’ response.

What is Jesus response? He is not like… “Yea, do it!” NO! He rebukes the disciples. Some translations even say that he rebukes them by saying he has not “come to destroy life but to save it”. We can debate all day if those words were original to the lips of Jesus…but I think that the point is the same. Jesus is not about destroying them because of their rejection of Him. Jesus’ mission is to “Seek and save the lost” and that includes those who have rejected him....no matter the reason... because, again, that is all of us in this room and outside of this room at some point in our lives.

Instead what we need to understand here is how Jesus is responding to the disciples.

This is where we start to get into the idea of our second emphasis....

What Does It Mean To Follow Jesus?

We could say this about the disciples

To Follow Jesus, They Had To Let Go Of Their Expectations.

You see, they had certain expectations of Jesus and what He was supposed to be doing…He was to talk the world by force if he had to.... but, as was preached last week, right now is not the time for divine judgment. That day is coming. But right now we are in the time of where we are to be busy about preaching the Gospel so that people may be saved.

Maybe it would be good for all of us in this room to ask ourselves this type of question:

What Are The Misconceptions About Jesus and His Purpose In The World That I Need To Let Go?

But it is not only the disciples that are having to count the cost....we see this other set of individuals in the text. Let’s look at them together

Let’s look at the first guy..

We would love to have this happen to us. Picture this in your mind. You are out on a walk around town… and as you are walking… Someone recognizes you from this church and they run up to you and say… “I want to Follow Jesus!” What would you say? How would you respond?

I think that many of us would respond quickly by leading them through some gospel presentation and prayer.

But notice that is not what Jesus does here. Jesus is correcting this man's thoughts about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Following Jesus does not mean that life is going to be easy… that life will all of a sudden be better for you. Following Jesus does not mean that you will even have access to all of life’s comforts. NO. Following Jesus means giving up some stuff. For this man, it could mean that he is going to be homeless for a while.

That is a high cost to following Jesus. And what is interesting in all of the accounts that we have about this man in the Bible.... he seems to walk away. The cost was too much for him. He thought that Following Jesus was a way of earning blessing....and come to find out… it was not about security at all.

Following Jesus Does Not Mean An Easy Life.

It may cost you to follow Jesus. You may not have access to everything that your buddies have. You may have to live a simpler lifestyle so that you can be a better steward of your money. You may have to go without so that others can have a little more. This is what we see happening in the book of Acts as the Church shared with one another to meet the NEEDS of their brothers and sister.

The next guy we see down in verse 59-60. Look there with me

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.( Lk 9:59–60.)

Jesus starts the invitation here. He is calling this man to be a follower. What is his response? “Let me first go and bury my father.” That seems like a reasonable request to us. If the man’s father has passed away, he should be able to provide a proper burial. This was socially correct. This was honorable.

But what does Jesus say? “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

That sounds harsh to our ears. But what we are not seeing here is that this man’s request was not motivated by wanting to do what is honorable… what is wanting to do is delay his following. More than likely this man’s father had not passed away yet, or else he would have been there preparing the funeral, but this man was wanting to wait until his father passed away and then he would follow.

This could have been motivated by greed. Maybe he wanted his inheritance first. It could have been motivated by a number of different things.. but the point is the same...

Following Jesus Means Following Without Delay.

We know people like this don't we? We all know people who want to follow Jesus when__________ happens. Everyone has their own excuse there. They will get right when_______. And Jesus’ words are.... do not wait. There are more important matters at hand.

The third guy is found in verses 61-62.

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.”( Lk 9:61–62.)

Again, we read this and it does not sound like an unreasonable request. The guy simply wants to run home, say goodbye to mom and dad, let them know where he is going…and then he will go and follow Jesus.

As a parent, I would want my son to come and tell me where is he going. Wouldnt you? So, what is the big deal here?

The big deal lies in this man’s divided interest. He wants to follow Jesus.... He just is not sure about being all in. This is why Jesus uses that picture of someone plowing. If you are wanting to go in a straight line for plowing your filed.... you do not do that by looking behind you. You have to keep looking forward.

If this man is wanting to give his life to Christ.... then he has to be all in. If this man is going to follow Jesus, who is on his way to the cross, then this man has to keep his heart from being divided.

Jesus does not want followers who are on the Fence.

To Follow Jesus, One Has To Be All In.

Conclusion:

What these three men have in common is something that most people have in common…and that is that they wanted to Follow Jesus on their terms. Since they did not see Jesus for who He really was… when Jesus gives them the cost of following Him… they bail out. It is too much for them. Who would go homeless for following a Rabbi? Who would delay earthly comforts for following a new teacher? Who, in their right mind, would go all in with this “Jesus” guy when you see him as any other teacher in the area?

No body in their right mind would.... but what if Jesus wasn't like everyone else? What if He wasn't just another teacher? What if the problem started with them not knowing and understand who Jesus really way?

That is the problem. That was the problem then and that is much of the problem now.

As we think about this text this morning for our own lives, I think that it is good for us to consider a few things as we think about what it means to follow Jesus.

Who Do You Say That Jesus Is?

There really is not a more important question to ask yourself than this. Who do you believe Jesus to be? Do you see Him as another religious figure among many, or do you see him as the Son of God who has come to take away the sins of the world?

Are You Willing To Follow Him?

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. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?( Lk 9:23–25.)

Following Jesus is more than agreeing with him on a few matters.... Following Jesus is about Giving Him your life. It is giving up everything. All of your wants, dreams, and desiring, and giving your life to Him. Letting Him make you NEW!

What Things Are Standing In Your Way?

Much like the three guys at the end of our text this morning, we need to see if there is anything that might be holding us back from following Jesus in any area of our lives.

This is true for those who do not know Christ. You need to ask yourself.... What is keeping me back?

But this is also true for those in this room who have been walking with the Lord for a Long time. You see, the funny thing about following Jesus is that it is a life long commitment. This is a journey that we are on.... and as we travel this journey, we need to ask ourselves what we need to give up.

Maybe there are some comforts that you need to give up so that you can follow Jesus on His Mission. Maybe Jesus has been speaking to your heart about some divided interest in your life.... you want to follow Jesus… you just want to wait a little longer because you are comfortable where you are right now.

Maybe, you are like the last guy we looked at in the text. You want to follow Jesus on Mission. You see Him going ahead of you. But you are caught looking back. Maybe you are caught in the past. Maybe you want things to go back to way that there were before. I get it. I understand. All of us like the comforts of home. We like what we are familiar with. But, the way forward is following Jesus and His Mission. Kingdom work is about advancement. It is about looking ahead. It is about allowing Jesus to lead. It is about letting Him call the shots… not us.. not our desires… our wishes… nor our ways. We serve Jesus. Our Goal should be to follow Him.