The Cost of Following Christ

In the Lord of the Rings “the fellowship of the Ring” one of the threads that runs throughout is that the hearts of men are easily corrupted. There are many who would desire to take the one ring and use it for their own evil purposes. After Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo there is a scene at the end of the movie where Aragon resolve concerning the ring is tested. You can see it in Aragorn’s eyes that he desires to take the ring. In a moment of intense struggle He says to Frodo, “I swore to protect you”, to which Frodo replies, “can you protect me from yourself. Or would you destroy it". There is a moment of brief internal turmoil in the heart of Aragorn. At the end he lets Frodo go and says “ I would have gone with you to the end, in to the very fires of Mordor.” But he knew that he could not throw the ring in himself, that he like his kingly ancestor Isildur he too would fail to destroy the ring.”

Our Passage today is meant to stir us into self-inquiry. Jesus is asking these three me to count the cost, not to embark on a journey that they cannot see through to the end.

It will require everything.

How many of us have made a hasty decision like this man? These words that he utters are easy to utter but hard to keep. I will follow you where ever you go. We normally utter those words during times of ease and joy. Easy to make the promise easy to say you will destroy the ring but when you are standing at the fires of mount doom, and your heart is drawn away that is another.

In this passage we these three men are called to consider the cost.

Do not think that the man that is spoke of here and is called to follow Christ is to be some special, or elite group of believers. To follow Christ is to become like Him and this is what all of His kingdom children must strive and labor for. A follower and disciple of Christ is just another term for a kingdom saint. Notice here that the one who follows Christ is the one who is busy doing kingdom work, and the one who is fit for the kingdom. All that the Lord asks the Lord provides.

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Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 Luke 9:57–62: Christ’s Followers Must Submit to Hardships,—Must Let the Dead Bury Their Dead,—Must Not Look Back

He would have it distinctly understood that there is a battle to be fought, and a race to be run,—a work to be done, and many hard things to be endured,—if we propose to follow Him. Salvation He is ready to bestow, without money and without price. Grace by the way, and glory in the end, shall be given to every sinner who comes to Him. But He would not have us 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.

There is a time when the battle will be won, the race run, the work finished, and all that is to be endured is behind us, but that time has not yet come. Christ’s kingdom is not yet reached its final number, His kingdom is being sown in the fields of a hostile world. The enemies of Christ are defeated but all things are yet to be placed under the feet of the reigning Christ.

Acts 14:21–22 ESV

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

To follow Christ is to identify with Him, and so suffer as He suffered. See 51-55

Here in these verse s he calls Himself the Son of man. Came in the likeness of Adam to suffer and to redeem kingdom saints who would be called to forsake all and put their hand to the plow.

Matthew 16:24–26 ESV

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

We will share on the glories of Christ … but first, we must share in the afflictions of Christ.

It will require a response.

Jesus respond demanded action. He was calling this man to self- inquiry, that the kingdom of God was of far greater importance than any earthly requirements.

Luke 14:26 ESV

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Kingdom work must take precedence over all. The person father is dead, not likely but is aging. this is likely contrasting caring for one who is dying. I believe that the dead burying thier own dead is a reference to the lost who refuse to follow Christ must care for the dead they must tend to earthly things for we have greater things to attend.

It will require a resolve.

The one who would follow Christ and take up the work of the kingdom must fix his eyes on Christ. What usually happens when a person turns their head? Their body will soon follow.

When I was in college, I was riding in the car with my roommate, I don't even remember where we were going just that he was distracted by something out in the field nearby. As he turned his head, so did the car so much that had I not grabbed the wheel and corrected us we would have gone off the side of the road in to the ditch.

He is well suited for the kingdom not because we are so good at plowing or that we can make straight lines in the field, but because Christ has made him to be well suited he has fixed His eyes on Christ and his gaze cannot be reassigned.

Imagine plowing a field that is to be sown and the lines are going every which direction crisscrossing and all over the place, such a field would not be fit for plowing, how would you tell the rows for sowing corn from the rows for sowing squash.

So the one who turns back is not fit for the Kingdom of God. To look back is the the first step in going back and the way back leads to destruction.

The scriptures are clear that the one who endures and is faithful to the end is the one that shall be saved.

What are the things that grip your heart? What is it that causes you to consider abandoning the plow when the way is tough and the dirt is hard and there are rocks all along the way?

BROTHERS AND SISTERS we must be resolved. Which means before we put the hand to the plow we must determine that we will not look back.

A man who goes to war cannot let the comforts of life and the though of his family back home deter him from his soldierly duty. He must fight with utter resolve and drive the desires of everything else away at that moment.

Our service for Christ cannot be casual.

The man who was caught out in a snow storm.

Notice here that all of these things are not sinful in an of themselves, it is not sinful to have a place to lay your head, it is not sinful and even dutiful to honor the dead, it is not sinful to wish others fairwell, but when duty to Christ and duty to man collide they can become a snare to the soul. The masters work must take precedence in our hearts. Consider Abraham who could have easily rationalized and prioritized his son over obedience to God’s command. Consider Moses who forsook his Egyptian parents to suffer affliction with the people of God.

We cannot serve Christ with a divided heart. It means that we must forsake everything to proclaim the gospel of God’s kingdom.

Luke 14:33 (ESV)

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott The Collapse of Organized Religion Is due to Cheap Grace

“The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of organised religion is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available at all too low a cost. We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptised, confirmed and absolved a whole nation without asking awkward questions, or insisting on strict conditions. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving. We poured forth unending streams of grace. But the call to follow Jesus was hardly ever heard. Where were these truths which impelled the early church to institute the catechumenate, which enabled a strict watch to be kept over the frontier between the church and the world, and afforded adequate protection for costly grace?”

“There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis Letters to an American Woman

I will follow you where ever you lead just not into the fires of mount Doom. I will follow you wherever you lead, but not...