Sermon Tone Analysis

Luke 9

In the 9th Chapter of Luke, there are several things that take place.

We are only focusing on the overarching theme of this chapter.

The crowd that is following Jesus is convinced that he is getting ready to overthrow the Romans in Israel and establish himself as the Jewish Messiah to save them from their oppressors.

HE IS THE NEW MOSES!

Even the Lord’s Disciples think this:

Jesus tries to teach them that this is not the case, but they cannot hear His message because of their desires.

In an attempt to awaken them to their own misguided ambitions, Jesus begins to speak to them of the crucified life.

What is our cross?

Our Cross is not a cross of trials and troubles.

THAT IS NOT OUR CROSS.

If that were our cross, then even those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are taking up their cross daily.

Our cross is a commitment of denial to self and obedience to Jesus Christ, His leaders and His Word.

Even when this cross of obedience is painful, humiliating and something we don’t want.

We must be willing to obey.

This cross of obedience to Jesus Christ and to those leaders that God has placed over our lives is challenging, difficult and, until we fully surrender our will go God’s will, stressful.

You can only know peace as you fully surrender you will to God’s will and obey Him in everything!

What would be your answer to these questions?

Would you still follow Jesus if it meant losing your closest friends?

Would you follow Jesus if it meant alienation from your family?

Would you follow Jesus if it meant the loss of your reputation?

Would you follow Jesus if it meant losing your job?

Would you follow Jesus if it meant losing your life?

These are the questions that the daily cross asks us to ask ourselves and many just like them.

Our generation has a passion for loving themselves!

THIS IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF THE CROSS BEARING LIFE.

Here’s the Biblical description of the present day culture:

2 Timothy 3.1-

As Luke concludes his message of Jesus, he gives us a compilation of three encounters with potential disciples of Jesus to show us what the cross bearing life looks like:

Luke 9.57-62

The first potential disciple asks to join with Jesus and Jesus responds:

I’m not sure you really want to.

I don’t have a home to call my own.

This concept is thematic through out Scripture:

There's an old gospel song that follows this theme.

"This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through,

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue,

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door,

And I can't feel at home in this world any more."

The words to a traditional bluegrass hymn go:

"I don't want to get adjusted to this world, to this world,

I've got a home that's so much better

I'm gonna go to sooner or later,

I don't want to get adjusted to this world."[1]

These are the songs of sojourners.

We aren't to be other-worldly and detached from this life.

Jesus wasn't.

He lived all out in the here-and-now carrying out his Father's mission.

But he was a sojourner.

He had no home here to call his own.

He was on a journey, and Golgotha lay squarely in his route.

The road was painful, but had glory at its end.

"...Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" ().

He allowed nothing to distract him from this goal.

Are you so tied up in this world’s gain and your own peace and enjoyment that you can’t deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus?

2. The second potential disciple is asked by the Lord to follow Him:

Luke 9.59-60

Now if the man's father has just died, what in the world is the man doing hanging around Jesus?

He should be home making funeral arrangements!

It's obvious that his father isn't dead -- yet.

Not even seriously ill, or the man would be asking Jesus for healing.

What the man is saying is this: I have responsibilities to my father as long as he lives.

I'm not free to follow you right now.

But when my dad dies -- and he is getting on in years -- then I'll follow you right away.

I just can't follow now.

Jesus' answer seems harsh.

It seems to run counter to family responsibilities.

It is strong: "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Who are the "dead" who are going to conduct the funeral?

Jesus is speaking figuratively here of the spiritually dead -- those who have put off following Jesus.

The spiritually dead put family responsibilities BEFORE their responsibilities to Jesus.

But the spiritually alive are to follow -- NOW!

Later on Jesus said these words:

Jesus is saying in the strongest possible terms that following him must come before every responsibility we have -- even those which we hold sacred.

For most of us, our call to follow Jesus does NOT mean we have to physically leave our loved ones.

But we may need to leave them behind spiritually in order to follow Jesus.

You can't say: When my husband gets saved and decides to follow Jesus then I'll be the most faithful disciple you can find anywhere.

I just don't want to get ahead of him spiritually.

It doesn't work that way.

You aren't to choose when you are to follow.

Today is the day.

Following Jesus is a NOW thing.

It is immediate.

No excuse you can offer is adequate to put on hold his compelling summons.

"Let the dead bury their own dead," Jesus says, "but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God" (9:60).

In this case, Jesus about to send Seventy of his followers to go from village to village to carry the message of the Kingdom (10:1-24).

Jesus needs this man ready and committed to be in a certain place at a certain time, even though Jesus hasn't announced the mission yet.

But the man can't be counted on.

His other commitments keep him from doing Jesus' immediate and glorious will for his life.

The message to you and me is just as strong: "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

Are you so full of your desires, that you cannot see the call of Jesus to take up your cross of daily submitted obedience and rejection of your desires for the sake of your salvation and His Kingdom?

3. Finally, the third potential disciple asks to follow Jesus:

Luke 9.

If the first two people had met hard responses, the third seems harder yet.

All the man wanted to do was go home and say good-bye.

That's all.

What's so wrong with that?

In light of the immediate mission ahead -- the sending out of the Seventy to the villages of Judea -- for the man to go home will mean that he will miss out, though his request seems reasonable enough.

It's like a man who has been drafted into the military in wartime.

He says, "I'll report for duty in just a week, but first I need to go home and say good-bye to my girlfriend, my buddies, my mom and dad, my sisters and brothers, and have a final going away party, since I may be away a long time.

Is he ready for the army?