09-04-05 Matthew 8-5-13
Luke 9:57-62 and Mark 14:29-31
Three men could have become disciples, but they would not meet the conditions that Jesus laid down, one we will look at, failed, but did it well
Luke 9:57-62
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, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
60 But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
61 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
PRAY
I. The first man was a scribe PP (Matt. 8:19)
A. All three center around the term “follow” (9:57, 59, 61).
B. Last half of Verse 57 “I will follow You wherever You go.”
C. He approached and wanted to follow and volunteered to go
1. Hardship was the issue keeping him from being a disciple
2. Until he heard the cost
3. The first man, when he heard of possible hardships, he had to die to self
4. A person desiring to follow Jesus must give up what others consider necessities
5. Jesus while he was here on earth
a) He did not think himself entitled to the delights and ornaments of great princes, or palaces
b) But such accommodations for mere necessity
c) As the foxes have, and the birds of the air a place for the night
d) See what a depth of poverty our Lord Jesus submitted to for us
(1) To purchase for us a larger allowance of grace, that we through his poverty might be rich,
2 Corinthians 8:9
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
6. Jesus paid men the compliment of pitching his demands so high that they cannot be higher
7. Some pastors have done a great deal of harm to the church
a) By letting people think that church membership does not make a difference
b) It should make all the difference in the world
(1) We might have fewer people
(2) But those we had would be really pledged to Christ
8. We can not lessen the standards Jesus set
a) Jesus had no home of His own nor did His followers
9. Apparently he was accustomed to a comfortable home
II. The second man was called by Jesus
A. Kinship or family was the second and the third persons reasons for not being a disciple….
B. Jesus called the next man with the same words with which He had called His disciples (5:27)
1. What an honor!
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, John 15:16.
C. For a Jew this was a religious duty having precedence over everything else
1. The problems of life comes first…..The burial of one’s father was a sacred duty
Genesis 25:9
9 Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre,
a) Only in the case of a temporary Nazirite vow (Num 6:6-7)
b) If one were the high priest (Lev 21:10-11) could one be absolved from this duty
2. The second man was concerned about the wrong funeral
a) He was worried about somebody else’s funeral when he should have been planning his own
(1) He should have taken up his cross,
(2) Died to self,
(3) And obeyed God’s will
3. “I will follow you after my father has died.”
a) This could mean the second burial after His father died ~1 year later…
4. How about
a) “I’ll go to church with my kids when they are older…..
b) I’ll get that straightened out when I have more time….
c) I am too busy with life and work right now to be bothered by Jesus demands, or HIS CALLINGS
d) I will go when I receive my inheritance, (retirement) so I can be self supporting
e) I will go when I retire….. I will have more time
f) I will go when the kids leave, when they are in school, when they are married, when they have grandkids, when the grand kids are grown when the great grand kids come, when they go… if we are so lucky!!!!
D. Jesus is not suggesting here that we dishonor our parents
1. Lets join the profession of Christianity with secular advantages Christ did not do this
2. We should not permit our love for family to weaken our love for the Lord
a) PARENTS DO WE PUT OUR KIDS AHEAD OF GOD?
b) KIDS DO WE IDOLIZE OUR PARENTS OR THEIR OPINIONS OF
(1) WHAT WE DO
(2) OR HOW WE LIVE
(3) TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT GOD COULD NOT BREAK IN ON US IF HE YELLED IT TO US?
c) We are tempted to defer the doing of that which we know to be our duty, and to put if off to some other time
d) In everything there is a crucial moment; if that moment is missed the thing most likely will never be done at all
(1) The man in the story had stirrings in his heart to get out of his spiritually dead surroundings
(2) If he missed that moment he would never get out
e) The danger is The emotion becomes a substitute for the action
(1) Take one example—sometimes we feel that we would like to write a letter, perhaps of sympathy, perhaps of thanks, perhaps of congratulations
(2) If we put it off until to-morrow, it will in all likelihood never be written
3. Jesus urges us to act at once when our hearts are stirred
1 Timothy 4:1-5
1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude;
5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
E. We need to respond to Jesus when he calls lest we allow the enemy to sear our conscience (hamburger) and we having been seared finding it hard to recover from the burn….
F. We should love Christ so much that our love for family would look like hatred in comparison
Luke 14:26
26 “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.
G. The man’s reply that he first wanted to go and bury his father has been variously interpreted
1. Some maintain that the man’s father was dead already
a) It would seem strange if that was the case for he would certainly have been engaged in the burial procedure already
2. It is more likely that the man’s father was ready to die
a) His request was to let him wait just a little while before following Jesus
3. Perhaps the man also wanted to receive the inheritance from his father’s estate
a) Whatever the reason no reason is sufficient for disobedience
b) Let the dead bury their own dead, implies that the spiritually dead can bury the physically dead
H. We are not to neglect our family duties but we are not to let our family duties stand in the way of obedience to God
III. The third man also volunteered
A. The third man had his eyes in the wrong direction and could not follow Christ
B. The conditions for discipleship are given in
Luke 9:23
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
C. ALL three men failed to meet them
D. This looking the wrong direction would expose him to the strongest solicitations imaginable to alter his resolution to follow Jesus
1. For the family would all be against it
2. The family would beg and pray that he would not leave them
a) It was presumption of this potential disciple to thrust himself into such a temptation
b) Those that resolve to walk with Jesus, must resolve that they will not so much entertain a thought from their tempter
E. He could not follow Christ because he was looking back instead of ahead
1. There are some whose hearts are in the past
2. They walk forever looking backwards and thinking wistfully of the good old days
3. It refers here to gazing back on the things abandoned in order to follow Jesus
F. There is nothing wrong with a loving farewell, but say good bye and look ahead ……get to the sacrifice …..
1 Kings 19:19-21
19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.
20 He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
21 So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.
G. But if it gets in the way of obedience, it becomes sin
H. Jesus saw that this man’s heart was not wholly with Him, but that he would be plowing and looking back
1. Elijah had allowed Elisha to do this very thing when Elisha was plowing
2. We are lousy framers if we do the work of God with a distracted attention, a divided heart
1 Corinthians 3:6-11
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
a) Ploughing is in order to sow those are to be employed in sowing
(1) Must know how to break up the fallow ground
(2) And realize there is no harvest or reward if we do not go through the entire season
(3) There is no crop if we do not tend it and harvest it
b) If we are lousy at plowing our own heart
c) How are we to plow up the fallow ground of another faithfully
3. The expression “looking back” has a manifest reference to “Lot’s wife”
Lot’s wife god’s salt lick
Genesis 19:17
17 When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”
Genesis 19:26
26 But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
4. It is not actual return to the world, but a reluctance to break with it
2 Timothy 2:4
4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
5. Jesus’ words underscore the fact that His message of the kingdom of God was more important than anything else—even family members
Philippians 3:13-14
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
IV.This morning is about would be disciples let’s also look at one who was loud and made it NO Peter bashing
Mark 14:29-31
29 But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.”
30 And Jesus *said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.”
31 But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also.