Not Every Fan Follows

I. The Scene: Jesus is marching toward his death.

Luke 9:51–56 (CSB)

51 When the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem.

52 He sent messengers ahead of himself, and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

53 But they did not welcome him, because he determined to journey to Jerusalem.

54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”

55 But he turned and rebuked them,

56 and they went to another village.

Three Types of Jesus Fans

Fan Type #1 The Impulsive follower.

Luke 9:57 CSB

57 As they were traveling on the road someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

This type of person is the one that has observed Jesus, has heard his teachings and man is he excited about Jesus. He loves being around the disciples and discussing the word. He loves the atmosphere of the church. He loves the music and the community. But then all of the sudden this fan has a cataclysmic collision with this reality:

Luke 9:58 CSB

58 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

What is Jesus saying? He was saying those that follow him should have no expectation of a comfortable life.

So here this guy is super excited about Jesus. So much so that in front of everyone he cries out wait for me. I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus does what is often counter-intuitive to us, he immediately confronts him with this hard truth.

“In order to follow me, you must be willing to give up any claim to a comfortable life.” Emotion is never an indicator of surrender. I mean this guy was obviously excited about Jesus. You see there is often this misconception that emotion = genuine. Often times people rate a church service or “worship experience” based on how it made them feel.

The more emotional the more powerful. Yet we see that this fan had the emotion yet lacked the understanding of the cost of following Jesus. He made the choice to follow Jesus purely from an impulsive emotional response to what he saw, yet he failed to count the cost.

When faced with the idea that following Jesus would mean that he let go of all claims to comfort. It seems that his emotion was not enough to carry him through. No doubt he left that day discouraged because the cost of following Jesus seemed to be too high.

Fan Type # 2 -The going to do it “one day” guy.

Luke 9:59 CSB

59 Then he said to another, “Follow me.” “Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”

This guy Jesus actually reaches out to him and says follow me. This seems like a reasonable request. Is there anything wrong with wanting to attend your own father's funeral? There are two possibilities

1. The Second Burial - There was a tradition among Jews to inter the bodies of their loved ones in a tomb. Then after a year or so after the body had decomposed leaving behind the bones. They would then take these bones at putting them in a family crypt or box with all of their other deceased family members. Again this process took about a year or so. So this man could have told Jesus to come back by here next year, and ill be ready to follow.

2. The Second possibility and what seems to be the most likely would be this man’s father was not yet dead. In other words, once my father is dead then I will be ready to follow you. This could have been years down the road. But remember the context, Jesus had determined that he was now on the road to Jerusalem to die. There was not going to be another opportunity for this man to be with the savior. Jesus called him, there wasn’t going to be another opportunity.

I wonder how many of us find ourselves in a similar situation.

I think some of the most dangerous words to say or think when it comes to your dedication and obedience to Christ is the phrase “One day...”

How many we were “one day we were going to follow Jesus with everything we had”

“One day we were going to make a wrong right”

“One day work on restoring a family relationship”

Yet the years escape from us like water under a bridge and that one day has never come.

When we understand this idea, we can see fully that Jesus' response was not unreasonable but yet filled with urgency.

Luke 9:60 CSB

60 But he told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”

Let those who are spiritually dead take care of the affairs of day-to-day life, but those who would follow Christ place our focus on following Jesus. His time on earth was short.

Time is short and we are not guaranteed tomorrow, I wonder how many of us have put off following Christ for a day that will never come?

One day I will start sharing my faith....

One day I will abandon my sinful habit....

Application: So my question for you this morning is when. When will one day come? If you are sincere about your desire to make things right, to surrender your everyday life to Christ, then what are you doing to ensure your life will accomplish all that Christ had intended it to.

For many people, “one day” is synonymous with never.

“One day” is often just a tool of self-deception that keeps us from feeling the guilt and weight of our own rebellion against the call of God.

So in what way do you need to take your heart to task today? When will you force yourself to be honest about your self-deception? Hopefully, your answer is not “one day”

Fan Type #3 - The Distracted Observer

Have you ever tried to watch a movie or a game with someone who is always on their phone or electronic device? Or go out to eat with a person who acts this way.

It’s like they just can’t bring themselves to disconnect from one thing to enjoy what is right in front of them. They are always pursuing anything but what is actually physically in their path. In fact, I often witness parents who cannot disconnect from their virtual reality life long enough to enjoy the kid's childhood.

They will sacrifice what is important for something that isn’t even real. They are always distracted, their mind is somewhere else other than in the present. This next fan of Jesus is kind of like that. He cannot disconnect from his life in order to follow Jesus.

Luke 9:61 CSB

61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”

The first thing we notice is that this person has made the decision that he wants to follow Jesus. Well, that's a great thing, isn’t it? I think we would all agree that it is. But yet we see that his loyalty is torn. He wants to go but he’s still looking backward to his previous life. We find a similar account mentioned in the Old Testament when Elijah goes to Elisha to call him as his successor as the next prophet of Israel.

1 Kings 19:19–21 CSB

19 Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him. 20 Elisha left the oxen, ran to follow Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.” “Go on back,” he replied, “for what have I done to you?” 21 So he turned back from following him, took the team of oxen, and slaughtered them. With the oxen’s wooden yoke and plow, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he left, followed Elijah, and served him.

So here we see that God had called Elisha to be the next prophet to the people of Israel. Initially, he begins to run after Elijah. Then at some point, he begins to look back. Struggling to let go of the connections of his former life. He requests that he be able to go back. Elijah gives him that permission but instead of returning. Elisha does the following. He kills his oxen and burns his plow and gives the meat to the other laborers. This was not a small sacrifice. This was the complete removal of his livelihood. Elisha removed from his life all the things that would have distracted him and kept him looking back.

You see sometimes we follow Jesus but our hearts are truly somewhere else. This looking back to our old life will often rob us of our effectiveness for the kingdom.

this is why Jesus responded the following way:

Luke 9:62 CSB

62 But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

To plow by looking back guarantee that the rows in the field would not be straight. If they were not strait it would limit the number of rows one could fit into a said piece of land. The plowman was expected to keep his eyes upward always looking straight into the distance. To look back was to ensure he would be ineffective in his work.

See for many of us, we are not necessarily in danger of returning to worldliness but we have not done what it takes to remove the desire from our hearts. We have not allowed the holy spirit to disconnect us from all the things that are keeping us from being an effective servants and we are looking back at what was.

The term “burn the ships” comes from the 1500s when, after landing on Veracruz to begin a great conquest, Captain Hernán Cortés reportedly ordered his men to “burn the ships”. Essentially removing their only means of escape and giving them only two options; die in battle or succeed in conquest. Burning the ships is about committing.  Burning the ships is about forecasting your human tendency to back away from challenges because you know all too well that quitting is easier than choosing the harder things.  Burning the ships is about making it nearly impossible to turn around and run.

Elisha was wise. He literally burned the bridge. He ensured that he could never turn back. Have you?