A Messiah Who Will Cost You Everything Series

A Messiah Who Will Cost You Everything

Text: Matthew 8:18-22

Introduction

1. Illustration: Salvation is free, ... but discipleship will cost you your life. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2. Illustration: In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

3. Following Jesus will cost you:

a. Security

b. Convenience

4. Read Matthew 8:18-22

Proposition: When we decide to follow Jesus, we are surrenduring everything.

Transition: We must first understand that...

I. Jesus Will Cost You Security (18-20).

A. Cross to the Other Side

1. Matthew you begins this narrative with "When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake."

a. The expression "other side" usually marks Jesus’ movement across the Sea of Galilee, on this occasion from the primarily Jewish region on the west side to the primarily Gentile region on the east side (Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew, 346).

b. This is not a call to get away from the crowd, but a call of discipleship to go where you are needed even if it is uneasy.

c. Let’s be honest, if Jesus only called people to places of security Hawaii would be filled with missionaries!

d. However, he calls us to leave behind those places that make us feel secure to those places where we are needed.

2. Once they get to the other side of the lake, "one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

a. This person was a teacher of the religious law, an expert in handling written documents.

b. In the ancient world only a few people could read and write. Although the Jews had a higher percentage of the population trained in reading and writing, only a special group regularly worked with written materials, and even fewer had access to books or Scriptures.

c. The capabilities of scribes went far beyond simple secretarial skills to include teaching, interpretation, and regulation of laws (Wilkins, 346).

3. This is out of the ordinary for the teachers of the law in Matthew.

a. Most of them are against Jesus, but for some reason this one seems willing to associate himself with Jesus. At least, that is the way it appears at first (France, 325).

b. "I will follow you" normally indicates a desire for a discipleship relationship, but this man has in mind the kind of master-disciple relationship in which a potential disciple examines various masters and then enlists himself with the most popular or the best-equipped one (Wilkins, 347).

c. Jesus knew that a strong profession does not necessarily reflect strong commitment.

d. He claimed to be willing to follow Jesus wherever he might go, but Jesus sees through the mask and challenges him by pointing out the consequences of following him.

4. He says to this man, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

a. Rabbis enjoyed a relatively high status within Judaism, but Jesus has no school or synagogue or prestigious place of honor among the religious establishment.

b. He stays at the home of friends, relatives, and disciples through most of his ministry.

c. Matthew indicates that this man’s zealous outside is superficial at best, and is not matched with a heart felt devotion to follow Jesus when things get difficult (Turner, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 129).

d. His enthusiasm was fueled by glitter and glory of Jesus miracles, but was not taking into account that following Jesus requires surrendering everything.

5. Here Jesus refers to himself with his favorite way of identifying himself: Son of Man.

a. Daniel 7:13-14 (NLT)

13 As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence.

14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.

b. This is how this teacher thinks following Jesus will be like, but he ignores what other Scriptures say about him, like...

c. Isaiah 53:3 (NLT)

3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.