When I was in college I thought that an area of ministry that I would enjoy doing, and that perhaps God was leading me to, was to be a chaplain in the armed forces. I spent time talking with a pastor who had been a chaplain. I read some material about being a chaplain. Eventually, I actually went to a recruiting office and took some sort of test that would determine my potential. You know, I don’t remember a lot about that day, and obviously I haven’t joined the Navy at this point and probably won’t, but as I think back to walking through that office I remember some of the incentive posters and slogans that were posted. You see them in malls and other places where recruiting offices are. Signs that offer $50,000 towards college, or a $20,000 signing bonus. Join the Navy and see the world. Fly high in the U.S. Air Force. We’re looking for a few good men. All sorts of incentives and phrases that catch the eye and put visions in our minds of success, and adventure, and having a sense of pride. But you know, one thing I don’t think I’ve ever seen much of in a recruiting office is a sign telling the demands of sacrifice that come with joining the service. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a sign that says, “When you join, you’re going to be leaving your family and very possibly dying in a country on the other side of the globe.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sign that says, “Join us and prepare to get yelled at, mocked, and tortured, and that’s only in boot camp.” Why not? Because it’s a recruiting office. You generally don’t go telling someone all the things they have to give up and all the bad things they can expect when they join if you really want them to become a part of your group. You want to show them all the good things, you want to put your good foot forward.
A while back we put together a 5 minute DVD to give to our guests telling about our church. We had a nice message from Pastor Keaton, some footage of several of our ministries, shots of our recently updated facilities, and testimonials from some of our church people telling what they liked about our church.
There were some things that we didn’t put on that DVD however. There were some testimonials that we didn’t add. We didn’t put a list of things that we expected from our members on that DVD. We didn’t say, “Now, if you come, we do expect that you’ll put money in the offering plate every Sunday, we want you to be ready to mow the yard each week, and also you’ll need to plan on scrubbing the toilets once a month.” No, we put our best foot forward. We put things on there that would make the viewers feel welcome to become a part of our church family. Why? Because we like seeing new people come to our church.
In the book of Luke we read a story about a day when Jesus has the opportunity to recruit some new disciples. And it’s quite strange the way that Jesus handles that opportunity. Most pastors are working very hard to gain new members. We try to persuade them that this is the church for them. But when we read this story it seems as though Jesus spends most of the time trying to dissuade these men from following Him. Let me read it for you, and you’ll see what I mean.
Luke 9: 57-62… As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
Doesn’t that seem strange? Here people were volunteering to follow Jesus, and all He would seemingly say is, “You won’t have a place to sleep,” or, “Let your dead dad take care of himself,” or, “You’re really not fit to follow me.” Isn’t that weird? Jesus totally rejected the idea of putting His best foot forward. He totally missed it when it comes to recruiting, didn’t He?
But you know, there’s a reason that the Holy Spirit nudged Luke to record this story. We know that Jesus actually does want all people to follow Him. The Bible tells us that He’s not willing that any should perish. So why did Jesus respond this way? Why did He seem to discourage these men from following Him? This morning, I believe that Jesus was not discouraging them from following Him at all. He was, however, forcing them to count the cost of being His disciple. He wanted them to really understand the sacrifice it would take to be His follower. And today I want us to take a little time to see what following Jesus, what discipleship, really requires. Each of these responses that Jesus gave shows us a component that is required to be a disciple of Jesus.
I. Being a Disciple Requires Surrender (vs 57-58)
I believe the first thing that Jesus was teaching us is that being His disciple requires surrender. As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
We don’t know a lot about this first man, but I think it’s safe to say that he had been a witness to some of the miracles that Jesus had performed. In this chapter Jesus had fed the 5000, and that was only the number of men, the more realistic number of people was probably 15,000, and He did it with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. In this chapter Jesus had healed the boy who was being tormented by an unclean spirit. In the chapter before this Jesus calmed the sea, he cast out the spirits from the demoniac and sent them to the pigs grazing near by, He had raised a 12 year old girl from the dead. A woman who had an incurable blood disorder was healed simply by touching His clothes.
Jesus was in the height of His popularity. People thronged to hear Him speak and seek His touch. No doubt this man had heard of all the things that Jesus had done. Very possibly he had witnessed some of these miracles and possibly others as well. And I don’t doubt that this man really wanted to follow Christ. I mean, who wouldn’t want to follow the man who healed the sick and calmed the storms and raised the dead and fed the multitudes? Who wouldn’t want to be close to the man who attracted people from far and wide when He spoke?
The problem was this man was not looking past all of those wonders and all of that popularity. He didn’t really understand what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus. Maybe he just wanted to be there when all the rest of the miracles would be performed. Maybe he thought that a man of Jesus’ distinction would soon be very rich and he wanted the opportunity to grow wealthy with Him. But you see, even with all of His popularity and power, Jesus had no place to call His own. He had no home. He was loaned a place to rest by those who loved Him. He had no money. He took some coins from a fish in order to pay His taxes. He wasn’t one of these high-fluting rabbis that wore the best of robes and slept in the best of hotels and gathered great offerings from those who came to hear him speak. He had nothing. But this man didn’t understand that, so Jesus told him… Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.
Today there are a lot of good reasons to follow Jesus. He has promised to cleanse our hearts from sin. There is no one else that can take the guilt of your sin away. You can do all sorts of things to try to rid yourself of guilt, anything from hurting yourself physically to doing good deeds to others, but nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse away your guilt and your sin. No where else will you find forgiveness of your sins. There’s no where else that you can find the joy that comes with knowing Christ. No where else will you find a way to escape the punishment of hell. No where else can you experience the peace of receiving the promise of eternal life. When we follow Jesus, He has promised to supply all of our needs. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He has promised that He would always be with us. He said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He’s promised that all things will work for the good of those who love Him. There are lots of good reasons to follow Jesus. But let us not be guilty of forgetting to count the cost.
You see, being a follower of Christ requires surrender. Being a follower of Christ demands that we give ownership of everything to Him. Being His follower means that we hold no possessions as our own. Being His follower means that we don’t count any comforts too precious. We all want to be comfortable. We all want to experience earthly security. We all want to have nice things. We all want to be liked. We all want to feel like we have control of our life. But in order to be a disciple, all those wants must be surrendered to Christ. Because there may come a time when Jesus asks us to get out of our comfort zone. There may be a time when we lose those things for the sake of Christ. And we must be determined that we will not keep a hold on anything. We must be willing to forsake everything in order to follow Him.
When we choose to follow Christ we must surrender all that we have, all that we hope for, all that we are to Him. We cannot hold anything back, we cannot keep anything to ourselves. In Romans 12:1… Paul tells us to… Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. In Phil. 3:8 he says… I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. Jesus said in Luke 9:23… If any man has a desire to come after me, let him deny himself (or) give up all, and take up his cross, and follow me. In Luke 14:33 He says… whoever doesn’t forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Jesus requires that those who follow Him surrender all to Him.
II. Being a Disciple Requires Priority (vs 59-60)
Discipleship does not just require surrender, but it requires priority. You see, this second man was deciding that yes, he wanted to follow Jesus. No doubt he had heard Jesus’ conversation with the first man, and he had made the decision that he was ready to surrender all of his earthly security and possessions to the Lord. But he felt like there were some more important things that needed to be done first. He says to Jesus… Lord, first let me go and bury my father.
Sounds like a pretty reasonable request, doesn’t it? I mean, what compassionate master wouldn’t let you spend the time necessary to grieve the loss of your father and make the funeral preparations? But Jesus says something that sounds very harsh and uncompassionate. It sounds as though Jesus really doesn’t care about this situation with the man’s father. For Luke tells us, Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." “Jesus, how in the world could you say such a thing? How could you be so hard-hearted and cold? This man needs to go home and bury his father. The Ten Commandments, all of Scripture, tells us to honor our parents and you won’t even let this man attend his father’s funeral?”
But you have to understand something. This man’s father was probably not even dead yet. He was probably getting up in years and it very possibly wouldn’t be long before he kicked the bucket. If he was already dead, I doubt we’d be reading about this discussion, because this second man probably would have been back home already making the preparations and leading his family through the grieving.
But you see, Jewish custom stated that the oldest son was in charge of making sure that his father’s funeral arrangements were made and that the family business was taken care of afterwards. So basically what this man was saying was, “I have a father at home who is old and may die at some point in the near future. Let me go home and wait for that to happen so I can fulfill my duty. I’ll get all of that taken care of and then I’ll do whatever you want me to do.” But Jesus was saying, “Hey, if you want to be my follower, it’s something that needs to take highest priority in your life. There should be nothing that causes you to procrastinate on your decision to follow me. There should be nothing that causes you to say, ‘Let me do this first and then I’ll follow you.’”
You see, it is so easy for us to look at life and decide that “I want to do my thing for a while and then when I get all done enjoying the things that I want to enjoy I’ll give my life to Jesus. There are a lot of things that I’d love to do that I know God wouldn’t be pleased with, so I’ll get it out of my system and then I’ll do what God wants me to do.”
There are all sorts of things that will make you put off getting where you need to be with God. And Satan will be sure that when you do finish enjoying your sinful desires, or when you do get done sowing your wild oats, that there will be something else to make you procrastinate. “Well, let me get my life all organized first. Let me get through college and get married and get settled in a good career, and then I’ll have time to serve God.” “Let me get my kids all grown up and out of the house and then I’ll have time to serve God.” “Let me at least get to retirement and then I’ll think about serving God.” And on and on you’ll go, continuing to put off following Christ until you’re life will be over and you’ll look back and wonder why it was so messed up. Jesus doesn’t want there to be anything that causes you to put off serving Him.
Just as there are many things that can become a reason to procrastinate, there are many things that are begging to become the priority of your life. Some of you here today are trying to serve God, but there’s something else in your life that has become more important to you than your relationship with Jesus. It could be a girlfriend or boyfriend. They could even be good Christian teens, but they’ve taken first priority in your life. It could be your love for sports. All that is great, but if following the Vols is a higher priority to you than following Jesus then something’s messed up. It could be your schooling. Getting a good education is so vital, but it should never become the highest priority of your life. Earning money or being in style could be what’s taking priority. Climbing the ladder of success at work. It could be making sure you’re keeping up your image.
It could be your family. And believe me, family is very important to me. There are lots of things that you could take from me and I’d get over it quickly, but my wife and daughter aren’t in that list. But Jesus says in Luke 14:26… If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And Jesus isn’t saying that we must literally hate our family, for the rest of Scripture teaches contrary to that, but our love for Christ and our devotion to Him must take such high priority in our lives that all other loves pale in comparison. It could even be church. It could be all sorts of things. But nothing should ever take precedence over your relationship with Christ. Being a disciple requires that Jesus is your highest priority and what all your other priorities are based upon.
III. Being a Disciple Requires Commitment (vs 61-62)
Lastly, this morning, not only does being a disciple of Jesus require surrender and priority, but it requires commitment. A third man comes to Jesus and says, “Lord I’ll follow you, but let me first go and bid my family farewell.” Again, this doesn’t seem like too bad a request, does it? I mean, if he’s going to give the rest of his life to follow Jesus, shouldn’t he be able to go say goodbye to his family? But what is Jesus’ reply? He says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, when will you ever learn? The man is ready to follow you. He knows he’s got to count the cost and realize that he must surrender all he has to you. He knows that it needs to be something that highest priority in his life. All he wants to do is say goodbye.” But what is Jesus trying to teach us here? He’s telling us that in order to be His disciple we must be committed to follow Him without looking back. The Bible says that salvation is reserved for those who endures to the end. Paul told Timothy, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. Heb. 10:23… Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Being a disciple requires commitment.
Commitment is something I’ve learned in a whole new way recently. In about five months last year I lost 50 pounds. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. It was something that took serious work and commitment. I used to be someone who could eat with the best of them. Put pizza in front of my or roast beef and mashed potatoes, or any number of things and I would eat till I could eat no more. Give me the opportunity and I would drink about 5 Mountain Dews a day. I love that stuff. But I haven’t touched it since last April. And I’ve tried other diets before. I tried to go on the low carb diet. I tried to get off of soda completely. I tried a lot of things. But I never could get past that 4th day.
But for 5 months I did the Weight Watcher diet and to be honest, I’m quite proud of myself. But let me tell you, there were days when I felt like I could eat forever. There are still days that I wish I could down a 2 liter of Mountain Dew. But for some reason, the fear of being a fat dad has gave me the necessary motivation to stay committed and to reach my goal. You see, diets aren’t easy, they take commitment.
On a much higher level though, it takes commitment to follow Jesus. It’s not always easy to be a Christian. It takes commitment to continue following Jesus when you are going through life’s storms. When you are going through times of pain and discouragement and when you can’t see what God is trying to do it takes commitment to continue trusting Him to lead you. When you’re going through severe temptation it takes commitment to stay true to the One who brought you out of sin. It takes commitment when things are easy to maintain a dependent relationship upon the power of God. Sometimes the hardest times to stay close to Jesus are the easy times. Being a disciple takes commitment. It takes commitment when other things or people are fighting to gain priority in your life. It takes commitment to make sure that all your other loves pale in comparison to your love for Jesus. Being a disciple and a servant of Jesus takes commitment.
In 1956, a group of missionaries traveled to Ecuador. They had a dream of ministering to a tribe, the Aucas, that had alluded all forms of society. They were ancient and violent in their ways and a seemingly unreachable people. After about three months of contact with the Aucas by plane, dropping gifts upon them and making many friendly gestures, this group of five men, with their wives and children behind them praying, decided to go to their village. And when they did, Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, and three others put their lives into the Lord’s hands. And God allowed them to be killed by the very people they were trying to reach with the Gospel. Why would they do something like that? Why would they put themselves in harm’s way? Because they were committed to Jesus Christ and to doing exactly what He wanted them to do.
Today, the Aucas tribe has been transformed from a heathen people to a God following people. You see, two years later, after continued contact, the Aucas invited two women, one a wife of Jim Elliot and one a sister of Nate Saint, to come to their village to teach them about Jesus. And today, those people who were at one time in violent tribal warfare with their neighbors are now working to reach their neighbors with the Gospel. All because five men were committed to living and giving their lives for Christ, and because the ones they left behind were committed to reaching those people for the Lord. It takes commitment to be a disciple of Jesus. It takes commitment to be the person God wants you to be. It takes commitment to make the impact that the Lord wants you to make in your world.
I wonder how many here today would say, “You know, I haven’t been the disciple of Jesus that I should be. I haven’t been willing to be surrendered the way that God has asked me to be. I haven’t made Jesus my highest priority and the one upon which all other of my priorities are based. I haven’t been committed the way that I need to be.” Is there anyone like that here today that would want to step out and say, “Lord, I’ll follow you wherever you want me to go. My possessions are yours. My family and friends are yours. My dreams and ambitions are yours. I want You to be my highest priority from now on. I want You to be what is most important in my life. And I want to commit myself to follow You for the rest of my life.”
