COUNTING THE COST
Text: Luke 9:57 -62
Luke 9:57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." 59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." 62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
Can anyone get rich following Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Of course that would depend on how we define wealth! Following Jesus is not about material things, its about serving Jesus as our Lord in complete surrender! Foxes have holes, birds have nests and Jesus had nowhere to lay His head (Luke 9:58). Jesus did not sugarcoat it when He was pointing out that following Him would not be a bed of roses! Being a disciple could not and cannot be taken lightly because being a disciple is to be totally committed!
This morning, we will explore opportunity, cost and commitment.
OPPORTUNITY
If someone offered you tickets to go see you favorite team what would you do?
1) Wishy-washy: Would you say, “Let me think about it, and I’ll get back to you?” Or, would you alter your schedule so you could go?
2) Procrastination: Does it always go well when we procrastinate?
Gloria Pitzer has written this clever little poem:
Procrastination is my sin
It brings me naught but sorrow.
I know that I should stop it
In fact, I will…tomorrow.
Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [original source: Today in the Word, MBI, April, 1990, p. 41
Waiting till tomorrow is never a good idea when we are expected to be on time for something.
One time I was on a bus trip when the driver took a stopping break and told everyone we leave in twenty minutes. The twenty minutes were up and the bus driver could not wait for the passenger who had procrastinated so he moved on, I asked the bus driver what will happen to the man? The bus driver said, “He’ll have to catch the next bus that will be stopping by withing the next hour. I’ll bet he won’t miss that one!”
What do opportunities teach us?
1) Priorities: Opportunities teach us to get our priorities in order!
2) Last call: How will we know that the next call is the last call?
How many of you knew the late Enoch Finklea, Jr., (1926 - 1995) who served Pelion UMC for over twenty years? Enoch was a dear friend of mine. He was preaching a revival in Oak Grove UMC in 1978 for my father. I felt a spiritually magnetic pull to go to the altar even though I was already saved. Enoch prayed for me that night and told my mother that God had some special purpose for me. Over the course of eleven years later in 1989, I felt the undeniable call to ministry. It was the same feeling I had in 1978.
In 1995, I saw Enoch at one of our continuing education events. I asked him if he would come preach a revival for me in my next appointment. He agreed to come and do it. That was in March and he died at the age of 69 in April of that same year.
It was at that continuing ed event that he told the following story. He had a truck driver that he knew in his community. He took three days off to go on the road with him. Due to the engine noise Enoch had to sit in the back and talk close enough to the driver’s ears so the driver could hear him. At every truck stop, the driver would get out ahead of Enoch and warn everyone that he had his preacher with him. Of course this was their cue to straighten up and speak with stained glass voices.
The three days were up and it appeared that he had not been able to reach the truck driver. Later, Enoch was having some difficulty with his health related to his heart and a kidney infection. But, then that truck driver heard about it, and he got paranoid. He did not even knock on Enoch’s door but came barging in Enoch’s house begging him not to die because “You are my only chance to get to heaven!” This truck driver got right with the Lord Jesus Christ!
COST
How many are aloof to the cost of salvation?
1)Three examples: Today’s text gives us three examples of aloofness.
Luke 9:58: The first one says he will follow Jesus, but he has not calculated the cost which is why Jesus bluntly talks to him about foxes having holes, birds having nests and the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head (Luke 9:58).
Luke 9:59: The second one wants to wait till he buries his father. “He was not asking about attending a funeral because he was referring to the future death of his father. He wanted to acquire that inheritance and the security that came with it before he would commit.” (paraphrase of the summary given by Dr. Tony Evans. The Tony Evans Bible Commentary. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2019, p. 981). “Naked, we came and naked we will return” That is Job’s way of saying that we cannot take our wealth and /or materialism from this world to the hereafter! (Job 1:21).
Luke 9:61: “ … let me first say farewell to those at my home.“ Jesus responded by telling him "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Jesus was pointing out that following Him as a disciple is a total commitment that should put Jesus first and foremost (see Luke 14:26).
2) One of His disciples: Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, "So and so tells me that he was one of your students." The teacher answered devastatingly, "He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students." It is one of the supreme handicaps of the church that in it there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples. (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible; The Gospel of Luke. Revised ed. 1975, p. 196). Christ wants us to be true disciples who follow Him, not fair-weather fans!
How many of you have counted the cost of following Jesus?
1) Boycotting Christians: There are many Christian celebrities who have been given fewer acting opportunities for openly admitting that they are Christians! How many are ridiculed for their faith every day?
2) Reality check: Salvation does not mean anything to someone who does not take the fact that they have an expiration date seriously! The Bible is very clear about having an expiration date. Remember renting a VHS from Blockbuster video with the slogan “Be kind, rewind”? Hebrews 9:27 -28 says And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, (28) so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (NRSV). We get one lifetime to decide. There is no rewind button!
3) Priceless: The gift of salvation is priceless!
4) Cost: How many would start something that they did not finish like laying the foundation for a tower that was never completed or a king who went to war without counting the cost of resources and the likelihood soldiers who would die in battle without considering a peace treaty? (Paraphrased from Luke 14:28 - 32).
COMMITMENT
What does commitment mean to you?
1) Committed: Have you ever gotten in line for a roller coaster and changed your mind because you were afraid of the g-forces making your lose your lunch? Or, how many of you have been on board a roller coaster and the climb uphill made you nervous about going downhill? Once you’re on a roller coaster, you’re committed. Once you’re seated on board a plane, you’re committed.
2) Wedded: How many would make the commitment of getting married without proper counsel? Like the marriage vows say, it is not something that should be entered into unadvisedly!
Does commitment mean no turning back?
1) Rubicon: The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" is an idiom that means that one is passing a point of no return. Its meaning comes from allusion to the crossing of the Rubicon by Julius Caesar in early January 49 BC. His crossing of the river precipitated Caesar's civil war, which ultimately led to Caesar's becoming dictator for life (dictator perpetuo). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon Hence, a leader who calculated the cost of “going to war”!
2) Burn the ship:
Episode 1: Consider Elijah’s call of Elisha and how Elisha burned his ties in a way he could not go back. 1 Kings 19:19-21 So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. (20) He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." Then Elijah said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?" (21) He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant. The actions of verse 21 are Elisha equivalent of a letter of resignation as he totally committed himself to his new calling while severing ties with his former job and all the income that went with it. Just when Jesus called like the Jewish born tax collector Matthew, he broke all ties with his job and the income that went with it to follow Jesus as a disciple (Matthew 9: 9 -13).
Episode 2: "Saint Columbia, a sixteenth-century Irish missionary, was sent to evangelize northern Scotland. The adventure was hazardous because of the Picts who occupied the area. Columbia and twelve men sailed to the nearby Island of Iona. The first thing that they did was to burn their boat. They were afraid to trust themselves with a seaworthy craft which might tempt them to leave. Thus, a boatload of men brought Christ to Scotland." (G. Curtis Jones. 1,000 Illustrations For Preaching And Teaching. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1986,p. 184). Much like John Wesley, who "saw the world as his parish", they saw Scotland as their mission.
Episode 3: In 1519, Hernan Cortez led his men off their ships to explore the New World. The first thing he said to his men when they were all gathered on shore was, "Look at our ships." He had sent back a few men to set fire to their vessels. As the men gasped in horror, he told them that there was no going back. There was only one way to go -- and that was forward. Follow me! https://www.sermonsuite.com/immediate-word/burning-bridges-and-plows The point of no return is about being committed without an escape clause!
Are you going to or have you burned your ship? Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? Have you also counted the cost of not picking up your cross and following in the footsteps of Jesus (Luke 14:27)? Jesus said … "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Can we afford not witnessing to others about Jesus? Can they afford being without Jesus? Jesus died on the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away our sins---the sins of the world (John 1:29) at the cross to bring us all back to God. Unless we pick up our cross and follow Jesus we cannot be His disciples (Luke 14:27).
Dwight Moody once told the story about a doctor who approached his elderly friend on his death bed about salvation in Jesus Christ. His friend said to him, “If you knew Jesus all this time why didn't you tell me about Jesus before now?” (paraphrased). (REV. J. B. McClure ed. MOODY'S ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. RELATED IN HIS REVIVAL WORK BY THE GREAT EVANGELIST DWIGHT L. MOODY. FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM GUSTAVE DORE REVISED EDITION. CHICAGO: Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co. 1899 [Illustration number 82]). Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? Have you counted the eternal cost of not following Jesus? Have we counted the cost for the lost if we do not share Jesus with them?
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
