The Price of Following Him
In this world that we live there are a great number of people that desire to follow Christ, isn't that true? How many here have the desire to follow Christ? Without a doubt, all of us here want or desire deeply in our hearts to follow the our King and Savior. Then, what do we do? What we do is we look for a church, we become members and we think that by doing this we are following Christ. We think that by doing this we are serving Him. But what occurs most often is that in reality we are not serving Him, we are not following Him. The biggest reason for this is that we have not realized that following Him is something very costly. Yes, you heard it correctly, following Christ is something very costly. I am sure that at this moment many of you are thinking that what I am saying makes no sense, but I tell you that following Christ is very costly. Let's look in the Word of God to see what I am talking about.
Luke 9:57-62 - And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
This is very interesting, isn't it? Here we see the lesson about the price that we have to pay when we decide to follow Jesus. Let's examine these three examples very closely to realize that following Jesus is not something that can be taken lightly, it is a serious matter.
In the first example we see that this man told Jesus that he would follow him where ever he went. Why? I am sure that this man had the same reasons that all of us had. I am sure that it was because he was pleased with the presence of our Lord and his followers, that the teachings and the wisdom of the Lord motivated him, that he appreciated all the good that the Lord had done. I ask you, aren't these the reasons why we started following Him? Of course they are, we started following Him because in Him we found that peace that we longed for, in Him we found the rest that we sought, in Him we found a great love and genuine forgiveness. How many say praise God? Then, just like that man, we say that we will follow Him, but look closely at what Jesus said to him. Jesus told him that there was a great price that he would have to pay.
Jesus told him: "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Here Jesus is using Himself as the prime example. He denied Himself completely, He had no place where he could rest His head. In other words, He was warning him that being one of his disciples would not be easy. He was warning him that to follow Him would be very costly. Let's analyze this closely, let's see if it applies in out lives. Here we see that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, He was on his way to accomplish the mission that God the Father had sent Him to do. The reason why Jesus says this to this man is because when we become disciples of Christ, when we take the calling that our Father has given us seriously, when we take seriously the mandate of the grand commission, we simply can't rest in the knowledge that we are saved. We can't just take refuge in that alone, we to work and do everything that is possible to expand the Kingdom of God here on earth. Can you imagine if Jesus had not taken the mission that the Father sent him to do seriously? I tell you that is that had been the case we would not be here today. We would not have received the blessings that our celestial Father has poured and will pour over us and will pour over us. Brethren we have to be imitators of Jesus. Like I said previously, Jesus was on His was to Jerusalem, He was on His way to accomplish His mission. I tell you now that we are also on our way to Jerusalem, not the Jerusalem of antiquity, but the New Jerusalem. I am sure that all of us here want to reach this place of rest, this place where there will be no more suffering, this place where we will find ourselves in the presence of the all mighty God, but to reach it there is a great price that we will have to pay.
I'll put it to you this way; when we want to attend an event, whether it is a sporting event, an opera, or something of this nature, we all try to get the best seats in the house. I am sure that we have all seen people that even sleep outside the stadiums or ticket offices in the new in order to get the best seats, correct? In other words we see that these people have denies themselves, they have left their comfort to obtain what they want so much. Now I ask you, if the world can do this for a worldly thing, a thing that will not last, how much more shouldn't we do? Brethren although the price that we will have to pay may seem high, seem very costly, because we will have to deny ourselves, consider what we are in fact reserving, We are not reserving a mediocre seat, we are not reserving a good seat, we are in fact reserving the best seat in the universe. We are reserving the right to sit in the presence of our Lord, we are reserving the right to be with the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, we are reserving the right to be with the eternal I Am. I tell you that this is something that no one can set a price on, this is the privilege that we should all be striving to obtain. Therefore, the first lesson that our Lord is teaching us here is that to serve Him adequately , to serve Him correctly, the first thing that we have to do is to deny ourselves. We have to let God take the number one position in our lives.
Let's continue and let's now analyze the second example. Here we see that Jesus asked this man to follow Him, but this man answered: "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." If we read this in a hurry, the answer that our Lord gave him when He said: "Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God" can look as very abrupt. This could look as a very cold way of treating this man, an answer that dos not take into consideration the pain and suffering that this man was feeling. But this is not the case.
What is happening here is that this man the death of his father as an excuse to not answer the calling from the Lord immediately. What really happens here is that this man did not realize what Jesus had told him. He did not understand what our Lord said to him when He said: "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." In other words He was telling him that God had to come before anything else. Jesus was telling this man that to follow Him is more important than any other thing in this world. What happened to this man is not something uncommon, it is something that happens to many of us. When the Lord enters our lives, He calls us, but on many occasions we use excuses to not stop everything that we are doing and to simply follow Him without caring for about anything else. Look closely at what He told him at the end, Jesus told him: "but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." This is just confirming what I have just said, this confirms that Jesus was telling this man that God had to be first in his life. God's kingdom is more important than anything else.
As we continue, let's now look at the third example. Here we see a man just like the first. A man that told Jesus that he would follow him where ever He went, but again we see an excuse. We see that he said: "Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house." Have you noticed the common denominator in all of these? All three were willing to follow Him, all three felt the need, but all three used excuses for not doing it immediately. We see that this man asked Jesus to give him some time, but Jesus also answered him in a way that appears very abrupt at first sight, Jesus said: "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." What was He saying to this man? Was He telling him that he could not enter in the Kingdom of God? The answer is no. What happened in this case is that apparently this man was placing more importance on the things of this world than to follow God.
Let's think about this for a few seconds, let's think about the example that Jesus used here. How many have ever seen how a field is ploughed? I have seen it done on numerous occasions, and I am sure that some of us here, if not all, have seen a field that has been correctly ploughed. The soil is neatly divided into rows and they are laid straight one next to the other. How did they do it? Easy, the person that was performing this task was not looking back, this person maintained his sight on what he was doing. This person maintained his sight to plow the rows straight and evenly. The same has to be true when it comes to our serving God. We can't be looking back, that which is behind us is not important. What is important is what is ahead of us. What is important is that we are on the way to the New Jerusalem and we can't allow our sight to be placed on anything else. Brethren when we start looking back, we are in fact allowing our enemy one more opportunity to enter our lives and steal the vision that God has given us. We are giving the enemy another opportunity to deviate us from the path that God has laid out for us. We are affording the enemy one more opportunity to accuse and tempt us. We have to concentrate on the only thing that matters, we have to concentrate only on Him.
To conclude, the truth of it all, the lesson that we have to learn is that when we follow Christ our life has to completely change. Following Christ is costly because it means that our realities and our lives have been completely renewed. We are not deserving of what God has done for us. But Christ loves us, Christ wants us to serve Him, Christ has called us to serve Him. The price that we have to pay may appear to be very costly, but consider what we will receive in exchange.
Preached: August 20, 2000
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