The High Cost Series

"The High Cost"

Luke 9:57-62

A sermon for 5/8/22

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Pastor John Bright

Luke 9 “57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, 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 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”

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

Pause right there. Those words I just read; they were “Breathed by God”! God wants you to hear His Word right now! So, what is your response? Do you want to formed by that Word or do you want to be informed about the words? You have to choose.

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As always on Mother’s Day – unless I have a woman to preach, you won’t get a sermon about what it’s like to be a mom. I will never know and don’t care to pretend I do!

My sermon title may be an unfortunate reminder of the inflation we are all experiencing – from gas for the car or truck to the meat for dinner – it’s all getting more expensive. Now, while this is an annoyance for most of us – it’s a significant burden for the least of these. One group that we need to remember on this day is single moms. Those mothers who are trying to raise their kids without two incomes.

I found some census data from back in 2018 – of custodial parents, 43.5 percent reported receiving the full amount of child support due and the poverty rate of custodial-mother families was 29.2 percent. While I don’t have more recent information, I doubt it has gotten much better.

This is exactly the kind of folks the church used to serve as they were instructed by God’s Word –

Psalm 82:3

“Defend the poor and fatherless;

Do justice to the afflicted and needy.”

The high cost of following Jesus – v. 57-58

“57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, 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.”

If you have watched the first season of “The Chosen”, you may have been surprised by Jesus basically living in the open with a lean to for sleeping before He calls the Disciples. As we see the group moving around, they look like they are going on a camping trip. They live out in the open, unless invited to stay in the home of someone along the way. It really drives home the point that Jesus had no home to call His own.

Jesus knew that this potential follower had a strong need for security. We all have that need! In the “Freedom in Christ” course, Dr. Neal Anderson lists this as one of the three basic needs we all have: acceptance, significance, security. Adam and Eve had all three provided for them in the Garden of Eden. After the fall in Genesis 3, we see their security turned to fear – “9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” From this point on, “Do not be afraid” is the most repeated command in the Bible. (pg. 25)

If you have a place to live, try to think about how much security you feel because of that dwelling. When the storms come in the night- when you arrive there after a long day at work – when you gather with the family for a big event – that place gives you a sense of security.

These men and women who followed Jesus had lost all that security. They had to get it from Jesus. They had to put their trust and hope in Jesus for security. What about you and me? Have you ever seen news coverage of the aftermath of a big tornado or hurricane? Or maybe folks returning to their property after a wildfire to see everything destroyed? I remember going down to the Gulf with a youth group to do cleanup after Katrina. There was street after street with nothing but a concrete foundation and some pipes sticking up. Everything was gone.