The Truth About Following Jesus – Part 2
Luke 9:57-62 (59-60)
December 23, 2018
You are very aware of the portion of Scripture which we are studying.
It is one of absolutely profound importance.
A chapter which not only definitively named Jesus as the Christ,
But one which has also been very clear about His requirements.
In Luke 9 we have seen that
Jesus is without a doubt God’s anointed and chosen King.
• It is Jesus whom God has ordained to literally rule the world.
• To Him God has decreed that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.
• Submission to Him and His will is the divine mandate and expectation.
• Refusal to submit to Him brings only wrath and judgment.
The Psalmist prophesied in Psalms 2
Psalms 2:6-12 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
The Psalms was clear.
• God has already chosen His reigning King.
• This King is in fact God’s Son.
• God has given Him the very ends of the earth as His possession.
• And God has decreed that He will rule the earth and literally break anyone
who rebels as with a rod of iron like one shattering a clay pot.
• The warning then was made that all men (even the kings of earth) should
come trembling to God’s King
• They should do homage to Him and submit to Him so that they not fall under
His wrath.
• Instead they should take refuge in Him as their means of salvation.
That was the call of Psalms 2.
When you find God’s King (who happens to be His Son)
Then take refuge in Him, but do not rebel against Him.
It left the world asking, “WHO IS THIS KING?”
And in verse 20 of this chapter,
Luke made it very clear that this King had been identified.
Luke 9:20 “And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
Jesus asked His disciples IF THEY KNEW who He was AND THEY DID.
“You are that King that God promised.”
The implication then is that now that we know who this King is,
It is time to take refuge in Him; to do homage to Him;
To submit to His divine authority and will.
God has appointed Him to rule, we now submit.
That was made clear.
THE NEXT QUESTION is also of absolute importance which would be,
“What does He require?”
And Jesus made that clear in:
Luke 9:23-26 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
This is the requirement of God’s chosen and anointed King.
• Deny Yourself
• Take up the Cross
• Follow Him
He is God’s King, appointed to rule, and this is what He requires.
The rest of the chapter then has been to flesh out what that means.
We most recently saw 3 examples which shed light on the subject of self-denial. In fact we saw 3 bad examples of self-denial.
• The disciples Disdained the Least
• The disciples Disrespected the Laity
• The disciples Disregarded the Lost
All 3 done because they still had not learned what it meant to deny self and let go of their own ego and their own pride and live solely for the glory of the King.
And now we are at the final point of the chapter which is
3 more examples which now shed light on the subject of following Jesus.
As we said last time we have 3 men with 2 things in common.
• They all profess a willingness to follow Jesus.
• None of them knows what that means.
And so we are again learning from bad examples.
Namely we are seeing what it does not mean to follow Jesus.
And how important this is to get right!
Since it is true that our Lord has promised that in the final judgment
There will be a great many people who lived their entire life
Assuming they were following Jesus when in fact they were not.
Do we remember our Lord’s warnings in the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Those are people who THOUGHT they were following the Lord
And who THOUGHT they were headed for eternal life,
Only to find at the end that they were not.
That is terrifying.
These people emerge again at the end of that same sermon.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
The warning is clear. Not only must you follow the King,
But you must follow as He commands, not as you desire.
And here at the end of Luke 9 we get 3 examples
Of those who DID NOT intend to follow as He commanded.
We looked at the first last week, let me briefly hit it again.
#1 FOLLOW JESUS IS NOT FOR THE AMBITIOUS
Luke 9:57-58
Here we met a man who came to Jesus and initially said the right things.
“I will follow You wherever You go.”
• To our limited discernment this man seemed to have it figured.
• It seems as though He is giving the Lord a blank check.
• If he were to set in our church would never suspect His genuineness.
But the Lord looks at the heart.
The Lord knows all men.
There is no creature hidden from His sight.
And our Lord knows that this man
Has very selfish and carnal reason for following Jesus.
This man supposes that Jesus will be his means
To obtaining worldly comfort and riches and glory.
In short, this man is ambitious for the world
And he sees Jesus as his meal ticket for acquiring it.
It is the very essence of today’s prosperity gospel,
Whereby men suppose that Jesus is some sort of genie in a bottle whose sole purpose is to provide for you all the worldly extravagance that you flesh desires.
Jesus SQUASHED this man’s carnal hopes.
He said, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus points out the obvious to this man
That Jesus Himself had not acquired the world.
In fact Jesus was homeless.
Any notion of following Jesus to worldly riches and fame
Was a misguided notion.
Jesus had not acquired the world
And He would not be leading His followers to that end either.
And so we learned that
• If our motivation for following Jesus is because we think Jesus will be some ticket to earthly bliss and prosperity,
• Then we are not following as Jesus commanded.
We are thus deceived and quite frankly,
According to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount,
It is even likely that in that state we could very well be
On the wide road leading to destruction.
Following Jesus is not for the Ambitious
Having learned that last week, this morning we move to the next example.
#2 FOLLOWING JESUS IS NOT FOR THE ACQUISITIVE
Luke 9:59-60
(Not inquisitive, but acquisitive)
ACQUISITIVE it means “eager to acquire things; materialistic.”
We are talking here about those who are only interested in the wealth of this world.
• They love the world.
• They want the world.
• That is their goal.
Now immediately you might ask,
“How then is this man different than the first?”
After all, didn’t we just say that this was the problem of the first man;
That he wanted wealth and comfort and prosperity?
Yes we did, but there is a fundamental difference between these 2.
There is an important distinction between these 2 men.
The first man thought Jesus to be his means of acquiring prosperity.
This man knows Jesus is not, and so he wishes to delay following until he can satisfy that craving.
Whereas the first man believed the prosperity gospel,
This man does not believe it.
He is well aware that following Jesus
Will not lead to earthly prosperity and comfort.
And it is that understanding that is causing his dilemma.
Let’s look at this man and I’ll show you what we mean.
(59) “And He said to another”
Here we find that (different from the first man) Jesus initiates this invitation.
• The first guy approached Jesus and offered to follow.
• But Jesus approaches this guy and asks him to follow.
The fact that Matthew also puts these 2 examples together
Seems to indicate that these two examples happened at the same time.
Meaning, it is likely that both of these men approached Jesus,
And possibly for the same reason.
And the first man offered to follow, but Jesus quickly shut him down indicating that there would be no prosperity gained in following Him.
The implication is that the second man then was kind of left speechless.
He doesn’t make the same offer to follow that the first man made
Because Jesus has made it clear that He won’t grant what they desire.
So perhaps this man is just willing to walk away and never say anything.
But Jesus doesn’t allow that.
As this man stands in silence Jesus looks at him and addresses him as if to say, “Well, what about you?”
“And He said to another, “Follow Me.”
• It’s not a confusing command.
• It’s the same command that our Lord introduced earlier in the chapter.
This is the King
And He is asking here for submission.
In fact, He is requiring it, “Follow Me”
NOW REMEMBER, this man just learned
That if He says “Yes” then he will NOT be following to prosperity.
So, he answers like this to Jesus.
“But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
• So in a simple sense we see that this man does say, “I will”.
• But before he follows there is one thing he wants to do first.
Wait until I “bury my father” and then I will follow You.
Now we should point out that THIS MAN IS ALREADY OUT OF LINE
Because he is in no position to make requirements.
• This is the King, He has heavenly authority.
• This is not a negotiation.
• You have no leverage.
But this man still gives Jesus his terms of consent.
I’ll follow after I “bury my father”
And I’m quite sure that the first time you read that,
You probably thought something like, “Well that’s certainly reasonable. Surely Jesus will have no problem with that small stipulation.”
And then we are shocked to hear Jesus say:
(60) “But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for You, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
Now first let’s deal with the elephant.
Are you seriously saying that Jesus
Wouldn’t even let this man go bury his father?
THAT EXACTLY WHAT I’M SAYING. THAT’S WHAT JESUS SAID.
And there’s a reason Jesus won’t let this man bury his father.
IT’S BECAUSE HIS FATHER ISN’T DEAD
• It’s NOT LIKE this man was at his father’s funeral and simply told Jesus, can you give me 20 minutes until we finish up here?
What this man meant was, “I will follow You, but let me wait until my father dies so that I can first collect my inheritance.”
SO DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?
• Both of these men approached Jesus with the idea of following Him to
prosperity.
• The first man spoke up about their willingness and Jesus revealed that they
would earn no prosperity by following
• Perhaps they were both willing to walk away at that point
• But Jesus asked this other man to follow anyway
• And he agreed so long as Jesus would let him gain some financial security first
It is as if he said, “If following You isn’t going to make me rich, then I need to obtain some financial security before I follow.”
It’s NOT the prosperity gospel.
It IS the idol of greed.
IT IS SEEN IN PEOPLE
• Like the Rich Young Ruler who will not give up his wealth to follow.
• Who make statements like, “I plan on getting saved after I do the things I want to do first in this life”
• Who make statements like, “Once I finish my job, once I raise my kids, once I cash in my pension, once I…. then I will follow Jesus.”
We could certainly say that this man was just as ambitious as the first.
But the problem Jesus addresses here is that this man is ACQUISITIVE.
Jesus exposes that this man loves the world.
He has the idol of greed.
AND YOU CANNOT (and will not) FOLLOW JESUS
IF YOU LOVE THIS WORLD.
That is obvious to us isn’t it?
James 4: 4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
We know this right?
If your preoccupation is with gaining the world then you will never follow Jesus.
• The timing will never be right…
• The greed will never be satisfied…
• You will daily deny the Son of God so that you can keep the world…
THAT’S JUST THE TRUTH.
That’s why Jesus said regarding the Rich Young Ruler
Luke 18:22-25 “When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
And THE IMPLICATION there from Jesus is clear.
It’s not just hard for a rich man to enter heaven, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE.
In fact “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
If you love the world you won’t follow Christ.
If you love the world you can’t follow Christ.
FOLLOWING JESUS IS NOT FOR THE ACQUISITIVE.
But there is really even MORE HERE THAT JESUS SAYS
That we can draw upon.
When this man gave the terms to Jesus about first collecting his inheritance
Jesus DID NOT SAY, “Why don’t you give your inheritance up.”
Instead He said this, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead”
What did Jesus mean by that?
Jesus just made a harsh statement of fact.
Namely that those who live for this world are what? “dead”
Not physically dead; obviously.
Those who live for this world are spiritually dead.
That is to say they do not have within them the life of God.
Isn’t that what James and John both implied earlier in those passages we read?
• James said if you love the world you are an enemy of God.
• John said if you love the world you don’t love the Father.
Those who love the world and seek to acquire the world
Are spiritually dead.
And this isn’t the only place where that truth is revealed.
Speaking about the requirements of widows in the church.
1 Timothy 5:6 “But she who gives herself to wanton pleasure is dead even while she lives.”
Or do you remember how the Prodigal Son was described?
Luke 15:24 “for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Luke 15:32 “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.'”
Paul spoke of it to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
That is to say that those whose goal
Is to indulge the desires of the flesh are dead.
Jude spoke about men who love the world like Cain or like Balaam or like Korah:
Jude 11-13 “Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”
Jesus spoke to the church at Sardis who had soiled their garments with their complacency and love of the world.
Revelation 3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”
Do you get the picture?
• A person may indeed think that they are saved…
• A person may indeed think that they are following Jesus…
• But if that person loves the world they are mistaken.
The reality is that they are dead even if they think they live.
So here we have a man who won’t follow Jesus yet
Because he wants to obtain the world first
And Jesus says, “That is spoken just like a dead man”
“Allow the dead to bury their own dead”
That’s another way of saying, “The preoccupation with wealth and inheritance is a worldly concern, not a spiritual one.”
Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Worry and preoccupation with worldly things is a “Gentile” mentality.
That is to say it’s a “pagan; worldly; lost” mentality.
The spiritually alive seek the kingdom…
The spiritually alive seek righteousness…
Seeking the world is a fruit of spiritual death.
And those who are dead do not follow Jesus, even if they think they do.
And so Jesus told this man “Allow the dead to bury their own dead”
And THEN He said, “but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
I find this interesting as well.
• Namely that instead of saying “Follow Me”
• Jesus got more descriptive regarding specifically what He wanted of this
man.
Instead he said, “go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
That’s an interesting statement.
• But do you see that Jesus is using the phrases interchangeably?
In fact Matthew reveals that Jesus said both to this man.
Matthew 8:21-22 “Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
So now, if I were to ask you at this point,
What does it mean to follow Jesus?
You can now say, “It means to “go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
Can you see that?
Now let me tie the scene up for you a little more.
We saw last week that Matthew indicated that
This conversation occurred following Jesus healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and all the miracles that He worked at that time.
(You can see that context in Matthew 8:14-22)
But let me remind you what else happened on that day.
Luke 4:38-42 “Then He got up and left the synagogue, and entered Simon’s home. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him to help her. And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and she immediately got up and waited on them. While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them. Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ. When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them.”
This would have been when these 2 men approached Him.
• That means that these 2 men where part of that crowd that didn’t want Jesus to leave.
• And in desperation had even considered following Him to cash in on prosperity.
• But Jesus confronted both of those men.
And you could put right there these 2 conversations.
And then look at what happened next.
Luke 4:43-44 “But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”
So when I ask you what Jesus came to do?
You can say that He came to “preach the kingdom of God”
And so when He asks this man to follow Him,
It is clear what that means.
You too go and preach the kingdom of God, just like I am.
So when I ask you if you follow Jesus? (and you say “yes”)
You’ll understand why I follow that up with the question,
“Then do you “go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God”?
Does that make sense?
• It may be that people think they are following Jesus, but in reality they are not.
• It may be that they only intend to follow Jesus, but it is their love of this world that has thus far caused them to delay.
“I do intend to follow Jesus, but not yet”
And ACCORDING TO JESUS the reason for the “not yet”
Is because they love the world, they want to acquire the world,
They want to keep the world, and friendship with the world.
Even more directly. The reason they do not yet follow and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God is because they are in fact “dead”.
And that is why we say that:
FOLLOWING JESUS IS NOT FOR THE ACQUISITIVE
Following Jesus is not for those who want the world (to gain it or keep it).
• We already know that Jesus is not going to gain the world.
• But we also know that Jesus left His world behind that He might go and proclaim the truth of the Kingdom.
AND THAT IS THE CALL.
You cannot love this world and follow Christ.
AND YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE ISSUE HERE.
One hand it is certainly an issue of idolatry.
• Christ will not share the heart.
• He is a jealous God.
• When He says that He will have no other gods before Him, that includes the
god of gold.
That’s certainly one issue.
That is what stopped the Rich Young Ruler in his tracks.
That is what is referred to as the “weedy soil”
Luke 8:14 “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
Certainly then part of the problem is that if you love the world,
You confess idolatry which the Lord will not tolerate.
But there is more to this issue than just that.
Namely it is that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE FAITHFUL to follow Christ if you maintain a love of this world.
What I mean is this.
If you seek to follow Christ you will continually be put in circumstances in which it will be impossible to follow Him and do what He asks if you love the world.
For example, look at the early church.
Acts 2:43-45 “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”
Obviously if you love the world
You are unwilling to part with your stuff for the sake of your brother.
Acts 4:34-35 “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.”
There it is again. Following Jesus there would not have been possible
If love of the world was the driving focus.
Listen to John:
1 John 3:16-18 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
Again following Christ requires willingness to part with this world.
Look at:
2 Corinthians 8:1-6 “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well.”
• There we aren’t just talking about people who had an abundance and chose to part with it,
• But rather people who endured an even greater lack than they already had.
The Macedonians (Philippians) gave out of their poverty.
Paul took that example and then told the Corinthians,
“You need to follow Christ like that too!”
AND THE POINT I AM MAKING HERE IS SIMPLE:
If you’re only love is riches
Then you’re going to inevitably pass on all those opportunities
And in those instances you won’t follow Christ.
Your desire to first go and bury your father will keep you from following.
Look, I’ve got a whole note pad filled up with support Scriptures on this. We could keep going and going and going.
The Bible has much to say about how loving the world hinders following Christ.
• Should we talk about the Rich Man in Hades who wouldn’t help the beggar Lazarus?
• Should we talk about the man who wanted to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so that he’d never have to worry again?
• Should we talk about Lot’s wife who loved this world and looked back?
• Should we talk about the rich in James 5 who had hoarded their gold to the point of rust and James told them they were fattened for slaughter?
• Should we listen to Asaph in Psalm 73 talk about how those who seek wealth are suddenly destroyed in an instant?
The list goes on and on. But the point is simple
Loving this world keeps people from following Jesus.
• FOLLOWING JESUS IS NOT FOR THE AMBITIOUS
• FOLLOWING JESUS IS NOT FOR THE ACQUISITIVE
Luke 16:14-15 “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”
How’s that one?
Loving the world like the Pharisees did is “detestable in the sight of God”
YOU GET THE POINT.
We are called to follow Jesus.
• We don’t follow Him because we think He will make us prosperous.
• And we don’t resist following Him because we know it will make us poor.
Those who followed Christ left this world behind
And went everywhere and proclaimed the kingdom of God.
They forsook this earthly city for a heavenly one.
And they followed Jesus to it.
UNDERSTAND what the King is demanding when He says, “Follow Me”
AND THEN ASK yourself if you are.
Luke 9:23 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
