church

INI
22nd Sunday after Trinity
October 19, 2008
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

NOTHING WILL KEEP ME FROM FOLLOWING JESUS
Luke 9:57-62

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our
Savior. Amen. The text that we'll consider this morning comes from the ninth
chapter of St Luke's Gospel, beginning with the 57th verse, as follows:

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." Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let
me first go and bury my father."20Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their
own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." And another also said,
"Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at
my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Th is is the Word of God.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Our Priceless Treasure, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Have you ever owned a trailer? If you have, then you know that one of the
most important qualities in a good trailer is that it should "follow" well. That is,
that it should track along perfectly - in a straight line - behind the vehicle that's
towing it. A trailer that follows well is a joy to have hooked to your car or
pickup. On the other hand, there are a lot of things that can make a trailer cease
to follow well. A bent axel will do it, as will a worn wheel bearing or a deflated
tire. We've all seen trailers that didn't follow well, and they're a scary sight to
behold. Fishtailing and s waying all over the road. Sometimes you don't even
want to drive behind them, for fear they'll come unhooked completely and go
flying off in a different direction. If a trailer doesn't follow well, the result may
very well be disaster.

It's significant that the word "follow" comes up three times in the text I just
read to you. This part of the Gospel of Luke is about discipleship, about
following Jesus. It's about going to work in the kingdom of God. And just like
with trailers, this text illustrates that there are a lot of things that can go wrong
for a follower of Christ. Things can get misaligned and out of balance in your
life, so that you don't track along very well with your Savior. Some problems
can make you run off the road altogether. Do you sometimes feel like you're not
quite in sync with the=2 0Lord and Master of your life? Like your loyalties are
being pulled in several directions at the same time? Then it's time to get back to
a single-minded discipleship and service that God wants you to have. I hope
you’ll join me this morning in confidently affirming the words of our theme:

NOTHING WILL KEEP ME FROM FOLLOWING JESUS
I. No false assumptions.
II. No worldly obligations.
III. No divided loyalties.

&nb sp; Various things can get in the way of our discipleship. Sometimes these
things are obvious, but sometimes they’re not. E.g., your boss is never going to
say to you, “I’d like you come in to work this Sunday so you can help take
inventory and weaken your Christian faith.” You have to be able to identify the
spiritual trade-offs for yourself. Our text for today is designed to help you do
that. In it, the Holy Spirit shows us three men, and three ways in which we can
become distracted from following Christ. The idea is for you to avoid those
same pitfalls. For you to be able to say, NOTHING WILL KEEP ME FROM
FOLLOWING JESUS.

So let’s have a look at them. The parallel account in Matthew tells us that the
first man was a scribe. He had a very common problem. When it came to
following Jesus, he was laboring under false assumptions. Now it happened as
they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You
wherever You go."

Now, all by itself, that’s a terrific statement. "Lord, I will follow You wherever
You go!” This man evidently had the best of intentions. There’s no reason to
think he was anything but completely sincere. “I don’t care where you’re going,
Lord. I don’t care how hard the road is, I’m ready to leave everything and follow
You!” He was ready and eager to go. A little too ready, perhaps? A little too
eager?

Jesus looked into the man’s heart and saw the problem immediately: he was
laboring under false assumptions. He assumed that following Jesus would be
splendid and glorious. He saw the leader who could cast out demons, heal
people with a word and produce bread and fish for thousands seemingly out of
thin air. What he didn’t see were the sorrows and hardships and trials that
accompany a disciple’s life. 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." My life is
one of trouble and discomfort and hardship, Jesus told him. I haven’t even the
comfort that the wild animals have. And those who would be My followers
must take up the cross and share that life.

Let me ask you: what do you think the Christian life should look like? Are you
laboring under false assumptions? Lots of people are. The fastest-growing
church trend in this country is the so-called “Prosperity Gospel.” Its adherents
teach that the Bible is a kind of guidebook, which if you follow it will make you
wealthy, materially successful and happy in your life. In fact, you can tell a true
believer, they say, because he’s one who’s wealthy and successful. Talk about
false assumptions! By those standards the Apostle Paul was one of the worst
Christians who ever lived – in prison half the time, beaten, hungry,
shipwrecked. But Paul had no false assumptions. He expected a life of trials,
and trials didn’t discourage him. He said, We are hard-pressed on every side, yet
not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying
of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. II
Cor 4:8-10. Paul's whole life proclaimed, NOTHING WILL KEEP ME FROM
FOLLOWING JESUS.

Of course, Scripture everywhere teaches the opposite of the Prosperity Gospel.
It teaches that a believer’s life will have plenty of hardships and trials. Jesus
Himself said, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the
way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few
who find it. -- Mt 7:13-14.

=2 0So the path of a Christian is going to be difficult. But what’s the
encouraging part? This is the path that leads to eternal life! And even here,
where Jesus is describing the difficult life of a believer, there’s a little beam of
sunshine. Did you notice it? Jesus refers to Himself the “Son of Man.” Those
three words are a Gospel sermon all by themselves. For “Son of Man” was a
well-known expression in Israel, that could only mean one thing to the ear of a
Jewish scribe: Savior! Jesus was and is the promised Messiah, the Savior of the
world. My fellow Christians, Jesus is the one who gave up the splendors of
heaven for your sakes. Who came to earth to be “…born of a woman, born
under the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the Law.” Jesus is
the one who died the death of a criminal so that you might be released from the
punishment of your sin, so that you might inherit the riches of eternal life. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, that though He was
rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might
become rich. 2 Cor 8:9.

I think one of the most encouraging things about Jesus’ response is what He
doesn’t say. He doesn’t tell the scribe, “You can’t follow me.” He doesn’t say,
“You’re not tough enough, you can’t endure the trials that come with the
Christian life.” You can follow Jesus. He wants you to follow Him. He also
wants you to be aware, to leave your false assumptions and your rose-colored
glasses behind. Open your eyes and do count the cost of discipleship. But then,
by all means, follow Jesus. There will be tough times, but with the power of
God strengthening you, there is nothing you can’t accomplish for the kingdom.
Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Phi 4:14.
You can do all things, so LET NOTHING KEEP YOU FROM FOLLOWING
JESUS.

Well, if the first man was too fast, the second man was too slow. Jesus said to
another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
And, again, this response sounds perfectly reasonable. His father had died, and
he had to attend the funeral. But again, Jesus reads the speaker’s heart and
knows that there’s something else going on here. He sees that this man is about
to make a spiritually fatal mistake: he was allowing worldly obligations to keep
him from following Jesus.

What did the Lord reply? "Let the dead bury their own dead.” Jesus meant, let
the spiritually dead bury the physically dead. Let those who are without Christ
take care of the mundane matter of disposing of a dead body. This seems a
harsh word from Jesus, doesn't it? Don’t go to your own father’s funeral? But
our Lord isn’t telling us not to attend to family obligations. Indeed Scripture
commands us to do so. What Jesus is telling us is that we can't allow any
worldly obligation - no matter how important it seems at the time - to interfere
with our discipleship. Not even, as in this case, a funeral. Jesus could have
pulled his punches. He could have mumbled empty platitudes and meaningless
comfort as so many in our day do when an unbeliever dies. But the kindest
thing to say is the truth: "Let the dead bury their own dead.” Scripture says “It
is appointed to man once to die, and after this the judgment.” You can’t do
anything for a person after they’re dead, Jesus said, so concentrate on the living!
As for you, He told the man, you go and preach the kingdom of God.
Concentrate on the living! Bring them the Gospel! There are many who may yet
be saved, so put your efforts there. LET NOTHING - not even this - KEEP
YOU FROM FOLLOWING JESUS.

In this man’s case there was evidently a choice to be made – either follow Jesus
OR take care of this other obligation. And how often those choices come up in
our lives, and how tempting it is to say, “Let me first do this one thing, and then
I’ll follow Jesus. Let me first take care of these few obligations I’ve got, and
then I’ll be free to really focus on serving my Savior.” NO! FIRST IS JESUS! So
often, of course, we fail to follow Christ. Certainly each of us has much to
repent of, and many sins like this to confess. But don't be discouraged!
Remember the one Man who refused to allow any worldly obligations to distract
Him. Jesus Christ wouldn't let anything interfere with His mission to redeem
you from your sins! The writer to the Hebrews says, Look unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against
Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Hebrews 12:1

First there was the man who was too eager, and then the man who was too
hesitant. Finally we meet a man who is too conflicted. He has feelings and
emotions that are pulling him in opposite directions. But that's not the way to
effective discipleship. I'm sure each of us wants to be able to say, NOTHING
WILL KEEP ME FROM FOLLOWING JESUS. But there's one final thing we
have to get rid of, and that's divided loyalties.

Jesus was moving down the road when …Another also said, "Lord, I will
follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
Once again it sounds like a reasonable request. He had relatives and friends
back home. He just wanted to go back and hang out with them for a while
before embarking on his work with Jesus. But once again the Lord recognizes
this for what it is: an excuse to postpone discipleship. And once again, the
kindest and truest words Jesus could have said to him, are words that were hard
for him to hear. Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

I think there may be one or two people here who remember the days when
farmers plowed with horses. For you this metaphor will make perfect sense. For
what is the one task of a ploughman? To plow a straight furrow. Evidently it
was also a very difficult task, one that took quite a lot of experience to achieve.
The only way to plow a straight furrow, they used to say, was to focus on a
distant goal and keep heading straight for that. And still it was hard. Any little
thing that distracted the ploughman was liable to make his furrow go crooked.
But it goes without saying that, if your plow's headed one way and you're
looking back in the opposite direction, you won't just have a crooked furrow.
You won't be able to plow at all!

Let me ask you this: how straight has your furrow been lately? Have y ou been
focusing on the distant goal of eternal life and striving single-mindedly toward
that? Or have you, like the man in our text, been guilty of divided loyalties?
Have you been distracted by worldly things, or maybe even so consumed by one
particular thing that you've been looking in the opposite direction altogether?
My Christian friends, you can't plow that way! You can't work for Christ with
divided loyalties. Perhaps you have old friends and associates who are pulling
you in an ungodly direction. Maybe it's a family member who, in subtle ways, is
driving a wedge between you and your Savior. Maybe it's a hobby or a pastime,
a club or an association that really doesn't mesh with your walk as a Christian.
It's distracting you, pulling you off your line.

Well, whatever it is, leave it behind! Turn your back on it, slap your hands to
the plow and forge ahead! Paul said, One thing I do, forgetting those things
which are be hind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.--Phil
3:13-14 May we all say the same thing. I’m not going to divide my loyalties! I’m
not going to look back. NOTHING WILL KEEP ME FROM FOLLOWING
JESUS!

S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases, tells a story of a young
woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the
question on the application that asked, “Are you a leader?” Being an honest and
conscientious young woman, she wrote, “No,” and returned the application,
expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college:
Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our
college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is
important that they have at least one follower.” Leadership is so loudly praised
in our20society that we sometimes forget that the important thing for a
Christian is to be a follower - that is, a faithful follower of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So let us clear away the obstacles to discipleship - all the false assumptions,
each worldly obligation, every divided loyalty. I hope each of us will make the
resolution this morning that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, NOTHING WILL
KEEP ME FROM FOLLOWING JESUS! AMEN.