Luke 9:52-62    

Exegetical Main Point: The King has come and many have believed in him, but many are hindered from following him because of its costliness to our lifestyle.

Main Point of the Sermon: What’s keeping you from following Jesus completely?

I’m so excited to get back into Luke’s Gospel. I’m so excited that we get to hear from God today! Last year we covered the first nine and a half chapters of Luke’s Gospel leaving off in 9:5 where we’re told that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Up to this point in Luke we’ve primarily seen the origins of Jesus’s life and ministry, but this phrase marks an important transition point in Jesus’s ministry. Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem is a display of his total and perfect devotion to God and his purpose as the Lamb of God – to atone for the sins of the world on the cross in Jerusalem. And this journey is also a display of his devotion to you and me. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came for the poor, the outcast, the sick, to show them the kingdom, and to correct those who misunderstood it. We’ll see those themes today and in the weeks ahead.

Following Jesus isn’t easy. It never has been. It never will be. But I find myself consistently trying to make it easy and stumbling over the cross I’m called to bear. I try to build a kingdom of comfort. I want life to be easy and fun. This is so common in our nation driven by the American Dream.

Don’t get my wrong. Following Jesus is happy and fun! It is life to the fullest. But it’s not a call to your best life now in the sense that everything is going to get better. It is a call to your best life now in the sense that you will get more of God who is the source of joy and life, your truest need – like drinking from a spring of water in the desert.

But even drinking deeply from the spring doesn’t mean that you get to set up camp by the spring so that you forever avoid the desert, making a little heaven on earth.

No, following Jesus means that we now get to take the spring with us, as we journey this desert wasteland and invite others to drink with us. And we are promised that we’ll be hated for it. That’s sometimes what following him looks like. It’s costly. In real, tangible ways. It’s costly because the kingdom we now belong to in Christ clashes with the kingdom of the world.

So why do we expect it to be easy?

Christians live in a daily battle, in constant tension, there are many stumbling blocks that keep us from following Jesus.

Jesus shows us in today’s text that often it’s even the good things that hinder us from following Jesus. Our jobs, our families, our money, our future, our desires – these all can become stumbling blocks that keep us from following Jesus with everything.

I believe God’s challenge for us today is this: What’s keeping you from following Jesus with everything you’ve got?

Now, we’re told in verse 52 that on his journey to Jerusalem Jesus and his disciples were passing through various villages. And here we encounter the first stumbling block to people following Jesus with everything.

Look at verse 52:

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

It’s easy to overlook verse 52 as rather useless details, but in this verse we see something profound.

You know, when the president of the United States plans a trip to a particular city, people are sent ahead of him to make preparations and spread the word. This practice was perhaps even more common throughout history when important rulers would travel to particular places. The town people would be notified of the rulers coming and perhaps the message that they intended to bring.

Likewise, Jesus, the true King of Israel had come to proclaim his kingdom and call for allegiance from every people and town. So he sent his disciples in preparation ahead of him. We’ll see this more clearly in next week’s sermon.

The King was coming! This demanded everyone’s attention. And just as Jesus came to this little village, He’s going to come again to this world. Nothing is more important than whether we are ready to receive him or if we will reject him.

But even before we learn about Jesus’s interaction with this town, we’re told that the people would not receive Jesus. Why? Because he was headed for Jerusalem. What kind of reason is that?

This only makes sense if you know anything about the Samaritans. Before Daniel and the southern kingdom of Israel was exiled to Babylon, the northern kingdom was exiled and many of them intermarried with foreign nations, resulting in the Samaritans. So not only had they broken God’s commands in intermarrying, they also set up a separate worship place for themselves, which was a major problem since Yahweh had designated the temple in Jerusalem as the place where his presence dwelled. So, there were a couple issues at play here.

One, they didn’t receive Jesus because of theological differences. Jesus’s heading to Jerusalem was a validation to some degree of Jerusalem and that temple system, which they rejected, and it was a rejection of their religious system. Jesus confronted their worldview, which caused them to reject Jesus.

How often this is true for people today? We can accept Jesus as long as he fits our worldview. But when his teaching conflicts with our belief system we have a choice. Change our thinking or reject him entirely. Jesus never gave the option of syncing our worldview with his. His claim to be the way, the truth, the life, the only way to God, means that negotiations are over.

So let me ask you today, is there something that Jesus teaches that keeps you from receiving Jesus?

I would assume that most of us here don’t stumble over things like Jesus’s identity or message of salvation, but more over moral issues. I’ve seen it over and over – Christians often stray from the faith, not because of core doctrinal issues (though they may say that) but rather because they want to do what they want when they want it. They’d rather sleep with their girlfriend then follow Jesus. They’d rather marry the unbeliever or chase money, or whatever it might be, than let Jesus rule their lives.

Is there something Jesus teaches that is a stumbling block to you following him with everything?

The Samaritans also rejected Jesus over ethnic tension.  These two peoples hated one another. These two groups would go hours out of the way on their journeys just to avoid one another. I’m sure it was a surprise the Jesus’s disciples that they would even travel in that region.

Notice in verse 54 how they responded to Jesus’s rejection.

54 when the disciples James and John saw [the Samaritans reject Jesus], they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.

These zealous disciples had some things right and some things wrong. They were right about the Samaritan’s sin and belief system but they were wrong in their response to try to destroy this town with fire like Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus rebuked them. We don’t know what Jesus said exactly because the text doesn’t say. But we can assume from Jesus’s previous teachings in Luke that they didn’t understand that Jesus had come for people like these, not to bring wrath, but to atone for their sin at the cross, so that the way into the kingdom would be opened fully to them. 

Jesus is patient and compassionate while never compromising truth.

This has important implications for how we should interact with those we disagree with in our divided culture.

Do you struggle with the fact that Jesus comes to people outside of your camp with compassion and patience?

Church, I’m concerned that many of us have our heads so mixed up in the conversation driven by the media that we are far more savvy defending a political view, party, or economic philosophy than at communicating Christ’s love to the lost – even to our own brothers and sisters who disagree with us.

Would Jesus rebuke you today for your interactions with people from other theological or political camps?  

Most of you are not blowing it morally or holding to bad teachings. But Jesus still comes to confront your worldview? Especially with hard passages like this one. The Lord has been confronting me this week showing me how quickly I read passages like these and quickly justify my lifestyle. But Jesus is showing me that I’m sometimes exactly who these passages are calling out.

Jesus confronts our worldview, down to the most minute details of our thinking about God and our interactions with the world, and he demands full allegiance to his Lordship.

I’m amazed that Jesus didn’t call down fire from heaven. His kingdom could have looked like this. Instead, he kept preaching and plotting towards the cross.

And as he traveled Jesus identifies more stumbling blocks to following him.

Let’s take these next three encounters with Jesus one by one.

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.”

These are the kind of responses that I think shocked the disciples over and over. Can you imagine if billionaire Elon Musk came to you saying “I’ll follow you wherever as you follow Christ,” and you respond, “Well then, get ready for homelessness.” That was Jesus. He confronted people’s comforts. In other words, he reminds all of us with this statement – “I’m the promised Messiah, Daniel 7’s Son of Man who has been given all the kingdoms of the earth forever and ever, and guess what, I have less of a home than the animals. Are you willing to take up your cross by laying down your comforts?”

This was even more true in that day in age where following Jesus literally meant leaving everything to be with him. He was only in one place at one time. Even now that the Spirit of God dwells within every believer, our lifestyle, our attitude towards the Christian life is challenged greatly by these words.

This verse hits me hard as a husband and father. I want to provide comfort for my family. And we know from the Bible that that is not wrong. In fact the man who doesn’t provide for his family, we’re told, is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8). Jesus knows this and is not insensitive to your family’s needs. Rather, Jesus is confronting those who are subtly trying to create a heaven on earth. He knows your heart. 

Following Jesus will inevitably mean doing things that are uncomfortable. When Beth Lane, the Schmidts, and others in our church family cross the ocean or cross difficult cultural lines for the sake of Christ they are giving up a great deal of comfort. Likewise, those who have taken up the call of God to care for orphans through adoption feel daily the cost to their comfort. Further, radical hospitality is awkward and costly, sometimes dangerous. Choosing to live in neighborhoods with high crime rates for the sake of the Gospel is hard and has been costly to many in our community. Following Jesus IS and WILL BE costly to your comfort.

Would you check your heart, like I am today, and ask yourselves, am I subtly trying to make heaven on earth by creating my own kingdom of comfort? 

Church, I believe this is a major idol for many of us. Are you more interested in peace and safety than the mission of Christ? Does money, comfort, pleasure keep you from taking the next step towards obeying Christ?

If this is true of you, it’s time to consider what Jesus is calling you to lay down for the sake of the Gospel? Please don’t let perishing things win your allegiance. Choose what is everlasting, Christ and his kingdom.

Stumbling Block #3: Jesus confronts what’s most important to you.

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

The king called an individual, “follow me.” Let’s take a second to marvel at the fact that he called any of us. God loves you so much that he left his throne of glory, entered the mess of humanity to get close to you, to speak to you, to invite you to be with him in his everlasting kingdom.

Part of the reason all of these stumbling blocks I’ve mentioned seem so big to us is that we simply do not understand the grace of God in calling any of us. We take for granted who speaks to us and we have too small a view of the glory he’s calling us to. Pastor Ross said it well in his sermon last week, we make so much of these few years we have on earth while we overlook eternity. And not an eternity of cloud floating but of purposeful living in new bodies, without sin, in purposeful happy living, face to face with God!

God called you to this! Yes, these stumbling blocks are big and hard, which is why Jesus calls this road “narrow” and the road of the world “wide”. But friends, the road of Christ is only narrow for a little while. Soon and very soon Christ will open up a kingdom to us that will make this world’s “freedoms” look puny and silly.

This is what Jesus is confronting in this challenging verse. The man’s response seems totally reasonable. His father had died and he simply asks, even reverently, “Lord let me first go and bury my father.”

Jesus’s response seems almost cruel doesn’t it. “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Wow. Don’t you even care, Jesus? Yes, he does. You’ll remember that Jesus attended a good friend’s funeral, Lazarus. And you’ll remember that he wept over him with others. You’ll remember that the Lord calls us to weep with those who weep.

Jesus is not opposed to funerals. He is not insensitive to our needs, and is not insensitive to the challenges of living in a fallen world full of death.

So what is he confronting?

Jesus is confronting our priorities. Who or what is most important in your life? For many in this world it is family. And that is not a bad place to start if you had to pick one. But not even your family can have the first place in your heart. The first and greatest commandment is that we would love God with ALL of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In other words, he must be our first love.

“Let the dead bury their own dead” is Jesus’s way of saying, “Your allegiances to this world are no longer first. You must come follow me and my kingdom must be first priority.” In that culture it would have been extremely dishonoring to the father for this man to choose to follow Jesus instead of being a part of their burial ceremonies. This was a big deal. But Jesus was only there for a little while. The time was now. He was headed to Jerusalem and soon they would not see him again. So Jesus is reminding this man that this world is passing away but Jesus and his kingdom is everlasting. Jesus and his kingdom is so much greater in importance than the most important things to us in this life.

This is what Jesus means when he says in another place in Luke, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple” (14:26, NLT).

God and his kingdom must be our first priority. THEN family, work, etc. under that same umbrella. Everything else, everyone else is loved and served out of our love for God.

Is Jesus and the proclamation of his kingdom that important to you? Is your holiness, sharing the Gospel, your loving the least what’s most on your mind or is it your family, your work, or other things. Jesus confronts what’s most important to you. 

The final stumbling block Jesus identifies is similar to the last.

61 Yet 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 his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Again, this request seems reasonable. Before I come follow you let me first say goodbye to those at home.

Notice this word “first”. It’s the same word used above in verse 59, “Let me first go bury my father.”

In this case, this person wants to follow Jesus on his terms. “I’ll do my thing for a while and then I’ll come.” “Afterall, I’m too young to settle down and get serious about God.” “I just want to have some fun first.” These are the sorts of things you’ll encounter as you call people to follow Jesus. There’s always an excuse, a good reason that now is not the time.

But all that shows is that Jesus is not King and Lord. You are. When you want to be able to leave your post when you want and come back when you want, you are lord, not him.

Who has the first place? Who calls the shots? Does your life say to God and others “Yeah, Jesus and his Kingdom can wait? Or does it say to the world “Jesus and his kingdom is the greatest treasure on earth, worthy of leaving everything, selling everything, doing anything?”

Church, my concern for us is that many of us do the church thing, maybe even MC and DNA, but when we go to our homes, our work, our leisure time, it’s hands off the plow, back to our lazy boy. We want Jesus on our terms, on our time, in our way. We are consumers. Or maybe we serve a little here and there at a Sunday gathering, but we are never seriously involved in the hard work of making disciples. Our lives are compartmentalized. We call the shots.

But this person, Jesus says, “is not fit for the kingdom.” These are sobering words all of us should wrestle with.

What about you? Are you “fit for the kingdom”?

Some of you have counted the cost and chosen Jesus anyway. What glory you have awaiting you. Press on.

But others say with their lives “I will follow you, but don’t make me believe such a black and white message.” “I will follow you but don’t make me give up this show. Don’t make me give up this guy. Don’t make me rub shoulders with those people.” “I will follow you but don’t make give up my video games.”

What’s your ultimatum for following Jesus? What’s keeping you from following Jesus completely?

The reality is, even the most devoted of us have at one time or another left our post, disordered our priorities, or tried to fashion a faith that fits our worldview. None of us are truly fit for God’s kingdom.

But here is the Good News. Jesus doesn’t give up on you. The reason he did not call fire down from heaven to destroy the Samaritans or even us for our rebellion – though we deserve it – is found in those precious words from verse 51 “he set his face set towards Jerusalem.”

It will not ultimately be our devotion to Christ that saves us. But his devotion to us.

He “set his face” means that Jesus was devoted to living in perfect submission to God the Father, so that all who believed in him would be counted as perfectly righteous like him.

He “set his face” means that Jesus was ready to die, to drink down the cup of God’s wrath, to bear the brunt of God’s fiery judgment in our place on the cross.

And he “set his face” knowing that he would rise and be seated at the right hand of God where he now intercedes for you, summoning his Spirit to empower you to live sacrificial lives like him in the world.

It’s not your devotion to Christ, but his devotion to you that will save you.

Nonetheless, we who are in Christ will be devoted to him. We will live in ways that befit the kingdom, showing that we belong to the kingdom, by our continual sacrifice and surrender to him.

And his promises are sure. Jesus said in Luke 18:29-30, “I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”

How is Jesus loving to call us to such sacrifice? When we follow Jesus we gain everything. Chiefly, we get to be with the King of glory! And relationship with him means eternal life.

This is what keeps us drinking from the True Spring of living water daily. This is why we are not ashamed to follow Jesus. This is why we are not ashamed to call others to follow him either. There are many obstacles that we face and many that others face in following Jesus, but when we understand that those obstacles are little mole hills in comparison to the mountain of glory that God is calling us to, it will seem like much less of a sacrifice as we will lay down every burden that entangles us. Wherever and however he says follow, we will run into his arms and we will run with him on mission until we see him face to face.

Church, this summer, let’s put our hand to the plow. Let’s get serious about following Jesus, about making him first priority, about letting him take the wheel of our lives. Let’s get dirty and uncomfortable as we follow our Lord. Let’s take our cross and never turn back. Amen? 

Let’s pray.

 

Ross Tenneson

Sam Choi

Ross Tenneson

Sam Choi

Pastoral Team

Daniel Simmons

Sam Choi

Ross Tenneson

Dale Gruber