You know, a few years ago I got to know a naval officer who was attending McLean Bible Church.
He was really a wonderful follower of Christ. He was an 06, a Navy captain, and his career was on the fast track, if you know what I'm saying. He had already been selected for Rear Admiral, and he was out at sea commanding an aircraft carrier when one day the ship, his carrier, was refueling at sea, and he left the bridge for just a moment to go to the restroom. Well, while he was in the restroom, the two ships, that is the tanker and the aircraft carrier, collided at sea. The damage to his ship was minimal, but the damage to his career was irreparable. He lost his promotion. He never got his star.
He was forced to retire from the Navy as an 06. And you might think, well, my gosh, I mean, the man had to use the restroom. I mean, give me a break here, you know? Well, but what you learn, friends, from this sad story, is that when it comes to the responsibilities of command, the military accepts no excuses. Now, the reason I bring that up is because it really forms the central theme of our passage for today, that is excuses. Today we're going to continue in our series, People Jesus Met, and we're going to look today as Jesus meets three men, each one of whom had an excuse why they could not become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to go back and we want to study Jesus's reaction to each of these three excuses. And then we want to bring all that forward and talk about, well, so what does that matter to you and me today?
So here we go. We're in Luke Chapter 9, beginning in verse 57. The Bible says, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, now stop, stop, we need to get the situation here, the context, in order for all that we're going to read next to make sense. We go back a couple verses to verse 51.
The Bible says this. It says that it came about when the days were approaching for him to be taken up to heaven, that Jesus resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem. See, when verse 57 says that Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, we need to understand that Jesus and his disciples were not just out for a friendly stroll.
No, no. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem with the shadow of the cross looming over him, with the flogging and the mocking and the suffering that he was going to endure in Jerusalem, staring him in the face. My friends, the point is that Jesus was not interested on this walk in attracting to himself casual Christians. He was interested in people who meant business. He needed people who were willing to go the distance. Jesus was looking for disciples.
All right, let's continue. Verse 57, and as Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Now, Matthew's Gospel tells us that this man was a scribe, and a scribe, these were the official Bible teachers in Israel, and as such, they were used to the good life.
This man, as a scribe, would have been highly revered by all of the people. He would have been highly and well compensated, and he would have had every imaginable amenity in life, and yet this guy shows up and volunteers to go with Jesus wherever Jesus goes. But folks, remember where Jesus is going. He's going to Jerusalem, and he's not going to Jerusalem to stay at the Hilton and to eat gourmet meals and to walk the Via Dolorosa taking pictures with his Nikon. Jesus has no fancy place to stay in Jerusalem. He has no fancy clothes to wear in Jerusalem.
He has no fancy meals to eat. Jesus is going to the cross. And this is precisely what he tells this gentleman. Verse 58, Jesus replied, hey, the foxes have holes to live in, and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, I have nowhere to lay my head. You say, what's Jesus really saying here? What he's saying is, look, pal, before you say this, that you're going to go with me wherever I'm going, friend, you better count the cost.
You know all those creature comforts you love so much? Well, if you throw in with me, buddy, you are going to have to be willing to say goodbye to all of them. You're going to have to be prepared to lay all of them on the altar and to subordinate them to God's will for your life. Now, you know, what's interesting is that we never hear any more of this first man in the Bible again. Apparently, he decided that the cost was just too high and he just turned and walked away, man number one's excuse for not becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.
It was the creature comforts that he did not want to give up. Number two, verse 59. Then Jesus said to another man, follow me. But the man said, please permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead. But as for you, you go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.
You've seen a long way. Wait a minute, stop just a second. What was wrong with this? I mean, what was wrong with a man going back to bury his poor deceased father? Well, friends, in light of what Jesus says to this man, the best way for us to understand this is that this man's father was not deceased physically. He was not dead physically. Rather, he was spiritually dead. He was a person who didn't believe in Christ and Jesus says, let the spiritually dead bury the spiritually dead.
You, if you're spiritually alive and you know me, you come be my disciple. Now, this second man's excuse was not creature comforts. His excuse was family ties.
It was as though the man was saying to Jesus, Jesus, you know that I believe in you, you do. But I got to tell you that every time I talk about you at home, my dad, we end up in a huge argument. My dad thinks I'm completely nuts for following you. And so if I leave home to go become your disciple, I mean, that's going to be the last straw. My dad's going to disown me.
He's never going to speak to me again. He's going to cut me out of the will. So Lord, please let me go home and stay there and keep the peace. And then when my dad really dies physically and he's gone and the inheritance is all split up, then I'll come and I'll be your disciple. And you know, Jesus minces no words in responding to this. He says to this man, hey friend, you got to count the cost.
You've got to decide who really is more important in your life, me or your family. Finally, the third man, verse 61, still another man said, I will follow you, Lord, but first, let me go back and say goodbye to my friends at home. Now, this is a clear reference to an incident out of the Old Testament involving the great prophet Elisha. If you remember the story, 1 Kings 19, Elisha was a farmer and he was out in the field one day and the prophet Elijah comes up to him and invites him, commands him, tells him that he's been tapped by God to become a prophet and to follow in Elijah's footsteps. And in response, Elisha, the farmer, says, please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye and then I will follow you. Does that sound familiar to what this fellow just said to Jesus?
Okay. Now, so Elisha went back and he took his oxen, the ones he plows with, and he slaughtered them. He also burned up his plowing equipment to cook the meat and he gave it to all the people gathered there and they ate. Then Elisha set out and followed Elijah and ministered to him. See, friends, by going back one last time to see all of his old friends and see all of his old relatives, Elisha wanted to make a statement. And the statement was simply this, hey, you know what, I have decided to follow the will of God for my life, regardless of the cost, there's no coming back, there's no turning back.
And the reason he killed his oxen and burned up his plow is so he had nothing to come back to. He cut his ties with his former life and he said, God's called me to a new life, the life of a disciple, and that's where I'm going. Now this third guy pulls the words of Elisha out and throws them at Jesus, let me go back first and say goodbye to my friends. But friends, this was just a spiritually sounding excuse because this third man was not going back to see his friends for the same reason that Elisha was going back. See, Elisha went back to cut all his ties with his former life. This third guy was going back because he had not cut all of his ties with his former life, because he had a divided heart, because those old things still attracted him, they still had a hold on him. And you say, oh yeah, well, how can you be so sure that that's why he went back?
Well, how can I be so sure? I can be so sure because look what Jesus said to him in response. Jesus said, verse 62, no one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Friends, the problem with this third man is that he was trying to hold on to Jesus with one hand and he was trying to hold on to his old lifestyle and his old ways of living with his other hand.
So let's summarize. Here we have three men, each one of whom has an excuse for why they can't become a disciple of Jesus. Number one, man number one, it was his creature comforts that he didn't want to walk away from. Man number two, it was his family ties.
And man number three, it was his divided loyalties, his divided heart. Now, that's as far as we want to go in the passage, because we want to stop now and we want to ask our most important question. And I want to hear all of you friends that loud and with us. And if you're watching on the internet, I want to hear you too. I don't care if people in the room think you're nuts or not. I want to hear you scream right along with us. So are you ready?
You ready? Here we go. Nice and loud.
One, two, three. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. How sweet it is. You say, Lon, so what?
I mean, okay, I understand what you're saying about these three guys, but I don't get how that exactly connects to me. Well, let's talk about that. I want you to complete the following sentence. You put the last word in.
You're ready? The few, the proud, the the Marines. You got it. And what are the Marines trying to say when they say this? The few, the proud, the Marines.
What are they trying to say about themselves? Well, what they're trying to say about themselves, friends, is that it costs something to be a Marine, and it's a cost that not everybody is willing to pay. Now, here in Luke chapter 9, we have three men, and Jesus talks to them about cost. Now, remember, he's not talking to them about eternal life and salvation and how to go to heaven because there's no cost to that. Now, Jesus paid the cost for that. Remember, the Philippian jailer said very simply, Acts chapter 16 to Paul, what must I do, sir, to be saved? And Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Now, here in Luke chapter 9, we're talking about a step beyond that. We're talking about a higher issue, the issue of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, friends, you can be a citizen of the United States and not be a Marine. And in the same way, you can be a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus and not be a disciple.
If you want to be a Marine, it's going to cost you something extra. And if you and I want to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to cost us something extra. And here in Luke chapter 9, our passage today is all about the cost of being a disciple, and there are three of them.
Let's go back and talk about how these relate to you and me. Number one, the cost, number one, of being a disciple is that in contrast to man number one in Luke 9, we must have a heavenly focus. That is, we must be willing to put heavenly reward ahead of human creature comfort. I love what Paul said, 2 Corinthians 4.18. He said, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, not on earthly things like money and power and prestige and popularity and possessions, but we fix our eyes as a disciple on what is unseen for what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen, well, that's eternal.
Hey friends, this is where man number one excused himself. And this is where a lot of prospective disciples drop out. But look here, look here, we can never be true disciples of Jesus Christ until we decide to stop living for the creature comforts of this world and to start living for the rewards of heaven.
That's what it takes to be a disciple. You know, one of the great examples of this, of a person who put heavenly reward ahead of human creature comforts was a fellow named George Whitfield. George Whitfield, he's one of my favorite people, really. Good friend of mine, I've never met him personally. He died in 1770. But I've read so much about him, I feel like he's a personal friend and one of the people I'm most looking forward to meeting when I get to heaven. Whitfield began preaching in the open air in 1735. He preached over 1,000 sermons a year, every single year for 30 years or more. And every one of his sermons was two to three hours long.
Well, you think I'm bad. You ain't seen nothing. Imagine if George Whitfield was your pastor. He died at the age of 55. He never owned a house. He never owned any property. He died virtually penniless, although he had no debt when he died.
He wrote a letter to Charles Wesley in 1754 about his ministry here in America. And here's what he said, and I quote. He said, my health is wonderfully preserved. My constant vomitings have left me. And though I ride whole nights on horseback, and am frequently exposed to great thunders, violent lightnings, and heavy rains, yet I am rather better than usual, end of quote.
You get the picture? This guy rides all night. He gets rained on, hailed on, lightning, thunder, leans over the side of his horse, vomits, and keeps going. In fact, his biographer estimated that he rode over 100,000 miles on horseback during his ministry career. And at the end of his life, when a friend observed that Whitfield might have lived longer if he simply wouldn't have forsaken all the creature comforts of the world like he did, here's what Whitfield said very simply. He said, you know, many may outlive me on earth, but they cannot outlive me in heaven, end of quote. Now this is the worldview of a disciple. A disciple always chooses the eternal over the temporal, just like Jim Elliot. A disciple is always happy to give up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. This is what man number one was not willing to do, but what a disciple must do. Number two, in contrast to the second man, cost number two of being a disciple, is that we must have an absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ, even above family. Jesus said, Matthew 10 37, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
See, this is where man number two excused himself, and this is where a lot of prospective disciples drop out of the race. But folks, we can never be true disciples of Jesus Christ until we decide that as much as we may love our family, our highest love and our highest loyalty belongs to Jesus Christ. I had a man in my office not long ago, a Jewish gentleman, and he said, you know, I've become a believer in the Lord Jesus as my Messiah, but I haven't told my family yet. He said, because I know when I tell my family, man, the fat is going to hit the fan in my family. He said, my grandmother, she's a Holocaust survivor. He said, I love my family. I don't want to upset my family. What do you think I should do?
I said, well, it's not about what I think you should do. It's about what the Lord Jesus Christ says you must do, and that is you must make a decision who you love more, who you're loyal to more. Is it your family or is it the risen Lord Jesus Christ? You have a decision to make. Well, you know, friends, lots of Jewish believers have to face that kind of choice, but not just Jewish people. Lots of Gentile believers have to face that kind of choice. For example, there are young people who come to Christ, and want to serve Christ with their life as a missionary or a pastor or whatever, and their mom and dad say to them, hey, you know what, we killed ourselves so that you could become a doctor. We did not do all this, so you could go off and be a missionary somewhere. You want to do that, you do that on your own money.
We're not helping you at all. And then there are people, Gentiles, who belong to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and they come to Christ, and they decide to leave the witnesses, and they are disfellowshipped, and their family is instructed never to speak to them or have contact with them again. And there are Gentiles who come to Christ who have unbelieving spouses, and their spouse says to them, hey, look, if you want to keep doing the God thing that you're doing, that's up to you, but if you're going to do that, I'm out of here.
I don't want any part of it, and they leave. Listen, friends, God wants us to respect our parents, and God wants us to love and honor our spouses, and God wants us to care about our relatives, but sometimes saying yes to Jesus Christ means saying no to family, and a true disciple of Christ is willing to accept that cost if it has to be that way. Number three, and finally, cost number three to being a disciple, in contrast to the third man in Luke chapter 9, is we must have an undivided heart. In other words, Jesus Christ must reign supreme in our hearts. Our allegiance to him must be absolute, and our love for him must be unadulterated by any other lovers. This is where man number three excused himself, and this is reason number three why a lot of prospective disciples drop out, because their hearts are divided because they have multiple candidates contending for the throne of their life, but look here, look here, friends, you can never be a true disciple of Jesus Christ until you decide to enthrone Jesus Christ as the one and only Lord of your heart and to give him your undivided affection. Nobody else but him. When I think of this, I think of Abraham.
You remember the story. Abraham, God made him wait till he was 99 years old to have his son, Isaac, but Isaac immediately became an idol in Abraham's heart, and God had to deal with that. He became a rival in Abraham's heart for the love that belonged only to God, and I love the way A.W. Tozer describes what happened. You remember God said, I want you to go sacrifice your son.
All right, here's what Tozer said. He said, Abraham was old when Isaac was born, and the child became at once the delight and the idol of his heart until at last this idolatry bordered on the perilous. Take your son, God said to Abraham whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering to me. This was Abraham's trial by fire, Tozer says, and while the stars still shone above his tent, Abraham made up his mind he would offer his son as God had directed him to do. God, says Tozer, let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where he knew there would be no retreat and then forbid Abraham to lay a hand on the boy. The angel of the Lord said, now I know that you fear God, Abraham, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. In closing, Tozer observes, God never intended for Abraham to slay Isaac. God only wanted to remove the lad from the temple of Abraham's heart so that God might reign unchallenged there. God merely wanted to correct the perversion that had arisen in Abraham's love for God, end of quote.
You know, Jesus said in the church, in the letter, he wrote the church of Ephesus, Revelation chapter two, verse four. He said, yet I have this against you, you have lost your first love, meaning Jesus himself. And you know, a lot of us when we come to Christ, we have a very solid love relationship with Christ.
He really is number one in our hearts. But then as time goes on, we have other lovers who show up, who contend for the throne. You say like what? Well, like our career or fame or power or image or success or a boyfriend or girlfriend or a husband or a wife or our children. Sometimes it's a hobby. Sometimes it's an addiction.
Sometimes it's some possession we have. It can even be as ugly as this is, having a reputation among the saints can become the idol of our heart. But friends, this is a bridge that every true disciple must cross. Disciples are people who have jettisoned every other lover except the Lord Jesus Christ. They are people who have no rivals in their heart for Jesus Christ and the throne that belongs to him. Disciples are people who have burned their plows and they have slaughtered their oxen and they have decided to follow Jesus Christ 100%.
There's no looking back and there's no wanting those old things anymore. That's a disciple. So let's conclude and say that as Jesus today walks down the road of the universe, he's not looking for casual Christians anymore today than he was looking for them 2,000 years ago.
He's looking for men and women who will go the distance. He is looking for men and women who will pay the cost of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the one thing I love about Jesus, don't you hate it when you get lured into something and then you find out after you're in it that there's all kind of hidden cost you didn't know was there?
I hate that. Well, the one thing about the Lord Jesus that I love is he never did this. If the Lord, if you were interested in being a disciple of the Lord Jesus, like these three men in Luke nine, he told you what the cost is upfront and he's told us today. We have to be willing to walk away from creature comfort if that's what it takes. We have to be willing to walk away from family ties if that's what it takes. And we have to be willing to walk away from the things of our old life if that's what it takes. That's the cost of being a disciple.
But the good news is this. Jesus said, Mark 10 29, everyone who's left home or mother or father or children or lands for me will receive a hundred times as much in this life and in the age to come eternal life. Friends, you'll never out give God and you'll never walk away from anything that God will not make it up to you, believe me. But this is what a disciple does. A disciple says whether you make it up to me a lot, Lord, I don't care. If this is what you need, this is what you'll get from me. I'd like to close with a young letter from a young pastor in Zimbabwe, Africa who was later martyred actually for his faith in Christ.
Here's what he said. He said, I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit's power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made.
I am a disciple of his. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. And my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame divisions, worldly talking, cheap living and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity.
I don't have to be right or first or tops or recognized or praised or regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith. I lean on his presence.
I walk by patience. I'm uplifted by prayer and I labor with power. This is a disciple and friends. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ invites you to be and wants you to be, if you know him by faith, a disciple. And I hope you'll respond to his call. Let's pray together. If you're here today and you'd like to respond to the Lord Jesus' call to be a disciple, you understand the cost, you're willing to pay it. And as a first-time decision for discipleship, you're willing to say, today, Lord Jesus, this is me.
I'm willing to do this. Then right now, what I'd like you to do is stand right where you are. No looking around, please. Anybody like to stand? Thank you, God bless you. And now, if you've already made that decision years ago, but you still mean it, I want you to join these folks who are standing for the first time right now, and you stand up.
God bless you. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you see these men and women who are standing. And by standing, they are saying to you, Lord, to the best of my ability, you can count on me.
With your help and your power, I'll pay the cost of being a disciple of Christ, whatever that might be. Lord, take the lives of these men and women who are standing and use their lives for the glory of Christ. Squeeze out of us, Lord, every drop of credit and fame to the name of Jesus that can be squeezed out of us, Lord. And for those of us who have not been able to stand today, I pray, Father, you would work in their hearts and lives so that the next time we offer an invitation like this, they will be able to stand. The few, the proud, the disciples. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for these men and women who have been willing to volunteer to be such. Bless their lives and use them for your glory. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? What did you say? Amen.
