SS03-05-06.

STUDY THEME: CHRIST FOLLOWERS. 3-05-06.”

“PUT CHRIST FIRST” LUKE 9: 57-62; 14: 25-33.

LUKE 9: 57-58, 59-62; 14: 25-26, 27-33.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO LUKE 9.

This series of lessons titled “Christ Followers,” is based on selected passages from Luke’s Gospel. This study theme, “Christ Followers” is designed to help us become more committed followers of Jesus Christ by understanding Jesus’ challenge to put Him first before everything and everyone else. We are to evaluate and adjust our priorities to make this possible.

Luke 9: 57 to 10:24 constitutes an insight into the attitude of Jesus’ followers. Times have not changed all that much. Some were indifferent to the point of being undisciplined; others were excited to the point of rejoicing in the Lord’s power.

Luke 9: 51 begins a new section of the Gospel of Luke. After an all night of prayer to God, Jesus, in Luke 6: 13 called unto him his disciples: and of them He chose 12, who also He named “apostles” or “missionaries.” This shows us a turning point in Jesus ministry. “As the time drew near for His return to heaven, He moved steadfastly toward Jerusalem with an iron will.”

This statement came soon after the confession of Peter and Jesus’ first attempt to tell His disciples of His coming rejection, death, and resurrection in Luke 9: 18-27. Jesus began to tell them that following Him meant that they also must deny themselves and take up their own crosses.

Luke 9:51, does not mean that Jesus went immediately to Jerusalem by the shortest route. It means that from that time on, each step was one step closer to His death. During these chapters Jesus made repeated attempts to help His disciples understand why He must die and why they must take up their crosses in order to follow Him.

In Luke 9: 52-54 Jesus sent messengers to make ready his arrival in a Samaritan village. The Samaritans refused to receive Him because he was going to Jerusalem. James and John, the sons of Thunder (Zebedee) asked permission to call down fire from heaven and consume the village. In vs. 55-56 Jesus refused them and pointed out that he did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them, and they went to another village.

Jesus left Galilee knowing exactly what awaited Him in Judea. He had been there before. They had tried to put Him to death, but, we are told, “His hour has not yet come.” He could say, “No man taketh my life from me; I lay it down Myself.”

Jesus never tried to soft sell what it means to follow Him. He wants us all to be His children and follow Him, but He also wants us to know exactly what we are getting into as lifelong disciples. During this months study we will join Jesus as He began His last journey to Jerusalem as recorded in the Gospel of Dr. Luke.

In this study we will see what is involved in following Christ wholeheartedly. We will begin by studying some high demands Jesus made on some would-be followers.

In the N.T. several names are used to describe Christians. These include “disciples,” “brothers,” and “those of the Way.” The believers in Jesus were called “Christians” first in Antioch, in Syria.

Since the people of Antioch were known for their use of titles to depict various groups, they may have been the ones to use the name. They may even have intended the title to be used in ridicule. But, whatever its source, believers used it of themselves.

The title of this study theme is another way to name Christians. It reminds us that being a Christian involves more than making a profession of faith in Jesus. It also involves following Him by how we live. Too many professing Christians forget whose name they bear and what it means to be a Christ follower.

Jesus always defined His expectations concerning His disciples. No one was left guessing. Luke records Jesus’ demands concerning discipleship. His challenging words still challenge us today. Allow Jesus’ words to engage your heart and examine your commitments.

Disciples of today still ask the question: What do You expect from us? Jesus’ answer is the same today as it was when He was on earth—first place!

Get in step with Jesus. Walking with Him in His will is the most demanding, but joyful, journey of your life.

Luke 9: 57 to 10:24 constitute an insight into the attitude of Jesus’ followers. Times have not changed all that much. Some were indifferent to the point of being undisciplined; others were excited to the point of rejoicing in the Lord’s power.

1. PLEASE READ LUKE 9: 57-58.

After all the disciples had heard and seen Jesus do, they we beginning to understand. When Jesus asked His disciples who they though He was, Peter rightly answered, “God’s Messiah.”

The disciples were getting it. They didn’t fully understand the role of the Messiah, but they knew Jesus was the Messiah.

Right after Peter’s great confession, Jesus began to prepare them for His true role as Messiah: He was to suffer, die and rise again. The time for this was fast approaching, and vs. 51 shows us that Jesus turned His sights toward that end and began the trip to Jerusalem. He still had much to teach the disciples, but as He taught them, Jesus continually kept them focused on what was going to happen.

Since Jesus is the Messiah, the disciples surely thought that the trip to Jerusalem could only mean one thing: Jesus would enter into the great city and set everything right spiritually, socially, and politically. What a great time to be identified as one of Jesus’ followers! Human nature had already led the disciples to argue about their own greatness in vs. 46. And now that Jesus was headed to Jerusalem, their own relative greatness and positions among Jesus’ closest followers would become even more important.

It’s not like Jesus had not already told them about what was to come. But they were so focused on their own perception of what a political-messiah would do that they seemed not to hear what Jesus was telling them. All they could see was that Jesus was the greatest Jewish leader---and their close partnership with Him as His followers.

Jesus’ closest disciples---the specially commissioned Twelve---were not the only ones who saw the potential of being identified with Jesus. Luke noted three individuals who were willing to follow Jesus, but on their own terms.

Luke had made it clear that Jesus was on His way to make the ultimate sacrifice---“the days were coming to a close for Him to be taken up” yet he showed the contrast of three casual followers with conditional commitments to Jesus.

“As they were traveling on the road” indicates no specific time or place, which are not critical in this context. Luke identified the first would-be disciple simply as someone. This man obviously recognized the importance of Jesus, and there is no reason to question the sincerity of his claim. “I will follow You wherever You go.” Here was a man who was evidently attracted by the grace of Christ. While he may have been sincere, his motives may have been self-centered. Jesus knew that the man had no awareness of what his words committed him to do and to be. He was like a young person marching off to war when the bands were playing and the crowds were cheering. Only later would he discover the horrors of war.

Perhaps this man wanted to hitch his own wagon to what Jesus was doing, and thus reap the benefits of being alongside Jesus.

The man said the right words. He also volunteered. But Jesus gave the man an abrupt response. He didn’t explicitly reject the eager volunteer, but the implication is that the man did not follow Jesus. Was Jesus deliberately trying to discourage this would be disciple? Apparently Jesus looked into the man’s heart and knew that his promise was superficial.

With His response, Jesus challenged this man’s idea of what it means to follow Him---as He challenged all who were within earshot. Jesus’ response shows that the man may hitch his wagon to Jesus’, but it was going to be no gravy train. Jesus immediately tested him.

The Son of Man has no place to lay His head was Jesus’ way of saying that there are no guaranteed comforts of home for His disciples. To follow Jesus is to be like Jesus, and Jesus had nothing to claim as His own---not even a sure place to sleep at night.

Did Jesus have a place to call home? He may have grown up in Nazareth, but His own hometown rejected Him in Lk.4: 28-29. Judea rejected Him in John 5: 34. Samaria would not let Him in, in Luke 9:53, and He was eventually rejected by the Jews as a whole and crucified.

The animals had it better than Jesus, for foxes do have dens, and birds of the sky do have nests.

What would Jesus give to the one who truly wants to follow Him? There are no guaranteed comforts, such as a home to return to again. Jesus’ ministry always offered love, yet it also offered a challenge.

Luke identified a man, called a scribe in Matt. 8: 19, who came to Jesus and asserted his loyalty by insisting that he would follow wherever Jesus traveled. Jesus reminded him that foxes have dens, birds have nests to call their own, but the Son of Man has no place to call His home. Following Jesus does not result in materialistic wealth. Neither does discipleship result in a place of materialistic honor and superiority. The man did not comprehend the sacrifice involved in this discipleship.

What Jesus offered the would-be disciple was a life of service for the kingdom of God, which means self-denial, sacrifice, and even suffering. Therefore, the choice to follow Jesus is not a frivolous one.

When we used to sing at Falls Creek songs such as “Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go,” I doubt seriously that we understood what we were saying. Today if God should call us to some difficult, dangerous, or distasteful task or place could we truly sing the words to that hymn?

Luke did not identify the man beyond the designation someone. That someone could be anybody. Anybody who wants to be a follower of Jesus needs to understand that His disciples may be called to give up the comforts of home to follow Him.

2. PLEASE READ LUKE 9: 59-62.

The would-be disciples we just studied volunteered to follow Jesus. By contrast, the second would-be-disciple was offered an invitation by Jesus: Follow Me. In the past, Jesus had offered this invitation to others, and the Gospel writers recorded their enthusiasm in leaving what they were doing that moment and following Jesus.

Jesus issued the same call to Peter, Andrew, James and John, and they immediately left their fishing business in Matt. 4: 18-22. Later, Jesus issued the call to follow Him to Matthew, and Matthew immediately left his dishonorable, but highly profitable, tax collection.

Now Jesus issued the same call, but instead of an enthusiastic response, Jesus was told in a sense to wait.

The man in vs. 59 responded yes, but. He asked to be allowed first to go and bury his father. This may have meant that his father had died, and the son needed to carry out a sacred duty to give his father a proper burial.

But then it may have meant that his father was old and the son needed to care for him until the father died and the son buried him. In either case, the Jews counted proper burial as most important. The duty of burial took precedence over the study of the Law, the temple service, the killing of the Passover sacrifice, the observation of circumcision, and the reading of the sacred scrolls. In other words, the duty to bury one’s father took precedence over the major practices of their religion.

This man did not refuse to follow Jesus, but he had something to take care of first: “First let me go bury my father.” This seems like a legitimate request---and it was---and could mean only a temporary delay. Why wouldn’t Jesus let this man fulfill this one task?

In the Jewish culture, there was no duty or kindness that took precedence over honoring one’s parents by attending to their burials. Burial was attended to very quickly after death. The burial of Lazarus in John 11: 14-17 and the immediate burial of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5: 5-10 attest to this., Immediate burial was the responsibility of the family members as a last act of love and devotion. The two exceptions the law allowed were those who had taken the Nazirite vow in Num. 6:6-7, and the one who served as high priest in Lev, 21:10-11.

The legitimacy of this request in light of this custom of love and honor makes Jesus’ response seem that much harsher. If the Ten Commandments call for us to “honor our father and our mother” in Ex 20: 12, why would Jesus speak against a custom that intended to fulfill that very Commandment?

Some may choose to interpret Jesus’ meaning as a strong emphasis on an allegiance to Him that takes precedence in everyway over everything. While I would agree that our commitment to Jesus is first and foremost, I do not think that is the point Jesus wanted to get across. Jesus never told us to ignore the needs of our families. Even at His crucifixion, in the midst of His intense suffering, Jesus saw to it that His mother would be cared for in John 19: 26-27.

Yet Jesus dared to place following Him before all these things. We cannot imagine any better way for Jesus to demand first place in the lives of His followers and to show the urgency of following Him.

I believe it is best to see this as a “play on words.” Let the dead bury their own dead can mean, “Let the spiritually dead bury their physical dead.” This man’s father was not dead and may have even been years away from death or illness. If the man’s father truly were dead, wouldn’t he already have been at home taking care of the burial, since burial was immediate? Why would he instead be on the road walking alongside Jesus?

The man may have wanted to follow Jesus, but he excused himself because he couldn’t leave his father at home to follow Jesus around the country. But once his father was dead, then the man would be ready. This was what Jesus told the man to do. “Go thou and preach the Kingdom of God.” Following Jesus involves telling the good news. This should take precedence over even the most important human duties.

Following Jesus takes a greater commitment than that. If we leave the spiritually dead to concern themselves with those who chose not to follow Jesus, we can follow Jesus wholeheartedly. We do not need to worry about the affairs of this life or our families. As Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt. 6: 33, when we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, “then” all these things will be provided for you.”

The third would-be disciple, like the first, approached Jesus. He said, “Lord, I will follow thee.” He did not say he would follow Jesus anywhere, but he called Jesus Lord. This title appears to show the man’s belief in the deity of Jesus.

However, like the second would-be-follower, the third had something he needed to do first. Before following Jesus, he wanted time to say farewell to his family. It seemed like a reasonable request. But Jesus denied this man’s request too.

To say good-bye is more than a casual word of farewell. It refers to a more formal act that involves going home and giving final instructions to family and servants. For the would-be disciple, it meant that he would go home, get all his affairs in order, and then in due time join Jesus.

It could be dangerous, though, for this would be follower to go away from Jesus if his priorities were not wells established. He would be susceptible to the pleas of others to stay home. If Jesus did not have pre-eminence in his life now, he certainly wouldn’t have pre-eminence when the man returned home. And if Jesus had pre-eminence, what would the man care about closing down the affairs of his life?

The word FIRST may help explain Jesus’ abrupt responses to these men. Apparently Jesus saw into the hearts of these men and felt they would always have something they needed to do first rather than putting Christ first. They would not obey Jesus’ words. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

Therefore, Jesus spoke of the dangers of looking back. He used the familiar picture of a farmer holding a plow being pulled by a team of oxen. The farmer knew better than to try to plow while looking over his shoulder. The Greek construction indicates continuing to look.

Today we might use the analogy of a driver looking at something other than the road ahead. Such a distracted driver is a hazard to him self and to others. Jesus said that the should-be follower who looks back IS NOT FIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF God. The Bible warns against looking back when it says in Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.” She had been warned not to look back at Sodom, but she did look back and lost her life.

3. PLEASE READ LUKE 14: 25-26.

Luke 14: 25 describes one of many occasions when great multitudes were with Jesus. Jesus chose this occasion to teach the same basic truth He had spoken to the second and third would-be followers in 9:59-62. He emphasized that following Him took priority over everything and everyone else. Earlier Jesus had placed the urgency and priority of following Him above a son’s duty to bury his father and a man’s request to bid farewell to his family. Now in Luke 14:26 Jesus used the word hate to describe the relationship between followers of Jesus and their families.

Obvious questions come to mind immediately. Jesus elsewhere taught love for families, fellow believers, neighbors, and even enemies. How could he demand that a person hate his family members in order to become one of His disciples?

Jesus never intended that this statement be taken literally, but He did intend that it be taken seriously. This was a kind of figure of speech often used to emphasize a strong point of view. The same point is made in milder language in Matt. 10: 37: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

This statement refers to those times when family loyalty comes in conflict with commitment to Christ. The Bible leaves no doubt about the need for love and loyalty in families, but even family loyalties must not stand between a person and his or her commitment to Christ.

When this tragedy happens, the person’s love and loyalty must be so clear and strong that by comparison he seems to hate his family.

In this idiom to hate, means to love less. We are to love others, including family, but our love for Jesus should be so great that by comparison our love for others seems as distant as the distance between love and hate.

4. PLEASE READ LUKE 14: 27-33.

In Luke 14: 26 Jesus had challenged all would-be followers to place their love for Him over everyone else, including their own lives. Jesus now expounded on that by saying, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. To understand the severity of this statement, let’s consider first what Jesus was not saying.

Many people have often talked about the burden of their cross. They equate some hardship in life as the burden they are called to bear and resign themselves with. “That’s just the cross I’m called to bear.”

The cross was not some heavy burden that Jesus carried through the streets of Jerusalem and out the gates to Calvary. He died on it. The crowds with Jesus knew the cross only as an extreme and cruel instrument of death.

To bear his own cross, then, means to pick up this instrument of death and die to self. If I am dead, then my wants and wishes no longer matter. When I am dead to myself, I am no longer self-centered. I’ve died to everything and now Jesus can operate as Lord in my life.

Bearing one’s own cross is not a personal problem of an alcoholic husband, a rebellious teenager, or an eating disorder. These are troublesome problems, but Christ was expressing His absolute demand to those who follow Him.

The Lordship of Christ goes hand-in-hand with salvation. The confession that “Jesus is Lord” is a part of becoming a Christian. Romans 10: 9-10 says, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

We do not accept Jesus as Savior without also accepting Him as Lord. I may not have understood all the implications of that at the initial moment of salvation, but as I grow in Christ, I am continually dying to self and letting Him be in control. Jesus said that without the level of commitment that leads a person to die to self, a person cannot be My disciple.

Dying to self and following Jesus is no casual decision: therefore, a person should seriously consider what it will cost. Yes, salvation is free in the sense that Jesus paid the debt of our sin and freely offers us forgiveness and a new, eternal life. There is nothing we do to earn this great salvation, but it will still cost us in that we must give up everything else.

Another way to ask the question is, How can salvation be both free and costly? Salvation from sin and fellowship with the Lord are free gifts of God’s grace, but making this possible is the cost to God of the death of His Son and the cost to the sinner who must give up his sinful ways.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship.” He distinguished what he called “cheap grace” from “costly grace.” He wrote that cheap grace is only giving intellectual assent to Christian truths. It is the justification of sin rather than the justification of the sinner. Grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “You were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.”

Bonhoeffer practiced what he preached. He was imprisoned by the Nazis and hanged just before the end of World War II.

Jesus did not want anyone to follow Him without counting the cost. His dealings with the three would-be-disciples in Luke 9: 57-62 show this. Jesus now used three short parables to reinforce the cost of following Him. He told of a man who planned to build a tower. In that day people built towers to watch their vineyards or their cities. Jesus said that any one planning such a tower would determine the cost before building it. He needed to have enough to complete the tower. If the builder failed to count the cost, he could fail to finish it.

It must have been enormous because the foundation alone depleted his funds. His start did not have a finish. Such a project needed a first set down decision. He did not plan to fail, but he failed because he failed to plan.

Jesus’ second parable was about a king, going to make war against another king. The first king had ten thousand soldiers, but he learned that the other king had twenty thousand. The first king must count the cost of doing battle when he would be outnumbered two to one. In many such situations, the first king would seek a diplomatic way to have peace rather than war.

Both parables emphasize the need for people to count the cost before following Him. As in Lk. 9: 57-62, Jesus’ goal was not to discourage anyone from following Him: to the contrary, He hoped they would count the cost and be willing to pay it.

There a slight difference in the parables. In building a tower, the builder could decide not to build it. In the second parable, the king could not avoid making a decision either to fight or to negotiate. Doing nothing was not an option. When people are confronted by the call to follow Christ, they have the builder’s kind of freedom either to follow or not to follow: but like the king, they do not have the option of doing nothing. They either follow Christ or they reject Him.

Following Christ is costly from the sinners’ point of view. Vs. 33 repeats the cost: “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” As you think about the high cost of following Jesus, keep two things in mind. For one thing, we receive far more than we give up. Paul wrote in Phil: 3: 7-8, “Everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Second, in considering the cost of following Christ, don’t forget the cost of not following Him. People who choose not to follow Christ miss the way of abundant and eternal life and reap a harvest of separation from God here and hereafter.

The point for us is that we too cannot remain neutral. It is always wise to “look before you leap.” A leap is called for, but we must make sure we are going to jump in the right direction! When we are honest and count the cost, we will discover that surrender to Christ is the best decision. We surrender (say good-bye to all our possessions) because to do anything less is not true surrender and means we cannot be His disciples.

It bears stressing again that although Jesus calls us to count the cost. He was not implying that we could earn or buy our salvation. There is nothing we can do to pay one fraction of what it took to save us.

Jesus completed the work through His own substitutionary death and subsequent resurrection. When we count the cost we determine if we are willing to let go of living by our own ways and merits and let Christ take His rightful ownership of our lives. By our surrender to His love and completed work for us, we open the doors to becoming recipients of His grace.

In many cultures today, following Jesus calls for a commitment to endure rejection, ridicule, danger, and even death. The choice is not all that easy but it is still worth the cost.

NEXT WEEKS’ QUESTION IS “HOW CAN I PRAY EFFECTIVELY AS A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?” LUKE 11: 1-13. A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>