Deuteronomy 28:1-14   Psalm 24   Matthews 5:43-48   Luke 9:57-62          April 20, 2008

Community of Hope   Easter 5   David Drum

 

Series:      Jesus Said What?

Part 4:       About the cost of following Jesus

 

            Right before Easter, I put together a simple survey to find out which potential sermon topics would be the most meaningful to you.  I put our current series together based on the results of that survey.  Unfortunately, I was running late enough that most of you never even got to see the survey – only those who came to the Maundy Thursday service.  Anyway, every single topic on my list was chosen by at least half, with a few people specifically saying to talk about all of them.  And among those who ranked their top priorities, you wanna know the runaway winner?  This one.  Today’s.  More people chose as their top priority hearing about the high cost of following Jesus than any other.

            You know why?  This is just a theory, but here’s my theory.  It’s hard to get excited about mediocrity.  Look around at the state of the Christian churches in our country.  For the most part, with a few exceptions, the churches that seem to put their fingers up in the air and see which way the wind is blowing before deciding what they stand on, those churches are shrinking.  Fast.  But the churches whose teachings mirror the high expectations the Bible has for being a Christ-follower – those churches tend to be growing. 

            I think people are looking for something worth giving their best to.  Few of us need just another activity.  I don’t know many people who are looking for ways to just pass time, unless their health prevents them from doing the things they want to.  But talk about something with some teeth to it, something worth giving your life to, and you’ll generally find no shortage of people willing to listen.  You want to know where Christianity is growing the fastest right now?  In places where it’s illegal, places where following Jesus can cost you your life.  And throughout history, that’s been the norm. 

            Jesus didn’t mince any words.  There are any number of texts we could have chosen if we wanted to talk about the high cost of being a Christ-follower, but for today, we’ll limit ourselves to two.  We’ll start with Luke (chapter 9:57-62, p. 734 if you’d like to follow along).  Jesus was walking along the road, and crowds of people were walking with him.  Jesus gets into a conversation with three different men in this section, all of whom are anonymous.  I think each of the three represent different costs, three different things we can expect to sacrifice if we become a Christ-follower. 

            The first guy says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Nice start, wouldn’t you say?  Here’s Jesus’ response: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  In other words, “animals get better care than I’m going to receive.  Are you sure you want to walk down my road?”  What I’m going to present today is true, I just wouldn’t argue that it’s complete.  There’s far more to learn from these conversations than I’ve learned yet.  So, part of what this first conversation illustrates is that if we want to follow Jesus, we can expect to sacrifice comfort.  If we insist on being comfortable at all times, we’ll veer off the road Jesus travels. 

            I think the question that has stuck with me the most from our trip to Tanzania a year ago is whether comfort is even a good thing or not.  I saw more joy in people there than I’ve ever seen in our country, and they have none of the comforts I’ve grown accustomed to.  Are you prepared to sacrifice comfort?  It means that you might end up sponsoring kids raising money to battle world hunger instead of going out to eat yourself this week.  God might ask you to take the money you were planning on for a new car, a new toy, or a nicer house, and instead help more people experience God’s love through your church.  Vacation time might be used to teach Vacation Bible School.  God will definitely ask you to leave your circle of comfort at times and walk across the room to the zone of the unknown, building some new relationships.  And in those relationships, he’ll likely ask you at times to sacrifice the comfort of small talk for riskier, more worthwhile conversations.  One of the costs of following Jesus?  Expect to sacrifice comfort in many and various ways.

            Contestant number 2.  Jesus initiates the conversation this time.  He says to Mr. Anonymous the 2nd, “Follow me.”  The man responds, “Love to.  Just let me first go and bury my father.”  Sounds reasonable, don’t you think?  Jesus’ response: “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  Whoa, there, Jesus said what?  The guy wants to bury his father, and Jesus says no?  What’s that all about?  Well, some have suggested that maybe this guy’s father hadn’t even died yet.  Maybe he was buying time.  That would make things a little more understandable.  But we don’t know that.  What if this guy’s father had just died?  Again, I’m sure there’s more to it than this, but a second cost in following Jesus is that we sacrifice control. 

            Who initiated this conversation?  Jesus did.  Jesus was in control.  And the guy was willing to follow, but he wanted to do it on his own terms, terms that made perfect sense to him.  If you’re driving down the road of life and Jesus is in the passenger seat, switch seats.  Let him drive.  Jesus will call us to do things at times that make no sense.  He called me to go to seminary for three years in a city I’d never lasted more than a week or two in before, because of my asthma.  Within a short time the humidity of Ohio had me on cortisone and sleeping in a chair with regularity.  Jesus said trust me.  Everything worked out just fine.  A few months ago he called me to be a church planter with zero assurance that I’d get to do it here, with you, like we’re doing.  There were a hundred reasons at the time why that made little sense.  But God’s working everything out just fine.  Let Jesus call the shots.  His vision is better than ours.

            Door number three.  Anonymous the 3rd sounds a lot like anonymous the 2nd, except that the man initiates the conversation.  “I’ll follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”  Again – it doesn’t sound unreasonable at all.  He didn’t say, “But first, let me finish burning down my neighbor’s barn.”  Jesus’ response: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”  What happens if you’re plowing and looking back over your shoulder?  Might run into a tree.  The third cost?  Well, we could certainly talk about control again, but since this guy thought up the plan and brought it to Jesus, let’s call it something else.  Want to follow Jesus?  It’ll cost you.  Expect to sacrifice the time-honored practice of compromise.  Following Jesus without first satisfying his family seemed too costly.  So he worked out a way to have both.  Compromise is that art-form of trying to make everyone happy.  Give a little, take a little, don’t go overboard with anything.  Jesus wants you sold out to him.  He’s not interested in sharing the driver’s seat.  Read the Old Testament and you get the distinct impression that God wants first place. In everything.  Single-minded devotion.  Whole-hearted love.  Unswerving obedience.

            In fact, if we quickly jump to the gospel of Matthew, what Jesus refers to as the standard is actually perfection.  “Be perfect, just like my Father in heaven is perfect.”  By now, you should know what’s coming.  Say it with me: “Jesus said what?”  He said we’re supposed to be perfect.  I think he meant it.  He just didn’t tell us how in that passage.  There’s only one who’s perfect, and that’s Jesus himself.  Just like we saw last week, he is the only way.  What Jesus is saying is, “You’re going to have to let me drive.  I’m the only one who knows the way.”  Jesus is the only one who can perfectly live the Christian life.  So let him live yours.

            It’s funny how much easier this is to understand in other areas of life.  Professional musicians or athletes expect to sacrifice comfort, control, and compromise.  Athletes all have coaches. They voluntarily let their coach run their lives.  I was thinking about this the other day – Tiger Woods has a coach.  Does that strike you as odd?  What is anyone going to teach Tiger about golf?  And yet he knows that he can’t do it on his own.  He does better when he’s accountable to someone else.

            Now the cost of discipleship, the cost of following Jesus, isn’t the whole story, of course.  Paying the price also means receiving the prize, getting the reward.  And here are three rewards, three blessings, three benefits that accompany each sacrifice.  Sacrifice comfort, and achieve security.  Can you build up a big enough nest egg on your own to really guarantee security?  Of course not.  It can all disappear overnight.  No, as Luther said, “There’s no safer place to be than in the palm of His hand.” 

            Sacrifice control, and achieve stability.  Face it – Jesus is a better driver than we are.  Now my next illustration is completely figurative.  Any resemblance to any teenager in my house is strictly coincidental and entirely unintentional.  But new drivers, for instance, often lack stability.  Jesus has been driving for a long time.  Go with the experience. 

            Finally, sacrifice compromise, and achieve serenity.  Webster defines serenity as a condition that is clear and calm, unclouded, and unruffled.  People-pleasing is one of the worst forms of prison.  When you only answer to one boss, life goes a lot smoother. 

            Before we close, we need some practical application.  All this is fine in theory, but what should we do with it?  I found about a five minute talk by Louie Giglio that has a whole bunch of very practical things you can do to put this message into practice.  My suggestion would be to have a pen and paper handy and jot down what God especially points out to you.

(video from www.Bluefishtv.com – Louie Giglio, “What Comes First?”)