All right, let's read together from Luke's Gospel, chapter 9, verses 51 to 62, as we begin a new series tonight called The Call to Discipleship from Luke 9-12.
This is the word of the Lord.
When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.
And He sent messengers ahead of Him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for Him.
But the people did not receive Him because His face was set towards Jerusalem.
And when His disciples James and John saw it, they said,
Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
But He turned and He rebuked them, and they went on to another village.
As they were going along the road, someone said to Him,
I will follow you wherever you go.
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.
To another He said,
Follow Me.
But He said,
Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
And Jesus said to him,
Leave the dead to bury their own dead.
But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
Yet another said,
I will follow you, Lord.
But let me first say farewell to those at my home.
And Jesus said to him,
No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
This is God's holy word.
We turn this evening to that passage that Corey read for us in Luke chapter 9,
just at the end of the chapter from verse 51 to verse 62.
Some years ago now,
I conducted the funeral of a lady from a small holding,
a farm near Trenent in East Lothian.
She was a woman and she died in her mid-80s.
And I went to visit her sister in Portobello
and to kind of find out a little bit about her and her life.
And one of the striking things I learned about her was this,
that in all her days,
she had never traveled any further than Edinburgh.
She'd never been abroad.
She'd never been to England.
She'd never been to Fife.
Well, you can understand that.
But she'd never even,
she'd never even been to Glasgow.
And it seems incredible to us.
I was quite astonished.
In our age, trains, planes, automobiles, and the rest,
someone could live their whole life
and never travel more than just a few miles from their home.
And yet, as I reflected on it,
in times past,
this woman's experience would have been the norm
rather than the exception.
In ancient times,
people didn't travel far from their homes.
People seldom have ever traveled anywhere.
Travel was often the luxury of the rich or merchants
or perhaps those conscripted for military service.
Those wealthy enough for horses could travel a distance,
but frequently didn't because of the potential dangers.
Many people stayed in their local communities
all their lives.
And that was true for most people in Jesus' world too.
Perhaps with one major exception,
Jews regularly made one journey each year
as a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Often it might take a walk of two or three days.
And this was frequently made at the time of the Passover.
As the people traveled,
they would retell the story of the Exodus,
of God's redemption of His people
when their ancestors made that journey
from slavery in Egypt
to ultimately the Promised Land.
And I think it's that kind of journey
that provides the background
to what is happening here
in this section of Luke's Gospel.
Here, Jesus is kind of beginning
a journey to Jerusalem
that will mark His own exodus.
We read in verse 51,
when the days drew near for Him to be taken up,
He set His face to go to Jerusalem.
And these words really mark a turning point
in Luke's Gospel.
From this point onward,
Luke traces the journey of our Lord Jesus Christ
towards the city
where He would accomplish
His great work of redemption.
Earlier on in chapter 9,
we don't have time to read that,
on the Mount of Transfiguration,
we're told there in verses 30 and 31,
Behold, two men were talking with Him,
Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory
and spoke of His departure,
which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
And that word translated departure
is literally the word Exodus.
Jesus is here beginning a journey
that will lead to His departure
or Exodus in Jerusalem.
And all through this great section of the Gospel
really runs into chapter 19.
Luke reminds us that Jesus is on a journey.
In fact, one might say that Luke
is presenting us here
with the most significant
and important journey
ever taken by any human being.
A journey that leaves Christopher Columbus
and Marco Polo
and Neil Armstrong
all together in the shade.
And over the next couple of months,
God willing,
in our evening service,
we're going to follow
part of that journey with Jesus.
Much of the material here
relates to the whole issue
of Christian discipleship
and what it means
to be a follower of Jesus.
It's a journey
that's not just to be understood
in some geographical sense.
Because in truth,
it is a redemptive journey
that Jesus is taking.
And in a sense,
it's a journey that Luke invites us
to join with Him.
He invites us to follow Jesus
on this journey
towards His exodus
to heaven and glory.
He invites us, in fact,
to become His followers.
Through Luke's words,
Jesus Himself
calls us
to come
and to follow
after Him.
And so,
in this little section
before us this evening,
let me highlight
three things
about Jesus
and His journey.
And the first thing
I want you to notice
here in the text
is the resolve
that Jesus
displays.
The resolve
Jesus displays here.
We find that
in verse 51
and again
in verse 53.
When the days
drew near
for Him
to be taken up,
He set His face
to go to Jerusalem.
Verse 53,
the people did not receive Him,
that's the Samaritans,
because His face
was set
toward Jerusalem.
It's as if
in these verses,
if you imagine
a camera,
a filmmaker,
the camera lens
lens,
zooms in,
as it were,
on the countenance
of Jesus.
He is resolute,
He is steadfast,
He is unflinching.
He sets His face
towards Jerusalem,
knowing full well
what will await Him
there.
And that expression,
set His face,
it echoes words
of the prophet Isaiah.
It occurs as part of
what we know
as the third servant song
in Isaiah 50.
The context there
is that of the servant
facing unexplained suffering,
and yet he faces it
with confidence
and trust in God.
So, we read in Isaiah 50,
verse 7,
But the Lord God
helps me,
therefore I have not
been disgraced,
therefore I have set
my face
like a flint,
and I know
that I shall not
be put to shame.
The servant sets
his face
like a flint,
for he knows
that Yahweh
will carry him
through his suffering
and bring vindication.
And so,
Jesus too
sets His face
towards Jerusalem,
knowing what lies ahead,
betrayal,
suffering,
the cross,
and beyond that,
vindication
in His resurrection
and ascension.
We're told here
that in Jerusalem,
Jesus will be
taken up.
And that phrase
is a kind of
unusual one.
It almost certainly,
I think,
refers to what will happen
at the end of this gospel
when Jesus ascends
to the Father.
Remember,
Luke's gospel
ends not with
the resurrection,
but with an account
of the ascension
of Jesus.
And this is the goal
towards which
the gospel is moving.
Jesus is accomplishing
the redemption
of His people
and returning
to His Father.
He is making
His exodus journey.
It's a journey
with a glorious goal.
But that road
to glory
is one that must
pass through
great sorrow
and pain
and rejection
and suffering.
Jesus must travel
the way of the cross.
And so,
He sets His face
towards Jerusalem.
He is determined
to fulfill
God's plan
and purpose
come what may.
God's plan
to fulfill
His life.
That's why already,
again,
earlier in this chapter,
when we read
of Peter's confession
of Jesus
as the Christ of God,
Jesus speaks
of His impending death
in just those kind
of terms.
In chapter 9,
verse 22,
He says,
the Son of Man
must suffer
many things.
This suffering
and death
is a must
for Jesus
because it is
a must
in the very heart
of God Himself.
It's the divine must
that lies
at the heart
of the gospel,
the divine imperative
of God's love.
Jesus must suffer
and be killed
for sinners
to be redeemed,
for sinful men
and women
to enter heaven.
Jesus,
God's Son,
must die.
Jesus is no
reluctant victim.
He is the willing
Lamb of God
marching deliberately
towards the cross
for the joy
set before Him,
the joy of fulfilling
the divine purpose,
redeeming a people
for Himself.
So, we have to be clear.
The cross
was not a surprise
to Jesus.
It wasn't something
He sought to evade
or avoid.
He embraced it
because it was
the very reason
He came.
Before He would be
taken up to His Father,
He knew that He would
be taken up
and impaled
on a cross.
Lifted up
was He to die.
It is finished
was His cry.
That's why He had
come into the world
to live
and then to die
on a cross.
He had come
to do His Father's will
to secure
His people's salvation.
Octavius Winslow,
he was a Baptist
preacher in England,
a contemporary
of C.H. Spurgeon,
he wrote this,
Who delivered Jesus
up to die?
Not Judas for money,
not Barabbas for freedom,
not Pilate for fear,
not the crowd for blood,
not the Jews for envy,
but the Father
for love.
And so here we see
Jesus setting
His face
towards Jerusalem,
towards the agony
of the cross,
becoming obedient
to death,
even death
on a cross,
preparing to shed
His blood
for the forgiveness
of His people's sin.
And as Jesus
sets His face
to the cross,
so it is for those
who would come
after Him,
for they too
are called
to travel
the way
of the cross.
And indeed,
just a few verses
earlier,
again,
earlier in this chapter,
Jesus has spoken
to His disciples
in just those terms.
Verses 23 and 24,
If anyone would come
after Me,
let him deny himself
and take up his cross
and follow Me.
For whoever would
save his life
will lose it,
but whoever loses
his life for My sake
will save it.
Those words
fly in the face,
don't they,
of much contemporary
Christian thinking.
He describes discipleship
not in terms of
personal piety
and devotion,
nor in terms
of a kind of
purpose-driven life,
or any particular
kind of spiritual
experience.
No,
Jesus says,
Christian discipleship
means losing
your life
to Me.
Carrying
our cross
means nothing
less than giving
over our whole
life to Jesus
as our King.
Bonhoeffer,
who Corey quoted
earlier,
famously wrote,
when Christ bids a man,
He bids him
come die.
The man with the cross
is one whose life
is forfeit.
It's no longer
his own.
And so,
Jesus confronts
and challenges
the sovereignty
of our individual
consciousness.
He is Lord
and God.
He is God,
not us.
He confronts
the idolatry
of self
that is at the
heart of all
human rebellion
against God.
And He invites us
and calls us
to follow Him
in the way
of the cross.
He calls us
to set our face
not towards Jerusalem,
but towards Him.
The resolve
Jesus displays.
And that brings me
to the second thing
here.
And that's the rebuke
Jesus gives
in verses 52
through 56.
We're told
in verse 52,
He sent messengers
ahead of Him
who went and entered
a village of the Samaritans
to make preparations
for Him,
but the people
did not receive Him
because His face
was set towards Jerusalem.
So,
messengers
are sent ahead
probably to prepare
suitable food
and lodging
and they enter
a Samaritan village,
but the villagers
there refuse
to receive Jesus.
They want nothing
to do with Him.
Why was that?
Well,
we're told
because His face
was set towards
Jerusalem.
And the background
to their refusal
is,
of course,
they can have
age-old
antagonism
between the Jews
and the Samaritans.
The Samaritans
had their own rival
temple
on Mount Gerizim
and they were
in no way
disposed
to offer
hospitality
to Jews
going to the temple
in Jerusalem.
And so,
with Jesus'
approach,
this long-standing
enmity
with the Jews
flares up.
They will not
welcome one
whose destiny
lies
in the holy city
of their enemies.
When the disciples,
James and Joss,
saw it,
James and John
saw it,
they said,
Lord,
do you want us
to tell fire
to come down
from heaven
and consume them?
But He turned
and rebuked them
and they went on
to another village.
Rejection
is never easy
to take.
How we handle it
can often be
a very important issue.
How we deal
with, you know,
maybe it's a failed
interview or test
or the person
who doesn't want
anything to do
with us,
with people
who won't let us
be part of what
they're doing,
with those who want
to keep us
at arm's length.
Dealing with rejection
is never easy.
And here the disciples,
James and John,
appear not to handle
it terribly well.
In fact,
they're very angry.
They're raging
about what has happened.
Those sons of thunder,
actually,
they're righteously
indignant
at this rejection
of Jesus,
their master.
And they're rightly
jealous of Jesus' honor.
They're rightly,
perhaps,
enraged
at this slight
done to Him.
And so,
they respond,
Lord,
do you want us
to tell fire
to come down
from heaven
and consume them,
obliterate them?
They want those
wicked and ungrateful
Samaritans
dealt with immediately
and in no uncertain terms.
And commentators
kind of surmise
that they may well
have had in mind
that incident
back in the Old Testament
in 2 Kings chapter 1
verses 9 through 18,
when fire fell
and consumed
King Ahaziah's
captain
and his fifty men
as a judgment
from God
because they rejected
and they gave
ill treatment
to Elijah,
God's prophet.
We read there
in chapter 1 verse 10
of 2 Kings,
let fire come down
from heaven
and consume you
and your fifty.
Because,
you see,
they're rejecting
God's prophet
is a serious business.
Yet,
even so,
here,
Jesus does not
endorse this suggestion.
Quite the reverse,
He returned
and rebuked them.
He immediately
rebukes His disciples.
Their response
is wholly inappropriate here.
Well,
we might have
perhaps expected
a fuller explanation.
There is in the footnote
in the ESV there,
some manuscripts,
you do not know
what man of spirit
you are,
for the Son of Man
came not to destroy
people's lives,
but to save them.
Perhaps the reason
for that
omission
in many manuscripts
is that the explanation
is in the story
itself.
It is in
the journey
that Jesus
is taking
to Jerusalem
and to the cross
for people
who have rejected
God.
He's traveling
the road of mercy
for sinners.
Now is not
the time
for judgment.
Now is the time
for mercy.
Yes,
we need to understand
there will come
a time
for judgment
and God's
righteous anger
will be shown
to hard hearts.
But in this
current age,
the call
of Christ's
disciples
is to reach out
with the good news
of His grace
and mercy.
Today is a day
of grace.
Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 6,
behold,
now is the favorable
time.
Behold,
now is the day
of salvation.
We're living
in a day
of good news,
a day of salvation
and rescue
from divine judgment.
We're living
in a day
of mercy,
a day in which
there is yet time
for men and women
to discover
and experience
for themselves
the mercy
of God.
And friends,
those of us
who are Christian
believers need
to remember
that judgment
is Jesus'
job,
not ours.
Tragically,
down through
the centuries,
many have
discarded
or ignored
this teaching.
And a misguided
zeal for God.
They've behaved
despicably,
inflicting pain
and harm
on others
in the name
of Jesus.
Not just calling
down fire
of judgment,
but actually
enacting it.
Crusades,
Inquisition,
great European
wars of religion,
thousands put
to death
in the name
of Christ.
What a travesty
of the gospel
message.
What a repudiation
and rejection
of Jesus
and His teaching.
And yes,
of course,
zeal and passion
for God's glory
and honor
are good things.
And we are called
to stand for the truth
and to reject error.
But we have no business
seeking vengeance
on others.
Zeal that spills over
into violence
on others
is unholy
and unchristian.
Paul writes
to the Christians
in Rome,
Romans 12,
19 and 21,
Beloved,
never avenge yourselves,
but leave it
to the wrath of God.
For it's written,
vengeance is mine,
I will repay,
says the Lord.
Do not be overcome
with evil,
but overcome evil
with good.
And yes,
it is a serious matter
to reject Jesus,
to despise His Word.
But those caught up
in theological error
are not to be
put to the sword.
We're not in the business
of burning heretics.
But we are in the business
of praying and interceding
and holding out
the gospel of God's grace,
conscious indeed
that the great day
of judgment will come
and men and women
will have to be ready
for it.
It's interesting
that in Luke's
second volume,
the book of Acts,
he tells of
a man,
an evangelist,
Philip,
who traveled
to Samaria
and did just that.
What did he do?
He preached
the gospel
of Jesus' death
and resurrection.
You can read about it
in Acts chapter 8.
We're told there,
he proclaimed
to them the Christ,
and there was much joy
in that city.
So, let's not forget
Jesus' words
of rebuke here.
The Son of Man
came not to destroy lives,
but to save them.
And here is grace
in the face
of rejection.
Our Lord presses on
undeterred,
His mission one of mercy,
not destruction.
And in this,
He teaches us
that true discipleship
is not marked
by retaliatory zeal,
but by the patience
and long suffering
of the Savior Himself.
The resolve Jesus displays,
the rebuke Jesus gives.
And thirdly,
finally,
I'll not say briefly,
but anyway,
the reality
that Jesus highlights
in verses 57 to 62.
You notice there
at the end
of the chapter,
there follows
these three separate
encounters
with three would-be
followers of Jesus.
Each man expresses
a desire to follow Jesus,
to become his disciple.
But it's clear
that each and in his own way
has misunderstood
what the discipleship is
in the kingdom of God,
what it really entails.
And in these encounters,
Jesus reveals to us
something of the reality
of discipleship.
In the first encounter,
he reminds us
that discipleship
has a cost.
The first man approaches
enthusiastically,
I'll follow you
wherever you go.
Sounds very promising,
doesn't it?
And yet,
Jesus replies,
foxes of holes,
birds of the air
of nests,
the Son of Man
has nowhere
to lay his head.
So,
Jesus immediately
strips away
any romantic illusions
about being
a disciple.
Discipleship
may not mean
health,
wealth,
and happiness,
as some
want to suggest.
Indeed,
it may mean
poverty and homelessness.
To follow Jesus,
security in this world
may have to be
sacrificed.
To follow Him
is to embrace
insecurity in this world,
to find no lasting home
here because
our citizenship
is in heaven.
He Himself,
the very Creator of all,
became homeless
for our sake.
Discipleship means
identifying
with one
who was despised
and rejected,
who had no place
to rest His head
until it was
bowed in death
on the cross.
Many of us here
in the Western world
want to hedge
our commitment
to Jesus
with all manner
of qualifications.
Yes, Jesus,
I'll follow You
wherever You go,
as long as
it's not there,
as long as
I don't have to
give up this,
or as long as
I don't have to
give up that.
As long as
I can still
have what I want.
But friends,
Jesus tells us here
genuine discipleship
involves a cost.
And then the second man,
discipleship,
not only has a cost,
it has a priority.
Jesus issues
this man
with a very direct call,
follow me.
But the response
is this,
Lord,
let me first go
and bury
my father.
It seems a reasonable,
maybe even a dutiful request,
honoring one's parents
as commanded
in Scripture,
after all.
And yet Jesus says,
leave the dead
to bury their own dead,
but as for you,
go and proclaim
the kingdom of God.
Harsh words?
No.
Simply, I think,
an uncomfortable truth.
almost certainly
the man's father
was not yet dead.
Funerals
in that
time and culture
followed on
very quickly
from the death
of an individual.
Now,
this was really
a way of saying,
let me wait
until my family
obligations
are fulfilled.
Then I'll follow you,
Jesus.
But Jesus
reigns
on this man's
parade of allegiance
because the kingdom
of God
will tolerate
no delays.
The call of Christ
is an urgent one.
It demands
precedence
over even
the most sacred
of earthly times.
Those who are
spiritually dead
can attend
to earthly matters,
but those awakened
by grace
must proclaim
the life
that is found
only in Jesus.
qualified discipleship
isn't really
an option.
And so,
Jesus demands
first place,
not out of tyranny,
but because
of who He is
and because
He alone
is worthy.
The kingdom
He proclaims
is no marginal
concern.
It is the peril
of great price
worth selling
all to obtain.
Jesus must
come first.
We mustn't
allow anything
to deflect us
or take us
away from making
or following
Jesus
as our priority.
Discipleship
has a cost.
Discipleship
has a priority.
And then,
thirdly here,
discipleship
has a focus.
The third man,
I'll follow you,
Lord.
Let me first
say farewell
to those at my home.
And again,
that sounds
innocent enough.
Elijah,
back in 1 Kings 19,
permitted Elisha
to say farewell
to his family.
But Jesus
replies,
no one who
puts his hand
to the plow
and looks back
is fit for the
kingdom of God.
Plowing a straight
furrow
requires fixed
concentration.
One glance back
and the row
becomes all
skew-whiff,
crooked.
And so it is
in the kingdom.
To follow Christ
is to set
your face
resolutely
forward,
like Him,
without nostalgic
looking back
to what lies
behind.
Those who
look back
all too often
want to go
back.
But following
Jesus is not
a short-term
temporary
commitment.
The call
to discipleship
is not for
a season,
but for a
lifetime.
And so
the question
is,
are our eyes
focused this
evening?
Are we
looking back
or are we
looking forward?
Are we
fixing our
eyes on
Jesus
or on
something
or someone
else?
What kind
of furrow
are we
plowing?
Are you
cutting a
straight line?
Are you
veering all
over the
place?
Friends,
these encounters,
three encounters,
are not meant
to discourage
us,
but to awaken
us to the
true nature
of Christian
discipleship.
Jesus is not
marketing a
comfortable,
kind of easy
going religion.
It's not your
best life
now.
He's calling
sinners like
us to a
cross-shaped
life.
The cost
is high.
No earthly
security,
no divided
loyalties,
no looking
back.
Yet we
must never
forget that
this apparently
demanding
Savior is
the one who
first set
his face
toward Jerusalem
for us.
Going to
the cross
to bear
our sin,
bearing the
ultimate cost,
forsaken by
God,
homeless in
death,
cut off
from every
earthly tie
that we
might have a
place in
his Father's
house.
The call to
discipleship then
is not
to a life of
grim self-denial,
but to a
life centered
on Christ
crucified and
risen, a
life joined
and united
to Jesus.
And to
follow him
is to lose
our lives,
but in
losing them,
to find
them.
Because in
union with
him, the
cost becomes
a joy and
a delight.
His demands
become
privileges.
By the
Spirit,
his
resoluteness
strengthens
our weak
resolve.
His rejection
secures our
acceptance.
His single-minded
obedience covers
over our
wandering and
often divided
hearts.
And so
tonight, Jesus
calls us
to journey
with him.
He wants
to take us
on the
greatest journey
of all,
because that
is what
Christian
discipleship
is.
It is to
take the
path to
glory that
Jesus took.
It is to
place our
faith in
him, to
follow him
resolutely on
the Calvary
road, to
follow him in
showing mercy
to others,
to follow him
by loving him
and by putting
him first.
Therefore, as the
writer to
Hebrews tells
us, let us
fix our eyes
on Jesus,
the author
and perfecter
of faith,
who for the
joy set
before him
endured the
cross,
despising the
shame,
and is now
seated at the
right hand of
the throne of
God.
Lord, may we
like him
set our faces
towards the
heavenly Jerusalem
and follow
wherever he
chooses to
lead us.
Let's pray
together.
Lord, give us
ears to hear
your call
to follow
Jesus,
to be
your disciples.
Lord, we
know that we
cannot embark
on that
journey in
our own
strength,
in our own
wisdom.
We need
your help.
We need
the guidance
and direction
and illumination
of your Holy
Spirit.
Lord, open
our eyes
that we
might see
Jesus,
and seeing
him, follow
him, and
trust him
always.
We pray this
in his name.
Amen.