Walking With Jesus Without Excuse

WALKING WITH JESUS WITHOUT EXCUSE
Luke 9:51-62
October 27, 2024 

• Military Illustration – no excuses
• Nike Illustration – no excuses

In our story, captured in Luke, Jesus meets three men, each one of whom had an excuse why they could not become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to go back and study Jesus’s reaction to each of these three excuses.

Luke 9:51-62

I. Remember Jesus’ Calling On Our Lives

The Bible says Jesus and His disciples were walking along the road.

When we look at v51, when the days were approaching Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus is resolute to go to Jerusalem. When v57 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, 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 point, that Jesus was not interested in attracting attention to Himself like 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. No excuses. As Jesus and his disciples were walking along the road, a man said to Him, wherever you go, I will go. 

A. There is no ranking in heaven

Now Matthew’s gospel tells us that this man was a scribe and as a scribe these were the official Bible teachers in Israel and as such they were used to the good life. This man, as described, would have been highly revered by all of the people.  He would have been 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.

Remember where Jesus is going. 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!

“The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” What He’s saying is look, before you say this, that you’re going to go with me wherever I’m going, you’d better count the cost.  You know all those creature comforts you love so much, but if you throw in with me, 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.

B. The enemy temps us with a secular worldview

What I find interesting is that we never hear anymore 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? The world’s creature comforts.

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.”

What was wrong with the man going back for his deceased father? Well, 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 the person who didn’t believe in Christ and when Jesus says let the spiritually dead bury the spiritually dead, if you’re spiritually alive and you know me, you come and be my disciple now.

This second man’s excuse was family ties. It was as though the man was saying to Jesus, I believe in you, but I’ve got to tell you that every time I talk about you at home with my dad, we end up in a huge argument. In essence, I think there’s room in my worldview to have my cake and eat it too.

My dad thinks I’m completely nuts for following you and so if I leave home to go become your disciple, that’s going to be the last straw.  Lord, please let me go home and stay there and keep the peace and then when my dad really dies physically then I’ll come back and be your disciple.

Jesus minces no words in responding to this. He says to this man; you have to count the cost, you’ve got to decide who really is more important in your life; me or your unbelieving family.  Another excuse.

C. Don’t let temptation compromise your integrity

Still another man said; I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my friends at home.

1 Kings 19 Illustration – Elijah and Elisha

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 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. Elisha went back to cut all his ties with his former life but this third guy went back because he had not cut all of his ties with his former life.

He had a divided heart because those old things still attracted him, they still had a hold on him.

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.

Revelation 3:16, So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

II. Excuses dilute our victorious walk in Christ

So let’s summarize; we have three men, each one of whom’s excuse for why not to walk with Jesus.

#1 Creature comforts caused him to walk away

#2 It was his family ties

#3 It was his divided loyalties, his divided heart

It costs something to be a marine and it’s a cost that not everybody is willing to pay. Here in Luke we have three men and Jesus talks to them about the cost of following Him.  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. Jesus paid the cost for that.

Remember the Philippian jailer –

Acts 16:28-31, But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Here in Luke 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 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. But 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.

Our passage today is all about the cost without excuse.

#1 The cost of being a disciple in contrast to man number one. We must have a heavenly focus, that is, we must be willing to put heavenly reward above human creature comforts.

2 Corinthians 4:18, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Things like money and power and prestige and popularity and possessions, rather fix our eyes on what is unseen for what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal. This is where man #1 excused himself and this is where a lot of prospective disciples drop out, living for the creature comforts of this world. Start living for the rewards of heaven, that’s what it takes to be a disciple.

A person who put heavenly reward ahead of human creature comforts was George Whitfield. George Whitfield died in 1770.

• He wrote a letter to Charles Wesley in 1754 about his ministry here in America and here’s what he said, “my health is wonderfully preserved. My constant sickness has have left me and though I ride all night on horseback, frequently exposed to great thunder, violent lightning and heavy rains, yet feeling better than usual.”

This guy rides all night. He gets rained on, hailed on, lightning, thunder, he’s often sick but keeps going. In fact, his biographer estimated that he rode over 100,000 miles on horseback during his ministry. 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.

A. Choose the disciple’s road

A disciple always chooses the eternal over the temporal just like Jim Elliott, a disciple is always happy to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. This is what man #1 was not willing to do, but what a disciple must do.  The second man’s cost of being a disciple is that we must have an absolute loyalty to Jesus Christ.

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.”

This is where man #2 excused himself and this is where a lot of prospective disciples go. 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.

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, because I know when I tell my family, the fat is going to hit the fan in my family. He said, I love my family. I don’t want to upset my family. What do you think I should do I? 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 that your family or is it the risen Lord Jesus? You have a decision to make.

You know, 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 too.

Listen, 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.

B. Jesus said, “take up His cross daily and follow me”

Finally in contrast to the third man, 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. Look, you can never be a true disciple of Jesus Christ until you decide to cast your loyalty and devotion to Him and nobody else.

When I think of this I think of Abraham. You remember the story, 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.

Genesis 22:12-14, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

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. Jesus said in Revelations in the letter He wrote the Church of Ephesus;

Revelation 2:4, But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

You know a lot of us when we come to Christ we have a very solid love relationship with Christ, number one in our hearts, but then as time goes on we have other lovers who show up who contend for the throne. Like our career or fame or power or image or success or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a husband or a wife or our children sometimes. Sometimes it’s an addiction, sometimes it’s some possession we have. It can even be having a reputation among the Saints can become the idol of our heart.

Jesus today walks down the road of the universe and He’s not looking for casual Christians anymore. He’s not tuned into excuses. Just like 2000 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.

Don’t you hate it when you get lured into something and then you find out after you’re in it there’s all kinds of hidden costs you didn’t know were there. Well, one thing about the Lord Jesus that I love is He never did this. If you were interested in being a disciple of the Lord Jesus like these three men in Luke 9, He told you what the cost is up front and He’s told us today we have to be willing to walk away from creature comforts 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 if that’s what it takes. But the good news is this,

Mark 10:28-29, Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You. ”Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.

• Zimbabwe Pastor’s Letter