Right at the end of the chapter,
Luke 9 and verse 57. And it came to pass that as they
went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow
thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
hath not where to lay his head. And he said unto another, Follow
me. But he said, Lord, suffer me
first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the
dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of
God. And another also said, Lord,
I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which
are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man
having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the
kingdom of God. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. This closing passage in Luke
9 supplies us, it's been a long chapter, we've been a long time
in this chapter, but this closing passage supplies us with dialogue
between Jesus and three different individuals. concerning the cost
and commitment of following the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
are no names provided to personally identify these people. And it
seems likely in comparing scripture with scripture, it seems likely
that the encounters took place at a time different and a place
different from those times and places that we've been thinking
about most recently in this chapter. It would appear, I think, that
Luke has inserted these verses here somewhat out of place. And I say that because Matthew
mentions two of these encounters, but he says that they occurred
near Capernaum. And he also says that the first
speaker was a scribe. The second speaker appears to
have been one of the Lord's own disciples, maybe even one of
the 12 who had been specifically called to be an apostle. But I think all three encounters
demonstrate the same principle of commitment to Christ and his
cause. And though the attitude and the
understanding of the men seems to differ in each case, the differences being suggested in the statements
or the assertions that these would-be followers make, but
also in the replies that the Lord gives to them. So we're
going to look at each of these verses, each of these men's comments,
but I want to think about the motivation of the comment, both
in the question or the statement that was made and in the reply
that the Lord gave them. So it seems that first of all,
the man who may be the scribe that Matthew speaks of, he appears
to be weighing up where his best options lay in his reaction to
Jesus, in his reaction to the ministry of Jesus and it seems
as if his assessment was a natural and worldly assessment. Now he clearly liked Lord Jesus. He clearly liked what he heard
and saw of the Lord Jesus. He liked what he heard and he
liked the power that he witnessed in the miracles that Jesus performed. And like the Lord's own disciples,
he shared this vision that if Jesus were indeed the Messiah,
then his own personal interest in terms of riches, in terms
of prosperity, and perhaps promotion in the kingdom would be best
served by aligning himself with Jesus. And perhaps he thought
that if he as a scribe, as one of the religious leaders, endorsed
the Lord, he might gain from doing so when Christ's kingdom
was established on the earth. And the Lord's reply to this
man seems to imply that this was the way that this man
was thinking, because the Lord's reply at once corrects this man's
wrong notions of material wealth. If it wasn't clear exactly in
the way in which the man phrased his question, it was clear the
motivation of the question by the way the Lord answered it,
having read the man's heart and known his motivation. And what
the Lord is simply saying is this, don't follow me for riches
on earth. Foxes have holes and birds of
the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay
his head. The Lord didn't have a palace
like the high priest or dedicated quarters like Caiaphas. The meanest creatures in the
world find a home for themselves in the earth. But the Lord Jesus
had nothing. The Lord of glory owned no house,
no property, no wealth. He had no riches of any kind. He had the clothes that he wore
and nothing more. And it is perhaps one of the
tells, one of the signs or one of the clues that betrays false
religion that it enriches itself. False religion promotes its priesthood
and it elevates its clerics And it makes men, and now we have
to say women, reverence. And it calls men Lord and Father
and Priest. And these religions, these false
religions, they become self-perpetuating denominations with layers of
governance and hierarchies and castles and colleges and committees,
all of which make for a good career and a very comfortable,
if not lavish, profession for many people. And Christ offered
none of that to his followers. So let no one enter the gospel
ministry hoping to make themselves rich or to amass power. And tele-evangelists are shameless
frauds. perhaps worth mentioning here
that the Lord Jesus uses this title, the Son of Man, when he
says that the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And it seems to be a way of self-identifying
This phrase, this title, the Son of Man, it's a way of self-identifying
that pleased the Lord Jesus because he used it often. although this
is thought to be the first occasion that he uses it. Robert Hawker,
he says this about the use of the phrase. He says, That's a
nice way of putting it by Mr. Hawker. And I think that he has a point.
It is a gratifying thought that the Lord Jesus so loves his people,
the sons of men, that he delights to identify with us in such a
way and even to be linked to our fallen lineage and called
by our disreputable name. It reminds us that although our
Saviour is very God, being one with the Father over all, God
blessed forever. And though the Son of God was
in itself a very suitable, worthy and fitting title. our substitute
and our surety and our saviour, delighted to call himself after
his people and to take our name, the Son of Man. So this first
speaker appears to have volunteered himself as a follower. He says to the Lord, I will follow
thee wheresoever you go. He was not called as such to
follow Christ. Christ didn't call him to follow
him. The man volunteered himself.
However, the second speaker definitely was called to preach. And the
Lord said to him, follow me. And having received this call,
the disciple hesitated. Now we don't know which disciple
it was, whether it was one of the 12, it appears that it may
well have been, but he hesitated. Something very important had
arisen. His father had died and needed
to be buried. And the disciple asks, plightly,
for leave to go and bury his father. And this seems a very
reasonable request. Nevertheless, the Lord uses it
to stress an equally important principle. The priority for the
preacher is that he preach the gospel. Men who are called to
preach ought to dedicate themselves to that task as best as they
are able. Now, I'm not suggesting that
we set out hard and fast rules in this matter. Local circumstances
will differ in every case, no doubt. But if even this short
and important task of burying a parent be questioned by the
Lord, be held up as an example by the Lord, as being a possible
distraction from the importance of preaching the gospel, what
else should be foregone by the preacher eager to fulfil his
calling and to do so diligently and conscientiously? The Lord's
reference to the dead burying the dead implies, it seems to
me, that We let the world get on with its own priorities without
these affecting or interrupting the preacher. Now, there are
many ways in which that might be evidenced. It may well be
that there are those who would say, well, you know, the preacher
should be doing this, and the preacher should be doing that,
and the preacher will want to be here, and the preacher will
want to be involved in this matter. And when a church is busy and
active, undoubtedly there will be many practical things that
are no doubt important with which the preacher could be easily
and readily distracted. But even worthy things in themselves
have to be rigorously assessed. I'm sure that there are many
people who think that a preacher's job is easy and peaceful, but
the truth is, if it is done properly, it is a most difficult and demanding
duty with many distractions that have to be protected against. The third man wishes to say farewell
to his household. before setting out after the
Lord. But the Lord uses this example
as well to stress that once begun, a gospel preacher does not look
back at the life left behind, but presses on, dedicated to
the work before him. Work which is plentiful and work
which is pressing. so that he cannot divide himself
between these many different things. He doesn't look back.
No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back,
is fit for the kingdom of God. Now let it be clearly understood
that fitness for heaven is a spiritual state bestowed by grace and nothing
to do with an individual's works or dedication, even to the task
of preaching. But the Lord's not speaking here
about heaven. He's speaking about our labours
in the church body and in the service of one another, our commitment
to the body of Christ. And we cannot profess gratitude
and praise to the Lord for all that he has done for us and then
act meanly and slovenly with the tasks that are set before
us. If the Lord gives us a job to
do for him and for our brothers and sisters in Christ, then it
is a job to be done carefully and performed faithfully. A man
with a plough like Elisha in the Old Testament must look ahead. He must look ahead and not be
distracted from what's going on right-hand side, left-hand
side. He mustn't be looking backwards.
He looks to where the plough cuts the soil and where the furrows
have to be placed or else his work will be shameful and embarrassing. And untidy, thoughtless, careless
work has no place in the Kingdom of God. It isn't a fit offering
for our Saviour and it betrays that such a worker is unfit for
the task. In Malachi, the Old Testament
prophet, right at the end of the Old Testament there, in Malachi,
the Lord criticised the people for bringing to him substandard
offerings. He says, ye offer polluted bread
upon mine altar, ye offer the blind for sacrifice, ye offer
the lame and sick He says, offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee,
or accept thy person? earlier we've been thinking a
lot recently with the young people about Solomon building the temple
in Jerusalem that was called Solomon's temple or as we remarked
the other day the Lord's temple but it was the first temple.
Ezra was involved in the building of the second temple after the
children of Israel returned from Babylon and he told the people
Ezra told the people who built the second temple, whatsoever
is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done diligently for
the house of the God of heaven. Well, the house of the God of
heaven is the church. and his kingdom. So let us not
look back when once we put our hand to the plough in the service
of the house of the God of heaven. And the sum of the matter is
this. There are precious few who truly follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was so then and it is so now. And even amongst those who appear
to follow, there is a proportion, and we might fear a large proportion,
who do so for inferior reasons, and whose motivation is not God's
glory and Christ's praise, but their own earthly and natural
ambitions. There are many preachers today
who preach a false gospel. There are many church leaders
in post for reason of their own career and ambition. There are
blind leaders of the blind. There are churches, congregations
and denominations that have forgone the simple testimony of the gospel
ministry and introduced instead the techniques and practices
of the world. They've made the church a slick
commercial venture. They've transformed worship into
a business. It's shameful and it's not fit
for the kingdom of God. The Lord has done so much for
us. He deserves the very best that
we can do for Him. Let us serve Him for love's sake. committed to his cause and truth,
dedicated to his glory in his church and kingdom, and looking
forward to the day when he will say, well done, good and faithful
servant. Thou hast been faithful over
a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.