Please turn in your copies of God's Word to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 9, beginning in verse 57. Context, of course, is that Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem because his time has come. And so we read, 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 in my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. So ends God's word, let us pray. Lord, we ask that as your word is proclaimed, that you would give us hearts and a faith that does not shrink away or look back. Help us even now by faith to look to Christ and to his word. Help us to receive it as those who would be his disciples. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. On April 9th, 1945, only a month before Allied victory was declared in Europe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sentenced to death. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was part of the Confessing Church. They were called the Confessing Church because they resisted persecution and they held fast to the truth through their creeds and confessions, just like we do as a church. At the time, Adolf Hitler had made the Antichrist's claim to be head of all of the German churches, while the Confessing Church rejected this claim. And as you would expect, they were persecuted. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in particular, was accused of being associated with the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. And so he was tried and executed and hanged. But among the writings that Bonhoeffer left behind was his challenge to the notion that the call to be a follower of Christ was something easy or comfortable. He called this idea cheap grace, about which he wrote the following. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate. Well, in contrast to this cheap grace, Bonhoeffer wrote about grace that is costly. He writes, such grace 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 it is grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it costs God the life of his son. You were bought at a price. And what has cost God cannot, what has cost God much cannot be cheap to 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. Costly grace is the incarnation of God. Now, to be clear, in case there's any misunderstanding, Bonhoeffer is not saying that grace is costly in the sense that it has to be earned. No, then it wouldn't be grace at all. Rather, he's saying that as recipients of God's costly grace that cost him the death of his son, well, there is a cost that we pay as we follow his son, as his disciples. And that, in many ways, is the message of our passage this morning. The context, of course, is that Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. He said that the time has come for him to go to Jerusalem. We've been told how he set his face like flint to go there. He's on a direct path to suffer, to be handed over, and to die in order to fulfill all of the requirements of our salvation. And as he's on that path, he encounters three different men. Each of these men in their own way express a certain desire to follow Christ and to go after him. However, Jesus challenges each one of these men in a way that exposes perhaps their unwillingness to truly count the cost of his discipleship. He tells the first man that to follow me means that you'll be homeless. He tells the second man that he can't bury his father. He tells the third man that he can't kiss his wife and kids goodbye. Now Jesus' words here seem unusual, don't they? Shocking. And that's because they are. Now we need to rightly understand Jesus' words. Jesus here isn't laying down a universal set of commands for Christians in all times and places. And we know that because, well, we know the church in Acts buried Stephen after he was martyred. Paul spent time saying his goodbyes to the Ephesians. And the Philippian jailer certainly wasn't forbidden from seeing his family. So Jesus isn't speaking literalistically here. He's speaking in hyperbole, which is shocking and deliberately exaggerating kind of language. And so these commands are to be read much in the same way that we read Jesus' commands, that we are to hate our parents. Is Jesus calling us to sin by hating our parents? No, that's not his point. It's exaggerated language calling us to examine our deepest commitments, to make us think, and to make us count the cost of following him. And so through Jesus' words in each of these encounters, we learn the true cost of following after him. When you commit to follow Christ, You do so on his terms, not on your terms. You don't get to write up a contract and argue for your terms and expect him to meet you halfway. No, when you follow Christ, you follow him on his terms. And he does not promise you an easy life. A blessed life, yes. Eternal life, yes. But first he calls you to follow him through paths that may be difficult, that may even involve suffering for his name. And whether we're here this morning and whether we've been disciples for a very long time, or whether we've just set out on our road following Jesus, all of us need to hear Jesus' words. All of us need to consider his words, and therefore count the cost of discipleship. Well, in order to follow him, a disciple of Christ must first prepare to suffer like him. Second, to prioritize his kingdom. And third, to persevere without turning back. Well, in the first encounter, Jesus teaches that his disciples must prepare to suffer like Christ. Luke tells us in the opening verse that this encounter takes place as they're going along the road. So going along the road is the background, it's the context on which this, on the stage on which this drama unfolds before us. It's the context of all of these conversations. Again, you recall from last week, Jesus is on the road from Galilee through Samaria to Jerusalem. And he's going to Jerusalem not to attend a conference or a pastor's conference or something like that. He's not there to see old friends or to have a party. No, he's going to Jerusalem to be rejected, to suffer, and to be handed over. And as he's walking along this road to Jerusalem, a man walks up to him and says in verse 57, I will follow you wherever you go. This is certainly a commendable offer, is it not? To follow Jesus wherever he may go. Now, Luke doesn't really tell us much about this man, but interestingly, Matthew does. Matthew, in his gospel, tells us that this man was a scribe, and he actually addresses Jesus as teacher. So perhaps this indicates the issue with this man. It seems this man was willing to sit under Jesus as a student might sit under a teacher. He was willing to learn from Jesus. And often men like this who were scribes, in order to get their MDiv or their PhD, they would find a rabbi of good repute and they'd follow him for a time, they'd shadow him, and then when their internship was over, they'd kind of have their qualifications and then they'd move on, maybe be a rabbi for someone else. And so perhaps this man is thinking this kind of way. But Jesus makes clear that he's no mere teacher or rabbi. to simply follow and then move on after you've gleaned a little bit of learning. No, following him will mean much more than shadowing him with pen and paper and hand. Following Jesus will be costly, because Jesus isn't just one more rabbi. And his message, which is the gospel, which is the religion of Christianity, is not just one more teaching or philosophy or idea. But you hear people talk that way, don't you? I mean, if people hear you're a Christian, and if they don't go the one way of outright rejecting you and ridiculing you, they kind of go the other way, don't they? Where they say, oh, that's nice for you. Yeah, you know, I tried Christianity once. I tried all the different religions. And I like Jesus' teachings. He's got some good words. But it just wasn't for me. I tried it, not for me. Well, you don't try Christianity, Jesus says. Christianity is not an ice cream flavor that you can pick out and taste and put back. No, you follow Christ, either with total commitment or you don't follow him at all. Well, Jesus, perhaps sensing that this is the issue with this man, responds to him saying, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Now, this was actually a proverb that was used to speak of Roman soldiers. The life of a Roman soldier was one of traveling very often, not really traveling in luxury, traveling with really nowhere to lay their heads, moving from one spot to the next, building these temporary camps. And that's what Jesus' mission has been like. Jesus tells the man, he's homeless. Birds can make their nice nests and they can fluff it up with twigs and straw and fluff and different things, pieces of fabric. Foxes have cozy little dens, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And thus Jesus says, to follow me means you will be homeless. And we need to understand Jesus' words here in context. Why does, Doesn't Jesus have anywhere to lay his head? Well, it's not because he really likes camping or he loves the outdoors and he likes looking up the stars. It's not because it's wrong for his disciples to own houses. No, the reason he doesn't have anywhere to stay is because he is being actively rejected by his own people and those around him. You remember how just in the previous passage, the Samaritans would not receive Jesus. In other words, they would not show him hospitality. When Jesus came into town and they heard his message and they heard of his suffering messiahship, they'd rather have him sleep on a park bench and then leave the next day rather than give up their spare bedroom. Jesus' words also recall the wider context of his whole life in his ministry. Recall how Luke tells us at his birth, there was nowhere for him as a baby. There was no room in his family home, so he had to stay in a stable or a cave with animals. And even when he gets to Jerusalem, the city of the king, the city of the king will not receive their king. As John says in the opening of his gospel, he was in the world. Who was in the world? The one through whom the world was made. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. And so what Jesus is teaching this man, isn't that Christians can't own homes or be comfortable or that kind of thing. Rather, it's that if you are to follow me, you must be prepared to suffer like me. If I have been rejected, so will you. To follow Jesus means more than sitting at his feet as a student would a good and wise teacher. It's more than sticking a fish on your bumper. or even simply what you choose to do on a Sunday morning. Now, following Christ requires the complete reorientation of your entire life. He claims all of your life. It means total commitment to him, and it means even being ready to suffer and to die for his namesake. Jesus wants us to know this, not to discourage us or to dissuade us from following him, He tells us this in order to prepare us. Listen to what Ryle says. Grace, by the way, and glory in the end shall be given to every sinner who comes to him. But he would not have us ignorant that we shall have deadly enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that many will hate us, slander us, and persecute us if we become his disciples. He does not wish to discourage us, but he does wish us to know the truth. The choice to follow Jesus will mean rejection by the world. Sometimes we get so surprised when, really, Hollywood isn't treating Christians fairly? Or our politicians are doing this thing or that thing against us? Jesus warned us that should be the norm. That should be the norm. They rejected me, they will reject you. Most of you know what that's like, being rejected by the world. Some of you have been rejected by family members, sons and daughters, people you've raised, you've bore in your womb. You've been rejected by an unbelieving spouse, by cousins. Some of you have been rejected in the workplace and even now you're dreading tomorrow because you know you're going to be sitting alone munching your lunch by yourself, ostracized, separated, cast aside by your co-workers. You're left out of office parties and other engagements because you won't do what others want to do or they think you're bigoted or strange. And when we think of Christians and the other side of the globe being burned out of their homes and having their businesses destroyed and taken from them by the government, it can be easy for us to say, well, what I'm facing isn't persecution. That's persecution, not what I'm suffering. When you're in the middle of it, and you're facing this reality of being rejected, and to the point where you're dreading that family picnic or dinner, and you're dreading getting out of bed in the morning to go to work, trust me, believer, you are suffering persecution. That is exactly what Jesus is talking about. Make no mistake, it is persecution, and you are suffering, and you are paying the cost of bearing Christ's name. All of us are to count the cost. Some of us even now are paying that cost in great ways. And if you are, if you are, let me encourage you with the words of the Apostle Peter. He writes, beloved, Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted, For the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. You see, Christ not only places his name upon us, that puts a target on our backs for the world of flesh and the devil, but he also gives you the grace to endure that. And he reminds you that although you are cursed by the world, there is a voice that speaks louder and it is a spirit's testimony that you belong to Christ and that the spirit and God rests upon you. And so, beloved, as contrary as it is to our flesh and our minds at times, rejoice when you suffer, in knowing that because you suffer with Christ, you will also share in his glory when it is revealed on the last day. The one who would follow Christ must first prepare to suffer for his name. Secondly, the disciple of Christ must prioritize the kingdom. That's what Jesus teaches us in the second encounter. Well, as Jesus goes along the road, he meets another man. But this time, it's actually Jesus who initiates the conversation. He approaches the man and he says, follow me. However, the man responds, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. This seems like a fairly reasonable request here. This guy just wants to have a funeral for his father. But notice how Jesus replies. He says in verse 60, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. So Jesus tells this man that he shouldn't bury his father. If he is to be his disciple, he must prioritize the proclamation of the kingdom above everything else. Now, some people who perhaps find Jesus' words here just a little bit too shocking would argue that, well, you know, Jesus isn't telling him that he can't bury his father. In fact, the man's father is still alive, and really the man's just making an excuse, and really what the man is saying is, I'll follow you in five or 10 years, you know, when maybe my aged father finally does die. Now, that certainly would make Jesus' words a lot less shocking. But therein lies the problem. Jesus' words throughout this passage are designed to be shocking, and there's no escaping that. This man's father has just died. The funeral hasn't happened yet. This man is asking Jesus for a day, two atop, so that he can take care of arrangements. And Jesus says no. He tells the man, let the dead bury their own dead. The point is that those without kingdom priorities are to take care of such matters. He's saying let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead. How can Jesus say something like this? How can he tell this man essentially not to bury his father, something that was wrapped up with honoring one's parents, and therefore wrapped up with the entire Ten Commandments and the law that people were to follow? Well, again, Jesus here is not setting down a universal command that we are not to bury our dead. In Acts, Jesus' disciples will bury Stephen. Even Ananias and Sapphira will get a decent burial. So Jesus' words are not understood as universal commands, but as specific commands for this specific point in time. We've been told that it is the time for Jesus to go to Jerusalem. That's the context behind all of this. And the background for the rules that Jesus gives here are rooted in the Old Testament and the rules given to the high priest. In the Old Testament, as shocking as it sounds, the high priest, not only was he not allowed to go to funerals, he was not even allowed, permitted to attend the funeral of his own parents. And so with this command, Jesus is linking his own ministry and the work of his kingdom with that of the high priest of old. His ministry has the same kind of singular focus, holiness, priority, and urgency as the high priest of God. It is time to go to Jerusalem to fulfill the exodus, and nothing will get in the way of that mission, either for himself or for those who would follow him. Well, if that's the specific explanation of Jesus' command here to this man, what does this have to teach us about the nature of our own discipleship? Well, Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't care for our parents. He's not telling us that we can't bury our dead. No, the principle he's teaching with this shocking language is that in all that we do, we must prioritize his kingdom above all else. Commitment to Christ must take priority in your life. It is to take priority over your finances, over your relationships, over the use of your time, over your recreation, and yes, even over your family. The question that you must ask your own heart this morning is this. Is Christ and is his kingdom the priority in your life, your home, your marriage, your child-rearing, what you do with your time and in your relationships? Are all those things subordinated to him? Or is there something else that takes priority? And there are so many things that vie for that place of being first in our hearts. There are so many things that distract us from serving Christ and his kingdom. There are so many things that push their way forward. And our remaining sin will always be tempted to take those things and to place them first. Whether it's sports, or work, or hobbies, or simply the love of pleasure, or laziness. And for some who count that cost, it will be too much. They'll give up something for Christ, but they won't give him everything. And to those, Christ will say those chilling words, even though you may gain the whole world, you will lose your own soul. But for those who say, yes, Lord, you are first, I submit to you in all things, Well, then he promises blessing, not only blessing in this age and this life, but ultimately blessing an eternal life. And so, beloved, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, knowing that even if you are to lose all of the things that this world counts precious and dear, even if you are to lose your own life, what you stand to gain is Christ and his kingdom for eternity. The third thing Jesus teaches us is that to be his disciple, we must persevere without turning back. Well, now a third man comes up to Jesus and offers his services, offers to follow him. He says, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Now, certainly this, if nothing else was, this is a reasonable request from a man who's perhaps a father and he wants to say goodbye to his wife and kids just to give them one last hug before he departs. But Jesus shocks us again. He says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Well, this seems even more harsh than the request to simply bury your father. In fact, this guy seems to have Old Testament precedent. The Old Testament passage that's the background of this is what we read earlier in the calling of Elisha by Elijah. Elijah finds Elisha plowing in the field, and he comes to him and he calls him, and Elisha asks if he can say goodbye to his family first, and Elijah seems to permit that. So this guy's request is rooted in what he was taught in Sunday school, but Jesus, teaches that his discipleship is even more serious than that of Elijah's. Jesus will not permit something that Elijah allowed. His ministry at this point in time has a greater urgency than Elijah's. His face is set like flint to go to Jerusalem, so there is no place for turning the face to kiss one's wife and kids farewell. Interestingly, Jesus even picks up on the imagery of the plow that Elisha abandoned and burned. And he says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Imagery here, of course, is that of someone plowing a field. In order to plow a field with animals, you need to keep your eyes and your gaze dead ahead in order to keep your furrow straight. If you turn or if you look behind you, it can't be done and you'll make a mess of your field and you won't be able to sow for harvest. And again, Jesus is making applications specific to his time. He's not saying that we can't say goodbye to people. We have to be in too much of a rush to say goodbye to people. We know that Paul spent a long time with the Ephesians saying goodbye to them. Many of the prophets had long goodbye speeches to the people. The spiritual point that Jesus is teaching us is that we cannot claim to follow him while also claiming to follow the world. We cannot walk after him and look back affectionately to sin and to our old ways. This language of looking back is deliberately chosen, and it's language really rooted in so many cases in the Old Testament. Think of how many times the Bible gives us an example of this. Remember Lot's wife, how she looked back at Sodom and she was turned to a pillar of salt. I remember reading that as a child and just thinking, well, I know if I was there, I'd want to see the fireworks. I'd want to see what was happening. It seems a bit cruel of God. Well, that's not what's happening. She's not looking back to see a fireworks display. She's looking back in her heart. She's looking back to Sodom and she's shedding a tear because she's missing the time that she had there and all that that city meant to her. She was turning from God and that's why she was judged. Remember Israel, how they looked back to life in Egypt. They remembered the leeks and the vegetables and they remembered the meat pots. They didn't remember the chains and the whips and the idolatry. The point that Jesus is making is that you cannot follow after two things at once. You cannot plow straight ahead and also look back longingly to the things of the world. Well, beloved, in what ways are you tempted to look back? Like Lot's wife, in what ways are you looking back to Sodom, looking back to the world? Maybe before you came to Christ, you lived in God's providence, you lived for a long time in sin, and perhaps you tread deep furrows and paths leading back to that sin. And so even now as a believer, there's ways that those paths entice you back and call you back. Are you looking back to those things with fondness and affection? Or maybe you grew up in the church and you were spared from a lot of the outward experience of the things of the world and you didn't get to make those same kinds of sins and mistakes. And yet there's still a draw behind you. There's still a draw from the world. And it's telling you that you're missing out. Your parents have made you miss out. Your church has made you miss out. You've let yourself miss out. And it's wooing you and it's ticing you to look over your shoulder and to look back with longing. Well, dear Christian, On the one hand, be warned of what God says in his word. As Jesus says, the one who looks back is not fit for his kingdom. In Hebrews 10, he says, my soul has no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. God does not delight in the one who shrinks away. These are serious words, words of judgment. But then secondly, he goes on to say in Hebrews, But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and thus preserve our souls. How do we keep from looking back? How do we keep from going back? How do we stand firm in our faith and keep looking forward when we feel the tug on our heartstrings towards sin and the flesh and the devil? How do we stand firm and preserve our souls when sin, it feels like, has us in a lasso and it's pulling us and tugging us away or trying to pull the feet from under us? Well, the author of Hebrews says it's through faith. We are those who have faith and thus preserve our souls. And it should be no surprise that what follows in the book of Hebrews from chapter 10 is Hebrews chapter 11, which is all about those who persevered through faith. And really, that entire chapter isn't a testimony about them. No, it's their testimony to God and to Christ and the one who sustains his saints. And finally, the author of Hebrews concludes his point at the beginning of chapter 12 with this exhortation. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So we see the way we persevere without looking back is by looking forward to Jesus and to what he has done. And so beloved, look to Jesus, consider him, consider what he has done for you, how he set his face like Flint to go to Jerusalem, how he put his hand to the plow and he set his face like Flint dead ahead and he never looked back, he never took his hand from the plow. He lived a completely righteous and obedient life, ever looking back to the world's enticements, all the way to the cross, so that he would not only be our righteousness before the Father, but also our sacrifice to make us right before God. And because he did this, and because he completed his journey, his exodus, therefore we have the assurance that all that was necessary for our salvation and to pay for our sins has been dealt with, It's all been accomplished. And therefore there is nothing else for us to do to earn our place in God's presence. We simply walk in his footsteps behind him. He is the trailblazer. He is the author and finisher of our faith. We simply ride into heaven on his coattails. He is the one who has gone before us, who has opened the way. And so look to Christ. I look to the cross. Consider how much he loves you, dear Christian, and how much he has shown his love in dying for you, even when you were his enemies. See his love, be filled with his love, and then say in faith, in the words of the hymn, all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. I let us then in faith prepare to suffer for Christ's sake. but doing so with joy, knowing that as we share in his sufferings now, we will share in his glory later. As his disciples, let us prioritize his kingdom before all things, knowing that as we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, he will provide for all of our needs. And then finally, as his disciples, let us persevere without looking back. In the same way that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, let us set our face towards Jesus, the one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Beloved, set your eyes upon Christ and never look back. Let's pray. Or we thank you for sending your son. We thank you for what Bonhoeffer called that costly grace of sending Christ, of his life of obedience, his life of suffering, wherein he did not even have a place to lay his head. Or he was rejected. He suffered and he died. But in doing so, he opened up the way for us to be in union with him and thus with you. And Lord, help us, therefore, to follow as his disciples. Give us the grace that we might suffer well. Give us the grace that we might put you first and your kingdom ahead of ourselves. And help us, Lord, to keep our fix, keep our gaze fixed upon Christ and upon his kingdom. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.