September 4 - Follow Who?
Mark 3:13-19
¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve^[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶ These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), ¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Life is Simple
Life is Significant


September 11 - Count the Cost
Luke 9:57-62

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

 ⁵⁸ Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 ⁵⁹ He said to another man, “Follow me.”

   But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

 ⁶⁰ Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

 ⁶¹ Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

 ⁶² Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

The High Price of Discipleship

More than half a century ago, martyr Dietrich Boenhoffer (1906-1945) wrote a brilliant but uncomfortable book, The Cost of Discipleship (1948). Boenhoeffer was one of the few German clergymen to stand up against Hitler's godless rise to power -- and he paid for it with his life. But his book's title reminds us of the cost of following Jesus closely.

Jesus tells his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9:23). Jesus' response to three would-be followers provides additional insight into what denying oneself really means.

 This passage is all about following. The key word is a familiar one, Greek akaloutheo, "follow, accompany, and follow as disciple." One question I'd like you to ponder as we study is this: Can a person be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus?

1. Discipleship's Sojourn (9:57-58)

"As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'

Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.' “(9:57-58)

 As Jesus walked a whole company of people followed him, not only the Twelve. And from time to time various people would come up alongside him and engage him in conversation as they were walking. A man, moved by Jesus' words and vision, says to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus' reply, however, isn't encouraging, but rather off-putting: "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, he is saying, I don't have any home. If you follow me, you have no home to call your own either. Does that mean that disciples shouldn't look forward to home ownership? That's what it may mean for some.

 Jesus has left his family home in Nazareth to carry out his mission. He can't return to Nazareth where they seek to kill him (4:29). He has stayed with friends in Capernaum for awhile. But now he has "set his face towards Jerusalem" (9:51) and cannot turn back.

 Jesus is a sojourner, a non-resident alien, and one who stays for a time, and then travels elsewhere. In this he was like Abraham his forefather: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10)

We aren't to be other-worldly and detached from this life. Jesus wasn't. He lived all out in the here-and-now carrying out his Father's mission. But he was a sojourner. He had no home here to call his own. He was on a journey, and Golgotha lay squarely in his route. The road was painful, but had glory at its end. "...Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). He allowed nothing to distract him from this goal.

That is Jesus' path. Can you follow him on it?

He isn't offering to follow you. You are offering to follow him and put up with the hardships and self-denial that come on HIS path. Are you really willing -- even though it means sacrificing some comforts?

"I will follow you wherever you go," said the man. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests," replied the Master, "but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

Are you able to follow a sojourner?

2. Discipleship's Immediacy (9:59-60)

"He said to another man, 'Follow me.' But the man replied, 'Lord, first let me go and bury my father.' Jesus said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' " (9:59-60) Now if the man's father has just died, what in the world is the man doing hanging around Jesus? He should be home making funeral arrangements! It's obvious that his father isn't dead -- yet. Not even seriously ill or the man would be asking Jesus for healing.

What the man is saying is this: I have responsibilities to my father as long as he lives. I'm not free to follow you right now. But when my dad dies -- and he is getting on in years -- then I'll follow you right away. I just can't follow now.

Jesus' answer seems harsh. It seems to run counter to family responsibilities. It is strong: "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Who are the "dead" who are going to conduct the funeral? Jesus is speaking figuratively here of the spiritually dead -- those who have put off following Jesus. The spiritually dead put family responsibilities BEFORE their responsibilities to Jesus. But the spiritually alive are to follow -- NOW!

Later, Jesus tells his disciples, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters -- yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple" (14:26). Jesus is saying in the strongest possible terms that following him must come before every responsibility we have -- even those which we hold sacred (see 1 Timothy 5:8).

For most of us, our call to follow Jesus does NOT mean we have to physically leave our loved ones. But we may need to leave them behind spiritually in order to follow Jesus. You can't say: When my husband gets saved and decides to follow Jesus then I'll be the most faithful disciple you can find anywhere. I just don't want to get ahead of him spiritually. It doesn't work that way. You aren't to choose when you are to follow. Today is the day. Following Jesus is a NOW thing. It is immediate. No excuse you can offer is adequate to put on hold his compelling summons.

"Let the dead bury their own dead," Jesus says, "but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God" (9:60). In this case, Jesus is about to send seventy of his followers to go from village to village to carry the message of the Kingdom (10:1-24). Jesus needs this man ready and committed to be in a certain place at a certain time, even though Jesus hasn't announced the mission yet. But the man can't be counted on. His other commitments keep him from doing Jesus' immediate and glorious will for his life.

The message to you and me is just as strong: "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

3. Discipleship's Single-Mindedness (9:61-62)

"Still another said, 'I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.'" (9:61)

If the first two people had met hard responses, the third seems harder yet. All the man wanted to do was go home and say good-bye. That's all. What's so wrong with that?

In light of the immediate mission ahead -- the sending out of the Seventy to the villages of Judea -- for the man to go home will mean that he will miss out, though his request seems reasonable enough.

It's like a man who has been drafted into the military in wartime. He says, "I'll report for duty in just a week, but first I need to go home and say good-bye to my girlfriend, my buddies, my mom and dad, my sisters and brothers, and have a final going away party, since I may be away a long time. Is he ready for the army? No way! He is looking to his own needs and desires, not the needs of the service.

Just last week I heard someone in her twenties say, "When I'm young I want to be free to enjoy myself. Later on, then maybe I'll settle down." This is common. I believe in Jesus, but I'm not ready to get too serious about it right now. When I get older I will. What an insult to Jesus!

 

"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (9:62)

My father plowed our farmland with a carabao even when other farmers were plowing with tractors. But whether your plow is pulled by an animal or work horses or a diesel tractor there is one no-no: You never try to plow while looking over your shoulder. If you do, your rows are crooked and your field is difficult to work. If you try to plow while looking back, you're not fit to be in the field. You'd be fired in a hurry by the farmer. Rather, plowmen fix their eyes on a point at the far end of the field and move steadily toward it, not veering to the right side or to the left.

To "put your hand to the plow" means to begin the task of plowing. The Greek verb tenses underline the point. Literally, "No man, having put (Aorist tense, past complete action) his hand to the plough, and looking back (Present tense, continuous action), is fit for the kingdom of God" (9:62, KJV). Jesus isn't saying you can't glance back. But he is saying you can't continue to look back once you've begun to plow. If you do, you're not "fit," Greek euthetos, "fit, suitable, usable, convenient for something."

September 18 - Going Away Happy
Luke 10:17
¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

September 25 - God is Faithful to the MAX
Romans 8:32
³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Maximum Sacrifice
John 3:16-17
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Maximum Graciousness
Psalm 145:8
⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Hebrews 12:1-2
¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Phil 1:3-6
³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

2Peter 3:8-10
⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.