To open up this study I want to remind you that we are really continuing our study from last time concerning what following Jesus looks like. Remember I stated in our last study that the first 3 points, the first 2 points from last study and the first point for this study, took us back to the parable of the Sower or soils that Jesus spoke on back in Luke 8. There were 4 soils, 3 represented the different types of people that reject the Gospel and one represented the true Christian. In those 3 soils there is one that Jesus explains in Luke 8:14 as the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of life, and do not bear ripe fruit.
Last study our points were Following Jesus requires FORSAKING yourself and Following Jesus requires leaving the FUTURE to God. Both of these showed to us that we must be willing to give God our present and our future and now we will look at the fact that this must be done as we move forward. When we are trying to move forward in our walk with Christ often times people in your own family can be the biggest hinderance not because they are purposely trying to but because they are unregenerate and do not have God’s view in mind. Before we were saved, we all had one agenda and that was to please self. Even as Christians we often fight this battle daily and it is with that thought that we go into our next point in this section of Scripture which serves as our first point for this study.
1.Following Jesus requires leaving FAMILY affairs to God.
Look with me at Luke 9:61-62 Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say farewell to those at home.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
This man was just like the others, he was following in the crowd, he was amazed at the ministry of Jesus, he was willing to go but only on his terms. Jesus knowing the hearts of all people knew who it was that would continue with Him and the one’s who wouldn’t. Here this man comes up to Jesus to tell Him that he wants to follow him. Again this seems like a great thing but again we see another person wanting to come to Jesus on his own terms.
This man says “I will follow You, Lord, but first permit me to say farewell to those at home.” Some people will look at this as not so unreasonable of a request. They may say that it seems proper to take time with your family before going on a journey that requires full attention. But Jesus answers this man by saying “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
People that make up a god of their own says that this does not sound like a loving God. They may say that they would never want to serve such a harsh God that has no compassion. But there is a principle behind what Jesus says that needs to be seen. Jesus is not trying to be harsh or unloving but this shows the seriousness of the call to follow Jesus.
Our culture has pampered this call and has really destroyed the way that God calls people. A lot of churches make membership, baptism and religious activity so easy. There is no real commitment, there is no real challenge to be unhinged from the world or to live in holiness. Many churches are content with having members that tithe even if they never grow, serve or do their part in bringing others to the Kingdom of God. They allow people to come to God how they want. They come with their sin, they remain in their sin and they are told that they are Christians because they made a profession of faith. This act is very dangerous and sinful because this has warped the command by our Lord to deny self, to take up our cross and die daily.
This response by our Lord is really soft compared to other times He speaks on this subject. Matthew 10:37-39 says “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. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
This thought is expounded even more in Luke 14:26-27 when Jesus says “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
Matthew used a word that speaks of a general kind of love that shows that we are not to have love in general more than God. But then Luke use the Greek word miseó (mis-eh’-o) which means to to detest (on a comparative basis), to love someone or something less than someone (something) else or to renounce one choice in favor of another.
Both of these different words shows us that we must be willing to put God first in front of family. Many people would do anything for family so this issue has to be addressed here because there are times when your own family, your son or daughter, your parents, your spouse could be a hinderance to your obedience to God.
Jesus speaks a parable about this very thing in Luke 14:16-24 which I encourage you to go read. In the parable a man was giving a dinner in which he invited many people. Each one of the guests began to make excuses for not being able to go to this dinner. Luke 14:18b-20 records their excuses as ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 19 And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 20 And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
These each represent people that are not willing to give up their life to go to the most important banquet of their life. This parable represents people that are called to salvation but not chosen for salvation. The fact is, they love their life more than they love God. In the parable when the man hears of these people making excuses he tells his slave in Luke 14:23-24 ‘Go out into the highways and along the fences, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”
The bottom line is that following Jesus is not some commitment you can make when you are ready. If He is calling you, then you must respond. That response will either be living for yourself or denying yourself. There is no room for going back and doing what you want for a little while then returning to follow when you want. A person that does that will live their entire life going from commitment to the church one moment to living like the world the next. This is why Jesus says to this man in Luke 9:62 “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
I want to expound a little more on this verse to show that following God has to be done by not looking back but moving forward. This leads us to our final point for this study and for chapter 9.
2.Following Jesus requires moving FORWARD towards God.
*Look again at Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”*
We can’t dismiss the fact that this is the response to the man from verse 61 but I think it is clear that this has an element to it that the other responses from our Lord in this section does not. The other responses has ideas that we must take with us like, knowing that we must deny ourselves in order to follow Christ or we must trust God for our future. Jesus clearly states in the second response something that every believer should be doing and that is proclaiming everywhere the kingdom of God.
Here Jesus speaks directly to this third man concerning the fact that he wanted to go say his final farewells. But *within this response Jesus gives to us a principle that carries on directly to the reality of what being a Christian means. Yes being a Christian means denying oneself, yes being a Christian means trusting God for future situations, yes being a Christian means that we are to be proclaiming the truth of the Gospel and God’s kingdom come but in summation being a Christian means that you never turn back to live your old life.
Now let’s be clear I do not believe Jesus is speaking about sinful behaviors here but rather a way of life. What I mean is that Jesus is not saying you will never fall into sinful patterns or that you will never sin but rather is making the point that a Christian will not look back with a desire to think like they did before. They will not live a life with selfish motives as the standard for their life, they will not live in fear of their future and they will not sit dormant in sharing the Gospel with the gifts that God has given to them. They will exhibit a life of faith in God. Hebrews 10:38 says But My righteous one shall live by faith, And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.*
The Christian should be following a life of faith in God, not in perfection but in direction as John MacArthur says. It is recognizing that you aren’t perfect or sinless but that you are moving in the direction that aligns with God’s standard. I love what Paul says in Philippians 3:12-16 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way; and if in anything you think differently, God will reveal that also to you. 16 However, let us keep walking in step with the same standard to which we have attained.
The fact is we have not become the person we want to be but we will look forward to what God has for us and not look back on sins and mistakes that may hinder us in our spiritual growth. We must make sure that we are not trying to live for both the world and God. We can not live for self and for God, we can not live for the happiness of worldly things and for God. God may give to us worldly prosperity and He may not but the fact is we must be living towards God. James 1:5-8 says But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, doubting nothing, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
James starts with the fact that we need to ask God for wisdom. That asking must be in faith but if it is not in faith then we are unstable not just in wisdom but in all of his ways, James says. Living a life apart from faith shows up as a person living for the world but wanting to live for God. The point Jesus makes in Luke 9:62 I think shows to us this same reality. Each of these men wanted to follow Christ but the fact is they were still living for the world and could not seem to let go.
As we close this chapter I just want to point out that Jesus is not suggesting that if you want to live a prosperous Christian life then you need to not look back but rather it is clear that “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
They may have been a part of the church for years, they may have been baptized, been on the staff of a church or even the pastor but if they go back into the world to live for the world then they are not and were never truly following Christ. They may have been a learner, a church member but they were never truly saved. 1 John 2:18-19 says Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.
Are you living in for the world? Are you living for the standards the world sets or what the Bible says? The Bible does not change with culture, the Bible does not change with new ideologies but rather we must hold firm to what God says and live in that way, never looking back but moving forward.
Disciple's Direction 