A Catalogue of Failure Part 2

The call of Jesus is an all-or-nothing commitment. To follow him means he becomes your top priority for life and everything else orients to him. Anything less than that is not truly following Jesus at all.

Note: This transcript was auto generated and may have errors.

[00:00:00] All right, everyone, are you ready for another week of talking about spiritual failures and struggles against sin? Yeah. Who wouldn’t be? Yes. There was a bit of confusion and marveling last week over why I, or anyone would be willing to publicly declare their sin and failures. And I get it, I get it. That is a that is a thing that we usually say is is a private matter. Some people think we should keep our sins very quiet and only put our righteousness on display for others to see. After all, aren’t we to be representatives of Christ in the world? What will our neighbors think if they know that we’re sinners? What will they think? What about our kids? How will they see Jesus in me if they know I struggle with sinfulness and worldliness? By the way, your kids already know you struggle with sinfulness and worldliness. They know that full well. In some ways, they know that better than you know that they know so much more than you think they know. This image problem would be a huge issue. It would be a huge issue if the message of the church and of Christianity as a whole was to say, look how amazingly righteous and holy I am. If that was the message, then yeah, that that would be a problem. If the method of the church was to hide our failures, to display our holiness, and to call people to do the same, two things would happen.

[00:01:27] One, we wouldn’t convince anyone to become a Christian. We would lose all influence, not just because people love their sin, but because even those who want to change will never find victory over their sin by hiding it, by sweeping it under the rug. In fact, it tends to be that if you hide your sin, it becomes more pervasive, not less pervasive. But the second thing is even more damaging. That’s the practical side. But more damaging thing is, we would lose the power of the gospel itself. We would lose the gospel if hiding your sin was part of Christianity. See, gospel transformation that truly changes you, comes through repentance and of your sin and trust in God’s saving grace. That’s in Jesus. And the only way to repent of sin is to admit you have it, and to call it what it is, and to to turn from it, to trust only in Jesus for your salvation, not in your good works. Hiding sin is a gospel denying act, okay? It’s it’s a gospel denying act. And think about this when you hide your sin, you’re basically trusting that it’s your carefully cleaned up persona that’s acceptable to others and to yourself and ultimately to God. It’s an act of trusting in a false version of you. And that’s not that’s not where Christian hope is found at all. We find it in the the real version of us, that we are sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

[00:03:03] That’s where we find our hope. When you trust in God’s grace, you could admit to everyone that you’re still a work in progress. And that’s why you should never be afraid to admit that you’re struggling with sin right now, or that you have had failures in your past. We all have them. We all do. Even people who are hiding their sins have them. The way to kill sin isn’t to hide it in the darkness, it’s to bring it into the light of the gospel and the community of fellow followers of Jesus that God has given you, that’s put that he’s put around you. And it’s my hope here at Calvary, as we continue to develop and refine as a gospel centered community, that more and more it would be normal to be open and honest about our struggles and our failures so that we can build each other up. We can provide a loving accountability for that, and to point each other to God’s grace, because that’s what we find hope. That’s where we find peace. Last week we looked at at five failures committed by the disciples. This week we shift focus to three failures committed by people who potentially would follow Jesus. And so last week we looked at Christian failure. This week we’re going to look at potential Christian failure, what you might call pre-Christian failure. What stops a person from following Jesus? What prevents people from coming and committing their lives to the mission of Christ? The call of Jesus is an all or nothing commitment.

[00:04:41] Always has been, always will be. It’s an all or nothing commitment. To follow him means he becomes your top priority for life and everything else in your life. Everything else orients to him. And anything less than that is not truly following Jesus at all. In all three of these failures we’re looking at today. The problem isn’t interest in Jesus. It’s it’s how big a role this person is willing to allow Jesus to play in his life. And for those of you this morning who don’t follow Jesus, the problem is also not with interest. You’re at least partially interested because you’re here, so you’re at least partially interested unless you’re here completely by sheer accident. In which case, I would love to hear that story. How you got here. If you’re looking for newts, it’s across the street. It’s not. We don’t serve burgers here. Maybe you’re new to Christianity. You’re just checking things out. You got some interest. Maybe you’re. Maybe you’ve been in, in, in and around church all your life. But but religion for you has always been just that thing that you do on Sundays. Maybe the word Christian is the label that you use to describe yourself, but you’re not a repentant, submitted faithful. I’m with Jesus no matter what kind of person. And if any of that describes you, I believe that you’re going to see yourself in one of these three people that we’re going to look at this morning.

[00:06:05] If you have your Bible, go ahead and open to Luke chapter nine. We’re going to be in verse 57 today. Jesus is going to interact with three men on his journey to Jerusalem. Uh, two of them are going to approach him to follow one of them. Jesus is going to call first. And what you’ll see in all three is that there’s there’s something preventing them from moving Jesus to their highest priority, even even for the two that approach Jesus first, there’s something, something in the way. And as we look at each of these today, I’m going to give you a question to consider at the end of each one. So the first guy approaches Jesus. 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. So the first guy comes up to Jesus says, Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. That doesn’t sound like failure, does it? That’s actually sound. That sounds pretty good. That sounds exactly like the sort of thing that Jesus has been requesting of the crowd telling them they need to follow him. So this guy is not not only wants to follow Jesus, he wants to follow Jesus wherever Jesus goes.

[00:07:23] That’s a pretty big commitment. That’s what you do, by the way, with a teacher in that day, with a rabbi in that day, you would follow your teacher around. You would sit at his feet, you would learn from your teacher. And so this guy is saying, I’m going to become your student. Jesus, I’m with you. I want to I want to learn from you. Technically, this is not failure. This is a fine start. And also technically, we don’t know if this guy responds to what Jesus says next. So it could be that this guy doesn’t fail and I’m doing him a wrong by putting him in a catalog of failure. This guy might want to have a word with me someday, but Jesus response to this man’s zeal over his wanting to follow him reminds me of something Jesus often does, which is why it leads me to think that there there may be failure here. See, you’d think that Jesus would be very excited about someone coming to him. A guy showing this kind of excitement to follow him everywhere. You’d think that the response Jesus would have would be fantastic. Grab your stuff. We’re on our way to Jerusalem, and my other 12 closest guys have been failing a lot lately, so you’ll fit right in. Don’t worry about it. You’d think he’d really want him in on the team. If you and I talked to somebody last week who was just discovering Jesus and wanted to be his student, not only would we be thrilled with that, we would be trying to find them a small group right in our church.

[00:08:49] We’d be inviting them to come on Sunday morning. We would be very excited about that. Think about that close friend or family member that you know that doesn’t know Jesus. What if you what if the next time you saw this person, he or she said, I’m going to follow Jesus wherever he takes me? It’d change your whole day, wouldn’t it? That would be amazing. You clear your calendar to make sure that you could help this person to know Jesus. So why then does Christ himself do the exact opposite here? He doesn’t encourage this man to follow him. In fact, he discourages him from following. You see that foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Foxes and birds. Animals. They have homes. Jesus doesn’t. What he’s saying is, if you’re going to follow me, you’re never really going to feel like you’re at home. You follow me. And it’s never really going to feel like, like home for you. If you follow Jesus, it means going wherever faithfulness takes you, even if that means suffering, even if that means death, it means following him there. Animals can go back home and can be safe. But if you’re going to follow Jesus, Jesus is now your home.

[00:10:11] And you’re on the move. And anywhere he goes is where you go. And safety is not guaranteed if you’re going to follow Jesus. Now, this is literal in the sense that Jesus doesn’t own a house, or at least we don’t think he does based on what the gospels say. But it’s a metaphor for an entire life of following Jesus. If you choose to follow Jesus, you’re never going to feel completely at home in this world. You’re just not for sure. God did design this earth to be our home, but it’s broken with sin. The place we were was designed for us is broken. And only only Christians can really see that and really understand that brokenness. To follow Jesus to to to really to really follow him means having your eyes opened to the reality that this, this world is fatally flawed and can never really be your home. It can’t really be the home that your heart is longing for. And we all have that longing inside of us. So instead, you’ll be embarking on a mission with Jesus to point people to a new kingdom, to a new heavens and earth. And doing that will make the world seem even more alien to you. And it will bring the the suffering from the world that that rejects the kingdom that you are now about. You look to a home. You tell the people around you, they reject you. The world seems even more alien to you.

[00:11:39] It just becomes increasingly so and so. What you’ll find is you’ll. You’ll sacrifice tiny, fleeting comforts like popularity and riches to gain influence for Jesus. And the joy that’s only found in Jesus and Jesus will be your only real comfort. He’ll be your only real hope and peace, and you won’t find it in anything else if you follow him. Not really. Now, why would Jesus say this? This guy is new and he’s excited. Why would Jesus say that to this guy? Why would he choose this as a first lesson for this new, excited, impressionable student willing to follow him wherever he goes? Well, it’s because he needs to know right up front where? Wherever will take him. Okay. He needs to understand. He needs to count the cost. He needs to know the direction that he will be going. I would say that the American church today, Christians in general, do a pretty bad job of being clear on what life will look like if you follow Jesus. Salvation from sins and new life in Christ. Those things are wonderful. I love those phrases. Those are true realities freedom from addictions and restoration of relationships. They are blessings of the gospel. Eternity with Christ and an escape from an eternity in hell gives confidence and hope, and does that by removing the sting of death and the fear of death. Those are all wonderful things. But church, there is a cost to discipleship. And we’re not really great about sharing the cost.

[00:13:27] We don’t even share it in the church very much, let alone with new people who are considering following Jesus like we see here. The whole truth of discipleship is that is it’s costly. Salvation is free, but it’s not cheap, okay? It’s free. It’s not cheap. It’s free because Jesus paid for it. But it’s not cheap because God himself paid the ultimate price for it. So to receive God’s forgiveness and new life, you only need to trust in Jesus. You don’t have to trust in yourself. You don’t have to trust in your good works. You only have to trust in Jesus. But the new life in Jesus you receive will look like Jesus life. The. There are worldly consequences for following Jesus in a world that doesn’t. I was just talking to a fellow believer this week who’s a public school principal, and he he doesn’t know how long he’s going to be able to keep his job. And as he stands for truth in in a place in his in his policies, he doesn’t know how long he’s going to be able to do that and keep his job. He sort of sees it on the horizon that he’s probably a change coming. If you if you want to follow Jesus, there will come a day when his mission will take you off in a direction that will turn you away from the unbelieving world and what they would have you do.

[00:14:56] It’s going to it’s going to say, Jesus, say, I’m going this direction. The world’s going to say, no, you have to go this way. And you’ll say, but I followed Jesus. And I can’t. And in that moment, and in all the ones that follow it, you’re not going to feel at home. You’re going to realize how different it is to follow Jesus, and you’re going to long for a future home. I don’t know if this man failed to follow Jesus at this point. I don’t I don’t know because it doesn’t say. But since Jesus sees past what we say right down to our heart, I think he may have failed at this point. I think he said this because he knew that this man would be challenged precisely at the point where he’d have to feel uncomfortable in the world. I remember when I first put my my trust in Jesus. My immediate next thought, as soon as I did, my immediate next thought was, well, what about my friends? I was talking to God about this. What about my friends? God, I love my friends. I want to be like my friends. I want to be liked by my friends. I didn’t want to be different from them. I didn’t want to have them reject me. And while none of them outright rejected me. It was never really a situation where I was close with them again, and that we did drift apart because my values and priorities in life changed even with my closest friends.

[00:16:23] My first question for you, church, is this is the loss of this world keeping you from following Jesus? Is the loss of the world what’s keeping you from following Jesus? Let’s look at the next guy to another. He said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go 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. So Jesus calls the second man. He says, follow me. So it’s a little different than the first guy. The first guy had all the emotion and all the energy there, but and he wanted to be on the team with Jesus, and he just needed to know what that would cost. The second guy here, he’s receiving the call from Jesus. And we know that this is a welcome call because he calls Jesus Lord in response. So this is not a random new person Jesus sees on the street. This is someone who’s been walking with Jesus long enough to show him some respect. We don’t know how long he’s been part of the crowd that’s been following Jesus, but long enough for him to understand Jesus call to follow him. And this guy says, Jesus, you know what? I’m in. I’m I’m in. But first let me go bury my father. Now, understand, it’s not like this. It’s not like this guy’s father has already died.

[00:17:53] And he was like, in the middle of digging the hole, you know, like, can I just. Can I finish the hole for him? No, there’s probably almost certainly this man’s father is still alive. Uh, because if he died, this man would have been back home literally burying his father, not out on the street, talking with Jesus. And I think this is a request to wait until his father has died, and then he’ll be freed up to follow Jesus. It could be that his father is near death, and it won’t be long. Maybe he’s thinking it’ll just be a little bit of time, and then I’ll be able to. I’ll be freed up there and I’ll be able to follow you. Could be that his father needs him in the family business. So maybe that’s a little bit longer. Maybe he’s in charge of caring for his elderly father. And so we don’t know how much time it’s going to be. Maybe he’s an only son and he’s the only one that can do that. But the amount of time between this call from Jesus and the and the father’s burial is not the point here. Even if even if the father has already died, by the way, which is possible, that is possible. But even if he’s already died, it’s not really the point. C caring for your parents and burying them properly is a very important part of the social structure of Jewish society.

[00:19:04] To to not properly care for your loved ones was a great dishonor to them. In fact, it was a sign of God’s judgment in the Old Testament. If you left dead bodies out in the sun, in the exposure on the ground. So this is a very respectable request from a good son who is making sure that he’s doing everything he can do to be freed up to follow Jesus. So again, like the first guy is this failure. How would this be failure? Jesus answer is surprising. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. That seems harsh. That seem harsh to you seems a little harsh to me. There’s nothing Minnesotan about that answer, is there? It’s very, very on the nose. Jesus has a job for this man. You’re going to go proclaim the kingdom of God. And as for the dead, let the dead bury them, he says. Obviously, the first reference there to the dead is not literal. Jesus is saying that those who are spiritually dead, who who have not been called and commissioned by Jesus, can be the ones who are in charge of worldly concerns. Even the important tasks like properly burying people or caring for your family. They can be done by anyone and they will get done. When Jesus calls you and tasks you with being an ambassador for the Kingdom of God, that becomes the priority of your life.

[00:20:41] You don’t find a fit for Jesus in the list of priorities in your life, you don’t see where he fits in you don’t. You? Don’t let any worldly concerns dictate where and when you’ll begin your obedient call to Jesus. What you do is you put Jesus and His mission in the center of your life, at the top of your priority list, and the driver’s seat of your of your the direction you’re going, whatever metaphor you want. Okay, choose a metaphor. He becomes the main thing in your life, and then everything else orients around Jesus, transformed by Jesus, repurposed for Jesus. Everything else follows. You have to reorient everything else in your life, even the good and valuable things to the call of Christ. And discipleship requires that. Missionaries who traveled to dangerous places are very good examples of this. If they traveled to dangerous places or if they go far from home, they’re good examples of what’s being spoken of here. They they know full well that their faithfulness to the call to go to difficult places in the world is a double sacrifice. They don’t just stand to lose their lives or their comfort in the place where they go. They also sacrifice the simple joys and responsibilities of life back home. I’ve known missionaries who have had loved ones pass away while they were in the field, and they couldn’t even come back and go to the funeral because of their commitment.

[00:22:13] The families who remain behind also sacrifice in releasing their loved ones to go and to be faithful. And it’s not just the potential loss of life, it’s also the loss of time together. It’s the loss of seeing children or grandchildren grow up. It’s loss of celebrating holidays together. There are a lot of good things in this world, even gifts from God in this world that must be set aside to be faithful to the call of Jesus. If it requires it. But this isn’t just missionaries. I talk about missionaries. I was like, oh yeah, those special people, those special missionaries. No, no, no, this is all disciples. This is the call of all disciples. And it seems to me that there is an awful lot of pushing Jesus down the list that happens in the church. I talked to a friend recently who said that she and her husband had been living in Rochester for many years now, and that they’re Christians, and I and I asked because this is what I do. I asked what church that they’re part of, and she got a little bit sheepish and said that they really hadn’t plugged into a church yet because they’re too busy with their kids activities. I’m not talking about being gone sometimes, okay? Everybody’s gone sometimes I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about I’m talking about no involvement in church for years because of this activity. How did we get to the place where being a member of the body of Christ, a vital member, using our gifts within the body of Christ, how do we get to the place where that is down the list from extracurricular recreational activities? How did that happen? I don’t know.

[00:23:51] I don’t understand. I’ve been hearing for years from people who want to follow Jesus, but can’t use their gifts to make disciples in the church because it’s a busy season of life. You ever heard that phrase before? This is a really busy season of life. You know, when my busy season of life began and end, I have no idea because I’ve never been out of it. Right? It’s always something. There’s always some kind of thing going on. And by that busy season of life, they mean they’re not willing to reorient anything to make the mission of Christ a priority. I’ve known college students who decided that for these four years, I’m going to forego Jesus and just live the college experience, whatever that is. People choose jobs with the only thought given to passion and money, and not to whether they can please the Lord doing that work. Christians limit where they’re willing to move based on living near family. Others give priority to pleasing family over faithfulness to Jesus. Now listen. Listen here. I’m not saying these are bad things. In fact, everything I just listed there as a problem is a good thing, or at least a neutral thing. But is a is a is a good thing.

[00:25:05] Family, a love for home, a college education, a job you love, relationships, hobbies, all that’s good. All of that is good. And all of it can be a gift from God. But. But the call of living a Christ proclaiming life might take you away from those good things. Maybe for a season, maybe for a lifetime. Faithful discipleship demands that you choose Christ over those good things. Here’s my second question for you. Is the prioritization of lesser things keeping you from following Jesus. Let’s check out this final guy. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at 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 this last scenario has elements of the first two. Like the first man, the this guy approaches Jesus and pledges to follow him. So he takes the initiative. But like the second guy, he first wants to head home. And once again, this all seems both very positive and in my mind to my reading, very reasonable. He wants to follow Jesus. He just wants to say goodbye first. What could possibly be wrong with just wanting to say goodbye first? And yet, here’s Jesus with a response that is just as harsh and enigmatic as the other two things he had to say. Jesus, why are you pushing away all your disciples? Why? Why do you keep doing this? Why are you pushing away all your potential followers? These people want to be part of your team.

[00:26:47] No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. He just wants to say goodbye. That’s all he wants to do. I’m going to use this line next time I forget to say goodbye to Rachel on my way out the door and she’s like, why didn’t you say goodbye to me? I’m like, well, because no one puts their hand to the plow. You know? It’s probably not going to work. Now that I think about it, it’s probably not going to work. Seriously, this guy doesn’t. Does it feel like he’s asking too much? It does not feel like he’s asking too much here. The other guy just wanted, you know, he wanted to wait until all his family duties were done. This guy just wants to say goodbye, and that shouldn’t take too long. And doesn’t the Bible say that that we are to honor our father and mother? Shouldn’t. Shouldn’t we have at least the courtesy of saying goodbye before we head off into to a new life? There are two things to notice here that are vital to understanding what’s going on. The first is to remember that Jesus is out traveling. So this man who’s talking to Jesus now will need to go on a journey home to say goodbye.

[00:27:50] So this is not just a quick see you later and then we’re off to following Jesus. This will be a journey and a visit with this family for some length of time. And the second thing to notice is that Jesus doesn’t focus his response on saying goodbye. He focuses it on turning back. You see that? See again. Jesus looks past the request to the heart of the man, and he’s seeing something in him that’s driving him backward. There’s a danger to this man’s faithfulness to Jesus in going back to his old life. Think about lot’s wife. You remember that Old Testament story? Lot’s wife. They’re fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah, and she turns back longingly to look, to gaze at her old life. She turns to a pillar of salt. Think of of the rich young ruler who was willing to follow Jesus. You know Jesus, tell me what I got to do to inherit the kingdom of God. And Jesus says, go sell everything you have. Why? Because that’s the thing for him, right? That’s the thing that’s holding him back from truly following Jesus. And when this man understood that he was unwilling to give up his stuff, his stuff meant more. Jesus knows if this guy goes home, he’s going to turn away from the hard work of following him. That’s the only that’s the only explanation for Jesus response here. If this guy gets around his family and his friends, if he gets around his old life, his passion for Jesus will either die out like the second soil or it will become unfruitful like the third soil, and that will be the end of that man’s faithfulness.

[00:29:33] Here’s another cost to following Jesus. It will cost you everything in your life that threatens to turn you away from him. Following Jesus means that you will have to turn away from all the things that threaten to get your heart and mind off of Jesus. Immediately we think of of sinful temptations like like pornography. If pornography is keeping you from following Jesus faithfully every day, what do you do? You get rid of the devices. You get rid of the internet. You get rid of the anonymity and the the autonomy in your life that’s allowing this, this sin to thrive. But it’s not just the obvious sinful temptations that can move us away from Jesus. Some things can turn us from Jesus that are good things on their own, but they’re harmful to our personal walk based on who we are. So friends, for instance, are great. It’s great to have friends, but if you find yourself apt to follow your friends and not stand for Christ among your friends, then you’re going to have to be very careful about the friends that you choose to have. Parents are wonderful gifts. It’s great if you have your parents in your life, but they don’t always see their kids through the lens of the kingdom of God.

[00:30:46] They don’t see them always through the lens of faithfulness to Jesus. Their hopes and dreams don’t always align with the priorities of the kingdom. If you have your parents in your life, you need to know that. And so you as a follower of Jesus, you need to recognize, even within the good gifts and the good relationships which which influences are causing you to look back and to long for something other than Jesus himself. If when you find those things, recognize those are threats to your discipleship. Those are things that are trying to turn you away from Christ. Here’s my third question for you. Is the longing of your heart keeping you from following Jesus? These are my three questions for you today. These are the ones I want you to meditate on this week. You get to talk about them. If you’re in your small in a small group that does the sermon application curriculum. But I’d love for all of you to think on these questions this week. Is the loss of this world keeping you from following Jesus? Is the prioritization of lesser things keeping you from following Jesus? Is the longing of your heart keeping you from following Jesus? And if they are, I can assure you Jesus is better. Jesus is better than all these things. He is better. He is better than the things of this world. He is better than every lesser thing. He is better than anything else your heart could desire. Let’s pray.