The Cost of Following Jesus

 What does Jesus say about following him and is there a cost?

The passage below from Luke goes some way to telling us what we have to do to follow Jesus and the cost involved. 

Luke 9:46-62 English Standard Version (ESV)

Who Is the Greatest?

46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.

47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 

48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Jesus was telling us that we should not think about, who is the most important person in our church.

People who put themselves forward as being the most important rarely are.

In the church there are archdeacons, bishops, cardinals, archbishops and more.

Why?

The church was not set up to have different levels. The most important people are the people who see themselves as being least important.

Anyone Not Against Us Is For Us

49 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.”

50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”

I was told a story about a church of a particular denomination that contacted someone who had an expertise in a particular area. He sent them materials and information about how to set up and deliver the course that they wanted.

When he offered to visit and help with the delivery they said that only Baptists could address the congregation. No more to be said.

A Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 

53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 

54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

55 But he turned and rebuked them.

56 And they went on to another village.

The Samaritans were a racially mixed society with

Jewish and pagan ancestry.

Although they worshiped Yahweh as did the Jews, their religion was not mainstream Judaism.

They accepted only the first five books of the Bible

The Torah,

and their temple was on Mount Gerazim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

In some respects they were more strict than Jews about the commands of the Mosaic law.

The Mosaic law includes the laws (beginning with the ten commandments) that God gave to the Israelites through Moses.

Mosaic law includes many rules of religious observance given in the first five books of the Old Testament (in Judaism these books are called the Torah).

This was especially so with the sabbath regulations, but they did not share the Jewish stricture against pronouncing the divine name Yahweh in their oaths.

Because of their imperfect adherence to Judaism and their partly pagan ancestry,

the Samaritans were despised by ordinary Jews.

Jews who were traveling from Judea to Galilee or vice versa would cross over the river Jordan, bypass Samaria by going through Transjordan, and cross over the river again as they neared their destination.

If you touched what Samaritans had touched you were

Unclean.

In Judaism the unclean person was barred from temple service and fellowship with other Israelites. The contact with sin leaves a person tainted, and from this taint there had to be a period of cleansing.

For example Touching a dead body, even to see if he might still be alive, would make them unclean for seven days. They'd have to wash on the 3rd and 7th day.

Jews would avoid Samaritans at all costs.

However, Jesus wants to reach all sinners and that is why he loved the Samaritans.

That the

Samaritans were separated from and looked down upon by the Jews

makes them important in the New Testament.

Jesus indicated a new attitude must be taken toward the Samaritans when he passed through their towns instead of crossing the Jordan to avoid them (John 4:4-5),

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan precisely because Samaritans were despised.

The apostles recognized that in the Church Samaritans must be accepted as equal to Jews.

Peter and John conducted a special mission to Samaria to confirm Samaritans who had already been baptized by Philip (Acts 8:14-17).

This initiation of the Samaritans was a

middle stage between the preaching of the gospel to the Jews (Acts 2) and the preaching of the gospel to full-blooded Gentiles (Acts 10).

The Cost of Following Jesus

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

58 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.” 

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 

60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 

62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Don’t make these hard words more difficult than they are. Jesus is not saying,

"There will never be time when you have a bed and pillow and a roof."

He’s not saying,

"It will always be wrong to be at your parent’s funeral."

Understand these hard sayings the way you understand Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler and his words to Zacchaeus.

To the rich young ruler Jesus said, It is going to cost you all your possessions to follow me:

"Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

But when Jesus came into the house of Zacchaeus, the little tax collector said,

"Lord, the half [not 100%] of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."

And Jesus responded with joy:

"Today salvation has come to this house." (Luke 19:8-9).

What immediately striking is the way in which Jesus handles these inquirers.

MOST men with a cause are busy trying to recruit as MANY people as they can.

Most preachers are busy trying to get as many members for their church as they possibly can (and most have good intentions).

It’s natural and what people in churches expect to see.

But Jesus is radically different in His approach.

He seems to spend a great deal of His time trying to

DISSUADE

men from following Him - or at least that’s what it looks like.

There was an aging pastor who once said,

“Always endeavour to keep your church as SMALL as you can!”

That’s seems to be strange thing to say.

This was being said by a man who himself had pastored quite a large congregation.

What the pastor meant was, preach the truth of God’s salvation, and the demands of following Jesus,

SO CLEARLY that ONLY

those who have counted the cost and are ready to give up

ALL

for Christ will join themselves to your church.

It should be the desire of all Christians to see as many people as possible come to Christ.

We should pray to see people come in their hundreds and even thousands –

BUT WE SHOULD NOT JUST WANT TO GET ALL THE SEATS FILLED.

We should  want to see men, women, young people, boys and girls turning to Christ with whole hearts; becoming

TRUE

sold out disciples of Jesus.

It is revealing to see Jesus’ way of dealing with people who expressed a desire to follow Him.

At first it seems He is trying to

DISCOURAGE them.

In actual fact Jesus’ desire is that all people

WILL

follow Him.

But He wants them to think it through first

TO COUNT THE COST INVOLVED

so that once they

DO

follow Him they will never turn back.

There is a cost is and those people who follow Jesus

MUST

be prepared for it.