Sermons

Follow Me : The Demands of the Road!

Posted by Alex on
Sermon on May 29 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture:  Luke 9:57-62

 

Here are three brief conversations to do with the cost of following Jesus. If following does not demand everything from you, are you a follower?

If you would follow Jesus:

1. ‘TOO READY’ CAN MEAN NO THOUGHT! (v57,58)

Everyone loves a volunteer! Mr. ‘Too Easy’ would follow Jesus for the miracles, or ‘the good life’ – but not the discomfort that comes with the road.

When you are ready for a life that will be disturbed, you are ready to follow Jesus!

2. ‘URGENT MATTERS’ CAN MEAN NO GO!  (v59,60)

Jesus approaches a conscript. Mr. ‘Urgent Matters’ will remain at a cross-roads as long as he is too occupied to follow Jesus with all his heart.

“Regularly the Lord will test in heart, how earnest by bringing you to a fork in the road. When it becomes necessary to choose between two ways which way do we follow? Comfort, custom, convention or Christ? The test from the very outset of discipleship has been ‘Follow Me’!”
(Leon Morris)

When you are willing to love Jesus above all legitimate loves, you are ready to follow Jesus!

3. ‘MY OWN TERMS’ CAN MEAN NO THANKS! (v61,62)

The third man wants to follow but only with his agenda in place. You can say ‘good-bye’ without ever actually stepping out on the road.

When you are willing to make a clean break with anything that will hinder, you are ready to follow Jesus!

4. FOLLOW NOW AND DO WHAT YOU MEAN! 

‘No-one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God’.
(Jesus, the Son of God)

Do you ever get a sense you should do something, and then allow the emotion to re-place the action? The danger is that if you make this a habit, you may never do what Jesus calls you to do.

Are you making excuses as to why you will not follow Jesus? Salvation is the free gift that costs everything. Do not sit at the crossroads. Do not look back – but follow Jesus with everything and with all!

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

  1. Why was Jesus almost harsh with those who professed a desire to follow Him? Why does he not immediately sign us to three would-be disciples? If these conversations happened today what kinds of excuses might Jesus be given?
  2. Now read John 1:35-51. List all the examples of procrastination (i.e. making excuses to follow later) that you find in the lives of those mentioned in the passage. Who followed Jesus immediately?
  3. Describe discipleship or ‘following Jesus’ in your own words? What does it cost and why? What are the demands of the road (see Luke 9:21-26)?
  4. Pray that your following of Jesus may be worthy of the cost He paid so you might follow Him. Pray that as a church we may be wholehearted in being disciples and making disciples.

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