Road to Jerusalem

We're starting a new series called "Roadmap" this morning. And, I was thinking about something this week and it was this, I am absolutely not sure at all how any drivers in the 1970s and '80s made it out alive. Here's why. Because, if you were going on a road trip in the '70s or the '80s you needed one of these bad boys right here. Does anybody remember these? Anybody remember 'em? Everybody who's saying yes right now. Just confirmation you're old, just confirmation that you're old. So if you're younger, you're like, "I don't know why all these trees were killed for this particular thing? Oh, you don't even know the half of it. This is a map of Alaska. You don't even know the half of it. Because what had to happen was you had to open this bad boy in the car, not some big spacious area at the coffee house where you could pull a few tables together, you know, and put it out. No, this is in the car, this is happening in the car. So you're reading a map. I don't know how, I mean, parents in the '70s and '80s who could hold a map with one hand, drive the car, smoke, roll the window down, cranking it and still has somehow have an extra appendage to discipline the kids who are in the back of the wood paneled station wagon running around with no seat belts. That's some serious dexterity from parents in the '70s and '80s. I remember it, I mean, I remember it. I remember my mom, occasionally we'd be going on a trip, and she would take this bad boy out and she'd be in the passenger side. I'm not sure how my dad could even see out the front, right? And she'd be holding this bad boy up, and I would be back there asking, me and my brother be like, "How much longer, where are we?" You know, all that stuff, right? And then she would take this thing and she would say, "You know what?" "Here's where we are right here, here's where we're going right here." And we're like, "Okay, cool, how long is that gonna take?" "It's gonna be next May." "That's when we're gonna get there." 'Cause we didn't know, we had no idea. And by the way, you know something else I learned? You've gotta be a PhD in mechanical engineering to refold this bad boy. It just does not, there's so many creases and stuff. And eventually you just go, "I tell you what you just go right here, just stay right there, all right?" "Just be right there and be by yourself 'cause I can't deal with you." But then, we thought we were special in the '90s. Because once we got to the '90s and we had the interwebs and now all of a sudden we could go to MapQuest, and we could find a map online and we could print it in our printer. The dot matrix one that took, it took a million years, but eventually it got out. And now, instead of having an absolute double poster size in the cockpit of our car, now we've got just one piece of paper in front of our face as we drive. I'm not sure what exit to get off of. It's like saying Exit 34, and where is that? It's right there, boo. That's what we did. It was slightly safer but still relatively dangerous. And then now, like those of you who are younger, and you're like, "Man, you guys had problems back in the day, I don't know how you made it out." Because now all we have is we just got a lady who tells us what to do. Ladies, don't get too fired up about that. But we got, I just listen to the lady tell me what to do. So all I have to do is just like open up my little app and then put in where I want to go, and then it just tells me.

- [Siri] Starting route to Ted's Hot Dogs.

- What? I'm not going to Ted's Hot Dogs, but nonetheless, it just tells us where to go. And then it, every, turn here, in 50 feet you'll turn here. It's fantastic, right? Let me ask you a question. In your life, who tells you where to go? Or, let me say it another way, who tells you where you're going in your life? Now I get it, it's Sunday, we're all here at church. Everybody's probably thinking to themselves, "I know how to answer this question." "It's Jesus, Jesus tells where I'm going." "Jesus tells me how I'm getting there." "I go where Jesus tells me to go." And maybe you're right. But let me ask you a follow up question since I anticipated you answering in a British accent. Let me tell you what I want to ask you as a follow-up question. Do you know where Jesus went? Because I think it's relevant to asking the question, who tells us where we go? And then asking, if it is Jesus, then maybe we should ask this question, where did Jesus go, and where might he lead us to go with him? I think of all the gospels that we have in the New Testament, maybe the one that answers this question or is positioned to answer this question better than any of the gospels that we have is Luke's Gospel. The reason that I say that is because Luke's Gospel is sometimes called by scholars a travel narrative or a travel log of the life of Jesus. Now when we get to Luke chapter nine, some very interesting things happen. Luke chapter nine is a very, very pivotal chapter in Luke's narrative when he's talking about Jesus and his travels. And in fact, what he does very specifically is he kinda gives us a roadmap of Jesus' journey. And there's a very specific verse in fact that many scholars would argue as kind of a turning point or a pivot verse in Luke's travel narrative. And it's toward the back end of Luke chapter nine. If you've got a Bible, you can open it up. It's in Luke 9:51. And here's what it says. "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for," where? "Jerusalem." Now the reason that I bring this up and kind of pause us here in Luke chapter nine around this verse is because what Luke is going to do is he's going to show us that this is the destination that is kind of the pinnacle of Jesus travel time. Luke's not trying to actually show us something just geographical, even though it is geographical, that he's going to Jerusalem. He's not just trying to show us his travel log in chronological order because, by the way, Luke doesn't even do that specifically. His concern is reminding us that what Jesus was doing was resolutely setting out for Jerusalem because this was a part of his divine mission. This was a part of the Messiah's divine purpose. And what he does after Luke 9:51, is he begins to highlight that over, and over, and over again is Luke's Gospel. He keeps coming back to this phrase that he keeps on reminding us he's headed to Jerusalem. This is not just telling us a roadmap so that we're going, "Oh, he's got a geographical destination." This is about where he's headed and why. This is about a divine mission and a divine purpose. And he tells us over and over after Luke chapter nine, in fact, watch this, in Luke 9:30-31, two men, oh, let me back up. Let me back up. Just pause that for a second. As I'm thinking about this, I'm reminded because of Luke chapter nine earlier in those verses that what Luke actually did is dropped a hint for us. He dropped a hint for us at the Mount of Transfiguration. You remember the story of the Mount of Transfiguration? Jesus is up on this mountain and he transfigures before people. And there is Elijah and Moses who came to talk with Jesus, and Peter, James, and John are all here witnessing that. Could you imagine being Peter, James, and John? And Jesus turns into this beautifully glorified son of God and you're just watching going, "I don't know what's happening." And then Moses and Elijah shows up and you're like, "I really don't know what's happening right now." And Peter, James, and John are watching all of this. And watch how Luke discusses this in Luke chapter nine. "Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus." And "They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment." Where? "At Jerusalem." You see, so Peter, James, and John actually got to hear that Jesus is headed to Jerusalem and there he's going to die. He's talking about his departure. That word in the Greek language is exodus, his exodus from this life and what he was going to do. So he drops a hint there. And then later on in the chapter in verse 51, he tells us that Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And then right after it, he starts telling us over, and over and over again, watch this. In Luke chapter 13, "Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem." Luke chapter 17, "Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee." Luke chapter 18, "Jesus took the Twelve aside and he told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem." "And everything that's written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled." "He'll be delivered over to the Gentiles, they'll mock him, insult him and spit on him, they will flog him and kill him." "On the third day he will rise again." And "The disciples didn't understand any of this." "Its meaning was hidden from them and they did not know what he was talking about." And then, further in Luke chapter 19, it says, "After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem." You see over and over again after verse number 51, Luke is painting a picture for us that the divine mission of the Messiah is to head to Jerusalem to die for sinful people. This is what Luke is trying to help us understand. So everything that comes after verse 51 in Jesus' life and his ministry is happening under the shadow of an impending cross in Jerusalem. That's what Luke is trying to help us to see. And notice how he says in verse 51, how he talks about how Jesus was headed to Jerusalem. Watch again in verse 51, "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." Leave that up for a second. Resolutely means to set your face, or to be dead set on something. He resolutely set his face out for Jerusalem. This was giving us a sense that Jesus was fixed on a particular goal and that goal was he had a destination. The destination was Jerusalem, not because it was a place on a map, but because that's where his divine purpose was going to be fulfilled. Why did Luke choose the word, "Resolutely set out for Jerusalem?" I'll tell you why. Because Luke was calling back to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Isaiah would write about the suffering servant, the Messiah that was going to come. And here's how Isaiah described that prophetically in Isaiah 50:7, "Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced." "Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame." You see, Jesus knew that he was headed to a place of shame, called the cross, but he knew that he would not be put to shame. And Luke is reminding us of exactly what Isaiah prophesied about the suffering servant, that he would go to a place of shame but would not be put to shame because he was fulfilling the divine mandate that God had actually given to him. So Jesus was going to resolutely set out for Jerusalem and his disciples were gonna go with him. But here's the deal. For Jesus to set out to Jerusalem meant one thing, but for the disciples to set out to Jerusalem meant something completely different to them. I'll tell you why I'm saying that. Because, the disciples did not really comprehend what Jesus was embarking on and what he was about to do. In fact, what the disciples actually thought was that he's going to Jerusalem because there he's gonna set up his kingdom. He's gonna be a political and a military ruler, a messiah who's gonna overthrow Rome and set up his kingdom. And now all the disciples along with him are gonna be able to rule in power and in glory right there in Jerusalem. And they missed it. That's what they thought was going to happen. And in fact, when they heard, "We're going to Jerusalem," they were pumped because of what that meant for them. They're like, "Oh yeah, this is gonna be great." They didn't understand all the stuff he was telling them about his death. They just thought this was gonna be a great opportunity for them to rule and to reign in glory alongside of him in Jerusalem. How do I know that? I know that because just a few verses before verse 51, and I'm not gonna put this part up there, but here's what it says. Listen to this in verse 43. "While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, "Listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." "But they didn't understand what this meant." "It was hidden from them, so they didn't grasp it and they were afraid to ask him about it." And then you know what the next verse says they did? Watch this. Here's what it says. "An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest." That's how clueless they were. Jesus is telling them, "I'm gonna be handed over." "I'm gonna die, I'm headed to Jerusalem for a divine mission to die for sinful people." And they're arguing who the greatest is. It's amazing! Or maybe not so amazing because sometimes we have the same kinds of ideas. You see, the great surprise of this passage in Luke nine, the great surprise is that Jesus would go and suffer and die before he would rule and reign in glory. And the great surprise to all of us that are listening to this, and the great surprise to his disciples that were involved in this, is that when we walk the road of Jerusalem, when we go where Jesus goes, that we have to live sacrificial lives for God before one day ruling and reigning with him in glory. You see, if I were going to sum up what Luke chapter nine is actually teaching us, it's simple. "Jesus is looking for disciples to go where he goes and live like He lives." That's what Jesus is looking for. Disciples who will go where He goes and will live like He lives." And what does that look like? Well, listen, we have the good fortune of being able to look back on the scripture. The disciples were living in the moment and they weren't always getting what Jesus was telling them were they? And sometimes we can look back through our noses and go, "Those dumb old disciples, they couldn't pick up anything." But we've got the advantage of seeing the whole story. But if you look at what Jesus said to his disciples just before this in Luke chapter nine, listen to what he said, verse number 22-24, Jesus said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." How much clearer can that be? "Then he said to them all, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it." And "Whoever loses their life for me will save it." These are strong words, but Jesus is simply saying, "Look, if you want to be my disciple, here's what it looks like." "You go where I go and you live like I live." And Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die, and he asks his disciples to go with him and to live like him. But they misunderstood, didn't they? They misunderstood. In fact, let me show you three areas that they misunderstood. Here's the first area they misunderstood. They misunderstood the mission. They didn't quite understand what Jesus was actually embarking on, what he was going to do. And obviously we read it a million times, right? Where Jesus is saying very clearly, "I'm going to die." "In three days I'm going to rise." "I'm gonna get handed over to sinful men." "They're going to crucify me." And then the next phrase is always, "And the disciples didn't understand what was going on." Right? They misunderstood his mission. In fact, look, after Jesus is told that he resolutely set out for Jerusalem in verse 51, watch what it says in verse 52. It says, "And then he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him, but the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem." "When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" "But Jesus turned and rebuked them." "Then he and his disciples went to another village." Listen carefully, it's probably not a big shock that we read that Jesus wasn't welcome in Samaria, in a Samaritan village, the Samaritans and the Jews, they didn't like one another. The Jews would refer to the Samaritans as half breeds because they really came from Judaism. They came as Jewish people, but then broke off in some worship of some pagan gods. And so it was this mixture of Judaism and mixture of paganism. So they had a different way of viewing the world, the Samaritans did. They had a different way of viewing the scripture because they didn't embrace all of the scripture. They had a different way of what they perceived the Messiah to be. So they weren't friends. So when Jesus comes into a Samaritan village, and he could have gone a number of different ways, and sometimes did. But he decided to go through there 'cause he was gonna teach. He's gonna teach James and John a lesson. And he decides to go through Samaria and they won't receive him. And so, what did James and John see? They see Samaria and the Samaritans disrespecting Jesus. "Oh no, you don't," is what they said. That's literally in the Greek. Just kidding, it's not. They said, "Oh no, you don't disrespect Jesus." And so, here's what their impulse was. Their impulse was to burn the place to ash. Call fire down from heaven and absolutely smoke these people. Now, there's a reason Jesus had given them a nickname called, "Sons of Thunder," right? This is James and John for you. And so they decide they're gonna ask Jesus, "Hey Jesus, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and just absolutely smoke this place?" Now, what do you think motivated that? One of two things probably, or maybe a combination of the two. One would be, that maybe they thought they had biblical precedent to do something like this. You remember Elijah, right, on the top of Mount Carmel? Elijah called fire down from heaven to demonstrate whose God was really God. But, that fire came down and consumed a sacrifice, not a people. James and John might've thought, "We've got some biblical precedent and we'll call fire down from heaven if you'll allow us to Lord." Or, or maybe their reasoning was they were so intoxicated with the power that they thought that they were about to get when they got to Jerusalem, 'cause remember, by the way, James and John's mommy one time showed up to Jesus and said, "Would you let my boys sit at your right hand and your left when you come into your kingdom?" Their mommy came and pleaded for them to be the Vice President and Secretary of State for Jesus when he entered into his kingdom. So all of their mindset was, "When Jesus establishes himself in glory in Jerusalem, we're gonna have great power, we're gonna be able to rule in reign." So maybe they were intoxicated with the power they saw coming and they thought to themselves, "Let's just call fire down and blow these people up." And do you know what Jesus did? Listen, he rebuked them. Do you know why? Because they completely misunderstood his mission. And do you know what the Greek text says there? Which you were reading just before you came in here. The Greek text when it talks about rebuking them. Listen to this. It's the same phraseology that's used when Jesus rebukes the demons. Same statement. He rebuked them strongly and basically was saying this, "That's not what I'm here to do." "I'm not here to deal with them in judgment." "Why would we burn to the ground and destroy all these people for whom I'm headed to Jerusalem's cross to die for their sin?" "Why would I do something like that?" They misunderstood that Jesus' mission at that time was not judgment, but was sacrificial love for the sake of others. This is a good word for us today, friends, in the world that we live in. The world that we live in right now is lost. It's confused. The world that we live in is sometimes even disrespectful to Jesus. Sometimes on national TV, it's disrespectful to Jesus. But sometimes what our impulse is, is to meet that lostness, and confusion, and disrespect. That our impulse is to meet it with mockery, and derision, and power and judgment. And once again, we misunderstand the mission that Jesus is on. To be sure, Jesus is returning and he will deal justly with unrighteousness, and sin, and wickedness, and evil. That day's coming. But that day's not today, as far as I know, that day's not today. And so, when we follow after Jesus, maybe instead of making our default be when we see things that aren't right in the world, and there's a time to speak about injustice, don't get me wrong about that, but maybe our default instead of mockery, or boycotting, or canceling, maybe our response should be to resolutely set our face to Jesus and to follow him in sacrificial love to the world in which we live. Because we can't change everything that the world does, but God can use us to change some things in the world that we inhabit in our world. And maybe we should get more serious about that. And maybe we should also remember when we are calling for fire from heaven to burn up everybody, maybe we should remember that we better thank God he didn't do it to us. Because we were lost. We were sinful. We were an enemy of God. Thank God he didn't do that to us. I'm reminded of a beautiful story, shockingly of CS Lewis, who, of which I'm a fan boy. In "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," in "The Chronicles of Narnia" there's a character in the Pevensie family named Edmund. Edmund ends up being a traitor in the land of Narnia. The White Witch gets to him, it's not good. She offers him Turkish delights and all kinds of stuff. And now he's kind of on her team, he's on the wrong side. And the character Aslan, which is a lion in CS Lewis's character there, is more like a Christ figure in the story of Narnia. And Edmund walks by a stone statue of a lion that he believes to be Aslan, who has been turned to stone by the White Witch. And you know what Edmund does? He draws a mustache on him to deface it. He draws spectacles on him to deface it, and he even steps back from him and gives him derision and mockery. "Ah, how does it feel to be turned to stone?" But, guess what? Eventually the real, living Aslan, he shows back up. And do you know what he does? He doesn't judge Edmund. Instead, he makes his way to the stone table where he is slain so that mockers like Edmund could live. See friends, sometimes we misunderstand the mission that Jesus is on. And when we do, we get all upside down about the world that we live in. And we forget that we too were enemies of God. That God and his infinite grace sent his son to be on a mission to Jerusalem, to die in our place, to save us. That even though we were mockers, and enemies, and persecutor of God. That God and His grace has still shown us sacrificial love by the gift of his spotless, beautiful son. They have misunderstood the mission, but they also misunderstood the cost of what it means to follow after Jesus. They did not have a conception of what this would actually cost. Look as the narrative continues in verse number 57 it says, "As they were walking along the road, a man said to Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go." "Jesus replied, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." See, I'm reminded that in this context, Jesus has just been, listen to this, he's just been rejected in Samaria. He doesn't even have a place. And now some guy comes up to him while they're walking on the road and says, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus is like, "Will you?" "Because I, they didn't receive me in Samaria, I don't even have a place to lay my head." "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but I don't even have a place of my own." "Do you understand that if you follow me where I'm going, that my life is gonna be characterized by rejection?" "Do you understand that?" "Do you understand the cost of what it means to actually do this?" Jesus is speaking to this man and making sure his eyes are wide open because too often we think that when we get close to people of great significance, and in this case it was Jesus, that maybe we can glean off of their power and their glory and our lives are just going to be rainbows and unicorns. But that's not at all what Jesus is saying. He's saying, "There is a cost to following after me." Too often we think that when we get close to people of great significance, and in this case it was Jesus, that maybe we can glean off of their power and their glory and our lives are just going to be rainbows and unicorns. But that's not at all what Jesus is saying. He's saying, "There is a cost to following after me." My Dad tells this story that I remember because he's told it about 1,000 times, it's what dads do. Dads tell you stories a long time. I'm a dad and a grandfather now, and I'm gonna do the same exact thing and love it. And it's everybody else's problem. My Dad was in college at the University of Georgia where I was born while he was a student there, this would've been 1969, 1970, during the Vietnam conflict. He determined that he was going to sign up for one of the military branches, and all four of the military branches were on campus at the University of Georgia recruiting in the student center. My dad has tremendous respect for every military branch, by the way. Loves to make jokes occasionally with his buddies who are in different ones, but tremendous respect for them all. But he asked a very simple question when he got to the very first one, he said, "If I enlist with you, what are my chances of going to Vietnam?" And the first recruiter of this particular military branch said some stuff about, you know, "Well, there's desk jobs and, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll go and all this kind of stuff." And then he asked the second one, and they said the same thing. And then he asked the third one, they said the same thing. And then he got to the Marines and the Marine recruiter, he said to him, he said, "Sir, if I enlist with you, what are my chances of actually going to Vietnam?" And the Marine recruiter looked him dead in the eyes and said, "Son, very strong." My Dad said, "Okay, I'm signing with you." It's not that he wanted to necessarily go, nobody wants to get shot at. It's that this guy shot so straight with him that he knew he could come in with his eyes open and recognize this is probably what the outcome's going to be. You see, what Jesus does with this man is he helps him to see what the cost looks like, that there is a cost in following Jesus. If you think in following Jesus, in the world that we're living in and in the direction the world is going, if you think following Jesus is gonna be easy, you are misunderstanding what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Some of you're still living in that world where it's nice and comfortable for you to show up and just come in on a Sunday, do nothing, sit in the back, sit in the front, sing a song, do what you do, and never have it impact your life because you don't want anybody around you, necessarily, to know about this. The people that are your family members, or your work associates, or the people you go to school with. So you keep it all clammed up and it's only about Sunday and you just show up and you kinda do your thing as if you're somehow impressing God. But it's not really impacting your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I can tell you that when the heat gets turned up, you're gone. You're out. You will not be able to persevere and stand because you need to count the cost of what it means to follow Jesus. Where he goes, we go, and how he lives, we live. That's what it means to be on the road to Jerusalem. We misunderstand the mission, we misunderstand the cost. I still remember a song from the 1990s that got stuck in my head, and I won't sing it for you 'cause that would hurt. But the chorus went like this. There's not a victory without a fight. There's not a sunrise without a night, there's not a purchase without a cost, and there's not a crown without a cross. And I thought, "Yeah, that's true." "That's exactly right." So they misunderstood the mission, they misunderstood the cost. But let me show you a third way they misunderstood. They misunderstood the priority, the priority of what it meant to follow after Jesus. Look, as the narrative continues, after Jesus has this interchange with this first man, watch this. It says, he said to another man, "Follow me." "But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." "And Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead." "But you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." "Still another said, "I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." "And Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." What Jesus is doing without me going into great detail here about what he's saying to these particular men, the greater point is this, Jesus is actually reordering and reprioritizing relationships in the kingdom of God. That's what he's doing here. He's helping them to see that Jesus is the priority relationship in all of the world. As Peter said at one time when, when Jesus said, "Are you gonna leave me too?" And Peter said, "Where would we go?" "Only you have the words of eternal life." You see, it becomes an issue of priority relationship. "Those who want to follow Jesus, but are always looking at other things to define that are not worthy of following him," Jesus says. You can't even cut a straight line, a straight row in the field if you're constantly looking back. The line just keeps doing this. And Jesus says, "I need disciples who are gonna walk in a straight line after me, who are gonna follow me, where I go, who are gonna live like I live." There's a priority associated with it. A number of years ago, What would be become one of my dear friends, this was when I first got here to The Chapel, we were on a mission trip and me and a guy named Daryl Largis were together. And Daryl and I were talking after some ministry that we had done. We had a lot of funny stories that came outta that trip. But we were talking and I was asking him about his job. And he told me, and he was so humble about it all. But he was helping to lead one of the, a major Buffalo business in our region. Loads of employees. And so we started talking, and then he started sharing with me that prior to moving to Buffalo in a place he previously lived, because this company was moving him every few years, they had him kind of on an executive track. They were exposing him to all the areas of their business and the pay was good, and it was gonna continue to get like really, really good. He was gonna make stupid money at some point, and they were gonna move him from here too. And that was probably not in the too distant future. And I said to him, I said, "Well, tell me about your life and stuff." And he told me that a few years back, he sensed that God called him to ministry. And I was like, "Really?" "Well, unpack that for me a little bit." And so, he started talking. He said, "I feel like God called me to do it, but best I understand, I feel like I'm gonna work for the next little while." "I'm gonna be able to retire early because of the trajectory I'm on." "And then I'll Lord willing be able to give maybe a decade of still healthy ministry life to service to the kingdom." And I was like, "Yeah, maybe that is what the Lord's gonna do." And then I just looked at him and I asked him one question, "What if Jesus said it was now?" And he did not blink. He looked me dead in the face and he said, "Then it's now." And I was like, "That's the kinda guy, that's the kinda guy who understands priority." And by the way, he left that role with that company, said yes to my invitation to serve here, served here for 11 years faithfully as a man of God before he went home to be with Jesus at a very young age. And I can guarantee you this, he doesn't regret a day of it because he said, "I'll go where you go." "I'll live like you live, I will say yes no matter what, and I know who my priority is in this life" And I thank God for it. But these disciples, they misunderstood. These would be disciples, they misunderstood. They didn't understand the mission, they didn't understand the cost, they didn't understand the priority. You can see it. But the truth is, is that we can do the same thing. We misunderstand our mission too because we misunderstand Jesus. And so we think to ourselves that when we see things that are happening, our first resort is to wanting to acquire power. Our first resort is wanting to make massive judgements and to deride and mock instead of sacrificial offering of our lives in love for the sake of other people who are lost, who are confused, who don't know what's going on, and who may even be making fun of Jesus and his people. We misunderstand the cost. We think that maybe because Jesus suffered, we don't have to. That's not how this goes. Jesus has secured our eternity where we no longer are under the penalty and the power of sin. And thank God for that, what he's done at the cross. But don't think for a second that we just get off because he suffered, now we don't have to. Jesus said, "I this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." But some of us have got an over realized eschatology, how do you like that line? Some of us have an over realized eschatology, which basically means this. We still somehow think that we are going to rule and reign in a real significant way like it's the new creation and we're gonna do it right now when Jesus said, "The world that you're living in is troubled, it's difficult, it's hard, it's going to be hard for believers." Read the book of Revelation. The whole thing is about faithfulness in the midst of difficulty. And Jesus says, "If you wanna follow after me, you can't misunderstand the cost." Sometimes we have this feeling like in our heads, that Jesus put aside heavenly riches so that we could be enriched with earthly ones. Or that Jesus suffered and faced hardship so that we could live painless and easy. That's not how this goes friends. If that's what your thought is about being a disciple of Jesus, you are missing him completely. We miss the mission, we miss the cost, we miss the priority. We put our priorities on other things and other relationships. Some of us have put such a priority on people who vote like us, that we are more attached to people who vote like us than we are people in the body of Christ who might see something slightly different than we do. These things should not be. They should not be. Jesus is the priority relationship of our whole lives. We misunderstand, but there's hope. The reason that I'm holding out hope to you is this, is because all these people when Jesus was walking along and this man walking along the road saying, "I'll follow you wherever you go," and Jesus says these words to him, and then the other people that he says, "Hey, follow me." And they say, "Well, I gotta go bury my Dad," or, "I wanna say goodbye to my family and all." Here's the thing, we don't know what happened to any of them. We don't know. Do you know why I think Luke puts it that way? So that every one of us that would ever read this evermore would be able to put ourselves in those places and ask the question, "How am I going to respond?" We know James and John got rebuked and they continued to follow Jesus. So they received it. And they continued to follow him and they learned from it. We don't know what these other three that Jesus had a conversation with, we don't know actually what happened to them. Did one of them actually follow after him and two of them reject him? Maybe. Did two follow him and one reject him? Maybe. Did all of them reject him? Maybe? Did all of them follow him? Maybe. I don't know. But I don't think Luke's point here is trying to tell us what actually occurred. It's reminding us all that we've got these questions to answer. That's why they're not answered for us. How do we respond? You see, here's what I fear. I fear that in western culture and in western church life with all of the amenities, and the stuff, and the things that we have, I fear that we've created attenders, but we don't have enough disciples. I fear that we've got lots of consumers, but not lots of disciples. I fear that we've got lots of spectators. "Oh, Jerry, I'm looking forward to it." "See if you can bless me today." What? We're here to worship Jesus. We're here to follow after him. You're not here for a performance from me, from singers. We're here together to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the one who is completely and totally worthy of our very lives, the one in whom is salvation, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. That's what we're here to do. But I fear that sometimes we find ourselves in positions where we become attenders, or consumers, or spectators instead of growing as disciples. You see, here's why I know that. Because people sometimes are surprised when disciples of Jesus make decisions consistent with what disciples of Jesus should make. Sometimes it even causes sacrifice. Sometimes it's sacrificial, that we're making decisions sometimes that are sacrificial. And people are like, "Man, what?" "That's crazy." So people are surprised when Jesus followers make decisions consistent with being a follower of Jesus. And aren't surprised when people who have heard the gospel over and over again have lives that don't reflect that it has mattered. That's how I know we're in trouble. I'm not saying that as general to every single person in here. You just have to see if this applies. But some of you are so casual in your faith that it's crazy. You show up whenever you want. You average maybe once every month or two months. You're like, "Oh, it's cool, I'll check in with God here and there." You're not engaged in community. You're not serving in the kingdom of God. You're a spectator, you're a consumer, it's what you are. Don't be fooled that that's not what a disciple is. That is not what a disciple is. What a disciple is, is that Jesus is looking for people to go where he goes and live like he lives. And when you're on the road to Jerusalem, it means that sometimes you're gonna have to choose sacrificial service in the kingdom of God. It's what it means. I read a message by Charles Spurgeon that I thought was brilliant. I think the title, he always had these crazy titles, these awesome like long paragraph titles. I think this title of this message, he preached like in the 1800s and British, you know, had lots of titles. And I think it was something like, "The Redeemer's Face Like Flint," was the title or something like that. Listen to what he said. He said, "My great object is to lead you, to love him who so loved you, that he set his face like a flint in his determination to save you." "Oh, ye redeemed ones on whose behalf this strong resolve was made, ye who have been bought by the precious blood of this steadfast resolute Redeemer, come and think a while of him, that your hearts may burn within you, and that your faces may be set like flints to live and die for him who lived and died for you." Those are the kinds of disciples that we want to see because Jesus is looking for disciples to go where he goes and to live like he lives. So the question for you is simple. Will you follow? Will you truly follow him? Let's bow our heads together. Before we move around, or walk out, or disturb anybody around us, could I just simply ask two different groups of people to think about something? And the first is this, you may be here and have never entrusted your life to Jesus. You've never actually had your sins forgiven, your life made new. You saw some of these baptism stories and testimonies, and you don't really have that story or testimony. You've been somebody who's been kicking the tires, you've been looking this from the outside, but you haven't allowed Jesus to change you, forgive you, shape you, live inside of you. If that's your need today, I wanna remind you that you can't save yourself. Scripture says that, "All of sin and come short of the glory of God," that means all of us, and that the payment or wages for our sin is death. That's both physical and eternal. But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Because God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. If your need is to come into relationship with Jesus Christ, there's gonna be some men and women that'll be standing down front when we dismiss in just a moment. They're even making their way even now. And they're just gonna be standing here waiting on you. And they would love to take a moment, pray with you to receive Jesus Christ by faith. It's also possible that you may be here and maybe have been in church for a bit, for a while. Maybe you've grown somewhat cold in your relationship to Christ. Maybe the actual reflection of your very life doesn't reflect the nature of what a disciple actually looks like. I wanna say to you that you can do business with the Lord right where you are. He's listening, he loves you, he cares about you. He wants you to grow in grace. He doesn't wanna leave you in the same place you're in. He wants you to understand what it really means to be his disciple and to follow after him. And maybe you say, "You know what?" "I need somebody to pray with me about that." Well, come and take one of these men or women by the hand. They'd love to take a moment and pray with you about that, about how you can humble yourself before the Lord and really walk after him. Put yourself in the way of being a disciple as opposed to being a consumer, or a spectator, or. So I want you to do what the Lord leads you to do. We're here for you, but we're not gonna manipulate you into anything. This has to be between you and the Lord and his leadership. So Father, I pray that you would do your good pleasure among your people for your glory. I pray that the power of your spirit would be real in the lives of people. For those that you are drawing to salvation, in Jesus' name, I pray that they would respond and receive that. Lord, for those maybe of us who know you, but you wanna speak a deep word into our hearts about where we are in our discipleship. I pray you'd speak to us about that because we realize when we read your word that the road to Jerusalem is the road you've asked us to follow you on. And I pray that you would make us resilient and resolute disciples so that the world around us might see you in us, willing to sacrificially love to stand for both grace and truth in the midst of a world that's gone mad. We trust you to do this. Do your good work for your glory, I ask in Jesus name, amen.