And they went on to another village. 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, "The foxes have holes and the birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His
head." 59 And He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord,
permit me first to go and bury my father." 60 But He said to him,
"Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and
proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God." 61 Another also said, "I
will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye 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."

God is always doing more than we know. In every event in our
life and in the life of this church and this city and this state
and this country and this world God is always doing 10,000 things
that we do not know. The designs and the effects of every event
from the fall of a bird, or the birth of a baby, or the death of a
Senator, or the capturing of a sniper, or the storming of a Russian
theater – the designs and effects of every event are 10,000
times more than we know. 99.9% of God’s specific purposes are
hidden from our eyes.

When he scattered the nations at the Tower of Babel he was doing
more than one thing. He was restraining evil by preserving
diversity that would function as check and balance in the human
craving for power and fame and wealth. But in the same act of
judgment he was preserving and increasing the diversity that would
become the many-colored mosaic of redemption. Evil would be
deflected by diversity in language and culture; and the glory of
Christ would be reflected by the diversity in language and culture.
"Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you"
(Psalm 67:3). All the languages, all the cultures, all the colors
– let them all praise you. For you will shine all the more
brightly in our eyes when we see you reflected and praised by all
the peoples!

This is the final Sunday of our fall Missions Focus. And God is
doing more in these days than anyone knows for the sake of the
nations. His authority and his love and his mission are having a
tremendous effect. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age"
(Matthew 28:18-20). All authority is mine. Go make disciples. I
will be with you. That banner is flying over us, and there are
untold thousands of effects being unleashed.

An Invitation

In a few minutes, when I am finished speaking, I will invite
many of you to come to the front to show some of those effects and
to pray with me here, and with Erik Hyatt downtown, about
God’s calling on your life in missions. "The harvest is
plentiful," Jesus said, "but the laborers are few. Therefore
beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His
harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). We have been doing that. And God is
stirring in many hearts.

I will tell you ahead of time whom I will be inviting to come:
1) those who are already missionaries and are here for a time, and
those under appointment and about to go; 2) those who believe that
this is God’s call on your life, whether soon or later; and
3) those in whom God has been working, it seems, unusually in
recent weeks or months to loosen you from your present situation to
seriously consider going across a culture for the glory of Christ.
Your not sure yet, but you have sensed, or will sense this morning,
some unusually strong desire or pointer to cross-cultural
missions.

Jesus’s Response to His Would-Be Followers

God is always doing more than one thing in everything he does.
So let’s go to Luke 9:56-62 to see what Jesus is doing in
this unusual and shocking series of encounters. Three would-be
followers meet Jesus. And Jesus says to each of them something very
hard and very sweet.

In verse 57 to the man who says, "I will follow you wherever you
go," he says, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."

Then in verse 59 Jesus takes the initiative and calls another,
"Follow me." The man responds, "Lord, permit me first to go and
bury my father." To which Jesus replies in verse 60, "Allow the
dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim
everywhere the kingdom of God."

Then a third candidate for discipleship says in verse 61, "I
will follow you, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those
at home." To this Jesus responds in verse 62, "No one, after
putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God."

More than one thing is going on here in each of these
encounters. To see that clearly the way Jesus intends it, you need
to go back to verse 51 to make sure that you feel the tension in
the air. In verse 51 it says, "When the days were approaching for
His ascension, He was determined [he set his face] to go to
Jerusalem."

"He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem"

Now we know what Jerusalem meant for Jesus. He said to his
apostles in Luke 18:31-33, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and
everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets
will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles
and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after
flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will
rise." And then when he got to the city Luke 19:41-42 says, "When
he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If
you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for
peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.’"

So there is an ominous ring in Luke 9:51 that we need to hear
when Jesus says, "He set his face to go to Jerusalem." Then to make
clear the implications of going to Jerusalem Luke tells us what
happened next and why. Verse 52: "[Jesus] sent messengers ahead of
him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make
preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because
he was going to Jerusalem." This is a signal to us: if you join
Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, you may not have a place to stay.
You may not be popular. You may be rejected.

Now we are ready to see more clearly what is happening in our
text, verses 56-62. Three times we read the word "follow" to
describe what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Verse 57, "I will
follow you." Verse 59: "Follow me." Verse 61: "I will follow you."
The point in this phrase is that being a disciple of Jesus, that
is, being a Christian, is more than learning about him; it includes
following him where he goes. "Whoever does not bear his own cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27).

"Follow ME!" – "FOLLOW Me!"

Now we are ready to see that more than one thing is going on
here. When Jesus says, "Follow me," and says it in the context of
going to Jerusalem and having just been rejected in Samaria for
going to Jerusalem, he is clearly saying two things, not just one
thing. He is saying: "Follow ME." And he is saying "FOLLOW me."
There is me, and there is my mission. There is a person, and there
is a path. There is a sweetness, and there is suffering. There is
Jesus, and there is Jerusalem.

This is the way missions has always been and the way it will
always be. When Jesus said at the end of his life, "Go, make
disciples of all nations!" he wrapped that mission and that path
and that suffering and that Jerusalem in his mighty and merciful
self. First he said, "All authority in heaven and on earth is
mine." And last he said, "I will be with you to the end of the
age." There is the "FOLLOW me!" (Go!) And there is the "Follow ME!"
(I will be with you). There is the path to the nations through
Jerusalem, and there is the person who will be with you, Jesus. So
when you hear the words, "Follow me," hear two things (at least!)
not just one thing.

Now what was Jesus doing in responding the way he did to these
three would-be followers? No place to lay your head. Let the dead
bury their dead. Put your hand on the plow and don’t look
back. What was he doing? He was teaching, and he was testing. He
was teaching that the Calvary road through Jerusalem will be a very
hard road, and will require sacrifices of home and family. And he
was testing to see if he himself was the greatest treasure of their
lives. They said, "I’ll follow YOU." And Jesus said, "Really?
You love me, you treasure me that much? Here’s what it will
cost." So he is testing how much they treasure the "you" in "I will
follow you," by telling them what the "follow" will cost.

So there are two things going then and now in this room and
downtown. First, Jesus is offering himself for our fellowship and
friendship and partnership in missions. Just think of it. This
is
the Creator of the universe. The King of kings and Lord of lords.
The one who upholds all things by the word of his power. The one
who is from everlasting to everlasting. Born of a virgin as the
Holy One of God. Perfect in life. Triumphant over sin and death and
hell and all the demons you will ever meet. In him are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This Jesus says to you, as you
ponder the possibility of missions, "Follow me." Not, "You go there
while I stay at Bethlehem." But, "I am going there. Follow me . . .
I will be with you to the close of the age . . . I will never leave
you or forsake you."

John Paton’s Experience of This Promise

John Paton’s experience of this promise in the New
Hebrides over a hundred years ago is deeply moving. He was being
pursued by hostile natives.

Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating
friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into
the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent
there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard
the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages.
Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe in the arms of Jesus.
Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak
more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among
these chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing
brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it
be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone
in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence,
to enjoy His consoling fellowship. If thus thrown back upon your
own soul, alone, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the
very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail
you then? (John G. Patton: Missionary to the New Hebredies, An
Autobiography Edited by His Brother [Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth
Trust, 1965, orig. 1889, 1891], p. 200)

A Treasure Test

Then the second thing that Jesus is doing in our text is to test
you, to see if this is enough, to see if he is really your
treasure, your joy, your security, your hope, your friend in times
of loneliness, your home, your father and mother, your power to
look straight ahead – to test you in all these ways, he tells
you what it will cost.

Don’t make these hard words more difficult than they are.
He 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." He is not saying that one
battle with fear that you might have made a mistake in going to the
mission field will make you unfit for future service.

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).

Jesus Knows Your Idols!

In other words, the point of all these tough words as Jesus
interacts with different people is not to create laws that all
disciples or all missionaries have to keep: Thou shalt give all
your money! Thou shalt give half your money! Thou shalt go without
a bed! Thou shalt go without a funeral for your dad! The point is
that Jesus knows everyone’s idol. Jesus knows perfectly what
is competing in your heart with affection for him. He looks
everyone of us in the face this morning and sees right to our
heart.

Let him do that for you now. Don’t take offense. He does
this to win us for himself. "Follow me!" is the goal. Being with
Jesus is the goal. It won’t be easy. But it will be good.
There will be joy even if there is continual sorrow (2 Corinthians
6:10 – "sorrowful but always rejoicing"). Because he will be
with us.

Attachment to Your Home

So he raises the issue in verse 58 about your attachment to your
home: "The Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Will you
follow him? What about your home, your furniture, the security you
enjoy there, your comforts in the climate controlled year-round
perfect atmosphere, your roach-free, mouse-free, ant-free, totally
automated kitchen, your new surround-sound home entertainment
center? Jesus says, Follow me. Am I more precious, more satisfying
than these?

Attachment to Your Family

He raises the question about our family in verse 60: "Let the
dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim
everywhere the kingdom of God." Whom do you cherish more:
Spiritually dead relatives, or the giver of life, Jesus Christ? The
point is not that it’s never right for a missionary to come
home for his dad’s funeral. The point is that it might be
right not to, and the issue is how it serves the proclamation of
the gospel, and how it reveals your treasures. Who is first, Christ
or family? The point here is that Jesus Christ is absolute and all
other allegiances are relative. There will be a hundred choices you
must make in missions – indeed in life – that have no
simple biblical command to settle the issue. The issue will be: Do
you want Christ above all? Do you want to follow him more than
anything?

The Danger of Indecisive Discipleship

And he raises the question in verse 62 about fickle following.
The danger of indecisive discipleship. "No one, after putting his
hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
You can’t plow a straight furrow while looking back. You
can’t serve Christ, that is, you can’t make Christ look
great, if you are always second-guessing the value of following
him. Looking back means longing back. It means that we are not
really sure he is worth following, especially to Jerusalem. Divided
hearts like that are not useful in displaying the worth of
Christ.

Jesus Is Worthy!

But I want to close by saying, He is worthy! He is worth
following, even through Jerusalem to the cross and to the nations.
Yes, he will die in Jerusalem. But that is not bad news. Not
anymore. That is our life. He loved us and gave himself for us. He
didn’t say "Follow me to Jerusalem" because he needed help
with his redeeming work, but because if you are with him you will
be saved, and not only will you be saved, you will be given a
mission that according to verse 60 is more precious than burying
your father. Namely, "Go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God
in Christ Jesus."

If God is moving you at all to consider the
possibility of missions in your future, know this: He is worthy.
Following him will always mean more than one thing. If it means for
you the place of suffering and loneliness, he will be there.
"Follow me" means there is the path, and there is the person; there
is the suffering, and there is the sweetness; there is the
Jerusalem, and there is Jesus. Follow him.