Worthy of the Kingdom

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?

Now, these two guys have the nickname Sons of Thunder, and we kind of see why here. This is a WWE-style discipleship. And I think it's kind of funny, right? These two just came off the mount where they saw Jesus glorified and heard,

this is my son, listen to him.

And here they're so upset with the Samaritans for not showing the basic expected hospitality. Do you want us, Lord, to bring down fire from heaven? So many questions. Could they have done it? Have they tried to do this before? Did they think Jesus needed them to do it? I mean, it shows how slow these disciples are to grow and learn. They just saw the Mount of Transfiguration, the greatest revelation this side of Jesus coming back, I think. And they still think he needs them to bring a judgment. Actually, look at this. And notice here, Jesus in verse 55,

he turned and rebuked them.

That's the same language we see Jesus using towards demons, a strong, clear, you're absolutely wrong rebuke. I believe these disciples are representing still they have a wrong view of Messiah. A Messiah who's gonna come and bring this kind of judgment on anybody who disagrees. You don't believe, condemn. You're not ready, condemn. Notice how kind and patient Jesus is with them who constantly get it wrong. But they have also a wrong time. I believe the constant friction with the disciples is they just don't understand there's two comings of Christ. There's a coming of the gospel, the coming we actually live in now. He's come to show grace. He's come to open his arms of mercy. He will come again, and it will be harsh, clear, righteous judgment. They've conflated these two. They don't understand he's come for mercy. we do see a little representation that John will get it eventually. Because in Acts 8, Luke records that John went and preached the gospel of grace to the Samaritans. Jesus' mission, he set his face. He set his face not for this kind of harsh judgment the disciples are asking for. He set his face not to condemn everyone who's still questioning or misunderstanding. No, he set his face to do one thing. to go to Jerusalem and die. He set his face to be betrayed by even his disciples, as planned by God. He set his face to be betrayed by one specific disciple who he's dined with and cared for, as planned by God. He set his face to be arrested, beaten, mocked. He set his face to stand before a king and tell him, you have authority to condemn me because God the Father has given you that authority. He set his face to be rejected by the priest, his own people who were gonna declare, crucify him. He set his face to be taken out of the city, nailed to a cross, mocked, put a crown on his head, be mocked as a king of the Jews. And to then say, it is finished, to give up his life for us. All this he has set as his mission, to set his face for the joy set before him, and that is saving us. Let's meditate on just a few of the things he says in the cross to understand the importance of what his mission is headed to Jerusalem.

Forgive them for they know not what they do.

He's come to die to satisfy the wrath of God. God must punish every sin equally, truly, justly. God would not be just if he just overlooked sin without it being punished. The only way for sin to be punished and God to be righteous and for us to be forgiven is that it's punished in Jesus. When he declares, forgive them, he's ultimately saying, God, punish me for the sins they've committed. The second,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Notice here the distance introduced in the language. Well, that's because we're now far apart from God. He takes our place as being taken away from the wonderful sweet fellowship so that we're brought near. He is punished so we can be forgiven. He is removed so we can be brought near. And then finally those words,

it is finished.

Everything needed for our salvation is accomplished. Christ died to save us. Christ died to save us on the cross. Death is defeated. Sin debt is paid in full. Satan is disarmed. God's justice and love are on perfect display. And we're given the freedom to repent. Repent of being God's enemies and becoming God's friends. Before we move on, let's look at one more part of this passage. Verse 56,

and they went on to another village.

This is a brief glimpse of a kind of partial judgment. The Savior, God's own son, was in a city, and the city rejected him, and he moved on. There's a sense we need to take into account here. There is a time where God might reveal himself. There's a time when we could hear the word of God, believe, and we might say, not right now. This is a warning, a desperate, clear warning. If you don't receive him, do not presume upon the grace of God that you can just come to God whenever you want. Do not presume there's another day. They don't presume there's this time and you're just gonna live the way you wanna live now and maybe one day you'll come to God, no. There's a judgment, he moved on to another city. The one Savior came to be single-minded in his one mission. There's an urgency to believe in him, there's an urgency to trust him, and now we're gonna see that while he's walking there's Lots of ways in which people misunderstand discipleship. Our next section, double-minded discipleship, double-minded disciples. 57 through 62, we see three different scenes, all containing the word, follow me. One of the most basic ingredients for discipleship. Jesus just said in the chapter already, in chapter nine, what does it mean to be a disciple?

Deny yourself, carry your cross, follow me.

I believe it's all summarized here in the word, follow me. As they're going now to the next city, as Jesus is headed towards Jerusalem, follow me is what he commands, one. And then the other two, initiate, I will follow you. I believe here we see what we need to have as disciples. If you're a new believer, if you're wrestling with should I believe in Jesus, what does it cost? What does it cost? Jesus tells you, count the cost. He's gonna give three clear teachings that are correcting a wrong understanding of discipleship. There's only one way to really follow Jesus, it's to straight and narrow. There are 1,000 times 1,000 ways to get distracted and deviate. Here are three big examples on how easy it is to be distracted, misunderstand, and deviate. As we hear these, it's an opportunity to recalculate, reconsider commitments, and who Jesus is, what he's called us to, and are we faithful? Three different conversations. If you're taking notes, three different questions that really press in for these different conversations. First, will we follow him? Will we follow him? Second, what comes first? What comes first? And third, are we fit? Are we fit? 57 and 58, will we follow him?

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.

Notice the person who's come up. We don't know who it is. We don't know what happens. We don't have any follow-up as to how he responds to this. But he initiates with Jesus, I'll follow you, and it's zealous. He has a high understanding of his own commitment. Wherever you will go. Now that's significant because he must understand he's going to Jerusalem and maybe understands that entails some kind of suffering. He's promising something. I will follow, I'll be a disciple, wherever you go. Now Jesus as a good master, he doesn't put what he expects of us in any kind of fine print. He's very clear, he wants to be very clear with us, so we actually know how to count the cost. Notice his response really is built around the idea of nowhere. He's promising I'll go wherever, and he's saying, no, there's nowhere to lay your head. I will follow you wherever you go, and Jesus wants to make them understand what you're getting into. I'm not going to go to a place where there's a pillow, a home. Now, we have to wrestle with this. Is Jesus calling us all to be gypsies? Is Jesus calling us all, like some fathers did, to repent of having a pillow? If you're convicted of having a pillow, by all means, get rid of your pillow, but I would not suggest it. If Jesus was calling us all to give up our homes, we couldn't be hospitable. If Jesus were calling us to move about and have nowhere settled, there wouldn't be churches that build in roots to be a witness to a city. Now, I believe he's talking about something very different. I believe he's pressing us on something actually much harder than thinking about selling our homes and moving about. The real question is, what is our permanent home? Where is our final destination? What is our permanent residence? I believe when you think about this, it's the real message of 1 Peter. We're elect exiles. We're resident aliens. We're sojourners. We're citizens of heaven. This is not our final place to find the great comfort. This is not our final home. We have a new destination. Jesus has said,

I am going to prepare a place for you.

The call is not to repent of owning a home or a bed or a pillow. No, it's to embrace. You have a new citizenship, a whole new residence, a whole new calling. We're called to be a church on mission, not a church at rest. is one of the clear applications of this. Yeah, we're settled in a place, but we're still on a mission. Too often we think Jesus is calling us to just have the easier, better life. No, it's a better life, but it's not easier in the sense of there's a high calling, there's labor. It's a radical call to a different life. To recognize we belong to God and everything we have belongs to God. It's a recognition that all we have been given is meant to be used not for ourselves, but for others. It's a call for gratitude, thank you, God. Generosity, give to others. Summarizing the one word, stewardship. Christian, how much of our life is lived thinking about the fact that this is not our real final residence or citizenship? How much of our life is really thinking about the then, where God is bringing us, what he will do for us when we face him on that final judgment? Would we have run the race? I fear too many think it's supposed to be easy and somewhat of a leisure activity in discipleship. No, I think the calling is to run the race, which means when you're done, you're exhausted and you get relief from Christ. There's an enjoyable exhaustion, knowing you're doing the right thing in the right way for the grand purpose. This is a call to labor. Hard, worthy, labor. And here, there's gonna be a sense of loss. But let's just fast forward to Luke 18. Peter says, after Jesus told a fellow, not expected of all either. Sell everything you have. Peter says,

see, we've left our homes and followed you.

Keyword follow. Jesus said,

truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children. for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time in the age to come eternal life.

Where's our treasure? What are we living for? Where's our full residence? So the man first gets a correction. You're not really aware of what you're asking for, where you're committed to going. What kind of mission you're on. Next, we see the question, what comes first? What comes first? Here is the one different follow. It's Jesus actually saying to someone, follow me. Jesus initiates.

To another, Jesus said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and 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.

Now Jesus is on mission to Jerusalem and he invites someone to follow him. The man responds, well, Lord, that's a right response. And even what he says next seems so good. I need to bury my father. The real catch is that phrase, let me first. I have another priority. I have something that's more pressing. I have this very important task. It's a good task. It's a way to honor your father and your mother by burying them. You have a verse for it. The key is God just said, follow me. And he said, I got something more important to do first. This is what we call delayed obedience. And parents, delayed obedience is no obedience. Delayed obedience is not obedience. And this is the concern here. As we try to teach our children, delayed obedience is no obedience. As we teach our children and quit coming up with really clever ways to prolong bedtime, to get away from homework, parents, we have to realize we can become pretty good masters of this with really good excuses. I think that's the power of this particular excuse. Let me go bury my father. It sounds so pious. It sounds so good. The reality is his dad's probably not dead. They did not leave corpses around for more than 24 hours. They would bury the dead quickly. This is something he's saying, let me just prolong this. I have this very important thing that I don't know when it's gonna happen, but it gives me some time to wait. Sounds like a very pious reason. I fear it really is just a simple delay. Jesus' response sounds like it could be harsh. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. Now that's an impossibility, right? If we take it just straight forward, the dead body burying the dead body. No, I believe we're referring to those who are spiritually dead. You're being invited into the way of life. You're being invited into the way of righteousness. You're being invited into the way of the son. These priorities, Yes, there's some good things, but they don't come first. This phrase has actually become a proverb for making God your first priority because of this teaching. Again, the man has a good thing he wants to do. The problem is he's making it a greater priority first before God and what God just said to him. This one's really scary. The pious things we use to not be faithful. The things that are actually clearly sin in and of themselves that we use to not be faithful. Those are the most dangerous. Those are the most dangerous. Do we keep waiting to be faithful disciples until our circumstances are just right? Do we keep waiting until things are just lined up and then I know I can be faithful, I'll follow Jesus, I've got my finances in order, I've got my home in order, my kids are, everything's good, now I'm gonna be a faithful disciple. If you're waiting for everything to be in order for you to be a disciple, you'll never be a disciple. If he's not worthy now to help you reorder everything the way it should be, he's never gonna be worthy. What kind of practices are we committed to? Can I just say very clearly, 90% of discipleship is just where you're present. Presence. If you're not present, you're unable to be with others in the Word and with prayer and with care. It really is a matter of presence. Where are you presently seeking to commit your time and energy and effort? It's called a recalculate. There's so many ways I've heard, I'll be more faithful once this happens. Once I graduate. Once I get married. Once I have kids. Once my kids are grown. Once my kids are out of the house. Once I retire. Once I have my finances in order. J.C. Ryle in Thoughts for Young Men has a great challenge.

Young men do not be deceived. Think not you can at will serve lust and pleasures in your beginning and then go and serve God with ease at your latter end. Think not you can live with Esau and then die with Jacob.

If you don't have that book, oh, we've got some copies for you. That's the great lie. Oh, just a little bit longer and then I'll really commit. Just a little bit longer and then I'll change my life around. A little bit longer. There's urgency in discipleship. There's urgency in discipleship. Jesus calls us to participate in following him in this mission. It requires our presence, our practice, it changes our priorities. What excuse is being used to delay the kind of faithful commitment you know God is calling you to? Here, what this man is told, but for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. You proclaim it with where you're at, what you're prioritizing. The third way in which we deviate, it's very similar to the second. All these are about following him. The second two are about a delay. Here we have to ask the question, am I fit?

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

All right, here we again, we have that word first. He's the one who initiates, Lord, I will follow you. The would-be disciple is the one making the promise that says I need to first go do something. I need to go kiss mama. What's wrong with that? That sounds good. That sounds right. I wanna go home and I just wanna say goodbye. I wanna do one last thing. I need to go tell my family where I'm going. I want to give a farewell. Oh, God has created the family. The family is blessed by God. The family is a blessing. But here it's, again, an excuse to not be urgent, to not have that immediate commitment. Jesus himself declares that there's something off here. Notice verse 62.

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

No one who puts his hand to the plow, no one who says I'm gonna follow you and looks back is fit. Fit means you're right, you're ready. Fit means you're prepared. It's a very vivid image. Plowing is difficult work. You're following a beast of burden, and you've got to put your hands in the plow, and you've got to make sure the plow is dug in, and you've got to make sure that plow goes straight. If you turn, you're not committed and focused. It could be dangerous. You're not going to have a straight line. You're not going to fully dig in. The labor takes all of your attention and focus. If you turn, if you think back of what was, what could have been, the things I miss in this world, you're not fit. And notice how clear it is there's a labor involved. There's a labor. What does it mean to be fit for the kingdom? Friends, this is referring to salvation. To be fit for the kingdom means you're part of the kingdom. To be fit for the kingdom means you've met the qualifications for the kingdom. Do you have to hold on tight enough to the plow to be saved? No. Do you have to continue on in the faith to be saved? Yes. Being fit for the kingdom means we've seen the one single-minded Savior who died for us. We've believed in Him. He's transformed us, and this is the beauty of it. He makes us fit. He transforms us. He makes us ready. He holds on to us when we can't hold on to Him. but someone demonstrates an unfitness, a danger, somebody terrified of. If you've got your hand on the plow and you're looking back, I've got other commitments, I've got other priorities. This just isn't right enough yet. Believer, are your hands on the plow? Are you going in the right direction? Is it straight and narrow following Jesus? Let's go back to legalism. It has many forms. Legalism has many forms. One, I need to do something to secure God's forgiveness and love. That's a salvation problem, legalism. That says, yes, Jesus died on the cross, he rose again, but I have to do something to finish his work. Instead of believing Jesus said it is finished, I need to do something of my own effort to make sure it's finished. It's wrong. There's another kind of legalism. I need you to live according to my convictions and or be in fellowship. That's normally what we say when we talk about legalism and that's a fellowship issue. Now, if someone says, I need you to walk faithfully as Christ has commanded to be in fellowship with you, that's right. But if someone says, I need you to live according to my own personal exact convictions that fellowship with you, that's wrong. Third, I need to keep doing more, I feel the burden of keep proving myself that I am a disciple. That's a freedom issue. That's a number of folks here. I just need to keep doing more so that I feel like God loves me. No, God loves you and you know that when you look at the cross. Doing more doesn't give you any more of God's love. God loves you. And that's demonstrated on the cross. The third one also represents many here, or possibly here. I don't need to do anything now because Christ did it all. Required obedience is legalism. That, again, is a salvation issue. God's grace leads us to faith, so we obey. Obedience is not optional in the kingdom. Christ says you're unfit if your hands are on the plow, moving straight forward, committed faithfully. To be clear with the gospel, Jesus loves us. He loved us while we were sinners. He died for us while we were sinners. He came to seek those who were sinners so that we'd be redeemed, so we'd find rest, so that we could actually enter into his rest and then know how to labor in his kingdom. in his way and find joy. This morning, the high calling, he's a single-minded savior. There are so many ways we get distracted, and most of them are usually delaying obedience. Brothers and sisters, do not delay obedience. Repent, follow him. If you're not a Christian this morning, do not refuse opportunity. While you hear his invitation, come and believe in me to be forgiven, to be saved, to know him. Do not think delay. It's urgent to believe. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have sent your own son to show your kindness. The son you promised, the son who's been sent, the son who has died to declare all things finished because he accomplished all of our salvation. We thank you now that we have the Holy Spirit to renew us, to make us fit, so that we can with great confidence put our hand to the plow of your labor, to run that race, to enjoy the exhaustion of labor in the kingdom, to be thankful we can be tired laboring for you because it's joyful. It's the way we worship you. Lord, forgive us for the ways we've delayed believing and obeying. Forgive us for the ways we've put off hearing your call, wanting to prioritize just one more thing. Lord, I pray we would repent of whatever it is that we think is more worthy of our time right now than you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.