The Committed Christian (Luke 9:57–62)

Well, it is certainly a privilege to be here in Del Rio, and I do value a long-standing friendship with Chip. I have been hearing about this church ever since Chip got down here. So it is a pleasure to be here in person and meet many of you. I trust we will have a good time together as we look at the Word of God tonight.

I would like you to turn, if you will, in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. We want to begin reading at verse 57.

Luke 9:57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, 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.’

Then He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.’

And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’

Or perhaps a better translation would be, ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is useful for the kingdom of God.’

If you ever come to Dallas, Texas, and happen to go out to White Rock Lake on a pretty weekend, here is a suggestion. Keep your eye on the bike and jogging track. If you are lucky, you may just possibly see an unusual sight. You may see a three-year-old border collie wearing a backpack with a handle on it. And you may see a woman in a wheelchair holding onto the handle. The collie will be pulling the woman in her wheelchair around the jogging track.

Now if you do ever catch sight of that rather unusual thing, I want you to know that you are looking at Sherry Zierfalls and her loyal companion Buck. You see, Sherry Zierfalls used to be a piano and organ teacher. But about twenty years ago she developed multiple sclerosis, which as you know is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Today she is confined to a wheelchair. She has weakness in her hands and arms, and she is legally blind.

Life was pretty tough for Sherry Zierfalls before Buck came to live with her. Of course when she wanted to go somewhere she had to have someone push her wheelchair. And if she happened to be at home when her son or her husband were at work and she dropped her eyeglasses, she would have to wait until somebody came home to pick them up. Or if she tried to lean over in her wheelchair and pick them up herself, she sometimes fell out of her wheelchair. And she would have to lie on the floor for hours until someone came to help her.

But over a year and a half ago Sherry Zierfalls heard about Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization that is based in Santa Rosa, California, and which trains dogs like Buck. Now of course dogs have been trained for decades to lead the blind. But Buck is a special breed of dog, and he is trained to do many things for his handicapped master.

Buck can do more than simply pull Sherry Zierfalls around the jogging track at White Rock Lake. If she wants to go shopping, he can pull her through the mall. He can take sharp turns. He stops on command so that she is able to browse. Buck can turn on light switches. He can punch elevator buttons. And if they go to the bank, he can hand the bank deposit to the bank teller.

“I just love dogs,” says Sherry Zierfalls, “and Buck is a real companion. With multiple sclerosis you sometimes get very, very depressed. And now when I get depressed I just tell Buck to say hello, and he comes over and lays his head in my lap or he kisses me.”

Today when Sherry Zierfalls drops her eyeglasses on the floor, she just asks Buck to retrieve them, and he brings them over to her. Of course they are usually a little slobbery, but that is easily fixed. “Buck goes everywhere I go,” says Sherry Zierfalls, “to church, out to eat, shopping.” And then she adds, “Buck has made me feel confident again. Buck has made me feel confident again.”

Now that is a very touching story. But it also contains, I think, a bittersweet reminder that sometimes dogs are more loyal to human beings than human beings are to each other. In fact, in our day and time loyalty and commitment to other people are qualities that are increasingly rare and increasingly hard to find.

Marriage is supposed to be a lifelong commitment between two people. And yet the number of marriages that are collapsing in divorce continues to rise at a staggering rate. And some of these are the marriages of Christians. In today’s world children are often disloyal to their parents, and parents are disloyal to their children. And some Americans are so selfish and so self-centered that they have trouble being committed to anybody except themselves.

Daniel Yankelovich, who is a nationally known poll taker, has this to say about the “me generation.” He says they have no real loyalties. They have big enthusiasms which they can kiss off tomorrow. They have big enthusiasms which they can kiss off tomorrow. The result is that you and I are surrounded by men and women, many of whose lives are empty of any real loyalty and of any real commitment to others.

And tonight I would like to challenge you, each one of you, to examine the quality of your commitment to the most important person of all. I would like you to examine the quality of your loyalty to Jesus Christ. And I want to suggest to you tonight that just as Buck is totally devoted to Sherry Zierfalls, so you and I are called to be totally committed to the Son of God.

Now I have never been to this church before, and I do not claim to be a mind reader. But I could guess what some of you are thinking just at this very moment. I will bet there is somebody out in this audience who is saying to themselves, “You are right, Zane. You are a hundred percent right. We ought to be committed to Jesus Christ. Now I want you to know that I am totally sold out to the Son of God.”

Well, I hope that you are. I really hope that you are. But if you are thinking something like that tonight, here is a piece of advice. Cool it. Cool it and listen closely to the passage of scripture that we read just a few moments ago.

Jesus was on a journey. It was one of those many journeys that He took all over the land of Palestine to preach and teach the Word of God. And while He was on this journey He is approached by an individual, evidently a man. And I am guessing that this was possibly a young man. And the way I like to picture him is that he was excited and enthusiastic and bubbling over. And with a flourish and maybe with a sense of the dramatic he makes a grand announcement to Jesus. He says, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”

Say, that is impressive. That is a pretty heavy commitment that this man is making. And if Jesus had been like some of our eager beaver church recruiters are today, He might have said, “Great. Terrific. Wonderful. Come along. Glad to have you aboard.”

You know what Jesus did? I will tell you what He did. He dumped cold water all over this guy. I mean, here is this bubbling, enthusiastic and excited recruit, and Jesus literally drenches him in cold water. And Jesus says, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man does not have a place to lay His head.”

And my Christian friends, tonight Jesus Christ wants your commitment. But He does not want a rash commitment. He wants your commitment, but He does not want a shallow, superficial, rash commitment. Jesus wants a serious and well-considered commitment.

I know that you all know the story of Gideon. It is a delightful story to tell the kids because it is so exciting. There is so much interesting stuff in it. Remember the land of Israel was invaded by the Amalekites and the Midianites. And they had such a big army that when they camped in the valley of Jezreel it looked like a swarm of locusts settling down over that great valley.

And Gideon is called upon to lead the army of the children of Israel against that invading host. And he collects thirty-two thousand men. A pitifully small army to confront an invading host like that. God comes to Gideon. He says, “This army is too big. This army is too big. If I save Israel with this size of an army they will take credit for the victory.”

And under God’s direction Gideon stood up in front of the soldiers, and he says, “Anybody that is scared, go on home.” Twenty-two thousand out of thirty-two thousand men go home. That leaves Gideon with ten thousand. God says, “Still too big. Still too big. Take them down to a brook. Separate them into two groups. The men who bend over and drink from the brook put them in one group, and the men who lap out of their hand like a dog laps put them in another group.”

Nine thousand seven hundred bend over. Gideon sends them home. Three hundred men are left. And you know the story. He divides them into three groups. He scatters them around the mountainside. They have their torches covered by their earthen vessels. And at a signal they all shout, “The sword of the Lord and the sword of Gideon.” They break their vessels. Their torches appear. And you better believe that their shouts reverberate down the valley like the shouts of thousands of men. All those torches must have looked like hundreds of campfires. And their enemies are in a panic. They strike up. They run all over each other. And Gideon and his three hundred men move in for the victory.

And mark it well. The God whom we serve has never felt the need of large armies to fight His battles or to win His victories. He can do exactly the same thing with a small group of people who are brave and dedicated to Him.

And Jesus Christ is not the kind of commander who eagerly signs on any and every recruit. And despite the impressive commitment that this man appeared to be making, Jesus said, “Stop right there. Wait a minute. Think about this. Do you realize that if you follow Me wherever I go that there will be nights that you will not have a roof over your head? There will be nights that you will not have a bed to sleep on. The foxes have their little holes to crawl into at night. The birds have their nests to settle down in at night. But the Son of Man often sleeps out in the open under the stars and on the ground. Have you thought about that? Think it over,” says Jesus, “before you make a commitment to Me.”

Now I would presume that in a church that has been sitting under the ministry of Chip Brunot I do not need to tell you, do I, that the man we are talking about was not trying to get saved? Or if he was trying to get saved, he was trying to get saved in the wrong way. Nobody gets saved and nobody goes to heaven by promising to follow Jesus wherever He goes.

Oh, I know lots of people out there preaching it that way. You can hear them on the radio. You can see them on TV. And they will tell you that unless you are fully and totally committed to Jesus Christ you will not even make it to heaven. And I just want to remind you that that is not the message of the gospel of God’s saving grace. Men are saved and men go to heaven by trusting Jesus Christ for the free gift of eternal life.

The Bible says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” The Bible says, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And the way to get to heaven is to trust Christ for your eternal salvation.

But the way to be a disciple, the way to be a disciple, is to follow Him wherever He goes. And that is different. That is different.

One of the most effective recruiting slogans that has been used in recent years by the armed services is the one that the Marines have been using. You all know it. You could repeat it. “The few, the proud, the Marines. The few, the proud, the Marines.” And that is a way of saying the Marines are not for everybody. The Marines are for a special breed of men.

That is the way it is in the army of the Lord. It is the few. It is the proud. It is the disciples of Jesus Christ. And that is not for everybody. That is for people who know what they are doing, have considered their commitment, and are following Jesus seriously.

Yes, Jesus wants your commitment. But He does not want a rash commitment. He wants a serious and well-considered commitment.

Now I really do not know whether the next incident took place on the same journey or not. Maybe it did. Maybe it did. But the Bible tells us that this time Jesus turned to another man, and it is Jesus who initiates the exchange. And Jesus says, “Follow Me. Follow Me.” In other words, become My disciple.

And Jesus gets a very classic answer. This man replies to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Now please do not misunderstand these words. I do not think this man had a dead father lying in a casket somewhere. I do not think he was asking permission to slip away to a funeral and to slip back.

I think that what this man was saying was something like this. He was saying, “Lord, I have got responsibilities at home. I have got an aging father, and I need to take care of my father. And when my father is dead and when my father is buried, then maybe I will be ready to follow You.”

And if we strip this answer of all of its froth and fuzz, it boils down to this, does it not? “Not now, Lord. Not now. Later, Lord. Later. Do not call me, Lord. I will call You.”

I say that is a classic answer because you see that is the kind of answer that people have been giving to Jesus Christ down through the centuries. And maybe, just maybe, there is somebody in this audience that has been giving that kind of an answer to Him.

You know, maybe at some time or other you have said to yourself, “You know, I really want to get down to business someday and really live the Christian life. I really think I need to do that. But first let me do this or that. Lord, I will follow You, but first. Well, let me earn a bunch of money, sort of construct a safety net for myself. Okay, Lord, I will follow You, but first. And I think I would like to get married and raise a family. Lord, I will follow You, but first. Well, I would like to have a fling or two. You know, you only go around in life once. Then you have to get all the gusto out of it that you can. But first let me do that.”

Listen. Jesus Christ wants your commitment. But He does not want a reluctant commitment. He does not want the kind of commitment that says, “Not now. Later.” And “Not now, Lord. Later. Later.” He wants an unhesitating, top priority commitment.

Florence Nightingale, the famous and heroic nurse, reached her thirtieth birthday. And this is what she wrote in her diary. She said, “I am now thirty years old, and it is the age at which Christ began His ministry. Now, Lord, that there be no more vain things. Now, Lord, let there be no more childish things. Now, Lord, let me think only of Your will.”

As she was nearing the end of her illustrious life someone asked her what the secret of her life had been. And her response was this. She said, “The only explanation that I can give is that I have held nothing back from God. I have held nothing back from God.”

And my Christian friends, tonight we will never be the kind of disciples that we ought to be until we learn to hold nothing back from God. And here is a man who is clinging to his family and clinging to what he imagined his responsibilities in the family were and using them as an excuse for not following Jesus Christ.

And our Lord’s answer to him is very forceful and very direct. Jesus says to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And I think Jesus meant something like this. I think He meant to say to this man, “Listen, you have eternal life. You have spiritual life. But there are people in your family who are unsaved. They are still dead in their sins. Let them take care of your father. You go and do what I have asked you to do. You put first things first. You preach the kingdom of God.”

It is said that Queen Elizabeth was once trying to commission a wealthy merchant to go overseas and conduct a mission for the crown. And she promised him big rewards if he did. But he was trying to get out of it, and he explained to the queen that if he went overseas his own business would suffer. And Queen Elizabeth said to him, “You go and take care of my business, and I will take care of yours.” And he did. And when he got back he found that the queen had kept her word. That his business was more prosperous than it had been before.

Mark it well, my friends. If we are going to be disciples of Jesus Christ we have to understand that the King’s business is first and my business is last. The King’s business is first and my business is last. No matter how important I think my business is. But know this then. If I will take care of the King’s business, the King will take care of my business. If I will put the affairs of the King first, He will take care of my affairs, even if He has to use unsaved people to do it.

Adoniram Judson, when he graduated from college and seminary, was invited to become the assistant pastor at a wealthy and influential Boston church. Everybody congratulated him, and his mother and sister were particularly delighted because that meant that Judson could live at home with them and pursue his ministerial career.

But Judson shook his head, and he said, “My work is not here. The Lord is calling me across the sea. And even if I stay here and do the work of the Lord it will only be a partial obedience, and I could never be satisfied with that.” And difficult though it was, he cut the ties. He left his mother and his sister behind, and he went to the far off land of Burma, where he became one of the greatest missionaries of the modern day.

And it is estimated that in the churches founded by Judson that as many as fifty thousand people came to personal faith in Jesus Christ. And really to be committed to Jesus Christ means that we are prepared at least to cut the ties. That we are prepared to set aside anything that stands between us and the will of God.

You see, Jesus Christ wants our commitment. But He does not want a reluctant commitment. He wants an unhesitating, top priority commitment to Him.

That is two recruits that Jesus has dealt with. One of them was a rash recruit, and the other was a reluctant recruit. One of them thought he was ready to go when he was not ready to go. And the other one was not ready to go when he should have been ready to go.

But you know, I think the third guy is almost the most interesting of the three. And the reason he is interesting to me is because he seems to combine in one person both of the two preceding men. He manages to sound like both of the other guys all wrapped up into one person. He sounds like the first guy when he says, “Lord, I will follow You.” And he sounds like the second guy when he says, “But first let me go and bid farewell to those at my house. Lord, I will follow You, but first let me go and say goodbye to my family.”

You say, “What in the world is wrong with that? I mean, if he is going to follow Jesus all over the land of Palestine, can not he just go home and say goodbye to the family? Does Jesus object to that? Is there anything wrong with that?”

No, there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with what this man wanted to do. What was wrong was the way he felt. The way he felt. And Jesus sees right through this man just like He saw through the other two men. And He sees in this man a man who is torn in two directions. He is torn between his decision to follow Christ and his desire to be at home.

Jesus sees in this man a man who is like a farmer out in the field trying to plow a straight furrow but he keeps looking back. He keeps looking back at the farmhouse where he wishes that he was. And my friends, Jesus Christ wants our commitment. But He does not want a regretful commitment. He does not want the kind of commitment that pines and sighs for all of the things that we think we have left behind and all of the things we think that we have given up for Him. He wants a wholehearted, an undivided commitment.

Some preachers in a city were once discussing the possibility of inviting Dwight L. Moody, the famous evangelist, to come to their city and to conduct an evangelistic campaign. And after there had been a little discussion a young preacher got up, and he really did not want to invite Moody. And so he said, “Why Moody? Why Moody? Does Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”

And there was an awkward silence for a few moments. And then an older, godly minister spoke up, and he said, “No. No, Moody does not have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. But,” he said, “the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on D. L. Moody.”

You see, my friends, it is not until God has a monopoly on our hearts and on our lives that we are fully committed to Him as real disciples of God’s Son. And until He does, even if we try to serve Christ we are going to be like that farmer out in the field zigzagging back and forth because we are torn in two directions. Never plowing a really straight furrow because we are always looking back at other things.

Jesus Christ wants our commitment. But He does not want a regretful commitment. He wants a wholehearted and undivided commitment to Him.

Hachiko was a little Japanese dog that used to follow its master to the train station in the morning as his master got on board the train and went off to another city to work. And then in the evening Hachiko would trudge out to the train station again to greet his master when his master returned from the day’s work.

And one evening his master did not return because his master had died in another city. Hachiko had only known his master for a few months. But the next night the little dog trotted out to the railroad station and waited for an hour and then trudged sadly home. The next night the dog did the same thing. And the next night. And would you believe it, Hachiko did that for ten years.

And the loyalty and commitment of Hachiko to his master so impressed the Japanese nation that the government had a statue of Hachiko erected and placed on the spot at the railroad station where it had waited for its master. And it manufactured little statuettes of Hachiko and sent them into all of the schools of what was then the Japanese empire.

And you know what we need in the Christian church more than anything else? We need more Hachikos. We need men and women who are totally loyal and fully committed to Jesus Christ.

The songwriter has put it well. “What shall I give Thee, Master? Thou who hast died for me. Bounded, leave Thy throne above to die on Calvary. What shall I give Thee, Master? Thou hast given all for me. Not just a part or half of my heart. I must give all to Thee.”

Shall we pray?

Father, we can think of no one in heaven and on earth who can inspire our loyalty or draw out our commitment more than the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. Teach us to be really His disciples, to be fully committed to Him and to His will. And let us find in that experience the blessing and joy that You provide. That Your will be done in our lives and Your name glorified. We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, are there questions? I have one to start rolling here. About the second person who was reluctant. But there are passages in scripture that would indicate that we should take care of our families. In other words, do you see a problem with thinking in your commitment to reward you will take care of your family?

No, of course no problem there. The type of thing we are talking about is where the family becomes a barrier between ourselves and God and becomes virtually an excuse for not following the Lord. So that, you know, if Jesus has said, “Do this to Me,” this is what He has actually said to this man, “Follow Me.” There is not any excuse that is valid in that kind of a context, not even a family excuse. But we would understand that when we do follow Christ we do have responsibilities to the family, and they are also the commands of Christ.

Well, the point here is not that we abandon our families and serve God. The point is that we put Him first. Remember He says, “He that loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” The point here is not either or but priority, I think.

Yes. Well, I think that we may say that in the present circumstances there virtually is no distinction between the kingdom of God and the church if we are talking about the present form of the kingdom. Remember Colossians 1 tells us that we have been translated from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, which is synonymous with being placed in the church.

Now if we are talking about the future form of the kingdom, then the church and the kingdom are not equivalent to each other. But I think if we would talk about the kingdom of God, those who are spiritually genuinely in the kingdom of God, we are talking about those who are also spiritually and genuinely in the church. We are talking about the present age when we talk about that.

I do not see any way that we could be today. Now quite obviously when the kingdom comes there will be people in the future kingdom who are not members of the Christian church. So we are thinking about all of those who were saved before the church was formed, Old Testament saints. But today if the kingdom of God is, and I think it is, the sphere of those who really belong to God on earth, then that is the same as saying they are the members of the true Christian church.

Keith, I think also too, again between salvation and well what we recognize here is that salvation is a pure gift of the grace of God received by simple faith in Christ. And that there are no strings attached. There is no fine print to that arrangement. That God gives the gift to those who want it. “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17.

But discipleship, as we learn from this passage and from many other passages, requires extensive commitment. And what Jesus says in effect to people, Luke 14 is a classic passage there, is that if they are not willing to commit their full resources to it they will not make it as disciples.

And so the passage that we are looking at tonight carries essentially the same message. And we should remember that a disciple, the word disciple really means a pupil. And the disciples of Jesus are those who have attached themselves to Jesus in order that they can learn from Him how to live, how to serve, how to be what they ought to be. And that involves being subject to the teacher’s instruction and guidance.

And where there is an unwillingness to be taught by the teacher, then the discipleship relationship is either fragile or broken altogether. So I think we need to distinguish sharply between those who are saved but unwilling for one reason or another to follow Christ. They would be Christians but not true disciples. And those who are saved and committed to Christ.

And one of the things we are doing in the Christian church, presumably, is not only winning souls to Christ. We are also discipling people. In fact, the Great Commission is a commission to disciple people. “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” But before you can make a disciple you have to make a Christian. You have to convert people. But that is not the end of the work. The next work is to teach people to follow Christ, “baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” That is the mandate of the disciple-making mission of the church.

What is the, Don, could you explain more fully what your question is? Yeah, okay. What is your problem with the statement about the doubting? What does it mean exactly and what are the implications?

I think that in Christian circles we have an unrealistic view of the potential in all of us to doubt. First of all, let me just back up for a moment. You remember that John the Baptist when he was in prison sent some messengers to Jesus, and he said, “Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?” That is really an astounding thing. Because John is the man who saw the Spirit coming down on Jesus like a dove. And John is the man who had dogmatically said, “I saw the Spirit descending upon Him, and I bore witness and testify that this is the Son of God.” That was his testimony. That was his conviction.

But under the rigors and depression of a prison experience a doubt crosses his mind, and he wants reassurance. The same thing is reasonable here. You must understand that the disciples, even though they believed in Christ, were not prepared for His death. And His death came as a shock to them. And then the resurrection came as a second shock to them. They were not prepared for His death and not prepared for His resurrection.

And remember that some of them, we are told at one place, “believed not for joy.” This was too good to be true. And so there they are on the mountaintop, and there He is before them. And you know the doubts flicker in some of their hearts. “Is this for real?”

But I think that it would be very unrealistic for us to suppose that Christians never have moments of doubt. We are not saved by a faith that continues uninterrupted. We are saved by faith. We are saved by that moment of appropriation of the gift of God. And that is an irreversible process. It is like Moses lifting up the serpent. And all that the Israelites need to do is to look at that serpent. They were healed instantly.

We are not saved by the continuity of our faith. We are saved by the reality of the faith that we exercise in Christ at the moment that we appropriate the gift of God. So we should not be surprised that Christians sometimes, under pressure and various other kinds of inducements, doubt. And nor should we be shocked if doubts cross our mind.

The important thing is that we get back to a believing state of mind. And I think of course in the case of John the Baptist that I was referring to, Jesus sends him back a message that I am sure reassured him because it was derived from scripture. So I really do not think there is too much of a, there is nothing that should surprise us by the doubting of the disciples. What would surprise us is if that nobody did any more questions that you would like to ask. This was an unscheduled part of the program. Chip handed me a very full program here before I got up here. This was not on it.