Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event, the test of discipleship. This is found in Luke, chapter nine, verses 57 through 62. Follow along as we read.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: 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 to. Another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
These are some harsh tests of discipleship when we hear what's being said here, little bit of context. How close are we to the crucifixion of Jesus?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Maybe about six months.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: So we're coming to the end of Jesus'earthly ministry. As he's giving these sayings, is a disciple called to give up everything they have?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: In a way, yes.
And we had another episode about the real cost of discipleship when Jesus Christ asked his disciples to put him, that is, Jesus, ahead of the disciples families and parents and mother and father and son and daughter.
This is more like a reflective, self reflective test of discipleship.
And yes, we are required to leave a lot in order to gain way more.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: And I think the requirement to leave is not demanded of everyone. We need to be willing to leave everything.
So being a disciple of Jesus, it doesn't mean we have to leave everything, but we need to be willing to leave everything.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Yes. It is not our initiative, our desire to become poor. Right. On purpose. God called people like Abraham, who was quite rich, and David, who was a king, and Solomon. The quality of our discipleship is not in the lack of material possession.
It is in our willingness to follow him, no matter his call.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, in this list of people who are coming to Jesus, we have some who are asking to follow and some who Jesus is asking if they will follow him. We don't hear that. They say, I'm not going to follow you.
We just have Jesus response to them. I'm curious what happened?
Did they follow or didn't they?
[00:03:55] Speaker B: So it's really nice someone going to Jesus and saying, I will follow you wherever you go.
That reminds me, about 144,000 in the Book of Revelation. We studied last year, those 144,000, they follow the lamb wherever he goes. And that is interesting. Practically, they want to say, we would like to be part of that close circle around you. And that is amazing.
I commend these people for this very noble desire.
But Jesus Christ gave them a test, and he said, foxes have holes and birds at the air have nests, but a son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Practically, Jesus Christ said, do not follow me for an ulterior motive, for immediate or for earthly benefits.
Don't think that I am the Messiah that is going to liberate these people, as the popular culture goes, because you're not going to get any benefits like this. So practically, this is the first test of discipleship.
When we follow Jesus Christ, we should not look for any immediate benefits.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: So the second person, again, Jesus, comes to this individual and says, follow me. And they ask to go bury their father. First, Jesus gives them this statement. I wonder what their response was. I wonder if they said, okay, I'm all in with you, I'm going to stay, or if they went away to bury. We're not given the outcome of any of these, and I want to get to heaven and find out. But this story, this person's wanting to go back to follow a custom, to do something that was considered good, to care for his father. But Jesus is saying, you've got something else to do, right?
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah. If you accepted me as Messiah, Jesus said, if you embraced my ministry, if you enter my kingdom, your responsibility is, as a person who is spiritual, alive, is to let other people taking care of their parents, maybe someone else from your family, another sibling. And your responsibility is to put Christ first and go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: It is interesting that this invitation, follow me, was addressed to any one of those twelve disciples.
When Jesus Christ picked them from among the thousands of disciples following him after he prayed the whole night, he said, follow me.
And this person maybe was invited to join other groups of disciples because Jesus had another 72 that he trained. Yeah.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: And we'll hear about those in the next episode, this 72. And so the last one is along the similar lines. Someone else says, I'll follow you, but first let me go say farewell to those at my house. Again, we would say, this sounds like a good thing, not just disappear. Let me go home, tell people where I'm going.
They don't have modern phones where you can track and locate someone.
So it sounds like a good thing. But Jesus response is, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Wow. And this is a direct reference to one of the prophets from the Old Testament.
When they are called, they left the plough, they left the house.
So when Jesus Christ calls you, you have to respond immediately. This is the third test that is placed here. Going back and having a nice celebration, having a goodbye party can sway your mind. You can have your friends, you can have the siblings, you have your parents, and everyone will say, hey, are you sure you want to go? Have you really made up your mind? Have you counted everything you leave behind?
Are you sure that life is going to be better than what you have now? So there are always chances that someone will change your mind. Jesus Christ said, do not delay and do not let others influence your decision.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: And I think this is important because we do a lot of this where we think, I'm doing good, and so I'm okay.
I'm going to church and I'm worshipping and I'm reading my Bible and I'm listening to Bible readings, and I'm doing everything daily. So I'm in a good plAce. And those are good things. Those are things that God asks us to do.
But are we missing out on other things God's asking us to do?
[00:09:26] Speaker B: So those are necessary tools to grow us spiritually.
But that spiritual growth has a purpose. So at one specific moment, whatever we received, we have to give and we have to go and share the gospel.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Exactly. And it gets back. And we've talked about this in previous years, part of the Christian's daily experience.
If you go to the Holy place, the sanctuary service, they had a daily experience in the Holy place where there was table of showbread and the altar of incense and the golden candlesticks. And these represent what we need as a Christian every day. We need to consume the bread of life, the word of God.
We need to pray, have a vital connection with God and have that communion with him. But the golden candlestick, we need to witness and we need to share with others. And a Christian is part of being a citizen of the kingdom of God, is sharing and giving that witness. So we can do that in many different ways. It doesn't have to be knocking on a cold door or standing on a street corner. It can be even witnessing to our family members.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Those two stages that we refer to are illustrated in the Old Testament, in the minor prophets, by the early reign of the Holy Spirit and the latter reign of the Holy Spirit. The early reign is for spiritual growth, is for becoming mature Christians. The latter reign is the rain that prepares for the harvest.
It is us producing fruit, and that fruit is leading other people to Jesus Christ.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: So what does this passage tell us about God?
Yeah. For me, as I read this, God is someone who does have requirements for us. He does have expectations for us, and he does want us to change.
We talk about grace, and grace is God saving us in our sins and giving us what we don't deserve. But there is an expectation there, and I think that's important. It can easily be skipped over when we think about the mercy and grace God gives.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yes, God has a high standard.
When Jesus Christ called his disciples, he told them there is a high price to pay to follow Jesus Christ. But at the same time, Jesus invites everyone, including us, to be part of this universal circuit of grace we receive in order to give. And we will never be completely happy until we give what we have received from the Lord.
When we do that, we realize that we fulfill the purpose for which we have been created, and we have that feeling of fulfillment, of completion. That is the true definition of happiness.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: So what are we going to do about what we read? How's it speaking to us today? And how can we share with others?
[00:13:09] Speaker B: For me, I like to take these three concepts expressed by Jesus Christ as three tests for my own discipleship.
Am I looking for some benefits in following Jesus Christ, or it is just my desire to respond to his love and to go and preach the Gospel? The second is, am I trying to put other things or people ahead of Jesus Christ?
And the third test is, am I looking for a pretext to delay what Jesus Christ is asking me to do today?
So I like to take these three statements of Jesus Christ and to apply them to myself as a test of my own discipleship. Let's pray.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Father God, as we examine ourselves, as we apply tests to ourselves, to see where we are spiritually, where we are with you. I pray, Father, that we will wholly rely on you.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: That we will surrender our lives to you, that any areas that we fall short, we don't seek to fix it ourselves, but we surrender and come to you and ask you to do those changes in us that you've promised, that your Holy Spirit will work in us. And each and every day we will become more like you, that we will have the fruit of the Spirit in our life, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, and that we can share Jesus with others. In his name we pray. Amen.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Amen.
Sam.
