9-18-2021 Seventh Day BAPTIST Edgewater, FL Pastor Keith “Follow Jesus” Luke 9;57-62
In our scripture text there are three men who thought they were giving Jesus what He wanted. They said they wanted to follow Jesus but each had things they wanted to do before they followed Him. In the New Testament, Jesus was always asking people to follow Him. When He asked some of the disciples, they dropped their nets and followed Him immediately. There are many scriptures where Jesus says follow me.
These three men were not really authentic in following Jesus. Jesus tells them they are not doing it right. They all seemed to think they could give Jesus a counterfeit gift. Jesus questioned their motives for saying that they would follow Him. Jesus was the talk of the town and many wanted to be seen with Him. Jesus tells the 1st man that He had no bed to sleep in. This meant there was no fancy house for this man to stay at with Jesus. Jesus tells the 2nd man to let the dead bury the dead. This 2nd man had stuff he wanted to do before he followed Jesus. The 3rd man wanted to first tell his family goodbye. Jesus probably knew this 3rd guy was never going to come back. Each man had his own agenda and wanted to follow Jesus on his own terms.
Jesus said to follow Him. We have to daily pick up our cross and follow Jesus. The cross is a point of identification and a silent reminder of who we are. Jesus isn’t taking about taking a literal cross but to take our Faith in Jesus wherever we go. The Faith we have in Jesus and God must be with us and we must take it with us always everywhere we go.
Following Jesus can be filled with struggles and filled with times that we fall down. We must not just say with our mouths that we will follow Him and then go back to doing our own thing. Maybe we are not done with sinning yet and don’t want to make a sacrifice for Jesus yet. We are comfortable in our sin and just make excuses. We need to stop this and choose Jesus as our Lord. Choose Him just as He chose to go to the cross to die for our sins. Jesus is alive today and calls us to follow Him today. Don’t put it off anymore. Take up your cross and follow Jesus today. Trust God and trust Jesus Christ.
AMEN
In our scripture text there are three men who thought they were giving Jesus what He wanted. They said they wanted to follow Jesus but each had things they wanted to do before they followed Him. In the New Testament, Jesus was always asking people to follow Him. When He asked some of the disciples, they dropped their nets and followed Him immediately. There are many scriptures where Jesus says follow me.
These three men were not really authentic in following Jesus. Jesus tells them they are not doing it right. They all seemed to think they could give Jesus a counterfeit gift. Jesus questioned their motives for saying that they would follow Him. Jesus was the talk of the town and many wanted to be seen with Him. Jesus tells the 1st man that He had no bed to sleep in. This meant there was no fancy house for this man to stay at with Jesus. Jesus tells the 2nd man to let the dead bury the dead. This 2nd man had stuff he wanted to do before he followed Jesus. The 3rd man wanted to first tell his family goodbye. Jesus probably knew this 3rd guy was never going to come back. Each man had his own agenda and wanted to follow Jesus on his own terms.
Jesus said to follow Him. We have to daily pick up our cross and follow Jesus. The cross is a point of identification and a silent reminder of who we are. Jesus isn’t taking about taking a literal cross but to take our Faith in Jesus wherever we go. The Faith we have in Jesus and God must be with us and we must take it with us always everywhere we go.
Following Jesus can be filled with struggles and filled with times that we fall down. We must not just say with our mouths that we will follow Him and then go back to doing our own thing. Maybe we are not done with sinning yet and don’t want to make a sacrifice for Jesus yet. We are comfortable in our sin and just make excuses. We need to stop this and choose Jesus as our Lord. Choose Him just as He chose to go to the cross to die for our sins. Jesus is alive today and calls us to follow Him today. Don’t put it off anymore. Take up your cross and follow Jesus today. Trust God and trust Jesus Christ.
AMEN
