| Introduction I have been thinking about finances this past week. On the way back home from presbytery, we were talking about how badly Felix Hernandez was pitching and how he is making $27M a year. I had just spent some time looking at the seminary's financial statements to try to figure out how we were going to make ends meet. At the same time, I was trying to help PMU find money to fund the new church-planters that were just brought on board. At the same time, I am working with Teenie on her potential budget for the next, if the Lord has for her to go back to Lebanon, all the while she sleeps on a mattress on the floor because bedframes are too expensive. There is so much money out there and there is so much money in the church, yet it feels like we are always trying to squeeze money out of rocks as it were. So, I want to talk with today about money. But I want to talk about money by talking about missions. I want our love and zeal for the Gospel to bear great missionary fruit in our lives. Let me ask you three questions from this passage in Luke. These men one day found themselves face-to-face with Jesus. They were potential followers of Jesus, but from all we can tell in this text, Jesus talked them out of following him. This is an important passage because this is essentially the decision you and I are considering at this moment in our culture. Are we going to follow Jesus? Are we going to follow Jesus with all our lives, no matter where he leads us to go, how countercultural the task is, or what the cost may be for us, our families, and our church? I. Are We Going to Choose Comfort or the Cross? 57-58 A. The first man in the story seems very eager to follow Jesus, 57. 1. We know from Mt. 8 that this man was a scribe, a teacher of the law. 2. It was customary for men like him to attach themselves to another teacher in order to promote their own status in society. 3. By this time, Jesus was popular with the people around him, so he seemed like a good candidate for this man's cultural promotion. B. Jesus makes clear to him that Christianity is not a path for more comforts, higher status, or greater ease in this world, 58. 1. "If you follow me, you can expect homelessness," Jesus says to him. 2. The road Jesus walks starts with a demand for self-denial, 9:23. 3. Choosing the cross over comfort is a characteristic of following Jesus. C. The concept of the cost of following Jesus is a needed word for every Christian, and those considering becoming a Christian, in our culture today. 1. Gone are the days when it was socially beneficial to be in church at the beginning of the week. 2. Gone are the days when it was publicly acceptable to follow Christ every other day of the week. 3. Here are the days when holding fast to the Gospel, actually believing the Bible, and putting it into practice will mean risking your reputation, sacrificing your social status, disagreeing with your closest family and friends, jeopardizing your economic security and earthly stability, giving away your possessions, leaving behind the accolades of the world and potentially losing your life. D. The more we ground our lives, families, and church in God's Word, the more we will distance ourselves from the culture in which we live and the harder it will become for us in this world. Jn. 15:20 – Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 1. The more serious our church becomes about engaging our culture with the Gospel, the more steadfastly we will need to hold on to biblical truths and the more sacrificially we will need to let go of personal preferences. a. Regarding truth, we are daily surrounded by dazzling temptations to cave in to the changing tides of cultural opinion. 1) We constantly see and hear prominent Christian leaders leaving behind biblical truth in the name of love for their neighbor and tolerance in the culture. 2) Yet how is it loving to lie to our neighbors, twisting the truth to fit their liking, and ultimately leading them further from God? b. Regarding personal preferences, when we look at our church, do we see a group of people dying to self-demonstrated by growth in holiness and the spread of the Gospel regardless of personal cost? 2. Are we going to choose comfort, or are we going to choose the cross? II. Are We Going to Settle for Maintenance or Sacrifice for Mission? 59-60 A. All this man wants is to bury his dad, something he not only wants to do but is culturally expected to do – to not give his father a proper funeral is to shame him. B. Jesus tells him that there are more important things to do than arrange and attend his father's funeral. 1. Jesus's point is not that going to a funeral is wrong, but that his kingdom will not take second place to anyone or anything else. 2. For this man, it meant immediate abandoning everything for an urgent mission that was even more important that honoring his dead father – the proclamation of the Gospel to those who were dying. C. The most pressing need in this world is not for water, food, etc., the most urgent need is for the Gospel. 1. Jesus, of all people, knew the depth of people's physical needs. a. He had spent time with the sick, sat with the dying, and served the impoverished. b. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them and fed them. 2. Yet, in light of worldly suffering, over and above everything else, Jesus calls this man to speak. Lk. 24:47-48 – … and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. D. Jesus Christ has given us marching orders, and they are clear: proclaim the Gospel to every people group on the planet. 1. But we have, instead, settled into a status quo where we are content to sit idly by while literally billions of people die without ever hearing the Gospel. a. This is the greatest social injustice in the entire world, over and above all the other issues we have considered. b. Over two billion people today live on earth as sinners against God, destined for hell and in desperate need of a Savior, and no one has told them how God in Christ can provide for their sins. 2. When will the concept of unreached peoples become intolerable to the church? Or, the concept of unreached neighbors? E. We are happy with maintaining what we have because that doesn't involve much sacrifice on our part – but how is that consistent with dying daily? III. Will Our Lives Be Marked by Indecisive Minds or Undivided Hearts? 61-62 A. All this guy wants to do is to say bye to his family, but Jesus says that that's not an option – Jesus seems to know that as soon as this guy goes back to his family, the lure to stay will be strong. 1. Parents might say, "Isn't it risk? How will you find a husband? Isn't this dangerous for your wife? What about your children? Do you really want to raise them there? Do you really want to keep our grandkids from ever knowing us? 2. Sometimes the scenario is reversed as couples in their retirement consider going only to have their children question, "Are you sure this is wise at your age and stage of life?" B. It is not uncommon for the lure of family love to lead to faithless living. 1. Maybe it is brothers counseling sisters to have abortions in order to escape the difficult situation – surely God will forgive this circumstance, they think. 2. Maybe it's moms and dads encouraging their sons and daughters in their sexual decisions regardless of what Scripture says – surely it's ok if my child is doing it, they think. 3. Into such situations, Jesus's words are both succinct and sobering. Mt. 10:35-37 – For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 4. Following Jesus doesn't just entail sacrificial abandonment of our lives; it requires supreme affection from our hearts. C. What are we going to do with the Gospel? 1. While we contemplate the Gospel, over two billion people in the world have never heard it. a. They are not just out there far way, speaking in languages we can't understand. b. They may look a lot like us, they are our neighbors, they go to our schools, they work with us, they play sports with us. 2. God loves us too much to allow us to live with indifference or inaction. 3. He means for us to act in the areas that we studied in this series in at least three ways: 1) This is practically the most simple and potentially the most significant thing we can do in light of social injustice. 2) These battles ultimately belong to the Lord, and he wills for us to participate with him in accomplishment of his purposes through prayer. 3) In light of Christ's instruction to us, let's plead for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done. 4) In line with those who have gone before us, let's pray for God's judgment and mercy to be made manifest amid these massive needs, knowing that none of our prayers are in vain. b. Participate with God in the world around us. 1) One of the primary ways this plays out is in our giving – we should organize our finances so that we can use our wealth for the sake of the Gospel. 2) We can also go and proclaim the Gospel with conviction, compassion, and courage. c. That's our third action: proclamation. 1) The Gospel is the central issue in any culture. 2) The Gospel is also the foundation that provides for solutions for all social issues.
We cannot stay silent with this Gospel. So, let's not allow fear in our culture to muzzle our faith in Christ. We don't have to ask what the will of God is. He has made it clear. He wants us to proclaim the Gospel.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-most-urgent-need-luke-957-62.html
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