Journey Through Matthew: Fair Weather Followers
Journey Through Matthew • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsThe cost of following Jesus is high. Are we williing to pay the price? Also, if we are, do we demonstrate that through faith in Jesus?
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome!
This morning we are going to be continuing our Journey Through Matthew.
We are going to be continuing in but this morning we are going to be looking at verses 18-27.
And the topic for this morning is the “Fair Weather Followers.”
And it is very important that we talk about the actual cost of following Jesus, because the reality is, the cost of following is actually very high.
Jesus himself tells us that . . .
Luke 14:
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Now, these verses do not mean “hate” as we think about hate, but rather what Jesus is saying is if he is not first in our lives, then we cannot be true disciples.
Jesus has to be #1 in our lives.
And there is more to it than just loving Jesus more than anyone else.
Notice Jesus also says . . .
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
When we talk about carrying our cross, here’s what Jesus says about that . . .
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Luke 9:23-
And when we stop and think about it, that is actually some pretty tough stuff.
And when we stop and think about it, that is actually some pretty tough stuff.
Jesus says if we really want to follow him then we must:
Deny ourselves-our wants and desires.
Take up our cross DAILY -meaning take up the calling every day.
Follow him-Probably the hardest. Following Him wherever he leads.
Are really willing to do that?
Or, have we accepted Jesus as a “get out of hell free card?”
And that’s not all.
Jesus goes on to say . . .
24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Luke 9:24
Meaning that again, the calling that Jesus has given us must come first.
We must be willing to give up our life, give up what we want, for what God wants and the life that God has for us.
And probably what may be going through some of your heads, that is a natural response is, “what about my life?”
“What about what I want to do? What I think is important?”
And Jesus anticipates that here as well . . .
Luke 9:
25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Because Jesus knows one thing about this life and this world.
It will distract us and tempt us.
It will pull us away from God.
And sooner or later, without us even knowing it it can cause us to forfeit our very soul.
And much of the reason being because we have gotten caught up in this idea that here on this earth is all there is.
That this is the most important thing out there, when it’s not.
The truth is, all of this is temporary.
And all of this is fleeting.
Jesus also says that . . .
Matthew 24:35
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
And John tells us that . . .
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever.
And that is the key.
Who wants to live forever?
And what John is talking about is not living down here on this earth.
John is talking about living eternally with God in heaven.
That is where the rubber meets the road folks.
The reality is the soul goes on forever, either with God or apart from God.
Which do we prefer?
We say Heaven, but do our actions back up what we say?
And I ask that because the reality is in our passage today, this is exactly what Jesus is addressing as well.
Jesus first reveals the cost of being his disciples and then they have an opportunity to demonstrate their faith in him.
So, if you have found in your Bible, I’d invite you to stand as we read about Fair Weather Followers. Matthew writes . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
Matthew 8:18-
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” 23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The Cost of Following
The Cost of Following
Now Jesus starts out here like I said taking about the actual cost of discipleship.
And he is not going to sugarcoat anything or beat around the bush with them either.
The passage starts out with . . . .
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake.
Now, this is sort of odd because we would think that if there was a crowd gathered around Jesus would want all of them to hear what he had to say.
However, Jesus had a purpose for beginning to separate himself from the whole crowd.
And that purpose was to see who was serious, or at least thought they were serious about following Jesus.
Because there are always those who are just there to go along with the crowd, but when things started to get serious or the journey gets a little bit tougher, they cut out and take off.
This is really all Jesus is doing here.
Seeing who was willing to go the extra mile and follow him across the the lake.
Nothing too severe, but you’d be amazed at how many wouldn’t even follow this far.
They are faithful so long as they are not inconvenienced in any way.
But as soon as Jesus asks them to go with him a little further, they change their mind.
However, there were some who decided they wanted to go . . .
19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Matthew 8:
So, this guy, this teacher of the law had seen something in Jesus that impressed him and he decided this is what he wanted and he would follow Jesus anywhere.
And I think sometimes we do the same thing without really knowing what we are saying.
Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go . Really? Are you so sure about that?
We had better think about it before we make that commitment.
And I am not saying we should not make that commitment because we absolutely should.
We should be absolutely 100% commited to Jesus, but I will tell you this, we had better be ready for what we are getting into.
Don’t go into following Jesus with the attitude that you’ve got all you need and you can take care of things.
Because we cannot.
We do not have the ability.
That is what the Holy Spirit is for.
We had better be prayed up and filled up and we had better stay prayed up and filled up.
Because the journey is long and sometimes the journey is hard.
It’s not all sunshine and roses.
Jesus tells the man . . .
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Meaning that you may not even know where you will lay your head tomorrow, where you will be.
Are we willing to place that level of trust in God?
No assurance of anything other than that God will be with us?
Because that’s what we are getting at here.
And this guy wasn’t the only one either.
There was a second one too that decided he would go wherever Jesus led but first he had to take care of some personal business . . .
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Sounds pretty reasonable on the surface.
After all, Jesus is sensitive to those we love and care about.
Surely this isn’t an unreasonable request.
But Jesus responds . . .
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Now that is harsh isn’t it.
But this is where we lose something in culture.
The process of buying the dead was a long, drawn out process, which could take up to a year.
The whole world stopped while this family went through this process.
And also, many of the scholars that have looked at this believe that this guy’s dad wasn’t even dead yet.
So what he is telling Jesus is, “ I want to follow you but first I have to stay here until my father dies, then spend a year getting things in order, then I will come and follow.”
In other words, he is making excuses as to why he cannot follow Jesus right now.
He wants to but wants to when it is convenient for him.
And we do that.
We make every excuse in the world as to why we cannot follow RIGHT NOW.
We can later, when we do this or do that, but not right now.
That, however is not commitment.
That is just saying a bunch of words.
When Jesus calls us, he calls us NOW, not LATER.
And part of having faith in God is having the faith that God will take care of things and make a way for us to deal with issues that come up while we are following God.
It is all about putting our entire 100% trust in God and not trying to take care of everything ourselves.
And the question for us is, can we do that?
Can we put our entire trust in God?
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And I ask that because of what happens next.
Testing of the Faith
Testing of the Faith
Because by now, Jesus has weeded out those were were really willing to follow from those who just thought they were willing to follow.
What I would call the “fair weather followers.”
Now comes the test . . .
Matthew 8:23
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
So those who had said they were going to follow Jesus, his true disciples, now get in the boat and are following Jesus.
Yes sir, they trust Jesus with absolutely everything!
Then comes trouble.
Then comes the first storm.
Now in our story the storm is a physical storm, but I tell you we face many, many storms in life ourselves.
And we probably feel just like these disciples did as well.
That Jesus is nowhere to be found.
That is is somewhere sleeping while we are fighting for our lives.
This is where our faith is really put to the test.
How we react in the storm.
Do we begin to doubt?
Do we begin to try and fix it ourselves?
Try and save ourselves?
Or, do we put our faith in Jesus?
Put our trust in the Lord?
Because that is what he is looking for.
These people are in the very presence of the Son of God.
But yet . . .
25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
In other words, “Lord we said we trusted you but this is getting pretty bad, where you at?”
But this is what Jesus had to say . . .
Matthew 8:
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
And we have to ask ourselves, why do we fear so much?
Why are we so afraid?
Is God not in control?
Do we not believe that?
The reality is, we either forget or we don’t believe it.
And we don’t believe it because we have not put our faith fully in Him.
Even Jesus’ own disciples here.
Look at what they say . . .
27 The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Altar Call
Altar Call
They had no real understanding of who Jesus actually was.
They said they believed.
They thought they believed.
But their belief was dependent on the weather.
It was dependent on whether or not things were going well.
Real belief is put to the test when things are not going well.
When things are getting rough.
The question for us is what kind of belief do we have?
Do we really believe or are we “fair weather followers?”
You and God are the only ones who know the answer to that question.
But right now you have an opportunity to search yourself and determine the truth.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, don’t dismiss it.
Listen because the Spirit is trying to reveal something to you today.
What will you do with that revelation?