Sermon for Sunday, July 20th, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[Isa 53:1-3 ESV] 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
New Testament Reading:
[1Co 1:18-25 ESV] 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Gospel Reading:
[Luk 9:57-62 ESV] 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 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.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Sermon Text:
[Mat 8:18-22 ESV] 18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 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.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Introduction
The theme of this passage, and the title of the sermon this morning, is “Hard to Follow.”
Jesus has finished his Sermon the Mount and now gone through a series of miraculous healings, bringing many people to come to him. A crowd of people. Yet there is yet ignorance in this fledging group of follows, making it an opportune time for Christ to address the costs of following him.
It is hard to follow Christ. I don’t say this in the sense that it is difficult to follow after a great act on the stage. The meaning is that “it is hard to follow in the WAYS of Christ, obeying His commands, and BEING a disciple of Christ.”
It is hard. Christians know that. Yet is it good for us to have this reminder in our text, and it is good for us to that, by the work of the Holy Spirit, the believer WILL follow the Lord. It is hard to follow, but not impossible, for with Christ all things are possible. We need the Spirit of Christ to be followers of Christ, for “it is hard to follow.”
I think it a mistake many make to emphasize how hard it is to follow Christ as if “you shouldn’t do it.” That’s not the focus here. Christ is explaining this difficulty so that those who do follow him with be prepared and strengthened for the journey ahead. So do not be dismayed, but rather be encourage that Christ is giving these responses regarding how hard it is follow Him.
There are two warning in our text that He gives when it comes to following Christ.
The first is a warning against being too hasty; a warning about not understanding what you are getting into, and not yet realizing the difficulties of the Christian life. This is a warning against being too fast.
The second is a warning, of somewhat the opposite condition. The second is a warning against delay; against procrastination (perhaps), a warning about slothfulness; a warning against putting anything or anyone before the Lord. It is a call to fully, truly, and really FOLLOW CHRIST. This is a warning against being too slow.
Let us look at first warning first. From verse 18 to 20.
I. A warning against being too hasty. (v. 18-20)
We find first the context in verse 18.
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.
I am reminded of a story.
Years ago, Priscilla and I were traveling in Iceland and one morning we had an Icelandic man, our host from the Bed and Breakfast, take us by car to a port to catch a boat to a little island. That boat had to cross an open fjord and then go out into the North Atlantic to a little island called Grimsey, literally on the Arctic Circle. And when we got to the dock our host spoke to a dockworker there. They had a brief conversion—in Icelandic—and then they laughed and laughed. I was curious. What was so funny? And so I asked our host. He then explained to me in English the exchange he had had with the dockworker. This is what he said: “I had asked the man, ‘Does this ship go to the OTHER side?’ And the dockworker responded teasingly, ‘Which side is the OTHER side?” I suppose “the other side” is all about perspective. Maybe we were already on the other side.
Well our text Jesus, “gave order to go over to the OTHERE side.” Here from context we know that what is in view is the Sea of Tiberius, aka the Sea of Galilee. And on the one side is “home” for Jesus and the disciples, Capernaum. And then there is “the other side.” The other side of the lake is quite different. There are different groups of peoples. While Capernaum was a Jewish place, on the other side of the lake were Gentiles.
The “other side of the lake” could possible refer to Bethsaida (which was still Jewish), but perhaps more likely refers to Gentile places like Gergesa and the similarly-named Geresa. And, we find in another account, in Luke chapter 8, that Jesus goes over to those Gerasenes on the other side of the lake and there meets a demoniac. And he casts out the demons from the man and into a herd of pigs which then run off a cliff and die. This tells us that these Gerasenes weren’t Jews, for Jews didn’t raise and eats pigs.
So why is Jesus going over the other side? The text is not explicit, but there are some good possibilities which might all contribute to the reasoning.
1. First, Jesus is going to the other side to preach to more people. Certainly that is part of the overall mission of his travels.
2. Then, Jesus is going to the other side to get away from the crowds. That seems quite plausible. We already saw the “messianic secret.” He doesn’t want to draw too much attention and get in trouble quite yet with the authorities.
3. And then, and I think this is the most prominent reason in our context, Jesus is going to the other side of the lake to SEE WHO WOULD FOLLOW. It is a test of the disciples. Who will follow him.
Jesus in essence says “follow me.” And then we have the verbal response of two people to that command.
The first is the scribe. And with the scribe we find a warning against being too hasty.
Now scribes are not generally spoken of positively in the New Testament. They are part of the religious authorities, working with the Pharisees. Some might even been Pharisees.
But this scribe may be shown in a more positive light.
The Scribe is risking everything in coming over to Christ and saying that he will follow him. For this, he could get kicked out of the religious establish; he could lose his job.
Also positively, it may be that the Scribe DID follow Jesus. The text is not explicit, but after these challenges from Christ in our passage, we find in the next passage “And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.” Well, that doesn’t tell us that the scribe was a disciple, but to me it seems to imply that there is a positive response (of both the Scribe and the “other disciple” whom Jesus is speaking with).
Well, this scribe says “Teacher I will follow you wherever you go.” This could be seen in a positive way, and we’d say “That is exactly what we should all say.” You and I should say “Teacher I will follow you wherever you go.” Or maybe the term “teacher” rather than “Lord” indicates that this man is not a follower. Or maybe Jesus’s warning in response shows that the scribe is not a follower, but we cannot know. God chose not to tell us that detail in the passage.
Jesus responds to the scribe saying, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
What does that mean?
If it wasn’t Jesus answering I’d be tempted to say the response is a non sequitur – WHAT is he talking about?
Well, the scribe may be too hasty. He has said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But maybe this scribe doesn’t understand yet what that commitment IS! WHERE will Jesus go? He has no home. Peter has a house, Jesus never does. I’m sure if he had a house, it would have become a pilgrimage site. It is good that that is not the case; we don’t need “holy sites.” Yes, a church is a holy place and it draws us into focus on God. But you don’t get any bonus points for praying where a saint lived, or taking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There will come a time when God is worship everywhere, not just at the Temple in Jerusalem or upon Mt. Gerizim.
Jesus’ lack of a house and lack of money are part of his humiliation; his voluntary coming to this world to be lower than he IS and deserves.
[Phl 2:7 ESV] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
[2Co 8:9 ESV] 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
He for whom there was no room in the inn, has no place to lay his head.
Looking at the scribe, I like what Matthew Henry says of him: “The preaching of Christ had riveted and charmed him; his heart had swelled; his enthusiasm had been kindled; and in this state of mind he will go anywhere with Him, and feels impelled to tell Him so. He saw the miracles Christ wrought, and hoped he would set up a temporal kingdom, and he wished to apply betimes for a share in it. Note, There are many resolutions for religion, produced by some sudden pangs of conviction, and taken up without due consideration, that prove abortive, and come to nothing: soon ripe, soon rotten.”
So Christ’s response is to “try his forwardness, to find whether it were sincere or not.”
You want to follow Christ!? Know that he has nowhere to lay his head.
You will not get a position of power in an earthly government at Jerusalem.
You will not get the praise of man.
What you will get is difficulty, trouble, poverty. Be prepared!
So Jesus’s response to the scribe to ask him to “sit down and count the cost.”
You’ve seen the healing miracles of Christ, what will you do when the persecutions come? When times are tough. When Jesus is crucified! So count the cost, be prepared.
This is not to scare you away from Christ, but to prepare you to follow him rightly.
You don’t go on a hiking trip on a moments notice and grab just your favorite things that are on hand. No, you look at the weather, the trail, the time away, and you pack accordingly.
We are to pack accordingly for following Christ.
II. A warning against delay. (v. 21-22)
There then a second warning in the text. A warning of the opposite sort.
If the former was a warning against being rash, now we have a warning against being too slow in performing your duty.
It is a warning against delay.
21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
This is another response from Jesus that is a bit hard to understand. What does this one mean? “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
It means “let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead” because you who are spiritually alive are called to a greater mission; to be a disciple learning from the teacher Christ and to later go into the world to bring that message of salvation to many.
And this is so hard because this idea of needing to bury your father must be one of the most important things to do on earth. You want to honor your father and your mother. And the death of your father means that you are now the head of the family. So you have to give that all up for Christ. Of course you are still to honor your father and mother, and of course you are to lead your family. But God is to be above all else.
[Mat 10:37-39 ESV] 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
This is a call to establish right priorities. And your priority above all else is to be God. God is your first and to priority in all things.
The most obvious application is that you need to prioritize coming to church; not neglecting to meet together as is the practice of some; not forsaking the assembly of the brethren. There are at least those two warnings in the Scripture.
You have to come to church. And you need to avail yourself of the means of grace; the word, sacraments, and prayer.
Years ago in the gym I heard this phrase:
“Everybody likes to be strong, but nobody likes to lift heavy weights.”
You can’t get strong if you don’t lift weights.
And you can’t grow in the Christian faith without availing yourself of the means of grace.
Come to church, read your Bible, prioritize the Lord above all else, and do not delay. Jesus says “Follow me.”
The cost of following Jesus in New Testament times was often very likely your life. We don’t usually have that same threat over us. Those who skip church are not doing so because they are afraid of getting capture by the Pharisees, or the Romans, or the Gestapo or the KGB. Skipping church in our day is more often for pathetic reasons.
It was harder in New Testament times. But this isn’t to say that its all easy today. There are many challenges.
But the proper response is the same. Repent. Turn away from those other things you are doing and turn to the Lord. Imagine if you actually wrote down how you used your time in a 24 hour period. Most would be embarrassed. And there is really no time for prayer? Or Bible reading? I doubt it.
So we are called to prioritize Christ. “Let the dead bury their dead.”
These two answers of Jesus really fit well together. They make a pair.
You might think the first answer is almost like “you can’t follow me, for you don’t know where I’m going.”
But the second answer is “Follow me.”
So that helps us to understand; Jesus is not making it impossible; but he wants you to count the cost, be prepared for what is ahead.
Now, this is the only text in chapter 8 in which there is NOT a miracle.
Chapter 9 similarly has Jesus performing many miracles. And it also has a break in the middle to give the exact same message as our text. Jesus there says to the Apostle Matthew, “Follow me.”
That is how we could summarize this section: a call to “Follow me.” A call to follow Jesus Christ.
Don’t be slow.
And don’t be rash.
Follow Christ with trust and obedience.
Conclusion: The Gospel causes us to follow Christ.
We have this warning not to look back.
Leave the dead to bury their own dead.
No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
And Lot’s wife turned to stone when she looked back.
But we DO sin, even after becoming Christian. This is clear from Romans 7:15 (I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate) and James 3:2 (For we all stumble in many ways), and 1 John 1:8 (if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us).
So we are sinners.
We have turned back.
We have backslidden.
We have sinned against the Lord.
Are we doomed?
Know this – Christ’s love for you continues even though you sin; his forgiveness is 70 times 7. Your sins – even your repeated, present, and future sins, will not separate you from the love of God.
God calls you to “follow him” not that you will find your own way to salvation, but he calls you to “follow him” for your own sake. It is GOOD for you to follow the Lord, even if the cost is high.
The cost is high, but follow Christ is the only option. As Peter says “Lord to whom shall we go?:
You have the word of eternal life.”
No one else.
Peter is right. Christ is our only hope.
This same Peter was also a sinner. He had that same sin of gusto that the scribe in our text seems to suffer from.
[Luk 22:33 ESV] 33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
So Jesus had to give him a dose of reality.
[Luk 22:34 ESV] 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
It is not by Peter’s obedience that he is saved. Rather, Peter is SAVED DESPITE HIS DISOBEDIENCE. Saved by the grace of God, as are you and I.
And by the grace of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit, you WILL follow Christ..
It is hard to follow. But not impossible, because of the Holy Spirit working in us.
So, the old phrase of Francis Schaeffer, “How then shall we live.”
WE have a call to follow Christ, though the road may be hard. We are called to believe in Him and obey him who has saved us by His blood.
And we have a call not to be rash nor to be lax in follow Christ.
So we are called to follow Christ; called to do GREAT THINGS.
But, you think, “Great things.” “I can’t start a soup kitchen, not at my age.” What can I do?
A major step forward, what all of us can do, led by the Holy Spirit, and it is a great thing in his kingdom, is for us to have the fruit of the spirit; that patience and kindness with others that we so desire others to have with us.
Follow Christ each day, and every day, living in the fruit of the spirit. Encouraging one another, praying for one another, listening to one another, forgiving one another. These are great things that you can do, following Christ.
Have faith, indeed that is the message, but also live in accord with that faith, knowing that while the Christian life is hard, it is blessed. Blessed of the Lord.
In His name, let us pray.