When Jesus Says, “Follow Me” What It Really Means to Follow Jesus

Good morning, and welcome to Grace For Another Morning.

All week we have been listening to some of the harder words of Jesus.

Not because Jesus was harsh.

Not because He wanted to make salvation difficult.

And certainly not because He was trying to drive people away.

Jesus spoke plainly because He loved people too much to let them misunderstand what it meant to follow Him.

There is a version of Christianity that asks very little of us.

Believe certain things.

Attend when convenient.

Pray when there is trouble.

Ask God to bless what we have already decided to do.

Try to be a reasonably good person.

And then continue living essentially the same life we would have lived without Christ.

But when we actually listen to Jesus, that version of Christianity becomes difficult to defend.

Jesus said:

“Follow me.”

“Deny himself.”

“Take up his cross.”

“Let the dead bury their dead.”

“Sell all that thou hast.”

“Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

Those are difficult words.

And perhaps the reason they trouble us is that Jesus keeps putting His finger on the very things we would rather keep safely outside His reach.

Our comfort.

Our plans.

Our possessions.

Our relationships.

Our ambitions.

Our time.

Our future.

Even our understanding of who we are.

Jesus does not simply ask to become one more important part of our life.

He claims the whole thing.

The Man Who Said, “I Will Follow You Anywhere”

Luke tells us that as Jesus traveled, a man approached Him and made what sounds like an extraordinary declaration:

“Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

You might expect Jesus to congratulate him.

That sounds like exactly the kind of disciple Jesus should want.

But Jesus answers:

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

In other words:

Do you understand where I am going?

Following Jesus was not an invitation into greater comfort.

It was not a promise of financial success.

It was not a guarantee that life would become easier.

Jesus wanted the man to understand the cost before he made the promise.

We still need that warning.

We sometimes hear Christianity presented as though Jesus has come primarily to improve our circumstances.

Follow Jesus and everything will work out.

Follow Jesus and your family will prosper.

Follow Jesus and your plans will succeed.

Follow Jesus and your problems will disappear.

But Jesus never promised any of those things.

He promised something infinitely greater.

He promised Himself.

And sometimes following Him leads us through places we never would have chosen.

There may be uncertainty.

There may be sacrifice.

There may be disappointment.

There may be doors that never open.

There may even be moments when obedience costs us something we dearly wanted to keep.

The question is not whether following Jesus makes our lives comfortable.

The question is whether Jesus is worth following when they are not.

“But First…”

Then Jesus turns to another man and says:

“Follow me.”

And the man responds:

“Lord, suffer me first…”

Those words may be among the most revealing words in the passage.

“Lord…me first.”

The man was willing to follow Jesus.

Just not yet.

There was something else that needed to happen first.

And that is still one of the easiest ways to delay discipleship.

Someday.

When life settles down.

When the children are older.

When work becomes less demanding.

When there is more money.

When retirement comes.

When this problem is solved.

When that responsibility is finished.

Then I will have more time for God.

Then I will pray more.

Then I will study Scripture more.

Then I will serve.

Then I will become serious about following Christ.

The problem is that “later” has a remarkable ability to remain later.

There was a period in my own life when I became consumed with trying to build a good life.

A career.

A future.

Security for my children.

A good life for my spouse.

None of those things sounded sinful.

In fact, they sounded responsible.

But somewhere in all that building, something happened.

I stopped spending time with God.

Not because I had rejected Him.

Not because I had stopped believing.

I simply allowed everything else to move ahead of Him.

And that is one of the quiet dangers of the Christian life.

We do not always walk away from God through rebellion.

Sometimes we simply become busy.

We can fill our lives with good things until there is very little room left for the One who gave us the life we are trying so hard to build.

Jesus says:

“Follow me.”

And our answer cannot always be:

“Lord, first let me…”

There will always be something else demanding our attention.

The Cross We Would Rather Avoid

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

We have heard those words so often that it is possible to forget how shocking they were.

A cross was not jewelry.

It was not decoration.

It was an instrument of death.

When Jesus told His disciples to take up their cross, He was describing the death of self-rule.

That may be the deepest cost of discipleship.

We want Jesus as Savior.

But we struggle with Jesus as Lord.

We want forgiveness.

We want grace.

We want heaven.

We want peace.

We want His presence when life becomes frightening.

But Jesus also says:

Deny yourself.

That means there will be moments when what Christ wants and what we want are not the same thing.

And discipleship is revealed in what happens next.

Anyone can follow Jesus when His direction matches our preference.

The harder question is:

What happens when it doesn’t?

What happens when forgiveness is harder than resentment?

When generosity costs something?

When integrity costs an opportunity?

When obedience requires giving something up?

When Scripture confronts something we desperately want to justify?

When Jesus leads one direction and our desires pull another?

That is where the cross appears.

Counting the Cost

Jesus once told a crowd:

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?”

He was not discouraging people from following Him.

He was telling them not to pretend.

Jesus never hid the price of discipleship in the fine print.

He told people from the beginning:

There is a cost.

But there is something else we must remember.

There is also a cost to not following Him.

Jesus asked:

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

We spend much of our lives calculating the cost of obedience.

What will I have to give up?

What will change?

What will people think?

What might following Christ cost me?

Jesus asks us to calculate something else.

What does it cost to gain everything except the thing that matters most?

A person can build a career and lose his soul.

Build a bank account and lose his soul.

Build a reputation and lose his soul.

Build the perfect house and lose his soul.

Build the future he always imagined and discover that somewhere in the construction he stopped walking with God.

The tragedy is not possessing those things.

The tragedy is allowing them to possess us.

The Things We Hold

Another hard saying of Jesus came when a wealthy young man asked Him about eternal life.

Jesus eventually told him:

“Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor…and come, follow me.”

The man walked away sorrowful.

Why?

Because Jesus had identified the one thing the man could not release.

The issue was deeper than money.

Jesus had uncovered his master.

There is a question worth asking:

What could Jesus ask for that would make us walk away sorrowful?

That question can be uncomfortable.

But it reveals something.

We all have things we hold tightly.

Possessions.

Plans.

Relationships.

Status.

Security.

Control.

Sometimes even our understanding of how life is supposed to turn out.

Jesus may never ask you to physically sell everything you possess.

But every Christian must reach the place where he can say:

Lord, nothing I possess possesses me.

Everything ultimately belongs to You.

Don’t Look Back

The final man in Luke’s account says:

“Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.”

Again we hear those words:

“I will follow…but…”

And Jesus answers:

“No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Anyone who has tried to plow a straight line understands the picture.

If you keep looking behind you, the line wanders.

Jesus calls us forward.

Yet how often do we follow Him while continually looking backward?

Back toward the life we once had.

Back toward something we surrendered.

Back toward an easier road.

Back toward the person we used to be.

Sometimes we even romanticize the very things from which God delivered us.

Israel did this in the wilderness.

They had been slaves in Egypt.

God delivered them.

And before long they began remembering the food.

They forgot the chains and remembered the dinner menu.

Human beings are remarkably talented at remembering the comfort of Egypt while forgetting the slavery.

Jesus says:

Keep your eyes ahead.

There is nothing behind you worth abandoning Christ to recover.

So What Has This Week Been About?

All week Jesus has been asking essentially the same question in different ways.

Will you follow Me when following costs something?

When comfort is uncertain?

When obedience cannot be postponed?

When self must surrender?

When possessions loosen their grip?

When another loyalty competes for first place?

When the road ahead requires leaving something behind?

These sayings of Jesus are hard because discipleship is real.

But we must not mistake costly grace for graceless religion.

We are not purchasing salvation through sacrifice.

We cannot earn the love of God.

We cannot work our way into heaven.

Salvation is entirely by grace through faith.

Jesus paid the price we could never pay.

The cross that saves us is His cross, not ours.

But the grace that saves us also changes us.

Christ does not rescue us from sin so that we can continue belonging to ourselves.

Paul wrote:

“Ye are not your own.

For ye are bought with a price.”

That is the heart of discipleship.

We belong to Christ.

And Here Is the Beautiful Part

Everything Jesus asks us to surrender is temporary.

Everything He gives us in return is eternal.

We surrender our claim to control and discover His faithfulness.

We surrender sin and discover freedom.

We surrender our plans and discover His purpose.

We surrender our pride and discover grace.

We surrender the illusion that we can save ourselves and discover a Savior who already has.

Jesus never promised that following Him would cost nothing.

But neither did He ask us to give up treasure for nothing.

He said:

“Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

That sounds like a contradiction until we understand the Gospel.

The life we surrender to Christ is the life we finally discover was meant to be His all along.

The Question

So after six mornings of difficult words, perhaps we come to one simple question.

Not:

Do I believe in Jesus?

Not even:

Do I admire Jesus?

But:

Am I following Jesus?

There is a difference.

Jesus still says what He said beside the roads of Galilee:

“Follow me.”

Not when everything is settled.

Not after we have accomplished everything else.

Not after we have secured the future.

Not after we have arranged Christianity neatly around the life we already planned.

Follow Me.

Today.

Perhaps there is something that has slowly moved ahead of God in your life.

Perhaps there is a “but first” you have been repeating for years.

Perhaps there is something you are holding so tightly that the thought of surrender frightens you.

Perhaps you have been looking backward.

Or perhaps, like I once did, you simply became busy building a good life and one day realized that somewhere along the way you stopped spending time with the God who gave you that life.

Jesus is still calling.

And His words are still wonderfully simple.

“Follow me.”

Closing Prayer

Father,

Thank You for loving us enough to speak truthfully to us.

Forgive us for the times we have wanted the blessings of Christ without the lordship of Christ.

Forgive us when our answer has been, “Lord, first let me…”

Search our hearts and show us anything that has taken the place that belongs to You.

Our plans.

Our possessions.

Our ambitions.

Our comfort.

Our fears.

Even the good things that have slowly crowded You from the center of our lives.

Teach us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.

Give us courage when obedience is costly.

Give us faith when the road ahead is uncertain.

And remind us that whatever we surrender into Your hands is being entrusted to the One who loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.

Keep our eyes upon Christ.

And when we are tempted to look backward, remind us again of His call:

“Follow me.”

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen.

Closing Encouragement

Jesus never hid the cost of following Him.

But neither did He hide the destination.

The road of discipleship may require us to leave some things behind, but it leads us closer to Christ.

And when the choice becomes difficult, remember this:

Whatever following Jesus may cost us, Jesus is still worth following.