Wednesday January 29
Discipleship Requires Power, Love and Discipline
Luke 9:51-62
51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village.
57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, 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 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." 61 And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." 62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Since Saturday morning when I made my last Pastor’s Chat post, I have driven over 2,000 miles as we took Kimberly and Luke to the Boston’s Children Hospital. We can’t thank you enough for all your prayers as the Lord wonderfully blessed us with traveling mercies and a great visit with the doctor there. As we already posted, Kimberly was extremely excited with his evaluation and recommendations for future treatment for Luke. Our family is very thankful for your friendship, love, prayers, and support that so many of you have extended to all of us these past two and a half years regarding Luke and all his challenges! Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Today, we will finish looking at Luke 9. Jesus is preparing His disciples to become the “pillars” of His church (Galatians 2:9). As we read “in between” the lines in the Gospels during the three and a half years that the Lord spends with them, it appears to be an impossible task. But we must remember that “with God all things are possible”. Despite all their shortcomings, the Lord never gives up on them and patiently continues to teach and love them! As we think of an overview of this chapter, we see at least three things that were still lacking in their lives that are necessary to be fruitful disciples of Jesus Christ! They are power, love and self-discipline!
The disciples lacked the power to cast the demon out of the young boy (vv. 37-43). They lacked love for the multitudes (v. 12; “send them away”), for each other (vv.46-48), for those who weren’t in their “group” (vv. 49-50), and for those who rejected them in a village of Samaria (vv. 52-56; “…call fire from heaven to consume them…”). With His answer, (“the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them”), Jesus reminded them and even us today, that we are not to fight with those who reject us or our message, but with God’s grace and mercy we should love them.
Now in these final verses 57-62, Luke tells us of three men who could have become disciples, but they would not meet the conditions that Jesus laid down. They lacked discipline! The first man was a scribe (Matthew 8:19) who volunteered to go until he heard the cost: he had to deny himself. Apparently he was accustomed to a comfortable home. The second man was called by Jesus, but he was rejected because he would not take up the cross and die to self. Jesus is not suggesting here that we dishonor our parents, but only that we not permit our love for family to weaken our love for the Lord. We should love Christ so much that our love for family would look like hatred in comparison (Luke 14:26).
The third man also volunteered, but he could not follow Christ because he was looking back instead of ahead. There is nothing wrong with a loving farewell (1 Kings 19:19-21), but if it gets in the way of obedience, it becomes sin. Jesus saw that this man's heart was not wholly with Him, but that he would be plowing and looking back (see Gen. 19:17, 26; Phil. 3:13-14). No wonder the laborers are few! (Luke 10:2)
It would appear that what Jesus taught His disciples, and the multitudes had done them little good. They lacked power, love, and discipline, and they grieved His heart. If we today lack these spiritual essentials, we can never truly be His disciples, but they are available to us from the Lord. "For God did not give us a spirit of fear (or timidity), but of power, of love and of a sound mind (self-discipline)" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Today, are we a joy to Jesus Christ, or are we breaking His heart?
God bless!
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