The Call to Discipleship | Matthew 8:18-27

Jackie's going to come up now and read our passes for today.

It's taken from Matthew 8 and after that, Michael's going to come up for the sermon.

Matthew 8 verse 18, when Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the

Matthew 8:18

other side of the lake, then a teacher of the law came to him and said, teacher, I will

follow you wherever you go.

Jesus replied, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man

has no place to lay his head.

Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father, but Jesus told

him follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.

Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake so that the waves swept over the

boat, but Jesus was sleeping.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, Lord, save us, we're going to drown.

He replied, you of little faith, why are you so afraid?

Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this?

Even the winds and the waves about him.

Good morning again.

It's great to be together on this, actually, a beautiful day today.

And indeed, if you are new among us, you are most welcome.

We love meeting new people and having visitors.

If you haven't been here before, we're actually in a series at the moment called Jesus and

the Kingdom of Heaven, which we started last year and we spent eight months in the first

few chapters, if you would like to access any of that.

It's all been recorded and it's on our website.

Last week, Matthew set out yet again to prove to us in three different scenes that Jesus

is the Christ and that his message is from heaven by showing us that God himself attested

to Christ's ministry by signs, wonders and various miracles.

And Matthew did that by telling us about three different occasions when Jesus just said the

word over things that only God could deal with and it was done for Jesus.

Three scenes with one big picture, this Jesus of Nazareth.

He came not just with the message of the Kingdom, but also with its power because he was more

than just a man.

No, this Jesus, he was the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God that

was promised by God long ago in the law and the prophets to be the saviour of his people.

And that's been shown to us over and over and over again.

Not just in the words of Christ, but in his very deeds as well.

So that brings us to the passage that we have before us this morning.

Jesus is indeed the Christ, the King of heaven and we're to believe that.

But as we know, even the devil knows some theological truths yet remains unsaved.

We know that there's so much more to the Christian life than believing that Jesus is just the

Christ.

No, we're called to believe and follow him, to be his disciples in this world.

And that's what Matthew wants to speak to us about this morning in our passage.

We're not just to believe, but to follow Jesus.

And Matthew's going to teach us a few things about what it means to follow him and the cost

that at the price it will cost us.

But first before we do any of that, would you please pray with me and we'll ask our

Father to help us this morning.

Our Father, we do indeed thank you that we can come to you this morning and know that

we're not just reading words written by Matthew, but inspired words given by you to your people,

to the church for all time.

Father, your word is settled in heaven and it is a good word.

And we ask this morning that by your spirit you would open our hearts and minds, that

you would draw us to Christ and that you would change us for your glory and for the sake of

Christ.

And we ask this in his name, amen.

So church, let me set the scene for you this morning.

We're dropping into a scene where we're meant to be feeling tension and excitement.

A scene where things were getting so hectic because Jesus had come into this town of Capernaum

and healed a whole load of people and cast a whole load of demons out from among them.

Things are getting absolutely hectic and people are gathering around him.

And we read, when Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other

side of the lake, verse 18.

So we can imagine it, right?

They're on the way, getting ready to cross to the other side of the lake with all these

people following Jesus.

And it's here that we're met with a scene where two people come from the crowds to meet

with Jesus.

And they want to follow him, reread in verse 19, then a teacher of the law came to him.

So the first guy that we meet is a teacher of the law.

Or what we might think of, it's also translated as a scribe, or what we might think of in

our setting as a theologian.

Now I don't know if you've personally met many professional theologians in your time,

but one thing you can say about them is that they're usually incredibly learned, smart

people.

Just the other night I had the opportunity to go to the Trinity Bible College graduation

and I got to see a lot of my old professors who taught me theology and just talking to

a couple of them, I was again struck with just how much they know and have studied.

Just because their job demands that they have to be well and wide read and have a head on

their shoulders, as they need to be prepared to not only teach but answer the many, many

random questions that training pastors and seasoned Christian workers are going to throw

at them.

There's no difference with the guy in our context.

He's a scribe, a teacher of the law.

He had to know what he was doing.

He was a teacher who trained those under him.

He would have been well read, which means he would have been looked to as someone who

was incredibly intelligent, as not every Jewish child had the opportunity to learn how to

read and write and study and teach.

So this guy, he's educated but as a teacher he would have also been incredibly influential.

You see, in the ancient world the synagogue was the hub of any Jewish community.

It was where children would go to schools, where women would go to pray together, where

men would meet to discuss things and even maybe do business.

And people like our teacher here would approve marriage arrangements and work out funeral

plans.

And then of course there was the great day of the Sabbath, where the whole community

would join together to hear the reading of the law and maybe even a bit of preaching

and explaining of the text.

All that to say, this first guy that came to Jesus, he's smart, knowledgeable, he's

influential in his circles, known to the community, known to the people.

And so as the crowds are following Jesus, he comes up and he says, teacher, I'll follow

you wherever you go.

Think about that.

That's huge.

This as we know by reading through Matthew is becoming a big deal by this point in his

ministry.

He's known all throughout the region of Galilee because of his healing ministry and we're

also told that great crowds followed Jesus because of his incredible teaching.

And we're told that the crowds were made up of all sorts of people from all over the place.

So what better than to have the local theologian come to Jesus and call him teacher, rabbi,

master.

I mean the endorsement, the advocacy of this guy willing to leave his highly influential

career to come to be in your inner circle.

I mean the act alone is telling.

And maybe if we put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples or even the crowds at that

very moment, they may have been thinking Jesus says a lot of things that are pretty hard

to understand.

But this guy, well he knows what he's talking about.

He studied the scriptures.

So him wanting to be at the feet of Jesus to be taught by him to want to follow him wherever

he goes, he must really know what he's on about.

So you have this teacher adamant to leave everything and not just follow Jesus to the

other side of the lake.

But notice the words, wherever, with Jesus in all his journeys.

He wants to be his disciple.

So this is what makes the scene so surprising.

Jesus then says to the man, foxes have dens, birds have nests.

The son of man has no place to lay his head.

So church you'll notice straight away that Jesus doesn't say yay or nay but simply throws

out some facts to this guy to get him thinking.

In other words, our Lord tests this teacher's commitment to what he's just said.

So it begs the question, what exactly did Jesus say to this guy from him to be going

go, go, go to whoa, whoa, whoa.

Well there's a couple of things that I would like to put out to you this morning.

First, Jesus makes it clear that even animals have better accommodation than he does at

the moment.

Now we know that Jesus, he set up shop in Capernaum and our best guess is that he most

likely stayed with Peter.

And during his heavy touring schedule we can surmise that he relied heavily on the hospitality

of those that he met on his journeys.

Seeing that Jesus and his disciples, those with him, they weren't earning a packet.

They weren't touring five star hotels around the country.

Now while Jesus was moving about from town to town, preaching about the kingdom of heaven,

he and his disciples, they were living what we might call on the poverty line, living from

day to day on people's generosity.

And so it's great that this teacher was wanting to follow Jesus and be his disciple.

But our Lord was concerned that this guy was too eager to follow him without having counted

the cost of what it really means to follow Jesus.

There would be no money, there would be no theological accolades and well-done among

his peers.

There may not even be a place to lay his head at night.

We can see what Jesus is doing, right?

We may have expected Jesus to welcome this man's bold and public commitment to service,

but our Lord is wiser than we could possibly imagine.

He gets this guy to really start thinking about what he said in the heat of the moment.

The second thing that I want you to notice here is this is actually the first time that

our Lord refers to himself as the Son of Man.

And a teacher of the law, a scribe, one who was theologically knowledgeable, who knew

the Scriptures, knew that that was a totally loaded title to give oneself.

You see, God referred to Ezekiel over and over and over again as the Son of Man as he

commissioned the prophet to go and speak his word to his people.

And interestingly enough, it's also the title that the prophet Daniel gave to the one in

whom he saw all power and authority given over to him by God.

His teacher knew that.

He knew Jesus had the power and authority of heaven to be doing what he was doing in

their midst.

So it's little wonder that he wanted to drop everything and follow Jesus because for him,

this is God, the God of Israel working in the present, working through this great teacher

bringing about what God had promised to do for his people.

But when Jesus tests this man's commitment in light of it all, of God's servant, the

Son of Man, God's righteous one, not even having a place to lay his head.

Well, that was a cost that was just way too high to pay.

We can see where this is going, can't we, church?

Jesus doesn't just call us to believe in him, admire him, be awed by him, know some theological

truths about him, but to count the cost and pay the price of following him.

In this instance in the text that we have before us this morning, this man was called

to leave his influential, highly praised career, to leave a life where friends and family would

be so proud of his achievements to follow Jesus into the great unknown, into suffering

and service that would be thankless and hard.

Jesus, yes, while very much revealing his true identity to this man, showing him that

God was indeed working among them, he was also showing that to follow him, well, it's

a life of sacrifice and self-denial.

Brothers and sisters, I want you to hear me loud and clear this morning.

Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

I think Billy Graham said it really well once.

He said, yes, salvation is free, but discipleship, it costs everything.

That's what we see here.

Commitment to Christ is too important for us to not realize what it actually costs us.

Many don't count the cost.

They start to follow, but then they fall away when they realize just how hard it is to follow

Jesus and be his disciple in this world.

So, what we see here is that our commitment to Christ isn't just something we do in the

excitement of the moment, but something that is done in light, in realization of how serious

it really is to say, yes, Lord, I will follow you.

I'm not going to lie to you this morning, church.

You may lose everything in this world to follow Jesus.

I don't know what he will call you to give up or where he may take you.

That's his business to do with his people.

But what I do know is that Christ never calls his people to come to him just so we get a

ticket to heaven and then can hold on to our old lives.

No, we are called to come to Christ to get Christ.

He is the one that we need.

He is everything in this world worth giving up everything for.

Our careers, our status among peers, our money, recognition with others, even our very well-being

is all given over to our Lord and Savior and Master for his sake and kingdom.

He may take it away.

And so the first thing that we learn here, Jesus expects that those who would follow

him count the cost, be willing to leave it all for him and his kingdom.

Second thing that we learn from our passage this morning, what we see it in verses 21

and 22.

Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go bury my father.

Jesus told him, follow me.

Let the dead bury their own dead.

So faith in Jesus, it not only causes us to count the cost, pay the price, but it also

causes us to recognize the priority of our Lord and his ways above all else.

Now there's a lot that could be said here this morning about everything going on, whether

this man's father had just died or if he was about to die or even being moved from the

family house to the tomb, which was a common practice in that time.

Well regardless of what's going on there, we can see what Jesus is doing here.

He's saying to this man that the dead take care of their own business, but are you ready

to follow me and live to take care of my business?

Church, Jesus, he's not being insensitive to this man's situation.

Of course we can take things out of context and we can read something like this and say

this seems so heartless.

However, if we look at the whole counsel of Scripture, we know that God deeply cares for

family.

He deeply cares for how we honor our father and mother and some of Christ's very last

words were to the disciple John in how he was to look after his own mama.

But we have to understand the immediate context.

Jesus was surrounded by a fanfare of people that wanted to join him.

They were excited about what they had both heard and witnessed and climbing over themselves

to be part of the action, part of the in-crowd.

But notice it, they want to be disciples on their own terms.

And so Jesus is emphasizing that the cost of following him in this world, well for the

first man it was to leave career prestige and comfort.

For this man, Jesus is emphasizing that there is nothing in this life that takes priority

over living for Jesus and the kingdom of heaven.

Nothing.

Might we cast our minds back to the first disciples all the way back there in Matthew

4 all those months ago when Jesus came to these lowly fishermen as they're casting their

nets out into the ocean.

And how he came up to them and he said, follow me.

Remember their reaction.

Remember what Matthew records.

Immediately.

They left their nets.

They left their family business.

They left everything to follow him.

Notice Matthew doesn't say, but I just need to.

But I just have to.

But can I, if you're a parent of small children, maybe even larger ones, you know exactly how

that sounds when you say, go tidy your room.

We see an immediate reaction with these guys.

They leave everything behind to follow Jesus.

Which is to say, when Jesus calls us to follow him, the simple answer is yes, Lord.

Yes, I will follow.

Matthew is stressing in these scenes that the Lord takes priority over everything, over

everything that comes between us and whatever he calls us to.

I love this English theologian not only having the greatest beard maybe to ever hear England,

but JC Ryle once said, nothing has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of

fulfilling the ranks of Christ's army with volunteers who were willing to make just a

little profession.

That's what Matthew is showing us here.

Jesus, he's turning away people.

He warrants unconditional trust, undivided attention.

So I might ask of us this morning, all of us, is the Lordship of Christ evident in our

lives?

When we heard all those years ago or even recently, follow me, have we done so?

Again, this is between you and God.

But would you say that as the Holy Spirit has revealed things in your life through the

Word to be hindering and hurting your discipleship, that you've pleaded to put that thing to death,

to leave it behind for the sake of the kingdom?

Would you say that as things have presented themselves to you to threaten to take priority

over following Christ, like relationships, worldly expectations, responsibilities, even

homes and family, have you resolved in your heart and said no?

I belong to Christ.

I belong to his kingdom.

I belong to eternity.

I'm his.

All of me is his.

It's the evidence of an undivided heart in our Christian walk church, in our discipleship.

So the first thing we see is Jesus expects that those who would follow him count the

cost and be willing to leave it all for him and his kingdom.

The second thing we learn is that our Lord wants us to follow him as our first priority.

The third thing we see is that Jesus wants us to trust him with it all, verses 23 to

27.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.

Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake so that the waves swept over the boat.

But Jesus was sleeping.

The disciples went and woke him saying, Lord, save us.

We're going to drown.

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.

The men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this?

Even the winds and the waves obey him.

Now church, think about the details that Matthew has just given to us here.

Think about it for a moment.

The context, these were experienced guys, experienced living their lives in this lake

fishing.

Surely they had come up against storms before.

Surely they were used to this kind of weather and their fishing.

But for whatever reason, this storm is an absolute doozy.

The disciples freak out so much so that they fear for their very lives.

So it's telling what they start thinking about Jesus.

They cry out to the only guy that we're told is the son of a carpenter who's asleep mind

you.

They're saying, Lord, save us, we're going to drown.

This is where Jesus does something absolutely astounding.

We've read, he got up, he rebuked the winds and the waves and it was completely calm.

Unfortunately, it's at this point that many sermons on this text jump into some sort of

weird promises that Jesus is going to change the storms of your life and that those storms

of money issues and relationships and health are all going to change.

But the only problem with that, that's not the point of this passage.

Now what Matthew wants to point out to us here is so much deeper than all of those things.

And we're meant to be asking the same questions, the same questions that the disciples are

asking there in verse 27.

What kind of man is this?

Even the winds and the waves obey him.

You see, this is a group of Jewish men and they knew that only the God of Israel, Yahweh,

only he was able to direct the wind and the waves like they had heard about in the Book

of Jonah.

Like it was preached by the psalmist, oh Lord, God of hosts, who is as mighty as you are?

You rule the raging sea.

When its waves rise, you calm them.

You see this whole picture is meant to be pointing us yet again to the real identity

of Jesus Christ.

Yes, though a man, he is no ordinary man and his disciples are starting to realize that.

This Jesus, this Son of Man is in fact, as John will say many, many years later, God with

us.

That's what we're meant to see here.

This isn't just a great teacher or miracle worker who knew a lot about the Scriptures

and could explain it to the masses.

Now this authority that belongs to God is the authority that belongs to Jesus because

he is the God man.

God's insistence in conclusion, the promise of this whole passage isn't that the storms

of our lives will end soon or simply go away because you're a disciple of Jesus.

Now the promise is that this Jesus who has all power and authority of heaven who continues

to control all things, well it is he himself who has called us to be his disciples.

He is his disciples in this world and it is he who has called us to trust him no matter

what our circumstances are.

That's what we're meant to see here.

This Jesus is God so we follow him, we bow down to him, we pray to him, we worship him

and trust him with everything that we are and have no matter what comes.

We're to trust him because Jesus is sovereign.

He is the God, the creator of the universe.

That's who we have put our faith in, who we are to continually put our faith in no matter

the circumstances.

And we see here in our text that we can cry out to him, cry out to him when we are faithless.

So as we end our time in this wonderful part of scripture this morning, I want to sum it

up for you like this.

We're to have faith in Jesus, count the cost of following him and pay the price of discipleship.

I'll say it again, we're to have faith in Jesus, count the cost of following him and

pay the price of discipleship.

But I want to end on this.

Look who has called us to himself.

He is the one who when he speaks leprosy obeys.

He is the one who speaks and paralysis obeys.

He is the one who speaks and fever obeys.

He's the one who speaks and demons flee.

He's the one who speaks and nature obeys.

He's the one who has conquered all things including death itself.

He's the one who sits in the heavens with all power and heaven and on earth in his hands.

The one whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

The one who is coming again.

Church, we're not following, we're not the disciples of some first century teacher from

some backwater town that's relegated to the annuals of history who's begging for our attention

and allegiance.

Now this is Jesus, God Almighty who came in the flesh, who came to seek and serve and

save his people.

To seek, serve and save people like you and me.

The Son of Man with the very words of God and the deeds to prove it, who has all power

and authority over every circumstance.

God is who has reached down into our lives, who's pulled us up from the murky clay and

called us to follow him and trust him with all that we are, all that we have, all that

we do.

Yes, yes you may lose everything in the eyes of the world, but look what you gain.

Look what you gain, you gain everything in a life walking with Jesus.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, time and time again we are reminded that you have the words of eternal life.

Lord we are so thankful that we are not saved by our works, but saved by your works, your

perfect works and that you have taken the punishment for our sin and raised victorious

for our justification.

This morning Lord Jesus we asked that by your Holy Spirit you work in our midst and cause

us to raise our eyes to you.

But in the doing Lord as your Spirit reveals to us where our hearts are divided, where

we have gone off track, where we have become faithless, might we be reminded of those words

that you said to us through your Apostle Paul, when we are faithless you remain faithful.

Father would you please heal us of our divided hearts, would you cause us to see that you

are the one to follow, no matter the cost, no matter where you take us.

And that you would use Grace Christian Church, these wonderful blood purchased people that

you have called to yourself for your kingdom and your glory in your power.

We ask for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.