Kingdom First | Luke 9:57-62 | Jonathan Huang | March 15, 2026

Again, the scripture reading is from Luke chapter 9, verses 57 to 62.

Luke 9:57–62

Please stand for the reading of God's holy and inerrant word.

The cost of following Jesus.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.

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.

To another he said, Follow me.

But he said, But he said, Let me first go and bury my father.

And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my house.

Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Thank you, Naomi.

Morning, church.

It's good to see everyone this morning.

As we come before God's word, let me pray for us and we'll get started.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being here in this cafetorium at the school, Ashford Elementary.

Week after week, we have the opportunity to hear from your word.

And so we ask now that you would come and that our hearts would be humble and open to what you have to say to us, that your spirit would speak to each, every, every single one of us here in this room as you see fit.

And that we ask that your word would go out and accomplish that which you desire, not return to you, void or empty.

In Jesus' precious name.

Amen.

There's a man by the name of Langston Hughes, known to be one of America's most famous African-American poets of the 20th century.

And he has this memoir where he calls the story when he was about 12 years old.

And it was his aunt's church that were holding a series of revival meetings, one after the other, week after week after week.

And on the very last day, they decide to hold a meeting specifically for the kids.

And Langston's aunt really wanted him to attend, and he goes and he attends.

They usher him down to the front row where all the kids his age are, these poor little sinners.

And I want you to hear his experiences from his very own words.

He writes this My aunt told me that when you were saved, you saw a light.

Something happened inside you.

She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul.

I believed her.

The preacher preached a wonderful rhythmical sermon.

Then he said, Won't you come?

Won't you come to Jesus?

Young lambs, won't you come?

Some of the kids jumped up and went to Jesus right away.

Most of us just sat there.

Finally, all the young people had gone to the altar and were saved.

But one boy and me.

Wesley and I were surrounded by sisters and deacons praying.

It was very hot in the church, getting late now.

Finally, Wesley said to me in a whisper, I'm tired of sitting here.

Let's get up and be saved.

So he got up and was saved.

And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting, but he didn't come.

I heard the songs and the minister saying, Why don't you come, my dear child?

Why don't you come to Jesus?

Now it was getting very late.

I began to be ashamed of myself, holding everything up so long.

So I decided that maybe to save further trouble, I'd better lie too and say that Jesus had come and get up and be saved.

So I got up.

Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting as they saw me rise.

Waves of rejoicing swept the place.

That night, for the first time in my life, but one, for I was a big boy, 12 years old, I cried.

I cried in bed alone and couldn't stop.

I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me.

She woke up and told my uncle I was crying because the Holy Ghost had come into my life and because I had seen Jesus.

But I was really crying because I couldn't bear to tell her that I had lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church, that I hadn't seen Jesus.

And that now I didn't believe there was a Jesus anymore, since he didn't come to help me.

And I think the most important words he writes are the words he starts the story, the short story at the very beginning.

He says this quote, I was saved from sin when I was going on 13, but not really saved.

History has it that Langs and Hughes never ever became a follower of Christ.

He wasn't exactly an atheist, but he also definitely was not a follower of Christ.

And of this poet's legacy, one pastor says this quote, the experience of Langs and Hughes is but one example of what I fear must be thousands and thousands of people, if not millions and millions merely in the United States, that have been taken into our churches unconverted.

And he calls this the problem of false conversions.

And which begs the question what's going on?

What is going on?

How is it possible that so many people have been taught things about Christianity that make them think that they are Christians when they are really not?

And I use the word taught very intentionally here.

Just think about how young Langston was taught specific things about what it meant to become a Christian.

She tells him that when a person gets saved, you see a light.

And specifically, you're supposed to see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul.

That's what Langston was waiting for.

That's what he didn't get that night.

I'm not saying that won't happen or can't happen, or just think about Saul in Damascus on the Damascus road, and he sees this bright light, he's blinded, and he literally hears a voice from heaven calling out to him.

That not saying it can't happen, but all I'm saying is that what Langston's aunt taught him was above and beyond.

It was he basically she basically was trying to say this is what should be normally expected.

That makes sense?

And because it didn't happen to him that night, well, he got discouraged.

He didn't see Jesus that night.

And now, even because he didn't see Jesus, he actually just doesn't believe there is a Jesus anymore.

He didn't actually ever come that night.

You see what we teach people about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to follow Jesus matters.

Matters more than you think.

And could it be that what we're actually teaching people about Christianity, what we're teaching people about what it means to follow Jesus, what it takes to be saved, can actually lead to whole swaths of people being falsely converted.

And if that's the case, then the question is this how can we make sure that the gospel we teach others actually leads to true conversions and not false ones?

That's what I want us to wrestle with this morning as we turn now to the book of Luke, where we're going to be studying just a few verses, some hard sayings of Jesus, you might say, in Luke chapter 9, verse 57 through 62.

Luke 9:57–62

Now, I want you to turn with me there, and just for some context, most of Jesus' ministry centers around the Sea of Galilee.

There's a map on the screen.

You'll see the Sea of Galilee up north.

Most of his ministry centers around there, around the shores, Sermon on the Mount, walking on the waters like we saw last week, miracles, healings, casting out of demons.

A lot of the vast majority of his ministry was centered around the Sea of Galilee.

And then in verse 51 of chapter 9, we're told of a decisive turn of events where Jesus makes a specific decision.

The Bible tells us when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

It was a decisive moment in his ministry where he goes from around the Sea of Galilee and he starts heading down with his disciples south to Jerusalem.

And on this road, he knows that the time is coming for him to accomplish the mission he came.

He came to this earth.

After all, he came to seek and to save the lost at the cost of his own life.

And Jesus would tell his disciples in no uncertain terms that he would suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised.

And so I bring all that context up because it helps us understand his mindset as we head into our passage for today.

It helps us understand why he says the things he does.

It doesn't just come out of nowhere.

He's on a mission to Jerusalem where he's about to face his destiny, so to speak, what he was aiming for, his death on the cross, and he's ready to suffer for his people.

So again, as we read this passage, the question is: how can we make sure that the gospel we teach others actually leads to true conversions and not false ones?

And I think we would do well to learn lessons from Jesus Himself if we are going to faithfully teach others about what it means to follow Him.

And so the first answer I see to this question is this Don't sugarcoat the difficulties that may come with following Jesus.

So, verse 57, let's read along.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.

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.

Now, at first glance, I think the most easiest and obvious way to misunderstand what Jesus is trying to say here is that he's trying to say that every single follower of Christ for all of time in all of culture and all of the world need to give up their right to become, to own their own home, and they need to be homeless.

I think that would be a gross misunderstanding of what Jesus is trying to say here.

The Bible points out another places that Peter owned his own home.

Even after he became a follower of Christ.

Matthew 8, we're told that Jesus enters Peter's house, you'll remember, and his mother-in-law, Peter's mother-in-law, was sick with a fever, and Jesus goes in and heals her.

That very evening, others are brought to Jesus who were oppressed by spirits and demons.

He cast out the spirits with a word and healed those who were sick.

In fact, it's been pointed out that Jesus would often stay in Peter's house because his home base, his home base for ministry was Capernaum.

And so Peter's home became his home base where he would minister out of.

So Peter had a home.

And you'll also remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he looks down at his disciple John, he looks down at his mother Mary, and he basically tells John to take care of his mother.

And the Bible says that from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

So John owned his own home, even as a follower of Christ.

So my point is, Jesus clearly isn't requiring disciples of his to be homeless.

That's just not the case.

But if that's true, then what is Jesus trying to say here?

And I want you to notice that in verse 8, Jesus specifically uses the term son of man.

And that actually is one of Jesus' favorite ways to refer to himself.

And so because he uses son of man, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

He's actually talking about himself.

Commentators point out that Jesus is talking about he himself lived a life of homelessness for much of his life on earth.

Just think about all the places he had to visit as he traveled, itinerant ministry, he would have to stay in home after home after home that were not his own.

So, in a sense, he himself was homeless, yes.

And one commentator explains it this way.

When he said this, Jesus was not complaining.

He's simply stating the facts.

Jesus gave up everything to come and be our Savior.

Now Jesus calls us to give up everything for him.

This doesn't mean that we are not allowed to own property, but it does mean that we must never allow earthly things to get in the way of true discipleship.

Jesus has not called us to a life of luxury, but to a life of suffering service.

This means laying aside our earthly ambitions.

It means letting go of creature comforts to make costly gifts to Christian ministry.

And for some, it will mean giving up the security of our homes to follow God's calling.

I think about the Christians I know of that have given up nice, comfortable American lives to move all the way to the Middle East for the sake of the gospel.

Though for a time things were calm and life was good in places like Kuwait City and places like Dubai and places like Abu Dhabi, all of that's been like a veneer that's been shattered by the ongoing war, as you know.

Earlier this month, there are news headlines like this one you'll see on the screen.

U.S.

urges citizens to immediately leave over a dozen Middle East countries.

Wow.

And just imagine the kinds of questions that countless expat believers or even missionaries now have to grapple with.

Should we stay or should we go?

If we leave, what happens to all the people we've been trying to reach out to?

What happens to all the ministry we've been doing here?

And the truth is to stay, to remain in the Middle East at a time like this is to not count life as more precious than knowing and following Jesus, even in the hard places.

Amen?

And I've wondered, I've wondered if people that I knew over there were gonna try to figure out a way to get out of there as soon as possible out of a concern for their own safety, out of a concern for their own families.

And so you can imagine how encouraging it was to receive an update from Mitchell and Emily Cooper, who serve at Redeemer Fellowship of Kuwait this past week.

About four years ago, the Coopers left a nice, comfortable American life and the comforts of their home with their four kids from Orlando, Florida, to go to serve at a church plant in Kuwait, which, by the way, is just across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

Just across the Persian Gulf.

And now, in an unexpected turn of events, they're having to live through an uncomfortable reality of doing ministry in the midst of wartime in the Middle East.

And in their newsletter, I come to find out that earlier this month, just after the war broke out, they decided to go online for their weekly worship gathering.

But this past week, this past week, they decided to get in person again.

I think they meet in a hotel and do what they usually do in person: sing the word, pray the word, hear the word preached.

And in their newsletter, they asked for prayer that as the church gathered for corporate worship, that the G that the name of Jesus would be lifted high.

Their last prayer point was that they would continue to have more opportunities to share the hope we have in Christ.

Guys, this isn't a family who's desperately trying to get on the next jet to fly out of there.

I'm not trying to say that it's wrong or sinful for Christians to do something like that, but I bring up the Mitchells, I bring up this whole situation going on in the Middle East to give you a picture of some of the difficulties Christians are having to face right now in this world for the sake of gospel.

Because foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, and neither do his followers.

And what it means to be a follower of Christ is to say once and for all that life is not ultimately about chasing after the most safest, most comfortable, most secure outcome for yourself or for your family.

Sometimes what following Jesus will look like in the life of a believer is to find ourselves in some very dangerous and uncomfortable situations for the sake of the gospel.

And so, what kind of gospel are you telling others about?

It might seem easier to just leave that part of following Christ out, right?

That it might seem a little bit more persuasive if you just kind of emphasize the benefits and not the costs.

It might make it a little easier for that person to want to join in.

But the lesson of this first encounter is this.

Don't sugarcoat some of these difficulties that may come with following Jesus.

You see, if Jesus himself didn't sugarcoat it, then we shouldn't either.

Second, don't give people the wrong impression that their priorities can just stay unchanged.

And the call to following Jesus as you interact with people who are considering, thinking about the possibility of following Jesus, don't give them the wrong impression that they can just leave their priorities in life untouched.

Look down at verse 59.

To another he said, Follow me.

But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Now, at first glance, Jesus is pretty cold, right?

It sounds like a pretty cold response to a seemingly reasonable request.

Like, what's wrong with this man wanting to go back and bury his own father?

We think about it, there's actually two ways to understand the situation.

The first is this the first is to look at the situation as if this man's father actually has already passed away and he just really wanted to go and do his proper burial rites.

Commentators point out that for the Jews, they counted proper burial as of most importance.

To leave the father unburied was something scandalous to Jews.

They also point out that when Jesus says leave the dead to bury their own dead, the first dead group, the first group of dead people is actually referring to those who don't have any prior kingdom commitments.

They're spiritually dead.

And so what Jesus is saying here is to let those who are spiritually dead handle the burial rites of the physically dead.

Does that make sense?

Instead, this man is to reprioritize things in his life and to obey Christ's call to go and tell others about the gospel of the kingdom of God over and above his desire to meet any family or cultural expectations he might have.

Now, there's another way to look at the situation where it's simply that this man was wanting to delay his following Jesus.

His father hasn't died yet, and he wanted to just go back and spend some time with his family and his father until he died, and then he would follow.

Him, however long that might be.

That's a different situation.

But again, in this case, Jesus' response to leave the dead to bury their own dead would only make sense if he meant spiritually dead people are supposed to be the ones worrying about taking care of the physically dead.

Now, perhaps Jesus knew, as he often does, and as he certainly does, perhaps he knew that for this man his biggest heart idol was his family.

And so Jesus' response here would have touched a really deep nerve, getting at the core of what this man, this potential disciple, treasured and even worshipped in his heart of hearts.

However way you view the situation, this man would have had to confront his fears of displeasing his family, of upsetting cultural norms in order to take up his cross and follow Jesus.

My mother tells a story of a time when she first became a Christian.

She was in college.

She grew up in a Buddhist family in Taiwan.

A friend of hers during college invited her.

She was going through a really dark time in her life.

Really didn't have a good relationship with her own father at this point in time.

Friend invites her to a church.

She attends, and over a period of time, she becomes a Christian.

She tells a story of this moment in time where she was building habits, Christian habits, you know, of the kind we teach our kids before you eat.

Bow your head and pray and thank God for the food.

Well, he she was doing that one day.

And her father sees this and gets visibly angry, shoves the food away, and essentially says, What are you doing?

What are you doing?

And she explains, I'm I'm praying to God, thanking him for the food.

I provided that food for you.

You don't thank him, you thank me.

For my mom, following Jesus meant having to disappoint and even upset and anger some of our own family members who didn't understand what she was doing.

And my point is, if you want to follow Jesus, you can't keep the same priorities you once had.

Whether it's climbing the corporate ladder or doing everything you can to build up your nest egg.

Or like this man, meeting family or cultural expectations.

Christ and his kingdom purposes are to take precedence over any and all other priorities you have.

And so the question is: when you teach others about the gospel, what gospel are you telling them about?

Are you giving people the impression that they can follow Christ and hold on to their favorite idols?

Remember, we're trying to figure out how we can make sure we the gospel we teach others actually helps lead to true conversions and not false ones.

And so, first, don't sugarcoat the difficulties that may come from following Jesus.

Second, don't give people the wrong impression that they can hold on to their favorite idols and just have their priorities untouched.

And third, third, don't preach a watered-down gospel that leaves out the need to repent.

I see this in this third encounter with this potential disciple in verse 61.

He says, This yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.

Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Now again, this seems like a very reasonable request, right?

Let me just head on home real quick and say bye to my family.

And at first glance, it really seems like Jesus is just chipping away, chipping away, chipping away at the importance of family relationships.

But what is going on here?

And if you look closely, Jesus doesn't actually say no to this man.

Like he doesn't actually directly prohibit him from doing what he's asked.

No, he actually gives a very indirect answer if you think about it.

Like this man is asking to go back home to say bye to his family, and he gives this agricultural metaphor response.

You notice that?

He doesn't actually directly answer the request.

And he says, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Okay, so what does that mean?

What you need to know is that the plow is an ancient tool.

It's still used, still able to be used today, of course, but an ancient tool that was meant for preparing soil, like loosening soil for farmers, so that when you went to go and plant the seeds, the ground would be better.

That makes sense.

It was a J-shaped tool.

I think I have a picture of it, kind of, you can kind of see it's a J-shaped tool made out of wood, tied to oxen.

And so what you're supposed to do is put one hand on the plow and you have a staff with a sharp end, and you're supposed to kind of keep the oxen moving.

And the point G is trying to say is if you turn back, you're gonna go off track.

And so what people used to do, the plowmen used to do, was to keep their eyes on something far away.

You see, I have one more picture of furrows.

They're basically trying to make furrows, straight lines.

And so what plowmen used to do is to take their eye, keep their eye on one point far in the distance, and just keep on plowing straight.

That's the metaphor.

That's what Jesus is alluding to here.

So one commentator points out that Jesus is really trying to give a warning here.

Not so much a prohibition for this man going back home to say bye to his family.

No, Jesus is warning potential disciples against following him and then at some point turning back, looking back, longing to go back to life as it used to be pre-Christ.

Does that make sense?

He writes that perhaps in the desire to bid farewell, the heart of this man never leaves the attachment to old values and the old way of life.

It's this lack of a clean break that Jesus warns against here.

To follow Jesus means to not look back to the way life was before one came to follow him.

In other words, Jesus is warning against the kind of disciple who's trying to follow him without ever making a decisive turn away from an old life of sin.

It's a warning to all of us who seek to teach others about what it means to follow Jesus, to not water down our gospel and forget the need to call people to repent.

After all, you remember what Jesus' first words are when he begins his public ministry?

In the book of Matthew, it says, repent.

Jesus says, repent.

That's the very first words, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

I've been learning about a group of Christians who called, kind of coalesced under this banner of what's called the free grace movement.

And I think you need to know about them.

The free grace movement.

What they teach is that all you need to do to become a Christian is to have faith in Jesus.

Like all you need to do to have true faith is to trust in Christ as your Savior.

Now, when you first hear me saying that, I bet none of you would disagree.

It doesn't seem all that off, right?

But then they go on to teach that repentance and submitting your life to Jesus as your Lord is optional.

It's beneficial, but it's optional.

It's certainly not required to be saved.

But the reality is that trusting Jesus to save you from the penalty of your sins through the work of his cross goes hand in hand with a need to repent and to make a decisive turn away from your old life of sin.

Amen.

Theologian Wade Grudham says this if there is no mention of the need for repentance, sometimes the gospel message becomes only believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

Without any mention of repentance at all.

But this watered down version of the gospel does not ask for a wholehearted commitment to Christ.

Commitment to Christ, if genuine, must include a commitment to turn from sin.

Preaching the need for faith without repentance is preaching only half of the gospel.

It will result in many people being deceived, thinking they've heard the Christian gospel, tried it, but nothing has happened.

They never really did receive Christ as their Savior, for he comes to us in his majesty and invites us to receive him as he is, the one who deserves to be and demands to be, absolute Lord of our lives as well.

It's an amazing quote.

So helpful.

And so, how can we make sure that the gospel we teach others actually leads to true conversions and not false ones?

Like, how can we make sure, as much as it depends on us, that stories like we hear of Langston Hughes doesn't happen again under our watch?

First, don't sugarcoat the difficulties that may come from following Jesus.

Second, don't give people the impression that their priorities can stay unchanged.

And third, don't preach a watered-down gospel that leads out the need to repent.

Now, so far I've given you a lot of don'ts.

Not a great way to end a message.

So here's the one simple do I want to leave you with this morning.

What should you do instead?

Here's the one thing to do.

Do preach the whole gospel.

Not half of it.

Preach the whole gospel.

When you tell people about Jesus, yes, tell them the story of his love for us.

Tell them about how sin has separated us from God.

Tell them about the wages of sin and how the wage of sin is death.

Not just physical death, but a spiritual death for all eternity because we've sin has separated us from the love of God.

We've sinned against an infinitely holy God.

Tell them about that.

Tell them about the love story that involves a long-awaited Savior coming to earth some 2,000 years ago.

Tell them about that.

Tell them about have he lived his life in a way we should have lived and died, the death we should have died.

He shed his blood on the cross to absorb God's wrath for our sins?

Tell them about that.

Tell them, yes, tell them about the Jesus who was raised back to life three days later and now stands in heaven and calls all who would turn away from their life of sin and turn to him to be Lord and Savior of their lives.

That he offers them the gift of forgiveness.

That he offers them the gift of eternal life.

Tell them that.

But don't forget to tell them that it's not just enough to intellectually know those facts.

It's not just enough to know the historical facts of a man named Jesus who came to die on the cross and was resurrected on the third day.

It's not enough.

It's not even enough to think it's a good thing.

It's not enough to know the story.

It's not enough to even think positively about it.

You've got to make a third move, a decisive move, to receive Jesus as your own Savior, your own Lord, to save you from your own sins, to be Lord of your own life.

It's a personal commitment to Christ that I don't want you to forget to tell people about.

We don't just leave people with a story.

It has to become their story.

For Jesus to become their Lord, their Savior, to save them from their sins.

And that's why I think it makes so much sense to take your time when you're sharing the gospel with people.

You don't need to rush through it.

You don't.

It's infinitely better to take time to explain things clearly than to inadvertently produce false converts.

Amen?

And this is also why I think it's important to choose your evangelism tool wisely.

Like when you think about an evangelism tool, is it leading towards conversations that talk about the cost of following Jesus?

Or does it leave some things out?

Does your evangelism tool talk about the need to turn away from sin and to turn to Christ, to be not just their Savior, but their Lord?

Does it have a clear call to repentance and teach people what that means?

And that's why I love a tool that I love to share with you guys, and I have called Christianity Explained, because it goes through in six sessions all of this.

In great detail, but in helpful detail.

And you're not rushing through because you're going through it in six sessions.

And so what I want to do is challenge you once again.

I know many of you have it at home sitting on your shelf somewhere, and many of you probably have never used it.

That's okay.

But I want to challenge you this year to pray that the Lord would connect you with someone who's interested in Christianity.

I challenged you a few weeks ago to read through the book of Mark with someone.

This includes it.

It's just kind of what they would do at home, and then you come and talk with them about their, you know, the book of Mark.

So it includes that.

So I'm not negating my challenge from a few weeks ago, but I want to encourage you to be praying for someone to go through this material with this year.

If you want to learn more about how to use it, come talk to me after service.

I'd love to love to talk more about that.

And if you're not a Christian here today, I want to just say you are so welcome, so happy to see you and so happy that you're here with us.

And if you want to learn more about what I have just been talking about and what it means to become a Christian, what it means to follow Jesus more, you want to explore a little bit more about not just the benefits but the costs and kind of have a have kind of the whole picture of things, I'd love to talk with you and come talk with Pastor Ben after service or just whoever you came with today.

Church.

May we not be ashamed of the gospel.

May we not be ashamed of the gospel.

We give people some hard truths about what it means to follow Jesus.

May we not be ashamed of the gospel.

For it is the power of God for salvation to those who believe.

First to the Jew, then to the Greek, and then to the rest of the world.

So heed the words of Jesus this morning and go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for the privilege of sitting under your word and knowing that there are Christians all around the world today who are living out these truths.

Living out the cost of following Jesus.

They're living for you in hard places.

We thank you for that.

We thank you for them.

We pray that you'd comfort and strengthen them.

We pray, Lord, that as we go through a wake in Houston leading up to the weeks of Easter, that you would help us to be so in love with you that we can't help but get the gospel coming out of us.

That in our abiding with you, the love of Christ would spill over.

Would spill over.

And that you give us opportunities to share your love with others.

Not a half or partial gospel, but the whole gospel.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I'm gonna give you a