"What About There?"
Luke 9:57-62
Not A Fan Series- 3/17/13

Introduction: Have you ever had anyone say to you: If you need anything, let me know? These words sound great. Often times they are said with the intention of letting a person know that they want to be there for them. But do they really mean anything? What if you asked them to give you their car? Or their child? That would be a bit much, wouldn’t it? They don’t really mean anything, even though they said anything!!

            As we continue today in our Not a Fan Series, I want us to think about what we say to Jesus, and whether or not we really mean what we say. If we are making a commitment to Jesus to be more than a fan, but to become a follower, then whatever we say, we need to follow through on. We need to make sure that our words are meaningful and truthful. James 5:12 says, “Above all my brethren do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no so that you may not fall under judgment.”

I.                   Wherever- (Luke 9:57-62)

It is easy to put aside Jesus’ call of “follow me” as something we do just at church on Sunday; or in those moments when we have a little extra time to give to Jesus. But we will soon see that this isn’t the case at all. Jesus expects us to follow Him at all times in our lives.

In Luke, chapter 9, we are introduced to someone who initially seem to want to follow Jesus, but as he begins to understand what this means, he begins to make excuses. As he tries to negotiate the terms of his commitment to Jesus, it becomes clear that he was really just a fan.

a.      Do you mean what you say?- We meet a man in verse 57 who

approaches Jesus. He is walking along and encounters Jesus and His disciples. The verse says: “They were walking along the road, a man said to Him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’” This man is walking along, and it seems that without any provocation from Jesus, without any formal call, the man offers to be a follower. His words sound very impressive, as He tells Jesus He will follow wherever Jesus wants him to go.

This man seems to know what Jesus is wanting from him. Maybe he had heard about the way how Jesus had called the other disciples. Maybe he wanted to be one of the select. So he offers himself to Jesus. He seems to do so with no restrictions: WHEREVER. That certainly sounds like a follower. It sounds like someone who wants to commit to Jesus. But let’s look at verse 58…

“Jesus replies, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’” Jesus wants to make sure the man knows what he is getting himself into. Jesus wants the man to understand that to follow Jesus means that he will be homeless. Jesus has no home; no temple He belongs to; no office or place of business. Jesus’ life is one of a traveler. To follow Jesus would mean that he would be going from town to town and staying wherever they might find a place.

Jesus is also challenging the man’s comfort zone: as Jesus will often do! Following Jesus means that he would leave what he knows and go where Jesus goes. It is not some poetic statement, but a statement of reality. The man must come to grips with what he is asking to do: follow Jesus!

Think for a moment about the hymn “I Surrender All.” The words say: “All to Jesus I surrender; humbly at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken; take me Jesus take me now. I surrender all.” These words speak of what it means to follow Jesus; to SURRENDER ALL.  Bow at his feet, He is your Lord. Give up worldly pleasures, they just keep you unfocused; give all to Jesus, because that is what is needed if you ever hope to be a follower. Surrender your pride, your money, your plans, your family, your lustful thoughts, your desire for power, your thinking of career advancement. Surrender it all to Jesus.

Here is an important question: Where is one area you struggle to surrender over to Jesus? Could you say these words and mean them: I will go wherever you go? Are you demanding, when you should be patient? Critical, when you should be encouraging? Apathetic, when you should have zeal for the Lord?

b.      Taking your cross out into the world-  It is easy to say that you will

take up your cross wherever you go, but you must first take it out of your house. You cannot leave your cross in your home, or on the front porch. You must take your cross with you!

            When you go to work, your cross is to be there with you. You cannot get to work and leave Jesus in the car saying, “You wait here, I’ll be back in a while.” In your life, do you justify greed, and call it ambition? Are you able to rationalize your dishonesty by saying it is shrewd business? Do you stay quiet about your faith in the name of tolerance?

            Story- There is a story of a woman who asked her pastor to pray for her because she wanted to take seriously this challenge to follow Jesus. She wanted to be bolder about her faith. She said that there was this co-worker whom she had become friends with, but had never talked to her about her faith. She was planning on inviting her co-worker to a special event at her church, and then talk to her about her faith. So, the pastor began to pray for her. A few weeks went by when the pastor got an e-mail from this woman. She said that when she went to her friend and invited her to the event at church her friend laughed. Her friend said: “That’s where I go to church, and I was going to invite you!”

            Think about this, for seven years these women had worked next to each other, and neither of them realized that the other was a Christian. They called themselves followers, but they weren’t following at work. Shouldn’t we take Jesus to work with us?

            When you think of taking your cross out for Jesus, shouldn’t you take it to the movies, the game, the neighborhood? For some it might mean picking up where you are now, and going somewhere else for Jesus.

            Story- Anne Judson was the wife of America’s first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson. Adoniram was 24 when he decided to leave America and sail to Burma. Burma didn’t have a single missionary and was an extremely hostile environment. Adoniram had met Anne and decided he wanted to marry her. So he wrote to her father the following letter asking for her hand in marriage:

“I have not to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life…Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls…? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness?”

            Her father told Adoniram that it was her decision to make. She decided that she was indeed willing to follow Jesus wherever He would take her. So they got married, and in 1813 they left for Burma. They would experience one hardship after another. In 1824 Adoniram was put in prison. He was there for 18 months. At night his feet were tied and hoisted up so only his shoulders and head rested on the ground. When Adoniram went to prison Anne was pregnant, but she walked 2 miles every day to plead for him to be released. His daughter Maria was born while he was in prison. Eventually Adoniram was released. Not long after that Anne died at the age of 37 from spotted fever.

            Now you might hear this and be disheartened by it. You might wonder if their sacrifice was worth it. You might think that you would never do anything like that. But because of Adoniram and Anne’s efforts, the entire Bible was translated into Burmese. Today there are 3700 congregations that all trace their beginning to when Adoniram and Anne Judson said to God: “Wherever.” God pointed to Burma and asked: “What about there?”

            The man in Luke 9 was happy to say wherever, until God said, “There.” One of the reasons we don’t follow Jesus wherever, is that when He ways “there,” we take that as more of a suggestion than as a command. We think that Jesus will make us go to Burma, or Russia, or somewhere we don’t want to be. If we say “wherever,” God will prepare us for where that wherever is. Often times God puts the desire into our hearts before He asks!

II.                Did I Say Wherever?-

a.      What if- The way Jesus answers this fan in Luke chapter 9 reveals

some of the reasons it is difficult to tell Jesus, “Wherever.” Jesus speaks of follow Him as a journey of risk and uncertainty. If the man decided he was going to follow Jesus, he didn’t know where he would be going, or if he would even have a place to stay. He says no to following Jesus in part because he is afraid to say yes. Whenever we are afraid of what a commitment will lead to, our instinctual response is to say no. Fear always asks the question: “What if?”

            What if Jesus wants me to share my faith with other people? What if he points me to my neighbor’s house?

            Psychologists tell us that the number-one way people deal with fear is avoidance. If a place or a person causes us to be anxious, we will avoid the place or the person. Think for a moment about Jonah. Jonah was told to go and preach to the people in Ninevah. They were a wicked and sinful people. This call caused great fear in Jonah. So he decided to avoid the call at first! We are told that Jonah ran away from God. It was an active decision on Jonah’s part to run away.

            Another reason the man in Luke 9 seems to say no to Jesus is because Jesus calls him to something uncomfortable. We talked about last week how people tend to be more comfort seekers than cross bearers. We know that if we say “wherever” to Jesus, He will point us outside of our comfort zone. To follow Jesus we have to learn how to say “no” to ourselves.

            Some of you might remember the Fosters. They are missionary friends of mine and Tami’s who came here a number of years ago seeking support for their missions work in Africa. A few of us chose to help sponsor them. Think about their saying “yes” to Jesus, and then Jesus directing them to South Africa. To say yes they had to say “no” to staying by family and friends in America. To say yes to Jesus meant for them to have to learn a new culture and language. To say yes to Jesus meant for them to raise their kids apart from their grandparents. To say yes to Jesus meant that they would have a very different life.

            If you think about all of this, you realize that saying yes to Jesus meant for them to say no to comfort. And in our society today, comfort is a big thing. I once heard someone say: “I love having kids, because they can do things for me.” I kind of laughed at this thinking that this person was short sighted. But then the other day I was sitting in my recliner, when my son walked by. I said to him: “Tyler, will you get the remote control for me?” It actually dawned on me what this person had meant. I did not want to disturb my comfort by having to get up, so I had someone else do what I should have done! Even more, he was getting me the REMOTE CONTROL!! How many items of comfort do we have in this life?

Microwaves. Automatic garage door openers. Remote controls. Cruise control on the car. Cell phones. And on and on it goes. We are constantly inventing more and more products that will make our lives more comfortable. All the while, we are getting farther and farther away from what it means to take up our cross for Jesus. We are making it harder and harder for us to follow Jesus. We are blocking our willingness to be able to say to Jesus: “Wherever you want me to go, I will go for You.”

b.      Defining Wherever- Think about how this man in Luke 9 stood before

Jesus and says “wherever.” As you look closer, you have to see that he didn’t understand what he was really saying. He didn’t really what would really be asked of him. So when Jesus defines “wherever” for him, he does catch a glimpse that it will be traveling from town to town with Jesus. He does see that he will be living as a homeless person. He then wonders: “What am I getting myself into?”

            It makes me think of doing marriage counseling with couples who are on the verge of divorce. For them, marriage meant all fun and play and excitement. They didn’t understand what they were getting themselves into. They didn’t understand that marriage is work. They didn’t understand that marriage is compromise. They didn’t understand what they would have to give up for the other person. They didn’t understand what it meant to make a commitment to the other person in this sacred relationship of marriage!

            Think about the commitment, the vows that are made:

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE: It sounds so poetic when you say it, but what does it mean? I have known couples that have had to deal with losing a child. Dealing with an affair. Having a child arrested. Dealing with sickness. Putting up with each other when you aren’t always getting along.

FOR RICHER OR FOR POORER: When you don’t have much to live on, but find creative ways to do fun things together. When you are stressed because you can’t pay all your bills, but you are at peace because you have each other. When you wonder if you will be able to save enough for your kids college or for retirement.

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH: In regards to this one it always draws me back to Bruce and Helen. They were married for 74 years! They were committed to each other in the good times and bad. When Helen couldn’t see well anymore, Bruce would care for her in whatever she needed; including putting on her make-up each day.

            The most literal way to define a “Follower of Jesus” is “Someone who goes where Jesus goes.” How can we call ourselves followers if we refuse to go where Jesus went? I don’t think we can. If we are following Jesus “wherever,” He will take us towards a sinner that others wouldn’t want to be seen with. If we follow Jesus there will be times when we do things our families will think is crazy.

Conclusion: Where are the places you would never want Jesus to take you? Why would you not want to go there? Because it will make you uncomfortable? Because it will cause you to do something you don’t think you can do? Because it will mean you have to give up something you have now? We have to understand that Satan often deceives us in ways that cause us to choose comfort over service. Let Jesus direct you in your life. Let Jesus cause you to live a life that is godly.

            When we say to Jesus, I will go wherever, it is a life that will be rich and fulfilling; purposeful and fruitful. It will mean the difference between doing okay, and doing tremendous. It will be the opportunity to change the world by changing the lives of others. Wherever is an important word, because it frees you up from worldly cares, and sets you on a path that is Christ-driven. This is what a follower should do. This is where a follower should be. Let us join all the more in this journey, today and every day. Amen.