Apr 10, 2014
www.praisetabernacle.com
Praise Tabernacle
People Restored And Inspired Serving Everywhere This is a non-denominational Church, Charismatic in expression. Senior Leader is Pastor Steve Rahter 2235 Ocean Heights Ave. Egg Harbor Township, NJ 0823
Matthew 8:18-34
The CEO of a large company was interviewing people for the
important job of financial director.
One candidate - Charles - seemed ideally qualified. Charles had
attended a top level college. He was a certified public accountant.
He had a Masters degree in business. He knew finances inside and
out, backwards and forwards. He seemed to be the exact person they
were looking for.
“Charles,” said the CEO, “we've decided to offer you the job. And
since you're so highly qualified we're going to start you off on a
higher salary than the one we had advertised. We'll pay you $2000 a
week!”
“Thank you very much, sir” replied Charles. “Wow, I can’t believe
I’m going to be making $6000 a month!”
So maybe Charles didn’t have what it takes to be a financial
director after all. Here, in this next section of Matthew chapter
8, we encounter two people who don’t seem to have what it takes to
become a disciple of Jesus:
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders
to depart to the other side of
the sea. 19 Then
a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever
You go.” 20 Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His
head.”
Someone described this scribe as “jumping on the Jesus bandwagon”.
He was all excited about the healings that Jesus was performing and
the crowds that He was attracting. He figured maybe some of this
fame and fortune would rub off on him if he just hung around with
Jesus long enough. But Jesus gives the scribe a rude awakening. He
essentially says, “I’m homeless. If you’re planning on following me
you might end up homeless too. Are you sure you know what you’re
getting into?”
That’s a question that we ALL should ask ourselves before pledging
to follow Jesus wherever He leads, because He already told us where
He’s leading us – He’s leading us to a cross, a place of
self-sacrifice!
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoffer, who was executed by the
Nazis, wrote this:
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring
repentance, baptism without discipline, Communion without
confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace
without the cross. Grace is costly because it calls us to follow,
and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus. It is costly
because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a
man the only true life.
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and
die."
This is the same challenge that Jesus put forth in Luke 14:25-33
when He explained the need for each of us to “count the cost”
before choosing to follow Him:
Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and
said to them, 26 “If
anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and
mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and
even his own life, he cannot be My
disciple. 27 Whoever
does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My
disciple. 28 For
which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first
sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete
it? 29 Otherwise,
when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who
observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying,
‘This man began to build and was not able to
finish.’ 31 Or
what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will
not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough
with ten thousand men to
encounter the one coming against him with twenty
thousand? 32 Or
else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation
and asks for terms of peace. 33 So
then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all
his own possessions.
Don’t those statements shock you? We’re supposed to be willing to
hate our own families and our own lives and to give up EVERYTHING
in order to qualify as a true disciple of Jesus! Who meets those
criteria?
Notice that Jesus said those things to “large crowds (who) were
going along with Him.”
That’s similar to the verse we started off with today: “Now when
Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the
other side of
the sea.”
What’s that all about? Did Jesus not like crowds? Did He not want
lots of followers? The point is that Jesus DID want followers. But
He wanted to make sure that those who were following Him clearly
understood what that would mean for their lives. As we’ve been
learning in our monthly men’s meeting, what Jesus WASN’T looking
for was just a bunch of FANS, people who admire Him but don’t want
to serve Him!
Next we see another example of a man who isn’t willing to meet the
shockingly high qualifications of discipleship:
21 Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me
first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus said to
him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own
dead.”
One commentary said this: “These events show the radical commitment
Jesus demands of disciples. Honoring one’s parents by providing a
proper burial was a strict obligation in Jewish society, but Jesus
demands a greater allegiance to Himself.”
There is another possible interpretation of those verses as well.
Some scholars think that the man’s father was still alive, and that
he was basically saying to Jesus “I’m gonna hang around here till
my Dad passes away, then I’ll catch up with you later!” One writer
put it this way, “He wanted to wait until he received his
inheritance. He wanted a commitment that demanded no
risk.”
Keep this in perspective. In verse 20 Jesus says “the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay His head.”
This title “the Son of Man” is how Jesus refers to Himself when He
predicts his suffering and death. In Chapter 17 verses 22 and 23 He
tells his disciples:
“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of
men; and they will kill Him.”
So the essentially question for any follower isn’t just “who are
you following?” – it’s “where is he leading you?”
Jesus is making no secret of where following Him will lead.
In Luke
9:23 He
spells it out in the clearest terms: “If
anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up
his cross daily and follow Me.”
Did you catch the sequence of events there? First, DENY YOURSELF!
Second, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS. Third, FOLLOW ME! Don’t kid yourself
into thinking that you’re doing the third thing if you haven’t
already done the first two!
In Luke’ version of these same events from Matthew chapter 8, Jesus
adds this comment in chapter 9 verse 62 “No one, after putting his
hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God.”
Don’t look back. If you’ve decided to be a follower of Jesus, then
count the cost up front, before you make that commitment, so that
once you’ve put your hand to the plow of serving Him, you won’t be
looking over your shoulder, thinking twice.
Of course Jesus came to be the Son of Man, the sacrifice for the
sins of the world, but He was also the Son of God, who created the
world. And because of that He has power OVER the world, as these
next events demonstrate:
23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed
Him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the
sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus
Himself was asleep. 25 And they came
to Him and
woke Him, saying, “Save us,
Lord; we are perishing!” 26 He said to them, “Why
are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He
got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became
perfectly calm. 27 The men were amazed, and said, “What
kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
Him?”
Apparently the weather conditions around Sea of Galilee can create
some pretty intense storms, with waves up to fifteen feet high! The
power that Jesus displays in calming the storm with only His words
causes the disciples to ask “What kind of a man is this?” They knew
Jesus as a man. They followed Him everywhere. But they also knew
from the Psalms that only God can control the seas and the
storms:
Psalm 65:7 says
that God “stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their
waves,”
Psalm 89:9 “You
rule the swelling of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.”
Psalm 107:24-29 “They have seen the works of the Lord, And
His wonders in the deep.
25 For
He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They
rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; Their
soul melted away in their misery.
27 They
reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end.
28 Then
they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
29 He caused
the storm to be still,
So that the waves of the sea were hushed.”
These disciples knew that those scriptures were talking about GOD’S
power over the waters and the storms, and now here was Jesus, a
MAN, calming the storm right before their very eyes! When Jesus
asks them “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith”
- He is essentially saying, “Don’t you know who I
AM?”
That’s always going to be the defining line for whether we are
walking in faith or not. If our focus is on the wind and the waves
of life’s storms, then maybe we’ve forgotten just who it is that
we’re following and what kind of power he
possesses!
In these final verses Jesus shows His power extends not just to the
natural world, but also to the SUPER-natural
world:
28 When He came to the other side into the country of the
Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were
coming out of the tombs. They
were so
extremely violent that no one could pass by that
way. 29 And they cried out, saying, “What business do we
have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us
before the time?”
The demons inside these men complain that it is not yet “the time”,
knowing that on the Day of Judgment they will be cast into the
abyss, or lake of fire. In Matthew
25:41 Jesus says that on the Day of
Judgment “He
will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me,
accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for
the devil and his angels”
But Jesus is already breaking the powers of darkness now! He isn’t
going to wait until the final judgment to set men free! In
chapter 12
verse 28 He
says: “I cast out demons by the Spirit of God.”
The thing I want you to pay attention to in these remaining verses
is the difference between how the demons react to Jesus and how the
townspeople react to Jesus:
30 Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance
from them. 31 The demons began to
entreat Him, saying, “If You are
going to cast
us out, send us into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said
to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the swine,
and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and
perished in the waters.33 The herdsmen ran away, and went to
the city and reported everything, including what had happened
to the demoniacs. 34 And behold, the whole city came
out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to
leave their region.
It’s interesting that Jesus permits the demons to enter into the
pigs. Maybe that was because the Day of Judgment had not yet
arrived and He had to send the demons somewhere in order to set the
men free. What’s even more interesting is the fact that the demons
recognized Jesus’ power and authority and they “entreated” or
begged for His permission to go into the pigs. Of course this makes
the pigs freak out and commit suicide, but I think Jesus wasn’t
primarily concerned about the pigs. He was concerned about these
two human beings!
By contrast, the townspeople apparently cared more about their pigs
than the two human beings!
Instead of recognizing Jesus’ authority, they kick him out of
town!
It’s as if they’re saying, “Listen, you can’t just come here
setting people free if you’re going to mess with our pigs in the
process!”
To bring these verses full circle, we can clearly see that these
folks don’t meet the qualifications to be disciples of Jesus
because they don’t want to be involved with Him if it’s going to
COST them something!
So let me ask you a question – what are your pigs?
In other words, what is keeping you back from following Jesus
completely? At what point do you look at Jesus and say “I think
you’d better just leave now, because you’re starting to mess with
my pigs!”
Is it your time? Is it your money? Is it your relationships? Is it
that favorite sin that you aren’t ready to let go
of?
Because whatever it is, we MUST face the truth that Jesus put forth
back in verse 33; “none of you can be My disciple who does not
give up all (this is) his own.”
The bottom line question will always come back to this: “Are those
pigs really worth more to you than Jesus?” Because you can’t have
both.