Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 24 – June 1986

 

Unconditional Commitment

 

Sermon by Rev. G. van Schie on Luke 9:57-62, (59, (59, 60)

Reading: Eccl. 12:1-7, Luke 14:15-24

Singing: 89, 140;3, 455, 451, 490.

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Last time we began with the question;] “What does it mean to be committed to Jesus?”  Commitment, [we saw,] means to bind yourself to something or someone.  When we say we are Christians, we are saying we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are saying we commit our lives to Him, we bind ourselves to Him.  Commitment means we will go with him wherever He will lead us.

This morning our [second] lesson deals with the unconditional nature of commitment.  We are called to follow Jesus without any strings attached, without any conditions laid down from our side.  A condition is a reservation; it is a hesitation to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when we look at our text this morning, we find that the Lord says, When I call you, don’t hesitate to follow me.  Don’t look for excuses to ignore my call.  “My call to you is a gift!  When I call you to follow Me, to give you eternal life, that’s a gift!  This is no time for you to lay down conditions.”

Our text tells us of another person laying down conditions just like the first man.  “Yes Lord, I will follow You but first let me go and bury my father.”  Jesus had turned to him and Jesus had said to him those words of Grace.  “You are a child of Abraham, you are full of sin and you are heading for hell.  And in My love, in My mercy, in My grace, I’m asking you, I’m commanding you; follow Me!”  It was a call to eternal life.  It was a call not just to a good life here on earth but a life which even in the worst circumstances can know joy because it has the peace of God; Jesus was giving a call to eternal life.  A life in which he would never know an end of the presence and the love of God.  Sinner, follow Me; follow Me and receive the eternal reward.

Now you would think that there could be nothing more important than someone’s eternal welfare.  Surely there couldn’t be anything that could have a higher priority than following Christ and receiving eternal life.  And yet, the man replied, “First let me go and bury my father.”  You see the condition, FIRST…!  “I will follow You Lord, but before I begin to follow You, before I will go where you lead me, let me first do this…’ and really the implication is to do this apart from Jesus.  Before I follow, let me go my own way, let me do my own thing.  In other words, there’s still something I want to do for myself.

Now when we take a look at his full reply, “Let me first go and bury my father,” we may wonder why on earth Jesus said NO.  Surely this was an important thing.  This was the duty of a son to bury his father.  But in his answer the Lord shows us there is NOTHING more important in life than to heed the call of Jesus.  Jesus has good reason for this example.  Surely, as our human scale of values goes, there couldn’t be anything far more important than burying your father.  But Jesus teaches that even this does not take precedence over following Christ.

Of course, the extra detail is also important.  It’s obvious from what Jesus said, (knowing the hearts of this family,) that those who were going to bury this father, were spiritually dead.  “Let the dead bury their own dead.”  So Jesus is talking about those who are spiritually dead burying that one who was physically dead.  Man, Jesus is saying, it is far more important for you to leave that domain of darkness where I have been rejected and to go and proclaim the Kingdom of God so that others may come to the Light.  Let those who have rejected Me, let those who are dead and in their darkness, remain in their darkness but you, having been brought into the light, go and bring that light to those who need to see it.  There’s NOTHING more important than following Christ and bringing others with you.

Don’t look for excuses to ignore Christ’s call.  In Ecclesiastes, our first reading, we found another excuse.  An excuse very common in our day and age.  “Lord, I’m young.  I’ve only so many years of youth to enjoy.  Lord, I will follow you but first let me enjoy my youth.”  What a slap in the face to God!  What we’re actually saying is, ‘Lord if you’re in my life as a young person, my life is going to be a bore, my life is going to be dull and uninteresting, my life isn’t going to be joyful, it’s going to be sorrow.  That’s what we’re actually saying if we say: Lord I will get serious about you later, but first let me enjoy my youth.  But as we saw in Ecclesiastes, God continually calls us even in our youth, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,” remember Him before those years of old age come upon you.  Remember Him before you become more and more incapable of giving to Him generously of your time and talent.  Give to Him the cream of your life, not just the ‘slops’ at the end.  Give to Him the first-fruits, not the leftovers.

We also saw in Luke 14 that there are other excuses used for not following Christ.  I’ve just purchased land, I’m busy Lord with a business.  I have important commitments on my own level.  I’m building up my life.  Lord, when I’ve got everything fully settled, then I’ll commit myself to You.  Oh yes, you can have a part of me on Sundays and maybe during the week for Bible Study but at this time, no more than that Lord.  I can’t afford to give you any more than that.  I’m busy with my personal business commitments.  There’s also the excuse of the man who had livestock.  His business again interfered with his participation in the Kingdom of God.  Other things to do, other commitments made, no time for the Lord.  And even marriage was used as an excuse: Lord I’ve just been married, I can’t come, I can’t follow you.  But the Lord shows in every case throughout His Word that none of these conditions apply.  Not one of these things should detract us from following the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord says, I don’t want a part of your life, I want ALL of your life.  He claims us as His own.  Partners in the covenant of grace.

As human beings we haven’t changed from those recorded in the Bible.  We think that we have our responsibilities to our business, to our family, to all sorts of things.  And indeed we do have our responsibilities there but not to the extent that these are permitted to interfere with our service to the Lord.  Not that these should be neglected but neither should they lead to the neglect of the things of God.  No conditions, no ifs, no buts, no whens but NOW says the Lord.  Now!  Right now I want your total commitment.

How total is that commitment brothers and sisters?  When we turn to Matthew 10:34-39 we find the type of commitment the Lord asks for: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.  Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Do you realize the level of commitment the Lord is speaking of there?  Even our family are not to stand in the way of our following the Lord.  So often we hear it when there is an unbelieving partner in the marriage; “I cannot come to church because if I did it may lead to the breakdown of my marriage.  I can’t give to the Lord what He asks of me because it would lead to this or that.”  And the Lord says, that’s right, it may indeed, but still follow Me first.  If you have an unbelieving partner and your service to the Lord would break that marriage, then the Lord says, that’s precisely what I told you would happen.  True commitment to Me will even break up families.  Not nice to hear, is it brothers and sisters?  So often we only like to hear the nice things of the Gospel but Jesus made it quite clear, I didn’t come to bring peace, I came to save!  I came to save sinners and that will make a clear division between men and women who believe and those who don’t, and in a family there will be breakages on that basis.  And anyone who chooses a partner or a son or a daughter above Me, is lost forever.  When Christ says total commitment, He means not 80%, He doesn’t mean 99%, He means 100%.  If we are to receive eternal life He wants us to respond to His love with our love completely.  I am your Creator whom you should be remembering first of all in your life.  I am the One who made you even before anyone knew who you were.  I formed you in the womb.  Even before there was even one day in your life, I knew the full extent of the number of your days.  I know your thoughts even before you have thought them, I know what’s coming on your tongue even before you have said it.  I know it all because I am God and I have created you.  And because I am God and you are My creations, I command you to give yourself to Me and nothing else is to stand in the way.

There’s more to it than the fact that He’s God our Creator.  What right does He have to ask us for this type of commitment?  A commitment that may well divide?  God gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shouldn’t perish but have eternal life.  This is the heart of the matter, brothers and sisters.  Sinners, apart from Christ are going to hell, let’s face it, the Scriptures say so.  But Jesus came so that those who believe won’t perish.  To perish means to be destroyed, to not know God forever, to be away from His presence, to be in anguish not just for a while but for eternity.  He sent His Son so that we would be freed from that, that instead of eternal death we would have eternal life.

And what did He do to secure this for us?  He gave up His Son, His only Son that we would have this gift!  He didn’t have to do it.  God didn’t have to promise to Adam that a seed would come and bruise the serpent’s head.  He didn’t have to promise to Abraham a Son through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed.  He didn’t have to promise a Son and a Child that would be born who would bring peace between God and man.  He didn’t have to make a virgin conceive so that He, God, would take to himself human flesh, so that He would suffer the humiliation of becoming a man.  God, became man!  How humiliating!  And then on top of that, the humiliation of being rejected by His own people, of being rejected by the world.  Of being rejected by those He came to save.  And most of all, as the second person of the Trinity, He didn’t have to experience the rejection of God which made Him cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Yes, well might we pray: In the hour of trial Jesus plead for me, yes, bring to my remembrance sad Gethsemane.  Let me remember how in anguish, knowing what You were about to experience, the forsakenness of God, You sweated drops of blood.  You pleaded for the cup to be taken away from You, if it were possible.  And yet You prayed; Not My will, but Thine be done.  Let me remember, O Lord Jesus, how in total obedience to the Father, You committed yourself to us and went all the way to the cross.

What right does the Lord have to demand of us all of our life, with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might?  The right is in this, that we are not our own but have been purchased by God through Christ.  In Jesus Christ we are His possessions.  And so the Scriptures declare: therefore in your bodies glorify the Lord!  In all that you do, whether you eat or drink, in all that you say, live for God.  On what basis?  Because you have been purchased, purchased at the expense of Christ.

Who can lay down conditions to God when we keep in mind who He is and what He’s done for us?  Who dares to say Lord, I will follow You IF…, SO LONG AS…, WHEN…  ?  It is not ours to lay down conditions, but it’s ours to humbly, thankfully, reach out our hand and receive the gift He offers to us as He calls.  “Come follow Me.”  A gift!  All we can do is take His outstretched hand and hang on to it for dear life.

AMEN.