Now or Never [7-27-25]

July 27, 2025

Luke 9:51-62

“Now or Never”

The night before I started working on today’s message, I saw an ad for a movie on Lifetime network. “Secret Life of the Pastor’s Wife.” Color me intrigued. So I asked my lovely wife, “Honey, is there something you’re keeping from me?” To which she replied, “I wish.”

But seriously {I have to say that, in case anybody was thinking I wasn’t being facetious; I made up the exchange with Lori, but the movie is real}, there is nothing hidden about the Christian life. Everything we do, we do openly and honestly. Jesus is direct and to the point with people. There’s nothing hidden. Jesus spells out in unequivocal terms what it means to follow him. No guesswork. No hidden secrets. Jesus lays out the cost of following him.

Here's what he says in Luke 9:51-62:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.

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

Our focus today is going to be on verses fifty-seven through sixty-two.

First, verse fifty-one marks a key pivot point in the trajectory of Jesus’ ministry…of our salvation history.

I love Luke’s phrasing. Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. This marks the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. There he will fulfill his destiny…and secure ours…when he dies on the cross. And while it will seem through these ten chapters of travel narrative that Jesus wanders from place to place, there is purpose to how he gets to Jerusalem. The point is, there is theological purpose to how Jesus gets to Jerusalem and the cross.

Here's Luke’s point:

WE ARE PEOPLE ON A MISSION, ALWAYS ON THE MOVE, ALWAYS ON THE JOURNEY, ALWAYS IN THE PRESENCE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.

Notice the journey part. Always on a journey. These verses aren’t about a 

moment. They are about a lifetime commitment. Remember back in verse 

23: And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny him- 

self and take up his cross daily and follow me.” When Jesus calls people to salvation, he’s calling them to a lifelong journey. It is a journey of joy and sacrifice. We’ll be talking about the joy over and over. And we can’t forget the sacrifice. It’s all a part of following Jesus. That’s clearly made when Luke says, Jesus set his face for Jerusalem. That is a way of saying, among other things, there’s a fixedness of purpose in the face of difficulty or danger. Amen?

Interesting word used in verse twenty-three. “Deny yourself.” Denial of self. An interesting concept. Denial. We’ve bathed ourselves in decades of self-esteem. It’s almost been hardwired into our psyches. Self-esteem is the be-all-end-all of emotional well-being. The worst thing you can do is jeopardize someone’s self-esteem. But Jesus says, “Deny yourself.”

As Jesus uses it, deny means to refuse to associate with. In other words, if you’re going to follow Jesus, you’re going to have to refuse to associate with the person you once were. Which is exactly the point Martin Luther made in the fourth of his 95 Theses he nailed to the door of the church at Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, kicking off the Protestant Reformation. The fourth thesis stated that “true repentance, marked by self-hatred (a deep sorrow for sin) is a result of recognizing one's sinfulness, is a lifelong process that ends only with death.” How’s that for giving self-esteem a kick in the keister?

Here's the point. Denying yourself is a self-loathing over the sinner you are. You are desperate to leave that person behind. Here are two observations making that point:

• Dwight L. Moody once said, “I have never met a man who has given me as much trouble as myself.”

• John Newton once admitted, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Deny yourself. Jesus is asking for all of you. Abandon yourself completely.

Now for a little sidenote. Some of you might have heard that Hulk Hogan died this past week. I think we can all agree that he lived a colorful life with a sometime checked past. I think we can also agree that we all have some checkers in our past. That’s an insight every true follower of Jesus Christ has into their own life. I love how Tim Tebow captured it:

“Don’t let someone’s worst moment make you forget they are made in god’s image too. God didn’t stop loving you at your lowest. Don’t forget that when someone else falls short. They still reflect His image, so let’s reflect His love.”

With that in mind, here’s an observation from Hulk Hogan:

“ONCE YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN, YOU’VE ACCEPTED CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR. YOU’RE NOT GOING TO PERISH BUT YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. THAT BELIEF IS PRETTY MUCH THE ONLY THING THAT IS REAL TO ME.”

Here’s something you might want to write down:

WE AS SINNERS ARE CALLED TO FOLLOW JESUS AS A WAY OF 

LIFE.

Repenting of sin and following Jesus is the heart of the gospel. And it must 

be at the heart of our message every time we gather for worship. Repentance and following Jesus is essential to who we are and what the church is about.

Did you know that there are some churches where that doesn’t happen every Sunday? In some churches the message sounds more like a social justice pep talk. In some churches, the message sounds like a challenge to do-goodism. In some churches, the message is a watered-down, feel-good self-improvement Ted-talk. I’ve read some sermons that don’t even mention Jesus, let alone sin and the trajectory of salvation. And guess who had a word for those preachers? Of course…Charles Spurgeon:

“NO CHRIST IN YOUR SERMON, SIR? THEN GO HOME, AND NEVER PREACH AGAIN UNTIL YOU HAVE SOMETHING WORTH PREACHING.”

Even 150 years ago, no-cost, cheap grace was a problem. And guess what? 

Lots of people love cheap grace. People will seek out a certain kind of church that conforms to their worldview. They won’t let Jesus or Biblical truth stand in the way of their moralistic therapeutic deism. We’ve talked about that in the past. Too many churches are captured by a mindset that embraces two basic principles:

    - It blends elements of deism, a belief in a distant, uninvolved God, with a focus on morality and personal well-being. It                               suggests a god exists who created the world and wants people to be good, but is not actively involved in daily life beyond helping with problems and ensuring happiness. 

     - At root, moralistic therapeutic deism is really about                     instruction in how to live a moral life. It preaches that God's will for our lives is that we be good and happy. To be a good Christian, then, means that we are nice people who are focused on personal growth and self-improvement.

There’s not a hint of any of that in these verses from Luke. When Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, he leaves no doubt there is a cost to following him. And so, we follow.

But, as we read, some have objections. Jesus anticipates the first 

objection. “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” In other words, it’s not going to be all healing and miracles and multiplication of loaves and fishes. There’s going to be hardship. There’s going to be trials and challenges in life. This verse alone ought to give pause to any embrace of the prosperity gospel. Which is a false gospel. Here’s something you might want to write down:

JESUS HAS NOTHING TO OFFER THOSE WHO SEEK FROM HIM MATERIAL BLESSINGS AND SECURITY.

The next guy begged off from immediately following Jesus in order to, as he put it, let me go and bury my father. To which Jesus replies, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” What Jesus is responding to is the fact the guy’s father has already been dead and buried. As was typical of ancient practice, the body was buried in a tomb. Then, after about a year, when the remains would have decomposed, the bones would be collected and placed in a small stone box. Think of it like an urn to hold a loved one’s cremated remains. It appears this is the guy’s excuse for not following Jesus right away. It doesn’t hold water. He’s blaming something that’s not blame-worthy. One of my favorite cheesy observation from years ago aptly describes what it means to blame…to be lame.

Finally, the third guy wants to say his goodbyes back home. What he means is he needs to tie-up loose ends. Included is waiting for his father to die so he can gain his inheritance and then he will follow Jesus. His looking back is more than a wistful glance back home. Jesus says, you can’t follow me if you’re still nostalgic about how your life once was. Leave the distractions behind. As Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

That doesn’t sound like any of these excuse makers.

Here’s the gospel. When Jesus invites someone to follow him…when Jesus 

invites someone to receive his forgiveness, which only comes through him…when Jesus invites forgiven people to receive his salvation…Jesus is asking us for the rest of our lives. And there will be hardship. There will be challenge. There will be sacrifice. Never forget:

JESUS WEARS A CROWN OF THORNS BEFORE HE WEARS A CROWN OF GLORY.

In these verses, Jesus is calling sinners to follow him as a way of life. That’s what we must do. Not a life of leisure or comfort or conforming to how we think we want to live. But life conforming to the sometimes tough choices of the gospel. Are you with me on that? Are you comfortable making tough choices in order to faithfully follow Jesus?

Three final thoughts.

First, God help me if I ever tell people what they want to hear rather than 

what the Bible says.

Second, disciples, like our Master, are pilgrims and wanderers in this world, 

on a path which leads through humiliation into glory.

Third, while we aren’t told how these three responded to what Jesus said, we can make a safe assumption. They walked away from Jesus to hold on to their earthly wants and desires. What a sad decision. But not us. True disciples have entered into a life of following Jesus. Following Jesus. We have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back…no turning back.

And together, the people of God said:

 SOLI DEO GLORIA…

To the Glory of God Alone