Matthew 2024

We'll have our reading now.

We're reading from Matthew chapter 8 verses 14 to 22. And, Sarah peers will do the reading for us. When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her. And she got up and began to wait on him.

When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases. When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.

Jesus replied, foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him, follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. Evening everybody. Good to see you.

We haven't met my name is Tom, and I'm 1 of the pastors here, and, welcome to anybody who's tuning in online. Just 1 of the notice for your prayers this week, this time next week, although we'll be back by this time. But next weekend, there's about 30 young adults in the church who are all going away for a weekend. We're going down to Ashburnham on the south coast, and, we've got a welsh pastor, Steve Levy, coming to speak to us on the subject of evangelism from 2 Corinthians. And so please do pray for that this, this, this coming weekend.

Pray that it would be a good time, and the lord would refresh us in his word as we look together at, evangelism. And, it's great. We've got a great group going, and we're excited about it. So please remember that, pray for that this week, this weekend's coming. And, do keep Matthew 8 open in front of you, and those words particularly verse 18 to 22 about the cost of discipleship.

And, as we turn to them, let's pray together. Heavenly father, we heard this evening in our slot, a, a powerful little illustration about what it means to follow the lord Jesus. I think of that man coming before his village. And throwing his idols into the fire and saying, I will follow Jesus. And we pray that as we look now at these words about following Jesus and just what that really does mean that these words would strike us with similar power, that you would help us to, please understand the joy and the cost of following the lord Jesus Christ and we pray it in his name on him.

Well, in the last 10 years or so, there has been a surge or a great increase in the amount of people going online in order to find love, signing up for dating apps and looking for partners over the internet and through the through the internet. And there are many bloggers and journalists to who write about their experiences with online dating and what's going well and what's not gone so well and some of the successes and some of the pitfalls and there's plenty of that literature out there. And 1 of the 1 of the big worries seems to be 1 of the big questions that that people have the concerns that they have in this world of online dating. And if you've dabbled in this world yourself, you may well sort of appreciate this. Is the question of will this person match their profile?

Will this person match their profile? I've seen a picture of them. They've posted a picture of themselves, but how connected is that picture to reality? Does it reflect what they actually look like today? Or is it them on their best day 10 years ago?

You know, does the profile match the person? Or this description that they've put up about themselves How true is that? How tethered is that to reality? Is that really what they are like? Is that really what they enjoy?

Is that really their qualifications? Is that really who they are? Well, I have to take it at face value but I'm hoping that the person will will match the profile. And then for Christians, there's an added element to that, isn't there? You know, is will this person match their profile in Christian terms?

You know, they've said that they are a follower of Jesus They've said they love the local church and are committed to Christian things and we seem to share many of the same convictions. But when I meet them, will that person sync with that profile? Will will will will Christ be really as important to them as they say he is, or will I discover to my disappointment that they are something less than than what I hoped? And so that question, you know, will the profile match the person is quite important? And, you know, in this world, it's not it's not that we, you know, we wanna be really cynical about people all the time.

But we just know in this world, don't we? That in in the final assessment, what what matters most is not how we describe ourselves or how we present on a profile but who we actually are. And sadly, online, there does seem to be a gap sometimes between how people present, how they describe themselves, and, and who they actually are. And I throw that seed of a thought out there to you this evening. Because in verse 18 to 22, we meet 2 would be followers.

Here are 2 would be followers coming to Jesus with a profile. They come with a profile. They've got a a way of describing themselves. And as possible followers of the lord Jesus Christ, they are very attractive men, aren't they? Very attractive men.

Certainly in the way that they present, they are committed, they are sacrificial, they are reasonable men, they seem like very compassionate men, But it's the same question, isn't it? Will the person match the profile? That's what we need to find out with them this evening. Will the person match the profile? And in 1 sense tonight, we we can just sit over this story and look at it together, and we can enjoy discovering whether the person matches the profile with these 2 men.

The more uncomfortable thing that we have to deal with, the more uncomfortable questions is will the lord Jesus Christ or does the lord Jesus Christ see a difference in us between the profile, how we present, how we describe ourselves, how we think of ourselves in Christian terms? And the people that we actually are. So these are the 2 people that we're gonna meet, and these are the headings this evening. I've I've borrowed them off someone else. I stumbled across these headings this week, and I thought they were great.

So the first 1, here's his profile, He promises too much too soon. Promises too much too soon. And then we'll see the second man on his profile. He promises too little too late. Too much too soon.

And too little too late. Let's have a look at this first 1. Verse 18. When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Now, we're not told exactly why he decides that now is the time to move on.

In John's gospel, we're told that at 1 point, the crowds became so thick and so fierce that they were going to make him king by force, that they were going to enforce a coronation upon him that the crowds had seen enough and they wanted him to be king and Jesus had to get away from the crowds because yes, he was going to be crowned but not in that way and not at that time. And so he had to escape. In Mark's gospel, we're told that when the crowds got too much for Jesus, He had to escape and move on because his purpose was not just to gather and heal and feed crowds, but to preach. In fact, he says in Mark, I have come to proclaim. That is why I have come.

We've got to keep moving because more people need to to hear. And so perhaps it's a combination of those reasons. People wanna make him king by force, but he needs to keep preaching. Either way, he decides in verse 18 that it's time to move on from this particular crowd. But then in verse 19, just as soon as he's got 1 foot in the boat, he hears a voice behind him.

Then a teacher of the law came to him and said teacher, I will follow you wherever you go and who can blame him? I mean given what we've just seen of the lord Jesus Christ, surely everybody wants to follow him. I mean, look back at verse 16, this is what we learned last week. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word, and he healed all who were ill. I mean, at this point, the lord Jesus Christ is the man to have around, isn't he?

If you've got a disease, this is the guy who can heal it. If you've got some evil that's plaguing your life, This is the guy who can banish it. If you've got little ones in your home who need feeding, this is the guy who can provide for them. Everybody wants to be a follower of Jesus. And so this teacher sensing that Jesus is doing really well in the polls at the moment and is really popular wants to jump on board.

Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And so he says in verse exactly that. Teachers, stop. Don't get in the boat just yet. Don't sail for the next place yet.

I'm coming aboard. I will follow you wherever you go. And they are extraordinary words, aren't they? I will follow you. Now what is the language there?

Well, that is the language of discipleship, isn't it? I will follow. Yeah. That's that's right. That's right.

Follow. That that is what it means to be a Christian. When Jesus called his first disciples, he said, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. That's from his own lips. He says following him is what it's about.

And so this teacher of the law uses the language of discipleships. Correct language. I'll follow you. And then do you see how he amplifies that sentence with this sweeping promise, I will follow you wherever you go. Teacher, I understand that you might be going into gentile territory and even as a teacher of the law, I'm willing to come with you.

I don't mind going into gentile territory. I'll I'll go. Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go, even if to follow you is gonna bring me difficulty. You see, as a teacher of the law surely he would know that Jesus whilst being famous with the crowds was really trending down with the religious elites. He was a teacher of the law.

He must have known that the teachers of the law were really starting to hate Jesus and not want him around. And so surely in his mind, he's thinking, I will follow you wherever you go. And if that means breaking with the teachers of the law and allying myself to you, then that might bring suffering for me. Then 1 day down the line, I I'm I might end up in trouble, but teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And so as far as profiles go, this is pretty good, isn't it?

If you were looking for a Christian guy to date, and you were reading this profile, you'd think, you know, You could do worse. I mean, he's willing to give up a promising career in the law. He's educated in the things of God. He's probably been to a top scribble university. He's willing to relocate to be with me.

It's pretty good. Let me do worse than that. But what is beneath the profile? Verse 20. Jesus replied, foxes have dens, and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

And at first, that reply does seem a little bit irrelevant, doesn't it? Sort of like, okay. What's that about? But actually, you know, the lord is anything but irrelevant. The lord Jesus is is touching on the motives the motives of his heart.

And we've also gotta see what Matthew is doing here because remember in all of these stories, Matthew is building for us a picture of the lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's trying to do for us here. So you remember last week, if you go back to verse 16, When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. Now in terms of the narrative, you could just jump straight from 16 to 18. Verse 17 is not really needed for the progression of the story here.

Heeled all who were ill verse 18. When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave all across the other side of the lake. It would flow together except Matthew wants us to see something about Jesus. Verse 17, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.

He doesn't skip it. It's there. Why? Because he wants us to see something in that story. Here is the lord Jesus Christ healing all who have diseases and banishing evil from the people and Matthew wants us to know that he does that in fulfillment of Isaiah 53.

That this is the promised Messiah. This is the suffering dying lamb who would bear the sins of his people and in fact would take the entire weight of the curse of the law upon himself and would die in order to purchase a people and seal a new creation promise where all disease and death and sickness will 1 day be gone. That's what he wants us to see about Christ in the story about healing. And verse 20, and that reference to the son of man, is doing the same thing. He wants us to see something about Jesus in this story.

And so if verse 17 is pointing us to Isaiah 53, verse 20 is pointing us to Daniel 7. If you haven't read that chapter before, I'd really recommend going home tonight before bed and reading through Daniel 7. Because there we are told, or we're taken into this heavenly scene, where 1 like a son of man is led before the ancient of days, and bestowed upon him is all power and sovereign authority over all of eternity and over every part of this universe. The son of man is god's authoritative ruler, judge king. That's who he is.

And that is the phrase that is used of Jesus by Jesus in verse 20. And so do you see in just a few sentences, Matthew is saying, look, who is Jesus? He's the Isaiah 53 suffering dying lamb, who is also god's appointed judge king eternal. That's who Jesus the Jesus of these stories, that's who he is, son of man, dying lamb. That's who I want you to see.

And so that is the key to interpreting these rather cryptic words in verse 20. And you know, the teacher of the law, remember that's who he was. He's a teacher of the law. Surely he would know that for the son of man, everywhere is home. Everywhere is home for the son of man, he rules the universe.

This universe is his home. And yet, Jesus says, in the days of his incarnation, and in the days of his sorrow, the son of man who is at home anywhere he wants to be had no place to rest his head. He had no home. And therefore, to follow him is to take a similar road. To follow him is gonna be to do as he did, to lay aside the grandeur and the status and to take the road of the cross.

And with that, to accept the life of a stranger. Think of how Peter describes being a follower of Jesus in the new testament, to be an alien and a stranger to be a cross bearer who has no home and no real rest or peace in this world, someone who senses that they are aliens in this world, that they're homeless because the next world and the savior are where they find their home and their rest. And clearly, for all of his amazing promises, something of that understanding was missing in this teacher of the law. Maybe he was thinking teacher, I will follow you. I will follow you, teacher, and I don't even mind a little bit of hardship, just so long as in the end, I do get the the rest and the security of a peaceful life in this world.

I will follow you, and I don't mind a bit of hardship, just so long as I don't feel totally alienated, from this world, or maybe he was saying teacher, I will follow you, and I don't even mind going into gentile territory. Just so long as if things get really hot, I am able to retreat if I need to. I'm able to pull the plug on this thing. You know, teach a bit like a fox does. You know, if a fox is scared or it wants to back out, it can run to its den.

Or if a bird of the air is frightened, it can flee home to its nest. I wanna have somewhere to run to, somewhere to get out just in case I need to. But the lord Jesus says to him in these words, no, to follow me is to have the full rights of a child of god and to have less rights than an animal of the earth. You follow me, you are in 1 sense gonna have less rights than an animal. Because I am homeless in this world.

My, my home and my life is not here. It's not here. It's with my father, and that's where I'm going. And that is certainly something that we and I need to keep hearing. Yeah.

Because often that is the dialogue that's going on in my own heart. I'll follow you lord, and I'll even be a pastor lord. And I don't mind if it's a bit difficult sometimes because I've read the Bible, and I sort of expect that. And I know it's gonna be a bit hard, and I'll and I'll follow you, and I'll do what I'm called to do, and I'll preach your words, I'm called to preach it. But I do also, where I would really quite like the very best of this world too.

And I don't want things to get so hard that I don't enjoy it anymore. And I don't want it to be too tricky, or I don't wanna have to go to that place speak to that kind of person. So I wanna, I'll follow you, and I don't mind the hardship that I'm willing to embrace. But if things get, I wanna, you know, I wanna be able to, I wanna be able to have the best of both. And we can all be a bit like that, can't we?

I will follow you lord. And I don't mind a bit of difficulty. But just so long as I also get that job that I would really love or that relationship, I've been craving for years now. I don't mind following you just so long as I get the peace and the rest and the security of this world. I will follow you, lord.

I will. But just so long as I get the best of both worlds, I want my discipleship to be like that Hovis 50 50, you know? 50 percent brown, 50 percent white. That's what I want it to be. You know, 50 50 I want the best of both.

I want the best of both worlds. But the lord Jesus says to this man, and I guess with love in his eyes, look teacher. I really want you to follow me. I do, and I love you, and I'd love you to be on board with this. But remember who I am.

I am the son of man and I am the dying lamb. I'm the 1 at home everywhere, and I'm at what I'm 1 who is at home nowhere. And to follow me is to embrace across and a stranger like life where you will not feel at home until you're home. You wanna get in the boat on that basis. I'd love to have you.

Does the profile match the person? Well, seems not, in this case, What about this second man? If the first 1 promised too much too soon, the second man does seem to promise too little too late. Verse 21, another disciple said to him, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. And so here is a man who is called a disciple and calls Jesus not teacher, but what does he call him?

He calls him lord. So this man does seem to be further into the Jesus movement than even the teacher of the law. And so if you can imagine it in circles, on the outermost circle you had the the enemies who hated him, slightly further in you had the crowds who appreciated him, slightly further in you had these disciples by name who were even closer to him than the crowds, and then right on the inner circle you had Jesus and the true disciples and right on the inner inner circle, you had Jesus Peter James and John. Okay? So these guys seem to be those disciples who are further in in the crowd, but maybe not as in as they should be.

And this disciple comes to him and says, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. And again, you know, as far as profiles go, that's quite good, isn't it? I know it's not a lot of information, But from that sentence, does this not seem like a reasonable family man? This is the sort of guy who if you saw his profile online, you'd think at last, someone I can take him to meet my mom. You know?

He cares about family. He seems to love family. He's not all about himself. He's not all about his career. He's saying lord, I'll follow you, but just first let me bury my dad.

He's a family man. This is the kind of guy I've been looking for. And so if the first 1 seemed a little bit reckless, this 1 seems thoughtful. He's a considered man. He's reasonable in what he's saying.

Yes, Lord, I'm coming. But first let me. And this is reasonable, isn't it? Don't you think? If you were invited to somebody's party, and you said, I'd love to come.

But I'm sorry I'm gonna be a little bit late because I've got a funeral to go to first. I think as hosts, we would say, that's fair enough. Yeah? That sounds okay. As far as reasons to be late go, that's 1 of the better ones.

You gotta go to a funeral. It seems it seems very reasonable, doesn't it? But look what Jesus says to him. But Jesus told him, follow me, and you let the dead bury their own dead. Now that is the sort of response that makes you sit up, isn't it?

And think What is he what is he talking about? Why is he saying that to this man? And there's a number of things that people suggest that are going on here. So some people suggest that the father of this man is not in fact dead. So when he says, let me bury the father, what he's actually saying is, look, burying my dad 1 day is going to be my last big and final responsibility in this life.

So he's not dead yet. He's actually in quite good Nick. But in 10 years time, he might be dead, and I'll have to bury him. And once that's done, once my final earthly duty is done, then I'm all yours. So just give me a month.

Give me a decade. I don't know how long it's gonna be, but first let me bury the old man. And then I'm yours. Some people say, no, no, it's probable that the father was actually dead, and that what this man is really after is getting his grubby little mitts on an inheritance that is surely about to come his way. First, let me bury my father, do the duty, make sure the rest of the family see me there, inherit what's coming to me, and then with pots of cash, I'm yours.

I'll I'll I'll come just as soon as I get my money. Well, some people suggest, no, he was actually dead. But Jewish burials were very lengthy. And so you would have an initial burial where the body would go into a tomb, but then you would have to wait several months in order for the flesh to rot away. Then you'd have to unearth the body, get the bones and then place it in a kind of ancestral tomb, and that would be the final resting place.

So there'd be a decomposition delay. Berry 1, wait, get him out, bury him again. In other words, it's gonna take time. It's gonna take time. I'm ready to come but it's gonna take time.

Now I don't know which of those is true. I there could be truth in, but I can't be truth in all of them because in some, he's dead and in some, he's not. But, that I don't know which 1 of those is is exactly true. But I kind I kind of feel that all of that sort of misses the point a bit. This doesn't seem to be about honoring mum or dad or funeral rights or when it's appropriate to perform various family duties.

But rather Jesus seems to be saying to this man, look, look, with my arrival into the world, and with the breaking in of my kingdom, there is something now that is more urgent than even the most important family duties. In Luke's account of this story, Jesus says to the man, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of god. Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of god. In other words, Jesus is saying to this man, Look, you are alive at the dawn of a new age. You you now are more privileged than you could ever realize that with me is breaking into the world an age of reconciliation and an age of forgiveness of sin, and an age of a new birth, and an age of resurrection, and judgment to come, and life eternal.

All of that is breaking in with me into this world And so the time has come for you to leave behind a dying world, full of dying people, and you need to come out from a dying world, and you need to be part of the life business now. You need to leave death behind and come and preach life and be about life. And this is the most urgent thing you can do. So get it sorted. Let the dead bury their dead.

Leave this world to this world. Leave those who are spiritually dead to do the things that they can do, but I'm calling you to do a new thing that only my people can do. Only living people can go proclaim the kingdom of god. So let the dead bury their own. Leave their responsibilities to them.

You come you come now, and you follow me, and you proclaim the kingdom of God. And so do you see Jesus is not he he's not a legalist who who gives a law for every possible family situation. If this happens, then that's your priority. If this happens, that's priority number 2. Ah, but in this case, in that law, that's priority number 3.

He doesn't legislate for every important thing in our lives, but rather he presses a priority home on you. And he says, you gotta work it out because there's some important stuff here, but I'm telling you that something more urgent than even the most important things has come to your door. This is more urgent than even burying your old man as important that is. Come, live, preach life, get in the boat. She sense the urgency of what he's calling this man to do.

And again, this urgency is something that is so easily forgotten in my own heart. I constantly have to rehearse these things to myself that I'm gonna die 1 day, and I'm gonna appear before god's throne. And I'm gonna have to give an account of my life, and judgment day is coming. And then it's gonna be the life eternal or everlasting punishment in hell. These the the urgency with which these things are forgotten is frightening.

And yet that is what Jesus is saying to this man, that there is something now that is even more important than the most important responsibilities that you might have in this life. And if the first heart, we met this evening was divided. This heart seems to be a bit undecided about that, about what is what is truly urgent and what is truly important. And maybe there's somebody here who's a little bit like that, who with 1 part of their heart says, I will follow you, Jesus. And I want to go to heaven, and I want to be a man or a woman of prayer.

And I want to live this Christian life, but there's so much that I want to do first. That there's so much which seems I understand this is urgent, but there's so much that feels important for me to do first. And so I will follow you, but first, I will follow, but first, 1 writer says this man wanted to follow Jesus, but not just yet. He knew it was good, and that he should do it, but he felt there was a good reason why he could not do it now. Isn't that often true?

I would follow you and I want to do it, and it's good to do it. But I'm just not gonna do it now because it's slightly less urgent than it ought to and it's slightly less urgent than this other thing that I really wanna do first. And so do you see, in 1 sense, to wrap to wrap this part of the story up. To follow Jesus Christ really is the easiest thing in the world. It is the easiest thing in the world to follow Jesus.

To get in that boat with him, you do not have to prove yourself to him. You do not have to present a list of all the good things that you've done and all the bad things that you've avoided. You do not have to try to convince him to love you or to die for you or to accept you. You don't have to do any of that because he loves you and he's died for you and he'll accept you freely in his offering, and he'll have you. He requires nothing.

There's that lovely song we sing. Isn't there? I'm gonna misquote it now, which is really annoying, but it's come to my head. You know, no list of virtues and no list of sins I've avoided. You know, all the fit all the fitness he requires is to feel your need for him.

That's it. All the fitness he requires is to feel your need for him. And then you can get in the boat. Believing Jesus is the easiest thing in the world. And yet, there are some huge barriers to saving faith on there.

Not in Christ. There's no barriers in Christ, but there's barriers in us. And without wishing to be too simplistic, is it not 1 of these 2 things? That mostly keeps us out. Either we are divided between the kingdom of god and this world, or we are undecided about whether it really is as urgent as all that.

We don't get in the boat because we're divided between him and this world and we're undecided about whether it really is as urgent as he describes. See, in verse 22, Jesus says to this man, and I think to all of us, follow me. Follow me. And he really does mean it. Elsewhere in the Bible we're told that god desires that none should perish.

But that all should come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. And so he looks at us not wanting us, not willing us to perish, but saying, follow me. Follow me. But equally, he does not want to recruit us under false pretenses. He does not wanna hide things in the terms and conditions only for us to discover later, but he comes up front, and he says, follow me, follow me.

But I want you to know that in doing so, you will embrace the life of a stranger, and you will embrace the death of a cross. And I want you to know that in doing so, you will now prioritize things that are so important and so urgent that even the most important duties pale away in comparison. And if you're in on that basis, then you're then then get in the boat. So it's interesting, isn't it? Does the profile match the person?

How about us? Does the profile, the religious profile? I will follow you. That's what we write on our blogs and online. I will follow Jesus.

I'll go with him wherever he goes. Does it match the person? Jesus says follow me. I want you to follow me, but I want you to know what it means to follow me. Let's pray that we would do that.

Up on the screen. Which for somebody here, perhaps, for the very first time this evening, to say sorry for their sins and to ask god for forgiveness and to commit to following Christ, but it can also be used as a prayer by Christians who perhaps this evening wanna recommit and say, yes, lord. I I wanna follow you. I'm gonna give up on the book first, and I wanna follow you. So I'll I'll read this out.

And, then you can you can say amen as you as you agree with it. Heavenly father. I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I don't deserve your gift of eternal life. I am guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you.

I have not considered you to be more valuable than the things of this world, and I have not understood the urgency of the gospel message. I'm sorry, and I need your forgiveness. Thank you that your son Jesus Christ is the son of man and the sacrificial lamb. Thank you that you sent him to die for me so that I may be forgiven. Thank you that he rose from the dead to give me new life.

Please forgive me and change me so that I may live with Jesus as my ruler and follow him for all of my days. I'll