I'd like us this morning to continue our study in the Gospel of Christ by Matthew, the eighth chapter, and in particular considering together the verses that we have read from verse 18 to verse 22, where we have the record of a scribe and then of a disciple coming to Jesus and speaking of their desire to follow him We read these words and we see that there's something strange about the way in which Jesus responds. It is all but jarring to see the contrast with what has immediately preceded. As we have engaged in a study in recent weeks, those who have had the opportunity to worship with us will be familiar that this chapter opens up with accounts of Jesus' healing power. And I trust that as we have given not only our minds but our hearts the consideration of God's Word, that we have been struck by the tenderness and the willingness of Christ to heal those who presented all manner of diseases to Him. From the first that is recorded at the beginning of the chapter, if you are willing you can heal me. I am willing, says Jesus. The centurion, recognizing his own unworthiness, does not presume to request that Jesus would enter under his roof, but is made aware that Jesus has power to reach out even at a distance to rebuke the illness that is in his sermon, and so on. And so, we find him at the close of that particular long day when he had been preaching the Sermon on the Mount, in the home of Peter, not only healing Peter's mother-in-law, but all those who were aware of his presence, presenting every manner of sickness, and he healed them all. No one was turned away from Jesus. that he welcomes each and everyone and heals whatever complaint they bring to him, whether it is demon possession or whatever other illness, sickness, disease or disability, all welcomed by Jesus and all healed by Jesus. So as we, as it were, take our leave from Peter's house, and now we have presented to us an occasion when a scribe says, I am willing to follow you. We might anticipate if we were not familiar with these verses that Jesus' immediate response would be, well, come, follow me. You are welcome to join the band of disciples. No one is turned away. Instead of an encouraging note, there is something of a discouragement. And in dealing with the scribe, Jesus is dealing with something of the vanity of men. And a failure to recognize exactly what the import of our own words are. The scribe comes with his boast, I am willing to follow you. Wherever you go, I will go. Of course, these words echo in our minds, words which Peter himself used. Though all men desert thee, I will not desert thee. I am ready to go to prison and to death for thee. Those words no doubt came back to haunt Peter. The pride of his own boasting to Jesus and how little he had fulfilled. Promised mountains but had delivered molehills. And so this scribe comes to Jesus and says, I am ready, I am willing, I will follow you wherever you go. But as he makes this boast, it becomes evident, as Jesus gives him instruction, neither turning him away ultimately, nor yet particularly welcoming him, it has to be said. He begins to unfold to him, do you recognise what it is that you are saying? You don't know where it is that I am going and yet you made this boast that you are willing to follow me. You do not know what might lie along that particular path. And yet here you would make this claim that wherever I might lead you, you will follow. And so there is this injunction by Jesus himself to the scribe to say stop. think. Recognize what it is that you are saying. And if you are to make this commitment, make it not out of the boasting of your own pride that you think that you have either the strength or the resources to see it through, but recognize that when you make this commitment, it is a commitment which will cause you pain. it will not be an easy road for you. Perhaps the scribe had heard something of Jesus' ministry. It's not too far-fetched to presume that it would have been entirely possible for him to have been present at the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps he had seen at least a selection of some of the marvellous healings I just wondered at that. I would love to be associated with this man. When he teaches, he spoke as no man ever spoke. He seemed to have an intimacy with God as he preached. He didn't speak as the Pharisees spoke, on the one hand this and on the other hand that. And if we look back at the teachers of the law in previous generations, they said this and so forth and so on. No, as Jesus spoke, he spoke directly and with intimate knowledge of the Father. And as the Scriptures plainly put it, the ordinary people heard him gladly. And to add to that, to see the miracles of so many men, women and children healed from every crippling and wounding ailment. We can understand how after the flash that scribe would have said, I want to follow you. I want to hear more of what you have to speak. I want to see more of what you have to do. And it is in that context that Jesus then addresses the scribe and speaks to him. Do you know the demands? Do you know your own limitations? He does this by using a very simple illustration. He says foxes have their holes. The birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. If you think that joining the companionship of my followers means that you will go from one phenomenal sermon to another, or one wondrous exposition of scripture to another, or perhaps some astounding healing of the sick to another, then think again. And I think it is instructive that he uses such, not just an ordinary illustration, but lights upon a fox in particular. Foxes are To put it bluntly, they are vermin. Farmers will shoot them if they see them. They'll set their dogs upon them. But even this lowly creature in God's created order has a place to lay his head. Even a fox, though it be nothing but vermin, has a place to lay his head, but I do not. The birds of the air, they have their nests, but I do not. If you would be my follower, then recognize you are following somebody not on the road that leads through great ease and wondrous, miraculous events, but through much hardship and through great difficulties. Do not think that the servant will rise above his master. If the master has nowhere to lay his head in this world, do not think that by following me, you will have great honour and riches, comfort and ease. There are verminous creatures in this world who will fare better than you. These are not words that are intended to encourage us forward in some false hope of a life of ease. Jesus is making it plain to the scribe that if you would follow Him, you will endure hardships and difficulties. The foxes have their holes. The birds of the air have their nests. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. There is also presented to us this disciple who steps forward and says, let me first of all bury my father and then I will come and follow you. Let me first bury my father. And if there is something of a difficulty in receiving Jesus' words to the scribe who seems, if somewhat boastful perhaps, somewhat proud of his own abilities to follow perhaps, seeking to put the best complexion, just simply unmindful of the particular needs which he will have, not thinking about how difficult it might be, then these words spoken to a disciple seem even harder to bear. After all, if you were burying your father, would it not be right and proper for you to make all the appropriate arrangements And Jesus seems almost to lay before him a somewhat harsh response. Certainly a heavy burden. He is saying to him, no, don't do that. Don't attend to your filial duties. Let the dead. Bury the dead. Now I think if we understand the context a little better, it will help us to see more clearly what it is that Jesus is saying here. And I want to use another illustration which I think will perhaps give us a slightly different understanding from that which would superficially present itself to us in these words. If you think for a moment of a young man who has by the grace of God, found a young woman that he believes is truly a help meet for him, and desiring to be united with her, has set a date. But the date is at some distance removed, and so a friend says to the young man, well, why not marry her now? Well, I'm waiting until I graduate. Well, how long will that be? We don't think necessarily that saying, waiting until I graduate, that that means you're going to graduate this morning and then this afternoon you're going to get married. You're just saying, it's going to be some distance removed. And once you have completed that, when you've got to the end of that period, then, When I have sufficient resources, when I've graduated, when I have entered upon my life's work and I have the resources to be able to support a wife and family, when I graduate, then I will take up a wife. What this young man is saying to Jesus is not that his father has just lately died. It would seem really quite, if we stop and ponder, it would be unreasonable, given that funerals take place, typically, as I understand it, in the Middle East, on the same day as death, that if his father had already died at that point, that he would have been busily engaged, even at that moment, in making the arrangement and actually burying his father. It's not a case of he's come from his father's deathbed and he says to his family, I'll be back in a moment, I'm just going to have a quick word with Jesus and I'll be back this afternoon. Now what he's saying to Jesus is that he has responsibilities towards his family, that his father is getting up in years and he wants to look after his father and once his father has died, then he will come and follow. in a month's time, in a year's time, in five years' time. Let me first of all bury my father. Let me first of all graduate from college and then I will marry. Let me bury my father and then I will follow. Now in that context I think it then becomes easier to grasp what it is that Jesus is saying and to recognize that Jesus had no other option but to speak as he did. And these words are not harsh, they're not cruel words to a son who is seeking to be faithful and dutiful, but a recognition that the son, in this particular scenario, needs to ponder his priorities. And if the priorities of this young man, this disciple, is to set his own family above the cause of Jesus Christ, then he is not worthy to be a disciple. Jesus is calling us therefore to set our feet upon a path which, as he speaks to the scribe, would tell us that this path is a difficult path, And now in God's providence he has set an illustration of just some of the difficulties that will confront us, because we are required to set Christ above all things, even if that means setting Christ above family duties and responsibilities. You may be a disciple, But are you a disciple, Jesus is saying to this man, who is willing to surrender all to King Jesus? We have had the privilege as a congregation of welcoming into our midst those who preach the gospel in foreign lands, and not so long ago we had a missionary to Japan I remember hearing tell of a missionary to Japan speaking of how difficult it is to preach the gospel in that particular context. That the connection with their forebears is so strong that there are those who would say, though I go to hell, I'd rather go to hell with my ancestors than go to heaven without them. These words are words which could have been written for just such a situation. Will you truly choose hell and your ancestors over Jesus? Let the dead bury the dead. We come as the people of God this morning and we would sit under the ministry of God's word and we would receive these words, not so that we should grow conceited ourselves and think in the folly of our own imagination that we would succeed where they failed, but rather as we present ourselves before the throne of grace that we would recognise the cost of discipleship and pray for the Spirit of the living God to grant to us that grace which we this day stand in need of so much. We would recognize that it is not for us to say that in and of our own strength we are able to follow Jesus. Rather, these words challenge us to count the cost and to recognize that we do not entirely know where God might lead us and what tomorrow has in store for us. That indeed our lives may be filled with much sorrow, much distress, whether physically or emotionally, mentally or in some other way. Now would we come in the folly of our own imagination with all the hubris that the pride of this scribe is that I will follow you without hearing what Jesus has to say by way of challenge? That to follow Jesus will not be an easy path. It wasn't an easy path for Jesus. and it will not be an easy path for us. So we do not come to make a proud boast that we will do what the scribe was not able to do, because though he might have lacked the physical strength, because he might have lacked the emotional strength, because he might have lacked the spiritual fortitude, we have all these things in abundance and therefore these things will prove no obstacle for us. Rather, we come as those whose eyes are even this day being opened, and we would express our desire, it is, O most sweet and precious Jesus, to follow you. And yet, even as we make that our prayer, we recognize that it will not be easy and we do not know what tomorrow has in store for us. And so we would ask not so much that we might lay our whole hands upon Jesus and hold on to him to follow him, but that in our prayers desiring to follow him we would say, Lord Jesus, hold me. Hold me. I do not think that it is incidental that this particular passage is followed with the story of Jesus in the boat. I trust in God's providence we might have time to study it in greater detail next Lord's Day. The boat tortured by that landlubber Matthew's description. Jesus asleep in the boat. We have not progressed many verses in the Gospel account by Matthew, but we find the disciples already reckoning on the cost of discipleship. Don't you care that we perish? It may be that in God's sometimes strange providence, we pass through times when it feels to us as though Jesus is asleep and the enemy of our souls would tempt us to cry out, Lord, do you not care that we perish? We come, therefore, as we would consider the cost of discipleship and we would not make our boast a vain and self-conscious boast of our strengths and abilities, but to recognize before our God that there is much that is hidden from our view, and that we would ask that though we are ignorant in so many ways, Lord Jesus, hold me, lead me, Guide me. Hold me, Jesus. But not only would we say that, we would take note of the disciple who comes to Jesus and asks that he might put off, defer for a season following Jesus. Let me first of all attend to my filial duties. to whom Jesus would firmly respond, let the dead bury the dead. Set Christ before you, before even your commitment to family and friends. Jesus must be Lord of all, or he will not be Lord at all. There is this implied demand made upon even thus who would have styled himself a disciple. Are you willing truly to give your all and to set everything in the context of your commitment to follow Christ? will you surrender all? But brethren, as we consider these words, there is yet for us a further lesson that we would be remiss not to consider and to apply to our own hearts. For as Jesus lays this before those who present their words to him, he speaks to them, and he would draw attention first of all to himself, And although it is right for us to begin, as it were, where we are, and to make application of God's Word to our own circumstances, so that we might be even as the scribe and hear these words and receive them to ourselves, we must not lose sight of the fact that Jesus speaks, first of all, about Himself. Jesus is speaking about His own sacrifice. so that when we speak of Jesus, He speaks to us of how He was willing to leave the Father's throne above and enter into our lowest state. He is not saying that this is a road that you must tread and that I do not. But that He would point us to Himself. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. though he was where hunger could not come, where sorrow was unknown, he entered into our lowest state and became a man. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And he did that, why? Out of the love that he bears towards sinners. He said, I tread this path and you do but follow me. but is the path that he takes of his own volition out of the love which he bears towards sinful man, out of the love which he has borne towards me from before the foundation of the world, so that we make this a personal matter between me and my Saviour and find the comfort which Paul found Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me. The foxes have their holes, the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Now as we follow through on this principle that Jesus is pointing to himself in the cost of discipleship, we begin to see something of the enormous cost not only for those who would be his followers, but for Christ himself. Jesus speaks to this disciple and says, you must be willing to separate yourself from your Father. And we see that in Scripture, the Son of God, in the agony of Calvary, was separated from His Father! for the sake of His people. Not only did He call upon us, as it were, to place Him before everything, so let the dead bury the dead. Come, follow Me and give your all. So we would say, though we scarcely are able to find the words to express such a truth, that the Son of Man gives His all for the sake of His people, even if giving Himself to the uttermost entails that He should be nailed to a cross and find Himself in the agony not only physically, but spiritually being separated from His Father. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? what He lays before us as our calling, the cost of discipleship. He endures for us. He says, set your feet upon this path. But it is a path along which I first must tread, even though it passes through the veil of the shadow of death. even though I will endure the darkness of separation from my Father, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross." And so we would come this day and we would ponder and reflect anew upon these verses we would see the cost of discipleship. But in the very viewing of the cost of discipleship, our eyes are drawn heavenward and our confidence does not rest upon ourselves. It is not that you are summoned this day to exercise superhuman strength or fortitude, but that you are summoned this day to look upon Christ and find your confidence in Him and in Him alone. Let us follow Christ. Let us indeed desire that. Let us plead for the Spirit of God to hold us close to Christ. But if we must boast, Let it not be in what we have accomplished, but let us boast in Christ, who first set his feet upon that path. Our prayer is simply this. Hold me, Jesus. Let's pray.