The Importance of Family Discipleship

This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth; he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord's arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday School Teachers, or other friendly aids, these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case; mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High... Plots of Popery (reliance on the religious professionals) is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, P387, July 11)

I Will Follow You, But....

Luke 9:57-62: Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”58 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.”59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

What a sobering message Jesus gave to someone who claimed that he would follow Jesus wherever He went. Jesus is essentially saying that a follower of His will be marked by three things:

1. You will be rejected wherever you go.

“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

2. Your primary focus in life will be to go and preach the kingdom of God.

“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

3. If you think twice about your commitment to Jesus, you are not fit to follow Him.
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus seems to be moving from the end result to the root cause in these verses. The end result is that they will be rejected. The root cause for this rejection is wholeheartedly following Jesus. In the middle, we see that a wholehearted follower of Jesus will be primarily focused with preaching the kingdom of God.

In summary, if you have a complete commitment to follow Christ (v.62) the result will be that you will go and preach the kingdom of God (v.60) and as a result you will be rejected by the world and you will have nowhere to lay your head (v.58).