Well, we just heard four of our younger members make
professions of faith. Okay, that was good. But, now what? Having done that,
what happens next for them? I've encountered different answers to that
question. Here's one. We tell them, 'You're in. You've told us that you believe
in Jesus. Good! Next stop: heaven. In the meantime, try to be good, and we have
some interesting programs at church that you might want to consider.' That's a
fairly popular one. Here's another answer. It's what the leaders of my church
said to me. They said … nothing. I was twelve or so. A letter from the church
we had been attending came in the mail to my home saying that it was time for
me to be baptized. So, after a few Saturday mornings of instruction about the
church's distinctives and some other things, I was interviewed by the board and
then baptized. And after that, as far as I knew, nothing was different in the
church's expectations of me. I had jumped through the necessary hoops and that
was good enough.
I think that we can agree that neither of those options are
a good choice. There must be something different, something better to tell
these four. And there is. It's something Jesus said.
If anyone serves me, he must follow
me…
What we tell these four, and any others like them, is to
follow Jesus. However, we shouldn't just assume that they know what that means.
They need this explained to them so that they will understand it and, as a
result, follow Jesus well. So, let's take a look at that command and see what
it calls our four newest communicant members to.
Here's the first thing to understand about that command,
'Follow Me'. It's not a metaphor. It isn't another way of saying, 'Read your
Bible, figure it out as best you can and then do whatever it says'. Actually,
it's quite literal. It means what it says. Jesus is calling these four to follow
His lead, to accept His guidance, follow the course that He lays out
specifically for each of them. Remember, we do not follow a dead and departed
religious teacher. We follow someone who is very much alive. And He's not alive
and far away. He promised to be with us, by His Spirit. So, while we do not see
any physical body, there is still someone who instructs and leads those who are
following Him. It's not a metaphor.
Here's the next thing to understand. The key to following
Jesus in this way is faith and obedience. Those are pretty close to church
words so let me say that differently. Those who follow Jesus tell Him time and
again, 'Because I trust You, I will do what You tell me.' Faith and obedience.
And these two really need to go together. Anyone who says, 'I believe in
Jesus', but doesn't do what He tells them is at least deceived and may, in
fact, be a liar. And Jesus isn't interested in those who are busy doing even
good things but who are doing them for some reason other than trusting Him as He
leads. No, it's both trusting Him and then, because of that, doing what He
tells you. That's what it means to follow Jesus. That's what it means to be a
Christian.
Now, what might following Him look like? Well, there are the
general things that Jesus commands, like this.
You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the
great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.
That covers a lot of territory. He does, however, get more
specific in applying that general command. So, there's this from what we've
been looking at in 1 Peter.
Slaves, be subject to your masters
with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
That could be incredibly hard. Submit to some guy who just
beat you for no good reason except that he's had a bad day? Yes, submit to that
fellow. And do it because you trust Jesus. In this case, you trust His wisdom
and His love for you.
Or put yourself in Abraham's place.
After these things God tested
Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and
offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall
tell you.”
How would you like to hear something like that from Jesus?
Abraham did. And, because he trusted Him, he went to do what he had been
commanded to do. And as you know, his trust was not only justified but rewarded.
So, following Jesus is doing what He tells you to do because
you trust Him. These four need this explained to them so that they will follow
Jesus well.
Let's move on. Following Jesus will be hard, sometimes very
hard. But He did tell us that it would be. Listen to how He describes following
Him into life.
Strive to enter through the narrow
door.
The word translated 'strive' is behind our word, 'agonize'.
Jesus is up front with people. It's going to be hard to follow Him. In fact,
because it is so hard, there are going to be times when His followers are going
to stumble. There are going to be times when they will not trust Jesus and,
because of that, they will fail to do what He has told them to do. It happens
to us all. That's where repentance that leads to forgiveness comes in. I talked
about that last week. These four need this explained to them so that they will
follow Jesus well.
It's here that it's good to remember that Jesus is
compassionate. He understands our weakness, our inability, at times, to trust
Him. This is where remembering what happened with that father of the
demon-oppressed boy is helpful.
And they brought the boy to him.
And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on
the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father,
“How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it
has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do
anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you
can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of
the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
The man was honest. He knew that he was no example of a
robust faith and said so. But Jesus was compassionate. Accepting even that weak
belief, He freed the boy. He responds compassionately to prayers like that.
Praying honestly about your weakness to a compassionate Jesus is part of the
mix. These four need this explained to them so that they will follow Jesus well.
One more area. Following Jesus, though really hard, is also
really good. There are benefits - the church word is 'blessings' - to doing
what He calls for out of a trust in Him. So, Jesus said that anyone who
followed Him would greatly enjoy eternal life in the present, and then, even
more so, in the future. So, what does that look like? Well, here are a few
things.
And the peace of God, which
surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.
Though you have not seen him, you
love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with
joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory…
One more,
Not only that, but we rejoice in
our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to
shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us.
Some benefits of following Jesus, translated from these
verses: a sense of quiet that goes deep, contentment with life, a hope that
always comes through and knowing that someone really cares about you. The world
around us promises benefits - money, power, pleasure - if any would do what it
says because they trust the wisdom of the culture. Even if the culture could
come through on that promise, how do those silly benefits compare with things
like peace, joy, hope and love? These four need this explained to them so that
they will follow Jesus well.
Now, for an important question. We've looked at some of what
it means to follow Jesus and how our four new communicant members need to have
these things explained to them. So, how is that going to happen? How will they
learn how to follow Jesus well? You will need to teach them.
Let me mention here something from Matthew's Gospel that I
bumped into this week. It stood out in a way that it hasn't before. Jesus is
warning the crowd about the teachers of the Church in His day, the scribes and
Pharisees.
… they preach, but do not practice.
Is it any wonder that He called them hypocrites? When I read
that my mind went to an old favorite.
Ezra had set his heart to study the
Law of the Lord, and to do it and
to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.
If these four are going to follow Jesus well you will need
to teach them. And Ezra is an example to you of how to do that. First, you need
to know what Jesus wants you to do. That will take some study. You need
to know the Bible. But please understand. Ezra didn't do this just sitting and
thinking. He did this in the context of an ongoing conversation with his God.
'Lord, help me to understand.' Prayer must go with study. But then, note that
the next thing that he did wasn't to tell everyone what he had just learned.
The next thing he did was to take what he understood from Jesus and put it into
practice in his own life. It's only then that he could teach it. That's what
Ezra did. And that's what all of you need to do. You need to know what it is
that Jesus wants you to do, do that because you trust Him and then pass
on to these four, and everyone else, what you've learned. You explain what it
means to follow Jesus well by following Jesus well yourself. God forbid that it
be said of any of us,
… they preach, but do not practice.
But if we do follow Jesus well, then we can expect some
amazing things from these four.