Be With Jesus
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Intro/Recap
Last week we spoke on the what it truly means to be a disciple
Jesus was a rabbi that called people to follow Him.
Be with Him
Become like Him
Do what He did
All of this was an expectation that came with make the initial decision to follow Jesus. The two were undeniably connected.
This doesn’t mean that the grace of God accomplished by Jesus was based upon our outward performance. Rather, it is only natural that after receiving the indescribable grace of God, you would fully devote yourself to reorienting your entire life and person around following Jesus.
And last we tragically ran out of time, so we didn’t get to fully build out the closing thought of the beauty of following Jesus.
If you remember, we asked the question, “What would cause Peter and the others to leave everything and follow Jesus, as soon as He called?”
Now after talking about all the customs and requirements to becoming a disciple in Jesus’ time, listen to this famous line from Jesus Himself
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Did you catch that?
He said “whoever”. Then he went on to reinforce the fact that Jesus’ desire wasn’t to have just converts or shallow allegiances, but fully devoted followers of His way of life. But, in this day and time that Jesus made this statement, this would have been shocking to those who heard it. Whoever?
Surely Jesus means “Amongst the best and the brightest” then of course, sure, whoever…amongst them. Yet then we see, as we walk with Jesus, Him asking fishermen, a blind man, a woman caught in adultery, a zealot, tax collector, a religious bigot. Whoever seems to mean, whoever.
And this hasn’t changed. Rich, poor, regardless ethnicity, social status, divorce, single, married, addicted, Doctor or drop out, Mentally sound or mentally ill, religious or fallen away, full of faith or lacking doubt. Whoever means whoever.
So why would Peter and co. leave everything to follow Jesus? It was the opportunity of a life time. Not and opportunity of an eternal lifetime after the current lifetime your living (Although true). It was an opportunity for this life here and now to follow the Eternal Sovereign Creator God of the Universe so closely that the dust of His feet would fall on yours, so that you could Be with Him, Become like Him, and to Do as He did.
The invitation stands for all. The opportunity is free. But it will cost you everything. There are no accidental disciples. You will have to reorient everything in your life around Jesus and His mission. Everything. The Way of Jesus only works if its the priority above all other priorities. Jesus also said that all of the intricacies of life will fall into place when we seek to put Him and His kingdom first.
This leads us to our first Goal of Following Jesus:
BE WITH HIM
BE WITH HIM
Turn in your Bibles
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Here we see what some may say is “Jesus’ model of Discipleship” - The primary thing that Jesus wants His followers to prioritize in their life is simply abiding with Him.
(Beginning with the end in mind)
Jesus uses this language of abiding in this particular teaching 10 times, this word in its original language is “remain, stay, dwell, or make your home in”. Jesus is intentionally driving home the point that His greatest desire for you is to root your life in Him. Not any other thing other than Him. His hearts cry is that your home, your dwelling place, the place you find the most comfort in, would be HIM. The center of our being should be grounded in Jesus.
It’s why throughout His ministry we see scenes of His follower exemplifying this method.
(John 1) Andrew and his friend are invited to stay, with stay with Him
(Luke 10) Mary sits at the feet of Jesus
(Mark 3) Jesus calls disciples and large groups answer and “They came to Him”
HOUSE ON THE ROCK
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
Abiding
Abiding
Now if this sounds a little monk-ish or nun-ish to you, remember the way Jesus phrases this instruction isn’t as if He’s asking you to add something additional to your life. He’s asking you to re-prioritize your life. The truth is that we are all (humans) abiding in something. All of have something in our lives that we place our trust in so that when storms come, we have a place to find refuge in.
Where do you turn when your sad, angry, confused, directionless, uninspired, anxious, distracted?
Those who follow the broad road find their home in (abide in) social media, sex, buying things, drugs (prescribed or not), an endless supply entertainment, and so on.
This turns us into a society that is restless, lustful, compulsive, greedy, distracted, addicted and so on. And most importantly we find ourselves running from our pain and ironically, actual solutions to the problems that we are faced with.
But if we abide in the Way of Jesus, meaning that at all times we stay in close proximity to Him, then when we are faced with anxiety we respond with forbearance. Confused and directionless, we seek goodness. Angry, we respond with love, kindness, gentleness. Distracted and uninspired we return to He who is faithful.
Put another way, when we root our lives in God we bear the fruit of His Spirit.
And to clarify, this isn’t about planting a monastery on the moon away from all the bad people. That isn’t Jesus’ mission, as we see exemplified in His life. Abiding with Jesus is about dwelling with wherever you are. Breakfast, at the office, dinner with friends, during toddler fits, morning commute. Jesus seeks to dwell with us where ever we are.
Following Jesus is about turning your whole self into a temple the God can find His home in. And this leads us to a place where we can begin to talk about how this can be a reality for us.
How To Abide
How To Abide
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Throughout the Story of Scripture God uses these things called temples to accomplish particular purposes in His mission to renew all of creation (It pains me to be so brief). Essentially speaking a temple was created by God to be a place where heaven and earth overlapped so that God could dwell with man. His chief desire. So then, move to what Jesus said when speaking to His apprentices:
John 14:16 (ESV)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
This word “another” that Jesus uses means “another of the same kind”.
So Jesus is saying that His plan isn’t to just reside in a geographical location, a place that you would have to physically travel to in order to be with Him. But instead, His plan is that He would go and that the Father would send The Holy Spirit to dwell, make His home, reside, be with you, inside of your whole self, forever. When we tie this to Pauls teaching that God’s plan is that the ultimate temple or dwelling place, or location of overlap for God’s Spirit and Humankind would be exclusively ourselves, we see the wonderful possibility of abiding with God fully with our whole selves.
Jesus’ master plan for your life is to continually abide with Him through the indwelling of the Spirit.
Paul called this praying without ceasing
AW Tozer called it “habitual, conscious communion”
Dallas Willard called it the “with-God life”
A monk named Brother Lawerence called it “Practicing the presence of God”
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Now the danger is that we would just believe this to be a nice idea and sentiment. That when life hits us hard we just “Think happy thoughts about how God loves us”. The reality is that this isn’t just “happy thoughts” it’s a reality that we can live in and a skill we can practice.
The Practice of Abiding
The Practice of Abiding
Where do your thoughts go when you wake up and when, after a long stressful, you lay your head on your pillow? When your driving, or waiting in line, where does your mind wander “without thinking”? Usually our wants, fears, regrets, wounds, etc. We tend to dwell on the negative.
Brother Lawerence who earlier coined the phrase “practicing the presence of God” wasn’t a great priest or scholar or theologian. He was a dishwasher in a monastery in 17th century Paris. And his chief aim in life was to dwell with amidst the chaos of kitchen. He famously said
The time of busyness does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees before the Blessed Sacrament.
- Brother Lawerence
Now, again, this doesn’t just happen. It takes a mindfulness and practicing awareness. Dallas Willard puts it this way:
The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds....This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him. In the early time of our practicing, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God [that is, will be constantly distracted by a million other things. But these are habits not the law of gravity and can be broken. A new, grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us. Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north... If God is the great longing of our souls, He will become the polestar of our inward beings.
-Dallas Willard
What the wise sages of the Way are saying is, you can through habit and the Spirits power create a mind that as the Psalmist said sets “…the Lord always before me.” or as Paul said “Set your mind on things above.”
Now practically what does this look like?
When you wake up, first thing, acknowledge God. Doesn’t have to be a lengthy prayer. Just familiar acknowledgement.
When your sitting at the office or when your on feet, for a while at work and your feel the need to stretch. Acknowledge God.
At a stop light? Acknowledge God.
Worried about a stressful conversation? Take it to the Lord.
Enjoying that taco? Thank God.
This deliberate consistent practice can form your mind into a state where you are constantly aware and present with God. Now this may not sound inspiring talking about training your relationship with God by way of habit. But show me something that someone values and I will show you how they make consistent decisions to prioritize that thing.
Through this practice we can become that type of person that abides with Jesus continually. There’s so much about our lives that we can’t control, but we can do this.
He told me He was proud of me.
“from the moment we’re born, we’re constantly looking for some to look at us in love”
This is ultimately the goal of all of this, not just to think happy thoughts about Jesus. But to sit with Jesus. Look at Jesus looking at me with love.
The Goal is Jesus. “One thing”
2 Things to Help
2 Things to Help
Secret Place
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Luke 5 - “Jesus often withdrew to desolate places and prayed”
Desolate places = Eremos = quiet place
Get alone with God.
Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry From Your Life
Our souls were not created for the kind of speed to which we have grown accustomed. Thus, we are a people who are out of rhythm, a people with too much to do and not enough time to do it.... Our lives can easily take us to the brink of burnout. The pace we live at is often destructive. The lack of margin is debilitating. We are worn out. In all of this, the problem before us is not just the frenetic pace we live at but what gets pushed out from our lives as a result; that is, life with God.
- Pastor Rich Villodas, The Deeply Formed Life