Follow Me !

Another challenging sermon

Pretty much everyone in church would say, I am a follower of Christ. Where the challenge comes in is, what does it really look like.

Do we follow at a distance, Is it like subscribing to a YouTube channel, Does following cost me anything

Text

Matthew 16:24 NASB95

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

Where are we at, lets say in the US how are we doing.

Some challenging facts,

20% believe salvation was their most important decision in life

21% believe to mature you need to be connected to the body of Christ

22% are dependent on God

18% are committed to investing in spiritual development

10% believe in a Christian worldview

23% believe most important relationship is Jesus

It seems to me to me as I read the scriptures most of us start out as nothing more than fans.

We are enthusiastic admirers – literally fans not followers

John 6:1–2 NASB95

1 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.

So its Sunday and Jesus has a church of five thousand. With no children’s department, No worship team, and no coffee and no donuts

The excitement is over whelming – everyone is happy – It would be what our church leaders would call the model church. The Disciples are probably thinking they have made it, they are going to be on the ground floor of something truly amazing

It gets very interesting from here.

Vs 2. Said they were coming for the, signs and wonders.

Then he feeds them ( which we will talk about it in a bit)

Vs 22-27 The next day he still had a crowd. The church today would call this a revival.

Jesus has to take time and preach to them that He is the bread of life and God provides the bread. He says you have to eat of Him to have life. What happens next

Jn 6:66 Then they left

John 6:66 NASB95

66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

1. We start by asking a very important question The question is, Why were they there?

For the benefits or the one who gives the benefits.

Are you here because you were drug here, or are you here because you really want to be here.

Are you here because we are an amazing church in Shasta Lake – and it is amazing, or are you here for Christ Jesus and Him alone

You can be honest. Most people come because they want something

I have had people come to church for just one reason, so they can ask me for money at the end of service. Never seen them before or after that service, that’s even when I give money.

Some come to church just to meet people, or fellowship with a friend.

I have heard many reasons

Right Answer; I am here because of Jesus not what he can give me, or feed me

2. Are you all in?

Kyle Idelman says I - You cannot have Customized Christianity.

“I’m going to follow Jesus, but I’m going to pick and choose the areas in which I will follow Him.”

I’ll follow Jesus, but don’t ask me to forgive the person that hurt me. I’m not going to let go of that resentment.

“I’ll follow Jesus, but don’t talk to me about my money. I work hard for that money and God has enough.

“I’ll follow Jesus but don’t tell me to abstain from lustful sexual desires. I can’t help the fact that I have these desires I’m just human

Ill follow Jesus but Don’t ask me to change. I’m a follower of Jesus, but that won’t stop me from getting what I want.”

Customized Christianity says, “Well, I follow Jesus, but only in the areas that are comfortable,

Nicodemus in John ch 3 – was not all in.

A Pharisee- a theologian said they were guardians and interpreters of the law. He had to come to Jesus at night because it would cost him his reputation.

Jesus told him he needed a new life.

Jesus would have disrupted Nicodemus life. It probably would of cost Nicodemus his life. Following Jesus changes everything

Nicodemus wanted to be a fan - Fans buy tickets to the game – followers are on the field. They get into the game

3. Is it personal?

Is it personal or are you just following the rules

In Matthew 23 Jesus gives the seven woes to the Pharisees and Scribes.

Religion was all about them, about position

Back to our opening text, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Deny means – Say no!

The cross –can be defined as take up the case or cause or condition of the gospel Take up the cross is a figure of speech

Follow – means like a servant or slave- one who follows you around and is committed to you.

When Jesus makes His invitation, he welcomes anyone who would come after Him. But He also makes clear that when you choose to follow Him, you are giving up everything.

When a young Jew is finally accepted into a rabbi’s school, they would leave their homes, their jobs, whatever was holding them back, and they would go and follow the rabbi. Literally, they would follow the rabbi wherever he went.

They moved from spectator to participant

If the rabbi decided to go to market, his students would follow. And if a rabbi decided to go to another town, his students would follow. If the rabbi needed to visit some sick in the area, his students would follow.

To follow the rabbi named Jesus, this would cost even more. If the rabbi decided to live without a home, his students would follow. And if Jesus the rabbi decided to go among the sinners and the shameful, his students would follow. Where He goes You go !

And that’s what Jesus offers. The greatest teacher who ever lived offers you the chance to become one of his students. And when he says anyone, he means everyone. And with no qualifications, you’ve got no excuse. But even though He makes his invitation to anyone, He also guarantees that it will cost you everything. Are you ready? Are you willing to follow the rabbi Jesus?

4. Fans Choose Knowledge, Followers Embrace Intimacy

In church, we created a system focused around learning, not unlike Nicodemus and the other Pharisees. Admittedly, our default setting is knowledge, not intimacy.

We love having Bible Studies, which include some kind of workbook for working through a particular book of the Bible.

We even do it to our kids! They go to Sunday School, where they are taught lessons and are assigned different Bible verses to memorize.

Don’t get me wrong: studying and learning from God’s Word is invaluable. Jesus referenced, read, and quoted all kinds of passages from the Old Testament, ample proof that he had studied God’s Word with great care and diligence.

Knowledge cannot replace intimacy.

We substitute knowledge for intimacy because knowledge is so much easier.

It’s easy for us to say, “Well, I know about Jesus,” but He wants to know us.

Nicodemus the Pharisee he knew a lot about Jesus and his teachings, and he wanted to learn more. He calls him Teacher, emphasizing that he’s most interested in learning from Jesus, not opening up to Jesus.

Intimacy takes us out of our comfort zone

5. Get out of your comfort Zone

What about having to choose between your favorite pair of tennis shoes and some wooden clogs?

If you could choose between a weekend at a resort and a weekend camping in the desert at the hottest time of the year, what would you choose?

Why would you choose these -Comfort.

We Love comfort – Comfort lulls us to sleep – comfort allows us to sit and watch TV, rather than work out

We would rather watch –ice road truckers or dangerous catch from the comfort of our TV – We would not want to jump up and get on a boat in Alaska and have sleep deprivation for a week and have waves crashing over the boat all the time or drive across a frozen lake.

We’ve become Christians accustomed to comfort.

Our buildings that are warm in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer. Our chairs are padded.

We love our messages to be padded with easy teaching.

Our doctrine is comfortable- our lives are comfortable our evangelism is comfortable, our children's Sunday school is comfortable – our small groups are comfortable.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 Paul talks about how the world sees the cross – in verse 18, he writes, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.”

The cross was the ultimate symbol of weakness. It was a symbol of humiliation, defeat and judgment a symbol of torture, of death, of weakness to save the world?

God takes what, from a human perspective, is foolish. He chooses what has no glory and carries no honor. He finds the least likely symbol for love and life and says, “I’ll use that.” Or shall I say Ill use Him or Her

Is Jesus enough?

CONCLUSION:

We started in John chapter 6. Great crowds were traveling with Jesus. He was at the height of His popularity. Word had spread about miraculous healings and inspirational teach. The crowd was in excess of 15,000. After a full day, Jesus knew the people were getting hungry, and so He turned to his disciples and asked what all these people would do for food. 15,000 is a lot of mouths to feed.

Philip, told Jesus that even if they had eight months wages it wouldn’t be enough money to buy bread for everyone to have a bite.

From Philip’s perspective, this wasn’t his problem; and even if it was, there really wasn’t anything he could do. But another disciple, Andrew, had been scanning the crowd and told Jesus of a boy in the crowd that had five loaves of bread and two small fish. I can picture Andrew making this announcement with a smile and a sense of expectation of what Jesus might do next.

We know the rest of the story

After dinner the crowd decides to camp out for the night so they can be with Jesus the next day. They are committed fans. But the next morning the crowd wakes up and they’re hungry again. Ready for a little breakfast. They look around for Jesus, a.k.a. their meal ticket, but he’s nowhere to be found.Eventually they figure out that Jesus and his disciples had crossed over to the other side of the lake. Instead of going home, they make the trip to the other side of the lake to be with Jesus. The crowd seems to have no higher priority than being with Jesus. Maybe these are more than just fans after all.

By the time they catch up to Jesus they’re starving. They’ve missed the chance to order breakfast and they are ready to find out what’s on the lunch menu. But Jesus has decided to shut down the all-you-can-eat buffet. He’s not handing out any more free samples. In verses 26-27 Jesus says to the crowd:

I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

He says to them feed on me and you will live