The disciples walk with Jesus
Notes
Transcript
3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Does anyone know who Dr C. Hunter Shelden?
Dr Shelden is a neurologist from Minneapolis, Minnesota and in the early 1950s he and a team was studying trauma from head injuries from motor vehicle accidents, he noticed that even though they had a 'safety belt' installed, people were still affected by head trauma.
He started researching and developing a better way to protect drivers from vehicle accidents and in 1955 he introduced to the world the retractable seatbelt. Different to the current seat belt we have today however it was a game changer for safety.
There were other safety features that Dr Shelden suggested such as reinforced roofs, roll bars and automatic door locks. However, what is interesting was when car manufacturers started to install seat belts into new cars how do you think the public reacted to these new safety devices?
Amazingly, buyers didn't want them and requested that dealers remove them, Ford offered these retractable seat belts as an option in 1955 but they weren't popular with only 2% of Ford cars sales choosing to pay for the seat belts in 1956.
Obviously now, seat belts are mandatory and is required by law to use them. But, imagine how Dr Shelden would have felt with the backlash he received for his research in saving human lives? Can two walk together unless they are agreed?
It comes down to the matter of perception, you see Dr Shelden wanted to save lives whereas the people weren't interested in this new invention that would save their life; it could be a variety of reasons why the public weren't keen in having a seatbelt in their new car, most of the time it came down to scepticism.
It got me thinking about the disciples and their relationship with Jesus. Jesus is like Dr Shelden, except He didn't make the retractable seatbelt but rather He has a plan to save us, in this case Jesus has a plan to save us from our sins.
The disciples on the other hand, what was their perception of Jesus when they walked with Him? In fact, what was the perception the Israelites had of their Messiah when Jesus was with them? The Israelites and even some of the disciples were the sceptic and unbelieving.
The title and the theme of this series is 'Walking with Jesus', the verse that accompanies this theme is:
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
What is your walk like with Jesus? Who is leading who in your spiritual journey? Who is in command? Is Jesus leading you to life or are you leading your own life?
You see, many a times we see in the Bible the disciples had their own agenda when it comes to their Rabbi, many times we see the disciples trying to push Jesus this way but He was going that way.
They thought that their plans was better because to them they thought their idea would deliver them from their political oppressors when in fact Jesus was leading them away from the evil oppressor.
Take for example, in Mark 8:27-29, Jesus is asking the disciples who does the people say that He is? The disciples answer and say that the people say the Jesus is John the Baptist, some say Elijah and other say one of the prophets.
Then Jesus asks them personally who they think He is and Peter responded, that Jesus is the Christ (or the Messiah, that is, the Anointed One).
But in that dialogue as Jesus was speaking to them about how He must suffer and be ridiculed by the leaders of Israel. What does Peter do next?
Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him, Peter, takes God aside and rebukes Him! That's just crazy! You don't rebuke God! God rebukes you and as a result, what was Jesus' response to Peter?
33 But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Another example of a disciple would be that of Judas, according to a book called Conflict and Courage by Ellen White she reveals that Judas was driven by money and also by status. He had hoped that by betraying Jesus knowing He is the Messiah, could be pushed to take action when the time had come for conflict and Jesus would reveal Himself as the one who would take His throne on the earth and govern. Judas knew that when that happens, he would take his place and enjoy the wealth and toil in being a disciple that led Jesus to conquer His oppressors.
In taking just these two examples of Peter and Judas and as crazy as this sounds, how many of us have been in that position where we thought we could take God aside and rebuke Him? How many of us thought that we could fulfill God’s will by our sinful desires?
And you might be thinking how have we ever tried to do that?
Take for example, maybe when something doesn't seem to go right in life, or we didn't get that job that we've been praying for, or we didn't get what we want, whatever it may be, when we come to God in prayer, does it feel like we take God aside and rebuke Him because things aren't going the way that we want?
Or, we make a biased decision thinking that this is where God is leading only to realise that we were totally wrong and we blame God for making us take that path?
This list goes on, but you get the point. We blame God because we are not following Him rather we’re forcing God to follow us.
My friends, that’s not how this works, Amos 3:3 “3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”
Sadly, there are times in our sinful life where we think that we can take command when we really should let Him lead and let Him command. This is what the disciples had to realise that the only thing that they should ever want is to follow Jesus.
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
We need to make a decision, whether we let Jesus lead, or we lead, the disciples thought that they had control when they were with Jesus and look what had happened when they realise they weren’t in control, it ended with bitter tears.
What about us as a church? Who is leading this church? Your elders? Your deacons? Your deaconesses? Your pastor? The conference? I pray and hope that it is Jesus that is leading this church but but how can we know for sure?
We know when we keep His Word and keep His commandments, we know when we see the transformation in us through His Holy Spirit and when we walk in His footsteps this is when we will know that we are on the right track because He is leading us.
There’s a story about a teenage boy who had a violent temper, it is said that he would go after people with rocks, bricks baseball bat and a hammer because certain people irked him.
He once said that he hit his mother on the head with a hammer over clothing dispute.
This boy grew up as a Christian, and had a promising future but he hung out with the wrong crowd, one day when a friend of his changed the radio station that this teenage boy got so riled up that he pulled out a knife and went to stab his friend. Fortunately, the blade broke in his friends belt buckle.
Realising what he had done, he went home after the incident and began reading the book of Proverbs, this changed him and ever since then he never had a problem with his temper.
He grew up to be a well known Christian, his name is Ben Carson, and he became that way because he walked with Jesus and let Him lead.
Jesus has a personal plan for you, He wants to take you on that path, He wants to guide you and restore you. But, sometimes we like to make our own way and do our own things because we think that we know better.
How long can we wrestle with God and think we can rebuke Him? Because when the time comes the greatest rebuke is when the truth is revealed to us and we will experience those bitter tears because we didn’t let Him lead.
Stop wrestling with Him, start letting Him hold the reigns if your life, don’t fight Him but surrender to Him.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Walk with Him, be agreed together and let Him lead you. walk with Him and He will lead you in the path of righteousness for His name sake.
