Come...Follow Me
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: Matthew 16:24-26
Context
Context
We are continuing in our series, “Who Am I?”
In this series, we have been attempting to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” or “Who does God say that I am?”
I am especially excited for today, because this message is near and dear to my heart. Today, we are speaking on the topic of Discipleship.
Did you know that the term “Christian” is only in the Scriptures 3 times, but the term “Disciple” is in the Scriptures almost 300 times? Did you know that?
The term disciple means to be a learner, a pupil.
But we have to be careful how we articulate that, because we don’t want people to just come and listen… right. The goal of being a disciple is not just to learn more intellectually. It is not just to come to all the Bible studies, though that is a part of it.
This goal of learning is actually for the purpose of reproducing what you have learned.
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Do you see it. Jesus does not say, “teach them all things that I have commanded you.” No, No. He says, “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
Discipleship is more than getting to know what the teacher knows. It is getting to be what he is.
Juan Carlos Ortiz
So its not just about quoting Bible verses and gaining knowledge. Again, that is part of it, but that is not the endgame. That is not the primary goal. We do attend studies and gain knowledge, and we do memorize Scripture, but it is for the purpose of applying those things to our lives so that we might be like He is and teach others to do the same.
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
So the idea of discipleship is to create disciples, who create disciples, who create disciples. The idea is to teach them to teach others. Teach them to share their faith with others. Teach them to reproduce. Amen!
The goal is not create converts, but to create disciples.
Salvation without discipleship is ‘cheap grace’.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Lutheran Pastor)
The goal is not just to get people to believe what we believe, but to live the way He lived. The goal is not to build attendance but to build an army… An army of soldiers who are ready to stand and fight for their faith.
So today, we are going to be talking about the call to be a disciple. The title of the message is, “Come… follow Me!”
Content
Content
A Call of Acknowledgement
A Call of Acknowledgement
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
“If anyone desires to come after Me...”
Let me try to set the stage here.
In Bible times, there was school. It wasn’t so much a school to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic like today’s school, but was rather what we would call a religious institution.
Kids would start in this school at roughly 5 years of age… all kids… boys and girls. During their time in school, they studied what is called the Torah. This is the books of Moses. They are the first 5 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy. Sometimes it is also referred to as the Pentateuch: “Penta” meaning five & “Teukhos” meaning book.
These books contain the origin of humanity and the Law, which served as the basis of all authority in Biblical times. So they sent all children to school to learn the Law.
At the age of ten, the girls no longer attended school. They had been taught the Law of God, they knew what was expected of them, and so they stayed home to learn how to be a mom and a wife. After turning ten years old, most of the boys were also done with school, as this was the only mandatory schooling required for all kids. The only boys who remained in school after the age of ten, were those who excelled in understanding and knowledge of the Scripture and showed spiritual aptitude.
These boys were chosen to continue on in their studies by next learning what is known as the Nevi’im which is the section of Scriptures that were written by the prophets. They studied prophecy and learned of all the amazing things God spoke through these Godly men of old.
Once again, a selection process would take place. Those who struggled through the prophetic Scriptures were sent home, while those who continued to excel were invited to continue on in their studies. Their next focus was to move on to what is called the Ketuvim, which is known as “The Writings”. This is the wisdom literature of Psalms, Proverbs, and others of the like.
Some of you have probably heard of the Tanakh: Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim. This is the Hebrew Bible, and what we refer to as the Old Testament.
Once they had graduated from this section of their schooling, they could then begin to seek out a rabbi. After much prayer and consideration, the student would approach the rabbi of their choice and ask to be a disciple of theirs. The rabbi would then begin to ask them questions, drilling them on their studies, to see if they found them worthy of being a disciple. Sometimes this process would go on for days or even weeks. Only the most exceptional students became disciples of the most notable rabbis. Once a rabbi decided to take the student on as a disciple, they would speak the words, “Come… follow me!” From this point on, this student was to cling to their rabbi and his every word. He was not to second guess anything that he was told or taught. He was to learn from him, study him, listen to him, and essentially become as he was.
So throughout this whole journey, those who excelled were chosen to stay on and continue their rabbinical training, while those who did not excel were sent back home to work as a day laborer. The natural order of things was to simply carry on the family business. If your father was a fisherman, you became a fisherman. If your father was a farmer, you became a farmer. If your father was a carpenter, you became a carpenter.
The amazing thing about Jesus’s ministry, is that all of the disciples he called were those who didn’t make the cut. James and John were mending nets with their father Zebedee when Jesus called them to be disciples. Matthew was in the tax collector’s booth when Jesus called him.
Even Jesus became a carpenter, taking on his father’s business just like all the others.
I tell you all of this to explain the importance of these words “Follow Me.” Have you ever wondered why Jesus would walk by someone who was working, say “Follow Me”, and they would just abandon everything to follow Him?
These words have power. They have meaning.
It is the words of someone renowned who is looking for students. It is the words of depth, as it causes one to search deep within their hearts and determine their path forward. These words of Jesus are a calling.
The call to discipleship starts with a call to go after Jesus. It is actually to answer the call of God to… “Follow Me.”
It is the same call that a lost person gets today. The Holy Spirit moves upon their heart in some divine way and speaks those beautiful words, “Come, Follow Jesus!” But before one can answer that call, there must be a certain level of acknowledgment first.
They must acknowledge who Jesus is. If a total stranger comes up to you and says, “Hey, come follow me”, more than likely you are not going to do that, right. Before one can legitimately decide to follow Christ, they must acknowledge who is.
They must acknowledge that He is the Son of God.
They must acknowledge that He is eternal, and that He was sent here by God for an eternal purpose.
They must acknowledge that He lived a perfect life, never committing a single sin.
They must acknowledge that He gave His life on Calvary’s cross and in so doing, He endured the punishment for all sin.
They must acknowledge that after being killed and buried that He rose from the grave three days later, conquering sin and death for us all.
And they must acknowledge that Jesus loves them unconditionally and wants to save them.
They must also acknowledge some things about themselves too.
They must acknowledge that they are guilty of sin before a Holy, Righteous God.
They must acknowledge that this sin separates them from God.
They must acknowledge that the penalty of this sin is eternal damnation and separation from God.
They must acknowledge that they have no power to save themselves.
And they must acknowledge that they want to be saved and delivered from this sin.
When someone comes to a point in their lives to where they are willing to acknowledge who they are, and then acknowledge who Christ is, then this desire to follow Jesus naturally manifests itself.
“… If anyone desires to come after Me...”
Is that you today?
Are you broken today? Jesus says, “Come, Follow Me!”
Are you at the end of your rope? Jesus says, Come, Follow Me!”
Have you finally realized that you don’t have what it takes to get heaven on your own? Jesus says, “Come, Follow Me!”
Do you feel unloved, rejected, and invisible? Jesus says, “Come, Follow Me!”
Does being lost and separated from God keep you up at night? Jesus says, “Come, Follow Me!”
Are you tired of the going through the motions of life without meaning and purpose? Jesus says, “Come, Follow Me!”
Acknowledge who you are… acknowledge where you are… and acknowledge that Jesus is who He is… and COME!!!
But first…
A Call To Awareness
A Call To Awareness
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
“… let him deny Himself…”
The call to acknowledgement is only the first step. Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me… they need to understand exactly what that means.” You need to know exactly what the call entails.
If you are truly going to COME… AND FOLLOW ME… then you must be willing to deny yourself. You must be willing to leave everything you think you know at the door. You must be willing to leave the old man behind, in order to step into this new man I have created you to be.
If you really want something different, then you must be willing to be different. You must be aware that who you are outside of Christ has nothing to offer who you will be in Christ.
The old man must die so that a new man can be born. You must put him to death. You cannot try to manage your sin, you must kill it… you must put it to death. For when something is dead, it has no power, and we no longer want sin to have power over you.
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Jesus says, you cannot follow Me and lead yourself at the same time. To follow Me is to abandon every notion that you are capable of leading yourself. The very reason we come to a place of looking up and acknowledging Jesus in the first place is because we lead ourselves… straight into a pit of deep, dark sin.
If we follow Jesus just long enough to get out of the pit and then go back to leading ourselves, it is inevitable that we will find ourselves back in that pit again.
So Jesus says I need you to be aware of something, to follow Me is to cut all ties with who you are right now.
I am the Leader. I am the Guide. I am the Master and the Teacher. I am the voice of reason. I have the answers that you seek. I have the wisdom that you need, but it is not a wisdom of this world.
I am going to call you to places that make you uncomfortable. I am going to ask you to do things that do not make sense to you. I am going to challenge you in ways that seems unprofitable. I am going to bring suffering upon you in certain seasons, but that suffering is for your sanctification.
The way of the kingdom is not like the way of the world.
In the Kingdom:
You have to go down before you can go up.
You must be humbled before you can be exalted.
The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
You must love those who hate you.
You must pray for those who take advantage of you.
The leader is the greatest servant of all.
You must die before you can live.
So in the kingdom, there is no room for your worldly self, your worldly outlook, your worldly wisdom, your worldly way to handle situations, your worldly way of seeing things.
In the kingdom, we walk by faith and not by sight.
So you need to be aware that when you come to Me, you come to Me bankrupt. You have nothing to offer except for yourself. You have nothing to give except for yourself. You have nothing to boast of except for your weakness.
To Follow Me, you must be aware that you must deny yourself, for I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a transformed life to me. That sounds like someone who has abandoned self, fully surrendered to Christ, and has experienced a new life in Him.
2831 Our Lord’s conception of discipleship is not that we work for God, but that God works through us; he uses us as he likes; he allots our work where he chooses.
Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)
The call of discipleship is a call of acknowledgment, a call to awareness, but it is also:
A Call To Action
A Call To Action
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
"… Take up his cross, and follow Me.” That is a call to Action.
The call to follow Jesus is a call to work.
It is easy to look at the lives of the disciples and think that their main task was that of observance. Just sit and watch what I do. And to be fair, they did do a lot of that. They watched Jesus work.
But we also have to understand the level of intentionality that went along with that. Because there came a time when Jesus said, “Ok. Now I send you out two by two… and I want you to go do what I did. Now you have the power to heal the sick and cast out demons. Get to work.”
We must be careful not to become satisfied as a spectator. Jesus says that to follow Him is to become like Him. As Jesus bore His own cross, we too must pick up our cross and follow Him.
Now what does this mean? What does it mean to take up my cross?
We are very far removed from this, but for those in Jesus’ day, this would have made perfect sense. It is estimated that during the lifetime of Jesus, some 30,000 crucifixions took place. There was no confusion to them as to what it meant to bear a cross. They had seen it happen over, and over, and over again.
The cross was a symbol of death, and just like with Jesus, the person being crucified was forced to carry their own cross. It was a death march. When someone picked up that cross, there was no turning back. It was the beginning of the end.
And as we all well know, Jesus was hated by the religious leaders of His day… all of them. But they hated more than just Him. They hated what He stood for. So even after He was gone, their hatred continued towards all of those who followed Him. 10 out of the 12 apostles were martyred for their faith. In the book of Acts, we see Saul leading the charge against the church, with the purpose of completely wiping them out.
So in this day, to come and follow Jesus, was to start one’s own personal death march. It was the willingness to endure shame, embarrassment, reproach, persecution, and even death for His sake.
12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;
13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
14 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
Today, we do not see this same level of persecution here in America, but that does not in any way lessen the meaning of this statement. To truly follow Christ, is to be willing to go anywhere He tells you to go, do anything He tells you to do, stand wherever he tells you stand, speak whatever He tells you to speak… Regardless of what it costs you.
To be a disciple of Christ is not just to be a life-long learner of Christ, it is to be a life-long follower of Christ. This means that we must never forget that He is the Master and we are the pupils. And as we learn from Him, we are to teach others those same things, not just in word but also in deed.
We are to mimic the Master.
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Can you say like Peter… Can you say like King David… “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
Salvation is God’s gift to us because Jesus died for us on the cross. Discipleship is our gift to Him as we take up our cross, die to self, and follow the Lord in everything.
Warren W. Wiersbe
The call to Come and follow Jesus is a call to action.
Commitment
Commitment
We discussed earlier how that when students graduated from the rabbinical school, they would seek out a rabbi to disciple them. This was the culture. We see it all throughout the Gospels. People were constantly coming up to Jesus saying, “Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The unique thing about Jesus, is that instead of waiting for disciples to come to Him, He handpicked them Himself. He went to them and said, “I want you. You… come, follow Me.” Now He never turned away any of those who came asking for His help, but He also called several Himself.
I believe today that Jesus is in this place. I believe that Jesus is calling some of you.
You know it… you feel it. You know you need Jesus. You know that you are far from God. You know that you need to be saved, and today, the Holy Spirit has convicted your hearts and said, “You… come follow Me.” He is calling you by name.
