Where He Leads, We Will Follow
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Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Church, Mission of
A generation ago, Dr. F. B. Meyer said this about the local church: “It is urgently needful that the Christian people of our charge should come to understand that they are not a company of invalids, to be wheeled about, or fed by hand, cosseted, nursed, and comforted, the minister being the Head Physician and Nurse; but a garrison in an enemy’s country, every soldier of which should have some post or duty, at which he should be prepared to make any sacrifice rather than quitting.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Mark 10:32–34 (ESV) 32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
Our Gospel text opens with the company of disciples traveling with Jesus under a cloud of distress. They were “amazed,” “in awe,” “astounded.” They had seen many things as they traveled with Jesus.
But these were not sinlessly perfect. The Old Adam affected their ability to see and hear what Jesus had revealed by His Words and deeds, that the Kingdom of God was, as He had said to the Pharisees (Luke 17:21), “in the midst of you.”
Mark 10:35–37 (ESV) 35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Maybe because of their experience with Christ alongside of Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-9), James and John nurtured the possibility of Christ outwitting His enemies. Maybe they thought, “How can Jesus grant our request unless he blocks the murderous plans of the Pharisees and priests against Him?”
Today’s counterpart to that way of thinking can be heard from those who proclaim that “God wants you to be happy, therefore God will block from your life those things that would make you unhappy.”
These false comforters encourage us to look selfishly at our own interests, our own feelings, our own comfort. They redefine the Christian Church and her mission. Instead of walking with Christ as His Bride, they present the Church as His client and customer, whom He serves night and day, providing protection, prosperity, and power while the church is on earth, and bliss in eternity, in exchange for a 10th of her members’ incomes, a weekly gathering to sing appreciative songs and declare their affection, and occasional pledges to “do better.”
Another group thinks that God is unable to fulfill His exceeding great and precious promises. He has placed their fulfillment into the hands of people who are fundamentally incapable of doing so because of their sins. The problem is that this group doesn’t include itself in the diagnosis. They think that, because they recognize the problem in others, they are equipped to remove it. They go by many names, but they share the notion that God needs their help, even their guidance, in order to establish His righteous Kingdom on the earth. Whether they ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” or declare, “Jesus isn’t isn’t getting the job done,” the foundation remains, they seek to stand in the place of Christ. Therefore, they are “Antichrist.”
This group goes farther than James and John, who wanted merely to sit alongside Jesus as He reigns. This group wants Jesus to “step aside” so that they can “get the job done.” Their zeal blinds them to the truth.
42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
God’s “alien work” reveals us all as sinners, for “He knows our frame; He knows that we are dust” (Ps 103:14).
38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
It is easy to be indignant at the hubris of others. But we are also the offspring of Adam, and are equally guilty. Only Jesus embraced what we resist - the Cross.
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
We stumble about, each, in our own Pharisaical way attempting to establish our own righteousness, whether it be through wokeness, political affiliation, economic security, or the good old-fashioned “works righteousness.” None of that moves God.
God’s proper work gives us the righteousness for which we crave.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
What we have tried and failed to do, establish justice for ourselves, God has done for us in Christ:
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
God has taken the struggle to Himself, God has fought the fight for us, and now He simply says "Repent and believe the Good News.”
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Either Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, as He declares, or He is a liar. The world keeps demanding proof, because it will not receive the truth.
24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
We are also “on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus has walked ahead of us.” Not the Jerusalem according to the flesh, but the Jerusalem from above, as it is written:
10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. 11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The hour of trial, the time of separation has come. Its consummation lies ahead of us; but the process is now. The “two-edged sword” of God’s Word is living, powerful, and it separates today, those who believe from those who reject its call to repentance from sin and faith in Christ.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
His sheep hear His voice - that separates them, not their good works, not their organizational affiliations, not their race, color, or ethnicity. As the Waters of Meribah revealed the sin of Israel, the waters of baptism reveal us as needing the grace of our Lord, which He freely supplies through the water, as He did for them.
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
It is finished; by Christ’s death, the debt is paid. By Christ’s resurrection, we are justified. By our new lives in Christ, we show forth the fruits of His labor - “with His stripes we are healed,” and “we are fruitful unto every good work.” Because we are in Christ, where He leads, we will follow. We go with Him, and He with us, all the way, “from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky...”
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.