Emmanuel Following Jesus Onward

Introduction: Our Realistic Hope

My hope for this morning’s message is that the Holy Spirit will give us a realistic hope and faith that for our church family, intentionally following Jesus onward is our sure path to well-being for our church family.

However, I cannot offer to us meaningful hope, without honestly addressing our concerns, anxiety, and fear. We live in a word that not only is changing, but it has changed. It has left all churches to deal with large-scale issues that directly feed into some of the challenges and problems that we face in our church family. During our discussion at lunch, we will talk about 5 ways the world has changed that impact the church. That’s a teaser for lunch, if you want to know what those 5 realities, eat lunch and stay for the discussion afterwards.

When it comes to our church family, we are facing the reality of declining membership and attendance, from which naturally flows lower levels of financial support. Our membership, attendance, and finances are influenced by the 5 realities we will discuss this afternoon. If we are honest, when we consider those large-scale realities and our local realities, we know it calls into question the long-term viability of our church family as we have known it.

The natural response to those realities is concern, anxiety, and fear. Concern that things are not going well for us; anxiety about whether things will change more positively in terms of membership, attendance, and finances, and fear over what might happen if we do not see positive change in those specific areas.

It is good and healthy for us to honestly admit the concerns, anxiety, and fear that we have. After we truthfully acknowledge our reality, then we must decide how we will respond.

Will we react in fear? Or will we respond in faith and hope!

Research shows that organizations that react in fear to problems and challenges close to the organization the intellectual, emotional, and relational resources they need to effectively solve their problems and challenges which leads to chocking off material and financial resources leading to even deeper problems and challenges or failure.

On the other hand, organizations that respond to problems and challenges with hope open to themselves the intellectual, emotional, and relational resource they need to successfully adapt and address the problems and challenges confronting them, which leads to real improvement and the potential for continuing improvement.[1]

But our church family has so much more than organization research upon which to choose faith and hope. We have over 60 years of faithfully following Jesus onward. In those years there have been difficult times for our church family before and Our Good Shepherd has faithfully led us on to a better place.

We have the Word of God which tells us,

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)

The qualities of the Holy Spirit that lives in us are power, love, and a sound mind. The word translated “sound mind” has the sense of “causing to be wise”.[2]

In other words, we can have faith that as we follow Jesus onward, the Holy Spirit who indwells each of us and fills our church family will give us the power, the love, and the wisdom to resolve every problem and challenge we face.

Let’s consider the worst case scenario, that sneaky devil that lurks mockingly in the back of the mind and slithers down into our hearts with fear. You know what it is I don’t even have to name it. But we must: The worst-case scenario that haunts us is the thought that the day may come when our church family must shut our doors.

I don’t think that is where the Lord is leading us, but for our spiritual health let’s voice it and consider it.

Our experience as a church family of following Jesus onward for 60 years and the fact that the Holy Spirit overcomes our fear with His power, His, love, and His wisdom should assure us that if that day were to come it will not be a crisis for us. Because we are faithfully following Jesus onward, we will see the hand of God in it and it will be done in such way that works for our wellbeing and God will be glorified in it.

There it is we have put our greatest fear out in the open for all to see – and what we see is that there is nothing to fear, for we believe that God is working all things for our good because we love him, and we are called and are following Him living out his purpose.[3]

Here’s the hope I am offering to us today from God’s Word:

Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

This morning, I invite us to join Jesus in six scenes where he either calls people to follow him onward or explains what it means to follow him.

What it means to follow Jesus Onward

Scene 1: Come follow Me

“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”[4]

What we can see here is:

(1) a command in the form of an invitation: “Come follow me”

(2) a promise: “I will send you out to fish for people” (check the verb - “send out”) – I will make. It has the sense of “I will give you the ability to fish for people.”

(3) with in the promise is a purpose and a responsibility (a new job, a transformation of what you already do) participate with the Holy Spirit in drawing people into the kingdom.”

(4) An immediate response to the invitation, the promise, the purpose, and the responsibility.

Jesus gives us this command, this invitation, this promise, purpose, and responsibility because Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Implications:

· Are we willing, as a family of God, to make the adjustments necessary to obey Jesus’s command and accept his invitation, trust his promise, and go deeper than we ever have before in being made into fishers of people?

· Will we accept that right now we don’t know what those adjustments are and be faithful together asking our Father in heaven to show us how He wants to transform us into better fishers of people as we faithfully follow Jesus onward?

If we accept the invitation and we are relentless in faithfully following Jesus onward, then we will know that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Scene 2: No place to call home

“Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.””[5]

(1) Jesus addressing the reality of what it means to follow him. In effect, Jesus is saying the teacher of the law “this is what it means to follow me, you will become homeless - you will have to leave everything for me. Jesus could mean more that physically leaving home. He could be telling the teacher of the law you will have to leave your home within the “law of Moses” and take up residence with my teaching, living in obedience to me. Your old self-identity as a teach of the law must go, and you must now become my lowly disciple, not one who teaches, but one who sits at the foot of the Master to be taught. Jesus calls us all to leave home. To willingly give up whatever has been our place of status, self-identity, and security to follow him.

(2) Speaks to the ordering of priority - nothing can be more important than following him. You see if other people are not following people, they are just dead men and women walking; and if we choose not to follow Jesus because of our sense of responsibility to them; we too, become walking dead men and women, because following Jesus is the only path to life.

Jesus is saying here that if we are willing to leave behind the things that are binding us to home and family – that is to say – leave behind our worldly sources of identity, status, and security – in order to make Him our source of identity status, and security we will find that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Implications

· Are we willing to leave behind, as a family of God, some things in which we have found our identity, status, and sense of security so that we can make following Jesus onward to life our only priority? (There can only be one priority)

· Will we accept that right now we may be blind to the real sources of our identity, status and security are and will we be faithful together asking our Father in heaven to show us what he is calling us to leave behind to faithfully follow Jesus onward?

If we will accept Jesus’ invitation to leave behind what has defined us in the past and let him shape us into a new creation flow complete from his life in us, then we will know that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Scene 3: Calling sinners

“As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.”[6]

When the religious people opposed his associate with these sinners, Jesus told them,

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. . . . I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.[7]

Jesus sends us out to fish for sinners. We all come to Jesus as sinners and Jesus washes us clean by his blood. Jesus went to where the sinning fish swam, and they were attracted to him. Likewise, we to must go where the sinning fish swim, because they are not coming to us. They day of attracting anyone to church is over. This does not mean that we go and do what sinners do to meet sinners. No, it just means that as we walk through our life, we are aware that almost everyone around us is a sinning fish, and be attentive to how the Lord might bring one of them to us to help them, encourage them, to be the light of Christ’s love to them in that moment - it does not matter if we ever see them again or know what effect our contact has with them. In a way it is catch and release, the Lord draws them to us, we catch them for an instance, and then we release them back into the hands of God for him to continue to guide them as He will. Some of them, will join our school of righteous fish and swim with us, some will find another school of righteous fish, most will continue to swim in broad stream whose current carries them to destruction, but all of them will have experienced the light and love of Christ through us.

Jesus is saying to us if we will go and invite other sinners to “come follow Jesus” just as our sinful selves accepted Jesus’s commanding invitation to “follow me” then we will know that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us – and for other folks too!

Implications:

· Are we willing to engage more fully than ever before Jesus’ only strategy for church growth: call sinners to follow Jesus and show them how to be his disciples?

· Are we willing to accept that we are at a loss as how to do this in our current environment and be willing to faithfully ask our Jesus to show us how to effectively call sinners to follow Him in our present environment and with the spiritual, human, material, and financial resources we currently have at hand?

If we are willing to commit ourselves to calling sinners to follow Jesus, as we see lives transformed by the power of Jesus, we will become convinced that that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Scene 4: Sent with authority

“Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness . . . . These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give . . . . Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”[8]

Jesus means that we have the authority to bring real healing and hope into this world. In fact, it means that Jesus expects us to give out the healing and hope that we have received for ourselves to others. This is how we fish for people. What is the help and hope that we offer others? It is the same help and hope we have - which is Jesus, only Jesus. It requires no training, no special talent - it is just walking through our daily life being attentive to who God is bringing to us, often we just act on impulse offering a kind greeting, a smile, or encouraging word, or some small helpful deed in the moment. If nothing comes by impulse we can quietly praying - Lord, show me what, if anything, you want me to say or do to help the person know how much you love them.

We have chosen to take up our cross and follow Jesus. The people God brings to us to influence will have a choice over time as to whether they will too, will take up their cross and follow Jesus. Our responsibility is to be light and love of Jesus in the moment - and leave the rest to the Father, trusting the Him for the next moment of encounter with the person if it comes.

You will recall that in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples he also said,

Freely you have received; freely give. Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts— no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. [9]

In other words, as you follow and obey me, the resources you need will be provided for you.

The point Jesus is making is that as his disciples we have the authority and the ability to bring real healing and hope into this world within the scope of influence and with the resources we presently have. Following Jesus, in the power of His authority and ability, always leads to His best place for us.

Implications

· Are we willing to believe that we have Jesus’ authority and ability, as a church family, to bring genuine healing and hope within the scope of our influence and with the resources we have at hand?

· Are we willing to believe as the Apostle Paul did that, we can do all things through Him who strengthens us?[10]

· Are we willing to believe as the Apostle Paul did that, our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.[11]

If we are willing to follow Jesus in the power of His authority, ability, and provision we will know that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Scene 5: Correction

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”[12]

Genuine disciples sometimes make serious errors that need correcting. Jesus acts decisively to realign our thinking and priorities - get our mind and actions off what we think is right and good - and back onto discerning and following the will and purposes of God.

Jesus is saying to us if we will get our intentions off what we think must be God’s will and lay down our intentions, our agenda – let them die by focusing our attention our taking our cross and following him to life; then we will experience that Following Jesus always leads to His best place for us.

Implications

· Are we, as a church family, willing to challenge by faith what our human logic and experience dictate must be an inevitable outcome or only solution to the challenges and problems that confront us?

· Are we willing to acknowledge that our best reasoning is most certainly flawed reasoning and ask intently, wait patiently, and not grow weary in doing well while as the Lord unfolds his will for our church family?

If we will, by faith, challenge obvious conclusions and double down on following Jesus, Jesus will show us that following Him always leads to His best place for us.

Scene 6: Getting the One who is Good

“. . . Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”[13]

I see Jesus asking this man, “Do want to know “what is good” because you see that I am the One who is good – that is to say do you actually realize that I am God in all his goodness or are we just talking hypothetically here?”

Jesus is saying to this man and to our church family, The bottom line is that to be good, you have to be willing to give up anything and everything to possess the One who is good. Then you will see clearly that following me always leads to my best place for you – and that place is always good, always better than you can image – because the journey that you are on is what is best for you. I am keeping you safely within the presence of my love. There is no better place for you. When you, Emmanuel, walk through the darkest valley, fear no evil for you are with me; my rod will protect you, and my staff will keep you on the right path for my name’s sake. Surely, my goodness and love will run after you all the days of your life and you will dwell with me, in my house, forever.

Implications

· Are we willing to trust the goodness of the Lord? Are we willing to trust that the journey we are on is a good journey? Trust that declining membership, attendance, and finance are actually God’s good guidance for us.?

· Are we willing to believe that there is no evil the problems and challenges we face as a church family, but only the protection and guidance of our Good Shepherd as he leads us onward to the place that is best for us?

Summary-Conclusion: Our Clear Path to Following Jesus Onward

Even this morning, if we will accept it, Jesus is showing us a clear path onward.

· Accept the invitation, promise, purpose, and responsibility of being relentless in faithfully following Jesus onward.

· Leave behind what has defined us in the past and let him shape us into a new creation flow completely from his life in us.

· Commit ourselves to calling sinners to follow Jesus.

· Live in the power of His authority, His ability, and His provision.

· Challenge humanly obvious conclusions and double down on following Jesus.

· Trust that our Good Shepherd is with us on a good journey.

Upon the very words of Jesus himself, we can have faith and hope that as we follow Him,

Jesus will always bring us to the place that is best for us!

[1]: Don Maruska (2004). How Great Decisions Get Made: 10 Easy Steps for Reaching Agreement of Even the Toughest Issues. American Management Association: New York. [2]Faithlife, LLC. (2021). making wise (Version 9.7 SR-1) [Computer software]. Logos Bible Software Bible Sense Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, LLC. Retrieved from https://ref.ly/logos4/Senses?KeyId=ws.making+wise.n.01 [3]Romans 8:28 [4]Matthew 4:18–22 [5]Matthew 8:19-22 [6]Matthew 9:9-10 [7]Matthew 9:12-13 [8]10:1,5-8,38 [9] Matthew 10:8-10 [10]Philippians 4:13 [11] Philippians 4:19 [12]Matthew 16:21-25 [13]Matthew 19:15-22