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Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
We’ve heard these types of directions since we were kids: “Follow the rules”; “Follow the light”; “Follow your heart”; “Follow the right path”; “Follow your conscience”; “Follow that still small voice inside you”. We’ve also heard these warnings: “don’t follow the crowd”; “don’t follow peer pressure”; “don’t follow bad advice.” So, pause for a few seconds and consider this question: “How do you and I decide what or who to follow?” And this question: “Who is following YOU?”
I left you yesterday with Jesus and His disciples discussing some radical statements Jesus was making. These men, who had been with Jesus for almost three years didn’t know it, but Jesus was very carefully preparing them for the most significant weekend in all human history. What weekend, you ask? Passover/Easter weekend, which for them was only a few weeks away.
These disciples had no idea what was going to happen, but Jesus did, and He was carefully preparing them. These days, as we walk along with Jesus and these men, we have the advantage of looking at Jesus’ words and actions from the vantage point of 2025 and all that we have learned about that famous weekend and all of history since then.
Jesus had just made this statement to them: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.” (Matt. 16:24) Yesterday we took a close look at what I think Jesus meant by “deny themselves” and “take up their cross”. Today let’s continue with seeking to understand what Jesus meant by “follow Me”. For those 12 guys, each of whom had been invited by Jesus to ‘follow me’, like Matthew records his story in Matt. 9:9, it had thus far simply meant walking along with Jesus, listening and watching Him.
Up to that moment Jesus had not asked anything of them. They had not been asked to pay Jesus to let them follow Him, nor had Jesus demanded that they serve Him or do any particular work for Him. Walk with Him, listen to Him, watch Him and thus far Jesus had placed NO expectations upon them.
Of course, what these men didn’t know was that Jesus was preparing them, for within a few weeks Jesus would be sending them out as His representatives. (Matt. 28:18-20) They didn’t know it yet but they would be questioned, interrogated, mocked, persecuted, in some cases tortured and eventually all of them would die horrible deaths primarily because they were followers of Jesus! Now pause and ponder that for a few seconds.
When Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me“ do we understand what “deny ourselves” and “take up our cross” means today, not only for you and me but for Christians living in China or Yemen or Afghanistan or Sudan or Iran or Cuba or North Korea? You see my friends, in order for someone to “follow” Jesus in a way that is God honoring and purpose fulfilling, it requires “deny myself” for I can’t follow Jesus and at the same time follow my agenda, my preferences, my hopes and dreams. Following Jesus may also require a very high personal sacrifice from me and ‘take up my cross’ might be persecution or living a very difficult life, for you see, to live ‘follow me’ with Jesus means I live as a bondservant.
Do you remember what a bondservant was both in ancient Israel and even in the days of Jesus? A bondservant was a slave who had either earned or been granted their freedom but chose to remain a servant to their master for the rest of their life. (Ex. 21:5,6) So right now I ask us all… how much of the time do we ‘deny ourselves’ in order to honor God?
How often do you and I make specific choices which demonstrate our commitment to ‘take up my cross’, living in full accountability to God and willing to pay any price to be fully obedient to all God is asking of us and leading us to be and do?
And how do we honestly evaluate our effectiveness, our faithfulness in living “Follow Me” with Jesus? The disciples could see Jesus, hear Him, touch Him, eat meals with Him. You and I can’t see or audibly hear Jesus, so how do you and I follow Him just as practically as the disciples did as they walked with Him each day? Here’s what I’ve learned in my journey of Following Jesus:
1. In order to FOLLOW Jesus, I have to KNOW Jesus so I can discern the difference between His leading and my selfish desires, because often they are very different from each other.
Knowing Jesus well enough that when I have an idea, a desire, I can fairly quickly discern if it is from God or from my selfish self. I get to know Jesus best by spending lots of time in the book HE authored, the only book which tells the true story of Jesus, the Bible. I’m very careful about not allowing other books or movies about Jesus affect my knowing the true Jesus.
2. In order to FOLLOW Jesus, we must develop the ability to say NO to ourselves, no to our selfish desires and especially NO to our friends and others who have wonderful ideas of how we should spend our time, our resources and our abilities.
Have you noticed how easily our lives can become so busy, our minds and hearts so distracted that it’s hard for us to hear Jesus calling us?
3. In order to FOLLOW Jesus, we must be able to discern if the path we are walking is in alignment with Jesus or is our path slightly askew or even dramatically out of alignment with Jesus?
Remember what we looked at yesterday when Jesus had to once confront Peter, one of His good friends and a trusted disciple: “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.” Jesus said. (Matt. 16:23)
4. Finally, I have to value Jesus and His PURPOSES far above my own.
To do so I must hold tightly to the Biblical truth and my conviction that God knows me better than I know myself; (Ps. 139) God can see the future as clearly as this moment; God has a purpose and plan for our world and for how God wants ME to fit into His world plan; (Ps. 33:11) and finally God will NOT force His will upon me. I can choose to say NO to God and if I do, God will allow me to follow my own path, even to my self-destruction!
Oh my, that’s a lot to consider, all wrapped up in one powerful statement from Jesus: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.” What are the implications for you and me and the rest of our lives?
Now here’s an old worship song with very powerful words. It will help us consider these strong words from Jesus…, and I’ll meet you back here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Matt. 16:24.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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