Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

What does it mean to follow Jesus? Matthew 16:24-28 Following Jesus without Freaking out Sermon 01 PRESSURE! If you had to pick just one word to describe our culture, perhaps the most accurate word would be “pressure.” Ours is a day when pressure squeezes almost every area of life. At five years old we’re thrust into school where there’s pressure to perform and to compete for grades. We join sports teams where there’s more pressure to win, to excel. We face the pressure of getting into college and once we’re there, of making it through. There’s the pressure of getting a good job and, once we get it, of doing well enough to keep it and be promoted. There are family pressures: finding the right mate and building a healthy marriage in a culture where divorce is too easy and condoned. There are the pressures of raising godly children in a post-Christian society. World problems, economic problems, personal problems, and the problems of friends and loved ones all press in upon us. But in the midst of all this pressure, there’s one thing that will determine the course of your life: your priorities.   Everyone has a set of priorities. If your priorities are not clearly defined though, you’ll be swept downstream in life by various pressures, the seeming victim of your circumstances. But when your priorities are clear, then you can respond to your pressures by making choices in line with your priorities, and thereby give direction to your life.   It’s crucial then that you have the right priorities. Your priorities make or break you. Your priorities determine how you spend your time, with whom you spend your time and how you make decisions. Your priorities keep you from being battered around by the waves of pressure and help you to steer a clear course toward the proper destination. Priorities—godly priorities—are critical!   Today we’re starting a new series, Following Jesus without Freaking out. What we’re really talking about is priorities. Every day, every moment, we’re faced with scores of choices. Just this morning you were faced with the choice of sleeping in, going to the grocery store, working on a project, finishing your taxes or coming to church…just to name a few. And all of us want to be wise investors of our lives. We want our lives to matter, to have significance.   When I was a child, my Dad loved to play the stock market. I’ll never forget as a kid, listening to him continually bemoan the fact that years before he had not purchased Coca-Cola stock…when it was really, really cheap. Now he’d made other wise stock choices but that one always bothered him.   Every day, every hour, every moment – you and I are investing our lives in something. But too many get to the end of the road of life bemoaning the fact that they made poor investments, that they wasted their lives.   My friend, there’s no better way to invest your life, to make your life count – not just for this world but for all eternity – than by following Jesus. Twenty times in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) we find Jesus saying these two words: “follow me.” Our Lord continually urges others to follow Him. If anyone else did that, we’d think that they were nuts. What if your neighbor pops over this afternoon, rings your doorbell, you answer and says, “follow me.” And every time you see her, she says “follow me.” You’d think that she was a few clowns short of a circus. Yet that’s exactly what the Lord Jesus demands over and over again.   This morning we’re going to work through just one of those incidents. My Bible is open at Matthew 16:24-28 (p. 694). We want to answer that question provoked by Jesus’ telling us to follow Him. What does it mean to follow Jesus? If you’re taking notes… 1. What does Jesus mean by “follow”? A physician shared this story about her four-year-old daughter. On the way to preschool the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat. Her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. This doctor/mom tried to remain calm, but she was extremely excited because it seemed like her daughter was expressing a genuine interest in perhaps following in Mom’s footsteps. Then the child spoke into the stethoscope: "Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?"   When Jesus said that we should "follow" Him, He wasn’t talking about literally strapping on a pair of sandals and walking with Him along the dusty roads of ancient Palestine. No, He meant that we should follow His example; that we should live the way He lived; that we should obey His commands; listen to His teachings; look to Him as our teacher and guide. That’s what it means to "follow," that’s what it means to be a disciple, that’s what it means to be a Christian.   A follower is simply a “disciple.” A psychiatrist might be called a disciple of Freud if he follows Sigmund Freud’s theories and methods. A jazz trumpeter might be called a disciple of Wynton Marsalis if he imitates his playing style. In medicine it’s not called discipleship, but a residency. Residents learn the practice of medicine by observing and imitating an experienced physician. Another example would be a beginning electrician or plumber who learns their trade by becoming an "apprentice". They are a disciple of a more experienced electrician or plumber.   This word "disciple" is used in the gospels and in the book of Acts to refer to the Twelve; that dozen men whom Jesus selected to travel with Him, those whom He chose to teach and train personally. Disciple is used in Scripture as a synonym for a "Christian." When we refer to Christians as disciples, we’re simply identifying them as followers of Jesus Christ.   But there’s something more. The word also carries the idea of imitation. Disciples of Jesus Christ are those who are seeking, not just to understand Christianity in an intellectual sense, but who are seeking to be just like Jesus. They’ve accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior. Disciples of Christ then are people who are modeling their lives after His, who are walking according to the example He gave us. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’” (Mt. 16:24).   The purpose of discipleship is so much more than the assimilation of knowledge through procedural programs. Though these pursuits may be commendable, many believe knowledge alone is the pathway to becoming a disciple. In response to this, the Bible says that there are some who are ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:7).   The true purpose of discipleship is to know the heart of God in Christ and to know our own hearts in relationship with Jesus. God wants each of us to be rooted in Him, not just rooted in our ideas about Him. Those who are truly His disciples are devoted to Him, and as such, devoted to learning all about Him – Who He is, what He likes and dislikes, what makes Him smile, His expectations, His purpose for us on this earth - to learn His heart and will and way and character - to evaluate every response not according to what we think we know but who we are in light of Who He is.   Country singer, Rodney Adkin’s song, Watching You illustrates this. In the first verse of the song a man and his son are in the car and a sudden stop makes the boy spill his happy meal and drink into his lap which causes him to utter a profanity. The Dad asks his son where he learned to talk like that and the boy answers in the chorus which begins: “He said I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool”…and ends with “I wanna do everything you do, So I’ve been watching you.” In a very real sense we’re trying to walk in Jesus “shoes” because He’s our hero. He came to this earth and died, fully aware of the sins you and I would commit that would require His death on the Cross. To follow Christ is to seek to imitate Him and live as He did when He walked earth’s paths. 2. Who are we following? The Washington Post back in 2000 carried a story about a man who’d spent nine years walking through thirteen countries and forty-seven states wearing a white robe and walking barefoot.  The local paper called him the “Man Who Looks Like Jesus” and that’s what this man intended. He wanted people to think of Jesus when they saw him. But He wasn’t Jesus and that’s not what Jesus is asking us to do when He commands us, “follow Me.”   Because there have been so many attacks on the deity and divinity of Christ during the past century, many do not realize that the first theological battle of the Church, the first heresy the Church of Jesus Christ had to combat was the denial of the humanity of Christ, Gnosticism. Gnostics believed that all matter was evil and rejected the idea that Jesus had a physical body. They taught that Jesus only appeared to be human. But we know that Jesus is the God-Man, both fully human and fully God.   When Jesus commands us to follow Him, He wants us to live out His life by the power of the Spirit in our human flesh, in these earth suits. Now He’s not asking us to perform miracles or to turn water into wine or raise the dead. He’s asking us to live with integrity, to resist temptation, to know how to grieve without losing hope, to be able to get angry without sinning, to be able to deal with difficult people the right way.   That’s what we’re going to work through in this series. We’re going to answer that question from Joan Osborne’s powerful song, What if God were one of us? He was and showed us how to live heavenly here on earth. Jesus models for us a godly life in the midst of the dirt and dust of common humanity. Think about it…   a) He was born in a barn. Jesus wasn’t born in the White House or Buckingham Palace but a dirty, dusty stable in a food trough for animals. Talk about humble beginnings. Our nativity scenes that decorate the landscape at Christmas miss a vital point, none of them smell right. Think of the shame Joseph must have felt when the best that he could provide for his wife in labor was just a barn?   b) He was born in a little village. Bethlehem was so small, so insignificant that it didn’t have adequate inns or motels. Today it probably wouldn’t even have a McDonalds. Blink and you’d miss it.   c) He had poor parents. Mary was just a teenager, probably fifteen or sixteen. Though we know and believe what Scripture teaches about the Virgin birth, I doubt her neighbors did. In their minds Jesus was illegitimate. Under the Old Testament Law an illegitimate child wasn’t allowed in the Temple until the tenth generation. On top of that Joseph was just a poor working stiff, a humble carpenter.   d) His family had a checkered past. Look at Jesus’ geneology and you’ll see quite a few rotten apples on His family tree. Some wicked and immoral people were as His ancestors. A couple of adulterers and even a prostitute were in His bloodlines. Talk about skeletons in the closet, Jesus had them.   e) He was plain. Isaiah 53:2 says, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” Jesus was so common in looks that He was able to lose Himself in crowds. No one looked at Him and thought, “What a hunk!” or “What a hottie!”   f) He was nearly homeless. In Matthew 8:20 Jesus said of Himself, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Basically, all that Jesus owned He wore on His back.   g) His advance man had flunked PR101. John the Baptist was just strange. He wore clothes made out of camels’ hair, and ate honey and grasshoppers. Not exactly the best representation for Jesus!     h) He picked a lousy team. Think about the disciples? Big mouth Peter. Thomas the faint heart. Matthew the government thief. Simon the Terrorist. The most capable and talented on His team was Judas, which is probably why Judas was the Treasurer.   i) He died a violent criminal’s death. Jesus died violently. It was an execution reserved for the worst of criminals. It would be like being sent to the electric chair today. It wasn’t a heroic death but a horrible and humiliating death.   j) Jesus was at the bottom. He was low class. Today some might even say He was “white trash.” And that’s exactly why each and every one of us can identify with Him. We’re not being asked to follow in the footsteps of a prince or a movie star or some great athlete but of a common man. With His background we know that those who choose to follow Him have made an honest decision. All that our world values He didn’t have.   The day before Thanksgiving of November 1983 I was more nervous than I think I’ve ever been in my whole life. I had a ring in my pocket as Jane Quick and I rode in a horse drawn carriage through downtown Chicago, and I asked her to be my wife. Fortunately, she agreed. I could have done it another way. I could have held a ring in one hand and a gun in the other and told her that she was going to marry me or else. Had it gone down like that, every meal that she fixed for me I would have made the dog taste first to see if he survived. Love only wants a genuine response.   We make few genuine decisions in life. Most of our choices are affected by outside forces, influences and demands. But when it comes to the most important decision in life, our decision about God, Jesus seeks only a genuine one. That’s why we’re approached in a way that lovingly frees us to make that choice from our heart, a real, genuine decision. We can accept Him or reject Him. God refuses to violate our personhood and our power to choose. When we choose to follow Him, we do so freely in love. 3. What does it mean to be like Jesus? Paul powerfully summarizes it for us in Ephesians 4:22 (please turn with me there), “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”   In the beginning of his book, Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado makes this statement, “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.”   Let me give you a “What if?” What if for one day, Jesus were to become you? What if for 24 hours, Jesus wakes up in your bed, walks in your shoes, lives in your house, assumes your schedule? Your boss becomes His boss, your mother becomes His mother, your pains becomes His pains? With one exception, nothing about your life changes. Your health doesn’t change. Your circumstances don’t change, your schedule isn’t altered. Your problems aren’t solved. Only one change occurs. What if, for one day and one night, Jesus lives your life with His Heart? Your heart gets the day off and your life is led by the heart of Christ. His priorities govern your actions. His passions drive your decisions. His love directs your behavior.   Can you imagine that? What would you be like? Do you think people would notice a change? Your family, would they see something new? Your co-workers, would they think someone else had been hired? What about your friends? Would they detect more joy? What about your enemies? Would they receive more mercy from Christ’s heart than from yours? What about YOU? How would you feel with God’s heart in you? Would your stress level go down? What about your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you still dread what you’re dreading? Better than that, would you still do what you’re doing? Think about your schedule, what you have planned…with Jesus taking over your heart, would anything change? Can you just picture what your life might look like with Jesus leading your life?   That picture that you see, with Jesus leading your life, is what God wants. That’s what it means to be like Jesus. The Bible says that we are to “think and act like Christ Jesus.” Another passage says we are, “to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”   God’s plan for you is nothing short of a new heart. If you were a car, God would want control of your engine. If you were a computer, God would claim the software and the hard drive. If you were an airplane, He’d take His seat in the cockpit. But you’re a person, so God wants to change your heart. That’s what it means to be like Jesus. Conclusion: What does it mean to follow Jesus? The very first step is to accept Him as your Lord and Savior. It’s being saved by God's grace through faith, and then be willing to walk in obedience to God and allow the very Spirit of Christ take hold of our hearts and perform His work in us.   Friend, are you a Christian this morning? You can know Jesus personally today. It’s a simple prayer but it’s a life changing prayer…asking Him to be your Lord and Savior, trusting that His shed blood on the Cross paid for all of your sins.   But if you know Him, then you must obey Him. You must follow Him and seek to be like Him.   You see, salvation is both absolutely free and yet it costs you your very life. You receive it freely at no expense to you, but once you receive it, you have just committed everything you are and have to Jesus Christ. You may protest, “That’s a contradiction! How can something be both free and costly at the same time?”   Well, suppose I had a desire to climb Mount Everest but it costs about $70,000 to do it. I don’t have that kind of money. But suppose a wealthy businessman heard of my desire and offered to pay for the entire expedition. He would buy all the expensive clothing and gear, he’d pay for my transportation, the guides, and the training. It’s totally free for me. But if I accept his free offer, I have just committed myself to months of difficult training and arduous effort. It could even cost me my very life, because many good climbers die trying to climb Mount Everest. It’s free and yet it’s very costly.   Or, consider a friend who offers me a free ride in his airplane. He invites me to come along at his expense. In accepting his free offer, I’ve just committed my very life to him. If he flies safely, then I’m safe. If he crashes, I die. The instant I say yes to his free offer, I’m totally committed to him. I’ve entrusted my very life into his hands.   Jesus Christ freely offers the water of life to everyone who thirsts. But, we need to understand that when we receive His free offer, we are no longer our own; we’ve been bought with a price. To truly follow Christ, we must consider the cost and not begin to follow Him superficially, only to turn back later when things get tough. To follow Christ means to seek by the Spirit’s power to live as He lived and in a way that pleases Him.   The question we need to ask ourselves is not "Am I able to follow Jesus completely?" But rather "Am I willing to follow Jesus completely?"   We’re all human and sometimes we will fail in our commitment. That’s not Christ’s concern. His concern has nothing to do with our ability, He’s promised to take care of that. His concern is our willingness to follow him with our whole hearts. My friend, are you willing? Will you choose to follow Jesus?