SPECIAL NOTE: This particular message was never actually preached per text. I took unusual pastoral license and shared from my heart concerning the topic. If you heard the message then feel free to enjoy a second helping. There are a few similarities. Pastor Rob

“FOLLOW ME”

July 16, 2000 am

Mark 1:14

When I was a youngster in elementary I would lace up my slip-grips and head down to gym class. I loved gym class. I have always been a competitor who prefers winning to losing. (You show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.) What I hated more than losing were those games that never kept score and or clarified who was the champion. One such game was follow the leader. We would line up behind the sissy of the class (usually a girl) and we had to do what she did: walk, skip, trot, jump. Whatever the leader did we did. What a boring game! I wanted to play kick-ball, or dodge-ball, or football... none of this girl stuff. Let’s keep score so I can win and brag about it later. And if I lose, well, we don’t want to talk about that.

When we consider the words of Christ that he speaks today we must consider them in a serious tone. If I am to be a follower of Christ I must do more than just walk like he walked or jump like he jumped. To be a follower of Christ is a serious issue. Being a Christian is not simply a choice that just clarifies where we want to go when we die but a conscious decision on who we want to serve until we die.

This morning I want us to contemplate those words that Christ spoke on several occasions: “Come and follow me.” It has been said that following Christ “is not some theoretical abstract ideal but a hard reality.”

We tend to look at our Christian faith in the abstract. What do I mean? So often we see the Christian standard of living as an unattainable ideal. We don’t say this out loud but many even in this church this morning see it that way. It is like the man who tells everyone else how to live the Christian faith: how to be entirely sanctified, how to walk in the spirit, how to treat your family and yet there are personal demons that rake at his soul on an almost daily basis. He suffers spiritual defeat time after time despite his efforts to look the part and live the life. And then when sin has grabbed him firmly in its grip he is exposed publicly and the Christian world is shattered, especially if its one of our own homeboys.

I am not here to preach the theory of holy living. I have not been called to preach some easy believism faith that makes Christianity easy to live. What I am here declaring is that to be a follower of Christ involves some hard choices in our life and causes us to face some tough realities.

There isn’t a Christian anywhere in our nation who doesn’t believe that we need a revival. Even within this congregation all of us would agree that we need a revival.

What would happen if we Christians who are sanctified by the blood of Christ were to be really open and honest this morning with the Holy Spirit? Would we be willing to confess our sin? Would we be willing to admit our lack of faith in the cross? Would we be willing to accept responsibility for our shallowness? And then seek God’s forgiveness?

Tough questions and yet there has to be tougher responses.

We find in our text Philip being called by Christ. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”

What does it mean to respond to Christ by following him?

In Luke chapter 18 there was a rich young ruler who desired to follow Christ. In fact, he had obeyed all of the commands and did all of the right things. But Jesus told that this would not be enough. “Sell all you have, give to the poor and follow me.”

What tragic news to a man who had everything! Suppose if you will, that you are in this young man’s shoes. You have heard the heart-felt stories of Christ’s disciples as they share their personal experience of being with Jesus. You listen to the stories of miracles being performed and lives transformed. You listen intently to the testimonies of these “missionaries” who follow their leader. There is that tug on your heart to do the same.

As a kid I saw the cop shows. I loved Dragnet and Adam-12. I was going to be a cop when I grew up. Hawaii five-O and Mannix were my favorite detective programs. When I grew up I was going to be a gumshoe detective. Somewhere along the way something changed. You see, to be anything comes with a price to pay.

We have worked with teens who were not willing to pay the price. They weren’t willing to sell all that they have to follow Christ and calamity followed there footsteps. To follow Christ means for us to give up all of our hopes and dreams. To follow Christ means an unconditional surrender of everything we have: our money, our time, our security, our status, our relationships. Everything. We need to allow God to sanctify these areas of our life.

You see, to be a true follower of Jesus Christ comes with a price to pay. To truly follow Jesus Christ means for us to shed ourselves of the trappings of this world and take on the robe of humility. To follow Christ in the true essential quality of scripture calls for you and I to let go of our hunger for the comforts of this world and hunger and thirst for the things of God. To follow Christ is the essence of entire sanctification. And in the words of Paul as he writes to the Philippians “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” To follow Jesus calls for each of us to take on the mind of Christ not just the things he did.

The poor rich young ruler obeyed all of the commandments except for the tenth. He chose the comfort and security of his material wealth rather than suffer with Christ. The cost was too great and the price too high.

There have been so many who have said that they want to follow Christ. I have been witness to a number of youth camps and campmeetings and I have seen so many declare their commitment to follow Christ. But something happens when they leave that “monastery” of meetings.

Philip must have known something before he cast his lot with Christ. He must have seen what the price would be but that did not deter him. Whatever the cost Philip chose to follow Christ.

What happens when we become followers of Jesus Christ?

1. WE BECOME WITNESSES

And how did Philip respond? He went and witnessed to Nathanael. Jesus saw them while they were under the fig tree, which was another way of saying that they were engaged in Biblical study. They were searching God’s word in response to Philip’s outrageous suggestion that Jesus was the Son of God.

When was the last time any of us testified to the saving power of Jesus Christ in our life? I mean really get down and dirty with someone who doesn’t know Christ and share our experience with them? Philip went and witnessed to Nathanael before the death and resurrection of Christ. How much greater is our witness now? We have experienced the resurrection of our lives from sin, death, and hell.

How about the subject of hell? I must confess to you, I am uncomfortable with the topic. Let’s be real. Hell is real, hot, and forever. I don’t plan on going there. Is there really anyone who does? Why am I uncomfortable? Because I know people who do not know Christ. I know people who need Jesus.

“Father, forgive me for my lack of zeal in sharing Christ with others. Forgive us as a church. Strengthen us with your Holy Spirit so we might be witnesses of the resurrection. Amen.”

Let’s be witnesses to the lost of our community and do something really radical in the name of Christ.

Secondly,

2. WE ARE SERVANTS OF THE LORD

Moses was a unique individual. He was born into slavery, set free in a basket made of reeds and tar. He was rescued by Pharoah’s daughter and given the life of a king. He enjoyed the benefits of royalty but traded it all because he looked ahead and saw the benefits of divine royalty. He chose to suffer with the children of Israel rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. God used him mightily. And as he was buried on Mount Nebo he was called a “servant of the Lord.”

During the Ordination message Dr. Earle Wilson made this challenge to those of us being ordained: what will your epitaph say? When one day they lay these tired old bones (I hope they are old) into the soil what will be written on my tombstone? If I could visit my grave right now what would I say to myself?

I researched and found some interesting epitaphs. Ready?

-Wyatt and Josephine Earp: “...that nothing’s so sacred as honor and so loyal as love.”

-Edgar Allan Poe: “Quoth the raven Nevermore.”

-Unknown Soldier: Here Rests in Honored Glory, An American Soldier known but to God”

-WC Fields: “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” -Richard Hind: “Here lies the body of Richard Hind who was neither ingenious, sober or kind.”

-Lawyer Sir John Strange: “Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange.”

-Anna Hopewell: “Here lies the body of our Anna, Done to death by a banana It wasn’t the fruit that laid her low, but the skin of the thing that made her go.”

-Gunfighter Clay Allison: “Never killed a man that did not need killing.” (Ironically he died of another gunslinger’s bullet.)

What you want to see on your tombstone is one way of setting a spiritual goal for your life. Dr. Wilson’s challenge to me was clear and my epitaph was clarified: Servant of the Lord. I want to be a servant of the Lord like so many who have gone ahead of me.

To be a follower of Jesus Christ means that I am a servant of the Lord. Paul referred to this servanthood as being a slave to Christ. This word servant or slave that he uses is in reference to being a love-slave. You see, owners of slaves for whatever reasons would set their slaves free. Perhaps the slave was a great worker and had a good attitude. but whatever the case, the slave was freed. The term “love-slave” is what a slave chose to do after he was freed. Rather than go off to another land the slave would choose to stay and remain a slave. It was his free choice. And to commemorate that choice, the slave would have a special marking such as a hole in the ear lobe or even in the cheek that told everyone that he was a love slave.

For Paul, and for us as Christians, we are love slaves of Christ by our own free volition. We choose to follow Christ. And by our free choice we are identified with Christ.

As a follower of Jesus Christ we are declaring to all of those around us that we are servants of the Lord. Like Paul, we are love slaves who live for God because we love God.

What do I want on my tombstone? “Servant of the Lord.” And may God grant me the grace and strength to live out my epitaph.

To be a follower of Jesus Christ means that, thirdly,

3. I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST

Philippians chapter 3 sums up the goal of the Christian quite well. Especially that 10th verse:

“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.”

I believe that for a good marriage to happen there has to be an intimacy between the man and woman married in holy matrimony (you have to clarify what you mean in this new millenium). An intimacy that draws a couple together is the journey of learning about one another.

Imagine you are with your spouse on the shores of Lake Michigan. The surf washes over your feet as birds fly overhead. You toss stones into the water, you pick up shells, you learn about each other. You see, you and your spouse are on this incredible journey together. I will bet that despite being married fifty years you are still learning new things about one another. That is what a relationship is all about.

Look at your relationship with Christ. Get to know who Jesus is; find out the real Jesus that is in you.

Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Can you say with confidence that you are not ashamed of the gospel? Is your life a living witness of what Christ has done in your heart? Are you a servant of the Lord? Do you want to know Christ?