FOLLOWING JESUS – Part 2 of 2

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9: 23)

The first two words of Luke 9:23 immediately stand out: “if anyone.” The word if leaves room for doubt. You certainly can choose someone or something else to follow. But that’s your decision, the promise of finding yourself with meaning and purpose doesn’t apply. If also indicates that every convert or new disciple must make the choice to follow Jesus. While we make that decision at the point of repentance and salvation, we also make it at crucial times in our lives and make it every day. That’s why Jesus used the word daily in verse 23.

Choosing the life that Jesus offers also involves choosing a way of life – a life of self-denial and submission... We don’t just amble our way into discipleship. We make a conscious decision to live by faith. We agree to join others who are committed to following Jesus rather than trying to lead Jesus. We fundamentally give up the right to run our own life. In other words, you can follow your heart, your dreams, your gifts, your personality profile, and seek the right fit. But all that is inferior to following Jesus. 

-- Bill Hull in “The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ” 

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FIRST THINGS FIRST

“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them…  ‘But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…”  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”  (Matthew 5:1-2, 6:33-34, and 7:28-29 NIV)

During the height of Jesus’ popularity in Israel, crowds followed Him everywhere, hungry for a word of insight or a touch of compassion. At that time, Jesus spoke at length the words of what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Seated on a hill, Jesus shared practical lessons based on spiritual principles relating to everyday concerns. Jesus spoke about anger, revenge, and greed; the importance of building strong relationships; and God’s provision for everyday needs, such as food and clothing.

Just like people today, the people of Jesus’ time must have struggled to put all this into perspective. They must have longed to “get their priorities straight.” Jesus’ answer was simple: Put God first and everything else will fall into place. This life principle is as powerful today as it was back then. Relationships, goals, responsibilities, and desires are constantly competing for your attention. Only by looking at them from God’s perspective can you make wise decisions on how to use your time and energy in the way that makes the most positive and effective difference.

By constantly choosing to live out your life in a way that reflects the priorities of God’s kingdom in heaven, your concerns about things that are out of your control lose their grip on your heart. Your dependence on material provisions is transformed into a deep dependence on God. That’s when you discover that whatever God provides is enough. 

-- From “100 Favorite Bible Verses”

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FOLLOWING JESUS

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?’”  (Matthew 16:24-26 NLT)

To follow Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, wept, bled, and died before He rose again, is to be at high risk of being taken where we had not intended to go. Eugene Peterson pinpoints the trouble with prayer: “We are often asked to respond in ways that we never intended when we first began to pray.”

It matters little where or in what century we are called to live out our Christian life. The witness of those who have gone before informs my own experience, telling me that we are often taken to places where we receive unwarranted accolades and to other places where we receive unwarranted suffering and pain. A disciple, one who chooses to be a student and follower of Jesus, is not a “self-made person” and is not on a personally designed journey… We choose to follow Jesus and then Jesus chooses where we will go. It is that simple.

The saving truth here is not that we are taken where we do not want to go, rather the saving truth is that we are not alone. There is One who leads us and who goes with us… While we may not choose the places to go, we can choose to remain with the One who sends us and there find comfort, companionship, grace, peace, and joy in Christ. 

-- Adapted from Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God”

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JESUS IS ASKING YOU TO CHOOSE

“Peter took [Jesus] 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.’”  (Matthew 16:22–24 NIV)

The disciples had to make a choice. They could not follow Jesus and follow themselves at the same time. That would be like having two different maps to two different locations and trying to follow both at the same time. If any wish to come after Him, they must let go of the wish to control their own plans and be willing to follow Jesus wherever that may lead. How many of us try to pursue earthly gains and spiritual gains simultaneously? The truth is, we cannot hold two desires at the same time. This doesn’t mean that we won’t enjoy success in our lives and businesses, but only one pursuit can control our minds and our hearts.

But this surrender doesn’t just ask us to lay down our lives and our desires. No, we also have something to pick up. It asks us to willingly pick up our cross. Just as the cross became the instrument of Jesus’s earthly death, it becomes the place of our own death. Death to controlling our lives. Death to our own plans. The cross is an intentional and daily commitment to give up control of our lives for the sake of Christ.

Jesus asked His disciples to make a choice. Every person will come to a point when they, too, must make the same choice. Paul declares in his letter to the Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21). You cannot live in two different directions. Jesus is asking you to choose. Are you willing to make that choice today and carry your cross? 

-- Susan O. Kent in “Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender”

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OUR RESPONSE TO JESUS

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”  (Colossians 1:15-17 NIV)

Jesus was a little baby born in Bethlehem, but He’s more than that! He was a preacher and a healer, but He’s more than that! He was the Savior nailed to the cross whispering forgiveness to the world, but He’s more than that! In the magnificent words of Paul, He is the image of the invisible God, the One through whom all things were made and in whom everything holds together. When we are overwhelmed by this vision of Jesus, our response can only be “Jesus, You are the One I want to love and follow.” 

-- Trevor Hudson and Stephen D. Bryant in “The Way of Transforming Discipleship”

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MISSING GOD’S PURPOSE

You don't have to understand all the implications of your decision when you choose to follow Jesus. You simply need to respond to His invitation, to make a commitment to follow Christ.

Your commitments shape your life more than anything else. Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way, they will define you. Tell me what you're committed to and I'll tell you what you'll be in twenty years. We become whatever we're committed to.

It is at this very point of commitment that most people miss God's purpose for their lives. Many are afraid to commit to anything and just drift through life. Others make half-hearted commitments to competing values, which lead to frustration and mediocrity. Others make a full commitment to worldly goals, such as becoming wealthy or famous, and end up disappointed and bitter.

Every choice has eternal consequences so you need to choose wisely: "Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living!" (2 Peter 3:11 LB).

Christ-likeness comes from making Christ-like commitments.  

-- Rick Warren in “The Purpose Drive Life Daily Devotional”

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OVERCOMING THE DARKNESS

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”  (John 8:12 NIV)

One day, a young minister who had not been at his new church very long decided it was the darkest, most cheerless church he had ever seen. Even on a sunny day it was more of shadows than of sunshine. And when it was cloudy or night had fallen it was downright dismal. Therefore, at the next officers' meeting he requested that they vote to buy a large chandelier to be hung high and proper in the sanctuary. He was left speechless by their reply. "Can't do it. First of all, we can't afford it. Second, no one can spell it. Third, we wouldn't know where to put it. And fourth, what we really need in the sanctuary is some more light."

Well, first of all…when it comes to the light of Christ, we can certainly afford it because it is given to us free. Secondly, salvation is easy to spell. Third, we know where to put it… at the very center of our souls. And fourth, we really do need more light in a world dedicated too often to darkness… because yes, darkness is dismal…and who but a fool would choose that over light? 

-- Rev. V. Neil Wyrick in a sermon titled "Out of Tune, Out of Sync -- What to Do?" 

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COMMITTED TO DAILY DISCIPLINE

“Then Jesus said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’”  (Luke 9:23 NKJV)

Making the conscious effort to do something intentional and beneficial with a relationship is always our opportunity, irrespective of how we feel… And that includes committing ourselves to the discipline of daily time and attention regarding our relationship with God. What better way to grow spiritually than through the generous love of deliberate action?

Conscious effort is the first and biggest step toward the “becoming” part of spiritual formation -- the decision and the discipline of it -- the element that lost its way so easily when all we had to fall back on was our desire.

In our men’s group someone pointed out the infrequent occurrence of the miraculous in most of our day-to-day lives. “It’s not that we are looking for something spectacular in particular,” he said. “But things just happen around people of great faith who choose to believe.”

He is exactly right. Saying “I choose You, Jesus; it is my intention and my goal to follow more deliberately in Your way” can open the door to the most amazing things. 

-- Adapted from “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” by Derek Maul

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CHOOSE NOW

"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

Hear how the God of creation Himself speaks of this matter. Here lies the whole of the divine mercy: It’s all on this side of the day of judgment. Till the end of time, God is compassionate and long-suffering, and continues to every creature a power of choosing life or death, prosperity or destruction; but when the end of time is come, there is an end of choice, and the last judgment is only a putting everyone into the full and sole possession of that which he has already chosen. 

-- Adapted from William Law in “An Appeal to All that Doubt”

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CHOOSE FOR YOURSELVES

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  (Joshua 24:15 NIV)

It is amazing, the lengths God will go to get our attention. God will touch. He will tug. He will whisper and shout. He will take away our burdens. He'll even take away our blessings. If there are a thousand steps between us and Him, He will take all but one. But He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours. 

-- Max Lucado in “A Gentle Thunder” 

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CHOOSE YOUR SIDE

“But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things [Jesus] did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.”  (Matthew 21:15 NIV)

After this episode, people could not ignore Jesus or be indifferent to Him. They had to take sides. Either Jesus was a subversive radical who must be restrained (death is an effective restraint), or He was someone to be listened to, believed, and followed.

Today, indifference is common because people are not listening to Jesus’ words. When Christians tell the real story, there is no middle ground. Either Jesus is God’s Son, the world’s Savior, or He is a befuddled, perhaps demented, imposter.

Today listen, believe, and follow -- while there’s time -- before Jesus comes to clean the area of false religion one last time. 

-- From the “Life Application Bible Commentary -- Mark”

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