In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)
As disciples we are all Christian leaders. That’s a concept we may not all be comfortable with. We often think of Christian leaders as clergy or maybe a small handful of select members of the laity for specific functions like music or youth ministries.
But when you really think about it, people see Jesus through us. If we are living as Jesus lived and doing what Jesus did, then people will see Jesus in us and follow us.
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, the Apostle Paul tells us to “follow him as he follows Christ,” or “imitate him as he does Christ,” depending on the translation. The Greek word he uses for follow or imitate is mimhth/v (mih-may-TASE), from which we get the word mimic. The best mimics make you think the original is right there instead of the mimic, don’t they?
Rich Little is considered one of the best mimics in show business. When he mimics someone, it’s not just copying the voice. The choice of words, the mannerisms, the pauses and inflections, are all part of his characterization of a particular person, and if you’ve ever heard Rich Little impersonate someone, you may have thought for a moment you were really seeing the person being mimicked instead of the person doing the mimicking.
Pope John Paul II had that same effect on a lot of people. Many people saw Jesus through the life and actions of John Paul. Henri Nouwen also had that effect on people. Nouwen was a priest and professor at Norte Dame and Harvard who left his lofty position in academia to live in a small community group helping mentally challenged adults with daily activities like brushing their teeth or taking showers.
Many people saw Jesus in Henri and were led to Christ by the way Henri followed, or imitated, Christ.
St. Francis of Assisi discarded all his wealth except for a single tunic and lived the rest of his life in poverty, helping the poor and the sick. Many people saw Jesus in Francis and followed Francis as he followed Christ.
We face the same options today as everyone else has throughout the past 20 centuries. Do we follow Christ or ourselves? Do we choose to obey God’s will or our own? Are we willing, or willful?
Often we reject our role as disciples because the thought of leading others to Jesus scares us. We don’t think we know enough about the Bible. We don’t think we understand enough about theology to answer any questions that the other person might have. We don’t think we’re good enough. And we’re right.
We don’t know enough about the Bible. Muslims memorize the entire Koran and Hebrew children had the first five books of the Bible memorized by age 10. Even today, Jewish children are required at many temples to have at least two years of Hebrew language training and scripture study before their Bar Mitzvah at age 13.
Most Christians can’t even name the first five books of the Bible.
And we don’t know enough theology; we never will. No one knows enough to have a ready response for any question someone may ask. “I don’t know” is often the only response for questions we’re asked.
And we’re not good enough. None of us are. That’s why we need a savior. If any of us could save ourselves, God would have told us to “just do what that guy did.” Instead he became human, took our sins upon himself, then died and rose again — imbuing us with his righteousness, not our own.
We are not Jesus, but if we are truly following him we show the way for others to follow him as well. All along the highway we see signs pointing toward Los Angeles, but none of those signs are actually Los Angeles. They merely point us in the right direction.
That’s our job as disciples in a nutshell. We’re expected to point people in the right direction toward Jesus. It’s an awesome responsibility, and an awesome blessing.
And God gives us the power to succeed.
Erik Weihenmayer climbed not only to the top of Mount Everest, but also to six other major mountain tops. He is one of 100 mountain climbers to scale the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each of the seven continents — and he did it in just seven years. He also climbs cliff faces, skis at high speeds, and sky dives.
His actions have been an inspiration to thousands of handicapped children and adults since he reached the peak of Mount Everest in 2001. That’s when media interest increased and Erik became more well-known.
His accomplishments are significant and are made even more inspiring by a difficulty he endures. Erik is blind, and has been since he was 13 years old.
God provided Erik with a spirit of courage. And he’s used it to lead others out of the pit of despair and depression that he and others often find themselves in. He said that when God takes something from us, he replaces it with something else.
In our passage from Paul’s second letter to Timothy today, we get the impression that Timothy isn’t quite sure of himself. He is a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, but doubts his abilities as a leader, since apparently he’s pretty young and inexperienced. Paul tells him to stir up the flame of the Holy Spirit within him. We’ve seen that fearful and timid approach before.
From Gethsemane to Calvary, Jesus’ closest friends abandoned and even denied knowing him as he was led to a mockery of a trial and tortured to death. Only John was at the crucifixion, and even he hid behind locked doors afterward, cowering with the other disciples who were hiding from the Jewish leaders and Romans, just in case the authorities wanted to crucify Jesus’ followers also.
Even after the resurrection they stayed away danger. Until Pentecost. Fifty days after Passover. The Holy Spirit came to them and filled them. Moments afterward, Peter came out before the crowd and gave the first exegetical sermon recorded in the Bible, resulting in about 3,000 baptisms that afternoon.
The disciples then began traveling all over the Middle East, North Africa, and Southern Europe spreading the news about Jesus and facing threats, beatings, and eventually martyrdom without fear.
As Paul tells Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
Fear of following Christ is not given by God. Satan offers that to us and we grab it from him and hold onto it. The Holy Spirit brings us power, love, and self-discipline, but we have to let go of fear first in order to receive the others.
The Spirit of Power that we receive is not like the human power that we recognize as strong. It’s a power unlike anything we can do on our own.
A young man growing up in the wrong part of Houston became a bully. He would get in fights in school, in the neighborhood, and began mugging people to get spending money. He even beat up people just for the sake of doing it.
He learned to box, and became pretty good at it. He began to make a lot of money and could have almost anything he wanted. One day, during his training session for an upcoming bout, he heard his mom talking to his sister on the telephone about his favorite nephew. The young boy had had a seizure and now lay in a coma in the hospital. Doctors said he would probably die, but that if he came out of the coma he wouldn’t be able to move his limbs, or speak, or do any of the human functions we consider part of living.
He ran into the room where his mom was on the phone and shouted, “Momma, call the hospital and tell those doctors to give him the best of everything. Tell them I’ll take care of all the bills, to fly in the best doctors from wherever they have to. Tell them who I am, and that I’ll take care of everything — whatever it costs.”
His mom spoke to the doctors, and then told him, “Son, you’re just going to have to pray.”
He realized then how grave the situation was. When someone tells you the only thing you can do is pray, things are looking pretty bad.
Then it hit him. All of his money, his fame, his influence, his friends — none of that could solve this problem. It was out of his hands, out of the doctor’s hands, out of everyone’s hands. For the first time, he was totally powerless.
And for the first time, George Foreman dropped to his knees and prayed.
He wasn’t sure God existed, but he knew that when all else failed, people prayed. He asked God, if he really existed, to help his nephew. Then he got back in bed. A few seconds later, he got back on his knees and offered to give up all his wealth if God would heal his nephew. Then he got back in bed again. A few seconds later he got back on his knees a third time and got angry at God for letting this happen to his nephew, a child who hadn’t experienced life yet. George told God to take his life instead. Let the boy live and take George’s life instead.
The next morning George’s sister called from the hospital. His nephew had woken up and could move his eyes, but the doctors said he wouldn’t ever walk again.
She called later that day, and the boy had begun moving his toes. The next day the boy was talking, and a week later he was on his way home, “walking, talking, and back to normal.” The doctors had no logical explanation. But George Foreman knew God had just given him a miracle.
Three months later in March 1977, George Foreman died in his locker room after fighting Jimmy Young. He collapsed in a heap, and entered what he describes as “a deep, dark void, like a bottomless pit.”
In his book, God in My Corner — A Spiritual Memoir, George wrote “I knew I was dead, and that this wasn’t heaven. I was terrified, knowing I had no way out. Sorrow beyond description engulfed my soul, more than anyone could ever imagine. If you multiplied every disturbing and frightening thought that you’ve ever had during your entire life, that wouldn’t come close to the panic I felt. …
“ I screamed with every ounce of strength in me, ‘I don’t care if this is death. I still believe in God.’
“Instantly, what seemed to be like a giant hand reached down and snatched me out of the terrifying place. Immediately, I was back inside my body in the dressing room.”
George accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and devoted himself to being a disciple of Jesus Christ. He realized his human power, his money, his prestige, were worthless in the next life, and meant to be used as tools to lead others to Jesus during this one.
He went on to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World twice. He was ordained as an evangelist in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and became pastor of a small church. He also became involved in prison and hospital ministries.
You probably know him best for the George Foreman Grills that continue to sell around the world. And he recently baptized his own 23-year-old daughter who finally decided to dedicated her own life to Jesus.
That’s God’s idea of power. Paul tells Timothy that following Christ gives him the power of Christ to act on his behalf. We are the hands and feet of Christ and he wants us to succeed in doing his will.
He gives us a spirit of love, to let us see other people as he sees them — children of God. The hate-filled bully from a Houston slum was transformed into a prayerful, loving, father of 10 and compassionate minister through God’s spirit of love. Nothing else could possibly have had that result.
The spirit of self-discipline is also translated as spirit of sound mind, or wisdom. In earlier days we might have used the word prudence. Paul links power with love and a sound, disciplined mind. Power used without love and wisdom inevitably causes destruction — in our own lives and the lives of others.
Paul ministered in turbulent times, and the church was not welcomed by the general public or government leaders. Persecution against those who chose to follow Christ was increasing and becoming even more hideous than before. Timothy was now a leader in the church, not just Paul’s apprentice.
Most of the New Testament was not available yet, so Timothy was woefully lacking in knowledge of the various letters and the Gospels. After all, Luke was still writing his Gospel, and it’s not like Timothy could browse in the Religion section of the local Barnes and Noble.
Also, people would be asking him lots of questions, and he was going to be a bishop! There was no Nicene Creed and Systematic Theology hadn’t even been invented yet. How could he possibly thrive as a bishop without a set of commentaries?
And for goodness sake, he was only a kid. How could anyone think he was good enough to be a Christian leader?
In his Letter to the Church in Rome (8:31), Paul tells us,
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
If we are following Jesus, he is for us, and he will work through us to reach others. We’re just the pencil, not the hand.
Even if we’re blind, he can lead us to the highest peak.
Even if our hearts are hardened by years of hate, he can soften them in an instant.
Even if we are terrified, he can rescue us and set our feet firm on the ground again.
We have to trust Jesus and follow him. That means letting him lead. You can’t follow from the front. By our example, others will see Christ.
As Paul tells Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
We should have no fear of being salt and light in the dark and flavorless world. If we accept the Holy Spirit in our hearts, he will guide us through every step of our journey with Jesus. We can truthfully tell others to follow us as we follow Christ.
Amen.
