Sermon Brief
Date Written: November 3, 2010
Date Preached: November 6, 2010
Where Preached: Oak Park Baptist Church (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Reaching Our Community – TRUE Fellowship – Sermon 6
Sermon Title: Followship – The ESSENCE of TRUE Fellowship
Sermon Text: Mark 8:34-38 [NASB]
34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.
Introduction:
What does it mean to FOLLOW Jesus? Well when we look in the thesaurus at the word ‘follow’ it tells us it means… to go after… to go behind… to pursue…
or to chase after… And I believe that this is what Jesus was saying when He says, in v.34, to be My disciple… you must FOLLOW ME!
The Greek word for ‘follow’ used in that verse is ‘ah-kol-eh-theh-oh’ which is a participle of UNION and is best defined… to be in the same way with OR to pursue on the same road as… In other words, for one to follow Jesus means that one must to enter into a union that takes you down the same road as Jesus…
Jesus calls you to come and join Him on HIS road… He is not calling you to invite Him to join you on YOUR path… so when we think about the road of Jesus, what do we think about?
I believe we can we see 3 very distinct destinations on this road and they are:
that it leads to Pain & Rejection
that it requires Obedience & Submission
that it will result in Eternal security and Godly affirmation
This is what we see in the Jesus road that is described by Paul in the book of Philippians:
Phil 2:5-11 [NASB]
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knew will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus was on this road far before we ever got here… Jesus has set the example and His call to follow Him is a call to follow that example… it is a call for us to be willing as He was willing, to be obedient as He was obedient, and to suffer as He suffered.
But this road is not all suffering and submission, but this calling also has its benefits as well. Jesus was exalted and lifted up after His obedient life and death on the cross and glorious resurrection on the 3rd day. We too shall be exalted as servants welcomed by their Master with the phrase, Well done my good and faithful servant.
We are called to join with Jesus on this road, so the question for this morning is just what does that calling mean for us?... First we can see that this calling leads us down…
A Road of suffering and rejection…
Jesus laid out some details about what it would mean to join Him on this road…
His call to join Him comes in v.34, but in v.31 we see what Jesus meant… He lays out a pattern of what those who follow Him will see on this road…
v. 31 tells us that Jesus was called by God to…
Must suffer ‘many’ things [physically, emotionally, spiritually]
Must be rejected by the elders, those the country looked to for spiritual counsel and guidance in the things of God. Those the nation had held in such high regard and reverence. The men who had the duty to from God to be the spiritual leaders of God’s chosen nation… they rejected Jesus fully and completely
Must be rejected by the chief priests, to those of the religious order, those who performed the sacrifices and ceremony that kept the nation close to God, they rejected Jesus as a heretic and a threat to the Jewish religious system… they could not see that He was the completion of who they were… so they rejected Him…
Must be rejected by the scribes, by the ones who interpreted the Law, by the one’s whose life was all about knowing the Law, understanding the Law and then to teach that Law to the people… they rejected Jesus even though they saw it in Scripture of His coming, they refused to believe in Him and rejected Him and His message
Must be killed, Jesus was placed on a criminal’s cross and accused of insurrection and blasphemy. Jesus gave His life willingly for YOU.
So when we hear Jesus saying in v.34 that we are called to follow Him… we have to understand that when we join Him on this road we will face great suffering for His sake, we will face utter rejection for His sake, and we will have to be willing to ultimately face even death for His sake!
But following Jesus is not all about what things we must be willing to face and endure for Him, but we can also see in another part of Scripture what it means to follow Jesus…
A Road that requires obedience and submission…
We ARE called to expect suffering, rejection and even death, but we are not called by Jesus to join Him on this road to just sit idly by while all this happens, but we are called to be active and obedient to God’s plan for His followers:
In Mark 16:15 Jesus call His disciples to:
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
In Matt 28:19-20 Jesus commissions His disciples to:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
And then in Acts 1:8 we read where Jesus commands His disciples…
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Those who are on the road with Jesus are called by Jesus to:
proclaim the Gospel by preaching the word.
be His witnesses in ALL the world and
we must be willing to GO wherever we are called to go
we must go so that we can lead others to follow Him, by sharing the word, proclaiming the Gospel,
we are called to baptize them into the faith and then
Finally we are to teach those who become disciples… we teach them about Jesus and what Jesus taught…
So we have seen that on this road that Jesus traveled, he was willing to face suffering and rejection, and we are called to face the same…
Jesus was also willing to place Himself under submission and live a life of obedience to the Father, and as a FOLLOWER of Jesus, we are called to do the very same thing. But serving God has a reward and for those who chose to follow Him because it is also…
A Road that results in Eternal Security & Godly Affirmation…
As a true follower of Jesus you can look forward to eternal security AND the fact that one day you will reap the heavenly reward from your Lord and Master…
In Scripture we read about this very positive destination on this road with the Master… a destination of security in our destination… an eternal life with God!
Eph 1:13 [NASB]
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Scripture teaches us that… when we cleave to Jesus on that path, when we join Him on that path… that He will be with us ALWAYS and that promise is affirmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives… because of the HS we KNOW we are with Him, we KNOW we are sealed into His kingdom…
This confirms what Paul says in Rom 8:35-39…
35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 for I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So when we are walking that hard road with Jesus… NO MATTER what comes our way, He will never abandoned us, and nothing anything else can do will separate us from Him!
Paul shares that hard times will come and that is part of being on that road, but even when we are facing such difficult things… NONE of those things can separate us from the love of God… the LOVE of God is the mercy and grace of God manifested in the salvation that comes from the sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross of Calvary.
We are sealed and nothing can separate us from our Savior, but that eternal security is made even sweeter when we realize what lies ahead for those who accept the calling of Jesus to walk this hard and difficult road…
Revelations 21:4-5
4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new " And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."
We have the assured blessing that there will come a day when our Savior is going to make all things right!
One day we will be free from the burdens of this world, free from the attacks and persecution of the Enemy, AND we will be able to dwell in a place where there are NO tears, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain… why?
Because Jesus has promised to make all things new… to give us a new body and a new home…
Conclusion:
Garibaldi, the great Italian military hero from the 19th century, raised an incredibly committed volunteer army. His appeal for recruits was rather unique as he offered only these terms: “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!”
Garibaldi is NOT the first make such an offer! The Son of God came to earth, to bring salvation and train up disciples to carry the Gospel of Salvation to the world. Jesus invites you to be His disciple, but His invitation is for YOU to join HIM! It is NOT a request by Him to join you where you are… Jesus lets us know up front that there is a disciplined commitment that is going to cost you everything. The road walking with Jesus IS not going to be easy. To paraphrase Garibaldi, “Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and not with his lips only, be Jesus’ disciple!”
So we have to understand that this road we are called to walk is not a road of ease or leisure! This road we are called to walk with Jesus is a road of pain, suffering and rejection… It is a road of discipline, submission and obedience… There is NOTHING easy about this road!
But the joyful news of Scripture is that this road leads to a place of unimaginable joy… unspeakable bliss… no tears, no pain, no death to burden us and the enemy who is the constant thorn in our sides will be vanquished forever and we will feast at the Supper Table of the Lamb for all eternity…
As Bro Steven comes this morning I call ALL our believers and members here who KNOW Christ as Savior to come and repent where you have been lax in your walk with God. Jesus commands that we walk in such a way that it is worthy of Jesus himself… Are you walking in your life in a manner worthy of the Savior? Come and repent of the lax nature of your heart, repent of the apathy of your approach to the Gospel! Come and lay your heart before God to allow Him to cleanse it and make it whole and right again.
If you are here today and do not know Jesus as your Savior, I want you to know that to follow Jesus is a free decision, and salvation is free because Jesus has paid the price for our salvation… but serving God is not FREE… serving God is a lifetime commitment to discipline, obedience, suffering, pain, and rejection by the world… but the rewards are great! Are you willing to put your life down and serve God today… step out and come as Steven leads us in our hymn of invitation…
