CATLETTSBURG SOUTHSIDE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2012
MESSAGE
AM WORSHIP
“WALKING LIKE JESUS WALKED”
I John 2:1-6
READING OF SCRIPTURE
Stand with me as we read the text together this morning.
1 John 2:1-6- New King James Version (NKJV)
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
PRAYER
OPENING COMMENTS
It is amazing, how familiar we are with the first two verses of today’s text.
1 John 2:1-2
King James Version (KJV)
1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
We relate to those verses because everybody needs forgiveness.
We relate to the song “Mighty to Save, “Everyone needs compassion, Love that’s never failing;”
There is more to being a Christian than just having forgiveness of sins.
This morning we want to look at the verses following the promise of our sins forgiven.
What does it really mean to know Jesus?
TEXT
The verse that I want to take for a text this morning is verse 6. Look at it with me.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
John is saying whoever claims to live in Christ must walk as Jesus walked.
If I am commanded to walk like Jesus walked, then I need to know how He walked so I can imitate Him.
If I am commanded to walk like Jesus, then I need to know:
• What He wants?
• What His heart is?
• What His passion and will for my life is?
• How did He talk?
• How did He spend His time?
THE DISCIPLES WERE TOLD TO FOLLOW JESUS
For 3 ½ years the disciples spent their time following Jesus.
That was the call Jesus placed on their lives.
Matthew 4:19 Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
That may have sounded intriguing to Peter and Andrew because every time you met the disciples they had empty nets. Fishermen with empty nets starve to death. So, the idea of catching something probably interested them.
Matthew 9:9 Jesus said the same thing to Matthew, who was sitting at the tax office, “Follow Me.”
JESUS SAYS THE SAME THING TO US THIS MORNING
Jesus says the same thing to you and me this morning. Matthew 16:24 “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
If the disciples were commanded to follow Jesus, what did they see Jesus do those 3 ½ years?
What do Jesus disciples learn as they watch and listen to Jesus?
What did they learn and see that we can put into our lives as we walk as Jesus walked?
#1-THEY LEARNED THAT JESUS SPENT A LOT OF TIME WITH HIS FATHER
“Walking with Jesus requires I spend a lot of time talking with Jesus”
We have spoken a little bit the last few weeks about Jesus and His prayer life.
Jesus gave Himself to consistent and intensive amounts of time to be with His Father.
Luke 4:42 “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.”
Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
That is an interesting verse, sometimes praying people are lonely people. In order to spend time with God you have to withdraw yourself from some of the business and activities.
Luke 6:12 Jesus spent the night in prayer.
Luke 21:37 During passion week Jesus went every night and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. It doesn’t say, but I think He probably spent that time in prayer.
We are told that when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane that the disciples were used to Him going to that place.
Hal Perkins wrote in his book, “Walk With Me” “Jesus loved His Father and loved being with Him, even when it was costly to His physical needs, other relationships, and tasks. He only had 3 years to accomplish His mission, yet He set aside vast amounts of time to dialogue with His Father.” (Page 17)
I had never thought until I was preparing this sermon, you never see Jesus in a hurry. Could it have been because He spent so much time in quality prayer? Today we spend less time in prayer and more time in a hurry.
If we are going to walk like Jesus walked, then we must spend a substantial amount of time in relationship with our Heavenly Father.
TRANSITION STATEMENT: The disciples in following Jesus learned He spent a lot of time with His Father.
#2- THEY ALSO LEARNED JESUS DID ONLY WHAT HIS FATHER TOLD HIM
Jesus learned the importance of doing His heavenly Father’s will early in His life. In fact, it is the first recorded Words that we have of Jesus.
Do you remember when Joseph and Mary forgot and left Jesus in Jerusalem?
I always find this passage of scripture encouraging, it lets me know Jesus uses forgetful people.
They lost Jesus for 5 days. They went a day’s journey before they realized He wasn’t in the crowd. So, if they had come a days journey, then it took a day to go back to where they started from. The scripture says, they looked for Him for 3 days. They had to put out a Code Adam. Just a note, when we loose Jesus in our lives, we often have to go back where we started from to find Him. Where did you sense His presence last in your life?
Finally they found Him at church. I imagined that upset them, what would the church board think? They couldn’t even keep up with their own child.
Luke 2:48-50
“So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought you anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be “about My Father’s business?”
First recorded Words of Jesus, He understands the importance of doing what His Heavenly Father tells Him to do.
I like verse 50, “But they did not understand what He spoke to them.”
That is just a nice way of saying, they were still ticked.
If you want to hang around Jesus you have to hang around His Father.
TRANSITION STATEMENT: They learned that Jesus spent a lot of time with His Father. They learned Jesus did only what His Father told Him to do. If you read the scriptures you will find Jesus judged and spoke only as His Father told Him.
#3- YOU MUST LEARN TO SPEND TIME WITH PEOPLE ESPECIALLY THE HURTING
Jesus life touched a lot of people.
Shepherds
Samaritan women at the well
Lepers
Tax collectors
Fishermen
Crippled
Withered
Unclean
Blind
Deaf
Lame at the Pool of Bethesda
Demonic men living in the tombs
Epileptics
The woman caught in the act of adultery
The sinful woman who washed His feet
Last week we spoke about Mary, who anointed the feet of Jesus using very expensive spikenard.
In Luke 7 there is another story of a woman who washed the feet of Jesus.
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and set down to eat.
And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with fragrant oil.
And when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, (don’t you hate it when people grumble to themselves? It is usually the voice of discontent.) “This man if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”
I have news for you, Jesus knew who and what she was and He welcomed her anyway. Jesus even said, “Her sins are many.” Friend, I don’t know about you, but that describes me also, and Jesus forgave her.
Jesus loved to walk among needy people.
We have had 2 challenges put to us this morning. We have been asked to help Shelter of Hope with food donations and to help our local school help hurting children in our community.
I think Jesus is pleased this morning with our desire to start doing more hands on ministry in our community.
CONCLUSION
John said we are to walk like Jesus walked.
I have told you 3 things this morning
1. Talk to who Jesus talked to- His Father
2. Do what Jesus did, walk in obedience to His Father
3. Hang around the people Jesus hung around- the hurting
IT IS MORE THAN AN INTELLECTUAL MYSTICAL PURSUIT, IT IS ABOUT BEING OBEDIENT.
PRESENT THE ALTAR
#206, “I Love to Walk with Jesus”
NOTE: First 2 points of this sermon were expansions of two points in Hal Perkins book, “Walk With Me” chapter 1.
