Title: Follow-Jesus Says
Place: BLCC
Date: 3/12/17
Text: Matthew 9.9-13
CT: We are to follow Jesus into a relationship to know God.
[Screen 1]
FAS: The following prayer has been attributed to a Muslim convert to Christ:
"O God, I am Mustafah the tailor, and I work at the shop of Muhammad. The whole day long I sit and pull the needle and the thread through the cloth. O God, you are the needle and I am the thread. I am attached to you and I follow you. When the thread tries to slip away from the needle, it becomes tangled and must be cut so it can be put back in the right place. O God, help me to follow you wherever you lead me. For I am really only Mustafah the tailor, and I work in the shop of Muhammad on the great square."
Pamela Joy Anderson, You Are the Needle and I Am the Thread, (WestBow Press, 2014), page xi [Screen 2]
LS: How do we that claim to follow Jesus…regard following?
Do we see Jesus as our leader?
Do we follow or do we worry more about just being sure we do the right things to be right with God?
To just do enough to get to heaven?
To be good enough?
Remember the game Simon Says when you were younger. You had to do something if Simon says but not if Simon didn’t say to. That is probably how a lot of us looked at Christianity if we are honest. A lot us saw Christianity as a religious game of Jesus Says. [Screen 3]
Jesus says jump. We jump.
Jesus says go to church. We go.
Jesus says pray. We pray.
Jesus says don’t look over there. ….But it looks so good.
“Jesus says” gets to where it just isn’t any fun. And before you know it you start to want to do the things Jesus says not to. The game becomes a drag because you don’t get to do what you want.
It looks like a whole lot more fun being out of the game. Especially when you look at others not playing and they are laughing and having fun.
As for me I started to like being out of the game.
But then my preacher or my mama would talk about what God wanted and what I was doing was not so good. My conscious got after me.
I would start playing again.
I would read my Bible. Go to Church. Do the bounce. Don’t look over there.
But I would look at the ones not playing and start being judgmental and think it wasn’t fair they didn’t have to play the game like me. They were doing what they wanted when they wanted with whom they wanted.
All I got to do was Do Do Do—Don’t Don’t Don’t do this or that.
I finally just wanted out. At least I would have some friends. Most of my friends did not like the Jesus Says game. No one could be that good. How could anyone win?
Maybe that is how Christianity looks for you and maybe you are trying to come back or look at it again or for the first time and you feel like playing “Jesus Says” just sounds too hard to do. Definitely not much fun.
Well if you are I have something to share. Following Jesus, which I highly recommend, is not about playing "Jesus Says".
If I could get you to just read the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John you would discover it is not about playing Jesus Says. It is all about a relationship.
Jesus came to help us understand the Father. Not to just give a bunch of rules. [Screen 4]
Here are just some of the relationships we find in the gospels.
God the Father----us the child
Vine ….branch (the branch that feeds from the vine)
Shepherd….sheep (the sheep that follow their loving and caring shepherd who cares and protects them)
The sheep didn’t have to do anything first. They just had to follow.
Jesus is offering an invitation in the gospels to all who would follow.
I emphasize all. Doesn’t matter who or what you have done.
You can be the worst of sinner and you are invited to follow.
You don’t even have to believe yet and still be invited to follow. [Screen 5]
Let’s go to Matthew 9.9, As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
Matthew, a tax collector. The worst of the worst in the eyes of the people of that time. Paid thieves is how other Jews looked at them. And Jesus, the same Jesus we were talking about playing Jesus Says with, just asked this awful person to “Follow Me.”
You know Matthew wouldn’t last one round of Jesus Says. The first time Jesus said don’t cheat or steal. Matthew was out.
But that didn’t seem to matter to Jesus. He said so all could hear. “Follow Me”
Matthew did.
Now Peter and the rest of Jesus’ disciples were flabbergasted at this. And if that wasn’t enough Jesus takes them all to Matthew’s house to eat…. to eat with tax collectors and sinners. [Screen 6]
Matthew 9.10, While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, (a tax collectors house and what was it full of?) many tax collectors and sinners and came and ate with him and his disciples.
Oh my goodness. What were the neighbors going to think?
Can’t you imagine how Peter had to be feeling? The last place they wanted to be was around these tax collectors. But that wasn’t the only people there.
Now the Pharisees were following Jesus too. Not as the disciples were. They wanted to trip Jesus up and catch him doing something wrong according to their law. So the Pharisees confront Jesus’ disciples and say, [Screen7] “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’
Jesus heard this… (Jesus doesn’t miss anything. Jesus hears and sees all. Think about that the next time you fixing to head down the wrong road.)
And he says, [Screen 8]“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means. (whoa, Jesus just dished these Pharisees telling them they were ignorant of the truth and needed some more learning). Teachers and scholars needing some learning. Ouch
They didn’t like Jesus much.[Screen 9]
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Jesus put the Pharisees in their place. They wanted to play a game of Pharisees Say, which was a new version of Jesus Says but it glorified the Pharisees, but Jesus wasn’t interested in any of their useless games.
Jesus had come to reach the lost and the sick in spirit.
Imagine what Matthew had to be thinking….
“Jesus just called me sick. Maybe I do need help. Maybe I do need this Jesus as my Savior”.
Matthew had followed and now he understands why.
Matthew had accepted the invitation to follow Jesus and Jesus was already causing his thinking to change.
Matthew came to know he was sick and also knew who could heal him.
Maybe the first step we need to take to follow Jesus is to admit we are sick.
Sound too simple? Let’s break it down.
Ask the question. [Screen 10] Am I following?
Am I truly following Jesus or am I just watching as he passes by?
We may even be cheering Him on, but to actually follow? I don’t know if that is for me?
Jesus was comfortable with all people. Even people not like him. Those people were definitely comfortable with Him.
He didn’t intimidate them.
He didn’t condemn them.
He didn’t point his holy finger at them.
He went into their life even though he was God in the flesh.
He dared to drop the pose of a king to be with the sick, the sinner, the lost in need of help.
Shouldn’t we as His church, as his body, be just as welcoming to all people?
We must make all welcome here sickness and all.
Their sin should not put us off to prevent them from following.
It doesn’t mean we condone or enable their sickness, but the only way they can be healed is to be allowed to follow along with us.
The invitation from Jesus is to all, warts and all.
Only Jesus can bring any of us to the point of really being a child of God.
Without Jesus we all are lost.
Face it. The sick are the ones who need the doctor.
Matthew was sick and his life was changed when he realized it.
You are sick even if you may say you aren’t.
You don’t even keep all the rules you make for yourself let alone what Jesus Says.
Think about it.
We break our rules and Jesus knows we will break his.
If Jesus is the standard we all must live up to… we all fall short.
When we realize we are sick, like Matthew we can be changed.
We then can say, “I need help”.
I need a Savior.
That is why Jesus came.
We dare not become a church who gets together and believes the right things and behaves the right way and forget we are to follow our Savior Jesus to reach out to others who need to follow our Lord as well. [Screen 11]
The Pharisees looked at it this way. Change and you can join us. [Screen 12]
Jesus puts it this way. Follow me and you will be changed. [Screen 13]
------Just Follow-----
I don’t even care if you don’t believe yet. Jesus didn’t. Just take the first step and don’t be surprised if you experience a major change.
A change that will carry you closer to God’s ideal for your life.
A change that has to occur if you are to be a true follower of Christ
It is a process. Just follow first. The change and the relationship you receive will bring you to understand what being a follower of Jesus brings.
What is holding you back? [Screen 14]
1. Being a sinner doesn’t disqualify you. Actually it is a prerequisite. All who follow Jesus were sinners. No sin is too big!
[Screen 15]
2. You don’t even have to believe yet. Those that followed Jesus in the Bible did not believe Jesus was who he said he was…yet. They followed first. Look at Thomas. I dare you to read the gospels. Try following the smallest part of what Jesus calls us to do.
Love another. [Screen 16]
3. You are invited into a relationship. Rules do not make a relationship. You are invited into an intimate relationship that will cause you to do things differently.
Jesus loves you just as you are. Yep that’s what the song we teach our kids says. Great doctrine right there.
BUT…God’s love and kindness will lead you to change…. to move toward His ideal for you.
My goal, for me and I pray it becomes yours as well, is to follow Jesus and not worry about other people’s faults. I am not in a game where I compare myself to others.
I try to be as much like Jesus as I can.
I work to follow Jesus to get as close to God’s ideal as is humanly possible.
The problem is it is impossible without Jesus Christ my savior. The gospel is he made a way at the cross.
I am privileged to follow along side people who are doing the same at this church.
[Screen 17]
CT: We are to follow Jesus into a relationship to know God.
Ask yourself right now. [Screen 18]
AM I FOLLOWING?
Join us in the body of Christ. Believe in Him. Be baptized. Make the change. I pray His presence in this body of believers will compel you to change the way you live, the way you follow and the way you love.
Bibliography
Stanley, Andy; Follow, Session 1
