The Way of Jesus #1 - “I have begun following Jesus, and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey”.
What does your life say? What does your life say? That’s an odd question perhaps, but I think it’s a good one.
What does your life say? Today, in part, we’re going to consider what the lives of some of the disciples of Jesus say to us.
Our lives speak. And ultimately our lives will say what we want them to say, as we put the energy into being the person that we want to be; the person we by God’s grace and goodness are becoming.
So today I don’t want us to consider our New Year’s resolutions
Rather, today I’m looking for us to talk about something that takes the focus off of ourselves - of living in our heads, struggling with the day to day challenges of living and puts the centre of attention onto God and God’s kingdom.
Off of thinking about ourselves so much and onto focussing on the well-being of others.
I’ve come to the conclusion that when we live in our own heads, when we put our energies toward trying to make ourselves happier, we never achieve that goal.
The writer Dale Carnagie said: “It isn’t what you have or who you are, or what you’re doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about”
Charles Colton said: “The person of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any person can be, is often more miserable than most people are”.
When we make the choice to not live in our own heads and instead focus on caring for others, that’s when our own lives start to come together.
Personal happiness never comes from seeking personal happiness.
Joy, which is much deeper than happiness, comes from living for God and living to be a blessing to others.
So what I want to talk about today is the first message of what is going to be a seven-part series on the Way of Jesus.
Why the Way of Jesus? Simply put, in Jesus there is purpose and meaning. In Jesus we have a spiritual anchor, we have a moral anchor.
In Jesus, because of His grace, because He laid down His life to forgive us our sins and to reconcile us to God, we have access to the throne room of God.
And that’s because in Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Jesus there is abundant life. In Jesus Christ is life eternal. In Jesus life is overflowing with meaning and purpose and joy in the Holy Spirit.
That is why Jesus matters. That is why the Way of Jesus matters. The way Jesus calls us to live our lives matters, because He is God and we ain’t.
The Way of Jesus is a lifestyle that helps you to live moment by moment, genuinely aware that you belong to Jesus. It helps you embrace being the beloved of God. (Pause)
So, over these next weeks we will look in some depth at each of the 7 markers of the Way of Jesus.
Those 7 markers are:
1. I have begun to follow Jesus, and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey.
2. I am being sent by Jesus to bless others and invite them to follow Him.
3. I am learning to be like Jesus in my attitudes, behaviours, character.
4. I am learning to love God and to love others.
5. I am learning the teachings of Jesus.
6. I am helping someone and someone is helping me to be a growing follower of Jesus.
7. I am participating in a community of followers of Jesus on mission to the world.
What I have experienced in my life is that transformation, real positive change, comes through following the way of Jesus, aligning ourselves with His will and His ways. It simply just works.
The way of Jesus is God's way for us to lead the best possible lives.
Today we are looking at the first marker of the Way of Jesus platform.
It is about beginnings and it is about dependency. It’s also about honesty and humility.
1) “I have begun following Jesus, and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey”.
It makes sense that the first marker is one of beginnings, and one that recognizes the person of the Holy Spirit in the beginning.
The Holy Spirit is always around for good beginnings. The first book in the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”.
Over all good beginnings, the Holy Spirit hovers.
When faith begins blossom in a person’s life, it is the Holy Spirit Who is there, hovering, waiting, working to bring life where there is none, bringing hope where there is despair.
The Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and so it’s important for us to remember that the Holy Spirit is God at work in us.
“I have begun following Jesus...”.
When I was going through the training for the Way of Jesus, the President of my tribe, my denomination, Phil Delsaut, said that of the seven markers, this one was his favorite.
What's interesting is that at that point President Phil had been a Christ follower for 54 years.
So while this is the first marker of 7 that we will explore in the coming weeks, part of the beauty of the Way of Jesus is that we have this reminder that we circle back to on a regular basis that we have really just begun.
In the light of eternity, we’ve spent very little time following Jesus. 1 year? 20 years? 54 years? That’s very little time.
But also, I have found that there is a continuously renewing freshness to the life of a Christ-follower. God’s mercies are new every day.
Our goal is not to become so familiar with the gospel and the Christian life that we can consider ourselves ‘advanced’ in the faith.
Rather, our goal is to, no matter how far and deep and wide we travel with Jesus, never lose the child-like wonder and awe of sitting at his feet.
The disciples had little patience for children. There’s a great little story in the gospel of Matthew chapter 19 where people brought some little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.
“But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there”. Matthew 19:13-15
A little earlier in Matthew 18, when the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 1b “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”, Jesus called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. “3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me”.
We need to recognize that the Kingdom of heaven belongs to, as Jesus says, ‘such as these (children)’.
We need to recognize, and be reminded regularly, that - what did Jesus say - ‘we need to change and become put-together, spiritually dynamite people’?
Is that what Jesus said? No. Jesus said we need to change and become like little children.
What does this suggest? What does circling back to “I have begun following Jesus” as part of the rhythm of our lives suggest?
We need to be and remain open-hearted and trusting toward God, and toward others.
We need to deal with whatever it is that makes us feel superior than others, because it’s an illusion.
We need to have a posture of learning, a perspective of wonder and an attitude of humility.
We need to be and remain open-hearted and trusting toward God, and toward others.
A closed heart is a heart of stone. Nothing can get in or out. An open heart is like a river - a living, dynamic thing. An open heart toward God and others is a gift given that needs to be accepted and embraced.
Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
We need to deal with whatever it is that makes us feel superior than others, because it’s an illusion.
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
We need to have a posture of learning, a perspective of wonder and an attitude of humility.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus...
How? How can we be responsive to God in this way? It seems like a tall order. How can we be open to other people when we feel we’ve been burned by them?
Well, one way is to consider the alternative,
To live in a way that is closed off to others is to choose to live in a tiny, lonely bubble of probably anger and dismay and depression, often one that has paper-thin walls which nevertheless keep us confined in our hearts and minds.
There is a whole world out there that you are intended to be a part of, to live in as a blessing, to give and receive among the peoples of the earth.
And in Toronto perhaps more than any city on this planet, we have all the peoples of the earth represented, and welcomed, and treasured as gifts to us. That’s the Canadian way.
Everyone I’ve ever talked to who has come out of a dark night of the soul, a dark personal space, including myself
has said that part of their motivation out of their darkness and toward the light, and part of the solution to their sadness, is other people.
We need to be honest that we need others in our lives. We were never meant to do this journey of life on our own.
A child knows that he lives in relationship to others. He knows that he can not supply all of his own needs. A child knows she needs others.
But let’s look a little closer at the first marker of the Way of Jesus: “I have begun to follow Jesus, and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey”.
What does it mean, at the most basic level, to ‘begin following Jesus’? Well, following Jesus means to respond to His call. Being a follower of Jesus has to do with faith in Him.
Mark 1:16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him. 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
These people - John, Andrew, Simon Peter, Phillip, Nathaniel - and the others we read about elsewhere - are known and remembered by us because of their answer to the call of Jesus, which was ‘Yes!”
We know some things about these fellows, some more than others, but they lived their lives and then died, actually were martyred, and went to be with Jesus forever.
Before going to be with Jesus, their lives spoke. You know what I mean by a person’s life speaking?
Martin Luther King Jr.’s life spoke about racial reconciliation.
Mother Theresa’s life spoke about compassion and love for the poor and dying, the forgotten of our world.
Billy Graham’s life spoke about sharing the gospel with the whole world. That’s what I mean by ‘their lives spoke’.
Phillip, Nathaniel, John, Andrew, Simon Peter and the others.
Their lives spoke of the goodness of Jesus, the beauty of the living God, the mercies and love of the One who came to set them free from sin to live abundant lives.
But before their lives spoke, they encountered Jesus on this day that we’re reading about in the Word of God.
Let me ask. When did you encounter Jesus? What was the day of beginnings for you?
Think back to that moment when you first understood the gospel.
Think back to that first revelation of the love of God. If you grew up in church you likely have many memories of moments of learning about and growing in your faith.
And you likely have some memory of when you decided as a teen or an adult to follow Jesus for real.
Or maybe you came back, or maybe you're coming back as an adult to a place of putting your faith in Jesus.
The Way of Jesus Anchor we’re looking at today in this: I have begun following Jesus and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey.
Let’s say that together, if it’s true for you.
So at some level, everyone who is now a follower of Jesus responded to His call to follow Him.
If you are a follower of Jesus and if you were raised in the church, at some point you came to personally choose to follow Jesus.
You received Him as your Lord and Saviour.
Likely your church had a way for you to express your faith at various points in Sunday school or catechism class and then at some point you were baptised or confirmed or what have you.
That was your initial response to the call of Jesus to follow Him.
If you’re a follower of Jesus and, like me, came to trust Jesus later on with little or no church background, then Jesus called you to follow Him, and you responded to that call by saying yes.
Others around you heard the call too, perhaps. Some responded yes. If you’re here, still following Jesus, you’ve chosen to continue to hear His voice calling to you to follow Him.
And notice that Jesus’ first call to the disciples was twofold.
It was “come follow me”, and it was at the same time, “I will make you fishers of men”. “I will send you out to fish for people”.
The important thing to note, and you’ll be hearing more about this as we work our way through The Way of Jesus, is that your call from Jesus to follow Him includes the call to make disciples, to be a part of a people who God uses to further His purposes through His church.
It is a call to personal salvation - to living with a profound assurance that you are reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus; and it is a call to live with a purpose outside of yourself - to live with God’s purpose for your life.
So following Jesus means to respond to His call to follow Him. It is also like yoking another ox to a younger one – it is to learn from Jesus.
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
To follow Jesus is to learn from Him. Let me ask you - if I never crack open my Bible, if I never read and prayerfully meditate on God’s Word, am I going to learn from Jesus?
Of course the answer is “No!” Renaldo’s Wall’s message to YSM staff recently, after a 20 minute message was summarized bhim as: “Read Your Bible!”
In my own journey, when I came to faith in Jesus, the Bible in its entirety, and nearly all of its teachings, were completely alien to me.
I gobbled it up and learned and struggled through it for a very long time.
Why the struggle? Well, I came to the conviction early on that the Bible is the Word of God. But…my thought patterns did not conform to it.
My way of living, my way of thinking, my way of being was largely out of sync with the teachings of Jesus.
I wanted to follow Jesus, so I needed to immerse myself in His teachings, and to do so prayerfully, because I needed - I still need - to be transformed by it.
I needed to learn of Him, and as I started to do that I came to understand that He is beautiful. Nothing compares to the beauty of Jesus.
I came to see that His teachings bring real change when they are listened to and applied, because His Words are life.
I came to see that the burden I was carrying – the burden of sin and of guilt, was far too heavy for me to handle. I listened to the One calling me to rest.
I came to understand that Jesus is indeed gentle – the kind of gentle I need, and that He, even He Who is the Lord of Creation – is humble in heart. And His burden is indeed light.
Can you say with me: I have begun to follow Jesus, and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey.
So, back to my opening question: What does your life say?
May our lives speak. May the testimony of our existence be one that points others to Jesus, that they may come to know and love and trust Him alone for their salvation.
May the testimony of our existence be one that points others to the concerns of Jesus - love and justice and mercy.
In the coming weeks we will share in the adventure of learning to live with our eyes lifted up to Jesus Christ and with our hearts fixed on honouring and loving Him and on being a blessing to others in Jesus’ name.
The journey has just begun! Amen? Amen.
