Sermon Title: Prepare to follow
Sermon Text: John 1:43
Sunday, June 25th, 2000 – Evangelical Church of Oskaloosa
Scripture introduction: I think most young Christians are told when they ask what they should read first in the Bible, is to read the book of John. It tells quite clearly that Jesus is, was and always will be God. John records the miracles that can be only through the hands of God and recounts the statements that could come from only God Himself. Jesus tells us who He is in this book. He is the bread of life, the light of the world, the door for the sheep, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way-the truth-the life, and the true vine.
Jesus was deity and He performed signs that indicated that. Jesus changed water into wine, healed a man’s son without going to his bedside, healed a man who was lame, multiplied bread and fish to feed many, walked on water, caused a blind man to see, and raised Lazarus from the dead on the fourth day. These miracles showed that Jesus is God. He had the power of the elements at His fingertips. The Creator, walking among His creation, helping His creation and sadly so many rejected him then and even more so today.
Jesus was also fully man. His body grew tired, His soul was troubled, and He groaned in His spirit. Andrew told his brother We have found the Messiah. Nathanael concluded, You are the Son of God.
In this Gospel, John is urging us to trust in Jesus for eternal life. And he gives three reasons to do so. First, because the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in the Father. Secondly, Christ came from God and God sent Him. And thirdly, that Christ is the Son of God.
John reveals the Bibles most important message. We are to believe and follow Jesus because only He is the way to eternal life.
Please join me reading God’s Word.
Scripture reading: John 1:43
The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, "Follow Me."
Introduction:
The first thing that we need to realize is that when we are asked or commanded to follow, this indicates that we are going in a direction other than the desired course of which we are being asked to follow. What things do we need to do on our end to effect the changes that will accomplish the goal of following?
First, we must stop going in the direction that we were heading. This may or may not be easy to accomplish. A good example is a freight train with 50 cars loaded with coal, traveling at 50 MPH, is not going to be able to stop on a dime so to speak.
The second thing that we must accomplish in order to follow is to change the direction that we are facing. This is also not always the easiest feat to accomplish. We will once again use a freight train as an illustration. In order to turn that train around isn’t as easy as just scooping it up and that’s that. It requires a little switching and that can be time consuming. Sure a train can go for a short distance at slow rates of speed in reverse, but that is only a short term solution. Try walking backwards sometime. If we shuffle our feet slowly and we are heading in a way that is straight and without obstacles, we will more or less remain safe. If we run in one direction, focusing on the opposite, we are heading for disaster.
Thirdly, once we have oriented ourselves to the proper direction we must begin to move forward. Now we need to be aware that as we go forward, there are many things that Satan has put along the path to distract us. We read in Matthew 7:13-14, 13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Let us pause for a moment of prayer!
POINT 1: The first step to following Jesus is that we must Stop what we are doing. Now before we get into that further, let’s look at some words that do not accompany this section of Scripture. Jesus told Philip, "Follow Me." Now it doesn’t say that we are to follow Jesus next month, next week, tomorrow, or even in an hour or so. I’m going to hazard a guess and say that it means to follow Jesus Now! Because in Luke chapter 5, where Jesus calls His disciples we read, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. It doesn’t say anything about putting an ad in the paper and selling the boat and the fishing business first, instead we read they left everything and followed Him. In the book of Acts chapter 8 and the account of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went. So we see that Philip wasted no time in following the angel of the Lord’s command. We have run into too many situations where we see people making excuses for not following, or taking there time to get started. Even the prophet Jeremiah had a protest to what God was calling him to do. We read in Jeremiah chapter 1 verses 4-9
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." 6 Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth." 7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, ’I am a youth,’ Because everywhere I send you, you shall go, And all that I command you, you shall speak. 8 "Do not be afraid of them, For I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD. 9 Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
God calls Jeremiah and He uses the excuse of being young. How often have we tried to pull that same excuse ourselves? How many times have we missed out on a ministry opportunity because we were under the impression that we didn’t have enough experience? It is a documented fact that new Christians, that is those that have been saved less than 6 months, have the most success at winning people for Christ. It is enthusiasm for serving God and not their experience that causes this success.
[Now that we have slowed down and come to a stop, there is a decision that needs to be made. This is a crucial point of decision. We can go the way that the Holy Spirit points out to us, the way of holiness and righteousness, or we can head down the known path that we have traveled so long. Now it is easier to travel down the road that is familiar, so at this point it takes a leap of faith to begin and that feeling that comes over you as you surrender to God’s will. For those that had an addiction problem, this becomes a really difficult step. When we removed the addiction from our lives, we left a void that needed to be filled. Now I have heard it said that these are like potholes in the road, and if we fail to fill these holes with meaningful God-centered activities, Satan will come along and fill them with something else.]
POINT 2: In order to turn around, we are basically going to turn our backs on the way that we used to live. Turning Around, often times means turning our back on acquaintances that we have known for many years. Now it becomes a known fact that most of the people that we considered friends up until this point, are going to leave so fast that they will make the Roadrunner look slow. There is a famous story in the Bible that tells us of that turning point. We read in Acts chapter 9 about Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus starting with verses 3-6, 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" 5 And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do." And then lets go on to verses 10-20 where we read about Saul’s meeting with Annanias and the resulting return of his sight.
This is nothing less than a miraculous transformation at the hands of our Lord. The act of turning our backs from the way of our former lives and facing our Lord is the most important change we will make in our lives. Just think of the change that takes place at that moment. We go from a soul that is destined for an eternity of torment to a soul that will eternally be at rest worshipping God face to face. We go from a person with little or nothing to look forward to, to a person with the greatest of treasures laid at their feet. We go from a person who has been dead because of sin to a person who is alive with spiritual vitality. All of this becomes the result of turning our backs to our former way of life.
I used to have a problem seeing pastors and I avoided talking to them and meeting them like the plague. If I saw a particular pastor coming down the road toward meand I would go the other way and pretend that I never saw Him. After I was saved and started to prepare for the ministry, my former friends not only quit calling and stopping by for a visit, but before long some exhibited the same behavior as I had once displayed.
[The hard part is done, we have quit the bad, turned from the good, and now it is time to take the first steps toward Christ. This is where we differ from many denominations and their beliefs. They believe that either once you have made that election of Christ, then it becomes settled for all time, or once you have confessed, you need not go further. There are to many people who believe that they just keep on sinning and they ask Jesus for forgiveness, and He continues to hand out forgiveness. This need not be true! We are told by Paul in Romans 6:1-4, 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. We also read in Pauls first letter to Timothy in the fifth chapter beginning with verse 20, 20 Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. 21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality. 22 Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin. There is more then just stopping and turning, we must go forward.]
POINT 3: After we stop and turn around it now becomes time to proceed. Now there are several obstacles that Satan would throw in our way. He usually sets a pathway that we can see that seems much easier to travel. There seems to be many small rewards along the way, however only on the path that God has laid out for us has the prize at the end, that eternity in heaven. Satan sets many exits along the way in order to entice us. We need to keep our focus set on Jesus and the new path that we have chosen. Now those exits, those detours that look like shortcuts lead only to destruction.
Conclusion: How many people have been in the military? I’m going to use a military maneuver to demonstrate the concept that John was telling us about. In the army the command is called to the rear march. We have the person who is calling the cadence keeping the troops in step and after a certain point, there is the desire to go in an entirely different direction.
[Would anyone care to demonstrate ?]
The leader gives the command to the rear march, and at that point the stride is finished, the direction is changed, and the person is headed in a completely opposite direction as he was prior to that point.
We hear Jesus calling and we feel the Holy Spirit working inside us, telling us to:
Stop
The direction that we were going was heading to an eternity in hell, we hear Jesus calling and we feel the Holy Spirit working inside us, telling us to:
Change direction
We have turned ourselves around and now we face a decision. Do we go back to the old and familiar ways of our lives or do we venture out into the life as we were promised a life that is beyond what we can comprehend, by our Lord Jesus Christ? If we hear Jesus calling and we feel the Holy Spirit working within us then we need to
Head out in that new direction and follow Jesus.
Is the Lord calling you today, do you hear Him telling you follow Him?
If you feel the Lord calling you then you should reply, it’s time for you to pray?
