Sermon for Sunday May 16th, 2010

What Does it Mean to Be a Follower of Jesus? by Marc Axelrod

Matthew 10:32-10:42

A father was helping his daughter fill out a college application form for his daughter. He came to the question on the form which asked whether the applicant was a leader. He wrote, "In all honesty, no, but she is a good follower."

The application was sent in. Four weeks later, a letter arrived in the mail notifying him that his daughter had been accepted. At the bottom of the page, the dean had written, "Since the entering class of 500 has 499 leaders, we thought that there should be room for at least one follower!"

Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus Christ is looking for followers! He’s looking for people who will go where He wants them to go and do what he wants them to do! He’s looking for people who will love Him more than anything else!

We sit here and think “Amen.” But what does it mean to be a follower of Christ? What does it mean to love him more than my mom or dad? What does it mean to carry my cross and follow Him? Why is Jesus so adamant about me being a gung ho Christian when all this while, I’ve been perfectly happy to be a Sunday Christian?”

That’s what we’re going to talk about. We’re going to see that Christ’s mission to reach the lost means loving Him more than anyone else. But we’re also going to see what this looks like in everyday life.

Matthew 8 and 9 is all about the miracles of Christ. But chapter ten is about the mission of Christ. And the mission calls for complete Submission! Verse 32 says “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.” The word “acknowledge” literally means “to speak out.” It carries the idea of speaking out in public. The same word appears in Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

You say “That’s no problem. I can speak it out right now! Jesus Christ is the Son of God! He’s the Lord of my life!”

That’s good. But let’s change the playing field a little bit. Suppose one of your college buddies says “Hey, let’s go to the club tonight. We’re going to have a few brewskis and we’re going sit back and watch the girls dance.”

You say “MMM … I don’t think so.”

Well what’s the matter? This is like the third time you’ve turned me down! You always used to come with us. What’s going on?”

“I just don’t feel like going.”

“Why?”

“Well, earlier this year, I rededicated my life to Christ as the Lord of my life, and for me, this means no more trips to the club.”

“Aww, come on! Where’s the old friend I used to know and love? Don’t do this to me.”

You say “You’re always going to be my friend. But from now on, Christ is going to be my Lord.”

You see how I changed the playing field?? It’s a little tougher to confess Christ when you’re dealing with peer pressure. But Jesus says “Whoever acknowledges me BEFORE MEN, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven! But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” I know you’re under a lot of pressure here. But you can’t mess this up. Romans 1:16 says “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Don’t be ashamed to speak the name. Don’t be ashamed to tell people about your relationship with Christ.

Now sometimes, the decision to follow Christ brings families together. You pray for five years for your son to come back to Christ. One day, he walks through the doors of the church. He hears the gospel. With tears in his eyes, he gives his heart to Jesus. You give him a big hug and you say “I am so proud of you! Rededicating your life to Jesus is the greatest decision you can ever make! I’m so happy!”

But sometimes, the decision to follow Christ divides families. Verses 34-36. Jesus says “"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn " ’a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Your dad might say “It’s OK to go to church. It’s OK to have a hobby. But why do you have to be so obsessed with it? Why do you have to go to EVERY Bible study and EVERY prayer meeting and EVERY special service? Why can’t you live a normal life like the rest of us?”

But Jesus says “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

It’s OK to love your parents. Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 15:4 “Honor your father and mother.” But it’s NOT Ok to honor and love them more than you love Jesus.”

And it’s perfectly all right to love your kids. Titus 2:4 says “train the younger women to love their husbands AND their children.” I guess sometimes we’re so hard to live with that wives need to be trained to love us!

But it’s NOT OK to love your spouse and kids more than you love Jesus. And Jesus goes on to say “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me is not worthy of Me.”

I’ve heard different ideas about what it means to carry our cross and follow Jesus. Some people say “My aunt Molly is my cross. She’s always bossing me around. She yells at me in front of the kids. She rebukes me right in the middle of the Fox River Mall. That woman is my cross to bear.”

And some people say “Those lousy chipmunks in the backyard. They eat everything in sight! Alvin and the Chipmunks might be cute on TV. But they’re not cute when they’re eating all my flowers! I’ve tried everything I can think of to get rid of them, and they keep coming back! This is my cross to bear!”

And some people say “My smoking habit is so hard to break! I quit for a while. Then I start up again. It’s my cross to bear.”

I suppose you can make these analogies. But I don’t think that this is what Jesus was talking about. In the Roman world, the cross was an instrument of death. Condemned criminals had to carry their own cross to a hill outside town, and they were nailed to it!

When Jesus says “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me is not worthy of Me,” he’s saying “If you are worthy of Me, you will love me more than anything else, even to the point of death! Paul says in Acts 21:13 “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus!” Devoting your entire life to the One who gave His life for you, that’s what it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus!

You say “What does this look like in everyday life? Number one: It means signing up to be a worker for Christ. Remember, chapter 10 is all about sharing the message of God’s kingdom and God’s love with the outside world, even though it’s a hostile world. Carrying your cross means devoting your life to helping lost people find their way back to God. It means coming alongside someone who’s got clinical depression and saying “I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Come over for supper tomorrow night, and I’ll talk with you about how faith in Christ can help you out.”

Another thing we can do to start carrying our cross is to be totally committed to worshipping the One who sends us on the mission! I was reading a book last month called “Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad” by Dr. Timothy George. He talks in the book about how Muslims submit to Allah by praying to him 5 times a day at set times.

And then I remembered verses like that in the Bible. Psalm 119:164 says “Seven times a day, I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.”

And then I remembered Daniel 6:11, where it says that even after it was against the law, Daniel opened his windows toward Jerusalem and prayed to God three times a day, as was his custom.

And I was thinking “If loving God is so important, then why do we pray to Him for 5 minutes in the morning, go to work, get lost in our busyness, and forget all about Him for the rest of the day? If we’re supposed to love God with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL our mind, then shouldn’t we be doing this throughout the day?”

So this is what I’ve been doing now. At 9am, 12noon, 3pm, and 9pm, I stop whatever it is I’m doing and I pour out my heart to God. My cell phone goes off at these set times. Sometimes it’s hard to do this. Sometimes I’m in the car headed for Appleton. Sometimes I’m visiting one of the church members. Sometimes I’m working on a sermon and don’t want to be disturbed. Sometimes I’m chowing down on some M&Ms. But taking time throughout the day to worship the Lord has revolutionized my relationship with Him. It’s my way of picking up my cross and following Jesus with my whole life.

Verse 39 says “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Dr. Craig Keener is professor of New Testament at Eastern College, and he does a good job of explaining this verse. He says that if I value my life in this world more than I value Jesus and the life of the next world, I cannot be his disciple.” He’s right.

You say “Why is Jesus so adamant about me being a gung ho Christian when all this while, I’ve been perfectly happy to be a nominal Sunday Christian?”

Because if you follow Christ’s example of loving, sacrificial ministry to Him and to others, you’re going to be blessed, and the people in your life are going to be blessed! Verses 40-42 remind us that the person who receives you and your message has in effect welcomed Jesus, and the person who has welcomed Jesus has in effect welcomed God. And they get rewarded for that!

Devoting your life in loving service to Christ means eternal life for you. And it may mean eternal life for the people you love.

I read about a rainstorm in West Virginia that filled all the potholes in the streets and alleys. After the storm, a young mom was watching her two little boys playing in a puddle through her kitchen window. The older brother who was 7 years old grabbed his 5 year old sibling by the back of his head and shoved his face into the water hole. As the boy recovered and stood laughing and dripping, the mother runs to the yard in a panic.

She says "Why on earth did you do that to your little brother?!"

The older brother said "We were just playing ’church’, Mom" he said. "I was baptizing him. I said “in the name of the Father, the Son and in the hole-he-goes.

Those boys were playing church. Jesus is saying “We need to stop playing church, and we to start BEING the church.” It’s time to take up our cross and follow Jesus into a life of worship to Him and service to others. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the HOLY Ghost. Amen.