Luke 9:57

“I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.”

During His time on earth, many people approached Jesus and said something similar to our primary text. However, they would often object to beginning to follow right away because they had something to take care of first. In response, Jesus usually referred to the things they desired to take care of as the things they used to do. This is because He, the Son of the Living God, stood before them, beckoning them to follow Him, and they were balking because of their skewed view of what was most important. Today, in the lives of many, we see the same thing happening as people choose to go about their daily lives without answering the call that the Lord has issued to them. Here, we will discuss just how important it is to “Follow Jesus” when He calls. For He truly is the most important thing.

The aforementioned call can come to the unsaved and saved alike. As we know, the unsaved hear the call through hearing the Gospel – for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of the Lord (Rom 10:17). Once the lost hear the saving gospel, they have a very important decision to make: they can choose a cursed life of uncertainty by continuing in their own ways and remaining on their own path, or they can choose to “Follow Jesus,” a choice that brings with it blessings and assurance^.[1] Choosing the latter is obviously the best choice.

Those who first accept Jesus will be just like newborn babes that come into a completely new world with which they are entirely unfamiliar. These will desperately need the next group that we will discuss, those that hear the call to go to somewhere the Lord has in store for them in ministry. This group has been in training for a while; they know the ropes, if you will. Paul spoke of this particular sect of people as the faithful ones that have heard the Word and can now share it with others:

2 Timothy 2:1-4

“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” ^[2] [emphasis mine]

Just like those who first hear the Gospel, this group has the ability to accept or reject the call of Jesus. The rejection of this call will not affect someone’s salvation. However, rejecting the call of God can have dire consequences for the minister. Jonah is a great example of this. He attempted to flee God’s call to ministry, and his actions nearly cost the lives of the crew of the ship upon which he had fled. Not to mention, he ended up spending three days and nights in the belly of a whale.

This personal story will further illustrate. My wife and I were early in ministry, nearly 30 years ago, and the Lord told us to leave the church that we had attended and trained in for our formative years of ministry. We were close friends with the pastor and his wife, and we (I more than she) resisted the move. In response, the Lord began to lift our blessings, and we ended up losing our vehicle to repossession, our rental home to inability to pay the rent, and many other things that we relied upon to live. Things became so bad that we ended up running a motel during the night shift just to have a room to live in. By the way, all of our belongings were in storage during this time. Things became very bleak indeed. All because we would not accept the fact that God was leading us elsewhere.

Thankfully, God forgave us and moved us along in our journey, which has been full of all types of ministry, from personal ministry to corporate ministry. In fact, I just began a new pastorate at First Congregation Church of Hudson, Michigan. I am thankful for this assignment from God because I see it as an opportunity to teach others, just as Paul taught us, to do the work of an evangelist while enduring the hardness of ministry like good soldiers for Jesus.

Be a Good Soldier for Jesus

This would be an opportune time to speak briefly about the life of a soldier of Jesus Christ. Notice, Paul said that a good soldier does not entangle himself in the affairs of this life so that he may please Him that chose him. The best soldiers sell out completely for their cause. They have no time for distractions. A good soldier in God’s army would look like Paul, who, following the example of Jesus, went where God said when God said, and said what God told him to say.

It is very important to point out that neither Jesus nor Paul were involved in trying to overcome the systems of this world. Jesus proved this when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Sadly, in today’s church, many errant voices call for Christians to overcome the systems of the world in order to bring forth the kingdom of God on Earth. Those of us who understand how things will play out in these last of days understand the fallacy of this path because Jesus does not need us to build His earthly kingdom, as He will establish His earthly kingdom at the end of the Tribulation, but that is a message for another day.

Where is He Leading You?

Now back to you and your call. Today, God may be calling you to accept His great salvation or He might be calling you into a new mission for Him. If either of these is true, I urge you to accept the call and begin to serve Him with all the vigor you can muster. If you are a newborn Christian, find a great church that is biblically sound and let those that God has equipped to do so teach you of Him. If you are the latter, I urge you to heed the words of Paul and begin to operate in the ministry into which God has called you.

Personally, I believe First Congregational Church in Hudson, Michigan, is a great place for either. Here, you will both learn of Christ and learn how to teach others about Him. If, while reading these words, God has stirred your heart toward us, then be like Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies, load up the truck and move to Hudson. All kidding aside, you can receive all the training you desire right here in our church in Hudson. At the same time, you can be part of our local missions team (Soldiers of the Way) and help others in the community while sharing Christ with the recipient in hopes that they hear God’s Word and accept their call to salvation or ministry. Today, I extend this invitation to anyone the Lord is calling to us. By way of example, my wife and I answered the call and came from New Castle, Indiana, to Hudson, Michigan.

Thus far, we have only spoken about the call and the cost of rejecting it. However, there is a cost to accepting the call as well. Jesus told all who would follow Him that they would have to take up their own cross daily in order to follow Him.

Rather than reinvent the wheel here, we will now turn to an excerpt from a previous article, “The Old Man and the Cross:” ^[3]

The Cross

Jesus perfectly fulfilled all of the Father’s will while on earth. He was sinless, which means He was selfless. Ultimately, on the cruel cross of Calvary, Jesus finished His mission and gave up the ghost (John 28-30). Though He was the only one to ever live a sinless life, Jesus would have us follow the Father’s will in the same, one hundred percent – all of the time manner that He did. This is why He tells us to take up our cross daily (all day – every day):

Matthew 16:24-27

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross [Luke adds ‘daily’], and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”

Jesus made things very simple for us. When we come to realize what Jesus did for us on the cross at Calvary, we also come to a place of great decision. We can choose to hang on to or ‘save’ our old lives and thereby lose it, or we can choose to ‘lose’ our old life in order to follow Christ and find it.

Interestingly, the term ‘lose’ is translated from the Greek word ‘ἀπόλλυμι,’ which is transliterated into ‘apollumi,’ which is defined as: to destroy, destroy utterly. Therefore, we must literally destroy our old man instead of hyphenating our former lifestyle into our new man. If you recall, Luke recorded the fact that our cross must be taken up daily (Luke 9:23). This proves that we must daily reject our former nature as though it is completely dead. Bearing our cross daily is how we accomplish this.

The Apostle Paul clarifies the purpose of our cross in his letter to the Colossians:

Colossians 3:5-11

“Mortify [put to death – daily – by way of bearing our cross] therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye [formerly]lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (emphasis mine) [author’s comments]

The cross that each individual must carry daily has the ultimate purpose of reminding us that we are dead to self and that we have decided to follow Jesus. While writing this last line, I am reminded of the great hymn, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” Here are the lyrics for reflection:

I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
no turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, I still will follow;
though none go with me, I still will follow;
though none go with me, I still will follow;
no turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.

*** The original article omitted a very important verse that is pertinent to the discussion at hand. Here it is:

My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.

These lyrics embrace the true narrative of Scripture in that once we have decided to follow Jesus, there can be no turning back toward the ways of the world. This is how we come to be a peculiar people (better understood as a special people for God’s own possession) who are in the world and not of it (1 Pet 2:9; John 17:6-19).

Sadly, rather than turning back, many are simply dragging the old man along for the journey. This cannot be, for the old man must be utterly destroyed in order to walk through the straight gate and onto the narrow way that leads to life (Matt 7:14). Thus, the idea that one can be a hyphenated Christian is a figment of the imagination of the wicked. The wicked are those who desire to hold on to the things of this present world. Paul speaks of these types of people in his narrative about God’s wrath against sin in Romans chapter 1:18-32. – end of excerpt

In this excerpt, we see the cost of true discipleship. God would have us take up and bear the weight of our cross daily. Furthermore, God is not interested in a percentage of us. Instead, He wants exactly “all” of us. Therefore, when we accept the call, either to salvation or to ministry, we must count the cost. My wife and I did this just as many have before us, and we still enjoy working for the Lord more than any other endeavor in our lives. As far as I am concerned, the cost is well worth it, as blessings abound for those who do the will of our God. Jesus said this about those who do this:

Luke 11:28

“But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”

Only Follow Christ and His Imitators

Before concluding, let us address one final point. We are to follow Jesus. We know from 1st Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 1, that we are only to follow man if he is following Jesus, as indicated by the Apostle Paul. Most translations use the word imitate rather than follow in this text. This would imply that we are to act just like Paul as we “Follow Jesus.” Imitating Paul will be a heavy lift for most of us today because he was one hundred percent committed to Christ and His Gospel. Tradition even has it that the men who led him to his execution, after accepting the gospel message that Paul shared with them, chose to die with him. This reveals that Paul effectually preached until his last breath. Oh, to be just like that.

Sadly, we currently have far too many people following celebrity pastors with magnanimous personalities or following prescribed methods developed in churches that have themselves long turned from following Jesus. If you find these words ringing true in your ears, flee from the path you are on, find and fellowship with God-fearing people who learn and teach about the sufficiency of Jesus. It is paramount that we all “Follow Jesus,” for He is our only hope.

Conclusion

Jesus is calling us to follow Him to the cross. Some, for the first time, and all of us to our daily cross, a task that is not a one-time event; no, we must take it up daily until our final breath, which takes place at our death or the rapture.

If Jesus is calling you to follow Him, make the right choice, accept His great sacrifice, and begin to do all you can to teach others about Him, so they too may come to know Jesus. After all, the great commission remains in effect until the end of the world:

Matthew 28:19-20

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Website: In His Commission

Special Message: Here at First Congregational Church, we preach and teach the whole counsel of God including the message about the last days in which we live.

[1] For greater understanding, see the article, “To Fear or Not to Fear.”

[2] “Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the King James Version.”

[3] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Old Man and the Cross.“