“Follow Me”

There was a tightrope walker who did incredible aerial feats in the 1800s. His name was Charles Blodin, and he was quite the show to see. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts. He would do it blindfolded, which I have no idea how somebody could do a tightrope blindfolded. Then he would go across a tightrope blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow. You just never know what these guys are going to come up with next. But this was his act. This is what he did, and he was famous for. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker saying, tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls.

Now, tightrope wrote back, sir, although I've never been to America and seen the falls, I'd love to come. So, well, after a lot of promotion and then setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. The tightrope artist was to start on the Canadian side of the gorge and cross over to the American sides. The drumroll occurred, and as he came across the rope, which suspended over the treacherous part of the falls, blindfolded, he succeeded, and he made it across easily. He repeated the act a numerous number of times and all in different fashions, and again with one of his signature moves pushing a wheelbarrow. The crowds went wild, of course, and as he came to the promoter at the end, he said, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it? Well, of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it. No, said Tightrope, do you really believe I can do it? Well, of course I do. You just did it. And he says, no, no, no. Do you believe I can do it? Yes, the promoter said. I believe you can do it. And he said, good. Then you get in the wheelbarrow.

Quite, I mean, that's quite an invitation, right? If you really believe somebody can do something well, will you put yourself into the journey along with them? It would take just a tad bit of faith to get into a wheelbarrow and have Charles blowed in, push you across the Niagara Falls chasm. But how much more difficult would it be if instead of saying get in the wheelbarrow, he said to you, well, just follow after me. Now, that's a whole nother task, a whole nother ask. Follow me. Two simple words, but two words that can carry an incredible amount of difficult for one to attain, but also two words that can lead us on an incredible journey of transformation and a completely new life. Jesus came to this earth as God in the flesh, and he completely flipped the world upside down. Some of his teachings seemed heretical, but could not be argued. He would then make pointed statements, which left listeners in silence because of the truth that his words carried. And he was sympathetic and simplistic at times with his words, crafting statements that have touched Christians deeply for thousands of years. Today we'll explore two of his words, follow me and what it means to be his disciple. Regardless of our place within the body of Christ, we have all been called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let's open our Bibles to Luke chapter 14 and verse 25. Luke 14 and verse 25. This is one of those passages that I often share with those I'm counseling for baptism because of the magnitude of what Jesus shared here and the impact on our lives and what our calling entails and what our commitment involves. Luke 14 and verse 25. It says, Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned, and he said to them, and Jesus spoke this to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother, wife and children, brother and sister, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. This word hate is a strong word in our English language, and it doesn't carry the same weight that we see here in Scripture. Jesus is not asking us to hate our parents because that would go against several other scriptures. But what this word hate means is to love less, meaning we have to put God first in our life, even above our spouses, our mothers, our fathers, our friends, our siblings. God has to be number one in our life because Jesus says, If he's not, we cannot be his disciple. He goes on in verse 27, Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, another form of following after Christ, cannot be my disciple. Then Jesus goes through a couple of analogies. He talks about a man that's building a tower, and he doesn't count the cost, how much money it's going to take to buy the bricks, how much labor is going to cost. And everybody in the town sees him start to build this tower, but then he fails in finishing it because he runs out of funds. And everybody now realizes, oh, he started it, but he didn't count the costs. He didn't weigh out how much work, how much time, involvement, resources it's going to be. And they all saw him quit the project. Christ uses another analogy of a king going out to war and didn't weigh the cost of what going and calling out another king and threatening him or challenging him to a war would cost. And it says, once he realized that cost, after the words had left his mouth and the other king had become enraged, he said then he tried to settle things down by sending out a party that would go and try to make a treaty with this king. And everybody around saw that this king did not weigh the cost. He did not count the cost. And that brings us to verse 33, when Jesus said, so likewise, whoever of you do not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

An invitation to become a disciple was considered a great and an amazing opportunity to one who was chosen by a leading rabbi. Traditionally, a rabbi would selectively choose who would train under his authority. By accepting this invitation and agreeing to say yes, which is an important concept of itself to understand this agreement that a person would make with a rabbi. But the individual was agreeing to several things that would change their life forever. Regardless of who their rabbi was, there were four things that every disciple did. They memorized their rabbi's words. They adopted their rabbi's understanding of Scripture. And they imitated their rabbi's ministry model. And the fourth thing, they multiplied their rabbi's teaching and those whom themselves they trained. So there was this all-in commitment to do everything that the rabbi did in all ways of his life. Taking the yoke of the rabbi, and they put that in quote, yoke of the rabbi, reflected a disciple's willing submission to his chosen rabbi's interpretation and application of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament. Disciples did not teach their interpretation of Scripture. They taught their rabbi's interpretation. Hillel, Shemai, and Gamaliel required that their disciples adopt their yoke, as it was put in. And this is from discipledioli.org. It's an article I found online that described this. The idea of discipleship can be summed up in one word, imitation. At the highest level of Jewish education, a select few, maybe one in a thousand, of the most outstanding students would be chosen to study with a famous rabbi, learning to explain and interpret the entirety of the Old Testament, often leaving home and traveling with the rabbi for an extended period. These students were called in Hebrew what is translated disciple. A disciple was much different than what we would call a student today. Students today is similar in the way that we are instructed from another person who has knowledge that they're transferring to us. So kind of like a professor in college or a teacher in school. That teacher has the knowledge, and they're conveying it in a useful way to the student, who hopefully is absorbing it, can pass tests that they're given, can demonstrate their understanding of the knowledge and how it works. But that's where the analogy stops when it comes to a rabbi, because a disciple would live close by, if not in the same building, with their rabbi. They would eat together, they would walk together, they would share conversations together. The rabbi would share what was on his thought with those around them. Students don't traditionally go home with their parents, unless it's your mom or dad, like some of you guys in the back.

We don't sleep nearby our teachers. We don't normally share meals on a regular basis with our teachers. This is where the difference and the magnitude of what a disciple truly is comes to light.

A disciple wants to be just like or become what the teacher is. There was a passionate and personal system of education of imitating the teacher. They would watch his every move. They would sleep near their teacher. If they would eat what the teacher ate, they would imitate his behavior. If he liked it, they liked it. If he didn't like it, they didn't like it. A disciple would want to become exactly like the teacher, to do exactly as the teacher did. Jesus was no different in how he would operate in choosing disciples, nor did his expectation of how they would behave change. As Jesus called the disciples to follow after him, what I find most interesting is whom he invited this invitation to. Turn with me to John 1 and verse 35. We're going to spend a lot of time in the gospel accounts today because I want to look at what Jesus said about being a disciple and also the disciples themselves, those he called. We'll look at some of their examples and how their calling occurred. John 1 and verse 35.

John 1 verse 35. It says again, the next day John, and this is John the Baptist that's being referred to here, John stood with two of his disciples. So John the Baptist had his own disciples, those who would follow after him and learn from him. And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said to his disciples, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And then when Jesus turned and seeing them following, said to them, What do you seek? It's an interesting question that Jesus asked these two men. And they said to him, Rabbi, which is when translated teacher. And they said, Where are you staying? And Jesus said to them, Come and see another invitation, kind of like, Follow me, come and see. And they came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day. And now it was about the 10th hour. And one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And so this is Andrew, who would become one of the disciples. And the other was most likely the apostle John. And John the Baptist did not stop either from following Jesus because he knew who Jesus was and the opportunity that Jesus was offering to these two men. Verse 41, we see some additional ones called. He first found his own brother, and this is talking about Andrew again, he first found his own brother Simon, and this would be Simon Peter, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah, and you shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone. And then the following day, Jesus went on went to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, Follow me. And so this is the first of seven times that Jesus would use this phrase as recorded in the Gospel of John. It's a phrase that he would use 19 times throughout all the different Gospel accounts, not always tied with a direct invitation to become a disciple, but often reflected of Jesus's behavior and how the believer should live their life. And the next verse is after verse 43, Nathaniel would also become one of Jesus's disciples. And all we see five people given an opportunity to become a disciple of Jesus Christ in John chapter but as we can see, this would not be the end of the calling of disciples, nor the end of his use of the phrase, follow me. Now, a year has probably passed in time, and we don't see much written about Jesus and his interaction with disciples individually, but they probably did have interactions with Christ during this time because we find a magnitude of people are now following after Christ to hear the Word of God. We see that in Luke 5 and verse 1, that this magnitude of people are following after him. And I can only imagine that as this multitude, this number of people are now seeking after Christ, interested in his teaching and wanting to be closer to him, that these original disciples would have also been nearby and would have been part of the group. But let's look at Mark 1 and verse 16. And one of the commentaries that I have says that this account probably would have been about a year after the account that we read in John.

Mark 1 and verse 16.

It says, And as he, speaking of Jesus, walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting the net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And notice, it says, They immediately left their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were also in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called to them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and they went after him.

So we see this total commitment by these four men to follow Jesus as they walked away from their livelihood. They walked away from what they knew to do and what was their day-to-day life that it looked like. They walked away from all of these things to submit themselves to Jesus Christ as a disciple and to follow him. And again, talking about someone else walking away from a lucrative livelihood, let's next look at Matthew 9. This is another calling of a disciple that we have recorded in the book of Matthew.

This is actually his own calling. Matthew 9 and verse 9. As Jesus, it says in Matthew 9 and verse 9, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me, so he arose and followed him. The parallel accountant Luke says, so he left all, rose up and followed him. He left all. Nothing remained from his past, it says. And Matthew 9 and verse 10, it says, now what happened is Jesus sat at the table in the house because Matthew invited him over for dinner.

They're sharing a meal. That behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. These would have been Matthew's cohorts. They would have been friends. They would have been colleagues that he talked with. They would have been those that he interacted normally because most other people didn't really want to have anything to do with Matthew. We'll look at that in just a moment. They were probably also the rich in the area because tax collectors were some of the more wealthy Jews in the land.

And it says in verse 11, and when the Pharisee saw it, they said to his disciples that I think it's kind of interesting, they actually went after the disciples instead of going right to Christ, right? Oh, let's pick on the little guy. Let's pick on the student. But they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? They're trying to pin the disciples against Christ, saying, well, psh, if you want to follow a rabbi, maybe I'm the better rabbi to follow.

Maybe I know some other ones that would be better because they don't sit with the sinners. They don't eat with the tax collectors, trying to pit them against Christ. But notice when Jesus heard that in verse 12, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. This passage here is one of my favorites from Scripture because it gets down to the simple aspect of why we need God, why humanity needs God.

We're not well. Our thinking is not well. Our attitudes are not well. Our selfishness is not well. And if we had everything put together, and by our own righteousness, we could follow God and not make mistakes. And like Christ did, and have everything put together, everything figured out, Christ is saying, they wouldn't need me.

But it's not accurate, right? Because everybody's broken. Everyone needs this physician. And we need Jesus to come and to heal our illnesses. And so it says when he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, Jesus came to those who needed his help. He says, verse 13, but go and learn what this means.

I love that. It's kind of like, go do your homework. Go read your scrolls and tell me if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but you're falling short of your calling. He says, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I'm sure that confounded those Pharisees because they're like, oh boy, I've got some homework to go do.

Because that's a big phrase right now that he's drawing from the Old Testament. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And notice he says, for I did not call come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Just such a powerful phrase here of the way that Jesus operated, the way that he interacted with with those around him, that he had the compassion. He came because they needed his help. They needed the healing that could only come from him and the Father, and he came to talk with them and to draw them to repentance.

I wonder what would have been going through, because we kind of lost track of Matthew in this account, right? I wonder what would have been going through Matthew's mind as he probably heard Jesus share these words. He was probably, I put myself in Matthew's shoes, probably silent.

He was probably weighing the magnitude of Jesus's words and how they related to his own life in that moment. Because here's the Messiah eating with you and says they need me. And Matthew was probably thinking, in human terms, he has no idea how deeply I need him. Matthew was a Jew like everyone else around him, but a Jew who had brought incredible shame to his family. As a tax collector, he was appointed by the Romans to collect the taxes due to Rome. No one, no one likes a tax collector. I think that has carried on through history, right? No one has liked the tax collector, especially one of their own from their own people doing the dirty work of the evil empire they were under. And if it wasn't bad enough that he betrayed his people, the tax collectors were expected to overcharge the in the taxes they collected so that they could keep the profits as part of their wage. And the really bad ones really overcharged. And so not only did they betray their people, not only were they working for the enemy, but now they're living as the rich because of the money that they're pretty much taking from everyone else. They're the ones having the steak dinners, they're the ones who live in the nice homes. And so to imagine Matthew hearing these words from Jesus, knowing how he was viewed by others around him, it probably cut close to his heart. To say he was hated by his countrymen is an understatement. He was despised. Yet the money meant very little to Matthew as he left all of this completely behind him to follow Jesus. Follow me. Two words that Jesus used multiple times. Two words that summarize the entirety of Scripture. Two words that we will work to personally achieve for the length of our entire lives. Follow me.

As Jesus called the disciples to follow after him, again, whom did he extend this invitation to? Was it the most studious? Was it? Was it the smartest and the brightest? No. Was it the ones that came from a famous family or had political connections to Rome? It wasn't. The disciples' personal futures would have all been based on their careers and their vocations. Four of them were fishermen. That's what they knew to do. Their father was a fisherman. This was a family trade. This is how they provided. This is how they ate. This is how they made money. They would have lived out their lives in a similar fashion to the rest of their neighbors around them and their fellow countrymen.

No really crazy adventures would have ever occurred in their lives. Nothing really to write home about. But now their lives have intersected with the creator of the world and the creator of everything in it.

They have come upon the one full of all knowledge and full of all understanding. I can't imagine just being in Christ's presence. And whom did he choose? There was something special that Jesus could see in these individuals that set them apart from the majority of everyone else. They were not special in society's eyes, but they were special to God. Two words. Follow me. Change their entire world. I share this because it shows the way that God also looks at each of us.

I know our callings and walk with God have each been unique. But even our callings have also been similar. At some point, probably out of the blue, God reached out and touched our lives and opened our minds so that we could understand something that we had never understood quite that way before. And then suddenly, as we comprehended, oh wow, now I have to go and do something. That switch had become flipped and it can't get turned back off.

I know at times some of us may have tried to turn that switch off. Maybe we're like, oh, this is too hard. I've got to go another direction. But then that itch that just couldn't be scratched any other way just kept itching. And we knew we have to do something with this knowledge that I understand.

So we went forward on a new path in a different direction from where our life was going previously. It was a new adventure in a sense. I love using the word adventure instead of struggle or challenge. It sounds much more fun, right? We're going on an adventure. But it was a new adventure for them. God began changing us, all of us, from the inside out and putting into our minds more of the way that he thinks. Our focus began to shift from what was important to us to what was important and is important to God. A fork in the road occurred and the space between these two roads has grown wider and wider ever since.

We equally have had a similar calling to the disciples. None of us are great on our own. We're not the mighty or the ones with the big political connections to the leaders of our state or our nation. But what is the reality is what we find in 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 17. And you can just put that in your notes. I'll just quote it for you. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. It states, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. As we have been on this journey with Christ, as we have been on this walk as the disciple, talk about what's new.

We could spend all day talking about what's new in our life because of all the things that have become different. The feast this year, we kind of during the senior luncheon, we did a pass the mic where they could share stories about miracles God had performed, about changes that have occurred in their life, about the highs and the lows that they have been through over the many decades of being called in the church.

Some had been in for decades. Some had been in for only a few years. But the stories demonstrated the transformation effect that God has had in his people forever.

It's a process that continues on as we are new creations. Each of these disciples were new creations with Christ, and they had to then go forward on this new path. This new creation involves having a new spirit put inside us, God's spirit, to be the helper and guide we need to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus has said to you, as he did the disciples, follow me. Going back to the example of a disciple and what they did, we need to consider our own lives and our own actions today. Have we truly walked away from our past, leaving the things that do not fit with God behind? Have we completely given up our own thoughts on issues of life, or given up ways that society thinks and follows in order to take on the thinking of Jesus Christ? Do we truly like the things that Jesus likes and dislike the things that he dislikes?

Do we sleep near to God, dwelling constantly in his presence? Do we constantly examine the example of Jesus and consider if we're emulating his example in our lives? Or are we only copying examples that fit more easily into our lives? Or maybe the ones that Jesus practiced that are more comfortable for us to add on to our life? Is our first waking thought and our last thought before we close our eyes at night about God and his importance in our life? Do we live our lives as an example of our teacher's way of thought and his actions towards others?

Another question, do we really want our lives to become exactly like the life of Jesus?

Or do we just say it but not really live it because it's just the right thing to say?

These are tough questions, and I don't say them lightly without...

I mean, you can probably imagine me writing these down in my notes, right?

And then getting hit between the eyes with each one. These are tough questions.

But these are questions that we have to continue to hold our lives to if we are going to say that we're a disciple of Jesus Christ. There is no separation from these questions and the lives that we are to live if we're going to profess to be a Christian. Now, we're not perfect. We don't have it all put together. I get it. But we have to be willing to ask ourselves these questions. And these questions have to be continually on our mind in different forms and fashions as we go through life. Because if you don't ask them, if I don't ask myself these things, then one, I can't be a disciple. And then two, we can't be Christians. There's a powerful example of commitment and discipleship that is found in 1 Kings chapter 19.

We're going to Old Testament for a minute.

Previous to the account we're about to read, the prophet Elijah has just been told by the Lord to seek out his replacement, who would be Elisha, and who Elijah would anoint as the next prophet. This is in 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19. We're about to see how committed Elisha would be to accept this calling and to follow God in a way that many others may not be willing to go to this degree. 1 Kings 19 and verse 19. 2 Elisha 2 He departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shapham, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth.

So there would be two oxen for each yoke, for each plow. So there was twelve sets. There were twenty-four oxen and twelve sets of men out there plowing. And Elisha himself was with one of the pairs as they were plowing this field. 3 Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle, or his cloak, on Elisha.

The symbolization of this cloak was a very important article of clothing to the person that had it. They used it as a coat to keep warm. They used it as a barrier for rain. If they're out in the walking and it starts to rain, it would be part of their article of clothing to protect them from the weather. They used it as bedding. They might roll it up and make a pillow out of it if they're going to lay down. Or they'd cover themselves with it to stay warm as they slab. They may even use it as luggage. I remember doing that at school sometimes.

You take your jacket off, you put your books in it, because my backpack would blow out. You bust the seam out in the back, and I have no way to carry my books home. So it's like, well, this is the best thing I got is my coat. So they would put things inside of it, maybe food, different things, and they would wrap it up and take it with them. In this instance, it's being used to show Elisha would become his successor. Elisha recognized the significance of what Elijah was doing. Verse 20 says, He left the oxen and he ran after Elijah and said, Please, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

And Elijah said to him, Go back again for what have I done to you? And so he says, Go and do those things. So Elisha turned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment. Talking about, you know, like, that burning, the boat that got you there, like we've seen in some of those stories, those illustrations. You go across sea, you go by your boat, and when they would get there, they would burn the boat, meaning to all the men, there is no going back.

There is no mutiny. This is our new home. There's no other destination we can go to because our boat was just burned up. He took the equipment from the oxen and he used that to start a fire that he then cooked the oxen on. His livelihood was destroyed, but he did it because of the commitment he was making to follow after God and Elijah. And he said he gave it to the people, this meat that they ate, and they, and it says, and they ate.

Then he arose and followed, which is interesting, Elijah, and became his servant. Elisha, to have 12 oxen or 24 oxen, 12 sets of them out there plowing a field, he was wealthy. He had some money, but yet he was willing to leave it all, the wealth and the livestock, what he knew to be his livelihood.

He even left his mother and his father. Did he know what all was in store for him as he walked away, good or bad? I don't think we can say for sure that he knew, but we do know that he was willing to go all in for God. He held nothing back. There was not a part of him that he said, well, if this fails, I at least have my oxen to go back to. Well, if this fails, I at least got my plows. I can go and acquire a new oxen.

It was done. Another question for us, is there anything we are holding back or keeping in reserve that is hindering our ability to be a complete disciple of Jesus? Is there anything similar to how Jesus came into the lives of his disciples and placed them on a new path? God has obviously done this in our lives today. We have been bought back. We have been redeemed therefore we are no longer our own, but we are God's children and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

But as a disciple, we have to ask ourselves and consider a question today. How committed am I to fully be in a disciple of Jesus Christ? We really have to ask ourselves, am I fully committed or am I one foot in, one foot out? Am I only committed when things are going well and it's easy to follow Christ? Because we have those times, right? When persecution is not on us, when we have a job and it's going well, when we have a safe place to meet, we have heat in our house, everything's going well, our health is well. Is that when we are committed to follow after Christ? You'll notice that through this message up to this point, we have not talked about how to keep the Sabbath holy. We have not talked about what meats we should eat or not eat, what TV shows or music we should watch or listen to. We haven't talked about whether we should keep the world's secular holidays or whether we should keep God's holy days. While we're called to follow the doctrines and commandments of God, much more is still needed. What we're discussing is about becoming a disciple, and this goes much deeper than keeping the Sabbath or keeping the holy days or eating clean meats. It goes much, much deeper than that. What we're talking about today is a matter of the heart, not just of the mind. These points about God's commandments and doctrines are obvious, and we understand what is expected of us very clearly. But what we're talking about today goes far beyond what we know about God and whether we do or don't do His desires in our life.

The focus on the why behind what we're doing, not just the what. Why is it that we have made changes in our lives? Why is it that we're here today? Why is it that we call ourselves a Christian? Why is it that we want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Obviously, the things I mention and the things we know we're to do, we have to do. But that can't be our sole focus. If that's all that a disciple did, then they would have just ate the meals that Jesus ate and then called it good. Yep, did what I did. They would have just slept near Jesus from time to time. Said, yep, we followed our rabbi. They left everything. They immersed their whole body into what it meant to follow Jesus. It's not about the what. Those things can't be undone. Don't get me wrong. But it's not about the what. It's about the why and then the how. How are we going to let Christ into our hearts? How are we going to let His Spirit, the Spirit of God, work within us? How committed will we be to continue steadfastly in this journey? This is where it all comes back around to what our focus should be. The focus is on internalizing Jesus completely in our lives. The focus cannot be only on the simple sayings that we say or the things that we believe are right. The focus has to be on the invitation to live our lives like Christ in all areas of our life. The focus must be on follow me as in follow Jesus. Turn with me to Ephesians 5 and verse 6.

Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5 and verse 6. Paul writes here, Let no one deceive you with empty words. Now you could put in this place, let no one deceive you with empty Sabbath keeping or empty food that you eat or anything else that you're doing because it's the right thing to do, but doing it for the wrong reasons. He says, Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are the light of the Lord. And he says, Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. We have to immerse our lives and join our lives with Christ to be his disciple. There was a saying that the dust of a rabbi would become my dust. I would be immersed in his dust because in biblical times, they're walking on dusty roads, dry, dusty roads, and the disciple would walk so close behind his rabbi that the dust that they would throw up from the back of their sandals and footwear would actually create a cloud that the rest of the disciples would walk through. I imagine pockets filling up with dust. They walked so close. They didn't put a distance like, Oh, that's dirty. Let's I'll walk over to the side. They walked so close that they became part of the dust that the rabbi kicked up. Do we follow that closely with Christ in all areas? In all areas. See, that's the rub, right? That's where this gets incredibly difficult, and we're all recognizing where I'm going with this and where I'm talking to myself. This is the journey that we're on. This is what means following after Jesus really means. Let's book one chapter earlier in Ephesians, Ephesians 4 and verse 17.

Ephesians 4, verse 17, Paul again writes, This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, and the futility of their mind, having their understanding darken, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of the blindness of their heart. He's saying they don't understand. They're blinded. They have an excuse, Paul says, because they're blinded. They don't understand. He's saying we can't walk that way because we're not ignorant anymore. We're not blinded anymore. He goes on in verse 20. He says, But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful of us, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. The old man is God. Or is he? That's the question. This is the person that at the deepest level of your most inner part, and you are the only one who really knows who this person is and what remains of him or her. Our conversion starts from the inside, and it works its way out.

But what is at the core must be completely renewed for us to live this new way of life.

Jesus commands, follow me. Let's close in Matthew 16.

Matthew 16 and verse 21.

Matthew 16 and verse 21. He says, From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised on the third day. He said these things, but they didn't get it, because then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, which blows my mind, saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. But he turned, Christ did, and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful. Remember, we got to take on Christ's thought. We got to think like he does. We got to emulate, we imitate everything that he does. He says, You are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? That's the choice that's before us, right? That's always been that choice. What we can gain physically, what makes us feel good physically, what we can acquire from wealth or from fame. These things are of society, and they are surrounding us. But Jesus says, What profit is it if you gain all those things, and that's all you have? It's that old adage, when you die, you can't take your toys with you to the grave, right? You can't take your wealth, you can't take your gold, you can't take your jewels, you can't take your fame, you can't take anything with you. It's one of the best jokes that I've ever heard. You never see a hearse, pulling a U-Haul trailer behind it, do you? You never see it, because there's nothing for the dead to take with them to the grave. Jesus is reminding us that there is one thing we can take with us, and that's God's Spirit. That is the truth. That is eternal life that we have the down payment on through His Spirit dwelling within us. Verse 27, For the Son of man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to His works.

We have each been offered an amazing opportunity to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So let us follow Him.