Our Relationship with Jesus Christ

Last week, I don't think I told you this story. I've been here now long enough. I'll tell you the same stories over and over again. Last week, my wife and I were walking out of a store, and I was limping a little bit. I have one knee that has two big screws in it. Neither of that much cartwheels were left, just from playing sports when I was younger. These two young guys came up, and they said, are you in pain? I said, a little bit. It's not too bad. They said, we're just so concerned. We saw you walking out.

We saw you limping. We want to pray for you. So they just started praying for me. When they were done praying, they said, we just felt like we needed to do that. They walked away, and I looked at my wife, and I said, I wonder if I would have the courage to do that. Welcome to somebody. Can I pray for you? They were very sincere, and that's all they wanted to do. They didn't want to proselyte to me.

They didn't want to convince me of anything. They just felt like they needed to pray, because they saw this old guy limping along. That's a little different experience than when people walk up to you and say, do you know the Lord? How many of you have had that experience?

Do you know the Lord? Now, when someone comes up and says, do you know the Lord? They have a very specific reason to ask, or do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Because they feel like they have to preach to you. And if you say yes, it still doesn't usually stop them. They still want to tell you what they feel like they have to tell you. You know, when you talk to most Christians, especially evangelicals, about their relationship with Jesus Christ, they'll be very emphatic about their relationship with Jesus.

Usually, they define it through the lenses of Christmas and Easter. They very much will talk about Jesus in terms of being in a manger, and being the baby, and being born, and somehow the divine came into the human realm. And then they'll talk about Easter, they'll talk about the cross, his death on the cross, and his resurrection. And for those who are very sincere, those two celebrations define how they interpret their relationship with Jesus. Now, it's interesting, in Murphy's World last week, one of the number one subjects that people brought up that they felt like they would like to hear some sermons on was how do we define our relationship with Jesus Christ? Now, most of us can define our relationship with God the Father pretty easily, because it's a very intense relationship.

And we know that that's our priority. In fact, Jesus Christ leads us to the Father. So we're supposed to look at the Father, He's supposed to be the center of what we look at. He's the center of this relationship we have with Him as the Father of the family that He's created. But if I ask you, how do you define your relationship with Jesus? Well, what are you, Protestant? What do you mean by that? How do we define our relationship with Jesus Christ? Actually, we'll be doing a series of sermons on this over the next year or so, because what I want to show is that understanding our relationship with Jesus Christ is taught to us in the Holy Days.

Every single Holy Day tells us what God is doing through Christ. You just stop, think about that, it's obvious. Passover, King of kings, trumpets, we have coming up, atonement, Jesus is the high priest, the millennium rule of Jesus Christ on the earth, great white throne judgment, where all judgment is given by the Father to Jesus Christ. So, every one of the Holy Days pictures what God is doing through Christ. So we'll talk about that. But I want to talk about a little different aspect today, sort of a foundational concept to open this up so that we can spend the next year exploring it. How do we find and how do we experience our relationship with Jesus Christ?

Christ taught that the greatest of all the commandments was to love God with all our heart, our mind, our soul, all of our strength. And of course, He was pointing us towards the Father when He did that. Now we understand that we must love God. It's not enough to simply do the rules exactly. We have to have this relationship with God as our Father. And in doing so, we want to obey. Obedience is part of what we want, it's what we desire, it's what we try to do.

It's more than just a belief in His existence. And then Jesus comes and reveals that the word had existed with the Father before He came to this earth. And after His death and resurrection, He returns to the Father. And then He describes this relationship that we are to have with the Father, but He also describes in great detail the relationship He has with the Father, and in great detail the relationship we're supposed to have with Him. Let's go to John 16. One of the things that we know, in the opening prayer we heard in Jesus' name, right? We all pray in the name of Jesus. We're told we're supposed to do that.

I wonder how many times we run through that and not think about it. I'm giving a little confession here. I've had times where I've been praying and it's like, oh good, the prayer's done, nice talking to you, God, in Jesus' name, amen. And I got up, got back down on my knees and said, I apologize for what I just did. In Jesus' name, amen, isn't the same as, hey, take care, we'll see you later. Praying in the name of Jesus is very, very important and He told us why.

So let's go to John 16 and look at verse 23. Christ says, in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Now this is very important. Jesus said, you know, these disciples gave Him all the time. They wanted an answer to everything. They wanted healing. They wanted, and, you know, please go to the Father for us. And He said, there's got to come a time when you get on your knees, you will pray in My name and because of that, you will go directly to the Father. You know, you and I pray. The awesome God, the Creator, the one who made everything, all powerful. You and I walk before His throne and figure it away. We're there right in front of Him. Now, Jesus said, you walk right up to Him. You know, it's like Jesus, God says, come here, child. Come here, child. But we're walking up to God and He's saying, come here, child, because we pray in Jesus' name. So that means this is very important. And it's not something we could just do as sort of a, oh yeah, this is sort of the closing thing I have to say. Now let's go on and look at what He says next. Verse 24 says, "...until now you have asked nothing in My name, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, at the time of His coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. And in that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you." Well, that's a remarkable statement, too. Christ says, and you know, there's another place where He calls Himself the door. He said, you're going to come before the Father, and it is He that says, Father, accept this child. And the Father says, come, child. But it's interesting to understand, He says, I will not answer your prayers at that point. The Father will. But you come to Him in My name. And then the next verse is absolutely stunning in what He says.

Verse 27, for the Father Himself loves you. It literally is a severe child.

It is Christ saying, accept this child. Now, when we get into the Passover, when we get into a Tobit, there's all kinds of things in the Scripture that show us how that's done and why it's done. But I want to zero in on just a couple things today, because I want you to read what's next in this verse. The Father loves you because... That's a big word. Oh, the Father loves me because, oh, I've got to do something now to receive God's love. Because, Jesus says, you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. Christ told His disciples, someday you'll pray in My name and the Father will directly interact with you because He loves you and because you believed I am the Messiah. You believe I came from God and I went back to God.

You believed in My divinity. And secondly, because you loved me.

I find that just fascinating, the concept, oh, yeah. Christ leads us to the Father, but the Father does tell us, how did you get here? He asks, how did you get here? Because if you don't love Him, you and I have a problem. So our relationship with Jesus Christ, understanding that relationship is very, very important in our relationship with the Father. Now, I'm not saying that the Father isn't our focal point. And we just read, obviously, to Jesus Christ, He's the focal point. But you have to understand, we have to understand, we can't take this great, incredible Son of God and make Him somehow an afterthought by simply saying, in Jesus' name. We have to believe who He really is, then we have to love Him. So now this becomes very important in understanding this relationship. So how do we begin to understand, okay, how do I love Jesus? I mean, I don't know. Most people have built a relationship with the Father, where there's an emotional and intellectual connection to the Father. But sometimes in our culture, we don't have an emotional connection with Christ. We have an intellectual connection.

We know Him as a doctrine. We know Him as a teaching. We don't necessarily relate to Him as a person sitting there at the right hand of the Father, saying, accept this child.

Because this child has come and said, I'm doing this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Where do we start? We start with our relationship with Jesus Christ and understanding that we are disciples. This is where we start. Now, this is going to take us another step before we're done. We start with that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. Let's go to Matthew 10. Now, we're going to come back to Matthew 10 because Matthew 10 is an interesting little section here where Jesus gives very specific instructions to His 12 disciples.

So the whole chapter is about Him giving instructions to His disciples. But let's go to verse 37. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Now, He's already taught about the Father, but now He's making a remarkable statement. And He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Usually, this is read from Luke's account where Luke says, we must hate our hot-fathered mother. That's a very hard translation because the word hate there is a Greek word that really doesn't translate well because it's a comparison word. You know, I love ice cream. Now, if I have chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream, I love chocolate and hate vanilla. Now, if there's no chocolate, I love vanilla. You see what I mean? I'm comparison something. It doesn't mean I actually hate it. And that's what that word means there. Here, while we have a Matthew's account here, something even more precise. He said, if you don't love Me, now we're back to this relationship. If you don't have the relationship with Me that's more important than all other relationships, He says, you're not worthy of what I'm doing. And remember, everything He's doing is in the name of the Father. So we realize that this has to be a priority in our lives. Notice the next verse.

And He who does not take His cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Let me ask you, how many of you that when you were baptized, in your baptism of counseling, it was read to you, the passage of Luke, if you don't love, if you don't, you know, hate Me or hate your mother, father, sister, brother, yea your own life also, you cannot be my disciple, you have to count the cost. How many of you had that passage read to you in your baptism of counseling?

Some did, some didn't. I know through the years, I don't do any baptism of counseling, but I don't read that. Because that's what He says, and that's part of the commitment we're making.

So here, He says, now, if you make your relationship with Me a top priority, He didn't say more important to the father, but a top priority more than any other relationships, He said, then you've got to pick up your cross and follow Me. You know, it was probably 10, probably 15 years ago before I actually figured that verse out. I mean, it's simple. I pick up a cross and follow Him, you know, and we know that usually they picked up a big cross bar because they were going to be nailed to a stake someplace. And the Romans, they had crucifixion down to a science. They nailed you to a cross bar, an X, what we call the traditional cross, a T. They even go now, they use scaffolding so they can do 10 people at a time. So they just carry your board so they can nail you up with this scaffolding and everybody be hanging in different heights and everything. An old trunk of a tree, it didn't matter. Wherever they could nail you, they nailed you. They had certain parts, certain places where they took people. This is what's interesting. See, you and I have never seen, except in a movie, someone actually carrying part of a cross to go out to be killed. These people did. These people, all had seen, all throughout Judea, they had seen someone dragging this board. That could be very heavy at times. Dragging this board with Roman soldiers spinning on them, kicking them, hitting them with whips, usually the crowd making fun of them, criminals, being taken out and just dragged through the street.

You must love me so much, Jesus said, that you will pick up this cross and you'll carry it. Here's the problem with that. It took me the longest time to figure it out. I kept asking God when I could put it down.

You know, you weren't walking through the streets of Jerusalem and one day you are all it off. You look at the Roman soldiers riding you say, oh, I've carried enough guys. I'm going to put it down. I'm going home. It's been fun, but I'm out of here. How long did you carry a cross?

See, they nailed you to it.

When he said pick up a cross, you know, this big heavy beam where they're going to go nail you to someplace. Understand what he's saying. You love me so much. You carry this. You carry this until you're nailed to it.

This relationship with Jesus Christ is a little more profound than sometimes we have given credence to.

I'm just using his words, so I don't have to interpret this, right? It's right there.

Well, you're not worthy, as it says in Luke. You're not worthy to be my disciple.

Disciple is a very interesting word.

Disciple, it doesn't mean pupil.

A disciple in Greek is someone who imitates the master.

You became like your teacher. Now, what do you think about? Let's think about it's 31 A.D. and there's 13 guys that come walking through your neighborhood. Preach it.

And you've heard of these guys because they just sort of go together as a group.

What would you do? Probably call the police. Why was Jesus and his disciples not considered weird?

They live in a culture where there were rabbis and there were not just pupils, there were disciples. In Eastern cultures today, they do the same thing. I mean, a Buddhist monk walks around with all his disciples behind him and they're imitated. They even dress like him. So that's not that unusual. Sometimes the Middle Eastern culture is Middle Eastern.

It's not always like we think of in the West. And at this time, it would not have been unusual to have a rabbi with his disciples, probably not as many as this, but a small group walking around. He was teaching them, talking, everybody was used to that. They walked with him, they ate with him, they saw him when he was frustrated, they saw him when he was angry, they saw him heal people. Everything he did was teaching them something. And they were supposed to imitate that. They were disciples, not just students. This begins to lay the foundation for our understanding of our relationship with Jesus Christ. That and the Passover. Actually, the Passover is where you start, but we'll cover that when we get to the Passover.

But we are not just pupils here, learning information. We are disciples. Now, if I said you were a disciple of the Father, that'd be sort of tough, wouldn't it? Well, wow! What's that? He's so great, he's so huge. How in the world do I even understand being a disciple of the Father? He's my Father. He takes care of me. He loves me. He forgives me. But how can I be an imitator of Him?

But there is someone who walked this earth who is just like us. You know, here in verse 7, it's very interesting, he said...

Well, I'll tell you what, this is good at John 8. I've already realized I have to skip a little, or cut a little out here. John chapter 8. John chapter 8. Verse 31. This is a more important point.

Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, they believed what He was teaching and probably believed He was the Messiah, or at least a great the emperor of God. So they had this trust that, okay, this is someone special. If you abide in my word, you are my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Abide in my word. That doesn't mean believe in what I say. Abide these, live. You must be immersed in what I teach. Absolutely immersed in it. You know, they have these immersion programs for people who learn different languages. They send them to another country, and you learn it by living with people around you, speaking a different language. That's what Jesus said to the disciples. You've got to be immersed in this. Absolutely immersed. Christianity has enough believers. Christ wants disciples.

Immerse in His Word.

You know, the old, what would Jesus do? The old cliche, W.W.J.D.

And maybe that seemed a little silly at the time, but the older I get, the more I think, that's not a bad idea to ask yourself that quite often. Am I immersed enough to ask, okay, how would Jesus handle this? Because now we're beginning to understand discipleship.

Because we say, how would God handle this? Ah, easy. He'd just wipe them out.

You know, God would just do a miracle. God would just, wait a minute. Let's look at Jesus Christ on the earth. Divinity in the flesh. And now let's say, okay, this is how we do it.

Perfect example. Perfect example in all the ways that we're supposed to live. It's interesting that the Messiah was also the interpreter of the law. If you go through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, I'm going to interpret the law for you, and it's a whole lot more expanded than what the rabbis have taught you. They told you, don't commit adultery. I'm telling you, you can't even lust after a person. Whoa! That's a huge expansion.

So he came along and said, I'm the Messiah. I'm going to expand it out. I'm going to interpret it. We should be obeying God through the interpretation of Jesus Christ. I can remember one time, years ago, Taki told me, and I said, how can you read the Sermon on the Mount and believe that you have to give up the law? Let's just talk about the Ten Commandments, specifically the Ten Commandments. He said, I don't keep any of the Ten Commandments. He had lots of reasons why he didn't have to.

And I said, how can you study that? Jesus said this, and his answer to me was, oh, wait a minute. Everything that Jesus said was wiped out at his death.

So nothing Jesus taught is what we're supposed to do. I understand. I didn't say this. I wish I would have. I said, I understand you're not a disciple of Jesus. You're just not. So there's no way you could even... We can't have a conversation. I'm speaking as a disciple of Jesus, and you're speaking as a parrot. I didn't say that. I was, you know, but...

It was a bizarre viewpoint. I have to admit, he's the only guy I've ever heard say that.

Now, we have this discipleship. You pick up this commitment to be a disciple. You carry this cross to your nail-to-t. That's what we do. Now, let's go to another passage that tells us the next step in this relationship.

Okay, Jesus is my teacher. He's my hero. He knows what's going on. I go to him and read what he said, did what he said, and I go to the Father and I say, I go to the Father because Jesus opens the door. And the Father says, carry a child. And then we look at the Father and we ask something.

Hebrews 2. Hebrews chapter 2.

Are you with me so far? Let me hit with the glasses so I can see. I have to read these to read. Of course, when you look at all of you, you're all really blurry. If you just stopped moving, you'd be okay. So, okay, we've just gone or no. You with me so far? We got this? Okay.

I won't ask for an amen. Hebrews 2 verse 9.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. No, that's the Passover. We understand that. You and I have no right to the holy God without a substitute because we're too flawed to go there. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things, by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory. Remember that term, sons to glory? To make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Verse 11. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified. In other words, he who is holy and makes things holy and those who are being made holy are all of one for which reason he, now the subject here is Jesus, he is not ashamed to call them what? brethren. I know Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I know Jesus Christ as the high priest, and I know Jesus Christ as the head of the church, and I know Jesus Christ as master, and I know Jesus Christ as teacher. I've had to go ask God to help me understand Jesus Christ as brother.

I've had to go ask it because he says, I'm not ashamed to be called your brother. I'd be ashamed to be called my brother if I was him. I mean, think about it.

Well, wait a minute. I wouldn't call Jesus my brother, but he says, yes, you are my sister. You are my brother. I'm not ashamed to call you my brother. This idea that he is a teacher is not based in an academic exercise. It's based in a family relationship. It's not based in an academic exercise. Okay, Jesus came as a doctor of theology. He came as a carpenter. Why? Don't you think he at least should have come as the high priest or something? No, he came as a carpenter. He came in a family relationship to teach in a certain way so that we can be imitators of him, not just his master. Look at verse 14. Inasmuch then, as the children have foretaken of flesh and blood, that's all of us, that's humanity, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil, and they release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He became like us because there's no way you and I understand how to become like God. So he became like us to show us, oh, this is how God acts. We're all made in the image of God. We're his children. We're just all messed up. So he came to say, let me as your brother, this is how deep this family relationship is, let me as your brother be your teacher. You ever watch a kid sometimes with an older brother? Now, I had a younger brother. I always wanted to be, he died when I was young. I always wanted his younger brother so I knew that he would imitate me, right? He would imitate me. They walked like their older brother. They talked like their older brother. They went to compete with their, you know, many of you know the dances.

All my nephews, you should have seen those boys compete with each other.

In fact, I tell this story. You could tell them this. They were all we little. No, the youngest one was too much of a baby. The other three of them were like, what, 10, 8, and 6 or something like that. And they decided, of course I was a little younger then, they decided they were going to take down Uncle Gary. It was an epic battle. It was just amazing. We fought for hours. It was just blood and screaming. No, it wasn't that bad. But it was, you know, the three of them all over me and me throwing little kids all over the place. I just, still to this day, I can remember I thought I was going to hurt myself. I was laughing so hard. Family relationships. I want to be like older brother. So that's what he came as.

He became like us so that we could understand God. You can't go to God and say, I've done this. God, you don't understand. I'll tell you what the answer is every time I say that. Oh, yeah? Well, he's sitting right next to me. Oh, yeah.

God, you know what it's like. He's right here, Gary.

I know what it's like. But we wouldn't believe him. I don't think we'd believe him. So somewhere in this enormous plan, it was decided the word would become flesh. That's exactly what it says. He became flesh. He became like us. Verse 16 says, for indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Hebrews 1 and 2 is all about angel worship. People were saying that Jesus was an angel, and this is an argument that he was not. But he actually became like us.

And here's why. Verse 17, therefore in all things he had to be made like what? His brethren, his brothers and sisters. That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, we'll get into the day of Atonement, we'll talk about high priests, that things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for that he himself has suffered being tempted. He is able to aid those who are tempted.

He suffered. He didn't have to learn anything new, but he did go through new experiences for us. So what do you mean? I think he ever got tired before. Now, he knew what tired was. You know how I know he knows what tired is? He designed it in us. He knew what pain was. He designed it. You can't design pain without knowing what pain is. That's not the point. The point is, okay, I'm going to have to go experience it and do just like them so they can see, yeah, I did do it all just like you. Just like my little creations, my little beings made out of dirt, I think my brethren, this is what we have. We have a brother that we are to walk like, talk like, be like, think like, and be proud of, and feel very, very bad when we disappoint him. Just like we feel bad when we disappoint dad, right? When we disappoint the father, we feel bad. And I'm always amazed by this Christ that's sitting there saying, Father, accept this child. That's what He does. Bring this child up. Bring this brother. Bring this sister. And the father says, come child. Come here, child. Come here, Bill. We haven't talked for a long time. Why are you in trouble? I was going to help you out, but man, you just were so upset on it. He always opens the door for us. And the father doesn't want us to forget that. He doesn't want us to forget it. Let's go back to Matthew 10, just for a minute here.

Matthew chapter 10. So once we begin to see Him as our master, our Lord, our teacher, so that we are now being taught to emulate, not just taught the intellectual knowledge, boy, this next step is even bigger. Oh, yeah. He's not an academic. He's our brother who teaches us.

He's our brother who teaches us. It is a real relationship.

In Matthew 10, as I said before, He's sending the disciples out for the first time. It's interesting because He spent all this time training them, all this time discipling them. And after a while, He said, okay, guys, you're going to have to go do it.

You're going to have to go out now and see if you can disciple people, because disciples tend to make other disciples. So go and make some disciples. Now don't go to this place. Go to the... You get very strict instructions. Don't take a lot of money with you. If you take money with you, people are going to think you're in it for the money. He gives them all these instructions. And then He says in verse 22, And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. That's interesting.

They were not persecuted. Jews were not persecuted at this point in the Roman Empire the same way Christians would be. Now they would be. Eventually, Jews would be persecuted, but it's because they tried to overthrow the Roman Empire. Twice. 70 AD and 130 AD. So twice they tried to overthrow the Roman Empire, and that's when the Romans really turned against them. At this point, the Jews had all kinds of special privileges all throughout the empire. You could take a Jew to court on the Sabbath day by Roman law. And so, as long as the Christians were a Jewish sect, the Jews let them alone, and the Romans let them alone. But very quickly, guess what? They were attacked for both sides.

The Jews said, Jesus isn't the Messiah.

And the Romans said, well, well, well, we'll accept Yahweh as a God, but Jesus is a kenning. That means you're committing treason against the empire.

We have only one king on this earth, one emperor, and they became persecuted for both sides. So he said, you're going to be persecuted for me. Now, you and I have not been persecuted for Jesus Christ. We might be persecuted because why? I would keep the Sabbath.

We're not even persecuted for our belief in God.

These people were persecuted because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Many of them died because they would not give up the name of Jesus Christ.

We can't get so far removed from this that we don't understand what they lived in.

He says, when they persecute you, verse 23, and this said, he flee to one another, or surely I say to you, you will not have gone through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher. Now, this is what it's all about. The disciples to be like his teacher and a servant like his master. He says, if they have called the master of the house Belzebub, demon-possessed, a man of Satan, how much more would they call those of his household? So he tells them, you may have to suffer persecution for his sake. He goes on and tells his disciples in verse 32, therefore whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. I want Christ to confess me before the Father because I want to go before the Father every time and have him say, Father, let this child come.

I don't want to ever have, Father, this child should not come. I don't want that to happen.

See, that's what he says. He confesses. He tells the Father, I died for this one.

Bring this one forward. This one has been called. This one deserves an answer. Sometimes it's not deserving or anything. I think God answered the prayers of people that were practically agnostics simply because that's just God's mercy. It's just who he is. You know, think about that. You go before God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said against His right hand says, let Mary come. Let this child come. That's what he does. And He says, that whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. That's a frightening statement. That worries me. That bothers me. Now let's go to John 13. Look at another passage where he gives instructions here to some of his disciples. John 13 verse 31.

I know afternoon services are tough because about this time everybody gets sleepy.

So stay with me here. Don't let me lose you yet.

John 13.31.

And so when he had gone out, Jesus said, now the Son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately. In other words, he says, I'm about to go through an experience you can't imagine because I'm going to return to the state I was in before I came here. So this is beyond you people. And then look how he starts the next little statement. Little children, brothers and sisters, let me tell you, you little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews where I am going, you cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment I give you that you love one another. Now, that's not a new commandment.

I can go to Leviticus and show you where there's a commandment that says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There's all kinds of commandments in the Torah that says to love one another. That's not a new commandment. The next part of it is that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also may love one another. He said, I define love. I define how this works. I define you watch me, you read me, you listen to me, you emulate me. That's how it works. So the new commandment is, do this the way I do it. That's his new commandment. And you can apply that to every law of God. Do it as he did it. Do it as he did it.

Now we have the example to show us how it works. The perfect brother, one that never did it. He never made a single mistake the whole time. But he knows what it's like to get tired and get sick and get frustrated with people. He knows what it's like to feel anger. Now, does God feel anger? Yes. Does God feel anger with an adrenaline burst? No. God doesn't have adrenaline. Right? Oh, yeah. Now, I find it interesting in John 17, at the end, he basically tells God, would you bring me home? I don't want to be here anymore. It's all messed up. These children have this amess.

But here we have this example that we can look forward to. Verse 35, By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love to one another.

Wow. People should look at us and be able to say, ah, what a relationship. What a relationship.

That's different. That's different. Is that what real Christianity is?

I wonder if we've ever... I don't think in the church we've ever fully, completely fulfilled verse 35. We struggle to. We try.

But that's a difficult one. Now, there's one other thing in this discipleship. As we are true disciples of a brother who is our teacher, there's a problem. No matter how much you try, you can't hide it.

We try to hide it, but you can't. The more you're like Jesus, the more people are going to say, there's something weird about that person. That person is different. You can't hide it.

So we have to accept that. In fact, not only do we have to accept it, we have to embrace it.

I love this little verse here in John 19, because this is what John doesn't say here that's fascinating to me. John 19. Verse 38.

After this, Joseph of Arithamaiah, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for the fear of the Jews.

Now, okay. I'm a disciple of Jesus. I do everything as he teaches, the way he teaches, I'm a follower of him. I believe he's the Messiah. I just don't want anybody to find out.

So he's a secret disciple of Jesus. And, you know, the problem is eventually he's going to act like Jesus and everybody's going to see it. And that's what's interesting is the rest of the sentence where it says, he asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body of Jesus. Now, you have to think about this a minute. If you're all the Jewish leaders that wanted him to die, what did you want to happen? You wanted him to get nailed up there to that stake, hung up there for a few days, and then dragged off and dumped in Gehenna. The garbage dump. That's what you wanted to happen to him. And this guy comes and asks for his body. Must be a disciple. By his very action, he revealed that he was a disciple. He couldn't hide it. He said, he's secret about it, but I want his body. Oh, you must be a disciple. It's the funny thing about it. You just can't because you just do. Now, when you do what he did, we tend to not fit in. We tend to not fit in. It's the little things. It's the things we don't think about. Because if we're his disciples, we represent him. We're expected to disciple others. You know, that's what a congregation is supposed to do. I can't disciple anybody on television. I can just throw out information at them. Disciples made through relationships.

Disciples made through... I can't disciple anybody. We've had that discussion a hundred times. How can we use the program to disciple people? At the end of the discussion, we can't. Unless we go sit in their living room and talk to them, we can't. We can only bring them so far.

We disciple people through relationships, that they also become part of the family, that they also begin to understand who the father is. They begin to understand who the older brother is. They understand, oh, we have to imitate him. And we're a whole bunch of people, very poorly but trying desperately to imitate our older brother. That's what we are.

And it's the little things. You know, I read a story years ago. It was a fascinating little story. It was an American GI after World War II. He was in Germany and he was devastated by the destruction. There was just destruction everywhere. He was living in a house. He had to drive his Jeep into wherever he worked every day. And there were tens of thousands of children. I don't know what city was in. Just all over the place. Poor, hungry, many of them had tattered clothes. Some of them were orphans. And they had not been able to bring chaos or order out of this chaos yet. It was just horrible. And the one place that was still open on this route he would take was a bakery. And one day he's driving by the bakery and there's this little guy, old German child, all tattered, standing there with his face glued to the glass. Just looking because the guys that are baking bread that he can't have. So the guy stopped his Jeep, got out, went in.

He asked the little boy, I guess he knew a little German, he asked him, would you like something? And he said, yes, sir. So he went in and he bought him 12 big pastries. Now that's probably not the best thing for him, but especially a kid who's probably suffering from malnutrition. But he got him 12 big pastries. And he brought out and he handed them to him. And he was walking over to the Jeep, you know, feeling pretty good about himself, and he felt his tongue on the back of his jacket. He turned around, a little boy had fallen, he was pulling on his jacket. Little boy looked at him a little bit, stared at him and said, are you God?

Now I thought about that story because I've wondered how many times in my life that someone came up to me who's hopeless, who's at a dead end, who has no place to go, and says, are you one of those disciples of Jesus Christ? Isn't that what Christian means? That's what it means. I can honestly say I've never had anybody ask me that. Are you one of those disciples? Are you one of those people?

Think of the hope we actually can have if we can break through all these shackles and become disciples of a brother. How well do you know the practices, the teachings of Jesus Christ? It is possible to intellectually accept Jesus Christ. But remember what I said? There's plenty of believers out there, what Jesus wants, his disciples. That's what he said. Come be my disciple. That word is powerful. It has meaning beyond what we usually give to it. Come be my disciple. Come follow me. Come be immersed in me. My words abide in you.

That Paul would even talk about how Christ abides in us. He lives in us through the Spirit. Remember, Christ leads us to focus on the Father. It is wrong to emphasize Jesus at the cost of the Father. And I know there's groups that do that, especially in the Pentecostal world, but we should not do that. It is the Father He leads us to. But remember who's the door? Remember who opens the door? Remember who says, follow me. Do as I do. And I'll help you do that. He's there helping us do that. Do what I do.

That means you're going to have to study those Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Spend some time in here. And what you do, every time you see Christ, every time you see Jesus, every time you think where He is now, remember one little thing.

Because if this can't motivate us, I don't know what will. And He says, I am not ashamed to call you brethren.