Are You a Follower - Really? - Part B

It's one thing to say you are something when you're not something. And my great concern is those who claim to be Christ followers and have no concept of lordship.

So hey, when does the Lord part kick in? Submission. And welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Division. It's rather interesting just how much fans identify with their team. They wear the team colors, they know all the players by name. They even use the inclusive term we as though they're part of the team and all that happens on the field.

In short, it's never hard to spot a true fan of any sports team. Well, today in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Skip Heitzig points out that as a follower of Jesus, that should be also true of us as Christians. We'll get today's study started here in just a moment. But first, we have a great new resource for you this month at connectwithskip.com. Joy in the midst of hardship is a hallmark of the Christian life.

But is it really possible? Here's Lenya Heitzig. Sometimes what starts out as a happy trail turns into a really daunting road. And we have to figure out how to navigate. A lot of times God's purpose in allowing trials is to give us opportunities to grow to the point where we genuinely experience joy in the midst of trials. Learn how to face trials with courage, wisdom, and yes, joy with Lenya's booklet, Happy Trials. And when you give $20 or more today to help keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, we'll send you a special bundle of three booklets by Lenya, Happy Trials, Don't Tempt Me, and Speak No Evil. In Don't Tempt Me, I hand you the keys to unlock the thoughts, circumstances, and fears that can cause you to give into temptation. And in Speak No Evil, I encourage you to avoid setting fires with your words and instead use them to bring showers of blessing.

Get your bundle of three booklets when you give $20 or more by calling 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. We'll continue today through John chapter one. So if you'll open your Bible, let's join Skip Heidze for more of this study. The word in Greek meno, it means abide or remain or stay, staying. It's a key word because in John chapter 15, that's what Jesus describes discipleship with, that word meno.

Abide in me and I will abide in you as the branch and the vine abide together and you will by abiding bring forth fruit. That's the word for staying. Lord, where are you staying? So what the disciples are doing when Jesus said, what do you want? Is they're answering it by saying, where are you staying? Because we'd like to come closer and abide with you and get more information directly from you. That's what they were asking. They want to hang out with Jesus.

They want further instruction and I love it. Jesus says in verse 39, he said to them, come and see. He didn't give them information.

He didn't say, okay, go down the street, turn left at the third block and it's the last house on the right. Instead of information, he gives them an invitation. Come and see, check it out. It says they came and they saw. Jesus' invitation is met by their submission. Before I get into that, this is what I just want you to look at. Right here, this little nugget in this verse, here's a beautiful portrait of discipleship.

This is what it's like. You come to Jesus for whatever reason. You're searching, you're lonely, you're hurting and at whatever stage, for whatever reason, you come to Jesus. But then what happens is you read your Bibles, you start to hear his voice in the word of God and see him more clearly and you move from coming to Christ to abiding in Christ. There's intimacy there's depth and I would say Jesus today is bidding us to do that, to abide with him, to grow close to him because nothing will satisfy us like that.

But I want you to look back at the text. Notice the difference because there's not much between what Jesus says and what they did. What Jesus said was come and see. Now notice the next sentence, they came and saw.

What does that tell me? It tells me that Jesus' invitational command was met by their obedience to that command. He said come, they came.

He said see, they saw. And that's because that's what disciples will do. True disciples will do what he said. True disciples won't go why?

Well tell me where it is first. Well maybe I don't want to right now. True disciples will submit.

In fact I'll put it to you more strongly. The real test of a disciple is submission. Well how can you tell if a person's really a disciple? Real easy. Are they submitting to his commands? That's pretty cut and dry. It's pretty simple. It's really the proof. In Luke chapter 6 Jesus will say why do you call me Lord and you don't do the things that I tell you? Okay I want to apply that. At some point in following and following Jesus Christ, at some point in our Christian walk, we're going to have to deal with this concept called lordship.

I know you've heard of that. Lordship. It means he's the boss. It means he gets to call the shots. He's in charge. God is in our co-pilot. You give him the keys.

He runs the thing. We have to come to grips with this thing called lordship and one of the most beautiful things you could ever say is Jesus is Lord. We even sing that in our songs. I love you Lord and I lift my voice. Fairest Lord Jesus. Awesome Lord. However there can be unfortunately a difference between our formal theology and our practical theology.

It can be compartmentalized. What we say we believe and what we really believe can be miles apart. So here's the deal and see if you agree with this. If Jesus is your Lord only on Sunday but not on Monday, not on Tuesday, not Wednesday, Thursday, not Friday night or Saturday, just Sunday, then is he Lord? If you have to be honest you'd have to say well he's one seventh Lord. He's Lord that day. But the test of discipleship is obedience.

It's possible to believe something but really believe something else. I love the story about the little goat who said he was a lion. Of course he was lion. He was a goat. But he said he was a lion because deep in his heart he wanted to be a lion and so he believed that if he could talk and walk and go where lions go that he'd be a lion.

So he practiced every day. First day he decided I'm gonna learn to walk majestically like a lion so he would try to have that majestic gait that a lion has in the jungle. Can you picture a goat with that little swishy tail and trying to be a lion?

If you believe that he was doing a pretty good job of it he's walking like a lion. The next day he thought okay I gotta I gotta get the roar down. I gotta learn to talk like a lion.

So that pitiful little bleat he tried to you know roar and it just was horrible but he thought it was pretty good. So the next day he thought okay I've learned to walk like lions walk. I've learned to talk like lions talk if I just now go where lions go. So the next day at 12 noon lunchtime he went where lions went.

He went where lions went. End of story. End of goat. Because it's one thing to say you are something when you're not something. Now my great concern is those who claim to be Christ followers and have no concept of lordship. So hey when does the lord part kick in? Submission. Disciples respond to his commands.

That's the third characteristic. Now I don't want you to miss this because we're tempted to miss this. Look at the end of verse 39. Notice in parenthesis it says now it was about the 10th hour. Who cares what time it is? Yeah it's funny that it's the first time the disciples see Jesus the lamb of God.

All of this great stuff. Oh by the way let me tell you what time it was. And if you ask questions of the bible and you should you should say what's this about?

Let me tell you what it's about. First of all some of your bibles might say four o'clock in the afternoon. Disregard that. That's because those particular translators believe that John was reckoning time according to Jewish time when he's not. He's reckoning it according to a Roman time which was 10 o'clock in the morning.

Matthew, Mark and Luke do all of their timing by Jewish time but John does it by Roman time and that solves a lot of problems in the gospel. Oh and by the way it says they went where he was staying and remained with him that day. If it's four o'clock in the afternoon there's not much of a day left. If it's 10 in the morning which I believe it was you got that day to hang out with Jesus.

Okay but back to the point. Who cares what day it is? Who cares what time it is? Well who wrote the gospel? John. Who was the other disciple not mentioned? John. Now you're gonna I'm giving you a little heads up in verse 40 we're told who one of the disciples is. It's Andrew and you read a little bit later and the third guy is Peter, Andrew's brother. But there's this unnamed other disciple that I submit to you is John because John never names himself and moreover he puts the time down.

Who cares? John cares. John wrote it's 10 o'clock in the morning because John remembered what happened one January morning at 10 o'clock. His life changed. One January morning and it was 10 o'clock John saying I'll never forget it. When he wrote John it was 60 years after this event but it was to him like yesterday. I'll never forget it was 10 o'clock. It was 10 o'clock. It was the dividing point in my life when I met Jesus Christ and everything changed.

Isn't that beautiful? And it was 10 in the morning because he wrote it and he experienced it. Here's the fourth characteristic of discipleship. It is mission.

Mission and here's the principle. Disciples want to make other disciples. Verse 40. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah which is translated the Christ. Now I read that to you like we typically read it but do you think that he said it like that?

Do you think he said it like that? Do you think having found the Messiah for 4,000 years every Jewish person's been waiting for the Messiah and he's convinced Jesus is the Messiah. Do you think he went up to him and said we found the Messiah. Cool huh?

No he said we found the guy. The Messiah. The Mashiach of the Old Testament. The Mashiach in Aramaic. The Christos in Greek. The anointed one. What an exciting moment.

What a wonderful statement. We have found the Christ. And verse 42. He brought him to Jesus.

Here's what I love about Andrew. He couldn't keep it to himself. He had to tell somebody. That's what disciples do.

Disciples want other disciples. And so he goes back to his own family. He tells Peter.

He tells Peter. Just a little hint about Andrew. Every time you find Andrew in the Gospels you know what you're going to find him doing? Bringing people to Jesus. He was the disciple who found the boy with four loaves and two fish and brought him to Jesus. He is the guy who in chapter 12 takes a group of Greek seekers and brings them to Jesus. I love Andrew because unfortunately he's always known as Simon Peter's brother.

He's in Simon Peter's shadow because we all know about Peter but Andrew we don't think much about. He didn't say much. He didn't write any books. He didn't preach any great sermons. But he always brought people to Jesus.

Beautiful, beautiful story. Mission. And he went first to his own family members. That makes sense. I did that.

I did that. Now Peter responded. My family was not quite as apt to do that.

I remember it was San Jose California. It was in July. I had prayed to receive Christ. I was so excited and I thought first thought was I got to tell my mom and dad. They're going to be so happy because they're so worried about me. They think I'm such a flake and I've gone off the deep end. They're going to be so thrilled when I tell them I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm going to tell my brothers they're going to be so excited.

Boy was I in for a shock. I told them that I had met Jesus and my parents said I'm not nice. And my brother said what are you nuts.

And my friends wanted nothing to do with me. But the greater point I want to make is this. There seems to be almost an automatic chain reaction when a true disciple is pursuing Jesus. He just has to tell other people. He wants to spread the good news and tell people about Jesus. By the way you know what the word Andrew means. It means manliness. He was no wimp. He was a fisherman.

Blue collar worker. Worked with his brother and his dad on the Sea of Galilee. He was a man's man and he's bringing people to Jesus. Real men aren't ashamed to tell others about Jesus.

And this man was telling his brother about him. Now I just mentioned a point ago about the difference between formal theology and practical theology. And how we want to bring them together. As we grow in Christ we want to bring what we believe in our heads doctrinally, cerebrally and live practically that. Now every Christian loves the gospel. You can ask any Christian who's a Christian do you love the gospel. I love the gospel. I love this story of how God came out of heaven and died for my sins and rose from the dead. I love that. But a disciple wants to share that. A disciple is never content to go to heaven alone.

Wants to spread the news. Mission. That's the fourth characteristic. Here's the fifth and final characteristic in our paragraph. Transformation. Transformation.

And here's the principle. Disciples don't stay in a rut. They grow. They grow. That means today you're growing.

And next week you'll be growing. And a year from now you'll be growing in Christ. Verse 42. After he brought him to Jesus. Now look at this. Now when Jesus looked at him he said you are Simon the son of Yonah.

You shall be Cephas which is translated a stone. Jesus looked at Simon. How did he look at Simon? Or how did he look at him? We say well we don't know.

Well actually we do know because the word is very descriptive in Greek. It means he looked intently. He gazed.

You might say he stared at him. How would that feel? First time you meet Jesus. Hey Jesus how you doing? Just whoa.

You could translate it. Jesus saw right through Peter. Let me tell you what's going on. Jesus sees Peter as he is. But he also sees Peter as what he'll become. As what he'll become. Not just who he is now but what he will become when he is transformed and changed.

Notice the wording. You are Simon. You shall be Cephas. Which is Aramaic for petros in Greek or a small stone or a rock. Now Simon was his birth name. That's what his dad and mom called him. Simon.

Everybody called him Simon. Jesus meets him and says I'm renaming you. You get a new name.

You get a Jesus name. Rocky. You're a chip off the old rock. Now if you know Peter and most of you do.

You know the stories about Peter. This was not his personality. He wasn't rock solid at all. He was maybe sandy would have been a better term for him. He shifted like sand through his whole life right. Because you remember Matthew 16.

He was the guy who said he got the answer right. You are the Christ the son of the living God. But then right after that when Jesus said he was going to be betrayed in Jerusalem and die. Peter steps forward and goes no way Lord.

That's not going to happen to you. And Jesus says get behind me Satan. He goes from getting an A on the test to flunking it.

He goes from being Rocky to Sandy. That was his whole life on the Mount of Transfiguration. Remember the story Jesus is transfigured with Moses and Elijah. Remember which disciple was the first one to talk. Peter.

Remember what he said. Something really really profound. Ready.

Peter sees and goes it is good that we are here. What is that. Duh. Yes.

This is cool. And then he goes let's build three condominiums right here right now. Tabernacles is the Bible word one for you one for Moses and one for Elijah and God has to interrupt him and say this is my beloved son listen to him. In other words Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane who was it that tried to defend Jesus with a sword. Peter aren't you glad he was a fisherman not a swordsman.

I know he was trying to cut off his head he missed and got his ear. I was Peter. And on the rooftop in Joppa Acts Chapter 10. Peter's there and he sees a vision of a sheep being led down from heaven with four footed beasts and and the Lord gives him a commandment. Peter rise kill and eat and in his sweet submissive tone Peter goes not so Lord. Not so Lord. Again Peter when does Lord kick in. But that was Peter over time before he became what Jesus anticipated he would become rock solid. He was sandy until he became rocky.

It took a long long long time. But aren't you encouraged by that. Aren't you encouraged by the fact that when Jesus looks at people he sees the potential.

He just doesn't see us for who we are. He knows that but he sees what will become you are this but you will be that. That's transformation. That is transformation because what happened to Peter well he became a leader in the early church. He became the author of two New Testament epistles. He became the source for the Gospel of Mark. He preached on Pentecost and he had such a rock solid faith and a rock solid commitment that he was crucified upside down and did not deny his Lord. After appropriately named the rock Jesus anticipated that. So that's transformation disciples don't stay in a rut they grow and I'm glad that Jesus knows what I'm becoming and I love that process. I want to close with something right out of this book again Juan Carlos Ortiz because I think it sums up everything we've been saying this morning. In this paragraph the author is referring to the words of Jesus when he said in the book of revelation I wish that you were cold or hot and not lukewarm because if you're lukewarm I'll spew you out of my mouth.

And so the author writes this excuse me for this illustration but it comes from Jesus himself. What things do we vomit. There are things that we won't digest. If something is digested it doesn't come back up.

Vomited people are people who refuse to be digested by the Lord Jesus Christ and digestion means getting lost. You're finished. Your life ends. You're transformed into Jesus. You are unmistakably associated with him.

Here in Argentina we have very good steaks. Let's imagine that the steak comes to my stomach and the gastric juices come along to dissolve it and they say to the steak good evening how are you and the steak replies fine what do you want and they say well we have come to dissolve you to transform you into Juan Carlos Ortiz and suppose the steak says no wait a minute now it's enough that he ate me but to disappear completely no I'm in his stomach but I want to stay steak I don't want to lose my individuality I want to want to lose my individuality I want to maintain my steak citizenship well so there's a fight and suppose the steak wins and the gastric juices let him remain a stake in my stomach very soon that steak will be vomited out but if the gastric juices win the fight the steak loses its personality and becomes me and then he puts in parentheses before I ate the steak it was an unknown cow behind the hill nobody paid any attention to it but now because it is dissolved it gets to write a book I leave that with you to think about the more you are dissolved into Christ and lose you and become dominated by an alien will the more useful you will become to God's kingdom well I bet you never look at eating steak quite the same way again but then it is a good illustration of what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus some people fear that becoming a Christian means losing themselves but the truth is when we become a Christian when we're a disciple of Christ when we truly follow Jesus that's when we really find ourselves and who we were really meant to be and if that's something you'd like to do but aren't quite sure how to take that first step let us help you give us a call at 1-800-922-1888 and we'll tell you how to begin as a follower of Jesus and if you'd like a copy of today's teaching it's available for just four dollars plus shipping when you call us at 1-800-922-1888 or when you visit connectwithgip.com we'll continue with our study of the Gospel of John in this series Believe 879 next time so I hope you can join us here in Connect with Skip weekend division a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection, connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.