The Fine Print Of Following - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

You see, Peter said that, look, let me answer you again. You're the Messiah. You see, you are the Messiah. The Messiah is going to be the Davidic king. He's not only going to be king over Israel, he's going to be king over the whole world. That's who you are. What's his talk about everybody getting angry at you and then you're going to be killed? Peter has his own agenda for Jesus. And so do many of you. You have an agenda.

And you want Jesus to be what you want Jesus to be in your life. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. According to one source that I read this past week, this phrase was added to our everyday conversations in 1951. The phrase goes like this. You should always read the fine print before you sign on the dotted line. I'm not sure why it was 1951.

Maybe that's when they invented many fonts for typewriters. But I do know this, that all of us have seen this and all of us are wary of this. So often on television, you'll see a deal that's a wonderful deal and it's something you may really want. And the big numbers on the top of the screen are just exactly what you're looking for. We can afford that.

That looks really good. And then the bottom maybe quarter of the screen is minute fine print. And even if you stop the screen right there and walk up, it's almost impossible to read the fine print. But you better read it because in that fine print, you'll find reality. In that fine print, it'll contain the conditions and the terms of what it is that you are purchasing. What a product truly is, is almost always in our culture found in the fine print.

And if you ignore the fine print, you ignore it at your own peril. A couple of weeks ago, I started a series called Simply Follow. Jesus Christ inviting us to follow him. And last time I talked about the fact that one of the great products that if you follow Christ, living in this cursed, fallen world in all of the tragedy and difficulties that are around you, you can have peace. That you can have peace instead of anxiety, instead of worry, and especially instead of fear. Now, Jesus also says during his gospel ministries that he's come and not only given us peace, he gives us the potential to have joy. He said the joy is regardless again of the circumstances. In fact, he says to us, it's my joy that I will give to you. And he speaks often of hope. So we can have joy instead of misery and we can have peace instead of fear and we can have hope instead of despair. Now, the only problem that I've observed is simply this. So many of us don't have that.

There are so many people that I've met over such a long period of time. They don't have peace. They don't have joy. And they don't have hope.

And I think maybe the problem is that they never read the fine print. And that's what I want to look at this morning. Would you open your Bibles to Mark chapter eight? Mark chapter eight, beginning in verse twenty seven, where we get the context of this.

Mark eight, verse twenty seven, Mark writes this. He says Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Now, the villages of Caesarea Philippi are north about twenty five miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

It's way up there. The palace that was built there was built there by Herod Philippi. Herod Philippi built this palace for Caesar Augustus.

The whole area then became known as, as it's described here, Caesarea after Caesar and Philippi after Philip. And on his way, Jesus questions his disciples. And he asked this very penetrating question. Who do people say that I am? Now, it's an interesting question, and it's not the only place Jesus has said this. The other gospels talk about it, too. Who do people say that I am?

And the answers come from all over the map. People have all kinds of ideas of who Jesus Christ is because he's so extraordinary. And they told him, John the Baptist. It was interesting, remember, when John was here, they asked John who he was. They said, are you the Messiah? Are you Elijah? They say, John the Baptist. Others say that you are Elijah, the great prophet that will be here before the coming of the Messiah. And they said, but others, you're just one of the prophets, one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. And Jesus continued questioning them, and he said, let me put it this way, who do you say that I am? And here in Mark, you get kind of the short answer. What's interesting is the gospel Mark was dictated by Peter through Mark.

So this is the short answer from Peter. Peter answered and said to him, you're the Christ. You are the Christ. Christos, you are the Messiah.

You are the Messiah. Just that simple. And you know, Peter must have felt at that time like, I know this. You know, you ever sit in a class and they're asking questions and one person after another is missing it? And then you go, but I know this. And then the teacher, the professor says to you, and then you give the answer. Do you know how that feels? Well, maybe some of you don't. But the point is, it feels great. You had the right answer.

You see, you had the right answer. And I'm sure Peter felt that way. And the first thing that Jesus says must have been a little bit shocking. And he warned them to tell no one about them. Keep this quiet.

Wow. Keep it quiet. I thought the whole point was to proclaim it all. No, not this. It's not time yet. It will be soon.

Let's keep this quiet. And then he began to teach the disciples. He says the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed.

And after three days, rise again. I couldn't imagine Peter thinking of anything worse to hear than that. Peter was so happy that he had the right answer to that question. But then Jesus says, don't tell anyone. And now Jesus says, oh, by the way, this is what's going to happen to me. And Peter has to be thinking, I didn't sign up for that. Not that.

No. You see, Peter said that, look, let me answer you again. You're the Messiah. You see, you are the Messiah. The Messiah is going to be the Davidic King. He's not only going to be king over Israel, he's going to be king over the whole world. That's who you are.

What's this talk about everybody getting angry at you and then you're going to be killed? Peter has his own agenda for Jesus. And so do many of you. You have an agenda. And you want Jesus to be what you want Jesus to be in your life. You see, what Peter was thinking was what I want here. Look, I want the kingdom. I want the glory. I want the blessings. That's what I want. Not this talk.

We do the same kind of thing. That's what I want. I want my agenda. You see, so many of us say, you know, it's just wonderful that I believe in Jesus. And now Jesus will be here to give me all the things in life that I really want. You sort of add Jesus Christ to your life like you add your best investments to your portfolio.

Or Jesus becomes a tremendous hobby to you and you just love doing it on the weekends. But that's not what the scripture says. So he was stating the matter plainly and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. First of all, Peter, didn't you just say he was the Messiah? Why would you rebuke him?

It's brazen. You see, because he's a lot like we are. I know what I want out of this. And I don't want to even hear about what he's talking about. Well, turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebukes Peter and now it even gets more shocking. Get behind me, Satan.

Wow. Peter was just thinking, man, I wonder if he'll put a star on my forehead. I wonder if he'll do something to recognize this great answer I just gave. And now I believe he just called me Satan. Jesus knows where that answer came from. Jesus knows where the rebuke comes from. You see, Satan doesn't want the cross. Satan understands the magnitude of the cross. And Peter says, you know, I don't want the cross either. But Jesus says there's no crown without the cross.

It won't work that way. Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's. There's our problem.

Your dilemma is just like ours. This teaching moment comes then to Jesus. He decides I need to tell everybody this, not just the 12.

And in verse 34, he summoned the crowd and his disciples. He says, look, you need to understand something here. You guys are getting real confused about the agenda thing. You didn't come here to fulfill your agenda. That's not why I'm here. You say I'm here to die for your sins.

That's why I'm here. And I know that I've asked you to follow me and you want to but you want to follow me conditionally. That is, I'd love to follow you as long as the kingdom and the blessing and the glory are part of it. So Jesus says, wow, you haven't really read the contract very well, have you? What it means to follow. And so Jesus uses this as a teaching moment and he gives the terms of the agreement. He said if anyone wishes to come after me, what's that mean?

Anyone want to follow me? Anyone who wants to come after me. He says it to the disciples.

He says it to the crowd. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. That's the first condition.

That's the first thing you find in the small print. He must deny himself. He didn't say he should deny himself. You see, he didn't say that. He said he must deny himself. What's really interesting is this word deny is it's sort of a compound word. Apapa saastho.

Apapa saastho. Not easy to say, but the word means, it's an emphatic word. Yeah, it means to emphatically say no to yourself.

But it also has come to mean and is used in other terms to mean to disown. Or to refuse to associate with. You must disown yourself. Refuse to associate with yourself.

Emphatically say no to yourself. He said that's what has to happen. Mark Bailey, who's the president of Dallas Seminary, several years ago wrote a book to follow him. Highly recommend the book, The Seven Characteristics of a Follower of Jesus Christ. And right in the middle of the book is this characteristic about denying yourself and taking up your cross. And Mark calls this chapter of his book, Bring Your Own Cyanide.

He captures it. That's exactly what Jesus means. Disown yourself. You say, well, wait a minute. This seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it?

No, he doesn't. By the way, it does seem, though, like a very definitive thing in your life. And if you're not experiencing the joy and the peace and the hope in your life, there's a very good chance you have not done this. I want you to show someone who has done it, the apostle Paul. Go with me first to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2.

Paul will sort of give you the reason for his perspective. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Paul understands that when he put his faith and trust in Christ, how strong that identification is. He's now completely identified with Christ. The New Testament says he is now in Christ, and Christ is in him. So Paul says in verse 20, he says, I have been crucified with Christ.

He elaborates on that in Romans chapter 6. He said, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live.

Wow. But Christ lives in me. He said, it's no longer me. I deny myself. I disown myself.

I don't associate with myself. That's Paul's statement. He said, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. See, Paul's whole identification is, he is not my life. I deny myself. I say no to me. I say yes to him. You see, that's a very important condition. Do you say no to yourself and yes to Christ?

See, if you don't, you're not really following, and if you're not really following, you forget about the joy and the peace and the hope. It's not going to happen. You see, if you apply this in a sense to your own life, you end up saying things like, I can't go there. I can't do that. I can't date them.

I can't work there. You see, I can't because of him. Now, you might be thinking, yeah, but I have a lot on the ball. I'm an impressive person, and I like the idea of adding Jesus to me, and we make a good team as long as it's about me. And then Jesus is there to help. Well, I don't think you're as impressive as Paul. I want you to go with me now to Philippians 3, and Paul addresses that.

Verse 4, this is what Paul says. He said, you know, I know how humans like to brag. In fact, Paul, I think, would tell you that he was a human who used to brag. And Paul said, but I had good reason to brag because I was really impressive.

He says in verse 4, although I myself might have confidence, even in the flesh, he said, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. You know what he's saying? He's saying this to you and to me. I'm more impressive than you. In the flesh, I'm more impressive than you. Well, he says, what's that mean?

He'll show you. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel. I'm one of the chosen people. He said, of the tribe of Benjamin, the finest tribe. The tribe that was first in the battle. To be in the tribe of Benjamin is to be the best of them all.

He said, that was me. He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. You understand I'm just not just Jewish. I'm the most Jewish, Jewish person you could meet.

I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He said, and as to the law, which is what, remember, what defines the Hebrew. He said, as a matter of the law, he said, Pharisee. A Pharisee.

Now, that has a terrible ring to us, but it had an impressive ring then. The Pharisees were probably the most impressive people in Israel. I've said in the past that if you had a daughter, you would pray that she would one day marry a Pharisee. Everybody respected the Pharisees.

They were the most devout, most religious people you could ever meet. And Paul says, I was a Pharisee. You see, I was the Jew of Jews. Benjamin, Israel, eighth day circumcised.

He's not done. He then says, as the zeal, I was a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness which is found in the law, blameless. Think of that word, blameless. You mean nobody had the dirt on Paul or Saul of Tarsus now When it came to keeping the law, I kept it.

At least overtly where you could see it, you couldn't blame me. He said, I was zealous. A Pharisee of the Pharisees. You see, that's Paul saying, that's who I am. More importantly, it's Paul saying, that's who I used to be.

That's who I was. Now watch what he says. Whatever things were gained to me, these things, he said, I counted as loss. For the sake of Christ. I deny them. Because I deny me. I disown them. Because I disown me. He said more than that. He said, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ my Lord. Whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I count them, he says, but rubbish that I may gain Christ. Some translations more accurately where it says rubbish says dung. So you say to Paul, all the things you've accomplished. Your heritage and who you are and how religious you were. How do you look at all that?

Dung. Wow. Yeah, he said, I deny it all. See, Paul understood what it was to deny yourself.

He got that idea. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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