Jesus Unfiltered - Follow - What's it Mean to Follow Jesus?, Part 2

What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Does it mean a life following a rigid set of rules and regulations? Is it about doing this and not doing that?

Or could it be a catalyst for the most fulfilling, peace-filled life that you could ever imagine? Could following Jesus be about a deep relationship that transforms how you think and how you live? That's today. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. And as he just teased, in this program we're picking up in our series, Jesus Unfiltered, by continuing to look at what it means to follow after Jesus wholeheartedly. There's a lot to get to, so let's join Chip in John chapter 8 as the Pharisees are scrambling to respond to Jesus' claim, Before Abraham was born, I am.

Well, here's Chip. This is the climax. Do you remember in Exodus chapter 3 when Moses was asking God, he says, you know, I don't think I'm up to the job and I can't deliver Egypt and boy, if I go, they're going to ask who sent you and who am I going to say? And God's name, Elohim, the great creator, the general word for God, but his covenant name he'd never shared with anyone. And God says, take off your shoes, it's holy ground.

And man, I mean, he's there and then the bush is flaming but not consumed. And then God speaks out of it and says, tell them I am that I am sent you. I am the ever present one. I'm the ever existing one. I have no beginning and I have no end.

Tell them I am sent you. And Jesus now is saying, the I am of Exodus 3 is me. I am one with the Father. And by the way, they did not miss his point. At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself slipping away from the temple grounds. Now notice, can you just look at chapter 9? We won't get into it, but notice the very next line because it may be shocking, but these numbers are actually not in the original text. So some of these stories actually go beyond the chapters. As he went along, so the idea right after this, he saw a blind man from birth and his disciples ask him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?

And you've heard the story. And what he's now going to do after being with blind, intelligent people who think they can see, he's going to take a man physically and heal him from birth miraculously so he can see. And this man will have more spiritual knowledge than any of the religious leaders because he follows the light of the world, not their own personal light in view of the world. Does that make sense? So you have the context, Feast of Tabernacles.

You have this heated debate with these outrageous claims. You have the climax where Jesus says, for sure, I'm God. I'm the only hope of the world.

We now know what happened then for that group. If we would ask the question, why should anyone follow Jesus? One, he's the light of the world. Two, you'll die in your sins. Three, he's one with the Father. Four, the Father testifies with him. Five, he's never sinned. Six, he'll be the judge.

Seven, he's one with God. I mean, if you were there on that day, you either believe that, and that is the light and the truth, testified by miracles and fulfillment of prophecy, or you reject it. Here's my question. What's it mean to us?

I mean, that's what it meant to them. If we dip back into the text and said, why should we follow Jesus in the 21st century, not the first century? How would God whisper from this passage to us? And I want to suggest that there is a powerful, powerful promise to claim from this passage. There is a important command to obey, and there's an amazing example to follow. And if we will kind of look at that, we're going to say, oh, this is why I should follow Jesus as the light of the world.

You ready? Get your pen out, because I want you to jot down a couple things I think would really help you. The promise to claim is from verse 12. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. You might circle the word follows, if you will, in your notes. It's a present participle. It means whoever continues to follow me. It means there's a relationship.

It means it's ongoing. Notice there's a negative. You'll never walk in darkness, but there's a positive. You'll have the light of life. If you would, and I'll just ask you if you would, turn, if you will, to 1 John. It's by the same author. Go all the way to the back of your Bible.

In fact, if you get to Revelation, very last book, turn left. And there's three short little epistles, same author. Sometimes, especially when the same author addresses the same subject, he gives us much more clarity, because he's telling Jesus' story, but now in 1 John, he's actually writing to them about what it means to be a follower and how to know if you're a genuine follower of Christ. And notice this idea of light, picking it up at verse 5. This is the message we've heard from him and declare to you. 1 John 1, verse 5. God is light. In him, there is no darkness at all.

And then notice the premise. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us, or literally, it's keep on cleansing us from all sin. So what's it mean? It means that you have the light of life. It means that you never have to walk in darkness. It means you have the very light in the presence. Like, sometimes, you know, we read the Bible and we think, wouldn't it be great if there was a light over our house or over my car or maybe over my head that I could only see? And whenever it moved, I would move. And this decision, go here.

Wouldn't that be great? Jesus is saying, I'm that. It's not over your head, and it's not over a tabernacle.

It's inside the temple, and you're it. And I will come, and I will not just forgive you, but I will live in you, and I'll direct your life. And as you walk in the light, as you would read all of 1 John, he's going to say, walking in the light has two primary, one is a vertical relationship and the other is horizontal. Walking in the light is walking in holiness before God.

Walking in the light horizontally is walking in love. And he'll give you five or six tests throughout the 1 John. He goes, If I say I love God and hate my brother, I'm a liar, and the truth's not in me.

If I say I love God and habitually continue to sin, I'm a liar, and the truth's not in me. When I was growing up, I was a typical American family, both mom and dad, school teachers, both with advanced degrees, both good, smart people, both from good homes. Dad was a veteran. And on the outside, we looked good. We got good grades. We played sports.

I got a scholarship. We lived in, you know, little cul-de-sac communities. But we were walking in darkness. We actually went to church regularly. I mean, no one believed the Bible and no one believed it was really true, but we went to church, went through the motions, sit in the old stand.

You say this, I say that, repeat after me. Glad we got that done, but that's what good people do. We walked in darkness. As my dad would say later, he says, even when I was drunk, I went to church. My dad was just an absolute alcoholic, three and a half packs a day of cigarettes.

He had wounds and pain so deep in his life. My mom was like in the dictionary where it says codependent. She was like the enabler of all enablers who explained my father and worked all of life so that everything kept looking good on the outside. When we were grown children, every conversation went through my mom.

We didn't triangulate. We quintupulated. And when she died, I mean, the strings were gone. My older sister, in typical fashion, with a deeply disturbed man, with unresolved pain and anger issues and a loving and caring but enabling, she rebelled. And then she went off the deep end for a season. My middle sister had an eating disorder because she could never measure up and she got lost in the fray. So she thought if she could be more and more and more beautiful.

I remember when she just eat these wheat puffs all the time and she got where she was just skin and bones. And then the young son became the performance workaholic, you know, get good grades, get a scholarship, be good in sports, try, try, try, try, try to be. My light was success.

Somehow get approval. But no matter how much you got, the bar always raised. And we were this dysfunctional family.

But we looked good. Parents had advanced degrees. We lived in a nice house.

All went to college. We're religious. If you ask me, do you believe in Jesus?

Well, sure, I'm an American, you know. Right? Read the Bible. Is he the light of your life?

No. I had a formula that was the light of my life. I had the fear of failure that was the light of my life. I was an absolute chameleon.

I learned to be different people to different groups all the time. See, you walk in darkness, you always bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, and you're just chains on you. So how do you walk in the light? I'll tell you, because I've experienced it.

And I've seen it happen to thousands and thousands of people. The command he gives us tells us how to walk in the light. He says, if you hold to my teaching or literally if you abide in my word, you are really my disciples, acid test.

It's a condition. You might or you might not. Here's, though, if you do, if you abide in my word, then you will know. Circle the word know. It's not intellectual knowledge. There's oide, intellectual knowledge, factual in Greek. Other word, ginosko.

You even hear the word gnostic in that. Ginosko is knowing by experience. Then you'll know by experience the truth. And the word for truth here is very interesting. The truth, it's something that was sealed, gets unsealed, and then is open.

It's something that you don't really get, but it gets unsealed and then it's open. And then literally it'll set you free. And the word free here means you can do what you want. But the do what you want isn't just crazy stuff. The do what you want, you can actually do what's right. See, I couldn't do what I wanted. I was living to fulfill, who knows, trying to please my father or trying to impress people I didn't know. My sister wasn't doing what she wanted. She was starving herself to try and look pretty. My other sister wasn't doing what she wanted. She became a slave to her sin and she rebelled. My mother, later in her life, she always wanted to travel, she always wanted to do this, she always wanted to do this. She never did any of that because her whole life was consumed, making everybody else's life work out. And I felt so sad for her. And my dad, he was a prisoner of his alcoholism, a prisoner of his fear, a prisoner of his anger. And then my sister with the eating disorder met a friend named Tammy. And Tammy said there was a person named Jesus.

And Punky said, well, I heard about him. No, no, no, he's real. He brings light to your life. He wants to forgive your sins.

He thinks you're beautiful just the way you are. He wants to come and live in your life. And he wants to give you what light does, perspective and direction and perception and awareness and life. And he promises that as you walk in the light, even as he is in the light, you have fellowship with people, you have relationships like never before.

And he'll cleanse you and he'll forgive you. And my sister took that offer up. And I remember watching her life, I didn't know what it was, she was so different. And little by little, she whispered to me and I, you know, I went to a couple meetings and I heard the gospel.

I didn't respond, but it was planted. And then toward the end of my senior year, I heard the gospel with a group of athletes and the light entered my life. I can't, you know, a lot of people, they came from drugs, they came from alcohol, they came out of prostitution, they came out of this and came out of that. You know what I came out of? I came out of being like a multi-personality, chameleon who had no idea who I was. I didn't even like me, let alone even know.

And I remember the freedom of feeling like I don't have to pretend anymore. This is who I am. It's who God made me. I have these strengths, I have these weaknesses, I'm desperately insecure, I struggle with this and I'm loved. And all I need to do is, and little by little, follow. And then my older sister, then my dad, then my mom, and then I watched a revolution. And it wasn't just some experience, it wasn't, oh, have you heard about Jesus?

Oh yeah, yippy, yippy, yippy, yah, yah, yah, okay? It was stepping into the light and then what's he say? If you hold to my teaching, if you abide in my word. So I'd never read this.

I had no idea what this book was about. And because of my philosophical background and I'm a skeptic, oh man, I had to study all these religions and all this apologetics and I had to go through all, I was not going to throw my brains in the trash to be a follower of Christ. And so I studied and I dug and I tell you, I didn't throw my brains in the trash. And I followed Jesus because it's the most intellectually feasible, best answers to all the big questions of life on the planet and the only one that has died verifiably, risen from the dead, 500 witnesses and all of life and all of history revolves around him. You're going to bet your life and everyone's going to bet your life on some philosophy, some light, some system, some formula, some spiritual leader, some inner something.

But I'm going to bet mine on the one who died, came back and put together a supernatural book that has promises in it that I've trusted and has transformed my life and millions of people. And that's God's desire for all of us. But notice he says, then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. But he says, if you continue, if you abide in my word.

Well, how do you do that? You listen. You listen to God's word in the car. You listen to God's word, you know, as you listen to messages, you listen to God's word as you get in it every single day, just like you eat food. And you don't just read it and say, oh, wow, I'm glad I got to chapter day, devil away. It's I read it to say, oh, living God who loves me.

Take your written word and make it alive as the living word and speak to my heart and to my mind and to my soul and speak to me relationally and intimately. I want to abide in you because, see, I want to follow if I follow him. It doesn't say reading the Bible makes you never walking in darkness. The Jews were reading the Bible like crazy. It's following Jesus.

I want to follow the Jesus of the Bible. So what's his light say about relationships? What's his light say about pride? What's his light say about sex? What's his light say about priorities? What's his light say? And then I want to follow that.

What's it mean to walk in the light? Just live my life the way Jesus lived his life. How did he? Independence upon the father. He would get up a great while before dawn, not because he had to. He wanted to talk to his father. He wanted to get instructions for the day.

He wanted to clear his mind. And what was his goal in life? To please the father. What was his aim in life? To fulfill God's agenda.

See, that was his light. And you know what the word follow means? It means to proceed behind. It means to do as the person in front of you.

It means to passionately pursue. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and he'll be back to continue the second volume of our Jesus Unfiltered series, Follow, in just a minute. But let me quickly tell you that we are more than a broadcast ministry. We're supporting pastors globally, developing helpful resources, and sharing the gospel with this next generation. So if you'd like to join us in these efforts, become a monthly partner by going to livingontheedge.org.

Thanks for your support. Well, here again is Chip. And so he says, if you abide in my word, you hear it, you read it, you think on it. But here's the acid test. You obey it. You obey it.

See, you don't think your way to life. You obey your way to get light. Jesus said, if you respond to the truth or the light that I give you, I'll give you more. If you don't respond to the truth or the light that I give you, they can come a day.

Well, he'll take the light away. See, loving God is not about an ooey gooey feeling or a great worship time and putting my hands up in the air. I mean, all this is wonderful. I'm glad I can do all that and be cheating people at business. I can do all that and be sleeping around.

I can do all that and be addicted to sex or food or shopping or whatever. And I can have emotional, wonderful quote experiences that I think I'm having with God. Jesus said, here's the acid test.

He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. Obedience is the organ of spiritual growth, not intellect. Now, our intellect is used. And then as I obey, and by the way, the hardest obedience is when you don't feel like it. If I waited till I felt like obeying, I'm not sure I'd obey 10 percent. I guess I'm just weak, you know, not very smart. And so it's a choice. Jesus did not want to go to the cross emotionally. Have you ever thought about that?

You know, he wasn't there in agony going, Oh, father, this was the plan. It's going to be great. I'm going to be completely rejected, cut off from you.

They're going to beat me to a pulp. What was he? Remember his prayer? If there is any other way, let's choose that one. Nevertheless, not my. So you don't have to like what he says about money. You don't have to like what he says about sex. You don't have to like what he says about priorities. You don't have to like it. But you can just do your light and watch the consequences. Or you can actually do it his way. And then you'll you'll know by experience the truth and you experience God's love and then you'll be free. And so one by one, that dysfunctional, crazy family.

Punky, then me, then mom, then dad, then Jeannie. Very imperfectly. Over a span of about 15 years. Started walking in the light instead of walking darkness. And, you know, it just it changes the whole trajectory of your world. There's an example to follow. And he quoted Abraham. He said, if Abraham's children, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the things Abraham did.

And I think to myself, like, what did Abraham do? Romans in your notes, I think it says, John, a little misprint. You put Romans Chapter four, verses 20 and 21. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded or assured that what God has promised he was able to perform. I memorize that verse as a very, very young Christian. And I think it's in the old King James. He staggered not at the promises of God.

I love that he didn't trip over him. He staggered not at the promises of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able also to perform. So God says to Abraham, leave this comfort. Go where I will show you.

And that's for some of us, that's what faith looks like. You're in a relationship. You're in a situation. You need to leave. You need to step out for some, you need to step out and do what God's called you to do. I don't know about this.

I don't know how, I don't know about. Follow the example of Abraham. The second big thing he did is he waited. Now he waited imperfectly, which gives me a lot of hope. But God made some big promises, but a decade goes by, nothing happens.

Another decade goes by, nothing happens. But he waited on God and God gave him what he promised. What are you trusting God for? What are you really trusting God for? What promises are you claiming? God wants to come through. And so many of us, we want to help God make his promises come true.

And that usually is a very bad way to go. Ask Hagar. Ask Ishmael. That was Abraham trying to do God's will his way.

It's produced a lot of problems. Finally, he surrenders, remember? He finally believed to the point, you want to follow Abraham's example? God, this little boy that you gave me, you're telling me you want me to take him up on this mountain and sacrifice him.

And I believe because that little boy became an idol in his heart. And what idols do is two really bad things. Number one, it separates us from God.

Number two, we put our hope in him and they can never deliver. And out of mercy, God says, give up your idol, whether it's education or success or your kids or your business or going public or your body or whatever it is. Surrender that to me and walk in the light. I'll bless those things, but they can't be the object of your life. So what do you need to surrender?

What a great example. What do you need to trust God with? Maybe it's your money. Maybe it's your marriage.

Maybe it's your singleness. Maybe it's for one of your kids. Write this on your notes, will you? Here's the question when you are struggling that you should ask yourself because it changes the equation from I got to fix this or what about this or how?

Here's the question. What does it look like to trust God in this situation? What does it look like to trust God in this situation? That's different than will you fix my marriage? Would you change my kid? Would you make this business go?

Would you get me? What does it look like to trust God? Because it's faith is what brings the father joy. And he's a rewarder of faith. He loves you. He's for you. He wants to bless you. As you turn to the very back page, I gave you a little assignment and the title of this message is, so what does it really mean to follow Jesus?

It means, are you ready for this? He's your light. He's your source. He's your direction. He's your priority. His will is number one.

Pleasing him becomes your number one desire. And the reason that he healed that blind man as your assignment is to read John chapter nine is because all these religious leaders with all their religion were completely blind to who he really was. So John nine opens up as we've already heard. And as he was going by, there was a man born blind.

And the issue is, well, what's the source of it? He heals him. And if you know the story, then no one can believe it was really him. Well, they get his parents to come in. He gives his testimony. And finally, he talks with the religious leaders and they say, well, it can't be. And he says, Jesus did it. And then he, are you sure, you know, what really happened? He goes, look, I've told you twice. And then the blind beggar says, we know that only God can do a miracle like this. And the Pharisee said, he's a sinner.

And Jesus ends afterwards. He finds the man. And he says, do you know who I am? He goes, I don't know, but I want to know. And he tells him who he really is.

And he, the man believes. And the Pharisees come to him and say, so do you think we're blind? And Jesus ends chapter nine with this, with the big question. He says, if you were blind, your sin wouldn't be held against you. Because you think you see and you're blind. You'll die in your sins.

Most dangerous place to be in all the world is really thinking where you're at in your life is kind of okay and you're really blind. And I just see this compassionate Jesus taking a beggar and letting him see. And because he stepped into the light and simply trusted, God said, oh, the future for you, my love for you, that's what God wants for all of us. So what does it look like to follow Jesus today? Well, join us as we uncover the answer as Chip opens his Bible to a section in the Gospel of John. Learn what chapters six through ten tell us about being content, humble, bold, and in awe of Christ's power.

And how all of those ideas tie into our decision to follow Jesus. You're not going to want to miss a single program. Well, Chip's here in studio with me now to share a quick word with all of you. Chip. Thanks, Dave. I want to share an important request with you. If Living on the Edge is ministering to you, would you consider returning the favor? If you've been listening but haven't yet become a financial partner with Living on the Edge, would you prayerfully consider sending a gift today?

And if you've given but could do it monthly, I can't tell you it would make a huge difference. If we all pitched in, it would just make an incredible difference in terms of what we can do here to reach and care for more people. So thanks so much for all that you do, and thanks for just praying and doing whatever God shows you to do. And we will receive it with great gratitude.

Thanks, Chip. Yeah, it takes a team to do what God's called us to do, so we invite you to join us as we encourage Christians everywhere to live like Christians. Send in your gift or learn how to become a monthly partner by going to LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003 or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. And please know how much we appreciate your support.

Well, with that, here again is Chip with his application. As we close today's program, today I talked about Jesus' interaction with a blind beggar in John chapter 8. It's a familiar story. It's a great story.

It has that classic, classic line, right? You know, this beggar says to these theological heavyweights, you know, you guys are the heavyweights, but all I know was I was blind, but now I see. And I think part of that story that we don't usually talk too much about is the commentary that Jesus gives to the Pharisees. They're religious.

They're moral. They're in God's Word regularly. He says to them, because you think you can see, you think you're right with God, and I've revealed these things and you still don't see, you are going to die in your sins. The most dangerous place you can be spiritually for all eternity is thinking that everything is right with God when in fact it's not.

Now hear me. I'm not trying to poke around and produce some sort of false guilt. What I'm trying to warn some of you is that you need to do what the apostle Paul said to a church. Examine yourself carefully to see if you're in the faith. Jesus was very clear that we could inspect our lives and that where there's fruit, it would tell us what's real. The fruit of the Christian life.

This isn't a work hard, be moral to get God to love you. This is if you have a genuine transformational new birth relationship with Jesus, you will have a desire to be holy. You will have a desire to be more loving.

You'll have a desire to connect with fellow believers, and you'll have a desire to get in God's word. It doesn't mean that you won't slip occasionally. It doesn't mean that you'll be perfect. It doesn't mean that you're never going to miss reading your Bible, et cetera, et cetera. But what I'm saying, if in general those things are not a part of your thinking and your life, pause because the most dangerous place you can ever be is thinking, I'm really okay with God, and then not be. And so pray today, Almighty God, would you reveal to me whether I'm genuinely a born-again follower and have a relationship with you or not? And sit quietly. And wherever you're coming from, can I encourage you to get into God's word?

That will be the most important thing you can do. Thanks, Chip. And if you're looking for a practical way to get into God's word more regularly, let me encourage you to sign up for Daily Discipleship with Chip. This free video resource was created so you can learn the basics of personal Bible study. For the entire course, you'll spend no more than 10 minutes with Chip in a particular passage of Scripture.

Then he'll challenge you to spend 10 more minutes by yourself. It's so easy, you'll be blown away by how much you'll learn about God and his word. Sign up for any of our Daily Discipleship sessions today. Just go to livingontheedge.org. Atlas Nurse Tap, Discipleship. Well, from all of us here, I'm Dave Druey, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.