“Follow Me” – the words of Jesus. A simple yet difficult command to obey. Multiple times throughout scripture Jesus calls people to follow Him – but to obey the call of Jesus always requires faith and sacrifice. Leaving the old behind and stepping into the new life as a follower of Jesus.
Here’s some examples:
Matthew 8:22: Jesus tells a man, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead”. The backstory to this is a man was telling Jesus he would follow Him, but first wanted to wait for his father to die so he could receive his family inheritance. In short, Jesus is telling him “Follow me now, today – at this moment. Don’t put it off and miss out on what I have for you because you are more concerned with earthy treasures. Let that go and follow Me.” – FAITH AND SACRIFICE.
Matthew 9:9: Jesus calls to Matthew, “Follow me,” and Matthew immediately does. Matthew was a tax collector for the Roman Empire. He was making good money back then – but he wasn’t liked or trusted by his fellow Hebrews because well, he was a tax-collector. Jesus comes into the scene and calls Matthew with his loving invitation to leave his life behind – forsake the social status among the Roman Empire, leave the comfort of your high paying job and salary – and follow Me. – FAITH AND SACRIFICE.
Matthew 16:24: Jesus tells his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Here we come to the center of Jesus’ call and command to follow Him. If anyone – that means YOU and I – are to actually follow Jesus – we must be willing to first deny ourselves. We must deny our goals, our desires, our ambitions, our hopes, our comfort, our pride. Deny yourself. The call of Jesus is counterintuitive to this world and the people of this world. Denying oneself is the exact opposite of what our world preaches. But Jesus is saying, don’t live as the world does, don’t do as the world says. I am giving you a new command. If you want to follow Me, you first have to throw away everything your sinful nature urges you to do and all that the world says is acceptable, and DENY yourself.
Then, pick up YOUR cross.
Why pick up the cross?
Once we’ve determined to deny ourselves – we pick up our cross as Jesus did His for our redemption. The cross we carry is to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice daily. The life we now live as followers of Christ, we live by the power of God’s Holy Spirit seeking the Lord’s will to be done, not ours. A follower of Jesus has reckoned their old life to be dead and crucified on that cross with Jesus, and they are now a new creation in Christ to do whatever JESUS calls them to do.
Galatians 6:14 Paul writes, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.”
Today we’ve made the symbol of the cross to have many different meanings. To some its a form of religion, some its an idol or a god in and of itself, some its just a nice piece of jewelry that hangs around their neck – and to others its the saving grace of God’s redemptive work for mankind. But in Jesus’ day – the cross was a symbol of humiliation, shame, brutality and death. You wouldn’t find anyone wearing a cross around their neck let alone wanting to be associated with someone who was crucified. The cross was made specifically for criminals – those the Roman Empire wanted to make a public example of to keep the rest of society in check. If you saw someone carrying their cross you knew they were already dead. It was a one-way path to a public-facing, shameful, naked, humiliating execution.
So it’s important to know that when Jesus is saying, “pick up YOUR cross and follow Me.” He isn’t referring to the cross of our day that has cute little diamonds in it, or has a nice angelic looking cloth draped over it. Jesus is saying – “for anyone to follow Me – he MUST… deny himself, and pick up his cross signifying he is willing to be made into a public example, willing to be looked down upon by others with shame and disgrace, willing to lose their social status, willing to forsake their earthly wealth and treasures, and die to himself and this world.”
Philippians 3:10
Paul says, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”
Once you’ve denied yourself, your cross is in your hands upon your shoulders – follow Jesus. And you’ll discover that once you’ve done those two things first, you’re now actually ready to follow Him. You are a servant who is prepared for wherever the Lord might lead you to or call you to do, because you are no longer concerned or worried with what it might cost you. You’ve already counted the cost and you’ve counted it all as worth nothing for the sake of knowing Jesus more and more.
Jesus said in Luke 17:33. “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”
Truly there is no greater blessing or more fulfilled life, than one who chooses faith and sacrifice to follow Jesus.
#bibleverse #verseoftheday #followjesus #faith #sacrifice #cross
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