Follow Me (Matthew 4, 18-22) (Isaiah 58)
FOLLOW ME !!
Let us consider what lies behind this command. It is given in the present tense. Jesus knew when He gave it that very soon His disciples would be left without His physical presence. His desire, however, was not for them to imitate Him but to follow where He leads. After the Crucifixion there is a continuation of discipleship under the tuition of the Master.
The One Who says Follow is the Leader; those who follow must obey with complete faith.
Where does He take us? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” This is the heart of God; to bring people to His Table. His chosen people despised His invitation so He sends His servants out into the world to bring in the outcasts. He says “I will make you” This is the Potter speaking to the clay. It is not for us to strive to become; our works are worthless and our righteousness as dirty rags. Sit still! He says – the more we wriggle and skirm the harder life will be as we fail to learn from the lessons and find our mistakes and hard knocks repeated – until eventually we lie down and say – enough! I can’t take anymore! When there is no more struggling the Will of God can have His Perfect Way and we can begin to follow. Joyful submission is better than weary submission – but only for our sake, - the Father God loves the weary repentant as much as He does the faithful son.
When Jesus told us to Follow Him He was not addressing us from the mouldering pages of history. Immitation may be a sincere form of flattery but it is not what the Lord is asking of His followers. He speaks as a Person Who continues and remains; the One whose Name is I Am; His footstep does not fade with the passing of time. He may walk ahead as our Leader but He also walks beside us as our Companion and our ever present Help. He is also our Rereward. Jesus does not seek clones of Himself as He was represented on earth - He is so much greater than that! He desires us to give ourselves to Him so that He can live and work through us – using the gifts of personality and character that He endowed us with – and adding to that His own characteristics.
Isaiah 58 tells us about the vain endeavours of the self righteous; “ Wherefore have we fasted” say they, “and Thou seest not? Have we afflicted our soul and Thou takest no knowledge” The Lord responds: “ Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on High.” The Lord is addressing these people who suppose that the Lord takes pleasure in self punishment. This kind of self abasement is not the same as the death of self. It is actually raising the self – saying; look at me, - how I am suffering – it is attention seeking and the Lord will never take notice of this kind of behaviour.
“Is it such a fast that I have chosen?” The Lord asks, “a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes. Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”
The fast that the Lord has chosen, He says, is to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that we break every yoke. To give our bread to the hungry and bring the poor that are cast out into our own house. When we see the naked that we cover them and hide not ourselves from our own family.
Then, the Lord promises “our light shall break forth as the morning, and our health shall spring forth speedily: and our righteousness shall go before us; the Glory of the Lord shall be our rereward. We shall call and the Lord shall answer; we shall cry, and He will say Here I Am. If we take away the yoke (casting our burden on the Lord) stop pointing the finger, and speaking vanity and instead draw out our soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then, the Lord says, our light shall rise in obscurity and our darkness be as the noon day. The Lord will guide us continually, satisfy our soul in drought and make fat our bones. We shall be as a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
OUR LORD SAYS FOLLOW ME
Our response is slow …We want to know …
The cost …
Our lives don’t come cheap, -It still makes the Lord weep
For the lost
So what do you want we cry … emulation
In exchange for Salvation?
Do we live with nowhere to lay our heads –
As you did Lord in your life here on earth
must we give up our soft beds
live dull lives without mirth?
Must we climb mountains to pray
And fast for 40 days?
Your desire is for each life
To glorify God in a unique way
To simply trust and obey
Put away our worry and strife
To obey is better than sacrifice
Let us consider what lies behind this command. It is given in the present tense. Jesus knew when He gave it that very soon His disciples would be left without His physical presence. His desire, however, was not for them to imitate Him but to follow where He leads. After the Crucifixion there is a continuation of discipleship under the tuition of the Master.
The One Who says Follow is the Leader; those who follow must obey with complete faith.
Where does He take us? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” This is the heart of God; to bring people to His Table. His chosen people despised His invitation so He sends His servants out into the world to bring in the outcasts. He says “I will make you” This is the Potter speaking to the clay. It is not for us to strive to become; our works are worthless and our righteousness as dirty rags. Sit still! He says – the more we wriggle and skirm the harder life will be as we fail to learn from the lessons and find our mistakes and hard knocks repeated – until eventually we lie down and say – enough! I can’t take anymore! When there is no more struggling the Will of God can have His Perfect Way and we can begin to follow. Joyful submission is better than weary submission – but only for our sake, - the Father God loves the weary repentant as much as He does the faithful son.
When Jesus told us to Follow Him He was not addressing us from the mouldering pages of history. Immitation may be a sincere form of flattery but it is not what the Lord is asking of His followers. He speaks as a Person Who continues and remains; the One whose Name is I Am; His footstep does not fade with the passing of time. He may walk ahead as our Leader but He also walks beside us as our Companion and our ever present Help. He is also our Rereward. Jesus does not seek clones of Himself as He was represented on earth - He is so much greater than that! He desires us to give ourselves to Him so that He can live and work through us – using the gifts of personality and character that He endowed us with – and adding to that His own characteristics.
Isaiah 58 tells us about the vain endeavours of the self righteous; “ Wherefore have we fasted” say they, “and Thou seest not? Have we afflicted our soul and Thou takest no knowledge” The Lord responds: “ Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on High.” The Lord is addressing these people who suppose that the Lord takes pleasure in self punishment. This kind of self abasement is not the same as the death of self. It is actually raising the self – saying; look at me, - how I am suffering – it is attention seeking and the Lord will never take notice of this kind of behaviour.
“Is it such a fast that I have chosen?” The Lord asks, “a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes. Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?”
The fast that the Lord has chosen, He says, is to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that we break every yoke. To give our bread to the hungry and bring the poor that are cast out into our own house. When we see the naked that we cover them and hide not ourselves from our own family.
Then, the Lord promises “our light shall break forth as the morning, and our health shall spring forth speedily: and our righteousness shall go before us; the Glory of the Lord shall be our rereward. We shall call and the Lord shall answer; we shall cry, and He will say Here I Am. If we take away the yoke (casting our burden on the Lord) stop pointing the finger, and speaking vanity and instead draw out our soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then, the Lord says, our light shall rise in obscurity and our darkness be as the noon day. The Lord will guide us continually, satisfy our soul in drought and make fat our bones. We shall be as a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
OUR LORD SAYS FOLLOW ME
Our response is slow …We want to know …
The cost …
Our lives don’t come cheap, -It still makes the Lord weep
For the lost
So what do you want we cry … emulation
In exchange for Salvation?
Do we live with nowhere to lay our heads –
As you did Lord in your life here on earth
must we give up our soft beds
live dull lives without mirth?
Must we climb mountains to pray
And fast for 40 days?
Your desire is for each life
To glorify God in a unique way
To simply trust and obey
Put away our worry and strife
To obey is better than sacrifice
posted by Caroline | 3:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home