Services | Follow Jesus

Bulletin

Hymn # 472 “Heavenly Sunlight”
SCRIPTURE READING – 1 John 1:5 - 10

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Prudence Hungate

Praise and Worship
“”Holy Forever
“Only King Forever”
“Great I Am”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Follow Jesus”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“At the Cross (Love Ran Red)”
Benediction “Praise You Anywhere”

Sermon Notes
John 21:18 & 19 The type of death Peter will glorify the Lord
John 21:20 – 23 Peter wants to know about John’s destiny. Jesus says in essence that is none of your business, you follow me
Acts 5:33 – 41 Apostles arrested, jailed, flogged, then they rejoice that they had been considered worthy to suffer for Jesus’ name
Acts 5:42 They continued to teach and preach every day
Acts 9:15 & 16 Paul to be shown how much he must suffer for the name of Jesus
Matthew 5:24 – 27 Pick up YOUR cross and follow Him

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

There are a couple of common expressions about circumstances. One is keeping up with the Joneses. There's a sense of our circumstances being at least the same as someone else. The other common expression is, "I complained that I had no shoes until I saw a person with no feet." That's an attempt to say that we feel bitter about ourselves because our circumstances isn't as bad as others. Jesus is going to tell Peter about his destiny. Peter questions Jesus and says, "What is another disciple's destiny going to be?" Come and listen to what Jesus' response to that question.

I'm going through the Gospel of John, and we're coming to the last message in that series. We'll be starting a new series next week. I'm going to throw you a slight curveball if you've noticed in your bulletin, if you pay attention to the second page that goes through the Scriptures. I did not include the last two Scriptures, so I'm going to do the last two Scriptures before we do the conclusion.

The last two Scriptures basically say that John wrote this Gospel and that he was an eyewitness, and as an eyewitness that you can understand and believe the things that were written because he was there and he saw it. But he also said that there is so much information that Jesus did and that Jesus said that if he wrote it all in detail, he said that perhaps the libraries of the world could not contain all that Jesus did and said. He did a lot of writing as far as a lot of what Jesus did teach. He did a lot about the miracles and the signs and the wonders and the teaching and the healings and all the miraculous things that he did, but he said there is so much more than that. I've only written enough to give you an idea of who Jesus is, and then you might have faith in him, and having faith in him then gives you eternal life. And so that's how he concludes John. But I'm going to go back because I think this is something that's important, especially in the world today. And so in the Gospel of John, chapter 21, verse 18, where we left off, the context is that Jesus has been having a conversation with Peter while they were at the Sea of Galilee and they had gone fishing and caught nothing. Jesus told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat, and they hauled in a great load of fishes. And that Jesus then asked Peter three separate times, "Do you love me?" And then Peter responded. Then Jesus said, "To do something that love for him is not just saying so, but to do ministry." And so continuing on with that conversation, Jesus says to Peter, "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will guide you, gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." So Jesus tells him this. Now, I am grateful for the explanation in the next verse, because without the explanation of verse, I would just think, "Well, he's talking about old age, and when you get old, your kids just take you where, and sometimes they're nice, and they let you live with them, and sometimes they put you in an old folks' home, and sometimes you just have trouble going places. But that's not what Jesus is talking about. Now this, he said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, "Follow me." Now I want you to notice something. He signifying to Peter the kind of death that he was going to suffer, which we know by tradition and other, that Peter suffered crucifixion, but he did not want to die as Jesus did, so he was crucified upside down.

But notice something here. He said that signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.

A lot of times when we go through trials and tribulations and difficulties and circumstances, we're wondering why God is picking on us, or he doesn't care about us, or he's allowed all these things to happen to us. Maybe we should consider that these things he has brought into our life is so that we might glorify God. Maybe he's not upset with us. Maybe he's not mad with us. Maybe he's not even ignoring us. Maybe he's giving us an opportunity to glorify him. So instead of thinking, "Why is this happening to me?" we should think, "In this circumstance, how can I glorify God?"

And I would suspect that if we have that attitude in our lives, that the trials and tribulations and difficulties that we experience will be all together treated differently in our minds, and that we might glorify and give thanks to God that he considered us worthy to be in that circumstance. So he tells Peter, "Your death is going to have the opportunity to glorify God." And then he says, "Follow me." He says, "That's going to be the end. Between the end and now,

follow me." Which is important, because all too often what we want to do is get ahead of God.

We want to move fast and say, "Oh, I know where he's going." Then we try to race there, and maybe he takes a separate path. We should follow him. We should listen to the instructions that Jesus is giving Peter. Do not get ahead, not leg behind, but follow him.

Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following them, the one who had also leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays you?" Now,

John is always never saying, "It's me." He makes the indication of these things, but we all know by process of elimination that it's John. So Peter turns to John. So Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?"

Peter is so like the rest of us. Peter wants to compare himself with others.

There are times when we will hear the expression, and we'll even maybe do,

keeping up with the Joneses. We want our lives to be at least as good as our next door neighbor.

And if not, then why is God forsaking us? And we're always kind of trying to compare those things. Or the other expression that you'll hear is, "I complained that I had no shoes until I saw the person who had no feet." We also often want to say, "Well, my circumstance may be bad, but it's not as bad as that other person, so things are okay with me because my circumstances aren't as bad as somebody else's circumstance." So Peter is kind of basically saying, "Okay, Lord, I'm going to be crucified. What's going to happen to John? What's the comparison? Is my life going to be like his life?" And he's trying to compare with the Lord what's happening. And again, that's so much like us. We try to compare. Passers will do that. They will say, "Well, my church is X number of people." And they brag about that if they're with a bunch of pastors who congregations are smaller. And if their congregations are smaller, say, "Well, we have a great music program, or we have this, or they have me," and whatever. We try to make the circumstances different. Or those who have large churches say, "Well, my ministry is super important because I have these thousands of people who come, and we have 18 different services, and we're broadcasting on TV, and they do all this stuff." Trying to say, "Look how wonderful I am." And then the pastors who don't have those ministries go, "Oh, I'm insignificant. I'm not important." Because we try to compare circumstance to circumstance. But we say, "Well, I might not be the pastor of a megachurch, but I'm not a pastor of four people." And so we try to look at circumstance. And that's what Peter's doing. He's saying, "Okay, if this has happened to me, what's the circumstance with John?" Because, as you can see, John has said, "The disciple whom the Lord loved." So it's like, "Well, if the Lord loves John a little more than he loves me, then what's John's destiny? My destiny is to end up being crucified. What's John's destiny?" And Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?"

Follow me. Jesus says, "You're not here to compare what the ministry of John is and the life of John. If I want John to live for 2,000 plus years, then John can live for 2,000 plus years. If I want him to come back, to be alive when I come back," which again, he reaffirms, he's coming back.

And he'll say, "If I want John to live forever," he says, "If I want John to live until I come back, again, what is that to you?" That's John's destiny. Your destiny is to follow me and to glorify God at the end. "Therefore the same went out among the brethren that the disciple would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him to remain until I come." What is that to you? Again, people will oftentimes misunderstand.

Well, Jesus must want him to live forever or at least whatever time it takes for Jesus to return.

And the promise wasn't, again, Jesus was emphasizing John's circumstance, is not to be compared with your circumstance, but you are to follow me.

I want to talk to you about a couple of other situations.

God is going to call Saul, who we now know as Paul. As you probably know, Saul persecuted the church, sought to kill and destroy them and to arrest them and persecute them. And he was on a mission to Damascus to eradicate the church there when unbeknownst to him, he had an encounter with Jesus, the risen Lord. And he told him to go to a man named Ananias, and Ananias would give him instructions.

And Ananias was concerned because he goes, "Lord, I don't necessarily want to have a conversation with that man because he might end up arresting me or seeing that I'm killed. But this is what the Lord tells Ananias. But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel." So he goes, "I've got a plan for Paul. He is going to be a particular instrument of his." And that thing is to bear his name before Gentiles. So Paul is going to be a witness and an evangelist for the non-Jews for the Gentiles and before kings and the sons of Israel. So he says he's going to speak to people in authority and in the elite, and he's also going to speak to the common person. He's going to speak to the Jews and the Gentiles, the high and the lowly. That is what Paul's ministry is to be. But notice the next verse. "For I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." All too often we get the idea that if God calls us to do something, that somehow we will have a perfect life. Everything will just go easy. When you go on the freeway, all the traffic will part and you can just drive down the road. That everybody will just say how wonderful you are and they will never hear a negative thing because you're just so wonderful. Because you're supposed to have an abundant life and everything is supposed to be peachy keen. Paul, who gets arrested, shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned, beaten,

doesn't stop ministering because before this ever happened, the Lord told him, "I'm going to show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake."

The next opportunity I want to show you about ministry comes in Acts chapter 9. It says this, "But when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them." Peter had been preaching the resurrection and the crucifixion and the religious authority. I wanted to make sure he didn't continue on. "But a Pharisee named Gamiel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up in the council and gave orders to put them in outside for a short time." So they decided he's going to convene a recess so they removed the disciples and they decided to have a discussion amongst themselves. "And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care of what you propose to do with these men." For some time ago,

Theodos rose up claiming to be somebody and a group of about 400 men joined up with him, but he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. The difference was this one was killed and didn't come back. Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again. So their consideration of what happened in the past is not related to what is happening now because Jesus is the risen one. But they said, "Well, we've had problems before. We've had these people who think that they're significant, that they might be a Messiah, and so how we handle it all usually just ends up with nothing." After this, "Man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him. He too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered." So again, he says, "Here's a second situation where his followers just scattered and nothing comes of the following. It's just a dead end. So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown." He's saying, "It'll just be like everybody else. If this is what people want to do, if this is what men are planning, then it'll end up like all the other cases, and they'll just wander away.

But if it is of God who will not be able to overthrow them, or else you may even be found fighting against God." He's going, "Wait a minute. We haven't decided what's happening here. If it's of men, it'll be dispersed. If it's of God, we'll have a problem, because then we'll be taking position against God and not for Him."

They took his advice, and after calling the apostles, and they flogged them in order them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then release them. Isn't this interesting?

They just don't release them.

They flog them. They didn't just beat them. They flogged them. If you have any idea of what a flogging is, it is not an easy thing to go through.

So they punished them and ordered them to give them an order, stop preaching Jesus,

and release them. So they went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Look at the difference. Instead of saying, "Woe is me," how come God must have abandoned us? Oh, it's terrible. Our ministry is having difficulty because the important people aren't on our side, and they just flogged us. They rejoiced. "Having been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name's sake." Again, we always want, quote unquote, "the blessings of God," and maybe the blessings of God is suffering shame for His name's sake so that then when we get to heaven, we will be presented with prizes and rewards based on that.

"And every day in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." They didn't stop. They suffered consequences. They were arrested. They were flogged. They were ordered not to do so, and it didn't stop them.

We have a little difficulty. We go, "Woe is me." Maybe God didn't call me to do this.

The last verse that I want us to look at

is not this one, so I'll just tell you what it is. It's Matthew chapter 5, verse 24 through

27. Basically, Jesus says this, that He wants us to pick up our cross and follow Him. Some of our crosses will be more heavy than others. Some of us will be asked to bear more significant things than others. If we start comparing our ministry and our success or failure based on somebody else, we will commit the same error Peter did. Jesus picked up your own cross, the one that Jesus has set out for you. It may be an old rugged cross, and it may be a shiny metal one. It may be one that people say, "Oh, isn't He wonderful?" And it may be one that says, "Oh, what a crummy ministry that is." Jesus picked up your own cross. Don't pick up Joe's cross. Don't pick up Sheila's cross. Don't pick up Frank's cross. Frank's cross, you pick up your cross. Then after picking up your cross, you follow Him.

Again, like I said, you don't get ahead of Him. You don't lag behind Him. You follow Him.

And I suspect if we follow Jesus bearing our own cross, then we will block the apostles when they were beaten and flogged and they rejoiced at having been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. It won't matter how men praise us by what wonderful ministries we have. Your ministry may be simply to teach one five-year-old. Your ministry may be to teach four or five 13 years old. Your ministry may be to teach a thousand young Marys. Your ministry may be a pastor of a mega church. Pick up your cross and follow Him.

Stop looking at whatever. Stop saying, "Well, I may have no shoes, but I at least don't have no feet."

It doesn't matter who's carrying their cross next to you. It's too often that's the problem. When we start looking at other people, Jesus keeps going. And you're not following Him because you're seeing what the rest of the world is doing and what the rest of the church is doing.

Stop seeing what the rest of the world is doing and what the rest of the church is doing.

Put your eyes focused on Him. Don't drop your cross because it's heavy. Keep carrying your cross

and keep your eyes focused on Him and follow Him. And again, your ministry may be like Paul's. I will show you how much you must suffer for my name's sake. Or it may be,

I'll show you how much success you may have in my name. But your success is not your success. It's His. And that's a mistake all too many people who have successful ministries. "Oh, aren't you so lucky to have me as your pastor or as your Sunday school teacher or your deacon or whatever?" Whatever God has given us, God has given us. John had a ministry. He wrote the gospel of John. He wrote John 1, 2, and 3, and He recorded Revelation. He had a significant impact. He also had a lot of time because He's exiled on the island of Patmos. Usually when you get exiled to an island, it's not a luxury place. There's some hardship there. We know through tradition that almost every single disciple came to an inglorious end. Thomas in India, others in Lebanon, others in Egypt. There's a recording of people being crucified or as Paul beheaded. A couple of other disciples were beheaded. Other than John, everybody else,

except maybe one other, came to an inglorious end. But that inglorious end glorified God. And so again, look at what God has called us to do and see it not as a failure or discouragement because of different circumstances, but as an opportunity every single day of our lives

to glorify Him. And when we breathe our last to glorify Him, because as we sang a little while ago, He is the great I AM. He is worthy of all of our praise, all of our glory, all of our honor, all of that because He is who He is. And the amazing thing is that He called people like you and me

to testify about Him, to serve Him, to witness about Him, to be the ones who are late in this dark world, a little bit of sunshine, S-O-N, shine.

Pick up your cross and follow Him. And all God's people said.