Follow Me
2022 Back To School Commissioning Service
Matthew 16:24-27
August 14, 2022
This morning we come to our annual school commissioning service.
I find it very important each year to take this opportunity TO PRAY for our students and teachers as they go to school
And TO REMIND each of us that whether in school or work we are called to serve the kingdom of Christ.
This year I want to piggy back off of a truth that our kids
Received at Camp REGEN and carry it on to you this morning.
The kids studied Mark’s version of this text,
But we’re looking to Matthew’s recording of it, and then I want to expand it bigger.
The passage you are likely familiar with (Matthew 16:24-27).
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
It is the simple call of Jesus.
“follow Me”
And of course we see the reality of following.
• Namely that it will require that you deny yourself
• It will require you to take up your cross
• It will require you to follow Him
As the youth learned at REGEN
This isn’t symbolic of just facing hardship in life.
It is NOT like when you have an illness or a setback and you say, “Well it’s just the cross I have to bear.”
No, the cross Jesus spoke of here was literal.
The disciples had seen them lining the roads.
The cross was the Roman form of execution.
When Jesus told them to take up their cross they knew what He meant.
You see a man walking by with a cross on his shoulder to go and be crucified, then you pick one up and join the line.
IT WAS A CALL TO DEATH.
Make no mistake about it.
Jesus called men to die.
Much is said today about
• Living your best life or abundant life
• Or being blessed
• And many other things such as that.
People have sought to turn the promises of Christ
Into some sort of comfort here on earth.
Many have actually distorted the words of Christ
To make it seem as though He is offering
The very thing He commanded you to lose.
JESUS CALLED MEN TO DEATH.
That becomes even more clear by what He said next.
(25) “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Jesus was very clear there.
It’s this life or the next.
As a kid we used to say, “Finders keepers losers weepers”
Jesus said, “Losers finders keepers weepers”
You must lose this life.
And if you do, you’ll gain eternal life.
There was always a trade off.
He called you to follow Him and die as a result
But promised that if you did you’d gain eternal life.
And He knows this is a DIFFICULT PROPOSITION so He introduced some LOGIC into the equation saying:
(26) “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
That is logic and it comes in the form of 2 questions.
The first is easy to answer:
“How much would you take to go to hell?” (and of course you deny all offers)
The second question is the difficult one:
“How much would you give to stay out of hell?”
THE REAL QUESTION IS: “Would you give this life to gain the next?”
See the calling is to die.
Would you die if you gained eternal life?
Or would you choose to live now and die for eternity?
And I realize that this is a tough proposition,
But SIN has caused this tough proposition.
• Because we sinned and offended God
• The only way to redemption is to follow Jesus.
• And if you follow Jesus this world which still loves sin will hate you
• And treat you like it treated Jesus.
So, follow Jesus, be killed in the world, but gain eternal life.
Or, reject Jesus, be loved in the world, but go to hell when you die.
This is precisely the reality.
(27) “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Judgment is real.
It will happen.
Now that’s a real QUICK EXPLANATION of that verse.
That is what the youth learned at REGEN
THIS MORNING I want to build on that
And sort of give you an exploded view of this idea.
• I want to talk to you about being a follower of Jesus.
• I want you to ponder what it means to follow Jesus.
• I want you to ponder what it means to follow Jesus at school this year.
• I want you to ponder what it means to follow Jesus at work.
And by the end of this we’re all going to ask ourselves
Whether or not we are following Jesus.
That is a fair question for the church to ask.
That is a fair question for those who claim to be followers of Christ.
This is a bit of a topical approach this morning,
• But I want you to limber up your fingers
• I want us to walk through several passages of Scripture
• And see if we can’t get a comprehensive look at what it means to follow Jesus.
#1 THE CALL TO FOLLOW
LET’S START THERE.
I would simply say to you at the outset that
You will be hard pressed to find in Scripture where
Jesus ever asked men to go to heaven or even to go to church.
The call of Jesus was simple: FOLLOW ME
And in case that is too cryptic,
IT SIMPLY MEANT, leave what you are doing and come with Me.
It was a recruitment.
It was an enlistment.
I’m going to that city over there and I want you to come with Me.
There was NO misconception that
• Following Jesus meant staying where you are.
• Following Jesus meant a life that was virtually unchanged.
You don’t stay where you are if you are following.
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;”
SO FIRST
• Let’s clear our minds of this sort of metaphorical understanding of following.
• Let’s clear our minds of this symbolic following.
What Jesus asked for when He was on earth was a literal following.
You get up and come with me.
I want you to grasp that.
I want you to think about the ramifications of that.
• What did that mean for your current occupation? (well you left it)
• What did that mean for your relationships? (well you left them)
• What did that mean for your projects? (well you stopped them)
• What did that mean for your plans? (well you scrapped them)
Do you understand that?
When Jesus came by and said, “Follow Me”
It meant “leave your old life behind and come do what I’m doing.”
I hope that makes sense.
And this was the call.
And though He quite often used the words “follow Me”
There were other invitations that meant the same thing.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
That is the same thing.
• If you take Jesus’ yoke on your neck believe me you’re going where He goes.
• You’re going to do what He does.
THIS IS THE CALL.
It was never for you to stay in your old manner of life….NEVER
Now, what we see in Scripture is that
THE INITIAL CALL TO FOLLOW JESUS WAS PRETTY SUCCESSFUL.
Jesus said to follow Him and people pretty much did it.
MOST INITIALLY FOLLOWED OUT OF CURIOSITY
What do I mean?
TURN TO: JOHN 1:35-42
• There you have men who were learning from John the Baptist
• When Jesus walks by John says “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
• And John and Andrew immediately begin to follow Jesus.
• They didn’t really even know what they were looking for, though it is obvious they thought Him to be the Messiah.
Jesus gives them the response, “Come, and you will see.”
So it’s really a curiosity driven following.
Come take a taste.
Come see what I’m about.
Come hang out with Me and see who I am.
And that will hold true for Philip and Nathanael as well:
TURN TO: JOHN 1:43-51
• You see it again.
• Jesus told Philip “Follow Me”
• Philip found Nathanael and old him to follow too.
• Nathanael was skeptical to which Philip said, “Come and see”
It’s just that curious type of following
Where we are trying to find out who this guy is.
And in Scripture we see that most people who followed Jesus
Never moved past this step.
For there were always crowds of curious followers.
Matthew 9:27 “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
Matthew 12:15 “But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all,”
Matthew 14:13 “Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.”
Matthew 19:2 “and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.”
Matthew 20:29 “As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.”
Matthew 20:34 “Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.”
Matthew 21:9 “The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”
THESE WEREN’T SAVED PEOPLE.
The last reference is even to the triumphal entry
That crowd would yell “Crucify!” in just a few days.
These were just people who had a novel curiosity in Jesus.
• He could work miracles…
• He could feed the hungry…
• He could heal diseases…
• He spoke with authority…
They followed Him because they were curious about Him
And because they hoped to gain some temporal benefit from Him.
John 6:26 “Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”
And I hate to tell you but what was true then remains true even today
And that is that most men are only interested in Jesus
For the temporal benefit they can gain from Him.
Most men never follow more than the crowds followed in Jesus’ day.
It is just this superficial following out of nothing more than curiosity
And the hope of some temporal benefit.
But that is where the call to follow STARTED.
It is likely that this is where it started with you just as this is where it started with the disciples.
But the calling of Jesus to follow was never just about
Being healed or gaining some temporal benefit.
When Jesus called men to follow
The intention was ALWAYS OCCUPATIONAL.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 4:18-22
Now there you already begin to see some of the cost involved.
• Peter and Andrew are going to have to leave their nets.
• James and John are going to have to leave their father.
You can’t move on to a new job if you never leave the old one.
And what was this new occupation?
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
There is kingdom work there.
Do you see that?
Following Jesus meant: YOU COME DO WHAT I DO.
He wasn’t just walking around for their entertainment.
They were being recruited to join Him in His task.
Following wasn’t symbolic it was real, it was occupational.
There was labor involved.
We’ll talk more about this guy in a second, but:
Luke 9:60 “But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
That was following.
• In that case it wasn’t come do what I do, it was GO DO what I do.
• But you see still that following was all about the occupational work of the
kingdom.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 9:9
There it is again.
• Matthew is leaving one job to start a new one.
Do you see that?
The call to follow Jesus was not symbolic
And it wasn’t to be a mere spectator.
Jesus called men to leave their life and come join Him in His mission.
HE WAS RECRUITING LABORERS.
HE WAS RECRUITING HELPERS.
Now, I want you to stop and ponder this for a moment
As you prepare to go to school.
If Jesus were to physically attend your school Wednesday morning, what sort of things might He be doing there?
And, if He called you to follow Him down the hall, what sort of things do you think you might be asked to do?
DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
This reality was very convicting to me as we sat in that service at REGEN.
Can you imagine what it must have been like following Jesus through Judea and Galilee?
EXHAUSTING!
The guy was a machine.
• He never got off task
• He was tireless
• Moved with compassion
• He never sent them away
• He always had somewhere else to go
He was on mission and if you followed Him you were on mission.
I just want you to think about what it meant to follow Him.
Did He go somewhere dangerous?
Did He cut through Samaria?
Did He offend the Pharisees?
Was He scrutinized?
Your life was linked to His and if you were following Him
You were a sharer in His fate.
Don’t allegorize what it means to follow.
The call was to LITERALLY follow Him.
That is the call to follow.
#2 THE COST TO FOLLOW
Now, you already saw that some felt some of that cost pretty early on.
• We see Matthew leave that tax booth.
• We see Peter and Andrew leave their nets.
• We see James and John leave their father.
The cost of following was seen pretty quickly.
But even that was only a partial cost.
That was just a COST OF CONVENIENCE.
But even so, that cost alone weeded out plenty.
TURN TO: LUKE 9:57-62
The first guy wants to follow because he thinks following Jesus is the path to riches and fame.
• Jesus sets him straight. “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
• If you follow Me you will be homeless.
• Get all those notions of riches out of your head.
• The implication is that this man decided not to follow.
So Jesus looked at the next guy and said, “What about you?”
“And He said to another, “Follow Me.”
• But that guy was already crunching the numbers.
• If Jesus had no riches for His followers then the wise move would be
• To wait until you are financially secure before you start to follow.
• So this guy wanted to wait for his dad to die first so he could collect his inheritance.
• Jesus told him to leave it. “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”
And then there was a 3rd guy
• Who saw the first two decline for love of money.
• He was willing to leave his wealth behind, but he had a different hang-up.
• He was worried about what people at home would think if he left everything.
• He wanted to go see what his family thought about it.
• Jesus told him that being worried about his reputation would make him unfit for this occupation.
You can’t do kingdom work
If you’re only concerned about what people think.
I think pretty much every one of us at camp this year sat in that small group circle and lamented this reality.
We could all see where fear of what people think had hindered our gospel service in one way or another.
YOU CAN’T FOLLOW JESUS IF YOU LOVE THIS WORLD.
These men chose to keep their life and let Jesus go His own way.
MANY MEN DO THIS TODAY.
• They are certainly enamored with Jesus.
• They certainly know who He is.
• The problem is that they are unwilling to let Jesus put their life in jeopardy.
Matthew 19:21-22 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
There are many who balk at even that initial cost of following Jesus.
They want Jesus but they want all that the world has to offer too
And for that reason they never follow.
BUT THAT IS JUST THE INITIAL COST.
The cost of following Jesus would be even greater
Than simply leaving your job or you inheritance behind.
As I said:
Jesus called men to follow Him to death.
Certainly following Jesus would require the loss of your idols,
But it would also require the loss of your life.
Now, EVEN THE DISCIPLES were NOT QUITE READY for this.
Oh, Jesus alluded to it from time to time.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 10
• This is of course when Jesus first sent them out in twos to go and preach the kingdom.
• Now, He told them pretty quickly that it would NOT be all sunshine and roses.
• He told them that there would be some who would NOT LIKE what they were preaching.
(READ 14-15) – some won’t accept you.
(READ 16-25) – there is going to be some scorn and hatred involved if you go out doing My work in the world.
And Jesus BEGAN TO REVEAL to the disciples that the cost involved in following Him might be more than even they had anticipated.
READ MATTHEW 10:34-39
So you see again the call to follow
But also that the call is a call to death.
“I am asking you to do what I do in the world
And for this the world will hate you
And will do to you what they will do to Me.”
Now, it is also clear that the disciples didn’t really grasp this.
It is clear that this reality sort of slipped right over their heads.
For later Jesus would announce again what was coming
And the disciples balked at it.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 16:21-23
Jesus announced that He was going to Jerusalem to die
AND THIS UNNERVED THE DISCIPLES.
If the guy you are following is headed to death
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU?
You see why Peter was frustrated.
And to that Jesus gave the truth that we looked at to open the sermon.
READ MATTHEW 16:24-27
This is a call to follow Jesus to death.
• This is not a symbolic cross this is a literal one.
• This is not a symbolic journey this is a real one.
I fear that the modern day church has lost sight of this.
That somehow we have grown to think that following Jesus
Simply means to go to church periodically.
I’m afraid that we have begun to overlook the simple calling of Jesus.
HE HAS CALLED US TO DEATH.
HE HAS CALLED US TO GIVE UP OUR LIFE.
And you say, “WHY WOULD I DO THAT?”
And the answer is because Jesus will give you eternal life.
It is very much a proposition
To lose this life so that you might be saved for all eternity.
It is NOT that Jesus wishes to kill you in one place or the other.
It is NOT that Jesus wants to make sure you die somewhere.
No, Jesus simply wants you to follow Him
And if you do, He’ll give you eternal life.
THE PROBLEM IS that if you follow Jesus, this world will kill you.
And so the choice must be made.
• This life or the next one?
• Your reputation or your soul?
• Your comfort or forgiveness?
THERE IS A REAL COST TO FOLLOWING.
And the disciples BEGAN TO UNDERSTAND that.
Remember when Jesus wanted to go back to Judea because Lazarus was dead?
John 11:16 “Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
Perhaps that is the verse I should have put on the T-shirts for this morning.
Thomas knew what it meant if he followed Jesus back to Judea.
(Now, mercifully Jesus did not allow that to happen during that trip,
But Thomas was well-aware that it sure could have)
But you see, those men knew the cost.
In the upper room what did Peter say that He was prepared to do with the Lord?
“I will die with You”
They knew what was at stake.
I don’t know if the modern day American church realizes that anymore.
Sometimes I think we are only following Jesus to still waters
And green pastures and healing and prosperity and blessing.
And have forgotten about the valley of the shadow of death.
The call was to follow Him and to be about His business
Which would most certainly result in death.
Even look at the end of John’s gospel.
TURN TO: JOHN 21:18-22
• Even after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
• Even after Jesus reinstated Peter.
• What did He ask Peter to do?
“Follow Me” (even to death)
Do you understand that?
And this is our mandate in the world.
We are called to follow Jesus into this world
And be about His business knowing what the world will think of it.
• When you go into that school…
• When you go into your workplace…
• When you talk to that stranger…
Jesus is well-aware that you might be hated for it.
Jesus is well-aware that you might be killed for it.
BUT STILL HE ASKS US TO GO.
You say, “THAT’S A HIGH COST!”
Yes it is.
But let me remind you of one more thing.
#3 THE COMPENSATION TO FOLLOWING
One verse here.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 19:27-30
This was when the Rich Young Ruler departed and the disciples did some real soul-searching.
The question is quite possibly the one you are considering:
IS IT WORTH IT?
And Jesus was totally honest that it is more than worth it!
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Jesus promised life!
It was this life and glory that gave Him motivation to go forward:
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus thought the scorn of the cross
Was of little comparison to the glory that awaited.
Do you remember what Paul said?
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Now hopefully at this point you are getting it.
LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT PREACHER.
• You’re asking me to go into that school or that workplace and preach the kingdom of heaven
• Knowing full well that it might get me killed,
• But you’re promising me that if I do it will be worth it.
IS THAT WHAT YOU’RE ASKING?
NO – THAT’S WHAT JESUS IS ASKING.
That is what it means to follow Him.
Matthew 16:24-27 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Luke recorded it a bit differently.
Luke 9:23 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
• Luke included the word “daily” there which rings volumes to us.
• It is not a one time request.
• We are called to daily go and follow Jesus through this life.
So then, we all get to ask ourselves then a very important question.
AM I FOLLOWING JESUS?
• Am I a curious follower?
• Or am I a committed follower?
• Am I actually leaving anything behind?
• Am I focused at all on His mission and occupation?
• Am I following Jesus?
• And if I am not, am I willing to?
That is the request.
WILL YOU FOLLOW JESUS?
