Address—Bruce Conrad
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I forgot how big this room was. I should have brought my long distance glasses for seeing your faces out there.
I got my my readers anyway, so that's the important thing I guess.
I'd like to start with singing.
Hymn #278.
I would I have it upon my heart to talk about following the Lord.
Being a follower.
And I thought 278 would be a good him.
To express some of that as we get started here. 278 if her brother would raise a suitable tune.
Our souls.
My strength and grace.
In me we can die, for we are one with you.
Lord Jesus, we rejoice to know, consider.
Thee is the one who has finished the race.
Finish thy course here below, to God's delight and satisfaction. And has been raised out from among all the rest of the dead.
And also been caused to ascend to the very right hand of the Majesty on high.
So, Lord Jesus, we rejoice and we are happy to look with the eye of faith that thou hast given us through the open heavens to see thee there already crowned with glory and honor, soon to come again into this world and take thy rightful place. We look forward to that great day. In the meantime, Lord Jesus, we look to Thee.
For Thy for nourishment in food from Thyself, we commit the little time we have this afternoon to Thee. Guide us in that which we take up from Thy precious Word. And our God and Father, we pray for each of us, young and old.
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Thy word would be effectual in us to stir up our hearts affections and guide us. Lord Jesus, in the little time that remains for us, we might be here for Thy glory. We ask these things, precious Savior, in Thy worthy name, Amen.
Well, I've had in my work life for a number of years later in my career.
Responsibility to teach younger up and coming managers.
Worked in the construction business.
The company was large enough to have its own university. Small.
Building kind of like this with all different places in it you could have instruction.
And what they asked me to do, and I used to go up there to Nebraska twice a year and teach a course on leadership.
And as the years went on and basically what I did, it was not hard, I.
Basically, I just went through all the mistakes I made in my career.
So that the content was pretty easy. I have to say it was a four hour presentation and it I didn't lose sleep about it. And and I mean, I was engaged in it, but because I love those guys, but it wasn't a hard thing to do. But as the years went on, I started to feel like, you know, those guys, they don't need leadership training, they need followership training because a lot of their.
Comments that they would make.
You know, it's just in a natural way in between the sessions and and at launch would be about really issues of of their own following and their own learning. And not everybody is called to be a leader. When I was in school, everybody seems to be talking about leadership and.
I never thought much of it until it fell upon me many, many decades later. That must be why they want to talk about it so much. But not all of us are leaders are going to be leaders. But by the grace of God, we're all followers. And I would love to have switched it up towards the end there and just had a a session on following. You'll notice before we get started here, you'll notice in a very interesting passage, I find it interesting in Matthew.
I think it's chapter 8.
With the centurion who had the servant.
Who was deathly ill?
I.
Is Matthew.
Verse five. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him the centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant, life at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, for I am. This is the verse I was thinking of, For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go, and he goeth into another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them, that followed, Verily I say unto you.
I have not found no so great faith, no, not in Israel. But it's interesting that the that the centurion says I am a man over and were in authority, no, but under authority and as it's been expressed to me before and I and I really think it's true that the properly express or to carry out authority, one has to be under authority.
And when you stop and think about that, I think it it, it shows that.
That and if you think about it in the life in your work group or in your.
Assembly or in your family or in your marriage if you are walking.
Under authority and submitting yourself to the will of the Lord for you in the position you are in in life.
When it comes upon you to direct another or to direct others, there will be an authority to have those things happen properly. So anyway, that's all I want to say about leadership there. I want to get on to followership and to do so, I would like to turn first of all, to John's Gospel chapter one.
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And so I've pondered this subject and I trust it. The Lord has put it on my heart to take up.
I have come to see lately that there are two aspects of following the Lord.
The first aspect, which we read about mostly in the Gospels and there, as we all know, even the youngest, the Lord Jesus, was here physically. Here He came into this world and he took manhood to himself and he walked through this world as a man. And so when he spoke to others about following him, it was a literal following.
I just sometimes we get so out there with with pictures and types and all of those things that we forget.
To start where things start. And so he was physically here and yet as he spoke, as we'll see, we'll just touch a few points in John's gospel and then I'd like to go to Paul. But as we'll see, he spoke things literally about following him that you and I now some 2000 years later, we they have another meeting for us. And surely the Lord intended that and they take on a meeting in our spiritual lives having to do with following the Lord.
And so in John chapter one, just read a few verses. It's hard to even start without.
Referring to these first couple verses of John's gospel verse one in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him and without Him was not anything made that was made in Him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
It just staggers your mind, doesn't it, when you think about it.
That the God who existed throughout all eternity.
You can go back if scientists want to tell us.
That there was created matter nine or ten, 12 billion years ago, I have no idea.
Fine, this verse tells me before that in the beginning, whenever that was.
There was God, and there was one who is called here the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And so you have one who had, who had a personality, if I could say that. Not a human nature, but a person, a divine person is here.
And he is with God, and he is God.
And as we go through, and one of the things we see, some of the things we see in John's Gospel.
Or that the Lord is walking.
He's walking, he walks into our page in a certain sense, in John chapter one. He's meeting with individuals characteristically and not so much in groups in John's Gospel.
And he's displaying that life, he's displaying love, he's displaying light. All of those starts in John chapter one.
But it's when we start to think about following the Lord.
It's helpful to realize that God has been pleased to come out from that eternal.
Place, if I even know what words to use, where he was the Father and the Son.
And the Holy Spirit of God to come out from that place into this world that he made.
To just rule over it? No, he will do that. The Son will rule all. All judgment and all power is given to the Son of Man.
But even beyond that, he has come out from himself to fit.
Some many of the children of men to be able to be brought into relationship with himself.
That's just a staggering thing. He's got spirits. The universe is probably filled with angelic beings that are great in power, far greater than us. He could make as many as he ever wanted to make. He made the stars also, as we know, he makes all the planets go around and his men are smarter and smarter and looking into the interior of things, into a cell and into an atom.
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It is just more and more astonishing and profound. It's an exciting, I think an exciting time, notwithstanding some of the subjects we covered in our reading. It's an exciting time to be here in this world as one who knows God as Father and who is in fellowship with His Son. What a tremendous time it is here to be, but to just think.
That one who had power to do anything.
And everything that he wanted.
Should make this globe as little as it is because it's a small, it's a small. This is a small world we live on.
But what took place on it? Mr. Darby said. What took place on it is not small at all, because God chose that it was here in this earth, and not with angels, but with the children of men. His delights were with the children of men before the worlds were framed.
Just we're not ever going to get over that.
I don't think ever get over that, the knowledge of that. And he chose to come into this world.
So that he could accomplish everything that was necessary to give you and I the capacity, which includes the desire and the love of himself and everything that concerns himself. All of the word of God can be tucked under that can be tucked right under that. And so we have these profound verses which.
Were I don't feel we're we're the sake of time. We're not going to go into those.
But in the same chapter as we go down in John chapter one.
In verse 35.
We have the next day after John stood and two of his disciples.
And looking upon Jesus as he walked.
He saith, Behold.
The Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, Saith unto them, What seek ye? They saith unto him, Rabbi, Which is to say, being interpreted Master.
Where dwellest thou, He saith unto them, Come and see, and came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour.
If they had said, where are you from? They didn't ask that question because they probably assumed he was from Nazareth and they knew where that was. But if they had really said, where are you from? What? What majesty the Lord could have rolled out, and he did later on in this gospel. I am from above, yeah, from beneath. He had to say, here's one who came from and never left, in a certain sense, eternity. But they said.
Dwellest thou so in the space of about 30 verses, we've gone from one in this majestic language in John's Gospel that that was.
Their dwelling in his full conscious glory before anything else was made and Fast forward and now he has come into this world and he's walking little water that John could say, behold the Lamb of God. That was a revelation. He was given to know that.
Revelation from God. Behold the Lamb of God.
And they said they followed him.
They heard John speak. It wasn't preaching from John, it was maybe just an just adoration, and they followed him. So we go from this eternity to here they are in the Lord's house or home spending the day with him. And I think that illustrates in a certain sense the point.
God coming from that uncreated glory down, sitting a man who is God.
Sitting in a hole and speaking with these young men, I assumed they were young men.
Well, to skip on further, in John chapter 2 we have some pictures there of of.
Of coming glory.
In the wedding feast at Cana and in the matter of setting things right, judgment. And then we go to chapter 3. We don't know the condition of the men in John, chapter one of Andrew, and maybe the other one was Peter. Peter. Maybe he was there initially or he came later. We don't know what they were all about, but we have a man named Nicodemus who comes.
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And he has to learn some lessons and he has to kind of be put a little bit back on his heels a little bit because he wants to just take up with the Lord as if they are somehow collegial as men that are interested in religion.
Lord says.
You've got to be born again. You can't even see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it. And so there's that discussion, profound discussion in John chapter 3 in the early part as to the necessity for a work of God.
And if you're going to follow the Lord, you're going to have, there's going to have to be a work in your soul too. And I trust it has taken place. I trust that that work where God sovereignly said in your heart, let there be light. And there was light. Nicodemus went out. There was a little more work to do with him, I suppose. And then the chapter moves on to the wonderful reality, the sobering reality.
That it's not just new life.
That fits you and I to be in fellowship with God, with a holy God.
But the Son of Man must be lifted up. There must be a work on Calvary's cross because God requires that which is past. When we get both of those in John chapter three, He has to do a work in you, and He had to do a work himself on Calvary's cross to shed His blood that there might be a propitiation for sin because God is holy.
And that was accomplished. The Lord Jesus through John's gospel is hitting.
Through all of these six situations, he's walking. He's walking not just to the cross, as it's often been said, but back to his father. He's has his view, his his compass is set on doing his father's will and going to his father. But along the way, we have him walking and encountering individuals. In John chapter four, we linger a minute or two.
We can't hit all of these on the way through.
But in John chapter 4.
In verse.
Three, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee. He's walking north, as we take it. He was walking.
And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Psychar, next to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well.
And it was about the 6th hour.
Now I take it that this was 6:00 AM and I.
If I'm wrong in that some somebody can correct me later because I take it in John that that's the way the time works.
And I checked one time to walk from Judea or from Jerusalem to to to Sheikh really is what this is.
In the Bible times it would be Neapolis because the Romans renamed it at least that vicinity. It would be a walk of 222324 hours.
So the Lord Jesus arrived that well, Sychar, and sat there by the well.
Having walked a long time.
Probably 6065 miles. It's a long way to walk, but he had an appointment. He had an appointment with this Samaritan lady, and the disciples go away and he's there alone, as they say in John's gospel. As you've noticed, he's alone with Nicodemus. In a certain sense, he was alone with Nathaniel.
And in a certain sense, and as we go through the gospel, we see he's alone with different ones.
And so it's a little bit easier, I think, with her than it was with Nicodemus. Nicodemus made it complicated.
And the Lord knows how to deal with all of that. But with this lady, she wants to talk religion too. She wants to compare the Samaritan mongrel religion, as I call it, half Judaism and half something else with what the Jews held as the true religion of Jehovah. And she's happy to have that conversation. But the Lord gets to that point where he says to her.
Go call thy husband and come hit her.
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And it's beautiful that she's frank enough to give an honest answer. And she says, I have no husband. And the Lord says, Thou hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. And he whom thou now hastest not thy husband in this, in that saidst thou truly?
When the Lord doesn't work with us, it's been said it's a hook. It's the fishers hook with two prongs. He's going to he's going to catch your conscience with one and catch your heart with another. And this lady, he started with her conscience and surely that stung when he said in this thou said truly, yes, he exposed the the sordid.
Marital history, but also.
Their dishonesty.
And so the Lord begins to unfold to her that which she did not know.
And.
He gets to the point in verse 25 where the woman saith unto him, I know she says OK your rights and all of these things. But here's one thing I know. I know that Messiahs comes which is called Christ. When he is coming he will tell us all things.
And I just marvel at this simplicity and forthrightness of this answer. I that speak unto thee and he.
Nicodemus didn't get that.
I'm not sure. It seems like the young men in the first chapter of John kind of got it. We have found the Messiah.
Speaks right to her. Her conscience had already been opened. And now the reality of who she was and that he was willing to talk with her, that he was willing to engage with her, that hook was set to in her heart. And she runs and evangelizes the whole city and you know the rest of the story.
And so we turn now to John Chapter 8. I just want to skip through some of these.
In John chapter 8.
And verse 12 Then spake Jesus unto them.
Let me just paint the picture here in the early part of John 8, as you know.
The men take the woman that was taken in the act of adultery. Apparently the man. They let him go his way.
And they bring the woman only as far as we know.
No comment on that, but they bring the woman and they want to get the Lord into a difficulty to see if mercy can triumph over righteousness.
And you and I know how they've met together.
But of course he confounds them.
By being able to carry out both.
And so he finally says to her in verse 11.
In verse 10 Woman, where thine accusers hath no man condemned thee, she said, No man, Lord Jesus under head unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
In contrast with the law. In contrast with me trying to.
Condemn you with the law or you trying to condemn me with the law. The Lord says, no, I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world. And it's in contrast, you know, theologians tell us that the early part of John 8 shouldn't even be in the Bible. You probably read that. I know I've been.
Confronted with that thought, I believe it is part of the Scriptures and it's therefore a reason. And the contrast with this passage that we've read, I think brings it into bright relief that as opposed to the law which God gave, and the law was wholly just and true and gave God's standards for man, that man should live this way as before God.
Came from God and it it and it was.
What it was as a standard for mine.
But now we are going beyond that. Here's one who says, I am the light of the world. And so, as he says here, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
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And so at this point, we're part way through John's Gospel.
Where we've encountered one who came from eternity, One who is God manifest in flesh.
The one who brings grace as well as truth.
The one who is more than perfectly divinely capable of dealing with this religious.
Master or rabbi, whatever Nicodemus was.
He deals with the with the Samaritan woman.
He transcends this issue of trying to condemn the law and he's walking through this world on the way to Calgary. How does this apply to you and me? As our conscience been awakened? Do we realize we're walking in light? Are we walking after a person? Because if we go to the next.
One of the next places in John chapter 10.
We see here that the Lord presents.
A figure to them of a door and a sheep feeds sheepfold.
A thief, a robber, and a true shepherd in John chapter 10. And he presents himself as the door to the sheepfold, and he presents himself as the shepherd that leads out through the door.
And so it says there just to summarize it in verse 3.
He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out, and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they they know his voice.
Andrew and the other disciple follow Jesus after listening to John the Baptist's expression of adoration or awe.
And they heard that, and it was their ear that took them, and they heard wonderful things that day from 10:00 AM to whenever they left. I think it was 10:00 AM when they went to his house.
We know that the woman at the Well of Saikar, she heard things that changed her entire life and probably her entire eternity.
And so the year has such a prominent place. We take in things through our ear, and here we have again the shepherd's voice, and he leadeth them out. The shepherd walks in the same path as sheep walk in, or I should put it the other way around. The sheep are going to walk in the path that the shepherd walks in. And we have a man God has been pleased not to give us when I was. I see a lot of young people here.
When I was your age, I had no idea what the truth was, but I I thought it was out there.
I thought it was out there somewhere, and I didn't know whether it was a philosophy or a mathematical formula or I had no idea, but it bothered me. It's out there somewhere. There is such a thing as the truth that everything else is a subset of.
Then I came to realize all of a sudden in one the space of an hour or two.
Jesus saying I am the way, the truth and the life and that the truth is a person.
What an astonishing revelation it was for me to lay hold of that. How did I live in a Christian country? How did I go to Sunday school with my perfect attendance and my pins showing it all those years, and I never got it?
That Jesus was gone and that he was the way. The truth and the life never got that. But at that same day I had to learn something. I really didn't want to learn either. That was that I was a Sinner.
And yet I was still alive. How do you? How did that fit together? I realized I was worthy of death. And here I was sitting on a bus with my hands, my fingers, my feet, and all my faculties, still alive. When I was worthy of death, I was a Sinner. I never heard anybody talk about sin that I ever recalled in my whole life. And now I knew I was one.
And so the conscience is touched, the heart is touched, and we realize we've been brought into association with one who came from eternity so that that could be accomplished.
Oh, what a wonderful thing that he desired to come down to create all these mountains and all this world as a platform and a place where he might have a relationship with you and me. And that he would bring you and I into a place where we can appreciate and enjoy and love the things that he enjoys and loves.
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What a wonderful thing this is.
In John 12.
We have these Greeks coming. I always felt, I always felt for these Greeks, these gentiles.
They're on the right track. They come, they come to Philip.
Verse 21 Sir, we would see Jesus. Oh.
These guys, they're on the right track. I don't know why they said that or why they came. They must have heard something and they wanted to come and see him.
And they kind of work through the disciples and then Philip and Philip goes to Andrew and Andrew and Philip go to Jesus how the heart of the Lord Jesus would have wanted to.
Encapsulate them at that moment in His purpose to bring the Sinner to himself, to bring the Gentile as well as the Jew to himself.
But he realized, and he expresses it here.
The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.
It wasn't the time yet for Grace to flow out in the way he wanted it to flow out.
Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die abideth alone, but if it dieth, bringeth forth much fruit, and so on.
And so.
The desire of these Greeks could not be realized at that time, for the Lord Jesus had a baptism to be baptized with, and a blessing was going to come out to the likes of you and me, and to these Greeks He had to go to calories cross first.
Let's go to John 13.
If we're talking about walking and following, we're talking about the feet as well as the ear and the heart.
And so the Lord Jesus goes to wash their feet.
And you know how? Peter being Peter.
He says to him.
You're going to wash my feet.
And the Lord says in verse eight, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord not my feet only, but also my hands in my head. And Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not to save to wash his feet, but is clean every witch and ye are clean, but not all.
And so on.
When we go to the end of John chapter 13.
The disciples are starting to pick up what the Lord had been telling them for some time, that He was going to go away.
And so in verse 36, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him. Whither I go? Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down my life for my sake?
When we Fast forward to John chapter 18.
When the Lord Jesus has been.
Confronted by armed men in the Garden of Gethsemane.
And he is submitting like a lamb before the shearers with a slaughter.
And in verse 15, Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple.
And you know the story that he ends up not really being able to follow Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus alone goes to Calvary's cross.
And Peter is broken hearted because he feels very deeply that he has failed the Lord and weeps bitterly.
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But he has to learn a lesson.
And the Lord is so devoted to the lesson that he wants Peter to learn.
That he doesn't spare Peter the pain or the embarrassment or the awkwardness of it. And it's the same in your life and mine.
He's invested in our he's the Potter and we the clay.
And he's invested in our lives.
And if you are a believer, you will learn in the scriptures that he chose you individually.
Before the foundation of the world.
And when the time came and you arrived on this world.
He called you.
And then he justified you.
And you belong to him now, and he has a destiny in view.
Because this isn't just a casual walk that he's going on. Yes, he walked through this world to Calvary's cross and back to be with his father. But along the way, he accomplished a work whereby you and I can join him.
The conscience needs to be reached, the heart needs to be engaged, the feet need to be cleaned day by day, and we need to learn the lesson that it cannot be done in our own strength. And Peter had a lot of strength and a lot of a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of natural energy.
But it wasn't going to avail to follow the Lord and the way the Lord wanted to be followed or in the way Peter wanted to follow him when we jumped to the 21St chapter of John.
We have the.
Awkward.
Interaction between the Lord Jesus now has risen from the dead.
A risen man, first one.
He's still the first risen man.
The first part of the first resurrection has now taken place.
Resurrection has started. The first group has been raised from among the dead. It's a group of one, the Lord Jesus himself. It's a risen man.
The disciples are a little bit.
Disconcerted. Obviously they're not sure what's going on or what happened. Perhaps they're discouraged. We spoke about discouragement a little today.
And so Peter says I go efficient.
And seven others or seven of them together. I think if you count there's seven of them, not all the whole 11.
Seven of them go.
And Peter must have gone back and he had no doubt been gone for the better part of three, 3 1/2 years.
So maybe he went back to to his his father.
And he said, can I, can I borrow the boat? Can I use the gear?
I thought you were following Jesus.
It's like, can I just use your boat?
So off they go back in the old life. We're going to go fishing. We know how to fish. I'm going to do something I know how to do.
And they fish all night, get nothing.
You know the story.
And so there's a man on the shore.
Children, have you any meat?
No, grumpy. It's tough to be around a Christian with a bad conscience, isn't it? A Christian in a bad state of soul is trouble.
You don't want to even do business with a Christian that's not walking with the Lord.
It's like worse than an unbeliever.
No, well, he says Castanet find the place 21.
I.
He said other than verse. Sorry, he said Castanet on the right side of the ship. You would think that would have been the hint right there.
Has the net on the right side of the ship.
And you shall find. And so they do it. It is puzzling to me.
Why would you take if you're an experienced fisherman, why would you take somebody's advice on the shore? You didn't even know who this was like a like a.
Construction business. We have retired men that used to stand alone and watch us work and they never told us what to do. They just want to see cranes and stuff going on.
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But they do it. And of course then net fills up and John, John says it's the Lord.
They were pretty slow. Here it's the Lord.
And so Peter beautifully, he throws his, throws his some of his clothes on, dives in and goes to the shore and so on. And they have this exchange.
And so the Lord shows the disciples and shows Peter, and has a conversation with Peter that shows him that.
He understood this was going to happen. He had prayed for him before it happened.
That it happened, that he still loved him, that he understood why it happened, that he wasn't all finished.
That he had a work for him to do.
That this sad experience that he had to go through was going to even fit him in.
Unlikely way to be the servant of the Lord. Who would shepherd and who would feed are two different things, His lambs and his sheep, and I don't want to go into that very much now.
And so he says that in front of the other. So it's all established.
And then they go walking and he's going to walk in a certain sense, right off the page here we're at the end of John's gospel. He walked on from heaven. He's walking along. We don't have the ascension in John. Why go back to heaven has come down and the person of the Son of God, and it's as if it's never going to leave. He's just walks off.
And John and Peter are walking with him.
And he says to Peter that, yes, you wanted to die for me. That was your affection. You're going to die for me. He showed him what death he would die. And Peter would now be enabled to accomplish what the Lord, what he wanted to accomplish. But now it was on a new ground, going to be on a new ground and a new basis. The doctrine of that is not brought out.
But the statement from the Lord is here.
And he has something else for John, if I will, that he tarried till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me.
We've just touched a few things on the Lord walking through this world.
And his desire to have some follow him.
Some time ago I looked up the word follow because I was curious. Is it the same word that Paul uses when the when Paul says problem and I was intrigued to see that it's not.
The word in the Gospels mostly, and in John's Gospel, I think every occasion we just read is a word that means something like accompany me. Isn't that interesting? Accompany me, follow me, come alongside, come walk with me.
When the big executives would come to my projects when I was younger and running projects and they'd come flying in and everybody's nervous.
And I'd say to them when they come into the office and say, well, well, what do you want to do? What do you want to see? You want to see the cost report? What do you want to see? I want to see the work.
OK, let's take a walk. I can't tell you how many walks I've taken with with these with executives and you're always a little bit intimidated. You know what they're how they're going to see things. But they weren't making the walk because they wanted to so much visit with me. They wanted to see their own investment. The Lord Jesus, he says accompany me, walk with me. You can look it up yourself. It has to do with being a fellow traveler.
Road or a highway accompany me. But now in just a few 5 minutes that we have left, let's turn over to Paul.
As to this issue of following because it's different.
We all know even the youngest here that can listen. We can't literally follow the Lord.
Because he's in heaven, and yes, he's here in spirit.
He says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake.
With you till the end of the age.
But he's not walking here the way he did in the gospel. So it's in a certain sense though he walked with them. Literally, it was a picture of walking with the Lord. And we take it that way, don't we? And we read about following him. We read about denying ourselves. We read about taking up our cross. We read about about the fact that it's not a volunteer army because there was a rich young man that came up and says, I'm going to follow you wherever you go.
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I'm going to follow you whithersoever you go. And the Lord said the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. You're going to follow me in rejection. And if there's one thing other than the little points that I've inferred as we've gone through John's gospel, I want to leave you with this that you need to remember, and that is that you're following Christ. You're following a rejected Christ in this world.
When I was freshly saved and living by myself in Palmyra.
They call a high school actually a middle school friend. We went all through school together and and he went and got a prestigious degree.
In biology I think it was and he got done school and.
And Graduate School, too. And he came to visit me.
In my simple working life I had been saved a few years.
And I came home for one day and he would, you know, just be around my property and, and I came home one day and he was different. And I said, what's up?
He said, You will be interested to know that I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior today.
I I said yes, I am interested to know that.
I said what happened because this was a man that was all involved in biology and evolution and all this stuff.
And he said I was trying to get the Lord, I was trying to figure all that out.
And the Lord said to me, John, you're not going to figure that all out.
What you need is to put your trust in me. So he got down on his knees, He told me in my kitchen, and he accepted Christ as the Savior.
So I took him to visit some of the brethren that lived near me, an older couple that had taken me under their wing.
This was probably a 40 ish years ago 40 plus.
And the sister, she was 20 years older than us. Her husband was there too. And as we were going out the door, she said, well, John, she said, I'm very.
I'm very happy to see that you've come into the family of God.
She said I hope you follow the Lord. But she said never forget you're following a rejected Christ.
Fast forward.
30 years later, I don't know what it has been, 30-40.
Was some interval of 10. I go back to my high school reunion. I see John there.
He said whatever happened to Charlotte? I said, oh, she's with the Lord.
She's of the Lord.
He said. I always remember what she told me said What'd she tell you?
She said, John, never forget you following a rejected Christ. It made it quite an impression upon him.
Of course it made an impression upon me, and I hope it makes an impression upon you.
The conscience, the heart, clean feet.
Understanding that we need the power of Christ, as we are starting to read in our chapter, to be able to follow Him properly and not just with bravado and natural energy. To be able to follow the Lord, but His desire is that we would.
That we would come alongside him and he would.
Be accompanied by him to look up the work.
When we switch to John, to Paul's gospel, to Paul's what he calls my gospel, and to Paul's line of things, now we have a Christ in glory. We've got just three minutes. That's OK.
Now we've got Christ in glory. We're not walking down a road with Him. We're not going walking all night to make an appointment at a well.
We have Christ in glory.
And so the apostle uses this language if we go to 1St Corinthians, First Corinthians 11 as an example.
First Corinthians. Sorry, 1St Corinthians 10, the last verse.
Even as I please all men and all things, Paul writes to the Corinthians.
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Not seeking my own profit.
But the prophet of many, that they might be saved.
Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. We've got a different word now.
This is not the word of accompany, this is the word of imitate. He could say, if we could translate it that way. Be imitators of me even as I also am of Christ.
This is following for you and me in a present Christian sense.
The Lord Jesus is up on high. You and I are down here indwelled with the Holy Spirit of God, and we have this blessed book to guide us with spiritual intelligence as we take it in and we follow Him in the sense that we have His word and we have Him as an object. Now let's go to Philippians chapter 3, just very briefly.
Different aspect of following with Paul than with John.
In Philippians chapter 3.
Verse.
Verse 8. Doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
Verse 10. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, The fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
Even if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either with what were already perfect, but I follow after.
And then verse 14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The word for I press and the word for I follow is the same word. And it's a word that means I pursue, I'm running after something.
And there is a sense now for this aspect of following that.
We're following someone who we have not laid hold of yet. We're following something we don't yet have. I have as he says here, Not that I have apprehended.
Either or already or already attained or were already perfect but I follow after I pursue.
Beautiful Verse 14 I pursued toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and then in verse 17 be followers together of me and the Word Hearers, be it be a Co imitator.
Imitate with me. Be a Co imitator with me.
And mark them which walk so as she have us for an example.
You say, well, did Paul forget to be, to be gracious? Because in Chapter 11 he said, even as I also am of Christ?
Was he kind of getting kind of big in his britches here and now he's just saying follow me? No, because there's an aspect of following and we don't have time to take it up.
But when there's an aspect of following where we run to be something that we are not fully yet.
And Christ never rang a race like that. In Him Everin always dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was that holy thing born into this world, confirmed Son of God.
Just in case there's anyone wondering, that's what the testimony was at his birth is the Son of God.
He always was that One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt broadly. He never ran, He never, he never pressed to be something other than he was because of what he was, was the fullness of divine everything.
So this other kind of running that you and I have as believers today seeking to be conformed to the image of his Son and to know something of the power of his resurrection is something that God raised up, you might say a prototype of a believer in the apostle Paul. Paul said, I want to be like Christ. I want to be more like Christ. That's all I want.
Everything else, forget it. The good things, forget them. What I've already attained, forget it. I'm pressing for the mark.
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I want him and I want him in a practical way as soon as I can have it. And so he pressed for that, he pursued. You can look up the word yourself. It's very beautiful. So we have these two aspects that the accompaniment, The Walking along with him.
Because we have his comfort in his love.
And compassion in our pathway. And then we have him as our object, out in front of us, bright and fair.
In closing, I want to read 2 verses which I think illustrate two different sides of things from the book of Joshua.
I was noticing this the other day and it really struck me.
If I can put my eye on it quickly.
Joshua 11.
Verse 23. The last verse in Joshua 11.
So Joshua took the whole land.
According to all that the Lord said unto Moses, Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes.
And the land rested from war.
He took the whole land, He's got it all, and the land rested from war.
That's like the Ephesians, the first half of Ephesians, that's that side of things.
That's walking, that's being accompanied with someone who is a fullness of all divine personality or essence. But then you go just 30 verses later in the beginning of chapter 13.
Joshua 13 and verse one. Now Joshua is old and stricken in years. And the Lord said unto him.
Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.
That seems like a contradiction, doesn't it?
That's Philippians 3. There remaineth much land to be possessed. But I know this is intended to be a young people's meeting but those of us that are older.
The most damage we can do a lot of damage to younger Saints.
If we don't have Christ as an object, if we don't run after him, if we don't grow and we don't change.
When I was saved and brought to the assemblies, and I started to go to different assemblies and visits around, there were all kinds of Christians my age raised in those assemblies by their parents who were at the Lord's Table, and these young people were leaving and I'm coming in.
And what they have to say was basically, I hear all this high doctrine.
I don't see anybody change or grow. That old lady has been that way for X number of years and this guy is this way. And this is all very wonderful and good, but I don't see it happen. That's on us.
I'm sorry, Caleb, I know this is young people's me, but that's on us.
It's on us. It's important that we allow the Spirit of God to work practically in our lives.
There's a lot of land to be, much land to be possessed.
This is the Paul side, this is the Philippians three side. We need to be serious. Is that this little gathering in Carolina not too long ago? I was so encouraged.
The brother in the middle of the Reading meeting says we're all five of us were old, he said. We we can't coast.
Yeah, we, we can't coast. You know what? You know what I mean by that? You can't just relax and coast. Well, we have the truth and we're we're all set, We're all good. We're coasting. Let's not coast older ones, because the younger ones, you're our children and these young, they're looking us. Does this work?
Elijah comes back from from seeing Elijah caught up. That's Philippians 3 again. He takes the mantle that Elijah left behind. Is it going to work? He's going to smite the water. Is it going to work?
This works if we carry out, if our hearts are engaged with the Lord in the Philippians, three kind of way it will work.
Brother got upset with me and I'll finish it. This brother got upset with me.
We were on Zoom. We had known each other 40 years ago and the assemblies in the east.
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And he got upset with me for something and he emailed me. He said you've changed.
So we had a conversation. He says I haven't changed. I said, brother, I hope you're wrong, I haven't been around you that much. But I'll bet you you have changed. And I hope you have and I hope I have. And I know you meant it as an insult, but I'm actually flattered that we haven't been around each other very much and you think I've changed. I trust the Lord has put me through some experiences that have caused me to change.
So anyway.
Sorry to go a little over, I know you have a desire to everything be on time but.
We are where we are. Let's just commend ourselves to the Lord.
Our God, our Father, how we thank Thee.
Thou descend thy son to carve a path through this world.
We think of how Adam and Eve, there was number following, they were just there.
But sin has come into the world and death by sin, and we've been praying about its consequences this morning and.
Speaking about it and not hearing we have a need to get through this world and Lord Jesus we bless thee and thank thee that Thou hast shown us a path.
To follow, and that thou art the one to follow, we thank Thee. Thou hast made thyself the object of our hearts. How we need to have these, our object bright and fair. Help us, Lord Jesus, to have our eye upon Thee, that each one of us, young and old.
Would be found following hard after, as Psalmist would say, We ask thy blessing on that which was of thyself, from my precious word to the hearts of young and old, the speaker included, who bless thee, our God and Father, for all thy love, and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.