2016 DMI Preaching Series #2
Series Title: Follow Me
Part 1: Do’s and Don’ts
(Adapted from Andey Stanley’s Follow series Part 1)
ME (Get Attention)
I always thought being a Christian was all about obeying a set of rules—a list of do’s and don’ts. As long as you obey all the rules then you’re in the game. So I played the “Christian game” when I was growing up as a kid, making sure that I attend church and avoid all those sins listed in the Bible. I found out that it was impossible not to commit any sin. But I learned later that you don’t really have to be perfect (because no one is perfect) and it’s okay to commit some “minor” sins as long as you ask God for forgiveness about it. But you have to be very careful not to commit those graver sins like adultery, theft, or homosexuality because they were just unacceptable and scandalous. So I tried to keep myself away from those “major” and grave sins and kept appeasing God for all the “minor” sins that I have committed.
I found out later that that wasn’t really what Christianity is all about. Jesus came to earth not to establish more rules for us to obey but He came to connect with us through a personal relationship with Him. He talked about the relationship of the son to the father, the branches abiding in the vine and the sheep knowing the voice of the shepherd. All of these talk about being RELATIONAL. Jesus came to earth to connect with us in a personal way, not to check on us if we’ve been faithful in obeying the law that were set in the Old Testament.
WE (Present a Tension)
Many of us here probably thought the same way about Christianity too. (Or maybe it’s just me. If it’s just me then you’re all good then.) But we’ll see in a few minutes that what Jesus was concerned about was not really us trying to “perform” well in the list of do’s and don’ts but what He was more concerned about was for us to FOLLOW Him and have a RELATIONSHIP with Him.
GOD (Present a Solution)
If you look at the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), the word that you’ll find Jesus came back to over and over and over again is this word FOLLOW. This is the word that we’re going to be focusing on in this series. In the next 4 weeks, we’re going to look into how Jesus called people as He invited them and says “Follow Me”.
This is amazing. Jesus extended an invitation to follow to every single kind of person imaginable. To rich people, poor people, people who were spiritual, people who were not spiritual, religious, irreligious—all kinds of people.
So let’s look into the first account of it. It’s found in the book of Matthew and it talks about Matthew. It’s Matthew telling us a story about himself in this gospel of Matthew. Here’s where we are introduced to this whole idea—the simplicity of following.
Matthew 9:9 NIV
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth.
The tax collector during that time were hated by all. They were disgusting and they were outcasts. They couldn’t go to the temple. They hung out with people like themselves—other tax collectors and sinners. They were Jewish people hired by the Romans to collect taxes for Rome. (There were all kinds of taxes—bridge tax, income tax, food tax, crossroads tax, wine tax, property tax, etc.) They were immediately hated by the people in their communities because they were traitors. They were supporting Rome. They were benefiting from Roman taxes. Matthew was one of those people so he was absolutely hated.
So Jesus walks up to Matthew. Jesus could have said one of many things to Matthew. He could have walked up and said, “I bet your mother was really proud.” He could have condemned him for what he was doing as a tax collector.
But Jesus looks at Matthew and says, “Follow me.”
…and Matthew got up and followed him.
If you’re one of Jesus’s followers and you’re hanging out would Jesus, you would have said “Wait, wait. It can’t be that simple!” In fact, we’re going to find out later that there was a group of religious people shadowing Jesus and they look at this encounter and says “Wait, it can’t be that simple. You can’t say ‘follow me’ and a tax collector becomes part of your group.”
Jesus’ invitation to Matthew was not just a casual invitation to go with Him. It was a formal invitation to become part of His circle. To become part of His group. It’s as if He’s saying, “Begin to identify yourself with me and I will begin to identify myself with you.”
Now here’s what Jesus didn’t say (and this is what people who grew up like me playing the “Christian game” would have expected Him to say):
“If you are willing to ______, you can follow me.”
He didn’t say, “If you’re willing to stop, you can follow me.” Or “If you’re willing to start, if you’ll do this and that, you can follow me.”
But Jesus simply says, “Follow me.”
Here’s what is significant about this. This is the same invitation that Jesus extended all throughout the gospels. To all kinds of people. The invitation is just “follow me”.
Now here’s the question I want all of us to ask ourselves in the next few weeks. Here’s what I want us to talk about over lunch or dinner. Whether you’ve been a Christian for quite some time now, or you’re just new to this, or you’re somebody who used to believe in Jesus but now don’t, or wherever you are in your spiritual journey, let’s just begin to tune out all the other imagery and all the other stuff and think in the most simplistic terms (because it was the simplest invitation—follow) and begin to ask the question, not “What do I know”, not even “Am I a Christian”, but…
“Am I following?”
Not “Did I go to church”, not “Did I read the Bible”, or “Did I pray”. What if we could take the do’s and don’ts approach away from religion for a few weeks and begin to ask the question: “Am I following?”
If this seems too simple for you, it seemed too simple for the religious people in the time of Jesus as well. In fact, the story continues and Matthew gives us a really interesting detail.
In the very next scene, here’s what Matthew tells us:
Matthew 9:10 NIV
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house…
Jesus was having dinner at the house of a tax collector!
… many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
Matthew invites his friends with him and his only friends were the other tax collectors in the area and people who were sinners. They were outcasts to the religious system.
Let me tell you why this was such a big deal in their time. Jesus was extraordinarily comfortable with people who weren’t like Him. And apparently, people who were nothing like Jesus were very comfortable with Him. Jesus was so winsome!
Jesus would like you. Jesus would not be put off by your sin. Jesus would not be uncomfortable even though He knew your thoughts.
Matthew 9:11 NIV
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
The Pharisees that were shadowing Jesus wherever He went were probably outside the house of Matthew (because they weren’t welcome) and asks His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
In other words, they were saying, “Hey, we’re confused. He’s a rabbi. He’s a holy man and we’re holy people. He’s a law keeper and we’re law keepers. He worships God. We worship God. Why is it we have a lot in common with Him but He didn’t invite us? Why is it He would choose people He’s nothing like instead of the people He’s like?”
They were so confused and Jesus knows this disturbance outside.
Matthew 9:12 NIV
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
I believe Jesus said this out loud and Matthew heard this. But he probably wasn’t offended by this. He knows he’s sick and all of his friends know that they’re sick. They were outcasts in their community.
Only people who are willing to look at the mirror and say, “You know what, I need something… I need help.” Those are the primary candidates for followers of Jesus.
Jesus goes on and says,
Matthew 9:13 NIV
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
This was so offensive to the Pharisees because they are the people who are learned. They have been learning and studying the scriptures for a long time and yet who is this Jesus to tell them to learn something?
He quotes from the prophet Hosea. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” The Pharisees know this verse. And Jesus was saying to them, “And if they don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s what I’m talking about.”
“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
In other words, “I’m not content to simply be with people who believe all the right things. And I’m simply not content to hang out with people who behave all the right ways. I want to join with the people who believe the right things and behave the right ways in order to call the people who don’t believe the right things and behave the right ways who know there’s something else to believe and wish have more control over how to behave the right ways.
We dare not become a church that is content to gather together the people who believe the right things and behave the right ways and stop there. Because if we do, we will find ourselves standing outside the very room that Jesus inhabits as He comes to call the sick and the sinners.
We have been called to partner with our savior for those who acknowledge that they need help, for those who are sick.
It is not enough to believe right. It is not enough to behave right. In fact, the church that is content to believe right and to behave right eventually become the Pharisees. They eventually become judgmental. They eventually become those who say, “As soon as you change, you can be a part of us.”
That was the Pharisees’ message:
Pharisees: Change and you can join us!
But Jesus came along, turned it upside down and messed everybody up. Jesus showed up and said, no…
Jesus: Join us and you will change!
“Matthew, I will not ask you anything else except you stand up and join me and we’ll go into your house.”
The Pharisees were like, “Wait, he’s a tax collector.”
Well Jesus says, “I don’t run your gameplan.”
“Your gameplan is for people to believe the right things first and behave the right ways and you’ll give them a quiz and determine if they’ll be accepted or not. “
“I (Jesus) have come to invite everyone to just follow Me and simply take baby steps. And if you follow Me for very long, you will change and eventually become just like Me. Not because you’ve been in an endless game of checking the do’s and don’ts. But because I am like a father, I’m like a vine, I’m like a good shepherd. And I just want you to FOLLOW ME.”
So this is what this series is all about. It’s about saying regardless of where you are, the invitation is for you.
YOU (How is it Relevant to the Audience)
To wrap this up, let me just give you 4 quick things about following.
Following Jesus:
1. Being a sinner does not disqualify you. It’s a prerequisite.
- Every single person that Jesus invited to follow Him, and every single person that said yes was a sinner. The only people who resisted following Jesus were the people who thought that they were perfect. The less perfect the person was, the greater their candidacy was in terms of becoming followers of Jesus.
- Jesus begins with Matthew before Matthew has prayed anything, before he has committed to anything, before he has repented of anything, before he has promised anything. He says, “Matthew, just as you are would you take a baby step and and follow me? I’m gonna make it easy for you.”
- There is no sin, no habit, no addiction, no illness, no problem that puts you outside the circle of those who have been invited to follow.
2. Being an unbeliever doesn’t disqualify you. None of Jesus’ earliest followers believed.
- When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, two years in, Jesus does something and it says, “And they believed.” So what have they been doing for 2 years? Not believing.
- One of His followers got a nickname for his lack of faith—Doubting Thomas.
- It doesn’t matter how little faith you have (even if you don’t have faith), you are invited to become a follower of Jesus.
3. The invitation to follow is an invitation to relationship.
- It’s not an invitation to the 10 Commandments.
- It’s not even an invitation to obedience. If you were married to someone who obeyed all the marriage rules and you obeyed all the marriage rules, you would not necessarily have a good relationship. Rules don’t make a relationship. The reason I keep the marriage rules is because I’m in love with my wife. I don’t have a list of do’s and don’ts for her because I’m in love.
- If you start loving Jesus, you will start doing some different things.
The apostle Paul says this:
God’s kindness is what leads us to repentance.
The thing that leads to change is not fear. It’s God’s kindness. And you need to be in relationship with God to experience His kindness.
4. Following forces me to focus on where I am rather than where you are not.
- When you wake up in the morning, you’ll face the mirror and say, “My goal for today is not to to keep 10 things, or keep the checklist. My goal today is to the best of my ability to simply follow Jesus that I become so aware of my responsibility, I don’t have time to judge others. “