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| Rev. Brian Wilkie |
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, March 4th, 2018:
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Broadcast Notes:
Good News in the Morning is sponsored by Good News Christian
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who support us financially. And now, here is today’s presentation.
I'm your host today Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew's Christian Church in
Rockland. As we begin today my prayer is that the good news of the Lord Jesus
Christ would encourage and strengthen you today.
As we begin this program I know from my schedule that we've the
broadcast over 300 programs now since the four hosts began to share the
responsibilities of Good News in the Morning and this is the first program that
I have recorded since the death of our founder Dr. Allen Churchill and as we go
forward in the time to come I want to express my gratitude to Allen for the
leadership that he showed in this program and in my life, as he was my senior
Minister for several years and taught me so much about faith and life.
Following
Jesus
Today we're going to focus on the basic understanding of what it means
to follow Jesus. This is something that is fundamental to our faith,
fundamental to our life, and I'd like to share with you a scripture which
addresses this in such a pointed way. Jesus prepares his disciples for his
departure as he heads to the Cross to die for our sins and to be raised to
eternal life and after a time to ascend to the Father in Heaven to lead us from
there so these are the words that Jesus speaks to the disciples in John chapter
14 verses 5 to 21:
John 14:5–21
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to
him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus
answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said,
“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus
answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a
long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show
us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the
Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the
Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of
the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me
will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these,
because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name,
so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything
in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises
the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love
me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The
world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you
know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as
orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore,
but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you
will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who
loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to
him.”
(Jn 14:5–21)
Jesus packs a lot into these words that he is speaking on the last night
of his earthly ministry and we'll take a look at what that means and unpack
that teaching of Jesus in a few moments, but first I'd like you to hear song
based on the theme of following the the guidance of God: Lead on O King Eternal
sung by Glad from their album Acapella Hymns.
As we pursue the issue of discipleship we're looking at Jesus words in
John chapter 14. It begins with a very important clarification which comes
through questions the disciples ask Jesus because he's just told them he's
going away and they should follow the way that leads to him and Thomas has a
very practical question. “Lord, we don't know where you are going so how can we
know the way?” Jesus answers with these famous words, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really
knew me you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have
seen him.”
Jesus is answering the question when Thomas is wondering, how does he do
the right things? What is the way he needs to follow? Jesus clarifies that
discipleship is not primarily following instructions, it's following a person.
Jesus is the way. To follow Jesus is not simply to follow a number of
commandments and to apply some principles in general and find practical
applications for them. Following Jesus means being in a relationship with him,
following after his footsteps. We all know the difference between following
instructions and following a person. If we're going on a journey and somebody
knows the route, whether they're walking ahead of us or driving ahead of us we
know what it is to follow them. It's a practical process of just keeping them
in sight and going the way that they go. We step in their footsteps, we follow
where they walk. It is very straightforward to follow a person when you can see
them.
Likewise following instructions can be very straight forward. Whether
it’s a recipe, or the Ten Commandments or some other assembly instructions for
some furniture you bought. You know how to follow instructions. You know how to
take Step 1 and step 2 and step 3.
But following Jesus combines these two types of following into one,
because we do have instructions from Jesus, we do have principles to follow. We
have commands and encouragement; an invitation. We are told how we can live to
please God and yet Jesus’ command to follow him goes beyond instructions -
it goes into that idea of having him in
front of us and going where he goes. He himself is someone who is following his
Father as he lives his Earthly life. He tells his disciples repeatedly, “I
don’t do anything on my own, I do what I see my father doing.” Has Jesus seen
what his Father is doing from Scripture? For sure! We see that Jesus has been a
student of Scriptures, so that he knows
the prophecies that concern his own life, he understands the commands of God,
and understands them, more than superficially, but right to the heart. But also
he has been in a relationship where day by day he takes time apart and spends
time drawing near to his Father so he can know what his Father is doing and
follow after him. Do you not think that Jesus, when he tells us to follow him,
is calling us to the same kind of life? To follow these instructions but also
follow the person. Hearken to the word of God but also spend time in prayer
drawing near to the person of God, knowing him and following him closely? This
is precisely what Jesus tells his disciples to do.
One of the key things we need to understand as we’re following Jesus is
that we're truly serving the Lord we’re not serving ourselves. I'll go into
this in my next program a bit more, but following Jesus is not following
instructions that are intended to help you to accomplish your goals and your
aims for your life. Following Jesus as a recognition that your life belongs to
the Lord, that your days and your moments are his to command; that the goals
that you can and must pursue in life are more important than the goals you
might set for yourself. Following Jesus means serving him, serving his
purposes, not following his commands simply to accomplish your own and ends and
goals.
So Jesus is able to tell his disciples that one of the great gifts that
is given to us for following Jesus when he says. “I will ask the Father and he
will give you another counselor to be with you forever.” A leader, an advisor,
a guide, a help along the way: this is the Spirit of Truth or the Holy Spirit.
He says that this Holy Spirit comes to those who accept Jesus because it is the
Spirit sent by Jesus and for Jesus sake. The Holy Spirit will live with us and
will be in us. Jesus promises he's not leaving us alone; that his promise is an
everlasting one: a counselor that will be with us forever.
He is not leaving as orphans, he's not leaving us to do this all on our
own.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is not merely guidance but also power.
He speaks about those who will follow him and show their love for him in
obedience, but he also says that we who have faith in him will do what he has
been doing and do even greater things than these because he is sending the Holy
Spirit, because He's going to the Father and sending the Holy Spirit.
Following Jesus is not something we do entirely in our own strength we
are called to love God with all our strength as well as with all our heart,
mind and soul but it's not dependent on our strength to accomplish these
things, for God sends his own power, his own gifts, his own miracles to help us
along the way. Jesus is able to say confidently if you have put your faith in
me, if you are following me, if you are letting me live in you, and letting the
Holy Spirit guide and direct you then you can ask anything in my name and I
will do it
This is both a bold promise of Jesus, telling the disciples that
anything they need to accomplish God’s will, will be given to them. It is also
a promise that is wrapped in a number of conditions. It says that those who
love him will obey his commands. Those who are pursuing Jesus are not pursuing
their own goals, not asking for selfish gifts and even submitting their request
to God with the faith that God will do good, rather than God will do what I
tell him to do.
It sounds like a very open promise when he says, “anything you ask in my
name will be done for you.” But what does it mean to ask in Jesus name? It's to
know the one of whom we are asking and to submit to and serve the one for whom
you are living your life.
So what a Christian will ask from God as a person pursuing God, in
Holiness and Grace and love, will be asking the very things that he or she has
discerned from God through the reading of Scripture and through the leading of
the Holy Spirit to discern from God what it is that God wants to accomplish, to
ask for those things and know for a certainty that God will provide what is
needed to accomplish what God intends to do.
We have this great gift given to us in God's promise of a presence with
us as we follow him. We're going to look at that even more fully in a few
moments but let's listen to this song which again expresses the goodness of
God's grace in guiding us. Here the Winchester singer George Beverly Shea, and
this goes back a few years, sings “He Leadeth Me” from his album I'd Rather
Have Jesus. Let's listen to that.
We can be confident that as we commit ourselves to Christ, as we decide
to follow him, that we will not be following merely be following instructions
but we will be having direction and guidance from God through his Word and
through his Holy Spirit.
As we embark on that I just think it's appropriate that we should spend
some time asking God for his guidance and turn to him in prayer. So let’s do
that now:
Almighty Father,
we give you thanks and praise that you have given us your Word and your Holy
Spirit. The living Jesus is with us, and he will be with us even to the end of
the age.
We pray that you
will grant us the guidance we need and the will to follow through and obey your
commands; that our love would be complete and that we would do all that you
would have us do for the glory of your Son who does all this to glorify your
name, Father. We ask this in his name, Amen.
Now as we conclude our ministry today, let’s listen to one more song,
this from an Ottawa born singer, Jodi Cross who used to lead worship at
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church and now leads worship in Central Ontario. This is
from his album forward to Forever and it's called Lead Me Lord.
Thank you for tuning in. If you have been blessed and
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May you come to know Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.
May the Holy Spirit reside deeply within your heart, and may you feel our
heavenly Father surrounding you with his constant, abiding and accompanying
love. Good News In The Morning is produced in the Studios
of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
Rev. Brian Wilkie
St.
Andrew's Christian Community, Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to the
above broadcast, click on the following link:
