Our subject tonight is following the life giver
and I'd like to invite you to stand
to your feet and we're going to pray
together.
Let's just stand and we'll pray.
Father we thank you that the Lord Jesus
Christ rose again to set men free, free
to follow, free to love, free to obey
and Lord we pray that in these final
few moments of our day together you will
teach us more of what it means to
follow you in 1988.
In the name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
Now I just have one verse as a
text tonight and that is the 10th chapter
of John's Gospel and verse 27 the words
of the Lord Jesus my sheep listen to
my voice and they follow me.
My sheep listen to my voice and they
follow me.
You know the world doesn't like this idea
that through Jesus Christ we have found new
life and new freedom.
I don't know whether you've been following the
very interesting articles in the Sunday Times in
recent weeks triggered off by a lady called
Ellen Pennington.
She wrote to the newspaper says the editor
in bewildered despair about her son Mark and
I quote from her letter he was brought
up in easygoing tolerance by agnostic parents but
he has rejected University and become a born
-again Christian.
He's attending a Bible college, he's believing literally
in every word in the Bible.
Ellen Pennington went on to write to the
editor if only he'd taken up drugs or
glue sniffing or gambling or almost any sexual
deviation I would have understood any of that
anything but this piggish Bible bashing.
The commentator goes on to state born-again
Christians are flourishing and she's being very very
arrogant as she writes.
She says they write a tireless length these
born Christians their letters are filled with warm
sympathy and constructive counseling and later on she
mocks the certainty and the assurance of these
born-again Christians.
People don't like it the idea that we
have found new life new freedom in Jesus
Christ.
However the writer of that article had to
go on later to state the following one
mother of two sons who both got hooked
she means converted after graduating cheerfully reported to
me my sons are both married they're extremely
happy they're actually working as evangelists and as
for the money well God their mother added
does seem somehow to provide.
One previously skeptical father had ended joining the
church himself and wrote to the editor of
the Times before we had thought that the
church was the refuge of the craven and
the socially inept but now through the lives
of our sons we've come to Christ ourselves.
It's been a very interesting series of letters
and as I've read these letters and noted
the skepticism and the cynicism of so many
against those who claim to have found life
through the life giver.
I've realized again how my life how your
life is so crucial in this skeptical sneering
world in which we live.
If we are to have any credibility in
our witness as Christians it's got to be
more than our words of testimony it's got
to be our life of testimony.
Coming to the life giver is something which
can be done in a moment but following
the life giver is the task of a
lifetime and it's that I want us to
consider just for 20 minutes or so this
evening.
I want us to look at the characteristics
of those who follow the life giver and
I read to you from John 10 and
verse 27 that's where we'll begin.
My sheep said Jesus listen to my voice
and they follow me.
Two characteristics then of true Christians two characteristics
of disciples of Jesus.
Number one they listen.
Number two they follow.
It's interesting isn't it?
The first characteristic of the followers of Jesus
is that they are listeners.
Not that they're witnesses not that they're dynamic
activists for the kingdom of God but that
they're willing to get down to that quiet
activity often though not always carried on in
private.
That activity of listening.
Do you remember what happened when the Lord
appeared to that depressed prophet Elijah in 1
Kings 19?
He spent a night in a cave on
Mount Horeb the mountain of God and the
word of the Lord came to him.
This is 1 Kings 19 and verse 9.
What are you doing here Elijah?
And you'll remember Elijah's reply.
I've been very zealous for the Lord God
Almighty but the Israelites have rejected your covenant.
They've broken down your altars.
They've put your prophets to death with the
sword and I only I am left and
now they're trying to kill me too.
Elijah of course was desperately deceived and his
deception could have had very serious consequences both
in his own life and in the nation
of Israel.
Elijah needed to hear a word from God.
He needed a corrective word to get him
back onto the right path of truly following
God.
So we read in verse 11.
The Lord said to him go out and
stand on the mountain in the presence of
the Lord because the Lord is about to
pass by.
Then a great and powerful wind tore the
mountains apart, shattered the rocks before the Lord
and you can imagine Elijah this must be
God.
This must be his voice but the Lord
was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake but
the Lord wasn't in that earthquake.
After the earthquake there was a fire but
the Lord wasn't in the fire and after
the fire there came a gentle whisper and
it was then that Elijah heard his corrective
word.
Go back Elijah to the way from which
you have come.
I wonder tonight have you learned in your
life to recognize that still small voice of
God because listening, listening is the primary qualification
of the man or the woman who would
be a follower of the life giver.
A disciple is a follower.
A Christian disciple is a follower of Jesus
but how can we follow him?
That was one of the questions of the
disciples.
Jesus said to them where I am going
you cannot follow and they were confused by
that but although we can't follow Jesus to
heaven yet Jesus is speaking to us.
He is instructing us.
He is commanding us.
Sometimes he is correcting us but are we
listening to Jesus?
My sheep hear my voice.
Now to be a good listener requires at
least two things.
It requires time and it requires concentration.
You ever had the experience of talking to
someone you knew was in a desperate hurry?
You have the impression he just couldn't wait
to get rid of you.
He couldn't wait just to get on with
the really important business.
Have you ever had the experience of talking
to a person who I call a butterfly
character?
As you share your need or your blessing
or your problem with him his eyes are
everywhere.
It's obvious his concentration is flitting around from
one thing to the next.
If you're anything like me when you find
yourself talking to someone like that you don't
have either the confidence or the desire to
share very deeply with such people.
You know if you really want to be
a disciple of Jesus the first qualification I
stress again is to listen to him and
the first qualification if you're going to be
a listener is quality time.
Time which you can put aside to concentrate
on listening to the voice of your shepherd.
You know after all the conferences and sermons
and exhortations and books written on the quiet
time most Christians still fail at this basic
point of their walk with God and according
to Alan Redpath even those who manage a
regular quiet time often fail.
This is what he writes, I sometimes wonder
if our quiet times are not huge barriers
that impede and hinder our spiritual growth.
Why you may ask?
Because says Redpath too often it's my thoughts,
it's my words, it's my problems that dominate
the tone of my prayers.
True prayer is first of all taking time
to listen to God to be conscious of
his presence and of his spirit in our
lives.
My sheep listen to my voice.
But what's the point of listening if we
don't follow?
Hearing the command but not obeying.
Being hearers of the word but not doers.
My sheep hear my voice and they follow.
I wonder how many Jonah's we have in
our audience tonight.
Do you remember Jonah 1 verses 1 and
2 the word of the Lord came to
Jonah go to the great city of Nineveh
and Jonah heard the voice of God he
was listening but Jonah ran away from the
Lord.
Are you doing that tonight?
You've heard his word you know his will
yet you're refusing to obey or you rationalize
of course how can you really be sure
it's his will but deep down you know.
What is it?
What is it that you're refusing to obey
on?
Is it a relationship?
Is it some aspect of service in your
church you're just not willing to get involved
in?
Some course of study you're not willing to
commence or you're not willing to continue with?
Some way in which the Lord wants you
to use your money possibly?
Your life giver is your Lord.
To accept his life is to accept his
will for your life.
My sheep not only listen to my voice
says Jesus they follow.
So here's our foundation.
Listening and following, hearing and obeying is the
very basis of Christian discipleship.
Now let's look at what this following will
mean more specifically.
If we're listening and if we're ready to
obey what's it going to mean in our
daily lives?
Well secondly to follow the life giver is
to choose the way of the cross.
To follow the life giver if you're listening
to him your response will be to choose
the way of the cross.
In Luke 14 it's recorded that Jesus said
to large crowds who were following him anyone
who doesn't carry his cross and follow me
can't be my disciple.
You can imagine the image which came into
the minds of the hearers as Jesus used
that illustration.
It wasn't unusual really in this part of
the world at that time in history for
a man to be seen struggling through the
streets of the major cities with a heavy
wooden cross on his back.
And the whole city would pause.
There'd be a deathly hush.
Everyone would look towards the man with the
cross on his back.
They knew where he was going.
He had a one-way ticket.
There was no return.
The man was as good as dead.
And Jesus says if you're going to follow
me if you're going to listen and if
you're going to obey you've got to take
up that cross that symbol of death.
You know I believe it's hard for us
to appreciate in the 20th century the kind
of revolution that Jesus was calling for in
that illustration.
Many of our modern expressions for coming to
Christ and for discipleship fall short utterly of
expressing the revolution that Jesus was calling for.
We talk about coming to Christ as if
it's something you can take or leave.
We talk about making a commitment to Christ.
I don't think phrases like that are really
faithful to Scripture.
We need something much more radical.
That's what Jesus is calling for through that
illustration.
And one way you can see how radical
the commitment is that Jesus is calling for
there is to look at the verse which
precedes it in Luke 14.
You'll know the verse well.
Jesus said if any of you from this
big crowd that's following you come to me
and you don't hate your father, your mother,
your wife, your children, your brothers, your sisters,
even your own life.
You can't be my disciple.
You know you and I cannot truly receive
the life of the life giver unless death
takes place.
What Jesus said of himself is true of
each one of us.
Unless a corn of wheat falls into the
ground and dies, it will remain alone.
But if it dies, it will bear much
fruit.
You know sometimes that means physical death.
On Thursday night I came back from India.
On Wednesday night I sat for three hours
in Delhi with the widow of a 27
year old American who last September went out
with Operation Mobilization to the great city of
Delhi to reach Afghan people.
Refugees there with the gospel of Christ.
Just married 18 months.
Ten days ago he went to the doctor
with a cold.
He's now with the Lord Jesus.
Died of encephalitis and viral meningitis.
At the memorial service on Wednesday 90 Afghan
and Iranian people came and listened to the
gospel of Christ.
Kim said to that crowd of people, Kim
is the widow, you know if Ray and
I were asked by God to come again
to you with the message of Christ and
we knew the consequences, she said I believe
we'd come again.
A corn of wheat has gone into the
ground in Delhi and died.
Look out for the church amongst the Afghan
people there.
Because when a corn of wheat goes into
the ground and dies, it will bear much
fruit.
You ready for the death sentence on your
life?
The death sentence on your plans, your goals,
your needs, your desires.
The death sentence on all of that so
that the life of the life giver can
flow through you and from you to those
around you.
Listen to Paul, think of the fruitfulness of
that one seed.
He writes in 2nd Corinthians 4, we always
carry in our bodies the death of Jesus
so that the life of Jesus might also
be revealed in our body.
For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus sake so
that his life may be revealed in our
mortal body.
To follow the life giver is to learn
to listen to him.
It's to learn to obey him.
It's to learn to die, to choose the
way of the cross, to all of my
petty ambitions and desires so that his life
can be seen in me.
But then thirdly, and I'm using the words
of the Lord Jesus throughout this message, thirdly,
to follow the life giver is to leave
your nets.
To leave your nets.
In Matthew 4, 19 and 20, the Lord
is calling Simon Peter and his brother Andrew
and we're told this, at once they left
their nets and followed him.
That just takes my previous point a stage
further.
It's one particular aspect of our dying.
These men left their livelihood.
They left their source of income.
No doubt to some degree they left their
status behind them to follow Christ.
And that's the last thing we want to
do, isn't it?
Especially in our kind of society, we cherish
our independence.
The security of knowing that we are fully
able to provide for ourselves and our loved
ones.
No doubt these disciples felt much the same
and then the chilling challenge came to them.
Leave your nets.
In other words, place your future and your
security entirely in my hands.
Hand over the reins of your life, the
reins of your independence to me.
Have you heard that call?
That call to total abandonment.
You heard it?
Not a call to total irresponsibility.
We are not called all to immediately leave
our jobs.
But to every disciple there comes that call
to total abandonment.
That call which can only receive the response,
yes Lord, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, whatever you say,
I'm abandoned to your will.
Until you've made that response, you've never really
accepted the Lordship of Christ.
And I wonder how much you know of
the life of the life giver.
To follow the life giver is to listen,
it's to obey, it's to die, it's to
hand over your independence, it's to hand over
the future entirely into his hands.
Fourthly, to follow the life giver is to
become a fisher of men.
We remember our Lord's words to Peter and
Andrew, Mark 1 17, come follow me, Jesus
said, I'll make you fishers of men.
It's obvious, isn't it?
When we receive new life from the life
giver, it would be a strange thing indeed
if we just sat quietly back and kept
it all to ourselves.
In fact, I don't think we would be
wrong to argue that if that were the
case, we just sit back and quietly enjoy
this great life from the life giver.
If that was the case, I think we
could easily argue that it's proof positive you
know nothing, nothing of the reality of his
life.
Listen to John 1 43 and 45, Jesus
decided to leave for Galilee.
Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me.
Philip found Nathanael, told him, we have found
the one Moses wrote about in the law
and about whom the prophets also wrote.
Do you recall the response of the Samaritan
woman in John 4?
Her immediate response after meeting with Jesus was
to go back to her town and declare
to the town people, come, see a man
who told me everything I did, couldn't this
be the Christ?
And later we read, many of the Samaritans
from that town believed in him because of
the woman's testimony.
In John chapter 6 and verse 38, Jesus
made this wonderful promise.
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says,
listen, streams of living water will flow from
within him.
And John explains, by this Jesus meant the
spirit of God, whom those who believed in
him were later to receive.
And what happened when that promised spirit came?
Remember Jesus said, when the spirit comes, streams
of living water will flow from within you.
What happened when that spirit came?
Well, the attention of the people was arrested,
Peter preached a great sermon and about 3
,000 people immediately became Christians.
You know, they had no exhortation to evangelize
the early church.
They had no seminars on evangelism.
They had no alive 34 weekends or 88
weekends.
Streams of living water began to flow from
within them.
They had received life from the life giver
and they could not possibly keep that to
themselves.
Leave your nets, said Jesus, I will make
you fishers of men.
Finally, to follow the life giver is an
individual decision and we are held individually responsible.
Do you remember that interesting incident in the
last chapter of John's gospel?
Jesus had been explaining to Peter how he
would die and he was encouraging Peter to
follow him.
And then we read in verse 20, Peter
turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus
loved was following them.
When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what
about him?
Jesus answered, if I want him to remain
alive until I return, what's that to you?
You must follow me.
Campbell Morgan says this, Jesus is really saying,
Peter, mind your own business.
Don't spoil your own soul's condition by fussing
about someone else.
We're so good at that, aren't we?
I am.
Diverting the challenge from myself by focusing on
someone else.
Comparing ourselves with others.
Jesus doesn't say, follow me if your friend
does.
He doesn't say, follow me if your wife
or your husband does.
He doesn't say, follow me to the degree
that your friend does.
He's just been explaining to Peter that commitment
for him would ultimately mean crucifixion.
And his challenge is this, Peter, travel all
the way with me.
You're going to die, Peter.
You're going to be crucified and if tradition
has it, he was upside down just outside
Rome.
You're going to die, Peter, but travel with
me all the way.
That's what it's going to mean for you.
Peter looks around and he says, well, Jesus,
it's going to mean the cross for me,
it's going to mean crucifixion.
Well, what about John?
What about him?
Is he going to have to die?
Jesus says, mind your own business, Peter.
If I allow him to live until I
return, what's that to you?
You must follow.
You've been personally called and you're personally responsible
before God for your own spiritual commitment.
You've often sung, haven't you, though none go
with me, I still will follow.
Will you?
Will I?
It's one thing to be committed at a
conference like this, isn't it?
But there's an atmosphere of commitment on occasions
like this.
Think of Peter himself.
There he is gathered around the last supper
table with the Lord there and all the
other disciples and Jesus is predicting his death
and the denials of the disciples he's predicting
as well.
Now in that atmosphere, Peter is very confident.
Even if all fall away, I won't fall,
says Peter.
But he's a very different man in the
courtyard of the high priest.
He's on his own now.
The Lord is apparently in a very vulnerable
position and three times Peter denies him.
One moment in the crowd when everything's looking
good, he's so confident, so filled with faith.
But the next moment when things aren't so
good, what's happened?
Where's his faith gone?
Can I ask you at the close of
this day, how real is your faith?
How real is mine?
Are we really committed to him?
To the risen Lord himself?
Or are we committed to the church?
To a group of people?
To a certain kind of lifestyle?
And if those things were taken away, what
would be left?
Jesus says to Peter, put everything and everyone
out of your mind for a moment.
Forget about John.
Are you ready to travel with me?
Even if it means crucifixion.
The call of the life giver is to
you and it's to me personally.
Jesus is saying, Peter Maiden, follow me.
No matter, no mind what everyone else does,
Peter Maiden, follow me.
And that's the challenge of this weekend.
You can come to the life giver in
a moment.
But following the life giver is the business
of a lifetime.
How are you doing?
Are you listening?
How much time are you giving to listen
to God?
Do you give an hour a day to
listen to him?
Not to gibber away in his presence, but
to listen to him.
You know, if you give one hour a
day, you'll probably give about 4% of
your life.
Is that too much to give?
To listen to God?
My sheep, my people, listen to me.
You make a fresh commitment to listen to
your Lord as you move away from this
civic center.
On hearing his voice, will you follow?
Have you accepted your death sentence, brother, sister?
Have you accepted your death sentence?
Have you taken up that cross, a condition
of following him?
You made that decision to leave your nets,
to put your life and your future and
your independence in his hands.
Are you willing to share that life with
others?
That's what it means to follow the life
giver.
And it's an individual decision.
Only you can make it for yourself.
Only I can make it for myself.
Let's bow before him for a moment.
Quietly spend time listening in his presence.
Maybe the life giver is going to give
a corrective word.
Maybe he's going to give an encouraging, motivating
word to you.
My sheep, listen to my voice.
And they follow.
Oh Lord, we need to hear from you.
We don't know the way.
We need to hear from you many times
every day.
We pray, oh God, that you'll grant us
the discipline in our lives and the desire
in our lives.
Put that time aside to listen to you,
our shepherd.
Not to go rushing, racing through life, doing
the things that we feel need to be
done, the way that we feel we should
do them.
But Lord, give us that discipline to listen
to you and to do your will.
Lord, you've called us to death so that
life can flow through us.
We don't want to run away from that
cross, Lord.
We want to embrace it.
We want to go the way of the
cross.
We want to put our own plans and
our own ideas and our own ambitions to
death.
We want to abandon ourselves to your will
and to your purpose.
Lord, grant us that desire and that ability
to share that life with others.
May that spirit flow from deep within us
so that many will be touched.
Lord, help us to look at our own
lives and not to be constantly worried, thinking,
critical about others.
But Lord, to follow you, never mind what
anyone else is doing.
Thank you for your life, our loving Lord,
given for us.
Thank you for your life within us.
Help us to accept your Lordship, that your
life might flow through us.
In your name we pray.
Amen.