What Following Jesus Looks Like
In order to follow Jesus we need to enter that place where Jesus related to God as His Father. Notice that the relationship He had to God is the relationship we can have with God. This is what He cares about most as it relates to our spiritual development.
In John 5 Jesus gives us some insight into His relationship with God …
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 (NIV)
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV)
Jesus isn’t trying to diminish us. Rather, He’s pointing out our need for a dependent relationship that we must arrive at in humility. Otherwise, we have no hope of experiencing the same transcendent, extraordinary relationship with God that He has.
Jesus says, let Me tell you what it looks like to follow God … Every action in His life was informed by His ability to see, understand, to know and be affected by whatever the Father was doing …
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” John 5:19-20a (NIV)
So God is doing something in human history and Jesus is saying, “I’m living a life that reflects that action.” He only does what He sees the Father doing. He goes on to say …
“Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.” John 5:20 (NIV)
Jesus says, “If you think my relationship to My Father is kind of unexplainable now, wait and see what’s coming! Because I see what My Father is doing and so I live my life in alignment to what God, My Father, is doing in the world.”
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” John 5:21 (NIV)
He’s not saying that God is up in heaven dangling strings and Jesus is the puppet. Quite the contrary. They are so intimate that they are One! Their love is that deep!
“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” John 5:20a (NIV)
What does it look like to follow Jesus? It doesn’t look like any ritual or any pattern. There is no methodology given to answer this question.
What it looks like to follow Jesus is to be able to SEE what the Father is doing and be affected by it and acting in response to the activity of God.
If you think that’s tough, go to John 12 and see how Jesus makes it even more elusive …
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” John 12:47-50 (NIV)
Jesus says that what is coming out of Him is not just His own ideas coming out of His own head. He’s in this intimate relationship with God the Father and what He’s doing is being informed by what He sees God doing and what He says is a response to what He’s hearing God say to Him.
What does it look like to follow Jesus? It’s easy …
You just need to be able to see what Jesus is doing (even though He’s invisible) and you need to be able to hear what He’s saying (even though He’s inaudible).
And then just go!
Most want a religion, pattern, formula or magic that we can just hold onto where we can say, “this is what it means to be spiritual.” What a lot of people want is some kind of data or doctrine or some kind of confession that guarantees we’re a follower of God. But that’s not what Jesus said at all. He made it so much more difficult! Because it’s all dependent on intimacy, not information.
If that weren’t elusive enough, He keeps going …
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 (NIV)
“And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27 (NIV)
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:39 (NLT)
“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:21 (NIV)
It’s as if Jesus knew that we would spend the entire length of our lives negotiating with Him if we didn’t get it right at the beginning. So we end up choosing works and good deeds – that’s what it looks like to follow Jesus. The truth is that if we’re followers of Christ – those things should flow out of our lives. We should love more, be more compassionate and merciful. There should a tangible change in the way we think about ourselves and how we think about the world and in the way we care for the poor and the lonely. But those are NOT the things that make us followers of Jesus. It’s when we realize the language was always intended to be taken literally, in this … that we have to give up all of ourselves and give ourselves completely to the God who has given all of Himself for us! Jesus says that when we’re transformed we’ll be able to see what He’s doing and our lives will be affected by that and we’ll be able to hear what He’s saying and our lives will be affected by that.
“The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:2-4 (NIV)
Here’s the dilemma … in order to follow Jesus … we need to know where He’s going. If we have no idea where He’s going it’s impossible to follow Him. The great danger is that we’re going to be absorbed into some religious expression of faith rather than learning how to follow Jesus. The irony is that as leaders we’re not trying to become the go-between (negotiator, middle-man, diplomat) between you and God. We’re trying to connect you to God in such a deep way that you don’t need us. But we hope you’ll choose us because we need each other.
“But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.” John 10:5 (NIV)
How do we learn to hear the voice of God and see what He is doing? Can you hear the story of Jesus’ life in these verses …
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2 (NIV)
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3 (NIV)
“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4 (NIV)
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:6-7 (NIV)
Isaiah gives us an idea of the rhythm of Christ’s life … and how He learned to see what the Father was doing and hear what the Father was saying.
“The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.” Isaiah 50:4-5 (NIV)
Every morning Jesus would open His soul to His heavenly Father and ask for God to speak. For Jesus it was living in the soul-space where God was the most intimate relationship … in our lives we can be as informed by the presence of Jesus in everything we do. We live life swimming in God … drenched in His presence!
“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.” John 15:4-8 (MSG)
We try and figure out what the “fruit” is and we try and fabricate it rather than looking at ourselves and asking, “Am I rooted in relationship to Jesus in such a way where the fruit of God is the natural outflow of my life?”
Are you living in the religion of Christianity or are you following Jesus?
In John 5 Jesus gives us some insight into His relationship with God …
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19 (NIV)
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV)
Jesus isn’t trying to diminish us. Rather, He’s pointing out our need for a dependent relationship that we must arrive at in humility. Otherwise, we have no hope of experiencing the same transcendent, extraordinary relationship with God that He has.
Jesus says, let Me tell you what it looks like to follow God … Every action in His life was informed by His ability to see, understand, to know and be affected by whatever the Father was doing …
“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” John 5:19-20a (NIV)
So God is doing something in human history and Jesus is saying, “I’m living a life that reflects that action.” He only does what He sees the Father doing. He goes on to say …
“Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.” John 5:20 (NIV)
Jesus says, “If you think my relationship to My Father is kind of unexplainable now, wait and see what’s coming! Because I see what My Father is doing and so I live my life in alignment to what God, My Father, is doing in the world.”
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” John 5:21 (NIV)
He’s not saying that God is up in heaven dangling strings and Jesus is the puppet. Quite the contrary. They are so intimate that they are One! Their love is that deep!
“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.” John 5:20a (NIV)
What does it look like to follow Jesus? It doesn’t look like any ritual or any pattern. There is no methodology given to answer this question.
What it looks like to follow Jesus is to be able to SEE what the Father is doing and be affected by it and acting in response to the activity of God.
If you think that’s tough, go to John 12 and see how Jesus makes it even more elusive …
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” John 12:47-50 (NIV)
Jesus says that what is coming out of Him is not just His own ideas coming out of His own head. He’s in this intimate relationship with God the Father and what He’s doing is being informed by what He sees God doing and what He says is a response to what He’s hearing God say to Him.
What does it look like to follow Jesus? It’s easy …
You just need to be able to see what Jesus is doing (even though He’s invisible) and you need to be able to hear what He’s saying (even though He’s inaudible).
And then just go!
Most want a religion, pattern, formula or magic that we can just hold onto where we can say, “this is what it means to be spiritual.” What a lot of people want is some kind of data or doctrine or some kind of confession that guarantees we’re a follower of God. But that’s not what Jesus said at all. He made it so much more difficult! Because it’s all dependent on intimacy, not information.
If that weren’t elusive enough, He keeps going …
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 (NIV)
“And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27 (NIV)
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” Matthew 10:39 (NLT)
“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:21 (NIV)
It’s as if Jesus knew that we would spend the entire length of our lives negotiating with Him if we didn’t get it right at the beginning. So we end up choosing works and good deeds – that’s what it looks like to follow Jesus. The truth is that if we’re followers of Christ – those things should flow out of our lives. We should love more, be more compassionate and merciful. There should a tangible change in the way we think about ourselves and how we think about the world and in the way we care for the poor and the lonely. But those are NOT the things that make us followers of Jesus. It’s when we realize the language was always intended to be taken literally, in this … that we have to give up all of ourselves and give ourselves completely to the God who has given all of Himself for us! Jesus says that when we’re transformed we’ll be able to see what He’s doing and our lives will be affected by that and we’ll be able to hear what He’s saying and our lives will be affected by that.
“The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” John 10:2-4 (NIV)
Here’s the dilemma … in order to follow Jesus … we need to know where He’s going. If we have no idea where He’s going it’s impossible to follow Him. The great danger is that we’re going to be absorbed into some religious expression of faith rather than learning how to follow Jesus. The irony is that as leaders we’re not trying to become the go-between (negotiator, middle-man, diplomat) between you and God. We’re trying to connect you to God in such a deep way that you don’t need us. But we hope you’ll choose us because we need each other.
“But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.” John 10:5 (NIV)
How do we learn to hear the voice of God and see what He is doing? Can you hear the story of Jesus’ life in these verses …
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2 (NIV)
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 53:3 (NIV)
“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:4 (NIV)
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
“I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:6-7 (NIV)
Isaiah gives us an idea of the rhythm of Christ’s life … and how He learned to see what the Father was doing and hear what the Father was saying.
“The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.” Isaiah 50:4-5 (NIV)
Every morning Jesus would open His soul to His heavenly Father and ask for God to speak. For Jesus it was living in the soul-space where God was the most intimate relationship … in our lives we can be as informed by the presence of Jesus in everything we do. We live life swimming in God … drenched in His presence!
“Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.” John 15:4-8 (MSG)
We try and figure out what the “fruit” is and we try and fabricate it rather than looking at ourselves and asking, “Am I rooted in relationship to Jesus in such a way where the fruit of God is the natural outflow of my life?”
Are you living in the religion of Christianity or are you following Jesus?