Following

We follow others on social media, but The Primitive Quartet tell us who we should be following -- and how -- with stirring bluegrass gospel.

Oh, goody! I'll be hating on pop culture again today.

Kidding -- sort of. What I'll be doing is examining a word, a concept, a practice that's been completely devalued by its own ubitquity. When a word, a concept, a practice is as ubiquitous as this one, we just stop looking at it and, consequently, stop remembering what it means.

John 3:19-21 warns us about the consequences of this casual forgetting, "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

I'm not saying that everyone who "follows" someone using social media is evil. I'm saying that, in neutralizing the word, the concept, the practice of following, we cease shining a light on it. If we don't stay conscious of the full implications of following someone, evil will begin to flourish, whether in a "Mean Girls" way or a "Mark of the beast" way. If you think I'm going all Church Lady on you, just read Revelation, and see what I mean.

Oh, please, it's twenty-two chapters. At three chapters a day, plus the last (short) one on Day Seven, you can slam through it in a week. This should be a cakewalk for most of you.

But I digress.

Let's take a look at this next passage, and focus on the true meaning of following. Matthew 4:18-22 recounts the beginning of Jesus' ministry, "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."

You mean like stalking?

Er, no.

Like hanging-out-with?

Yes, but "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39, emphasis mine)

Jesus says your earthly relationships are nothing compared to the relationship you have with Him.

Jesus elaborates in Matthew 16:24-27, "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done." (emphasis mine)

He says that nothing in this world is worth as much as your soul. People? Possessions? Power? Position? Let it go.

John 1 looks at the idea of following in another way. "The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.; I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." Later, John writes, "The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus." (verses 35-37)

John the Baptist had a following. He was somebody. He was a preacher of the Gospel. None of that meant anything once Jesus showed up. We, too, may rise in popularity because of our work on behalf of the Gospel, but we must never lose sight of the fact that people aren't supposed to follow us; they're supposed to follow Jesus.

In John 10:1-9, Jesus says, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.' This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

"So Jesus again said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.'"

If you're going to follow Jesus, you have to be familiar with the sound of His voice, through prayer and Bible study. If you love Him, you'll jump at the chance to get to know Him.

In John 12:26 Jesus says, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also."

Where is Jesus? Not falling asleep in church, but healing the sick, feeding the hungry, preaching the Gospel, casting out demons, helping those who need help, loving those who act hatefully toward Him.

After He is resurrected, Jesus foretells Peter's death in John 21:18-22, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.'" (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, 'Follow me.' Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, 'Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?' When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, 'Lord, what about this man?' Jesus said to him, 'If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!'"

Nobody wants to die this way, not even Jesus. "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8-9, emphasis mine)

Paul explains how not to do it in Ephesians 2:1-3, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Knowing the death he was to die, Peter wrote this in II Peter 2:20-23, "For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly."

The book of Revelation tells the story of the ultimate consequences of following someone. So, really, go read the whole thing.

Those consequences are a long way off. 

Maybe, but let's do it your way, and look at the consequences of doing what Jesus commands us to do: "Follow me ..."

" ... and I will make you fishers of men."

 Fishers of men? You mean we can actually convince other people to believe the Gospel and give their lives to Jesus Christ? 

If -- and only if -- you follow Him.

This does not mean masquerading as Humble Christian Soccer Mom with your mom jeans and your mom hair and your makeup-free face and your Humble Christian Husband/Ballet Dad with his logo t-shirt and his dad hair and his dad jeans. You do this, you're drawing just as much attention to your outward selves as celebrities do, only in a different way. Following Jesus is not about assiduously cultivating a humiliating appearance and sad-sack manner.

Humiliation has precious little to do with humility as a megachurch full of people in these costumes found out. Someone visited this church, having heard how approachable the people were. After not being greeted -- much less ministered to -- by a single member of that church, this poor lost soul went home and committed suicide. You want to follow Jesus? Get over your bad self. And get over your shy/insecure/cliquish/superior/misanthropic self, too.

Following Jesus does not mean ripping people to shreds for not adhering to the tenets of a faith they don't follow. So what if your neighbor commits every sin in the book? Stop criticizing, and start modeling Christian  behavior. Maybe your neighbor's sins are the result of something s/he lacks. How would a Christian meet that need? Maybe with comfort from the Scriptures, or a helping hand.

Following Jesus does not mean adhering to "common decency"; there's no such thing. "Common decency" is what people can get away with -- no more and no less. Don't think so? Then check out reality TV some time. The only truly decent thing is to live the way Jesus lived -- not the way uptight, hypercritical people (with shameful secrets of their own) would shame us into living.

Following Jesus does not mean looking at Christians in the media or yet another legalistic church, and making cosmetic changes in order to be like them. As you've seen from today's Scriptures, following Jesus is a lot tougher than that -- a lot tougher.

Only by truly following Him can we inspire others to do the same.

Lots of songs I could put here. I've already featured Rhonda Vincent's outstanding "Fishers of Men" elsewhere in a couple of different versions. Today, I want to share a song that became an instant and firm favorite the moment I heard it. Here's "Peter, Do You Love Me?" (which takes its text from John 21) by The Primitive Quartet.

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