Follow Christ in 2012

I preached this sermon January 1, 2012

Text: John 8:12

Introduction: With the Christmas time of year when we were decorating we had some large boxes and plastic tubs sitting in the hallway and living room. One particular night I walked out down the hallway in the complete darkness and stumbled over the boxes in the hallways, I had forgotten they were there.

That is not the first time and I doubt it will be the last that I have stumbled in the darkness. The funny thing is that all I had to do was flip on the light switch and the light would have filled the hallway and I could have seen my way clear to get where I was going and not stumble over anything. But I felt confident in the darkness that I knew my way well enough that I didn’t need the light. I thought I had it all under control and so I chose the darkness over the light and stumbled.

Jesus said in this scripture that He is the light of the world and that if we will follow him we will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. But I am afraid that too many of us are choosing the darkness.

Jesus spoke these words during the Jewish festival of tabernacles. On each night of the festival worshipers would light golden lamps in the temple’s court of women. The lamps were intended to remind worshipers of God’s leading the people of Israel through the wilderness at night by a pillar of fire during the time of the Exodus. The lighting of the lamps also symbolized Israel’s recommitment to God. Jesus was actually claiming to be that luminary, that light, a role reserved for God the Father alone. Jesus was actually identifying himself as God. And used the theme of the wandering in the wilderness that if we follow him he will lead us through rather than to walk in darkness, stumbling along on our own.

Jesus’ call is one to follow Him, the light of the world, rather than stumble in darkness. Some of you today are stumbling around in the darkness, you neither follow Christ, nor have you trusted Him as your savior, yet you are here with us in church today and that tells me you are searching for that light, that you are tired of stumbling in the darkness. He is calling for you to follow him.

But even the Christian sometimes strays from the light in the shadows. I challenge you to follow Christ this year. Like Paul said in Ephesians 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Ephesians 5:14-16 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

¹⁵See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

¹⁶Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Christian will you wake up and follow Christ in 2012? The alternative is to walk in darkness.

What does it mean then to follow Christ?

Following Christ means leaving the past in the past

Everybody has a past! A past that we are not proud of. Many people have skeleton’s in their closets that they fear will get out. But don’t let the past stop you from following Christ! The Bible is filled with people that had a past! David was an adulterer, Jacob was a deceiver, Rahab a prostitute, Moses was a murderer, Zaccheus was a thief, even some of Jesus’ own disciples had a past James and John were the sons of thunder (temper), Simon the Zealot was a rebel (revolutionary), Matthew a tax collector, usually regarded as thieves, Thomas a doubter, Peter a denier and coward, and even the apostle Paul was a persecutor and consented to the murder of Christians. I could go on and on, about the pasts of people that could potentially haunt them. But when we follow Christ, we find mercy, grace and forgiveness and our sin remembered no more (Jer 31:34b for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

You have a past, I have a past, we all have a past, but when you follow Christ you can leave the past behind.

Phil 3:13-14 ¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Today is the first day of a new year, leave the past behind. When you trust Christ as your savior you were set free from your past and given a glorious future!

-Jer 29:11 ¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Following Christ means denial of self

Luke 9:23 – 25 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

²⁴For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

²⁵For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

Self denial is not merely self-discipline – it is not punishing yourself or beating yourself up, self denial means we forget about ourselves and live by the power of Christ. Don’t get me wrong self-discipline has value, but not eternal value, that is not what are talking about here.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Following Christ means we must trust Him because so much is unknown to us

-the biggest disappointment in my life was I discovered that I don’t know everything and can’t know everything.

We will go when he says to go – trusting his timing is always right Psalm 31:14-15a ¹⁴But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.

¹⁵My times are in thy hand:

We will go where he says to go – trusting him as a sheep does a shepherd Psalm 23:1-4 ¹The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

²He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

We will go as far as he says to go – trusting in his leadership

- Psalm 37:23-24 ²³The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

²⁴Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.

We will go even if we must go alone – Josh 24:15 choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

– at what point is it too much, at what point would you say to the Lord “I will no longer follow?”

-there were some that turned away from following Christ, some followed Christ just to get what they could from him (feeding the five thousand),John 6:26 -27 ²⁶Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

²⁷Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

some followed until the road became difficult. When they left Jesus asked “will you leave too?” the answer where would we go?

-John 6:66 – 69 ⁶⁶From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

⁶⁷Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

⁶⁸Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.