Background on Following Jesus

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Following Always Includes a Coming Down

Author

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 9:35, Matthew 23:11, Matthew 23:11, Matthew 10:24, Luke 16:13

Following always involves a coming down, a humbling of oneself and a serving of others. Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan theologian, captured this condescension of God in his sermon "The Excellency ...

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The Most Striking Feature of Jesus’ Teaching

Author

John R. W. Stott

Keywords

The most striking feature of the teaching of Jesus is that he was constantly talking about himself. It is true that he spoke much about the fatherhood of God and the kingdom of God. But then he added ...

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A Day with Jesus

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 10:13-16, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 9:10-13, John 15:15, Mark 5:35-43

A group of fourth-graders at a Christian school was given an assignment to draw what they would like to do if Jesus spent a day with them. After working diligently on their pictures, one little girl a...

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Seeing Through the Eyes of Jesus

Author

Richard J. Mouw

Keywords

Scripture

Micah 6:8, Exodus 23:2–3, 6, Proverbs 31:8–9, James 2:12–13 , Luke 6:36–37, Psalm 103:8–10

Christian civility does not commit us to a relativistic perspective. Being civil doesn’t mean that we cannot criticize what goes on around us. …Civility is a different matter, though. I can treat ...

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Suffering is Walking in Jesus' Path

Author

Elizabeth Elliott

Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:21, Luke 9:23, Philippians 3:10, 2 Timothy 2:11-12, Matthew 16:24-25

Amy Carmichael was a passionate missionary to India. She gave her life for the sake of those who had suffered the consequences of an unyielding caste system. She also had her suffering, due to physica...

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Theories about Jesus

Author

N. T. Wright

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 9:6–7 , Micah 5:2, Isaiah 53:3–5 , John 1:1–3, 14, Colossians 2:8–9 , Psalm 2:1–2, 7

We hear of wild new theories about Jesus. Every month or two some publisher comes up with a blockbuster saying that he was a New Age guru, an Egyptian freemason or a hippie revolutionary. Every year o...

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How Jesus Prayed

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 1:, Luke 4:16, Luke 2:41-52, Matthew 6:9-13

Many of us may have wondered what types of prayers Jesus would have prayed during his time on planet earth. In his book Praying with the Church , Scot McKnight notes that Jesus and his disciples,...

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Not Like Himself

Author

Andy Stanley

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 2:17, Luke 15:1-2, Luke 19:1-10, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

But it wasn’t just his new message that made Jesus irresistible. It was Jesus himself. People who were nothing like him liked him. And Jesus liked people who were nothing like him. Jesus invited unbel...

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The Real Scandal of Jesus’s Ministry

Author

Hans Küng

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:35-40, John 8:1-11, Luke 19:1-10, John 4:1-26, John 8:10-11, Luke 19:10

In these acts of love Jesus created a scandal for devout, religious Palestinian Jews. The absolutely unpardonable thing was not his concern for the sick, the cripples, the lepers, the possessed . . . ...

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Where are the Nails?

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 13:1-3, 1 Kings 22:19-23, Isaiah 53:3-5, Matthew 24:23-25, John 20:27, Psalm 34:18, John 20:25, 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2, Galatians 1:8-9

St. Martin of Tours was a Frankish soldier in the Roman army who abandoned his military post to follow Jesus at a time when Christianity had only begun to take root in France. He later became the bish...

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Systems Can’t Fix Us

Author

Dallas Willard

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 5:20, Romans 14:17, Luke 17:20-21, Matthew 28:18-20, Philippians 2:14-15

T. S. Eliot once described the current human endeavor as that of finding a system of order so perfect that we will not have to be good. The way of Jesus tells us, by contrast, that any number of syste...

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Experiencing Racism at a Bible College

Author

Bryan C. Loritts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27, Numbers 12:1-10, Isaiah 56:6-7 , Luke 10:25-37, Galatians 3:28, Psalm 34:18

While I was born much too late to be the legal property of a person in America, I have been the recipient of racism. When a classmate called me a racial epithet in my first year of college, I was deva...

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Look Up, See Possibilities

Author

Bruce D. Strom and Eugene Cho

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:2, Psalm 19:1, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Psalm 123:1, Isaiah 40:26

Maybe this sounds silly, but go outside and look up. You cannot see yourself. All you see is a vast expanse of possibilities. Look down. You will see yourself and little else. This is true in life. Lo...

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Studying our Parts

Author

Brian Dembowczyk

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 2:5, Ephesians 5:1-2, 1 Peter 2:21, Colossians 3:16, 1 John 2:6, John 13:15

Imagine you were cast to play the role of legendary baseball player Babe Ruth in a biography of his life. You could simply follow the script, reading out what is written. How much better, though, to s...

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Starting With the Boots

Author

R. Kent Hughes

Keywords

Scripture

John 13:14-15, Philippians 2:5-7, Matthew 23:11, James 4:10, Mark 10:45, 1 Peter 5:5-6

In 1878, when William Booth’s Salvation Army was beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist. One man, who had once dreamed of becoming a bishop, crossed the Atla...

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Defining What it Means to “Follow”

Author

Keri Wyatt Kent

Keywords

Following

Jesus made it fairly simple, at least to start. He said, “Follow me.” The word follow, diluted by our culture, begs for a biblical definition. In English, you can follow the directions (or not); you c...

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Following Jesus Requires Real Commitment

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 3:5-8, Matthew 22:37, Romans 12:1-2, Luke 14:26-27, Deuteronomy 6:5, Luke 16:13, Mark 12:30, John 14:15, Matthew 16:24-26, Luke 9:59-62, Matthew 6:24, Hebrews 11:13-16, Hebrews 10:38-39, Matthew 6:33-34, Matthew 10:37-39

What are you willing to do for love? An instructor for the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course shared with a class the major hang-up he had to get over before asking his wife to ma...

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Christ’s Name

Author

Tertullian

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 11:15, Matthew 28:19, Galatians 3:28, Matthew 8:10-11, 1 Corinthians 15:25-26

What shall I say of the Romans themselves, who fortify their own empire with garrisons of their own legions, nor can extend the might of their kingdom beyond these nations? But Christ’s name is extend...

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The Problem with Apologetics

Author

Joshua Chatraw and Jack Carson

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:2, James 2:19-20, 1 Corinthians 8:1-2, Ecclesiastes 1:18, 1 Corinthians 2:5, Philippians 3:10, Matthew 7:21, 24-27, James 1:22

The Oxford scholar and apologist C. S. Lewis... once closed a lecture to a group of apologists like this: I have found that nothing is more dangerous to one’s own faith than the work of an apologis...

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Our Reward

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 4:10, Revelation 3:20, Acts 4:13, Matthew 18:20; 28:20, Isaiah 43:2, Genesis 28:15

*it is possible this story is apocryphal, we were unable to find the original source of the story. Admiral Nelson of the British Navy was renowned for his mastery of naval strategy, a genius fro...

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Jesus Discerned Between Invitations

Author

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 19:11-13, Exodus 33:12-14, Isaiah 30:15-21, Mark 5:25-34, Mark 1:35-38, Psalm 46:10

Jesus knew his spiritual journey depended on responsiveness to God’s invitations. Although his job was the most crucial in human history, Jesus did not get compulsive, preoccupied or unable to practic...

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Salt & Light: How Jesus Within Us Makes Us Flourish

Author

C. S. Lewis

Keywords

Scripture

John 1:1-14, Ephesians 5:5-20, Isaiah 60:1-5, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 4:12-17, John 8:12-20, Colossians 4:6

In these two little Illustrations, C.S. Lewis demonstrates how a life of discipleship, of following Jesus, does not lead to uniformity and a drab existence, but rather the opposite. Jesus takes our li...

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The Art of Followship

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Colossians 3:16, Philippians 2:5-7, John 13:34-35, Matthew 11:29, Mark 8:34-35, Luke 9:23

Editor’s Note: The following illustration came from one of my own (Stu’s) sermons, as I was trying to help the congregation make a paradigm shift from the church as a building, to the people of God: ...

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Are You Afraid You'll Get Caught?

Author

Bradley Long

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 1:16, John 15:19-20, Matthew 5:10-12, Mark 10:29-30, Revelation 2:10-11, Matthew 10:16-18, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Romans 8:35, 2 Corinthians 12:10

An American pastor once asked an Indonesian missionary who works among Indonesians but with a different people group from his own, “Are you afraid you’ll get caught?” Christian mission work in Indones...

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Christian Character Defined: John Stott

Author

Mark Labberton

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16, Isaiah 58:10-11, Colossians 2:9-10, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 16:11, 2 Corinthians 9:8, Philippians 4:11-12

As a study assistant to the Anglican pastor and writer John Stott during my early years as a believer, I witnessed John’s faithfulness in public and private, as a highly visible speaker and as a nearl...

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Reaching the Unchurched

Author

Carl Medeiras

Keywords

Here is my grid for how I think of what to say when given the platform by a friend out of trust – a friend who is not following Jesus: I want to honor the friendship by doing exactly what he’s asked ...

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The Most Important Thing About Us

Author

John Mark Comer

Keywords

The twentieth-century writer A. W. Tozer made a stunning claim: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Really? The most important thing? M...

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One Potential Pitfall in Reconciliation Movements

Author

Brenda Salter McNeil

Keywords

Reconciliation. Let’s be honest. Reconciliation has become a trendy topic of conversation . . . which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. People are talking about it and that’s good. There are gatherings, ...

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Don't Assume

Author

Kevin DeYoung

Keywords

Scripture

John 9:1-3, Matthew 7:1-5, James 4:11-12, Micah 6:8, Proverbs 18:13

As sinners, we are apt to assume the worst about people. We are eager to find favorable comparisons that make ourselves look good at the expense of others. We are quick to size people up and think we ...

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Thomas Merton Becomes More of Himself

Author

Max Lucado

Keywords

Humanity

This story of Thomas Merton’s dramatic vocational change is illustrative of the life that Jesus offers us. For many of us, we assume discipleship means becoming less “us” and more like “Jesus”. But if...

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