Tuesday 11 April 2017

Follow Me

Scripture:  John 12 v 26: "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour."
Matthew 15 v 3: "But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"

In my long journey with Jesus there has been much to learn about following Him, and much to discard as being things men have added and made into religious traditions.  If you want to have a closer walk with Jesus make sure you obey the "Follow Me" command so that you do not get lost in the confusion of tradition.

Jesus says it is a narrow way that leads to life and few there be that find it.  He compared it to trying to take a camel through the eye of a needle.  This was a real place in Jerusalem where camels laden with goods could not enter 'the eye of the needle' gate because it was too narrow.  They had to offload their cargo outside the gate.

When you follow Jesus you have to offload your cumbersome baggage at the foot of the Cross so you can enter into the life He has for you free of the past.  He does not try to change the corruption of sin into a remodel.  He has to kill that corruption and make a new creation of which He is the firstfruits.  The prototype.

Jesus was hated by the religious Pharisee sect because they served themselves and cared not for the people they were supposed to serve.  He openly rebuked them and ministered truth to the people, healing and delivering them from disease and demonic oppression.  He rejected tradition and religious rituals by showing them a way of life that we call Christian, today.

We are in Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday a few days ago, including the Last Supper, a Passover Seder, after which Jesus was arrested, whipped, crowned with thorns, mocked, persecuted and condemned to death be crucifixion.  Then the burial and the Resurrection.  The most important week in the history of mankind as it provided salvation from Hell, misery, eternal death and sin for all who would believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

So where do Easter eggs, bunnies and chicks fit into this life-changing event?  Easter is  Roman holiday to honour the fertility goddess Oestre, from which the word oestrogen comes.  When the Roman Catholic Church blended mythology and Babylonian traditions with Christianity, Easter overshadowed the true solemnity of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Our old enemy will go to any extreme to distract sinners from the might, presence and glory of Jesus.  Children are much more impressed by chocolates and fluffy toys than hearing gospel truth.

The Romans had no use for a Jewish feast called Passover which should be part of Christian worship and practice.  The Passover Seder is a very significant event as it established Communion and is a testimony to Jewish people who seek to know their Messiah.   Even the Matzo, unleavened bread, is striped and pierced today as a testimony to the lashes on His back, and the nails in His hands and feet, as well as the crown of thorns from a bush called nabk with 8" thorns.

We should all celebrate the Christian Passover rather than Easter eggs and fun and games. It has been lost to the Church even though Jesus is called our Passover Lamb.  1 Corinthians 5 v 7 - 8:  "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:  8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Leaven is a reference to sin so through His shed Blood it is purged from us so we identify with the purity of unleavened bread.  Paul is writing to the Corinthians to keep the feast of Passover.  They were Gentile converts, not Jews.  Therefore we should do likewise.

It is part of following Jesus through His last hours as the Son of Man.  Let us discard fantasies and false worship of goddesses that have become part of the traditions that block our souls from a deeper understanding of who Jesus really is.  Let us go through the eye of the needle as He did and experience true freedom in our worship and obedience to God.  

We also need to follow Him through the waters of baptism in which we identify with His death and resurrection, not as babies being Christened which is a tradition that is not supported by scripture, but as adults with full understanding and consent.  For the Body of Christ to be unified we need to all be rid of those add ons that cause us to disobey God and which divide us into denominations following our own rules.

If you want the Father to honour you then you must follow Jesus every step of the way.  Even the apostles of old said follow me as I follow Jesus.  They had no worldly leadership courses to teach people how to lead.  They followed the Lamb of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords everywhere He would lead them.  They turned the world upside down.  Acts 17 v 6: "And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;"

It is time for us to unite in unadulterated truth to turn this world of corruption and sin upside down that they may be shaken out of it and come forth to follow Jesus into eternal life.  

Prayer: Heavenly Father we are here because we were lost and needed a Saviour to rescue us.  He said Follow Me.  We have followed Him out of the danger of religion and false worship.  Now we need to show the world who He really is so the truth is known.  Help us, Father, to turn this world upside down for Jesus to save them.  In Jesus' name. Amen.