Allen Jackson - Let's Follow Jesus - Part 1
We started a series really focused on an invitation that is consistent in Scripture and one that, with God's help, I want to present to you over these next few weeks. It's a contraction. "Let's," there's multiple invitations in Scripture to let us do something. And I would submit to you that God is searching the earth for men and women who will respond to those invitations to let us be busy about the work of the Kingdom of God. You're familiar with this, we have done let's pray and we've learned to pray in some new ways. We've done let's read and we've learned to read our Bibles in some new ways. We've done let's talk and we've learned to share our faith in some new ways.
So, I'm really, we're just doing some background work on that. For this session we're gonna talk about let's follow Jesus. Folks, that is the summary of what we're about. It's not the church we attend or the worship style we prefer, or the translation of the Bible that is most easily understood by us. All those things are okay, but at the end of the day we want to be guilty of following Jesus. And in Luke 9 we get to hear Jesus coaching. He gives us the nature of that invitation. This is very important. Jesus tells you what's necessary to follow him. That might be worth listening to. "He said to them all: 'If anyone", anyone, who's welcome? Anyone. Who's excluded? No one. That's really good news.
"If anyone would come after me, he must", this is not optional. Whatever comes next is not optional. "If anyone would come after me, there's something you must do. He must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me". Now, that's a little bit of a bummer. If I've been writing it and I was authoritative, I would have written it differently. If anyone would come after me, you must eat M&Ms every day. I would have given you a list of self-indulgent, self-gratifying, probably self-absorbed. And Jesus did the opposite. He said, "If anyone wants to follow me, there's some things you must do. You must deny yourself".
You cannot be a Christ follower unless you're willing to deny yourself, there's no way. The goal of being a Christ follower is not self-fulfillment. I believe you'll find fulfillment, but the pathway to that is illogical. It's not intuitive. You'll have to be willing to deny yourself. And then he said something that's even more troubling. He said, "You have to take up your cross daily". Now, we know the cross is ornamentation. We have jewelry in our ears, around our neck. We decorate our buildings with it. We have three crosses 60 feet tall on the front of this building. But when Jesus used the image, it was a place of torture. People were literally tortured to death in public. We talk about humane executions, these days. There was no such objective then. They used public torture as a means of instilling fear in the population.
And Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, you must deny yourself, you must take up your cross daily, you gotta be willing to lay your life down daily, and then you can follow me". I wanna spend some time with that today because it seems to me, I spent much of my adult life in the midst of the Christian church and church people and church discussions and church leaders, and that message has not been overly popular. It doesn't fill the titles of the books that sell most frequently. We try to avoid it, but I think it's worthwhile. I introduced you to a little phrase a few years ago, 2020. I began to encourage you to watch and to listen, to think. We've gone to church for a long time and there wasn't a lot of thinking required, but that's changed.
You need to think in regard to your faith these days. To watch, to listen, to think, and to act. There were tremendous forces unleashed in 2020. There were tremendous lies told. The first lie we were told was in a couple of weeks, you'll go back to normal. The first real breakthrough I had was that normal was gone. It didn't even take me two weeks. I understood that whatever normal had been, that world had been taken from us or we had been delivered from it. Well, all those forces that brought the trauma to us and the disruption to us in 2020 are back in play this year. I don't know what the outcome will be and I don't think it's probably going to be some infectious virus from some place across the ocean. But I wouldn't be at all surprised that it's a year of some turmoil or confusion or disruption.
And so, we've been working for a few weeks to try to put some things in place that would bring stability to us. I've been encouraging you to read your Bible, to make it a part of your routine and your habit. It's more about a revelation of God than any other thing. We've been talking about worship and why that's important. So you understand the strength, the power, and the authority that's available to you in worship, not a song service, but in learning to worship God. And I want to take a few sessions with you on this idea of what we can do collectively that will strengthen us. You know, we began to pray corporately, publicly, in 2020.
About this time, probably about a month from now, we began to pray together that the truth would be made evident. There were some powerful voices shaping our lives and interrupting our lives and there was so much we didn't know. We just simply began to say, "Lord, let us see the truth". There was so much that was hidden or that was not apparent or that was unknown to us. It was a difficult time to make decisions and the answers, to my chagrin, didn't arrive the day we prayed. You know, my preference, when I pray, is I would like the answer this afternoon and to be completely frank with you, noon would be better. But because I'm a patient sort, this afternoon I'm good. And we began to pray together and the answers didn't come with that kind of immediacy that we kept praying.
And candidly, it's a bit embarrassing, but I am overwhelmed at how God has answered those prayers when I look from the position we stand today. We're about four years removed and the things that are in the light that are clear, that are in the public square, which in 2020 were hidden in shadows, are in complete darkness. It's a stunning list. The list is far more extensive than I would have time to share with you in the length of a session like this. So, I brought you just a sample set. I pulled some different buckets. Any one of these conversations we could spend multiple sessions on. Just with regard to COVID, what we've learned since the beginning of 2020.
When we began to pray that prayer, it really was inappropriate to say in public we thought the virus had anything to do with the city called Wuhan. Because if I said Wuhan in public, the internet went with all sorts of hateful things. And if you said Wuhan and lab in the same sentence, you were a xenophobic, racist, bad human being. In four years removed, we know the virus had a great deal to do with Wuhan and it's highly suspected with laboratories. There was a lot of junk science we bumped into in 2020.
Now, I'm an advocate for science. My life has been profoundly impacted by science. Please do not be confused. I am an advocate for science. Science is a method. It's not a thing. It's about observing and learning and amending our facts based on what's been observed and learned and positing a new hypothesis and watching and learning and testing and growing more. I'm an advocate for that. There were some things we learned that were pretty junky in 2020. 6 feet of social distancing does not protect you. That's not my offense. The highly esteemed Dr. Fauci acknowledged that in recent days. Who knew? We've learned that bandanas and cheap paper masks will not protect you from a virus. That's really disappointing. I thought playing Roy Rogers would make you healthier.
We discovered that quarantining healthy people is really not a great idea. We've learned that pharmaceutical companies make enormous profits from global pandemics and will stubbornly refuse to consider medications that were more readily available and were far cheaper. We've learned things, we've learned truth, it wasn't just about COVID. We've learned a great deal about the moral decay and depravity amongst us as a people, not someplace else amongst us. I mean, it was on the radar. We knew the discussions were happening, but we really weren't paying much attention. We have seen very clearly a focused, unified, powerful intent to redefine marriage, to take a biblical view of your biblical definition of marriage and separate us from it.
We've seen determined, focused, powerful efforts to confuse, particularly our young people, about biological sex. For real, they act as if that's confusing. We weren't awakened to that in 2020 to near the degree we are today. It's taken even darker turns, pedophilia, abuse of children, the trafficking of children, the sexualization of children. All of those things are front and center amongst us these days. I'm not sure they were any less so in 2020, but we just weren't aware or awake or paying attention. Maybe the best example of that of late, he's been in our news again, is Jeffrey Epstein. He's gone, but his story still lives amongst us. And I assure you, the drama around that particular set of scenarios is just the tip of the iceberg.
If it was happening to the extent that it was happening, apparently, around him and the people that he managed to engage in his web of illicit immoral depravity, I assure you it's happening amongst those who are less affluent and less powerful. Please don't imagine that depravity and immorality and ungodliness and wickedness and vile behavior only flourishes among the elites. The awkward reality is we are in the midst of a culture which indulges in the sexual abuse of our children. For anyone who's willing to look, it is blatantly clear that the most powerful, wealthy, and often influential among us have been preying on children. And even more uncomfortable, neither the justice system nor the media has been willing to address the behavior.
You don't have to look any further than our border right now. We are trafficking children. Transgender surgeries on minors, hormone therapies. Other life altering procedures have being performed on our children, get this, for profit. Didn't begin in 2020, it was happening at Vanderbilt, in Nashville, prior to 2020. I was just in the dark, but now it's no longer being done in the shadows. It's being celebrated, debated. We're told it's a right. Federal government should pay for it.
We see the struggle with libraries. We see it in our own community, in our own elementary schools, providing pornography to young children in our schools and our public libraries with a determined effort to sexualize our youngest children. And we're a bit addled on this. People call me. I've been in the discussions, they say, "Well, you know, I'm just not an advocate for banning books". Agreed. Let me tell you what I am an advocate for, I'm an advocate for not presenting inappropriate material to small children. We've also learned a great deal of truth about the fragile condition of the church.
You know, I have traveled a good bit. When you travel from one sovereign nation to another in the world, it requires a passport. And most of the places, if I've gone as anything other than a tourist, if I was gonna stay there for any period of time, they explained to me I did not have the privilege of working because they recognize the impact it would have if they gave unlimited workers access to their job markets. So, I would have to agree to be a student, a visitor. I'd have to show means of support. That is the normal process when you move between countries. If I was going to stay, in one nation I went to, they said I was gonna stay very long.
Before I could participate, it was mandatory that I go to a few weeks of language class. Not to punish me, to help me flourish, to enable me to get along. Imagine if we helped people just gain a rudimentary knowledge of the language before we released them into our country. Not to punish them, not to demand the supremacy of English. It's just our signs are printed that way. What if we did fundamental health screening, just rudimentary things? I mean, after all, we had the brazenness to release people from our military if they wouldn't accept a vaccine. We fired airline pilots and school teachers. We released health care workers if they wouldn't comply with demands of taking medicines into their body and we'll welcome millions of people across our border with no health screening at all and be told we have to do it because of compassion. I'm confused.
You see, the globalist agenda has been prioritized over the needs of our own citizens. That is fundamentally wrong. That's not new since 2020. We were just asleep to it. The current example that's shouting at us is Ukraine. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars because we're concerned about the borders of Ukraine and we refuse to express concern about our own. We give competitive advantages to factions within nations who seek our demise. Say, like China. Or we put our own citizens at a disadvantage. Again, not new with 2020, but it came into the open. If you'll allow me, I would submit to you that it's time for God's people to choose to be disciples of Jesus. Did you hear what he said to us?
You see, the awkward reality is we've given ourselves to many things. We've chosen the easy way. We've chosen the convenient, the comfortable for the most part. And I'm speaking to the church, we have lived self-centered lives and taught our children to do the same. So, I'll bring you back to the invitation Jesus gave us. We read it from Luke. Are we willing to take up our cross? Are we willing to lay down our lives and follow Jesus? Spoiler alert: this is not easy and it wasn't easy for Jesus. I wanna go to John chapter 12. We get to listen to Jesus talking, he's talking to a crowd in Jerusalem. It seems a bit random if you put it in this larger context. But the significance and what is in front of Jesus is so real, so tangible. It's bringing such a pull into his own life that Almighty God steps into the middle of the circumstance.
It's an intriguing place. It's John chapter 12. Jesus said, "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'"? He's anticipating his own encounter with the cross. "'No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!' Then a voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' And the crowd that was there and heard it said that it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to them". And then Jesus spoke. "Jesus said, 'This voice was for your benefit, not mine.'" Jesus acknowledged a voice from heaven. Wow. "'Now it is time for the judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.'"
And then John gives us a parenthetical insertion. It means he gives us an explanation that could only be understood after the fact. Up till this point, we've been given an account of events as they unfolded in real time. And then John slips in a statement that Jesus "said this to show the kind of death he was going to die". Jesus is troubled in this passage by the looming challenge of the cross. He understands what is before him and it's bringing some angst to him. He isn't deviant, he hasn't wandered from the assignment that God has given him. He isn't in rebellion. He is fully invested in living out his assignment in his earth suit, and it is bringing some stress to him. He said, "My heart is troubled. And what can I say about it? It's my assignment".
Do we have the imagination anywhere in our portfolio of following the Lord that God would ever invite us to do something that might trouble us? I think we've been coached in the exact opposite, that we only do those things that bring joy to us and happiness to us and great enthusiasm to us. Now, Jesus gives us the outcome of his willingness to do that. And I think our great motivation is understanding when we cooperate with God, God brings about outcomes that exceed anything we could do in our own strength or ability. Jesus says to us because of his willingness to face the cross the judgment is coming to this world. Not this ball of matter that's hurtling through space, but this present world order.
I don't have the time to unpack it linguistically with you, but in the New Testament, there's more than one word used for world in the description here is of this present order that has authority in this world. Judgment is coming to this. It is not permanent. Jesus will rule and reign on this planet in righteousness and truth and justice. We have not seen that yet. He taught us to pray regarding that. He said pray this way. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done", yeah, we've been praying that for a long time, "that your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". That will ultimately happen. And then he said, "The prince of this world would be driven out".
Again, I won't unpack it fully, but Satan is presented to us as the prince of this present world order. And through the cross, his power over us was broken. He's no longer the supreme authority. He's still present, evil is amongst us. You don't need any discernment to know that. But its authority over your life has been broken. You can live free from the impact of evil. You'll bump into it, it will impact you, it will affect you, but it doesn't have to leave a permanent mark. Through the blood of Jesus, we can be set free. To ignore evil, to ignore the consequences of evil, to ignore the influences of evil is to deny much of what Jesus gave himself that we might receive the benefits of. It's not a prudent choice. And then Jesus said, "I will draw all men to my self".
Now, all men won't respond. One of the great surprises to me since 2020, and I was unprepared for this. You know, in the midst of all that confusion and chaos and the unknowing and the fear and sheltered in place and things closed down, we began to pray that the truth would be told and we've seen, as we've said, so much of it. It's a reason for celebration. Please don't let that list unsettle you. It should cause you to rejoice. Things that were hidden in the darkness that powerful people would have preferred stayed in the darkness have come into the light. It's a gift from God. What I wasn't prepared for, I thought when the truth was told, the majority of the people would rally to the truth.
I wasn't prepared for people to say, "Oh, I don't know if I believe that," or just not be willing to look at it because it was awkward or uncomfortable or because the positions they had taken, they don't want to deal with it. Folks, when you find yourselves on the wrong side of the truth, let me make a suggestion. You have a choice there. You got several choices, honestly. You could ignore it. You can deny it. You can be angered by it. You can do a lot. You can attack the person that's delivering the truth. Or you can repent.
See, we all make mistakes, every one of us. No perfect people. There's only been one. We killed him. And when you realize you were in error, you may have been in error from a lack of information. You may have believed somebody that wasn't trusted, there's a whole menu of reasons why, but when you recognize you're in that place, if you will repent, you can be free and clean and empowered to go forward. If we don't do that, then we live with the weight of the deception and the dishonesty and the lie. It's crushing, it's limiting. It's much better to say, "God, I'm sorry". We would gain so much momentum in the body of Christ. If we could simply say, "Lord, there were ways where I was influenced by things that weren't true, that I'm sorry for it. I've defended things I shouldn't have. I participated in things I shouldn't have".
And I'm not talking about COVID. We have defended moral positions and life choices and things that we know are not biblical, not scriptural. We've participated and now when it's becoming more blatant and it's growing, we look away or we act like we don't remember or it's just inconvenient or it's uncomfortable or we don't know what to say. You begin by saying, "God, I'm sorry". Repentance is a change of mind, "I was wrong," and then it's a change of direction, "I'll behave differently". That's what the cross was about. That's why Jesus was willing to do that. It's why God asked him to come. It's why we do the Christmas thing. Easter's coming. It's because on the cross, Jesus won a victory for us.
I'd like to pray with you before we go:
Father, I thank you that you have called us out of the dark into the kingdom of your light, that you have washed us and cleansed us and justified us. Forgive us for our attitude of complacency. Father, we've been willing to sit in a space at a specific time and imagine that we were interacting with the Creator of all things. Forgive us for our indifference, ignite a passion within us to know a living God that we might yield our days to you, beginning with each morning. In Jesus's name, amen.