Follow Me – 10/20/24

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin and addressed the General Secretary of the Communist Party. “Mr. Gorbachev,” help me out. “tear down this wall.” Two years later, the wall came down in 1989. Not long after, Anna Funder moved to East Berlin in order to interview East Germans who were living under GDR Stasi authority — some whose lives were destroyed during that time, others who flourished as part of the Stasi.

Now the Stasi is short for a long German word that represents the East German Ministry of State Security, which is equivalent to Hitler’s Gestapo. Their job was to prevent any opposition to the Socialist Unity Party. In Stasiland, her bestselling book — this was published 25 years ago — Anna tells stories of people who lived within the regime and experienced horrible things, as well as stories of people who loved the regime and are actually hoping it will return. She writes this of the Stasi.

“The Stasi was the internal army by which the government kept control. Its job was to know everything about everyone using any means it chose. It knew who your visitors were. It knew whom you telephoned, and it knew if your wife slept around. It was a bureaucracy metastasized to East German society: overt or covert, there was someone reporting to the Stasi on their fellows and friends in every school, every factory, every apartment block, every pub.”

The GDR., the German Democratic Republic, has been described as the most perfected surveillance state of all time. Now, this was 25 years ago. I don’t think they hold that prestigious position at this point because due to technological advancements, countries like China, North Korea, Washington — no — they have much stronger surveillance systems.

But the Stasi had 97,000 employees, over 173,000 informers among the population. Now, let’s compare. Stalin’s KGB had one agent per 5,830 people. Hitler’s Gestapo, one for every 2,000. The GDR Stasi, one for every 63 people. And if you add in part-time informers, it goes down to one per 6.5 people. They were masters.

Their objective was to find out something about you that they could then use to manipulate you to inform them about something about someone else, and then use that to manipulate them to inform… And you see where this is going. No one could trust anyone. Even in your own family there would be informers who had been leveraged in order to get information. It’s a perfect system of social disintegration leading to totalitarian control. During her time in the former GDR. Anna grew to care deeply about many of the people she interviewed. But she wrote this of Stasiland.

“I’ve been in a place where what was said was not real, and what was real was not allowed, where people disappeared behind doors and were never heard from again, or were smuggled into other realms.”

Now, I want you to imagine, and I know some of you — we have people from many, many different countries — some of you actually know what this is like. But imagine living in a country characterized by lies, a kingdom of lies where you feel so much pressure to lie in order to protect your children, or to keep your apartment ,or to get a job, or to run your business, or to go to college. You feel you have to live in an unreality in order to survive.

“What was said was not real and what was real was not allowed.”

Now, as you imagine that, I’m sure, I hope you can see that all human social systems tend toward deception on various levels. The GDR just happened to be the epitome of it. But because of our disordered and deceitful hearts, families, churches, countries, businesses will, but by the grace of God, tend toward this kind of deception.

And this is why it’s so both convicting and comforting to be with Jesus. Because Jesus is, does, and tells the truth. The interesting thing is he doesn’t need a surveillance system. He knows everything about you. He knows more about you than you know about you. And you’ll notice — and I challenge you to do this — if you read through the Gospels, you’ll never find an example where Jesus is manipulating someone or something in order to build his base, cajoling, pandering, or coercing. Never. He is inviting us out of unreality into reality. One example. John 8:31.

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”

Notice the connection between abiding in his word, knowing the truth and living in freedom. There’s an inseparable connection between truth and freedom. When a culture no longer values truth, it doesn’t matter how politically free it thinks it is, it is not truly free.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, which was the first big body of teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus goes hard after fake. He exposes fake prophets, fake believers, fake foundations, things we try to build our lives upon that are not lasting, storm-proof, or real.

And so it shouldn’t surprise us when Jesus, when Matthew recorded writing about Jesus moves from — remember, Matthew is broken down into big sections of teaching and then doing, and then teaching and then doing. So when he moves from Matthew 5-7, Sermon on the Mount, to chapters 8-9, which are all about doing, it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus is being revealed as who he really is. And there’s this strong pull towards his authority, his compassion out of what is not real.

So in chapters 8-9 last week — Andy mentioned this — what you see in this “doing” section is 3 sets of miracles with 3 sets of calls, or 3 calls. So last week — and he took us through that first set, and then there was a call. Today we’re looking at the second set — storm, demons, paralytic. And we’ll see just the beginning of the call. So set number 2, storm, demons, paralytic, leading to a call.

The question we want to wrestle with this morning is how do these miracles establish Jesus’ authority? And then what should be our response? Jesus is revealing his identity and calling us out of a life of lies into a life of truth. So what we want to do is walk through these miracles. And for some of you, this may be the very first time you hear these miracles. For some of you, you’ve heard them all your life. So you need to ask the Spirit to give you a fresh glimpse at who Jesus really is. And then we’re going to wrestle with, well, how do we respond? So let’s walk through the miracles first.

Miracle #1 – Jesus’ authority over nature.

Matthew 8:23. Now, some of you may remember — this was, I think three years ago we were in Mark 4. We looked at the same miracle, and I gave a rather odd outline. He chooses, snoozes, diffuses, uses. You’re thinking, I can’t keep track of all your odd outlines. There are so many. Let’s walk through that same outline as we see this miracle unfold.

1. He chooses to take them through the storm. Verse 23.

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.”

In Mark 4, it says, Jesus said,

“Let us go across to the other side.”

So Jesus is intentionally leading his disciples into a storm. Don’t miss that.

2. He snoozes in the middle of the storm. Verse 24.

“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.”

Last time we were in Israel with a group of you, we were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and a storm arose. Wasn’t quite this strong. It was still very cool. We were looking at this story. I tried to get Tim Wadsworth to walk on the water; he didn’t have enough faith. What can we do?

He diffuses the power of the storm.

So Jesus is not intimidated by a life-threatening storm. He simply diffuses the power of the storm. Verse 25.

“They went and woke him saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing. And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you a little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

Now, some of us have heard that too many times to feel the impact of that. Hurricanes bow at his word. Calm comes when he calls with a word. He diffuses the power of the storm. And then number four,

4. He uses the message of the storm. Verse 27.

“And the men marveled saying, ‘What sort of man is this that even winds and see obey him?’”

Jesus uses the storm to reveal his authority over nature. Now look at …

Response #1. The disciples were impressed.

Impressed. Notice verse 27 says “They marveled,” which has the idea to wonder, to be astonished. They didn’t have a category for what just happened. They didn’t have all the answers. It’s not quite worship. It is more like, Whoa! What just happened? And then Matthew moves on to miracle number 2.

Miracle #2, Jesus’ authority over demons. Verse 28.

“And when they came to the other side [that is of the Sea of Galilee] to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him,”

Now Mark only mentions one of them. Here Matthew mentions both of them.

“coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

Notice demons know who Jesus is, “O Son of God.” And they know their eschatology. Did you know demons go to eschatology conferences? They’ve got cool charts, and they say,

“Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

They have a rough framework of, “We’re supposed to be destroyed here, and you’re showing up early.” Verse 30.

“Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, ‘If you cast us out and send us into the herd of pigs.’ And he said to them, ‘Go.’ So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.”

Now you can travel along the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. It’s known today as the Golan Heights. Not a good time right now. But I took this picture overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It’s not a great picture because you can’t see the cliff. But if you could look over it, it drops right down, and then there’s the water. Although there are cliffs all around the Sea of Galilee, most of them are pretty far back from the Sea of Galilee. This is one of the only places where the cliff goes right to the water, which is probably where this scene occurred. Verse 33.

“The herdsmen fled, and going into this city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.”

Luke 8:37, says they were “seized with a great fear.” They were confronted by an unexplainable power that had just controlled an uncontrollable force — the demons. And instead of moving toward Jesus, they begged him to leave. Now, we don’t know exactly why. It seems as though they’re more interested in their livelihoods than in Jesus or the power he displayed.

Mark 5:13 says the number of pigs was about 2000. So tens of thousands of dollars of their livelihood just went into the ocean, the sea. And the townspeople seemed to be thinking, wait, we’d rather have the demoniacs with our economy than Jesus without it. They seem to be intimidated by Jesus.

Miracle #3. Jesus’ authority over disease and sin.

Now, there are three big ideas here.

1.  The friends believe.

The friends believe. Verse 1.

“And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.”

So he’s gone over to the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. Now he’s going back to Capernaum, his own city.

“And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.’”

Now, I think this is the only miracle that Jesus did where he doesn’t wait for the person to ask. We learn from Mark’s and Luke’s version that the friends tried to get Jesus in to — I mean, tried to get their friend in to Jesus, but the crowd was too big. So they went around and got up on the roof and tore away the mud plaster and the sticks and lowered their friend down to Jesus. And verse 2,

“When Jesus saw their faith”

Now, that could include the paralytic, but it definitely includes the friends. I want to be a friend like that. Think about it. If you spend your life pointing friends, bringing friends to Jesus, what a life!

Now, of course, each of us has to believe personally. But are there not times when all of us, whether experiencing psychological disorder or physical weakness, when we feel like we can’t pray or don’t have the answers, but we are surrounded by friends who pray for us, who point us to Jesus, bring us to Jesus. We want to be a community like that. I think that’s what James is getting at when he says in James 5:16,

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working.”

The friends believe.

2. The scribes slander.

In verse 3,

“And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’”

Now, this is Response #3.

And they seem to be insulted. Insulted. We’ll come back to that in a moment. But look at …

#3. Jesus reigns.

Jesus reigns. He’s revealing his absolute authority. He does it many ways. But let me show you two examples. One in verse 4, he knows thoughts.

“But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’”

Now many of us think we can read other people’s minds. Jesus can. Only God can do that.

Secondly, he forgives sin. Verse 5,

“For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven, or to say ‘Rise and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ –  he then said to the paralytic – ‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’ And he rose and went home. And when the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

Now Jesus here is making clear this is his main mission. How do we know that? Well, if you go back to the beginning of Matthew, Matthew 1:21, when the angel came to Joseph,

“She [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Also, I think it’s important to remember every single person who was healed by Jesus when he was on earth got sick and died. So if Jesus’ main mission — not taking away anything from what it was like for each of those individuals to experience that momentary healing and transformation, life changing. But if his main mission was healing a tiny percentage of humanity, and they later get sick and die, that doesn’t seem like enough. No. His main mission was to get to the root of our problem, as we’ll see next week in verse 13.

“For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Now let’s step back for a moment. We’ve walked through the 3 miracles. And let’s think about these 3 responses to Jesus’ authority.

Response #1, the disciples were impressed by Jesus’ authority over nature.

Their astonishment was good, but incomplete. We can do the same thing. Jesus heals a friend, or we come out of an amazing worship service and we can be amazed. But is that enough? It’s not bad.

Response #2, the townspeople were intimidated by Jesus’ authority over demons.

And they seem to be saying, our business, our lifestyle is more important than you, Jesus. More important than men being set free from demonic oppression. We’d rather eat barbecue with a good economy than have Jesus with no barbecue.

I heard an interesting example of this this week. I was eating with a pastor friend. And I don’t know how I got on this, but I shared something from Dane Orlund’s new book, The Heart of Jesus. It’s just a tiny book. It’s a follow up to his book, Gentle and Lowly. Super encouraging. As I’m sharing something from that, my friend says, “I just finished that. I loved it so much. It was so encouraging. I bought a box of them. And last week I went to pick up the box at the UPS store, and the manager said, ‘Last night we got robbed.’ And she was explaining to him that the thieves broke into the store, cleaned out the cash registers, rifled through all the boxes, and they came to your box. And she pointed to the box, opened it up, and they saw The Heart of Jesus. They closed the box. They left that box and they took all the other boxes in the store.

Now that is both humorous and horrific. Horrific, because as he’s telling me this story, I’m thinking of the townspeople. Same kind of thing. They come face to face with the heart of Jesus. And they’re like, “No, we’ll take money instead. We’re mad about the pigs.”

So just a word for some of you who might be considering a life of thievery when you come face to face with the heart of Jesus, put down the box and get a new career. That seems to be what’s happening in this story where people are intimidated by Jesus. The thieves were intimidated enough not to steal the box, but not enough to humble their hearts and turn to Jesus. It seems like Jesus was giving a very gentle call to them. Look at …

Response #3. The scribes were insulted by Jesus’ authority over disease and sin.

They accused Jesus of blaspheming. And Jesus asks,

“Why do you think evil in your hearts?”

Think about that. A paralytic was just healed and not just superficially healed. When Jesus healed him without physical therapy, all the atrophy in his legs was de-atrophied. Is that a word? It should be. In a moment, and he’s walking. Sins forgiven. Healed. And they think evil? We do that sometimes, don’t we? We hear a story of God’s moving on a college campus. Like Jim, for example. God’s been saving a lot of Ohio State football players. And you thought he… No, you didn’t. No. But sometimes we can think, ah, that won’t last. Right? We can be skeptical. And it’s kind of like Jesus is saying, look what’s happening around you. Why do you think evil in your hearts?

So, if these are three, there are others, but the three of the responses that are either incomplete or inappropriate. How should we respond? We’ve just looked at three stunning miracles. Well, we don’t have to guess. Let’s go back to that chart that we saw earlier. 3 sets of miracles, 3 calls. We just looked at the second set — storm, demons, paralytic. What’s next? We respond to the call. Well, where’s the call? We’re going to talk more about this call because there’s a lot here we’re going to have to do next week. But let’s at least get the beginning, verse 9.

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he rose and followed him.”

Now, what’s interesting, Matthew is not at all concerned about order of events. He has fewer time indicators than some of the other gospel writers. Events get reordered. That’s not his main objective in this passage. In this passage, he wants us to see displayed these 3 miracles, the authority, the compassion of Jesus and then hear a call inviting us in, to follow.

In other words, it’s not enough to be impressed. It’s not appropriate just to be insulted or intimidated. Jesus is calling us to follow. Now what do we mean follow? “Akoloutheo” is the verb. It simply means to follow, to accompany. The root of that word is road or way to walk the same road, to be in the same way with, to follow as a disciple. The verb is used nine times in Matthew 8 and 9. So that tells us if we miss this point, we’ve missed the point of this section.

Jesus is not revealing his authority to merely impress us or so that we might have a spiritual moment. He is calling us out of a life of lies into a way of truth. Totally different way. Even in Jesus’ day, his call looked different for different people. I know for some of us we’re like, how do you follow him since he’s ascended? What does that mean? But look even at examples in the Gospels of the way Jesus called people to respond differently to his call as they follow him. For example, one example, Luke 8:38 which is the demonic story from Luke’s perspective.

“The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”

So this man’s life was changed. He wanted to physically follow Jesus, and Jesus said, “Hey, you can follow me by going and telling this community what I’ve done for you.” Even as other terms became more common throughout the New Testament as to what it meant to follow Jesus, you’ll still hear some of the same language long after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. For example. 1 Peter 2:21.

“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.”

Dallas Willard writes,

“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who … are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples —  students, apprentices, practitioners — of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

Now Willard’s language there is both unbiblical and super important. The unbiblical. Did you catch the unbiblical part? He draws a sharp distinction between what? Being a Christian and being a disciple, as if those are two layers. You’ve got the minor league and you’ve got the major league. And for those of you who want to be minor league followers of Jesus, you just pray a prayer, become a Christian. You might get into heaven. You’re an okay Christian. But if you want to be a super Christian like “hard core,” then you become a disciple. Is that biblical? You don’t seem too sure of this. It’s not. It’s not. And it’s not helpful.

If you read the Gospels, there are fake disciples, and there are real disciples. There are fake Christians and real Christians. But God is not calling us into a two-layered system where if you give enough to the building fund, you’ll be able to be a disciple. If you go overseas, you’ll be a disciple. But if you’re just an ordinary Greenvillian Christian, you’re first tier, minor league. That’s not, that part is not biblical.

The part that is beautiful about what Willard is getting at, he uses the words “steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom.” I love that. Because some of us — and this is what I think Willard’s trying to get at — some of us view the Christian life as an event. I prayed a prayer, checked the box. I’m getting into heaven, so I’m good to go. As if that is what Jesus is calling us to. No, he’s not calling us to an event. Although there is a moment when we repent and believe. He’s calling us to a lifestyle, a way of life that is an eternal kind of life that never ends. And it is lifelong learning.

And I find that super encouraging because when I look at how much I’ve grown, I think, Lord, I have so far to go. But we’re followers of Jesus. So regardless — you’ll see this — regardless of the name used throughout the New Testament. Christians are called, for example, Acts 5:14.

“And more than ever believers were added to the Lord…”

So were called believers. Acts 11:26 .

“And in Antioch the disciples were first called [what?] Christians.”

Those aren’t two different things. They’re the same people. Christians are known as the followers of “The Way,” Acts 9:2. Brothers, saints, friends, elect of God, chosen of God. Many different names and many more. But the same idea persists. 1 Corinthians 11:1. Paul writes,

“Be imitators of me.”

And that’s that word to follow, be followers of me …

“As I am of Christ.”

Revelation 14:4. I love this example.

“It is these…”

He’s referring to the 144,000, which is, I believe, a representative number of the whole people of God.

“It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.”

That’s what a Christian is. What do you do? You follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

“These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,”

Notice they’re redeemed. They’re not elite warriors. They’re former slaves who were bought out of the slave market of sin.

“As firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.”

I love that. It doesn’t just mean they don’t fib, which is true. Their lives are not characterized by lying, but it’s talking about something much bigger. They’ve been called out of Stasiland. Out of a life that is all about posturing and pretending and impressing people and managing your reputation, thinking we can make ourselves acceptable before God or people into a life of truth,

“where no lie was found,”

No more selling my soul for immediate gain. And this was the call of Matthew, as we’re going to see next week, which was extremely costly for him. And it’s the same call that’s being given to us today. Justin Brierley, a broadcaster from the UK, ends his book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God this way.

“Two thousand years ago a wandering rabbi stood on a beach and called a bunch of fishermen to put down their nets, follow him, and fish for people instead. Together they changed the world. Like them, I believe we are standing on the shores of human history, waiting for a tide that is about to rush back in. Perhaps now is the time to answer his call again.”

So how will you respond? Will you follow him? I want us to take a few moments to answer that question, because you cannot, you cannot gaze on these miracles with the authority that they presume and display, and walk away neutral. You’ve got to reject him as a fraud or follow him as the King. The one who knows us better than we know ourselves.

So take a few minutes right now and look over your notes or look over those 3 miracles. What does following him in your life — with your challenges this week and the temptations and the struggles and the opportunities — what does that mean? How does the way you think about those things change because you are a Jesus follower? And if you’re not a Jesus follower, repent and believe today. Now. Let’s just take a moment in quiet prayer, and then I’ll pray for us.

Jesus, we understand why the people responded the way they did. The disciples were just stunned at your power over nature. The townspeople just seemed very intimidated. What else are you going to make us change? What else can you do? We can’t control you. And then the scribes just wanted to go dark in a very bright moment, questioning. And Lord, there are parts of our hearts that can do all three of those. We can stop in amazement. We can be intimidated by your call. And we can turn and twist what you do as good into something evil.

But Lord, we thank you that you have displayed your power through these miracles to call us to a different way. And I ask for some, it may be the first time, Lord, that you would draw us to follow you, believing, knowing you came not just to change the moment I live in, but to forgive my sins, to bear them on the cross, to die and rise again so that I could become new, so I could come out of a life of lies and be honest and open, follow you.

Please, by your Spirit, show us what that looks like in our businesses, our schools, homes, neighborhoods that we would see your kingdom come. Give us grace. Not to push you away like the townspeople did. Anyone who could calm storms with a word and cast out demons and cure paralysis is worthy to be followed.

And for some of us who might be discouraged this morning at our slowness of progress, remind us that we’re following, that this is lifelong learning, that we will struggle, and we will have slower times and faster times, and you will take us through things that we would not want to experience because you know they will transform us into your image. We will see glimpses of your power in some of those real hard things, and you will lead us to happy things. But we will follow you, because you have given your life for us. Thank you that you are the Author and Finisher of our faith, and we don’t need to fear. We thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.