WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
CBOQ Sunday
Call to Worship
Call to Worship – Responsive Reading
Leader: Arise! Shine! Christ’s Church has assembled.
People: We are one body, with Christ as our head.
Leader: What kind of body is this?
People: The Body of Christ, brought together not by human flesh, but by the sovereign Lord.
Leader: And who does he call us to be?
People: A people who look not to their own interests, but to the interests of others. Those who proclaim the goodness of their Lord.
Leader: Come, let us worship as one united body.
Know that you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Together, part of a large body, formed of 330 churches, worshipping in 20+ languages, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Let us rejoice, let us celebrate, let us worship knowing that we are one! – Welcome to Worship!
Songs
Prayer
CONFESSION
Lord Jesus, We love and adore you.
As a hen gathers her chicks, Gather us in your Presence
Rend our hearts Lord and not simply our outward selves. (Joel 2:13)
We acknowledge the ways in which we have broken fellowship with you.
Dismissed, ignored, and forgotten you in our lives.
We acknowledge the ways in which we have contributed to the broken relationships in our churches and in our communities with our indifference, ignorance, and self-centeredness.
Lord forgive us for how we have…
Contributed to theological snobbery and self-righteousness contributed to racism and systemic racism
Contributed to misogyny and patriarchy
Forgive us for not being as you have called us to be.
Lord forgive our sins against our brothers and sisters and change our hearts Lord toward love and equality. In your name we pray for these things, amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
This is the assurance that our Lord promises:
That he heals our broken relationships.
That he leads us in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters.
May you be assured of His presence and forgiveness in your life, Amen.
Emotional Healthy Discipleship
Follow Who?
Today's Message - Pastor Dave Page
Follow Who? – When exploring our relationship with Jesus, this is both a simple and yet an incredibly complex question – Who exactly is this person we are called to follow. And what does that mean to me and my life.
Questions are one of the most powerful communication styles we have to use.
By good use of questions, we get information, stimulate learning and creativity. For the answerer of the question, this provides feedback, affirmation and sometimes conflict.
Think about your own experience with questions as a communication style.
We take this for granted. How many questions have you asked already today? We don’t even think about that really do we? I want to encourage you to think a bit about this today:
- What are some of the most important questions that have ever been asked?
- What is the meaning of life?
- What is my purpose?
- Is there life after death?
- What’s for supper?
Maybe even think about some of the most important questions you’ve ever asked or been asked:
- When we were younger – Did you do that? or where have you been?
- When we are older – Will you marry me? – That’s a doozie!
- What did the Doctor’s report say? A simple question and its response can literally change our lives.
What is the most important question you’ve ever been asked? How did that impact your life?
Well, in the scripture passage I want to read you this morning, the tension of this, a simple question that Jesus asks and its impact on the lives around Him. That’s right where the disciples and Jesus find themselves.
Scripture Reading: Luke 9:18-26, Matthew 16:13-20
Matthew 16:16-26
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.Jesus Predicts His Death
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Who do you say I am?
The great question that the apostle Matthew has set before his readers is: Who is Jesus?
And that’s a question Scazzero asks us to ponder as well. The next chapter in our odyssey through EHD is titled: Follow the Crucified, Not the Americanized, Jesus. Well, I’ve edited to the westernized. It’s the same for us in Canada.
What do I mean by the term “Westernize”? Simply this:
-Within the church, to “Westernize” Jesus is to follow Him because He makes life better and more enjoyable. That’s what the Bible says, right?
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
— John 8:12 New International Version
24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
— John 16:24 New International Version
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
— John 10:10 New International Version
We like life to be comfortable, to be plentiful, to be easy access and so Scazzerro makes this really interesting statement, a charge to or against some of us even:
“It is possible to be Christ-centered but not cross-centered.”
To be Christ-centered is to be captivated by Jesus as a triumphant Saviour Who offers us an abundant life with greater sense of power and influence in our lives. Wow, who wouldn’t want to follow that?!
But, to be cross-centered is to follow Jesus as a Saviour Who embraced the cross, and then making that the pattern of our lives and discipleship. Wow, again, although that doesn’t seem nearly as fun or fulfilling, does it?
You see this is where we as the “Church” in the Western culture have got this wrong. We’ve too often allowed the cultural narrative of the world’s discipleship to shape our discipleship path rather than that of Jesus. For example:
Look at this chart:
Four key differences between the world’s discipleship and Jesus’s discipleship:
| The World’s Discipleship | Jesus’ Discipleship |
| Be popular. | Reject popularity. (Be popular with me.) |
| Be great. | Reject “greatness-ism.” (Be great with me.) |
| Be successful. | Reject “success-ism.” (Be a success with me.) |
| Avoid suffering and failure. | Embrace suffering and failure. (Be faithful to me.) |
Let’s explore some these together.
Be popular versus reject popularity.
Most of us place a higher premium on what other people think than we realize. Subtle examples include pretending things are okay when they’re not, saying yes when we would rather say no, remaining silent about preferences out of fear of what others might think, or any other preoccupation with securing the approval or affirmation.
I wonder how much of this was in Peter’s mindset when he utters these words, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus had been asking the disciples, “Who do the People say I am?”
Like most people today, the people in that time have good thoughts about Jesus, just not precisely the right thoughts. These people saw Jesus as a prophet. To them He was like a lion or would be. All prophets have a roar about them. Jesus roared against injustices. Jesus turned over the tables of hypocrisy. To them He was a lion. That is, partly true but for others today, To people today He is the opposite, a lamb. Jesus is viewed as a meek social reformer, a gentle moralist, a wise teacher, or a sympathetic healer. If we follow the path of being a disciple of the western world then we don’t want to appear as any of these things or be perceived to be following someone like that. I mean really, how many likes or follows on our social media page is someone with these descriptors going to get.
Jesus encourages us to reject this. To reject a worldly view of popularity and to ‘be popular’ with Him.
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus still asks His church that question today. How we answer it turns our lives, ministries, our personal destinies in one direction or another. Peter might not have fully known yet, but we ought to know, much more fully than he did. Would you agree?
Look at how Jesus teaches on this very topic of being popular in the world’s eyes:
“Everything they do is done for people to see…”
— Matthew 23:55
“How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.”
— John 5:44
Or the world tells us we should be great.
The world says BE GREAT. In fact we as a culture, have been reared to seek out greatness as an outcome in our lives.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
— William Shakespeare
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
— Winston Churchill
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.”
—Oprah Winfrey
Jesus says – Be popular with me…
Be great versus reject greatness-ism.
Greatness-ism is preoccupied with status and privilege. The alternative to greatness-ism is lowliness. Lowliness is a humility that expresses itself in a willingness to be curious, open, flexible, and teachable regardless of the title or position we hold.
Can you think of anything more counter cultural today? Great leaders are portrayed to us as the opposite of lowly or humble – curiosity has no place with them because ‘great people’ have all the answers already.
Look again at what Jesus says here:
“He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. “
— Luke 16:15 NIV
It’s the same with our narrative of being successful, which we’ve talked about already a couple of times.
Be successful versus reject success-ism.
Remember we said that according to Jesus, success is becoming the person God calls you to become and doing what God calls you to do. In His way, and according to His timetable. Think about this: the final temptation Satan posed to Jesus in the desert was to do what God had called Him to do but not in God’s way or according to God’s timetable.
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
— Matthew 4:8-10 NIV
Jesus calls us to reject the ‘successism culture’ and to be successful in Him.
Perhaps here is the most difficult of all…Avoid suffering and failure versus embrace suffering and failure. Jesus had a choice—to leave the cross or stay on it. Out of love, He chose to stay. Jesus’s greatest miracle was the resurrection. But His second greatest miracle was something He did not do. Jesus models patience for us when He refuses to use His power to come down from the cross.
Embracing the cross is possible only when we have a choice to do otherwise. To save ourselves instead. Jesus described taking up one’s cross as a daily choice.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
— Luke 9:23 NIV
The biography The Shadow of the Almighty records a beautiful prayer uttered by Jim Elliot: Young Jim Elliot went on to willingly shoulder his cross in missionary service, literally sealing it with his own blood at the hands of primitive indigenous people deep in the jungles of Ecuador.
“Father, take my life, yea, my blood if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save. Have it, Lord, have it all. Pour out my life as an oblation for the world. Blood is only of value as it flows before Thine altar.”
Living for Jesus requires self-denial. That only happens when we voluntarily abdicate the throne of our lives: when we radically renounce self-centredness. A crucified Savior is not well served by self-pleasing, self-indulging people. For us, the problem is that we are being constantly bombarded by messaging that says you deserve better, you deserve more and that feels right, the outcomes feel really good to us. So we need to ask another question here, of ourselves.
What are our crosses? They are not simply trials or hardships. Some think of a nutty boss or an unfair teacher or a bossy in-law as a “cross.” But they are not. Neither can we properly call an illness or a handicap a cross.
Pay attention here: A cross results from choice. The choice of specifically walking in Jesus’ steps, embracing His life. It comes by a willingness to bear the ridicule and disdain of a world consumed by popularity, greatness and success, bearing ridicule because we are following the narrow way of Jesus Christ, “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
Being Cross-centered comes from living out the ethics of Jesus in the marketplace, at school, in the community, in our families. It comes from standing true in difficult circumstances for the sake of the gospel.
And here’s truth for us all to consider: the size and the origin of our crosses are most often proportionate to our dedication to Jesus. Difficulties do not indicate cross-bearing, though difficulties for Christ’s sake do.
Here’s a true story. Do you know who Charlemagne is?
Charlemagne or Charles the Great, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, Charlemagne united the majority of western and central Europe. Very popular, very successful, the greatest of his time.
One hundred and eighty years after the death of Charlemagne, about the year 1000, they opened the great king’s tomb, where in addition to incredible treasures they saw an amazing sight: the skeletal remains of King Charlemagne seated on a throne, his crown still on his skull, a copy of the Gospels lying in his lap with his bony finger resting on the text, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
One might think that the teaching of God’s Word and the repeated examples of history, such as Charlemagne’s, would convince modern men and women that keepers are losers. Not so! As humans, we have struggled with this for centuries!
So Scazzerro encourages us to employ three essential practices for following the crucified Jesus:
- Relax in Jesus.
- Detach for Jesus.
- Listen to Jesus.
1.Relax in Jesus
The day after Jesus feeds the five thousand and then mysteriously disappears, the crowds come looking for him. When they find him, there is this fascinating exchange: They asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28–29) When the people ask about the “works” God requires, they have in mind things such as prayer, acts of mercy, giving, or Bible study. Surprisingly, Jesus says there is only one work: “To believe in the one [God] has sent.” This phrase “believe in Him” means to trust in Him, and not just once but continually in an ongoing, moment-by-moment, and day-by-day kind of way. Jesus issues this invitation to trust in Him ninety-eight times in the Gospel of John. In fact, John states that the purpose of his entire gospel is “that you may believe [be trusting, moment by moment] that Jesus is the Messiah” (John 20:31). Would you accept that one of our callings is to relax in Jesus? Here’s the second:
2. Detach for Jesus
The goal of the Christian life is loving union with God, to allow God and His will to have full access to every area of our lives. This loving union with God is a oneness that is best understood by the analogy of a marriage, in which two people become one flesh and yet also remain separate from one another. This is the answer to Jesus’s prayer, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us” (John 17:21). The key to sharing this rich life of oneness with God is found in a practice called detachment. Unlike the cold detachment that we might expect from a judge or an accountant calculating our taxes, our motive for this kind of detachment is being with Jesus. Jesus speaks of detachment as losing our lives that we might find them (see Mark 8:35–36). Paul describes it as not clinging or holding to anything, whether it be marriage, sorrow, joy, or anything we possess for the sake of Christ. He writes:
From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
— 1 Corinthians 7:29–31
In other words, we relinquish all possessiveness and self-will. We detach for Jesus.
And the final point is simply this:
3. Listen to Jesus.
Even the best of Jesus’s leadership team—Peter, James, and John—were not good listeners. We see this clearly when Jesus invites them to a high mountain where He is transfigured and they see the heavenly glory of Jesus, along with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:2). We might have expected Peter to fall on his face before such a jaw-dropping, overpowering, and dazzling sight. Or at least wait and listen. Instead, Peter does what we so often do. He sees a door of opportunity and interrupts with a plan of his own. He suggests they put up three shelters as a witness to what God is doing! But he doesn’t get very far with his plan. God Himself interrupts Peter, saying, “Listen to him [Jesus]!” (Matthew 17:5). Jesus had been talking with Peter about His crucifixion and its implications for discipleship, but he wasn’t listening. Why? Because the direction Jesus is going appears counterproductive and doesn’t make sense to Peter.
God’s word to Peter is God’s word to us: Listen to Jesus.
Let’s face it. We all want a spiritual life, but we prefer to be in charge of it and have it unfold according to our schedule and in our way. But following Jesus is not first doing things for Him; it is first listening to Him speak and then doing what He says. That is why listening to Jesus is more important than listening to any other person, project, program, or cause in the world. This kind of listening, however, is not a quick and occasional check-in with God. It is a deep listening that allows God’s direction to do its full work in us so that it explodes with power inside us, even if what He asks us to do is as countercultural as rejecting popularity, greatness-ism, success-ism, and embracing failure and suffering.
Follow Who?
Follow the one that calls you to what is best for you, not for the world. What is most important is that you take the long view of the call of God on your life and on the lives of those you influence. To follow the crucified, not the westernized, Jesus.
Relax, allowing Jesus to hold you.
Detach, surrendering your self-will and plans to Him.
And listen.
You can bank on the reality that Jesus’ commitment and ability to care for you is far greater than the worlds commitment to do the same.
Prayer
We are so competitive, Lord. We want to know who will be best and first, and we hope that it is each one of us. You call us special, and we interpret it to mean popular and successful and we feel that we are entitled to all that is due to the “greatest”. Jesus reminded us that the best of us will be the servants, will be those who are willing to help and witness to others, not for their own honour but for God’s honour and praise. Far too long, we have decided that we know what is best for the whole world. We want to run the “whole show”, but we don’t want to listen to you, Lord. You want us to bring peace, to listen to others needs and wants. We want to impose our wills on everyone. We have gotten way off the track of discipleship. Bring us back, patient God. Shake the dust of arrogance from us and nourish us with humility and joy.
Lord this morning we lift those in our Church and our families before you that need care and healing and mercy.
Heal the sick;
Mend the broken hearted;
Comfort the lonely;
Guide the leaders;
And help us to be the kind of disciples that serve you faithfully.
For we ask these things in Jesus’ Name.AMEN.
Song
Benediction
Go into the world with love.
Go into the world with peace.
Go into the world with joy.
God will be with you.
Christ will be in you.
The Holy Spirit upon you. Now and always.Amen.