This is the final sermon in this ten-sermon series. This series is based upon the idea that we are very good at knowing what Christians should do and behave like, but we all have trouble with some of the basics, because we don’t understand How to do these things. Over the last couple of months, we have talked about the How of being a Christian.
· How to become kind.
· How to develop patience.
· How to love deeply.
· How to break addictions.
· How to control our tongues.
· How to trade fear for hope.
· How to stop gossiping.
· How to make good habits.
· How to become joyful.
This week, we’ll finish this series with how to follow Jesus.
How to follow Jesus?
"But pastor, I’m a Christian and have been for years. I come to church at least twice a month!"
I didn’t say you didn’t. But there is a lot to be learned in the phrasing of something. And today, I want you to notice I didn’t say the title was “How to be a Christian.” I said the title is “How to follow Jesus!”
"What difference does it make? Isn’t it the same thing?"
Well…yes. And…no.
Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of people in this world who claim to be Christians who rarely go to church? Have you also noticed that there are a lot of people in this world who go to church who you wouldn’t trust to take care of your dog for a week? Of course.
There’s several reasons we give why…
First of all, we say some people are beginners. They’re just learning about Christianity, and so we expect them to be kind of raw, vulgar, worldly. We don’t expect someone who was baptized last week to have the calm serenity of a saint who was baptized 70 or 80 years ago. For these people, time – and the word of God – will straighten out their kinks. So we say.
Second, we say some people are barely Christians – particularly those who don’t attend church. Once again, they aren’t really participating in the Body of Christ, so how can we expect them to act like people who have attended church and read the Word of God for 70 or 80 years. When the boy in the car next to me in the Wal-Mart parking lot plays a rap song with blaring obscenities, I don’t get mad, for how shall he know any different? For these people, a kind, gentle, but but sometimes firm word from someone they trust is needed to get them to a church where they can learn.
Of course, many of them say they’ve been hurt by church members, by churches, by pastors. They say they’ve given up going to church because the people in the churches don’t act the way they should. And to these people I say two things:
First of all, why don’t you show us how it’s done? We’re always looking for people to teach new classes, and clearly you must be much better than the people in the church…and the second thing I say is: You’ve forgotten that church people are people still and will never be perfect. Whether you were treated poorly or ignored, judged or made fun of, dis-respected or called out in a sermon, the reality is that you missed two key points of what it means to follow Jesus.
First, we are supposed to be following Jesus. Not the people in the church. Not the pastor. Not even the Bible. You are following a living God, named Jesus Christ. And Jesus asked you to be involved in a group of believers. Why do you disobey?
Second, we are supposed to practice forgiveness. Of everyone, and for everything. And if we aren’t forgiving, then we are not following the example of Jesus. So please forgive those of us who have hurt you. Let’s try again.
There is a third group of people who don’t live up to the standards we know Christians are supposed to hold to. Those are the people who have been attending church every week for years, even decades. They may be 40, 60, or 80 years old. But they aren’t the pleasant saints we want to have lunch with. They are grouchy, mean, gossipy, jealous, envious, angry, are prone to ambition, and generally hurt people right and left. Some have all of these characteristics – and others only have one characteristic, but it flares up every now and then and causes trouble. Maybe it never causes trouble in the church – but it causes trouble at home or among friends. Of course, I’m speaking about everyone here, because I don’t see Jesus sitting in our pews today. We just don't measure up to what we're asked to do. Thankfully, we don't have to. More about that later.
Let’s see what Jesus has to say to the church…
The time is after the Resurrection, but in that glorious month before Jesus returned to Heaven. Jesus has met His disciples on a beach beside the Sea of Galilee. They had a record haul that morning, 153 large fish. Jesus guided them to those fish. It was a fisherman’s dream. Have you ever caught 153 big fish in a single day? Peter and John never forget that catch.
Jesus has a fire burning with hot coals and He cooks them breakfast, a breakfast of bread and of fish. Loaves and fish, the same thing He fed the 4000 with and the 5000 with. But this time, it’s just Him and seven of the Eleven disciples.
After they finish eating, Jesus speaks to Peter. He asks Peter if Peter loves Him more than these fish. Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs”, Jesus responds. Two more times Jesus asks Peter if loves Him and each time He tells Peter to take care of His sheep and to feed His sheep. He then points out to Peter and those watching that Peter will be led to his death some day. And at the end, Jesus says to Peter: “Follow me!”
Jesus is very clear here. Peter is to give up what is most important to him in the world – his fishing boat, his profession, his hobby, his entire identity – and follow Jesus.
Peter is not asked to “be a Christian”. Jesus is not asked whether or not he believes in God. Jesus does not give Peter a test of his morals and ethics, He does not ask Peter if he drinks, smokes, swears, or does drugs. Jesus doesn’t ask Peter if he’s been divorced, whether or not he’s ever cheated in school or whether he’s looked at a woman in lust. We all know that Peter is not a particularly good man.
Jesus knows that Peter has done wrong – and so does Peter. Jesus knows that Peter is the man who even denied knowing Jesus three times the night Jesus was arrested, deserting Him…and so does Peter. Jesus also knows that Peter will mess up again in the future…and really, deep down, so does Peter.
But Jesus says to Peter: “Follow me! Give up everything important to you and follow Me!” Is Jesus speaking to you today?
Peter tries one time to get off the hook. Peter points toward John and says, “What about him?”
And Jesus says something full of meaning for Peter and for us today. ““If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
Our relationship with Jesus does not depend upon other people. What Jesus has in store for each of us is between Him and each of us, individually. One man is called to go to India as a missionary. A woman is asked to start a Bible study in the projects. An old woman is asked to call every single person on her church’s prayer list every week. A young man is asked to go to seminary to become a full-time pastor. And a middle-aged man and his friend are told to start a church-supported school for troubled high school students.
Another man is told to take his woodworking skills and make beautiful Communion tables for the churches nearby. A woman is told to take her pastor’s sermons and edit them and format them into tracts that her friends at the church can hand out to neighbors. Still another man is told to simply say Jesus’ name once a day among his friends when he meets them at McDonald’s for coffee. What is Jesus asking you to do? Whatever it is, do it!
But always remember that our relationship with Jesus does not depend upon other people:
It does not matter whether or not this church has ever sent out foreign missionaries. If Jesus asks you to go to Haiti – you'd better go to Haiti. Follow Jesus.
It does not matter if anyone else in this church goes to the altar today. If Jesus calls you to the altar, go to the altar.
If does not matter if anyone else in this church laughs at you, makes fun of you because of where you speak the word of God, or whether people think you are crazy because you can hear the Holy Spirit and say so. If Jesus asks you to go into a bar and start a church, do it. If Jesus asks you to raise your hands when you sing a hymn, raise those hands. If Jesus gives you a message through the Holy Spirit, speak the message. It does not even matter if you believe every other person in this church is a rank hypocrite, going through the motions, ignoring the Bible, ignoring the Holy Spirit. What matters is what Jesus wants you to do.
And the other side is also true.
If someone raises their hands and shouts “Amen” in our services and Jesus has told you to be quiet, be quiet. If someone tells you about an encounter with Jesus in their living room, listen and be happy – but don’t laugh or gossip. If someone says they have been called to go to Russia to be a missionary, listen and see if Jesus is asking you to help them – or go along with them.
Even the same thing applies to those acts that many people would call sin. For following Jesus means listening to the Holy Spirit of God and letting that Spirit tell us what is sin and what is not sin for us. One man may be able to drink three glasses of whisky three nights in a row and then easily stop drinking for the next five years. Another man may not be able to stop after one beer. The whisky is not sinful for the first man but the beer is sinful for the second man. He should stop drinking.
One woman may get a divorce from her unbelieving husband because Jesus is telling her to leave and serve God. Another may stay with her husband because Jesus is telling her to stay and lead her unbelieving husband to know God. Follow what Jesus is saying to you.
One person eats fish every Friday during Lent because Jesus has told her to do this. Another person ignores that idea because Jesus has told him to ignore it. Follow what Jesus is saying to you.
The world wants to paint Christianity as just another moral and ethical system with rigid moral and ethical rules, for when we believe that morals and ethics and sin are what Christianity is all about, then we easily get lost in a debate of what are sins and what sins are worst and what are the rules to be followed. But Jesus Christ died so we could stop worrying about the rules. Jesus died so that our sins would no longer make a difference. Jesus died so that our sins would no longer be a way for people, for the devil, indeed for our own souls to tie us down. Jesus died so we could be free from the slavery to our sinfulness. Now, we are to simply follow Jesus. The rules? Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. And follow Jesus!
Notice what Paul says in Galatians Chapter Five:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul has just listed many of the sins which we have all committed. While you may never have participated in an orgy, I’m sure that you have hated, you have caused discord, you have been jealous, you have been angry, ambitious, and envious at some point in your life. We all have. This is our body’s nature. This is what is natural to men and women. These are the acts of the flesh that Paul points out to us. He goes on:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
People from which the fruits of the Spirit flow are nice people to be around. These are the people we call “godly”. These are the people we wish we could be like.
But it is easy to get this message turned around. It is easy and natural to say, “Well, we should not have jealousy, but we should have gentleness. We should not get angry, but we should have self-control." And we could go down both lists, saying we should not do things on the first, but should do the things on the second list, for we all want to leave behind the acts of the flesh and grab the fruits of the Spirit. But how do we do this? Why haven’t we done this and simply stopped doing all the acts of the flesh? Why don’t we simply radiate the Fruit of the Spirit?
It isn’t a matter of trying harder. We don’t move from one list to the other simply by trying harder. This is not a problem we can solve by simple willpower, in the same way it is easy to say that the way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more - hasn't your doctor told you this? - or the way to quit cigarettes is simply to stop smoking. We all know this, but it isn’t that simple. We need the key that gets us out of the prison of the acts of the flesh and lets us have the Fruits of the Spirit. And following Jesus is that key. But even that requires we understand a bit.
I don’t know about you, but I have a key ring with about ten keys. And when I come home at night and it’s dark, I have to fiddle with the keys on the key ring until I find the right key and then I have to line it up just so to get it into the keyhole, and then about half the time, it seems I’ve got the key upside down. So it is when we want to use Jesus as the key to life. We get things upside down.
Becoming a Christian is easy. You believe that Jesus is divine, worthy of being followed, tell someone you believe this, get baptized, and - Bam! - you are a Christian.
But becoming a good Christian is much more difficult – and yet the path is simple. You have to follow Jesus. It isn’t a matter of just believing certain things, it is a matter of who you are, how you act and speak on a daily basis, and why you do and say the things you do. And the only reason to do and say those things that makes sense is: That’s what Jesus told me to do. Not what your pastor told you to do. Not what your friends told you to do. For the issue here is your relationship with Jesus, your trust, your obedience, your willingness to listen and to learn. Just remember that Jesus is also known as the Word of God, and so the Bible will not contradict His commands. They will be one and the same.
Let’s get this straight. If Jesus is God’s Son, Jesus is worthy to be followed. He is good and wise and powerful. He will not let us down. Ever. He is not at all like other men because He has that unique blend of God and human that makes Him the Christ. And so we need to actually find out what Jesus said to do and do that. We need to find out what Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit tell us Jesus wants and do that. We need to truly become followers of Jesus, not merely people who try to follow some instruction manual about what it means to be a Christian that was written fifty or a hundred or even five hundred years ago.
All of this is a round about way of saying that we don’t go from the acts of the flesh to the Fruits of the Spirit by going there directly. We get there by listening to what the Holy Spirit tells us Jesus wants us to do and doing it. Each day.
Because, you see, it is the change that happens in our soul that is important. It is the change that happens when we actively are seeking Jesus’ will, God’s will, listening to the Holy Spirit and reading God’s Word, when we accept that we DON’T know the answers and need divine guidance all the time, when we go beyond praying when we are in trouble and asking for help and move into the two-way prayer where we are asking for advice and instructions all the time….That’s what changes us, We don’t find the fruits of the Spirit lying along the way– we grow the fruits of the Spirit in our own soul as we travel along the path where Jesus is leading us.
The ancient Greeks spoke about virtue and St Augustine of Hippo taught about the idea of the virtuous soul. In both cases, they spoke of the need for people to develop good habits, good practices, good speech, wisdom, good character, holiness in themselves. The difference between the ancient Greeks and the great St Augustine, is that Augustine recognized that virtue comes when you listen to the teaching of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and you begin doing things in obedience to the commands of Jesus. If you follow Jesus, you will be good. Period.
For you see, no normal person can naturally perform the Fruits of the Spirit. No ordinary person can constantly have love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. No, it only comes when the Holy Spirit has been listened to so much that the divine Holy Spirit is in control, sitting there beside you in the cockpit of your mind, driving that body of yours around.
If you will, following Jesus is the path that leads us to begin receiving letters from the Holy Spirit, then telephone calls, then we invite the Spirit to come into us, and then we move from the driver’s seat into the passenger seat, letting the Spirit captain our body. That is when the Fruits of the Spirit begin to appear, and they feed everyone around us.
So how DO we follow Jesus?
First, find a place of some quiet. It doesn’t have to be in the woods with birds chirping around, but that can really work. It can be simply a few minutes in your car in a parking lot.
Now, read some Scripture. Perhaps a chapter, perhaps half a chapter.
Third, begin with this simple prayer:
Jesus, what do you want me to do today?
Then, listen for an answer. And do what appears, what you hear, what God sends to you.
It is a simple process. Find a quiet place, read some scripture, ask Jesus for guidance, listen for the answer, and do it.
After you have done this for a while, begin doing it various times during the day. You don’t need to read scripture each time, but you should still read scripture daily.
You’re walking into the store. “Jesus, what do you want me to do?”
You’re deciding where to sit at lunch. “Jesus, who should I sit with?”
You’re trying to make a decision. “Jesus, what should I do?”
You’re listening to someone rant and rave about something. “Jesus, what should I say or do? Anything?”
You might see a pattern here….
It really is simple. And the reason we don’t do it already is because of something we’ve seen in churches all of our lives.
Have you ever noticed during prayer time that people only ask for prayer for big things? My family member has cancer, please pray... My friend had a heart attack, please pray... My co-worker’s husband died, please pray... And so we sort of develop this idea that we only pray for big things.
But Paul tells us we are to live by the Spirit. That means we need to be talking with the Spirit constantly. You’ll notice I use Jesus and the Spirit almost interchangeably. Of course… they are both God.
We are to live by the Spirit. We live by breathing air. We should be talking with the Spirit, with Jesus, with God almost at every breath. Instead, many of us ask for help about as often as we change tires, every six months or so. Are you a tire changing Christian – or an air-breathing Christian? Remember that in the original languages, the same word was used for air – and for Spirit. Breath the air of the Spirit.
So this is how to follow Jesus. It will seem silly at first. But if you will practice this one, simple habit – “Jesus, what do you want me to do?” several times a day and actually listen to the answers and do them – you will become a true follower of Jesus, and soon, very soon, your friends will begin to comment to you about those strange and wonderful Fruits that have been growing from your soul. And you, my friend, will then be on the path to goodness, to virtue, to holiness in your life.
First, we are supposed to be following Jesus. Not the people in the church. Not the pastor. Not even the Bible. You are following a living God, named Jesus Christ. And Jesus asked you to be involved in a group of believers. Why do you disobey?
Second, we are supposed to practice forgiveness. Of everyone, and for everything. And if we aren’t forgiving, then we are not following the example of Jesus. So please forgive those of us who have hurt you. Let’s try again.
There is a third group of people who don’t live up to the standards we know Christians are supposed to hold to. Those are the people who have been attending church every week for years, even decades. They may be 40, 60, or 80 years old. But they aren’t the pleasant saints we want to have lunch with. They are grouchy, mean, gossipy, jealous, envious, angry, are prone to ambition, and generally hurt people right and left. Some have all of these characteristics – and others only have one characteristic, but it flares up every now and then and causes trouble. Maybe it never causes trouble in the church – but it causes trouble at home or among friends. Of course, I’m speaking about everyone here, because I don’t see Jesus sitting in our pews today. We just don't measure up to what we're asked to do. Thankfully, we don't have to. More about that later.
Let’s see what Jesus has to say to the church…
The time is after the Resurrection, but in that glorious month before Jesus returned to Heaven. Jesus has met His disciples on a beach beside the Sea of Galilee. They had a record haul that morning, 153 large fish. Jesus guided them to those fish. It was a fisherman’s dream. Have you ever caught 153 big fish in a single day? Peter and John never forget that catch.
Jesus has a fire burning with hot coals and He cooks them breakfast, a breakfast of bread and of fish. Loaves and fish, the same thing He fed the 4000 with and the 5000 with. But this time, it’s just Him and seven of the Eleven disciples.
After they finish eating, Jesus speaks to Peter. He asks Peter if Peter loves Him more than these fish. Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs”, Jesus responds. Two more times Jesus asks Peter if loves Him and each time He tells Peter to take care of His sheep and to feed His sheep. He then points out to Peter and those watching that Peter will be led to his death some day. And at the end, Jesus says to Peter: “Follow me!”
Jesus is very clear here. Peter is to give up what is most important to him in the world – his fishing boat, his profession, his hobby, his entire identity – and follow Jesus.
Peter is not asked to “be a Christian”. Jesus is not asked whether or not he believes in God. Jesus does not give Peter a test of his morals and ethics, He does not ask Peter if he drinks, smokes, swears, or does drugs. Jesus doesn’t ask Peter if he’s been divorced, whether or not he’s ever cheated in school or whether he’s looked at a woman in lust. We all know that Peter is not a particularly good man.
Jesus knows that Peter has done wrong – and so does Peter. Jesus knows that Peter is the man who even denied knowing Jesus three times the night Jesus was arrested, deserting Him…and so does Peter. Jesus also knows that Peter will mess up again in the future…and really, deep down, so does Peter.
But Jesus says to Peter: “Follow me! Give up everything important to you and follow Me!” Is Jesus speaking to you today?
Peter tries one time to get off the hook. Peter points toward John and says, “What about him?”
And Jesus says something full of meaning for Peter and for us today. ““If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”
Our relationship with Jesus does not depend upon other people. What Jesus has in store for each of us is between Him and each of us, individually. One man is called to go to India as a missionary. A woman is asked to start a Bible study in the projects. An old woman is asked to call every single person on her church’s prayer list every week. A young man is asked to go to seminary to become a full-time pastor. And a middle-aged man and his friend are told to start a church-supported school for troubled high school students.
Another man is told to take his woodworking skills and make beautiful Communion tables for the churches nearby. A woman is told to take her pastor’s sermons and edit them and format them into tracts that her friends at the church can hand out to neighbors. Still another man is told to simply say Jesus’ name once a day among his friends when he meets them at McDonald’s for coffee. What is Jesus asking you to do? Whatever it is, do it!
But always remember that our relationship with Jesus does not depend upon other people:
It does not matter whether or not this church has ever sent out foreign missionaries. If Jesus asks you to go to Haiti – you'd better go to Haiti. Follow Jesus.
It does not matter if anyone else in this church goes to the altar today. If Jesus calls you to the altar, go to the altar.
If does not matter if anyone else in this church laughs at you, makes fun of you because of where you speak the word of God, or whether people think you are crazy because you can hear the Holy Spirit and say so. If Jesus asks you to go into a bar and start a church, do it. If Jesus asks you to raise your hands when you sing a hymn, raise those hands. If Jesus gives you a message through the Holy Spirit, speak the message. It does not even matter if you believe every other person in this church is a rank hypocrite, going through the motions, ignoring the Bible, ignoring the Holy Spirit. What matters is what Jesus wants you to do.
And the other side is also true.
If someone raises their hands and shouts “Amen” in our services and Jesus has told you to be quiet, be quiet. If someone tells you about an encounter with Jesus in their living room, listen and be happy – but don’t laugh or gossip. If someone says they have been called to go to Russia to be a missionary, listen and see if Jesus is asking you to help them – or go along with them.
Even the same thing applies to those acts that many people would call sin. For following Jesus means listening to the Holy Spirit of God and letting that Spirit tell us what is sin and what is not sin for us. One man may be able to drink three glasses of whisky three nights in a row and then easily stop drinking for the next five years. Another man may not be able to stop after one beer. The whisky is not sinful for the first man but the beer is sinful for the second man. He should stop drinking.
One woman may get a divorce from her unbelieving husband because Jesus is telling her to leave and serve God. Another may stay with her husband because Jesus is telling her to stay and lead her unbelieving husband to know God. Follow what Jesus is saying to you.
One person eats fish every Friday during Lent because Jesus has told her to do this. Another person ignores that idea because Jesus has told him to ignore it. Follow what Jesus is saying to you.
The world wants to paint Christianity as just another moral and ethical system with rigid moral and ethical rules, for when we believe that morals and ethics and sin are what Christianity is all about, then we easily get lost in a debate of what are sins and what sins are worst and what are the rules to be followed. But Jesus Christ died so we could stop worrying about the rules. Jesus died so that our sins would no longer make a difference. Jesus died so that our sins would no longer be a way for people, for the devil, indeed for our own souls to tie us down. Jesus died so we could be free from the slavery to our sinfulness. Now, we are to simply follow Jesus. The rules? Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. And follow Jesus!
Notice what Paul says in Galatians Chapter Five:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul has just listed many of the sins which we have all committed. While you may never have participated in an orgy, I’m sure that you have hated, you have caused discord, you have been jealous, you have been angry, ambitious, and envious at some point in your life. We all have. This is our body’s nature. This is what is natural to men and women. These are the acts of the flesh that Paul points out to us. He goes on:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
People from which the fruits of the Spirit flow are nice people to be around. These are the people we call “godly”. These are the people we wish we could be like.
But it is easy to get this message turned around. It is easy and natural to say, “Well, we should not have jealousy, but we should have gentleness. We should not get angry, but we should have self-control." And we could go down both lists, saying we should not do things on the first, but should do the things on the second list, for we all want to leave behind the acts of the flesh and grab the fruits of the Spirit. But how do we do this? Why haven’t we done this and simply stopped doing all the acts of the flesh? Why don’t we simply radiate the Fruit of the Spirit?
It isn’t a matter of trying harder. We don’t move from one list to the other simply by trying harder. This is not a problem we can solve by simple willpower, in the same way it is easy to say that the way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more - hasn't your doctor told you this? - or the way to quit cigarettes is simply to stop smoking. We all know this, but it isn’t that simple. We need the key that gets us out of the prison of the acts of the flesh and lets us have the Fruits of the Spirit. And following Jesus is that key. But even that requires we understand a bit.
I don’t know about you, but I have a key ring with about ten keys. And when I come home at night and it’s dark, I have to fiddle with the keys on the key ring until I find the right key and then I have to line it up just so to get it into the keyhole, and then about half the time, it seems I’ve got the key upside down. So it is when we want to use Jesus as the key to life. We get things upside down.
Becoming a Christian is easy. You believe that Jesus is divine, worthy of being followed, tell someone you believe this, get baptized, and - Bam! - you are a Christian.
But becoming a good Christian is much more difficult – and yet the path is simple. You have to follow Jesus. It isn’t a matter of just believing certain things, it is a matter of who you are, how you act and speak on a daily basis, and why you do and say the things you do. And the only reason to do and say those things that makes sense is: That’s what Jesus told me to do. Not what your pastor told you to do. Not what your friends told you to do. For the issue here is your relationship with Jesus, your trust, your obedience, your willingness to listen and to learn. Just remember that Jesus is also known as the Word of God, and so the Bible will not contradict His commands. They will be one and the same.
Let’s get this straight. If Jesus is God’s Son, Jesus is worthy to be followed. He is good and wise and powerful. He will not let us down. Ever. He is not at all like other men because He has that unique blend of God and human that makes Him the Christ. And so we need to actually find out what Jesus said to do and do that. We need to find out what Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit tell us Jesus wants and do that. We need to truly become followers of Jesus, not merely people who try to follow some instruction manual about what it means to be a Christian that was written fifty or a hundred or even five hundred years ago.
All of this is a round about way of saying that we don’t go from the acts of the flesh to the Fruits of the Spirit by going there directly. We get there by listening to what the Holy Spirit tells us Jesus wants us to do and doing it. Each day.
Because, you see, it is the change that happens in our soul that is important. It is the change that happens when we actively are seeking Jesus’ will, God’s will, listening to the Holy Spirit and reading God’s Word, when we accept that we DON’T know the answers and need divine guidance all the time, when we go beyond praying when we are in trouble and asking for help and move into the two-way prayer where we are asking for advice and instructions all the time….That’s what changes us, We don’t find the fruits of the Spirit lying along the way– we grow the fruits of the Spirit in our own soul as we travel along the path where Jesus is leading us.
The ancient Greeks spoke about virtue and St Augustine of Hippo taught about the idea of the virtuous soul. In both cases, they spoke of the need for people to develop good habits, good practices, good speech, wisdom, good character, holiness in themselves. The difference between the ancient Greeks and the great St Augustine, is that Augustine recognized that virtue comes when you listen to the teaching of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and you begin doing things in obedience to the commands of Jesus. If you follow Jesus, you will be good. Period.
For you see, no normal person can naturally perform the Fruits of the Spirit. No ordinary person can constantly have love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. No, it only comes when the Holy Spirit has been listened to so much that the divine Holy Spirit is in control, sitting there beside you in the cockpit of your mind, driving that body of yours around.
If you will, following Jesus is the path that leads us to begin receiving letters from the Holy Spirit, then telephone calls, then we invite the Spirit to come into us, and then we move from the driver’s seat into the passenger seat, letting the Spirit captain our body. That is when the Fruits of the Spirit begin to appear, and they feed everyone around us.
So how DO we follow Jesus?
First, find a place of some quiet. It doesn’t have to be in the woods with birds chirping around, but that can really work. It can be simply a few minutes in your car in a parking lot.
Now, read some Scripture. Perhaps a chapter, perhaps half a chapter.
Third, begin with this simple prayer:
Jesus, what do you want me to do today?
Then, listen for an answer. And do what appears, what you hear, what God sends to you.
It is a simple process. Find a quiet place, read some scripture, ask Jesus for guidance, listen for the answer, and do it.
After you have done this for a while, begin doing it various times during the day. You don’t need to read scripture each time, but you should still read scripture daily.
You’re walking into the store. “Jesus, what do you want me to do?”
You’re deciding where to sit at lunch. “Jesus, who should I sit with?”
You’re trying to make a decision. “Jesus, what should I do?”
You’re listening to someone rant and rave about something. “Jesus, what should I say or do? Anything?”
You might see a pattern here….
It really is simple. And the reason we don’t do it already is because of something we’ve seen in churches all of our lives.
Have you ever noticed during prayer time that people only ask for prayer for big things? My family member has cancer, please pray... My friend had a heart attack, please pray... My co-worker’s husband died, please pray... And so we sort of develop this idea that we only pray for big things.
But Paul tells us we are to live by the Spirit. That means we need to be talking with the Spirit constantly. You’ll notice I use Jesus and the Spirit almost interchangeably. Of course… they are both God.
We are to live by the Spirit. We live by breathing air. We should be talking with the Spirit, with Jesus, with God almost at every breath. Instead, many of us ask for help about as often as we change tires, every six months or so. Are you a tire changing Christian – or an air-breathing Christian? Remember that in the original languages, the same word was used for air – and for Spirit. Breath the air of the Spirit.
So this is how to follow Jesus. It will seem silly at first. But if you will practice this one, simple habit – “Jesus, what do you want me to do?” several times a day and actually listen to the answers and do them – you will become a true follower of Jesus, and soon, very soon, your friends will begin to comment to you about those strange and wonderful Fruits that have been growing from your soul. And you, my friend, will then be on the path to goodness, to virtue, to holiness in your life.
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