Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College
Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College
Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College
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from this then I must follow Him. This is a great opportunity that I must<br />
not lose.” And many, like these three people would then come and<br />
express their desire to follow Jesus.<br />
Now, if Jesus were not the Son of God, but a politician, He might<br />
have been very happy to welcome all of them. Such a massive show of<br />
support would have been any politician’s dream. But Jesus did not<br />
welcome them. In fact He actually turned away many who wanted to<br />
follow Him. Why did He do this? Didn’t He want to have more<br />
followers? No, Jesus wanted more than that: He wanted followers who<br />
would be fully committed to Him. Anything less than full commitment<br />
to do His will, will not do.<br />
Today the Lord Jesus still demands that same kind of full<br />
commitment from those who would follow Him. And just like the three<br />
men in our passage, they call Him “Lord.” But unfortunately many<br />
people who call Jesus their Lord, do not really understand the full<br />
implications of that lordship. How about you? Do you know what it<br />
means? If you want to know what it means then let us look carefully at<br />
the replies that Jesus gave to the three prospective disciples. From these<br />
replies we will discover that there are at least three things required of us<br />
for commitment to do God’s Will rather than our own will.<br />
I. We Must Be Willing to Bear<br />
The Cost of Doing God’s Will<br />
According to verse 57, the first man promised, “I will follow thee<br />
whithersoever thou goest.” “I will follow you wherever you may go.”<br />
This sounds wonderful. But what exactly did this man have in mind<br />
when he said this? Perhaps he was thinking about how wonderful it<br />
would be to follow Christ, how glamorous it would be to be a part of<br />
His great holy enterprise, an exciting movement, a worthy cause. There<br />
is great glory and prestige gained by becoming a part of it. So it was<br />
really the fulfilment of his own will of attaining such glory that this man<br />
was thinking about, rather than doing God’s will.<br />
Therefore, in this passage, Jesus did not want the first man to think<br />
of the glory of being His follower. Instead he wanted him to know that<br />
Commitment to Do the Will of God<br />
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