Title: Follow Me (John 21:18-23)
Contents Follow me (John 21:18~23) Author: Dong2 Registration Date: 2003-12-16 18:51:33 , Views: 24 people , Comments: 0 people , Recommendations: 0 people One day three years ago, I was in a net with my brother Andrew. While I was throwing fish and catching fish, Jesus was walking on the beach. He called people and said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19), so they left their boats and their nets and became a follower of Jesus.
This morning, the risen Lord received Peter's confession of love and told him to follow me once again.
Let's meditate on the way of following Jesus and the way of discipleship through the text.
1. You must love Jesus to follow Him.
Knowing Jesus is easy. It is not difficult to think of Jesus. But following Jesus is not easy. That's because you have to pay a price to follow. I became a follower of the Lord by telling you to follow me three years ago, so why does he ask me to follow me again? It was because Peter's motives for following the Lord were not right for the past three years. Peter followed Jesus to fulfill his own desires by realizing the power of Jesus, which he had seen with his own eyes. Because the motive and purpose were self-centered, the Lord also rebuked him if it was contrary to his thoughts (Matthew 16:22), and he argued over who was superior to the Lord, and denied that he did not know Jesus three times. If your motive or purpose is unclear, you will wander. The command to follow me once again was teaching that the motive for following the Lord should be because we love the Lord.
2. You must take up the cross to follow the Lord.
Verse 18 prophesied about what kind of death Peter would bring to the glory of God (19).
According to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, it tells of Peter's last years of life. At the time of the persecution of Emperor Nero, at the invitation of the Roman church members, the Lord appeared in front of Peter who was fleeing Rome with his back to him and said, 'Lord, where are you going?' (Quvadis doine) After hearing the answer to Peter's question, 'I'm about to go to Rome and be crucified,' Peter realized that preaching the gospel in Rome was the way to follow the Lord, and returned to Rome praising him.
But what was the meaning of prophesying the glory of death to Peter this morning, who must have been in his late twenties when he was still in his prime?
Now, the Lord is telling Peter to understand the essence of life and follow it. It is saying that we can follow the Lord who is life right when we face death, which can come to anyone from a place we don't want, at an time we don't want, and in an unwanted way. Only those who understand the meaning of death can truly follow the Lord, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
By realizing the meaning of these words, Peter was able to open the prelude to the book of Acts and become a pillar of the early church. And they glorified God by carrying the cross upside down and following the path of martyrdom.
The Lord said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life has lost it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it (Luke 9:23-24). You did.
3. Do not care about others and follow them.
When the Lord said, 'Follow me', instead of answering, Peter turned his back and pointed to John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and asked the Lord, 'Lord, how is this man?' Then the Lord said, 'If I want him to stay until I come, what does it matter to you? Follow me.' Following the Lord should not be relative. The path of following the Lord can be followed only when it is absolute, regardless of comparison or comparison with others.
And if we follow in the footsteps of the Lord who is always ahead, we too will be able to give the glory of death to God. As long as we want to follow Him, He is always at the forefront. When I fall down, he waits for me to get up behind my back.
He speaks to us again this morning. 'Follow me' Let's follow the Lord because we love him. take up your cross
Let's face death and follow it. Let's follow with an absolute attitude, regardless of other people. Glory is on the way.