Fearlessly Courageous
From the Desk of Dennis Piller
6 28 2023
Resolve to Follow Christ and Not Just Admire Him.
John, 12:26 “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor”. So what is your true identity? Are you an admirer of Christ or a true follower? “Are you a child of god”?
“A child of the covenant”, and “a disciple of Jesus”?
When we understand these three filters they actually become our life identifiers. Everything passes through them. Anything that doesn’t align with these will take you away from God and will ultimately let you down. Those three will always and continually lead you towards eternal life and the joy of the Lord, which surpasses understanding. Phil 4:5
Many people who have heard of Jesus are admirers. But it doesn’t mean they are disciples or true followers. During Jesus’s day, some followed him because he would feed them, heal them, or be with someone very exciting for the times.
But to be a student, to be a disciple… requires an earnest commitment and much more.
Jesus said to follow me – Mark 2:14, Luke 18;22. It is amazing to me that he gave this invitation to Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and they left their businesses, and their boats in the water along with any and all of their wealth. And the Master, taught them the kingdom of heaven is at hand, He showed them the power of healing the sick, casting out demons (Matthew 10:7) and even raising the dead. Jesus had many admirers that were not followers.
It was a life dedicated to serving and preaching the good news, an admirer will not die to himself in order to live the eternal life Jesus speaks of. It’s not about earning your salvation but it certainly begins with a measure of a person’s sincerity, but that isn’t enough. It’s an issue of humility and submission, and making Jesus your top priority.
It’s about loving God more than loving things.
There are 10 of thousands of people who admire Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Einstein, but very few people would consider themselves followers or disciples or have taken up the cross of these people to take on their identity.
Being an admirer allows you to live in this world. It allows you to appreciate a good story, or a benevolent act, but being a true follower is a world apart. Soren Kierkegaard wrote something similar: “The admirer never makes any sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how he praises Christ, he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires. “
Jesus said in John 15:19 “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you”. So if we are chosen, shouldn’t we be renouncing all that is not of Christ? Shouldn’t we yield to his calling? Commit to it? One must decide whether they will be an admirer or a sincere and committed Christ follower!
1 Peter 1:23 says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God”. Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24, ESV).
Dying to your desires… to yourself… is completely foreign to the world’s way of thinking. They see burying a seed in the ground kills it. John 12:24 but in reality, it allows the seed to achieve its purpose and the reason it was created.
Being a disciple means dying to oneself and personal self-interest.
In 1 Corinthians, 15:36 “You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first”.
I think an admirer is like a seed that was never planted.
I love what Joshua 24:15 says, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”.
Being a child should be about being lovingly obedient. A disciple follows the way of his master and is obedient, but most will hear the invitation and dismiss it. John 12:27. “Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place”. God is sovereign and he continues to refine us and shape us into the image of Christ, for His eternal and divine purpose and that requires dying to these worldly pieces that only serve to drag us down.
Discipleship…following Jesus… is about learning to love as Jesus loved. Losing your life to gain the greatest prize for eternity and share that truth as your life’s purpose and mission. Disciples are trained to give their life away and represent Jesus in every aspect of living. Being an admirer makes you nothing more than a fan… an enthusiast…
a groupie. The world is in a free fall of anything to do with religion…
so choose you this day to follow Christ and not just to admire him.
