After Peter identifies Jesus as the Son of God, the Saviour (Mt.16; Mk.8; Lk.9), He explains to his disciples and the crowd following him what being a disciple is fundamentally all about, "if anyone actively and voluntarily desires to follow behind me, he (or she) contradicts him/herself and takes up his/her cross and comes in the way with Me."
1. Note that the "following" is not a grasping, forcing neither by us of God nor of God towards us. Nor is it a passive waiting on someone or something happening, neither is it through a rational, logical or willful purpose or assumption. The original text underlines the subjective possibility "if." Jesus is clear when he is speaking that it is not a command but an invitation. That is not to be assumed or taken as fact that all will be the followers of the kind He is calling for in this text. The follower of Jesus demonstrates a free, pleasurable, active desiring. This is a hallmark of true followers of Jesus. What are the influences on our thinking, desiring, believing? What characterises my discipleship?
2. Jesus sets out three imperatives: contradict yourself, take up your cross, come in the way of me. The latter is explained in the "Follow Me!" post. The first is vital. It identifies the follower as one who has allowed God, by his Spirit, to cut across human understanding, desires, projects, aspirations, conceptions, perspectives.... If we want to move on with God into the things that he would love to reveal and accomplish through us then this experience is vital.
I think Peter in Acts 10 & 11 is a perfect examples. The revelation God gives of animals on a sheet and the invitation to eat we understand to be God's way of saying to Peter you have prejudices that are not in line with my plans that I want to accomplish through you. This vision prepares Peter to allow God to cut across everything he has ever known in terms of belief, tradition, principle, practice, and mindset. Imagine everything in side crying out "NO, NO, NO you can't do that!" That probably is close to Peter's experience. He aligns his heart, mind, spirit, will, etc. with God's revelation however contradictory that be.
For Peter to be one of the first Jewish believers in Jesus to reach out to non-Jews and see them come into the same salvation, forgiveness, experience of the Holy Spirit, and worship of God could only happen on the basis that Peter allowed God to cut across and was willing to follow the Spirit's directing. Peter opened up an enlarged understanding of God's heart for all peoples, all generations.
The challenge for us is: are we passionate about stepping out under the Spirit's leading into the plans and purposes for our lives and for church in our generation, in this season? The lesson is that if we want to be part of the "new" thing God is doing, are we ready to have God cut across our perceptions, understanding, principles in the the way he had to do with Peter?
I believe that there are challenges facing us today:
Church with a heart, dedicated to people, real life situations, real, honest, open relationships; what is getting in the way? Our Post-Modern culture and generation are crying out for reality. What are they finding when encountering church?
Church that does not fear, nor is insecure in its identity and confident in the demonstrated power of it's message, engaging with the relational crisis, breakdown in families, marriages, friendships, churches. There is a generation that are not critical in a negative way, but question the words without reality (demonstration). Paul in 1 Co.2 and in other passages explains that these are united, inseparable and clearly effective and powerful to bring transformation and growth.
Church with a strong sense of mission, as a team of enabled and empowered witnesses to their experience of faith in Jesus, released with a vision to demonstrate God in all aspects of their daily lives to those around them wherever that be.
To name but these few is enough to fire our imagination as to what our response might be to God moving in a fresh way in our generation, inviting us to play our part in the passion and excitement.
3. The third imperative is to take up our own cross. If Jesus through the Spirit is allowed to cut across, that in itself on a human level does represent a "burden" to bear. Our own resources, intellectual, emotional, rational, intuitive and volitional can no longer be the controlling influence, they are to be in submission to the Holy Spirit's revelation, His chosen means & methods to attain His outcomes, fruitfulness being defined by Him. There is a major shift in our "being" and "doing" operated by the indwelling Holy Spirit for us to find and remain in this way.
The cross to bear might also be the burden of onlookers who rely on well-founded, long established, tried and tested traditions, methods, forms, procedures, etc. It all appears reasonable and acceptable. Reason-ability and acceptability were not in Peter's experience. Neither will they be in ours if we accept the disciple call to move in to God's new things. What people think, esteem invariably has immense power and hold over us - social conformity or something like that. Our unique reference has to be eyes fixed on following Jesus, seeing as he sees, walking as he walked, ministering as he did, in His truth and grace.
The third aspect could be the simple fact that the Kingdom of God as a government is often upside down in terms of what secular society and rule.
Challenged? Excited? Motivated? Any forest fire starts with a spark!
The challenge for us is: are we passionate about stepping out under the Spirit's leading into the plans and purposes for our lives and for church in our generation, in this season? The lesson is that if we want to be part of the "new" thing God is doing, are we ready to have God cut across our perceptions, understanding, principles in the the way he had to do with Peter?
I believe that there are challenges facing us today:
Church with a heart, dedicated to people, real life situations, real, honest, open relationships; what is getting in the way? Our Post-Modern culture and generation are crying out for reality. What are they finding when encountering church?
Church that does not fear, nor is insecure in its identity and confident in the demonstrated power of it's message, engaging with the relational crisis, breakdown in families, marriages, friendships, churches. There is a generation that are not critical in a negative way, but question the words without reality (demonstration). Paul in 1 Co.2 and in other passages explains that these are united, inseparable and clearly effective and powerful to bring transformation and growth.
Church with a strong sense of mission, as a team of enabled and empowered witnesses to their experience of faith in Jesus, released with a vision to demonstrate God in all aspects of their daily lives to those around them wherever that be.
To name but these few is enough to fire our imagination as to what our response might be to God moving in a fresh way in our generation, inviting us to play our part in the passion and excitement.
3. The third imperative is to take up our own cross. If Jesus through the Spirit is allowed to cut across, that in itself on a human level does represent a "burden" to bear. Our own resources, intellectual, emotional, rational, intuitive and volitional can no longer be the controlling influence, they are to be in submission to the Holy Spirit's revelation, His chosen means & methods to attain His outcomes, fruitfulness being defined by Him. There is a major shift in our "being" and "doing" operated by the indwelling Holy Spirit for us to find and remain in this way.
The cross to bear might also be the burden of onlookers who rely on well-founded, long established, tried and tested traditions, methods, forms, procedures, etc. It all appears reasonable and acceptable. Reason-ability and acceptability were not in Peter's experience. Neither will they be in ours if we accept the disciple call to move in to God's new things. What people think, esteem invariably has immense power and hold over us - social conformity or something like that. Our unique reference has to be eyes fixed on following Jesus, seeing as he sees, walking as he walked, ministering as he did, in His truth and grace.
The third aspect could be the simple fact that the Kingdom of God as a government is often upside down in terms of what secular society and rule.
Challenged? Excited? Motivated? Any forest fire starts with a spark!
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