Follow
Matthew 12:49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. [1]
I. Decision
A. His
B. Theirs
II. Disciple
A. Women
B. Men
III. Disciplined
A. Will
B. Shall
Introduction: It amazes me how the Holy Spirit speaks here at Merry Oaks. Every once in a while it is like The Spirit wants us to know that He is still moving the direction of this church.
A while back in our discussion in the evening service, I made the remark that it was a big fish that swallowed Jonah though some believe it to have been a whale. Karen handed me a note after the service that pointed to Matthew 12:40 which in the KJV says, “40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” [2] That was the best attempt to translate Jesus’ words from the original Greek to the Old English back when it was transcribed in 1769.
So let’s go back to Jonah and read, Jonah 1:17 from that same translation, “17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the bellyg of the fish three days and three nights.” [3]
For those who refuse other translations, go ahead and close your ears but you’ll miss some truth. The NKJV translates from the original Hebrew in Jonah as fish which is not a mammal and therefore is not a whale. The NKJV translates the Greek word that Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12:40 this way, “40 fFor as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”[4]
Well here is a little bit again from the Internet Encyclopedia Wikipedia,
“The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 18.8 m (62 ft) The whale shark holds many records for size in the animal kingdom, most notably being by far the largest living nonmammalian vertebrate."
Modern day scholars who translate the Bible from its original language are very careful to find so-called discrepancies and make sure that the original language is not misrepresented. In my humble opinion, this is an excellent example even though it really makes little difference since there is that animal that is a shark though named the whale shark.
All this is what my mentor Dr. Kenneth Ridings used to call, “chasing rabbits.”To be honest, I had not investigated Karen’s note until it was time to receive a message for me from God which I would pass on to whoever would receive it. I was led to truth of Jesus’ indiscriminant love. While reading from Matthew 12 about the scribes and Pharisees attempts to distract Jesus from His followers, Karen’s note came to me about the discrepancy between fish and sea mammal. It was a good distraction which I understand as The Holy Spirit saying, this is the right text. There are no coincidences.
Jesus told, maybe those same would be distractors, that their generation would not receive a sign to follow so I don’t wait to move before I get a sign. In my personal relationship with God, signs do often come. For whatever reason, they have come to me more here at Merry Oaks Baptist church than before Rachael and I were led here. The signs always come after the decision is made to obey. They come after I finally surrender and learn to follow.
The message title today is “Follow.” We have a personal relationship with God and He uses us for His glory when we accept His salvation and decide to follow.
Though it is personal to us His relationship with us only starts with us. When we follow, the ones who come after us, those who follow behind where we have been, our offspring and those affected by our words, receive often more than us.
Scripture: The scripture is Matthew 12:49-50. When you have found it please rise to your feet for the reading of God’s written word.
Prayer: Please be seated
Message: This particular message from Jesus was to a group of people who had decided not to follow Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees were confident that they had the right to lead others to places where they felt comfort and they used all sorts of deceptive methods to distract Jesus every chance they thought they had found.
As we read of those encounters, sometimes it’s funny how Jesus turned their attempts into blessings. We find His mercy and grace in those moments but I also see God’s sense of humor.
There are those now who refuse to even hear any translation of the Bible than the KJV which is not even the original KJV. When someone finds a discrepancy there are always those to distract and point to a mistake in the Bible. It doesn’t matter to me if Jesus said whale because it doesn’t take away from the truth that Jesus is, was and always will be God. Why did one translator change what is in the prophecy of Jonah while a later one decided to straighten it out? I don’t care!
One of these days Jesus is going to point at me and declare, Behold my brother! Notice there that it was Jesus who reached out to His disciples. He stretched! He went way further than He had to! He’s God! As was that day, the decision for me to accept Jesus was His because He is the one and only sovereign God. He knew the decision that I would make but He made the first decision because He is God. Who will hear this message today and receive it? I don’t know! Maybe you’ve already been put off because I quoted from the NKJV. He already knew whether you would receive it or not because He is God and I am not and by the way, neither are you.
There is always more than one lesson to be learned from scripture. Mary is not a divine being like Jesus yet Jesus chose Mary to be His earthly mother. He loved His mother. Jesus was on the cross and He instructed his cousin John to take care of his mother Mary. Jesus did not want Mary to be overwhelmed by hordes of disciples who would insist others should pray through her. He loved His earthly mother and that’s why he wanted her to be safe and cared for.
But Jesus loves you and he loves me and he does not pick favorites. Before we decide to follow Him, He already knows our decision and He decides to make us His disciples. Behold my mother and my brethren. It doesn’t matter! Rachael, He loves you! Jerry He loves you too! He doesn’t love Rachael more than Jerry. He loves whosoever shall!
He loves whosoever will not too. If anyone decides not to be obedient, God is such a gentleman that He will not insist His will upon anyone except whosoever will. It is so easy for us to wonder about those who have gone to death before us when they were not obvious about having made an obedient decision in their lives. We want to know that those who left here before us, especially family members, made a decision so that will meet in heaven someday. How can anyone not want to be there we ask! Some will not be. God is good and that is all there is to that. There are those who feel that faith in wanting your will to be done is all you need. God does not follow us! God expects rightfully so for us to trust Him beyond our own understanding. Old Solomon said, “5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” [5]
In our evening services we have been studying Solomon’s latter writings of Ecclesiastes. The proverbs for the most part are from Solomon instructing a son. Many of the chapters begin with, “My son.”
The proverbs were written from the perspective of a younger father giving instructions to his son on how to be disciplined. Jesus instructed those that day that to be disciplined meant to give up your will if it does not coincide with the will of Our Heavenly Father. “50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” [6] If we shall do His will, we are more to Him than disciples according to Jesus, we are His family.
So what shall we do? What is His will for you? What is your will for you? Is there a discrepancy? Do you suppose that Mary wanted to be an expectant mother before she became Joseph’s bride? Do you suppose that Joseph wanted to take a wife that was pregnant with a baby that was not from himself? Do you think that you are in the center of God’s will or are you trying to decide whether to trust Him? Will you continue to insist that He shall do your will instead of the other way around? Behold my mother and my brethren! Do you want to hear that someday or are you insisting that your will be done?
The Pharisees and scribes wanted their will to be done. They thought they had stopped Jesus when He was nailed to that cross but Jesus had just begun to show just how much He loves you. Yes Jesus loves me! Yes Jesus loves me!
Prayer:
Invitation: We are in the season of remembering just how much God does love us. He created us to be His and He gave us the freedom to choose to love Him or to not love Him. He gave us the freedom to choose good or evil. It is amazing that the one thing that He cannot do is the thing that we do so naturally. He cannot not love us because He is good and can only be good.
As we leave this place today and go wherever we might, I pray that we remember that no matter what we do, He loves us with the same love that He loves everyone. We pick and choose who we want to be around and who we call brother, sister, family. Jesus said we who decide to follow Him are His family without favorite.
Pray for me today that I will learn to love with that true love that Jesus has for us. I will continue to pray that all of us at Merry Oaks Baptist will show those who see us that we are love because He is love.
That one who decided to leave the relationship that God allowed in your life made that decision. If you retaliate with hate, that is your decision. It is never too late for God because He is timeless. Take this time today to pray for those who have left, that at least they are prayed for and loved even if it is a one sided relationship. God is great at bringing relationships back. When He does, they are eternal.
Do you have a one sided relationship with a loved one? That is what you had with God before you chose to choose Jesus. He never stopped loving you. Make that promise today to never stop loving even though it is not returned just now. Don’t give up! God loves you regardless with no conditions. He was waiting for you. What are you waiting for?
Consider as we sing…
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Mt 12:49–50). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[2] ibid., Mt 12:40
g belly: Heb. bowels
[3] ibid.., Jon 1:17
f Jon. 1:17; Luke 24:46; Acts 10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4
[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (Mt 12:40). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[5] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Pr 3:5–6). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[6] ibid., Mt 12:50
