You Follow Me

[0:00] Let's turn back then to the chapter that we read and we can read again at verse 20.

[0:18] Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

[0:34] Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple was not to die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

[1:00] In particular the words in verse 22, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. You follow me.

[1:15] The events that we have related in this chapter, the final chapter of the Gospel of John, are not recorded anywhere else for us.

[1:32] John records many things. I think I have said this before several times. John records many things in his Gospel which are not recorded in other Gospels, in the other three Synoptic Gospels, and does not repeat many of the things which are recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, and the reason for that was very simple.

[1:57] John's Gospel is written much later. It is the last of the Gospels to be written, and he is filling in, in many ways, bits and pieces here and there that were not recorded in the others, but particularly parts that point to the deity of Christ.

[2:14] That was his objective. There you see that from the very beginning of the Gospel, when he speaks about the Word. And even then, as we were saying to the children, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[2:29] And so we have events recorded here, events that fill in a gap for us, to the instructions that Jesus had actually given to the woman at the tomb.

[2:42] If you go to Matthew 28 and chapter 10, you find that the angel says to the woman, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

[2:56] He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee.

[3:09] There you will see him. Now, through the angel, that's the instruction that they have been given. And the events here probably take place two weeks or so after the resurrection.

[3:25] In other words, probably this very week. Either the week that's gone past, or the week that is to come. And we know that after that, Jesus tells them to come back to Jerusalem, where they will be to wait for the ascension that will take place, and then, of course, for what will happen at Pentecost.

[3:49] But the interesting things here in this particular passage, there are a great number of interesting things here. This is the seventh appearance of Jesus, the resurrected Jesus.

[4:05] But the third appearance to all the disciples, or nearly all the disciples. We have a list at the beginning of the chapter of those who are there.

[4:16] After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. Now, that in itself, the Sea of Tiberias, tells us that this was written much, much later than the events took place.

[4:30] Because in our Lord's time, it was referred to as the Sea of Galilee. But when John was writing, possibly 40 years later, probably 40 years later, this had now become called the Sea of Tiberias, because of the city of Tiberias, which had risen up and become a large city by the sea, and was called after Tiberias Caesar, the emperor of Rome at the time.

[4:59] And you see the list of the disciples there. Peter is there. Thomas, Didymus, called the twin. Nathaniel, whom sometimes we know better as Bartholomew, same person.

[5:12] The sons of Zebedes, James and John, and two others of his disciples were together. Seven all together. Who were the other two?

[5:23] Well, again, we come into speculation. Many think that Andrew was one of them, who, of course, was a fisherman by trade. But who the other opinions are divided, whether it was James the Less or Simon the Sellet, the majority of commentators don't think it was Matthew, because Matthew had no ties to Galilee as such.

[5:45] But again, we just come into speculation, not knowing who it was particularly. But it does show us, in a sense, what Peter says, I am going fishing, that in a way they were preparing to go back to their ordinary lives and their trades.

[6:03] You remember, of course, how they had felt after the crucifixion, until the Lord appears to them in the upper room. They had felt that everything was lost.

[6:16] And you see that so clearly with the two on the road to Emmaus. And it may well be that they have decided, having been told to go back to Galilee, that they had thought that this was an indication to go back to their former lives and to take up their former occupations.

[6:35] On the other hand, it may well have been that Peter was simply a bit bored and decided, as so many of us often do, that a day's fishing would be a good pastime.

[6:46] And that's what he was by trade, a fisherman. And it seems that he'd forgotten what Jesus had said to them at one point, that he would turn them into fishers of men.

[6:59] But here he says, all right, off fishing, and the others go with them. But again, their fishing turns out to be particularly useless that night.

[7:14] They catch nothing. And just as the day was breaking, we read in verse 4, Jesus stood on the shore, although they didn't know that it was Jesus.

[7:26] And he calls to them, it's translated as children here in verse 5, but it really should be lads or boys. Lads, do you have any fish?

[7:37] No. And then we get this interesting description of the miracle. If it is some dispute whether it's a miracle, whether the Lord actually made it happen that 153 fishes would swim, the shoal would swim close enough to the boat, or others say that this was just mere coincidence.

[8:01] Well, you can make up your own mind on that, but it's not the first time, of course, that they have caught a large amount of fish because of the Lord's instruction.

[8:15] And although it's in one sense, it's not a miracle, nevertheless, it's another example of Jesus' provision for them. And it's a peculiarity why the number of fish is actually mentioned.

[8:33] You see in verse 11, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And you wonder who on earth counted them?

[8:45] Who actually sat down and counted all the fish? But somebody obviously did. What was the purpose of mentioning 153 specifically?

[8:57] There's nowhere else, in any of the other fishing exploits, there's nowhere else that we get a tally of the actual number of fish. And some think, again, that it just shows the Lord's provision.

[9:10] Some think that it shows how amazing this was, that the net didn't break. But there are others who see a deeper meaning to this 153. And the reason to that was, that according to Jerome, one of the church historians, a couple of centuries later, he says that 153 represented the number of known species round the Middle East and the Mediterranean at that time.

[9:43] And that the symbolism of 153 meant that people of all nations would be drawn in. That it wasn't just a figure as such, but it represented all the known species at that time, and therefore pointed to the word and disciples being made of all nations.

[10:07] That may well be the case. There may be another reason that I'm not aware of, but I couldn't find any other significance to the 153 except that.

[10:19] However, things go on, and you notice that Jesus has prepared breakfast for them. Now, again, notice that it's not of the fish that they have caught.

[10:30] When they come, they see that there is fish and a fire, a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bread.

[10:41] And the Greek can be translated as a fish or just fish in general, whether it was one fish for all eight of them, the seven plus Jesus himself, or whether there were two or three fish, doesn't really matter very much.

[10:56] But he has prepared for them. And of course, it's a pointless question to ask, where did he get the fish and the bread from? We have no answer to that.

[11:08] How the Lord could have provided that for them innocuously, as he has done on so many other occasions. But then he invites them to breakfast. And then we are told that this is the third, in verse 14, that this was the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

[11:31] And then we get this interlude with Peter, what is usually referred to as the restoration of Peter. Now, be very careful that this is not the forgiveness of Peter.

[11:46] It is the restoration of Peter. Because remember that our Lord has already appeared individually to Peter during the first day after the resurrection.

[12:02] what was said in that individual meeting with Peter, we have no record. That is not recorded anywhere.

[12:15] But it would certainly appear that during that first meeting after the resurrection with Peter, that Peter's denial was forgiven. But now comes the question of his restoration.

[12:31] And there are things here that we see that allow us to draw a parallel between this and the night on which Peter denied our Lord three times.

[12:44] You remember that it was in the evening darkness that Peter had denied Jesus. but it is here in the morning light that he is restored again.

[12:58] And he had denied at a brazier a fire of coals in the same way in the evening. And here he is being restored again at a fire of coals.

[13:12] And you notice again that the question is asked of him. Having denied three times, he is questioned three times as well.

[13:25] When they had finished breakfast in verse 15, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you.

[13:40] Now the English translation doesn't give us the full force of the terminology that is used in Greek.

[13:51] And again the Greek as written would have been translated from the original Aramaic which would have been spoken here. But the word that our Lord uses for love, Simon, you notice first of all that he doesn't refer to him as Peter.

[14:07] Peter, the name that he had been given, that Jesus had given him, Peter the Rock. But he goes back to his original name. He goes back to the state that Peter was in before he becomes the Rock.

[14:23] There is a sense in which he still isn't the Rock. But when his restoration will be complete here, he will become that. Simon, son of John, that's Bar-Jonah if you're using the old version, Bar-Sonoff, do you love me more than these?

[14:45] Now notice that the question is in comparison to the other six disciples. Do you love me more than these disciples here? And Peter's reply is significant.

[14:58] Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. But the verb in Greek is not the same as in the question that Jesus puts. The verb in Greek says, you know that I have affection for you.

[15:15] What has happened to this Peter? This is the brash, impulsive Peter that we have seen so often throughout Scripture. This is the Peter who acts on impulse, who leapt out of the boat, who walked on water and then sank.

[15:31] The Peter who refused at first to have his feet washed. The Peter who said, I will lay down my life for you. The Peter with the sword. The Peter who had cut off Malchus' ear.

[15:44] Notice the change that has come. This Peter has learnt humility. Lord, you know that I have affection for you.

[15:56] He could have said, of course I love you. But no, that's not the answer. The answer is a humble answer. He said to him, feed my lambs.

[16:08] He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He uses, Jesus uses the same verb again. But Peter avoids using it. Yes, Lord, you know that I have affection for you.

[16:23] And notice that now the progression goes to feed my lambs, tend my sheep. And then the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

[16:33] And then the third question, Jesus brings it down to the same level as Peter. He uses the same term that Peter has used. Do you have affection for me?

[16:47] And Peter was grieved. Was he grieved just because it was a third question? or was he grieved because he saw Jesus using his own language back to him?

[17:02] Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.

[17:15] What an amazing declaration of faith. You know that I love you. And it's one that every believer has great difficulty at times in saying.

[17:30] Strange, isn't it, that we find it so difficult to say that we love the Lord. And yet, it is one of these things that in our hearts we know to be true.

[17:41] We know that we love the Lord. Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Why are you asking? Because I need you to reaffirm it.

[17:55] I need you to make public profession of your faith. You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. And we've gone, lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

[18:11] And you notice that the one who was first of all a sheep himself, a lamb himself, and then a sheep, is now to become a shepherd.

[18:24] Peter is commissioned with the job of looking after and his restoration. He's already been forgiven. Now he's being restored and now comes his commission that he will have this job to do.

[18:40] Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Who are the sheep? Who are the lambs? Again, of course, symbolically we can see that so easily.

[18:52] The lambs, the young of the church, not necessarily young in age, but young in faith. The sheep, those slightly more mature, they need to be looked after, but they also need to be fed.

[19:08] And isn't this exactly what we see Peter doing after the day of Pentecost? It is Peter who leads the way in the first sermon after the day of Pentecost.

[19:19] It is Peter who stands up and who is almost as if it were a leader later on throughout the first part of the book of Acts.

[19:30] And very often we see Peter and John together. And we'll come to John in a minute. And then Jesus says something remarkable to him.

[19:41] Truly, truly, at verse 18, I say to you, when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

[19:55] And the parenthesis in verse 19 shows us that this was written much much later. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.

[20:09] When this is written, Peter is already dead. This has taken place, this is 40 years after that John is writing at least.

[20:19] Where John wrote his gospel, some think in Patmos, some think in Ephesus, could have been either, it doesn't really matter, but it's written well after. And here we see that the knowledge of Peter's death is already clear.

[20:35] Peter was, as far as we know, we're told by Eusebius, a church historian, and Tertullian, also a Roman writer mentions it, that 40 years later Peter was crucified in Rome by Nero.

[20:51] Probably according to tradition and according to what Eusebius writes as well, he was crucified upside down because he refused to be crucified in the same way as his Lord and Savior and insisted on being crucified upside down.

[21:10] And almost certainly at the same time Paul was also decapitated. You remember that Paul could not be crucified because he was a Roman citizen. The punishment of crucifixion was not applied to Romans and Paul is almost certainly decapitated.

[21:29] And so we see the restoration of Peter, the commissioning of him for service. And yet when we come then we see as we turn to look at John.

[21:42] After saying this he said to him, follow me. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. And you notice again that in John's typical style he never mentions himself by name.

[21:57] It's very clear as he writes in verse 24, this is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. But you notice then it comes to and we know, whoever finished off the gospel, probably an amanuensis, that is somebody writing as John dictated in his old age, has added this.

[22:19] We know that his testimony is through. And there are many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that were written.

[22:32] And probably that was not written by John but added on by the person who wrote the gospel. But then we come to this peculiar passage that one writes, wants to perhaps spend a little more time on.

[22:48] Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. Does that mean that Jesus didn't love the other disciples?

[23:02] There's been a lot of speculation on that question. And of course the answer has to be that of course he loved the other disciples. But John had a special place in Jesus' affection.

[23:16] We see that he's known this evening we're going to look at one of his letters, the first letter of John. He's known as the apostle of love.

[23:28] And the beloved disciple. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. The one who had been reclining a table close to him, that is close to Jesus, not close to Peter, and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?

[23:45] And you remember that it was John leaning on Jesus' breast who had answered, who had asked that particular question. Some think that Jesus, that Jesus particularly had a kind fondness for John, loved him as it's put here, because he was the youngest of the disciples.

[24:12] John, at the beginning of the gospel, probably was only about 17 or 18 years of age. How do we know that? Well, again, we can work it out from what we know about John and his death.

[24:30] John is the only one of the disciples who dies a natural death. And he's the only one who reaches old age. He died in Ephesus. The historian Irenaeus tells us that even as an old man, John was being carried into church in Ephesus by the young men of the congregation.

[24:51] And he was in his late 90s when he died. We don't know the exact age, but some were in his late 90s. So it allows us to see that at this point, John, prior to the three years of ministry, must have been in his middle or late teens.

[25:11] And so when you think and look, of course, at the two of them together, Peter and John, we see them beginning in the book of Acts, their mission before they go their separate ways, but we see that there are similarities, but yet great differences between the two.

[25:29] Both are fishermen. John was also the sons of Zebedee. Remember, John was also a fisherman. But you notice that the difference is mainly in their character.

[25:40] Apart from their age, their character. Peter is the guy who acts on impulse. Peter is the guy who acts without thinking. But John is much more perceptive.

[25:52] John is the one who thinks things out. And you notice and remember that it was John was the only one, at least recorded for us, who was present at the cross.

[26:06] Remember that John stood at the foot of the cross. The others may have been watching from a distance. They may have been among the ones who were watching from a distance. But it is to John that Jesus gives over his mother from the cross.

[26:25] Woman, behold thy son. And you remember from that day onwards that John takes her into his own house. The historian, the Greek historian, Nisephorus, tells us that John took both Mary and Mary Magdalene into his home in Jerusalem until they were forced to flee from Jerusalem when the persecution broke out a good number of years later.

[26:55] And according to tradition, Mary and Mary Magdalene fled to Cyprus. And if you ever go to Cyprus on holiday, make sure that you visit in the town of Larnica.

[27:09] If you visit the church in Larnica, there you will see the burial place or what is supposed to be the burial place. Mary and Mary Magdalene.

[27:21] But again, of course, that may well simply be tradition. But you notice again that John is the first one who recognizes Jesus here.

[27:34] Verse 7, that disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. Lord. And I suppose we have to ask if there was a special something about John that made Jesus love him more than the others apart from his youth.

[27:59] Now, you might say, we're going into speculation a little bit if we try and discuss that question. but when you look at the character of John, and when you look at his writings, and particularly the letters, and you see how clearly conscious he is of the love of God and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, then there seems to be a special quality of love about John that is not in among the others.

[28:34] Now, I don't mean by that that they didn't love Jesus. Of course, they did, and Jesus loved them. But John seems to be, shall we say, more affectionate, more emotional in many ways than some of the others, although he is also far more perceptive than the others.

[28:59] We often think of the disciples, particularly James, John, Peter, Andrew, and so on, we think of them as uneducated fishermen. That's what they were by trade.

[29:12] But you have to bear in mind that that does not mean they were uneducated. Remember that all Jewish children were taught to read and write at an early age, and all Jewish children had to study in the synagogue schools until they reached their teenage years, when they would go through the ceremony of the bar mitzvah for the boys, or the bat mitzvah for the girls, which was that sign of reaching adulthood.

[29:42] And they were taught to read through the scriptures. It was normally the scriptures of the Old Testament that was used in that case. They didn't perhaps have the rabbinical training that Paul had, or Saul as he was then, but we must never think of them as uneducated, illiterate, not at all.

[30:07] But there is a difference in character between them, and there is some of the other disciples whom we don't get so much detail. Thomas, of course, is perhaps one of the ones that we see a glimpse of more often, but we notice that John seems to have this special relationship with Jesus, or a more special relationship with Jesus.

[30:32] Every relationship with Jesus is special. Your relationship with Jesus is just as special as John's was, and just as special as Peter's was, or any of the other disciples.

[30:49] Your relationship may be different. It may have different facets, to it. It may have different characteristics, but it is just as special.

[31:01] Just as special. The Jesus who was crucified for Peter and John is the same Jesus who was crucified for you and I. The Jesus who was resurrected for Peter and John is the same Jesus as was resurrected for you and I.

[31:22] The Jesus who in a couple of weeks' time will ascend to the right hand of the Father. It is the same Jesus who has ascended into heaven to intercede and make intercession for his people.

[31:37] It is the same Jesus who intercedes for you and I. It is the same Jesus who pours out the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost upon Peter and John and the others gathered there.

[31:49] it is the same Jesus who poured the Holy Spirit into you and brought you to faith. Remember as he told them without me you can do nothing.

[32:03] Without me you can do nothing. And so we get this question. When Peter saw him he said to Jesus Lord what about this man?

[32:15] Now why is he asking that? He is asking it of course in relation to what Jesus has said to him about what will happen to Peter himself in later years.

[32:30] So if you have told me what is going to happen to me although he probably did not understand what that meant then. How he is saying well what will happen to John?

[32:41] What will happen to him? And then Jesus gives this answer if it is my will that he remain until I come what is that to you?

[32:52] You follow me. And many as it says in the next verse many of the brothers that is of the disciples misinterpreted this as meaning that John would not die until the second coming of Jesus.

[33:09] But John himself clarifies that and says he did not say that. So the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die.

[33:22] But if it is my will that he remain until I come. What is that to you? Deish and goods. What is the way it is put in the Gaelic?

[33:35] Deish and goods. Janus amishu. And you see that the real point that matters. It's not what is to come but the present.

[33:50] What you do at the present. It's not the comparison that you make of yourself to others. And how often are we prone to doing that?

[34:02] Even those of us who are perhaps if we might call ourselves mature Christians. how often do we hear them saying? How often do we even hear ourselves saying?

[34:13] Oh I wish I knew the scriptures like that fellow. I wish I could pray like that fellow. But yet that is not your commission.

[34:26] Your commission is follow me. You follow me. Each one of us is given a different measure.

[34:37] of the spirit. A different measure of knowledge. Although some would argue that we're all given the same measure of the spirit. But I'm not sure that I would agree with that.

[34:48] But all of us are on this road. Isaiah calls it the highway of holiness. We are in the process of sanctification.

[35:02] And you and I will not be fully sanctified until we leave this world and enter into heaven. And the process of sanctification is preparing us for that.

[35:18] What does sanctification mean? It simply means in its simplest sense being set apart for a particular purpose. You go back to the Old Testament when they sanctified the vessels for use in the tabernacle.

[35:33] that's what the meaning of the word was to set apart. And you are being set apart because you are being prepared. You and I are being prepared for the life that is to come.

[35:50] You are also being prepared to be able of course to deal with everything that is thrown at you in this world by Satan and his little helpers.

[36:02] You are being prepared for all the difficulties and trials that will come. You are being prepared for a test of your faith. And you see as how Peter has been restored because of his denial there will be times when you and I need restoring as well.

[36:22] It is the restoring grace of the Holy Spirit that is present here. there is very often at other times restraining grace that holds us back from getting into difficulty or falling into temptation.

[36:38] But it is restoring grace that is here. And you and I need restoring grace very, very often.

[36:50] And yet you are told what is this to you? You follow me. That is the instruction.

[37:01] The instruction is clear. That what you have to do, what you and I have to do is to follow Jesus. Not comparing ourselves with others.

[37:15] Not trying to emulate others. There are many things we can learn from others. others. But very often, sometimes, it is the bad things, or shall we say, the less appropriate things that we learn rather than the things that we should learn.

[37:39] It is quite amazing, isn't it, that the more mature a Christian becomes, the more mature in the faith a believer becomes, not necessarily in age, but in Christian maturity, the more aware he is of his own sin, and his own shortcomings.

[38:00] And every day he is more aware of just how he is failing this commandment. You follow me.

[38:13] Very often it is probably in the sins of omission, rather than in the sins of commission, that this happens. The things that we don't do that we should do.

[38:24] How many times has it brought home to you, oh, I should have visited so and so, and I didn't. Perhaps going to visit those who are no longer able to come to church, your brothers and sisters in Christ, but perhaps visiting others who have not yet come to faith.

[38:45] Sins of omission, that's something that all of us are guilty of. There is so much more that we can do, and so much more that we should be doing.

[38:56] Sometimes we keep our mouth shut when we should open it. We don't stand up for the principles of the word of God as we should.

[39:08] Rather than object to what some people are saying rather than get into an argument, we simply just avoid the issue altogether.

[39:22] But yet, isn't that in a way what Peter did? Peter stood up for Jesus. He stood up impulsively before this.

[39:33] From now on, we will see Peter throughout the book of Acts, not acting on impulse, but guided in maturity by the Holy Spirit. He is to become a shepherd.

[39:48] But he's still one of the flock. And even you see in the book of Acts how Peter again disputed sometimes over the Gentiles and over eating with Gentiles.

[40:00] And how he and Paul had a ding-dong about this at one time. You see, being a believer, being a Christian, being mature in the faith doesn't mean you're perfect.

[40:13] Far from it. None of us will ever attain perfection in this world. And if you're thinking that you will become perfect, then forget it.

[40:26] Your perfection will come in glory. That's a different kind of perfection. And so often we hear so many who say, oh, I'm not ready to believe yet.

[40:38] I'm not good enough. I'm not ready to come to faith. I'm not ready to go to the table. Because I'm not good enough.

[40:51] You will never be good enough. Never in this life be good enough. That's not why you go. That's not why you come to faith.

[41:01] That's not why you struggle with your faith. You struggle with these things because Jesus has said to you, follow me. You follow me.

[41:15] And yet how difficult it is for us at times to follow him. It's not surprising that John relates this to us.

[41:27] I wonder how difficult it was for John himself when he was banished to Patmos by probably Domitian. Nero was probably dead by then, but it may have been Nero.

[41:40] When he was banished to Patmos and the years that he spent there in exile from the church in Ephesus. And yet look at the glorious vision that he was given in the book of Revelation.

[41:55] How he saw into heaven itself and the things that are to come, the second coming of the Lord. John experienced things that none of the other disciples did.

[42:10] When you look at the inner circle, Peter, James, and John, they saw things, of course, that the other disciples didn't see at all. The Mount of Transfiguration and various other things.

[42:24] And yet none is given such a vision as John was, at least that we have recorded. Was John faithful to this as Peter was?

[42:38] You follow me. Well, all you have to do is read through the book of Acts, all you have to do is look at the letters of Peter and the letters of John and you see indeed just how faithful they were.

[42:57] Oh, it doesn't mean that they didn't have failings at times. It doesn't mean that they didn't do things that perhaps they shouldn't have done. It doesn't mean that at times they didn't struggle with their faith.

[43:09] It doesn't mean that at times they felt that the Lord was not answering their prayer. But yet this was the implicit thing. What is that to you?

[43:20] You follow me. And that's what you are being asked to do this morning. You may have been following for many years and yet you still find it difficult to take up your cross every day.

[43:38] But this is what Jesus asks you to do. You follow me. And perhaps you're here this morning and you still haven't made a decision to follow him.

[43:52] And yet the call is going out to you. If you wish to understand the mysteries and there are mysteries in scripture there are mysteries in the things of God.

[44:06] there are some things that we will never understand. And I wonder even in heaven if we will come to an understanding of them. Probably often I think that these things when we get to heaven will have no importance whatsoever for us.

[44:21] That we will be so focused on glorifying the lamb in the midst of the throne that these things won't matter. I mean how can for example how do you understand the incarnation?

[44:34] How can you understand Jesus coming in the flesh through the Holy Spirit? It's just almost impossible for us to understand. And yet these are things that we may discuss and dispute here.

[44:50] But when we get there they'll have no importance what's at all for us. But maybe you're struggling even to come to faith this morning. Maybe you're not sure that this Jesus is worth following.

[45:07] Well look at the example of those who have followed. You don't even need to go back to what scripture says but look at those round about you who have come to faith.

[45:22] Who have followed for years. Why are they still doing it? What is it that keeps them going? What do they see in this Jesus that no one else does?

[45:37] Ah he is all together lovely. This is my friend. That's how Solomon puts it in their song of songs.

[45:48] He is all together lovely. And when you come to see him and when you come to know him then you will wonder why you didn't follow him before.

[46:02] Let us pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you that the words that seem so simple you follow me and yet are so difficult for us at first have turned into the most wonderful instruction that you can give us to follow you in all things.

[46:24] We thank you this morning for being able to meditate upon your word. Be with us now. Be with any who are struggling to follow you. That you would guide them. Open their eyes to see you and your beauty.

[46:37] And guide us in all things. Be with us as we conclude our worship.