Scripture: Matthew 26:57-58
Topic: Follow closely
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, said: “Give me a A hundred Christians who have nothing to fear but sin and nothing to desire but God, whether they are formal preachers or lay believers - they will shake the gates of hell and establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.
There is a song called "The Return of the Heart", "The beauty of Eden has long gone, the injured white dove can hardly spread its wings, the flowers in the garden have long withered and withered, the crying heart can never be comforted." I often sing this. When I sing this song, I will think of the situation of the church in my hometown when I was more than 20 years old
To this day, there are only a few people left to follow, and the revival of that year will never be seen again
There is one road, but the conditions of those who follow the Lord are different (their spiritual constitution is different)
The passage just read is what happened to Peter on the way to follow the Lord.
When Jesus came out to preach, to use today’s word, he was very popular. He once fed five thousand people at one time with five loaves and two fish. In fact, it was not five thousand, but about twenty thousand. When Jesus entered the holy city of Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds greeted him. Some cut palm branches and spread them on the road to welcome Jesus. Some even took off their clothes and spread them on the road to welcome Jesus. How enthusiastic they were. But when Jesus did not go as they expected. As they went, they began to abandon Jesus, and many even wanted to put Jesus to death. One of the disciples whom Jesus personally selected and trained for three and a half years betrayed Jesus, and the other disciples were arrested when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. Fortunately, there was a disciple who followed Jesus quietly to the high priest’s courtyard. This made us feel very heart-warming, I think, and lonely. Jesus, the suffering Jesus, would be very pleased to see a familiar figure in the crowd, who was still considered the great apostle of Jesus.
But this disciple Peter followed him. Go, but follow from a distance. Section 58, it doesn’t seem like much on the surface. But distance and proximity represent a kind of relationship. I believe we all have this experience when a group of strangers take the elevator together. , everyone will appear very restrained and unnatural. There is also research in psychology on how far away each other should be to make each other comfortable when meeting for the first time, what distance is generally more suitable for friends to be together, and how far away should be for good friends. , these all have data (the brother who put his chin on my shoulder when we first met)
Following from a distance, maybe you don’t think there is anything wrong with this verse, but you. Just go back a little bit in time and you will see that this is what happened before Jesus was brought to the high priest's courtyard. He was taking Peter, James, and John with him. There. Jesus said to them, "I am grieved to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me. "But a few of them were sleeping there. Jesus came and woke them up, and they went back to sleep after a while. If someone comes to you and says, "I'm so sad that I'm going to die." But you don't do anything. Not caring about his life or death at all shows that you don’t have much of a relationship at all.
The fact that Peter was so sad to death that he could still fall asleep shows that he was really spiritual. It’s very tiring and really weak.
There is a saying that “the beginning of sin is when people stay away from God. "Sheep that are far away from the shepherd are the most vulnerable to wolf attacks. In the end, Peter made a big mistake that he would regret for the rest of his life - denying Jesus three times. Peter's failure this time was that he followed Jesus from a distance.
Brothers and sisters here, what is your life situation like? Is your relationship with the Lord distant or close? I don’t know, the Lord knows, and I believe you will also feel it. It only increases the number of years you have believed in the Lord. Or maybe you always come to the Lord when you need him, and relegate him to "the cold palace" when you don't?
Tonight, since you When you come to this temple, I hope this is the moment when you meet the Lord, the moment when you establish a beautiful relationship with the Lord; the moment when the Lord gains you here; and the moment when you closely follow the Lord.
Faith is a relationship, a relationship established with God. Do you have a friend that you never contact when you need to borrow money, or contact you when your child is getting married? What would you think at that time? I believe you hate such people.
Among the twelve apostles (except Judas), only one died of old age. The others were martyred for the Lord. This man was John. Among the twelve apostles, John was the only one who followed Jesus all the way to the cross. I am not saying that if they did not follow Jesus to the bottom of the cross, God would not allow him to die well, but I am saying that when John was not afraid of danger or what others said, he followed closely. When the Lord comes, the Lord will definitely protect his life and place a greater mission on him.
When you are not afraid of the dark roads at night and do not care about the weakness of the flesh and come before God to seek the Lord with a pure heart.
When you are in such an era of materialistic desires, when you closely follow the Lord at all times, the Lord will accompany you with the blessing of Immanuel.