Unfollow
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Unfollow
Over the past two months we’ve been in a series called follow where we’ve been walking through what it means and what it looks like to follow Jesus. This morning will be our last message in this series but before we get into that, let me just recap one last time all of the things we’ve talked about, because it’s my hope and my prayer that at least one of these things will stick with you and you’ll apply it to your life and take that next step in following Jesus.
So quickly, here’s what we’ve said so far:
Everybody is invited to follow Jesus. No matter what you’ve done, what you haven’t done, what you know or don’t know, you’re invited to follow Jesus. It’s an open invitation.
It’s and invitation to relationship. It’s not an invitation to church, not an invitation to religion, not an invitation to rules or to a list, it’s an invitation to a personal relationship with an invisible God who revealed himself through his son, who was a visible person, Jesus Christ. And this is the thing that we’re here to do. We’re here to follow Jesus and come into this personal relationship with him, and we gather here to further walk into this relationship.
Third we said, being a sinner is a prerequisite. So, if you think, “Oh i can’t follow jesus, i’m not a good person, you don’t know what i’ve done or said, i’m not good enough, etc. what we’ve seen through this series is that everybody who has ever followed jesus was a sinner.
then we saw that having doubts is okay. none of Jesus earliest followers believed he was who he said he was. they all doubted at some point in their journey of following him. Jesus invited us to follow him and he invited us to bring with us our questions and our doubts, but the invitation remains: just follow. Just take that tiny little step and see what I have to offer you.
The we saw that the Goal is Overwhelming faith. If we’re gonna follower Jesus, where is he taking us? He’s taking us to a place of overwhelming faith, specifically to a faith that overwhelms fear. Over and over Jesus says “why are you afraid?” to which the disciples said, uhhh the boat is sinking. Yeah , I know bu why are you afraid. DOnt you understand that God knows you and cares with you? dont you know that you can face anything, any situation and any crisis and do so fearlessly? And Jesus wants to lead us to this place to a confidence in God that allows us to overcome all circumstance without giving into fear.
Then we talked about what followers of Jesus where. CHK FLK PG
Then we talked about this: Following Jesus will eventually cost you something. But you don’t have to fear that! Because in the moment that you have to say no to yourself in order to follow Jesus you’ll discover something about yourself and about your heavenly father: this is when you discover whose you really are.
And then two weeks ago, we went a little further with this. All Jesus followers come to a place where we say, God I want what you want.” But, not many of us are there, so we looked at the wiggle room prayer that says “God I want to want what you want.” In other words, I don’t really want what you want, God, but I want to want it. Again, it’s a tiny step in following Jesus.
Now, I do all of that to lead us to our final message in this series and to lead us into an important question. And, since all of y’all are young, this is such an important question, because every single person in their journey in following Jesus is going to be tempted to hit the unfollow button. And before you unfollow Jesus you need to ask yourself this one question, and the question actually comes from a conversation Jesus is having with his closest followers. So, let me set up the story, and then we’ll be in book of John chapter 6.
Jesus had recently fed the 5,000 people, most of y’all are familiar with this story, but Jesus has a few loaves of bread and some fish, and miraculously multiplies it so that he can feed 5,000 people who were following him and listening to him speak. And so he does this, and all of the people start to go wild and they’re like, okay, let’s make this guy king. And of course all of Jesus’ closest followers, the apostles, they wanted Jesus to proclaim himself King because if you’re hanging out with the guys who becomes king, you become a pretty important person. So instead of jesus allowing people to proclaim him king of the Jews, he hops on a boat and heads across the sea of galilee, to escape the crowd that wants to make him king. They end up in a little town called Capernum. Some people who witnessed the miracle show up in Capernum and word gets out and people start crowding into the synagogue where Jesus is teaching, and they start to poke a Jesus a little bit, shouting, “Hey! Do that thing again! Do that thing with the bread! Hey Jesus, show us a sign!” So they starting trying to heckle Jesus into doing another miracle. And He realizes that these are some of the people who were there during the miracle, so he decides to use this as a creative teaching moment. And just as he fed them literal bread, he begins to use that as an analogy and is like “hey, you know how I fed you literal bread and now you’re hungry again? Did you know that God provides something for your soul, for your spirit, for your heart that will fill you up forever?” So he begins to compare himself to bread and he says this: I am the bread of life that comes from heaven! And then someone in the audience says, no you’re not! We know your dad Joseph and your mom Mary. You didn’t come from Heaven, we know your parents. No, I came from heaven. No, we know your parents Jesus, you didn’t come from heaven. And there’s little tension in the crowd. And Jesus continues, and his sermon begins to get weirder, and weirder. Here’s what he said:
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
And then he goes on and on and it gets stranger and stranger, and crowd is getting a little freaked out. Thats sacrilegious, Jesus, that kind of sounds canabilistic Jesus. They’re murmuring, and confused. And the Apostles are sitting back and I imagine they’re thinking, okay, Jesus, let’s not lose the crowd here. We need the crowd Jesus. They already want to make you king don’t lose them.
But John tells us this:
On hearing it, many of his disciples (now, this isn’t the twelve, remember disciples is this general group of people like us that follow Jesus. so you’ve got all of these people who have been following for a while said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” or who can embrace it, or who can go along with this, or who wants to be associated with this? And now the crowds kind of turning on Jesus a little bit.
And it’s at this point i imagine that some of Jesus’ closest disciples want to pull him aside and say Jesus, bro, you gotta chill with this thing. You’re losing the crowd, and we need the crowd. WHat’s with this eat my flesh and drink my blood stuff? What are you getting at? Give them a parable. no one understands your parables, but they’re entertaining! Or do something on prayer or love, but quit talking about eating my flesh and drinking my blood because we’re losing the crowd. And behind the crowd is the Pharisees and if we lose the crowd, they’re coming for you and they’re coming for us, so Jesus, please say something else.
Now, the disciples didn’t do any of this, but it’s likely what they would have been thinking. It’s probably what you and I would have been thinking. He goes on and one for several more verses. looks what happens
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Do this trip you up? Is this too much for you?
And then John tells us this:
from this time, this was a transition point in Jesus’ ministry,
From this time many of his disciples (the crowd) turned back and no longer followed him. They unfollowed him. Miracles were cool, healing was great, all of this was very exciting, loved the though that you might become King, but this you came from heaven and drink my blood and eat my flesh, that’s too strange for us. We’re done, we’re unfollowing jesus.
And the 12 apostles, sitting there and listening to Jesus and watching the crowd, they begin to thin, hmmm, maybe we should unfollow Jesus as well. Things aren’t looking too good for Jesus right now, and if they’re looking badly for him, then things are probably bad for me. Maybe we should leave.
And then Jesus, who knows the hears of men, pauses in his sermon and turns to the 12 and says
“You don’t want to leave too, do you?” Y’all aren’t thinking about going with the rest of these people are you? You’re not gonna be an unfollower too, are you?
Now, the 12 knew this: you don’t lie to Jesus. Not because it was a sin, but because he knew your hearts. He knew your thoughts. He knows they’re thinking about leaving. SO they know not to lie.
So he turns. You’’re thinking of leaving too are you?
Now, this is such a relevant thing for me and for you, isn’t it. Because regardless of how long you’ve been following Jesus, the day is going to come when you’re going to consider unfollowing. I’ll tell you when those times are:
It’s going to be during a time of transition - highschool to college, middle school, to high school, college to a first job, etc. It’s going to come in a time of transition when you’ve come from an environment, like this one, where people take christianity seriously and take Jesus seriously, but know you’re in a place where no one really cares. They may not be against it, they just d0n’t care. Suddenly you’re surrounded by people who just don’t believe what you believe and you’re going to be tempted to unfollow. Now, this is important, you’re most likely not going to be tempted to unfollow because you don’t think it’’s true. very rarely does this happen. people usually quit following because it’s too hard, it’s too inconvienting, it might leave you feeling a little isolated, but primarily people quite following because it just doesn’t seem to matter anymore. It matters here because this is what we’ve always done, but now you’re a freshman in college and it just doesn’t seem to matter. It’s not just transitions though. It’s relational. At some point, some of you might be in a relationship where Jesus and Christianity gets in the way. Or you’re just going through a tough time. You’ve prayed but god isn’t answering your prayer. you believe and believe but God just seems so quiet, dn you thought the if you obeyed then everything would work out and you’ve obeyed but things aren’t working out, so why am I even hanging on to this? and you’re tempted to unfollow. and Jesus is looking at you and me and saying “Hey, you’re not thinking of leaving too, are you?”
moment of when i almost quit or quit following Jesus storm
some of you will have a moment like that. or maybe you’re in a moment like that now. Because at some point in following Jesus, Peter, James, John Matthew, all of them, all of these guys who were this close to Jesus had a moment where they were like I think i’m gonna unfollow now because it’s too hard or too costly, I could lose everything, and for them their life, if they continue to follow. And there’s this pause: Are you guys thinking about leaving, too?
And, you’re not gonna lie, so what do you say??
And in this moment, this dramatic moment, Peter, who usually says the wrong thing says this brilliant thing. he asks this question that I think all of us need to ask when we’re in transition, or when we’re overwhelmed with temptation, or its just too hard to say no. Next time things aren’t going well and you’re tempted to doubt and forget the whole Jesus thing. If you would just come back to this question.
Here’s what Peter says: Lord, to whom shall we go?
Yeah, I want to leave, but Jesus, seriously, to whom shall we go? Peter recognized something most of us never see until it’s too late: When you choose not to follow Jesus, you choose to follow something or someone else. So peter asked the question, if not you who, if not this, what? Peter recognized if I back away from you, I’m backing into someone or something else. If I choose to say no to you, I’m saying yes to something or someone else. I’ve considered all of the options and no Jesus this isnt comfortable, this isn’t how I want things to go, but the truth is, to whom shall I go?
Now this is the issue for us. Because it’s hard to follow Jesus. There’s something in all of us that wants to walk away at some point. But Peter says “before you do that I want you to consider the options.” Because when you unfollow Jesus, you’re choosing to follow someone or something else and you need to think about that before you simply walk away. To whom shall we go?
And then listen to his though process as the thinks out loud the things that brought him to this conclusion. He says
You have the word to eternal life. Jesus, nobody else is offering that. I remember when I was fishing with my dad and my friends and suddenly you walked up and you invited us into something grand, something glorious, our lives had more purpose than they ever had before, suddenly we weren’t just fishermen. I feel like i’ve been invited into the story of God. I’ve been invited into history. And where am I gonna go? Back fishing? Back into the family business? And Jesus, I know exactly what that looks like. I go home, I reconnect with my family, I get married maybe have a few kids maybe, if i’m lucky, some grand kids, and then I die. And Jesus you’ve given me an opportunity to live for something. And Jesus, I’d rather die for something than to live for nothing. Jesus, I’d rather die for you that just die. You have invited us into something so much bigger than what we were a part of. Yeah, this isn’t what we signed up for, and Jesus we thought by now you’d be the king, but leave?
And follow who? You have words of eternal life.
This is so relevant for us. If you’re a Jesus follower, you’ve been invited into something much more grand and glorious than you’re little insignificant life. My glory is not worth living for. You glory is not worth living for. As a Christian, as a Jesus follower we’ve been invited into a grand and glorious narrative that began with creation and was highlighted when Jesus died for the sins of the world and now you and I have to opportunity to follow the savior of the world. Who are you gonna follow if you’re not gonna follow him? Do you really thing there’s something so satisfying in life that you’re gonna look back and say, “I’m so glad I quit following the savior of the world in order to … “
Come on. Peter says he has words of eternal life. You and I have been invited into something that’s far bigger than ourselves. And when you unfollow Jesus you step down and you step out. And here’s what Peter knew, and what I believe: That when you unfollow Jesus, the day will come that you will wish that you could go back and change your mind, but you just don’t get to do that. Look what Peter says next:
We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. In other words, we’ve seen too much. If we leave now, we’ll come back, or we’ll get old and wish we’d stayed. So, Jesus, why in the world would we choose not to follow you now? To whom shall we go?
I love this question. This is the question that allows us to avoid a season in our life that we wish we could go back and relive. the is the question that allows us to avoid a season or seasons of regret. this is the question that if we pause and ask it in the midst of a transition or temptation or a trial, to ask the question “if not Jesus who? If not Christianity what? Before you move, you owe it to yourself to answer that question. If not Jesus who? or if not Jesus what? Is anyone else offering you eternity or eternal life? Is anyone else inviting you into a narrative that’s bigger that yourself or your life? Are you going to be able to connect to anything else that has eternal consequences?
So, let’s say this together: To whom shall I go?
That’s the question.
Here’s the deal: Transition, Temptation and trouble create questions. That’s okay. There will be moments all throughout your lives where you will be tempted to question Jesus, or your faith will be undermined by a college professor who’s smart than you and knows more than you, but just because they’re smarter that you doesn’t make them right, and so before you decide to unfollow Jesus because of what someone said, or because of a circumstance, or because of a temptation, before you decide to unfollow jesus because you have questions: Where’s God, why didn’t God come through for me? Why doesn’t this matter to anyone else? There are always questions, but it’s a mistake to step away from Jesus because you have questions that you don’t have answers to… yet. Just because you don’t know the answer doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It just means you don’t know it yet. “Peter if you keep following Jesus what do you think will happen? I don’t know, it might not be good. So, shouldn’t you walk away? No. Well, Peter what’s gonna happen if you continue to follow Jesus and you lose the crowd? What’s gonna happen? I don’t know. isn’t that reason enough to walk away? No. But you don’t have an answer to that question! Well that doesn’t mean there’s not answer to that question. But it looks like God’s abandoned you, but that doesn’t mean God has abandoned you.
There are always going to be questions. Don’t walk away from Jesus because you don’t have answers to your questions! Considering the options always brings clarity.
If not Jesus, then who? Well I don’t know, then don’t make a move until you know. Don’t stop following until you know to whom shall I go.
You will be so grateful when you look back, and you decided to continue to follow Jesus even in the midst of transitions and doubts and questions. I guarantee you will look back and think wow. I’m so glad I didn’t unfollow. Because, here’s the question: To whom shall I go? Don’t make a move until you’ve answered that question. Because when you choose to unfollow Jesus or you choose to not follow him at all, you’re making a choice to follow someone or something. After you’ve considered the questions, consider the options. To whom shall I go? For you have words of eternal life, and I’ve come to believe, to know that you are the Holy One of God. Salvation is free, it costs you nothing, following Christ will cost you something, but refusing to follow Christ will cost you everything. So, to whom shall you go?