“Just Follow Me” Jesus said

Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What were Jesus’ first sentences as he began his great Sermon on the Mount? “To all of you that are struggling right now, hang in there, for it gets better. For all of you that are seeking to live Godly lives, your eternal rewards will be great!” He begins his sermon with the attitudes that describe how we live our lives; how we are viewed by worldly and heavenly standards. If we are seeking to please the world, even in seemingly heavenly duties, Jesus knows our hearts, and tells us later in his sermon that our reward is temporal, worldly finite if you will. (Matthew 6.) As he begins this great sermon, his plea is that if he has revealed truths to us, that we proclaim those truths to the world. However by God’s design, through any means he chooses, proclaim what he has given you, for he may be using you to reach another. He tells us to live our lives as a light to the world (Matthew 5), and even later in Matthew’s gospel (chapter 10), he tells us to proclaim our faith from the rooftops, shouting to the world.

He also tells us at the beginning of his great sermon, that this faith, and proclamation of it in our words, deeds, and lives, will come with a cost. Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The entire Bible, front to back, is filled with those who suffered for their faith in every way imaginable. All through the New Testament is Jesus’ proclamations, the apostles testimonies, and countless accountant of those that suffered, and even those that were not willing to pay the cost. Jesus told us following him comes with a cost many times. Even as he chose his twelve apostles, they were given an instant decision to walk away from their lives; Matthew 4:19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Can you imagine walking away from your life in an instant decision that will define the remainder of your life? There is immeasurable weight in that accountant alone. Jesus tells us to lay down our cross, our lives for him, every, single day. How many times do we rush into the day with our list of duties, yet never pursued him in prayer and his Word to see if our list, matched his list for the day? How will we know, if we don’t pursue Him at all?

I am surely not qualified by worldly standards to proclaim anything to you. I am surely not qualified to argue theological implications of Biblical proportions of any worldly event with you. I laugh at how caught up we get in politics, media drama, others lives, others failures, others accountants that they will have to answer to God to, yet we don’t see the plank in our own eye. If we will worry about our own selves, and only our relationships with God, the simplicity of the Bible becomes clear. Luke 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. If you will just seek God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, the rest of your life, your critics, your worldly view will be seen through the lens of the gospel, and it all will become clear. “Just follow Me.”