Tag: followership

Following Together

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(Numbers 11:1-29)

“You’re not together!” If you’re sitting in a room of instrumentalists playing a certain musical piece and you here those words, it probably means not everyone is playing at the same tempo, which throws off the musical piece considerably. A coach yelling those words to his team is lamenting the lack of teamwork as players are too focused on their personal stats or showcasing their individual skills instead of putting the team first.

As God looks over his church, he might say the same thing as he watches Satan isolate believers and pull off one successful attack after another. So we want to see that our “followership” of Jesus is something that is best carried out together. Yes, we know we are never alone because of God’s promise to be with us to the very end of the age, but let’s also understand that many times God shows up and keeps that promise through fellow believers as we follow Jesus together.

It doesn’t sound like “together” is the word Moses would have used to describe how he was feeling in Numbers 11. Leadership is often lonely, and that loneliness was being exacerbated by all of the constant griping of God’s people. Take note of the effect of all the grumbling and complaining. It is not harmless! “The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled” (v.10).

It ought to be enough for us to see how the Lord feels about it. Complaining is never really about what we’re lacking physically as much as it is a spiritual issue. What it shows to be lacking spiritually is gratitude for what God has given us. We complain when we forget that 1) we deserve nothing from God and 2) we aren’t getting the consequences we actually deserve from God. But when we remember those things, are we in a place of gratitude instead of grumbling. Oh, and if you aren’t sure how God really feels about complaining, check out the first three verses at the beginning of this chapter to see how God had just finished his own little pyrotechnic show to demonstrate how he feels about ingratitude!

But we see that God wasn’t the only one affected by Israel’s complaining; it troubled Moses, too. How much? It’s not hard to determine how heavily it weighed on him when we hear Moses’ emotional plea to God. He was fed up and beat down by all the complaining, so much so that he actually asked God to mercifully end his life instead of having to keep dealing with it all!

This is not Moses joking around with God while rolling his eyes at those slow-to-learn Israelites! This is Moses, struggling with a degree of depression that honestly considered dying as the preferred option to having to continue putting up with incessant ingratitude. So the next time you think your grumbling and complaining are no big deal, remember this account. Consider how much it sets God off in anger, but also how much damage it does to those around you.

If that was the only takeaway from this account that we’d leave with, we’d all still be better off for it. But that isn’t even the most memorable part. No, that comes in how God chooses to respond. God delights in deliverance, and he often reveals that not only by not punishing us in ways that we’d actually deserve, but in giving us more than we even complained about or asked for!

God’s solution for Moses might at first seem odd to us. He directed Moses to round up seventy of the leaders from camp and have them gather at the place where God interacted with his leaders in camp, at the tent of meeting. Once there, God came directly to Moses and “he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied–but did not do so again” (v.25). The people complained about the lack of variety they had in their diet, and God did them even better: he fed them his Spirit, pouring out his Word on his people through prophecy.  

Still today God provides for his people by feeding them with his Word. This is how he deals with his people in the richest way – through his Word. There is no greater gift that can be given. There is no greater gift that can be received.

Yet how do we often receive it? With the same ingratitude that got the Israelites in trouble. We complain. “Just the Word? Just worship? Just passages and promises in a book? Is that it, God? I’d actually appreciate it more if you fixed my health issues. Can’t you find me the one I get to spend my life with instead? Just provide the financial cushion to pay my bills and get ahead. Make my friends like me. Give me a better job. Can’t I have a bigger house?” 

Just like the Israelites, we forget where we came from. They remembered the Egyptian food being flavorful and savory, while forgetting the cost that came with it: labor and slavery. We take for granted how good we have it as God’s chosen people, forgetting how lost we were before him. How easily we forget that we were once heading for the ugly eternal torment waiting for all who are not in Christ Jesus! Distracted and disoriented by our disillusion, we don’t want more of the Word, but more of the world. 

But when dealing with us through his Word, God is dealing with us in the richest way possible. There is no greater gift that can be given. Though the promises revealed through this Word are free and for everyone, they came at a great cost to God, who could only offer them for the price of his only Son. Woven together with the gift of his Son are countless other gifts free for the taking: serenity that flows from peace with God, uplifting hope anchored to an absolutely certain future, unconditional love lavished on us without limit, full forgiveness for all wrongs – past, present, and future, no matter how great or small – that cannot be found elsewhere.

This is but a small sample size of the enduring gifts God showers on us through his Word! That’s why this Word is preached and taught in churches, so that those gifts can be accessible all day long, every day, to everyone who has it. This is how God deals with his people in the richest way possible – through his Word.

And he does so in abundance! It wasn’t just the seventy elders who received the Spirit; there were two more who hadn’t shown up at the tent of meeting who were running about the camp prophesying here, there, and everywhere.

Since that wasn’t part of the plan God had revealed, others took issue with it and came to Moses to alert him. “A young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, ‘Moses, my lord, stop them!’” (v.27-28). Who were these rogue individuals and what were they doing? 

As it turned out, they were doing exactly what God wanted them to do. Moses, rather than being insecurely threatened by them, had the kind of response we’d expect of the man referred to in the Bible as the most humble man on earth. “But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (v.29). He wasn’t jealous or worried at all, but rather thrilled to see the Holy Spirit at work in such a powerful and visible way!

Quite a turnaround from the same individual who just a short time ago had been pleading for God to mercifully end his life rather than have to continue putting up with all the complaining! Here he was rejoicing at how God had come to his aid by surrounding him with so many Spirit-filled followers. Moses wasn’t alone. 

Notice how God deals with his people. He didn’t just give his people a gift far greater than food when he gave them his Word, prophesied in a special way. He also gave Moses hope – a reminder that he wasn’t alone in leading God’s people. God revealed his intention of providing help for Moses in anointing the seventy: “They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone” (v.17). God’s people were served with his Word. Moses was uplifted and encouraged.

Oh, and God wasn’t done just yet. He also gave them the meat they were complaining about… and not in miserly fashion! God was going to provide for them, and then some, all while teaching them a lesson in the process. He told Moses to pass this along to the Israelites: “Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” (v.18-20). What a reminder to be careful of what you complain about!

Moses was feeling lonely. God intervened in multiple ways to address the complaining while also providing for his people. For Moses, God provided a meaningful reminder that he wasn’t serving the Lord alone. As the Lord led them all through the wilderness to the land he had promised them, they followed together. 

I wouldn’t hold my breath expecting God to take the same approach in reminding you that you aren’t alone, but you don’t have to look very far to see that you’re never really following Jesus alone. Look around and see those gathered together in worship on a Sunday morning. One of the goals in the congregation I serve is carried out through the ministry of our school: we share with parents the same goal of helping our children follow their Savior together. That goal is reflected in the stated purpose of our school: “Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran School strives to educate students while developing the God-given talents of the total student – spiritually, intellectually, physically, and emotionally – in a caring Christ-centered community.” That last phrase, “Christ-centered community,” is a reminder that we are following Jesus together. 

That blessing extends beyond the walls of the classroom and into our congregation. Many know the blessing of being a part of a local congregation, a group of fellow followers walking in Jesus’ footsteps together. If you don’t, know that you are welcome to be a part of our family of believers so that you are well aware that you never follow Jesus alone, but always together, with others who rejoice in having been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus our Savior.

Power with Purpose

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(Mark 7:31-37)

While there may be a variety of different qualities that followers look for in leaders, one thing that leaders have in common is that they hold some measure of power. The exercise of power can be demonstrated in different ways. It can refer to the heavy influence or sway a leader has over his followers, like a cult leader, for example. That is a different kind of power than that which comes from one’s access to and command over military might and weapons. Nations can rise or fall on the basis of this kind of power. Power is also associated with the authority that allows its bearer to implement decisions or determine direction for groups. The CEO of a company has more power than the new hire sharing a cubicle with other employees in one of many departments within that company. In some capacity, leaders have power.

What that power is used for depends on the leader. The cult leader, for example, does not have a favorable track record for using his power in a positive way. A leader with military power could go either way, coming to the aid of nations being wrongly attacked or defending his own nation with that power, or he could abuse that power and be the one wrongly attacking others. The CEO in that position of power can turn around a failing company or be the reason a thriving company falls apart. How a leader’s power is managed, for good or bad, depends on the leader. 

Followers of Jesus during his life here on earth saw his power. And they saw Jesus use his power for good. If you were there with Jesus to witness the event described in the verses from Mark 7, there is no room for debate over whether Jesus used his power for the man’s good. When a man who couldn’t speak or hear can suddenly do both, that’s a good thing. “At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly” (v.35). Even those present recognized Jesus used his power for a good purpose. “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He has done everything well,’ they said. ‘He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’” (v.37).  

This lines up with most of the miracles of Jesus recorded for us in the Bible. He used his power for good. The small contingent who might have disagreed would have been the Pharisees, especially when Jesus had the audacity to heal on the Sabbath. But as we saw in the previous post, the issue they had was not really with Jesus, but with their own hearts.

As we look at this miracle and the miracles of Jesus in general, we want to make sure we also understand the purpose of this power. What role did miracles play? Why was Jesus able to perform them? Why did he choose to? Understanding the right answers to questions like these determines whether or not we’re following Jesus for the right reasons.

We also have to factor in something else: our own attraction to power. After all, followers are drawn to leaders with power for different reasons. As much as we like to imagine our reasons being altruistic and noble, that isn’t always the case. There is value in being connected to those with power: they can do things for us. We want to be in good standing with the powerful because it could help our cause or work out in our favor one way or another. 

Why does all of this make a difference in our role as followers of Jesus? It has everything to do with our expectations of him and whether or not those will be met. It is what determines Jesus’ role in my life as well as my relationship with him. If you are drawn to Jesus today because of his power to heal or bless or turn a person’s life around, your followership may very well be short-lived. Why? Because what Jesus chose to do in someone else’s life he may not choose to repeat in yours. 

The sickness that he is able to heal? He may not heal it. The relationship that he is able to mend? He may not mend it. The job that he is able to provide? He may not provide it. The wrong against us that he could right? He may not right it. 

And if we’re not ready for that, our world might be rocked to when Jesus doesn’t direct his power to fix our lives in the way we expect him to. And it’s never because he’s incapable of doing it; but he may choose not to for reasons we could never know. 

Do you wonder if, at the scene of any of Jesus’ miracles recorded for us in Scripture, there were other individuals with the same physical limitation, the same sickness, the same chronic pain… who weren’t healed? Jesus didn’t heal, cure, or alleviate the aches and pains of all people, in every situation. Therefore, it’s not just possible, but probable that when Jesus did perform miracles, there were others present who didn’t get to experience his power working the same miracle in their lives. 

Ouch! That realization stings a bit. It’s one thing to stand in awe of the amazing miracles he did perform, but when we consider all of the additional miracles that could have happened but didn’t, it might shift our view of Jesus slightly. That’s why it matters that we rightly understand the purpose behind his power. 

What’s more, if I am following Jesus with a misunderstanding of the purpose of his power, I am also likely to lead others to him for the wrong reasons. This doesn’t just happen on an individual basis, but can happen in churches and ministries, too. When the main emphasis is on wealth and wellness or healing or even manifestations of the Spirit’s work, others are being drawn to the wrong purpose behind Jesus’ power.

Yes, he can do all those things, and may choose to, but I have no authority on my own, nor any promise from Scripture, that permits me to guarantee to others how God will choose to act on their behalf. When we assure others of wealth or wellness, healing or some special manifestation of the Holy Spirit, we have crossed the line and, regardless of our intentions, have become false teachers. We are making assurances that we have no business making. We are speaking with an authority we do not have.

So what is the right reason to follow Jesus and the power he has? His miraculous power to heal was just the tip of the iceberg. We rightly grasp the purpose of Jesus’ power by holding on to the cross. As much as Jesus’ miracles highlighted his power and revealed his compassion and care for the sick and suffering, he had his sights set on something far superior: your salvation.

Jesus came to play the long game. While he could certainly wield his mighty power in ways that would increase our quality of life for several decades on earth, what good would that really be if that was all the time he could spend with us, and after those decades, the sentence for our sin would set in, and we would be cut off from him for the rest of eternity in hell because of it? No, Jesus wanted more than just a few good years or decades with us on earth while making everything hunky dory for us; he wanted to never to have to turn away from the crown of his creation.

For that reason, he wanted the power of his miracles to draw our attention to him so that we could see something far more powerful. His perfect life lived in the place of sinners. His innocent crucifixion died in the place of sinners. His resurrection, raised for the eternal life of sinners. Those powerful realities stand out on their own above everything else simply because of their monumental nature! But, what makes them even more powerful is that their impact reaches out to and counts for every sinner who has ever lived. 

Everyone. Regardless of the size of the sin. Regardless of the frequency of the sin. Regardless of the powerful damage any sin may have caused. Regardless of your sin and my sin. Hands down, the absolute greatest exercise of Jesus’ power is that he definitively delivered us from hell and declares us to be forgiven and perfectly pure in his sight.

So as impressive as any of his powerful miracles were, they served only as attention grabbers so that no one would miss out on the real show of power on the cross, where our Savior willingly gave himself for sinners, forgiving our sins and claiming us as his own forever. For that reason, nothing must ever distract from or conceal the cross. Ever.

That may help us understand why Jesus said what he did after he performed this miracle. “Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone” (v.36). When power comes into the picture, as was pointed out earlier, we are selfishly drawn to it for the wrong reasons initially. We are too easily concerned with what it can do for us here and now. Jesus knew that the more people heard about his jaw-dropping miracles, the more people would come to him in search of jaw-dropping miracles. And that desire for the jaw-dropping miracles that were all temporary and worldly would for many cloud the greater miracles that are eternal and heavenly: the miracles of forgiveness, of salvation, of eternal life. These realities could come only by the power of the cross. May we never forget or forsake its powerful purpose.

Stop Following Your Heart

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(Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

Strong leadership is always going to be extremely valuable. Prior to COVID, an estimated $370 billion was spent on leadership training. Successful companies include leadership training in their annual budgets, and for good reason. It has been estimated that the ROI for leadership training is $7 for every $1 spent. Strong leadership can often be the difference between an organization flourishing or floundering. 

Companies and organizations aren’t the only entities who value strong leaders; so does God. Throughout history, God has raised up strong leaders to guide and direct his people and to oversee his church. Joseph’s leadership skills saw him rise to being the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, which God used to bless Joseph’s family and the establishment of his chosen people, the Israelites. God used Moses’ leadership skills to confidently challenge Pharaoh face to face and to navigate the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land. David’s leadership skills showed themselves in war and in worship as God used him to rule over his people. Paul’s leadership skills in relentlessly sowing the seeds of the gospel through his mission trips and church planting could not be questioned. God has always raised up strong leaders to serve his people. And each of those strong leaders also share another quality that had as much to do with their successful leadership as anything else: they were exceptional followers.

While leadership is valued tremendously in the world, not as much is made about the importance of following well. In Christ’s church, however, it is essential. In fact, with Jesus Christ as our Savior-leader, the head of his church, a case could be made that the church never has a leadership problem as much as she has a followership issue. Where the church struggles or stumbles, it is not a lack of leadership or direction – our Good Shepherd provides that. Rather, it is a lack of faithful following or downright foolish following on the part of the sheep (and those leading the sheep). So as we work through this series, The Need for Followership, with the Lord himself as our leader, we pray for the Spirit to raise us up as strong followers.

If we are to grow in our capacity as followers, the church is a great place to start, because the world’s track record when it comes to equipping people to follow is rather poor. I base this conclusion on what is some of the worst – and sadly most widespread – advice that’s out there: just follow your heart. This is bad advice for a number of reasons; here are three of them.

First, it’s emotionally driven. It’s feelings-based. Now feelings aren’t bad, but making decisions based on them is unwise. Why? Because they change. Every one of us here has experienced the regret of having done or said something in the heat of the moment that was entirely emotionally driven. Later, when we weren’t as emotionally charged, we found ourselves having to do damage control for a situation that would have never gotten out of hand if we had not let our emotions get the better of us. So “just follow your heart” is bad advice because being emotionally healthy means managing your emotions rather than letting them manage you and your decisions.

The second reason “just follow your heart” is bad advice is because it’s driven by selfishness. True, while the decision you are likely struggling to make primarily affects you, it almost never only affects you. People belonging to God realize that we are here to love and serve our neighbors. That means we give consideration to how our decisions affect our neighbors. We don’t just dismiss or disregard others in making decisions, but like Jesus, consider the needs of others even before ourselves. So “just follow your heart” is also bad advice because it doesn’t take into account how my decision may affect others, what serves the common good, or what my neighbor needs from me (side note: ironically, as we lament the lack of social concern and compassion for others in out society, is it any wonder where this is coming from when we encourage everyone to follow their own heart and do what is best for themselves?).

The final reason “just follow your heart” is bad advice is that your heart is a horrible navigation system! There are plenty of navigation apps out there: Google, Apple, Waze, and others. We all have the one we like for a number of personal reasons. But I can bet you this: no one would keep using a navigation app that gave them the wrong directions 100% of the time. To keep relying on that source for direction or guidance would be foolish! 

In his interaction with the Pharisees from Mark 7, Jesus seeks to show them how misguided the heart is as a navigation system. Jesus peels away their outer veneer of venerability and exposes the real issue.

The Pharisees always serve as a good reminder for us of what happens when religion becomes a platform for performance. They had a reputation for adhering to rules and fancied themselves so good at it that they made up extra ones, a good number of which were traditions handed down from previous generations. Having become so wrapped up in themselves and enamored with each other’s daily displays of righteousness, they would immediately recognize when other supposedly religious folks dropped the ball in observing this custom or that rule. 

So when the disciples, dared to eat food without ceremoniously washing beforehand, the Pharisees jumped all over it. They were caught red-handed! Their hands were defiled! How dare they! Eating with your hands and not ceremoniously cleaning them first was a big no-no in their book.

Not out of compassion or caring concern, but because they were interested in discrediting Jesus as a respected rabbi by pointing out what a disgrace his disciples were, they called Jesus out. “So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” (v.5).

Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees gets to the root of the issue. Look at the source of their concern. They did not reference the Law or the Prophets – the Word of God available to them in their day – but rather “the traditions of the elders.” Their man-made rules carried more weight than the God-given words of Scripture.

Jesus responded quite differently, not referencing man-made traditions, but highlighting the Word of God by quoting one of its prophets. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules’” (vs. 6-7). They had come to Jesus convinced that his disciples were in the wrong, but Jesus would make sure they didn’t depart without knowing how wrong they were. Jesus showed them something they needed to see. The issue was not the outward failures of his disciples, but the inward flaw in their own hearts. 

In quoting Isaiah, Jesus also has something to say to us. How does one honor God with lips while hearts drift far away from him? That’s what happens when we are going through the motions. Two people can both show up on a Sunday morning, and one is there to pay lip service to God while the other is there, longing to be served by God and to praise God from a heart of faith. I can do the things God calls me to do as mere obligation rather than opportunity to love, serve, and thank him. I can render my service begrudgingly because no one else will do it or I can render my service gratefully because I get to do it. I can support gospel ministry with my offerings because I am supposed to do so or because I am blessed to do so. All of those things can be done in the same exact way by two people and they may look identical externally. But God sees what’s going on internally, and it’s a Cain-and-Able-type difference! Hearts are in drastically different places!

The awareness that Jesus sought to bring to the Pharisees is the same awareness that we need today. We so naturally gravitate toward the outward stuff, too. Outwardly, we can compare our highlight reels with the everyone else’s lows or bad days. That keeps us feeling pretty good about ourselves. That keeps us convinced we’re above average, doing better than most. That puts us… right where the Pharisees were. So we need not the traditions of men, but the Word of God, to direct us to the real issue. 

And Jesus does just that. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” (v.21). Jesus’ words challenge our narrative that the evil in this world, and even that of which I am guilty, is a product of my surroundings. It’s “out there.” It’s someone else’s fault. It’s simply my response to the real issue, which is always some outward occurrence. My upbringing is to blame. The workplace environment is at fault. However we choose to spin it, Jesus stops the wheel, jams his index finger right into our chest and bluntly states, “Wrong. Your heart is the source of evil. It isn’t out there; it’s in here. That’s the problem.”

Ouch! There isn’t a more painful reality or realization than what Jesus reveals to us here: we are the problem! Our hearts are far from whole or holy, but instead are filled with holes, defiled and deficient, and incapable of the true holiness that God requires.

How did the Pharisees and teachers of the law response to Jesus’ charged accusations? They didn’t like the message so the planned to get rid of the Messenger. They rejected his words, rejected his teachings, and set their wicked hearts on getting rid of the One who exposed them. 

But grace moves us in a different direction. The confidence of faith, which beckons us to repentance, follows the encouragement given in the book of Hebrews: “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (10:22). We own our sins, confess them, and return to God again and again in repentance, completely confident that he has cleansed our hearts of evil. Having purified them and made them holy, he gives us new hearts that cannot get enough of Jesus and long to love and serve him and follow him in faith.

That heart is not naturally found in any of us. Rather, it is graciously given through faith in Jesus. The apostle Peter said it like this: “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them… for he purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9).

“Just follow your heart” is good advice… to avoid at all times. Here is much better advice: follow Jesus’ heart for you. Amen.