Follow Jesus

When Jesus came here he came to God’s people of Israel, and they had their fair share of denominations, sects, affiliations, or whatever you want to call them. There were the Pharisees, there were the Sadducees, there were the Herodians, there were the Zealots; and I’m sure there were other brands not directly mentioned in the Bible. My question today is, which one of these affiliations did Jesus join? Do you know the answer? Well, if you don’t know I’ll save you the time of looking. The answer is NONE of them. But then again, he was the only begotten Son of God sent from heaven, and “the world was made by him;” so I suppose he would be exempt from having to be affiliated with any of them. So then let me ask this question? Which one of these affiliations did Jesus approve as being the right one? Don’t bother to search it out. It’s the same answer as the first, which is NONE of them. Well, let’s try one more time to find out who was the BEST affiliation to be part of by asking this question: Which of these affiliations, denominations, sects, or whatever, did Jesus appoint his apostles to be in? You’re probably getting it by now, huh? That’s right, same answer again - NONE! The truth is they were ALL WRONG! So then who the heck was RIGHT? Come on now, you HAVE to know this one. It was JESUS, of course! He was right, and they were all wrong. And those who knew they needed to find the right way were given light, and those who thought that they WERE the right way were sealed up in their darkness (Isa. 9:2; Mat. 4:16). Jesus put it to the self righteous religious leaders like this: “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (Jn. 9:39).

When Jesus called people to follow him, that is the ONLY place he appointed them to be; with HIM! He did not come to institute religious factions, but rather he came to dismantle them, and call people back to God in truth and in reality. If you don’t think he came to dismantle the religious factions of that day then you need to read the Bible a whole lot more closely. I’ll even give you a study guide to start you out: Matthew, chapters 22 and 23. Read those two chapters and you will see the point graphically confirmed. When Jesus called people to follow him, which was everyone he came to, he required them to leave whatever sect that they were part of, because whatever affiliation they were part of was CONTRARY TO GOD! Jesus made it clear that these man-made affiliations had made the word of God of none effect by their traditions (Mat. 15:6. Mk. 7:13). To stay in ANY of those sects would have PREVENTED them from following Jesus. For example, one of his apostles, Simon, was a Zealot when Jesus called him; but that was the end of that. When Jesus went back to heaven and sent down the holy Ghost, the apostles NEVER formed ANY affiliation other than the one that Jesus called THEM into, which was simply FOLLOWING JESUS! Since Jesus was no longer here in person, it became all about receiving and following after his Spirit that was sent here from heaven in his name, or in his stead (Jn. 14:26; Jn. 16:13). The apostle Paul made this crystal clear when he said, “Now the Lord IS that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [from sin] (II Cor. 3:17). And again he confirmed this when he said, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, THESE are the Sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

The beloved apostle confirmed very pointedly that this calling is not about following man or his man-made affiliations: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (I Jn. 2:27). Do you think that anything has changed since Jesus came here, as far as the way God or man thinks and does things? Of course it hasn’t! History ALWAYS repeats itself, and that is why we have the old testament scriptures to study (Rom. 15:4; I Cor. 10:11). And in fact that is the real point of studying any history, though man does a very poor job of recognizing that fact. As it was in the time Jesus was here, so it is today: Jesus is calling his people to follow HIM. And as it was then, so it is now; that if you are in ANY of these Pentecostal or other sects, you simply cannot follow Jesus completely. Why is that? For the same exact reason that it was when Jesus came; because they ALL make the true word of God of none effect by their man-made traditions. And they are ALL founded on, and steeped in man-made traditions that are contrary to the leading and teaching of the holy Ghost. God’s Spirit leads people to one place, and that one place is the same place it was when Jesus was here - TO JESUS! And those who follow his Spirit will be led to people who will better enable them to do just that - TO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT OF GOD!! Nothing else but God’s Spirit leads to Jesus my friend, and anywhere other than straight up, unmixed Jesus is the WRONG place to be! Amen and God bless.