What Kind of Follower Are You?

In Matthew 4:19 Jesus invites Andrew and Peter to follow Him.

In Matthew 9:9 Jesus invites Matthew to follow Him.

In John 1:43 Jesus invites Philip to follow Him.

Being a Christian means following Jesus.

It does not mean following:

Rules

Rituals

Religious Duty

Traditions

It means following the person of Jesus.

I am leading a study based on the book Not a Fan. We are not called to be fans of Jesus but followers of Jesus.

The question is: What kind of follower of Jesus am I?

In 3 John we are shown three pictures of a follower of Jesus.

The first picture is found in 3 John 1-8.

3 John 1-8

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Gaius is described as beloved.

We are beloved by God as His followers.

We see two huge things about Gaius as a follower of Jesus.

He walked in the truth.

Truth is an essential for followers of Jesus.

Jesus is the truth. – John 14:6

We are to put on the belt of truth. – Ephesians 6:14

We are to speak the truth. – Ephesians 4:25

If we, followers of Jesus, don’t speak and walk in the truth, then we are not being like Jesus and we will never impact the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is walking in the truth as we follow Jesus.

He walked in love.

We love not only our friends and family, but we love those who are strangers.

Our love is to look like Jesus’ love. God is love and I am empowered to love like Jesus when I surrender myself to Jesus and become filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love I am nothing. Love is that important.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving as Jesus loves.

The second picture is 3 John 9-10.

3 John 9-10

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So, if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

This pictures a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus.

He showed an attitude of:

Harshness

Pride

Ungrace

This is an example of the truth that we have to continually surrender our wills to Jesus. We can never reach the point where we think we have arrived and don’t have to submit to Jesus any more.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being humbly submitted to Jesus.

The third picture is found in 3 John 11-12

3 John 11-12

Beloved, do not imitate evil things but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true.

Followers of Jesus live good.

Followers of Jesus treat others with good.

Good means we live morally upright lives. We live lives that reflect the goodness of Jesus in our every day actions.

Treating others with good means that we relate to others with compassion, mercy, and grace.

Goodness is not done by self-effort but the work of the Holy Spirit.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is reflecting the good of Jesus.

Positively followers of Jesus:

Walk in Truth

Live Based on Love

Act Out of Goodness

Negatively followers of Jesus:

Refrain from Being Harsh

Don’t Act Based on Pride

Dispense Not Ungrace But Grace

As Followers of Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe