Preek door Willem Wouters.

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Be Thankful

“And what do you say?” It’s one of those things that parents do. I never quite thought about it until I was a parent myself. I was taught to be thankful by my mom and dad. And I am teaching my children to be thankful.
This week is a very American week for us. On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving - an American national holiday. We had the Turkey and everything. I then discovered that the Netherlands also celebrates a Thanksgiving Day (Dankdag) on the first Wednesday of November (except Zeeland, where it is the last Wednesday of November).
While it isn’t significant whether or not you did or did not celebrate these holidays, I decided that this morning I wanted to zero in on a virtue that is disappearing from our culture. And this was predicted in the last days.


In 2 Timothy, Paul is writing a personal letter to a man he has mentored. This man is believed to have become the pastor in Ephesus.
Paul tells us about the last days in chapter three… what can we expect people and culture to look like? I find it astounding that in this list of vices “unthankful” is listed.


Ingratitude is just as bad as all the rest. Inability to be thankful is central to the problem.


Paul follows that by laying out the more central ideology behind the ingratitude (and all of the other sins in the list). People pursue personal enjoyment, rather than enjoyment of God. This becomes the ultimate idolatry - trading the Creator for the created things (Romans 1).


This proves that ingratitude is a God issue. When we moved to the Netherlands, we packed all of our belongings in boxes. Some boxes had arrows on them, pointed to the UP-side. This was not obeyed on a few our the boxes. When the arrow isn’t obeyed, the inside became an absolute mess. When we are oriented incorrectly, our insides become a mess.
Thanksgiving is that proper orientation. Giving thanks to God for what He has done requires humility as we confess our dependence on His grace.


If we aren’t grateful we end up with a sort-of-looks-like-faith, but devoid of any power. We might look right on the outside, doing all the religious things, but we short-circuit the Power that faith gives.
Gratitude is a backwards look on life - thanking God for what He has done, what has transpired and how He has used it in our lives to mold and make us into the image of Christ. It allows us from that backward look to look forward with faith at what is to come and what we may trust God to provide.
When we forget - or simply don’t - give thanks, we lose our ground and motivation to trust and have faith in what is yet to come.
Paul get’s even more pointed when he instructs us to keep our distance from people that are like this.


Give thanks… because it is essential to your Christian experience. Stop and thank God for the innumerable blessings He has given and then have powerful faith in what tomorrow will bring.

Where are we going?
being a disciple - 6
John 14:1-7 & Hebrews 12:1-4

These past two weeks we have been clarifying discipleship: deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow. If you want to walk the road together after Him, these are the necessary aspects of that walk.
Last week we came to realize, however, that this walk is not a series of doors to walk through (and doors to avoid), but it is the walk that comes from walking through the one door. Jesus called it the narrow gate. Once you walk through, your life is characterized by a love for Jesus that supersedes all other loves. Being a disciple becomes our identity in Christ.

Of course this is a process - a way of life. The question that begs answering is: “Where are we going?”
Thomas asked this question point-blank when Jesus was talking about where He was going. He described in Jewish wedding-language the house of His Father. He was going to go there ahead of the disciples and prepare a room.
In Jewish tradition, once the bridegroom was betrothed to a young lady, he would leave her for a period in order to go and build on an extension - a room - to his father’s house. When it was finished the bridegroom would gather his friends and they would march to the bride’s home to fetch her. At a distance a horn would be blown, signaling to the bridal party the bridegroom’s arrival and she would go out with her maidens to meet the bridegroom, who would escort her back to his father’s house, where the wedding feast (seven days) would be celebrated.

Jesus says they understand this - you know the way. This prompts Thomas to disagree. We don’t know where you are going and we don’t know the way. Then Jesus directs their attention to Himself - I’m the way.

Have you ever considered the trust that children exert in their parents. You just get into the car and trust that they know where they are going. Really, that is how it works with Christ. He knows where He’s going and as long as we keep our eyes fixed on Him, we’ll be headed in the right direction.

Illustration of the rope (borrowed from Francis Chan): imagine this rope represents time. Your time. It began here at a point in time and now imagine with me that this rope continues on forever and ever around the corner over there. We have a beginning, but according the Scripture, our lives will be eternal. Now this little section here… this is your life spent on planet earth. And this little section tends to eat up all of our focus. And most of mankind in our society, tends to live life focused on this little red part… that’s once I hit retirement age. I save money all my life so that I can enjoy this little red part here. And yet there is so much life left after that little red part. There is so much life left that we don’t consider and yet this little section right here is where you lay aside treasures for this life that is yet to come. This life here is where we choose if we’re going to follow Christ today or not. We forget how much life is yet to come!

In Hebrews 12:1-14 the author zero’s in on discipleship, but uses an entirely different analogy: a marathon race. The witnesses of chapter 11 teach us that the race can be run and that you can do it. Our eyes need to be fixed on Christ - the author and finisher (He’s run out ahead and He’s running with us again), and the final question considers our commitment… you haven’t even struggled to the point of bleeding against sin.

The author’s challenge: RUN THE RACE!

Hate your mum?
being a disciple - 5

Last week we ended with three statements that clarify discipleship: deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow. If you want to walk the road together after Him, these are the necessary aspects of that walk.


In Luke we encounter another such challenge to His disciples, which contains similar elements of following and yet Christ introduces a black and white, no-nonsense, extreme perspective that doesn’t sit well with us.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luk 14:26, ESV)


Wow. This is one of those “Did He just say that?” moments. What about honoring your parents? What about “husbands love your wives?” How does this fit with: “Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath?”


We need just a bit of perspective to correctly understand this. In Jewish culture of Jesus’ day parents and siblings played an integral role in the decisions you made. Especially life-altering decisions would be discussed with your parents and anything that could possibly bring shame upon the family name would need to involve your siblings.
Following Christ, abandoning the Jewish religious rule-based culture of the Pharisees, would have been such a life-altering decision.
He chooses language that is Biblical to make His point. In the same vein as Jacob loving Rachel and hating Leah and God loving Jacob and hating Esau, Christ asks His disciples for a radical commitment. Hate isn’t the point. Love is the point. Love that is so intentional and exclusive that in comparison you hate all others. Christ is asking for exclusivity.


And there you have it. Relationship defined. Christ declares that He does not want to have an on-again-off-again relationship. He doesn’t want the center seat on the sofa of your life, with your wife, kids, family, boss, entertainment, and you own self crowding around Him. He wants the throne and He wants to be the only sitting on that throne.
He doesn’t say “love me more than all these others.” He’s not even saying “love me most”, He’s saying: “love me”.


You want to follow me? Deny yourself, pick up your cross, love me exclusively, and follow.


Is Jesus one of many loves or is He the only one?


Now. This is where we can get it all wrong. Because it is all too easy for us to define our discipleship by what we do and don’t do. And passages like these make this easy. Look at how I deny myself (like when I say ‘no’ to ice cream), and look at how I pick up that cross (I did that hard thing at work last week), and I love-love Christ (except during that sale at C&A this week)... presto: I’m a disciple.
We view life as a series of doors and some we need to open and walk through and others we need to leave firmly shut. It becomes more of a maze and we are trying to follow Christ through all the doors. And that is not it!


Discipleship is NOT that. Discipleship isn’t determined by my do’s and dont’s. Discipleship goes to the core of who I am. Discipleship is an identity. And discipleship is one door. Once you walk through that door and you follow Christ, you will continually be loving Him above all, hating yourself through denying, picking up the cross that lies at your feet and you’ll follow.


This is about who you are, not what you do. Are you a fan of Jesus or a follower? Did you walk through the narrow gate? Did you start in faith? Paul explains it in Galatians… then you’ll finish in faith.


Life no longer is about you… Jesus leads.


I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20 ESV)


But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Phi 3:7-12 ESV)

If anyone desires to come after me - 2
being a disciple - 4

“Who do people say that I am?”
“And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”


Two questions that framed the text we started with last week and will finish this morning. This question sparks Peter’s incredible confession and confirms in the hearts of the disciples that Christ is their expected Messiah and the Son of God. The verses that follow this confession reveal that you can know who Christ is and follow Him and yet have it completely wrong. Peter suddenly finds himself on the dark side and Christ confronts his worldly thinking.
We ended last week by asking the question: What if what Jesus wants for you isn’t what you had pictured? That’s a tough question, but it gets tougher as Jesus explains what “coming after me together on the road” will take.
deny yourself
Denying yourself? This conjures up the picture of the flagellating saint, the Churchgoer that has surrounded himself with a host of DO’s and DON’T’s that make up his Christian experience. I’m defined by what I don’t do. I don’t watch tv, I don’t wear skirts, I don’t swear, and the list goes on. I’m reminded of an old Baptist saying: “I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t dates girls that do.”
But this misses the point of what Christ is saying. “Himself” is the direct object of this sentence. Christ doesn’t say “deny yourself something”. He says: “deny yourself”.
Peter helps us with this on the night of Christ’s arrest. When he is sitting in the courtyard and is questioned about his involvement with Christ, he denies that he knows Him. Same word.
Christ is saying that the old you no longer in charge. Isn’t this how Peter just got himself into trouble? He was thinking like the old Peter when he confronted Christ.
pick up your cross
Now when Jesus said this, the cross had no special meaning to the disciples. Christ had not yet been crucified. In those days an estimated 30,000 jews had been crucified. It was a Roman device meant to instill fear and submission. People were hung on display for up to week along the roads leading in and out of Jerusalem.
Jesus repurposes the image. Peter’s theology didn’t make room for a suffering Messiah and by citing the cross Christ dramatically introduces suffering into the plan of God. He makes it foundational to coming after Him.
Someone who has been made to pick up their cross, has accepted his fate. It begins the trek that will lead to his death.
Christ’s words carry the meaning that you let go of the plans that you might have and accept the plan that has been determined for you.
Follow me
This on is easy to understand. Hard to do, though, isn’t it. Christ is the replacement for the “self” you have denied and he is the example of picking up that cross. His words carry the same meaning as: “Let’s go.”
One author put it this way… we have the family standing in the terminal. Their son is leaving. He says goodbye, he grabs his bags, and he goes on his journey.
“You want to go this road together after me? Kiss yourself goodbye, carry this, and let’s go.”
If you could do it over
This verses that follow paint the picture that in the end, if you had it to do over again. You’d choose to do what Christ is saying. He introduces the paradox that clinging to your life now, means losing in the end. Losing your life now, means gaining everything in the end.


You want to be my disciple? Kiss yourself goodbye. Pick up that cross. Follow me.

If anyone desires to come after me - 1
being a disciple - 3

Returning to a text that I cited during the first sermon, I would like to draw our attention to the last words of Christ before he ascended into heaven. He left specific instructions recorded in Matthew 28:19.
Go and make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them everything I taught you.
Making disciples is part of what Christ taught and so the process continues with a new generation making disciples.


“Who do people say that I am?” The text seems to indicate that Jesus asks this question in passing - as they are going along. But no question is of greater importance than this topic. This question places a person on the crossroads. Who is this Jesus?
“And what about you? Who do you say that I am?” This question sparks an incredible confession and confirms in the hearts of the disciples that Christ is their expected Messiah and the Son of God.
A disciple starts with who Jesus is
The emotional high must have been incredible. All of Scripture’s promises come to bear on this moment as they stand there and realize that history is unfolding before their eyes.


Peter speaks for the disciples when he makes his declaration. They have all seen the signs. They were in the boat when he stilled the storm, they have witnessed every healing and every miracle, they watched Him walk on water and feed a multitude twice. They’ve hung on every word and when he turns the question to them, their hearts overflow with the only answer that can be given… you have the words of life… we believe in you… you are the Son of the living God… you are the expected Messiah.


This is where every disciple starts. Taking a bite of the bread.
A disciple keeps discovering who Jesus is
And then Christ bursts their bubble by talking about his own murder by the religious leaders and something about a resurrection. It was confusing enough to His disciples that Peter takes it upon himself to correct Jesus’ theology.
What Jesus was saying didn’t fit with Peter’s picture of what was supposed to happen.
Jesus rebukes Peter sharply. He identifies his problem: worldly thinking rather than Godly thinking.
This journey with the Lord begins with the question of who He is, the rest of the journey is discovering who Jesus is. What’s the point here? We continue to get to know Christ. We’re never done.
A disciple follows after Jesus
The invitation Christ gives is spectacular. The word come after is related to the Greek word for road. He is asking: “If anyone wants to walk this road together”, but then specifically adds “after me”. Jesus invites us to walk the road together… being a disciple is walking on the road together, but Christ leaves no doubt that He needs to be the one taking the lead.
He might surprise you at times in the bends and turns in the road or that he picks climbing the rocks, rather than the beaten path… but he expects you to accept that He’s in charge.
Jesus finishes with three statements that we will cover next week: deny yourself, pickup your cross and follow.


Will you together with Him walk the road behind him?

Fan or Follower? part two
Daniel Boyd
October 16, 2016

In the coming months we will investigate the various aspects of discipleship. Not every Sunday - I’ll interrupt myself along the way - but as we consider in which ways we can step out with our faith, it is going to be increasingly clear that discipleship plays a vital role. Either yours or the person that you are reaching out to.

It’s the last command Christ left with His disciples: And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

This morning we return to John 6 in order to consider in more detail the content of what Jesus was saying to His disciples.

I love bread. I remember the first time I made my own bread from scratch. It was a class outing to the openlucht museum and we were pretending to live a long, long time ago. We were instructed on the mixing of flour, water, oil, and salt and then baked it in a stone oven. Hot, fresh bread. Yum. My favorite smell is still walking into a bakery and breathing in all the different “bready” smells.
Have you noticed that once we start talking about food, you can’t stop thinking about it?
Essentially this is where the crowd is at. Ever since yesterday, the feeding of the 5000, it’s all they can think or talk about. “We’ll never go hungry again!” “I wouldn’t need to work quite so hard to make ends meet” “Jesus just stood there breaking bread for more than two hours!” “Did you see it?”
The next morning Jesus is gone and the people go looking for him. By the time they find him, they’re starving again. “Give us some more bread!”
worldly or spiritual?
Jesus knows this and calls them on it in verse 26. He calls them to spiritual insight in verse 27.

Then follows a cycle of conversations between Jesus and the crowd.
Jesus confronts the crowd 26-27they ask for a sign 28-31
Jesus uncovers their need 32-33they ask for physical bread 34
Jesus points to Himself 35-40they respond with unbelief 41-42
Jesus points to Himself 43-51they respond with arguments 52
Jesus points to Himself 53-58they respond by walking away 66

Jesus tries to remove their attention from the physical and onto the spiritual, but they’re not listening.

I don’t know if Jesus grows impatient as he repeats Himself with growing intensity in this text, but he certainly becomes more direct.
He starts by making a point about their spiritual need and they respond by asking for proof… Moses gave our ancestors manna. Can you do that?
Jesus points out that God the Father gave them that bread and that there is an eternal bread, that has already come down from the Father. “Ooooo, give us that!” And Jesus says He is that bread, that came down from the Father like manna.
Jesus explains what He means by bread in verses 36-40. He is talking about faith. What do we do with bread? We eat it, consume it, take it in - and that is exactly what faith is about: appropriating the Son as our greatest spiritual need.
The Jews are disappointed and frustrated and start to turn on Christ. “This is Joseph’s kid… He came down from above?”
Jesus again brings it back to faith. I’m the bread. I’m going to give my life for salvation. Verse 51
Now the Jews start aguing and Jesus brings His point home in a shocking way. “Eat me!”
This is offensive to them (verse 60-61), but it finally gets them to stop thinking physical. This can’t be taken literally. Jesus wants them to understand that He is the only thing that will satisfy.
Focusing on the Son
The problem the crowd was facing is problem we face at times. Jesus is trying to get us to think about spiritual things and we are more concerned with physical things. Jesus desires for us to simply have faith in him. “I’m the bread” - “I’m all you need”.
You know, we miss the boat on this sometimes, because we become entirely focused on a good thing Christ does for us. Like freeing from the power of sin. And then I do it again. We confess. Then we do it again. We end up getting in this cycle where our relationship with Christ is entirely focused on the battle… save me from lying. Save me from gossip. Save me from pornography. And we can’t break the cycle. Our relationship with Christ isn’t about Christ anymore, it’s about getting free from this sin.
Jesus says: I’m the bread. Look at me. I’m all you need. Not for anything… you just need me. And when we don’t get it… just eat me! I’m the only thing on the menu.

Is that why you’re following?