Fan? or Follower?

Jesus was never impressed by the size of this crowd, it’s the commitment level that He cares about.  When I consider churches today, including LifePoint, I have a concern that there’s at least the possibility that instead of a community of followers we’re nothing more than a stadium full of fans.  We may wear a cross, but we don’t bear the cross.  You can come to church, wearing our, “I Love My Church” apparel, know all the songs, open your Bible and take notes, walk out to your car with a Jesus fish on the bumper and say grace before lunch, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a follower.

What makes this possible - and actually prevalent in many churches - is the fact that so many Christians confuse knowing about Jesus with knowing Jesus.  But there’s a difference between knowledge and intimacy.  I grew up, like a lot of you, thinking it was my knowledge and my good behavior that made me a follower.  I loved Jesus and I knew a lot about Jesus, but I didn’t know Jesus. I wasn’t talking to Him about my day.  I wasn’t listening for Him to speak into my life.

There are many Christians who don’t mind Jesus once a week on Sunday.  We don’t mind making some minor change in our lives but Jesus wants to turn our lives upside down.  We want Him to do a little touch up work, but Jesus wants complete renovation.  We come thinking we need a tune-up, but Jesus is thinking overhaul.  We think just a little makeup is what we need and Jesus is thinking makeover.

It’s only when we let Jesus interfere with our lives that we find real life.

Jesus didn’t come to this earth so that we would be better behaved or to tweak our personality or fine-tune our manners or smooth out our rough spots.  He wants total transformation.  The objective of the Gospel isn’t to make us well-behaved people, but to turn our lives upside down.  Here’s what it looks like:

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  (Luke 9:23, NLT)

Jesus says that if we want to follow Him we must turn from our selfish ways and take up our cross daily.