Following Jesus to the End

Our following Jesus is going somewhere. It has been said, “Begin with the end in mind”. So what is the end? Where is following Jesus leading us when we follow Jesus to the end?

John describes where following Jesus is leading in 1 John 3:2 when he says, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Following Jesus leads us to a beginning in Jesus, being in Jesus, beholding Jesus and being like Jesus.

We begin in Jesus. When calling His disciples, Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-25). We live in a broken and sinful world and we need salvation. It is in following Jesus that we find both our salvation and our very lives.

Paul addresses having our lives found and held together in Christ in Colossians 1:17 when he says, “He [Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things hold together”. C.S. Lewis also talked about our lives being in Christ alone in The Weight of Glory when he said, “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.” When we follow Jesus to the end, we end up with everything—Jesus.

We continue our being in Jesus. Paul says in Colossians 2:6 that we should continue following Jesus as we began in Him. He says, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.”

Following Jesus to the end is taking us somewhere. God’s ultimate intention for us is total redemption and restoration in Him. The disciple John captures this well in Revelation 21:5 when he records Jesus proclaiming, “Behold, I make all things new.” As mentioned, John’s words capture this idea in 1 John 3:2, “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” In the end, we will be with Jesus and everything will be as it should be—redeemed and restored.

In following Jesus to the end, it is essential for us to recognize that it is Jesus who will see us through to completion. Paul could not have stated this more clearly in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” God is making us new in Him. We are being conformed into the very likeness of Christ, if indeed we follow Jesus to the end.

Do Whatever Jesus Tells You To Do

Cana, photo by Seetheholyland.net

“[Jesus’] mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’” –John 2:5

What do you believe about Jesus? What does your life say about what you believe about Jesus? These are very important questions for us to consider and for us to ask ourselves as we follow Jesus with our lives. 

One of the greatest messages in the New Testament, in my opinion, comes from Mary, the mother of Jesus, in John 2:1-12. Here at a wedding in Cana in Galilee, Mary asks Jesus to do something about a dire situation at the wedding feast. The wine had run out in an embarrassing turn of events at the feast and this threatened to end the festivities prematurely.

Jesus responds with initial resistance, saying to Mary, “My hour has not yet come.” Then, “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2:5). It is at this point that Jesus does His first recorded miracle. He takes the six water pots, which were for ceremonial washing and cleansing, holding about 120-180 gallons of water, and He turns the water into wine. This blesses the couple and the occasion and the celebration is able to continue.

In the book of James the author states that you can tell a lot about what someone believes by looking at what they do. James says, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds (James 2:18).” Our beliefs affect how we live our lives and how we live our lives illustrates what it is we believe.

So, what do our deeds say about what we believe about Jesus? If someone were wondering if we were following Jesus, could they tell if we were following Jesus by looking at our lives and by looking at where we are headed?

Just this week the printer was acting up in the teacher workroom and it would not print my work, no matter what I did to try and solve the problem. When I went to the printer to assess the situation, it said, “printing,” but it was not printing. I took no comfort in the fact that the printer was telling me that it was printing, when it was in fact doing nothing of the sort. What the printer was saying and what it was doing were two completely different things.

I proceeded to reflect on this “printer incident” for the rest of the day. I thought to myself, “This is exactly what we do in our relationship with Christ sometimes.” I wondered if Jesus was looking at my life and asking, “Are you really following me?” We say we are Christ followers, and if someone looked at our label it may read, “Following Jesus,” but are we really following Jesus? Do our lives say that we are following Jesus? Are we doing whatever He says to do?