How Do We Know Who and What to Follow?

[HKHaugan]

How Do We Know Who and What to Follow?

 The question is best answered by first looking at Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16:17-19.  Jesus has just asked Peter, Who do you say I am?  Peter says that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus responds, Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father in Heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

 For centuries this passage has been in dispute.  It is a crossroads statement where one road leads to the formation of a man-governed religious institution and the other to a personal heart-to-heart relationship with God.  The first is ruled over by one man who claims to have singular authority in spiritual matters.  The understanding of a relationship with God comes through him, his predecessors, and successors alone.  Further, in his institution his clergy alone can interpret his definitions of spiritual reality for its members.  The word church, therefore, means a visible institutional structure, in a visible place with visible leaders, designed worship forms and tradition-based rules to which members submit.  The institution is considered the Body of Christ also known as the true, therefore, only Church. 

 The other road leads to the idea of a movement of God’s heart to recover man’s heart through a direct personal relationship with Him.  It’s not limited to man’s definition.  The final defining authority for that movement is Holy Scripture which the Lord has designated through the Spirit as the mind of God for personal spiritual and relational practice and growth.  This makes everyone who accepts Christ part, not of a human institution but a spiritual unseen organism called the Body of Christ.  While God initiates form and structure as He did in physical Creation, Scripture is His prescribed orderly way to know Christ and make Him known (Mt.4:4).  In it He prescribes how to relate to Him in mind and heart. Structures, formed to pass that along, are meant to be His servants, servants of their hearts not their master.  The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath (Mk.2:27).   By this very principle we can see that the Law was God’s servant made for man, not man for the Law.  Man was not made to be a member of an institution.  Institutions were made to serve man.

 Being a member of an institution does not guarantee entrance into Heaven.  Personal faith in Jesus Christ does (Eph.2:8).

 The division of thought between institutional and individual spirituality does have legitimate resolution if the institution has personal spirituality and not human control in its vision and mission.  There will always be tension here as long as people exist in a world of sin and evil.  How we handle the tension relies on leader and led yielding to the reality of Jesus being both Savior and Lord with the presence of His Scripture being our authority in our every next moment.

 Consider that principle more directly in Creation when God gave Adam and Eve authority to rule over and subdue what He had created.  Where Adam and Eve failed was to think they could do it without God.  In fact they were banned from the Garden of Eden because they did.  Their imperfection was to self-alienate themselves from God, sin replaced the Holy Spirit, and we inherited that sin from them.  In a context such as this, what man dares to assume spiritual authority?  For us to even consider the possibility that any man has final authority in anything spiritual is the height of arrogance.  The Lord alone has that authority.  With that authority He appoints His disciples to proclaim Him and teach what He has given in His Word.  As we see from the Book of Acts, even the Apostles needed guidance.

 What we have is the crossroads where the basic difference between the two is a matter of who is right.  There we go again, right.  Did Jesus start an institution or was He appealing directly to the individual heart?  Is it institution versus individual?  Jesus said that a house divided against itself will fall (Mt.12:25).  Was one man in an institution given ownership of the keys of the Kingdom or were they made available to all people everywhere?  Can we have a personal understanding of God without the institution and Scripture alone as final authority? Or do we need to submit to one human being, his theological system and structure to have access to God?   Is it the institutional church or the Body of Christ, one man and his tradition or Holy Scripture that determines our spiritual future?  While I sound like I may be referring to one denomination it is the dynamic in any denomination, even the so-called non-denominational group, where one charismatic (small ‘c’) man rules the thinking.  We have been given the revelation of one man, Jesus, to be our Savior and Lord.  His Word is our medium of spiritual exchange.

 More importantly, if this is a spiritual movement of mind, heart and spirit what then are the keys of the Kingdom?  If we can answer that perhaps the dispute falls aside, and we can concentrate on the Lord and His purposes for us.  One of the devil’s strategies is to have us in a continual war of words and emotions about issues like this.  He is after us to take sides about everything in order to divide people whose lives become nothing but a ‘we-they’ battle.  He is the master of divisive distraction and this certainly qualifies because it is never resolved on a human level.  Rather than let the ‘tempter’ have his way and get into the ages old dispute it seems better for purposes of spiritual reality to search the Word of God which may appear to some to be a side taken.  Sorry, that is this writer’s appeal.

 Going back, then, to Jesus’ reply to Peter.  What do we see spiritually in this statement? 

First, Jesus, God the Son, is talking personally to Peter.  He has singled out Peter personally to illustrate how personal He intends to be with His people.  Further He says that it was the Father in Heaven who personally put Jesus’ identity into Peter’s mind and heart. (Mt.16:17)

Second, when Jesus names Peter what is spiritually happening here?  It was Peter’s inner personal recognition and realization that Jesus was not only the Christ, the Messiah (thus declaring the validity of the authority of Jewish Scripture), but He was also God the Son, the direct personal experience of God.  What is being established here is a personal relationship, a spiritual relationship, a faith relationship upon which a spiritual family will be built.  What Jesus was doing in singling out Peter was to set that as the way He would deal with everyone. 

 And because it is a relationship initiated by God, whatever gates the devil has built to hold God away from the human heart cannot hold back the movement of the Body of Christ from bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to the hearts of mankind.  That is the beginning of what Peter is to teach and spread, that God is making Himself personally and relationally available.  It is upon a personal relationship with God in Christ that His spiritual body called the church will be built.  And God will bring His Kingdom to transform the heart so that it may be an agent of the Kingdom for the reconciliation of the world of hearts to Him.  The spiritual family will become a brother and sisterhood, the spiritual contacts for support and training in His Word, for worship, discipleship, ministry and mission. 

 When we read the Book of Acts which is a follow-up to the Gospel of Luke, it becomes  quickly apparent that small groups of people gathered together as  a family of spiritual brothers and sisters for worship and learning the Word, was the Lord’s plan.

 This brings us to the keys of the Kingdom.  Keep in mind keys is plural. If the Kingdom is spiritual, then the keys must be spiritual.  If, as Jesus says, The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21) we need spiritual keys to open the door to the Kingdom.  But the first key we need is a key to unlock our hearts to let the Lord in so that He can show us the Kingdom.  We need personal forgiveness for sin.  In Jesus’ own words introducing the Kingdom we read, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

 The first key

 What we discover is the first key that fits our hearts is the same key that fits the door to the Kingdom.  That key is called repentance.  There is a lock on the door of both our hearts, which the key of repentance opens.  The lock on our hearts is sinful pride and the lock on the Kingdom’s door is forgiveness.  When people come to recognize they have left the dignity of being human as God intended and see their fallen state, the burden of guilt is lifted by God’s forgiveness

 The second key

The second key mentioned is belief.  If we believe the good news that the promised Savior has come that is a key.  The sequence follows the prophetic call to repent to which Jesus adds, believe.  The purpose of John the Baptist was to sum up all the Old Testament prophets’ message of repentance.  Then the forgiven heart moves forward to believe that Jesus is the One who restored the heart to God.  John tells us the reason his gospel was written, …that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing you may have life in His name. (20:31)

 The third key

 The third key is recorded in the next event. Jesus calls Andrew and Peter saying, Come, follow me. (Mark 1:17).  The third key is to follow Jesus, leaving behind what you have been following for life’s meaning.  The journey with Him is based on His promise that He will never leave you.  It is a walk with the King of the Kingdom in a daily relationship between master and disciple.

 Now before we go any further we need to justify these as keys.  Remember, it is Peter who has been tapped on the shoulder, asked the second most important question in Scripture (the first being to Adam, Where are you? Gen.3:9) and given Jesus’ blessing for his answer.  Peter is the example of what everyman’s response should be when asked that question.  He was singled out by Jesus to point to Jesus.  The other apostles were to do the same. 

 Jesus is always the final authority to which Peter’s recognition of Him as the Christ, God the Son indicates.  He was not given authority to start another institution, organization, tradition or nation.  Nor does it make him the sole guardian, preserver or authority to rule over others.   What Jesus gave Peter was something meant for every heart to own for itself, a relationship with God through Jesus and the keys to enter His Kingdom.  He does not save people by groups or families or clans or nations or ecclesiastical institutions.  He saves them by tapping each heart with His Holy Spirit, who leads them to repentance, a call to believe in Him and the call to follow Him.  (So, what is the place of the church then?  To that we will speak soon enough.  For now, we need to keep on the salvation track.)

 Peter knows this interpersonal dimension.  It is crystal clear in his first sermon written in Acts 2.  He preaches to an assembled crowd of Jews in Jerusalem.  He preaches the need for Christ and the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.  When the crowd asked Peter what they should do he tells them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and all your children and for all who are far off---for all whom the Lord God will call.  Peter leads them directly to Jesus Christ and this is the model for all the disciples, the apostles included. 

 If the apostolic witness is to be the measure of future doctrine and action how did Peter respond after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?  Peter’s calling was to preach, teach and spread the good news that the promised Kingdom of Heaven came in the person of Jesus Christ who preached repentance, offered eternal life to those who believed and called people to follow Him starting with the heart.  These three keys are the largest in the set of keys He provides. 

 Repentance opens the door to our hearts and the door to the Kingdom.  Then comes the second key, the key of faith in Jesus, who begins a forever relationship with each repentant heart.  The third key is to follow Him since He is always on the move.  The Kingdom then is built in each heart and is a shared spiritual family experience of spiritual brothers and sisters, the Body of Christ, the real church.

 Before we move into some of the Kingdom parables it might be good to expound a little on the three keys just mentioned. 

 First, what do we mean by the word repentance?  The Greek word for it was metanoia.  It meant to turn around from where you were and go in the opposite direction.  It could be summed up in more modern phrases, to come to your senses, to be in your right mind.  Interestingly enough it is the opposite of our modern psychological condition, also coined from the Greek, paranoia, which means to be out of your mind.  Someone who is paranoid is totally self-consumed in taking personal offense.  ‘The world is against me.’  Everything outside is hostile.  ‘It’s all about me.’  The spiritual parallel is called sin; everybody for himself.

 Here are a few examples of sin-motivated thinking.  ‘I am alone in this world and I have to make the most of it.’  ‘Get what you can while you can.’  ‘Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die.’  ‘Get your way no matter what the cost.’  ‘The reason I’m in this situation is because the world is against me.’  ‘I grew up in a bad place and was never given a chance.’  ‘My mother never wanted me.’  ‘My father beat me.’  ‘It’s all their fault.’  ‘They made me do it.’  ‘What else could I do in a world like this?  Society’s to blame.’ ‘If I can just get a raise, more money, change my appearance, others will accept me.’  ‘Do unto others before they do unto you.’  ‘I did it my way.’  ‘If you don’t get them, they will get you.’  ‘I don’t care how long it takes; I’m going to get them back for that.’  There are so many attitudes that arise from the sinful heart.  Again, these are but a few.   In them are all the familiar spirits looking to fix themselves on the sinful dynamics of self-pity, self-deceit, rationalization, self-justification, self-righteousness, manipulation and exploitation of others for self-gain. 

 The primary character in Genesis embodying these classic symptoms is Cain who after slaying his brother whom he saw as a competitor, is asked by God, Where is your brother Abel?  He replies I don’t know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?  From that point on God told him he would be a restless wanderer (guilty, alone, and afraid).  Instead of turning outward to God and asking forgiveness he turns inward in self-pity before the Lord, My punishment is more than I can bear.  Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. (4:9,13-14 note what is underlined). 

 The one thing we know about self-pity is that it not only is an escape from responsibility but, when sensed by others, causes them to distance themselves.  As a result, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy increasing the isolation and alienation of the heart.  Paranoia fulfilled.  No one wants to be dragged into the net of another’s self-pity.  Empathy and compassion are fragrances, but self-pity has a repulsing odor. The search for other’s pity only increases the anti-pity of others. Repentance is the only satisfying move a heart can make to receive the healing balm and comfort necessary for heart recovery.

 We have just touched the surface of sin, so it is apparent that fear and pride, sin’s companions, aggravate this condition.  Then the subtle finger of compromise rises to accommodate self-protecting adjustment at the junction of every choice and decision.  Temptation is the mist clouding the path of uncertainty.  And guess who waits in the silent unseen darkness to encourage self-pity, comfort self-will and sympathize with staying in control of self without God?

 Sin needs to be accepted as the primary problem in human nature.  Until sin is faced, admitted and repented of, there is no entry into the Kingdom of God regardless of the lip service given.  Sin is a heart issue and membership in a religious structure does not solve the problem.  The heart needs to say,  ‘I’ve hurt you, I’ve hurt myself.  I’m sorry, I’m guilty, my way to live doesn’t work.  I need you Lord.  Forgive me Lord God.’  Turning from the self to God is the one hundred eighty-degree turn needed for the heart to come back to its Creator.

 Repentance opens the door to let the Lord Jesus in our hearts.

Behold I stand at the door knock.  And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. (Rev.3:20)

 Repentance opens the door to let us return to the heart of God. 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matt.11:28-30) This speaks especially to the burdens of guilt and the struggle to be right and to get things right.  Jesus is the burden, the yoke and the heart of God.

 Repentance frees the hinges of the door to the heart from the rust of the past.  In Acts 2:38 when Peter tells them to repent and be baptized, he also tells them that they will receive the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who Jesus sends each repentant heart in order to bring the oil of forgiveness for the past.  Sins committed before are cancelled and you are freed to go and sin no more.  With repentance comes the spiritual power of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is an ongoing spiritual process.  Forgiveness heals guilt and opens us to receive the right that the Lord Jesus brings to a heart opened with the key of repentance.  Repentance lets God resume control of the heart He alone knows how to handle, which brings us to the second key, belief. 

 There are three elements involved in what we are given when we receive this key, open mind, open heart and open faith.

 First, we open our minds to the principle of belief, letting God rule. 

 What we are doing by believing, having faith, is letting our minds be reprogrammed by the Word instead of the world.  Part of Jesus’ prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was crucified---Sanctify them by the truth, your Word is truth.(John 17:17)  Paul tells us…Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is---His good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

 The Bible is the reference book for God’ precepts, statutes, ideas, concepts and principles.  They constitute the structure of belief.  For instance, the idea or concept of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, gives the mind a logical way to think about God and who we are as images of Him.  So, the whole of Scripture opens our mind to comprehend how God wants us to understand Him.

 Second, we open our hearts to trust what the mind comprehends. 

 We begin to embrace within, in our heart and soul, His continuing presence.  That is what separates the Word from a philosophical system of thought.  The Word always brings the Holy Spirit to bear in the heart what the mind gathers from the Word. Slowly but surely then we find ourselves shifting from our will to His.  We lay aside our past strategies and start the process of thinking like God as He reveals Himself to us in His Word. 

 Third, we open our faith to the perfect faith of God. 

 It is that quality of the very nature of God that makes us right before Him.  We take on the faith He gives us.  When Jesus went to the Cross He went faithfully, hung faithfully and died faithfully.  It was His perfect faith the Father honored, and the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead.  It was faith that justified Jesus who sacrificed His life to give us that quality to make us right before God and act out His will in the world.  

 In addition, God gives us His personal presence in the Holy Spirit, the third person of God, to shape our born-again spiritual being in the valley of decision through which we walk each day.  The Holy Spirit is God’s ongoing guidance person bringing the Lord into our hearts and clearing the spiritual road we walk minute by minute.  Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession---to the praise of His glory. (Eph.1:13-14)

 The third key is follow. 

 Jesus calls us to follow Him.  Matt.4:19 Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.  Jesus is telling us three things here. 

 First, we are called to come.  In modern terms we might hear Him say, ‘Check me out.  See what I am all about.’   The call is to come with Him, evaluate what He is, what He teaches and what He wants us to do.

Second, to follow Him is the key because He is not pointing to anyone or anything but His Father, Himself and His Word.  He embodies all three. He is inviting us to travel with Him as He retrains our mind, remolds our hearts and redirects our actions.  He primes our hearts with the Spirit because that is the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 He purposely went home to the Father where He sits at His right hand enabling Him to be present directing spiritual traffic in each believer’s heart.  The reason is because, again, 100% of everything we do is spiritually motivated.  In other words, in the invisible spiritual dimension, He alone knows how to navigate.  Just as Jesus went to the Cross in faith and was resurrected in faith so we are called to live by spiritual faith not by physical sight.

 That is what His Resurrection proves and is the reason He is always there wherever we are.  Paul’s absolutely brilliant description, based on his own transformation from his checkered past, is found in his letter to the Roman Christians and it goes like this, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:37-39)

 Third, He gives us a completely different worldview and purpose.  We no longer live just to survive physically, economically and socially.  We have purpose.  He makes us fishers of men.  He is not going to be a visible corporate president with a board of directors setting rules and dictating how to run the machinery of an institution.  He is going to be in each of our hearts to bring others to Him that they too can be in the Kingdom.  It will be a visible body of people wherein He personally kneads the Spirit into every aspect of our minds and hearts.

 There, in those three keys, repentance, belief and follow, we have God’s personal key gifts given to open the door to each heart to let the Kingdom come within.  They are keys that open both portals, to our hearts and to God’s heart.

 Perhaps now we can see how the Parable of the Good Samaritan (which I continue to call the Parable of the Half Dead Man) leads us to have a right mind, a right heart and a right spirit.  It is more about letting God be right in us than us being right about God.  We let His mind instruct our mind, His heart embrace our hearts and His Spirit shape our spirits.  This is why Jesus tells parables.  They are the keys that unlock the inner recesses of the mind and heart.

 Another consideration as we move into more parables is the way they are presented in such a way as to give us a choice.  We can accept their message or reject it.  Do we accept that the Samaritan parable is saying something to where we really live within?  Can we identify with the characters in the parable?  Does it evoke a sense of guilt, agreement, challenge, remorse, the need to see people differently, to think about God differently?  Do we have that yearning to be like the Samaritan?  Do we react with a need to rationalize or justify our present attitudes?  If some or all of these insights go through your mind then the parable is serving its intended purpose.

 The end of this statement needs explanation; the binding and loosing.  If this is personal to Peter it is personal to all believers as we have already said.  When we are faced with choices and the temptation arises to take control before we give a choice to God.  This is where binding and loosing starts and ends.  If we bind the choice in faith it is a faithful binding, our faith grows and is bound in Heaven.  If we loose a choice by faith it is loosed in Heaven.  So, we live every moment in the context of choice, the valley of choices.  Remember, we are dealing with repentance as a key to the Kingdom.  It is not the result of the choice but the choice to be faithful is bound by the Spirit.  So, choices made consistent with Jesus are bound in faith and it’s faith that is bound in Heaven.  Bad choices are faithless therefore, repentance being the context, they are loosed in Heaven.  Binding and loosing have to do with spiritually relating to the choices we make with others.  Repentance looses the power of sin and its effects.  Faith binds us in Heaven as we live a lifestyle of repentance.  Scripturally, if the Lord remembers sin no more then who are we to do any different (Jer.32:34, Is.43:25, Heb.8:12)?  Relationally then, as we extend forgiveness to others, the faith to forgive is bound in Heaven. To loose resentment and hate in the valley of choice is to loose them in Heaven.

 The acceptance of the three keys, repentance, faith and follow, are bound in Heaven and their opposites, resentment, pride and control are loosed.  The Holy Spirit gains our will and sin can’t kill.  This is what Paul meant when he said to live is Christ, to die is gain (Php.1:21).