WHO ARE YOU FOLLOWING?

 

Follow me!" That was the invitation given by Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven's Gate cult. “He promised to those who would become his disciples that he would teach them how they could move on to a higher level of life in a new world. Sincere but gullible men and women heeded his call. They left families, friends, homes, and jobs to live and work together and to obey their leader's teachings.”

 

In March of 1997, thirty-eight disciples followed him even when he told them to commit suicide.  The mass suicide was undertaken in the apparent belief that their souls would be transported onto a spaceship, which was thought to be hiding behind the Comet Hale-Bopp.  All 39 members were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants along with brand new black-and-white Nike tennis shoes and purple armbands reading “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.”

 

It is vitally important that we choose the right person to follow. Several times in the Gospels, Jesus issued the challenge to various individuals, “Follow me.” Many have issued similar challenges in the centuries since Jesus lived and taught here on earth. The preceding information on the Heaven’s Gate cult and its leader, Marshall Applewhite is just one example. Making the right or wrong choice will have eternal consequences.

 

Jesus has the right to demand our allegiance because He is the Son of God. No one else has that credential. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). He then continues, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me’ ” (John 1:14-15). John says the Word was in the beginning with God, the Word was God and the Word was involved in creation. He then tells us who the word was when he says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and that John the Baptist testified of Him. A centurion who witnessed the crucifixion and the accompanying events stated, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). The evidence is overwhelming in amount and clarity that Jesus is the Son of God.

 

Furthermore, Jesus said in John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” In Acts 4:12 Peter states, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is the only hope we have for salvation. No man living before or since can provide us with redemption from our sins and reconciliation with God. The way we follow Jesus is by living as He lived, in complete and total subjection to, and obedience of, God’s will.

 

Everyone is following a leader. The question is, “Are you following the right leader?”

--Lamar