The LORD's Day January 25, 2009

Following the Lamb

Revelation 14.1-5

We see Jesus standing here with those who followed Him. The anti Christ has been doing his work (in the previous chapter) of forcing the world to worship him. Here we see Jesus with those who followed Him because they loved Him.

Am I following the Lamb, Jesus Christ?

What does it mean to follow Him?

Follow-
*Follow the One Who Precedes
*Join Him as His attendant, accompany Him, to join one as a disciple, become or be His disciple
*Side with his party.


John 8.31 Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.”


1. Those Who follow the Lamb Keep Themselves Pure.

We are called to be holy just as God is holy.

II Timothy 2.22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Outwardly
Psalm 24.3- 5
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.

Inwardly
Matthew 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Pure motives, motives of love.
I Timothy 1.5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Matthew 5.43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...
Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving others as ourselves, loving others as Jesus loves them is following the Lamb and keeping yourself pure.

James 1.27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. 8 million Christmas shoe boxes to children in over 100 countries around the world.


2. Those Who Follow the Lamb follow Him wherever He goes.

They sing as they go. I like this. Look at verse three They are full of joy and praising God.

They always made following Jesus Wherever He goes sound like suffering. Following Him must be to the worst place and great sacrifice. Sometimes God calls people to some desperate situations and those who follow Him there are filled with joy serving Him. He leads us besides still waters. He makes us lie down in green pastures.

There is a cross to bear- speak about that in a moment.

But there is a fellowship in following. We need to first see that. We are with Him and He is with us!

What a fellowship! We all need to continue to cultivate this fellowship with the Master. That should be something we treasure deeply. Seeing the LORD in all of life brings great joy and comfort to our souls.

With the Lamb. This fellowship with Jesus is with the Lamb of God. We see His wrath in this chapter but it is against those who refuse to repent. We who are following the Lamb have a treasure (eternal life) and part of it manifests itself in walking with Him daily. He is the Lamb of God. Gentle Shepherd, He is meek and humble. He cares for us.

Friendship With Jesus

We have fellowship with one another as we follow Jesus I John 1.7 If we walk in the loght as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son purifies us from all sin.”

With the Church around the corner and around the country and around world.

I love the Christian Connections! We experience them all the time, locally. I ran into a number of Christians this week in my goings out. Some encouraged me others I encouraged.


Wherever we go in this land in which we live there are other believers who are our brothers and sisters. Beach House in Laguna Beach, California.

Go to the other side of the world. Go to China as I have done. There is a church there filled with believers and while there may be a language barrier there is no love barrier! We have fellowship with people who we can’t even speak to because we and they are following the Lamb!


3. Those Who Follow the Lamb Offer Themselves as Living Sacrifices

Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone? A hymn.

Romans 12.1

They do what their Master did. He gave Himself up for us. So we also ought to lay down our loves for each other.

Do we all die a martyr’s death? No, but we all must die to ourselves.

That means putting others before yourself. The most miserable people I know are the self centered ones. Selfishness is a pathway to misery.

On the other hand the most joyful are the most giving. Here LORD I give myself away tis all that I can do!

God has given each of you certain gifts to use in His Kingdom. Your life will be the most joyful when you are using those gifts for Him.



4. Those Who Follow the Lamb Tell the Truth.

Lying is becoming a thing to be admired (if you can get away with it) in our culture. But what God says is wrong is wrong!

We are following the Truth and speak the truth in love. Jesus was and is the Truth. If you are following the Lamb then your life will be marked by certain things:

They keep their word. Their word is good.

They keep their oath even when it hurts.

Following the Lamb is not complicated. It is not possible without belonging to Jesus.
Let’s keep ourselves pure for Him, follow Him wherever He goes, offer ourselves as living sacrifices, keep ourselves from falsehood, Let’s be people of the Truth!