In the days when sailing ships were the primary means of trading, ships would legally fight only while flying their national flag. Striking the colours (lowering the flags which signified the ship’s allegiance) was a recognised sign of surrender. However, if the flags were fixed to the masts with nails, they could not easily be removed and this became an expression of defiance and a willingness to fight to the bitter end.

There are times when we have to nail our colours to the mast: when we have to declare openly that we are followers of Christ, that we are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe. (Rom 1:16) Jesus calls us to radical discipleship: to the surrender of our self to His ownership, recognising that He is Lord of all (see 1 Cor 6:19-20). There is no place for us to hesitate or be ashamed of our allegiance: ‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’ (Mk 8:38) ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ (Luke 9:62) We need to be unashamed and to publicly declare our discipleship.

For some, that may mean leaving the security of a job and setting forth to serve God in mission fields; for others, it may even lead to martyrdom. But for all of us, it means letting go of our self-reliance and walking every day by faith, trusting in God’s ways and leaning on His thoughts, rather than living with God as an added extra or an insurance policy. It means living with the cross before us and the world behind us, choosing to walk the narrow path of salvation secure in the knowledge that it leads to eternal life.

Will you nail your colours to the mast? Who do you say Jesus is?

Having reached the letter F in our alphabet series ‘The A-Z of Christian Faith’, tonight we looked at the subject ‘F is For Follow.’

In Jn 1:35-43, Matt 4:18-22 and Matt 9:9, we see Jesus calling people to follow Him. What was so special about Jesus that fishermen left their nets to follow Him or that a tax-collector would leave his lucrative job to become a nomadic disciple? Ultimately, people followed Jesus because of who He was: the Messiah, Son of the Living God. (Matt 16:16). People saw in Him authority and power: to heal diseases, forgive sins and raise the dead (see Mk 1:22, Mk 2:10, Matt 11:4-5). They recognised in Him a personal authority and relationship with God that drew them to follow.

The Cost of Following Jesus

What makes it even more surprising that so many followed Jesus is that He never made it easy for people, urging them to count the cost. In passages such as Mk 8:34-39 and Luke 14:25-35, He made it clear that to be a follower means self-denial and a taking up of the cross:

Family ties and other considerations must be secondary to following Jesus (see Luke 9:62, Luke 14:26); on occasions, Jesus challenged people to sell all they had to follow Him. (Luke 14:22) We must make the cost of discipleship clear to all, for following Jesus is not a pathway to leisure and easy living; it’s a way that will lead to opposition and persecution (Jn 16:33, 2 Tim 3:12).

The Benefits of Following Jesus

Having counted up the cost (see ‘The Cost’, Rend Collective), we discover, however, that the benefits of following Jesus far outweigh the difficulties. Following Jesus brings us faith (a gift from God, see Eph 2:8-9) and forgiveness (see Col 1:13-14, Luke 1:77). We find freedom from the weight of sin (see Rom 6:12-14), being given the power to live as God wants us to live. Finally, we also receive fellowship, being reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Christ (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Cor 1:9) and being brought into fellowship with other believers. (1 Jn 1:3, 6-7).

‘I will follow you
I will follow you
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back
No turning back

This is my heart cry
Though none go with me
The cross before me
The world behind me.

This is my anthem
My life for your fame
My every move bring
Glory to your name.

The cross before me
The world behind me
I will follow
I will follow.’ (‘No Turning Back’, Passion)

On this Fathers’ Day, Mark spoke about our heavenly Father and His desire to provide for and bless His children. There are many qualities associated with being a good father, including being a good listener, an encourager, a good leader and someone who can be relied upon, not to mention being a taxi-driver and mender of broken things! A child who is secure because of good parents doesn’t have to worry, and Jesus reminds us that we have a heavenly Father who knows our needs and provides for them (Matt 6:25-34), so there is no need for us to worry.  The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13) reminds us that our Father in heaven is our regular provider of all our needs; He forgives us and delivers us from evil as well as being strong and mighty to save.

Even if we have lost our earthly fathers or never have experienced the security and love of an earthly father, God is a father to the fatherless (Ps 68:5) and because He is an everlasting Father (Is 9:6), He is the constant presence in our life, the One who gives appropriate provision for our lives (Matt 7:7-11) – fishfinger sandwiches, perhaps?! Certainly, James reminds us that every good and perfect gift comes from our heavenly Father (Js 1:17), reminding us that He is constant in His benevolence, constant even though we are often wavering, indecisive and variable.

Paul reminds the Corinthians of God’s promise that He will be a father to us, giving us the rights of sons and daughters. (2 Cor 6:18) God the Father has lavished His love on us (1 Jn 3:1), with the result that we are the children of God. Our identity is secure in Him.

Yesterday a group of men from church went along to a men’s meeting in Barnsley to find out more about the ministry of CVM (Christian Vision for Men), a group which aims to connect men with Jesus and the church.

It’s a fact that women are often happy to meet together and just chat, but men tend to bond with each other more when they are actually doing something; in the words of J. John, they are ‘like arctic rivers: frozen at the mouth!’ CVM has an aim of introducing men to Jesus and the church to men, organising activity-based meetings with the ultimate aim of reaching a million men in this country with the good news of the gospel. If you win a child to Christ, there is a 3.5% chance the whole family will come to Christ. If you win a woman to Christ, there is about a 17% chance the family will follow, but if you win a man to Christ, there is a 93% chance the whole family will come to Christ. Whilst 50% of men would feel comfortable in a ladies’ underwear shop (hopefully buying lovely presents for their wives!), only 33% of men say they would feel comfortable in church. CVM uses various events (such as curry clubs, BBQs, mission trips and men’s gathering like the one taking place in Swindon on 24-26 June – see here for more details) to bridge the gap and show that church is not just for ‘women and wimps’!

We need to be imaginative and innovative in how we present the gospel to all people; hopefully, this meeting will have triggered thoughts about how to reach out to the many men in our communities who don’t yet know Jesus.

God is a God of revelation who loves to speak to His people. We are urged to eagerly desire to prophesy (1 Cor 14:1, 39) because we desperately need to hear God’s voice speaking truth and life to us. There are, however, many barriers which can prevent us from pursuing this gift, including:

1. fear (so often we allow fear to hold us back from stepping out in faith, worrying about things such as ‘How do I know this is God?’, ‘Am I just making this up?, ‘What will others think of me?’ and so on. Fear of other people can hold us back (see Prov 29:25.))
2. bad experiences (either having been on the receiving end of controlling, manipulative ‘words from God’ or being harshly rebuked for stepping out in faith and being condemned for this)
3. indifference (believing that there is nothing really special about this gift and so it is not worth pursuing)
4. feelings of worthlessness (‘I’m not good enough to be used in this way‘) or that one must reach a certain level of spiritual perfection before God could use us in this gift (the church at Corinth was certainly not perfect yet were used in spiritual gifts, so we must not equate perfection with availability)
5. lack of faith (we are told to prophesy in proportion to our faith (Rom 12:6) and it seems that the more one exercises faith, the more it grows!)
6. ignorance (we don’t know much about this gift or fail to see that it can be given in many forms, not just a thundering ‘Thus saith the Lord’ experience)

Let’s strive to prophesy, knowing that there is a balance always between our seeking and God’s giving (see Phil 2:12-13). We cannot ‘make’ prophecy happen, but we can earnestly desire this gift and seek to pursue it, being content with all God gives us but yearning more that ‘so much more’ which we know is available in Him. Let’s also create an atmosphere of acceptance so that we encourage others to step out in faith, understanding that we won’t always get it right, but that we need to be seeking to build up the church in love. Wayne Grudem says, ‘Churches should be willing to be patient and encouraging toward those who are trying this gift for the first time (as they would with other gifts, such as teaching, evangelism etc.’) (Wayne Grudem, ‘The Gift of Prophecy in the NT & Today’, P 180) May we seek the mind of Christ as we follow after Him and wait with expectancy for what He has to say to us.

New Testament prophecy has both similarities and differences to prophecy in the Old Testament. It’s clear from the Gospels that Jesus is the fulfilment of much Old Testament prophecy (something Matthew, in particular, is keen to stress to the Jewish Christians to whom he wrote – see Matt 2:15, 17; Matt 13:14, Matt 35:54, Matt 27:9, for example, along with Luke 4:21, Luke 18:31, Luke 22:37, John 19:24), a fact which the apostles also stressed when first teaching people (see Acts 2-3, Acts 8.) The apostles’ authority in teaching the revelation of God was similar to the Old Testament prophets’ (see Luke 11:49, 2 Pet 3:2). Prophets are mentioned in the New Testament (see Acts 11:27-28, Acts 13:1, Acts 15:32, Acts 21:9), but it is clear from the fulfilment of Joel 2:28-29 at Pentecost that the gift of prophecy is more widespread in the New Testament, affecting many believers (hence Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians that all should eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy.)

The content of New Testament prophecy was similar to that in the Old Testament, including prediction, guidance, personal words (see 1 Tim 1:18) and incisive knowledge which revealed secret sins (see Acts 5) or which caused unbelievers to marvel at God’s knowledge (see 1 Cor 14:24-25, John 4). Prophetic words can be a valuable tool in evangelism (see Acts 8:26-40, Acts 10, Acts 16:8-10) and are for the encouragement, strengthening and comfort of the church. (1 Cor 14:3)

As with the Old Testament, the means of New Testament prophecy varied, including visions, dreams, pictures and symbolism as well as words. The prophecies we find in the New Testament did not necessarily have the same ‘weight’ as in the Old Testament (Agabus, for example, was not wholly accurate in his predictions about Paul’s fate in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11), but this does not appear to have been a problem for Paul or the other leaders.) All prophecy nowadays has to be weighed and tested (see 1 Cor 14:29, 1 Thess 5:19-22); it must be subject to the revelation God has given us in the Bible. The subjectivity of prophecy and the fact that it is open to misuse often lead us to be wary of this gift, but we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. God is good and delights to give good gifts to His children. (Luke 11:13, Matt 7:11)