“FOLLOW ME”

J. S. Pugh

Mark 9: 2–8; Luke 10: 38–42; John 21: 15–19

I have been impressed today with the number of times in which the Lord, in the gospels, calls upon one or another to follow Him, and I wonder whether perhaps He would appeal to each of us in the same way. We know well that right at the beginning He called Peter and Andrew, James and John, drawing them from their occupation of fishing and saying, “Come after me”, and leaving all they followed Him. There was a readiness to answer to His call. There were others, like the man who came and said to Him, “I will follow thee wheresoever thou goest”.

The Lord’s word to him was, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven roosting-places, but the Son of man has not where he may lay his head”, Luke 9: 58. Another desired first to go away and bury his father; the Lord’s answer to him was, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead”, Matthew 8: 22. First of all you have those who, having heard the word of the Lord, responded immediately; then there are others who wanted to come on their own terms, and immediately the Lord brings before them a challenge; in the case of one there was the challenge that the Son of man had nowhere to lay His head, if he was prepared to follow in that pathway it was not going to be an easy one. The other was detained by what is natural, by his natural relationships and interests. I refer to those in passing so that we might consider how the Lord would have us move in relation to following Him, and what gain there can be from so doing.

I was impressed in reading this passage in Mark with the fact that the expression is used that Jesus “takes them up on a high mountain by themselves apart”, and at the end it says, “they no longer saw any one, but Jesus alone with themselves”. I think perhaps the first thing for us is to know something of what it is to be alone with Jesus. It involves separation from much that would attract us; that is where the man who wanted to bury his father was at fault; he was not prepared to move from his own interests into the pathway of following the Lord Jesus.

But when these disciples are with the Lord here they find themselves alone with Him and they get a remarkable revelation of His glory. That is something that we need to take account of. The first thing in these three incidents that we are looking at is the way that the Lord will reveal Himself and reveal His glory to those who desire to follow Him. I know it says He takes them with Him, but still they were following, they were with Him and His glory was manifested to them. What a wonderful revelation of glory that was, “He was transfigured before them; and his garments became shining, exceeding white as snow, such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”. The transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was something absolutely unique and glorious, and must have been a tremendous thing for them to see. Peter, referring to it in his epistle, speaks of “the excellent glory”. I am sure that if our minds and hearts are attracted to Him, and we have a sense of His glory, we shall be ready to follow Him.

It seems to me there has to be for each one of us the attraction of the Lord Himself. We all know His love in having died for us, having borne the judgment that was our due, but here we have a suggestion of following Him for His own sake. I believe that it is very precious to the Lord Jesus if there are persons who are prepared to follow Him for His own sake, and who in so doing are giving Him the opportunity to make Himself known with a remarkable display of His glory to their hearts. So it is a wonderful presentation; it says in another gospel that His face shone as the sun (Matthew 17: 2), that was something that was really outstanding, but here it says; “and his garments became ... exceeding white … such as fuller on earth could not whiten them”; there was something completely removed from all natural knowledge or experience—His glory shining out.

I wonder, beloved, whether, as we set ourselves to be with Him and follow Him, one of the features that would attract us and move us forward in relation to it would be an appreciation of the glory of the Son of God. It is something that one can hardly say much about, but if we just think of who He is, and the way in which He came down into this scene, the way in which as here He manifested the glory of God in His every movement, and then at this moment the brilliance of His own glory shining out on the mountain, there is something to attract the heart, and to attract it as being alone with Him, “Jesus alone with themselves”. So that is something we might consider as to our personal relations with Him, and the way in which He would attract us so that we have a sense of our being alone with Him, and He alone with us, “alone with themselves”, as if He would give the impression of His own personal interest in each one of us so that we might have our personal links with Him in a way which is stimulated and developed by an appreciation of the glory.

Now Mary in Luke 10 is one who characteristically could be spoken of as following Him, although the situation is a little different. Here He has come into a house—“He entered into a certain village; and a certain woman, Martha by name, received him into her house”. She was ready to receive Jesus into her house. I think it has been said in ministry that there is a danger of our making Him a sort of appendage to our establishment; we want to be so with Him that we are an appendage to His establishment. So Mary is found sitting at His feet. She, “having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”. I do not say much about Martha at the moment save to refer to what has been said, that her receiving Him into her house is in itself commendable. But think of the attractive position that Mary took up, “the good part, the which shall not be taken from her”. She sat down at His feet and was listening to His word.

We all know the difference between hearing and listening. We hear many things and often we can dismiss them from our minds, but if we listen to something we take it in, and as we turn it over in our minds it becomes something that is effective in us. So if we are listening to the word of Jesus there is the opportunity of allowing what He says to enter into our souls and become effective in each one of us. I think that is another stage, a different stage, in our learning Him and following Him. So Mary was found there sitting at His feet and listening to His word. I am quite sure that the things that He said were of such a character as to build up in her a fresh and fuller appreciation of Himself.

I think we see the outcome of it in John 12, where she took a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price and anointed His feet with it so that the whole house was filled with the odour of the ointment. That which Mary had acquired through

sitting at His feet and hearing His word was available for Him, and others also got the gain of it. It is as if she had followed Him right through to this moment in John where she was able to lavish on Him that which she had acquired from Himself, that fresh appreciation of His glory which had come to her through listening to His word. So there is the opportunity then of being restful in His presence, knowing what it is, as we said, to be alone with Him and for Him to be alone with us, and then to be restful in His presence, sitting at His feet and hearing His word.

In John almost the last word we read is, “Follow thou me”, which is the exhortation of the Lord, and it is an exhortation that would apply to every one of us. There are times when, having been attracted to Him, having seen something of His glory, having perhaps consciously been listening to His word and learning from Him, a test arises. The Lord raises questions with Peter here, questions which show that He was probing to see just how far the affection that Peter had for Him was effective; and I believe perhaps in our experience the Lord would approach us in the same way, raising questions in our hearts, testing us as to how far, in our love for Him, we can be found following Him, and how far, in following Him, we are going to be characterized by obedience to His word, feeding His lambs, feeding His sheep, shepherding His sheep. These are exhortations the Lord gave to Peter in the light of His knowledge of Peter’s love for Himself, and I think if you and I were conscious of being with the Lord in the way that we have been speaking of it, maybe He would bring in some probing, but it would be a probing which would stimulate us to go on further, and perhaps to receive a sense of commission from Himself.

So He just says to Peter, “Follow me”. There is Peter’s further question as to John, but the Lord says as to that, “Follow thou me”. I think that is a point where we might well rest, knowing that the Lord has made Himself known to us, knowing that He would manifest His glory to us, knowing that He would speak to us if we are prepared to sit at His feet and listen to His word. So there is the following of Him, which is in accordance with His own mind. As I said, there are many references to persons following Him; there was Bartimaeus, who having had his sight restored followed Him in the way, the way that the Lord Jesus was then going; no doubt Bartimaeus gained much as a result of having his sight restored to him, but the word is that he “followed him in the way”, Mark 10: 52. These are experiences that I feel we just need to carry forward in our own exercises, having discerned the glory of the Lord, sitting.at His feet and hearing His word, and being ready to be probed by Him as to how far our affections for Him are so effective in our minds and hearts that we are prepared to follow Him wherever He may go. In Revelation we read of persons who follow the Lamb “wheresoever it goes” (Revelation 14: 4).—The Lord is moving in these days, and we do not want to be inattentive or, lacking in discernment as to what He is doing, but rather to be so occupied with Him that we can be found following Him wherever He goes, for His names sake.

Word in meeting for Ministry, Christchurch, N.Z.
17 January 1984