623 Followers Lead - Matthew 8:9

Did you ever dream about being a follower when you were a kid? I didn't. So why do we call ourselves Follower of One? Well, let's talk about that today. 

I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again on the Follower of One Podcast. Today, we want to talk about Matthew 8:9.

We're talking about this story that takes place in verses two through 13. But verse nine is our key passage today. And it's about the phrase "under authority." A couple of episodes ago. I mentioned that Jesus insists that we follow him, but that I never liked to think of myself as a follower. I wanted to be a leader.

I work on my leadership and I've written about leadership. And I often read about leadership. Jesus spent time sharing about things that we can't see. And in the previous episodes, we discussed this passage about how we will lose our physical life, but we can have and keep an eternal life. 

But if we lose our physical life for Jesus and for the sake of the good news, the gospel, we will gain a life that we can't lose, one that lasts forever. And in that world, in this other life, Jesus is the boss. Now he's the boss in our broken world too, but his power and authority are hidden.

Jesus gives us a chance to choose to trust him. Philippians 2 says, "One day, every knee will bow." One day, we will all know who's boss. Today we have a choice. God's glory is hidden and masked from us so that we are free to choose because if we saw him for who he really was, we'd be so freaked out that we wouldn't have a choice.

This story in Matthew chapter eight is a favorite of mine. A centurion wants Jesus to heal his servant. And he sends another servant to Jesus to ask for his help, Jesus agrees.  So he starts to head toward the centurion's, house. But the centurion and sends another servant to say, basically to Jesus, "Hey, don't come. Just say the word. Don't bother coming here." And this verse says, "For, I also am a man under authority with soldiers under me; and I say, to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it." 

That's Matthew 8:9 from the New American Standard Bible. Jesus marvels at this man's faith. This guy gets it. He understands how a follower is a leader.  When we line up with the true authority, we receive authority. When we represent Jesus, we get some of his authority.

And this centurion knew it. This centurion knew that Jesus was God's representative on our planet. He knew that he was God on this planet. And when he told an angel or a servant or someone to do something, they did it. He understood that authority. When we follow the right guy, we lead. We influence others and we make a difference in the world.

If your influence doesn't lead others to Jesus,  you sabotage your own leadership. You ultimately lead others the wrong way or to the wrong place. I often say most of the world's problems are leadership problems. None of us is the ultimate leader. And that's the point Jesus is making in all of the. As we follow Him, our leadership influences others for eternity.

Our leadership influences others to listen to Jesus and to do what he says and our leadership then matters. Leaders follow and followers lead. And we can't get out of that. And that's why we challenge ourselves to follow Jesus closely with our whole life. You never know how your own life will make a difference in the life of someone else's until you follow Jesus closely and trust Him.

Why not do that today? Check out our online community at https://community.followerofone.org. There you can join us, join with other people who are in a similar occupation to you, and you will be able to go on your own Marketplace Mission Trip, which is a way that we practice living our faith and growing every day.

Join us at https://community.Followerone.org. And thank you for being a marketplace minister.