Led to Lead 1986

Reading from Matthew chapter 28, starting at verse 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

All power has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. I'm giving you this power now, so go and do it.

And we say, Lord, if only I could find the right word, the right thing to do, if only I was able to perform the appropriate miracle, bring down a sign of the King that's absolutely unmistakable. I mean, I know what you're telling me to do, and I know these people, they're all around me, they're where I work, they're where I live, they're outside this building, even inside this building. I know all that, but I don't feel any more adequate to make disciples than I do to jump from the Remsen and fly across the Detroit River.

And so we tiptoe through our lives, and drop a little word now and then, say a little prayer, sometimes we even get into a longer discussion with one of our old friends about the kingdom of God, what Jesus has done for us. But make disciples. Make disciples.

Bring them to commitment. Make them followers. All authority has been given to me, I'm giving it to you, to make disciples.

Now go and do it, not just respectable church members, not just nominal Christians, but followers, committed ones. So how do you make disciples? It's like walking through the city of despair, finding people on a crowded street, and announcing to them, I have found a door that leads out of the city of despair into a new life. It worked for me, it will work for you, what have you got to lose? Follow me, I'll show you where it is.

Maybe out of all the people who are hearing, one or two pay attention, and they start to follow. So you lead them to the door, you usher them through, you introduce them to Jesus, you stand back to be available to help in any way you can. See, but the main thing is to take the lead.

Lead them to the door. They're not going to lead you because they don't know where the door is. You have to lead them.

And you will lead them, when you are sure of the door yourself. And you will be sure of the door yourself, when you are being led Nobody leads anybody in this business unless he or she is being led, unless you are being led by the one who stands in the doorway. Example, Jesus talked with the woman at the well for probably less than an hour.

When he was through, this woman goes back to her girl, and announces, Come see a man who told me all I ever did. Is not this the Messiah? And everybody drops what they're doing, men and women, everybody, and they follow this woman like little lambs, to Jesus. From John 4, 27, Just then his disciples came, and they marveled that he was talking with a woman.

But none said, What do you wish her? Why are you talking with her? So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, Come see a man who told me all I ever did. Could this be the Christ? They went out of the city, and were coming to him. They followed this woman out of the city, and came to Jesus.

They followed this woman, because this woman was herself being led. I say she was being led. She wasn't just an admirer of Jesus.

She wasn't just a spectator. She hadn't just gone to a seminar with her notebook and pencil, and written down some new things. But she was committed with her heart.

She was following. So she has the power to lead people, because she herself is being led by Jesus in three areas. But before we talk about those three areas, let's look at this a little bit more closely.

She's letting Jesus lead her. Let's go to the front of this chapter. John 4.1 Now when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did, he left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

He had to pass through Samaria. Now as you probably recall, Judea is down here, and Galilee is up there. In between is Samaria, made up of people who were kind of resettled.

They were half Jewish and half Gentile, really. And they were hated by the Jews, and so naturally they hated the Jews. And nobody ever walked right through Samaria to go from Judea to Galilee, or vice versa.

They always would go down to the Jordan River, around, and back up to Galilee. Jesus goes straight through. He had to pass through Samaria, so he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there. And you know, Jacob's well, we're talking about a well that's almost 2,000 years old. Almost as old, or just about as old, as the distance of time from the time Jesus was crucified and raised down to now.

And here's Jacob's well. Jesus, wearied by his journey, sits down by the well. It's about the sixth hour, 12 o'clock noon, broad daylight.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and this well is deep.

Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself and his sons and his cattle? Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him or her a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.

The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst or come here to draw. So she comes to get water. She comes to draw water.

That's why she came. And she came to a well which was almost a shrine. What a wonderful thing.

The same well that Jacob used centuries and centuries before. Sitting on the edge of the well is this stranger who happens to be one of the descendants of Jacob, one of the sons of Israel. And out of the mouth of this man come words like this woman has never heard before.

Words that are absolutely living water. And she has enough insight, enough honesty, enough of whatever thirst herself needed to recognize this. And so she's drawn.

Here's the ring of truth in these words that Jesus speaks. And as she listens to him, she sees light and she follows that light. Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst or come here to draw.

Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come on back. The woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you're right in saying I have no husband.

For you have had five husbands and he whom you now have who do you think you are? Get out of here. I'm going to go get some guys and chase you out of here, you Jew. But she doesn't.

She allows him to bring her into the light. And she says, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, we worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to him, I know the Messiah is coming, he who is called the Christ.

When he comes, he will show us all things. No one else that we have any recording of that he spoke through. He said to her, I who speak to you am he.

I'm this Messiah that you're talking about. With this, the woman leaves her water jar, just leaves it right there, runs back into the village, which is called a city. Come see a man who told me all I ever did.

Is not this the Messiah? And she speaks now with such authority that everybody comes and everybody follows her. They follow her because this woman is following Jesus. She has now submitted her life to the guidance of Jesus in three specific areas that we just read about.

She has allowed Jesus, first of all, to lead her to the living water. Secondly, she's allowed Jesus to lead her from darkness into light. The man you're with now isn't your husband.

And instead of getting upset about it, she says, you're right. Comes into the light. And thirdly, she allows Jesus to lead her to repentance.

Now, when we do what she did, if we are allowing Jesus to lead us in these three areas, people will follow us to Jesus. We will make disciples. If we're not making disciples, it's because that in some way these three areas have been submission to the leadership and lordship of Jesus in our lives.

First, she allowed Jesus to lead her to the living water. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Jesus is putting his finger on her inmost life. Nobody that she's ever talked to before has been able to see this thirst that's driving her mad. She's thirsty for God.

She wants God. And Jesus sees it. He says, that's what you need.

You're thirsty. And she doesn't deny it. I'm thirsty.

I need this water. Give me this life that I've been searching for all my days. Notice that she doesn't, as you and I tend to do, say, wait a minute, don't get too close to me.

You don't understand what it's like to be a Samaritan. You don't understand what it's like to be a woman. You don't understand what my childhood was like, what kind of oppression I've had to live in.

Immediate submission to Jesus. Give me this water. Let me have it.

Sir, give me this water. Guidance from God begins with thirst. No thirst, no guidance.

My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. That's where guidance begins. When we submit to his guidance to the living water, it comes.

Give me this water. Sir, give me this water. Are you thirsty? Thirsty enough to beg him, cry out to him, open your heart to him to receive a fresh measure of living water? Are you going to go by the stale water while it was fresh two years ago or last week and you're still drinking that? He has something fresh for you now.

It has to be living bread, fresh bread. It also has to be fresh water out of a fresh well from him. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

If you drink, then you'll believe. And if you believe, out of your heart will flow rivers of living water and others will. Secondly, this woman allowed Jesus to lead her from darkness to light.

Go call your husband and then come on back. I have no husband. You said right, lady.

You've had five. The man you're with now is not your husband. You said this truly.

And no protesting, no defenses, no cover-up, nothing. Sir, I see you're a prophet. You've been looking into my soul.

You've told me the truth about myself. Now here is the place where most of us have our biggest problem. We don't want to come out in the light.

You know, guide me, but don't expect me to come out in the light. So when Jesus turns the light on, as he always does, and he begins to put his finger on our egotism, our self-deceit, our self-righteousness, our uncleanness, our attitudes, we just start shutting the doors and back it away and we sing Amazing Grace. And then we talk about somebody else's sin.

Boy, look what they did to me. There will be no progress until we are willing to be led into the light. Until we're willing to say, like this woman did it, you're right.

You showed me the truth about myself. And I confess it. And I thank you for showing me how stubborn I've been, or how self-righteous I've been, or how unfair I've been.

Thank you, Lord. Now forget about everybody else's stubbornness and unrighteousness and unfairness. We're talking about the light coming on in our hearts and what he's telling us to do.

This is the message we have received from him and declared to you, 1 John 1.5, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, covering things up, walking behind our religious facade, we lie and do not live according to the truth. But if we walk in the light, we walk in the light, as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other.

No other way to have fellowship. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thirdly, this woman allowed Jesus to lead her to a change in direction, better known as repentance. Repentance is not just shedding tears.

Repentance is changing our direction so that instead of going against the will of God, we are moving with it, in it. So the woman left her water jar and went away into the city. See, that water jar sitting on the edge of the well is a sign that this woman has been stopped in her tracks and turned around and set on a new road.

And that's precisely what needs to happen to us. Repentance means that we put our water jar in the well and start walking a new road. Even before we leave this place today, you know, some specific thing he's putting his finger on in each of our lives, some kind of repentance.

When's the last time you changed the direction of your life or the direction of your attitude in response to a call from Jesus? For each of us, there is a need for a change. The putting away of the water jar, the forsaking of the fishing boat, some specific thing that he'll put his finger on in each of our lives. This got to change now.

And when we do, everything begins to break loose and life begins to change. See, when we leave others to repentance, this is only possible when we are allowing ourselves to be led to repentance. When we are led to repentance, when we change, when we make that change, throw ourselves before the cross and receive His mercy, make that new beginning, then we can encourage others to do the same with power.

So the woman, having done these three things, in a very short time, goes back to the village and literally commands these people to follow her. Come! See a man who told me all I ever did is not this to Christ. And they follow her because she is under the anointing of God.

She's under the anointing of a spirit that is guiding her. She's submitting to the spirit, the living words coming out of the mouth of Jesus, which are spirit and light. She's following, so they follow her.

And people will follow us also to Jesus. They will follow us. People we've been praying for, worrying about, talking to for years with very little success.

When we submit to Him in these three areas, when we follow Him, are willing to follow Him to the living water, out of darkness, into the light, take the covers off, follow Him to repentance. And then, then we'll go to the village, our village, wherever that is, and we'll say, come see a man who told me all I ever did. And they'll follow us there.

They'll say, well, wait a minute. The biggest problem in my life is that I just don't know how to get guidance from God. I'm just unclear about guidance.

I don't seem to be able to get guidance. I never know what socks to put on. I'm never sure whether to go to Kmart or Sears to do my shopping.

I just can't seem to find the right way to go. Well, listen. Put any socks on you want.

Put a red one on one foot and a green one on the other. It's okay. Shop wherever you can get.

The best deal. But understand, guidance from God is not over that. Guidance from God means that you submit and let Him lead you first to the living water.

Come out of that darkness. Take those covers off. Come up into the light when He puts His finger on it.

Let Him lead you to repentance. That's guidance. And when you submit to that kind of guidance, wonderful things begin to happen.

The Spirit of the Lord is in our midst right now to guide us into all truth. How can He guide us into all truth unless we follow Him? Follow His lead. When we do, they will follow us.

And Jesus came and said to them, now to us, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age. Take the lead.

Lead them to the door. Lead them to me, says the Lord. You will take the lead and you will be able to do this if you will submit your body, mind, and spirit to my leadership.

I will guide you, says the Lord, today, to springs of living water if you will be guided. I will guide you from darkness into light in areas that you're not even aware of. Today, you will allow yourself to be guided.

I will guide you to the exact place of repentance where you need to come today. You will be guided. And then I will guide you to specific people out there who will follow you to me and who will become disciples if you will be guided by me, says the Lord.

Let's let the Spirit of the Lord speak to us in silence again today. And while we have silence, and even during the hymn that follows, there may be some who want to make a commitment, who want to make an act of repentance, feel free to come down to the altar rail, whatever you want to do, and somebody will pray with you. And let's all of us just respond to whatever the Lord shows us.

But let's begin now with a time of silence. Just let the Spirit of the Lord guide us even in the silence.