FOLLOWING JESUS’ FOOTSTEPS

NOI DẤU CHÂN CHÚA

Kinh thánh: 1Phi-e-rơ 2: 21-24

Câu gốc: 1PHI-E-RƠ 2: 21 – Anh em đã được kêu gọi đến sự đó, vì Đấng Christ cũng đã chịu khổ cho anh em, để lại cho anh em một gương, hầu cho anh em noi dấu chân Ngài.

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FOLLOWING JESUS’ FOOTSTEPS

Bible: 1Peter 2: 21-24

Main verse: 1PETER 2: 21 – For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

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– Next Sunday we will celebrate Easter, one of the greatest annual events for us Christians. So, this week is a time for us to reflect upon, and also remember, the suffering of Jesus Christ by considering our steps when following Jesus’ examples.

– To many of us, the idea of following Jesus’ footsteps is not new to us. It has been repeatedly mentioned in the Bible and in many songs that we often sing in churches, but today we are going to go into more details than before.

– We understand that when following Jesus’ footsteps, it means we have to live like how Jesus had lived in this world. We can start from the beginning of Jesus’ time on Earth.

– Because God loves us so much, He left His throne in glorious heaven to become human and live among mankind. He took His name as Jesus. Although none of us really know what heaven looks like, we all understand that it is a beautiful, glorious place, because God dwells there.

JOHN 1: 14 – The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

GIĂNG 1: 14 – Ngôi Lời đã trở nên xác thịt, ở giữa chúng ta, đầy ơn và lẽ thật; chúng ta đã ngắm xem sự vinh hiển của Ngài, thật như vinh hiển của Con một đến từ nơi Cha.

– He did not hesitate to leave His home in Heaven to live among mankind in this world of darkness. Nobody on Earth would love us that much.

– Some rich people in this world do not want to live among ordinary people. Although some of the rich came from simple lives, after they got rich and started living more prosperously, they would never think of abandoning their comfortable lifestyles to live among poor people. Only Jesus did and we should remember that His dwelling place in Heaven was more glorious than anything in this world.

– We have often seen some rich and powerful people, especially career politicians, showed off their humility by coming into a coffee shop to buy a cup of coffee and talking to ordinary people for a few minutes, or to come into a low-price restaurant to eat some simple food and that’s it. They did not come to live among the poor, and they never want to mingle long enough with ordinary people, but lots of people appreciated them and praised them for their couple-of-minutes humility.

– God had showed His great humility by coming down to Earth and living among the poor for 33 years. What others did cannot compare to God’s deed. That’s why we love Him so much and will follow Him to the end of the world.

PHILIPPIANS 2: 8 – And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

PHI-LÍP 2: 8 – Ngài đã hiện ra như một người, tự hạ mình xuống, vâng phục cho đến chết, thậm chí chết trên cây thập tự.

– Humility and abandoning self-comfort are the first two steps that we should follow when walking down in Jesus‘ footsteps. He had abandoned His comfort place in Heaven to be with us humans on Earth. Did we abandon our self-comfort to worship Him for a few hours a week on Sunday?

– As in the hymn named “I Gave My Life For Thee” that we sing during communion, there is a question that we should ask ourselves more often, especially during Easter’s time: I gave all for you, what have you done for Me?

– Speaking about self-abandoning, which one of us have actually abandoned ourselves from the time we accepted Him as our God and Savior? This is the question that we should answer to ourselves privately: In those years living a Christian life, are we serving Him, or serving ourselves, or our interests?

– As the powerful omnipotent, God had become a mere humble human. What level is our humbleness? Are we really humble enough that we have become examples for others?

– There are some Christians who defended their lack of humbleness by blaming others and saying “If that person is humble enough, then I certainly will be.” Does our humbleness depend on others, or are we humble because we want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps?

– Asking ourselves these questions can help us to follow Jesus’ footsteps better in our time on Earth.

– This is an illustrated example for what is being said above: A person cannot say that he became an addicted gambler because another long-time Christian has been gambling.

– In the outside world, people call that way of blaming others the behavior of the herd. It means people are copying what others did. It contradicts the meaning of following in Jesus’ footsteps. We must understand this: For whatever things others have done around us, we just keep looking up to Jesus as our example and follow Him. Whoever is able to do that is a true follower of Jesus.

HEBREWS 12: 2 – Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 12: 2 – Nhìn xem Đức Chúa Jêsus, là cội rễ và cuối cùng của đức tin, tức là Đấng vì sự vui mừng đã đặt trước mặt mình, chịu lấy thập tự giá, khinh điều sỉ nhục, và hiện nay ngồi bên hữu ngai Đức Chúa Trời.

– The third step that we should learn in order to follow Jesus’ footsteps is courageously taking family responsibilities. This has to be emphasized especially because there are people who had tried their best to avoid family responsibilities, even to their own children. There are others who took upon their responsibilities with reluctance that even the court had to force them to take on their duty.

– As we all know, Jesus became a carpenter to support Mary and His human brothers and sisters. The Bible had not mentioned much of Joseph after Jesus reached the age of twelve, so it might mean that Joseph passed away early during Jesus childhood. As the first born son of the family, Jesus had taken the responsibility of being the main care taker. That was the reason Jesus had waited until he was 30 year of age to begin His ministry so that His human brothers could be old enough to support themselves.

– To follow in Jesus’ footsteps, Christians should always remember that Jesus took on the responsibility to provide for His family with his career of being a carpenter. Having that in mind, we too could take on responsibility to care for our families, because that will please God.

1TIMOTHY 5: 8 – But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1TI-MÔ-THÊ 5: 8 – Ví bằng có ai không săn sóc đến bà con mình, nhất là không săn sóc đến người nhà mình, ấy là người chối bỏ đức tin, lại xấu hơn người không tin nữa.

– If we could follow these first three steps according to Jesus’ examples, we can most definitely count ourselves as true followers of Him. We do have others step as well, but we will consider them the next time we have a chance.

– May God bless us with wisdom, understanding, courage and strength so that we can consistently follow Jesus by His examples each day, every day from now on until the time He comes back to Earth. Amen.