“If You Serve Christ You Must Follow Him!”

“If You Serve Christ You Must Follow Him!”(Jn.12:20-26).
Tertullian, one of the second century church fathers wrote that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” He was by this implying that the willingness of a martyr to sacrifice his life leads to the conversion of others(Cf. Acts 7).
As it is, there are many beautiful flowers that blosom and whither in the forests without any human eyes seeing it, nor their sweet fragrances smelled by any humans. While we see martyrs as only those who like Stephen were murdered for the sake of the gospel, I consider that all those missionaries who died and were buried in mission lands were also martyrs.
Tertullian’s words have become so popular, but the first person to have said this was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. If not that Jesus was the Son of God, we would have said that he was the first martyr.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, “…unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” If Jesus had not obediently succumbed to his Father’s demand there would not have been any church and no Christians either. The blood of Jesus became the seed of the church. If he did not shed his blood he would not have become the Christ.
Having sacrificed this much for us, he calls us to self-denial if we are his followers. Self-denial is not mortification of the flesh as was once considered the hallmark of self-denial. Self-denial is about counting all else as loss so as to know Christ more and more and the power of his resurrection.
As the Lord himself says, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” This may sound like an abberation but the truth is that there are many who serve Christ but who do not follow him. The telltales are everywhere. There is so much that we do in God’s name, but having no regard for God!
The Lord is saying that his servers must be his followers. This requires an honest answer to this introspective question: “Do I follow Christ in thought, word and deed in the same way I claim to serve him?” If not, why not?
Sunday prayer: Holy Spirit help me daily to follow the Lord Jesus Christ so as to serve him better. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.