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Ithaca SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

Following the Lamb

As we mentioned once already, this is the time of the year when most of the Christian world is looking and remembering the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That it's only because of Jesus being raised from the dead that we can have hope of newness of life as well.

But I want to tell you something this morning that Jesus didn't stay in the grave, amen?

But Jesus raised and is living a life and interceding on our behalf before the Father, and what a blessing we have in that.

You see, it's not our only responsibility to follow Jesus looking at Him on the cross.

Not only understanding His death and His resurrection.

But this morning, we want to look at what does the Bible describe as God's last day people?

Is it the people that God says are just staring at the cross and that's it?

Is it just looking at His resurrection and what we're going to see this morning is that it's a people who's focused on the entire life of Jesus.

Turn with me to Revelation chapter 14 this morning.

Revelation chapter 14 and verse 1 and I guess I should say turn with me there this afternoon.

Revelation chapter 14 and verse 1 and for those of you who are afraid that potluck will burn, I can guarantee we have good people in the kitchen who can manage the ovens.

And we're going to do our very best to be fed from the Word of God, not taking too much time, but making sure that we can focus on Jesus this morning.

How does the Bible describe God's last day people?

1 It says, "...then I looked, and behold a..." what?

"...a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144, 000, having His Father's name written on their foreheads.

Now before we go any further, what in the world is Revelation talking about here?

Who is the lamb that's standing on Mount Zion?

John chapter 1, when John the Baptist sees Jesus, what does he say?

Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

So we see in Revelation chapter 14 here this morning that Jesus is there and there's a group surrounding Him called the what?

Now we're not going to be technical here this morning and get into all the nuances, but what we can see that is clear from this passage of Scripture is that these are God's last day people.

Now notice the characteristics of God's last day people.

They're standing there with the Lamb on Mount Zion.

Verse 2 tells us that they have the Father's name written in their foreheads.

Verse 2 continues on and says, and I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of a loud thunder.

And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps, and they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the 4 living creatures and the elders.

And no 1 could learn their song except the what?

The 144, 000 who were redeemed from the earth.

These are those who have not disfiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.

These were the ones redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits to God and to the lamb.

Now there's a lot in this passage that we could look at this morning.

We could try to understand what it means to have the Father's name written in our forehead.

But we realize that the name of God and the character of God are synonymous, right?

And as the Bible is looking at this group of people, they see people standing with Jesus.

And as they look at those people, those people have the character of God in their minds or in their lives.

It also continues on to tell us that they were not defiled with women for they are virgins.

And there's some this morning who might feel discouraged because that's not the situation that we find ourselves in.

But this isn't talking about our purity in and of ourselves, right?

It's the purity that only Jesus can give us.

And as He covers us with His robe of righteousness, they're found spotless before God.

There may be some here who are impure this morning, but the Lord can make us pure, amen?

And the Lord can clothe us with His righteousness.

But the point we want to focus on this morning is the key factor, the crux of the issue that Revelation 14 tells us.

It's that these are the ones who were redeemed among men, but right before that it tells us that these were the ones who did what?

They followed the Lamb when it was convenient, right?

They followed the Lamb periodically or spasmodically.

Now I don't know about you, but I want it to be said of me, that when God looks down at my life, and when other people look at my life, that the 1 thing they see is that we follow Jesus wherever we go, amen?

Whatever we do it's just looking like Jesus and people are constantly reminded of the sinless, perfect, beautiful, helpful life of Jesus.

And as people are looking at that, they're reminded that we follow the Lamb wheresoever we go.

I told Pearl the reason why I'm preaching the sermon this morning is because I see this identified in her life.

But I think it's identified in many others of our lives, or it's our desire.

How many of you say this morning, I want to follow Jesus wherever He goes?

Lord, I want this to be the key moving principle of my being, that a seamless connection with Christ is what I have.

Now I want to ask you this morning, what does it look like to follow the Lamb wherever we go?

You know, it's easy for us to read this verse and say, yeah, I'm gonna follow Jesus wherever I go, but let me ask you a question.

As you think, is this what Jesus is talking about, that we're supposed to go to Mount Zion and find whatever lamb is wandering there and start chasing it?

No, You might get put in a padded room in a mental facility, right?

But we realize what Jesus is looking for is people who are not following this physical lamb wandering around Mount Zion, but people who are following the true lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and that we follow Him as we see Him in His Word.

Now what I'm thankful this morning is that Jesus tells us what it means to follow Him.

We don't have to try to come up with a crazy theory of what it really means to follow the Lamb, but we can simply look at the words of Jesus to understand what it means to follow the Lamb.

I want you to turn with me, 1 of the key characteristics that we see in the life of Jesus is in Luke 22.

We're going to look at 3 brief points of what it means to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

Luke 22.42 These are some of the final words recorded of Jesus.

Now when we say that we're going to be following the Lamb, is it possible for us to follow the Lamb of God without doing the things and allowing our lives to be consumed by the things that consume Jesus' life?

We have to have Jesus, His example, as our example, right?

And as we look to that example, it has to be lived out in the line.

1 of the first and I would say most important keys about the life of Jesus and following the Lamb is found here.

You know, when John was telling us, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world, what part of Jesus' life was He specifically referring to when the Lamb of God would take away the sins of the world?

Was it Jesus' ministry in the carpenter shop?

Was it Jesus' ministry with His 12 disciples?

Could it be that it was Jesus' ministry on the cross?

Like the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth?

And if we want to follow the Lamb wheresoever we go with, what if we looked at the last part of Jesus' life and saw what it was that was the characteristic that identified Jesus at that time.

We'll start at verse 41 and talking about Jesus.

And He was withdrawn from them, His 12 disciples, about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and He prayed.

This is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before He's taken to Calvary.

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Following the Lamb

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