Copying Jesus
John 10:7-10
7. Jesus therefore said to them, again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8. All who came before Me area thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
9. I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he hall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
10. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.
John 16:33
16. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace, in the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.
Would you like to discover a plan that would allow you to escape the tribulation that you experience in this world and would allow you to experience the abundantly life that Jesus said he came to give? In this world we experience things like inflation, recession, depression, sin, sickness, disease, war, and death. Is it possible to live, right here, in the same environment with all these tribulations and bondages and still experience abundant life or must we wait to go to heaven before we can live free?
Romans 8:2 teaches us how to receive this abundant life. The Apostle Paul writes:
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
When we discover how to operate out of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus then we can be free from the law of sin and death. We can live debt-free, poverty-free, recession-free, sickness-free, and sin-free right here in the middle of this troubled world. You say, “Nobody can do that!” Jesus did!
He lived in the same environment we are in, yet He raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, rebuked the storms, and broke the power of sin. Not even death could hold him. John 10:17-18 records these words of Jesus:
17. For this reason the Father loves Me because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My father.
Jesus had the power to lay down His life and to raise it up again, now that is freedom! How could he do this? John 8:23-29 gives us the answer.
23. And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.
24. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He you shall die in your sins.”
25. And so they were saying to Him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to your from the beginning?
26. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
27. They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.
28. Jesus therefore said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
29. And He who sent Me is with Me, He has not left Me along, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.
Pay close attention to what Jesus said in verse 28. He said that He did nothing on His own initiative and that He only spoke the things that the Father taught him. Put that together with what Jesus said in John 5:19.
19. Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
Jesus lived his entire life by doing what He saw His Father do and saying what He heard His Father say. Keeping that in mind look at John 8:30-32.
30. As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.
31. Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32. and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
What is Jesus telling these new believers? He is simply saying to them that if they will continue in His word just as He has continued in His Father’s word—If they will copy Him just as He has been coping His Father. Then they will come to know the truth that comes from Him and they will be just as free as He is free!
Do you want to be free from this world and from the cycle of evil found in this world? Then copy Jesus. Become His disciple. Let me ask you an important question. Who are you going to copy? Moses said this to the Children of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19:
19. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.
According to Moses there were two things occupying the same place and the same time and the people would have to choose one or the other. There was life and death, the blessing and the curse. Faced with that type of choice which would you choose?
Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-27.
24. Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.
25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
26. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.
Jesus said there were two houses that faced the same storm. One house survived unhurt and the other was completely destroyed. Why did one fall and one survive? The one that fell copied the wrong person. Probably said, when their house fell, “Well I guess it was God’s will for my house to fall down during the storm. After all He could have stopped it but He didn’t.”
That kind of think is not the wisdom of God but rather the speech of a fool. Jesus would say that God had nothing to do with the house being destroyed. Why did it fall? Because it was built wrong. The owner of the house of the house did not copy Jesus.
In the final analysis who you copy will determine your future. It will determine your character. It will determine your destiny. If you keep coping the world’s way you will share in the world’s destiny. All the world offers is sin and death because it operates under the law of sin and death that Paul speaks of in Romans 8:2.
However, you can turn from the way of the world and begin to operate out of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. How do I begin to accomplish this? By coping Jesus. If you will begin to say what He says and nothing else, and do what His word tells you to do then you will share in His destiny. The choice is yours. Today there is set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life by making Jesus Lord of your life and following Him.
