You Can’t Follow Jesus Alone (Here’s Why) | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon

series called This is the Way, where we look

at what it means to follow in the way of Jesus

and what are some of the practices that help

us to become more like Jesus. Today we also celebrate

Palm Sunday, that day when we remember Jesus'

triumphant arrival into Jerusalem, riding on

a donkey surrounded by hundreds and hundreds

of people. But are all of those people the same?

Do they all have the same kind of relationship

to Jesus? Or does Jesus actually intentionally

choose some of them to be his closest friends,

his closest disciples? That's what Rob's going

to unpack for us in today's sermon as we think

about who are those people in our lives that

we want to be our closest friends, and who are

some of those crowds that surround us. The scripture

reading is taken from Mark 11, verses 1 to 11.

Mark 11:1–11

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage

and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent

two of his disciples, saying to them, Go to the

village ahead of you, and just as you enter it,

you will find a colt tied there which no one

has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks you, why are you doing this? Say,

the Lord needs it. and will send it back here

shortly. They went and found a colt outside in

the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied

it, some people standing there asked, What are

you doing untying that colt? They answered, as

Jesus had told them to, and the people let them

go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw

their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people

spread their cloaks on the road while others

spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those

who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name

of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of

our father, David. Hosanna in the highest heaven.

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple

courts. He looked around at everything, but since

it was already late, he went out to Bethany with

the twelve. The word of the Lord. We missed you

guys last week. Last week, our family had the

great opportunity to go to Vancouver Island where

we did a whole lot of hiking. In fact, some of

the hikes we went on last week were like, you

know, four hours long, five hours long. And when

you're hiking with a group of six for that long,

there are times in your mind where you ask yourself,

would this hike go a lot faster if these other

people were not with me? And I'm not trying to

name any names. names, but when you've got that

many people, you know, people get distracted

along the way and it slows you down. And the

truth is, yes, of course, you would go faster

if you were just on your own. But what happens

if, you know, ran out of water or something like

that? Or what happens if you hurt yourself? And

it's in moments like that that you are certainly

glad to be going with a group. There is an old

African proverb that says, if you want to go

fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go

together. In our world today, we all want to

go. fast. We want everything to be efficient

and quick and right away. That attitude, unfortunately,

has also bled over into our spiritual lives.

We want to grow. We want to grow spiritually,

but we want that also to happen quickly. We want

that to happen efficiently and fast. And after

all, doesn't it make sense, therefore, to kind

of go it alone on our spiritual journeys? Isn't

that faster? After all, isn't it just really

about me and Jesus? Isn't it really just about

me and my prayers or me and my Bible? Should

we just go it alone in our spiritual lives? Well,

we're in the middle of a teaching series we're

calling This is the Way. And we've been asking

the question, you know, how does one experience

spiritual transformation? And if you're like

me, then probably over the past few weeks, you've

missed one or two Sundays. And so therefore,

I thought before we go too much further today,

it might be good for us just to look back and

recap where we have been. It all started back

on Ash Wednesday when I was up here on the platform

and I had a big thing of clay. You guys remember

that if you were here Ash Wednesday? And my point

was, is that we're all made of dirt. We're all

made of soil. And as such, we're constantly being

formed and changed. Whether you like it or not,

whether you realize it or not, you're being changed

and formed into something. And my point that

night was that only God should be the one to

form us into the people that we were meant to

be. And then on the following Sunday, we talked

about how one of the most important... transformational

decisions you can make in your own life is the

decision about who you will follow. We are all

following someone or we are all following something.

And Jesus comes along and says, follow me, be

my student, be my apprentice, be my disciple.

Let me show you how to live your life. If you

remember, the week after that, we welcomed a

guest speaker, Kristen Dede Johnson from Wycliffe

College. And she spoke to us about the formative

power of studying scripture. Not studying scripture

just for information, but studying scripture

for transformation. And then the week after that,

if you're still tracking with me, you remember

I was up here on the stage and I had a basketball

in my hands. And the point I was trying to make

that day was, you know, just like none of us

could ever possibly expect to become like Michael

Jordan unless we adopt the practices and the

habits and the disciplines of Michael Jordan.

So too, none of us could ever expect to really

become like Jesus unless we're willing to accept

and adopt the disciplines and practices of Jesus.

And it was that day that we started to talk about.

about what some of those disciplines were, like

prayer and solitude and so on and so forth. The

very next week, we talked about how it is so

important for us to put these ideas into a plan,

right? Spiritual growth doesn't happen by itself.

We need a structure. We need a plan. And we encouraged

everyone to start putting together what is called

a rule of life. This is what we've been doing

all Lent long, and we've been handing out these

little booklets. Hopefully, by the end of Lent,

you're going to have a solid plan for how you

can grow spiritually. And then, of course, last

week, Sandra was here to talk to us about how

important it is for us to go through a process

of healing as part of our spiritual transformation.

You cannot run a marathon if you have a broken

leg. And it is really hard to grow spiritually

if you have unhealed wounds in your life or unresolved

sin in our lives. All of these teachings and

all the podcasts and all the practices that we've

been developing as we go through this, they're

all available on our website, trinitystreetsville

.org slash thisistheway. And if you were to go

and if you look at this, you'd probably say,

okay, well, that's pretty much got to do it.

I mean, what more really could there be? How

much more could there be to this spiritual formation

thing? Well, we're not done yet. There's today,

Palm Sunday. and then Maundy Thursday, and then

Good Friday, and then even Easter Sunday. We're

going to talk about the final four kind of practices

and aspects of spiritual growth in our life.

So as Kyla said at the beginning of the service,

please stay with us and keep tracking with us

all the way through. And that brings us to today.

Today, we are going to look at what very well

may be the most overlooked part of spiritual

growth. You cannot follow Jesus alone. Solo Christianity

is a myth. The truth is that it's only by gathering

with others that we can spiritually be transformed.

Today is Palm Sunday. And today, Jesus begins

the most challenging week of his life. It is

a week that will lead to his own suffering and

death. And he does not go into that week alone.

Now, can you imagine if he had? Can you imagine

if Jesus had ridden into Jerusalem alone? No

disciples, no crowds, no people around him. Just

one man on a donkey heading into the hardest

week of his life. I mean, how much harder would

that week have been for Jesus if he had gone

it alone? What would have even become of the

Jesus movement, which we call Christianity, if

he had gone it alone? But of course, Jesus never

lived that way. And Jesus never called us to

live that way either. Because Jesus knew that

spiritual formation cannot happen in isolation.

It happens in relationship. It happens in community.

This is the picture that we're more familiar

with when we think of Palm Sunday. Crowds and

disciples and waving branches and people crying

Hosanna. Where did those people all come from?

Well, from the very beginning of Jesus's ministry,

he was constantly gathering groups of people

around him so that they could follow him and

so that they could be formed by him. Jesus did

not come just to save individuals. Jesus came

to create a community around himself. So therefore,

this is the takeaway point. Following Jesus.

Always means following Jesus with others. But

who are these others? Who are these people, especially

around Jesus on this day? Now, if you look closely,

what I want to suggest to you is it's not just

one group. There are, in fact, four or more groups

here. There's a psychologist by the name of Robin

Dunbar. And he has determined that there are

at least four circles of relationships in everyone's

life. And Jesus also has these four circles of

relationships in his own life. And we can see

them all on a day like Palm Sunday. And I've

given you guys some teaching notes. If you want

to follow along today to make sure you get the

most out of this, I encourage you to do so. Let's

start with that very first circle, which I'm

going to call Jesus's core group. This is what

Robin Dunbar would call Jesus' intimates. Did

you know, many people don't, did you know that

Jesus had a core group of friends that he was

especially close to, more than he was with the

others? Now, that core group definitely included

these three guys, Peter, James, and John. This

was Jesus's inner circle, right? They were given

exclusive access to some of the most important

and intimate moments of Jesus's life. So for

example, on the night that Jesus was arrested,

he was praying in the garden of Gethsemane. And

who did he have with him? Peter, James, and John.

And it's also very interesting that Jesus had

another little core group of people that he hung

out with all the time. In fact, the day before

Palm Sunday, where was Jesus? He was in Bethany.

What was going on in Bethany? Well, in Bethany,

there... were these three dear, dear friends

of Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. John tells

us that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

That is Jesus's core group. These are his kind

of little core groups. And there are moments

in your life and moments in my life where you

don't need more and more people around you. You

just need the right people. You need that core

group of people. The people who know you, like

know you deeply. They know the good. They know

the bad. They know the ugly. And research would

say that really in these core groups, we can

only sustain like maybe three or five or six

people that are this intimate to our lives. The

Celtic Christians had a name for this kind of

a friend. It was an Anamkara or a soul friend,

someone who knows your innermost self. Some people,

granted, might feel like they don't have this

kind of a friend in their life. I really hope

that you all do have someone like this in your

life. Someone that you can be yourself with.

Someone you can bear your soul to. Because they

are absolutely essential for spiritual transformation.

Just as they were for Jesus, so too for us. Now,

let's zoom out from that picture. Remember that

picture? Let's zoom out one step from the core

to what I want to call The companions. Now, when

I speak of Jesus' companions, I'm not talking

about those three to five core. Now, I've expanded

it to include the twelve. The twelve apostles.

You see, Palm Sunday, in Matthew's version of

the gospel, we are told that as Jesus was making

his way to Jerusalem along the road, that he

took aside the twelve disciples by themselves

to talk to them. There are some things that Jesus

does not want to talk to the crowd about, but

he wants to talk to his 12 disciples about. In

this case, it was about all that awaited them

in Jerusalem, suffering and death and the cross.

This is a conversation for Jesus and his companions.

And all through the gospel, we see Jesus hanging

out with these 12, right? He eats with them.

He travels with them. And Mark 12 says, Jesus.

collected these 12 just so he could be with them.

I love that line, just to be with them. Now,

sociologists will say that this circle of friends

is usually around like 10 or 15 people big. And

these are the kind of people that we actually

do life with. Remember when Jesus said, love

one another. That's this group of people. Forgive

one another. That's this group of people. You

know, pray for one another. That's this group

of people. You know, bear one another's burdens.

That's this group of people where we do all that

one anothering. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that

the Christian needs another Christian who speaks

God's word to him. He needs him again and again

when he becomes uncertain and discouraged for

by himself, he cannot help himself. There are

things you just can't see in yourself. And there

are moments you need someone else to remind you

who you are. So here's a question. Who's a question?

Who are your spiritual companions? Right? Who

walks this journey of faith with you? Because

Jesus didn't just have a core group. He had these

companions as well. Now, I want to zoom out.

Let's zoom out to the next circle. From the core

group, from the companions, to what I want to

call the crowd. And now I'm going to refer to

the crowd as disciples, which may sound really

confusing because Rob, didn't you just talk about

the 12 as disciples? Well, I call the 12 companions.

I'm calling the crowd disciples. And here's why.

Jesus had more than 12 disciples. In fact, again,

let's go to the Palm Sunday reading from Luke's

gospel this time. We are told that the whole

crowd of what? Disciples. It's a crowd of disciples

began to joyfully praise God. So there was this

core. There was his companions. But then we often

read about the crowd. The crowd. And look at

what this crowd is doing. I find it fascinating.

What are they doing? They are joyfully praising

God. They are celebrating Jesus. They're worshiping.

So therefore, in my mind, when I think of a crowd

and I think of worshiping, I, of course, think

of a church, right? And again, sociologists have

this rule that they call the rule of 150, which

basically says you can really only sustain about

150 relationships in total. In your life. Which

is interesting. Because you know what the kind

of average size. Of most churches is. It's around

150. Now Trinity is. A church that's bigger than

150. But for our purposes. Think of the crowd.

As this church. This is us. When we gather to

sing. When we gather to pray. And praise God.

To celebrate Jesus. When we're doing that. Something

important is happening in your spiritual formation.

And researchers have shown that people who participate

in what you're doing this morning in communal

worship, they have stronger predictors of long

-term faith, of resilience, and of emotional

well -being, right? You can, of course, over

here on your own encounter God all by yourself.

But something powerful happens when we gather

to do this thing we're doing as a crowd. James

K .A. Smith puts it this way. Worship is the

arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms

our desires, and rehabituates our loves. When

we gather here week after week, that's what is

happening. Look to your left. Look to your right.

The people that are around you this morning,

they are essential to your spiritual growth.

Okay? So we have the core. We have the companions.

We have the crowd. But finally, we have the community.

The community is that larger group of people

with which you identify. For Jesus, of course,

his community. Was the Jewish faith. It was the

people of God. It was Israel. God's chosen people.

And on Palm Sunday. They were there too. Now

Jesus did not know who all those people were.

He did not know their names. He had never hung

out with them. And yet they were part of his

community. We read that a great multitude of

people were there that day. That had come to

the feast. Having heard that Jesus was coming

to Jerusalem. This is your people group. This

is Jesus's people group. They were gathered around

the markers of their ethnic identity, the city,

the temple, their worship, their shared life,

their identity. It's the story that, you know,

binds them all together, right? This is the widest

circle of all. And it's not people that you necessarily

know personally, but you belong to these people

nonetheless. You're part of something bigger

here at Trinity Streetsville. You're not just

part of this congregation. You're not even just

part of the Diocese of Toronto. You're not even

just part of the Anglican worldwide communion.

You are part of something bigger than that. You

are part of the great body of believers in Christ

all around the world. Sometimes sociologists

call this your tribe. Right? It's that group

of people that give you that sense of identity

and purpose. It's, you know, when you ask yourself

the question, what am I a part of? Who am I a

part of? That's your community. Dallas Willard

says that God's aim is to create an all inclusive

community of loving persons. That is the vision

of the church. It is not about where you attend.

That's your crowd. But it's where you belong.

And you belong to this community, whether you're

in Mississauga or Montreal or Mozambique. Okay,

so here we have it. The core, the companions,

the crowd, and the community. These are four

circles that shape you spiritually. But let me

ask you the question. Which one of these circles

do you think is most important to your spiritual

formation? They're all important. Jesus had all

these circles in his life. We need all these

circles in our life. But they don't all shape

us equally. Right? And here's the truth. You

can be part of a community and still remain unknown.

You can be part of a crowd. And still feel alone.

You can come to church on Sunday. And still remain.

Untransformed. And that's because research shows

us. That while large groups. Can give us a sense

of identity. Deep personal change. Happens in

those smaller circles. Greg Ogden says. Life

transformation takes place. In the context of

intentional relationships. Not in crowds. Intentional

small relationships. You can hear a sermon in

a crowd. You're hearing a sermon in a crowd right

now. But you're going to be formed more by your

core and by your companions. Those are the friends

who see you, know you, can challenge you, and

encourage you in ways that I cannot up here.

There's a guy named Ken Shigematsu who wrote

a book on spiritual formation. And in that book,

he talks about... Four kinds of friendships that

we're all going to need in order to grow spiritually.

Here's the first one. We need friends who show

up. Who are simply there consistently. They're

present and they are faithful. Not just when

it's convenient. Not just when life is easy.

But they're there when you need them. You see,

spiritual transformation takes a long time. And

so you need people who are going to be there.

And they don't disappear when things get hard.

So question number one, who shows up for you?

Who do you show up for? Secondly, we need friends

who lift us up. We need friends who encourage

us, friends who remind us of what is true and

point us back to the Jesus when we forget. Because

in our spiritual lives, we're going to have moments

of, you know, where we feel dejected and we're

going to lose our faith. And it's in those moments

we need people to come along and say, no, no,

no, no, no. That's not who you are. Remember

who you are. So question number two, who lifts

you up? Who do you lift up? Third, we need friends

who open up. We need friends who are willing

to be real and vulnerable and honest with us

and not just talk about surface level chit chat.

We can do that in a crowd. We can do that in

the community. But we need people with whom we

can name our struggles and we can take off our

masks and we can stop pretending. So question

number three. Who do you open up to? Who actually

knows your real life? And question number four,

or number four, is we need friends who speak

up. We need friends who are willing to tell us

the truth, even if that's a truth that we don't

want to hear. Hey, Rob, you're drifting. Hey,

it seems like you're stuck. Hey, I think God

has more for you than this. Left to ourselves,

we will minimize these kind of things, or we

will justify our problems, but real friends ask

the hard questions. So question four, do you?

have friends like that. These are the kind of

relationships that form us. Friends who show

up and lift us up and speak up and open up. We

don't need a hundred people like this in our

lives, but we do need a few because this is where

real transformation happens. Now, maybe you're

saying, oh, Rob, yeah, I agree. This sounds really

good, but I have to be honest with you. It's

hard for me to find friends like this. I don't

have. Friends like us. I have a community and

I have a crowd I'm part of. But yeah, it's hard.

I'm not trying to say this is easy. But just

as we close today, let me suggest just a couple

of ways that you might begin to build your own

inner circles this way. First, pray for companionship.

Pray to God. Say, God, would you send me the

kind of friends I need? God, I need a spiritual

friend. God, I need an Anamkara. Someone who

I can walk with and someone who I can grow with.

God cares about you. So pray and ask God for

a spiritual companion. Second, pursue those connections.

You know, don't just sit back. Take the initiative.

You know, don't wait for these friends just to

land in your lap. Why not invite someone to coffee

or start up a conversation with someone? Invite

someone to a meal. Because every meaningful friendship,

you know, starts with the first step. And I'm

not saying they're all going to turn into like,

you know, spiritual bosom buddies. But you got

to take some initiative. Thirdly, rather than

pining for a friend. Just start practicing being

a friend. Be the friend that you're looking for.

Someone who shows up and lifts up and opens up.

Be that to someone else. Fourthly, plug in. to

some fellowship. Take an intentional step to

inject yourself into community. See, here at

Trinity, we have ways of trying to help people

develop these kind of friendships. Right now,

you're gathered in a crowd, and that is wonderful,

but we also have ways of getting people into

smaller groups. We call them life groups. Life

groups are groups of 10, 12, 15 people that meet

all around our city, and I believe that is where

most of the transformation takes place. this

congregation, not in this moment on a Sunday

morning, but in those moments on Tuesday nights

or Thursday mornings in the coffee shop, whatever

they are. So if you're interested in being part

of a life group, please visit our welcome desk

after the service and ask about how you can start

exploring a life group that is a good fit for

you. And finally, finally, if you're trying to

find some people in your life, just remember

to keep prioritizing your relationship with God.

make sure you prioritize your friendship with

God because the deeper your relationship with

God becomes, the more you're going to be drawn

into relationship with others. You see, God himself

is a relationship. Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

And when we follow God, we find ourselves drawn

into relationship with others. So let's end where

we began. Jesus riding into Jerusalem, surrounded

by people, a core, his companions, a crowd, and

his community. He didn't walk into the hardest

week of his life alone, and neither should you.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want

to go far, go together. This is the way of Jesus.

Amen. Thanks for listening to this week's episode

of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded

at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,

Ontario on March 29, 2026.