Are You A Follower Of Jesus?

ARE YOU A FOLLOWER OF JESUS?

MATTHEW 4:18-25

INTRODUCTION: In the first chapter of John’s gospel (1:35-50), we are told that Andrew, his brother Peter along with Phillip and Nathaniel accepted Jesus as the Messiah based on the testimony of John the Baptist. As believers, Matthew’s gospel tells us that Christ came to Peter and Andrew and issued a call to a deeper relationship with Him – to not be just believers but to be true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a difference between a believer and a follower. This morning are you a follower of Jesus Christ. Have you heard His call?

I. THE CALL TO FOLLOW JESUS

A. Matthew 4:19 "And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

B. When Christ said, “Follow Me”, He used a term, which was taken from two words, one expressing “union” or “likeness” and the other “a way”. Hence the term literally means to go in the same way. It means to be a companion. It speaks of being a disciple, that is one who follows one’s teaching, who being united with one’s teacher becomes an imitator of that teacher.

C. All too many people come to Christ for salvation and then sit down and do nothing while waiting to go to Heaven.

D. To many Christians, Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal--He is not a reality. Millions of professed believers have called on Christ to save them from eternal punishment and have little or no desire to know Christ intimately.

E. Colossians 2:6 "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:"

F. When Christ calls for us to follow Him, He is calling us to continual, active companionship with Christ.

G. Walking with Christ helps us enjoy our standing with Christ.

II. THE COST OF FOLLOWING JESUS

A. Commitment

1. When Jesus left the carpenter shop at Nazareth, he never picked up a hammer or saw again. He had a total commitment to his work.

2. Matthew 4:19-20 "And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [20] And they straightway left their nets, and followed him."

3. Luke 9:61-62 "And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. [62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

4. ```Philippians 3:14 "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

5. Philippians 3:14 says, “I press toward.” The word, translated press toward, is a Greek word that means to “follow after” and “pursue”. We are to commit to keep pressing on!

6. If you desire Christ for a perpetual guest, give him all the keys of your heart; let not one cabinet be locked up from him; give him the range of every room and the key of every chamber. – Charles Haddon Spurgeon

B. Obedience

1. Hebrews 5:8-9 "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; [9] And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;"

2. Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; and he that trusts God, obeys God.

3. 1 John 2:5-6 "But who so keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. [6] He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

4. The true pupil, say of some great musician or painter, yields his master a wholehearted and unhesitating submission. In practicing his scales or mixing the colors, in the slow and patient study of the elements of his art, he knows that it is wisdom simply and fully to obey. It is this wholehearted surrender to His guidance, this implicit submission to His authority, which Christ asks. We come to Him asking Him to teach us the lost art of obeying God as He did. ... The only way of learning to do a thing is to do it. The only way of learning obedience from Christ is to give up your will to Him and to make the doing of His will the one desire and delight of your heart. – Andrew Murray in With Christ in the School of Obedience. Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 13.

5. Spiritual maturity comes not by education and scholarship, but by compliance with the known will of God.

C. Sacrifice

1. Billy Graham (1918-) – Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.