Follow The Leader Series

“Follow the Leader”

John 1:35-51

Three weeks ago we started a journey with Jesus. We are walking in His Footsteps through the gospels. We have met John the Baptist and have seen him prepare a path for Jesus, this lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. We have looked at the boy Jesus as he baffles the teachers in the temple with His understanding and His answers to their questions.

Last week we looked at this early time in His ministry when Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. Jesus overcame one temptation after another, after another and then again and the Bible summarizes that section by telling us that the devil left Him and angels came and attended to Him. Following His baptism and this time of being tempted we then move to what we believe to be the next event in His ministry and that is the calling of the first disciples.

John 1:35-51

About 10 years ago our oldest son, David, Jr. Came home one day and said hey Dad guess what I did ... that always a dreaded question ... I joined the Army today. Since he was in college at the time and of course with America being at war I was concerned. But as he explained his decision I realized that my son felt a calling to serve his country.

The army uses slogans like these for recruiting:

There’s something about a soldier.

Be all you can be.

Army strong.

I want you!

If not you, who?

Jesus also had a strategy for calling our His disciples in 30 A.D. He uses the same strategy in 2010 and this passage sums it up in several very simple statements. The first call He extends to us is this .... 1. Come and see! Vv 35-39 Of all the commands we find in the scripture the one that is most neglected is the command to share our faith; to witness. Most believers spend some time in prayer and Bible study, never enough , but spend very little time sharing their faith. When we consider the fact that when Jesus met with his disciples for their final meeting this is what He told them to do ... make disciples, baptize and teach. Jesus never distinguished between being born again and being a disciple. Too many people today have prayed a prayer to receive Christ and that is as far as they have gone. They prayed that prayer, sat down and did absolutely nothing to grow in their faith. The gospel that Jesus preached was one that placed great demands on the new believer. It was not intended to be easy. Listen to some of th things Jesus said ...

* take up your cross and follow me. There are a lot of different meanings we can take from this but know this ... none of them are good. Crosses were used for only one thing in that day ... executions. Anyone who picked up a cross could count on one thing .. they were going to die. Or this ...

* anyone who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Or this .

* Luke 14:25-26 or

* when one man was wondering whether he should follow Jesus or not, he said to Jesus my Father just died ... Lord let me go and bury my Father. Jesus then told him ....v. 60.

O.K. so we get the point Jesus. In fact it would seem that Jesus did more to talk people out of following them than into following Him. This was not an easy commitment. So Jesus put it this way ... come and see. Try Jesus. Take a

test drive. Get to Know Him. You will not be disappointed.

The call to come and see is a call to have your spiritual eyes opened to God’s truth. It is a call to transformation/change. Here’s the deal ... you spend time with Jesus and you will never be the same again. Come and see. A few verses later when Philip went to Nathanael to tell him about Jesus of Nazareth we see that Nathanael has doubts. He says Nazareth, can anything good come out of Nazareth? What does Philip say? Come and see! See for yourself!

After Jesus tells the 2 disciples to come and see He then gives them a 2nd invitation ... a 2nd calling. He simply says “follow me.” V. 43. Key word here is follow. You see it’s a short phrase but it carries a lot of meaning. If you are going to serve Christ you must walk in His Footsteps. You must learn to follow. For some of us that’s hard. We want to lead. We want to be in charge. WE want to be the one people follow.