Will You Follow?
Last week we sang a hymn that we have sang before. Will You Come and Follow Me was one of the opening songs and I found myself lost in it for the first time. I ‘felt’ the words as I made my feeble attempt to sing. The words to this hymn are comprised of an invitation from Christ to all of us. The hymn is also called The Summons, and it gives the response that we would give if we were speaking with Christ in person. I think last week, because I was really caught up in the words of this hymn, I had the very real feeling that I was in fact speaking personally to Christ. I thought it was worth while having a look at it this week.
Will You Come and Follow Me by John Bell is a hymn that speaks of commitment and discipleship to the call of Christ. The truth is that Christ's call changes the one being called even as the disciple changes the world by giving witness to our Saviour by word and deed. The first three stanzas are the Saviour's call and summons to discipleship. The final stanza is the Christian's response to Christ's call. (today I am using the four verse version).
Will you come and follow Me if I but call your name?
There is a question for all of us to ponder. Has God ever called your name? This, of course, is not meant to be a literal calling of your name – but it is a real question about our relationship to God. Have you ever felt a thought come over you that God was tapping you on the shoulder, getting your attention; calling you? Have you ever felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit moving you away from a thought or situation that you knew to be wrong? What about when you think of your eventual life’s end. This calling of your name is really the Holy Spirit moving within you. It is a real and important call.
When we get that call, and all of us at one time or another have felt it, we need to stop and take a breath and consider that call.
The second line of the song says, “Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? That simple line describes the awakening of a non believer to the reality of Christ, and all that comes with it. It carries with it a fantastic image of one entering into a relationship with their Saviour even though there is nothing familiar about it. Hebrews 11 tells us, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” This image of going where you don’t know is the faith journey to take you to the certainty of what you humanly can not see.
The third and fourth lines in this invitation assure us that we are, in the act of having faith in Christ, allowing Him to show us His love for us and He asks us to know His name – Know that He is our Saviour.
The last line asks the believer a flat out question; Will you let My life be grown in you (will you let Christ in) and will you let your life be grown in Him, Jesus Christ. This is the fundamental invitation that Christ makes to everyone. “Will you let Me into your life and let Me show you the love that I have for you?” The promise in this first verse is that if we yield to the urgings of the Holy Spirit, the feelings that we all have at one time or another, we will realize this ‘offered’ relationship with Jesus Christ – and we will never be the same.
It also tells us that we will “grow.” Our faith and ability to rationalize this life will grow. Our acceptance of challenges and trials on this earth will be greater and with faith, easier to bear.
This hymn reminds us of the journey that we take in faith. The first line of the second stanza asks the key question. “Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?” Once we accept the invitation to have Christ in our life, it resembles
2 Corinthians 5:17, where Paul talks about becoming a new creation. Paul tells us again in Colossians about what happens when we “leave our self.” “You have put off the old person with their deeds, and have put on the new person who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Colossians 3:9-10).”
Part of this “leaving the old behind” is addressed later in this stanza when Christ asks us directly; Will you care for cruel and kind? Will you care for your brothers and sisters – making the conscious decision to leave their failings and attributes to God, and help them regardless? Can you stop judging long enough to care for them both physically and spiritually? Will you risk the hostile stare – or worse will you risk your life (which can mean your comfort) should your caring attract the negativity of others or even the shunning of those who disagree with you. Can you believe that you are in fact a “new creation?”
This is the test of one who calls themselves a believer, or one who says “I am a Christian.” Believing and being a Christian are verbs – they are action words. What this whole verse is asking is “are you real?’ Do you see the significance of the “call?” Do you really understand the full meaning of “will you leave yourself behind?”
Some will skim over this direct question – they fail to see the purity in the request. Will you stop being your old self? Will you let your actions, from this point on; demonstrate that there has been a change (for the good) in how you live your life. Will you leave the old, self absorbed, blind to others behind; the one who knew that there were things they could have done regularly for the betterment of their brothers and sisters but did nothing – will you leave that old person behind. Will you, in your relationship with Jesus Christ, show Him that His call to you has been answered, not given the nod, not logging an hour a week in church, but answering in the creation of a new person?
The incredible part of this verse is the last line. Christ has asked these questions, these hard questions of us as to whether we will really change and live according to his call – in spite of the hardships that not being selfish may include and He says to us, “Will you let Me answer prayer in you and you in Me? Will you let Me show you how I can be trusted as your Saviour. Christ is asking us – “Will you allow Me to demonstrate to you that once you have taken notice to the fact that you can choose to be a “new creation,” I, (Jesus Christ) would like to be with you (in you) to answer your prayers. This monumental promise is there and He puts it so simply, like – “Will you let me?”
He goes on in the next verse to tell you that He will see the change in us when we decide to do so. He lets us know that it is not easy for us to change and He gives us encouragement so we will not stumble. He lets us know that He sees the inside of us and understands how we feel and think. He understands that sometimes we are afraid to take that step toward Him. He says, “Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?” Will you recognize that inside, good is wanting to change you. Will you “quell the fear inside – and never be the same?” He is saying to us, ‘I know that you have doubts and fears and insecurities about giving your life to Me, and I see inside of you, I see all that, but the question remains; Will you make the decision in spite of the doubt and fear? You will notice that the assurance to us is ‘you will never be the same.’
I can assure you that that is the case. Once you decide to separate your wants and desires from this world and you start to pay attention to the call you have from Christ – you will never be the same. It is a change that you will appreciate and marvel in for the rest of your life.
The last part of the third verse gives us our plan for after we decide to accept Him into our life – and put our life into Him. He says, “Will you use the faith you have found, during your time of thinking and weighing your life and to the need for change. Will you use that new found faith to re-shape the world? Wow, re-shape the world? That seems to be an overly grand request – but if you think about it, we can reshape the world. We have, as a church family, already started to re-shape the world. A great number of this congregation went to New Orleans and made a new home for a woman and her kids after they were left with nothing. We have put food on the table for literally hundreds of families who had to worry about were their next meal was coming from, through the Kingdom Project. We have supported a youth home that has little else in the way of support – but we have just started. There is a tremendous amount of change we, as individuals, and us as a church family can bring to the world.
It is the last line of this third verse that gives us the promise and encouragement that should drive us forward in our quest to follow Him. “Through My sight and touch and sound in you and you in Me.” He lets us know that he is intimately aware of everything about us. Jesus promises that we will be seen by Him and touched by Him as we live this life as new creations. We know that the Holy Spirit urges us from within and He promises that as we attempt to re-shape the world around us, by reaching outward, He is with us and in us.
The last verse of this wonderful hymn changes. It speaks of the acceptance of the believer to want to become this person who is in the employ of Christ. The term, “Your summons echoes true” tells us that a believer can hear this call I have been talking about and recognize it as the credible, true call from Christ. It is the realization that He is calling us and we know that the inner feeling of the Holy Spirit is asking us, “Will you follow Him – or are you going to continue to follow you?”
The answer in the hymn and the answer that we all know in our heart of hearts to be true is stated beautifully in the second line of the last verse. “Let me turn and follow You and never be the same,” the believer replies to Christ. This is a reversal of the question and really drives home the point of the whole hymn. “Let me turn and follow You,” now the believer says to Christ. This is the product of Jesus having told him, and us, that He will
hear us, love us, encourage us, change us, understand our inner being and live with us in our consciousness.
The believer responds to this invitation or call from Christ giving the assurance now to Christ that they know “we will never be the same.” We need to hear that and understand that if we are going to be new creations in Christ. The believer goes on to state that “In Your company I will go, in faith, where your love and footsteps show. The believer is saying, “yes, I will follow you, I will, through faith. I will trust that Your love will show me the path.
Finally, the last line realizes the path to take for life. It gives us three things that will occur once we make the decision to change our lives and really follow Christ. “I’ll move and live and grow in You and You in me. To move and live in Christ is the motive of us all as believers. We move in concert with Christ – the Holy Spirit guides our every step. The wonderful product of a life like that is stated in the third word: grow. We will grow in our peace and contentment as the world’s trials and challenges come our way and we will grow in our faith because we know that Christ literally lives in us.
At the end of the day we all must look in the mirror and as we ponder our lives and think about how we are living and who we are living for, we ultimately come to the question that is posed in the title of this beautiful hymn. Will you come and follow Me?
