TAKING THE FIRST STEP
Matthew 4:18-20
READ AT BEGINNING OF SERVICE:
Luke 9:23 (NIV)
23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
INTRODUCTION
As a parent I’ve noticed something interesting taking place in the relationship between my son Zachary and I as he gets closer to the age of 1 ½ years. I’ve noticed that Zachary watches me like a hawk! How do I know this? Because every now and then when I least expect it – Zachary does something totally out of the blue that makes me think I’m looking in the mirror! As my wife likes to point out to me, if it’s something nasty that Zachary does then it he is imitating me! But all the sweet things Zachary does are a spitting image of his mother!!
One day, I was praying in the sanctuary and Zachary was with me. When I pray I like to walk around and often I’ll find myself weaving through each aisle between the chairs and raising my hands in worship to God. As some of you know, Zachary loves to play drums – often when I’m at the church I’ll let Zachary play the drums while I’m doing other things. On this particular day when I started praying, Zachary was on the drums and then a short while later I noticed that I wasn’t hearing any loud noises! I thought I’d just peek around for Zachary while I was weaving in and out of the chairs and then I found him following behind me – imitating me! He was walking the same, he had his little hands raised in the air, he was speaking some mumbo-jumbo (I assume he was trying to speak what I was saying, and he was in step behind me. Folks, children imitate their parents. They watch you like hawks – this reality was made vividly clear to me on that day not to long ago with Zachary. The funny thing is – they don’t always imitate the best qualities of their parents… If someone were to look at our lives this morning who would we resemble in our walk? You see there is a walk that every one of us takes in life. This walk determines how we live our lives, what we stand for, and what we stand against. Does you walk resemble Jesus? Or are you mimicking or imitating someone or something else entirely – or even are you trying to walk an "original" walk? I want to talk with you today about "Following Jesus"
Following Jesus is serious business but we’ve made it big business. Today the trend is to wear the right gear with the right message on it. Such as the WWJD paraphernalia. It is plastered on everything, caps, T-shirts, key rings, bracelets, earrings, bumper stickers, sunglasses, lunch bags, notebooks, bible covers, cups, pens, pencils, and screen savers, all for the purpose of declaring who we ought to be imitating.
Why you can even get a WWJD game that is intended to challenge you to look at the role of Jesus Christ in your life. It comes with 600 thought provoking questions about life’s everyday dilemma’s and how we are to respond to them.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not opposed to wearing or using these items. But the question needs to be asked, "Is that all there is to following Jesus?" We wear the gear, sing the songs, and attend the services hoping that we are following Jesus.
Could it be that in our attempts to follow Jesus in our thoughts, words and deeds we have sprayed graffiti on His face covering Him up to the point we really don’t know what it is to biblically follow Christ? And in doing so others really don’t see Jesus in us, because we have intentionally or unintentionally followed ourselves.
For the next four weeks we are going to examine the scriptures to discover afresh what it means to follow Jesus – to be IN PURSUIT of Him and to walk the JESUS WALK. As you hear the words being spoken ask yourselves, Who or what is it I’m pursing in my life? Who or what am I imitating or mimicking as I walk?
Today I’d like to talk about taking the first step – what it is "To Follow Jesus"
PRAY
Matthew 4:18-19 (NIV)
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
If Jesus were to walk up to you and say, "Follow Me." Would You?
Peter & Andrew… "and they followed Him."Matthew … "arose and followed Him."Philip … ‘found Nathaniel, come and see!"Their call is our call. Jesus has called us and continues to call us to follow Him.
Luke 9:23 (NIV)
23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Who Are We?
The question to begin with is "Who are we?" This question defines and measures us
The Question Defines Us
Some common answers might be… I Am a Christian … meaning I am not a Muslim, Hindu, Atheist etc. (or vice versa)I Am a Believer … meaning I believe certain creeds or beliefs (believer in this or that)I am a Pentecostal … meaning I am not Methodist, Baptist, or any other denomination.
There is nothing wrong with begin defined as a Christian, Believer or Pentecostal (or any other denomination) but they all tell so little about our "Pursuit for Jesus". Titles may imply you follow something or someone but they don’t describe your heart, and they don’t define who you are. They describe who you think you are, and what you want others to think you are!
Jesus’ call is not a call to merely "SAY" you believe, or belong to something, but to follow Him so that He would define who you are, what you believe and who you belong to!!
Acts 4:13 (NIV)
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Peter and John were following Christ to the point that He defined who they were and what they believed and who they belonged to. People took note that Peter and John had been with Jesus – not because they "said" they had but because they saw that they were ordinary, unschooled men with Galilean accents who were walking a courageous and bold walk as FOLLOWERS of Christ.
The Question Measures Us
The question of "Who are we?" measures us, as well as defines. The measurement probes our hearts to discover where we are in our pursuit of Jesus.
Luke 9:57-62 (NIV)
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." 59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
The invitation was to "Follow Me" but each gave a reason why they could not follow. Our lives are excuse laden at best. We have an excuse for all the things we really don’t want to do. We use nice phrases such as… "I don’t have the time today, maybe tomorrow!""I would follow but…""I know I should follow but…"
These excuses are attempts to make us feel better about our lacking desire to pursue Christ – to follow Him!
Oh, but the day is coming when you and I will stand before the One whose eyes are like fire (Rev. 19:12) and as He examines our hearts all the excuses we now give will not be reason enough to explain why we did not follow Him.
Who are You? The Bible says that Jesus wants us to follow Him and be known as His followers. When Jesus says, "Follow Me" he’s calling for you to do just that!
But Jesus doesn’t just want us to take on the name "follower of Christ", He wants us to be defined by our pursuit of Him – In His steps. Which brings us to the second question.
Who are You Following?
I dare say that if I were to ask "Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?" the majority of you this morning would raise your hands to signify that you are. If we identify ourselves as a follower, doesn’t it make sense we should be following who we say we’re following?
The issue at hand is not "WILL WE FOLLOW?" but, "WHO WILL WE FOLLOW?’ You see, everyone in this room – indeed everyone on the face of this planet is following someone or something! There are many calls all around people to come and follow the…Masses = "Go with the flow!"Inner Urges = "If it feels good just do it!"
Fads = "Everyone has it – or everyone is doing it"Left to ourselves we will follow destructive or shameful ways… 2 Peter 2:2 (NIV)
2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
"We have become quite happy to call ourselves Christians with little or no thought of following" (Joseph Stowell)
Like Adam and Eve we have been deceived into thinking we are self-sufficient. People will look at the cost of what it is to really follow Jesus – to pursue Him – to walk the Jesus walk and then they’ll look at themselves and reason, "Hey I’m okay just the way I am…" – "I’m not doing any harm", "I’m a good person",
1 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
The wisdom of this age says "Follow yourself! Follow YOUR dreams! Be YOUR OWN person! Don’t let anyone tell YOU what to do! Listen to the CULTURE around YOU!" With so many voices calling out to us, who are we to follow? What do you answer to the voices.
"Amid the tensions of a dozen voices telling us what to do and how to live, His is the one voice that captures the attention of our hearts." (Joseph Stowell)
Jesus says in his compassionate voice, "Don’t follow anyone else, don’t go after the things of this world, don’t drink from the springs of death, don’t worship created things – don’t even follow yourself! FOLLOW ME"
Who are we to follow?
Matthew 4:18-20 (NIV)
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, Philip and so many others heard the passionate call of Jesus to follow Him and they did.
Will our lives be characterized by the fact that we followed Jesus? He is the One calling us and it is He we must follow. He is calling you – some of you have answered His call – some of you haven’t – there may even be someone here this morning who is hearing that call for the first time.
Following Jesus = Pursuing Him – Walking the Jesus Walk – imitating Him and letting His actions define yours, His passions define yours, His heart "punch through" yours.
A young man came to Jesus with high hopes of gaining eternal life. The young man said that he had kept the law from when he was a little boy. He was satisfied with his life of keeping the do’s and don’ts, but he still lacked one thing. What was that one thing?
Luke 18:22 (NIV)
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
His riches were keeping him from following Jesus. The one thing he lacked was to sell out to Jesus. And surprisingly he walked away! He was willing to trade eternal life for the riches of the world. It wasn’t having the riches that kept the man away from Jesus it was that the riches had him!! He wasn’t prepared to give up what he was already following to follow Christ! It is not really all that big of a surprise because we all struggle with selling out to Jesus and embracing Him personally, emotionally, and spiritually in the most intimate fashion. What "riches" have you?
I come back to the questions I mentioned at the beginning of this message - Who or what is it I’m pursing in my life? Who or what am I imitating or mimicking as I walk? Jesus wants us to follow Him! It’s interesting to note that the Bible doesn’t record the fishermen asking Jesus "Why?" or, "What are we going to get out of this?" or, "How?" The Bible says they dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus – SURE after they began to follow Jesus they had some questions and Jesus had some things to teach them, but the important thing is they took THE FIRST STEP – because they heard the voice of Jesus calling to them – not only physically – but emotionally, and spiritually – ‘COME FOLLOW ME" And Jesus is saying that to YOU right now!!
This sermon was preached by Darren Ethier at Hanover Pentecostal Church on September 3,2000. This message is Part 1 of the series IN PURSUIT: The Jesus Walk. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Copyright © 1873, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Thanks goes to Robert Aubuchon for the inspiration for this message came from his sermon, "To Follow Jesus"- part of the Series: Following Jesus
