Sermon Outline “Follow Me”
I. Hi, my name is Simon, Jesus called me Cephas, you can call me Peter.
II. I had heard about the Messiah the Christ. I knew the law and what the prophets had taught. But you know it was not first and foremost on my mind. I had a fishing business to run. Fish to catch and clean, boats and nets to repair and maintain. Hired men to pay.
I had heard about John the Baptizer, my brother Andrew was one of his disciples. One day I was with Andrew at the river and heard John preach about baptism and repentance. He said, “Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the kingdom is near.” I saw the crowds who went under the water. I was convicted and I waded into the water to be baptized too and to show I was repentant of my sins.
Many thought John was the Messiah, but he said he was not; he said, “he was not worthy to untie his sandals and wash His feet.” John told us his job was to preach- to be a voice shouting in the wilderness that Jesus would soon start His ministry.” He spoke often about the Messiah, the Lamb of God, and the Christ who would take away the sins of the world.
III. Andrew was there the day Jesus walked up and John said, “Look there is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Andrew came and got me and introduced me to Jesus.
IV. One day when we had our boats up on the shore of Galilee not far from our partners James and John, Jesus walked by and said, “come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
V. We left Zebedee and the hired men and we did as He said and we followed Him.
VI. We went to a wedding with Him and we laughed when His mother gave Him the look and He turned ordinary well water into fine wine.
VII. I listened to him preach in the synagogues with authority, cast out demons, heal sick people, make the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to walk. Why, He even healed my mother in law of a fever that could have been fatal. She got right up and served Him by cooking a meal.
VIII. Jesus was the healer- and at first I thought that if that was the only purpose of His life that it was certainly spectacular.
IX. But I know now that He healed those people to show all of us that it was just as easy for Him to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ as it was to say “stand up and walk.” It was just as easy for Him to raise people from the dead, as it was for Him to cure 10 men with leprosy.
X. The crowds began to follow Him everywhere and one day we shoved the boat a little off the shoreline and He stood in it and preached.
XI. We had fished all night and when He finished preaching Jesus said, “let’s go fishing,” we were tired and had not caught a thing. We did not really want to go, but He insisted we cast the nets in deeper water.
XII. Our nets were so full they were about to tear; we had to yell for our partner James and john to come.
XIII. Both of our boats were full of fish and about to sink.
XIV. It was at this moment I knew this man Jesus had some kind of unique connection to God the Father and I fell to my knees and asked Him to leave. I knew I was too much of a sinner to be around Him.
XV. He told me “do not be afraid from now on Simon you will be a fisher of men.”
XVI. Well, we left the fish again with Zebedee and the hired men and we followed Jesus. I think they were pretty tired of us leaving them with all the work, but the pay was good and we were all being blessed.
XVII. It was from that day on He taught us. How to fish for men, how to pray, how to love one another. He taught us so much, there are not enough books to contain all that we could tell you about Him.
XVIII. He went to the mountain to pray, He was up there all night and at daybreak He called twelve of us from His disciples to be His apostles.
XIX. Soon after He taught us the Beatitudes, these were to be our character and our lifestyle from now on.
XX. They were: Mat 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
XXI. Mat 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
XXII. Mat 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
XXIII. Mat 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
XXIV. Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
XXV. Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
XXVI. Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
XXVII. Mat 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
XXVIII. Mat 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
XXIX. Mat 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
XXX. Mat 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
XXXI. He taught us through stories. He taught using examples and illustrations that we understood from our daily lives.
XXXII. Stories about salt, yeast, light, solid foundations, seeds, soil, water, bread, gates, trees, fruit, lamps, weeds, mustard seeds, pearls, coins, vineyards, hedges, weddings, bridesmaids and farmers.
XXXIII. The news about His miracles spread the crowds grew larger, people came from Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem as far away as Tyre and Sidon.
XXXIV. Wine at a wedding was one thing, but now we had a group of 5000 men plus women and children. It was late and so we said to Jesus, “We need to let these people go so they can buy themselves some food.” He said, “You feed them.”
XXXV. Well, fishing had been good but not that good; it would take the money from one full year of fishing to buy food for that many people.
XXXVI. “How much food do you have Jesus asked us?”
Andrew brought the little boy who had 5 loaves and 2 fish. The people sat down into groups and Jesus looked toward heaven and asked God to bless the food.
XXXVII. The fish and bread just kept coming until every last person had their fill and then we picked up 12 baskets of leftovers after 5000 men had eaten.
XXXVIII. Jesus did not come to show us we could have food, but that He was truly the bread of real life, eternal life. It was just as easy for Him to feed 5000 hungry men as it was to say, “your sins are forgiven.”
XXXIX. There’s much more to tell if I had the time, like the night He calmed the seas or walked across the lake on top of the water, I walked a little while too. Until I took my eyes off of Jesus and focused on the waves all around me. The minute I took my eyes off of Him, I began to sink. But when I cried out “save me Lord”, He rescued me.
XL. Isn’t that typical of your life today, when you are not troubled and the seas in your life are smooth you have your eyes on Jesus, but as soon as trouble enters you focus on the circumstances of your life-you spend less time in prayer and in the word-YOU TAKE YOUR EYES off of Jesus and you begin to sink too!
XLI. He told me to have faith and He wants you to have faith too.
XLII. Or the transfiguration where Moses, Elijah and Jesus became a dazzling white.
XLIII. I was there when He rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey and the people spread out palm branches and cried out Hosanna, Hosanna.
XLIV. Which means save us and save us now. But what we wanted was a King who would overthrow the Roman government, free us from our oppression and establish a Jewish kingdom on earth once and for all.
XLV. However, The Pharisees the religious leaders of the day were hearing more and more about Jesus. After He had criticized them for not washing His feet, like the prostitute had done or being white washed tombs, clean on the outside but dead on the inside, once He turned over the money changing tables at the temple they were against Him and plotted His death.
XLVI. It was time of the Passover and the Kidron River ran red with the blood of the slaughtered lambs, Jesus knew His hour had come and it was time for Him to die a painful death and return to His Father.
XLVII. It was time for supper and Judas, had already betrayed Jesus.
XLVIII. Jesus got up from the table took off His robe wrapped a towel around His waist and began to wash their feet.
XLIX. When He came to me I said, “No, Jesus never wash my feet.” Jesus said, “Peter if I do not wash your feet you have no part with me.”
L. Well then do not just wash my feet, wash my hands and head.” But Jesus said, Peter, a person who has had a bath, only needs His feet washed to be entirely clean.”
LI. What Jesus was saying that when I became His, all I needed to do when I sinned was repent and come to Him and He would clean me up again.
LII. In other words if you are baptized believer like me then you are in Christ and if you mess up like I did, you need to find your way back to Jesus, because only He can clean you up.
LIII. You do not need to be re baptized!
LIV. Let me tell you what I mean. He told me that night that before the rooster crowed I would deny Him 3 times.
LV. No way I said, it ain’t gonna happen, “I will never deny you.”
LVI. He told us that He was the way the truth and the life that nobody could come to the Father except through Him.
LVII. He told us He was about to leave us and yet He said “ He would never leave us.” But He was talking about the Holy Spirit who would lead us into all truth and remind us of everything He had taught us.
LVIII. Then He said this to me: “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
LIX. He was telling me that when I repented He would use me.
LX. Yet, I knew I was not going to deny Him, I would die for Him, I would go to prison for Him.
LXI. Well we left the upper room and went to the Garden across the Kidron River which was red with the blood of the Passover lambs. Jesus was in deep distress and anguish, He asked us to stay awake for one hour and pray with Him as He fell face down on the ground.
LXII. I heard Him ask the Father, “please Father, if there is any other way that sins can be forgiven, then me having to be separated from you by sin, then please oh God-take this cup from me.”
LXIII. But when He came back to us we were sound asleep like little babes. Our flesh is so weak.
LXIV. This happened 3 times and all three times we could not stay awake.
LXV. It was then that Judas approached with the angry mob, he kissed Jesus and they arrested him.
LXVI. I had my sword and I swung it at the head of that worm servant to the high priest named Malchus.
LXVII. But he had enough light from the torches that he was able to react so I missed his head, but his ear fell in the dirt. Jesus reached down and restored it to the side of his head, just like I had NEVER EVEN CUT IT OFF.
LXVIII. I am ashamed to tell you what happened next, I do so that you may see just how merciful and loving our Lord is.
LXIX. I was warming myself by the fire while Jesus was being questioned, when one of the high priests servant girls said, “You are one of those with Jesus.”
LXX. No I said, “I am not.” The rooster crowed, I had done just like He told me I would.
LXXI. Me Mr. Oh I will go to prison with you, I will die with you, was no better than Judas or anybody else.
LXXII. They were taking Him to Pilate when His eyes met mine; there was no anger, no disgust on His face. But what I did see on His face was love, kindness, compassion, mercy, understanding and oh yes forgiveness.
LXXIII. I was also there when the same crowd who had cried Hosanna Hosanna now screamed crucify him crucify him.
LXXIV. They sentenced Him to death, to die on a cross we apostles scattered like scared rabbits.
LXXV. They made Him carry His own cross, but He had been beaten too badly and so the soldiers forced Simon of Cyrene to carry it to Golgotha.
LXXVI. They nailed Him to the cross it was 9:00 a.m. by 3:00 p.m. He was dead.
LXXVII. I felt like it was over for me. He left without me ever being able to return and tell Him I was so sorry.
LXXVIII. It was Sunday morning when the women came, they said, “ Jesus wasn’t there.” The angel spoke to us and said, “give the disciples including you Peter this message Jesus is going on ahead of you to Galilee.”
LXXIX. I didn’t believe her.
LXXX. I ran to the tomb, I knew what I had to do now I had to turn back toward Jesus I needed to repent.
LXXXI. I wanted to tell Him I was sorry and that I loved Him but there was only burial clothes –NO JESUS.
LXXXII. I want to close with this story. I got tired of sitting around so I decided to return to fishing; James, John and Andrew came too. We fished all night and the nets were empty.
LXXXIII. At dawn we saw this guy standing on the shore and he called out to us like people often do, “Hey, have you caught any fish?”
LXXXIV. “No,” we replied. “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will get plenty,” he said. Oh boy, I thought another fishing expert.
LXXXV. But we did and we could not pull the net up by ourselves it was so full of fish.
LXXXVI. Then John said, “Peter, it is the Lord.” I jumped in that water, well I put my tunic on first and I swam to the shore.
LXXXVII. “Ouch,” what do I see but a charcoal fire just like the one I sat by when I had denied Him.
LXXXVIII. He said, “ Do you love me more than these? Pointing to the other guys. “ You know I love you.” I said.
LXXXIX. Then feed my lambs, three times do you love me? Yes, I do. “Then take care of my sheep.”
XC. The 3rd time it hurt me some? “Do you love me?”
XCI. “Lord,” I said, “You know everything, you know I love you.”
XCII. Here’s my point are you a Christian, because if you are and you have messed up. You need to repent of your sin, turn back to Jesus and like He washed my feet He will clean you up too. If you are not yet a Christian then He is still Lord, you just haven’t recognized Him yet and you too are denying Him.
XCIII. Jesus is saying to you what He said to me. You need to come to Him and be baptized, repenting of your sin and learn to obey all that He has commanded and He will make you a fisher of men.
XCIV. He told me that I was going to die the death of a martyr nailed to a tree. That too came true just like He said it would. But when they were going to nail me to a tree, I asked them to nail me upside down, because I was not worthy to be crucified right side up like He was.
XCV. Jesus gave me His love, His righteousness and His salvation. Only He is worthy.
XCVI. Is He saying to you Follow me?
XCVII. If He is you have a decision to make-won’t you come as we sing this next song?
