Why Follow Jesus?

Scripture: Matthew 4:18-22

Theme: Following Jesus

Title: Why Follow Jesus?

INTRO:

Good morning! Grace and peace to all of you from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!

Let me start off this morning by asking us some questions.

Why are we actually here this morning?

What do we hope to accomplish by being here?

Why do we live the way that we live our lives each day?

Interesting questions aren’t they?

As you read our passage this morning (Matthew 4:18-22) a similar type of question may come to your attention – Why should they (Jesus’ first disciples) or anyone else for that matter follow Jesus?

Let me say that again.

Why should they (Jesus’ first disciples) or anyone else follow Jesus?

It almost sounds like blasphemy to ask such a question, but in reality, it is one that we need to ask because a great many people in the world have asked themselves that question. In fact, you may have asked yourself that question.

Why should I follow Jesus?

For we know this morning that when Jesus talked to those disciples about following Him, it meant more than them just taking a couple of hours out of their lives going down and getting a fish burger at the local Galilean hangout. It meant more than just a jog down the beach to roast some fish and bread over a fire and share some good conversation.

The Bible tells us that following Jesus means:

1. To place our lives in His footsteps – to take the time to know everything about Him, His life, the way He lived, the way He thought and the way He did everything.

2. To accept Him as the authority of your life – to surrender to Him unconditionally and to His way of life, to His teachings and to His leadings.

3. To always keep your eyes on Him much the way an orchestra always keeps its eyes on the conductor and allowing His Holy Spirit to infill us, direct us, correct us and guide us along life’s pathways.

We who have had the privilege to grow up in the United States and especially those of us that have grown up in the Bible belt usually don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about such things as why we should follow Jesus.

Going to church, being baptized as an infant or as a young person seems to be a part of the things we do in our part of the country. It is just something that the people in our family do; grandma or grandpa did it and so we do it as well.

We also have heard that if we don’t accept Jesus, bad things will happen to us after we die. We will find ourselves being thrown into this place of everlasting fire called Hell. We have been told that it is a place full of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

If we go to our passage you don’t see a mention of Hell. That is not because there is not a Hell for there is most certainly a place called Hell. And it is a place that we never want to visit much less have to be there forever and ever. But as you look at what is going on you begin to notice that following Jesus is more than just getting saved, being baptized and reading your Bible a couple of times a week or month.

Following Jesus is really a big deal.

It’s a big deal because the more you read the Gospels and look at the lives of the people in the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you see that following Jesus does in fact mean:

+You will do your best to follow in Jesus’ footsteps

+Jesus will be your Savior and more importantly Your LORD

+You will do your best through the power and presence of His Holy Spirit to live a life that looks like, smells like and feels like Jesus

+You will keep your eyes on Him allowing His Holy Spirit to renew your mind, to correct your side steps and to finish the work of salvation in your life

For you see following Jesus is more than being baptized as an infant or even kneeling down at an altar and asking Jesus in your heart. It is more than crossing off the Do Not Go to Hell Jail Card. It is more than continuing the family tradition of being a person who goes to Church and puts some money in the offering plate every now and then.

Following Jesus means that we line up our hearts, our minds and our lifestyles to look like, smell like and live like Jesus. It means that we are doing our best to live a life that the Apostle Paul describes in Galatians 2:20