Connecting to the Call The Commands of Jesus Follow Me Matthew 4:17-25; 9:9-13 Matthew 4:17-25 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. Matthew 9:9-13 9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? 12 But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Last week s message was on the first command of Jesus Repent Without repentance we will never be able to hear and heed the second command of Jesus to follow Him. How to be in a position to receive, to hear the call to Follow Jesus?
Isaiah 6 is a good illustration of this: Isaiah 6:1-9 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts! 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am! Send me. 9 And he said, Go, and say to this people. We Repent because we come into the presence of a Holy God. We come under the guilt and load of our sin. The burden is more than we can bear. We turn to Jesus We seek rescue, relief Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. We experience His Salvation and Forgiveness by Repentance and Faith!!!!!! We are Born Again!!!! Some believe that this is the first command of Jesus. It definitely is a part of it!!!!! But this is the merciful and sovereign act of God!!!!! We don t deserve it. IT is by His Grace alone!!!! Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We experience His cleansing of our sins. Before we were separated from God. No we are separated from our sins. Virtue
Notice the progression Peter speaks of 2 Peter 1:3-8 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We add virtue (Purity, cleansing, separation) to our new faith.. Have you experienced this??????? Then, now we can add to our virtue Knowledge A new revelation of Who God is and His Plan and Purpose for our lives.. We are now in a position to hear!!!!!! To hear Him!!!!!! His first call is Come to Me We say to others Come and See John 1 Interesting John s Gospel only gospel that does not use the English word repent or repentance Key to this book Are the witnesses to Who Jesus is! John the Apostle His Witness. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. They ask John the Baptist His witness.. John 1:19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? Vs. 29 Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The next day Vs. 36 Behold the Lamb of God!
Andrew and John Disciples of John the Baptist Andrew finds his bother Peter. We have found the Messiah And he brought him to Jesus Jesus found Philip. Follow Me Philip found Nathanael. Come and See Before you can even begin to hear the command of Jesus to follow Him you must have the revelation of Coming and Seeing Him yourself and experience Him as indeed the Son of God Now you can, like Isaiah the disciples begin to hear His voice. You must become one of His. One of His sheep John 10:3-4 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. In Revelation to the seven churches He says 7 times to each church and it appears to be personal to the individuals in the church He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says The first thing you will Him say is: Come And interestingly it is the last invitation in the Bible: Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. First: Come and See Then: Come and Believe Then: Come and Experience Now, you can hear Him say, as did the disciples. Follow Me If you do not have a spiritual antenna you can never pick up the signal. A FM antenna and receiver will never pick up a AM Signal And you have to tuned in to the right frequency to clearly hear the message..
Ray Comfort Don t read anything in New Testament about Following up on believers The message is clear!!!! Follow Me Become my disciple Attached to Jesus as a disciplined one To learn from Him, to obey Him. Really all the other commands of Jesus follow this one.. If you don t get this one right you will definitely struggle with all the other commands of Jesus Such as love your neighbor Give, Pray, Forgive, go the second mile, rejoice in persecution. Why the first call to the disciples is that He Called the twelve to Himself Mark 3:7; 6:13 Our first Calling is to be to Jesus Himself Not to service. Notice Who He Calls Ordinary kind of people. Fishermen, tax collectors sinners, rebels Everyone whosoever. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it involve? What is the cost? Matthew 10:38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. The cost of following Jesus Is everything.. No such thing as partially following Jesus Just 2 days a week No, it is 24/7 365 Total He is Lord of All or is not Lord at all. It didn t cost you anything to find and obtain salvation but it will cost your everything to follow Jesus
Matthew 16:25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. How should I respond to the call to Follow Jesus? What Excuses we might make or give? Luke 9:57-62 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. 58 And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. 59 To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. 60 And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. 61 Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. 62 Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. I will follow Jesus but No real intentions to really follow. Still focused on what I want to do only half-hearted The influence of friends and family. Say goodbye but will never get back to Jesus.. His dad was not dead he was dying and he it might be weeks, months or even years before he finally died. In Jesus day, they buried people basically the same day they died. We do not have the option of following Jesus on our own terms.. When He speaks He expects immediate obedience. Notice the narrative of scripture the disciples immediately left their vocations, nets Matthew walked away from his position of influence and wealth Will you? Osward Chambers The real cost of following Jesus is not what it will cost me, but what will it cost others, my mother, father, brother, sister, wife, children my friends and when we see that cost we make excuses. We are not willing to pay that price. January 11 If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost
us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid. Be careful not to get distracted by others and their call to service and compare yourself to them John 21:19-22 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, Follow me. 20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you? 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? 22 Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me! What will Happen if I begin to follow Jesus? What proof will there be if I am following Jesus? How will I know if I am truly, really following Jesus? What did Jesus say? Go back to our main text verse: Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. You will be a fisher of men You will be rescuing other souls for Jesus You will be bringing people to Jesus You will be saying, Come and See You will be doing what Jesus was doing.. He was seeking to save the lost the sinner To reconcile sinners to God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You will be wherever Jesus is working. John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Paul says "My determination is to be my utmost for His Highest." To get there is a question of will, not of debate nor of reasoning, but a surrender of will, an absolute and irrevocable surrender on that point. An over-weening consideration for ourselves is the thing that keeps us from that decision, though we put it that we are considering others. When we consider what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He does not know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point; He does know. Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only My Utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone. January 1 - My Utmost for His Highest We are not called to build churches Jesus said He would do that We are called to be fishers of men and make disciples and feed His sheep!!!! Additional Thoughts on Discipleship!!!!! We follow Christ and not the doctrines of men 1 Corinthians 1 We are encouraged to follow those who are following Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1 Be followers (imitators) of me, even as I also am of Christ. Hebrews 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It is costly to follow Jesus But it is eternal and it is forever worth it!!!!!! Matthew 19:27-29 27 Then Peter said in reply, See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? 28 Jesus said to them, Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.