Follow Me (Matt 4:17-22; Mark 8:34-37)

Intro: Good morning and welcome to FE! We are glad you are here with us this morning, as we start our new series, Following Jesus. Before we get started, I also want to let you know that our D-Groups throughout all campuses, will be going through the Following Jesus Curriculum. Now if you are not part of a D-group, I encourage you to go to our connection center and let them know you want to join or be a part of D-Group.

Our culture is consumed with the self, maybe you have heard it said you have to find yourself, discover who you are. If you do a google search on the phrase “find yourself” you will find hundreds of articles which try to explain how you can find yourself. In this search of trying to “find ourselves” we are searching for identity, who am I? who do I belong to? how should I live? As we go through life in search of finding ourselves, every one has an answer, you may here someone say look inside yourself to discover your self, or maybe you may hear, you need to lose all sense of the individual self and become one with universe, maybe you have heard you have to build your self by working hard, going to school, building wealth, pursuing a career, pursuing life, liberty, happiness and the American Dream. All of these ways of finding our self are different philosophical views on life, and each one will disciple you on how to find your self, the question is, is it true? Is it the way to find our selves? Is it biblical?

Let’s jump in the word and look at the call of Jesus, to follow me and see if we can find the answer.

Matthew 4:17–22 (ESV)

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 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. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Desde entonces Jesús comenzó a predicar[a] y a decir: Arrepentíos, porque el reino de los cielos se ha acercado.

18 Y andando junto al mar de Galilea, vio a dos hermanos, Simón, llamado Pedro, y Andrés su hermano, echando una red al mar, porque eran pescadores. 19 Y les dijo*: Seguidme[b], y yo os haré pescadores de hombres.20 Entonces ellos, dejando al instante las redes, le siguieron. 21 Y pasando de allí, vio a otros dos hermanos, Jacobo[c], hijo de Zebedeo, y Juan[d] su hermano, en la barca con su padre Zebedeo, remendando sus redes, y los llamó. 22 Y ellos, dejando al instante la barca y a su padre, le siguieron.

This is at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, i want to draw your attention to the preaching of Jesus, it was a preaching of repentance. we can assume that every where Jesus preached, he preached repentance from sin. People where gathering and listening to him, there is no doubt in my mind that Peter, Andrew, James and John have heard Jesus preaching before this moment. But in this moment Jesus is walking by the sea of Galilee and sees Simon and Andrew and James and John and he says “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Now at the moment they hear the words of Jesus, these 4 men have a decision to make, do I stay and continue doing what I am doing or do I follow Jesus?

Discipleship is a Decision

The moment you start following Jesus, it is a decision to become his disciple, a decision to follow him. The word disciple means learner, discipleship implies that you are learning and building your life on the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus’ life and teachings becomes what molds who you are, forms how you think and guides how you live. Discipleship is a decision to follow Jesus and respond to his call.

What is the call of Christ?

The Call of Christ is to Repent and Follow Me

This call is simple repent and follow Jesus. Repentance is not a word we use to often in our daily language, but Biblical

Repentance is turning from our sinful and selfish ways and turning toward Jesus our Lord and Saviour

Biblical repentance is like a car headed in the wrong direction, when you discover you are going the wrong way, you make the decision to do a you turn and go the right direction. Biblical repentance the mind, you realize you are going the wrong way, it involves the will, you decide to make a u turn and it involves the will, taking action to make the u-turn and go the right direction. Biblical repentance involves the whole person, realizing you are living in sin, and you need to change directions and see the need to turn toward Jesus as our Lord and Saviour who can cleanse us from our sin and give us the grace and strength to follow him. Biblical repentance requires turning away from sin and turning toward Jesus as Lord and Saviour of our lives.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

When you look at the lives of the first 4 disciples, we can discover what it means to follow Jesus.

1. Willingness to abandon all things for Jesus

When the first disciples decided to follow Jesus, they reprioritized their life, Jesus became priority number 1. We read they left their boats, nets, father and followed Jesus. They were willing to abandon all things for Jesus. Are you willing to abandon your career if Jesus asks you? Are you willing to abandon your friends and family if Jesus asks you? Are you willing to give up your comfort and security of Jesus asks you?

I am not saying we all need to go quit our jobs on Monday morning, what I am saying is that we need to be willing to do that if Jesus asks us. Maybe it isn’t so drastic as giving up a career or family, maybe Jesus is asking you to give up your fear and pride and go share the gospel with a friend or a neighbor, are you willing to abandon your fear or pride to go do it? Following Jesus means you are willing to abandon all things for Jesus, his goals become yours, his priorities become your priorities, his mission is your mission.

2. Radical Surrender to Jesus

We read that these first disciples “immediately” followed Jesus, this displays a radical surrender to Jesus. They are willing to abandon all things but they were also willing to obey all things Jesus said, which is what surrender means, you are giving up your self and your rights and surrendering them to Jesus. Following Jesus is a commitment to obey him in all things, it is surrendering to Jesus as Lord and following him. A radical surrender is giving up what he says you need to give up, it is living life how he commands you to live through his word. The life and teachings of Jesus become what our life is centered on in whatever we do in this world.

What is keeping you from a radical surrender to Jesus? What are the things that you feel are too hard to give up because you know following Jesus would require you to give them up?

3. Joyful Reliance on the Grace of Christ

There was also a joyful reliance on the Grace of Christ. The call of Christ is “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”. I am guilty at times of reading that too fast, you may be too. But i want to draw your attention to the phrase “I will make you”. In this discipleship decision we are committing to follow Jesus but Jesus is committing to us also, he says “I will make you” which is the commitment of Christ to produce and create in us the qualities of a fisher of men, to create in us the qualities of a follower of Jesus. Jesus does all the work, he calls, he saves, he produces, he creates we just joyfully rely on the grace of Christ to produce in us the grace driven effort to follow him.

When we read the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament we discover that discipleship is a decision, but we also discover that

Discipleship is a Journey

Following Jesus is not just an event or a one time decision, it is a daily decision that turns discipleship into a journey. Peter dropped everything to follow Jesus, Peter had some awesome moments in his discipleship journey with Christ, he also had some failures. about a year and half into Jesus’ ministry, Jesus sat with his disciples and asked, who do you say that I am, and Peter boldly confesses “you are the Christ the son of the living God” and Jesus says Blessed are you Simon for my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. After this Jesus begins to tell his disciples that He must suffer and die but he will rise again three days later. What does Peter do? Peter begins to rebuke Jesus, crazy i know but that is what Peter does, and Jesus tells him. “Get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind on the the things of God but I the things of man”

These two events, happening around the same time in Peter’s life display for us that discipleship is a journey, one minute we are on high, walking with Jesus, understanding and sharing the truths of the scriptures with others and the next moment we can be setting our mind on the things of man instead of the things of God. Jesus rebuked Peter, and after this Jesus calls the crowd to him and says,

Mark 8:34–37 (ESV)

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Si alguno quiere venir en pos de mí, niéguese a sí mismo, tome su cruz, y sígame. 35 Porque el que quiera salvar su vida[a], la perderá; pero el que pierda su vida[b] por causa de mí y del evangelio, la salvará. 36 Pues, ¿de qué le sirve a un hombre ganar el mundo entero y perder su alma?37 Pues ¿qué dará un hombre a cambio de su alma?

Jesus is explaining the cost of following him, the cost of discipleship, deny himself, take up your cross and follow me. This isn’t much difference than what the first disciples did in Matthew 4.

Deny yourself - willingness to abandon all for Jesus

Take up your cross - Radical Surrender to Jesus

Follow me - Joyful Reliance on the grace of Jesus.

Jesus is reminding Peter, the disciples and the crowd of people following him, if you want to follow me you have to be willing to deny your self, your desires, for the things of God, for God’s desires. You have to be willing to abandon all for Jesus.

You have to be willing to take up your cross, be willing to take the path of suffering, shame, and radical surrender to Jesus. Jesus can call you to the mission field in Iran, are you willing to radically surrender your life to him. Jesus can call you to stay here in Little Rock and share the Gospel with friends and neighbors, are you willing to radically surrender your life to him. Jesus can call you to bi-vocational ministry, are you willing to surrender your life to him. Jesus may call you to work with the poor and needy, are you willing to radially surrender your life to him, Jesus may call you to work with the business world, are you wiling to radically surrender your life to him.

Are willing to follow Jesus on the discipleship journey he takes you on, are you willing to listen to the call to follow me, to joyfully rely on the grace of Christ as you follow him that is our call to deny our self, take up our cross and follow him.

Listen to what Jesus says,

for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Porque el que quiera salvar su vida, la perderá; pero el que pierda su vida por causa de mí y del evangelio, la salvará.

I love the way Tim Keller sums up this verse,

You have to lose yourself to find yourself

What Jesus is saying here is you are never going to discover who you are by trying to find out who you are. We are not created that way, we were created to find ourselves in the purposes and plans of God. Which is why Jesus says you have to lose yourself in serving me to find yourself, only then will you have stable self because we were built to know Jesus and be in a relationship with him.

Far too often we try and build our own identity by gaining relationships, wealth, a career, fame, power, but Jesus says what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul. Jesus says don’t gain a self by trying to acquire things, build your life on what I have said and what I have done, it is only when we are truly following Jesus do we find our true selves.

In order for this to happen, to find our true selves by following Jesus, we need Jesus to give us a new heart. Too often we boil down following Jesus to a list of do’s and don’ts, but that isn’t the Gospel, that is not following Jesus. Tim Keller says “Following Jesus is not just a matter of bending your will to Jesus’ will; it’s melting your heart into a whole new shape.” We need Jesus to grip our hearts in such a way that our heart melts into a whole new shape.

In order for true change to come into a life, in order for us to be able to be willing to abandon all for Jesus, radically surrender to Jesus, and to Joyfully rely on his grace, in order to truly repent of our sin and deny our selfish desires we need something greater in our lives to take control. Thomas Chalmers says

“The only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one.”

The only way to true and lasting change will come is when the expulsive power of the Gospel transforms our heart and mind to follow Jesus, only then will we be able to dispossess our hearts of sin and selfishness, and run to Jesus as Lord and saviour, only then will we be able to listen to the call to follow me.