R.S.V.P. To Jesus

Eight Invitations from Jesus

Various texts in the Gospels.

Introduction: Perhaps the loneliest person in the loneliest place on earth is the preacher standing down in front of the communion table after he has issued an invitation asking people to respond to the Word of God.

The French phrase Respondez s’il vous plait that we use when sending out invitations that require a response means “Respond if you please”

In the Gospels Jesus issued at least eight invitations to which we should respond. Unfortunately, many people not only have not responded, they don’t even know what the invitations are. We are going to start with seven of those invitations, and then close with the eighth one; the most important of all.

Jesus Invites People into a new way of Life. Here are 7 invitations He makes to all people.

1. Matthew 11:28–30 ““Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””

John McArthur noted in his study Bible that this invitation “echoes the first Beatitude (Matthew 5:3 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” )

Jesus is appealing to those who are burdened by their own spiritual bankruptcy and the weight of trying to keep the law. In our day these are the people who think that they can get to heaven on the merit system. This is very much an Islamic mind-set. They believe that if you do more “good” than “bad” you’ll make it to heaven. When my sister asked our 85 y/o father the question, “If you were to stand before God and He asked you why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?” He replied, “I’m better than a lot of those church members. Treat people right.” Then she asked him, “Can I tell you what the Bible says?” After getting his permission she shared the gospel and he gave his life to Jesus. He was not open to the gospel until he realized that he couldn’t make it to heaven by good works. My brother and I baptized him about 5 months later when we both were able to be in our home church.

2. John 7:37–39 “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and said, ‘If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

What many people don’t understand about the Holy Spirit is that while He does live in every born-again believer, He only fills those who confess and repent of their sins and who ask Him to take control. There is only one in-dwelling, at the point of surrender to God, but there are many “fillings” because we leak.

In Ephesians 5:18 Paul said, “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:” The verb “be” in the Greek is a “continuous active” verb. It is be-being filled. The picture I use to understand this is a glass of water. If I set a glass of water on the counter and leave it, evaporation starts and the water in the glass gradually dissipates. However, if I leave the glass under the open faucet, it is be-being filled to overflow. That is picture that Jesus painted when He said this at the feast. You and I may need to be filled with the Spirit many times a day. There are three things that we may do with the Holy Spirit. ONE: Surrender to His leadership and filling. TWO: Grieve Him by our disobedience and taking control of our own lives, and THREE: Quenching Him when He is obviously at work around us. (what are some ways you can think of that we might quench the Spirit?)

3. John 21:1–13 “After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples were together. “I’m going fishing,” Simon Peter said to them. “We’re coming with you,” they told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. “Friends,” Jesus called to them, “you don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat,” he told them, “and you’ll find some.” So they did, and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish. The disciple, the one Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him (for he had taken it off) and plunged into the sea. Since they were not far from land (about a 100 yards away), the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. When they got our on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Bring some of the fish you just caught.” Jesus told them. So Simon Peter climbed up and hauled the net ashore full of large fish---153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Jesus told them.”

In this passage Jesus gave a suggestion and an invitation. The suggestion was to change where they were fishing. Too many churches (and individual Christians) are “fishing in the bathtub” and wondering why more people are not being saved.

The disciples responded reluctantly because they considered themselves more knowledgeable than Jesus when it came to fishing. Then, after they had caught more fish than their nets could hold, Jesus gave an invitation. “Come and have breakfast.” You might ask, “How does this invitation relate to us today?”

Might I suggest that the spiritual food that we get when we gather for Bible Study or Worship, much like the food that we eat, will not last us a life-time. We need to eat again and again if we are to grow spiritually. Also, the spiritual food is intended to supply the energy (power) needed to carry our our mandate of making disciples. Every week Jesus says to us “Come and eat”.

4.John 1:35–39 “The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. (John and Andrew) When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.”

When Jesus calls anyone to be a disciple, He invites them to to “stay” with Him. In that day a disciple of a Rabbi followed his teacher 24/7, observing not only what he taught orally, but what he did and how he did it. This is what John had in mind in 1 John 2:6 “The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.”

In this case Jesus did not invite them to “stay”, but rather to “come and see”. Most likely they only stayed until about 6 p.m. which was the end of the Hebrew day. Later they would be invited to “stay” with Him all day every day when Jesus invited them to “Follow me” which is His invitation to anyone whom He calls to be a disciple. (Not all disciples are Christians, but all Christians SHOULD BE disciples.)

Years ago FBC Jacksonville taught their people to first invite their friends to “Watch us on TV” and then to follow up by inviting them to “Come and see”.

5.Mark 10:17–22 “As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do (Coming to Christ is not a matter of “doing” as the religious leaders of that day taught, but rather a matter of surrender.) to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.” Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.”

In this invitation we see that a call to “follow Me” is a call to surrender your life to Jesus. To the young man, who was very rich, Jesus said “divest yourself of everything you are now depending on and depend on Me from now on.” Jesus hit on the “one thing” that would hinder the young man from following Him. Each of us has a “one thing”. In order to accept this invitation, there are some things that we will have to let go. What are some possible things that people today would have to let go in order to follow Jesus.?

6.Mark 6:30–32 “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place,”

One thing that Christ-followers must understand is that when they are physically and emotionally spent, they become targets of the Enemy. Satan loves it when we are driven by extremes; emotions, beliefs, thrills and anything that causes us to be “adrenaline junkies”. Even in the case of “Christian music” that plays mostly to the emotions, we can become burned out to the point that we become targets of the enemy. I learned through many years in Youth Ministry that what you win them with, you have to grow them on. There is a law of diminishing returns. Pretty soon you reach a point where there is nothing that is newer, louder, more exciting or thrilling, and you begin to lose people.

The disciples were not only physically tired, they were riding an emotional high. Just a bit later they found out that what they did on the mission trip they could not do when a father brought his epileptic son to them. When they asked Jesus “Why could we not cast this demon out?” He replied, “This kind comes out only by prayer (and fasting). That requires “down-time” when we are not in the middle of activity. Jesus was not talking about “praying on the run”, but He was referring to being “prayed-up” to the point of being endowed by the Holy Spirit with the power to deal with extreme needs.

There are times when the best thing you can do to be spiritually renewed is...take a nap.

7.Matthew 25:31–40““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. “ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’ “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Those on the right-hand side of Jesus are the “sheep” (believers). They have been obedient to the Shepherd and have even been used by Him to fulfill His ministry of feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, showing hospitality to strangers, giving a cup of cold water to the spiritually thirsty and visiting those imprisoned for their faith. It is to these “sheep” that the invitation is given.

8.The eighth, and most important invitation is the one Jesus gave to those whom He has chosen to be his disciples. It if found in each of the four gospels. It is a simple, yet profound invitation… “Follow Me”. This is what He said to the first disciples, and it is the invitation that He gives to us today. We are not called to be church members, but rather we are called to be disciples. A disciple is one who follows his/her Rabbi so closely that they are covered with the dust kicked up by his shoes.

When Jesus issued this invitation, the meaning went way beyond “walk behind me”. It meant “come and go where I go, see what I see, act as I act and say what I say”. In that day a disciple was said to be one who was “covered in the dust of their Rabbi”. That meant that they followed so closely that the dust kicked up by the Rabbi’s sandals would cover them. The Apostle John understood this. In 1 John 2:6 he wrote, “The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.”

Jesus never said “Come and join the church.” although scripture teaches us that church membership is important. His primary interest was and is for people to follow him, emulate him, and be his representative while he is away.

Following Jesus means to continue the work that he started. In Matthew 28:19–20 “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Jesus assured his followers then and now that they would be successful in their endeavor. In John 14:12 ““Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

Today the fastest growing Christian movement in the world is in Iran of all places. House churches are growing at an alarming rate, and most of them are led by women. Many of these women are only days, weeks, or months old as believers. They are taught from the beginning that they are to emulate Jesus. Consequently these “baby” disciples are making other disciples. When 5 to 12 other disciples join together, they have a church. I read just last week that if you plant a church it MAY make disciples. But if you make disciples they will plant churches.

All you have to do to make a disciple is be one step ahead of them, growing spiritually, and teaching them what you are learning in the journey.

Application: What should I do in response to this message?

If you have never surrendered to Jesus, nothing else matters. Surrender is an on-going principle in the life of a believer in Christ.

If you have surrendered, you need two people active in your life. One should be a bit ahead of you in spiritual maturity and willing to share what they have learned. The other should be a “Pre-believer” or a new believer and be a step or two behind you in spiritual growth...and you should be “teaching them to observe all that you have been commanded.