CHRIST'S CALL TO FOLLOW HIM

The Call

Tax collectors were despised in Jewish culture, yet Jesus called Matthew to follow him.

1 Timothy 1:15 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

The call to repentance and faith marked the ministry of Christ.

Mark 1:15 “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” (see Luke 13:3, John 3:16)

The Change

Matthew responded in repentance and faith, which resulted in him following Christ.

Only true repentance and faith can move someone to leave everything and follow Christ. This takes a drastic change of mind and heart. You must see how serious and vile your sin truly is. And in seeing that, You must come to understand that Christ is your only hope to be saved. When you understand those two truths, following Christ is the only thing that makes sense. For people like this, following Christ isn’t a chore, it is their ultimate joy.

Luke 5:28 “And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.”

He understood that Christ was more important than things of the world.

Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”

See Hebrews 11:24–26...

Leaving your old lifestyle to follow Christ isn’t an extreme or uncommon occurrence for a believer. It is the norm.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Acts 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

True repentance and faith always produces a change in our lifestyles.

Matthew 3:8 “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

James 2:17 “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

The Convicting Question

Why do so many professing Christians’ lifestyles look so different than this, particularly in America?

There are believer all over the world who are laying down there lives for Christ. Meanwhile, in America, Bible reading, prayer, corporate worship, and fellowship are chores that we might do if we aren’t too busy.

Is our faith genuine?

Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

The Bible teaches that many professions of faith are empty and false. In those cases, the people never understood their great sin and great need of Christ. Many of those cases can be traced to the way the Gospel is shared in America. (Repeat a prayer, walk an isle, sign a card, join a church, ask Jesus into your heart, if you are baptized you are saved, Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life). Others wanted a “get out of hell free” card, but had no brokenness over sin or desire for righteousness and Christ. We must use the Biblical model of sharing the Gospel. We must call the lost to repentance and faith. That will require talking about sin. That will require explaining what it means to repent and believe in Christ.

Have we gotten complacent and forgotten our great need of the Lord?

See Hebrews 12:5–11...

We tend to forget our need of the Lord in our prosperity. This is one of the main reasons the Lord allows trials in our lives: to remind us that we need Him more than anything else.

The call to follow Christ is not a call to fit Jesus in when we can. It is a call for Him to have priority in everything we do.

Luke 9:23 “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

The Bible calls us to examine ourselves and the way we serve Him.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

1 Thessalonians 5:21 “but test everything; hold fast what is good.”