The Call to Follow

V. Christ Foreseen: Pre-Incarnate Appearances of Christ (Christophanies- i.e. Jesus in the Burning Bush, Fiery Furnace, the Wilderness - Hagar, Wrestling Jacob, Jesus with Abraham)

The Incarnate Christ - pt.1-2

I. The Mother; The Method; The Motivation

Learning from a 12 Year Old

I. His Foundation, His Formation & His Focus

The Jesus We Know Not

I. The Person; Precepts & Principles of Character

The Baptism of Christ

I. The Significance; The Symbolism of Baptism & Special Nature of Christ’s

Having Victory Over Temptation

I. How the Enemy Operates: Temptation is Assured; He Comes when you’re Weak; He Promises Large, Fulfills Small; He Twists the Word of God; His Attacks are Physical, Spiritual & Mental

II. How to Withstand the Onslaught: Be Prepared; Starve the Flesh; Depend on the Word of God; Realize there’s Something Better

III. What We Gain when it’s Over: If you Withstand, you will Find Rest; If you Withstand, you will be Strengthened; If you Give In, you will be Sorry

Today, as we look in the scripture, we're going to examine "The Call to Follow."

Jesus is beginning to assemble the core disciples that would stay with him through the rest of his ministry.

These men would follow Jesus, not only while He was alive - but after His Resurrection until they would all ‘die in the faith’ - most martyred because of it.

I. The Call of Christ

From the Saviour & Creator

When we consider someone calling out - trying to get your attention or participation in something - it’s important to consider the relationship they have to you.

(Ill.) When my son graduated, we told him we’d take him on a senior trip wherever he wanted to go. He decided the grand canyon. Do you know what we did? We did all we could so that we could make that happen for him. Now I love your children - but there’s not another child here that could say to me ‘take me to the grand canyon for my senior trip’ & I’m going to do it. What’s the difference? Relationship.

Now this call that we’re talking about today - the Call to Follow - we must consider the source - and the source if you’re a Christian is He’s your Saviour.

Why do we call Him our Saviour? Because He died on the Cross for our Sins, was Raised from the Dead for our Justification - and as Christians, we’ve placed our faith in Him - and He has saved us from the Hell that we so surely deserve!

This man - that died for your sins to save you from Hell is the one who is calling out today!

Not only that, but He’s our Creator. God told Jeremiah: Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

He is the reason you are here! He’s the reason you live, breathe, move and have your being!

The One calling is our Saviour and Creator!

For Submission, not Salvation

This is such an important point.

We must remember, the passage in Mat. 4:18-22 is not the first encounter that Jesus has with these men. If it were, it would sound very strange, almost as if they were hypnotized.

The process of what's recorded goes like this:

(Read Joh. 1:35-51) Here we see likely 3 of the 4 initial interactions with Christ.

What do we see?

They were persuaded by John’s testimony (v35)

They are convinced Jesus is the Christ (v41)

Nathanael & Philip are convinced Jesus is the Christ (v45; 49)

We also have an extended account in Luk. 5:1-11 where Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ: Luke 5:8 “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” - this was after Jesus had healed his mother-in-law.

Why do I tell you this: I say this because these men knew Jesus, they were persuaded that He was the Christ before this. Here Jesus isn’t calling them unto Salvation, but unto Surrender - complete and total Surrender unto Him.

Church, I believe right now there are people in here that have been born again - but God wants more from you. He wants surrender.

Maybe today you’re minding your own business mending your nets going on about your life - you know this Jesus, you’ve learned some about Him, but that’s about as far as you’ve got. AND NOW JESUS SEES YOU AND IS WALKING BY YOUR WAY AND CALLING OUT ‘Follow Me’ - what are you going to do?

He might very well be calling you out to Surrender all unto Him, because next we see the Scope of the Call

The Scope of the Call

Notice Jesus didn’t get to Simon & Andrew and stop… He continued on and saw James & John. We see Him reaching out to Philip and Nathanael - and sure enough about 23 years ago, He passed by my way and called unto me to Surrender all unto Him!

God is not calling the select few to follow him but it's a universal call. The only problem is only a select few will answer.

We see the scope of the call.

The Call of Christ

II. The ‘Cause and Effect’

The first thing to notice here is I want to point out a cause and effect in the call that Christ gives.

The first is the condition and that is to “Follow Me”.

The Condition: “Follow Me”

Now Jesus says, "Follow me" but where?

He didn't say "follow me to the temple" or "to my home" or "to the Walmart". Two words. He simply said "follow me".

Let's examine a few places where that would lead.

Serving

He was offering the kingdom and He was offering to make them wealthy men. The very next thing we see Jesus doing is serving.

He was teaching, preaching, and healing.

I think it is also important to consider who it was he would be serving.

The Prideful, Hated, Maligned & Outcast

The Prideful

One of the groups of people he spent time serving was the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. These by and large were prideful men. But Jesus served them because he knew that some of them he would reach, men such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.

It's very easy for us to write off prideful people as arrogant and unreachable. While you may not reach them all, we must try for we certainly can reach some.

The Hated

The Bible tells us of a man Jesus called who many hated: Luke 5:27–28 “And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him.”

This is Matthew. He was a tax collector and many of those men abused their position to make themselves wealthy. (Today we just call them politicians).

We must call those that are reviled in society for Jesus has a plan for their life as well.

The Maligned

We see these men in Matthew 4:24 “And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”

There were many a sick people - some would call crazy, or “out of their minds”

Many Christians will do like the Levites and ‘pass over on the other side’ to avoid these people - but they have a soul that Jesus died for as well! If we’re to follow Him, we must follow Him to where He wants to minister!

The Outcast

The Lepers of society - the ‘unclean’ ones amongst us.

These are the people who Might have track marks up their arm. Those that would never make it to church on Sunday for they are hungover from the Saturday night.

The people few care about in society. I've got news for you. Jesus loved them as much as He loves you and He died for them in the same fashion.

If we're to follow Jesus we cannot be respecters of persons because he was no respecter of persons.

Follow Him in Serving

Sailing

Upon Stormy Seas

Multiple times through Scripture we've seen the disciples, either in the boat with Christ or by the command of Christ, found themselves in rough waters.

Mark 4:36–38 “And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?”

They were certainly in rough waters.

Church, let me tell you something. Sometimes the Lord may lead you into rough waters.

Following Christ is not an easy thing in a world that has fallen. But I am thankful that he's always present and able either to calm the storm or to calm me!

He will lead you upon stormy seas. And that leads me to this last point concerning where Christ may lead you and that's unto suffering.

Suffering

I stand amazed when I consider what Christ hath endured, at the amount of suffering and sorrow.

Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

When you follow Jesus Christ, there will be times of suffering.

But not only suffering, rejection.

Rejection

John 1:10–11 “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

If you shine a light as we are called to do, the darkness will flee.

(Ill.) I was speaking with a woman at one point, several years ago, and she was talking about how her son was best friends with someone that's gay. And I had said something to the effect of "Well he's not letting his light shine" because if he was they wouldn't be close friends anymore.

When one becomes a Christian they typically don't have to disassociate with their ungodly friends. Their friends will do that for them.

(Ill.) Billy Sunday was a professional ball player and drinking party boy. When he got saved, he talks about how his old friends, many of them, did not want to have anything to do with him anymore.

To follow Christ means to suffer rejection.

Humiliation

Psalm 22:6–8 “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”

Jesus was humiliated. And if you follow Christ, there will be times when you will be as well.

You will be the outcast to many - the “Bible thumper” or “Jesus Freak”.

They’ll ‘shoot out the lip and laugh you to scorn as well!

To follow Christ is to be willing to be humiliated

Persecution

Matthew 26:67–68 “Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?”

Paul told Timothy: 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Make no mistake in this world you will suffer persecution if you live for Christ.

Wicked people will hate you because you’re living righteous. They will not need another reason, that’s enough!

This is what it means to follow Christ. A lot of it is not pretty. And Jesus never said the road would be easy. In fact he said, John 15:18–20 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”

This is the condition you must be willing to do. You must be willing to suffer these things to follow Christ, but we also see the effect, as Christ gives a promise unto those that will follow Him…

The Promise: “And I Will Make”

Those four words right there. Jesus says, "Follow me." Then “and I will make…”

Cause and effect, the condition, and the promise that follows if the condition is met

We see therein lies the power.

Therein Lies Power

Remember who it is that is speaking.

It's the God of the universe.

It's the creator and sustainer of all things.

It's the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end.

So he says, "Follow me and I will make"

Church, let me ask you this. Do you believe that? Do you believe that he has the power to make a promise conditioned upon our obedience to follow?

Remember: this is the God of which it is said: Genesis 1:16 “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

I asked ChatGPT if there was an estimate for how many stars there were and it said: “about 200 billion trillion stars. That number is only an estimate because we cannot count them individually. Astronomers estimate based on the number of galaxies, the size of galaxies, and the average number of stars in them.”

But do you know who can count them individually? Psalm 147:4–5 “He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.”

We have a great God of great power who made here a great promise.

Therein Lies a Promise

He was promising them that he would use them for the saving of souls.

(Ill.) Church, let me ask you: what could possibly be better than that? If you were to come up with a cure for cancer, you would save the lives of millions but those people would still die and face eternity MOST OF THEM apart from God.

But here it is: God is promising these men that he will use them to rescue souls from the fires of hell!

And notice the wording. He says, "And I will make you fishers of men."

Not I might or I could or it may be but He assures us with a promise!

Therein Lies Production

Church, if you want your life truly to matter, if you really want to be productive in life, if you follow Jesus, he will make sure that you are!

The Call of Christ; The ‘Cost and Effect’

III. The Cost Associated

We've already talked about how to follow Christ; it is not an easy road. It is an eternally profitable road but not an easy one.

Because there is a sacrifice required

A Sacrifice Required:

When you follow Christ, you are choosing to give up some things, things that we see here in this passage of Scripture.

The first one is not seen but implied and that is: to follow Christ you must give up your free will.

Free Will

(Ill.) When I was elaborating on this point last night, it was 1:13 in the morning. I'll give you one guess as to what I would rather have been doing at 1:13 in the morning. I was yawning every 30 seconds with tears coming out of my eyes. But I have decided to follow Jesus. I had to say in that moment, "Lord if it be thy will, let me go to bed. Yet not my will but thine be done."

Those men may have preferred to stay there mending their nets and going fishing but they had to choose to give up their free will if they were going to follow Christ.

In church you are no better. If we're to truly follow Christ, we will be forced to sacrifice our free will for His Will leading us.

We must sacrifice our free will. And if necessary we must sacrifice our family.

Family

I'm not talking about abandoning your responsibilities or duties that you have toward your family. I am speaking of unprofitable relationships that come between you and Christ.

My wife is priority in my life - but there’s one who is even above her… and that’s the LORD.

(Ill.) I was speaking to a lady just yesterday about family and church family and she had told me that she had a sister who was very liberal in her ideology and they had some division over the topic of abortion. Because she held firm to the biblical truth that God is the author of life and her sister held to the lie that it's okay to take it

Church you must be willing to make God number one in your life with no competition.

You must sacrifice family that God may be preeminent.

Familiarity

Where was Christ leading them? Who knows?

They were trusting in the who, not the what and the where.

(Ill.) Church, when I fully surrendered unto the will of the Lord, I had no idea where that would take me.

I had no idea that it would cause me to quit my job in the middle of a recession.

I had no idea that it would lead me to pick up and move my family multiple times.

Many of us are creatures of habit. I know that I am. Change is foreign and nothing for me to be excited about. But if we are going to follow Christ, we must submit ourselves to the fact that the familiar may become something foreign.

You might sacrifice familiarity.

Fortune

You've got to remember Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all fishermen. That was their job, their livelihood. That's how they made a living. Yet when Christ called them to follow Him, He called them to follow a completely different route.

No longer were they comfortable in their finances. They had to trust that Christ would feed them.

Following Christ will seldom lead you into great wealth, and so you must be willing to sacrifice your treasures on earth for treasures in heaven.

But I'm thankful for the promises of God that assures us that we have them there if we'll only follow Him.

Conclusion

Is Christ calling you to follow Him today?

Did He catch you mending your nets this morning and has called you to follow Him?

The question is, will you commit to him? Will you answer the call, or will He pass you by?

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