What does it Mean to Follow Jesus?

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Review:

Last week, we looked at Jesus being this upside-down King. Everything he seems to do is backward from the way things were expected to work.

Let’s do a couple of review questions from last week.

Is Christianity mainly good advice or good news?

What’s the difference between the two?

What does it mean to repent?

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Now, there are two big questions that we’re going to come back to time and time again:

Who is Jesus?

What does it mean to follow him?

That question, “Who is Jesus?” includes: Who is he? What has he done? What has he taught? What kind of person is he?

But we’re also going to look at what it actually looks like to follow this Jesus. And that question, “What does it mean to follow him?” is the question we’re going to be asking this evening.

Turn your Bibles to [Mark 1:16–20](https://ref.ly/logosref/bible$2Besv.62.1.16-62.1.20).

“16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”

So as soon as Jesus begins to speak about the kingdom of God and what it means to repent and believe, he goes out and finds his core group of disciples.

How many disciples did Jesus eventually call?

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What does it mean to be a disciple?

A disciple is someone who follows a teacher, learns from that teacher, and seeks to become like that teacher. So a disciple of Jesus is someone who trusts Jesus and follows him with their whole life.

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But what’s interesting about this text is that we see Jesus going and calling the disciples. In this culture, there would often be different rabbis out there that you could follow, but the process would always be: the follower goes and finds the rabbi that he chooses to follow.

The rabbi does not go and find the followers he wants to follow him. What Jesus is doing here is upside down. It’s backward. Instead of Simon and Andrew going and finding Jesus, we see that Jesus has come and found them.

Right from the beginning, Mark is showing what it looks like to follow Jesus. Mark is showing us that Jesus has this different kind of authority than the regular rabbis do, because you can’t have a relationship with Jesus unless he first calls you.

We get a little bit of a picture here of what it looks like to be in a relationship with Jesus. First and foremost, you do not choose Jesus. Jesus chooses you.

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But notice that Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Follow me.” He says, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

Who is going to make them become something different?

Jesus is.

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That matters because these men are fishermen. They don’t already know everything they need to know. They don’t already have all the answers. And if you keep reading Mark, you’ll see that they misunderstand Jesus, they get afraid, they argue with each other, and they fail.

Jesus knows all of that when he calls them.

And yet he says, “Follow me, and I will make you become.”

There’s a command here, but there’s also a promise. Jesus calls them to follow him, and he promises to change them as they do.

Some of you might hear the word “disciple” and think, “That sounds like somebody who knows their Bible better than I do. Somebody who doesn’t struggle with the things I struggle with. Somebody who already has their life together.”

But look at where these disciples begin. They’re ordinary people whom Jesus calls to himself. Their hope is in the one who says, “I will make you become.”

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And what does he promise to make them?

Fishers of men.

They’ve spent their lives gathering fish. Now Jesus is going to teach them to bring people to him. They’re going to tell others the good news we talked about last week. They’re going to invite others to trust and follow this King.

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So following Jesus means that he changes you, and it also means that he gives you a new purpose. You become part of what he is doing in the lives of other people.

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But I want you to see the contrast between the two groups of men that he asks to follow him.

He goes to Simon and Andrew, and they are casting a net into the sea because they’re fishermen. That was their job. Jesus says to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

And it says immediately they left their nets and followed him. They left their job behind and followed Jesus.

But then it goes on: “He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.” Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Look at the way Mark is writing this. All four of these people are fishermen, and yet he makes a distinction between the two groups. Simon and Andrew left behind their nets. James and John are also fishermen, but notice the extra detail: they are in the boat with their father Zebedee. Jesus calls them, and immediately they leave their father behind.

Now, if you continue on in the Gospels, you’ll notice that Simon and Andrew do go back and fish on occasion, and James and John still have a relationship with their father. Yet the wording of this text is very clear: they left their job and family behind in order to follow Jesus.

In traditional cultures, you got your identity from your family. So when Jesus says, “I want priority over your family,” that’s really dramatic. He’s saying, “I want to be more important than your father, your mother, or your family.”

And that challenges us too. Family can be incredibly important to us. So can our plans for the future, our friendships, our reputation, sports, or the things we hope to accomplish.

Jesus is saying that knowing me, loving me, resembling me, and serving me must become the supreme and utmost passion of your life. Everything else in your life is second.

That sounds pretty dramatic, doesn’t it?

Do you guys still call people tryhards? Do you know what a tryhard is?

A tryhard is someone who seems a little too passionate, a little too into the thing they’re doing. Maybe they’re the person at practice who goes harder than everybody else, and everybody gives them a hard time for caring so much.

Sometimes we’re afraid of looking like we care too much. We want to fit in. We want to be committed enough that people respect us, but not so committed that people think we’re strange.

But can we approach Jesus that way? Can we say, “I’ll follow you as long as it doesn’t cost too much or make me stand out”?

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Listen to [Luke 14:26](https://ref.ly/logosref/bible$2Besv.63.14.26):

“26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

What does this mean? Does Jesus really want you to hate your mother and father, your brothers and sisters, your wife and children?

Well, no, of course not. What he is saying is that, comparatively, you should love him so much and be so committed to him that every other loyalty takes second place.

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We might say, “Well, I’ll obey you, Jesus, if I get what I want. If I have friends in school, if I can be good at sports, if I can follow whatever passion I have, if I can have that boyfriend or girlfriend, then I’ll follow you, Jesus.”

But that is not what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus calls us to trust him with our whole lives, including the things we most want to hold on to.

When he called Andrew, Simon, James, and John, they left their careers and their family behind to follow him. They were trusting that the one calling them was worth following.

Now, I want to be careful here. Some of you hear that and think, “But I struggle. I get scared. Sometimes I care more about what my friends think than what Jesus says. Does that mean Jesus doesn’t want me?”

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Remember who Jesus is calling in this passage. These disciples are going to struggle too. Their trust is going to be weak at times. Jesus will have to teach them the same things more than once.

And he keeps teaching them.

There’s a difference between saying, “Jesus, you don’t get to tell me what to do in this part of my life,” and saying, “Jesus, I know you’re right, but I’m struggling. Please help me trust you.”

Jesus calls for wholehearted trust, and he is patient with disciples who are learning to trust him. When you fail, you can turn back to him. Remember his promise: “I will make you become.”

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So does this mean that, in order for Jesus to love you, you have to prove that you are the most committed person in the room?

No, because remember: Christianity is good news. The gospel is the good news that you don’t need to earn your way to God. Jesus has already done it for you, and it’s a gift that you receive by grace—God’s unmerited favor.

You see, the problem is that when people think Christianity is just good advice, they can become utterly passionate about following that advice and ultimately look down on those who are not as godly as they appear to be.

That happens because they have misunderstood God.

They may be very committed to appearing religious, but where is the humility? Where is the understanding and generosity? Where is the love and forgiveness Jesus calls them to show?

They’ve viewed their relationship with God as this set of rules they have to follow, and then they look down on others who don’t follow them as well as they do.

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But once you come to grips with the good news Jesus is proclaiming, you begin to understand that your relationship with God is not dependent on your ability to follow him just right. It rests on the fact that Jesus has called you, chosen you, and secured a relationship with you.

That frees you to follow Jesus on a far more intimate and personal level and to love your neighbor far more sacrificially.

And what happens when you really come to grips with the good news of Jesus? It changes you to the point that you’re willing to leave everything else behind and follow him.

As Tim Keller puts it:

“Because the gospel is not about choosing to follow advice, it’s about being called to follow an upside-down king: not just someone with the power and authority to tell you what needs to be done, but someone with the power and authority to do what needs to be done and then offer it to you as good news.”

Hear those words again. Jesus has the power and authority to do what needs to be done.

That’s why his promise matters so much: “I will make you become.”

He has the authority to call you, the grace to receive you, and the power to change you.

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So what does following him actually look like for you this week?

Maybe your friends are making fun of somebody, and joining in would make you feel accepted. Following Jesus means you refuse to join in. Maybe it means you speak up or go sit with the person being left out.

Maybe you’ve done something wrong, and a lie would keep you out of trouble. Following Jesus means you tell the truth, even when there are consequences.

Maybe there’s a sin you’ve been hiding. Following Jesus means you stop protecting it. You confess it to him and ask a trusted Christian adult to help you.

Or maybe there’s a friend who doesn’t know Jesus. Remember, Jesus calls his disciples to become fishers of men. Following him might mean asking that friend what they believe, telling them what Jesus has done for you, or inviting them to come hear the good news.

Those choices can be hard. They can cost you approval, comfort, or something you really wanted.

And those choices come up everywhere—in a public school, a Christian school, at home, and even here at church. Being around people who call themselves Christians doesn’t remove your need to listen to Jesus and follow him yourself.

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Where is trusting Jesus going to require obedience from you this week?

What is something you’re tempted to put ahead of him?

When Jesus told the disciples, “Come and follow me,” and then began doing all of these tremendous and incredible miracles, they thought they were following a King from one victory to another.

So when Jesus began to talk about his impending death, they were confused, they didn’t believe him, or, in Peter’s case, they even rebuked him. This did not make sense to them. They thought they were following a King who was going to have victory.

They did not yet understand that his path to victory would lead through the cross.

And following Jesus will sometimes seem upside down and backward to you too. It won’t always make sense. It might go against what your friends want. Obeying him might cost you something you thought you couldn’t live without.

But you can trust that his way is better. You can turn to him in your disappointments. You can keep following when the next step is difficult. And when you stumble, you can come back to him for forgiveness and help.

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How do we know he is worth that kind of trust?

Because he was willing to sacrifice his life to secure what’s best for you.

When Jesus told James and John to leave their father in the boat and follow him, he could do that because Jesus left his Father in heaven to pursue us. He understands costly obedience. His own obedience took him all the way to the cross.

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The good news of the gospel is that, because he has given everything for you, you can turn around and give everything for him.

That doesn’t mean following Jesus will keep you from suffering. His disciples will experience loss, disappointment, and pain. You may follow him into situations that feel like dead ends.

But the King who gave his life for you will hold you through them. You can trust him with your future, and you can trust him with the next act of obedience right in front of you.

He calls you to follow him. He promises to change you. And he gives you a part in bringing others to him.

His path led to the cross, so your path could lead to the Father’s arms.

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Let’s pray.