Follow Me

Jesus calls ordinary people with two words — and takes responsibility for what they become.

Before we go on our first journey, open your Bible to Matthew 4:18–22.

Read the entire passage slowly.

Picture the shoreline.

Watch Jesus approach the fishermen.

Listen carefully to His words.

Then ask yourself:

What did these men see in Jesus that made them willing to leave their nets and follow Him?

When you’ve finished reading, come back, and we’ll walk through it together.

Welcome back.

Those may be the two most life-changing words ever spoken:

“Follow Me."

Simple.

Clear.

Personal.

Jesus didn’t say,

“Admire Me."

He didn’t say,

“Study Me from a distance."

He didn’t say,

“Think about Me once in a while."

He said,

“Follow Me."

That invitation is just as personal today as it was when Jesus first spoke it along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Picture the scene for a moment.

It’s early morning.

Fishermen are washing and repairing their nets after a long night of work.

They are ordinary men doing ordinary work.

They aren’t famous.

They aren’t scholars.

They aren’t religious leaders.

They’re working men trying to provide for their families.

Then Jesus walks by.

He doesn’t ask for their résumés.

He doesn’t ask how much Scripture they have memorized.

He doesn’t ask whether they have finally gotten their lives together.

He simply looks at them and says,

“Follow Me."

And everything changes.

Not because they understood everything that would happen next.

They didn’t.

Their lives changed because they trusted the One who called them.

That is still how Jesus works.

He doesn’t wait until we know everything before He invites us to follow.

If He did, none of us would ever begin.

He calls us where we are.

With our questions.

With our fears.

With our weaknesses.

With our past.

He simply says,

“Come with Me."

After walking with Jesus for many years, I can tell you this:

He rarely reveals the whole journey on the first day.

Most of the time, He shows us the next step.

Then, after we take it, He shows us another.

If the Lord had shown me everything He planned to do in my life when I first began following Him, I probably would have been overwhelmed.

Instead, He taught me to trust Him one day at a time.

One decision at a time.

One step at a time.

That is still how He leads His disciples.

One of the greatest misunderstandings about Christianity is the idea that following Jesus means living a perfect life.

It doesn’t.

Following Jesus means walking with a perfect Savior.

You will make mistakes.

I certainly have.

You will have days when your faith feels strong.

You will also have days when you wonder whether you are growing at all.

Don’t measure your walk by how many times you have stumbled.

Ask yourself a better question:

Am I still following Jesus?

If the answer is yes…

get up and keep walking.

As you read through the Gospels, you’ll notice that the disciples didn’t become mature overnight.

Jesus didn’t call them because they already had great faith.

He called them because He intended to teach them.

They asked foolish questions.

They misunderstood His words.

They argued with one another.

They became afraid.

They made promises they couldn’t keep.

And sometimes they failed badly.

Sound familiar?

It does to me.

Yet Jesus never gave up on them.

He taught them.

He corrected them.

He encouraged them.

He loved them.

And little by little…

they became the men He had called them to be.

That should encourage people like us.

Disciples aren’t made in a day.

They are made day by day as they keep walking with Jesus.

There is another part of His invitation I don’t want you to miss.

Jesus said:

“Follow Me, and I will make you…"

Notice who does the making.

Jesus does.

Our responsibility is to follow Him.

His responsibility is to transform us.

For years, I had that backward.

I thought that if I prayed enough, worked hard enough, learned enough, and served enough, maybe I could finally turn myself into the person God wanted me to be.

But Jesus never asked me to remake myself.

He asked me to stay close to Him.

Transformation doesn’t come from striving to make ourselves look spiritual.

It comes from abiding in Christ.

The closer we stay to Jesus…

the more we begin to look like Jesus.

A branch doesn’t struggle and strain to produce fruit.

It bears fruit because it remains connected to the vine.

The same is true for us.

As we continue this journey, you’ll discover that discipleship isn’t a program.

It isn’t a class.

And it isn’t simply collecting more information about the Bible.

Discipleship is learning to live every day in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Everything else grows out of that relationship.

Prayer.

Faith.

Obedience.

Service.

Witnessing.

Love.

Hope.

Joy.

Peace.

Those things are not the starting point.

Jesus is.

Stay close to Him, and He will begin producing those things in your life.

Before we go on the next journey, let me leave you with one question.

Don’t answer it too quickly.

Take it before the Lord and be honest.

Am I following Jesus … or have I simply been following Christianity?

There is a difference.

One is a living relationship.

The other can become a routine.

Jesus didn’t die to invite you into a routine.

He died and rose again to bring you into a relationship with Himself.

That is the greatest journey you will ever take.

So tomorrow morning…

pour another cup of coffee.

Open your Bible.

And let’s take the next step together.