Commissioned: Following the commands of Jesus
Chris Phillips | January 22, 2023
In a world filled with so much brokenness where so many are searching for answers and purpose, I remain amazed at how quick the world is to just dismiss Jesus and His commands.
With so much fear and doubt, the world runs to things like wealth, stature and productivity for its shelter, but You see, Jesus commands us; Not to follow the crowd, not to seek refuge in the material, But to Follow him!
In fact, a recent census taken within the last few months said that the worldwide median income is 2,800 per year per person! That’s right, you heard me right! They also say if you’re a family that makes 41k per year you are in the top 3% of the world’s economy.
Yet research also continues to show that the richer we get, that the more stuff we acquire and the less happy we become.
I also read a study that showed our deepest pleasures are derived not from money or things but from interpersonal love, warm relationships, giving, appreciation and gratitude.
Now these were secular research studies, So I’m glad to see they’re finally catching up to what the Bible has been saying for almost 2000 years.
In fact, Jesus commands us to look beyond ourselves and follow him.
And The Bible is clear that we aren’t defined by what we believe, but rather by who or what we follow.
If we imitate God in everything we do, we will live a life filled with love when we follow the example of Christ.
He loves us so much, that he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, so we can go beyond ourselves into eternity with him.
Now, I bet if you asked most Christians, “do you follow Jesus?” The immediate default answer would be, “Why yes of course.” And in fact, I would hope that they would.
Yet, the problem is although most Christians say they are following Jesus, few are taking any actions to actually do it.
You see, we’re not called to just be spectators, No No No… We have a role to play. We have a purpose beyond our own comfort.
But what does that mean?
Ask yourselves this: do my day-to-day actions reflect that I follow Jesus?
What I’ve found is it’s easy to say we are following Jesus, but as we peel back the layers of life and the world, it’s much harder to look beyond ourselves and be available to be used by God. We’re too busy, being busy to listen.
The problem is, when Jesus said, “follow me”, he meant it. He intends for us to be active and available participants, not just spectators. He expects us to be doers of his Word not just hearers.
When we take Jesus into our hearts and proclaim him as Lord and Savior, we become His hands and feet doing His work, not just quietly worshiping in the back on Sundays and Wednesdays.
Not just living this sort of double life between work and home and church. Is the joy of the Lord not evident in every aspect of our lives? Is that because we are afraid of the persecution we might face?
Following Jesus means we have to DO something.
Being a Christian isn’t about what we believe as much as it is about the person we believe in. It’s about who we follow and the fruit of our followership.
18 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
Jesus didn’t say, “Follow rules.” He said, “Follow me.”
Now to give you context. This was very different then all the other teachers of that day. In this day, the students picked which teacher they wanted to follow. Not Jesus though, right out of the gate he choose them just as he designed and choose you.
And contrary to popular belief. The Christian life isn’t a bunch of rules, regulations, and rituals. It is simply repenting, turning away from your old worldly life, believing in Jesus’ life, and following him.
When we follow Jesus, we want to do what He does. Jesus didn’t come just to heal, because if he had, I suspect his focus would have been established in hospitals.
He didn’t come just to teach, or He would have founded schools everywhere.
He came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came to seek and save all of us. He came looking for those that were lost to reunite us with The Father and when we follow Him, people become our passion as well.
We become eternally focused on the souls of everyone person we encounter.
Now, I get it, the term I will make you fishers of Men, seems like a funny church-type saying if you don’t fish, but fishing for men really means bringing people to Jesus.
Do you know why Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to be fishers of men? Because they were already fishermen. He came to them and spoke their language. He met them where they were. They knew how to catch fish, and this would resonate with them.
It wouldn’t have made sense for Jesus to Call Matthew, the tax collector, a fisher of men… although he ended up being one in his own right.
When Jesus called Matthew, He didn’t tell him to fish for men. Instead, his “fishing” was hosting a dinner so all of his tax collector buddies could meet Jesus.
Jesus wants you to use whatever skills you already know, and He divinely created you to mirror his light by using them. For instance, maybe He whispers this to you:
“Hey, you work at the bank, follow me and you can tell people about the best eternal investment they’ll ever make.”
If you’re an engineer, perhaps He says, “Follow me and you’ll show people how to build stable lives upon solid foundations.”
Maybe He says, “Hey, you’re in the medical field, follow me and I’ll show you how to heal the broken hearted.”
Whatever it is that you do, Jesus wants you to use you.
In 1 Corinthians 12:27 27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
Say it with me, “I have a part in this.”
Jesus wants to use your life, your experiences and your trials to model His light to others.
Paul tells us that we are the body of Christ. Think about that for minute. If you are a Christian, you are Jesus’ hands and feet. You represent Him to the people around you.
How awesome is that?
In fact, I bet if you take a moment right now and think about it, The Holy Spirit has already laid the name of someone who doesn’t know Jesus on your heart. He uniquely designed you, to be around these very people and these very people are watching you and making assumptions about what Jesus is like based on you.
There are people around you whose picture of who Jesus is and will be shaped by what you do and say. For better or worse.
Following Jesus means that Jesus expects us to do something when he whispers to us. He expects us to know his voice, to listen to it and to obey it.
This means that we are called to love how Jesus loved, to go where Jesus went, to do what Jesus did, to teach what Jesus taught and he expects us to hang out with who Jesus hung out with.
The world around us desperately needs Christians that take their name seriously, to actually be the hands and feet of Jesus.
The world is hurting. People are hungry, oppressed, tired, lost and out of hope. He has called us to show them the hope that is found in Him.
The problem is we’ve forgotten our calling. We’ve neglected to follow Jesus. In fact, North America and Europe only make up about 35% of the World’s Christian population.
I think that’s because we’ve come to prioritize our comfort over our calling. We’d rather criticize than love. We’d rather be right than take action. We’d rather trust ourselves instead of stepping out in faith, going beyond ourselves, and trust the almighty God will do what only he can do.
You see in seeking our comfort instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, our safety and comfort become our primary driving force and we lose our effectiveness. We lose our effectiveness when we start to trust only the process or method instead of the Almighty King of kings.
I hate to say it, but we’ve forgotten our first love. We’ve forgotten that we serve a God that literally sacrificed everything in pursuit of us. A God that willingly sent his only begotten son to the cross, to make a way for us, so that we can have eternal life.
And the call of Christians is to do the same for others, to sacrifice of ourselves for others, that’s part of following Jesus. That’s a servant leader following the Savior for others in need.
The mission of Christians is not to seek happiness and fulfillment by pursuing wealth or comfort. It’s to seek joy by searching and loving the lost, the hurting and the opposed.
So, how do we follow Jesus and live that out? How do we do that in practice?
If we are supposed to be following Jesus, the first thing we should do is go where he went. But where did Jesus go?
Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus is most commonly found in one of three places:
- He’s often Alone praying or resting spending time in the presence of God the Father.
- He is with his closest friends or his community.
- He is with the opposed and forgotten. Those that were sick, sinners or culturally insignificant.
And if He wasn’t in one of those three places He was traveling to those places.
Christians are typically pretty good about spending time in our own community, spending time with like-minded individuals or groups. But the other two, ehh maybe not so much.
In our fast paced world of work and getting things done, we sacrifice rest for productivity because this world values productivity! Yet, Jesus prioritized rest and relationships.
Even Jesus walked away from crowds that had real needs so He could spend time with His Father and rest.
We need that too.
We need to keep ourselves centered on Jesus, so when we are out in the world, we know His voice and we are available to Him to be used for His purposes.
And when we talk about rest, don’t misunderstand, I’m not talking about vegging out with the TV or scrolling through your favorite facebook reels. I’m talking about spending time in the presence of the one who sustains us by spending time in prayer. By focusing on thankfulness, gratitude and giving.
And when we spend time with the Father, His heart and love for people will burn brightly within us. We start to have this overwhelming grace and mercy for those that are struggling.
If we were honest with each other, we also struggle with the third thing Jesus did. We struggle with going to the oppressed and forgotten.
When was the last time you stopped and had a conversation with the homeless man standing on the corner?
Or you went to a local nursing home and spent time with someone that doesn’t have any family, who doesn’t get any visitors?
I get it, it’s messy, it’s dirty and it can be a little dangerous. We’d rather stay in our safe little community rather than venture into the unknown.
Thankfully, Jesus gave us perfect examples of how to be His hands and His feet, how to follow Him and walk out our faith practically.
Jesus talked about fishing for people to the fishermen but what he told them applies to all of us.
You’ll never catch fish until you’re willing to leave your house and go to where the fish are. People without Christ aren’t knocking down the doors of our church to get in. We must go out after them. It wasn’t until they started seeing the miracles that they started to follow him…. Nowhere in the bible does it say Jesus said for them to come to his house. He always went to out into the public.
That’s why the Great Commission begins with the word, “GO.”
He tells us in Matthew 28.19 go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
So if we are sitting on the side of the road trying to fish in a pothole, we won’t be successful. This is probably not where Jesus intended us to be.
When Jesus was with people, He gave them what they needed. Not always want they wanted, but what they ultimately needed.
He sat with the sick. Talked to the ignored. Challenged the proud. Helped the poor. Gave purpose to the hopeless. Comforted the distraught. And forgave the masses.
In short, He showed love to everyone He came in contact with but He had to come in contact with them.
Because like a good fisherman, He understands how fish behave so by listening to Him we will be successful. By trusting in Him we will be successful, by putting our faith in Him and Him alone we will be successful.
If we are going to reach people for Christ, we must understand their world. We need to study the culture while being cautious not to buy into it. You don’t have to become a fish to understand how a fish acts.
Just look back at the time when you were lost and share your walk with Jesus with them. Think back to the moment when Christ met you where you were. Your personal story is your story. Nobody knows your story better than you.
But it also means we need to intentionally make friends with people who don’t know Christ. Unfortunately, the sad truth is the longer a person follows Jesus, the fewer friends they have who need Jesus. We’re hanging out in our own community and we’re comfortable there.
Jesus divided all the people of the world into two categories. There are “the people of this world” and “people of the light.” The people of this world are those who don’t know Jesus.
They are being shaped by the world around them, by the values and culture of this world—that’s all they have. But we are people of the light, we’ve been shown a different way. When they see Jesus through us, they should be like “Whoaaa. I want that!” They should wonder why you are so different.
We must never forget Jesus wasn’t really talking about catching fish. He was talking about restoring people who are lost to his eternal kingdom and bringing them into a saving relationship with Him.
However, we tend to differ from Jesus in how we approach people of the world. Often, we would rather give them what they want, rather than what they need in fear we will upset them. But we must never fear the truth, especially when sharing the truth with others.
Maybe the most applicable story for us today is found in John 8:1-11.
The story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. This woman was accused and was in great danger of being harmed by those in authority. What does Jesus do? He steps in and defends her.
Jesus got between her and the attackers. He stood toe to toe with her accusers. He defended her boldly and at great risk to Himself.
The reality is she wasn’t innocent. She had severely messed up. But what did Jesus do? He said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”
So, ask yourself… would I step in or am I more concerned with my reputation than with building relationships that show Jesus as the Light of the World?
He doesn’t just call us to be the light of the world to those that don’t make mistakes. He calls us to be the light of the world for all to see.
Jesus stood with her not because she was innocent but because she was in dire need of a friend, an advocate, a savior.
Following Jesus means we stand up for those Jesus stood up for.
And if it puts us at risk, so be it. Their life is worth it because Jesus said their life is worth it. He said He will leave the 99 for the 1.
Following Jesus is a charge. A charge for us to reflect his light beyond ourselves. And if we are to reflect his light to all around us then we need to meet people where they are.
No matter where Jesus went or where you or I go, we need be moved by the people that we encounter. We need to share in their experiences, we need to be with them in the trenches, that is where they will feel the love and comfort of Christ. We can’t be afraid to share in their emotions.
Jesus himself showed His emotions, He empathized. That’s one of the things that attracted people to Him. He cared about them and what they were going through.
He showed compassion like when he was with the woman at the well. He showed grief when faced with the death of Lazarus, He was angered over injustices when He flipped the tables in the temple.
Imagine, if we could follow Jesus so faithfully.
Our call is to follow Jesus. To be His hands and feet. To go where He went. To do what He did and to feel what He felt! When we do that, we are following Jesus.
So, lets stand in faith, that He will provide us with everything that we need when we are standing in the trenches at that moment.