Did you know that Jesus extended the invitation to follow Him about a dozen times? His most famous invitation to follow came at the beginning of his ministry when two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and James and John, left everything to join him.
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
I have spent my whole life in the faith world, and in that time, I have heard hundreds of messages on following Jesus, and I have heard just as many on fishing for men. What I have rarely heard are messages that are focused on the middle four words.
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
These are words with a promise, a purpose, and a process.
The Promise that God himself will transform me as I follow. I love that God’s plans for me are for me to join him in his plans. To be transformed into a partner with God is such a hope-filled and amazing promise.
The Purpose, to fish for men. Jesus imbedded into his invitation to follow eternal purpose. A purpose that will shape eternity for others, life here for many, and draw us closer to God than any other thing I have ever found.
The Process, to move from following to fishing/bearing fruit. How did Jesus keep his promise to “MAKE” his friends? We know he did because if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this post, and we wouldn’t even know Jesus lived. How did he do it?
Let me suggest that Jesus tapped into a simple process that is effective for all people.
Follow: The disciples began to follow Jesus. They watched him, saw how he lived, prayed, loved, and in seeing Jesus, they were able to stay following. Here is a hint - Following is always about the eyes. No one follows Jesus without keeping their eyes on Jesus.
Trust: As the disciples followed, they began to trust him. Jesus marched to a different drumbeat than other religious leaders, and if you were going to follow him truly, you had to trust him. Hint- trusting is always about a change of thinking, and Jesus taught his friends a different way of thinking about and seeing God.
Love: Love is a response to love. We love because we are loved. Kids who feel unloved struggle to love; that is until someone enters their life and loves them. Jesus loved his friends so deeply; His love fueled their affections; this is what love does. Hint - When a disciple discovers how loved they are, their entire life is transformed.
Imitate: Do what you see me do, Jesus told his friends. Guess what, they did! The heart and soul of great disciple-making are found in the simplicity of imitating Jesus. Hint- Imitation becomes more precise when we are deeply and closely connected to the one we imitate.
The disciples went through a process of following, trusting, loving, imitating - and the result was natural - they bore fruit.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to turn our attention to the process of Jesus and what he uses to MAKE disciple-makers out of disciples.
Let me finish with this thought. In the life of Jesus’ friends, this was not a single line of activity but a circle of transformation. For me, it looks like this:
I follow, and as I follow, I trust. As I trust, I love, and as I love, I bear fruit. When I bear fruit, I follow more closely, and as I follow more closely, I trust more deeply. In trusting more deeply, I love more intently, and in loving more intently, I imitate more precisely. This leads to more fruit. This process is how Jesus transformed the rag-tag into world changers; it is how we can also be transformed.
For the next five weeks, we will look at each part of Jesus’ transformation process.