John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

INTRODUCTION

Good morning, Grace Church. It is a providential gift from God that we are at a point in John’s Gospel that allows us to lock in on Jesus’ call to follow Him as we prepare to celebrate His coming.

To that end, I wonder how many of you realized that the call to “Follow Me” is one of the very first (1:39, 43) and last (21:22) things Jesus said in John’s Gospel. I don’t want to make more of that than I should, but I also don’t want to make less of it.

To make too much of it would be to assume that’s all there is to John’s Gospel. But to make too little of it would be to miss the fact that in a very real way, John did mean for us to read everything in between as unpacking what Jesus meant by “Follow Me”. And in a very real way, that’s at the heart of the rest of the Gospels along with the rest of the Bible as well. Not to make too much of it though.

And in that way, as I mentioned in the last two sermons, following Jesus is one way to describe the essence of the Christian life. To be a non-Christian is to have rejected the call to follow Jesus and to be a Christian is to have accepted it.

But what exactly does that mean? Answering that question is the heart of this sermon. That is, the main focus of this sermon is unpacking Jesus’ words to Peter, “You follow me!”. Once again, therefore, the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. And the main takeaway, therefore, is to learn what it means to follow Jesus and to do so in faith.

Before I pray, let me encourage you to consider all of this carefully as we move closer and closer to Christmas. As I hope to help you see, the significance of Christmas—it’s meaning, purpose, and aim; the reason it’s worth celebrating—is tied up in Jesus’ simple words, “Follow Me.” If Christmas is worth celebrating, it’s because we’ve already decided to follow Jesus.

FOLLOW ME

Once again, one way to talk about the heart of the Christian life, about what it means to be a Christian, is in terms of following Jesus.

This idea first began to crystalize in my mind many years ago when, as a newer pastor, I was wrestling through how to tell others what the Bible says about what it really means to be a Christian and to live as Jesus intends.

Many people, when they think of Christianity, think of all kinds of things like belief in God and Jesus and the cross and forgiveness and going to church and reading the Bible and pastors and saying prayers and following rule

s and Christmas and Easter and going to heaven. However, as I hope to help you see, while each of these things do have a place in Christianity, they can only be properly understood under the umbrella of following Jesus.

Jesus’ First Call Was to “Follow Me”

The first thing I want to do in the way of explaining and defending this idea is to help you see that Jesus’ first call on the lives of His first followers was, “Follow me”. For example…

Jesus calling Simon and Andrew – Matthew 4:18-19 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus calling Matthew – Matthew 9:9 (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27) As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Jesus calling Phillip – John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ” Follow me.”

Jesus calling an anonymous “disciple” – Matthew 8:21-22 (Mark 1:17) Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus calling anyone – Matthew 16:24 (Mark 8:34) … “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus calling a young man – Matthew 19:16-21 (Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22) And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus calling another anonymous man – Luke 9:59 To another he said, “Follow me.”

I wonder if you’ve ever considered how prevalent that call really is. For some reason, we don’t often talk like that when we talk about living out the Christian life, so it might be a bit of a surprise to find out that Jesus’ initial invitation to people was never to ask Him into their heart or pray the “sinner’s prayer”. It was simply, “follow Me.”

Jesus Continued Call on the Lives of His Followers Was to “Follow Me”

More than just the initial call, though, “Follow Me” was Jesus’ continued call. That is, for Jesus, it not only defined the beginning of the Christian life, but it also defined the continued Christian life.

Matthew 10:37-38 (Luke 9:23) Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.

After years of following Jesus, Jesus’ call to Peter remained the same – John 21:19 [Jesus] said to [Peter], “Follow me.” And again in v.22, our passage for today “You follow me!”

To be sure, Jesus called His followers to repent (Matthew 4:17), believe (Mark 5:36), have faith (Mark 11:22), love (Matthew 22:36-39), glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), etc. However, these, and all the other callings that Jesus issued are contained in the two simple words, “Follow Me.”

Indeed, Jesus main call on the lives of His first followers—from beginning to end—was, “Follow me”.

Jesus Call to Us Is Still, “Follow Me”

I hope it’s easy to see that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, His main call to everyone, from beginning to end, was “Follow Me.” But how about today? How does that relate to us now? The rest of this sermon is meant to help you see two things: (1) The essence of Christianity is still a call to follow Jesus and (2) How to respond.

This means, once again, that Jesus did not then, and does not today, merely or primarily call people to believe that there is a God or pray a certain prayer or to come to church a certain number of times each week or to read a certain number of verses in our Bibles each day or to stop doing bad things or even to believe certain true things.

Instead, He primarily calls us to follow Him with all that we have and all that we are; to follow Him wherever He leads and whatever it costs; to follow Him by becoming like Him in His life and in His death; to be reconciled to the Father by following Him; to inherit eternal life by following Him.

FOLLOWING JESUS TO THE CROSS

During Jesus’ time on earth, the call was literal. He was actually calling people to live and minister with Him. It was more than that, but it wasn’t less than that. But what does it mean today? And how do we begin?

While we believe the Bible teaches that the essence of Christianity—beginning to end—is following Jesus, we also believe that the Bible talks about this as a sort of two-part journey: (1) Following Jesus to the cross and (2) Following Jesus from the cross to eternal life.

Let’s begin at the beginning. If you hear the call to follow Jesus and want to respond, what does that mean? Where do you start? Likewise, if you want your neighbor or friend or kid to follow Jesus, where do they begin? There are not multiple answers to this question. There are not several starting points. Everyone, always, begins in the same place.

There Is a God Who Is Infinitely Glorious (Nehemiah 9:5-6; Romans 11:33-36; Psalm 29:1-10)

The primary call on all our lives is to follow Jesus and this call, for everyone, always begins at the cross. If we are to follow Jesus, we must begin by meeting Him at the cross. And the road to the cross begins with an understanding of who God is.

In the most fundamental sense, God is infinitely glorious; that He is supremely and unendingly and inexhaustibly beautiful, majestic, powerful, praiseworthy, splendid, fierce, mighty, wise, and good! The Bible is filled with passages that speak to this.

Nehemiah 9:5-6 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is...

You Follow Me! (Part 2)