Setting our Minds on the Mission of Heaven - Follow First!
Right now, being in the middle of an election year, our nation is all about wanting Leaders! We are arguing over who would be the best leaders, and what it takes to be a great leader. Even taking the election away, our society is all about pushing the next generation to be Leaders! It is what we teach in schools and train for in clubs and even groom men and women for in churches. We are told to be Leaders and not followers. The word “follower” often has a very negative connotation . There are whole families who prides themselves in the fact that they believe all the members of their family are Leaders Only! Now please don’t get me wrong, I understand the premise behind the call for leaders, and for leadership of course, however, I wonder sometimes if this worldly push has tainted our theology of what Christ has called us to be? The World wants Leaders...Christ WANTS Followers! Interesting!
Let’s take a look at how Jesus began His earthly relationships with those He would one day send out. This is the same way He begins His relationship with each one of us! We can turn to many passages for this, including Matt. 4:18-22, Mark 3:16-20, Luke 5:1-11, and John 1:35-5, but for our time I chose a couple.
Matthew 4:18-22, “18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, FOLLOW me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and FOLLOWED him.
Luke 5:27, “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “FOLLOW me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and FOLLOWED him.”
John 1:43, “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Phillip, he said to him, “FOLLOW me.”
I hope we are getting the point that Jesus was calling for Followers! This is what He was looking for and the test for those who would become true disciples. Would they Follow Him?The same question is asked of us. This is still the desire of Christ for each one of us. Jesus said in Matt.10:38, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” -John 8:12. In John 10:27 Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” What Jesus desired before anything else were those who would Follow Him First! This is the beginning step, and the key to having our minds set on the things above!! We must choose to Follow Christ First! This is the crucial point right here. Jesus wants followers, and He also wants us to First Follow. Anyone who has children will know what this means. It means that before we do anything else...we follow First! Parents often struggle with this. They ask a child to do something and the usual response is, “Okay, but First let me...”. Children can always find something that they feel they need to do First before they follow their parent’s instruction. I want you to know that we are often the same in our relationship with the Lord. We are great at telling Him the same thing. “Sure, I’ll follow you, but first I just need to...”. Jesus dealt with that Himself from those he called to Follow Him. Look at this encounter in Luke 9:59, “Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” 62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” What Jesus wanted then And Now are those who will Follow FIRST! The difference between those we just read about and the twelve disciples is that the twelve left everything and immediately (without hesitation) Followed Christ!
You see this is the kicker for me because before Jesus would ever ask the disciples to Lead, He would ask them to follow! This is so important! I’ll say it again, Jesus desires Followers! I love that the early church called themselves “Followers of the Way!” Jesus is The Way, and those who put their faith in Him, Follow Him! I had the opportunity to meet an incredible man in the downtown portion of the town we live in. He has sat on the corner of Main Street every single day without fail since early July and holds a sign that says, “Jesus Loves You,” and another that says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.” When you ask him to tell you about himself he may give you a brief history, but he will end by saying, “Most importantly I’m a Follower of Jesus.” He described his history of coming to know Jesus and he said that even after he was saved he knew he was a believer, but he didn’t know how to Follow Jesus. That is what he realized he really needed to do, was to follow. I just Love that so much! He has spent the rest of his long life doing just that and when God led him to this corner in July, guess what...he followed Christ yet again. Now he has had to deal with the mean people that tear him down, yell at him, and throw things, but he has also had the privilege of leading two people to Jesus Christ this past summer and that, he says, has made everything worth it! This is how he ended the conversation, “I Love this job! There is nothing greater than holding up the name of Jesus!” This world may never see him as a great Leader, but I am so thankful that this man is a great Follower, and that he chose to Follow First, with no excuses or hesitations. This is what I call a Follow First Testimony!
The first way we can live out Col. 3:1-4, and keep our minds and hearts set on the things above, is to First Follow Jesus! I think we all know that in order to follow anyone you have to be looking at and focused on the one your following. You have to see where they go, where they turn, where they stop. Your attention is on Them! You are learning from them and listening to them. It reminds me of one of my favorite worship songs, “where you go, I’ll go...where you stay, I’ll stay...when you move, I’ll move...I will follow you!” I pray we will take the call to Follow seriously and will realize that, while we may receive gifts of leadership, before Christ will ever call us to lead, He will call us to Follow. This is a great way we can check to see if our minds are set on the things above, and to see if we are bringing Heavenly Direction into our Earthly duties. Are we Following First? May our desire not be that we are raising up Leaders, but that we are raising up Followers!
