The Commands of
Christ
Sermon # 2
“Follow Me
And I Will Make You
Matthew
4:19
You will remember that we looked first at the Great Commission and where Jesus said
in Matthew 28:19. "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
The central core of the purpose of the church is outlined in these verses. There we
discovered that the three components of the Great Commission are; Evangelize, Incorporate
and Disciple.
First, Jesus says “go,
therefore and make disciples of all nations.” We have to reach them with the gospel, we have to
evangelize.
The second thing Jesus says that we must do is “… baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” In the command to “baptize”
we see the importance of not only reaching the lost with the message of the Gospel but the
need of incorporating these new believers into the body of Christ. The final part of the
Great Commission could be called discipleship, “… teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you.” The word “teaching” here
means “instruction.” This is to be instruction in “observing” or
“keeping” the commands of Christ. Then
we asked ourselves, “But just what is it that we are to teach these new
believers in Christ?” In a sense discipleship is being conscious of the “all those things
commanded by Christ?” In the
first sermon we considered Jesus’ first command as found in Matthew 4:17, which was “Repent for the kingdom of God is at Hand.”
Now We Need To
Consider His Second Command Which Is:
Tonight we want to turn to Matthew 4:18 and find the second
command of Christ, “And Jesus, walking by the Sea of
Galilee, saw two brothers, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen (19) Then
he said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (20) And immediately
they left their nets and followed him.”
Now underline in your Bible the
words of verse 19, “follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men.”
The command “follow me”
(in the Greek an adverb of place expressing a command) is simple, “your place
is following after me.”
Joseph Stowell (pastor of the Moody Church) identified our problem of the modern
church well when he said, “We have become quite happy to call ourselves
Christians with little or no thought of following”
Paul
Harvey said, “We have drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers
of the aquarium.”
In seeking to understand this command I want us to ask and answer five questions?
“Follow
me” is not the
invitation to be saved, it is the call of the believer to service. It is no small decision
to follow Jesus. It is possible to have heard the Lord’s teaching and still not be a
disciple, to be a camp-follower without being a soldier, to be a hanger-on in some great
work without pulling one’s weight.
To follow Christ
is to set aside our own goals and pleasures and to embrace the purposes for which God
created us. Those purposes are: to know Him in a personal way and to make disciples of
others by teaching them all of Christ’s commands. All those who truly follow Christ
must exchange their affections, goals and priorities for his.
When Jesus
called Peter and Andrew their goal was to be successful fishermen. In asking them to
forsake this goal, he commanded them to follow him and He would “make them fishers for men’s
souls.” Jesus did not simply command His disciples to become fishers of men but
rather He promised to make them fishers of men.
The common image
of a fisherman in our day is of a man with a fishing pole casting a lure into the waters
of a stream or a lake. However, such was not the case when Jesus called his disciples.
They caught men with nets and by experience they found that their best fishing took place at night. We know that this is true by
looking at Luke 5:5, when Jesus told Peter to cast his nets on the other side of the boat
he said, “Master we have toiled all night and caught
nothing never-theless at your word I will let down the net.”
How did
they fish at night? They used a very powerful and effective method, light. Fish were
attracted to light.
Jesus uses this
same effective method to draw people to Himself. John tells us that Jesus said (8:12), “I am the light of the world, He who follows Me shall not walk in
darkness but have the light of life.”
Just as fish are
attracted to the disciples light, God wants people to be drawn to His light shining
through His people. The light of every believer is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ
in our lives. Paul stated in his second letter to the Corinthians (4:6-7), “For it is God who command-ed light to shine out of darkness who
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, (7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of
the power of God may be of God and not of us.”
We are not the
light we merely reflect the light of Jesus.
It was a call
that required complete and immediate attachment for every else. Peter and Andrew “left their nets” (v. 20) suggesting that they left
their present occupation. James and John “left their
father” (v. 22) suggesting that following Christ takes precedence over
even maintaining close proximity to our family. The requirement for following Jesus are
not the same for everyone. For some it means leaving their present occupations to follow
him. For others it means a willing to leave family connections and being close to family.
But for everyone it is a willingness to exchange their affections, goals and priorities
for his.
Listen careful
to the statement I am about to make because I do not want you to misunderstand me. The
worse thing in life may not be that we fail. The greatest failures occur when we succeed
in areas that are not God’s will for our lives and are not true to the clear teaching
of scripture, success that keep us from pursuing God’s real plan for our lives. The
worse thing in life is not failing but succeeding in a worldly pursuit having left Christ
out of our lives.
When we learn
that some one is dying what is the single most important topic on our minds. “Are
they saved?” What this should remind us
of is that what really matters in life is what we are most concerned about at death –
whether or not people know Jesus Christ. When someone is dying nothing else really matters
doe it?
There have been
times in the life of every Christian when he/she recognized that the greatest thing he
could do with his life was to get someone else to Christ. It may be this evening that
Christ wants you to recommit yourself to reaching someone for Christ. Perhaps it is someone that you have given up on?
Have you ever really stopped to realize that Jesus wants you to be someone whose heart is
moved to reach out to the lost people around you? In
order to accomplish this goal in life would you be willing to
· Lay aside your personal ambition
and plans in order to fully follow Christ.
· Purpose in your life to better
reflect the light of Christ to those around you.
· Look for and take opportunities
to share with others what Jesus has done for you.
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