Imagine with me for a moment if you will, how would you react if you were busy doing your thing one day and up walked this man you didn’t know and he said, “Drop what you’re doing and come along wit me”? Would you just drop what you were doing and follow him? Or would you at least ask him, “Where we going?” This is the dilemma that faced Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4:18ff.
There they are, working in their fishing boat, I imagine getting everything ready for the days work, when Jesus walks up to them and invites them to, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” I don’t know about you but I have to believe that I would not have so readily accepted His invitation as these two did. Scripture says that “they straightway left their nets, and followed him.” The word straightway there means immediately. But this story gets even more interesting when Just a couple verses later Jesus again approaches two fishermen, James and John, working in their father’s fishing boat and invites them to “follow” Him and, just as with Peter and Andrew, they “immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him” (v.22).
Wow, immediately these men dropped everything, gave up their preparation for the day, made the conscious decision to turn their backs on their lively hood, took no concern of what might happen tomorrow, even left their family and family business and just followed Jesus immediately. They didn’t have to look at their palm pilot to see if they had any important appointments that had to be kept, they didn’t look around at the mess the boat was in and tell Him they had to clean the place up before they left, they didn’t even ask who would be in charge of what or what the plan was, why they didn’t even ask what the destination would be, they just dropped everything and followed.
Their decision to accept the invitation to follow required some major life adjustments. HENRY T. BLACKABY & CLAUDE V. KING in EXPERIENCING GOD say this about life adjustments when deciding to follow Christ, “When God speaks to you, revealing what He is about to do, that revelation is your invitation to adjust your life to Him. Once you have adjusted your life to Him, His purposes, and His ways, you are in a position to obey. Adjustments prepare you for obedience. You cannot continue life as usual or stay where you are, and go with God at the same time.” When Jesus said to these men “follow me” they had to make the conscious decision to accept His invitation to follow Him. Once they made that decision, when they accepted His invitation they were then free to obey Him without hesitation.
Little did these men know what lay ahead of them, if you know your New Testament, you know that three of these men, Peter, James and John became part of Jesus’ inter-circle of friends; every time we see Him taking time away from the crowd more often than not at least two of these three men were there. I believe the secret to an intimate relationship with God comes through a willing decision to accept Jesus invitation to follow Him. Accepting His invitation often results in enormous adjustments having to be made in our lives but those adjustments pay enormous benefits. The first of these benefits is an intimate relationship with the Heavenly Father through an intimate relationship with Jesus. Think about it, Jesus Himself said, “I and my Father are one “(John 10:30) and “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father…Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me” (John 14:9, 11) so does it not stand to reason that an intimate relationship with Jesus is tantamount to an intimate relationship with the Father?
Far too many Christians complain about feeling far from God at times and that Jesus isn’t as close to them as He seems with others, maybe the cause is a decision to not accept His invitation to follow Him. Today, won’t you prayerfully consider accepting His invitation to follow Him? Yes, it will mess with your worldview. It will cause some major life adjustments to be made; your priorities will adjusted, your values will adjusted and your focus will adjusted, but then maybe, just maybe, they need adjusted to be more heavenly focused and less worldly focused.
Next time we will look at another of the benefits of accepting Jesus’ invitation to follow Him.
Until then, have a blessed day,
Pastor
