Come, Follow Me!

Isaiah 60; Isaiah 61; Isaiah 62; John 1
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Scripture

John 1

35 The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. 36 As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” 37 When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.
38 Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.
They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. 41 Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).
42 Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.
45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.
47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”
48 “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”
49 Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

Observation

Have you ever felt Jesus say to you, “Come, follow me”? I was 19 years old when I said “Yes” to Jesus when He told me to follow Him. Of course, He had been working in my life for a long time before that but it was at 19 when I said, “Yes” to Him. My life before Christ was a mess. I remember feeling empty inside and I can remember that my life didn’t have any real purpose or meaning and I remember pretty much thinking only about myself. It was also a time when sin dominated/ruled my life.

Are you following Him with your whole heart? If you are reading this devotional blog you probably are pretty serious about following Christ, but I guess it is possible that the Lord had you look at the blog just to speak to your heart one more time about following Him!

The best decision of my life was to say “Yes” to Jesus Christ and join the worldwide ranks of Christ Followers. It is an exciting adventure and everyday I learn more about what is involved in following Christ. I like the portion of today’s scripture that says, “Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said…” Can you imagine what Christ must have been thinking about as He looked intently at Simon Peter? Jesus was probably thinking of how Simon Peter would become the leader of the church, but He also probably saw in that same moment a Simon Peter that would one day deny Him … and yet He said to Simon Peter, “Come, follow me.”

Jesus calls us to follow Him even though He knows that we are jars of clay. He knows how fragile and weak we are and yet Christ wants to be our Rock, and our Strength. The Apostle Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13)

Application

I can do all things through Christ who has called me to join Him in this great, but challenging adventure called life!

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me encourage other men and women to follow Christ. Give me the boldness and the love I need to be a faithful witness for you. Thank you for sending people into my life at just the right time to help me find the way to Christ and salvation. I pray for the people that need to say, “Yes” to Jesus and I pray that they would be obedient this week to that call. I pray for our people that you might use them as your witnesses where ever they travel today. I pray that many will come to Christ through the ministry of our church. Help me to bring someone to Christ. Use me as your witness today! In Jesus Name Amen.

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