FOLLOWING JESUS

Leading Scripture: Luke 5:1-11

• Why is it relevant to talk about following Jesus? The answer to that argument is simple, “There are a lot of people in the Church who don’t follow Jesus yet. And some also claim before men that they follow Jesus, yet God Himself doesn’t see it that way.”
• There are some people who follow Jesus with the wrong motives. Remember what Matthew 7:21 says “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Doing God’s will matters.
• Some may with their speech claim to follow Jesus but do their actions really show that  they follow Jesus?
• You might be active in Church fellowships or even vigilant to serve in different ways in the Church, try to examine yourself; “Yes I do all these things, but do I really follow Jesus Christ?”
• From our leading scripture, after Peter and his companions encountered Jesus, they “left everything and followed him.” [Luk 5:11b NIV]

• • If you are to follow Jesus, you should know that Jesus is the Great Healer:
    1. Able to heal man’s issue of sin
    2. Able to heal the problems of man in life.

• When God sets us free from sin, He is able to solve and answer all our daily issues.
• Don’t limit Jesus, He is able. In verses like Romans 1:16, 1 Cor 1:18 the Bible declares the power of the Word of God to us.
• What made Peter call himself a sinner before Jesus? ~ He evaluated himself. He examined himself, in fact in Galatians 6:4 the Bible says “Each person must examine his own actions, …..” [ISV]. Just imagine.. Testing yourself for your own exam, interesting..
• In examining yourself, consider examining your relationship with God, etc.
• “Beloved, know that it is not what people say about your life that matters but what God says to and about your life that matter.” thus, don’t examine yourself based on man but God.
• Peter realised his problems after He examined himself and compared himself to He who is greater, He who is righteous.
• Beloved, we need to examine ourselves by looking at Jesus. If you try to compare yourself with your neighbours you’ll fail. Compare yourself to Jesus. Peter was done when He compared himself to Jesus.
• In Psalms 139:23 David prays “Examine me, God, and know my mind, test me, and know my thoughts.” [ISV]. We need God to weigh our lives.
• Interestingly today, even companies have monitoring and evaluation officers, those that evaluate and or examine the company’s progress. Dear beloved, we too ought to evaluate our lives.
• Have an examination of your life. People might indeed say you follow Jesus. But do you really follow Him?
• Our benchmark in life ought to be Jesus and not anybody else, they too have their own weaknesses. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says “Follow me as I follow Christ” Just like Paul our goal should be following Christ.
• From the leading passage, Peter realised his sin and misery no wonder he said “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” [5 vs 8]
• But like Peter if you don’t know the impact of Jesus in your life in your life you might end chasing Him “Depart from me.” [vs. 8a]
• Don’t be like the people who pleaded with Jesus to leave after sending demons into pigs in the land of the Gerasenes. [Mark 5:9-17]
• Don’t chase Jesus out of you life. You need to know that you can’t solve the problems in life on your own, and that it is only Jesus Christ who is capable of solving them all.

• So what lesson are we getting from here brethren? ~ The lesson is; leave everything and follow Jesus.
• Even Peter and his companions “left everything and followed Him (Jesus).” [Luke 5:11 NIV]

• • What did Peter leave?
    1. He left his doubts on what Jesus is capable to do.
    2. He left that life of chasing Jesus away from his life, and followed Him.

• We need to leave everything and follow Jesus, that then is called repentance.
• Following Jesus is about leaving our everything in order to follow Him.
• The cost of discipleship is leaving our ‘busy-ness’ for the sake of Jesus Christ.
• Jesus ought to be the answer to every problem in our lives. How will that be? ~ By being submissive to the Word of God which teaches us what we need to do.

Rev. C.J.B Banda