Jesus Guys: What did Jesus ask? (week two)

Welcome to Jesus Guys, a ten week series on following Jesus. This is a discipleship lifestyle. Here are the seven scriptures for reading this week.

Matthew 4:19 – Follow me                                                                                                  John 8:12 – Light of life
John 1:35-42 – Lamb of God
Mark 1:16-20 – Go fish
John 8:12 – I am the light
Matthew 19:16-22 – Treasure test
Matthew 9:9-13 – Call the sinners

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

This is Tim D. Welcome to Jesus, guys, a discipleship lifestyle. Brought to you by menofbravery.com. Today is the start of week number two. And the question is, what did Jesus ask? And so I'm glad you're here. And today we're going to share a few scriptures. We're going to hear a testimony of uh unfortunate Christian music artist that passed away by the name of Keith Green. And the testimony that he shares is really his response to this question, What did Jesus ask? Which is, Jesus asked us to come follow me. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 19, it reads, Come follow me, Jesus said. And I will send you out to fish for people. This scripture gives us really the fundamental, foundational truth of the desired outcome of Jesus as the master inviter. He invites us to come follow him. But the point of it is that then we would go find others that don't yet know him. And this analogy of to go out and fish is to pull people out of a lostness or a place of no life and to find life in Christ. But not all followed him who were invited. During the readings each day for this week, you'll have some additional scriptures to reflect upon, and you'll learn about the rich young ruler who did not choose to follow. He left and he was sad. And what's unfortunate is there are people that we know that maybe we have invited to follow Jesus, and there's not a response. And another time in a different week we'll talk about sowing seed and being salt and light. But we just have to be faithful. Faithful in the little. But Jesus begins as the master inviter. Come, follow me. And so let's use that as an example. Who do we invite to be on this journey with us? And it doesn't necessarily mean that you believe, but you follow first and you find out the truth, the teachings, the lifestyle, the beliefs begin to be modeled for you. It's almost like parenting. You don't raise a child by telling them their ABCs. Uh you raise a child by spending time with them over time. It takes time. Discipleship takes time. And it's unique for all individuals because we're all in different seasons and stages of life. And in the life moments that we're living, we just need to seek Jesus and allow his truths to be evident and personal to what we're experiencing today. I want to read with you this one statement before we hear from this testimony of Keith Green, and that some people need to stop following and stop listening to some voices. One of the struggles I see in being a disciple of Jesus is that the disciple-making process, you know, the word, the title rabbi means teacher, and the teaching process of the rabbi is to role model. It's really an apprenticeship program, which happens in proximity, side by side, observing it's the in essence, the discipleship model of Jesus was, you know, come follow me, and you see, and then I see you do, and then we can talk about it. What took place, what happened, how did that feel? How did that go? And so it it does take time to do it, but we have to be careful that we're not giving credence to too many voices and false authorities or other influencers that we think are going to help navigate us and disciple us when really Jesus, as we said in week one, is the ultimate authority, and that's who we are following. Come follow me, Jesus said. And so, what about Jesus? Do we want to take away from week number two? Is that as you read the scriptures this week, I want you to think upon this one idea. And that in essence, that following Jesus involves both learning from him and actively participating in his mission to reach others. So I'm going to say that again. So as we follow Jesus, it involves the process of I'll use the phrase what we learn, but then also who we go reach. Because Jesus said, Come follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people. So as the more we learn and the more we follow, and the more we grow, then the more we should go. And we should invite, just as Jesus invited us. But we don't invite people to come follow ourselves. You're not following me. We all should be pointing people back to Jesus. The goal is for them to then learn the teachings and the behaviors and the disciplines of Jesus. But I want you to hear now from the late Keith Green and his testimony of following Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

And uh I searched with my whole heart. And uh in all the Eastern religions and all the cults and all the world religions, they always gave some credit to Jesus Christ. The Muslims say that he was a uh a prophet. Um the Christians say that he was an incarnation of the Godhead in his age. Um Yogan Amanda and all these different Eastern teachers said that he had Christ consciousness. You know, they always use words like Christ consciousness, Christ this, Jesus that. Um the Buddhists would even say he was a Buddha. You know, he was another incarnation of God, like Buddha was. And um in among my searchings, I saw that all these people were pointing to Jesus. They're going, well, yeah, Jesus is one of the ways, but we're one of the ways. And they wouldn't all agree on anything except that Jesus was one of the ways. And then I looked into the Bible in uh John chapter 14, I think it is, or John chapter 6, 6, where he says, um, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the light. No one gets to the Father but by me. So they all gave him credit, and he only gave himself credit. And I went, well, that kind of eliminates everybody. They all say he's cool, and and he says he's the only one that's gonna get you there, so I guess I'm safe. So I started praying to Jesus. I did this all through intellectual reasoning and laid it out on the table and figured it out that if they all gave him credit, and he only gave himself credit, and and they all agreed on one thing that he was one of the ways, and he he only agreed that he was the only way. So I figured I had no choice but to go with him. And then I started praying to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So Jesus is the way, he is the truth, he is the life, and he is who we follow. We pray to Jesus. We're not praying to some tree in the backyard or some shiny object out there. Um, and so following Jesus is in essence the purpose of being a disciple is to again align and point to Jesus. And so, in closing today, I want to just draw our attention to this the power of the invite. Who do you know? Who can you invite to come follow Jesus? And Jesus made this really his mission was to walk on earth, God incarnated Emmanuel God with us, and he invited others to follow him for the purpose of building a relationship with his heavenly father. And so as we wrap up week two, there'll be a list of scriptures to read each day as this week continues. But Jesus started this by telling us what we can start doing and it's to follow. So will you follow and pay attention to who Jesus is in your life? You'll find the scripture readings in the show notes. Also, you can visit JesusGuys.com, men of bravery.com. But until next week, remember that Jesus has invited you to be his disciple, to come and follow him, that you may then go out and fish for people. I'm Tim D. Tellis and thanks for listening to Men of Bravery and being on the discipleship lifestyle journey with Jesus guys.