Abridged Worship – September 15, 2024

When you’re very young; infant, toddler, young child – your instinct is to attach yourself to a trusted person, like a parent, grandparent, or an older sibling. We need someone to show us how to be and how to do things, to show us how to act in one situation versus another.

And sometimes, even if those people aren’t ideal, we can’t help but see this older and wiser person as someone to follow and mimic. For me, when I was a little child, I always followed around my big sister. If she was playing outside, I wanted to play outside, if she was watching television, I wanted to watch television, it was often the case, that I was sort of like her shadow.

You don’t realize as a child that your pursuit of people results from your mind trying to figure out the world, all you know is you feel good and safe when you are with that person. You simply feel a desire to be with the person and thus you go forth and follow.

I think Jesus wants us to have that sort of child-like pursuit for him as our leader; he wants our whole being to trust our big brother Jesus to show us the way to be. If he goes outside, we go outside, if he wants to watch television, we watch television. Jesus calls us to follow him because only by following him, and truly following him, (where our whole selves study him as the image to reproduce in ourselves), can we transform into the people we are meant to be.

Here is the challenge, when we are little and we are following our parents, or siblings, those people, as great as they can be, are always imperfect. I remember as a child, wanting to play with my sister, her little shadow was ready to learn and have fun, but she was beginning to get older, she wanted more time for herself. One day after I pestered too much, she slammed the door in her little brother’s face and said, “stop following me”. Now as an adult, and father who has two little boys who climb on him every night, I understand my sister’s reaction, she needed time to be herself and to recharge, but little 5-year-old Jacob felt crushed.

I think most of us have experience that crushed feeling, when someone we follow lets us down. That begins in us a mistrust of following people. We feel stung by following parents, siblings, and even friends, people we put on the pedestal as someone to learn from, but ultimately found out they were just human.

Throughout life, people ask us to trust and follow, and from time to time we put our trust in, and when the limitations of humanity strike, it affirms that feeling of loss and isolation we feel as children.

And in some ways, this is a good lesson to learn, if we treated all people like they are gods worthy of worship and unbridled devotion, our lives would quickly turn into a mess.

But sadly, this lesson learn often gets misplaced, and people by mistake assume that trusting a following Jesus will wound them too. For many people when they hear this command to follow Jesus, the sting of the loss of leadership lingers, and they don’t feel they can trust Jesus enough to follow him.

But the thing is, though Jesus is human, he is also divine, he is the one person we can follow, endlessly and he will never close the door in your face. He wants from us that child-like pursuit because he has an endless supply of spiritual resource to fuel that relationship with us. He is the dad who never tires of play, the big brother that wants to answer our questions, he is the friend who wants us as his little shadow following.

So, we need to be brave and vulnerable, to turn away from the fear and anxiety of being hurt or alone, and to trust in Jesus, and to follow Jesus with our whole selves. It is no mistake that Jesus says we ought to become as little children.

But wait there is more… Because when Jesus invites the disciples to follow, he does not just say, ‘follow’, he adds another piece to it. He says follow me, AND, I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN. Unlike a child who does not know what they will learn from their parent or sibling when they follow, Jesus tells us exactly the trajectory our following will lead: to fish for people.

And, I don’t know about you, this trajectory is not exactly what we might expect.

Remember last week, how I said, Jesus does not begin his preaching with God’s Love, Power, Mercy, What Heaven will be like, or Salvation of the Cross, but rather he starts with repent, and that’s might not be what we expect. But even though we don’t expect it, Jesus does it for a reason, because Repentance gives a foundation and a disposition of our hearts, allowing our faith in God to take root.

Similarly, Jesus does not say follow me for reasons x, y or z, but rather follow me and I will make you fishers of men, because fishers of men is a vital part of who Jesus is, and who you ought to become as a person of faith. Jesus says, little sister, little brother, if you follow me, I will teach you how to bring forth people to follow me; to bring people to learn as you are learning, follow me and we will expand this flock together, follow me, and my evangelistic heart will be your heart.

So out of the gate, Jesus’ ministry begins with three things, first is Repentance: changing of our hearts priority to be on Jesus. Then once we are humbled in repentance and focusing on the Lord, we recognize that it is him that we should follow and learn from, follow like a child seeking familial wisdom, and as we follow, Jesus will craft us into people who love Jesus and follow him as children soaking in the wisdom of his way, but also wanting to share with others this love for Jesus and his good new. In short, Repent, Follow and become an evangelist for Jesus.  

You know, before taking the time to look at the command of Jesus, I never really pieced together that Repent, Follow, and Evangelism were the first three idea that came from Jesus. I knew they were there, but I never appreciated them as the starting point, or even as foundational. But the great thing about dedicating a life to following Jesus, is that you give yourself permission to sit at Jesus feet, to read the gospel and let the Spirit pull you through God’s revelation. And Jesus will teach, he will guide, he will be overjoyed by your following.

Now, I don’t know where each of you are in your faith journey, I would like to, but I don’t know for certain. Only God knows, but what I do know is Jesus is calling each of you to repent, to follow and to allow his love and leadership to shape you into fishers, into an evangelists for Jesus and his Kingdom.

And, going forward, all of these commands we will look at over the next year will flush out, and fill in this foundation, it will connect this foundation of repent, follow and evangelize to the wider truth of morality, mercy, and love, it will connect it to who God is and the image of the Kingdom, which is here, but will be brought into full manifestation in the New Creation.

What a gift it to repent, what a gift it is to follow Jesus… let us pray.

Bless are You, O God, King of the Universe, Maker of heaven and earth, sea and sky. In the beginning, Your Spirit was at work over the waters and your voice called forth from the chaos an order and beauty. In a similar way we feel you calling from us an order and beauty; the image of Jesus is being called from us, but our lives are as chaos. In faith and by Christ’s sacrifice we know you reshape us into the order and beauty which you so desire in us. Pour out, O God, your Holy Spirit upon us, that we can repent, follow and fish, that we can become fountains filled with your living waters.

All glory, praise, and honour be to you, now and forever. Amen.