“What does it mean to follow Jesus?”
This question was asked in a recent poll in North America, and only approximately 20 percent of professing Christian adults admitted to being involved in some type of discipleship program. When asked about reading their Bibles more than once a week, only 45 percent of regular churchgoers said they read it more than once a week, and a shocking 20 percent confessed they never read it! Judging from these findings, we have to confess that the idea of biblical discipleship has been lost somewhere along the way.
The first question we need to ask is, “What did the Lord Jesus mean when He said, ‘Follow Me’?”
As you read through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), you hear the Lord Jesus saying this in all four. When He called the twelve disciples, He instructed them to follow Him, and He would make them fishers of men (Matthew 8:22; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27; John 1:43). Sometimes when we read “Follow Me,” the Lord Jesus is speaking generally to anyone who would follow Him and giving instructions as to what that might look like. In Mark 8:34, we read:
“When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’”
After His resurrection, our Lord appeared to Peter, who had denied Him, and publicly restored him, saying, “You follow Me” (John 21:19).
Following the Lord Jesus is much more than lip service; it is life service. It begins with salvation—recognizing the need to repent of my sin, which means agreeing with God’s assessment of my spiritual condition and turning back to Him. This is why the Lord Jesus came into the world: to save sinners.
I must acknowledge that I have sinned against a holy God and accept the One He sent into the world to pay the penalty for my sin, which is death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). God loves each of us and has taken the initiative to reconcile us to Himself by giving His Son to pay the price for our redemption, buying us out of the slave market of sin. Once I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, I am saved (Romans 10:9–10).
The Bible tells us:
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14).
The power to follow the Lord Jesus is not in my own strength or ability, but in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives and abides in every true believer. The Holy Spirit teaches us by applying the truth of the Word of God to our hearts as we read it. He gives us the desire to follow Christ in obedience to His Word.
We see this in the Gospels when the Lord Jesus taught the multitudes in Matthew 5–7. In Matthew 7:24–27, the Lord Jesus told the crowds:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
What we learn here is that if we are going to follow the Lord Jesus, there must be obedience to His Word. And this begins with salvation.
The Bible uses another word for following the Lord Jesus and being a Christ follower. It is the word disciple. It is extremely important to understand what this word means.
In the original Greek, a disciple was a learner or student. But it actually goes much deeper than that. In Bible times, a disciple of someone was more like an apprentice or a person in training. A disciple would often follow the person of whom they were a disciple, day and night, eating with them and often sleeping under the same roof. The idea was to learn from them, to copy everything they did, even to the point of mimicking them. The goal was to become like their teacher as much as possible.
Today, a follower of Christ—a Christian disciple—is one who responds in faith and obedience to the gracious call to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Following Him is a personal decision in which I submit to His Lordship for my life!
The Lord Jesus put things very plainly when He said:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”
The Lord Jesus never softens the truth. To follow Him, He must be the priority.
In the Gospel of Luke, we read of the Lord Jesus inviting people to follow Him, but they were not prepared in their hearts to give Him first place. Notice the interchange:
“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.’
And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’
Then He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’
But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.’
And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.’
But Jesus said to him, ‘No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:57–62).
Earlier in this same chapter of Luke, our Lord said to them all:
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:23–26).
Let’s break down verse 23 for a moment. What is the Master saying here?
All — this applies to every follower of Christ.
Anyone — this emphasizes the individual aspect of following Christ.
Come after Me — He is the attraction and priority of the heart.
Let him — a personal commitment.
Let him deny himself — this is surrender and not self-promotion.
Take up his cross — this is to die to self and to the world.
Follow Me — He is our model and our object. He is the One from whom we are to learn. We are to become like Him.
These seven things that our Lord laid out help us understand that truly following the Lord is much more than lip service; it will cost us our life. We must realize that, as Christians and followers of Christ, we are not our own. We have been bought with a price, and we belong to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us (1 Corinthians 6:19–20; Galatians 2:20).
I would like to illustrate this truth using one more passage in Luke. When great multitudes gathered around Him, the Lord Jesus said:
“Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish”?
Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple’” (Luke 14:25–33).
Here our Lord taught three things about following Him and being His disciple.
First, there must be unrivaled love for Him (v. 26). If we are to follow Christ, we must “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1–2).
Second, if we are going to be true followers of Christ, there must be an unceasing commitment (v. 27). This happens when I am in the good of the truth of Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Third, if I am to be a true disciple of Christ, there must be an unswerving surrender (vv. 28–33). We see a perfect example of this in Acts 9 at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. When the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul from heaven as a light that shone all around him, Saul cried out two things. First, “Who are You, Lord?” And second, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” (Acts 9:1–6).
Saul of Tarsus surrendered his heart and soul to Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.
Later, this same Saul of Tarsus would say, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
The word imitate (or follow) in this verse is where we get our English word mimic. Saul, now the Apostle Paul, was saying, “Mimic me as I mimic Christ.” This is the result of being a true follower of Christ: we do what He does.
In John 13, the Lord Jesus gathered His disciples in the Upper Room and washed their feet to demonstrate what true greatness is. This act of humility showed them that the way up is down. What I want to point out, however, is found in verses 13–14, where the Lord Jesus said:
“You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
Then connect this with John 13:35, where He says:
“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
As a follower of Christ, I learn to love as Christ loved, and I should learn to forgive as Christ forgave. Consider Ephesians 4:32–5:2:
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Here we have God Himself as our perfect example and Christ as our perfect standard. Notice that our word imitateappears again. We are to be imitators of God, forgiving as He has forgiven us. When it comes to forgiving one another, we are to follow God Himself.
In John 21, we have the public restoration of Peter. In this chapter, the Lord reinstates Peter to be a fisher of men (vv. 1–14), a shepherd (vv. 15–19), and a disciple (vv. 20–25). I would like to focus on this last section.
After the Lord Jesus recommissioned Peter, we read:
“Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, ‘Lord, who is the one who betrays You?’ Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, what about this man?’
Jesus said to him, ‘If I will that he remains till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me’” (John 21:20–22).
Peter, like many of us, had his eyes on someone other than the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus told Peter, “You follow Me.”
It is important for us to realize that being a follower of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with routines or religion. Notice that the Lord said, “You follow Me!” This literally means, “You keep on following Me.” Being a disciple of Christ is about developing a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
A disciple should begin each day with the Lord through prayer and listen to Him as He speaks through the Word of God. In John 8:31, we learn that a disciple of Christ continues in His Word. In John 13:34–35, we saw that a disciple demonstrates the love of Christ. In John 15:8, we learn that as we abide in Him, we bear fruit for His glory.
Following the Lord Jesus means a daily walk that is consistent and constant. This can only be accomplished as we take heed to what we have been taught, knowing from whom we have learned it. Listen to what Paul told young Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:10–17:
“But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
This kind of life helps ensure that we will be able to take what we have learned as followers of Christ and help others follow Him as well. This is what a true follower of Christ looks like according to 2 Timothy 2:1–2:
“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
Notice that there are four generations of followers of Christ in this one verse: Paul, Timothy, the faithful men, and those whom they teach.
This causes us to close by asking a few questions: Are you a true follower of Christ? Have you surrendered to His Lordship in your life? Are you a disciple of Christ? Who are you discipling and helping to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ?