“Follow Me”

In the 4 Gospels, Jesus uses these 2 words to call the 12 people who would become His disciples. (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, Luke 5:27, John 1:43)

One after the other, the rag tag group of fishermen and tax collector dropped what they were doing and followed this man named Jesus.

If Jesus were to say to you, “Follow Me”, what would your response be?

These two words are simple, but they tell us something about the nature of discipleship (being a disciple of Jesus).

By requesting these men to follow him, Jesus was telling them to come learn from him by doing life with him. To follow him meant to travel, live, eat, fellowship, and minister alongside him.

These words of Jesus are still spoken today to each one of us. He calls out: “Follow Me”. (Matthew 10:38, Luke 9:23, Luke 14:27, John 10:27, John 12:26)

The Christian life is a life of discipleship to Jesus; a life of “following” Jesus. It is a life of learning from Jesus how to live, by observing, imitating, and taking his lifestyle (his yoke) upon ourselves.

What is a disciple?

• a follower of Jesus
• someone who is learning from Jesus; a student
• an apprentice to Jesus; learning how to live like He lived

Discipleship is akin to an apprenticeship. We learn, from the Master, how to live by being with Him. Now, we don’t have the opportunity the 12 disciples had to actually walk and talk with Jesus in the flesh, but the opportunity to be his disciples, his apprentices, is a reality to us today.

What are some of the ways in which we can learn from Jesus?

In class, we had a great discussion around the idea of seeing ourselves as students and apprentices of Jesus. What do you think about the idea of being a student or apprentice to Jesus? Does this change how you see your own discipleship? In what ways?

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