Following Jesus

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So we saw yesterday how Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep. If he loved Jesus, he would have to feed Jesus’ sheep — Jesus’ people.

Then Jesus told Peter about the type of death he was going to die — by crucifixion. Straight after that, Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”

Follow Me

Imagine Peter’s shock. He had just seen Jesus crucified not so long before this.

And then Jesus said, “You too are going to stretch out your hands and be led to where you don’t want to go. But follow Me. Follow Me even to the ends of the earth.”

Are you going to follow Jesus this year, even if it means pain?

Cost of Discipleship

Again, there’s an interesting parallel here to the first time Jesus called Peter when He said, “Follow Me, and I will make you a fisher of men.” But now He was saying, “Follow Me even to death.”

Jesus often told people to follow Him in that famous phrase in Matthew 10:38: “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”

And so — are you a true follower of Jesus? Here’s the thing: you can walk around Jesus and close to Him without actually following in His ways. You can be in church culture, calling yourself a Christian. But if you’re not worshipping Him, loving Him, and living like He lived, then you’re not a follower.

Walk Like Jesus

Ephesians 5:1 says: “Follow God’s example.” In other words, don’t just claim Him to be yours — follow in His footsteps. Walk in the same way that Jesus walked.

I pray, friends, that yours will be a year of not just claiming Jesus’ name, but of following Him, walking in the ways that He walked, living in the ways that He lived.

Hear the call of Jesus on your life today: “Follow Me.”