Despite the piper's success, the mayor reneged on his promise and refused to pay him the full amount. The piper left the town angrily, vowing to return later to take revenge. On Saint John and Paul's day while the Hamelinites were in church, the piper returned dressed in green like a hunter playing his pipe. In so doing, he attracted the town's children. One hundred and thirty children followed him out of town and into a cave and were never seen again. Three children remained behind: One was lame and could not follow quickly enough, the second was deaf and therefore could not hear the music, and the last was blind and unable to see where he was going. These three informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out from church.
What most people remember about the story is the irresistible attraction that the children had to follow the Pied Piper wherever he went, even to their death. Obviously, the Pied Piper was not someone that the children should have followed. There are lots of “Pied Pipers’” in life that we must resist following, but there is One person that we must follow in life.
READ: Luke 5:1-7
JESUS CHRIST is the only one worthy of us following with our lives! The greek word “ακολουθεω” translated “follow” means to “go behind”, to “go along with”, or to “go in the same way/direction”. The childhood game of follow the leader is really a pretty good example of what it means to follow Jesus. We copy or emulate His movements. We reduplicate the places He goes and the things He does. Jesus invitation to follow is much more than a physical game of follow the leader, but an invitation to get close to Him, to get near to Him, and to imitate His life.
There are a number of people and things that we can follow after in life. Some of us are following after popularity, we simply copy or emulate the clothing, the hair style, the lifestyle of the most recent fad in an effort to get as many people as possible to like us and want to be our friend. Some of us are following after achievement or success, we copy or emulate our favorite athlete, musician, or artist in an effort to get others to acknowledge the greatness of your accomplishment. Some of us are following after security, we work hard, make money, buy nice things in order to feel safe or important. These are things, that at least at this stage of our lives, we are depended on, they are the oxygen we breathe in order to be alive and have purpose. Are these things that we are following after worthy of our lives? I would suggest that there is ONE THING, ONE PERSON, that is worthy of our following with our lives. Whatever it is that we are following is a gigantic waste of time compared to following Jesus Christ . . .
Jesus does some specific things in His relationship with Simon, James, and John that can help us see why He is worthy of us following Him and understand how He relates with us. What is it that Jesus Christ does to attract us to follow Him?
Jesus INITIATES (Luke 5:3-5) – The word initiate means to “cause a process to begin”. To take initiative means to make the first move, to move from a state of doing nothing to a state of doing something. Taking initiative is important in almost every area of life. We need to take initiate in our school work, we need to take initiative in our job, we need to take initiative in relationships, we need to take initiative in order to learn any new skill. We cannot just wait for things to happen or nothing will ever happen. We cannot just sit back and hope that things will get accomplished or nothing will ever get accomplished. Being an initiator is extremely important in life.
When it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ, He is the one who takes initiative. We are not the initiator of our relationship with God, He is. Colossians 1:16-19 explains how Jesus Christ is the initiator of all initiators, “by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together . . . in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through the blood of His cross.” What does all of that mean? Jesus is the beginner, the starter, the initiator of everything in all existence. Nothing in all existence exists or comes about without His initiation! Jesus is the initiator on a massive universal scale and He is the initiator on a more minor, but no less significant, scale. Jesus, the Creator and Initiator of the universe, takes the initiative to come to the worksite of 3 professional fisherman, Simon, James, and John. Very simply, He shows up in their real lives. Obviously, fishing was these 3 mens’ occupation. They probably went fishing 6 days a week to provide for themselves and their family. Fishing was important! On this particular day when Jesus shows up they had been “toiling all night” and caught “nothing”. Do you think these guys were in a good mood? Do you think they were No way. No fish. No income. No food. Exhausted. Frustrated. Disappointed. Jesus shows u
Interestingly, this wasn’t their first interaction with Jesus. The night before, Jesus had been at Simon’s house. Luke 5:38-39 says, “Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to Him on her behalf. And He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them”. Not sure how many other interactions Jesus had with Simon and the other 2 men, but the point is . . . Jesus showed up in their real lives.
One final observation, in both of these instances Jesus shows up in the midst of difficult and hardship. First when Simon’s mother-in-law was ill and second when they’d had an unproductive night of fishing. In a few moments when these men were scared and anxious, Jesus takes initiative and shows up in their lives.
Jesus is the one who takes initiative to relate with us, not us! Jesus jumps into the boat of our lives and relates with us. Jesus often initiates relationship with us in moments of difficulty and hardship. In moments of difficulty and hardship we tend to respond in one of two ways 1) we blame/reject God and turn away from Him or 2) we embrace God and turn toward Him. Times of difficulty and hardship are crucial moments in our lives, they are moments when God initiates relationship with us.
What difficulty and hardship have you experienced? Who in your life has experienced hardship or difficulty? In those moments when we experience hardship and difficulty we need to look for Jesus Christ because we can be confident that He is doing something to take initiative and show up in our lives.
A second thing that Jesus does to attract us to follow Him is . . .
Jesus REVEALS (Luke 5:6-7) – One thing that makes Christianity distinct from other religions is the fact that God has revealed Himself in the flesh. No other religion claims what we celebrate on December 25, Immanuel (God with us). In all other major religions God reveals Himself through a prophet, enlightenment, or rational thought. John 1:14 says, “(Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us”. Hebrews 1:3 says that, “(Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” When we look at Jesus Christ, we are looking at God.
READ: Romans 1:16-20
The gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, reveals to us the righteousness of God. In verses 16-17 Paul says he is, “not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed”. The gospel is the good news of the historical reality of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. God revealed His righteous character . . . His perfection, His power, His holiness, His love, His grace, His mercy, His compassion, His glory, through the person of Jesus Christ. None of us can make the excuse that God is unknowable, we have seen Him in the testimony of the incarnate Christ in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Another way that God reveals Himself to us is through creation. According to Romans what can be “known” about God is “plain” to us because God has “shown it to (us)”. God made known his “invisible attributes” (things we cannot perceive or see) through the “creation of the world” (something we can “clearly perceive” and see)! When we consider any aspect of creation we are taking a glimpse into God’s “eternal power” and “divine nature”! Since we all have access to observe creation, we are without excuse, God’s amazing creation is sufficient evidence of His reality.
Jesus revealed Himself to Simon, James, and John by asking them to trust Him with something important in their lives. Simon, James, and John were professional fisherman and they had been fishing all night and caught nothing. It would have made more sense that these men would have rejected Jesus request to “put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”. Instead of arguing, debating, or flat our saying “no thanks” Simon was obedient and trusted Jesus Christ with the request. The men were probably tired, they were probably almost done with the clean-up process, and yet they head back out onto the water and trusted His “word”. As a result of their trust and obedience God revealed Himself to them in a miraculously powerful way.
If we will trust God in moments of hardship and difficulty and be obedient to what it is He is leading us to do we will get to experience the miraculous power of God in our lives! God is not going to force His way into relationship with us. We must respond with some level of belief in order to experience a fuller revelation of Himself that He wants to give us. No matter how difficult or how hard our lives might be, we must be willing to trust God, to be obedient, and when we do, He will reveal Himself to us in new and powerful ways that will inspire us to follow Him with our whole lives.
CONCLUSION
Satan and His power within the world is like the “pied piper” who entices us to follow Him with our lives. If he can get us to follow ANYTHING, worship ANYTHING other than Jesus Christ, he wins. We must see through Satan’s deception and see the truth of who Jesus is and be willing to leave behind anything and everything this world has to offer and follow Him! When we have a personal and powerful encounter with Jesus Christ, our lives are changed!
Jesus Christ is the One in all existence worthy of following. Satan will do his best to tempt us with other people and things, but there is only One worth abandoning everything, giving up everything, sacrificing everything to follow, and that is Jesus Christ. Unlike the Pied, Piper, Jesus Christ is no mythical character that we learn a moral lesson from. He is the real God of the universe who has taken the initiative to reveal Himself to each and every one of us. There is no doubt that He alone is worthy of being followed!
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