Evangelism: Follow Jesusنموونە

‘Piggybacking On Jesus’.

What we love about this is that Jesus isn’t just looking for companionship. And He doesn’t JUST care about ‘me’ (or ‘you’). Yes, He DOES care about each one of us, but not us alone. He wants to call us out of our hurt and shame and into His healing and purity. 

But He also wants to send US out to fish for people! He has a dream for us that involves more than warm fuzzies with disembodied, cloudy, dancing angel figures up in heaven for eternity. He’s got a purpose for us in His great reclamation operation to fish for people.

But first, we have to follow. What does it look like? Jesus clarifies this in the parallel passage (Mark 1:15-17), when He instructs them to ‘Repent and believe’ (v15). 

So how do people follow Jesus? Repent and believe. To repent is to change your mind.

So, change your mind about your sins – they are so terrible that Jesus died on the cross for them (and rose back to life again!). They aren’t some merely dodgy habits, or ‘character flaws’, or personality defects. They are serious.

And you change your mind about yourself. You aren’t the god of the universe – He is. But you are so precious to Jesus that He did go all the way to Calvary and through to the empty tomb, defeating the devil, crushing sin and death, and ascending to heaven where He now reigns.

And change your mind about God. He isn’t aloof. He isn’t mad. He isn’t too strict. He isn’t unmerciful. He isn’t impotent. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. And He is loving and caring and merciful and gracious and compassionate. 

That’s Biblical repentance.

And believe. That’s a strong word in the biblical Greek – much more than mere intellectual assent. It’s like when my son hops up on my shoulders and piggybacks on me. He really believes – he is committed to this endeavor. If I fall down, he tumbles. If he wants to go here but I want to go there, guess where he ends up? There. He is completely dependent on me. That’s kind of what the command to ‘believe’ implies – piggybacking on Jesus.

Takeaway? And that’s how we invite people to respond.