You Are Invited to Follow JesusSample

You Are Invited

Imagine for a second that you have just arrived home after a very full day of activity. Before going into the house, you walk to the mailbox. On your way back to the house, your eyes quickly scan the stack of week's old mail - bills to pay, offers to spend money you don't have, and advertisements to buy stuff you don't need.

Upon entering the house, you throw the stack of mail on the table. At this moment, your eye catches something you had missed the first time you flipped through the mail. The unusual texture and weight of the envelope indicate that this is something special. You notice that your name and address are handwritten, showing a level of care and intentionality. You open the envelope with great care to reveal a special invitation—a wedding to be held on the 25th day of January. You are invited. Your presence has been requested on this most special of days.

Much like this hypothetical wedding invitation, Jesus is inviting you into an intimate relationship of love—a relationship with a God who exists in community - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The life of apprenticeship He is inviting you and me into today is not all that different from the life He called His first disciples to embrace and experience.

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that "As he (Jesus) walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him." (Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭18‬-‭22‬ ‭NRSV)‬‬

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus extending a personal invitation to would-be followers to apprentice under Him. An invitation to walk with Him, observe all He would do and say, and ultimately give up their lives to advance His Kingdom to the ends of the earth.

Over the next few days, it is these stories that we will look closer at. Four different accounts where Jesus extended an invitation to "Follow Me," how each person would respond to Jesus' offer, and what their responses might mean for us today.