Are You a Fan or a Follower?
January 23, 2022
Are You a Fan or a Follower? Are you a fan of Jesus Christ or are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Now, I realize you can be both, you should be both if you know Jesus, but that’s not always the case. You see, when I first came to faith in Christ, I didn’t know much about Christianity. But one thing that came instinctively to me was that believing in Jesus meant following Jesus. It just seemed natural to me that if Jesus gave His life for me, then the least I could do was trust him enough to follow Him. So that’s what I was learning to do. And every day I was learning something new and was trying to put it into practice in my life. My faith was alive and exciting. God was teaching me great stuff, and I was growing in my understanding of Him. I never felt so alive. And t wasn’t long before I had a chance to go on a College Retreat, so I jumped at the chance. Getting to learn more about Jesus with people my age – awesome
But sometime during that retreat, I began noticing something amiss. Even though I was excited about learning to follow Jesus, it didn’t seem like anyone else felt the same as I did. So, I pulled my leader aside and asked him what was up with that?
His answer has always stuck with me. He said, “If you want to learn how to follow Jesus, don’t look at his followers, look at Jesus.” His advice helped me so much then and still helps me today. But I’ve often wondered why so many people say they love Jesus but have a hard time actually following Him. And perhaps you’ve wondered that as well. I mean, have you ever wondered why it seems so easy for some people to follow Jesus and so hard for others? Why some people have a joyful and active faith, and yet others seem to just be going through the motions? Why some are so alive in their faith but others don’t seem to be going anywhere at all?
Well, if you’ve ever felt like following Jesus is hard, or lacked joy or feel like your faith is stuck in neutral, then I want to encourage you to look at a simple, yet profound encounter with Jesus this morning. This encounter is found in the gospel of John 1:35-42. For in this encounter, we are going to discover what moves you beyond just being a fan of Jesus, to being someone who’s all in with Jesus. In other words, in this passage we’re going to see what’s at the heart of being a follower of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at the first factor that moves from being a fan to a follower. And that first factor is this:
Followers Are Ready to Believe in Jesus In other words, those who choose to follow Jesus have their hearts prepared to follow. Look at verse 35 with me: The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. John 1:35-37 One of the things we forget about John the Baptist is that he had a number of disciples. A better word to help us understand the relationship his disciples had with John is the term apprentice. An apprentice learns by walking closely with their teacher, observing his life and teachings and working alongside him. So, these disciples had been with John, listened to his teachings about the Messiah and had been helping John baptize those who were coming out to the wilderness. And if you remember from the previous passage, John’s focus had been on preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. So along the way, he had been preparing his disciples to embrace this One who was coming. So now, when these two disciples hear John declare, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” they were ready. They knew what John had prepared them to do. They did not hesitate but immediately left John the Baptist to follow after Jesus.
When John said, “Behold the Lamb of God” they immediately understood He was the One John had been preparing them to follow. They instantly recalled the story every Jewish boy grew up with – the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah. There, when Abraham and Isaac were preparing the fire for the sacrifice, Isaac made this keen observation: “The fire and wood is here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Genesis 22:8 So what happened next? God provided the lamb.
So, when John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” it was clear. This was the lamb provided from God. This was the Messiah come to deliver God’s people. Here was the One they’d been looking for their entire lives. So now they didn’t need further encouragement to follow Him. They didn’t need any prodding to leave John and align themselves with Jesus. John had prepared their hearts to follow. So, when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
Perhaps this is why so many people are reluctant to follow Jesus today. Simply put, most people have not been prepared to follow Jesus. They don’t have any understanding of who Jesus is or why He came. All they know is what our culture teaches them about Jesus. And what our culture teaches us about Jesus, doesn’t really inspire anyone to follow Him. Here are some the ways Jesus gets portrayed to us:
Spooky Jesus: This is the bloodless alien with an aura around his head. This Jesus with the pale and lifeless face isn’t someone we can identify with – all his humanity is bleached out – who wants to follow this guy? Then there’s the
Bearded-lady Jesus: Now this portrayal of Jesus pictures him in a sentimental or feminine manner. As such he appears weak and timid – not at all a compelling figure anyone would want to follow. Then there’s the
Little baby Jesus: made famous in the movie Talladega Nights, drawn from the harmless stereotype rolled out at Christmas to make us feel all schmaltzy about our families. And of course, there’s the
Jesus is my boyfriend: This is the over-romanticized understanding of Jesus that typifies much of the contemporary, touch-me-Lord-type of songs we sometimes sing. And finally there’s
The celebrity rock star Jesus: typified in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, in which Jesus doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he sure loves to sing about it.
Of course, there’s also Jesus the moral example, and Jesus the good teacher. But for most people today, they don’t have a compelling image of Jesus that inspires them to follow Him. They don’t know Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. They don’t know Jesus is full of grace and truth. They don’t know Jesus is faithful and true. They don’t know Jesus is rich in mercy and that no sin you’ve ever committed is outside the scope of His great love. They don’t know His compassion for the least of these. They don’t know He’s drawn to the broken hearted… And they don’t know Jesus as the conquering hero, who defeated sin and death when He rose from the grave. And so, they don’t know the power of the resurrection or the hope of eternal life. And they don’t know that His power, His mercy and His life is now available to anyone who trusts in Him.
All they know is what they’ve taught. And what is the philosophy of our age? “Follow your heart”, “Do more of what makes you happy”, “Believe in yourself”, “If you can dream it, you can do it” “Work hard, dream big, never give up.” “Accept no one’s definition of your life. Define Yourself.” People today are taught to focus on what only they can do for themselves. And they don’t know what God has done for them. They don’t know the One who created them, who loves them and who gave His all to save them. And they don’t know the joy, the satisfaction, the wonder and the life that’s found in following Jesus.
This is why our vision as a church is to be a people who help people become friends, family and followers of Jesus. Jesus calls us to follow Him. And Jesus calls us to be His witnesses. And Jesus commands us to make disciples of Him. This is why He connects you to His Church. This is why He gives us His Word. This is why He gives every believer immediate access to His presence. Jesus has given us the responsibility to help make ready a generation to follow Jesus. What’s that going to take? It’s going to take us first being so captivated with Jesus, that we are willing to go all in with Jesus. In fact, that’s what we see next in this passage. The second characteristic of a genuine follower of Jesus is this:
Followers are Willing to Go All In With Jesus Look at verse 37 again, When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. John 1:37-39 This is an amazing scene. It’s the first scene where we get to observe Jesus, hear Jesus, and see how he interacts with those who want to follow Him.
The first thing John tells us, that in turning round, he says, Jesus “saw” these two men following him. Now, what we don’t get from the English text is the power of this word “saw.” It literally means to watch as in a theatre. Jesus is observing them, he’s looking at them with keen interest. What are these guys up too? After all, at this point, Jesus hasn’t called anyone to follow him. So now with his interest aroused, Jesus asks them a simple question. Here are the first words of Jesus in this gospel: “What do you want?” Or more precisely: “What are you seeking?” It’s actually a pretty deep question.
Jesus wanted to know their intentions, their expectations, their motives for wanting to follow him. What were they looking for? What did they want from Him? You see, when people come to Jesus, they can want all kinds of things. Some want Jesus to give them a better life. Some want Jesus to deliver them from a bad relationship, or heal their broken heart, or give them a better job. But the thing about Jesus is that He knows our intentions can be skewed. And He knows our hearts can deceive us. So, he wants to know what we really want when we come to Him.
Do we want to align ourselves with Jesus for what we can get out of him, or do we want to follow Him just to be with Him? Do you want him to make your life better or do you want him to change your life? You see, too often we come to God for what we want Him to do for us. And He does do a lot. After all He is full of grace and gives us so much when we trust in Him. But what happens when life goes south? What happens when we don’t get what we think we want? What happens when it gets hard to follow Jesus? For some they lose heart? Others lose faith, and others just quit following. “What do you want?” This is a great question. For this is where Jesus draws the line. Jesus is not interested in fair-weather fans. He wants committed followers. So what Jesus is asking for here in this first encounter is for these guys to DEFINE THE RELATIONSHIP.
They needed to decide what they were expecting of Jesus and so do we. Now, the good news is that they wee quick to make their expectations known. They answer by saying, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” And by calling him Rabbi and asking where he was staying, they were saying, “We’re all in.” They were saying, “We want you to be our teacher, our Master. We want to be with you so we can observe your life and learn from you. That was the goal of any disciple who wished to align themselves with a Rabbi. For they knew that the mission of a Rabbi was to be a living example of what it means to apply God’s Word to all of life. A disciple then wanted to apprentice himself to a rabbi so he could learn how to live out God’s will. But even more than acquiring his master’s knowledge, a disciple wanted to acquire his master’s character.
So at this moment, these two disciples revealed their motives for following Jesus: They wanted to be with Jesus to learn from Jesus how to live like Jesus! And you want to know what? That’s our definition of a disciple – a follower of Jesus! A disciple follows Jesus to learn from Jesus how to live and love like Jesus.
So let me ask: What about you? What do you want from Jesus? This may be the single most critical question Jesus will ever ask. What’s your answer?…
Well, we’ve just heard the disciple’s answer. They were willing to go all in with Jesus. They wanted to be with Jesus to learn from Him how to live out God’s will. How then did Jesus respond to them? “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. John 1:39
Don’t you just love this? When the two disciples said, “we’re all in” Jesus opens his life to them: Jesus invites them into HIS LIFE. We get this backwards – we think we are to welcome Jesus into our lives. But following Jesus always means surrendering our life to His. And this isn’t easy. But if you can do this, Jesus will begin to show you a whole new way to live. “Come and you will see.”
Now let me give you some encouragement here. Because it’s at this point where many “fans” of Jesus are reluctant to go all in. I love what Ann Spangler says about following from her book, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus. She says, “Sometimes we hear the word “disciple” and conclude that it’s too hard to become one. But think about the alternative: To refuse to become Jesus’ disciple is to consign ourselves to perpetual childhood and condemn ourselves to a wasted, frustrating life. The more we enter into relationship with Rabbi Jesus, the more joy we will experience. To become more like Christ will deepen our relationships and allow us to live more authentically. It may not always be easy, but it will certainly be good, and, as we follow him, we will find our-selves living with greater passion & purpose, experiencing a life of greater fulfillment.”
This is what Jesus’ invitation is all about. We follow Jesus because He invites us to be with Him, to learn from Him new way to live: A life of joy and peace, a life of passion and purpose, a life of love with Jesus. But you’ve got to want what Jesus wants for you. And when you want that, you will go all in with Jesus, and follow him, and then something happens inside of you. And that’s the final thing we see in this passage.
And what is that? Followers Want to Bring Others to Jesus Look at the response of one of these new disciples of Jesus: Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas (which, when translated, is Peter). The first thing Andrew did after spending time with Jesus was find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” Spending one day with Jesus changed everything. Andrew didn’t need to be challenged to do this. He WANTED to find his brother and tell him about Jesus because this is what you do when you have good news. You can’t wait to share it! Not only did Andrew share the good news but he didn’t stop there. He then brought him to Jesus.
Andrew’s reaction has been a classic model for Christian witness over the centuries. He began with the one closest to him, his brother. And his example became the secret to the spread of Christianity: “It became the sacred duty of a new convert to share with friends and family the good news he or she had experienced.” And that’s still true today. Most people who come to know Jesus are brought to Jesus by friends or family members. The gospel moves best through people who have been changed by Jesus.
Have you ever heard the story of Edward Kimball? Edward Kimball was an Andrew. He was a Sunday School teacher in Boston. He wanted to make sure that every student in his class would come to know Jesus. One day he went to the shoe store where one of his students was stocking shelves. That day, Dwight Lyman Moody received Christ as his Savior. D. L. Moody became a famous Evangelist. One of his converts was Wilbur Chapman. Chapman became a great evangelist in the generation following Moody. During Chapman’s ministry in Chicago, a young baseball player who had the day off, heard the gospel wagon pass by the bar he was standing in front of. This young ball player recognized some or the songs form his youth and followed the wagon, attended the service and put his trust in Christ. That afternoon changed Billy Sunday’s life. He played ball two more years, then left professional sports to minister in the Chicago YMCA. Later Chapman came again to Chicago for more evangelistic meetings and asked Billy to help organize pastors and set up meetings. Sunday agreed. But after two years Chapman left the road to become a Pastor. Left stranded, Billy Sunday began to refocus on national crusade evangelism and preaching in his own crusades. And at one of those crusades, a young man named Mordecai Hamm put his faith in Jesus. Hamm soon became a great evangelist preaching in the Southeastern United States. One night a young man in the crowd heard the message of Jesus and came forward to put his trust in Jesus. His name? Billy Graham.
Now, that’s an amazing story of how the good news moves through the desires of ordinary people. But it all begins by knowing Jesus, by being with Jesus and learning His heart for you. Because when you come to know Him, when you come to know His mercy, His love, His truth, there’s something that happens within you too. He changes you and fills you with a purpose and passion you can’t find in this world. And when you meet this Jesus – you will want others to know Him too.
In the end, this is what a follower is all about: A follower is ready to go with Jesus. A follower is ready to go all in with Jesus, and a follower is ready to go to others and bring them to Jesus. And what that means for us today is this: Any person who becomes a follower of Jesus has the potential to become a world changer with Him.
So where are you at today? Are you a fan or a follower? Perhaps today is the day you define your relationship with Him? Do you want Jesus for what you can get from him or for what He wants to do in you? As Jesus asked those disciples then, he asks you today: “What do you want?”
Julianne Young says
Hi, Larry
What a good, good message. Had to miss church Sunday as I have been sick with a cold. I know we have a zoom link but did not know I could listen to your message via the website too. Thank you so much for providing this!