Following Jesus 6

Following Jesus refers to being a disciple of Jesus. Being a disciple of Jesus entails following Jesus’ leading and learning from His teaching in order to take upon oneself, by God’s enablement, Jesus’ character.

In examining what it means to Follow Jesus as His disciples, let’s take a look at the most familiar disciples of Jesus: the Twelve. Matthew 10:1-4 is one text, along with Mark 3, Luke 6 and Acts 1, which gives us a list of who these men were. 

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Matthew 10:1-4 ESV).

These were the men belonging to the Master. What were they like? How are we like them? Most were true disciples; one was not. How do we resemble them in our personalities, passions, and our perspectives? 

We begin with Simon Peter. As we have already seen, Simon Peter was an inquisitive man. He asked Jesus a lot of questions. Do you ask questions of your church leaders, pastors and Sunday school teachers? If you do, you are like Simon Peter. 

Simon Peter was also one who took initiative. Do you display initiative? Peter took initiative. He was creative, resourceful, enterprising and possessed ingenuity. He was the first to take action. He did not require prompting from others. 

Peter was not only the first one to ask questions, and also always the first one to answer questions. Peter answered Jesus’ question regarding who from the crowd touched Jesus (Luke 8:40-48). Peter answered Jesus’ question regarding who do men say that I am (Matthew 16:13-20). 

So you take initiative when things need to be done and work must be accomplished. If so, you are a lot like Simon Peter.  

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