“Come, follow me” [Matthew 4:19]
Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked the earth and invited people to follow Him into a life of radical love, a life lived out in a new kingdom with a new set of rules. In many ways, He was inviting them into something completely unfamiliar. It was a life they could only learn by immersing their lives in His. They were invited to literally live their lives with Him day in and day out-to walk beside Him, eat their meals with Him, watch His every move and listen to His conversations, hear Him teach both in the synagogues and beneath expansive skies and listen in on His conversations with His Father. They were being invited to follow Him on a three-year journey that would not only leave them transformed, it would upend the entire world they inhabited.
When Jesus invites us to follow Him, He isn’t inviting us to know about Him. That’s something we do from a distance. Rather, He is inviting us to be formed by Him. There’s a big difference between information and formation. Information goes into our heads. It has the potential to make us smarter, maybe more proud and maybe even divide us from each other. Formation, on the other hand, is something that happens in deep, intimate relationship with Jesus and with each other. When we are formed by Jesus, we don’t just know a lot about Him, we begin to look a whole lot like Him. We love what He loves, we’re angry with the same things that make Him angry and we love Him so deeply, we’re ready to follow Him anywhere, at any cost.
In the second century, in the early days of the Christian church, a pagan scholar mocked Christians for not being as knowledgeable and educated as the Greek scholars. The Christian Father, Cyprian, responded with these powerful words, “We are philosophers— not in words – but in deeds. We do not speak great things; we live them.” This year, the invitation is for us to become people who live great things. Follow Jesus as He searches the horizon for the hurting and the lost, let your heart break for the things that break His.
We’ll leave you with these words from Corrie ten Boom, a woman who spent years in a Nazi concentration camp after she and her family were caught hiding Jews in their home— a woman who truly lived the great things of Jesus, “The Christian’s most significant task is not arguing, reasoning, defending, or preaching the good news, but embodying it.” It’s important to be able to defend your faith and preach the good news. But all our information and eloquent answers mean nothing if our lives don’t become a living example of what we speak. We have to actually live the good news if we want the people around us to understand it. That’s exactly what Jesus did. In the words of Jesus, you are invited to “Come and see.”
Scripture Reference:
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.” [Matthew 4:18-20]
Discussion Questions:
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- Where do you see this truth lived out in the world around you? Can you think of someone who lives great things rather than just speaking great things?
- Where do we see this in the Bible? When Jesus was alive, were there people He encountered who had all the right answers but failed to live out what they knew?
- What are practical ways we can become people who live great things instead of just being people who speak great things?
Assignment:
What stories or verses from the Bible can you think of that tell us what it means to be people who “live great things.”?
(Ex. James 2:14-17) ““In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Take a moment to find a verse and write in your journal what this verse is telling you about living great things.