Revelation 14:4b-“They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.”
Following God has always been about more than belief. It has always been about obedience to God’s leading. You can believe in God and Jesus’ sacrifice all day long, but if you don’t move with Him, you aren’t a follower of Christ.
God wants us to become like Jesus as we follow Him. Romans 8:29-30-talks about how God’s plan is to conform us to the image of His Son. Jesus came not only to redeem us but to show us what life with God is supposed to be like so that we could live that life. I like the Message translation of those verses. They read, “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”
It’s not just that we are to look like Jesus, but we are to live as Jesus did. He is the template, the pattern, the example.
When those first disciples heard Jesus say, “Follow Me,” they would have understood the weight of the invitation. Jesus wasn’t saying, “Give Me a try.” He wasn’t saying, “Follow Me as a groupie.” He wasn’t saying, “Give me a few yours of your life.” To follow Jesus, for that first-century disciple meant you would consider Jesus to be your Rabbi. The goal was the imitation of His life for your lifetime. They would live with Him to become like Him for life.
Those who were truly followers studied everything their Rabbi did. They didn’t just listen to his words, but they listened and watched intently in order to learn to copy the behaviors of their Rabbi. There was immediate application of all they heard and saw. When Jesus called those early disciples to follow Him, He was asking them to duplicate His life.
Everyone who followed Jesus in the Gospels left things behind in order to do so. They walked away from their lives in order to live His life. They laid down their lives to pursue the life of Christ. They left it all to “follow the Lamb everywhere He went.” What have you left behind in order to faithfully follow Jesus?
I love the example of John the Baptist who recognized Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world in John 1:29. He verbally pointed other people to Jesus demonstrating that He believed in Jesus as the Messiah. But John the Baptist didn’t stop there with belief or a simple declaration about Jesus. No, when John recognized Jesus as the Messiah, there was a shift, a transition in the way he was going to live his life.
John already had the attention of many. John could have been about building his own earthly empire, about advancing his name, but instead of trying to seek his own success, he said in John 3:30 that Jesus must increase, and he, John, must decrease. He shifted the attention off himself and onto Christ. He understood what it meant to follow Christ. John the Baptist embraced that followship meant building the Kingdom of God rather than his own kingdom. He was going to follow the Lamb and become submissive to Jesus’ life and ministry rather than seeking to continue to grow his own following.
Are we seeking to make Christ famous or is our own reputation and following more important than pointing people to Christ through the way we elevate Him in our lives? Christ cannot increase in us if we aren’t willing to decrease.
Jesus didn’t mince words: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
Taking up a cross means the crucifixion of our own lives, the putting to death of our agendas, our wills, our fleshly ways so that we can live Jesus’ life. There is no true followship without relinquishing our lives to live the life of the Lamb. To follow Christ means we don’t follow anything else.
If it sounds like it’s too hard, if it sounds like it would cost a lot, if it seems unreasonable or too difficult to you to follow the Lamb, let me suggest this: When you follow the Lamb, you gain way more than you give up.
When you follow the Lamb, you get revelation about the way God is at work in the world.
When you follow the Lamb, you get opportunities to be used of God in natural and supernatural ways.
When you follow the Lamb, you will increase in spiritual wisdom and maturity.
When you follow the Lamb, the limitations of this life will come off of you.
When you follow the Lamb, the things that could overwhelm you will become of no consequence.
When you follow the Lamb, you will leave footprints for others to follow.
When you follow the Lamb, you will have unbroken peace and unshakeable hope.
When you follow the Lamb, you will have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
When you follow the Lamb, you will have worship spontaneously combust in your soul.
When you follow the Lamb, you will always have a way through life’s trials.
When you follow the Lamb, chains will fall off of other people.
When you follow the Lamb, healing will flow.
When you follow the Lamb, you will walk in the footsteps of the Victor! Come on!
When you follow the Lamb, you will find the way out of temptation.
When you follow the Lamb, you will silence the enemy.
When you follow the Lamb, you will trample on the enemy.
When you follow the Lamb, you will cause the enemy to flee.
I don’t know about you, but I’m following the Lamb! And if the reasons I’ve just listed aren’t good enough for you, if they don’t convince you that followship is the route to take, let me leave you with this.
There isn’t anyone else worth following. No one else has dealt Satan the eternal blow that the Lamb has. No one else has given their life to redeem me from my sins, and no one else would be qualified to do so. No one else has conquered death. No one else has shown me the love, mercy and compassion of my Savior. No one else has invested so much in me. No one else is worthy of my followship. I’m gonna follow the Lamb!
