Following Jesus: The Forgotten Call?

Come as you are

Your calling may look different to mine

Jesus doesn’t tell everyone to go out on an impressive mission. He simply asks us to follow Him, trust in Him, and do what He says.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, didn’t go out with the 12 disciples on their journeys with Jesus, as Jesus didn’t call her to do this. But she was there at the cross after the disciples had fled. She trusted Him and believed in Him implicitly, saying at one point: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5). Jesus gave her a unique commission of being a mother to the disciple of John, right in His dying moments on the cross:

“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” – Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV

There was a man with a ‘legion’ of demons who begged to be with Jesus after being delivered from them, but Jesus told him to return to his house (the Greek word translated ‘house’ here means family line, a household, or a group of relatives), and tell them all about it; see Luke 8:26-39 or Mark 5:1-20:

But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him; but He sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. – Luke 8:38-39 NASB1995

Saul of Tarsus (Paul) was sent far away to preach to non-Jews:

And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’” – Acts 22:21 ESV or see Acts 22:1-21 for the full context.

The important thing is that your commission comes from Jesus, and you obey it. Acting before being called (like Saul in 1 Samuel 13:8-14), or not acting when instructed (like the rich young ruler in Mark 10:21-22) are both pathways of disobedience and self-will.

An intensely personal experience

It is possible to know your Bible from cover to cover, and understand Christian doctrine in depth, and still not be saved.

It is possible to live a life that is more ‘upright’ and in accordance with the 10 commandments than most other people, and still not be saved.

It is also possible to do missionary works of your own volition, and not be saved:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ – Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

Finding certainty

Telling yourself you are saved based on what you have learnt will not give you deep inward peace; but when you pour your heart out to Jesus, and repent from your old ways, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and find a peace and joy that you can’t imagine until you experience it first-hand.

When you put your trust in scriptures like Luke 8:48: “be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace”, and you know that those words apply to you because you also have faith in Jesus and everything He has done to save you, at that point you have made the transition from:

1. knowing that Jesus can save you, Jesus wants to save you, and Jesus loves you, to
2. knowing that Jesus has saved you.

Only Jesus, because He is God, has “the power on earth to forgive sins” (see Luke 5:20-25).

Just before you have a transaction with Jesus, you may feel burnt up with guilt and anxiety about your sins. But when the light of the gospel floods your heart and soul, and you look away from yourself, and off to Jesus to save you, and are ‘born again’ (John 3:3-5) and filled with the Holy Spirit, you then have ‘The Comforter’ (another name of the Holy Spirit see John 14:26), and you will know you are saved.

How will you respond?

¹⁶ Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, ¹⁷ and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ ¹⁹ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ ²⁰ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ ²² And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ ²³ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ”

Luke 14:16-19 NKJV

What if you have stopped following Jesus?

If you take a child you love for a walk, you normally go slowly and are patient if they turn aside to explore their surroundings. Jesus demonstrated this kind of patience with His disciples too, sometimes calling them ‘children’ when they were slow to learn from Him.

But sometimes you might feel like you’ve said “that’s enough, I’m going back” and have abandoned Jesus. Or maybe it was a more gradual, subtle process: you allowed small things into your life that were not part of your calling, and over time, you have now lost sight of Jesus altogether.

If we get away from Jesus, whether 100 steps or 1000 steps, He is always watching for a turn, and will run all the way back to rejoin us on our journey if we take just 1 step back:

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. – Luke 15:20 NKJV

In Deuteronomy 30, Moses instructs God’s people how to return if they get away:

And it shall come to pass… when you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice… then the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations… If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you…” – Deuteronomy 30:1–4 NKJV

See also Psalm 139:

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. – Psalm 139:7–10 NKJV

Here are several other scriptures where people cried out to God from far away, and He instantly heard them:

• Jonah 2:1–2: “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: ‘I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas…'”
• Psalm 130:1–2: “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
• Isaiah 59:1: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
• Luke 23:42–43: “Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.'”

Make a fresh contract with Jesus today!

While the Christian’s acceptance is 100% based on grace, Scripture makes it clear God loves a commitment from our side and will reward us for it, leading to the common phrase “God is no man’s debtor” (which is not a Scripture quote, but can be derived from Scriptures such as Mark 10:29–30).

After David had sinned grievously (engineering the death of a man so he could take the man’s wife!), he did not say “restore unto me my salvation”, but he said: “restore unto me the joy of my salvation” (emphasis added). Then he promised God what he would do in return: “then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” A spontaneous, heartfelt commitment like this is a natural part of returning to Jesus, and renewing your contract with Him.

See Psalm 51:7-15, where David makes multiple requests of God as well as promising a return, marked in bold below (emphasis added):

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

Psalm 51:7-15 NKJV

Hannah is another example; she promised God that if she was granted a son, she would dedicate him to Jehovah, leading to the great prophet and judge Samuel, who guided his people well.

Then she made a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head – 1 Samuel 1:11 NKJV

Whatever you commit to God, no matter how small, He will notice and reward you well. Maybe it’s giving up your daily hours of scrolling on your Facebook feed. Maybe it’s your timidity about sharing your faith. It will be different for each person, but everyone will know instinctively what they should sacrifice and ‘leave behind’ to follow Jesus and respond in gratefulness for what He has done for them personally.

“Not of works, lest anyone should boast”

Any commitment you make to God is not the basis of your acceptance with Him.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. – Ephesians 2:9 NKJV

There is a trap the Devil often leads young believers into; it goes something like this:

• You are thankful to be saved
• You commit to doing something good
• You do it for a while, and feel good about yourself
• You take your eye off Jesus, and start to look at yourself and your achievements instead
• The devil waits until your eye is off Jesus, then he brings the old temptations against you again, and you fail and go back on the vow you have made (we always fail when we’re not focused on Jesus). The Devil is stronger than us, so we need Jesus, “a stronger than he” (Luke 11:21-23) by our side every step of the way.
• When we fail in relation to the commitment we have made, our heart is grieved, and the devil encourages us to give up. We also lose our joy; the Holy Spirit no longer comforts us, but instead is “grieved” and makes us feel bad until we repent (see Ephesians 4:30, Galatians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 7:10).

Don’t lose hope: “if we sin we have an advocate with the Father”- see 1 John 2:1-2.

If you sin after conversion, read Psalm 51. If you think you are doing well (and are therefore in danger of taking your eyes off Jesus, and onto your own achievements that have been made possible through God’s grace), remember these words of the Lord Jesus:

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”…Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” – Luke 10:17-20 NKJV

What about false disciples?

Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, serves as a solemn warning to us all. He accompanied Jesus for more than 3 years before it became clear that his heart was not right in the final act of betrayal.

Jesus spoke about letting the wheat and the tares grow together until it becomes clear which is which, rather than risk uprooting the wheat with the similar-looking weeds (Matthew 13:36-43).

• If you are not sure, that probably means you are saved (or are just about to be!), because you are concerned about your state, seeking God, and seeking the truth.
• If you are confident that you are a good person and therefore saved, it would be wise to tremble about the possibility that you could turn out to be a Judas, or like the young ruler that claimed to have kept every commandment from his youth, and be found wanting in the end.
• If you know you are a bad person, but have repented, turned from your sinful nature, have been born again, and have put your trust in Jesus, then you are saved; God be praised!

At the entrance of heaven, all you need on your entry ticket is that you felt your sinful state, turned from it in repentance, and put your trust in Jesus.

So you can have confidence: just don’t have it in yourself; have confidence in Jesus.

Stay close to God’s word in the Bible

I sincerely pray that you will find peace and joy today, either by starting on your Jesus-following journey for the first time, or by returning to being with Him if you have got away from Him.

Read your Bible to learn more, and if you don’t have a good translation, you can request a free Bible by post on this website, or you can view multiple versions on The Bible App by YouVersion.

The Bible is like a mine that you will never get to the bottom of; no matter how many times you read it, you will always find fresh words of encouragement, rebuke, and life.