John 1:43 (ESV)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip’s Christian journey began with those two words. Jesus uttered them on several occasions and the impact is still felt over two thousand years later. So simple yet so profound. Philip went to his friend Nathaniel and encouraged him to “come and see” (v. 46). Peter and Andrew immediately left their nets (Mt. 4:20). Matthew left his tax collecting business (Mt. 9:9). The “rich young ruler” chose not to and went away sad (Mt. 19:22).

What changed in your life when Jesus said, “Follow me”?

In every instance, Jesus was calling on people to leave their present course and instead, to follow him on a new one. Not only in terms of the gospel itself—leaving your fruitless efforts at salvation behind and choosing to trust in His finished work—but also in terms of intermediate destinations. Follow Him in your relationships. Follow Him in your attitudes. Follow Him in how you look at people. Follow Him in how you deal with money and possessions. Follow Him when faced when temptations. Follow Him after you sin.

Do you have to know where He is taking you in order to follow Him? If you hired a guide to get you to the top of a mountain, would you question how he gets you there? We know that Christ has already secured our place in Heaven, but what about the stops along the way? This is why a good grasp of the Bible is so important, and why an on-going, effective walk with Christ is virtually impossible without it. There are good works that He has planned in advance for you to walk in (Eph. 2:10), but that is only possible if you follow His path…and His path is mostly revealed in His Word and guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In his powerful sermon on this passage, the great Scottish minister, Alexander MacLaren, said, “Where you see His track going across the bog be not afraid to walk after Him, though it may seem to lead you into the deepest and the blackest of it. ‘Follow Him’ and you will be right. ‘Follow Him’ and you will be blessed. Do as Christ did, or as according to the best of your judgment it seems to you that Christ would have done if He had been in your circumstances; and you will not go far wrong. ‘The Imitation of Christ,’ which Thomas a Kempis wrote his book about, is the sum of all practical Christianity.”

Follow Jesus!