Today, our message is entitled “Jesus Our Example.” A Christian is not simply someone who calls themselves by that name. A Christian according to the Bible is a person who believes in and follows Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus Christ is to follow His example of life, as well as to keep His commands.
Matthew 4:19 (ESV) And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
In this verse, Jesus is calling Peter and Andrew, who were fishermen, to be His disciples. Now, the temptation for all of us in reading the Bible is to assume that Jesus’ words do not apply to us, as we’re not among the 12 apostles. But the truth is that these words and the vast majority of Jesus’ commands were not just for Jesus’ immediate disciples, but for Jesus’ followers of all time. So, Jesus’ words to us today are to follow Him and He wants to make you a fisher of men. In other words, every follower of Jesus should be living to catch men for Jesus. Let’s look more closely at what it means to follow Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1b-2a (ESV) … let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith …
Life is a race that has a start and a finish. During the race of life, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, not anything or anyone else. You can’t follow Jesus if your eyes are not fixed on Him. So, how do we fix our eyes on Jesus or follow Him practically? First of all, we look at God’s Word to understand what Jesus did and what He commanded. What He did in the past, He is doing the same today through His Spirit.
John 14:15 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
To follow Jesus is to love Him and to obey His commands. We must read and study God’s Word daily in order to do this. Secondly, Jesus continues to speak and command us today through His Spirit.
John 10:27 (ESV) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
We must listen to Jesus’ voice through the Spirit and follow His direction at all times.
Today, let’s watch a video of AG missionaries Dareth and Thida Ly, who are serving in Cambodia at great personal cost, leaving the comfortable life behind. The video is called “A New Hope.” We’ll pray for them at the end of the message. Today, we are going to answer the question “How can you follow Jesus’ example in reaching others, in being a fisher of men?” Today, we’re going to look at a passage from Philippians 2. The first way to follow Jesus in outreach is to …
Grow in humility
If we going to increase in humility, we must decrease in it’s opposite pride. Pride is a great hindrance in reaching out to others. A prideful person considers themselves and their feelings as the most important. The needs of others, including where they will spend eternity aren’t very important to a prideful person. So, we must grow in humility and …
Consider others more important than yourself
Philippians 2:3 (ESV) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
These are commands from God’s Word and therefore commands from Jesus to us. Rather than living life to please ourselves, we must not give into that kind of ambition or conceit. Rather, we must consider others and their needs more important than our own. Of course, the greatest need of another person is salvation. So, when we count others more significant than ourselves, we will do all that we can to be an effective witness to them. When we consider others more important than ourselves, we will …
Watch for the interests of others
Philippians 2:4 (ESV) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
If you consider someone more important than yourself, how will you treat them? You will look out for their interests and needs, not just focusing on yourself. Some might wonder, if I consider others more important and look out for their interests, what will happen to me? God promises in Matthew 6:33 that when you put God’s kingdom first, God will meet all your needs. In fact, your needs will be more completely fulfilled when you obey God’s Word than when you try to meet them yourself. To become fishers of men, we must grow in humility.
Application
One common excuse that is given as to why people don’t witness to others is that they are shy and it makes them uncomfortable to talk to others about Jesus. In other words, the excuse is that the shy person’s feelings are more important to them than the eternal destiny of a friend. Jesus died on an uncomfortable cross for you. He commands us to get over our selfish feelings and grow in caring about others. Ask God to reveal to you if you have any selfish attitudes that are keeping you from being a bold witness for Him. I think that each one of us will hear something from Jesus when we pray that prayer. Those selfish and prideful attitudes need to be repented of in order to grow in humility and the effectiveness of our witness. We need to …
Have the attitude of Jesus
Philippians 2:5 (ESV) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
The humility that God’s Word has just commanded us to have, is to simply follow the example of Jesus. Jesus had an attitude of humility that governed everything that He did and said. We are to have the same mindset that Jesus had. This way of thinking is available to us through God’s Word and God’s Spirit. God’s Word describes to us the mindset of Jesus and God’s Spirit gives us the power to think the same way as Jesus. So, what was Jesus’ attitude and mindset? He …
Embrace being a servant
Philippians 2:6-7 (ESV) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
What Jesus did was infinitely more difficult than what He requires of us. God calls us to be servants to fellow human beings. Jesus, on the other hand, was dwelling in heaven as God, creator of the universe. Jesus emptied himself of the glory and splendor He had in heaven. He humbled Himself to become a human being and a servant of all. He chose to …
Obey God at any cost
Philippians 2:8 (ESV) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
This is the ultimate demonstration of humility. Jesus did not want to go through the agony of death on the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed and asked God if there was any way out. The answer was that death on the cross was the only way to both obey the Father and save mankind from their sins. So, Jesus humbled himself, He considered you and Me more important than His comfort or even His life. Jesus put your and my interests ahead of His own. We are commanded to have the same attitude of Jesus.
Application
There are Christians in the world today who are called to become obedient to the point of death. Yet, right now in America, we are simply called to be obedient as bold witnesses, our lives are not usually on the line. About the only thing on the line are our feelings and possibly rejection from a friend or relative. Yet, the demonic evil even in our country is increasing. Just last Sunday, 26 people were gunned down in a church in Sutherland Springs Texas. Are we willing to obey God at any cost? Let’s pray that we would have the attitude of Jesus as we seek to follow Him. An attitude that embraces being a servant, both to Jesus and to others. What does a servant do? He serves and meets the needs of others, trusting God to meet his own needs. As we grow in the attitude of Jesus, we must learn to …
Live for eternity
Philippians 2:10-11 (ESV) so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Even though Jesus humbled Himself by death of the cross, God raised Him from the dead and He rules in heaven. These verses show that someday, every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. This does not mean that everyone will be saved. It means that even those who are not saved will acknowledge that they were wrong and Jesus is Lord. Living for eternity is living for the things that will last forever. The only things that will last forever are what we do for the kingdom of God and the people who have been saved. In order to live for eternity, we must …
Go against the flow
Philippians 2:15a (ESV) that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation …
We can all acknowledge that we live in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. Even though that is the kind of society we live in, as children of God, we must live differently. We are commanded to be blameless, innocent and without blemish. That means we must go against the flow of the majority. We mustn’t live like them, but we must reach out to them with the good news of Jesus. The temptation is to be like those who live around due to peer pressure. But the more we become like our twisted generation, the less effective our witness becomes. We must ..
Let your light shine
Philippians 2:15b (ESV) …in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
The blacker the night, the brighter the stars. As we choose to go against the flow and be radically different than our society, our light will shine brightly. What happens when a light shines brightly in a dark world? The same things that happened to Jesus who is the light of the world. Some people tried to extinguish the light of Jesus, that’s why He was crucified. Yet others were drawn to His light and became believers. As a believer, you have Christ’s light inside you, but you must let it shine forth and not cover it up. Don’t be afraid to let your light shine as you live for eternity.
Application
Are you living for eternity? Is everything you do in life directed to expand God’s kingdom? You see, the commands of God’s Word that we’ve looked at today are not just for pastors or missionaries. They’re for every believer. When you go to work, when you go to school, when you get up in the morning, God tells you to let your light shine. Let your light shine in your family, in your neighborhood, at your workplace and with your friends and relatives. Everywhere you go and everything you say should be to serve Jesus and others, living for eternity.
Conclusion
Whenever you wonder what you should be doing with your life or with your day, the answer is to be following Jesus. Jesus is our example and Jesus is our strength to follow His example. Today, we’ve looked at growing in humility as we embrace the mindset of Jesus. Are you willing to become a servant and obey God at any cost? If so, what is the focus of your life. Are you concerned about providing for and pleasing yourself? Or are you looking out for the needs of others? God can help to live for eternity and not get hung up with the world. Let’s go against the flow of society and let our lights shine. As we do, we’ll make an eternal difference as we follow in Jesus’ footsteps.