So, 

Have you ever played follow the leader? Or Simon says?

They are both games that get you in the practice of following directions. 

So, If I say, “Simon says put your hands on your heart. Simon says, put your hands on your knees. Simon says put your hands on your wallet. Put a hundred dollars in the offering plate!” You know what to do, right?

Of course, following a bad leader can be bad, even dangerous. All kinds of groups and individuals have tried to look nice and kind, and then asked for scary or bad behavior by their followers.

You know the drill. 

If someone who looks and sounds nice asks you to do something that’s not right, find a trusted adult and tell them what has happened. Don’t follow a leader who asks for bad behavior.

On the other hand, following good leaders, like Jesus, the very son of God, can be an amazing!

It can be rewarding, a heart and spirit growing adventure that leads us deeper into a relationship with God and deeper into God’s kingdom.

Well, as long as you decide to follow the leader!

When the youth group has had lock-ins here at the church over the years, they have often played a game in the dark called sardines. One person goes out and hides and then each person who finds “it” has to hide with them, like a huge can of sardines.

What? You don’t know what sardines are? 

The little fish in a can all stacked together like a pile of firewood? Be sure  to ask the shopper in your family to get you some to try, and if you don’t like them, I personally know a guy who does! Just saying.

You follow the leader, listen to what they teach and do what the leader does.

So, the story goes that John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, was baptizing folks in the Jordan River and teaching his own disciples about God’s Kingdom when they all saw Jesus go by.

And John said, “Here is the Lamb of God”. 

I’m not exactly sure what John meant by that description of Jesus, but it seems that two of John’s followers were curious enough that they decided to check out this Jesus guy.

And I don’t know if they were scared or confused or this was just the thing to do, but you know what they asked him? 

Where do you live?

Very rarely do people ask me that! But they asked Jesus!

I’m not sure exactly why you would ask that, unless you thought somehow where the person lived made a difference. 

It’s kind of like asking where a person grew up when you hear an accent in their voice, like my Western New York accent.

But, in this case I think there was another reason. 

I think they not only wanted to learn from Jesus, that is listen to his teaching, but they wanted to do what Jesus was doing! 

And what a better way to do that then by hanging out with him not at church or the temple, but at his house. 

And then the coolest thing happened! Jesus said “Come and see!” 

He just out and out invited them to come to his house and see what he was all about, not just what he was teaching, but what he was doing! 

He invited them to follow him. 

How amazing. Hanging with Jesus!

Has any other teacher you can think of ever said to you, “come follow me”? Come to my house and well talk math and how to use it in real life? 

Talk about history and about how it affects how you read stories on the internet? Talk about learning Spanish and come into my house and see my art collection from Central America and sit and eat authentic tacos?

Imagine how different and how powerful it would be to sit and talk with Jesus like that?
And then, Andrew went and got his brother Peter and invited him to come and follow Jesus too.

And when Jesus went to Lake Galilee and met Phillip and invited him to follow, then Phillip went and found Nathaniel and invited him to follow Jesus too.

You seeing a pattern here? 

Jesus invites you to come and follow him, and then you invite someone else to come and follow too! 

Pretty soon you and all your friends are not only finding out what Jesus is teaching, but since you are all hanging out with him, you are finding out what Jesus does too.

And that’s what all of us are going to be doing for the next few months as we think about Jesus’ call to discipleship, together! 

But more about that next week.

The key for today is this: we, you and I, are invited to come and follow.

And then we are invited to invite others to come and follow too!

Jesus. The lamb of God.

Amen.