From the Pulpit: Will you let him in?
With a daily dose of motivation, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, inspires his 187 million Instagram followers with the nitty gritty workout and dietary details. Ariana Grande, the pop music star with her iconic image and numerous stints on magazine covers, has seen her followers increase to over 190 million on the popular platform. However, the most followed celebrity on Instagram, with 244 million, accounting for 3 percent of the world’s population, or two out of three Americans is the global soccer phenom, Cristiano Ronaldo. He makes over $40 million a year through just endorsements, which he promotes on his IG account.
In the first century, a middle eastern Jewish teacher began inviting some local men and women to follow him. Today, over 2.4 billion people claim to follow this simple teacher who was nailed to a Roman cross for political insurrection. Who was this nomadic, homeless, carpenter/rabbi? As you may have already guessed, this is Jesus of Nazareth.
Like many celebrities in our day, people barred no expense and traveled great distances to hear from this miracle working preacher. However, unlike the celebrities of our day, Jesus took a personal, intimate interest in each of his followers, and surprisingly even in those who weren’t that interested.
Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Luke 5:1-3
Jesus invites himself into Simon’s boat. We have no record that Simon responded to any sort of invitation from this nomadic preacher. We also don’t have a clear indication that Simon and his companions were particularly interested in the seaside sermon.
Let’s use our imaginations for a minute. Imagine that you are taking your Tuesday lunch break, sitting in your car, scrolling through your Facebook. When suddenly, you get a text from the receptionist, “Come up here-there is a Mr. Johnson to see you.” You reluctantly finish your Diet Mountain Dew and wipe the leftover pizza grease off your chin. As you walk through the door you see a large, well-dressed, tattooed man with dark sunglasses standing by the desk. “This is Mr. Johnson, and he wanted to speak with you,” the receptionist informs you nervously.
As the man reaches his massive hand to shake yours, you catch a slight grin as he raises one eyebrow to look you over. “My name is Dwayne, but please, please, call me ‘Rock’.” You stare in disbelief as you realize who is gripping your cold hand. “I’m in town for a thing, and I’ve already left my stuff at your house, could you give me a ride over to the arena so I can get ready for the show tonight?”
As you look up at his face in disbelief, you wonder to yourself, “Doesn’t he have people that can do this for him? Why me?” But before you can respond, the people’s champ grabs you by the shoulder and says, “Oh and by the way, I noticed today that you haven’t followed me yet on Instagram. Would you do that?”
Jesus takes the initiative by joining us in our boats, without an invitation. Here is my question for you today, will you accept his invitation, or reject it? You see, contrary to popular, yet poor teaching, we don’t invite Jesus into our hearts or lives. He is already at the door. Knocking. Waiting patiently. The truth is he has already showed up in our lives, he’s at the door. We either ACCEPT or REJECT His supernatural presence. Today, I’d encourage you to consider accepting Him. If you have any questions about what it means to accept and follow Jesus, or even check out a modern gathering of his devotees, call me at 605 582-7771. You can also can also email hello@brandon.church. Blessings to you, in the name of Christ.
