12 Sermon Illustrations on Following Christ

"And another also said, 'Lord, I will follow Thee; but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house.'And Jesus said to him, 'No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God'" (Luke 9:61-62). "I will follow You, Lord, but first let me see if my parents approve." "I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go to a few more parties. And as soon as I get that out of my system, I will settle down." "I will follow You, Lord, but first let me get married. As soon as I establish a home, I will follow you." "We will follow You, Lord, but first let us raise our children. They are so small now, and it is difficult to carry them along while following You." "We will follow You, Lord, but first let us get our children through high school. We have to work six days a week to pay the bills, and the children are so busy with school activities that there just is not time to follow You." "I would like to follow You now, Lord, but I must first see if my husband will come, too. I do not want to follow You alone." "I will follow You, Lord, but first let me retire. Then I will have time to follow you." "I would like to follow You, Lord, but it is too late now. I have not done it all these years, and You cannot teach an old dog new tricks." Death comes at last, and the day of salvation is over. One is separated from God eternally because one put off following Christ until it was too late.

As Satan selects his disciples when they are idle, so our Saviour chose his while they were busy at their trade, — either mending their nets, or casting them into the sea. Nay, he himself stooped to a trade, and was a carpenter.

— Farrindon

When Alexander the Great marched through Persia, his way was stopped with ice and snow. His soldiers became tired out with hard marching, and, being discouraged, would have gone no farther; but he, perceiving it, dismounted from his horse, and made his way through the ice in the midst of them all with a pickaxe. They were all ashamed; and his friends, the captains of the army, and, lastly, the common soldiers, followed him. So should all men follow Christ by that rough and unpleasant way of the cross; he having left them an example, they are to follow in his steps.

It is reported in the Bohemian story, that St. Wenceslaus, their king, one winter night going to his devotions in a remote church, barefooted, in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice, his servant, Redevivus, who waited upon his master's piety, and endeavored to imitate his affections, began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold, till the king commanded him to follow him, and set his feet in the same footsteps which his feet should mark for him. The servant did so, and either fancied a cure or found one; for he followed his prince, helped forward with shame and zeal to his imitation, and by the forming footsteps in the snow. In the same manner does the blessed Jesus; for since our way is troublesome, obscure, full of objection and danger, apt to be mistaken, and to affright our industry, he commands us to mark his footsteps, to tread where his feet have stood; and not only invites us forward by the argument of his example, but he hath trodden down much of the difficulty, and made the way easier, and fit for our feet. Jeremy Taylor.

of France had not reached his twentieth year when he was present at the celebrated battle of Marignan, which lasted two days. The Marshal de Trivale, who had been in eighteen pitched battles, said that those were the play of infants; but that this of Marignan was the combat of giants. Francis performed on this occasion prodigies of valor: he fought less as a king than as a soldier. Having perceived his standard-bearer surrounded by the enemy, he precipitated himself to his assistance in the midst of lances and halberts. He was presently surrounded; his horse pierced with several wounds; and his casque despoiled of its plumes. He must have been inevitably overwhelmed, if a body of troops detached from the allies had not hastened to his succor. Francis hazarded this battle against the advice of his generals; and cut short all remonstrance by the celebrated expression, which became afterwards proverbial, "Let him that loves me follow me." Percy.

A Christian mother was once showing her little girl, about five years old, a picture representing Jesus holding an infant in his arms, while the mothers were pushing their children towards him. "There, Carrie!" said her mother: "this is what I would have done with you if I had been there."—"I wouldn't be pushed to Jesus," said little Carrie: "I'd go to him without pushing."