Several years ago, I participated in a Men’s Bible study entitled, “Fan or Follower of Jesus.” During the study we were constantly reminded of a visual in which we were at a football game and either in the stands watching as a fan or on the field playing and following the instructions of the coach. In today’s social media world of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, people follow others and are themselves followed. Many celebrities have huge followings. People become avid spectators of their lives, relationships and lifestyle, diets, and fashion choices. They want to know all about them, interact with them, and even be like them. Personally, I have zero interest in how a celebrity dresses, what they eat, or what they do for entertainment. But it really does matter who we follow.

Jesus said many times, ‘Follow me.’ Of all the people who ever lived, Jesus has the largest number of followers. Some have estimated that over 2.4 billion in the world today profess to follow Jesus. Jesus’ followers are called disciples. They want to know him, to be like him, and to do everything that Jesus asks them to do. In Mark 6:30-34 we read of the ever-increasing popularity of Jesus as evidenced by the large number of people following him and his disciples wherever they went. In the familiar passage of “the feeding of the five thousand” as recorded in vv.35-44 of Mark 6, the disciples suggested that Jesus send the hungry people away at the end of a long day of Jesus’ teaching to buy food for themselves. But Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Give ye them to eat’ and later directed them to distribute the food to the people after He had blessed the five loaves and two fishes. Jesus wanted them to be “players on the field” by actively participating in his ministry.  

In Psalms 40:1-8, David describes the greatest blessing of ignoring ‘what the world worships’ and following the Lord. David offers himself to follow God’s will in its entirety. In vv.6-7 he says, ‘Here I am, I have come – it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’

How about you and me…. are we a fan or a follower of Jesus or somewhere in between? There is a direct correlation between the fervency of our following of Christ and the effectiveness of our fishing for Christ. Those believers, who may be called “fans,” have trusted in Christ alone for their salvation, yet do not passionately pursue him in fellowship and are less faithful and fruitful in evangelism than those believers (followers) who draw near to him in fellowship on a regular basis. The following three distinctives may help determine if we are fans or followers of Jesus:

-Fans strive to GET a blessing. Followers strive to BE a blessing

-Fans dabble. Followers are “all in”

-Fans believe they have it all together. Followers know they are a work in process