Who are Followers of Jesus?
A follower of Jesus recognizes his or her need for forgiveness of sins and surrenders their life to Jesus because they recognize Jesus is God and the Savior of the world (1 John 1:9; Rom 10:9-10). This changes everything about their relationship with God – He becomes their master and they follow Him as a sheep follows a shepherd.
John 10:3-5… The gatekeeper opens the gate for Him, and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
1) They are those who know His VOICE
In the story, Jesus is describing a communal sheep corral – the shepherd is pictured entering a pen with mixed flocks… how to separate the sheep may seem like a problem to the novice – but then the shepherd starts to talk to his sheep in a characteristic sing-song manner to which only his sheep would respond to. In this way he would separate out his flock, and they would follow him out to pasture.
2) They are those known by NAME – show intimacy between shepherd and sheep
The theologian Bruce who grew up in Scotland commented: “In my youth some shepherds in the Scottish Highlands not only called their individual sheep by name, but claimed that an individual sheep would recognize its own name and respond to it.”
3) They follow (obey) because they TRUST HIS VOICE
During World War I, some soldiers tried to steal a flock of sheep from a hillside near Jerusalem. The sleeping shepherd awoke to find his flock being driven off. He couldn’t recapture them by force, so he called out to his flock with his distinctive call. The sheep listened, and returned to their rightful owner. The soldiers couldn’t stop the sheep from returning to their shepherd’s voice.
4) They don’t follow STRANGERS (strange teachings) because they don’t recognize ITS VOICE (as truth)
There is another story of a Scotch traveler who changed clothes with a Jerusalem shepherd and tried to lead the sheep: but the sheep followed the shepherd’s voice and not his clothes.
Followers of Jesus seek to please their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:9). To grow in this followership – followers of Jesus practice various Spiritual Habits.