Follow Me or Fasting and Feasting, Follow Me; or Fasting and Feasting (5:27-39)


(Read Luke 5:27-39)

My desire is to give a very simple message, so that the youngest Christian may be helped and encouraged. The burden of it

will be found in the two words addressed by the Lord to Levi-" Follow Me."

First let me call your attention to three words found in the 27th verse: "After these things." Whilst we do not need to be ingenious about the words of Scripture, yet we must ever bear in mind that every one of them is Divinely inspired, and without straining a point, or the exercise of ingenuity, these three words contain a deep meaning, and it is the failure to recognize the truth which they convey, that leads to so much sorrow and disappointment.

Let me explain. Before this point is reached in the Chapter three things come out which lead up to it and explain the words, "After these things."

1. Self discovered.

2. The need met.

3. The power given.

These three things indicate the soul-history which must first be experienced before the Lord can say to any one of us, " Follow Me," or before we can be in a position to respond.' The failure to recognize this leads unconverted people, who know neither the second nor the third, and who only partially know the first, to attempt to serve the Lord, and the result is absolute and entire failure. On the other hand, many Christians, who know the first and the second, but fail to recognize the true meaning of the third, attempt to follow the Lord more or less in their own strength, and that again is weariness, disappointment and vexation. Let us look briefly at those three points.