"Follow me," invokes a lot of emotions. In some organizations when a leader says "Follow me," the leader means you get out there and do the work for me. In the military, men would much rather follow a leader who says, "Follow me," and then gets out in the front and leads his men than they would one who says, "Follow me," while meaning you guys go out there and fight the enemy. No matter what the organization, whether military or civilian, people are much more apt to follow a leader who not only says, "Follow me," but actually gets out front and leads.
When it comes to religion, Jesus is our spiritual leader and He says ''Follow me," and then He gets out there and leads the way. "And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men' (Matthew 4:18-19). Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed Jesus while He led them and taught them how to become fishers of men. Jesus not only called certain men to be apostles to follow Him, but also he calls all people to follow Him even today. In Matthew 16:43, we read these words, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Just think, our God did not sit up in heaven and proclaim down to earth, "Follow me!" Instead, God came down and laid down part of Himself (Philipplans 2:5-12), in order to die on the cross for our sins, rose again the third day and says to all people everywhere, "Follow me.' What we have to do is deny ourselves, or in other words put God first in every aspect of our lives, and daily pick up our cross (our load to bear in this life) and follow Jesus. When we follow Jesus that way, then we can say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). Jesus does not stand in safety and say to us, "Go out there and fight the good fight of faith and then come and tell me about it, follow me and let us go fight the good fight of faith together."