Posted on 02/16/2008 2:49:55 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
“‘Follow Me’: The Call to Discipleship” (Matthew 4:18-22)
Today we begin a series of five messages based on the “Follow me” sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. We were going to start this series this past Wednesday night, but the ice kept that from happening. So we begin today, and then we’re back on schedule for this coming Wednesday.
“‘Follow Me’: Jesus Calls Us to Discipleship” is our series theme. Note: Calls “us.” For as we hear Jesus calling disciples in the first century, he is also speaking to us in the twenty-first century, saying to us even now, “Follow Me.”
Our first entry in this series has to do precisely with “The Call to Discipleship,” as we hear it in our text for today, Matthew 4:18-22:
“While walking by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Today I want us to consider three points about “The Call to Discipleship”: 1) The call comes from Jesus; 2) The call is surprisingly simple; and 3) The call is profoundly transformative.
First, the call comes from Jesus. By that I mean, the initiative lies all with him, not with us. Notice how the direction of the call goes: “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers . . . casting a net into the sea. . . . And he said to them, ‘Follow me. . . .’ And going on from there he saw two other brothers . . . mending their nets, and he called them.”
The direction is all from Jesus to the ones he calls. Jesus went walking and he found them. He saw them when they were just going about their business, not looking for him. They didn’t do one darn thing to merit or earn his attention. There was nothing about them that was so special. They didn’t seek Jesus. He sought them. And he said to them, he called them, “Follow me.” It was all at his initiative.
In his book, “Follow Me: Discipleship According to Saint Matthew,” Martin Franzmann writes:
“Jesus takes the initiative and calls the disciples. In many respects the circle of disciples gathered about Jesus was no startling novelty in first-century Palestine: In the terminology of ‘rabbi’ and ‘disciple,’ in the fact that they ‘followed’ their Master. . . . But in this point, in the genesis of the circle of disciples, there is a striking difference. In rabbinical circles the initiative in discipleship lay with the disciple. ‘Take to yourself a teacher,’ is the advice given to the aspiring disciple by a Jewish teacher. . . . We have no record of a call issued by a Jewish rabbi to a disciple in all rabbinic literature. . . . What in Judaism was the pious duty of the disciple is here the sovereign act of the Master. . . . Jesus reserves the initiative for Himself.”
As with those first disciples, so also with us, Jesus’ disciples today. We didn’t seek him. He sought us, and found us, and called us to be his own. Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost. That was us. We were lost, lost in our sin and darkness, and we didn’t even know it. Like those first disciples, like all the lost people in the world today, we were just going about our everyday business, casting our nets and mending our nets, but unable to mend our relationship with God. That net was torn beyond repair, and we couldn’t fix it. That’s what it means to be lost, lost in sin and heading toward death, eternal death apart from God.
But then Jesus comes walking. He sees us, he finds us where we are. He speaks to us, words of life and forgiveness, because it is the call to come and follow him. Jesus calls us in the gospel. He called you in your baptism, when you didn’t do a darn thing to choose him. You were dead, and he brought you to life. You didn’t decide to follow Jesus. He chose to call you.
The call comes from Jesus. The initiative lies all with him, not with us. Jesus chooses us, we don’t choose him. It’s like we will sing later on in the hymn:
Lord, ’tis not that I did choose Thee; That, I know, could never be; For this heart would still refuse Thee Had Thy grace not chosen me.
So the first point, the call comes from Jesus. Second, the call is surprisingly simple. By that I mean, it is surprisingly simple in its content. It’s just Jesus saying, “Follow me.”
Suppose I wanted you to get from here to my house. There are two ways I could give you directions. Here is one way:
Go north on Summit St. three-tenths of a mile to Hwy. 47. Turn right and go three-tenths of a mile to Hwy. 67. Take Hwy. 67 north 23 miles to I-55. Go north on I-55 19 miles to Exit 193. Get off the interstate and take a left onto Meramec Bottom Rd. Go two-tenths of a mile till you get to Kerth Rd. Take a right and go north on Kerth Rd. eight-tenths of a mile till you get to the Karamar subdivision. Turn left on Karamar Dr., go two-tenths of a mile--it winds around--till you get to a stop sign. That’s Melissa Jo Ln. Take a right, and we’re the third house on the right, 4749. Got all that?
OK, that’s one way to do it. Here’s another way: Get in your car and follow me. That’s it. Just, follow me and you’ll get there. No complicated formulas. Pretty simple. Follow me.
Well, that’s kind of what Jesus does when he calls his disciples. The call is surprisingly simple in its content: “Follow me.” That’s it. Follow Jesus, come after him. Not a lot of complicated directions to remember. Just one person to follow. Follow Jesus, keep on following him, and you will get to where you need to go.
To be sure, the disciples will find out more, a whole lot more, along the way. They will grow in their understanding of what all is involved in being Christ’s disciples. But at its heart, the call is essentially and surprisingly simple: Follow Jesus. Stick close to him. He is the way.
So it is for us. We follow Jesus. We follow him in faith. We stick close to him. That means being where he continues to speak to us, which is in his word. Through the preaching and teaching of his word, through the administration of his sacraments, Jesus is here, with his church, speaking to us, leading us onward. We follow Jesus through the church year, every year, from his birth to his public ministry to his passion to his return at the last day. Discipleship is very personal. It means being attached to Jesus. He leads, and we follow. Jesus takes us where he is going. He will lead us through our daily lives, he will lead us to that neighbor in need, he will lead us all the way to our home in heaven.
Which leads us to our third point: The call to discipleship is profoundly transformative. By that I mean, it is transformative in its effects. The call changes things, profoundly. It changes the direction of our life.
Look how that happened for the disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John. They were going about their business, casting their nets and mending their nets, “for they were fishermen,” it says. Then Jesus comes and calls them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The impact, the effect? “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” And again, “Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Whoa, that’s pretty dramatic! From fishermen to disciples to fishers of men! And to leave their previous lives behind so “immediately”! Is that how it goes for us? Well, yes and no.
No, in the sense that not all of us are called to be “fishers of men” like Peter and Andrew and James and John were. They were not only called to be disciples, they were called to be apostles, which is like pastors on steroids. There ain’t no more apostles! Now there are pastors, but not all of us are called to be pastors. But all of us are called to be disciples, to follow Jesus, and that will indeed change things for us.
It changes things for us, first of all, in that it gives us life! We were dead, but now we are alive, in Christ! For to follow Jesus is to see him go to the cross, where he suffers and dies for all his failing and faltering disciples. By his blood, the holy, precious blood of the sinless Son of God, all our sins are forgiven, and we are washed clean. The net is mended, that torn net of our relationship with God. Jesus mended it for us, made it right. Now we have life, now we have hope, the sure hope of everlasting life. That is the most profound change that comes with following Jesus. It changes the entire course of our eternity.
And it changes things even now in our daily life. Now we are disciples of Jesus, and our life takes a new direction. Now there is something more to do in our lives than just fishing. That doesn’t necessarily mean we run off and go to seminary, although that can happen. But the call to discipleship does transform our daily life, even if we stay in our current occupation. Our vocation, our calling, is transformed. It “changes,” even if it doesn’t “change.” Get what I mean? You may still be a commercial fisherman, or an auto mechanic, or a retiree, or a mom, but now your life is different, even if it outwardly looks the same.
Now you know you can lead a God-pleasing life within your ordinary vocation. You can serve God and serve your neighbor as a mechanic or a mom, and your work is accepted as good work before God. That’s because it is cleansed by Christ, proceeds out of faith in him, is animated by the Holy Spirit, and serves as a channel of the Father’s love and blessing toward others. That’s the new and different direction that our lives take as Jesus’ disciples. We don’t need our works to climb our way up to God. God came down to us in Christ and his completed work does it all for us. Now we are free to give away our good works to our neighbor who needs them. The love of Christ flows through us to others.
For those original disciples who were also apostles, for Peter and Andrew, James and John, the call to discipleship meant being fishers of men as fulltime preachers and apostles. For us, for Josh and Laura, Jim and Lisa, the call to discipleship means living out our vocation wherever God may place us. Now that can include also our individual part in the church’s task of casting the gospel net. It can mean supporting the gospel outreach with our offerings. It can mean inviting our friends and neighbors to come join us here at church, where they too can hear the good news for them, where Jesus will speak to them and call them also to follow him. Hey, it’s all good!
So this call that comes from Jesus does transform our lives, profoundly, both in the way we live now and in the life we have waiting for us forever.
My friends, today we have heard “The Call to Discipleship.” The call comes from Jesus. The initiative lies all with him. The call is surprisingly simple in its content. It’s simply Jesus calling us to follow him. And that call is profoundly transformative in its effects. It changes our lives now and gives us a life that will last eternally. So, disciples of Jesus, keep listening during this Lenten season, as our Master calls us, day after day, “Follow me.”
Ping.
Methinks Pastor Charles will soon be rewarded for swearing off lima beans for Lent........blablababalu" Hee! Hee!
You are anticipating my sermon for this Wednesday (the second in the series).
I wish I could remember all the song titles.
My brother used a bunch about a year ago when he was preaching, it really brought it all home to many people.
“I surrender some” is the only one I can remember.
At first people where hysterical with laughter, then it became quite when they realized the point, it was very sobering after that.
God’s speed on Wednesday.
Thanks for the sermon Pastor. The part above may seem hard to do for some, but many wil be amazed how just talking to some people will get them to visit church or return to their own church.
Now that can include also our individual part in the church’s task of casting the gospel net. It can mean supporting the gospel outreach with our offerings. It can mean sharing our faith with our friends and neighbors, in conversation, as we have opportunity. It can mean inviting our friends and neighbors to come join us here at church, where they too can hear the good news for them, where Jesus will speak to them and call them also to follow him. Hey, it’s all good!
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