The Calling of the First DisciplesMy Understanding: What does it mean to follow Jesus? The crowds physically followed him around from place to place because of his miracles and because he was healing their sick, but did that mean they were truly followers of Jesus Christ? Some were, perhaps, and some were not. I believe the Lord Jesus would have me examine this morning what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus Christ. I pray he will speak His words to my heart and that he will teach me more of what it means to follow him wherever he leads me.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
The Calling of Levi
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Believe the Good News
To be a follower of Jesus Christ means that we repent of our sins and we believe the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To repent of our sins means that we are not only sorry that we have sinned and we recognize that we need a Savior, but it means that we are sorrowful and we grieve over our sins to the point to where we want sin to no longer be a part of our lives. We shut the door to our pasts. And, we make a conscious choice of the will to leave our sins behind us, following Jesus in his death and burial. We now choose to go in the opposite direction of what we had been going, when sin had ruled our lives, and we now choose to walk in faith and obedience to Jesus Christ and to go where he leads us, do what he says to do, and allow him to transform our hearts and to make us completely new.
To believe the good news of the gospel, we need to know what the good news is. Jesus Christ, God the Son, left heaven, he came to earth, he took on human flesh, he suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, so that he could become our faithful and compassionate high priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses. Then, he was crucified on a cross, taking upon himself the sins of the world, he was buried and our sins were buried with him, then he rose from the dead, triumphing over hell, Satan, death and sin so that we could be free from the ultimate penalty of sin (eternity in hell) and so we could be free from the control of sin over our day-to-day lives. Not only did he come to set us free from sin, but he set us free to walk in victory with him, in fellowship and obedience with him daily, by faith, and in his power and strength in overcoming the flesh.
So, when we believe the good news, we not only intellectually and/or emotionally believe that Jesus did all of that for us, but with our whole hearts we commit ourselves to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we walk away from our lives of sin, and we walk in freedom from sin and in freedom to obey our Lord Jesus Christ in all things.
Come, Follow Me
The disciples that Jesus called, as recorded in these passages of scripture, immediately followed Jesus. Simon and his brother Andrew “at once” left their nets and followed him. James and his brother John left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus. When Jesus told Levi to follow him, he got up and followed Jesus Christ. All of these men were immediate in their responses to follow Jesus Christ. There was no hesitation on their parts. They did not ask for a delay of time. They did not try to hold on to their past lives, asking to hang out with Jesus just on the weekends. They left everything – family, home, careers, friends, security, and the known to go with someone they did not really know and to go somewhere they had not been before; to venture out into the unknown.
Many so called followers of Jesus Christ are more like the curious crowds who follow Jesus when it fits with their schedules or when it gets them something they want, but they can always go home afterwards. And, if they don’t like the messages, they can leave, which is what many of Jesus’ followers did when the preaching got too hard for them to accept. Yet, what Jesus is looking for are those who will leave everything to follow him. This does not mean we necessarily literally leave our homes, families, friends, etc., though we may be called to do that. Obviously this is not calling for splits of marriages or neglect of small children. God will not call us to do something contrary to his will and character. Yet, what it does mean is that we give our entire lives to Jesus Christ, leaving our sins behind, and we live each day in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking his will and purposes for our lives, asking him to lead us, guide us, teach us and to show us what he wants for our lives.
I think many people approach faith in Jesus Christ much like an illustration God has given to me before. As sinners, apart from faith in Christ, we are bound for hell, so we are much like someone trapped inside a burning building. The fireman, Jesus Christ, has come to the rescue. He is standing outside the burning building (our sinful lives) with his safety net (the salvation he provided for us through his death and resurrection), and all we have to do is to jump, which means total commitment. Yet, many want Jesus to come inside the building, which means to invite Jesus inside lives that are still given over to sin, while others try to hang on to the building while stretching down to the safety net, not willing to let go of the building, and still others want to slowly crawl down toward the safety net, thinking they can work their way toward salvation or that they can accept Jesus in increments. Yet, all three of these approaches end with the same result – burning up with the building. The only way to safety is to let go and to jump into Jesus’ safety net. True faith is just like that.
Fishers of Men
Jesus told Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” These men had been career fishermen, fishing for fish, obviously. Now Jesus told them if they would follow him, he would make them “fishers of men.” When we truly follow Jesus Christ in total commitment and surrender, leaving our lives of sin behind us, walking with our Lord daily in fellowship, communion and obedience to him, he will use us in the lives of others to share with them the love of Jesus Christ and to share the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others may come to know Christ, too.
When we are excited about someone or something, we tell our friends. When we get something new that we really like, we post it on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or we email, text, chat or call up our friends and family members or we get together with them in person and we invite them over to show them our new whatever we are so excited about, don’t we? We cheer at ball games, movies, games, TV shows, etc., sometimes very loudly. We wear t-shirts and sweatshirts with the insignia of our favorite sports teams, because we want to declare our loyalty and devotion to our favorite teams. We fly our American flags, and we put bumper stickers on our cars with our favored political candidates, etc. We do all this because we want to share with others our excitement and our joy over the things that we love. So, do we do this with Jesus?
Is Jesus foremost in our conversations? Do we tell others about him with the same excitement we have over a new car? - Or a new computer? - Or over our sports team winning a championship? All these things of this earth are going to perish. They are all temporary. Jesus called us to make us fishers of men so that others may also know Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ saved us from our sins. That should be the most exciting thing to tell of everything we talk about. May we follow him truly and may we allow him to make us fishers of men rather than us telling people about everything temporal and leaving out the most important message they will ever hear in their lives – the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who loved us, who gave himself up for us, and who asks that we give our entire lives to him, fully surrendered in complete obedience, and we then become fishers of men.
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
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