Called As Disciples

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday, the 13th of February, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Viewing our Christian calendar, we see we’ve left the Christmas season and are now approaching Lent and Easter, all in a matter of three or four months.  From a Biblical standpoint, this covers the time from the birth of Jesus to just before His death on the cross – a period of around 33 years.  The last few weeks, we’ve been looking at the beginning stages of Jesus’ ministry.  Today we’re going to examine a moment in His early ministry that I feel is very important for us to grasp.  

We are probably more familiar with the Apostle Matthew’s account of Jesus calling His first disciples by simply saying, “Follow Me”.  But I’d like to look at how the Apostle Luke described the event, for I feel there are three critical points to understand and remember.  So please listen and follow along to what Luke reported in chapter 5 of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 11, and I’ll be reading this from the English Standard Version of our Holy Bible…

1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, He asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

--Luke 5:1-11 (ESV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for filling Jesus with the great power of Your Holy Spirit so that He could perform miraculous signs.  These were needed to show a doubting people that He was truly sent by You.  Please help us believe even though we have not seen those signs and wonders with our own eyes, but depend upon the witness of those early followers.  And help us share our belief, our witness, with others.  Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who do his bidding.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  May Your Spirit guide us to better discipleship.  And if there is someone we can help today, please point them to us, or us to them.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is quoted as saying, "I went into church and sat on the velvet pew.  I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows.  The minister, dressed in a velvet robe, opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, 'If any man will be my disciple,’ said Jesus, ‘let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me.'"

From where we stand here at Pilgrim, we may say that Kierkegaard speaks of the hypocrisy of some organized religions – holding riches unto themselves while preaching about personal sacrifice.  I think that too often we let religion get in the way of serving our Lord.  The best Biblical example we have of this comes from the Pharisees, who took great pride in dressing up in all their priestly finery, sitting at places of honor, being recognized everywhere they would go.

But this is not an example we should follow.  Jesus never enjoyed great opulence, and neither should we.  Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.  It wasn’t that Jesus was against wealth, but the love of wealth, the overwhelming desire for things.

Like Jesus, we should focus less on the things of this world, and more on the things of heaven.  Following Jesus involves true sacrifice, not lip service.

Now, I mentioned that there were three points in Luke’s account we need to grasp, but first I’d like to focus just a little more on discipleship.  By the end of His ministry, Jesus had hundreds of followers.  But His closest disciples bore an additional responsibility.

Please listen as I read from the 6th chapter of Luke’s Gospel account, verses 12 through 19…

12 Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; 15 Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.

17 And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, 18 as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. 19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.

--Luke 6:12-19 (NKJV)

A few pertinent points here are that Jesus prayed all night, possibly for guidance from His Father God.  And then He called His twelve closest followers to Himself as His apostles – those sent out by God.  We also see that Luke singled out Judas Iscariot as a traitor, the one who would betray Jesus.

And then we are told that the power within Jesus, the power of God’s Holy Spirit, the healing power, could be felt by all present that day, and all were healed.  This healing power was one way, one tool, Jesus used to call His followers.

Family, we may not have witnessed these mighty acts in person, nor physically felt that healing power, but we have none the less been chosen to follow Jesus.  We have been called as disciples.  And more than that, we have been called to Him as apostles, for He has sent us out to do His work.

You know the passage – you’ve heard me read it many times, you heard it just a little while ago in our responsive reading.  From chapter 28 of the Apostle Matthew’s Gospel account, verses 18 through 20…

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Amen.

--Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

This isn’t a request, it’s a direct order.  We are to make disciples of all people.  And we’re to do this not by sitting here in this beautiful building waiting for them to come to us.  We are to go – go to them, go out to them where they are.  In other words, we are to put our faith into action, calling others to discipleship.

So getting back to our scripture reading, we can see that Luke’s version of Jesus calling Simon, Andrew, John, and James to discipleship is a little different from how Matthew recorded it.  But sometimes the differences in our Gospel accounts make them even more interesting.

In this case, I found three points that were very telling, and important for us to grasp.  The first comes in verse 8 when Peter acknowledges himself to be a sinful man.  Many think they cannot serve or even follow Jesus because of their sin.  But we are all sinful.  And Jesus came for sinners, that we might be saved.  Jesus washes us of our sin so we can be used by Him.

The next point comes in verse 10 and answers the concern of sin when Jesus responded, “Do not be afraid”.  We don’t need to be afraid, neither of our sin preventing us from serving Him, nor of being able to do the job He gives us.  From now on we will be catching men, we’ll be fishers of men, and God’s Holy Spirit will give us what we need to do the job.  Oh, and as Matthew quoted, Jesus will be with us, right there beside us the whole time, until the very end.

And the final point comes in verse 11.  These men, these newly called disciples, left everything and followed Jesus.  They walked away from their homes, their families, their professions – they left everything behind to follow Jesus.

In my little story at the start, the preacher read that Jesus said that His disciples must deny themselves, take up their cross, sell what they have and give it to the poor, and follow Him.  Now I don’t think that Jesus wants any of us to go around naked, hungry, or penniless, but He does want us to give up our hunger for things.  He wants us to deny ourselves those earthly pleasures.  He wants us to leave the world and all its glitter behind as we follow Him.  And then He wants us to be apostles, to go out and help even more people become disciples, help them become followers, so that they, too, can be saved.

Just as were Peter and Andrew, James and John, and all the rest, we are called as disciples.  Let’s live up to our calling.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, our Master whom we follow.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Your Son Jesus and to accept Him as our Lord.  Thank You for sending Him to offer us salvation by Your loving grace, by the cleansing of His precious blood.  Thank You, Father, for showing us mercy.  But Father, sometimes we fail to do as Jesus commands.  Sometimes we are not very good apostles.  We are too timid, too shy, too fearful of being ridiculed, too scared of saying the wrong thing.  Forgive us, Father, when we let anything hold us back from doing as Jesus commands us.  Help us be more obedient.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to the very end.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You gave everything for us, and You expect us to show the same attitude and behavior toward others.  You want us to crave serving You by being a good servant, and not to crave the things this world might offer.  Please, Lord, help us be better servants, truer disciples, fervent apostles.  Forgive us, Jesus, when we let fear stand in our way from doing as You command.  Help us carry out our mission of bringing more followers to You.  And Jesus, please strengthen us through these troubling times.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on what this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.