'CALLED TO BE DISCIPLES'



“Called and Commissioned”Mark 1.14-20A Sermon preached by Kevin Livingston at Clairlea Park Presbyterian Church, TorontoJanuary 12, 202014?Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,?15?and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”16?As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen.?17?And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”?18?And immediately they left their nets and followed him.?19?As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.?20?Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.The first few verses of Mark’s gospel give us all the information we need to understand who Jesus really is. He is the Christ, God’s anointed Messiah and the Son of God, linked to Israel’s history and the fulfillment of it. In Jesus’ baptism, we see his identity confirmed as God’s Son. And in his temptation in the wilderness we see his authority tested. And now in his first sermon in verses 14 and 15, Jesus goes into Galilee proclaiming the good news that God’s kingdom is now breaking through into this world. He is announcing it; he is bringing it; and, as we’re about to see, in his life and ministry he will embody and demonstrate it. So with the basis of Christ’s authority established, Mark begins to show us how Jesus put that authority to work. And the first thing Jesus does is to start a church, to call together a community, to gather people to join him and his kingdom work as followers, as learners, as disciples. He calls them and commissions them, although they don’t have the slightest idea of what they’re really in for just yet! But I’ll leave that to another sermon. So let’s look now at God’s Word in Mark chapter 1. Follow Me!I was in Scotland back in 1984 when I got my first computer—a Kaypro 2. It was sold to me as a portable computer but it was about as heavy as a sewing machine and the size of a carry-on suitcase! And now, a quarter of a century later, I'm still somewhat computer illiterate. Although, I'm not as bad as some people...A customer called the Dell tech support line, saying he couldn't get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technician discovered the problem: the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "Send" key!A woman called the Canon help desk about a problem with her printer. When the tech guys asked if she was running it under "Windows" the woman said, "No, my desk is next to the door—but that's a good point. The man sitting in the cubicle next to mine is under a window and his printer is working fine."Rumor has it that Compaq was considering changing the common command "Press Any Key" to "Press the Return Key" because of the flood of calls they got asking where the "Any" key is."Press Any Key"- now there’s a simple enough command, but not everyone gets it. And Jesus says, “Come with me… Follow me"— it's a simple enough command - but not everyone gets it. Follow me: be with me; spend time in my company; apprentice yourself to me. The really good news here, says Dallas Willard in his book The Divine Conspiracy, "is that [with this invitation,] Jesus is now taking students in the master class of life." “Follow me!” That’s the challenge of being discipled by Jesus—not merely, Do you agree?, but Will you follow…? Will you join the Jesus movement? Will you fall in step with him? Will you let him show you the way in your life and orient your very existence around him?The first thing Jesus after his baptism and wilderness testing is to announce the good news of God’s kingdom by starting a church, calling together a community, gathering people to join him in his kingdom work as followers, as learners, as disciples. He calls them and commissions them, although they don’t have the slightest idea of what they’re really in for just yet! But I’ll leave that to another sermon. A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine shows a married couple having an argument. In the caption the disgruntled wife says to her husband, "There you go again—quoting our marriage vows out of context!" Well, no...the context for marriage vows is life...all of it, “ from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part.” And it's the same way with discipleship. When you promise to follow Jesus it encompasses all of your life. No part of your life is “off limits” to this commitment. Nothing. That’s one of the things this passage makes crystal clear.The word “follow” is a discipleship word. It’s a life-and-death, all-or-nothing, fork-in-the-road kind of word. In the Old Testament, it features prominently when Elijah the prophet had his legendary power encounter with the wicked prophets of Baal up on Mount Carmel. King Ahab is wavering between following the God of Israel and the Caananite deity Baal. The story is in First Kings chapter 18. And the decisive moment comes when Elijah declares before the assembled crowd: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” And Elijah goes on to demonstrate in power the supremacy of Israel’s God over the Baal idols.“Follow me,” says Jesus. To follow Jesus is a fork in the road, a black and white, all or nothing choice. And that’s what we see in our story.The radical nature of discipleshipThese four fishermen – Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John -- are the first recruits of the group that will come to be known as "the twelve disciples." Commentators tell us that back in those days, fishing on the Sea of Galilee was a pretty solid occupation. These guys were reasonably prosperous; not wealthy, but comfortable. It was steady work. Mark doesn’t say so, but in John’s gospel we learn that this wasn’t the first time Simon Peter and Andrew had encountered Jesus. He had met them before. Mark doesn’t record if there was more to our Lord’s conversation with Simon Peter and Andrew than that one brief sentence -- “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Perhaps these guys had listened to Jesus before and they’d had time to deliberate thoughtfully about their response to his message. But whatever their previous knowledge or experience of Jesus, and whatever his full message to them actually was, what Mark is trying to make clear is the instant response they make. Notice when Jesus says to Simon and Andrew, "Follow me..." what does Mark tell us? He says that they drop their nets “immediately.” That is, they leave behind the tools of their trade. They forsake their business. They say goodbye to their assets in order to follow Jesus. Evidently discipleship can cramp your lifestyle economically. Follow Jesus, and it’s no more business as usual.And moments later Jesus calls two more fishermen, James and John, the Zebedee boys, and this time when Jesus says, "Follow me," the brothers not only drop their nets, they also leave their father—an important detail, since sons were a father's only real social insurance in those days! But they leave him. As one commentator puts it:The stress in [this] brief report falls upon the sovereign authority of Jesus’ call, and the radical obedience of James and John. So compelling is the claim of Jesus upon them that all prior claims lose their validity. Their father… the boat and the nets are all left behind as they commit themselves in an exclusive sense to follow Jesus.Evidently discipleship can cramp your lifestyle not only economically but relationally too. Follow Jesus and it’s no more business as usual. Of course, not everyone who follows Jesus is asked to walk away from their livelihood or their family. There are times in the gospels when Jesus actually forbids people to come with him. Sometimes he sends the people he has healed back home and back to work. In other words, “the cost of discipleship is not experienced in the same way by everyone. The first two brothers are said to leave their nets and the second set to leave their father.” Maybe Mark is telling us that the call of Jesus is issued to prospective disciples at that very point of greatest cost or challenge. But surely Mark gives this story such pride of place because he wants to make it crystal clear that discipleship is the ongoing discipline of devoting our whole lives to God: our work; family; finances; relationships, free time; you name it! As Dallas Willard puts it: following Jesus means learning from Jesus to live my life as Jesus would live my life if he were me. We follow him, because we trust he has the power to change our lives and shake us out of our dull routines. We follow him because we trust he’s able to take us where we need to go -- otherwise we never quite get anywhere… and we end up lost.Follow me… where?One winter some years ago a woman was driving east through Alberta going over the Rockies, and she got caught in a blinding snowstorm. Her windshield wipers beating furiously to overcome the snow, she started to panic. Peering ahead intently, she suddenly made out the figure of a snowplow in the distance. What luck! She pulled in behind the machine, keeping as close as she could, and following along behind it at a snail’s pace. After about half an hour the snowplow stopped and the driver got out. Walking back to her car, he asked, "Uh, lady, where are you going?" "I'm on my way to Calgary," she said. "Well," said the snow plow driver, "you'll never get there following me...I'm plowing this parking lot!"The moral of the story? If you really want to get somewhere, you'd better watch out who you follow!Jesus knows where he's going. And the most amazing thing is he invites us to follow along. He gives his followers purpose and direction in life as well. Jesus said, “Come with me…Follow me, and I will teach you to catch people." Follow me, and soon you’ll be fishing for men and women! My brothers and sisters, I want you to hear me carefully now. One essential aspect of following Jesus is that in following him, he simultaneously leads us to other people too. It’s a package deal. To be a ‘Jesus follower’ is to also be put into relationship with people around us. We follow Jesus into the world where he asks us to help cast the net of his amazing grace and abundant love as far and wide as we can, eager to call and welcome others into the joy of his kingdom, just as we ourselves have been called and welcomed.I'm glad to say I got "caught" in the net of God's forgiving grace when I was just a young boy, which is a fairly typical age for this to happen. Indeed one major study published a few years ago in the Christian Century magazine showed that the age at which people are most likely to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord is between the ages of 5 and 13—the statistic is something like 32% of children exposed to the gospel will make a commitment to Christ in that age group. With kids between 14-18—the age group when some of you became a Christian—it goes way down: today at this age there's only a 4% probability of "getting caught" by Christ. With young adults who are 19 and older it goes back up a tiny bit: there's only a 6% probability. Now, I know it's kind of odd to talk about the “odds” of conversion, and yet it can help us be strategic as we think about our own ministries and the ministry of our congregations. It’s so critical for us to pray for and support those who feel a call to work with children and young people as teachers, as counselors, as youth and children’s ministry workers—because the younger the person, the greater chance that the relationship we establish and the net we cast will result in their coming to know Christ, and to love him and follow him. In just a few weeks, we have the opportunity to invite children around our church during the March Break to share with them the love and good news of Jesus. And I want us to be praying for this venture of faith, and supporting it with our time and money and whatever skills you can bring to make this a meaningful, joyful, fun-filled week for the children who will be here. Our goal is to help children, as well as their parents, come to know the love of God in Jesus Christ, so that they commit their lives to him, and follow him. ‘Fishing for People’ and Relevant EvangelismLet me make one final observation about our text. The details of the call of these four men are kept minimal – only five verses. The point is that Jesus called and they followed. But the thing I marvel at is the sensitive, precise way Jesus contextualizes his message so that these fishermen can catch his drift. He uses terminology they’ll comprehend in a heartbeat. And since fishing is their line of work, he puts the work of the gospel into terms they’re sure to understand. It’s a strange expression isn’t it, this odd, striking phrase of “fishing for people.” In the Greek, that’s literally what the words are -- alieis anthropon. In the Old Testament (in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos and Habakkuk) (Jer. 16:16; Ezk. 29:4 f; Am. 4:2; Hab. 1:14-17) and in the rabbinic literature, the image of fishing is usually a negative image. But I think the reason Jesus chose the image of fishing to call his first disciples wasn’t to hearken back to those negative connotations but because Simon and Andrew and James and John were fishermen, and he wanted to communicate with them the nature of his calling in language they could understand! As one commentator puts it: [Jesus] finds them where they are, speaks in language with which they are… familiar, but gives it an entirely different significance for them as they become apostles… He did this again and again throughout his ministry as he called others to follow him as disciples. His conversations begin with a familiar point of contact, putting people at ease and secure. And only then, after trust is established, does Jesus begin to reveal to his listeners how much more is involved, so that they can intelligently choose for or against the discipleship he offers.By contrast, we in the church today “…too often expect unbelievers to make all the adjustments - in their dress, initiation into our ways of worship, language and thought form - before a proper conversation can begin. We build up our strength where we are, and invite outsiders in to our setting, one by one, when they’re at their weakest and least comfortable. And in so doing we put so many obstacles between them and the simplicity of the gospel itself. We have much to learn from Jesus about starting where people are.”I have to tell you: this passage of Scripture scares me. Because it convinces me that following Jesus and fishing for people will challenge the status quo of our lives; it will likely take us and our congregations out of our comfort zones, out of our sanctuaries, and into our neighbourhoods. But if we love those whom the Lord loves, then we'll do whatever it takes to fish for men and women - won't we?Doing Whatever It TakesOfficer Tori Matthews of the Southern California Humane Society once responded to an emergency call: a boy's pet iguana had been scared up a tree by a neighbor's dog; and then the iguana fell from the tree into a swimming pool—the deep end—where it sank like a brick. Iguanas like this don’t swim. Officer Matthews arrived on the scene with her net, but it didn't reach far enough to scoop up the victim— so she dove into the pool, emerging seconds later with the pet's limp body. Then came the moment of truth: Officer Matthews thought, Well, you can do CPR on a person...and on a dog -- why not an iguana? This was no time for business as usual...so she locked lips with the lizard. Later on, looking back on the incident, Officer Matthews said, "It was a pretty ugly animal to be kissing...but the last thing I wanted to do was tell this little boy that his iguana had died." And do you know what? The iguana lived!Amazing. Officer Matthews didn’t see an ugly, waterlogged reptile. All she saw was a frightened boy's beloved pet. And friends, in just the same way, we may not initially see the beauty in some people, but when we realize how much they mean to the Lord, how much the Lord loves them, we'll do anything we can to keep them from drowning.Jesus said, "Come, follow me...and I will help you catch people.” Are you committed to doing that? Are we committed to doing that?Let’s pray together. O Lord, will you call us and call our congregations back to yourself again tonight? Convince us that even though your call to discipleship is costly—bigger than ourselves; broader than our traditions; deeper even than our family commitments —that it's worth it. Thank you for entrusting us with the good news of your kingdom. Help us to actively speak and embody your love, especially to those who are last… and least…and lost, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. ................
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