The Call Of Discipleship Series

A. Italian composer Pietro Mascagni was once irritated by an organ-grinder who stood outside the composer’s apartment playing Mascagni’s own composition at about half the correct speed.

1. Eventually, when Mascagni could no longer stand hearing his composition be butchered in that way, he went into the street and corrected the organ-grinder.

2. He said to the organ-grinder: “I am Mascagni. Let me show you how to play my music correctly.”

3. Mascagni took the handle of the hurdy-gurdy, which is a stringed instrument that produces sound by a hand crank turning a wheel that rubs against the strings, and began to turn the handle more vigorously.

4. This pushed the tempo faster and he said to the organ-grinder this is the way the musical piece should sound.

5. The following day, Mascagni again heard the organ-grinder in the street outside.

6. When he looked out the window, he noticed a sign on the instrument the organ-grinder was playing, and the sign read: “Pupil of Mascagni.”

B. Anyone can claim to be a pupil or disciple of a master without actually being one, but true disciples can be spotted by their similarity to their master.

1. Jesus said: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

2. Last week we began a new sermon series on discipleship called “I Am A Disciple of Jesus.”

3. That first sermon helped us to ask ourselves the question: Am I a disciple of Jesus?

4. We explored the idea that when someone is a disciple of Jesus, it means that Jesus is the core and center of their lives, that Jesus is their Savior and Jesus is their Lord.

5. As we continue to explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, I want us to explore the call of discipleship.

6. Today I want us to explore and work toward answering these two questions: “What is the call of discipleship?” and “What does it mean to answer that call?”

C. Let’s open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 4 and look at the calling of the first disciples of Jesus.

1. The Bible says: 18 As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 “Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (Mt. 4:18-22).

2. Sometimes people wonder if this is the first time these men had seen Jesus or had any contact with Him, but we can determine from other Scripture that it was not the first time or the extent of the contact they had had with Jesus.

a. In Luke 5, a parallel passage of Matthew 4, Jesus got into Simon’s boat and made him put out into deep water to do some additional fishing, even though Simon had fished all night and had not caught anything.

b. Even though Simon didn’t want to, he obeyed Jesus’ instruction which resulted in a huge catch that required the help of their fishing partners, James and John the sons of Zebedee.

3. In John 1, Simon’s brother, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptizer and was with John just after Jesus’ baptism when John the Baptizer identified Jesus as the Lamb of God.

a. Andrew immediately pursued Jesus and spent some time with Him and then went and found his brother, Simon Peter and said, “We have found the Messiah,” and he took Peter to meet Jesus.

4. So, as I said, Scripture reveals that when Jesus invited them to follow Him, it was not their first encounter with Jesus.

D. I believe that Jesus’ invitation to those fisherman that day can help us understand what it means for all of us to answer the call to be a disciple of Jesus.

1. So let’s spend a little time breaking that calling down into the three aspects of discipleship that are revealed in the call Jesus gave them that day.

E. The first part of the calling of discipleship is “Follow Me.”

1. From Jesus’ perspective, a disciple is a person who follows Him.

2. In Jesus’ day, it was a big deal to be a disciple of a rabbi, and I am sure the Peter, Andrew, James and John were honored that a rabbi, like Jesus, would have asked lowly fisherman to be His disciples.