Devoted to Jesus
Matthew 4:18-20, 9:9
Isobel Kuhn was an author and missionary to China, and was married to John, a man just as strong willed and stubborn as she was. The two had many conflicts throughout the years of their marriage. One had to do with their cook who prepared their meals. John became quite devoted to her. Unfortunately, Isobel couldn’t stand her. Tensions grew, and Isobel sulked and stewed and finally exploded, leading to a blazing argument. Stuffing her hat on her head, Isobel stalked from the house, through town, and onto the plain boiling with rage. She said to herself, “I am not going to live with a man who gives a lazy servant preference over his wife.”
That’s the way it is with a lot of Christians, they give preference to someone or something in their lives over what should be the most important thing in their life, Jesus. So in effect, they don’t make Jesus their life but rather have just added Jesus to their lives. Last week, we looked at the word lifestyle in our mission statement. We learned a lot of people may profess their faith in Jesus Christ but they don’t live their entire lives for Jesus Christ. They never really change their lifestyle, that is, who they are, how they live and what they do. In fact, George Barna has found in his research that the unchurched see no difference between the lives we lead as Christians and their own life. Every one is devoted to something! It may be your job, your career, your goals, your spouse, your family, or even your favorite hobby or pastime. But when you decided to follow Jesus, you were to devote yourself to Him above everything else! The call to faith in Jesus is a call to be totally devoted in following Him! Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self.” Luke 9:23-25 He went on to say, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Matthew 8:23 In other words, you have to make a choice in this life and when you choose to believe in God, you choose Him first in everything. You choose a be “devoted to Jesus” above everything and everyone else.
In our Scripture today, Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, and saw two fishermen brothers, Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the lake. He said to them: "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Then in Luke 9:9 Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth and said to him: "Follow me," and Matthew got up and followed him. This was more than an invitation to come hand out with Jesus or even believe in Jesus, it was a call to take on a new way of life, to be completely devoted to Jesus.
To understand that calling and Jesus’ invitation, we need to understand the context. In Jesus’ day, childhood education started at age five as young boys went to the synagogue school to learn Hebrew and memorize the Torah. By the time of his bar mitzvah at age 13, a typical Jewish young man had memorized all of the Old Testament. Those who showed great promise were encouraged to continue their education and begin studying the authoritative interpretation of the Torah known as “The Yoke of Torah.” After that next multi-year phase, the young men who continued to show great promise were further encouraged to extend their training by spending time (typically ages 17-20) with a rabbi in a multi-year experience. There they would hone their ability to interpret God’s Word as it relates to all the practical issues of daily life.
The student would choose a rabbi and ask to become his student. Because of the great interpretive diversity amongst the rabbis, the decision to ask to be a rabbi’s disciple and receive religious training from him was not made lightly. Some rabbis interpreted the Scriptures literally. Others focused on the spirit of the Torah, while still other rabbis emphasized different areas of emphasis, e.g. ritual purity laws. These diverse approaches often led to very different interpretations and application of Scripture pertaining to issues of daily life. Since a rabbi’s interpretation of God’s Word was forever binding on his disciples, great care had to be taken by the disciple in choosing a rabbi and his teaching to make sure it was something he could identify with and live out for the rest of his life.
A 1st Century rabbi would only choose a very select few, highly promising young men from all the wannabes who asked to be his disciples. He selected only those who he thought could fully measure up to his standard and eventually become just like him. What the rabbi was looking for was not just a detailed knowledge of the Scriptures, but the ability of this candidate to interpret the Scriptures and apply them to real life. Remember, the issue for an observant Jew in the First Century was never what God’s Word says. They all knew what it said. They had memorized it. The issue was: can they interpret the Scripture just like him. So when a Rabbi gave his invitation of “follow me”, he was saying: “Come and be with me as my disciple and submit your life to my authoritative teaching.” Hearing those words meant you had made the last “cut.” These words were deeply significant to hear. This was everything a young man had trained and studied for since age 5. Now their dreams and all of their hard work could be realized
So the disciples recognized Jesus’ call as the call of a disciple from a Rabbi. It is an understatement to say that Simon and Andrew were not expecting to be called as Jesus’ disciples. They would never have envisioned themselves as disciple material. As fisherman, they obviously had washed out of the disciple-making rabbinic process and now had devoted themselves to a profession. Matthew was a tax collector and scorned by all. These men knew they weren’t good enough to be a disciple or to emulate Rabbi Jesus– neither His interpretive authority, nor His life. Both had been told they were not “good enough” to be considered disciple material and could never measure up to following a rabbi and becoming like him. So when Jesus called them to “follow me,” both of them had to be completely incredulous. “You mean this Rabbi sees in me the potential to become like Him? He thinks I am good enough to be His disciple! Not only can I not believe that, I cannot even fathom that ever being possible!”
In its simplest form, “follow me” is a call to become a disciple or student of a Rabbi. But a disciple was more than that. It meant a follower. A disciple left everything, his family, his friends, his life to follow their rabbi and to learn from him. This was what every Jewish family desired for their boys. For most, though, the news was not so good. The rabbi would say “ My son, you know the Torah well, but you are not able to be my disciple”. And then he would say “Go home, learn the family business, make babies and pray that they will become rabbis”. This was the reality of life in Jesus’ day. So, when Jesus says to these fishermen, “Come, follow me” he is saying to them, “You, you are good enough. You could become a rabbi. You could teach the Scriptures with authority. Come, be my disciple. Leave your life behind and follow me”. The men Jesus chose most likely approached a rabbi at one time and begged to be HIS disciple, and were most likely told, they weren’t good enough. But now a rabbi calls them. So now you can understand that when Jesus called to these men, why without hesitation, they left everything they had to go and follow Jesus. So the first thing we need to hear today is, “You are good enough. You can follow me.” It doesn’t matter what you have done, what you have said or where you have been, you can follow me and become my disciple. We tend to lose sight of the reality that Jesus has a much higher view of us as His disciples and of what we can become in Him than we could ever dream about ourselves in our wildest expectations. Why? Because Jesus always starts with the eternal end in view.
In the first century, a disciple was given three charges as they followed their rabbi. The first charge of a disciple to know their rabbi’s words and understand his teachings. In first century Israel, rabbis did not teach from books or write scrolls. There were no textbooks or how-to guides. The rabbis simply spoke their lessons and the disciples memorized their words. They learned what their rabbi said about every specific situation and how to apply the Scriptures. They were so devoted to their rabbi’s teachings that they soaked up every little thing the rabbi said. As we strive to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must first learn to treasure the words of our Rabbi, Jesus and to understand his teachings. The Bible is not just words and stories, but a precious gem that add such value and guidance to our lives over everything else. Thus, they should be guarded with great diligence and held on to at any cost. This is the commitment of a disciple of Jesus.
The second charge given of a disciple in Jesus’ day takes charge number 1 even further. Not only are disciples to know and understand their rabbi’s teachings, but they are to imitate their rabbi’s actions. Not only did disciples learn what the rabbi said, but the disciples would observe and learn how their teacher kept the commands of God in their own lives: how he kept the Sabbath, how he fasted, how he prayed, how he gave charity, and on and on. Thus a disciple’s responsibility was to be just like the Rabbi in every way.
You see, it wasn’t enough just to know what the Scriptures say or even what your Rabbi says. It was only when you put these things into action that they began to hold any real value in life. The goal of Jews was to “fulfill the Torah” and that meant to live out what the Torah said. It was only then that a person was fulfilling the Law. Jesus, himself, declares that his intention is to fulfill the Torah when he says in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”. The people of his day would have known precisely what he was trying to say. He was not only affirming Moses and the prophets, but he had come to show what it looked like to live out the Torah in his actions.
For disciples of Jesus time, it was their highest calling to be a reflection of his teacher. Jesus even declares that “every disciple, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40 This is the calling of a disciple: to be like his teacher and rabbi, fulfilling the Torah as their rabbi did. That means our goal is to have our lives, our thoughts, our words and our actions reflect those of Jesus. We are not only to know the Word of God, but to live by them. That was the calling of the disciples in Jesus’ day and that is our calling as Christians today.
The third and final charge given to disciples was to raise up other disciples. When a disciple were fully trained, they went out on their own to become a full-fledged rabbi. They then sought their own students to teach. When he would find them, he would teach the words of his Master, the traditions and interpretations and actions of his Rabbi. The goal was to pass on the teachings and the torch of discipleship from generation to generation.
During Jesus’ time on earth, he spent three years spending time with, teaching and training his disciples to do one thing: to go out and raise up more disciples. This why his final command was to: “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” This commission was given to Jesus’ disciples and today it is the commission of all disciples of Jesus that it might continue to be fulfilled from generation to generation.
Doug Lyon tells the story of Giuseppe Garibaldi who lived from 1807 to 1882. He was an Italian patriot, soldier, and hero and devoted his life to the cause of uniting Italy. His greatest victory was the 1860 overthrow of the Kingdom of Naples. That event ultimately led to the unification of Italy. In May of that year, Garibaldi had landed in Sicily with a volunteer force of a 1000 men. Within two weeks this force had taken the city of Palermo, forcing the capitulation of an army of 20,000. Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal for recruits in these terms: “I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!” And then Doug Lyon writes, Jesus invites you to become a disciple. But He lets you know up front that it is a commitment that will cost you something. It’s will cost you your entire life. It’s not going to be easy. To paraphrase Garibaldi, “Let him who loves the Lord with his heart and not with his lips only, be Jesus’ disciple!”
