The Call
Matthew 4:18-22
They may be the three most powerful words in all of spoken language. You hear these words and life may never be the same, changing who you are, the life you’ve known, how you will look at life and the people in your life as well. When these words were first spoken, the men who heard them had been minding their own business, going about their work and keeping to themselves. They were ordinary men like you and me. They had jobs, families, hobbies, and friends. When they woke up that day, they thought it would be like any other: get dressed, go to work, labor until you can’t do any more, go home, shower, eat and spend time with family and friends. In fact, as they went about their business that day, none of them knew that their life was going to change forever so quickly and so decisively.
Those three words spoken by Jesus that day were, “Come, follow me…” Right then, a decision had to be made. These fishermen could not have known or understood what they were getting into when they dropped everything and left all they had behind. Whatever ideas, hopes, expectations or even fears they had in their minds as they took those first few steps into the unknown never could have come close to what they were about to experience. It couldn’t have prepared them for what was about to happen, for everything they would see, hear and experience. Everything about Jesus, his teaching, his compassion, his wisdom, his power, his authority would be unlike anything they had ever experienced and it would transform every aspect of their lives: their minds, their hearts, their hopes, and their dreams and ultimately, their lives.
In just three short years, they went from uneducated, illiterate working class fishermen to standing before some of the most powerful men in the world and being accused of turning the world upside down. What started as a simple invitation and a response of immediate and complete obedience ended up not only changing their lives but the world itself. Here’s the first thing we learn from Jesus’ invitation: You can’t follow Jesus and stay where you are. It doesn’t just say, “Follow me…” but “Come, follow me.” In that first word, Jesus makes it clear that you can’t stay where you are and follow him. You can’t keep thinking the same things, doing the same things, living the same life and follow Jesus. You have to get up and go where Jesus is going, get on the same path that Jesus is on and live the life that Jesus is living. Jesus isn’t someone you just add into your life. To follow Him, He must become your life.
Disciples in Jesus’ day chose a rabbi and followed them, seeking to learn what their rabbi knew, to live as he did and to become like him. They would go wherever he would and do whatever he did, all as a part of their training to become like him. A disciple follows right next to the Teacher rather than at a passive distance. There is power in proximity. Today, rather than calling someone a disciple, our society would use the word apprentice. An apprentice is someone who is bound to another, a Master of some trade or craft, for a certain amount of time, usually a few years, to learn an art or trade. To be a disciple of Jesus means to be an apprentice. The Master is Jesus himself. His art or trade is making disciples. And the amount of time is life-long. This is what we as Methodists call sanctification, the lifelong process of growing to become like Jesus, to live for Him and do His will in every aspect of your life.
When Jesus called the disciples, they may not have known where he would take them or the impact He would have on their lives. But in that split moment of decision, they left behind everything they had, everything they owned and everyone they knew. They went everywhere he went and did everything he did and it began to transform them. You can’t follow a person like that, live with them and spend the better part of every day and every moment for three years with them and not have it impact you. Slowly but surely, they began to think like him and act like him. And this was Jesus’ intent all along because he said, “Everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Jesus’ goal was to make the disciples just like Him.
Yet, somehow and somewhere, we in the church have gone horribly of course in what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We’ve taken the name of Christ, Christian, and used it almost blasphemingly. There are a lot of Christians in the pews and even more who never darken the door of the church but not many apprentices of Jesus. They believe in Jesus but they don’t follow or live like Jesus. When you compare most Christians and the lives they lead compared to the life of Jesus, the one we profess to believe in and claim to follow, in some there’s just a faint glimmer of Jesus but for many others, there’s no resemblance at all. Every disciple is a Christian but not every Christian is a disciple. So what are the characteristics of a disciple?
First, a disciple is a student. A student is a learner today. But we are called to be much more than a student. Being a student is passive learning. You sit and are lectured and then hope to learn something. Rather than students, we are called to be apprentices. There’s a difference between being a student and being an apprentice. A student wants to learn what the teacher knows. The student doesn’t even have to like or respect the teacher. An apprentice wants to be like the teacher. To do that, there has to be close proximity, personal interaction and affinity. An apprentice does more than learn by hearing the teaching of his Master. He must see how his Master does things and then do like his Master. This is explicitly commanded by Jesus in John 13: "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you." To be a disciple or apprentice is not a short term learning experience but a lifelong endeavor of seeking to grow in thought, word and deed until you become just like Him.
Second, a disciple places Jesus above everything else. In Luke 14, Jesus laid out His requirements for discipleship the first being a disciple must love Jesus more than anyone or anything else. Jesus said, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26). That statement is shocking to us today. But Jesus was using the method of sharp contrasts, essentially saying that your love for God must be so strong, so intense-that all other loves would be like hatred in comparison. Another way to say it would be, "If you want to really be My disciple, and live your Christian life to its fullest, you must love Me more than anyone or anything else!" More than your career, more than your possessions, more than your family, more than your friends, more than everything else in your life. In other words, to be a disciple of Jesus, He must be first in your life and everything else must be a distant second.
Third, a disciple is one who follows, not leads. Last week, we learned that we love control. In fact, we bristle under the thought of not being in control or someone else controlling us. Many of us, if we’re honest, are control freaks. Not Jesus. Rather controlling his own life and destiny, Jesus instead chose to surrender everything to the will of God. In fact, Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross!” He would go on to confess, "I can do nothing on my own". John 5:30 And he calls those who follow him to do the same. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew16: 24-25 It is giving up control and handing it over to Christ. It’s allowing God to guide your life. It is recognizing like Jesus that you cannot do it on your own. We cannot make it without His constant guidance and protection. The problem is, many in the church want to “confess that Jesus is Lord,” yet they don’t allow him to be their master. To be a disciple, Jesus must be Lord. And if He is Lord then He sets the agenda. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then your life belongs to Him. He has a plan, agenda, and calling for you. You don’t get to tell Him what you’ll be doing today or for the rest of your life.
So what is a disciple? A disciple makes disciples. From the beginning the foundation of being a disciple of Jesus has always been to make disciples of Jesus. In his first words to the disciples, Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). He emphasized this priority in His last words as well, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey Him” (Matt. 28:19–20). From the start, God’s design has been for every single disciple of Jesus to make disciples who make disciples until the gospel spreads to all peoples.
With the Great Commission, Jesus invites all of us to be a part of God’s plan of salvation for the world. God wants all of his children to experience His joy as we share His love, spread His Word, and connect people to a lifestyle devoted to His life among all His children. This is the grand purpose for which we were created: to spread the gospel of Jesus from wherever we live to the ends of the earth. The church should be known for making disciples, like Hubig’s is known for making pies or Bluerunner is known for making Red Beans and Rice or Tobasco is known for making hot sauce. If we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, we should be making disciples. We are called to bear fruit and what is that fruit? New disciples. Jesus said, "He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." A disciple is, by nature---by definition!---a multiplier. They multiply themselves. It’s not about bringing people to Christ but making disciples who make disciples.
It’s all about making disciples. And if you aren’t sharing your faith and bringing others to faith then you aren’t one of his disciples. And if you’re not, I believe it comes down to one of three things. First is a recognition that there is eternity on the line. Jesus said that those who believe in him will have eternal life. Those who don’t, won’t. Second is being filled with the power and boldness of the Holy Spirit. This is the difference between the disciples hiding behind locked doors and stepping out into the street of Jerusalem and preaching at the top of their lungs, throwing all caution to the wind. Third is love. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-40 The love for God in the first commandment is made practical in the love for our neighbors in the second commandment. John actually told us that if we don’t love the people that we can see around us, then we don’t love God, whom we can’t see (1 John 4:20). True love is all about sacrifice for the sake of the ones you love: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). When we understand love in this light, it’s not difficult to understand that love for God and love for others cannot separated.
And this purpose is worth giving our entire lives, everything we have and everything we know to seeing it accomplished. It’s worth it for billions of people who do not yet know the mercy and majesty of God in Christ. And it’s worth it for you and me, because we’re made to be disciples who make disciples until the day we die or when we see the face of the One we follow, whichever comes first. Bill Hybels writes, “Jesus Christ knew that fulfilling his redemptive mission would be excruciatingly difficult, risky, downright defeating, and seemingly fruitless for us at times. ‘But if you will just persevere, the potential is colossal.’ Think of it! One more treasure—a priceless human being—might be snatched from the clutches of a horrendous, lifeless eternity because of you. So go! Go right now and bear witness. Sow the seed. Risk your life for this, and know that you will never regret your decision.”
