Outline
A. Calling
B. Challenge
C. Command
D. Caution
E. Cost
Scripture
Matthew 4:19; Isaiah 6:8
Matthew 4:19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you
fishers of men."
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I
send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Introduction
1 Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom
shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I.
Send me!" Some people read this verse as "Here I am, send others."
This morning, the Word of God says "Here, I am, send me". Matthew
4:19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of
men." This was what Jesus spoke to Peter and Andrew his brother.
Immediately, the two brothers followed Him. These two scriptures are
what I wish to discuss with you this morning. We know from John
chapter 1 that Jesus commanded Peter and Andrew to follow Him after
their conversion. Sometimes Jesus asked people to follow Him right
after their conversion. For example, Jesus asked Saul of Tarsus to
follow Him right after his conversion. God sent Jonah to Nineveh, but
Jonah disobeyed. What is your position before Jesus? Are you still
saying "no" to Jesus? Or do you immediately follow Jesus like Andrew,
Peter, James and John?
A. Calling
2 The first thing I want to mention to you is that God calls
everybody. His calling is for everybody, not just to a few select
people who are listening to His voice. He calls everybody on earth.
The first call is to salvation. Salvation means "being saved" from
sin. If you don’t follow the call of Jesus, it means that you are not
yet saved; you are still unsaved; you are still in a dangerous
position. The first thing that Jesus calls for is salvation. Did you
follow Jesus? Follow Jesus if you want to have salvation. Ask Jesus
to save you from sins. Salvation is the first general call for
everybody. There are also other particular calls for some people to do
specific tasks. For example, Jesus might call you to be a pastor, a
minister, or a missionary, or to do a specific work for Him. All these
are His calls. When we follow Him and accept His calling, we have to
follow Jesus as He follows His father. Jesus did everything His father
told Him to do. I really appreciate Jesus because of Jesus’ total
obedience to His father in heaven. In Burmese, we have a saying "Do
what I say, don’t do what I do." But Jesus is different. He said "Do
what I do. Follow Me." He taught us, "Love one another, as I have
loved you. Serve one another in the same way I have come to serve
you." He is the Man who lived according to His own teachings.
3 When we follow Jesus, we have to follow Him in the same manner
that He followed His Father. We must focus on Jesus and never let Him
get out of our sight. Jesus gave us different people with different
talents and gifts. This morning, we can see that some people can play
instruments (which I cannot), some people can sing and so on. Anything
that we do for the Lord is important. We do it as unto the Lord and
not unto men. Some people think that when they follow the calling of
God, they would become a genius, a highly intelligent person. You may
become a genius, but normally God does not work in that way. The IQ of
a normal person would be 100. The IQ of those more intelligent would
be 110 or 120. Albert Einstein’s IQ was 212. He was a genius in many
areas. When God invited us to follow Him, He never increased our IQ.
I think my IQ is not high enough, so I have to pray about it. I heard
a story of a salesman selling some brains. A preacher’s brain cost
$10,000, while a doctor’s brain cost $5,000. A customer asked him why
the preacher’s brain cost more than the doctor’s brain. The salesman
replied that the preacher’s brain was brand new, as it was never used.
(My brain may be brand new also.)
4 When Jesus invited you to follow Him, in spite of your
difficult situations, in spite of your limited talents and normal IQ,
Jesus can still use you. He called you because He knew how to use
you. You might think that if you follow Jesus, you would not know how
to face your family, your friends, and your colleagues. But when you
follow Jesus, He knows how to do it for you. My wife sometimes tells
me stories of God’s provisions. I have never doubted God’s provisions
because He is always faithful. My wife told me of the story of a woman
in Africa who came to know the Lord. She heard her pastor preached
that God can do anything for her, that nothing is impossible for God.
One day, this woman’s son was sick and had a very high fever. The
doctor said that he could not help her son because what her son needed
was not medicine, but ice to cool him down. There is no electricity in
that area of Africa. In my house, we have our fair share of
electricity and power cuts. But in that area of Africa, they don’t
even have electricity. She remembered that her pastor said that God
could do anything, that nothing is impossible with God. She took her
dying son from the doctor and ran to the pastor. She told the pastor
that nothing is impossible with God, and that her son is about to die
unless there is ice to cool down the fever. The pastor tried to
console her by saying that sometimes these things work for the glory of
God. Even if her son dies, he will go to heaven. The woman protested
that she wanted her son to live. She then cried out to God : "Lord,
please help." This was not a theologian prayer, nor a highly-educated
prayer. It was just a simple "Lord, please help." At that moment, God
did something. There was a hailstorm. All she had to do was to pick
up the hails and put on her son. Her son was then healed. In the
middle of nowhere, God can provide ice. I am sure today if you follow
Jesus, God can do many things for you also.
B. Challenge
5 When we follow Jesus, we will face a challenge. God called His
followers while they were busy doing their secular jobs. God called to
them : "Follow Me." These people didn’t ask about their new job
description, their emoulments, lodging, food, and transport. They
immediately left their jobs and followed Jesus. God did not tell them
everything immediately when they followed Him. For example, God didn’t
tell them where He was going, and that was a tough part. In the Old
Testament, God told Abraham to go, and Abraham just prepared everything
and went with all his servants. When people asked Abraham where he was
going, he just replied that God asked him to go. "But where?" they
asked. Abraham replied : "Somewhere." Humanly speaking, it is not
intelligent to just follow God without first knowing where He is going,
but they are still following God. This is a challenge. When you
follow Jesus, you might not know what your next step may be. All we
have to do is to just follow Him. He knows where He is going even
though He does not tell us. He does not tell us everything in the
beginning, including suffering. Many people have suffered , died, and
were imprisoned for the Gospel’s sake. I remember a man followed Jesus
whole-hearted, was imprisoned and persecuted in the prison and
eventually died. Many hundreds of people died because they followed
Jesus. Jesus never told us all these things in the beginning. Jesus
said "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Peter and Andrew
were fishermen. They were fishing and Jesus asked them to follow Him.
Jesus did not warn Peter that in the future Peter will have a lot of
hard time and eventually die upside down. He didn’t warn Peter, but
Peter suffered for preaching the Gospel, and eventually he died upside
down on the cross. Jesus never tell us everything in the beginning.
However, he encouraged us with Hebrews 13:6 : "Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you." The original meaning was "I will never ever
ever leave you, nor ever ever forsake you. I will be with you
always." That was what Jesus said.
6 This morning we heard the testimony of Rinnah. Many times, God
doesn’t solve all of our problems, He didn’t make our paths straight.
However, in the midst of all these troubles, difficulties, and
problems, He still gives us peace in our heart, joy to sing for Him, a
smile to pass to others and to tell others that Jesus loves them.
Following Jesus is a challenge. Even though it is difficult, and even
though we do not know what may happen next, the call of God is there
for everyone of us. We sang a hymn that went "Out of all my bondage,
sorrows, sickness, poverty, Jesus I come to you. With all my arrogance
and pride, Jesus I come to you." We have to follow Jesus with our
whole being.
C. Command
7 Following Jesus is not optional. This morning I encouraged you
to follow Jesus, but actually you don’t have a choice. It is a command
from Jesus, the Lord of Lords, and the King of Kings. This morning, if
someone comes to you and tells you to stop everything and leave the
room immediately, you will have to look at the person who asks you to
evacuate from the room. For example, you would not listen to a little
child if he asks everybody to leave the room. But if a fireman asks
everyone to exit, I don’t think anybody would dare to stay because the
words of a fireman have to be taken seriously. Here, Jesus said
"Follow Me." It is a command. He is our captain, and we are His
soldiers, and His followers. When we follow Jesus, whatever we do and
going to do, all the glory must go to Him. We sang in a chorus that
"Jesus deserve the glory and honor." He deserves to receive all the
glory and honor. Whatever we do, He deserves the gory and honor.
During a military battle, the soldiers fight and the captain gives the
command. If they won the battle, who gets the glory? Most of the
time, it is the captain who gets the glory. The captain and his
soldiers won the battle. In the same way, when we follow Jesus,
whatever we do, all the glory belongs to Him. We are His instruments.
Jesus is the commander.
8 Who is Jesus? Even the storms, the waves of the seas, and the
sicknesses obeyed His commands. In the Bible, Jesus commanded the
waves and storms to be quiet, and the storms obeyed. Sicknesses
departed at Jesus’ commands, and the patients were healed. Jesus
commanded the dead bodies to rise, and the dead became alive. Jesus
commanded the demons to depart from the demon-possessed persons, and
the demons fled. Jesus had the power and authority to perform all
these miracles. The One who invited us to follow Jesus had all the
power and authority to do everything.
D. Caution
9 We are following the correct Person. When we follow Jesus, we
have to be careful. When we become followers of Jesus, we must follow
Jesus only. Some people wanted to follow Jesus because their
boyfriends are following Jesus. Some people came to church to see
their girlfriends once a week as their parents don’t allow them to
meet. When we follow, Jesus we have to follow Jesus only. We follow
Jesus not because of other benefits but we follow Jesus because we love
Jesus. We have to focus our eyes on Jesus Christ only. We must be
careful that we are not following men. This morning, I want you to
focus on Christ and to be cautious of misplaced loyalty, and to ensure
we are not following men. Sometimes we misplaced our loyalty. You
will be disappointed if you admire people too much or if you follow
men. I learnt a hard lesson. I had admired a very good man. I think
that it is not wrong to admire a person, but now I realized that a
human is a human. I admired him so much that as long as one song of
his was included in a cassette or video, I would buy that whole album.
I would keep on singing his song in my house, and listen to it in my
walkman. I really loved him. A few years later, I heard that he was
unfaithful to his wife and that he was not in the ministry any more. I
was so disappointed. I still sing his songs, but it always remind me
not to admire other people too much. I am not saying that we should
not admire people; what I am saying is that we should not admire
anybody too much.
10 We should also not admire anything too much. I remember when I
was a teenager, I really like to have a motorcycle, a big powerful
motorcycle with deep revs. I came from a remote part of the village
where we don’t even have a bicycle. But I really wanted to have a big
motorcycle that makes deep throbbing revs of "broom, broom." Whenever
I go to school, I have to walk 4 miles to school, and 4 miles back, a
total of 8 miles per day. Even while I was walking to school with my
friends, I was riding on my motorbike in dream. Even while in church
and the pastor was preaching, I was still thinking about my motorbike.
After I grew up, I still have that motorbike in my mind, riding my
motorbike to school and to church. While in church, I would be sining
in the choir in front of the congregation, and sitting on my
motorcycle. When I grew up, I had more dreams, not only of that
motorbike, but of a beautiful girlfriend riding pillion behind me, and
hugging my waist. I had that dream for many years. After that, I
prayed to God that the motorcycle was disturbing me. Even when I was
having quiet time, that motorcycle was making too much noise.
11 One day I heard my pastor preached that we have to remove
everything that entangles us. We have to focus only on Jesus and
remove everything that entangles us. To entangles us means to bring us
down and to give us burden. I realized that the motorcycle was
entangling me, and preventing me from worshipping God. So, I told
Jesus that from that moment on, I donate my motorbike to Him (which I
don’t have). It is quite easy to donate something that you don’t
have. On the other hand, it is very difficult, because it is a part of
my heart. I had to ask Jesus to remove it from my heart, and to remove
it immediately. I still remember Jesus actually removed the
entanglement of the motorcycle from my heart, and the entanglement of
the beautiful girl riding pillion behind me. Jesus really can take
away the love of things that we value too highly in our hearts. Four
years ago, I saw the same motorcycle in a shop. My desires came back
to me. I thought that as I have no children, and there is only my wife
and me, it may be nice to have a motorcycle to fulfill my dream. At
the moment, Jesus told me : "You have already donated it to Me." So, I
said to Jesus to please have it since I had already donated it to Him.
From that moment on, I did not long for a motorbike any more. I am
happy and thankful that I had donated it to the Lord, because He had
given me better things than that motorcycle.
Difficult to find Jesus after losing Him
12 I emphasized that we should focus on Jesus because when we lose
Him, it is very difficult to find Him again. You might think that
Jesus is everywhere, all we need to do is to call out to Him and He
will answer. Yes, He will answer if you call out to Him earnestly.
Luke 2:42~48 tells us about the story of Jesus, his father Joseph and
his mother Mary. They went to Jerusalem together with Jesus. On the
way back, they forgot Jesus because they were too busy with other
things, and catching up with friends and relatives. It was only after
one day’s journey that they realized that Jesus was not with them.
Jesus was only 12 years old at that time. They tried to look for Him
among fellow travellers but could not find Him. They had to backtrack
on their journey to look for Jesus. It took one day for them to lose
Jesus and three days to locate Him. It is easy to say that God is
everywhere and that it is easy to go back to Him. But when we lose our
focus on Him, sometimes it is very difficult for us to find Him again.
Even when we find Him, we might not recognize Him. Jesus’ parents did
not recognize Him. He was sitting in the temple talking to the learned
priests. Brothers and sisters, today the caution is to focus on Jesus
and to follow Jesus. It is easier to lose Jesus than to find Him. So,
never let Him out of your sight.
E. Cost
13 The cost of following Jesus. How much would it cost to follow
Jesus? He might call us to a place where you are not familiar. Here,
Peter and Andrew were familiar with fishing in the Sea of Galilee.
They were doing quite well in their business. ............ They could
not fish in unfamiliar territory. Sometimes, He might call us to a
place that we are not familiar. We may be called to go to a place that
is totally different from our culture and from our language which could
frustrate you all the time. I remember a friend of mine who is Danish,
and his wife who is Scottish. They were working in Papua New Guinea.
One day, the Chief of a village invited them to his village. As the
guests of the Chief, they are expected to conform to the Chief’s
wishes. The Danish and Scottish couple were the guests of honour at
the Chief’s banquet. The Danish was sitting on the right side of the
Chief. The Chief offered them their most precious food, which is
caterpillars. (My wife said that caterpillars tasted like cheese.) As
the Chief’s honored guests, they have no right to reject the food, but
to eat the food with thanks. The guests have to take the food first
before the villagers could begin their meals. All eyes were on the
honored guests. So, the Danish man took the caterpillar and said
prayed silently in his heart : "Lord Jesus, thank you for this delicacy
of a caterpillar which is still alive. Lord, in order to have good
relations with the Chief and with his villagers, I ask for your
blessings." He then swallowed the caterpillar, and could feel the
wriggling of the live caterpillar in his stomach. The Chief gazed upon
the Danish and exclaimed "Very very good, better than me." The Danish
asked him why he had done better than the Chief. The Chief replied
that he doesn’t eat the head. The cost of following Jesus may be
totally unfamiliar to you. But Jesus still says : "Follow Me."
Conclusion
14 This morning, my encouragement to you is that when we follow
Jesus, He knows the way, and He knows what we need. Even if we have to
face a challenge, His command is still the same : "Follow Me." Of
course, we have to be cautious. There is a price for us to pay, but
Jesus assured us that He will never ever forsake us. Last night, God
spoke to me about the cost of following Jesus. It could bring us out
of our comfort zone. I assume that all of us are very comfortable in
this church. God may ask you to do more things for Him somewhere else
where you may not be familiar. The things we have to do is to trust
and obey. There is no other way. God bless you.
. . . . .
