← Divine Savior Church-North Collin County
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God's word for our consideration this morning comes from Matthew's Gospel, chapter four, our gospel reading. We bow our heads to pray, O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight. For you alone are our rock and our redeemer. Amen. In the name of Jesus, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The idea of following has become a much more prominent idea in our social media age, where you can just press a button and follow someone or a page of some sort. But the idea of following has obviously been around far longer than that. To follow literally means to go in behind someone, but it's far more than just walking in their direction. To follow someone is to observe them, to pay attention to them, to listen to what they say, to believe that they are worth following. You follow a GPS because you trust it's leading you in the right direction. You follow a coach because you trust that they're leading you to a good place. Well, to trust also means to allow that person to influence your words and your actions, the places that you go, the things that you do. It often involves imitation, much like children who imitate the words and the actions of their parents. To follow means that you're committed. You're committed even if it costs you something. To follow means you're lining yourself up underneath the leadership of that person. That's really just scratching the whole surface of what following is all about. That idea of following is so rich, it's so deep. And that's the kind of following that Jesus is inviting you and me to consider today as we take a step onto the shore of the Sea of Galilee with him. Matthew writes it this way. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting their nets into the lake, for they were fishermen. Now, Peter and Andrew, they weren't unfamiliar with Jesus. When you put the stories of scripture together, they already knew who Jesus was. They had already met him. They were already followers of Jesus. They were disciples of Jesus. They trusted that Jesus really was the savior of the world. And so when Jesus says what he says next, Andrew and Peter are not responding to some stranger. They're responding to somebody that they knew very well. As Jesus was walking beside the sea, he said, come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people. And in this call from Jesus, Jesus is also indicating the kind of work he's calling them for. You see, this isn't a call where Jesus is saying, you know what you got to do as much of this as you can for me, and then I'm going to make you my own. That's not all it, we're going to talk about that here in a moment. But listen to the call of Jesus again for a moment. Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. It's not just learn, by the way, discipleship to be a disciple of Jesus. At its very core, the very most important component of being a disciple of Jesus is to learn, to learn how to from Jesus, to learn things about Jesus, learning things about ourselves as we learn about Jesus. But Jesus is saying more than just that, learning from me. I'm actually going to send you out, I'm going to train you to teach. And it's not this call that Jesus says, once you start following me, once you start doing your part, I'm going to then make you into this. No, this is an expression of Jesus gracious will saying, come, follow me. And as Jesus says the words, I will send you out to fish for people, it means that he's going to train them for the work of winning people with the gospel. Jesus doesn't say, once you've got it all figured out, once you've got it all put together, then come follow me. No. Jesus is promising to do for them what they could never do for themselves. And consequently they would learn from Jesus not just for themselves, but they would learn for the benefit of others too, as they then proclaim the word to others. And this is how Matthew tells us they responded at once. They left their nets and followed him at once, immediately. It just makes sense, doesn't it? They knew who Jesus was. They knew Jesus very, very well. And Jesus is simply inviting them to put their nets away and instead come and be trained on how to catch people. And it's the same for John and James, two going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called to them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him at once. Immediately the call goes out and the response is eagerness to follow. And it just makes sense, doesn't it? I'm not so sure. Andrew and Peter and James and John for that matter, were just middle class fishermen and already had enough messy and complication in their life to begin with. Fishermen wasn't the most secure of jobs. They weren't the most learned people around. I don't think it would have been all that hard For John and James and Andrew and Peter to come up with all sorts of excuses when Jesus said, come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. So we're going to go follow Jesus, who, oh, by the way, doesn't look all that impressive, doesn't even necessarily have a place to lay his head at night. We're going to go follow Jesus, who, by the way, is offering us probably a more complicated and even more difficult life that we already have as middle class fishermen. In fact, we're not even going to get out of the volatile fishing business. In fact, it's harder because we'll be fishing for people instead of fishing for fish, which is far more difficult. Yet Matthew says at once they left their nets and followed him immediately. They left the boat and their father and followed him. Do those words make you uncomfortable? Those words at once, those words immediately make us uncomfortable because we love to follow Jesus selectively when it's convenient, when it's comfortable, when it's beneficial to me. What are the excuses that you make? Maybe it's the excuse of, well, so long as everything, all this Jesus stuff, as long as it fits in with the life that I want for myself and the life that I want for my family, then sure, Jesus can come along for the ride. I suppose Jesus can be a part of this. Maybe it's, well, there's people in town and no Christians. I'm not just talking about Sunday morning worship. That's a snippet, that's a sliver of, of what discipleship is all about. To follow Jesus means to observe him, to pay attention to him, to listen to him, to believe that he's worth following. To follow Jesus is to allow him to influence who you are, what you say, what you think, what you do, the places that you go, the things that you do. To follow Jesus is to place yourself willingly underneath the leadership of, of Jesus. That's not just something for pastors and teachers of God's word. God calls all Christians of all time to be all in on the gospel of Jesus for their own hearts is that that gospel takes a tight iron grip on their own heart and then calls us to be all in on the gospel of Jesus going out to share that gospel so that more people can know, even if it's in our small corner of his kingdom. Jesus says, come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. That means that if culture goes this way and Jesus goes this way, then we're called to follow because he has called us. That means that we're work goes this way and the workplace environment goes this direction, and Jesus goes this direction. We are called to follow him because he has called us. That means when family and friends go this direction and Jesus goes this direction, he calls us to follow him because he has called us to follow. Not selectively, like a Sunday morning brunch buffet. Not with selectively or caveats or contingencies or anything like that, but we come up with all sorts of excuses not to follow. Well, you know, Pastor, this work environment that I'm in, it requires you to be this kind of person, to kind of be a jerk to people and, and to, yeah, take on these non godly characteristics. But if I want to get ahead, I have to do that. And so I'm putting pause on following Jesus for those hours of the day so that I can do that. Something that we have to admit when we look at these words from God this morning is that none of us have followed Jesus perfectly in the way that he calls us to follow. But another thing that we must, we must admit from these words of God is that if it requires a perfect response for us to follow, none of us can follow Jesus. That's why this statement, this call from Jesus is not a mere command. It's a gospel call. You see, a gospel call because, because it's not Jesus saying, you know what? Follow me and then go figure all of it out. Follow me. And then you know what? You just gotta show me that you can give up enough, you can sacrifice enough. If you do that, if you take those first couple of steps towards me, well, then this is all gonna work out fine. No, it's a gospel call. That would be a law driven, a guilt driven, a pressure driven call. But this is a gospel call, Christians. It's a gospel call because Jesus does not wait for you to take the first step or, or two or three or how many others towards him and then he comes and does the rest. No, he knew that you wouldn't. He knew that you couldn't take those steps towards him, and instead he came all the way to you to live in the life that you could not live perfectly in your place. Because he followed completely his Father's will in your place for you all the way, with your sins packed onto his shoulders on the cross where he spread out his arms and paid for them in full, and then rose from the grave on Easter Sunday morning to prove that your sin is gone. Because where death is defeated, so is sin. And where sin is defeated, so is death. It's a Gospel call. A gospel call because Jesus doesn't say, you know what, Wait until you got it all figured out, and then follow. No, he says, I give you everything. He doesn't wait for readiness. He doesn't wait for perfection. He promises to change you through his word. And so he calls you, you in a beautiful gospel call, follow me and I'll send you out to fish for people. A gospel call. Because the gospel always gives what the gospel commands. Hear that again. A gospel call. Because the gospel always gives what the gospel commands. And what does the gospel command? Faith. To trust. And that's exactly what the gospel gives. The gospel places your eyes on Jesus and creates trust in your heart that Jesus is worth following, that he is the Son of God. The gospel places your eyes on the cross and on the empty grave where you sit. And you are filled up more and more and more with God's love put on display in Jesus for you, that you just can't take your eyes off of it. The gospel creates this beautiful trust that changes your will and changes your will to be, a will that now conforms with what God commands. The gospel is worth following because Jesus leads you. He leads you to a place that's worthwhile, Heaven itself, in all of its glory with him. These fishermen had a lot to learn about Jesus and the call that they were following. They had a lot to learn about what this was going to cost Jesus and eventually what. What it was going to cost them too. But Jesus did not call disciples because they wouldn't fail him. He called disciples because he would never fail them. And to whatever degree that they knew Jesus, Jesus had already captured their wills. And they learned evermore, over and over and over again that Jesus really was the Son of God, the Savior of the world that God had sent into the world, that Jesus really was there to accomplish and did accomplish the salvation that God had promised. It's no different for you and for me either. When Jesus says, come, follow me, he calls you through the gospel, the gospel of the good news of Jesus and what Jesus has done for you to take all of your sins away, take to make you his child. He calls you through the gospel and says, come, learn from me. Come, follow me and learn that I give you a life that is truly worth living because I've brought you from death to life. Come, follow me and learn that your sins are completely forgiven. And as we follow Jesus, we learn things about Jesus, which consequently make us learn things about ourselves too. That we're not perfect people, that there's never a point in time where we can trust ourselves, there's never a point in time where we can't be depending on Him. But that's exactly what gives us such joy to respond to the gospel call of Jesus, to follow him by saying this Savior, he calls me to follow him, the One who gave everything for me. So I get to live for him now and. And I get to live with him in eternity and glory forever. That Savior calls me, the one who in such grace, in such mercy, in such love, gave his own life to purchase mine. Immediately, at once I will follow. Even when friends are around that say differently, even when culture and work and things go this way, at once, at once I will follow. Jesus says, come, follow me and I will send you out to fish for people. And we say at once immediately, even when it's inconvenient, even when it's uncomfortable, even when it seems like there's no benefit to you, even as you follow. And you might feel like the following Jesus is not a good choice for you because bad things are happening at once immediately, because you have a Savior who has taken your sins away and made you his own dear child. And when you look at your life of following and it maybe doesn't line up with what you were hoping it would, when you look at your life of following and your commitment has wavered and your trust has been weak, remember this. The Lord does not turn away from you. The same Savior who called flawed fishermen and called flawed you and flawed me is the same Savior who has made us his own. And your place, Christians behind Jesus does not depend on your faithfulness to him. Your place behind Jesus depends on his faith faithfulness to you. And those same hands of Jesus that were spread out on a cross to take away all of your sins and now bear the very marks of salvation are the hands that will not let you go. And that's what gives you joy to say at once, immediately I will follow. And as. As you do, Jesus places into your hands this beautiful gospel message to go and fish for people you, you people who recognize the more you live and the longer you serve, that all you have is a gift of God's grace and mercy placed into your hands. But that's exactly what makes the assignment from Jesus so well received. Because the one who receives the assignment recognizes that the assignment is all about Jesus. It's all about the proclamation of repentance and sins forgiven in Jesus. It's all about Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of your sins. That's what gives you joy as you follow as you receive the gospel, as you then get to share the gospel. Because the gospel you gives joy and salvation and life and blessing all the way to your heavenly home in glory with him. That's what the gospel does. So Christians, come. Follow me, Jesus says, and I will send you out to fish for people. That's a joyful gospel call. And remember this about that call. It's not a call that begins with you and what you do for Jesus. It's a call that begins and ends and all in between of what Jesus has done for you to make you his child, to bring you from death to life, to equip you as a disciple of Jesus that follows joyfully behind. So go follow him when it's comfortable and when it isn't, when the world applauds you and when the world doesn't. Follow him in your families, in your workplaces, in your friendships, in your community. Follow him with the joy that the gospel gives you, the gospel that it's all done in Christ who has made you to be who you are. Amen.