Called Then Qualified
Notes
Transcript
I am a card carrying member of the “be true to yourself” and “you do you” generation. These sayings are characteristic of the cultural move towards radical individualism that has captivated the hearts and minds of most of the western world. We have been programmed to believe that we have the ultimate freedom to decide who we are and who we will become in this world. The problem is this:
It’s at best a half truth, and at worst a complete lie.
Now I’m not saying that we aren’t all unique and wonderfully made by the creative hands of a loving God. What I’m saying is that the bill of goods that we have been sold that tells us that we are capable of living our lives divorced from the influence of something outside of our own inner desires, identity, and moral compass is simply not real.
We are all being shaped and formed by something or by someone. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is to tell you about the cultural scene that I lived in as a high school kid.
I have always loved a pretty broad spectrum of music, but my teenage angst was really spoken to and live out via punk music. Punk Rock and being a teenager really go hand in hand because at its core punk music is all about sticking it to the man and criticizing authority figures. And that’s basically ages 13-21 in a nutshell. (or ages 13-39 and counting)
As punk kids we were always looking to do whatever the other kids weren’t doing and avoiding being caught up in any of the regular high school shenanigans that we felt represented the status quo. We dressed weird and mostly in black and just generally stood out like a sore thumb. It was all about being ourselves.
Except we were all the same. Or generally the same. Just a dark clothes wearing version of everything we were trying not to be. We had spoken and unspoken rules about what bands weren’t punk enough, what clothes we were supposed to wear, and who we were supposed to spend our time with.
So we were not actually individualistic at all. We were all following someone and being shaped by something outside of ourselves, be it our friends, the culture we were a part of, or the members of our favorite band.
There are no true individual thinkers in this world. Even if you are trying to be. We are all being formed, or shaped by someone or something. So the question becomes, is the something that is shaping you something that helps you become the person that you want to be? Is the something that is shaping you something that helps you become the person that God wants you to be?
As we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke we are beginning a new sermon series called “Follow Me.” We are going to be looking at what it means for us to be fully devoted followers of Jesus and how we can live that out in our everyday lives.
So let’s just dive right in.
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,
he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
Jesus is in Galilee and he approached the Lake of Gennesaret, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee, and he’s amassed quite a following of folks who want to hear his message about the Kingdom of God. Pinned up against the water by this crowd, Jesus sees some fishermen in a boat and he gets into one of them. From there he teaches the people who have come to hear him teach. Probably a little odd and unexpected by these fishermen who are just trying to finish their jobs, but ok.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.
So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
I’m sure that the fishermen, and in particular Simon whose boat Jesus is in, are really confused. Maybe they’ve heard of Jesus or maybe they haven’t. All we know is that Jesus tells them to give fishing one last go before they pack it in. And Simon is like “I don’t know why you’re telling me how to do my job stranger.” — Can anyone relate?
But he does it anyway. And the results are beyond anything they could have imagined. It seems that it’s in this moment that Jesus reveals a little portion of his real identity to the fishermen, but not too much. Just enough to get their attention — and get their attention he did. They were thoroughly freaked out.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
So Simon’s so freaked out he wants to get away from Jesus. He is afraid that his sinfulness or whatever it is that he’s got going on in his life disqualifies him from even being in the presence of Jesus. We’ll come back to that.
For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;
and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
And this right here is the beautiful and ever so important moment of the story. This is the moment that changes the lives of Simon and his partners forever. Jesus invites them to follow him, and they immediately accept.
In order to understand the weight of what has just transpired we’ve got to first go back and look at what Simon did immediately after realizing that Jesus must be at minimum some kind of very holy rabbi — he disqualifies himself from being in the boat with him.
And this is significant, because Jesus calls him anyway. And this is not how the relationship between a rabbi and a student came about in Jesus’s time.
Without getting too deep into the weeds we’ve got to just take a brief overview of the 1st century Jewish education system.
Basically every boy went to a first level of schooling, what we would call elementary school. In this phase they learned the Torah, which is the first 5 books of your Bible. And by learned, I mean they memorized it. Sit with that for a moment. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Line by line memorized. There was no book to take home and study. This was all done though oral tradition.
The majority of kids ended their schooling there and went into the family business — like fishing. The best of the best went on to a next level, like middle school. There they memorized the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The best of the best of those kids went on to study law and theology at a final upper tier of education, like our high school. At the end of that course of study a Rabbi would give some kind of interview/examination, and the students who did the best would be given the offer — follow me, become my disciple. Become my apprentice. Then they would begin their training to become a Rabbi themselves, and learn how to “catch or fish for people” which was a common turn of phrase for amassing a following. This same type of set up was common for Greek/Roman philosophers.
In order to be called, you needed to be incredibly well vetted and highly qualified.
But for Jesus, well he just met these guys. And they are fishing — so clearly they didn’t have what it took to move up the educational hierarchy of Judaism. Yet Jesus says to them, you’re going to catch people. Follow me. And they do. They leave everything behind — their livelihood and their family businesses — and they go. They’ve been given an opportunity that no one gets. And they seize it with reckless abandon. It’s the greatest honor possible to be called to follow a rabbi, even if it is economically risky.
Recent research shows that 63% of Americans identify as Christian. To you that number may seem depressingly low. To some it may seem surprisingly high. But don’t get too optimistic yet.
In the west, we have created a massive problem. We have enabled a culture where somehow you can be a Christian without following Jesus.
In the 17th Century, St. Maximus said this:
“A person who is simply a man of faith is [not] a disciple”
Basically saying you are a Christian does not mean that you follow Jesus. And the numbers tell that harrowing story.
4% of Americans follow Jesus. That means that while 63% of American’s identify as Christian, 59% are not practicing Christians. This is perhaps the most disturbing statistic I’ve come across in my entire ministry career.
And maybe you are like “that’s not possible because there are mega churches that are filled to capacity every Sunday in every corner of America.” And that’s true. But going to church on Sunday doesn’t equate to following Jesus, to being a disciple or an apprentice of Jesus. It’s part of it, but there is so much more.
World renowned spiritual growth expert Dallas Willard said:
“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who… are identified as “Christians” will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”
Friends this could not be more true. When “Christians” don’t follow Jesus, we don’t learn how to live and to love and to be personally transformed by the power of God working in us. The power of God then never works through us. And if the power of God never works through us, the world is never transformed because people who aren’t disciples of Jesus Christ can’t make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. You can’t create that which you do not understand.
The first disciples would be grieved to see us wasting the opportunity that they dropped everything to pursue — absolutely gutted.
Is it costly to follow Jesus? Yes. It costs you time. It costs you money. It might cost you friendships at first. It’ll definitely cost you some ego points, some sleep, and it’ll cost you some of the self-righteousness you’ve stored up. But the cost is worth the reward, I can tell you that for sure.
Much later in his ministry as Jesus approached the days before he took the cross, he told the disciples this:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
This is an open invitation. Want to become my follower? One requirement. But down your incessant need to think that you are shaping your own destity, drop the things that have locked you in selfish and self-centered living and follow me. I’ll show you how to live. I’ll show you how to catch people.
Simon Peter had no idea what he was doing when Jesus called him. But he dropped it all. And one by one, as Jesus called his first disciples, they all followed him. Not a single one of those fools was qualified to follow Jesus. But Jesus qualified them as they went. They became the group that would shape a movement that caught so many people that it changed the world.
Can you imagine what the world would be like if they never did anything to become more like their teacher — if they never did the things that Jesus did and never lived the way that Jesus lived? I can’t. The consequences would be rampant.
What this world needs, and what this church needs are people who are dedicated to following Jesus with everything they have. We are watching our world suffer the ill effects of a Christianity that doesn’t follow Christ, of churches filled with people whose lives are not transformed. It’s scary. 4%.
In 18th century England, a young Anglican Priest began to notice the growing disparity between the church that he loved and the life of radical apprenticeship to Jesus that is presented in the New Testament writings. And so, John Wesley set out to do something about it. He formed a small group of people that dedicated themselves to spiritual growth and renewal. They were mocked and looked down upon, called things like “The Holy Club” and “The Methodists.” That second one stuck, and what started as a renewal movement within the Church of England started a spiritual transformation in England and eventually became the beginnings of the church that we know and love today.
4%. That number seems so daunting, until we remember that this is our history. The spiritual renewal of churches and societies is our family business. So the question is… are we, are you, following Jesus, or are we being shaped by something or someone else?
Listen, if this is all new to you, just know this… God has called you to follow Jesus, regardless of your past and current state of life. You don’t get to disqualify yourself because God isn’t concerned about your qualifications. You’ll get on the job training. Jesus just says come, follow me, we’ll figure out the rest on the way.
But if you’ve been around for a long time, if you’re comfortable in your Christian life, but it’s really been just you sitting still rather than following Jesus for a while, it’s time to do something different, because if you aren’t being formed by Jesus you’re being formed by whatever else it is that consumes your time and effort. It’s time to evaluate your heart and life against the heart and life of Jesus.
That’s your assignment this week, it’s time for you to do a little honest self exploration. Inventory the amount of time to spend being formed by Jesus — serving, praying, reading scripture — and weigh that against the amount of time you spend staring at your phone or your television. Then let’s gather back here next week and decide if we like what we’ve discovered or not.