How Serious Are You?

On June 23, 1950, the North Korean Communists invaded the south and pushed the South Korean Army and a few American soldiers to aggression the southeastern tip of the peninsula. In slow, bitter fighting, UN forces drove the Communists back into North Korea where Chinese Communists entered the fighting. The result was a cease-fire agreement fixing a buffer strip at the thirty-eighth parallel just north of Seoul.

One of the many prisoners freed during the UN advance into North Korea was Pastor Im. He had a heartbreaking story to tell. When the Communists first took over, he said, they had ordered the pastors to insert Marxist propaganda into their sermons. Those who refused were pulled from their homes at night and beaten. Some were never seen again.

The day of Pastor Im's testing came. "If you do not teach what we say, you will die. a Communist official warned. "You may destroy my body, but not my soul," the brave preacher retorted.

"If you do not care for yourself, then think of your family. They will be killed also."

By Their Blood, p. 79.

Almost as if to say, "How serious are you," which is the title of our sermon this morning.

Last week we saw that Jesus was once again in the city of Cana, not too far from Nazareth where he grew up. While he was there, he is approached by a nobleman from Capernaum whose son is close to death. When he asks Jesus to accompany him back to Capernaum to heal the boy, Jesus makes a statement regarding the Jewish people's need for a sign before they believe, but in the end, Jesus tells this nobleman to go home, his son will live.

The nobleman believes the words of Jesus, and when he arrives home, he is greeted by his servants with the good news that the boy is on the mend, and no longer in danger of dying. This causes the nobleman and his whole house to believe, not only Jesus' words, but now to put their faith in Jesus himself.

Soon after these events, Jesus leaves the area of Nazareth and Cana, and sets up his operation in Capernaum.

Matthew 4:13-17 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He has now ceased to make Nazareth his home, and starts to dwell in Capernaum. Though he owns no home there, he may have stayed with disciples that were from that region, like Simon Peter.

This is not an coincidental move, however. This move is in direct relation to a prophecy made by Isaiah. Capernaum was situated by the Sea of Galilee, in the land of Naphtali, only a few miles from the border of Zebulun. This region was a densely populated area, and from here, Jesus called many of his disciples.

This region was also referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles because it was inhabited by Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians, as well as by Jews.

The prophecy in Isaiah chapter 8 and 9 indicates that this area was an area that first suffered lightly at the hands of the Assyrian conquerors when Israel was first taken captive about 750 years before Jesus arrives in Capernaum. This is called by Isaiah the land of the shadow of death, but with Jesus' arrival, there is now a great light that has sprung up.

And again, we find Jesus preaching his message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

This is the setting for our passages today. We will be in Matthew, Mark, and Luke this morning, analyzing the different perspectives of the same event. This event is the definitive calling of the disciples Peter, Andrew, James, and John.

Let's start by taking a look at the book of Matthew.

We'll pick up right where we left off a minute ago.

Matthew 4:18-22 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

Now turn with me to Mark 1:16-20 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. 19 And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. 20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

Matthew and Mark give a very similar account to how these four disciples were called. It is short and concise, and we see many of the same details emerge. Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a pear-shaped body of water. It is about 12.5 miles long and 7 miles across at its widest point. Its waters are fresh and clear, and abounds in fish. The Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea/Lake of Gennesaret or Sea/Lake Tiberius) is surrounded by hills and mountains that rise anywhere from 600 to 1000 feet above it.

As he is walking along the shore, he sees two brothers, Simon, who he has already began to call Peter (John 1) and Andrew, who had begun following Jesus after John the Baptist's second decree that Jesus was the Lamb of God. It was Andrew that went and got his brother Peter to come and see Jesus.

Though Simon and Andrew had been companions of Jesus for at least one of his journeys, they did not understand as of yet that serving Jesus would require all of their time. Now that they were back in Capernaum, it afforded them the opportunity to return to their previous occupation as fishermen, an opportunity that they readily embraced.

But now, as Jesus walks past them, he calls them. I want you to remember, when Andrew first started following Jesus, he did so of his own will. He heard John the Baptist's revelation of who Jesus was, and then he and John (presumably) left John the Baptist of their own accord to go and follow Jesus. From that point, Jesus invited them to know him more personally when they requested to see where Jesus lived. Thus began the following of Andrew and John.

The next day, Andrew finds his brother Simon Peter and brings him to Jesus. The only person that we have record of Jesus calling at that time was Philip, who when called, went and got Nathanael who also began to follow Jesus. These men start following Jesus and accompany him to Jerusalem, the countryside of Judea, through Samaria, and back to Galilee. Now back at Galilee, Peter, Andrew, and John return to their old occupation, and Jesus calls them to follow him.

But this is different than the following that they had experienced before. Jesus is calling them to follow him so that they could hear his teachings and behold his work. He is calling them into the work that he is accomplishing. Before now, they have only baptized those that listened and received the gospel of repentance. They had observed Jesus do miracles, they had listened to him preach, they had watched him gather to himself various harvests, but now they were being called to join him in this work, to be a part of this mission, and not to be simply spectators. He calls Peter and Andrew, and he also calls John again, now with his brother James, in similar fashion.

J.W. McGarvey puts it this way: "Jesus called them from a lower to a similar but higher labor. He calls honest tradesmen in this manner. He invites carpenters to build his temple, servants to serve the great King, merchants to invest in pearls of great price, and fishermen... [to be] disciples... fishers [of men]. Human souls are the fish, the world is the sea, the gospel is the net, and eternal life is the shore whither the catch is drawn."

These four men were at work when Jesus called them. God often does call the busy to his business. We have the example of Moses, Gideon, Saul, David, Elisha, and Matthew to name just a few. And these were all called from lowly work to a higher calling. And there is no higher calling than to follow Jesus. Every other occupation or status falls far short of the calling to be a disciple of Jesus.

I invite you to notice today what those of us saw in our last week and a half of studying the Experiencing God books: Jesus calls these men, these lowly and unlearned men, to a calling that is above all callings. He does this to show that the strength of the gospel is made more apparent by the weakness of its ministers.

No rabbi would have chosen these men to be their disciples; it would be considered a foolish thing to think that mere fishermen, tax collectors, and dangerous religious zealots would be able to impact the world with their teachings, but the Bible clearly states that god uses the foolishness of this world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty so that God can receive all the glory.

The first set of brothers he sees and calls are Peter and Andrew. The second set are James and John. Of this second set, James would be the first of the disciples to suffer a martyrs death. You can read about it in Acts 12, a mere 15 or so years after the events that we are studying today. John, on the other hand, would live to be around 90 years old, dying in Ephesus, the last survivor of the twelve apostles and the only one that, though tortured and exiled for a time, did not die a martyr's death.

From the reading of Matthew and Mark we would suppose that Jesus was alone when he called these four and that with them, he immediately left the Sea of Galilee, but Luke gives a little more insight to the surrounding events.

The telling of a story in that culture did not have to account for every detail of the story. It is something that we still practice today. There are times where, even being witnesses to many details of an event, we often give a general summary as to what happened. Which is what both Mark and Matthew seem to do.

Let's say that we had a few people that had tickets to go to Las Vegas to see the Packers lose last Monday to the Raiders. If you interviewed them about the game, they would give you very similar stories. Depending on who you ask about it, it may just be something along the lines of, "The game started, we were down at the half, up after the third quarter, and lost it in the fourth quarter." They may give details on good particularly good or bad plays of the game.

But then there's the person that will give you every detail of the game from the pre-game show, the half-time entertainment, the fights in the parking lot after the game, and everything in between. His "recap" of the game turns into a play-by-play instead.

And this is exactly what we see in Luke. Luke is a doctor. He is writing to a friend for the purpose of showing him exactly what went on in the life of Christ, and so we will find that many times, Luke includes details that other disciples leave out, and such is the case this morning.

Turn to Luke 5:1-3 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

The picture we see here is that Jesus is walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Lake of Gennesaret) but he's not just walking, he is teaching, and there are a multitude of people all pressing in to hear what he has to say. So Jesus sees two ships there. We do not know by Luke's account, but by what we have already seen in gospel of John, we know that Jesus already knew Peter and Andrew and John. So he sees their ships and jumps into Peter's and tells him to cast off from the shore a bit where he proceeds to teach this crowd that has gathered. When he is done, he instructs Peter and those in the boat (at the very least Andrew) to launch into the deep area of the sea and let down their nets.

Luke 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

I want you to notice Peter's response though. He calls Jesus "Master". Master is a broader term than the term "Rabbi" which we have seen on other occasions. Rabbi indicates superiority in teaching, but Master indicates superiority in all things. So Peter responds with the right word. Even though Peter was the fisherman and Jesus the carpenter, Peter knows who Jesus really is. But at the moment, it is just head knowledge.

Look at his response: Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

Peter's words showed a willingness to obey and honor Jesus' command, but were completely absent any kind of hope that following the command would produce results.

Why was it so? Peter knew fishing. It was his occupation. He understood that night was the time for fishing and that the proper place to catch fish was near the shore, but Jesus wanted to go out to the deep in the middle of the day.

But even though Simon was tired from a fruitless night of fishing, and even though the instructions were contrary to everything he knew as a fisherman, and even though he didn't have a lot of hope for those instructions to produce any results, he obeyed.

Luke 5:6-10a And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. 9 For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: 10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon...

Peter Experiences Jesus Through Obedience

Something that we are learning on Wednesday nights through this study of Experiencing God is that our obedience to the Lord allows us to experience him in deeper and deeper ways. Peter takes the boat, and notice, he drops one net. Jesus says, "Lower the nets," and Peter says, "At your word I will let down the net," and when he does, it fills to a breaking point. So many fish are there that they have to get their partners, James, John, and their father Zebedee to help. After they fill both boats with fish, Simon realizes that he is in the presence of the Messiah, the Son of God. Previously, he had known this in his mind, but now he experiences it. Even through reluctant obedience, he experiences the power of Jesus that is over creation and is absolutely blown away by it, as are James and John and Andrew.

Peter realizes that he is not even worthy of sharing the same boat with Jesus, because he is a sinner, and Jesus is holy.

Up until now, he had begun the religion, the practice, of following Jesus, but religion is only as powerful as it is personal (JW McGarvey), and this was a very personal experience.

What was the response to this?

Luke 5:10b-11 And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. 11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

We see Jesus calling, and the response is that they leave it all behind and follow him.

Peter and Andrew leave the nets and the fish, and James and John leave their boats and their father.

The call of the Master marks a change in their relationship to him. Up to now, following Jesus had not materially interfered with business nor family. But this call today separates them from their previous identity. They were once fishermen. Trained to be such from a very young age. It is all they had ever known. It was their life and their livelihood. But now, now they are called to abandon the identity of fishers of fish and adopt the identity of fishers of men, wholehearted followers of Jesus. The call led to a crisis of belief in which these men had to decide how serious they were about following Jesus.

The call of "Follow me," was a question that resounds even today, and I would say, especially today: "How serious are you?"

"How serious are you," the Communists asked Pastor Im.

"If you do not care for yourself, then think of your family. They will be killed also."

Pastor Im hesitated. Then he said, "I would rather have my wife and babies die by your gun and know that they and I stood faithful than to betray my Lord and save them."

The preacher was taken away and kept in a dark prison cell for two months where he was never allowed to shave or change clothes and was fed only a bowl of slop each day. He kept up his courage by reciting Bible verses he had memorized long before. One verse that gave him comfort was John 13:7: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

When the UN troops arrived in September 1950, Pastor Im was put with Communist prisoners by mistake. They refused to believe that he was a pastor.

Accepting the situation as God's will, he began witnessing to the Communist prisoners. Many were converted.

Months later American missionaries, who had stayed in Korea as chaplains, heard about the prison camp preacher and investigated. They obtained permission for him to organize evangelistic services in prison camps all over South Korea. By the summer of 1951 thousands had accepted Christ. Upwards of twelve thousand were rising each morning for dawn prayer meetings, but Pastor Im never saw his family again.

By Their Blood, p. 79.

How serious are you? Like Pastor Im, like Peter, James, Andrew, and John, are you willing to forsake all for the call to be a disciple?

Invitation:

How serious are you about following Jesus?

If you are a Christian, you ARE called to be a wholehearted disciple, and you are called to leave behind, to forsake everything that stands in the way of that calling to be a completely sold out disciple of Christ.

There are some Christians that are hoping for this mighty call of God to do something huge in and through their life. They want to be the next Lottie Moon or Billy Graham or D.L. Moody. The problem is, they won't obey in the small things.

The sentiment is this: "If Jesus were to make his calling very clear to me, like he did with Peter, Andrew, James, and John, I would leave it all and follow him." But the thing is, no you wouldn't.

If Peter had been called to leave it all and follow Jesus before the miracle of the fish, he would have put up much more of a fight, or maybe even not gone at all. Why do I say that? Because he very reluctantly followed Jesus' command to drop his nets in the deep part of the sea, and that was not near as daunting a request as "leave everything and follow me."

If you aren't willing to do little things for God and obey in little ways with things that are already at hand (like Peter and his boat and his nets), you will never be willing to follow God completely.

God invites us, calls us to work with Him where he is at work. Eventually, this will lead to a crisis of belief. It happened in Peter's life. "I don't think that that plan is going to work, but if you say so, I'll do it." But then when he experienced God in that way, he was willing to obey the call to leave all and follow Jesus.

It's a drastic step, but it is a critical step to following Christ.

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Life Groups

In what way have you experienced God through obedience?

Have you ever been in a situation where you obeyed out of obligation to the Lord, but did not expect much to happen, but then God did something unexpected? Witnessing to the gang leader in San Nicolas.

We saw that God often calls the busy to his business. What does this tell us, and what difficulties does it represent for the called? We are to be responsible people, doing what we ought to be doing. But when God calls those that are busy to come out of their busyness and join him in HIS business, it creates a crisis of belief where we must adopt a huge change.

Often, we are tempted to think, "Why doesn't God ask so-and-so to do that? I am busy and they aren't doing anything!" And that is exactly why. Think about it. Who gets asked to do more work and handle more responsibilities at your job? The one who is already working hard, not the lazy person who almost does his job.

God invites us, calls us to work with Him where he is at work. Eventually, this will lead to a crisis of belief. It happened in Peter's life. "I don't think that that plan is going to work, but if you say so, I'll do it." But then when he experienced God in that way, he was willing to obey the call to leave all and follow Jesus.

When Jesus called the disciples to follow him to be fishers of men, what kind of crisis did they have to navigate in their hearts and minds before they followed? Though it happened quickly, these disciples were faced with an identity crisis: continue their lives as they had always planned and lived prior to now, or exchange their identity as fishermen to fishers of men for the sake of Christ.

Have you ever been faced with an identity crisis like this?

We mentioned that the strength of the Gospel is made apparent by the weakness of its ministers. Have you ever seen this principle in action? How does this encourage you? Joel Gandara - Super shy, 6th grade education, horribly bland and monotonous teacher, slight stutterer, AMAZING preacher, passionate about God and God's word.

In what ways have you treated "following Christ" as a spectator sport? It is not a spectator sport. We are called to be active. We are called to serve. We all have different callings, but we need to treat this like a "get in where you fit in" rather than a draft.

It is from those that are already seeking to follow Jesus, that God calls into a deeper relationship with himself.

What holds you back from fully abandoning everything and following Jesus?