Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Introduction

What’s in it for me?

That’s often heard when people are talking about deals being done.

Someone maybe asks you to help them out in some way and the response might be, ‘what’s in it for me?

What do I get out of it?’

‘Why should I do this thing you’re asking me to do - is there any benefit for me?’

Is that how we approach Jesus?

When Jesus calls us to follow him is that our response?

Well, anyone who has truly followed Jesus will know that what’s in it for us is everything!

But while there is EVERYTHING for us, there are things that we need to leave behind.

And that’s what we’re looking at this morning.

Are we prepared to leave things behind to follow Jesus?

If Jesus asks you to follow him, are you prepared to leave stuff behind, whatever that might be, to follow him?

Pause

In airports there are loads of things that you can’t take with you on the plane.

These days the list is getting longer.

So you’ve checked in, your luggage is away, you get to the security desk and you realise that you’ve got your £100 bottle of perfume with you.

Of you’ve forgotten that your favourite penknife is in your pocket cos you carry it everywhere with you and you put it there from force of habit.

And you have to leave it behind because it’s not allowed where you’re going.

Do you say, ‘I’m not going on this trip.’

or do you drop it in the big perspex box with all the other knives and scissors, or give it to the security woman who might just take it home with her?

I’d say for the most people, they would leave it behind - begrudgingly - but they’d leave it behind, because the trip is worth more than the item you’re leaving behind.

And it doesn’t take much for us to get that.

But when it comes to Jesus - when he calls us and asks us to leave our current way of life behind for a new life filled with blessing and hope and filled with Jesus himself, many people are reluctant to leave that old way of life behind.

And part of the reason is that they don’t see that what is ahead is so much better than what they leave behind.

THAT, or they want to have it both ways - to live the way they are living, come to church a bit more, and expect to have a new life full of blessing and the presence of Jesus wherever they go.

But it doesn’t work that way.

What’s in it for me?

What do I get out of this?

Is this worth giving up what I currently have?

Pause

Last week we looked at what it means to have an encounter with Jesus Christ - to come and see him.

And we were encouraged not just to have a passing conversation with him, but a genuine encounter.

And we looked at John’s gospel, where the disciples come and see Jesus and have this encounter with him.

Some time later, we see what happens next... and it’s in Mark’s account of the events.

After the disciples come and see Jesus, Jesus comes to them and he calls them…he calls them into a new way of life.

“I want you to leave your old way of life behind and I’m offering you a new way of life that is much better.”

And that’s what we’re going to look at this morning - what does a call look like and how should we respond to a call of Jesus to follow him and what does it involve?

What does it require of us?

Let’s look at the passage together.

In fact, since it’s short, let’s read it again...

Now, there are a couple of things that we notice in this passage...

First of all we see the persuasive presence of Jesus.

Jesus just has to say, ‘come, follow me,’ and these guys follow him.

These guys must have seen something in Jesus to not even ask, ‘what’s in it for me?’ or…they KNEW what was in it for them and it was a no-brainer.

Second thing to see is that these guys just leave everything behind to follow him...

So let’s dig down a little here and see what’s going on - what is it about Jesus that makes these people act they way they do?

And what is Jesus offering them that means that they are willing to leave their livelihood and family to follow this man?

What is it about Jesus that Jesus has to simply say, ‘come follow me,’ and they follow him?

Well, we saw this last week in John’s gospel....

Andrew and Peter had already encountered Jesus, and we saw that last week - they had already seen him and met him and spent the day with him.

So they know that Jesus is the Messiah - the chosen one that the Old Testament writers were referring to all along.

And because they had this encounter with Jesus and they knew who he was, they knew that following him was better than the life they had.

A genuine encounter with Jesus will do that - a genuine encounter with Jesus will put you in a place where nothing else will satisfy unless you give up everything to follow him.

I’ve heard stories of people who have been attending church for years, and then something is said from the pulpit and it takes the rug from under their feet.

It kinda shakes them up.

Something is said, that has maybe been said many times before - but THIS time it hits right to the heart.

And this thought or word or verse - whatever it is - cannot be shaken.

They can’t get it out of their head.

There’s a niggling feeling that there is more to life than what they’re doing.

It’s like that word from God is telling them, ‘you need MORE than this life.

You need Jesus.’

That’s the encounter with Jesus…and then, what happens is that either at that time, or a few days or weeks later, the person realises that nothing else will satisfy them unless they give up their old way of life and follow Jesus.

That’s when they accept the call.

The encounter comes first, then the call.

Pause

Now, here’s the thing - not everyone who met Jesus had an encounter in the same way that Andrew, Peter, James and John did.

And we mentioned that last week and here’s the evidence...

Remember the rich young ruler in Luke 18?

So this man had an encounter with Jesus, but it was more like the passing conversation.

And the question, ‘what’s in it for me?’ had a different answer.

You see, he didn’t see Jesus as worth more than the wealth he had.

He didn’t see following Jesus as better than the money he had, or the power, or the prestige…so he wasn’t willing to let it go and leave it behind to follow Jesus.

Pause

Now, Jesus isn’t wanting us to leave all our money, sell everything we have and give to the poor before following him.

The point is that we see following Jesus as a much better option than anything else - to the point that we are prepared to sell everything and follow him.

Which leads us to the second thing to note from our passage...

These guys just leave their livelihood and their families to follow Jesus - what is he offering them that is better than that?

Now, we could be forgiven in thinking that these are simple fishermen who are poor and have nothing to lose...But these people aren’t poor.

These people are between the rich and poor.

Not that there was really a middle-class back then, but fishermen weren’t poor people.

Andrew and Peter were in business with James and John - and the business must have been successful enough because they had hired hands - servants working for them.

You don’t have servants if you’re poor.

So the first thing to note is that these people DO have something substantial that they are leaving behind.

So why leave this to follow Jesus?

Well, it’s like before - these people have encountered Jesus in a way that others haven’t - they KNOW he’s for real, that there’s something different about him and they KNOW that Jesus can offer them much more than they currently have.

So there’s no deliberation here.

There’s no reasoning.

It’s an immediate following.

It’s a no-brainer.

Pause

Now let’s look at what Jesus said to them - what was his ‘call’ to them?

Before we look at what Jesus said, let’s look at what Jesus DIDN’T say...

He didn’t say, ‘follow me and I will teach you how to become fishers of men.’

He didn’t say, ‘follow me and you will learn how to become fishers of men.’

That’s not to say he didn’t teach them because we know that Jesus taught on many occasions - but that wasn’t the incentive to follow.

Jesus said, ‘follow me and I will change you.

I will MAKE YOU INTO a fisher of men.’

And that’s the call that Jesus puts to us - follow me and I will change you.