Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

As a church over the next few weeks, we are going to be focusing in on the need for personal evangelism.

It is very important that each person who claims to follow Christ be engaged in personal evangelism.

As a church, our purpose is to Love God.

Love Others ad to Serve the World.

We accomplish this only if we are making committed disciples of Jesus Christ.

The church’s mission is to make disciples, not converts.

It is all a work of God, but our part in this is not to save, but to disciple.

And if we are not encouraging and equipping others to evangelize, well, we are not making disciples.

In his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman said:

You see, evangelism and discipleship are not an either or proposition for the church, but a both and.

That is, they are essentially the same thing.

If you are not sharing your faith, you are not a disciple, that is, you cannot truly say that you are a follower of Christ.

In his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman said:

In his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman said:

“When will the church learn this lesson?

Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of preparing leaders for evangelism.

Nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do this job... Individual women and men are God’s method.

God’s plan for discipleship is not something, but someone.”

What comes into your mind when I say the word golf?

Or how about football?

Wait, I’ve got it, what about fishing?

What image just popped into your mind?

How about the word liberal?

Or conservative?

Well what about the word Christian?

If you were to ask 10 people on the street today what they associate with the word Christian you will most likely get 9 or 10 different answers.

If you ask people if they are a Christian a large number of people will say yes, particularly here in the south…some will even say they were born a Christian..but their association with the word is not based on any personal repentance and faith but a cultural or family tradition.

They aren’t following Jesus at all.

Did you know that the word Christian is actually only found a few times in the entire bible.

However, you will find the word disciple over 280 times in the New Testament alone.

In the New Testament, the believers in the early church did not call themselves Christians, they were known as disciples.

Now there is certainly nothing wrong with the word Christian and I am proud to be called a Christian..yet the point is that in our modern times we have disassociated the words Christian and disciple…and this needs to change.

If the declines in our church’s are to be reversed, the church must be committed to personal evangelism and discipleship.

You see, evangelism and discipleship are not an either or proposition for the church, but a both and.

That is, they are essentially the same thing.

If you are not sharing your faith, you are not a disciple, that is, you cannot truly say that you are a follower of Christ.

In his book, The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman said:

“When will the church learn this lesson?

Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of preparing leaders for evangelism.

Nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do this job... Individual women and men are God’s method.

God’s plan for discipleship is not something, but someone.”

Now let’s look at : “As He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen.

19 “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them.

22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

There are several points I want to draw out from this moment in history when Jesus’ called Peter and Andrew.

As He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen.

19 “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

Jesus Qualifies the Called

Jewish boys at the age of 5 would be introduced to the book of Genesis.

The best of this group, that is the best and the brightest, would by the age of 10 be chosen to continue and would learn the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament by the age of 17.

The ones who were not chosen would be sent back to learn the trades of their fathers.

At the age of 17 those who were smart enough to continue would find a rabbi, or a teacher they admired and learn at his feet.

They would become a disciple, a learner, follower of a teacher.

These rabbis or teacher would examine these followers by putting them through a series of questions and tests to see if you were worthy enough to continue the relationship began.

Once that test was passed, the disciple would then be attached at the hip with the rabbi.

To be a religious ruler was the goal.

These young men didn’t grow up dreaming to be sports stars or famous actors, the job of a religious ruler in 1st century Palestine was a dream job.

Only the best and brightest would make the cut.

Well, by age 10 they had kind of a weeding out.

They only took like the very best students, say the upper 20 percent or so, and then the rest of them who didn’t make the cut went back home to their fathers, and they would begin to pursue being apprentices in the family business.

The boys who remained in a Torah school, would study on till about age 17 where they would learn the rest of what we now call the Old Testament.

Joshua through Malachi, and so they would learn that for the next seven years.

Well, when they got to 17, there was kind of another cut, and if you wanted to go on with your religious studies after that, then you had to find yourself a rabbi—a rabbi that you admired—and apply to become that rabbi’s talmid.

Rabbi just means teacher.

Talmid means disciple.

It’s the Hebrew word for disciple.

When you found your rabbi, you would go and sit at their feet.

That was your request to learn from that rabbi, and the rabbis would examine you with a series of questions and put you through a series of tests to see if you were worthy to be their disciples.

Yet where do we find Jesus?

In Galilee, not necessarily where the elites hang out.

Those people would be in the synagogues and in Rome.

Jesus is in Galilee and he chooses not the best and the brightest, but the humble and willing.

He qualifies the called.

John MacArthur: “God skipped all the wise of the day!

The great scholars were in Egypt; the great library was in Alexandria; the great philosophers were in Athens; the powerful were in Rome.

He passed over Herodotus the historian and Socrates the great thinker and Julius Caesar.

He chose men so ordinary it was comical.

No Rabbis, no teachers, no religious experts...”

21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them.

22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

We need to remember:

1. Jesus chose these men because His work in the world wouldn’t come from their abilities, but from their availability.

Jesus chose the B-team because His work in the world wouldn’t come from their abilities for Him, but from what He would do through them.

People with a lot of talent and ability would only get in the way because they would never learn to lean on His power.

Jesus taught that His power in the weakest vessel was infinitely greater than the greatest talent without Him.

God wants to use you in your family, at your workplace.

Stop making excuses that you are not able.

He doesn’t need your ability; He requires only your availability.

As we often say, He doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.

Have you made yourself available?

2. We did not Choose him - He chose us -

II.

HE CHOSE

, “ You did not choose Me, but I chose you.