They left their nets
The call to discipleship is authoritative, weighty and costly
Introduction
“Worldly Wiseman: … Hear me; I am older than thou: thou art like to meet with, in the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, and what not. These things are certainly true, having been confirmed by many testimonies …”
“Christian: Why, sir, this burden upon my back is more terrible to me than are all these things which you have mentioned: nay, me thinks I care not what I meet with in the way, if so be I can also meet with deliverance from my burden.”
Jesus’ Authority
Application
The weight of Salvation
Left and followed (18) correspond to the double call of Jesus in verse 15 ‘repent and believe’ (Minear).
Application
The cost of discipleship
“Such grace is costly … because it costs a man his life and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner” (p. 5).