Avoiding a Christianity without Christ

Follow Me: Luke 5:1-11 | February 6, 2022

David Matthew Read, a 35-year-old resident of Santa Monica, California enjoyed a 25-day shopping spree at places like Sacks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, The Apple Store, and Bloomingdales. In that time, he spent nearly $200,000 purchasing high end clothing and electronics and he did it all pretending to be actress Demi Moore and using her American Express Black card.

Identity theft is a big issue in our society—but there is another kind of identity theft—a spiritual identity theft in which people claim to be Christians but have no desire to live as a disciple of Jesus.

You can’t be a Christian without being a disciple.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

Please take your copy of God’s Word and find Mark, chapter five.

I’m afraid believers have, at times, developed an inadequate view or understanding of discipleship. Typically, believers will equate discipleship with gaining knowledge. This means that their main pursuit becomes learning more theology, history, biblical languages, etc. They begin to operate under the idea that the more they know about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, about the Bible, the more Christ-like they will become.

Now, I believe that Christians are called to study—but study in and of itself does not make a person mature in the faith.

Another erroneous view is that discipleship is a program that a church offers to members who want to be discipled. Discipleship involves a 26-week curriculum and regular meetings between 2 or more people. Those who complete the program are considered “discipled.” The expectation is that being discipled leads to a better life, a better marriage, a different position in the church, or more. In this way, discipleship becomes little more than a self-help program.

Unfortunately, the church has responded to the demand for discipleship by offering programs and classes that feed the need for knowledge or a better Christian life.

But I like what one author said when he wrote, “True discipleship is not more than Jesus, but more of Jesus.”[1]

Please listen to me—discipleship is necessary, and every believer is both a disciple of Jesus and should be growing as a disciple. However, we must also realize that in biblical discipleship, Christ is the goal, not better life, or more impressive ministries in the church.[2]

For that reason, we are beginning a short series entitled, Follow Me: Living as a Disciple of Jesus. Over the next three weeks we’re going to get a glimpse—a brief, non-exhaustive look at biblical discipleship.

We begin with Jesus’ calling of four men to be disciples. Let me set the scene.

Jesus was entering into a time of enormous popularity. He was ministering primarily in towns and villages around the sea of Galilee, and he was healing people and teaching God’s word.

Chapter five opens with Jesus teaching a large crowd—which was not uncommon in those days. You see, they didn’t have any form of media, so when a person was a captivating and capable public speaker, people would come out to hear what they had to say.

The crowd that day was pressing in on Jesus because they wanted to hear the word of God—this literally means that Jesus was speaking the word that came directly from God. In other words, when Jesus spoke the people heard God speaking.

They were desperate to hear Him, and He wanted them to hear and believe His message.

Luke 5:1–11 ESV

1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But 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 and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

One of the things I like to do when I study and preach a passage of Scripture is to try to discern the intended message of that passage. I don’t believe that any given passage has multiple meanings and can mean whatever I want it to mean. I believe that every passage of Scripture has one right interpretation and that is the message that God wanted us to hear and know when He gave it to us.

The narrative we just read is really about the call to discipleship of four men—Peter, Andrew, James, and John. In that call we can see a clear truth about discipleship; Discipleship is a life of surrender and sacrifice for a purpose.

Now, we can and should see Jesus in this text—He is the one on whom we should focus. We should see and be amazed at His power to do incredible things. The miracle recorded in these verses is unmistakable confirmation of His deity—so much so that Peter, who had already met Jesus prior to this event, had a completely different view of himself and of Jesus when this happened (we’ll talk about that progression more in a few minutes).

But we cannot miss the point of this narrative which is, Jesus, the Messiah sent from the Father, called these fishermen to follow him—and they did!

In that moment, their lives were radically altered, not temporarily, but forever. This is the nature of biblical discipleship.

Being a disciple is not about what you know, completing a program, or doing certain things. Being a disciple is not a higher class of believer reserved exclusively for those for who want to become seriously committed to Jesus.

Being a disciple is all about following Jesus because you trust Him completely.

You trust that He is who He said He is—the Son of God.

You trust that you are who the Bible says you are—desperate, lost, and condemned without Him.

You trust that Jesus did what He came to do—He died on the cross for your sin and rose from the dead.

You trust that He can do what He said He would do—that He would forgive your sin and give you new life in Him.

You trust that He will do what He said He would do—that, having begun a good work in you He is faithful to complete it.

You see, every person who trusts Jesus for salvation is a disciple and every disciple is called to follow Jesus.

Following Jesus is all about becoming like Jesus.

Here’s the thing—each of us is being discipled by something. Each of us is following someone or something. And we follow because we are convinced that person or thing will help us flourish in life. We follow because we are hoping to find success, joy, and peace.

We agree with Dostoyevsky, “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

But everything this world offers is nothing more than dry wells and broken cisterns that cannot satisfy. Therefore, we need to realize and believe that “God, and God alone is man’s highest good.”[3]

Those fishermen, in that moment, knew that Jesus was what they needed, and so they followed Him. Another way of putting it is, they became disciples.

The question we must address today is, what does a disciple surrender and sacrifice? The Word of God gives us the answers we’re looking for.

A disciple surrenders their will to Jesus – vs. 4-10

The four men in this story were experienced fishermen, but Jesus was a carpenter by trade. Now, picture this moment in your mind. Jesus was being pushed by the crowd and saw two boats that had been beached. The fishermen were on the shore cleaning, mending, and folding the large nets they used every night.

Jesus boarded one of the empty boats, looked at Simon (Peter) and asked him to take him out into the water. This was practical request because the calm water would have amplified Jesus’ voice and it would give everyone on shore a better view of Jesus as He was teaching them.

When the boat dropped anchor, Jesus sat down (which was the traditional posture for a teacher) and finished His message. Then, instead of asking to be taken to shore, Jesus looks at Peter and told him to take the boat into the deeper water and drop the nets to catch some fish.

Jesus’ instruction did not thrill these men. They had worked through the night with no success, they had already cleaned up their gear, and they were probably ready to go home and get some sleep.

Anyone who works knows the frustration that comes when you get to the end of a long day—you’ve cleaned up your work area and you’re getting ready to head out the door and then your boss comes up to you and says—I’ve got something I want you to do before you leave. In that moment you’re probably not thrilled to do whatever your boss has asked you to do—but you do it. Why? Because you recognize that your boss has authority over you.

When Peter used the title, “master” he was acknowledging that he respected Jesus as a teacher and acknowledged that, from a cultural perspective, teachers had a higher status than fishermen. Even though they had fished all night with no success, Peter surrendered his will to Jesus and he dropped the nets.

“When they had done this” (v.6) they caught a massive number of fish—so much that their nets started to break. Then they called to James and John who quickly boarded their boat and came to them to help them with the haul.

The fish were so plentiful that both boats were filled and both boats began to sink.

Now, don’t miss this—the miracle happened after they surrendered their will to the will of Jesus. I have no doubt that the last thing those guys wanted to do that morning was to keep fishing. But what they wanted—their will or their desire was put aside to fulfill the command of the Messiah.

Here we see a wonderful transformation—a progression in Peter. He went from addressing Jesus as “master” which means teacher in verse five, to addressing Jesus as “Lord” in verse eight.

Not only that, but Peter saw Jesus for who He truly was and instantly became aware of his own sinful condition. Peter moved from reluctance, to submission, to contrition and he knew he needed the mercy of the Savior.

This is the same progression we saw in Isaiah when he was, at first reluctant but then he saw a vision of God in the temple, and he surrendered himself to the Holy One and was contrite.

This is the same progression we saw in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Listen, when you come into the presence of the all-powerful, all-holy God, you can’t help but to be in awe and be contrite and gain an understanding of your need for His mercy.

Peter saw Jesus and was changed.

Here we see that you cannot and will not experience the miracle of salvation until you surrender to Jesus.

Furthermore, you cannot and will not experience the ongoing power of Christ in you until you learn daily surrender.

Yes, there is an initial surrender that gives you new life in Christ, but there is also ongoing surrender that is part of your life as a disciple of Jesus.

As a disciple you do not learn how to better live for yourself, but you learn how to die to self. Listen to what Jesus taught,

Matthew 16:24–25 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

One author noted, “Here Jesus shows us that the way to follow the person of Christ is to carry the cross of self-denial, not the crown of self-improvement.”[4]

Think about this, perhaps the reason you struggle to follow Jesus is because there is something that you refuse to surrender.

As a believer, we grow up when we give up anything and everything that keeps us from being like Jesus.

Peter surrendered his will—his desire—to Jesus and he was radically changed in the process.

A disciple surrenders their will to Jesus and…

A disciple sacrifices all for Jesus – vs. 11

After surrendering to Jesus and seeing the power of His personhood, the only thing left for them to do was to leave everything and follow Jesus.

“They left everything and followed Him.” (v.11)

This sounds crazy, doesn’t it? They left their boats and equipment. They left their livelihood. They left their future plans. They left their reputations. They left family.

They left—the word literally means they willingly moved away from all those things—they let go.

Instead of being captivated by those things, these men broke free of these lesser things to be captivated by Christ.

In the gospel of Matthew Jesus tells the story of man who went to the marketplace and happened to find a pearl that was infinitely more valuable than anything he had or anything he had ever seen. So, he went and sold everything he had and took that money and bought the valuable pearl.

I don’t know what he sold—but I do know this, nothing he had could compare to what he was going to gain. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like that. What you get in Jesus is worth infinitely more than everything you have.

The point is this, in seeing the surpassing worth of Christ, we should easily turn loose of anything and everything we hold dear to follow Him. Instead of being captivated by the things of this world, we must be captivated by Christ!

Luke 14:26, 33

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Sacrifice only makes sense if we get God instead of ourselves.

You see, “The Christian faith says that the good life starts and ends with God. It starts and ends with the idea that nothing is better than God and that He has given Himself to us in Christ and in the gospel.”[5]

Here we come to understand that surrender and sacrifice go hand in hand. You will not sacrifice all for Jesus until you are completely surrendered to Jesus.

Practically that means that husbands, you will not display sacrificial love to your wife until you surrender yourself to Christ.

Wives, you will not display biblical submission to your husband until you surrender yourself to Christ.

Children, you will not display obedience to your parents until you surrender yourself to Christ.

Christian, you will not practice sacrificial giving until you have surrendered yourself to Christ.

Christian, you will not sacrifice your time to engage in spiritual disciplines until you have surrendered yourself to Christ.

Do you see it? Submission leads to sacrifice which then moves us to follow Jesus.

We have the best picture available so that we can see clearly what this looks like as it’s lived out because this is what Jesus did. Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father and became the final sacrifice offered for sin.

Through Jesus, all who believe have life and we follow Him to become more like Him so that others can have life through Him.

That’s the purpose—notice verse ten—“from now on, you will be catching men.”

It’s a strange phrase, but think about what these men did, they caught fish to kill them. But from this point forward, they would spend the rest of their lives bringing people to Jesus so those who were dead could have real life in Christ.

Therefore, Christian discipleship literally involves Jesus capturing someone for life.

Is living a life of surrender and sacrifice scary? Yes—I think that’s part of the reason Jesus told Peter to not be afraid.

But you aren’t tasked with doing this by your power and determination. You’ve been empowered with the life of Christ and only by His Spirit can you follow Jesus.

What is discipleship? Discipleship is a life of surrender and sacrifice for a purpose.

Jesus said, “follow me” and following Jesus is the key to avoiding a Christianity without Christ.

[1] J.T. English, Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus, (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2020), 36. [2]Ibid, 17. [3] Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, (Glenside: Westminster Seminary Press, 2020), 1. [4]J.T. English, Deep Discipleship, 27 [5]J.T. English, Deep Discipleship, 30