Who is reaching out to you?

Well, we started this series a couple weeks ago by asking the question: / / What are you reaching for?

I’ve had a verse stick with me these last couple weeks. James 4:2-3 says, / / …you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

James continues to explain that even if we ask we have to be aware of our motives - / / what are we asking for and sometimes more importantly, / / why are we asking for it. I can’t get mad at God if I ask for a Ferrarri and my Nissan Frontier continues to be a Nissan Frontier. I can’t get upset if I ask God to get me out of debt and I start seeing financial blessing in my life, but I don’t learn to be a good steward with that money so I end up spending it on things that I don’t need, or I pay my credit card but don’t learn to stop using it so I just rack it back up again… that’s certainly not God’s fault.

/ / There is a measure of personal responsibility when we begin to ask God to move in our lives.

In Matthew 21 Jesus and his disciples are walking into Jerusalem and they pass a fig tree, and Jesus is hungry so he goes over to it, but it doesn’t have any fruit. And he says to the tree, / / “May you never bear fruit again!” and the bible says that the fig tree withered right there in front of them. I’ve always kind of thought it would be cool to start a landscaping business called the Withered Fig with that level of faith. Just walk onto someone’s property and curse the weeds and you’re left with this beautiful lawn. You can take that and run with it if you have that faith. It’s yours!

But what’s interesting about that story is what Jesus says next. Matthew 21:20-22 says, / / The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

This is where we get the saying, / / Faith can move mountains.

But the key to it isn’t the faith alone. It’s the faith without the doubt. Jesus says, / / If you have faith AND do not doubt.

Faith is the word pistis that we looked at a couple weeks ago, faith means more than just to believe, but it’s to believe to the point of commitment. I can’t really say I have faith if I say I believe something but don’t actually do it. Then clearly something isn’t right, is it? Yes, we must have faith, or belief, in Jesus for salvation, which is something we can’t do on our own, so I believe in Jesus for salvation, but the problem can sometimes creep in that the word has been translated to simply believe when in reality it means so much more. If you remember the word study I read from a couple weeks ago, and I’m going to read it again because it’s so good:

/ / Pistis…should probably be [written] as vow to faithful relationship as the truer understanding of the word in the early church…It is therefore probably best linked to a covenant (think like a wedding vow or a pledging of allegiance), but faithful relationship (or covenant loyalty) could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English word’s vast misunderstanding of the word.

The important things out of that...

/ / Faith would be better translated as: a vow to faithful relationship.

/ / We should think of it as a covenant, like a wedding vow, or a pledge of allegiance.

/ / The English words create a vast misunderstanding of the true meaning.

Does this really make a difference?

Well, in asking the question, what are you reaching for, the woman who had been sick for 12 years had belief that Jesus heals, but Jesus said her faith had made her well, and her faith was this, not that she only believed, but that she believed, “if I can only touch the hem of his garment I will be healed”, AND SHE DID IT… And the bible says IMMEDIATELY the bleeding stopped and she new she was made whole.

I’m not just believing it to be true, I’m committing to doing it.

I don’t just believe Jesus saves, I’m committed to following him unto salvation.

I don’t just believe Jesus heals, I’m reaching out to him for healing - until it happens - I’m not giving up.

I don’t just believe Jesus sets free, I’m being faithful to his teachings which He himself said then I would know the truth and the truth will set me free.

Belief that causes a commitment.

So, Jesus says in Matthew 21, / / “If you have faith and do not doubt”

The word doubt there means to separate, or withdraw from, to oppose, to be at odds with yourself, to hesitate.

Now, we have to understand, this is a very big statement. And I don’t think that in the history of mankind anyone has actually said to any mountain, “Get up and be thrown into the sea” and it happened. So does that mean that this level of faith is impossible to obtain?

I don’t think so, I think Jesus taught his disciples like we teach our kids.

Think of Jesus’ primary teaching model. Parables. Stories expressing extremes to make a point about something important.

This is very much a figure of speech here. And think about it. From a tree to a mountain. What Jesus is saying is, no matter what is in your way, have faith. Do not doubt. And this is in the week that is leading up to Jesus death - it’s right after he’s rode a donkey into Jerusalem and everyone was cheering, “Praise God for the Son of David!, the King has come!” - we celebrate that as Palm Sunday, the week before Jesus is crucified.

So, very soon he won’t be with his disciples any more. And we all know the advice people give right before they know they are going to die is usually the most valuable, or important things they say. What did Jesus choose to focus on here?

Whatever you face. Whatever trouble, trial, issue, or concern you come up against in your life, in these next few weeks, months and years as you become the founders of the Christian church, as you walk in the Kingdom, as you preach the gospel, as you build what I am building in you and through you..... have faith, and do not doubt.

Be single minded. Be committed to the process. Be committed to the way.

James actually says in James 1, / / …when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. ....when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. (James 1:2-3, 6-7)

Again, a warning or an encouragement, / / Have faith and do not doubt.

Reach out with all the faith you can. Commit yourself to Jesus. Commit to his teaching, to his way, to his plan.

And why? Well this all comes out of James 4:8, / / Come close to God and God will come close to you.

What are you reaching for?

Well, this week I want to flip that question and ask, / / Do you know who is reaching out to you? And I’m going to answer that question right away, but then we’re going to look at this. And of course, just like in Sunday school - Jesus is the answer. Jesus is reaching out to you. Continually. Without fail.

/ / Jesus is reaching out to you. Seeking you. Calling you.

When we read James 4, Come close to God and God will come close to you… it might seem like the ball is in our court all the time. And as we saw a couple weeks ago, yes, this scripture is absolutely true - we need to reach out to God.

Looking at the miracles of Jesus in the gospel accounts was super eye opening for me. If you weren’t here a couple weeks ago, I encourage you to go back and watch it. To see that the majority of healings in scripture are a direct result of someone pursuing and asking Jesus for their healing, not just sitting back and waiting for it, that shows us something. Sure, there may have been times where Jesus just walked up to people and healed them, but that’s not the narrative we are given. That’s not in the book. The only times that happened were in cases of extreme compassion. And to me that is incredibly encouraging to remind myself that truly the doors that will be opened in my life are the ones I knock on. The questions that are answered will be the ones I ask, and the things I find will be the things I am seeking.

If you rearrange that scripture a bit it seems so redundant, but Jesus is making a very strong point. Every time he talks about prayer he’s encouraging this attitude of confident, unrelenting reaching out.

Matthew 7:7-8… / / Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. For everyone who asks, receives. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Everyone who seeks, finds. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you…to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

He’s doubling up here, making sure you don’t miss the point.

And remember the parable that we looked at, you need some bread in the middle of the night because a friend has traveled and just arrived. You ask your neighbor, he says no, and this is the lead up to Luke’s account of what we just read from Matthew. He finishes the story with this in Luke 11:8, / / though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

Hebrews 11:6 says, / / Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists AND THAT he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

So, knock… Ask… Seek… Pursue and reach out to Jesus as much as you possibly can, constantly. Come close to God and God will come close to you… It’s a promise you can bank on!

And like I said, that can seem like the ball is always in our court, but what I think we are really doing is simply responding to a God who has already been reaching out to us…

So, this morning we’re going to look at 3 things in regards to God reaching out to us.

/ / 1. You Are Called

Jesus is reaching out to each one of us. And Jesus actually did things backwards compared to the regular methods of his society. He didn’t do things the normal way. I want to look at discipleship this morning, and the call of the twelve that followed Jesus the closest and ask the question, do you hear that same call?

As I said, yes, we need to reach out. We need to ask, seek & knock. But really, what we are doing is simply responding in faithfulness because He is faithful. It’s the life of Jesus that is worth reaching out to. He’s already shown and proven his faithfulness. It’s the teachings of Jesus that are worth following. It’s the faithfulness of God that is worth being faithful to.

Yes, we reach out and God responds, but it has always and will always ultimately start with God. He is constantly calling and leading us to a place of following after Him - the real question is, are we paying attention?

Culturally at this time when Jesus is walking on the earth, especially in the Greek world of philosophy, religion and the cults, there was a system of discipleship. And it worked this way: A person became a disciple as they found someone they wanted to follow, or to be discipled by. So, they would seek them out and approach them about it and ask to be their disciple. And being a disciple was done by listening to that person’s teachings and following him and his principles. Similarly, in Jewish tradition a disciple, or student, learner, would attach themselves to a rabbi, or to a movement.

Those who went to John the Baptist and listened to him, were baptised by him and followed him around and listen to him speak and were considered his disciples. They all went to him for this baptism and continued to follow his way of teaching. They wanted to be around him. He had good things to say. He was bringing fresh revelation about God.

The Pharisees also had disciples, we read in the gospels that they would send their disciples to ask Jesus certain questions. Probably the ones they didn’t want to ask themselves.

So, this is a system that already exists, it’s in operation.

And eventually through time, especially as we see in the book of Acts, after Jesus has ascended into heaven, and the apostles are really building the church throughout the region, the term disciple becomes a regular term that would refer to a believer in Jesus Christ, regardless of whether they had actually known Jesus while He was living on the earth. In fact, one of the things they would call this whole movement was The Way. Jesus said it of himself, I am the way, the truth & the life. And early christians would follow the way. When Jesus gave the instructions to go out and make disciples, he’s not saying, make disciples after your own way, he says, baptize them, or immerse them, in the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. We are disciples of Jesus, not disciples of a man or woman, or teaching, or philosophy or church.

And so the system needed to be disrupted a little bit. And while Jesus was on the earth he did just that.

In the gospel accounts when we read of Jesus and his disciples, specifically the 12 closest to him, they did not seek him out, but instead, he found them and they accepted an invitation to follow him.

There is not biblical record of every initial interaction with the twelve disciples, but all of them came with very different backgrounds and are called into this special relationship with Jesus. And although many people followed Jesus, and as such many are called disciples, there’s something different about these twelve, but not so different that they are different than us, but different in what they respond to that we also can respond to.

So, the first account of someone following Jesus is in John 1:35-50, and each time Jesus makes an invitation.

The book of John mentions both Peter and Andrew, but it’s in Matthew that their story of being called is found. But here in John it says in vs 43, The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, / / “Come, follow me.”

Interestingly enough it doesn’t say he follows Jesus, it says he immediately goes to find Nathanael and says, “Come see, we found the Messiah”. John 1:47 says, / / As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel - a man of complete integrity.”

“How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Then Nathanael explained, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God - the King of Israel!”

Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater than this.”

I love vs 48, I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you…it’s like Jesus is saying, I’ve had my eye on you, and I want you to hear that for yourself this morning. Jesus is saying, “I’ve had my eye on you.”

OK, so with Philip it’s a direct, come, follow me. With Nathanael he says, “I was watching you… I’ve been paying attention to you...” And that is what really hits Nathanael’s heart. Being seen!

in Matthew 4:18-22 we see the encounter of four disciples with Jesus as he calls them.

/ / One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers - Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew - throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.

Now, I find this interesting, because in John 1 it says that Andrew saw Jesus and goes to find Peter and tells him that he’s found the Messiah. And in that interaction Jesus is the one who says to him, Your name is Simon, son of John - but you will be called Cephas (which means Peter).

So, if Jesus is the one who gives Peter his name, and from a timeline of events what we just read in Matthew 4 comes after that point, then it would seem Andrew and Peter, although they recognized Jesus may be the Messiah, went back to fishing. They hadn’t received the invitation yet, so they didn’t follow.

They also weren’t scholars, or students of the Torah, they were fishermen. So, maybe they weren’t looking.

But this time, Jesus comes up to them, while they are fishing, doing the thing they know, and says, “Come follow me” And the response is, they left their nets at once and followed him.

Matthew 4:21 continues, / / A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

These fisherman, highly unlikely to be called to follow a Rabbi. Not looking for it. Sure, they are religious. Yes, they recognized that Jesus was probably the Messiah, but they continued in their way of life - they aren’t expecting to be more than fisherman in this lifetime. And three of these fisherman, Peter, James & John, become the closest of Jesus disciples through the gospels. Closer than anyone else.

Now, quite possibly the most interesting disciple Jesus calls is Matthew. And the scriptural account doesn’t say much, but the explanation of who Matthew is says it all. Matthew 9:9 says, / / As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.

He’s already asked others to follow, and they did, so that’s not unique, but it’s the “sitting at his tax collector’s booth” that makes this story different.

Tax collectors were not liked, in fact, they were pretty hated by the Jewish community. Tax collectors worked for the Romans and often times would take more money than needed, so that they themselves could get rich. So, the first problem was they were seen as wanting to get in good with the Romans who were occupying this land. Essentially turning their backs on their own people. Then on top of that, like that wasn’t bad enough, they were exploiting the people financially for their own personal gain. Imagine that, people don’t like paying taxes in the first place, now you have the tax collector taking more than what is expected and pocketing some of it and there’s nothing you can do about it because they are protected by the Roman soldiers that you hate so much.

The decision of Jesus to call this type of person is strange to begin with. And Matthew’s decision to follow Jesus, leaving behind that life and stepping back into being integrated with his people, and not just that, but following a teacher, a rabbi, was a really big deal for him - he’s leaving a lot behind and isn’t going to be looked at too favorably by the other disciples.

I never really thought of the relational dynamic between the disciples until I started watching The Chosen, and you see the tension and the bickering. Think of this - How many of the other disciples had actually been taken advantage of by Matthew himself?

And Matthew is brave, he’s the one who wrote this stuff in the book of Matthew. And he writes that after Jesus calls him, he invites him and his disciples to his house for dinner and his “friends” were there too. The bible says many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. Matthew 9:11 says, / / But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

And to me, that right there just gives us the greatest answer to the question, “But, am I called?”

Jesus overhears the question and responds by saying, / / “Healthy people don’t need a doctor - sick people do. No go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

No one else is thinking that way. The Pharisees want only the best of the best to follow them so that it enhances their reputation, not takes away from it. Most leaders do the same, maybe not so they enhance their reputation, but mostly because they need people that are ready to be about the mission at hand.

Jesus is picking all these guys who need serious work. The religious leaders are calling Jesus’ newest disciple scum!

To me that is the greatest reassurance that God has called me to follow Jesus. And I’m not talking about a ministry call, or being a pastor, or working at a church. I’m talking about the call we have all received. To follow Jesus. Yes, Jesus is calling you.

How do I know this? Well, Paul says in Romans 3:23 that we’ve all fallen short of God’s standard for our lives. We are all sinners. That means Jesus came for us. And maybe we just need time to realize why it is we need Jesus, but the call is there.

In John 6, after Jesus says that he’s the bread of life and that if you want to be a part of his kingdom you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, John 6:60 says, / / Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” and vs 66 says, / / At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Then Jesus said, “I chose the twelve of you...”

The ESV phrases it as a question, / / “Did I not choose you, the Twelve?” and that word choose means to make a choice, to pick out, to choose for your self.

And we can think, well ya, that’s his twelve. His closest disciples that started the church, but what makes that true of me?

Well, the invitation has been extended to everyone. In John 12, Jesus has been describing to his disciples that he is going to die. See, he chose the twelve for a reason, because he was only here for a short time, and they were ones who wouldn’t desert him when things got tough. We just read John 6, it says, at this point many of his disciples - those who would say they follow, but when things got a little hard to understand, they ducked out. But Peter rightly identifies, where else would we go? Who else would we follow? You are the one who has life to give us. Your teachings are the teachings that bring life.

So in John 12 he’s telling them that he’s not going to be with them forever, he’s going to be betrayed and die and he says in vs 32, / / “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this to indicate how he was going to die.

Jesus himself is saying, When I am crucified, when I am lifted up on that cross, it will be my call to all of humanity to follow me. The word draw is not a word of invitation but rather a word of force. It means to pull or drag something. Think of it in terms of drawing water from a well, you are actively pulling the water out of the well. It means to draw by inward power, lead, impel.

Jesus is saying, when I am lifted up on that cross I will pull all of humanity to myself… And that has happened - Jesus has been lifted up, which means that invitation has gone out. Follow me! You have been called. There is no doubt. Jesus said, I WILL draw ALL people to myself. All there is the same word used in John 3:16 when it says, / / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The invitation is not to an elite few or the specially qualified. But to everyone.

There’s a saying, God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Well, God called everyone, qualified or not, when Jesus was lifted up on the cross. / / There is no doubt, You are called.

But here’s the thing, and I would call this the salvation message we all wish we had had.

/ / 2. There Is A Cost!

Even thought we are all called, it can almost seem like there’s an exclusivity to the disciples of Jesus. He does call twelve particularly close, and here’s the thing, any reference in the gospels to someone ASKING to be a disciple is met with what can feel like rejection. Not because Jesus turns them down, but because the request came at the wrong time, or from the wrong motives.

Remember, James says / / ...we have not because we ask not, and when we ask we don’t receive because we ask with wrong motives, we ask for our own personal pleasures...

The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to receive salvation and eternal life for free, but it’s also an invitation that is meant to cost us everything.

We don’t get to follow Jesus while continuing to do what we once did.

We don’t get to follow Jesus and continue believing what we once believed.

Jesus is calling us to give up something so that we can pick up something else.

In Mark 10 there’s a story of a man who comes to Jesus asking what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, follow the commandments. The man says, “I’ve done all of them since I was a child” and Jesus responds in a way that shows the heart of the man not the actions of the man. Belief met with action is true faith, not one or the other. Actions alone can’t save us, and faith without action is dead. Mark 10:21 says, / / Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done.” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

See, this man wanted the title of discipleship, the benefit of following, the eternal life, but didn’t want to give up his own way. And it wasn’t an issue of money, or too much money, or too many possessions. It was an issue of that being more valuable to him than following Jesus. Motive of the heart.

To me that shows the depth of what truly following Jesus is. Yes, there are rules and ways in which we must follow. Jesus starts with, follow the commandments. And there is a standard that God sets before us that we are meant to live by, BUT, we can not embrace the rules but neglect following HIM. That’s what it’s truly about. / / It is only in following Jesus himself that our following of his ways makes any sense.

This is why there are good people in the world, that do good things, that have good morals, but are still missing it because they don’t follow Jesus. They are ok with doing what they feel is the right thing, but they still want to be masters of their own lives. But / / becoming a disciple means we give up being the master of our own lives and make Jesus our master.

This is what he said, isn’t it? Matthew 16:24, / / “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

There’s another instance in Luke 9 where people come to Jesus and want to be disciples, but don’t quite get it. Luke 9:57 says, / / As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

He said to another person. “Come, follow me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”

But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Three different people here.

First, the one who says he will follow Jesus anywhere and Jesus says, It’s not about where I’m going, I don’t have anywhere specific to actually go. I’m not leading you to a physical place. And remember, there were many who hoped that Jesus was the Messiah that would take Israel back by force, kicking out the Roman occupation and setting up the kingdom of Israel again. So sure, that sounds enticing, I’ll follow you. make me a general or put me in charge of some district when you’re done conquering the land. But Jesus says, Nope, I’m not here to set up shop...

Second, Jesus actually makes a personal invitation outside of the twelve and says, “Come, follow me.” And this response, “let me return home and bury my father.” doesn’t mean the person’s dad just died, it was a way of saying, “let me go home until I can sort through my family affairs...” This was most likely an oldest son who would be responsible for the household once their father had passed. And Jesus responds, you’re missing the point. You’re looking for physical work when I’m calling you to spiritual work, and you won’t need to look after your earthly affairs, I’ll look after you.

What did he say to Peter and Andrew, stop fishing for actual fish, I want to make you fishers of men, you’ll be spiritually fishing from now on...

I can only imagine how hard that would have been for Peter, Andrew, James & John, who were there with their father, saying, “Ok Dad, you got this, right? We’re gonna follow this guy.”

And the third one, very similar, let me go make sure my family is ok...

I’ve had this conversation with my family a few times. It was not easy following what I felt God was calling me into. All of my family still lives in the same town that I grew up in. Thankfully my brother and his family have been down here in the past couple years, but I haven’t seen my parents or my sister and her family for almost 3 years now, and that’s not easy. Especially when we moved to Europe, we didn’t know when we would be back. When we got married I moved out to California. That was hard. I had never been that far from my family, and I had been actually living with my brother leading up to our wedding. We are really close.

And could I have done things for God in my home town? Of course. But would I have missed where God was leading me? Yes. That scripture isn’t a put down, it’s part of the invitation. Jesus isn’t saying, if you go make sure your family is ok you’re no good to me, or you can’t inherit the kingdom of God. What he’s saying is, for any reason, if you choose to follow, but then look back, you’re displacing yourself. The word fit means to be well placed.

Jesus is defining the invitation. IF you choose to follow me, there is no going back to your former life. He’s not saying you’ll never see your family again, he’s not saying you have to disown your parents or siblings, he’s saying, this call is a call of such great importance that it requires everything of you. And it’s not just a call for a few, or for the trained, it’s a call for everyone.

Like I said, this must have been such a difficult decision for these disciples. Think of Matthew. He’s got it made. He’s in good with the Romans, he’s making good money, he clearly has friends, even though they are disreputable sinners, that doesn’t seem to bother him. And the invitation to follow Jesus is putting ALL of that in jeopardy. He is going to lose it all.

This is why I call this the gospel message or salvation message we all wish we had received. I don’t think we truly get what we are being called into and that when Jesus reaches out to us, and we reach back, that we’re reaching toward a life that will require our lives.

I think one of the issues we have is that our current understanding, or current understanding of what it means to be a christian is not what Jesus was inviting people into. When Jesus says, If you want to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me, He’s making an invitation that goes so far beyond just a religious identity.

Jesus never defined, “Here’s what it looks like to be a regular Christian… and then if you want to go the extra mile, here’s what it looks like to be a disciple.”

No, Christianity is not a tiered membership, like you can subscribe to the bronze, silver, or gold level, and if you’re really something you may go platinum. We are all called to the same thing, the same level, discipleship.

Christianity is not go to church on Sunday, throw a bit in the offering, post a scripture verse on Wednesday and follow my favorite preacher on tik-tok…

And what Jesus ultimately did was level the playing field for all of humanity. The pharisees would let the best of the best come to them and ask to be a disciple, and they would decide if they got to be. Jesus called out some of the worst of the worst and called them to follow, giving us all a window into his definition of discipleship. It’s not an elite group of the best. It’s a group who need him the most.

So, we’re making the statement today, / / Jesus is always and in every moment reaching out to us, with this call to follow him, to be his disciple. And so the question then becomes.

/ / 3. Will You Answer?

I think it would be beneficial to begin to think of this call as something that isn’t a one time occurence, but a continual reaching out from Jesus to us with the invitation, will you follow me today?

What if, instead of making a decision to be a Christian just one time, we woke up everyday with John 6:71 in mind, hearing the voice of Jesus say to us, / / “Did I myself not choose you?” And the words of John 12:32 beating in our chest and ringing in our hearts, when Jesus was lifted up on the cross he called me, and pulled me close to him...

Jesus is eternally, constantly and forever reaching out to the humanity that he loves. Regardless of how messed up, or how perfect we are. / / Whether we are the Matthew who cheated, the Peter who denied, the Thomas who doubted or the Judas who betrayed… Jesus is calling you!

The disciples weren’t beyond needing a reminder. I’ve said this a few times recently and I think it’s one of the healthiest things we can remind ourselves of. The great men of God in the Old Testament, the disciples that followed Jesus, the apostles that started and built the church. They didn’t get it right the whole time. No one does. And the sooner we get that the sooner we will give ourselves the grace to work out our salvation.

Paul writes in Philippians 2:12, Dear friends, you always followed instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

/ / Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear...

Do we answer that call to follow? Every Day.

Do we recognize that our reaching out to God is in direct response to Him reaching out to us? His faithfulness draws us into being faithful.

Jesus said, when I am lifted up I will draw all men to myself

His sacrifice draws us into the place of sacrifice. Are we willing to give our lives to the one who gave his life for us?

Jesus was the ultimate example in following. He said I only do what I see the Father do, I only say what I see the Father say. I don’t believe that means playing copy-cat, it believe it means that Jesus so intimately knew the heart and desires of the father that without being told what to do he knew what to do, without hearing the instructions, he knew the instructions.

That’s what we all desire for our kids, isn’t it? That before we ask them to clean their room, they clean their room. Before we ask them to be nice, kind, good, whatever it is, before we have to ask them, the fact that we have taught them, and modeled it for them, they respond in their lives by doing what we’ve modeled, what we’ve shown. Jesus was so intimately in tune with the heart of the father that he always knew His will. You don’t have to live your life waiting for a sign at every moment, you simply need to know Jesus with all your heart so that you know his leading in your life.

This is discipleship: following Jesus, learning his teachings, following his way. Understanding that it’s not just I believe, but that it’s a covenant vow, a commitment to deny what we once knew, what we once were and what we once believed, to follow what He teaches, to embrace his transformation, and to believe His truth. And he is reaching out to you everyday.

Let’s pray this morning that everyday we would wake up and hear the call of Jesus, “Did I myself not choose you?”