JANUARY 22, 2012

“WANTED: FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST”

TEXTS:  JONAH 3:1-5, 10;  1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-31;  MARK 1:14-20

 

INTRODUCTION:

                S.I. McMillen, in one of his books, tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application that asked:  “Are you a leader?”  Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, “No!” and returned the application, expecting the worst.  To her surprise, she received this letter back from the college:  “Dear Applicant:  A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders.  We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that we have at least one follower!”

MOVE TO TEXTS:

For Jesus, it was also imperative that he have at least one follower and in our gospel text for today we see him calling not just one, but 4 specific people to follow him.  This is a familiar story, one we hear every year about this time from one of our gospel writers.  Mark’s account is very brief, yet loaded with power.  In these 7 verses, Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee by proclaiming the good news of God—news that is full of hope and encouragement, but also challenge and calling!   “The time is fulfilled,” Jesus begins, “and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”  The good news of hope and encouragement is that God has come near through his Son, Jesus.  But the challenge and calling from it all is to repent and believe in this good news!

This is really the first of 2 calls that we see Jesus making in this passage.  Barely giving time for that call to repent and believe to sink in, Mark tells us that Jesus sees Simon and Andrew along the Sea of Galilee and says to them:  “Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”  Wham!  The 2^nd call has been issued, this time to 2 specific people.  And with barely time to catch our breath, Jesus, going a little further, encounters 2 more folks—James and John—and calls them also to follow him.  So, in just 7 verses, Jesus has begun his ministry, preached his first sermon (brief as it is) and had 4 people respond and follow him!  Wow!  Talk about accomplishing a lot in a short amount of time!

Now even though I’ve kind of broken this down to reflect 2 calls from Jesus, I do believe that they are actually tied intricately together.  You really can’t just follow Jesus without first repenting of your sins and believing in him as your Savior!  So the 2 calls that Jesus challenges us with are really just one call, with two steps or parts.  The first disciples didn’t really separate them out.  Sure, they didn’t know the future and the cross and the empty grave as we do.  They didn’t know all that Jesus would do for them over the next three years; yet they still heeded the call to repent, believe and follow Jesus!  And their examples teach us about our own responses to Jesus as he calls us! 

You see, Jesus is still in need of faithful followers today and so he continues to call us—both for the very first time and then, over and over again.  Biblical scholar Elton Brown has said:  “Becoming a faithful Christian disciple takes both a moment and a lifetime.”  And indeed it does!  We hear the call from Jesus and we respond—for the first time by repenting and giving our lives to him.  Yet as we grow in our discipleship Jesus will be continually calling us to follow him and we must continue to repent, believe and follow.  Whichever place we find ourselves in today, this text offers us powerful reminders of how we are to respond to Christ’s call on our life.  From the first 4 disciples we see a striking example of what a genuine response of repentance and following means.  Let’s look at it then.

A RESPONSE OF REPENTENCE AND FOLLOWING IS IMMEDIATE:

            First, of all, from these disciples we learn that a response of repentance and following is immediate.  Look at Mark’s words again:  Jesus calls Simon and Andrew and “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”  James and John also hesitate none and immediately begin to follow Jesus.  For these disciples, their response happens the very moment they hear Jesus’ call.  There are no excuses, no putting off until another day, no “I’ll get around to it later, Jesus.”  They didn’t say to him:  “Well, we have these nets and boats and fish to take care of first Jesus.  After all, they ARE our livelihood.”  They didn’t even mention their families, wanting to talk it over with them first!   No, there was none of that with them, just a response that was immediate!

            How often do we do that?  Isn’t it more common for us to put off our response to Jesus with one excuse or rationalization after another?  I’m the president of the excuses club so I can think of some that are probably familiar to us all.  “I’m too busy right now Lord—got too much on my plate that needs my attention first.”  Or, “I’ve got my family to think about Lord.  Maybe when the kids are out of the house I’ll have time to do what you want.”  Or, “I only have a few more years till retirement Lord.  Then you’ll have my full attention.”  Or, “We just put a lot of money into this new vacation home Lord and well, I don’t want to waste it.  Maybe after the newness wears off.”

            Do any of these sound a little familiar?  We know Jesus is calling us to repent of our sins, to believe in the good news, to follow him and to fish for people—or make disciples for him.  We hear him calling, the question is, do we respond immediately or do we put it off?  You know what that is, don’t you?  PROCRASTINATION!!  Even if we feel like we have a pretty good excuse, procrastination can be dangerous, to us and others

            A farm boy accidentally overturned his wagonload of corn in the road.  The farmer who lived nearby came to investigate.  “Hey Willis,” he called out, “forget your troubles for a spell and come on in and have dinner with us.  Then I’ll help you get the wagon up.”  Willis replied, “That’s mighty nice of you, but I don’t think Pa would like me to do that.”  “Awe come on son,” the farmer insisted.  So the boy agreed, but still muttering, “I’m sure Pa’s not gonna like this.”   After a hearty dinner, Willis thanked his host and said, “I feel a lot better now, but I just know Pa is going to be real upset.”  His neighbor replied, “Don’t be foolish.  By the way, where is he?”  Willis hung his head and answered, “Under the wagon!”

            Oh we laugh, but my friends, our response to God’s call on our life must not be one we procrastinate on!  Rather it must be immediate.  We don’t know how much time there is, or how many tomorrows there will be to respond.  Paul says it clearly in our text from Corinthians:  “The appointed time has grown short!”  Our Upper Room Disciplines writer Cecil Murphy puts it this way:  “It’s as if Paul is saying:  we’re almost out of time, so don’t delay or get involved in other things.  Set aside all distractions, even the good things of life, and get ready!”  Ready for what?  Christ’s return AND Christ’s call for us until He returns.  So we must respond:  immediately!  But there is more.

RESPONSE OF REPENTENCE AND FOLLOWING IS ALSO COMPLETE:

            The response of those first 4 disciples teaches us that our response to Jesus should be immediate.  But it also teaches us that our response much be complete!  Their response was not halfway or half-hearted.  There was no negotiation on their part with Jesus!  No, “Lord, I’m willing to give you 1 or 2 days a week to fish for people, but I still need the other days for myself!”  And they didn’t say, “Lord, I repent of this sin and that sin, but I’m just not quite ready to give you this other sin!”  No, their response was complete!!

            Author and preacher Leonard Sweet points out, “In these few verses, Jesus’ role as an authoritative, compelling, charismatic, preacher is defined; the kernel of the gospel message is expressed; and drop-everything-discipleship is described!”  I like that:  drop-everything-discipleship!  That’s what we see with these first disciples through a response to Jesus that was complete!

            And that’s what we must do too.  You see there really is no such thing as a half-way or part-time disciple.  When we hear God call, when Jesus says to us “repent, believe, follow and fish”, our response must be complete—giving 100% of ourselves to Him.  Author George McDonald asks:  “Is there anything you will not leave for Christ?”  Those 4 disciples answered “no”!  There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t leave for Christ.  We see that through their response, which was immediate and complete—so complete that they left family and livelihood behind!

RETURN TO LAST WEEK AND OUR APPLICATION:

            Have you ever thought about James and John’s father, Zebedee?  I mean, those fellows responded so quickly and completely that the scripture says, “They left their father Zebedee in the boat!”  Do you wonder how he felt? 

            Last Sunday I shared with you God’s call to me to move in June.  It was and will be hard.  But trusting and obeying is the only way.  Many of you have responded to me this week much like I feel Zebedee might have responded to James and John as they left him to follow Christ.  One biblical scholar states:  “James and John left Zebedee, which probably pained him.  But did they dishonor their father?  I would like to think not.  I would like to think that this parent taught his children to strike out onto the unpredictable seas.  So he could not fault them.  Rather with pride and true joy, perhaps he affirmed the Holy Spirit’s freedom to call his children in a direction he didn’t expect.”

            Over the last ten years, believe it or not, you all have taught me too and helped me to grow stronger in my faith and trust.  And this week I’ve heard pride and joy mixed with the sadness as you’ve said to me:  “We cannot fault you for following God’s lead and answering God’s call!”  So I want to say back to you today:  have you done the same?  Jesus calls us all to repent, believe, follow and fish.  And his call demands a response that is immediate and complete.

            One of the phone calls this past week was from someone who said to me:  “God spoke to me last night and gave me something to tell you.”  Intrigued, I said, “Ok, tell me then.”  They continued:  “God has called you to do something else, but there is something God is calling Efland UMC to do too.”  While that “something” wasn’t revealed to this person or to me, I still take very seriously God’s word.  And I believe too that indeed God IS calling Efland UMC to do something over the next months and maybe years.  What it is, I don’t know yet.  Maybe God will tell me and maybe God will tell one of you!

            What’s important at this point is how will we respond to whatever God calls us to do?  Will we make excuses and put of doing what he calls us to do, or will we respond and act immediately?  Will we do part of what God calls us to do, holding back some of our lives, resources and maybe even our sins, or will our response be complete, giving our all to him? 

CONCLUSION:

            In closing this morning, I’d like to share with you one of my all time favorite stories.  I know I’ve share it with you before, but it’s a great way to conclude this message today.  It’s a fictitious story about all the animals in the jungle who got together one day and decided to play a football game.  They chose sides and one team learned pretty quickly that they had a big problem.  The rhinoceros was on the other team, and they simply could not tackle him.  They tried, but they just bounced off.  Every time the rhinoceros got the ball he ran right down the middle of the field, and they couldn’t stop him.  He scored touchdown after touchdown. 

            Finally, with just a few minutes left in the game, the rhinoceros caught the ball one more time and started up the field.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was brought down with a magnificent tackle.  When the animals unpiled, it was discovered that the centipede had (for the first time) finally come into the game and made the great tackle!  “That was fantastic!” shouted his teammates.  “Great tackle!  But look, it’s the fourth quarter and the game is almost over!  Where on earth have you been all this time?”  The centipede answered:  “I was putting on my shoes!”

            Now is the time folks!  No more excuses!  Jesus is a calling us today:  Repent, believe, follow and fish!  He wants to know if we’re ready to get out there and work for him!  He wants to know if we’ve got our shoes on!  He wants to know if we’re willing to respond and to follow wherever he leads us!  Oh I pray that our response is indeed immediate and complete as we say, Yes, Lord!  We will follow you! 

 

Let us pray:     Almighty God, in every age you have called out men and women to be your faithful servants.  We believe you have now called us to join that great company who seek to follow you.  Grant unto us today and always a clear vision of your call and strength to fulfill the ministry assigned to us.  We pray in the name of the one who calls us, Jesus Christ.  Amen

 

Today you may have heard Jesus’ call to follow for the first time.  If so, as we sing our hymn of response, I invite you to come to this altar and let one of us pray with you.  Maybe some of you answered that call a long time ago, but you find that Jesus is calling you again today to repent and believe so that you can continue to follow him obediently.  If so, I invite you also to come to this altar to confess, to pray and to receive God’s mercy and renewal.  And maybe some of you truly believe that God is calling Efland UMC to do something big over the next months or years.  I invite you to pray, to ask God to begin to show you and us all what that is and to make us ready to follow whatever we’re called to do.  You can pray at your seats or here at the altar. 

 

Wherever you find yourself today, Jesus is calling.  As we contemplate our answer, I invite us to turn in our hymnals to page 344 and stand as we sing, “Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore”.