The Call of the Four Fishermen

Introduction and Return to Mark's Gospel

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 11th, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to follow with me as I read two portions of the Word of God. The first from the first chapter of John's Gospel, John chapter 1, and I begin the reading in verse 35 and conclude with verse 42, John 1, 35-42.

0:51 Again, on the morrow, John was standing and two of his disciples, and he looked upon Jesus as he walked and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

1:11 Jesus turned and beheld them following and said unto them, What are you seeking? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher, where are you dwelling? He said unto them, Come, and you will see. They came therefore and saw where he abode, and they abode with him that day.

1:38 It was about the tenth hour. One of the two that heard John, John speaking, and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He finds first his own brother, Simon, and said unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, Christ. He brought him unto Jesus.

2:00 Jesus looked upon him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, Peter. Now over to the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, as we return to our studies in the Gospel of Mark this morning. And follow, please, as I read verses 16 through 20.

2:27 Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 16 through 20. And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fish, and Jesus said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they left the nets, and followed him. And going on a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat, mending the nets.

3:10 And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee, and they went in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him. Now let us once more seek the face of God, that God would graciously come and open his word as we study it together. Let us pray.

3:37 Our Father, we thank you for the fresh reminder in our earlier reading of the livingness and the presence of our Lord Jesus in the midst of his gathered people. And though we can never hope to see him with our physical eyes upon the Sea of Galilee, as did these whose names have been read in our hearing, we thank you that with the eyes of the soul we can behold him, and by your grace, working through the word, come to personal, intimate acquaintance with him as deep and real and satisfying as anything ever known by Peter and Andrew and James and John. So we ask you, O Holy Spirit, gracious gift of the Father through the Son, take the things of Christ and bring them home with power to all of our eager and waiting hearts. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

4:53 It hardly seems possible that our last prayer and our last study in the Gospel of Mark was conducted on the second Lord's Day in the month of October. So by a little calculation with the calendar, you realize that after a digression of some two months, we return to this fast-moving, vivid, spirit-inspired account of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will remember, I trust, that verses 14 and 15 are Mark's summary of our Lord's activity in the area of Galilee. He was continually found preaching the Gospel of God and saying, the time has been fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel. And having examined that, General Sondheim, in his summary statement of the preaching ministry of our Lord Jesus, we now begin this morning to take up some of the individual incidents recorded by Mark with reference to this Galilean ministry of our Lord Jesus. And the first of those incidents is the incident read in your hearing bounded by verses 16 through 20

Background of the Narrative: Prior Encounters with Jesus

6:20 in which we find the Lord Jesus calling forth fishermen into a more intimate and permanent and special relationship to himself in preparation for the unique work which he would give them to do as apostles in his church. And as we attempt to think our way through this passage this morning, we will have basically three categories of concern. First of all, we shall consider the background of the narrative of verses 16 to 20. And then, secondly, the major facts of the narrative in verses 16 to 20.

7:05 And then, finally, and this will be the heart of the message, the abiding message of this narrative of the call of the four fishermen. First of all, then, a word about the background of the narrative given to us here in Mark's Gospel. Chapter 1. If all we had as a record of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus was the Gospel of Mark, we might assume that this call of Christ to Simon, Andrew, James, and John was the first real intimate attachment that they ever knew to the Lord Jesus.

7:51 Though Mark does not say that he was the first real intimate attachment to the Lord Jesus, though Mark does not say that this is the first such encounter between the Lord Jesus and these men, reading the passage, we might well assume it. Now, I underscore the fact that Mark nowhere says that this is the first time the Lord Jesus had any intimate personal dealings with these four men. And people who read the Bible with an eye not to have their souls humbled and saved, but to find fault with God's revelation, see in this passage what they call a contradiction with other passages. Well, you see the passage nowhere asserts that this is Christ's first personal interaction with these men. In fact, we learn from the passage read in your hearing from John's Gospel, John 1, 35-42, that this is indeed was not the first time they had had personal dealings with the Lord Jesus. In the Joannine passage, there is clear reference to Andrew and to Peter, his brother, a veiled reference probably to John, and in all likelihood, James was included in those earlier contacts of our Lord Jesus Christ

9:19 with these men. I remind you that in our previous studies, we said that this Galilean ministry, here described in Mark's Gospel chapter 1, began at least a year after the more hidden earlier ministry, generally called the Judean ministry of our Lord Jesus. But it's clear from the passage in John that these men had already been introduced to the Lord Jesus. They had already come to acknowledge Him as Messiah and the Lamb of God.

9:57 That's explicit in the passage read in your hearing from John chapter 1. Furthermore, as we read through the remainder of the earlier chapters of John, in particular, John 3, 22-30, and John 4, 1 and 2, we learn that Peter and James and Andrew and John and Peter and James and Andrew and John and John and Peter and John were also found in the company of the Lord Jesus during that earlier ministry. They beheld the miracle up in Cana of Galilee, in what we would call southern Galilee. And it is said that after beholding that miracle, His disciples believed on Him. John gives the record of how the Lord Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples, though He did not actually perform the baptisms, but His disciples did. So we learn as general background to this passage, that when the Lord Jesus passed by these four fishermen near their own hometown up in Galilee, that this was not their first encounter with the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, it was not their first spirit given revelation of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth,

11:25 nor was it their first believing or obedient response to the Lord Jesus. What we have in this passage is an advanced dealing of the Lord Jesus with men to whom He had already given some revelation of His true identity as Messiah and Lamb of God, and who had already been brought into an attack to Him in faith and love, and had already had some experience as His companions in ministry. And it's important that we understand that as background to the narrative that is before us. Now with that background behind us and conditioning our handling of the passage, now consider with me the major facts of this narrative. And what we have is a a narrative in two rapid-fire scenes. We have scene one, which concentrates upon Jesus and upon these first two brothers, Andrew and Peter, and then we have scene two, which concentrates upon Jesus and these two men, James and John. Now we just want to get hold of our facts

Major Facts of the Narrative: Two Rapid-Fire Scenes

12:50 in these two scenes, all right? Scene one, we have the calling of Simon and Andrew, and that calling has two parts, the activities of Jesus and then the activities of Simon and Andrew. As Mark writes, the emphasis falls upon the verbs of action, and so we have in

13:20 all the activities of Jesus. And what are they? Look at the text, verse 16. And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting their net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers. And he said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. So the activities of Jesus are described as passing along, seeing, and saying. Now that should be very simple for you to remember. On a given day, a day that

14:07 dawned as all other days, with fishermen out to ply their trade of catching fish in this Sea of Galilee, this lake approximately twelve miles long. Six miles in length and six miles in breadth, which yielded an abundance of all kinds of seafood and was the center of the fishing trade in that area. On that given day, a man dressed in the ordinary garb of that particular period in history is found walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. And the scripture tells us that as he was passing along, he saw two men in the act of fishing. And the verb used to describe it could either refer to the special kind of net they were using, a net which would be cast out from behind the shoulder and spread out in a circle and with lead weights would sink to the bottom and then be drawn, hopefully, with some fish caught within its threads. Or it could mean that they were casting about

15:20 in a boat from one side to another. Some of us who've done some fishing, we know what it is to try to fish in a circle. When you get in a place where you think there might be a hole or an overhang where fish might be feeding along the shore, you try to cast in a circle. Well, the verb could possibly refer to the fact that they were casting about on different sides of their ship. But anyway, the text tells us that passing along, Jesus saw them. He fixed his eyes upon them. He beheld these two men, Simon, who is of course Peter, and his brother Andrew. And then the text says that Jesus said to them these very simple words. If we could give a more blunt, literal rendering, it would be something like this. This way, after me. We have it translated,

16:21 that Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me. And the word used has the force of an imperative, but it's almost a form of verbal shorthand. Away after me. And he follows then with this word of intention as to what he will do as they come after him, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

16:49 So in the words of Jesus, we have a command to follow him, and an intimation of his purpose. He is calling them after himself in order to lead them into a change of occupation. He is to lead them from being fishers of literal fish that swim in a literal sea to become fishers of men. Now then, in scene one, we move from the activity of Jesus to the very simple description of the activity or response of Simon and Andrew, verse 18.

17:30 Notice what Mark tells us, and straightway, without any hesitation, without any debate or discussion with one another, with any of their companions, or with the Lord, straightway, they did two things. They left their nets and the main verb, and followed him. There was an immediate, unhesitating, non-debated response. They left their nets, and they followed him. So now, the stranger who came walking along the shores of Galilee is no longer alone. Walking behind him are the two brothers who've left their boat and the nets that were in the boat, and who are now found in companionship with him. Now then, scene two shifts immediately to the activity of Jesus with respect to two other men. And the activity is described this way.

18:36 And going on a little further, now the Lord Jesus continues to walk, no longer alone, with two men behind him, goes on a bit further, and what happens there? Well, the activity here is, again, described in terms of what he saw. He saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat, mending their nets. And the picture is probably this. Their boat was pulled up, at least the bow of it, onto the shore, and they were there in the boat, not fishing, not casting about, or throwing out that particular kind of net, that Peter and Andrew may have been using, but they were busily mending the nets. They perhaps were done their fishing activities for the night, it may have been early morning, and here they are preparing their nets for their next day of fishing. And Jesus sees them, and having beheld them, the text says that he called them. Notice the language, and straightway, without any

19:53 hesitation, he called them. And in the context, we are led to believe that the term called them means precisely what is given in greater detail in verse 17. He says to them as well, come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And though the text does not explicitly state it, there is everything in the context to indicate that Mark expects us to understand that if not a verbally identical summons went forth, at least something of the same nature.

20:35 He summons them to fall in behind him, to identify themselves with him in a new and in an intensified manner. The same Christ of whom John wrote earlier, who had been revealed to them as Messiah, to whom John had pointed as the Lamb of God, the same one in whose company they had seen the miracle of the turning of the water into wine in Cana, in whose presence they had engaged in some temporary form of Christian work with him. Now the Lord Jesus calls them to this more intensified, this more permanent commitment to himself in a life of discipleship which would ultimately lead, according to chapter three of Luke's gospel, into full-blown apostleship. Now then, what was their response to his summons? Verse 20 says, and straightway, without any reservation, straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Without hesitation, they leave

22:03 their father and the hired servants, and now the stranger who came to the shores of Galilee that morning all alone has his rank swelled to four followers. First there was one, then there was three, now there are five of them on Galilee's shore. Had you been standing off at a distance that day, you would have seen what might have appeared to you as a rather strange and enigmatic sight. You would have beheld on the dawning of that ordinary day the presence of this ordinary stranger coming by some ordinary fishermen speaking but a few words and suddenly these fishermen totally disrupt the normal pattern of the day's activity and they are found falling in rank behind this visiting stranger in close physical proximity to him. Two of them leave the casting of their nets to follow him. Two of them leave the mending of their nets along with their father and the hired servants to be found in the presence of this visiting stranger. Now, those are the facts of the narrative. I've simply

Abiding Message: Two Levels of Reality

23:29 tried to be honest and fair in opening up what the passage says. Now, having considered the background to the narrative, the facts of the narrative, we come to the heart of our study today. What is the abiding message of this narrative to us? In seeking to answer that question, in any responsible application of the passage, we must keep in mind the fact that there are two levels of reality before us.

24:04 Follow closely. Now, I know you had to think hard in the previous hour and it's going to be difficult for you to think hard now for the next couple of minutes, but it's essential that you think with me and grasp this. There are two levels of reality in this narrative. First of all, there is the reality of our Lord's dealings with these men as the ordinary objects of His ordinary grace and His ordinary saving power as applied to sinners. In other words, along the shore of Galilee that morning, the Lord Jesus is saying and doing certain things with these men that are identical with the things that He does in all men and all women in all ages in all circumstances whenever He casts the canopy of His grace over them. But then there is a second level of reality in this passage. It is the reality of our Lord's extraordinary dealings with these men who are the extraordinary objects of an extraordinary

25:24 call to an extraordinary office. You see, the Lord is leading these people on to the full-blown commission of being apostles. And apostles are not ordinary people. They become the very foundation stones of the church in its full-blown realization in the New Testament.

25:52 They become the foundation stones of the New Testament. They become the master builders of Christ's church. And our Lord even at this stage in His ministry knows that He was born to die. He was born to die and be raised from the dead and go back to the right hand of the Father from whence He would send the Spirit and that there had to be those who would be the great master builders of His church after the descent of the Spirit.

26:22 And so, He is already fashioning and forming the apostolate. And the call of these four men in the light of chapter 3 of Mark's gospel is halfway between their initial call to grace recorded in John 1 and their full-blown call to apostleship recorded in Mark 3. So there are these two levels of reality. And anyone who seeks to expound and apply this passage and ignores those distinctions or butchers those distinctions is not a safe guide in the Scriptures.

The Gracious, Sovereign Magnetism of Jesus

27:06 Now, having made that qualification, what I want to do is to focus upon those dimensions of our Lord's dealings with these men that we have in common with them. In other words, those dimensions of His dealings which do not have primary reference to His extraordinary activity, preparing them for an extraordinary office in an extraordinary way, but His ordinary dealings with them in the ordinary channels of His grace to bring them to Himself and to make them the recipients of His gracious salvation. Now, with that qualification and explanation before us, as time permits, I want to draw out five aspects of the abiding message of this narrative. Number one, this narrative constitutes a vivid illustration of the gracious, sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth. It constitutes a vivid illustration of the gracious sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth.

28:31 I remind you, as I've asserted earlier, that a year previous to this, in conjunction with the ministry of John the Baptist, these men were brought to acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. Subsequently, they had seen His miracle of turning the water to wine in Cana of Galilee. And it says on that occasion His disciples believed in Him. They had accompanied Him in Judea.

29:06 They had heard the gracious words proceeding from His mouth. They had heard Him speak with authority and not as the scribes and the Pharisees. And now on this occasion, as in the providence of God, they had returned from that southern area of Palestine and up to their home area up in the northern part, the Galilean part by the Lake of Galilee. The Lord Jesus comes on this given day and without any lengthy discourse, without any apparent promise of personal rewards or blessings, simply passes by these men and says, Up! Leave! Follow!

30:00 And wonder of wonders,

30:03 they leave the nets, they leave their father, they leave the hired servants, they leave their present occupation, and they are found, as it were, running in the way of this simple, straightforward call to identification with the Lord Jesus in order to come under the special influences of His grace that will constitute them no longer fishers of the sea of Galilee, but fishers of men. And in artless simplicity, Mark simply records that passing along, he said, Follow me. Passing on a bit further, he called them, and in both cases, the first set of brothers and the second set of brothers experienced what I know not how else to describe as the gracious but sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth.

31:18 In principle, when they beheld Him in the earlier record of John's gospel as Messiah, and embraced Him from the heart with eyes illuminated by the Holy Spirit, the issue of what would happen this day on the shores of Galilee was already settled.

31:41 In the initial actings of saving faith, there is bound up every single subsequent acting of that faith.

31:54 And as surely as there is no saving faith apart from the wholehearted embrace of the rule and government of Jesus Christ, so there is no validation of the professed genuineness of our faith unless at every stage of the unfolding of the will of God, we with them feel this gracious but sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth. Having beheld Him as Messiah a year before, having having looked upon Him as the Lamb of God to whom John pointed, having had their faith confirmed by the miracles He performed and by the gracious words of His mouth and by what they saw in intimate connection with Him, here they experienced further dimensions of that gracious but sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth. And what was true of them is true of every single true believer in the Lord Jesus. Every believer has and does experience

33:21 the gracious, sovereign magnetism of Jesus.

33:28 He needs only speak a word, and we find our hearts run out to Him saying, Lord Jesus, I will follow. He did not say, up, away, come after me, and I will give you this, this, this, this, this, and that, that, that, and the other. All He said was, come after me, and I'm going to change your occupation. And for them, whatever it meant, it certainly was no picnic, for as fishermen in that day without all of the sonar equipment and monitor, modern fishing technology, it meant that these men knew the agony of sleepless nights, of hands that were torn raw by pulling upon ropes, of bone weariness and the danger of being upon that sea when the storms would come sweeping down from the surrounding mountains. All Jesus said was, I'll change the sphere of your occupation, but not the essential nature of it. It will be a labor like unto the labor of a fisherman. Different objects now.

34:45 They didn't debate. They didn't sit down and ask what the fringe benefits would be. They didn't ask about retirement plans. They didn't ask about medical benefits.

34:58 It says they rose up, and they followed Him. Well, what in the world makes people do that when they have felt in the deepest recesses of the heart something, of the gracious, sovereign magnetism of Jesus?

35:19 For the scripture says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. Let me ask you a simple question this morning. Sitting where you sit, does your heart know and experience the gracious, sovereign magnetism of the person of Jesus?

35:49 What do you need to move your feet into the way of obedience to the words of Jesus?

35:57 What do you need? Do you need to have a bag of yo-yos held out in front of you? If you'll follow Jesus, you'll get this, you'll get this, you'll get this, you'll get this, you'll get this, you'll get this, you'll get the other? Do you need to have all your bets well hedged?

36:13 What does it take? Now I want you to answer. Some of you aren't even looking, looking me in the eye. What's the matter?

36:18 Are you afraid to? Come on, look me in the eye. I'm asking you personally this morning. Look me right in the eye.

36:24 What does it take to get you to move your feet in the way of obedience to the simple commands of Jesus? What does it take? If you know anything of the gracious, sovereign magnetism of a saving attachment to Christ, all it takes is His Word. That's it.

36:46 Just His Word. Because it's His Word. It's His Word. And the Holy Spirit has shown me the loveliness, the beauty, the worth of my Savior.

37:00 And when He says, Come, follow, my heart says unto Him, Lord, I will come. I will follow. And if the only thing that moves you in the direction of obedience to the words of Jesus is fear of what you'll get if you don't obey, aspirations of what you may get in the way of personal material benefits, if you do obey, if all you know is what may be in other instances secondary motives, and you know nothing of the motive of the love of Christ constraining you, my friend, face it, you're a stranger to grace. And the Holy Ghost has never given you eyes to behold the grace of God. You have no eyes to behold the beauty of Jesus as God's Messiah.

37:58 This passage, I say, is a vivid illustration of the gracious, sovereign magnetism of Jesus of Nazareth. Do you know anything about it? But I hasten on in the second place. This passage is a concrete manifestation of the terms and conditions of true discipleship.

Concrete Manifestation of True Discipleship's Terms

38:27 It is a concrete manifestation of the terms and conditions of true discipleship. You see, earlier in John's Gospel, these people are called disciples.

38:41 But the word disciple and the word believer are used with great latitude in the Bible. There are people called believers who end up showing that they have no true faith. People called disciples who go back and follow no more. But here in this passage, we have a concrete manifestation of the terms and conditions of true discipleship.

39:04 And what are they? Now listen carefully. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 14, verses 25 to 33, we have the record of how Jesus preached to a vast, mixed multitude from whose ranks he had no purpose to call one apostle. They were just ordinary people.

39:25 And it says he turned and he faced the multitudes and said, Whosoever he be of you that does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.

39:42 In other words, what these disciples did in the process of our Lord's special dealings with them in preparing them to become apostles, he did with them primarily and essentially as disciples. He was simply called to a further manifestation of the bedrock, undergirding state of the soul, which was this, I have relinquished all that I might embrace the Lord Jesus as my sovereign and my savior. So when he says, follow me, and following him means leaving nets and leaving ships and leaving father and leaving friends and leaving occupation, it made no difference. They followed because in their hearts there was a compliance with the non-negotiable terms and conditions of true discipleship. My friend, let me press it upon your conscience. Do you know anything about those non-negotiable terms and conditions of true discipleship?

40:59 Jesus says to you and to me, whosoever he be of you that renounces not all that he has cannot be my disciple. You see, what had happened was this a year earlier when they beheld him as Messiah and Andrew fetched Peter and had him come and said, we have found Messiah who is called the Christ and Jesus said, your name is this but I'm going to make you a rock. I'm going to do something in my grace in you, Peter. When the Lord said that and there was the response of a spirit rose, sought faith in the heart of Peter and Andrew and John and probably James in that similar general context.

41:44 You see, the basic issue of the boats, the nets, and the loved ones was settled long before Jesus came by the Sea of Galilee. Those issues were settled in principle in the initial actings of faith and they always are. And the subsequent unfolding of the will of Christ either validates our initial profession or exposes it to be a sham profession. That's why time and time alone is the great prover of the reality of the profession of faith that we make.

42:29 The stony ground hearers believe for a while but then, fall away. Those who receive the word into good soil are those who bring forth fruit with endurance, with patience.

42:48 And so this passage is not only a vivid illustration of the gracious, sovereign magnetism of Jesus, but it constitutes a concrete manifestation of the terms and conditions of true discipleship. You see, at one and the same time, salvation costs us nothing and it costs us everything. At one and the same time. When it comes to the question of what can I do with these hands to somehow earn the favor of God, the Bible's answer is clear.

43:25 Salvation costs nothing. Christ has purchased it in His own life history. He has wrought a perfect salvation which is given to us as free gift. And in that, I sense it costs nothing.

43:41 But in terms of the psychology of what constitutes true faith, in which we are attached to the Lord Jesus as our sovereign as well as our Savior, salvation will cost you everything. Every selfish, carnal, personally framed ambition, every claim to personal possession and the right to do or be anything you may think you'd like to be, you're due, whosoever he be of you that does not renounce all that he hath cannot be my disciple. That's the word of Jesus that I hasten to notice in the third place that this passage in its abiding message constitutes a moving demonstration of godly parental attitudes and perspectives. It constitutes a moving demonstration of godly, parental attitudes and perspectives. Notice the text, verse 20, And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.

Moving Demonstration of Godly Parental Attitudes

45:01 Now if Zebedee kicked up a stink, it isn't said that he did. There's no indication that he went after the Lord Jesus and said, wait a minute, Jesus, don't you know that I'm getting to be an old man? And for years I've dreamed of handing on my business to these, my sons. And it's been in my prayers and thoughts that the fruit of my labors would be passed on to my sons, and that the fishing business would be carried on from no indication when Jesus said, follow!

45:34 They followed! And Zebedee shut his mouth.

45:42 What a beautiful example of godly parental attitudes and perspectives. No indication that he in any way tried to talk them out of it, tried to somehow get the Lord Jesus to alter the terms of his claims. He was serving notice to Zebedee when he spoke to his sons, come after me, and I'm going to make you fishers of men. You'll no longer ply your trade with net and oar and sail, but with my word and my spirit.

46:18 And Zebedee had to stand and watch his sons leave the boat and say in essence, Dad, all your lifetime dreams, Jesus has smashed them. You may have to change your will, Dad. You may have to change many of your plans, Dad. But Jesus has spoken, and we must follow.

46:43 And at least the absence of any indication of any opposition from Zebedee leaves us at least a framework in which we have warrant to say he appears to be a father who manifested godly parental attitudes and perspectives in that. Though the call of Christ meant the crushing of his own plans for his boys, he let them go.

47:14 I've met a lot of parents who don't want their children to go to hell, but neither do they want Christ so to lay hold of them that they may not see them for years on end in a foreign mission field.

47:30 Lord, save my little sweet daughter! Save my little darling son! But Lord, don't take them to a bush in the Amazon. Don't take them to some remote place where for four and five years at a stretch I may never see them.

47:49 Lord, save them! But keep them near enough so we can talk on the phone once a week. Take them near enough, Lord, so we can all come together on our special family holiday.

48:06 I rarely intrude personal testimony into preaching,

48:13 but I'm going to do it this morning because I think it illustrates this principle so powerfully. I was only a Christian about a year when sitting in an atmosphere where the most spiritual thing to do was to give yourself to be a foreign missionary and especially at that time, Africa, because it was still considered the dark, slumbering continent.

48:37 I remember sitting in chapel at this particular Christian school and hearing missionaries from Africa speak of the tremendous need. And what I had forgotten was this, that on one given day I wrote a lengthy letter to my mother and father. I've seen that letter and it is my handwriting. And I told them in that letter that after weeks, weeks of earnest prayer, I believed that God was calling me to be a missionary to Africa.

49:05 You see, then I had no doctrine of the church. I was purely subjective and all I'd heard about was the need in Africa. And because Christ had bound me to himself in cords of love to make me not an apostle, but a servant of his to preach his word, I felt the only thing I can do is give myself for that task. And I wrote in that letter very clearly that I was going to be a missionary and I was convinced God was calling me to take the gospel to Africa.

49:34 Do you know what kind of response I got from my mom and dad?

49:38 Nothing but encouragement. I found out years later when they received the letter, they wept. Their hearts were broken.

49:48 They thought of what it might mean to kiss their son goodbye and not see him for five or six years at a time. Not to see the grandchildren born and raised. But I thanked God There wasn't a whisper indirectly or directly to dissuade me from saying what I felt at that time was an unequivocal yes to the voice of my Savior.

50:22 Can your sons and your daughters come up here this morning and say of you what I said of my godly parents? Could they? Are you reading them with the perspective that when you bow at the table and pray, Oh God, get hold of my Johnny and my Susie and oh God, your will be done in them whatever it may be. Do they know that as a mom and dad even if it broke your heart, they're prepared to see you bury your life in obscurity for the sake of Jesus?

51:14 I fear that some of you know precious little of that. You've got your dream castles for your kids all constructed in your mind. Oh, there's no whorehouses in those castles.

51:32 There's no gambling dens. They're nice, clean castles Christianized to the core.

51:40 All of them raised close enough that you'll never have to know what the Bible means when it says there is no man forsaken father, mother, brother, sister, for my sake and us.

52:04 You've conveniently constructed all of your dream castles for your kids in close enough proximity that you'll never have the broken heart of radical separation.

52:22 God may curse your prayers for their salvation and let them live and die very close to you geographically and go to hell.

52:37 Is that the legacy you want to leave your kids?

52:41 Then you stand in the way of Christ's unrivaled rights to their lives.

Forceful Confirmation of God's Ordinary Call to Special Service

52:55 But I hasten to add in this passage its abiding message is also a forceful forceful confirmation of the ordinary way in which God issues a call to special service.

53:12 It is a forceful confirmation of the ordinary way in which God issues a call to extraordinary service. But it happens. Well, you remember down further south in Galilee and then even further south into Judea these men had come into a loving faith attachment to the Lord Jesus and for a time they were his constant daily companions. But apparently as we try to fit together the gospel records when the Lord Jesus made that trip up into Samaria recorded in John chapter 4 they went further and went all the way home.

53:57 Apparently the Lord Jesus released them by his word had no special task for them and what he did and what did they do? They did not go back home and get out in the middle of the lake and have all night prayer meetings dreaming about the great things they'd do if someday Jesus would come by and call them. They went back to fishing. They went back to their legitimate task and they were working at their task when on a certain day Jesus came and said follow me.

54:31 What a beautiful illustration of the ordinary way God calls people to extraordinary service with but one or two exceptions in the Bible. John the Baptist is one of them. From Moses right on down into the New Testament the Lord Jesus usually called a man to extraordinary service who was living to the hilt a most ordinary life. Moses was tending sheep when the bush ignited that day and as a shepherd he was called to be the deliverer of the nation of Israel.

55:14 David you remember all of the sons passed before the prophet have you no other son? Oh yeah I got some little kid still wet behind the ears he's out chasing sheep on the hillside call him in and he's anointed to be God's king.

55:34 Elisha he's out behind a plow with a yoke of oxen and a burning Palestinian son doing his work when Elijah passed by and throws his mantle upon him. Hosea the prophet said I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet I'm just a plow boy and God called him. I say this passage beautifully illustrates the ordinary way in which God calls men to an extraordinary task. They aren't sitting around inflated with the sense of their own worth just waiting for God to wake up to the fact that it's about time he blessed the church and the world by calling them to special service. I am suspicious of every man young or old who's got itchy feet waiting around for the rest of the church to wake up and notice me. Boy don't run the people gonna notice me. I mean I got this gift I got this prayer I mean I mean you should see the brain God's given me.

56:43 I mean I can think I got a brain and man I can speak and I can this when is the church gonna oh this church is they're prejudiced I'll go somewhere else maybe they'll the world is full of characters like that and they're no more fit for special service than they're fit to fly a 747.

57:09 In fact they'd be more fit to fly a 747. than to serve Christ's church.

57:17 No man's fit for the rigors of special service who doesn't show his faithfulness in the rigors of an ordinary occupation. He that is faithful in little is faithful in much.

57:35 If you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to you heavenly riches who feel God's hand is on you for the ministry young man and give you yourself to your legitimate calling here and now with all of your vigor and you be the most keen diligent trustworthy laborer street sweeper computer operator office manager whatever you are be busy at it and in God's way and time the Lord Jesus not by direct revelation as he did with these but by the ordinary channels of the voice of his church and the circumstances of providence if he has an extraordinary task for you to do he'll make it plain. Some of the most grievous things I've lived to see in my own brief life as a Christian have come from those that had itchy feet waiting for the church in the world to wake up and recognize their inflated notions about themselves.

Clear Revelation of the Divine Pattern for Kingdom Work

58:47 But then I close with this fifth and final word of application and touch upon it briefly. The abiding message of this passage is this. It's a clear revelation of the divine pattern for the accomplishment of the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus is going about Galilee preaching the kingdom calling men to repent and to believe.

59:11 He envisions the time when he's going to leave and the task will be left to others. What does he do as he's about to begin to form that band? Through which he will shake the Roman Empire from stem to stern. He doesn't go down to Jerusalem and find the hot shot doctors of the law.

59:33 He goes up to Galilee by a seashore and finds some bronze-faced, wrinkled-faced, marled-fingered, formerly foul-mouthed fishermen. And he says, come follow me. I'm going to do my work through the likes of you. I say, isn't that God's way?

59:56 First Corinthians 1. He takes the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and the things which are not and the base and the despised. Fox called them God's five-ranked army of descending human weakness. And I love that terminology.

60:18 God's five-ranked army of descending human weakness. He takes the weak, the despised, the things that are not. And that's the army with which he shakes the world. Why?

60:33 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

60:40 That's God's way. And how beautifully it's stamped right in the opening passage. On a certain day, what is he doing? Passing along by a sea where you find a bunch of rough-mouthed, hard-working, wrinkled-faced fishermen.

61:00 And Jesus says, they're going to be the pillars in my church. Oh, how unlike the ways of man. We'd send them to the Ivy League schools, and we'd send them to the prestigious universities, and we'd tell the Lord Jesus to go to the military academies. And the Lord Jesus would simply smile and say, that's not my way.

61:26 I want men who know themselves to be what they really are, a bunch of nobodies. So that when I'm done making them fishers of men, they won't think they became such efficient fishers because of their own cleverness.

61:44 Sound familiar? I am what I am by the grace of God. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God.

62:02 Oh, dear people, how rich is the word of God. And I say the abiding message of this passage is one that we need desperately to hear this morning so that as we behold the Lord Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, we'll sense him by the Spirit walking in the congregation, walking in the lampstand of this church this morning. Do you feel and know the magnetism of his sovereign grace upon your heart? Do you know that abandonment from the heart of all that you could lay claim to as your own?

62:38 That's what it is to be a disciple. Do you know what it is as a parent to have the perspective of a Zebedee? Do you know what it is as a child of God to stand under the canopy of his grace acknowledging that whatever you'll ever hope to be you will become as the will of God unfolds in the path of duty and that if God's going to use you at all, your greatest qualification is that you're a nobody. May God write his holy word upon our hearts and cause these perspectives to be part of the fabric of our life together.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

63:22 Let us pray.

63:29 Our Father, how we thank you that many of us seated in this building this morning have known and know this morning the gracious, sovereign magnetism of our Lord Jesus. With no external whip over our heads, with no physical rod or psychological rod at our backs, we freely and joyfully confess that we want to run in the way of his commandments. We are constrained by his love to us. The glory of his person has captured our once fickle hearts and he has become the great lodestone towards which all of our affection and desire is drawn. O Lord, increase the magnetism of the glory of his person and the wonder of his work. Write upon our hearts your holy word that we may enter in new dimensions the fellowship of Peter and Andrew and James and John with all of our hearts following him who loved us and gave himself for us. Seal your word to our hearts and to your name be praise and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

64:50 Amen.