Tonight I have the privilege of speaking with you in this communion meditation on the subject of Jesus calling disciples to himself. Now this is not a novel message, but like Peter says in 2 Peter 1, 12-13, I am giving us a reminder in order to stir us up to diligence. So our text for this evening is taken from Mark chapter 1. And I'll read from verse 14 until verse 20. Mark chapter 1 verse 14 until verse 20. Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. As he was going along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were also in the boat, mending the nets. Immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went away to follow him. So in this passage we see Jesus after having been baptized by John the Baptizer and after his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, we see Jesus beginning his Galilean ministry with a message and with a call to discipleship. The message is seen in verse 15. It says, the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. That's the message. The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. By this Jesus means that the time appointed by God has finally arrived. God had promised Old Testament Israel hundreds of years ago by many different prophets and in many different ways that He would send them a Messiah, a Savior. And Isaiah spoke of that in Isaiah 9 verses 1 and 2. As you well know, Dr. Dolezal has been speaking of these verses over the past few Sundays during our Sunday School time. But I'll just read Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 and 2. But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In earlier times he treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt. But later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, and those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. So Isaiah speaks of this and he even names the place where the Messiah, the anointed one, would do his ministry. So Jesus is saying that time spoken of by Isaiah has come. I, the promised Savior, am here and the very kingdom of God has come near to you. And therefore, since the kingdom of God has come, things cannot remain the way they were. After all, Messiah has come to reverse the curse. So the message is repent. Turn away from everything and anything and anyone you've been trusting in to save you and turn to God. Turn away from your trust in the performance of mere rituals. Turn away from trusting in your Jewish ethnicity. Turn away from all the types and shadows. Behold, Messiah is here. turn away from your sins and turn to God in the person of his Christ so when he says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand therefore repent that's what he's saying turn away from all these things I am here I have come the time prophesied has now come and the kingdom of God is about to be ushered in Christ goes on to say And believe in the gospel. Now as you know the word gospel means good news. Jesus is saying believe in the good news that the kingdom of God has come near to you. Believe the good news that you can enter the kingdom because the Savior has come into the world. Believe it. So the message that Christ is proclaiming, it's both a message of repentance, turn away from your sin and a false trust in that which cannot save you, and it's also a message of faith. Believe in the good news that the Savior has come. So Jesus is beginning to inaugurate the kingdom of God, and so he chooses followers by calling them to himself. We see his call in verse 17. Jesus says in Mark 1 17, he says, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. Now the main part of this call is a command. He says, follow me. This command is a call to faithful discipleship because a disciple of Christ is nothing more than a follower of Christ. So in calling many people to himself, Jesus often uses the same simple command. He simply says, follow me. I'll read to you a passage from Luke chapter 5 where Jesus calls Levi to himself and you'll see very many similarities between the passage in Luke and the one that I've just read in Mark. So Luke 5, 27 to 32. After that, He, that is Jesus, went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. There's the command. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house. And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So we see in verse 27 of Luke 5, the plain command, Follow me. Again it is a call to faith in Christ because we do not follow people in whom we do not have faith. So when Christ says follow me, he is in effect saying have faith in me. Hear my words, believe my words, do my words. We can see also from this passage, his calling of Levi, that it's a call that is in conjunction again with repentance. He says in verse 32 that I read, that I've not come to call sinners to repentance. I'm sorry, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So again, it's a call of faith and it's a call of repentance. Now let me ask you a question. Have you ever heard Jesus calling you? Have you responded to his call in repentance and faith? And how do you know? How does a person demonstrate repentance and faith? We demonstrate repentance and faith by what we do. In a word, we demonstrate repentance and faith by our obedience. Let's look again at the passage in Mark, Mark 1, 14-20 and also the one in Luke. I want us to see that the simple obedience that was demonstrated by Simon, Andrew, James and John and Levi is an example of repentance and faith. In Mark 1, 17, as we saw earlier, Jesus said, follow me. And in the very next verse we read, immediately they left their nets and followed him. Now could their obedience be made any more plain? No, it's very plain. The command comes, follow me. And in response, it says, they followed him. Similarly in Luke 5, 27, Jesus said, follow me. And in the very next verse we read, and he left everything behind, got up, and began to follow him. Now do you see how plain that is? Jesus says follow me and disciples follow. We do not read of their asking any questions or even seeking clarification. What do you mean follow you? We don't read anything like that. They heard and they obeyed. The call went out and they got up and followed. That is the way practically to demonstrate repentance and faith. Now there is something else in their response of the disciples that is noteworthy. They responded immediately. Now I know that Mark uses this word very often, the word immediately, it's all over the gospel of Mark. But they responded immediately. The word immediate means not immediate. That is to say, there is no event that occurs between the command to follow and their obedient response. We don't read, for instance, that Simon or Andrew said, Lord, it looks like we will have a good catch today. Let's just finish what we're doing and then we will follow you. No, there was no waiting. Immediately, they followed him. As soon as Jesus called, James and John were patching holes in their nets when Jesus came and called them to follow him. Now can you imagine being in the middle of patching holes in a net and someone calls you away from it? I can imagine myself saying, Lord just let me finish this hole that I'm working on and I'll be right with you. Okay? But that was not the response of James and John. They responded immediately. Similarly, Luke does not record that Levi said, Lord, just give me a second. I'm in the middle of adding up these numbers and I'll be with you as soon as I'm finished. It doesn't say that. The obedience was immediate. Now in Matthew 8, 21 to 23, we see an interaction between Jesus and a would-be disciple. You don't need to turn there, but you may if you wish. Matthew 8, 21 to 23. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. Now I want you to see from this passage what Jesus expects from you, from us, when he calls us. He does not permit anything to come between His call and the disciples' obedience, not even something as important as the burial of a parent. Jesus said, leave that off and come and follow Me. And verse 23 says, His disciples followed Him. Now I ask you again, have you ever heard Jesus calling you? If you have, do not delay, come to Him today. The Bible warns us, it says, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Today, if you hear His voice. Don't delay. Today, if you hear Him speaking to you, do not harden your hearts. And in 2 Corinthians 6, 3 we read, behold now is the acceptable time. Behold now is the day of salvation. Always now. Always now. And some of us may not have another chance to respond. All we have is now, this very moment. So for those of us who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, the message to you is come to Christ today. Come to Christ today. Now Jesus is very demanding, very demanding. He wants us to follow Him and to follow Him alone. He doesn't want you following the celebrities of film, of music, of sports. He doesn't want you following your neighbors, your classmates, your friends, all the popular trends of the day. He wants you to follow only Him. That is very demanding, very exclusive. Not only does He ask us to follow Him immediately, He also demands that we abandon our attachment to everything else and attach ourselves to Him alone. If we're going to be his disciples, we need to leave everything behind. Look at Simon and Andrew. They left their nets behind. That is to say, they left their means of making a living. They were fishermen after all. And in calling them to himself, Jesus was saying, detach yourselves from your livelihood and attach yourselves to me. Now can you imagine that? Christ saying to you, give up your job and come and follow me. give up your job and come and follow me. Now he doesn't say that to everybody, right? He doesn't say that to everybody, but a disciple is a follower and if he happens to say that to you and you claim to be a disciple, your response ought to be an immediate following. But I say again that Jesus is very demanding It's a pretty bold statement. Detach yourselves from your livelihood and attach yourselves to me. That's a pretty bold statement. Similarly, James and John left their nets, they left their boat, they left their servants and their father behind in order to follow Jesus. Can you imagine that? Leave your parents, leave your living, leave your servants. So in calling these people to himself, Jesus was asking them not only to abandon their attachment to their livelihood, in the case of James and John, but also in the familial attachment to their father. Jesus is saying, I am more important than all of these things. And again, I say it's a very bold demand. In the same way, Levi had to leave his job. He got up from the table, left his job to follow Jesus. So when Christ calls you to himself, you will have to abandon something. You will have to abandon something that's near and dear to you. It could be your job, it could be your relatives, or it might be your personal time. It could be our personal time, our personal interests, our hopes, our dreams. Jesus says in Luke 14.33, listen carefully, he says, So then, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. None of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Now I'm speaking primarily to those amongst us, as I said, who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior. But Christ is always calling. He is always making demands, even on those of us who call Him Lord and Savior. And He continually calls us to faith and repentance. There's always something to be given up because We have not yet arrived. So there is always something that he's calling us to give up. And Christ says, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Now I want you to see how Jesus looks at the issue. This is how he looks at it. Do you want to be a follower of his? Whatever stands between you and him has to go. He says, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions. Therefore, whatever stands between you and Christ has to go or you will never be his disciple. You will never be his disciple. So he is very bold in demanding that we detach ourselves from everything else and attach ourselves to him. Now the question is, how is it that he can be so demanding? I mean, what right does he have to be so demanding? And why does he think that we would leave our jobs and our relatives and the things we care about and attach ourselves to him? Now let me say that in the first place, if he calls you to be his disciple, he does so as your Lord and Master. And as your Lord and Master, He has the right to demand your total allegiance to Him. If He is Lord and Master, He has the right to demand your total allegiance. And if you do not regard Christ as Lord and Master, you will believe and behave as if your obedience was only optional. Let me say that again. If you do not regard Christ as Lord and Master, you will believe and behave as though your obedience were only optional. It is not optional if you are a disciple. Disobedience is not an option. Your obedience is mandatory in order for you to be a disciple. But let me say that more than just being Lord and Master, Christ Himself is everything that you will ever need. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 1.20, it says, For as many as are the promises of God in Him, that is in Christ, they are yes. In Christ, the promises of God are not yesterday, and no tomorrow and maybe on the day after tomorrow. Paul says there are yes in him. All the promises of God come to us through Christ. There is nothing that we have from God that does not come to us through Jesus Christ. We are justified to faith in Christ. We are adopted into God's family in Christ. We are sanctified through Christ. We have eternal life in Christ. So when Jesus calls us to follow Him, He offers us everything we will ever need. So the point that I'm trying to make here is that when Jesus demands of us that we detach ourselves from everything and attach ourselves to Him alone, He is not making us a losing proposition. that is not a losing proposition. He is saying yes give something up and follow me but I submit to you it is not a losing proposition. He is asking us to give up that which is less to gain that which is far better. So in closing I'd like you to listen as I read from Mark chapter 10 verse 28 to 31. Mark 10 verse 28 to 31. This is Peter. Peter, after having become a disciple, he is now speaking to Christ after Jesus had finished speaking with the rich young ruler. So Peter began to say to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or farms, for my sake and for the Gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and farms, along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first. You see the thing is, so often the devil diverts our focus away from what Christ is offering us when he calls us. Satan diverts our focus away from what Christ offers, and tempts us to look longingly and unthinkingly at what we're being asked to give up, right? If I tell you, give me your penny and I'll give you a million dollars, you wouldn't think twice about it. It's easy. But if you spend all your time, oh look at my bright shiny new penny. If you spend all your time looking at the penny, You are thinking clearly. You are ignoring the fact that I'm offering you a million dollars in exchange for your penny. Christ is asking us to give up that which is less to gain that which is far better. I pray God would open all of our eyes to see that when Christ calls us, He offers us far more than we are asked to give up. Peter here is concerned with the WIIFM. Now those are not the call letters of my favorite registration. WIIFM is the WIFM, the What's In It For Me, right? That's what Peter is asking about and there's nothing wrong in asking about that. In fact, when God makes us promises, He assumes that we're looking out for the What's In It For Me. So Peter is asking about that. Look at his comment in Mark 10, 28. Peter began to say to him, Behold, we have left everything and followed you. He doesn't go on there to say, so what are we going to have for having done this? But that is of course the implication. Peter, it implies that he has given up a whole lot And Peter is expecting something in return. And Christ tells him in effect, Peter, there is payback like you would not believe. In this life, a hundred times. And in the life to come, eternal life. That is payback galore. So regain much more in this life with persecutions also, but in the age to come, regain eternal life. Now think with me for a second. There are things that prevent us from following Christ. On the one hand, if I follow Jesus, I would lose popularity with my friends. I mean, what would they think of me? On the other hand, if I follow Jesus, I will gain eternal life. Now which would you prefer? On the one hand, if I follow Jesus, I would have to give up my dream of being a famous sports star. On the other hand, if I follow Jesus, I will have peace with God, knowing that my sins are forgiven. Now which would you prefer? On the one hand, if I follow Jesus, I would have to miss out on a lot of fun. Has anybody ever asked you, what do you do for fun? I hate that question. It just ties me up in knots because I don't know how to answer. I'm not about the fun. I'm sorry. You can think me dull if you like, but I'm not about the fun. I am totally funned out. So on the one hand, you may miss out on a lot of so-called fun, On the other hand, if I follow Jesus, I will have joy unspeakable and full of glory. So which would you prefer? Which would you prefer? Again, we are so busy looking at the shiny penny that we miss the million dollars. Which would you prefer? Think about it. You see, it is worth giving up all to follow Jesus. So when he demands that we give up all and follow him, once again, it is not a losing proposition. Just think about it. Think about it. It is not a losing proposition. You can have all the treasures of this world but they only last for a moment and they will lead you to hell in the end. But in Christ, you can have the treasures of heaven for eternity. Now will you choose to follow Him today? Will you choose Christ today? If you hear Christ calling you softly and gently, leave everything behind, follow Him immediately, and you will have eternal life. Amen.