The term "disciple" is an important biblical term that often gets overlooked. It comes from the Greek word "mathétés" which means to be a learner or a pupil. In the context of our faith, a disciple would be one who eagerly learns from Jesus.
What then would a disciple of Christ be learning? If we are His disciples, we would be learning to follow Jesus, imitate His life and pass on His teachings to others. This is because Christ's calling on His disciples is not only that we would become disciples, but that we would mentor and teach others so that they too would become His disciples.
Just prior to His ascension to Heaven, Jesus spoke to His disciples, and the Scriptures record the conversation like this; "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Jesus desires more than just people who are converted to faith in Him. He's seeking to build a family of fully devoted followers. Men and women who delight in their relationship with Him. People who love to learn and implement His teaching. A group of people who love and are loved by Jesus and their lives make that abundantly clear.
The other day I received a call from a friend. On the call, he asked me to remember him in prayer. In particular, he wanted clarity on what God wanted for him. He was seeking the Lord's guidance on what his next step in life should be. Have you ever wrestled with that same question?
What is God's calling on your life? I would contend that He desires you to become a disciple of Christ in the truest sense of the word. In the simplest terms, that's your calling. So how can we become disciples who are fully devoted followers of Christ?
I. Follow me
“While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ”
Growing up, I went fishing from time to time, but not very much. I don't enjoy eating fish so the idea of catching them never stuck with me. My son Daniel, however, goes fishing whenever he has a free moment. Several years ago he discovered how much he loves it, and I'm pretty sure just about all of his disposable income has gone to fishing gear in recent years.
This Scripture tells us that Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a rather large lake and it's plenty deep. The people who lived in the region around the lake tended to be adept at fishing. My understanding is that fishing was the main trade and source of income for the communities that surrounded the Sea of Galilee at the time.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen. They were casting their nets into the water and doing their best to bring in as many fish as they could catch. This was their trade. This was their livelihood. It would be safe to assume that this is precisely what they expected to be doing most days for the rest of their lives. But Jesus called them that day, and they said "yes" to following Him.
When we read John 1:35-42, we learn that this wasn't the first time Jesus spoke to these men. But this was the moment when Jesus called them to follow Him. We're told here that they listened to His voice, left their nets and followed Him, becoming His disciples and then later being granted the office of apostle.
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples,36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them,“Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,“You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). (John 1:35-42, ESV)
Jesus wants us to be His disciples as well and part of what that entails is our willingness to follow Him. Jesus is God in the flesh. He is the epitome of leadership, and a good leader incorporates multiple disciplines in his style of leadership. One of the things you'll notice about a good leader is that he doesn't send you off in a direction by yourself. Rather, he invites you to follow him. He doesn't push you away, he welcomes you to get closer to him and then move in the same direction he's moving.
That's the kind of leadership we see in Christ. We're invited to follow Him. We're invited to head in the same direction He's heading in. We're reminded that He will be with us always and won't abandon us. But if we're going to follow Him, it needs to be on His terms, not our own. It needs to be His voice we're heeding, not our own voice.
I don't know if you've ever heard the Dave Ramsey show via podcast or on the radio. He gives financial advice from a Christian perspective and he has outlined a simple plan for eliminating debt, investing for retirement, and giving generously that he encourages his listeners to follow. From time to time, people will call in, say they have been following his plan, then mention how they are "mostly" following his plan, just not in certain areas like credit card usage or car loans. Then Dave will inevitably say, "It sounds like you're following your plan, not mine, because my plan encourages you never to do that."
In a similar way, Christ has invited us to follow Him. That doesn't mean we make changes to what He says or only follow Him on days when we don't feel like fishing. It means we leave our nets (whatever has the propensity to trap or entangle us), listen to His voice, and move in the direction He's moving (which we can be certain will be in a direction that's different from where our boats were already drifting).
II. I will make you something new
“And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ”
Please notice a few things about Christ's call on the disciples. He told them to, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." What was Jesus getting at when He said this? Jesus was telling them that their lives were going to be quite different from how they were before they followed Him. He was about to give them a new mission, and He was going to make them into new people.
He invited them to follow Him, not as spectators, but as His disciples. He would be their master, teacher, leader and Lord, and they would experience a transformation of life as they grew in their relationship with Him.
He also said, "I will make you fishers of men." This is an interesting statement that shows that Jesus was using a concept that would have been familiar to this group of fishermen. They were used to understanding the activity and patterns of fish. They knew the best time of day to look for them. They utilized the best tools they could use to catch them. Now their mission was going to change. They would be made into new people with new eyes and new priorities, and their mission on this earth was going to change accordingly.
Two months ago, I decided that I needed to make some changes to what I was eating. I try to do this from time-to-time. I typically only post pictures of the bad things I have eaten online, but my normal meals have been following a pretty strict regimen. It makes me feel better. It's helping me to lose some of the weight I gained during the months of quarantine. And if I stick with it, I'm confident I'll be pleased with the results.
Eating the right foods can certainly improve my health. A healthy life includes improvement, but when we dig a little into what Jesus was saying here, He revealed that our deepest health isn't dependent on "self-improvement". Rather, it's dependent on transformation that He accomplishes through faith in Him, by the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers. Jesus transforms the way we think, see and live (Eph. 2:10). He isn't calling us to become an improved version of our old self. He's calling us to be and do something new.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)
III. Your life will change
“And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Growing up, there were certain things that were expected of me and certain things I expected of myself. My full name is John N. Stange IV. Senior started a grocery business, Jr. continued it, III expanded it, and from birth, I was raised in it. I wanted to be just like my Dad and just like my Grandfather. I walked around in that store with a meat apron on, sliced meat when I was still in elementary school, stocked the shelves, ran the register, cleaned the meat department and delivered groceries when I was old enough to drive. Then I broke my Dad's heart and told him that I thought God wanted me to do something different and be a pastor. I was raised to run a family business, but God called me away from it.
Zebedee was a prominent fisherman. He had a well established business with some high profile customers. We're told that his business was doing well enough that he had hired servants to help with the business, in addition to his sons (Mark 1:20). Some theologians believe that Zebedee had the contract to supply the high priest with fish, and we can see from John 18:15 that Zebedee's son, John, was certainly known to the high priest.
“And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.” (Mark 1:20, ESV)
“Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest,” (John 18:15, ESV)
As Jesus continued to call disciples, I'm sure there were temptations for those disciples to remain right where they were, particularly people like James and John who could have continued to lead and inherit their father's prosperous business. And that would have been fine if that's what Christ called them to do. But Jesus called them to leave the comfort, familiarity and prosperity of their father's boat and follow Him instead. From that point on, their lives were never the same.
One of the basic marks of a disciple of Christ is the fact that their life has changed. We all have stories of what our lives were like before we met Christ, and it's fascinating to see the long tail of what Christ has been doing in us, and changing about us, over the course of decades. But it's also edifying to hear stories and testimonies of what Christ has been doing in our lives, or teaching us, over shorter spans of time like the past few months.
Has your life been changed? If you are truly Christ's disciple, the answer is absolutely yes. Or, do you feel like you're still living like you're spiritually dead? When you're battling between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit, who do you submit your will to? Christ who transforms you or this world that deforms you?
Christ's calling on your life and my life is so much higher than the standards this world drives into our minds. He calls us to follow Him, be made new by Him, and experience a life that is change by Him for good.
© John Stange, 2020
