How are you doing in your journey with Jesus? How are you doing as his disciple in this world?

How Jesus' Call Changed Their Lives
One day several ordinary people received a call to follow Jesus by the Sea of Galilee. They were two sets of brothers, Simon and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John. Later on eight more would be added to the list.

The call of Jesus to be with him and to follow him dramatically changed their lives.

They were very ordinary people, concerned with very ordinary issues of life such as how to catch more fish and how to provide for their families. But the call of Jesus would forever change their outlook and issues in life. Their eyes were opened to see things belonging to eternity like the Kingdom of God.

Jesus called them with a very simple instruction, 'Come, follow me.' The gospel writers did not elaborate on the conversations that might have taken place surrounding the call of Jesus. There is no mention of the disciples asking about the nature of the call (like How long do we follow you? What do we need to bring?). It appears that they were simply mesmerized by the presence of Jesus and, like a magic spell, followed Jesus by dropping everything they were doing.

Little did they know that it would take the next three years of their lives to follow Jesus and be with him and that the relationship with Jesus would change forever their lives.

From leading a peaceful fisherman's life, they were now fishers of men, "and I will make you fishers of men." For the next three years, Jesus spent most of his time with this disciples, eating together and going to places together. The life of Jesus was plain to be seen by his disciples. It was indeed an open invitation to be with the LORD of glory.

After being with Jesus, the disciples became powerful and wise. They were ready to go out and change the world as the Spirit led them.

Let Us Remind Ourselves of How Precious Jesus' Call Is
Sometimes it is also useful for us to go back to the time of our first calling, the moment when we responded to Christ's call to follow.

Remember the days when you were searching for truth and how Jesus came into your life? Remember how you made a conscious response to follow him by giving up other things that were competing for your attention?

I received the LORD Jesus in my first year of university. Those were the days of choices and confusion. I could have gone in different directions with my life. But the gracious hand of the LORD was upon me, leading to the truths of the scripture and to the wise and mature teachings of Christian living by older believers.
What would have happened to you if you had not met Jesus personally? Where would you be and what would you be doing now?

It is a glorious call to follow Jesus.

I want us to dwell on the important thought that the invitation to follow Jesus was indeed a gracious call of Jesus. Bob Dylan once sang, 'Everyone has to serve somebody.' Whether we admit it or not, we all follow and serve somebody.

Who do people of this world follow?

Some are afraid of spirits (Animists). They believe that they are controlled by spirits around them. Both problems and solutions lie in the realm of spirits. Humans just have to learn how not to get in their way and to appease them when they become angry.

Someone from the animistic Balangao people came to know the LORD. Tekla begain experiencing her new position in Christ. With joy she said: "I can actually talk to God in Balangao, my own language. I can even tell Him my tears. He is my protector. He is more powerful than the spirits. And he isn't like them: he does not lie and he does not need my pigs and chickens like they do. I really matter to him!" (D. Miller Discipling Nations, p. 66)

Some are unaware of a personal God who cares and listens (Materialists). They have reduced the world to merely materials. Both problems and solutions lie with materials. There are problems because you do not have enough of what it takes to be happy. Solution is in how to get enough of what you need. There is no tomorrow. There is no after life. What counts is now and how you are going to get what you need to live today.

Some years ago, I visited a log cabin of Lenin a few hours north of St. Petersburg, Russia, where the communist leader planned the Bolshevik Revolution at the turn of the 20th Century. Going up against the forces of Czar, it was a courageous and risky thing to do. But his approach was based on the philosophy of Marxist materialism, where everything was reduced to non-spiritual exchange of materials.

Nearly 80 years after the Revolution, in 1994, I was evangelizing in the Memorial Park of St. Petersburg. I came across a group of young men in their twenties. When I shared the gospel message with them, they told me that they did not believe in a personal God.

Eighty years of lie, eighty years of life lived with out God.

Jesus' call to us was simple. Follow me. No other. It was an invitation to follow a gracious leader, gracious God, who desires to teach us how to live our life as it was meant to be.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer captured it well when he said that the call of Jesus is 'a costly grace.'

Costly because it cost God his one and only son; Grace because the call to follow is none other than Jesus himself.

I want us to focus on the second half of Bonhoeffer's statement. It is indeed the gracious calling of Christ that we should follow him every day.

Consider it the greatest privilege to know Jesus intimately and to follow him with our lives. Who could possibly offer that kind of invitation? Does it not make sense what the man in the Parable of the Hidden Treasure did?

The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matt 13:44)

Yes, we would gladly do the same! Jesus is indeed 'the way, the truth, and the life' in this confusing world. So call to follow Jesus every day is indeed a glorious call. We are so privileged to hear the master's call and follow.

Each day of walking with Jesus is an adventure.

To follow Jesus means to acknowledge that he is going ahead of us.

Sometimes, in our eagerness to go faster, we forget to follow him. Sometimes, we become a bit head-strong or cocky in our own ability to make decisions and we forget that we are following the master. So less time on prayer and waiting upon God, and more time on planning and implementing.
Each day of walking with Jesus is really an adventure because we are call to follow him and AT THE SAME TIME to learn how to be fishers of men.

In other words, we are learning from our master how to have a clean testimony before the watching world so that we can be fishers of men.

I faced a test case at a computer shop. I took my notebook in to get the floppy drive fixed. He said that it would cost about P8,000. When I came home, he called me and said that he could fix it for P2500 as long as I met outside the store and pay him. The deal sounded great. After all, I had been spending way too much money for this old notebook! But I knew something was not sitting well with me. Why was I uncomfortable? I knew that this technician was doing his own business against his owner. I realized I would become part of corruption, something I do not need to contribute in this country. But even more importantly, I was afraid that my compromise would result in the loss of my testimony (first to myself and then to others).

Jesus would not do that. I learned to value the testimony of walking with Jesus more important than the momentary relief coming from having to pay not as much.

Walking with Jesus is an adventure that requires faith over common sense. After all, we are not following natural laws here but the supernatural laws. What Jesus commands us to do, we will do, even though they may go against our instinct and common sense like commands like 'love your enemies' or 'forgive seven times seventy.'

Because it is an adventure, our life is never dull (not boring) and never insignificant. We can count on Jesus doing some amazing things with our lives.

I know a lady in her 80's. When most people at that age are complaining about arthritis or high blood pressure, this lady is traveling all over the world raising funds to build a nursing college in one of the northern provinces in China. Last time I met up with her, she still had sparkling eyes filled with dreams and hopes for what God will do through this college. She told me that over a million dollars was raised by then.

A Glorious Calling Indeed
It is such a glorious calling to be with Jesus each day. Hence, our prayer in the morning shall be, 'LORD, what will you teach me today? How can I obey you better?' Our challenge will be, 'LORD, whom will you send to my way, that I may bear my testimony before him / her?'

Can people around you tell that you are with Jesus? During the last World Cup soccer in Korea, I noticed that after a goal was scored, the goal-scorer had a ritual. They called it 'goal ceremony.' Some would take their shirt off and wave around the field. Some others would do a somersault. I saw one player kissing his wedding ring. But the one that caught my attention the most was a player who knelt on the ground and gave thanksgiving to God. I was encouraged by this young man's testimony. He knew his LORD. Later I came across a gospel tract with this man's testimony on it. How powerful it was!

Are you seriously following Jesus everyday? Are you waiting upon God? Do you hear him speak to you? Each day we make a conscious decision to follow and to be with Jesus. Are you with Jesus? Is his joy your joy? Is his pain your pain? Is your heart broken by the things that break Jesus' heart?

Before you close this sermon, let me ask you frankly, 'Are you following Jesus? Can you say that you are a disciple of Jesus?' If the answer is no, I invite you to examine your life carefully. Why would you want to follow confusing voices of this world (be it materialism or pleasurism), when the LORD of history is inviting us with such a glorious call?

The early disciples followed Jesus by 'dropping their nets immediately.' What are you still holding onto? Is it worth holding onto? Does it promise eternal security?

May the LORD bless you and make you fishers of men as you desire to follow him ever so closely.