Do You Hear the Savior Calling?
Bible Passage:
Mark 1:14-20
Pastor:
Pastor Schmiege
Sermon Date:
2009-01-24
How many phone calls do you get in a week? How many phone calls in a day? What if Jesus called you? Would you recognize his voice? Would you be checking caller ID to see who was calling? You may respond by saying that Jesus does not use a phone. Are you sure? How do you know Jesus is not using another person to call you to follow him? Let us not be so quick to dismiss the Savior using the phone or many other methods to reach us in our lives. Let us answer the question: DO YOU HEAR THE SAVIOR CALLING?
Jesus had been prepared to enter his three year ministry as the Savior of all people. He had been baptized by John the Baptist and his Father’s words of encouragement from heaven. He had defeated Satan during his temptations in the wilderness. The angels had come and served him. Now came what could be a real set back in his ministry. John the Baptist called by God himself to be the voice crying in the wilderness and the way preparer for the Christ had been handed over to his enemies and imprisoned. Would that make Jesus hesitant or scared to continue on in the mission his Father had given him? Not at all. Instead of walking away from his ministry he walked right into it.
That ministry was “proclaiming the good news”. The good news is the Gospel, the proclamation that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Now “the time has come” Jesus said. The time that God fulfilled all his Old Testament promises and prophecies of a Savior for all lost sinners was here and now in the person of Jesus Christ. As Paul would write later to the Galatians, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
At this very time, Jesus proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is near.” Jesus is the King who has come to establish his rule of grace and truth in the hearts and lives of sinners otherwise ruled by sin and self. What is the way into that kingdom of God? “Repent and believe the good news.” Hearts changed from happy in sin to sorrow over sin coupled with Spirit worked faith in the good news that those sins are all forgiven by Jesus’ suffering and death are hearts where Jesus rules as King.
Such hearts, it would seem, Peter and his brother Andrew, as well as James and John, already had. John tells us in his gospel that we looked at last week in the sermon that they had spent time with Jesus before this. No doubt Jesus had proclaimed to them the same message he was more publicly proclaiming to many more people. In a parallel account in the gospel of Luke Jesus also included a miracle of a great catch of fish with this calling: “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men (Luke 5:6-10." This call for the disciples, Come, follow me”, was the next step, a call to full commitment to serve him as his apostles, to be workers in the kingdom he was proclaiming. They recognized this call from the Lord. They heard his calling and left all to follow him.
“Growing in Jesus” is the first half of the Ministry Statement we adopted as a congregation several years ago. That statement, “Growing in Jesus”, is first a personal Ministry Statement. That is what was happening to the disciples before the calling in the Word before us today. That is what is happening to us every day as Christians called to be followers of Jesus. Our calling to be his own took place when the Holy Spirit brought us to faith in Jesus in as our Lord and Savior, perhaps in our baptism or through our hearing the good news. But do we hear our Savior’s calling to grow in following him every day, to a greater and greater commitment to him? Elsewhere Scripture declares, “But grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The way to be committed to following Jesus more and more is to be in the Gospel for a growing desire and ability and then to practice what we preach out of love for Jesus and others. Repent and believe the good news in hearts and lives. Do you hear the Savior calling? He often works through people we see in our lives as pastors, parents, teachers and friends. Do you hear the Savior calling? When we recognize the voice of Jesus calling we will want to come and follow him.
In the case of the apostles Jesus said following him meant he would make them fishers of men. These ordinary fishermen Jesus would develop into men who would use the net of the Gospel to catch others for Christ. Neither they nor any human being could ever make themselves such fishers of men. But Jesus said he was calling them and he would make them fishers of men.
If this were the first time Peter and Andrew, James and John, had ever laid eyes on Jesus it would absolutely astound us that they dropped everything , left profession and home, to follow Jesus and become fishers of men. It may still surprise us a bit, but as believers in Jesus he had prepared them for this further calling and they were good to go. They heard the Savior’s calling to follow him as fishers of men and they answered the call.
In a way they still are. The Holy Spirit used many of these men to write the Holy Scriptures which make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. We, in turn, use that same good news as a net to cast out into lost hearts and lives so the Holy Spirit can have them hear the Savior calling to follow him as believers.
In that manner our Savior has called us to be fishers of men. It is as simple as the last half of our Ministry Statement, “Telling of His Love.” Some of us he has given the high honor and privilege of being called through you to do that full time. Thank you and thanks be to God from your pastors and teachers. But let’s by no means see only pastors and teachers as the only fishers of men. Your pastors, principal, council and boards met this past weekend is to look more closely at our mission as a congregation and how we are carrying out that work of “Growing in Jesus and Telling of His Love” in all we do as a congregation. We looked at ways to better communicate that mission and vision to you that you might be an active part of growing in Jesus and telling of His love.
On a very practical note it makes a difference when you make an effort to invite a friend or relative to hear the Word of the good news about Jesus. It makes a difference how each member reacts to the visitors that visit us whether they attend a second, third and fourth time. Jesus often said to his disciples: “They will know you are my disciples by how you love one another.” In our council and boards we want to set some definite goals that we can measure and evaluate. I ask you to consider a couple of specific goals for yourself. Decide when you are going to read a chapter a day of the Bible. Look for an opportunity to invite a friend, relative or neighbor to our service or congregation gathering in the next month. Look for an opportunity today to greet a least one person you do not know even if they end up being a member who has been here for four years.
Do you hear the Savior calling?, “Come follow me, I will make you fishers of men’? Speaking of the Savior calling, when you are asked to participate in some for of ministry in your church, this little corner of God’s kingdom, before you say no, ask yourself, “Is this my Savior calling?”That is not to say that at times you may have very real and legitimate reasons to say “no” or “not now”. Still before you make up your mind always ask yourself, “Is this my Savior calling?”
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