I. The Transformation of a Disciple
A. The call to follow Jesus Christ
B. The call to evangelism
The call is our empowerment. If we see that this is what God has for us and He wants to equip us for it, then what can stop us? If God is for us, who can be against us? If we see that this calling is from God’s own lips, then it ought to embolden us to call upon God Himself to equip us for the task.
II. The Attitude
A. Immediacy
B. Relinquishing
The next attitude of a disciple is that of relinquishing. In verse 20, Peter and Andrew, upon hearing Christ’s call to them, “left their nets and followed Christ.” In verse 22, John and James left their boat and their father and followed Jesus Christ.
The attitude of relinquishing is one in which we release one thing in order to hold onto that which is really important, to hold onto that to which we have been called by God. Years ago, as a child, I remember watching a program in which the people were catching monkeys. They placed a piece of fruit into a box that was secured to the ground. It had a hole in the side. They waited for a monkey to sniff out the fruit and place his hand into the container in order to grab it. The monkey would not let go of the fruit and once it grabbed it, it couldn’t get its hand back out through the hole. All a person had to do to get the monkey is walk up to it and place a bag over it. The monkey could have let go of the fruit and run away. But it clung to the fruit and got caught. It was sort of like us. The Lord may call us to relinquish parts of our life so that we might more effectively be His disciple, more effectively serve Him, so that we can really follow Him. But we don’t want to give up what seems to be so important to us. Yet if we don’t open our grubby hand and let go, we cannot follow our Savior. There is freedom in following the Savior, but we reconnect to our old way of running our own life when we refuse to relinquish what He calls us to give up. It is impossible to keep up with our Savior and follow Him when we are trying to carry what He has called us to relinquish.
Imagine Peter and Andrew walking after the Lord Jesus carrying their rolled up nets along with them. Imagine John and James trudging after the Lord pulling their boat (WITH THEIR FATHER IN IT)! It would get awfully wearisome after a while. I think this is the reason many people experience burnout in ministry. They are not willing to let go of the boat when the Lord has called them to serve Him without it. They are weary because they are dragging this heavy load and at the same time are trying to keep up with Jesus. This is why Jesus said, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me… For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In order to get into the Lord’s yoke, you have to remove the yoke you are currently pulling. In order to recognize the difference between the burdens you have to relinquish one and put on the other.
Jesus didn’t tell Peter and Andrew to put down the nets. It was a natural response to following. They knew that to follow Christ required them to drop their nets. I think many Christians lack the spiritual sense to set the boat down, to drop the nets. They think that following Jesus is too difficult and so they end up quitting the pursuit of Him. But the reality is they can’t follow Jesus with a schedule packed to the brim with things that don’t include Him. It seems like life today is one activity packed upon another. A family is on a treadmill running from place to place. We are going to make sure our kids are professional junior athletes, proficient in six sports, adept at three musical instruments, and we’re so frenetic in our pace that gerbils get tired watching us go round and round. People say they want to follow Jesus but won’t rearrange their life to really follow. Jesus said (in Matthew 13) that they end up choked by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches and don’t end up producing any fruit for their Master.
There is a necessity in following Christ and being His disciple to have an attitude of relinquishing. No, we cannot do everything that others are doing if we are going to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. To have an attitude of relinquishing means that there is a necessity, as you follow Christ, to make Him Lord. Whatever things had charge of our lives are no longer to rule them. This means that we might be called to forsake certain things that are in competition with our true Master’s direction for us. Let go of the fruit in the box. Jesus says, “Follow Me.”
You and I have to think, “What is it that drives my life?” Is it the approval of others? Am I more concerned about what others are thinking about me than what God wants for me? Do comfort, security, or money control the way you live? Or is it Christ Jesus Himself and a relationship with Him? Paul spoke of this relinquishing attitude in Philippians 3. He says, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ… that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
Paul was saying that it doesn’t matter what comes into my life (good or bad) as long as it furthers the goal of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering to be conformed to His death. When Paul was being conformed to the death of Christ, then the life of Christ is what worked through Him. We have to begin to set our minds on this kind of thought. We often think of the pain of forfeiting something in our lives without ever reflecting upon what we miss when we don’t surrender to Christ’s Lordship as His disciple.
Let me reassure you that when Christ calls us to forsake something, it is because He wants to give us something better. It’s not because He wants us to be miserable or be without something. He wants us to exchange that which is fading, that which is temporary, for that which is lasting, that which is eternal treasure. He wants us to enter into His joy by serving Him in the gospel.
Sometimes Satan wants us to focus on what it is we are forsaking, instead of what it is we are gaining. If he can draw our attention onto the temporary sacrifice instead of the eternal bounty, he knows that we will not be content to follow Jesus Christ in the way that Jesus has called us to follow Him. There are many things that the Lord called me to give up in following Him. Some of them I struggled with, some of them I easily relinquished. But again, it is a matter of Christ’s Lordship. This is what we wrestle with each time we are called to follow Him. It is a matter of relinquishing my will and submitting it to the will of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes Satan wants us to compare ourselves with other followers of Jesus and look at what they have (what they’ve not had to give up) so that we would complain against God and this other believer (with whom we are comparing ourselves) because they are not on the path we are on. Their path may be just as difficult to them as your path is to you but Christ didn’t call them to follow the same way He called you.
In John 21, when Jesus called Peter to feed His sheep, Jesus revealed to him that he would die by crucifixion. When Peter heard this, he turned to John who was behind them and asked, “Well, what about him?” Jesus’s reply was don’t worry about him. You follow Me. When you see others who are not dying for the sake of Christ when you are, don’t worry about them; follow Him. When you see others who are not relinquishing the things Christ has called you to relinquish, don’t worry about them; follow Him.
Don’t look at certain areas of ministry to which God has not called you and become disillusioned. Don’t think, “Well, he gets to speak, he gets to lead, he gets…” Let me tell you about pastoral ministry and other leadership roles. There is a fishbowl environment to leadership in ministry. Our lives are examined closely. People look for things. They look at our children. This is part of leadership in ministry. There is a level of stress with this. But it is not unexpected or something that should take one by surprise. It is a situation that someone who is called into ministry should clearly recognize. Paul mentions it in 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.” This is to be expected, this probing, testing environment for ministry that involves some type of leadership.
Satan would love for me to question my calling to pastoral ministry in Jesus Christ by comparing myself with others. “Why are my children held to a higher standard? Why are people looking at how we act? Why am I not free to do…?” And so you, as you seek to be faithful to God in following Jesus Christ in some ministry, may be tempted to ask yourself, “How come I can’t do this or that?” It is because if you want to be effective in a particular ministry it may hinder other pursuits you have. If you want to work with a ministry that seeks to lead drug addicts to Christ and disciple them, then you may not have very many (if any) free Friday nights. You may be having a fellowship meal and Bible study with them on the nights they most likely will be tempted. If Christ would call you to do that, then guess what: you will be relinquishing certain freedoms. But what is the outcome? The joy of following Christ in the way He wants you. The joy of leading people to Christ and teaching them how to walk as a Christian. Can you compare that with having some Friday nights free? Especially when you compare it in light of eternity? What can you compare it to when you stand before Jesus in heaven surrounded by a group of redeemed drug addicts? Or when you get a note from one of them, written on an envelope: “My God is no fool. His Son granted me salvation through his death. Thank you for leading me to salvation.” Will it mean sweat and toil and trouble and trials? Oh, yeah. But I don’t think you’ll lose sleep in heaven over that petty stuff.
Choosing to pursue the attitude of a disciple may result in hardship, difficulty, comfort, or ease, on any particular day. The day before us may be a hard one. Being faithful to Jesus Christ may make for a day filled with trials. Or this particular day may be one of physical and spiritual rest. But (and this is the key) as a disciple we don’t get to choose what that path is for the day. As a disciple we relinquish our plans into the Lord’s hands so that when He changes our plans, we know that He is leading us for a purpose.