Two Simple Words

The costly call to abandon everything for Jesus can be stated another way. We lay down all things so that we live for one thing: to honor the King. To follow Jesus means to hold loosely to everything else and to cling tightly to the person of Christ and the mission of His kingdom. This may sound extreme to some people, but we can't forget who the "Me" is here. To lay down everything in your life doesn't make sense until you realize who the King is. Once you realize this, leaving behind all things is the only thing that makes sense. Remember Matthew 13:44: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field." We have Someone worth losing everything for!83

It should be clear by now that following Christ is not easy. However, this is not a call to earn something from God by our sacrificial lifestyles. As we live with radical abandonment for Christ's glory, we are to live with joyful dependence on His grace. See the beauty and wonder of God's grace in those words, "Follow Me." God takes the initiative to choose us. While potential disciples in first-century Judaism would seek out a rabbi to study under, Jesus did the seeking in this passage. The disciples didn't come to Jesus—He came to them. Jesus does at the beginning of the New Testament what God did throughout the Old Testament. God always chooses His partners. He chose Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. He also chose the prophets. And he chose Israel to be His people (Deut 7:6-7). Just as the Father chose His people in the Old Testament, so Jesus chose His disciples in the New Testament. Jesus will tell the disciples later, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). This choice was not because of anything in them; it was all because of grace in Him.

It's common to hear people give reasons for why Jesus would choose fishermen to be His disciples. It may be that four to seven of these men were actually fishermen, and, it is pointed out, fishermen have certain tasks and skill sets that make them likely candidates as disciples and disciple-makers. But if that's the direction we go, we'll miss the whole point of the text. Jesus did not call these guys because of what they brought to the table. These four guys, and the disciples that came later, didn't have many things in their favor. For starters, they were Galileans, deemed to be lower class, rural, and uneducated by many. They were hardly the cultural elite, and they certainly weren't the most spiritually qualified for this task. Instead, they were narrow-minded and superstitious, full of Jewish prejudices, misconceptions, and animosities. These are the ones Jesus chose.

This may sound like a harsh description of these 12 men, but the reality is that it's not just them; it's us too! You and I have nothing in us to draw Jesus to us, to elicit this invitation. We are sinners—rebels to the core—running from God. And the beautiful, gracious, glorious reality of the gospel is that Jesus comes running to us. He calls our name. He chooses us. To use the words of Ephesians 1:4-6,

God the Father sent the Son to bear the wrath you and I deserved on a cross so that we, by His grace, might be drawn to Him. Praise be to God that He takes the initiative to choose us! But why does He do this?

Right after telling us that He chose the disciples, Jesus gives us the purpose of their choosing: "I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit" (John 15:16). Likewise, the command to "Follow Me" has a purpose: "Follow Me... and I will make you fish for people!" (Matt 4:19). So Jesus not only takes the initiative to choose us, but also He provides the power to use us. Notice that Jesus does not command the disciples to fish for people; rather, He says, "I will make you fish for people." In other words, "I am going to do a transforming work in your life that will enable you to spread the message of My kingdom around the world." The power to follow Christ and make Him known comes only as we rely fully on His strength. In John 15:4 Jesus tells His disciples, "Remain in Me, and I in you." The fruit we bear in following Jesus only comes as we remain in Him by faith. There's no way these men could carry out the commands given from Jesus, and so Jesus says, in effect, "I will enable you to do all that I command."

God takes the initiative to choose us, He provides the power to use us, and He gets the glory through us. Consider how God used this unlikely group of men:

Human history was altered forever by this group of disciples, and it began with four local fishermen. Hardly a world-changing task force! But this is the beauty of God's design, namely, to take weak and lowly sinners and enable them to do far more than they (or anyone else) could ever imagine, all to the praise of His glorious grace! May He use us and our churches to change our own world today.85

Next, we see that to follow Jesus means to live with faithful adherence to His person. This is what the disciples did; their commitment wasn't perfect and their understanding was often cloudy, but they were loyal to their Lord. It's worth noting that the word "disciple" appears more than 250 times in the New Testament, but it doesn't always refer to these 12 men. Sometimes the word "disciple" refers to the crowds who were following Jesus and simply listening to Him (Luke 6:17). Other times, the word "disciple" refers to the people who seemed to be convinced of what Jesus was saying, but they weren't "all in." However, there were 12 guys, and a few women, who after these many days of teaching and preaching and healing in Galilee, would follow Jesus all the way to Jerusalem to the cross. As we'll see clearly in the upcoming Sermon on the Mount, nominal adherence to Jesus is not something new to the twenty-first century (Matt 7:21-23). It has been prevalent ever since the first century.

Throughout history, there have been crowds of people who were content to hear from Jesus, maybe even to agree with Jesus, but they didn't truly follow Him. In the place where I pastor, Birmingham, Alabama, it is no big deal to go to a church. In fact, so many people go to church that it becomes a game to see which church can draw the biggest crowd. But this is not New Testament Christianity. New Testament Christianity is a narrow road, a costly road of continual obedience. Anyone who wants to become a follower of Jesus needs to know what they are signing up for.

First, we are not casual listeners. True disciples don't simply listen to the words of Jesus week by week and then move on with their lives. Second, we are not convinced listeners, people who are content to merely affirm belief in Jesus. Even demons believe Jesus is who He says He is (Jas 2:19)! Intellectual belief alone ultimately damns. Followers of Jesus are not simply casual or even convinced listeners; we are committed learners and followers. In a world, even a church world, full of casual and convinced listeners, I want to invite you to yield your life as a learner and follower of Jesus, being willing to go wherever He asks and to do whatever He says, no matter what it costs.

Next we need to see that to follow Jesus means to live with total trust in His authority. We might put it this way: He is the Master of every domain86 in our lives. Luke records that just before Jesus called these four fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James, and John), He was able supernaturally to determine where they should drop their nets for a massive catch (Luke 5:1-11). From the beginning, then, the disciples realized that Jesus was sovereign, even over the fish of the sea. For them and for us, it is important to realize that there is nothing in our lives or our professions that is outside Jesus' authority.

All of us have the dangerous tendency to compartmentalize Christianity. We relegate Jesus to the religious realm, not realizing that He is the Lord of every detail in our lives. He is Lord over politics and policies. He is Lord over budgets and bank accounts. He is Lord over houses and cars. He is Lord over words and thoughts, attitudes and actions. And to follow Him is to live with total trust in His sovereign, supreme authority in every domain and in every detail of your life.

Finally, to follow Jesus is to live with urgent obedience to His mission. This is integral to why He called us in the first place. Every follower of Jesus is a fisher of men. Using imagery that was familiar to their vocation, Jesus was calling the disciples to a mission. Instead of searching for fish all over the lake, they would spread the gospel all over the world. At the close of this Gospel, this message remains front and center. Jesus met the disciples on a mountainside in Galilee, and He commanded them, "Go... and make disciples of all nations."

The theme of mission is prominent in Matthew's Gospel, for every disciple is a disciple-maker. This is admittedly an unconventional plan. With the good news of a kingdom to spread throughout the world, Jesus gathered a few men around Him for three years. He loved them, cared for them, taught them, and trained them, and when He left this earth, He only had a handful of people who were actually following Him. But each one of them knew that he (or she) had one mission—to fish for men and make disciples. The advancement of the gospel in the world came about as the Spirit of God used every single one of those early disciples to accomplish His grand and global purpose.1387

We desperately need to be reminded that the Great Commission and the call to fish for men are every Christian's privilege and responsibility. This is an unconventional plan that demands a universal response. This is one of the deepest burdens of my heart for the church I pastor. I want every member, every disciple, to see themselves as disciple-makers. So biblically, if we're not making disciples, then we have missed what it means to be a disciple in the first place. This is one of the reasons I encourage every member of our church to be a part of a small group, where the goal is not simply to meet, but to come alongside other believers and ask, "How can we make disciples?"

You may be thinking, "I can't do that." To which I say, "Yes, that's the point." We can't do it. That's why we need Jesus to make us what we cannot be in and of ourselves. This is the core of discipleship: we follow Him, and He makes us fishers of men.

A passage like Matthew 4:18-25 isn't intended simply to be analyzed. It's intended to confront us with the question of whether or not we will follow Jesus. Therefore, consider the cost of discipleship. That is, consider the cost of what it means to follow Jesus, to live with radical abandonment for His glory, to lay down and leave behind all things in order to live for the King. And this is to be done with joyful dependence on His grace, faithful adherence to His person, and total trust in His authority. Disciples of Jesus ought to live with urgent obedience to His mission.

Discipleship is undoubtedly costly, but as you consider the cost of discipleship, I beg you to consider the cost of non-discipleship. What if you choose to reject Jesus, to live for yourself and to die in your sin? What if you choose to settle for casual, cultural Christianity that never truly encounters Christ?

Consider what the cost will be for our lives. Eternity is at stake. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and death apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ means that an eternal hell is your destination. Don't be deceived: the cost of non-discipleship is far greater than the cost of discipleship.

And also consider the cost for our community. Your non-discipleship means that the people who know you get a picture of a half-hearted, lukewarm Christianity and a puny, pathetic Christ. Instead, we want to show people that Jesus is worthy of more than Sunday morning or even88 small group attendance; He's worthy of our lives and our possessions, our dreams and our ambitions. He's worthy of it all, and we gladly lay it all down for Him. Let's make known the good news of a King for whom it is worth losing everything.

Finally, consider the cost for the world if we aren't committed learners and followers of Christ. How is it that billions of people have still never heard this gospel? Surely it is at least in part because we have been content with business as usual in the church, instead of realizing what it means to really follow the Jesus of the Bible and to spend our lives spreading the gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the earth. Failing to follow Jesus truly has global consequences.