Calling the First Disciples

Mark 1: 16 - 20

Based on the church calendar, today’s service is about answering the call of God. The core message is that we are invited to risk ourselves in following God. Our lives are never without risk, but following God also involves some risk. The passage today is the first recorded Jesus’ ministry. You see that it was not something sensational like miracles or sermons, but Jesus simply gathered the first four people to become His disciples. It was a simple act that preceded all the other acts. It is interesting to read here that Jesus called them to Himself. The calling was to follow the person of Jesus. Verse 17 says ‘Follow me’. If you compare this with the Old Testament, or the rabbinic context in Israel at that time, people were called to show their faithfulness to Torah. This is correct because God is the one who gives Torah, the Law. However, here you read that Jesus called His first disciples to Himself.

The closest example in the Old Testament is perhaps that of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah called Elisha, and then Elisha followed Elijah. However, as in other parts of the gospels, e.g. Luke 9, the call of Jesus was contrasted with the call of Elijah. In the Old Testament, we read that Elijah went home and bid his farewell to his parents. Jesus, however, says that whoever wants to follow him must do so immediately, without bidding any farewell to their parents. This is tough. The message is not that we as christians could ignore our family. The point is that the call of Jesus is more important than the call of Elijah,, and that Jesus must be our focus rather than our family. Following God does not always conflict with caring for our family but there are particular times when God requires us to choose so as to test our hearts. Maybe we follow God only for the sake of our family’s happiness. Maybe Jesus is only a means to achieving our happiness or our family’s happiness, so sometimes God tests us to see where our priorities are. In the Old Testament, there is the story of Abraham who was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham obeyed and demonstrated that he loved God more than his own son. What do you love more than God? That is what God wants us to offer to Him. Loving something or someone more than God is idolatry, and idolatry always leads to a miserable slavery. When Jesus calls us out, He gives us true freedom.

Once again, Jesus calls people to Himself. We mentioned that in the rabbinic context or the Old Testament, people were called to follow Torah. Jesus calls people to Himself as He is Logos, the very Word of God. This reminds us that christianity is not a collection of formulae. It is always about a personal relationship with Jesus. Some people do not get the core but only the periphery. Of course christianity will be present in the periphery e.g. christian arts, songs, architecture, literature, work ethics, culture, habits, religious rituals, etc. However, all these are not the focus. The focus is always a personal relationship with Jesus. Without it, the person has not understood christianity yet. Jesus called the disciples to Himself, declaring that He is the fulfillment of Torah, and He is the Word. He called with authority as the Messiah, the One anointed by God Himself.

With regards to the calling of the disciples, actually in other gospels, e.g. John 1, Peter, Andrew who were called, had some prior encounters with Jesus. However, somehow Mark omitted those prior encounters. Jesus called them, and they followed Jesus. This means that Mark wants to emphasize that this is an authoritative calling from Jesus. He did not use any prior experience and relationship with the disciples to form the basis of His calling. He called them because He has the authority to call people to Himself. This term ‘authority’ is important. In the contemporary world, we keep being told that we are sovereign. We are the ones who determine things and have the last word. We have human rights and the freedom to choose. We can eat whatever, work wherever, worship in whichever church, pick whichever religion, or even choose to be religious or not. How incredibly difficult it is for a modern man to grasp the sovereignty of God and to understand that Jesus has the authority when He called His disciples. There is a story in Luke 9 where someone was called by God but requested to go home to bid farewells and to take care of family matters. Jesus declined the request not because He felt offended about the response to His call, but He was showing His authority to set the time that God had given to the person. You and I do not say the last word. It should also not be the case that when called by God, we only say we would consider it, give it some thoughts, and choose when to answer. Many people perceive following God is like this, as if God does not have His authority. It is as if God is begging and opens His hands to welcome whoever wants to come anytime they wish. That is not the depiction of Jesus in the Bible. He calls, and then the answer to the call follows.

The call of Jesus is authoritative. On the other hand, Jesus called the disciples in their world. Jesus entered their daily lives. This is actually the calling of the church as well. Do we enter the daily lives of people when we want to bring them to Christ? Or do we just state where the church is, and leave it to them to come on their own? Can we become a blessing to the surrounding of our church? Or in where you live and where you work? Jesus did not just call people to come to synagogues to listen to Him, but he entered the people’s lives. We should do likewise. Blessed are we who have encounters with Jesus in our daily lives.

We mentioned that following Jesus involves some risk. There is an interesting quote from a commentary, ‘For Mark, the act of following Jesus entails a risk of faith, and faith must be an act before it is a content of belief. This sentence is not without problems, and we’re in the Reformed tradition which stresses the importance of content of faith. Some may say that ‘yes you follow Jesus, but which Jesus or what kind of Jesus?’. However, looking at this sentence in a positive light, don’t we find many people claiming that they know christianity, the content of faith, are able to articulate their christian beliefs, and yet they do not have a clear act of faith and do not actually follow Jesus. A life that is truly offered to God is missing, let alone a life that fully loves God with whole strength, mind and so on. The person is definitely not illiterate about christianity. In this context, this sentence rings true that faith must be an act before it is a content of belief. What is the point of intellectually knowing the content of faith but not wanting to be used by God? We continue walking with our old worldview and live out a fallen narrative that is realistic as we live in a fallen world, but do not believe in the reality of the kingdom of God because it is unseen.

I am not saying that christianity is just about ideas and does not have anything to do with the world. However, do you see how radical Jesus’ call to the disciples was? The disciples really left their nets and families. Later on they would be sent out without carrying anything and had to depend on others for their livelihood. Jesus told them not to receive gold, silver or other material because they were not called to obtain those, but to serve. If you have the chance, you could listen again to the afternoon devotion on Thursday where I talked about the true security in life. What really gives true security? From a worldly perspective, it is about having enough savings, insurance, assuring children’s future, etc. It is not necessarily wrong, but the Bible is not interested in teaching that kind of security. When Abraham obeyed the call of God to go out from his homeland, in the worldly perspective, it would make him really insecure. He was already rich and living well with his family, but still went out and followed God’s call. This is foolish from the worldly perspective. Likewise for Moses, who already lived comfortably in the Egyptian palace where he could learn anything he wanted, but was called by God to go out from the palace and he obeyed. The same pattern of story goes on. This is true security: people are called by God and answer the call. Insecurity is when people build their security with worldly things and get abandoned by God.

Jesus calls you and me. This is the most secure thing we can have. Last week I mentioned that we should have two responses that Jesus calls us to give: repent and believe. It means leaving the wrong worldview that we lived out in the past, and then believing in God who has called us. If I am not mistaken, it is Martin Luther who says that when people repent of their sins and decide to follow God, there is a deep regret which they will never regret about. Regret about the past life that is without God which then leads to repentance, is a kind of regret that one will not regret about. Have you ever read any story where people, on their deathbed, regret believing in and following Jesus? I have never heard of anything like this. However, the opposite story is quite frequent, that is, where people regret their atheism and hostility against christianity.

The same Jesus calls you and me to follow Him. Verse 17 says, ‘I will make you become fishers of men.’. The word ‘become’ there implies a process that could be slow, painful, and involve a lot of moulding. This is expected because you and I are sinful people that need to be moulded by God. If we want to be used by God, we have to go through this long, often painful process. If we want to serve in the church, God will shape us through this kind of process. It is not a company where you are assessed by skills or talents alone and your character or spirituality are irrelevant as long as you can bring profits to the company. Even in companies, recently we heard of an extramarital affair exposed in the Coldplay concert, and the person was dismissed from the company. If character matters in companies, then it is ridiculous if the church only considers skills and not character. How can people want to follow Jesus but not want their lives to be shaped by Him? It is impossible. The disciples were shaped by God one by one. There was only one that kept rejecting it. His name is Judas. He wanted to be used but did not want to be shaped by God. He wanted to be used by God but did not want to believe Him. He was sent out and indeed he could heal people, but he himself rejected any personal relationship with Jesus.

Lastly, when Jesus calls us, He also calls us into a fellowship. It is an imperfect fellowship of imperfect people full of weaknesses like you and me. However, the beauty lies here as well in that we could sharpen one another. Jesus called the disciples, and they had fellowship with one another. Perhaps the community or fellowship does not match our ideals, but the fellowship is founded by Jesus, not you and I. If you and I found the fellowship, maybe it’d be more like a mafia organization, where all the members must be compatible with us. However, in the fellowship founded by Jesus, we might not be so compatible with one another, but the beauty is when each person gets closer to Jesus, we get closer in the fellowship. Peter and John had their own uniqueness, but God shaped them also through the fellowship that Christ formed. Let us ask God that our church grows towards having one heart and one mind. This will happen when we grow in understanding the heart and mind of Christ. When we have Jesus as our focus, we’ll get closer in our christian fellowship. Each person should deny themselves to become like Christ. Even this is also the call of Jesus that you and I have to answer.