Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The sermon text is from Matthew 4:12-25: (excerpt) As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. So far the text.
How do you get into a college? You visit, apply, weigh your options, then pay the tuition. Interns typically choose where they’d like to apply to work and gain experience. Legal clerks choose their favorite justice. Medical students choose where they’d like to do their residency. If you wanted a great business experience, you’d probably try to catch on at some high-powered company where you’d learn all the “ins-and-outs” of the business world. Each of those have in common that the initiative belongs to the individual.
One thing is unmistakable as you read our text for today no one becomes a disciple of Jesus by their own initiative. We learned last week that Andrew and probably John got to know Jesus after John the Baptist told them He was, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” After their initial acquaintance it seems Andrew and Peter, James and John went back to fishing for a living. Then along came Jesus saying to Andrew and Peter, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” “At once”, Matthew writes, “they left their nets and followed Jesus.” Likewise, James and John when Jesus called to them, Matthew tells us, “Immediately, they left the boat and their father and followed Him.”
What’s striking about Jesus’ call to discipleship is the urgent response. The disciples didn’t agonize over their choices before leaving their nets behind. Immediately, they left their boat and followed Him. Only the Holy Spirit can create such a response of faith. Paul wrote: “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except through the Holy Spirit.” The disciples become disciples because Jesus called them into His family. In John 15, Jesus reminded them: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” Again, Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws Him.”
This is the time of year when news is replaced with polling so I’m hesitant to replace the sermon with poll reporting, but this so nauseated me that it can’t go unreported. Barna Research interviewed Christians from many different church bodies, and none of the groups did very well. Lutherans were all grouped together so the polls combined the very-liberal and much larger ELCA with the Missouri and Wisconsin Synods. The results were so disgusting and demoralizing that I only choose to share them today in the prayer that none of you are so misled or skeptical of your faith to the degree suggested by the polls’ respondents. And if you have any uncertainty regarding your faith, join us digging into God’s Word.
How would you answer? The first question was: “Is the Bible accurate in all it teaches?” Yes or No. Jesus certainly teaches that the Bible is true, and yet, God forbid, only 34% of Lutherans responders agreed with Jesus. Other questions involved a Christians need to spread the Gospel and how many believed in heaven or hell and Satan as a personal being opposed to God. All of which were very disappointing. But this question was unspeakably troubling: “If a person does enough good things for others can they earn a place in heaven?” Yes or No. Astonishingly, 73% of Lutherans polled believed doing good things gets you into heaven. (Christian News, January 2008, pg.5)
I read the poll, but how can that be? If any Lutheran believes that they can earn their way or assist their way to heaven by doing good works, the Reformation is dead! That was the whole point of Luther’s Reformation, to point the Church back to salvation by grace through faith for Christ’s sake alone. What’s the point of Jesus dying on the cross if we’re saved in part or whole by what we do? Galatians 3 says, “If righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing.”
I don’t believe this about you, but it’s still true, one of the frustrating things about preaching is you never know whether people believe it or not or if it goes in one ear and out the other or if they have questions they aren’t asking or if I’m saying it in an unclear way. The heart of the Christian faith is about salvation by grace through faith apart from the works of the Law. Jesus isn’t a secondary theme in Scripture, He’s the whole point. Paul wrote: “From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ.” I pray, literally for Jesus’ sake, that none of you believes you’re saved by what you do. Said another way, I pray that you trust with all your hearts that “the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses you from all sin.” I pray that you know Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life in your place and died on the cross to wash your sins away. To trust in your works is to reject Christ. Christ Jesus is glorified when we believe His promise: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
In my mind I’ve tried to understand that achingly painful poll. Are parents and grandparents talking to their little ones about Jesus? Are people somehow counting the Lord’s Supper as their good work, instead of God giving His grace, forgiveness and salvation in Christ’s body and blood? I suppose it’s possible that people just don’t know how to express their faith or put it into words. God calls you to witness to your faith, to be fishers of men, within the stations you fill in life, as a parent, friend, church member, businessperson, teacher or farmer. God gives you a million places and opportunities to share Christ by Word, by action and by support of the Church’s Ministry and missions.
A few things are absolutely clear in our text for today. First, Jesus calls the disciples. He takes the initiative. He gets the glory. “It’s the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast,” Ephesians says. Salvation in Jesus is God’s gift by the Holy Spirit.
It’s also clear that before the disciples became “fishers of men” they were taught. Notice, Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.” God gave them the faith to believe in Jesus, but they weren’t yet fishers of men. The disciples aren’t sent out as “fishers of men” until they are taught. Only later in Matthew chapter 10, after being taught are the twelve disciples sent out.
I believe we too often take this learning period for granted, as if the disciples were immediately prepared to take on the world. But without first learning, they would have nothing to offer. This, I believe, is the biggest threat to Biblical Christianity today, you can’t teach what you don’t know. How can we defend the historic Christian faith if we have only a passing acquaintance with God’s Word? How can we give convincing witness to something that hasn’t penetrated our own hearts and heads? You and I have such a rich treasure in God’s Word. May God give us patience and discipline and diligence so that we join together in corporate study of God’s Word, as well as private reading of Scripture, Portals of Prayer, and other good devotional materials I’d love to suggest. To some degree this period of learning begins with forsaking previous attachments. It takes discipline and commitment, and when we fail asking God’s forgiveness and beginning anew as His forgiven children.
Whether you’ve known God’s plan of salvation well your whole life or were among those who believed you’ve got to do something to save yourself, please rest eternally in these words of Jesus from the cross, “It is finished.” He didn’t say, “It’s almost finished or nearly finished.” He didn’t say, “I finished My part, now you do yours.” He said, “It is finished.” Jesus isn’t mostly your Savior or partly your Savior. Through faith, Christ saves completely. Praise God, today and always, Jesus’ precious blood paid every last bit of guilt and judgment that your sins deserved. God in the flesh stood victoriously over our enemies of sin, death and the devil. Even your faith is God’s gift and call. Rest in His life and death and resurrection. That’s the Gospel. Jesus’ death and resurrection for you is the heart of Holy Scripture and the anchor for our lives. As the Epistle lesson puts it: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.