In previous posts we considered the when and where of God’s calls, and that God sticks with us even when our responses to His calls leave something(s) to be desired. This post looks further at how to respond to God’s calls.
Please prayerfully read these scriptures and consider the points below.
The next day as John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus went past,36and John looked towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God.'37And the two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.38Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, 'What do you want?' They answered, 'Rabbi' -- which means Teacher -- 'where do you live?'39He replied, 'Come and see'; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.40One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and say to him, 'We have found the Messiah' -- which means the Christ-42and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas' -- which means Rock.
As he was walking by the Lake of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast into the lake with their net, for they were fishermen.19And he said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you fishers of people.'20And at once they left their nets and followed him.21Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.22And at once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -- for they were fishermen.17And Jesus said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.'18And at once they left their nets and followed him. 19Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending the nets. 20At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.
Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,2when he caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets.3He got into one of the boats -- it was Simon's -- and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.'5Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.'6And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear,7so they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point.8When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.'9For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made;10so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.'11Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.
1. Although God comes to us to where we are to make His call, He requires us to come with Him from there.
A. Jesus expressly told these guys to leave where they were and come with Him in John 1:39 & 43, Matthew 4:19, and Mark 4:17. Luke is not as explicit on this point, but Jesus does instruct Peter to take steps he would not have taken on his own. Luke 5:3, 4-7, 8-10.
B. Jesus’ requirement that these disciples leave their old ways is consistent with multiple strands of scripture:
i. His teaching elsewhere that we must lose our lives to save them. Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:24-25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:34, Luke 17:33, John 12:24-25. See also Matthew 13:45-47.
ii. Jesus’ requirement that disciples leave what they are doing and follow Him is also consistent with the wisdom literature. See Proverbs 1:20-31, Proverbs 9:1-6, Sirach 2:12, Sirach 4:17-18, Sirach 6:20-32.
C. In each of those strands of scripture, following generates far greater blessing than staying put. See the scriptures collected in Wisdom Principles: We Must Make Real Effort/Sacrifice to Receive All that God Offers, But It Is Well Worth It.
2. Luke’s account illustrates the relationship between fruitfulness and yielding to God.
A. The miraculous catch in Luke 5:4-5 and the similar catch in John 21, like the miracle at Cana and the feeding of the multitudes, each involved God unleashing His supernatural power after folks submitted to His direction. A similar pattern is seen in 1 Kings 17:7-16 and 2 Kings 4:1-7. The common dynamic is believers following God’s direction in ways that did not come naturally; their ceding control to God. That dynamic is capsulized in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust wholeheartedly in Yahweh, put no faith in your own perception; acknowledge him in every course you take, and he will see that your paths are smooth” (NJB).
B. Digging a little deeper into that dynamic, Luke 5:1-11 illustrates the escalating relationship between obedience and fruitfulness:
i. The passage starts out with Peter being obedient in a small way by letting Jesus use his boat as a podium. Luke 5:3. That results in some blessing; more folks got to hear Jesus’ teaching, and Peter got the benefit of hearing Jesus’ instruction while he did seemingly mundane work (that must have been like listening to the radio while doing a routine chore; it makes the chore less burdensome).
ii. Peter’s obedience increases with his following Jesus’ instruction to let out his nets in circumstances that required more significant surrender. Jesus' direction came at the end of a long and apparently frustrating day (Peter had caught nothing till then), and after Peter had spent time cleaning those nets. The result was a truly miraculous catch.
iii. The relationship between obedience and fruitfulness exponentially escalates when Peter accepts Jesus' invitation to leave his prior life and join Jesus full time. Peter’s and billions of others’ eternal destines are transformed and countless temporal blessing result (and continue to result) from the good works of those saved by the church that ultimately resulted from Peter’s obedience.
iv. That pattern provides a glimpse into what heaven must be like, and what earth could be like if man hadn’t fallen. It brings to mind the wonderful pictures of those states painted by C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce, Out of the Silent Planet, and Perelandra.
3. These passages also tell us something about the nature of the fruit that comes from yielding to God.
A. That fruit can far exceed the extent of the obedience. Consider Andrew’s yielding to God’s prompt to check out John the Baptist, as described in John 1:35-51. It started as one guy heeding God’s nudge to go on what amounted to a retreat, but started a series of events that has saved billions of souls over the course of two millennia, souls that resided in places and circumstances Andrew could not possibly have anticipated. We see that dynamic elsewhere in scripture. See Sirach 24:30-34, Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19, Luke 6:38.
B. That fruit flows primarily to third parties. Although God generously rewards those who yield to His direction, the vast, overwhelming, proportion of that fruit benefits third parties. Consider the events described in Luke 5:4-7. Jesus did indeed provide a great, seemingly disproportionate, reward to Peter et al for their acts obedience, but that pales when it is compared to the billions of souls that have been saved as a result of that obedience and what followed. Those third parties are the primary beneficiary of Peter’s obedience.
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Other posts about God calling folks to the purposes He created them for are collected at What we can learn about God's calls from Jesus calling His first disciples--collected
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