CALLED TO FOLLOW JESUS ALL THE WAY
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank You for coming into our world to be the Savior of all people. Not only do You have universal love for all, but You love each person by name. You call us individually, just as You called Andrew to be Your disciple. We thank You that by Your Holy Spirit You call us by the gospel, in Baptism and through Your Word. Enable us to hear Your call in our lives and truly to follow You in all things. Amen.
Sermon Text, St. Matthew 4:18-22. And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Make us Yours by means of the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen!
Fellow redeemed in Christ, who came into the world to save sinners: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
When Advent begins – and simultaneously the new church year begins – what we are supposed to see is just this: that Christ came. As we said in the creed: He “came down from heaven for us men [mankind] and for our salvation.”
This describes universal grace. He came to be the Savior of all people. “God so loved the worldthat He gave His only-begotten Son.” Although the world rebels against God, though it’s His fallen creation that disappoints Him constantly, we see in Christ’s coming that nevertheless the Father embraces the world He made. Christ comes to save all people. This is God’s grace (His undeserved love) that’s universal – for all. Here we’re focused on the masses.
But God’s grace that is universal is also personal, individual. He doesn’t just love the great mass of people in the world and all of human history. He loves you. God’s love isn’t just big and massive; it’s close and personal. What do we say, even about God’s creation, in the catechism? – “I believe that God made me,” then we say: “and all creatures.” God doesn’t just desire all people to be saved; He desires you to be saved. That’s what we see in Andrew.
We see that Jesus personally called Andrew. He came to Andrew, where he was. Jesus knew Andrew would be with his brother Simon Peter by the Sea of Galilee, working together as fishermen. Jesus made it look like He was passing by. But He tossed the simple words at Andrew and Peter: “Follow Me.” What would happen when Jesus said this? We see the power of Jesus’ word: “They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
People can try to explain why the disciples followed Jesus upon one word from Him. You can try to imagine earlier dealings that Jesus had with these men, how He prepared them for this moment, so that there is some logic to it. And with Andrew there is a little bit of that; He did meet Jesus earlier, as you can read in John 1, spent the afternoon with Him and told Peter they had found the Messiah. But that does not mean that this made Andrew willing to follow Jesus, just because he had gotten to know Jesus a little.
It was Jesus who called Andrew and got him to follow Him, completely apart from Andrew’s will. For what did Jesus say later on? “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” (Jn 15:16). Andrew’s history as a disciple bears out the Bible truth that we are not able by our own reason or strength to believe in Jesus or come to Him.
Andrew was one of the disciples – before the full twelve had been called – who was at the wedding in Cana and “believed in Jesus” after the water-to-wine miracle. But he was also one of those to whom Jesus had to say, “Where is your faith?” when they doubted in the midst of the storm. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the mountain for His transfiguration – but didn’t take the others – Andrew was one of those at the foot of the mountain who couldn’t cast out a demon, and when Jesus came back down the mountain and saw all this He said to these disciples, “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I put up with you?” (Mt 17:17, NIV) And when the disciples argued over who was the greatest, and when they forsook Jesus in Gethsemane, Andrew was one of them. It goes on and on like this.
There are good things too. At the feeding of the 5,000 it was Andrew who said there was a boy with five loaves and two fish, and brought it to Jesus. The week of Jesus’ death, it was Andrew (with Philip) who brought to Jesus some Greeks who had said, “We wish to see Jesus.” And in today’s gospel, Andrew was one of them leading Jesus into Jerusalem with loud Hosannas. In these accounts, you see that Andrew is someone who sticks close to Jesus.
It’s a checkered history, isn’t it? We can relate. See how it isn’t due to anything good or special in Andrew that Jesus called him. As Scripture says, Andrew had no ability to follow Jesus on his own initiative. His good intent-ions could accomplish nothing. This is true for all of us. Jesus doesn’t call us because of anything good in us. He doesn’t call us because He knows that we would believe; that would make our faith – something in us – cause Him to call us. We don’t have any ability to make the first move toward believing in Him. Even after we have faith, we don’t have any ability to keep it. And even our best intentions fall short, like Andrew and the other disciples found.
But the Good News is that in conversion, God does it all. This is what the calling of Andrew shows. Jesus’ word was powerful to give Andrew the willingness to follow Him. The Word, and nothing else, produces faith. We learn to say: “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” In the hymn we sang: “Redeemer, come, and open wide my heart to Thee.” (ELH 91:5) This is what happens. God works through Baptism and His Word to create faith in us so that we believe in Jesus. This is how it happens that you follow Him.
It’s by grace – it’s the gift of God, by His doing totally. You know how stubborn your heart is. But God uses His Word – the Law – to break your heart and smash your illusions about your abilities, spiritually speaking; and He uses His Word – the Gospel – to draw you to Him, to soften your heart, to show you His heart of love, to encourage and comfort you, make you hopeful and give you joy and confidence that He’s well pleased with you.
This is what it means to follow Him: it’s to believe in Jesus, to believe the Gospel, to believe He died for you, to believe His word that your sins are all forgiven. To follow Him is to believe. Your faith in Jesus is following Him.
What about when your faith wavers? What about when you’re unsure if God can still love you? Even weak faith is saving faith. Our Lutheran Confessions say: “Each Christian experiences differences in himself. At one time he is joyful in spirit, and at another fearful and alarmed. At one time he is intense in love, strong in faith and hope, and at another time cold and weak.” The key is that you still listen to the Word and struggle against the flesh. Your faith gets strong not by you, but by hearing the Word and coming to the Lord’s Supper.
Faith isn’t the only part of following Jesus. Faith is always accompanied by good works, obeying God’s Law and walking in His ways – following Him in our deeds as well as in faith. This is something, once again, that God does. The Holy Spirit guides us to do this. Instead of being prodded, forced or brow-beaten to do these things, it happens as an extension of faith, freely.
The Lord wants you to look at all areas of your life – not just going to church – as following Him.
· He says to you: “Follow Me!” in your home life – that you look for a husband or wife not who is appealing on the surface but who has godly virtues, that you treat your husband or wife as God wants you to in how you speak to each other and exist together at home, that you work at being at peace as a family, and put Christ first in your home.
· He says to you: “Follow Me!” for your working life – that you work hard and faithfully, don’t badmouth others, and make it a priority to serve others instead of just looking for your own advantage.
· He says to you: “Follow Me!” in your life at school – that you are respectful to teachers not just to their face, that no crude speech comes out of your mouth, that you’re kind especially to students who are left out, that you do honest school work and are there to learn.
· He says to you: “Follow Me!” in your life as citizens – that you would not let politics be your god, let your faith guide how you vote, follow the laws and look to the good of the whole community.
When you do these things, it’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is ruling, guiding and leading you. If God would withdraw His gracious hand, you couldn’t keep doing any of it for a moment (FC II:66).You don’t do these things perfectly – we always do them in great weakness, it will always be a struggle between our sinful nature and our new nature – but doing it is a sign that you do follow Christ. This shows that your following Him is by grace not just in how you believe but also in what you do. We come to the Lord’s Supper not only to be strengthened in faith but to be strengthened in love for one another.
Again we see this in Andrew and all the apostles, who after Jesus rose from the dead, and He breathed His Holy Spirit into them, became like different men. Andrew was imprisoned and stoned, was in danger of being eaten by cannibals, and preached the gospel in modern-day Russia and Ukraine, and in Turkey and Greece. At the end he was scourged and then tied to a cross that was in the shape of an X (like the first letter of Christ in Greek), and his last words apparently were: “Receive me, O Christ Jesus, Whom I saw, Whom I love, and in whom I am; accept my spirit in peace in Your eternal realm.” We pray to have his faith and his victory.
Thy Holy Spirit guide us on until our glorious goal is won. Amen!