Matthew 5:10-12 Rejoice, Be Glad!

Matthew 5:10-12  Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Many reject the Good News that God alone is the Creator who should be worshipped and honored.  They despise his authority or any entity that regulates their lives.  As covenant breakers or law breakers people do not want to accept the Good News.  The Good News declares we have a God to serve who has made all things.  He desires children in his household who are willing to choose him over everything else they see or know.  Of course, the Good News for all Christians rests in serving his son, Jesus.  We come under the name of Jesus, under his authority and influence, allowing him to make new creatures that fit comfortably into eternity.  Created in his image, we are now eternal beings.  God is the Good News; his love is the Good News; his desire to be with us forever is the Good News.  But as in the days of the prophets, the majority of the people reject what Jesus told Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.  (Matthew 4:10)  The prophets railed against lifestyles and choices that were failing to serve a righteous God with total commitment.  They believed God deserved to be loved intensely, wholeheartedly, with passion and dedication.  These voices in the wilderness were persecuted and even killed for saying people were straying from God, that they were choosing their own lifestyles over righteousness, that they were choosing idols to serve, dead images that would allow them to do unrighteous acts such as aberrant sexual activity.  As with today, people who try to align their lifestyle with God’s righteousness are mocked and isolated.  People do not want believers at their parties, do not want to associate with people who serve God wholeheartedly, for they reveal that someone else should be served other than their own fleshly desires.  Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Young Christians in our schools often find rejection prevalent in their community.  To find a friend who is not influenced by the waywardness of our society is often hard.  To date a boy or girl with a strong faith becomes a difficult task, for our society is permeated by sin, especially in our day of the internet.  We find that people do their own thing, go their own way, determine what is right in their own eyes.  But what was true with the prophets of old remains true: there are right lifestyles and wrong lifestyles.  God wants us to serve him, to live for Jesus, trusting and serving him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.  If we praise God in the workplace, at school, and in the home we may attract persecution, rejection, and estrangement; for there are those who reject Jesus and use his name only as a curse word.  But we know: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  As we openly commit to Christ, in spite of insults or rage against us, Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, and He will remain with us when we feel isolated or downtrodden.  God will bless his people.    

We do live in a world that avoids righteousness, choosing unwholesome living, failing to serve God first.  Through the ages, there never has been an ideal time for Christians.  Believers have always been ostracized, persecuted, and chastised from the beginning of the church.  Historical accounts since the time of Jesus moving forward reveal horrific stories of the persecution and death of Christians for naming the name of Jesus Christ.  In all lands, even today in some areas of the world, people are pressured to recant their faith, to step away from serving Jesus Christ or face prison or worse.  Many times, Christians have been but sheep to be slaughtered.  As Paul expressed, even within the flock, wolves would come to devour the sheep, do destroy their complete trust in Christ, to lead them to another pasture, one where the name of Christ is not honored above any other name.  Today, we have ministries that accentuate the name of a person above the name of Christ.  Christian books are sold by highlighting the name of a man or woman, honoring them with a picture on the cover.  They are the ones to follow, their words are important, their presence is of value, not the Spirit of God who is resident in every Christian.  As with the days of the prophets, men and women reject the God of creation, worshipping people, heavenly bodies, idols, nature, animals, anything but God.  People will align themselves with a celebrity leader or personality before they will follow the name of Jesus Christ.  I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.  So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.  (Acts 20:29-31)  Jesus understood the sheep would be scattered by the sinfulness of men, but He encouraged his followers to be steadfast, telling those who endured to the end they would be blessed by God.  God knows his own and their faithfulness.  They are the ones who reject this world and everything in it.  As John said, Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  (1 John 2:15-17)  You cannot serve two masters; you will love one or the other.  You cannot be partially married to Jesus; either you will love him wholeheartedly or love your lifestyle above him.  A Christian will be persecuted by the world, at the least by isolation in the workplace, at school, or in the community where he or she functions.  This is the price for serving Jesus Christ completely.  However, Jesus says rejoice: Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  We are to be glad for naming the name of Jesus Christ before men.  They might think of us as fools, but to God we are great treasures that He will bless.  

Dear friends, we are lights.  Even though many do not want to recognize Jesus as the Son of God, they need us among them, for we shine in the darkness to guide them.  Without Christ in each community, the world would become extremely dark, far worse than today.  Before the flood, God said mankind had become so evil and violent that He had to wipe them out of existence, but because Noah was a righteous man, He saved Noah and his family.  As believers we are the righteous men and women in our communities.  We too withhold God’s wrath against the world’s inhabitants.  We are leading people out of darkness into the light of God by directing them to Jesus Christ, Savior of the world.  He holds back God’s wrath on a wayward creation, enemies to God.  Today, humans, in their search to replace the God of creation, are seeking through science a way to elevate themselves above God.  Rather than being merely finite, existing for a short period of time, we are investigating through science how we can extend our lives to immortality.  If we can eat of the tree of life, we can be God.  Consequently, there will be no entity to serve but ourselves.  As we read in the book of Genesis, when Adam rebelled, he and Eve had to be removed from the Garden.  If not, they would eat of the Tree of Life, then they would be a cancer on eternity.  Their sinfulness would corrupt even the eternal domain.  God removed them from the Garden, preventing them from eating of the Tree of Life.  The Tower of Babel is another account of men trying be like God.  God confused them with different languages, keeping them from working together to achieve their aim of being as God.  The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”  (Genesis 11:6-7)  Rebellious man is a covenant breaker, desiring to do what is right in his own eyes.  He cannot be trusted, for he will swear allegiance to God, but readily break his word.  He chaffs under God’s authority.  As Christians we become servants to all, doing what God desires of us.  We serve him by serving people; we love him by loving others.  We love God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength; and equal to that, we love our neighbor as ourselves.  The carnal mind refuses these ideas because the flesh wants to serve itself first before considering others.  But God is love, Jesus Christ is love, and He demonstrated that love by dying on the cross for his enemies.  The crusty nature of man wants to control and manipulate others for his or her own benefit.  Even married couples divorce because one or the other does not treat his or her mate right: God’s love does not reign in the home.  Jesus said, the world would hate those who follow him.  Persecution will come to the believer because the world loves darkness rather than light: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.  (John 3:19-21)  Breakfast friends, speak of the light, live in the light, as you trust in Jesus.  Do not fear the lions that roar against you, for they cannot harm your eternal soul.  Yes, people love darkness more than the light, for the light reveals the evil in their souls.  Your light might save their souls for eternity.  God is in the business of blessing, and He will bless you for not hiding your light under a bushel, but instead putting it on a lamp stand for all to see.  Amen!  

     

Matthew 5:1-10 Look at the Heart!

Matthew 5:1-10  Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.  His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.  He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God, not human beings, will bless these characteristics within the human spirit.  In fact, mankind will ridicule such goodness, humbleness, such perceived weakness.  In America, these attributes or conditions of the soul oftentimes are considered foolishness, naivety, or a deficiency.  Those who exhibits these flaws are losers, even traitors to the American spirit.  We are “can do” people, pioneers who fought through adversity to conquer a continent and come out winners.  We are the “John Wayne people” who shoot first and ask questions later.  After we have killed a few, righting the wrongs of the world, we ride off with the heroine into the sunset, as the music fades with a romantic interlude.  We are the champions; if you do not believe it, just ask us—we will set you straight.  What we see in the beatitudes is a world turned upside down: not violence, comfort; not gloating, humility; not aggressiveness, tenderness; not judgment, forgiveness.  We see a world that God admires, but most people do not.  All of the rewards are in heaven.  And the intractable behavior of fallen humans on Earth is set aside by God as not worthy of value or reward.  Jesus epitomizes the beatitudes; on Earth He was the human illustration of them all.  Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30)  Jesus is humble of heart, not arrogant or aggressive.  Perhaps Jesus could have avoided the cross had He followed Peter’s aggressive intention of using a sword to avoid capture.  Maybe He could have slipped away into the darkness during the commotion.  He could have fled and hidden in the desert or the mountains for years with his band of men, fighting the Romans and the Jewish establishment.  Why give up so easily when He knew what was coming: his capture and death?  Why did He not flee to fight another day instead of waiting in the Garden, easily accessible to those out to kill him?  As a marked man, his days were numbered in Jerusalem.  Why did he not fight?  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  No reward on Earth for being naive, helpless, and poor; but God promised the kingdom of heaven to such as these.  Jesus was kind and incessantly disturbed by those with no shepherd.  He ministered to them, healed them—mourned over the people of Israel.  As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”  (Luke 19:41-42)  Jesus showed mercy to the sinner, ate with them, taught them, comforted them with his presence.  Jesus was meek in spirit, always doing the Father’s will.  Never selfish or seeking his own will, He was pure in heart.  Tirelessly walking from city to city, ministering to people, delivering them from bondage to Satan; Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, and taught the Good News of salvation.  As a peacemaker, when the disciples were at odds with John and James because they sought a special place in heaven by the side of Jesus, Jesus calmed the situation, saying to secure good standing in heaven, they should serve all men on Earth.  And of course, He was persecuted for his righteousness, his goodness.  His lifestyle and teachings exposed the lack of righteousness in the religious leaders.  Consequently, the elite hated him, for his teachings of righteousness and right living manifested adversely their sinful lifestyle and self-aggrandizing attitude.  Jesus revealed the true Shepherd, fulfilling his own words. 

Many people teach the beatitudes as if they are attributes we should have or as building blocks on which we should construct our lives.  Of course, we should be more merciful, kind, and pure in heart as we follow Jesus.  We should make peace and not war and endure persecution in the name of the Lord.  They are garments that we should put on just as we wear a garment of praise to God.  Nonetheless, sometimes these characteristics do not fit well with our human nature.  We look rather silly in a garment of mercy when our spirit has not been merciful.  We can be posers, pretending to be kind, loving, caring, empathetic, but inside the heart is still carnal or self-willed with a “me first attitude.”  We are not pure in heart, and neither do we really intend to be pure in heart when our nature is carnal.  This is a problem for people who teach the attributes of the beatitudes in isolation.  Yes, they are good, as the law is good, but this kind of instruction or even a desire for these qualities does not solve the human condition of violence, self-interest, and other fleshly attitudes.  We should hunger after righteousness, and we can teach people to seek righteousness by going to church or by reading the Bible or by being helpful to others, even being a servant to others; but this still does not alter the Adamic seed that is found deeply embedded in the souls of people.  As we have mentioned in the past, human nature (Adam’s seed of rebellion) requires attention.  We see this at the very beginning of mankind.  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  (Genesis 6:5)  Mankind evidences difficulty with being pure in heart, merciful, and kind.  We do not naturally go about making peace and hungering for righteousness.  We might mourn for our own or our situation, but hardly for others and their problems.  When we consider death or sickness as with our present pandemic, we often consider them as statistics, not really mourning the losses of others.  Our nature of self-interest often overrides our feelings of sorrow and concern for others.  Oftentimes when people listen to someone’s problems such as a sickness, they deflect the conversation to themselves or to someone else who has had a similar experience with the sickness.  It is hard for us to mourn for others, feeling their pain.  Many will seek diversions such as entertainment to remove themselves emotionally from the hurts and experiences of others.  People use alcohol and drugs to mask the awareness of the pain around them.  Jesus mourned over a whole city, crying for them.  We know God mourns over the world, even over godless cities such as Nineveh.  Jesus models what people should be like as they live their lives on Earth.  They may not receive a reward on Earth for being meek, mild, tender, loving, caring, and the like; but God will reward them in the afterlife, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  They will receive their blessings from the Father God.

People often try to live the beatitude life.  By doing this, they consider their lives to be worthwhile and productive.  We agree with them; living a beatitude life is better than living a self-interested life.  They become poor for Jesus’ sake; they are merciful for Jesus’ sake.  They are peacemakers for Jesus’ sake; they seek righteousness for Jesus’ sake.  We could go on.  All of this is good and all of this makes for a much more peaceful world, a world of cooperation.  But, if this life experience is not from the heart, if it is just clothing you put on, an effort of works, you have not found the real design for life that is pleasing to God.  You are living a life of effort, not a life that follows from intrinsic impulses of the heart.  You are once again law bound, living a life of fleshly effort.  God judges the heart; He can tell a poser from the true thing.  The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  (1 Samuel 16:7)  In Christ, we are not living to try to please God; we are living a life that is pleasing to God.  Of course, Jesus said, we must be born again.  For covering the old Adamic nature with works will not deceive God; He knows if you are a new creature or not.  He knows if the beatitudes are from the heart of the new creature or part of the old creature trying to be good.  We need to do good things.  In fact you will know Christians by their good works.  Christians will readily display God and his goodness to the world.  We are to be different from the world.  How are we different?  We are different because of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit inside us.  His power is resident in us.  His likeness shines through our actions.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  (John 13:35)  We are not those who confront the world with criticism and anger, even with violence and rebellion.  No, we are the ones who love their enemies, pray for those who despitefully use us and hate our existence.  We are not the loud voices protesting in the market places.  No, because of the Spirit inside us, we mourn for the world; we are meek as Jesus was; we are merciful even to the wayward; we are pure in heart towards all people, not deceitful and full of anger; we bring peace to every environment, not disruption and conflict; we always seek righteousness in everything we do, for we are servants of the world, not controllers of the world.  How do we do all of this successfully?  We love people as God loves people; we seek good for all people, regardless of who they are and what they believe.  The Pharisees disliked Jesus because He associated with sinners, the poor, the problems of society.  But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, sought out these people.  Are we full of the Holy Spirit or are we full of ourselves, our perspective of the world?  No, we do not put on the beatitudes—we are the beatitudes, for we have been changed from the inside out.  Our chamber of holiness bought by the blood of Jesus is within us.  Abiding within that chamber is the Spirit of God.  He leads us in a righteous life, for in Christ we are holy, pleasing, acceptable to God.  Be strong in the Lord today!     

                  

Matthew 4:23-25 Good News!

Matthew 4:23-25  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.  Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

For the Good News to spread throughout Israel and the world, Jesus had to perform many miracles in his lifetime.  He had to do what no other man from the beginning of time had done.  Even today, Jesus’ name is expressed daily in every land, by every people, in every community.  Unfortunately, oftentimes the name Jesus is used as an invective, but sometimes his lovely name is used in reverence.  People either curse him or praise and serve him.  He and his feats and teachings are known by many people in this contemporary world of seven-and-half billion people.  Jesus is the best known name and personality in the world over 2,000 years after his time on Earth.  To be known as He is, Jesus had to be different from all other people.  He had to bring about phenomenal acts that were witnessed and recorded by others.  From an insignificant part of the world, minuscule in nature, came this man, Jesus, born of a virgin.  His miraculous actions opened the eyes and ears of many to his teachings.  In the above focus we see him in Galilee, performing magnificent acts that penetrated the culture and the society of the Jews.  Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.  Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.  He greatly impacted the religious culture of the Jews.  His ideas began to turn their world upside down.  His teaching that people could find God directly, that they could be changed into eternal beings through faith in God assaulted the religious leaders’ position and status within Jewish society.  The Jewish elite did not want to hear that God sent his Son to save his people by faith in him.  (See John 3:16)  By going directly to God, the people did not need the temple nor the sacrifices within it to please God.  The priests and the teachers of the law used this idea of desecration of the temple as justification for killing Jesus.  The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.  But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.  Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”  (Matthew 26: 59-61)  Jesus did not answer this accusation by these false witnesses, making the leaders of the religious community excessively angry, wishing now to kill Jesus immediately.  They did kill Jesus that day, but they could not rid the world of his teachings, his testimony about the Father God, and his concomitant miracles.  Today, Jesus’ teachings are still taught everywhere.  Even though Jesus called himself the Son of Man, the perfect image of man, his teachings and miracles expressed explicitly that He was truly the Son of God.  Of course, Jesus was killed for many reasons; yet his life was designed by God, for He always did the will of God.  The purpose of his life and the miracles He performed was to release the people of the world from slavery to sin and darkness.  As the prophet foretold, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.  (Isaiah 9:2)  

In Moses’ time, we see God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt by miraculous events.  The plagues Egypt experienced by God’s hand brought Pharaoh to his knees, finally releasing the Jewish people from slavery.  If the plagues would not have happened, if God would not have intervened in a supernatural way, the people of Israel might have disappeared, absorbed into the culture of Egypt.  They might today still be considered second class inhabitants of Egypt.  But God did not allow this to happen.  He heard the complaints of his chosen and consequently came to their aide by releasing one plague after another on Egypt.  Finally, the miraculous events provided a strong enough impetus for their freedom from Egypt, just as Jesus’ miracles identified a way of escape from captivity to sin.  The Israelites could have been identified as slaves to the Egyptians all through the chronicles of history, but God set them free.  Not only were the Israelites free from the land of the Pharaohs, but they were free to establish their own land, to live according to their own dictates under God.  This story of the release of the Jews from slavery is repeated often to the Israelites by the Patriarchs and prophets of Israel, never to be forgotten by the Jewish people—the divine intervention of God into their lives as his chosen people.  And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would forsake Yahweh to serve other gods, for Yahweh our God brought us and our ancestors from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and did these great signs before our eyes.  He protected us along the entire way that we went, and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.  And Yahweh drove out all the people before us, the Amorites who live in the land.  We will serve Yahweh, for he is our God.”  (Joshua 24:16-18)  This story of the Jewish people being released from slavery and their subsequent history of establishing their own nation is analogous to the people of the world being released from slavery to the devil and all his ways by the acts of Jesus.  Jesus’ miracles, his life, his sacrifice, his teachings, his resurrection have paved the way to freedom for all people, anywhere in this world.  This world is no longer our home.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are going to a new land, an eternal dwelling place, one of bliss and happiness forever.  Jesus said, Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  (John 12:25) 

Now we are in the wilderness, needing the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit to comfort, lead, and guide us.  The day of Pentecost was necessary: we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  Just as Jesus lived, so do we abide in this land of wilderness, this alien land that cannot sustain our spiritual souls.  When tempted by Satan, Jesus said, It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)  Jesus performed miracles to provide us with an avenue out of slavery.  We crossed the Red Sea, and God destroyed the powers that were restraining us in slavery.  Now we must take our lives away from the authority of others, whoever the “Egyptians” are in our situations, and accept the authority of God in our lives.  He gave us the Spirit to lead us to the Holy Land, heaven itself.  Each of us is known as the temple of God where the Spirit dwells deeply in our souls.  We are to participate with God by listening to his Spirit.  That is why every day we should go to the Lord first, seeking his sustaining food, asking him for directions for the day.  Our lives have been cut loose from Egypt, but we are still under authority, and now it is God himself.  He wants us to reveal his magnificence to the world.  We are the light of the world, but light requires a generator; the Holy Spirit is that dynamo within us.  Do not go back to the ways of Egypt: do not go back just because those ways are comfortable or familiar to you.  This was a constant temptation for the Jews who were in the wilderness.  They often complained about their circumstances as they wandered.  But the Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night were leading them to the Promised Land.  The Spirit of God is leading us to the Promised Land.  If we follow his direction, He will also protect us from our enemies.  When the Jews were in danger of Pharaoh and his army recapturing them into slavery, the Holy Spirit’s cloud descended between the Egyptians and the Israelites, stopping the Egyptian army from decimating the fleeing Jews.  Otherwise, the Spirit of God was there not only to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land but to protect them from their enemies.  We who are alive in Jesus Christ have the Spirit of God as our protection.  He leads and protects us.  How do we know all of this?  We know this is our inheritance and privilege because Jesus performed miracles.  His deeds surpassed science just as the plagues surpassed science.  As surely as the Israelites were protected in the wilderness so are we, for we are God’s children.  We might experience some starvation, some thirst, even some searing heat, but the Cloud is always there, the Pillar sets down at night to calm our fears.  His presence is everywhere within our homes; He resides in our temples.  God is real, the Holy Spirit is real, and our destination is real.  He will work out all things to our betterment if we will only believe in his words and works and not our own awareness.  We know that is true because Jesus went about doing good, healing everyone.  Our new life has been created by him and not ourselves.  Praise God, we have been healed, made new, and we have life forever.  Our life in Christ is the fulfillment of an oft quoted proverb: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.  (Proverbs 3:5-6)  Amen!  

Matthew 4:18-22 Come, Follow Me!

Matthew 4:18-22  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 send you out to fish for people.”  immediately they left the boat and their father 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.

We find an interesting scene today with Jesus walking beside the Sea of Galilee, searching for followers, calling out to men to follow him.  Rather than going to the elite, the well-educated, He goes to the locale of the lower caste, the unlearned.  Jesus picks fishermen rather than the leaders in the society.  He does not go to the temple to call priests; He goes to the shore of Galilee with his message to come follow him.  This call has never ended throughout the ages: a message of follow me has been heard primarily by average people everywhere, heard by those who are ready for this message.  The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  (Luke 4:18-19)   His message would be heard by those who need a Savior, by those who know their mundane, difficult lives are leading nowhere.  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  (1 Corinthian 1:26)  Peter, Andrew, James, and John were the perfect audience for this message of deliverance.  They were going to be fisherman all of their lives.  Their activity would be rather predictable with the weather and fishing conditions their main consideration.  If one would write about their lives, the author would reach the last period of their existence quickly for their lives would be similar to all other fishermen with few variations.  There would be ups and downs, births and deaths, times of frustration and problems, but their activities essentially would revolve around the milieu of catching fish.  Their history would be much like any other fisherman, any other boat owner, shaded a little differently, but basically nondescript, a life of routine, duty, love and hate, peace and stress.  But Jesus came along, eliminated their predictable futures and put a semicolon in place of the period.  Their lives would be changed dramatically with new horizons that would include much more than daily functioning within a fishing community.  These young men were going to be stepping out into territory they never thought they would experience.  They would be meeting powerful people, people of notoriety, leaders within the Jewish community.  Their paths would now take a different direction, a journey they could not have imagined as young boys playing on the shore of Galilee.  Now God’s call was stamped on their lives.  They would change into men of the scriptures, men led by the Holy Spirit, men whose names would be known in future millenniums in every land and in every continent.  They stepped out of their finite fishermen roles into lives of eternal existence.  The periods at the end of their temporal lives (Simon and Andrew were fishermen.  James and John were fishermen.) would be changed forever into semicolons, one semicolon after another.

Peter and Andrew’s response to Jesus was quick, at once they left their nets and followed him.  James and John the same, immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.  We see no hesitancy in these young men’s response to Jesus’ call: they left their nets, their boats, their fathers and mothers, and in Peter’s case probably his young wife.  The decisions of these four undoubtedly met criticism from their friends and relatives.  People in staid communities cannot just drop responsible lives and positions and follow Jesus.  This story reminds us of a group of young boys and girls Dad taught in junior high.  He was given a class of Vietnamese children, some looked definitely older than the age group typically found in a junior high.  Later, he learned that some of the older boys were there for protection, to keep the American kids from hassling the younger Vietnamese children.  They basically came from a fishing environment in Vietnam—most of them could not speak English.  Their lives as children revolved around the task of fishing.  Their grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and other relatives were fishing people.  Probably for generations, their ancestors were fishermen.  In Vietnam these peoples’ lives were already scripted for them.  They would be fishing people all their lives.  They would be fishermen themselves or marry into fishing families.  Because of the war and because they had to flee Vietnam for many reasons, they ended up in the United States of America.  These young people, not well-educated in Vietnam, now had a semicolon in their lives, which were longer predictable, no longer with limited horizons.  They quickly learned that in the United States, with an education you can be anything you want to be.  No community, no society, no heritage will determine where you end up in life.  So very soon, after a decade or two, they were in jobs as lawyers, doctors, engineers, business owners, and the like.  As very young children, these vocations were not even imagined by them.  These job opportunities were closed to them in Vietnam, but in our country, diverse as it is, possibilities galore were open to them.  In Jesus’ time, vocations and lifestyles were passed down from generation to generation.  Even in the wilderness with the Israelites, different assignments were given to different clans and tribes.  Everything was proscribed for them.  If you were given the duty of providing music for worshipping God, you performed that task, as did your children and your children’s children.  But now as Jesus walked along Galilee, He was asking young men to move away from the formulated lifestyle of a fisherman into something unknown: I will send you out to fish for people.  Yes, they were fishermen, but what is fishing for people about?  These men learned what fishing for people was all about.  Their lives were given for that purpose, no longer staid on the Sea of Galilee; now they would be wandering the countryside, calling out people to serve God by accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Three of them would be killed for that message of redemption.  One, John, would live out his life.  He would be known as the apostle of Love.  His letters are still being read today with the emphasis on God’s love.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1 John 4:8)  

God is still walking along the road, on the paths where we live.  Jesus is still calling out to people: follow me, I will make you fishers of men.  We hear that call from others, from ministers, on the radio, on television, on the internet—the call is blasted far and wide.  The message of Jesus as Savior is in every nation, in every tongue, in every people.  Will the call be heeded?  Will people leave their nets, boats, fathers and mothers to walk with Jesus?  Millions have in the past and millions more will answer the call until Jesus comes back to collect his own.  Eternal life is the call: come and follow me and I will give you everlasting life.  I will make you right with God and able to exist with him in eternity.  I will put royal clothes on you, those are made especially for you, distinctive.  They are elaborate and white as snow, reflecting the holiness that God has placed within you.  As the prophet wrote,  He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.  (Isaiah 61:10)  Jesus’ call to the four men was to make them different from all other men.  Their lives would be moved from the mundaneness of temporal existence to an eternal one.  These men walked with Jesus, performed miracles with him, lived and slept under the canopy of love that Jesus spread over them.  They were his dear children, but He knew their lives would not be easy after He left them.  As their Shepherd, He could protect them while He was physically with them, but when He had to go away, they would be sheep amongst the wolves.  They would be hunted down, thrown into prison, and even murdered.  Most of the world would not accept their message of deliverance from the judgment of God.  The world would not accept that they were out of favor with the Creator of all things because they did not want the truth.  The world stopped its ears, with an intention to wipe out the Good News.  Saul, at the beginning of the church age, was a leader in this attempt to destroy the Good News.  He was the virus of that day, he and his cohorts.  The Christians had to flee the virus or be killed.  These four men were part of the nascent church, at times hiding out from that virus, fleeing Jerusalem, fleeing to other countries.  But what the devil thought was a victory was a defeat for him.  For people in every country were now walking down paths through cities, by the houses within those communities calling out the message of God.  Many people came out of those houses, those communities, those cities, those nations with the same message of Good News: follow Jesus and He will make you fishers of men; He will change your lives dramatically.  The period will be lifted from the last sentence of their lives, and it will be changed to a semicolon, for their lives will go on forever in the presence of the All-Mighty, known as his children, sons and daughters.  Dear friends around the breakfast table, you answered the call, you are presently in the robes of the redeemed.  Rejoice in that position of great love passed down to you by the four young men who answered the call of Jesus on the shore of Galilee.  Today, will you answer the call and follow the Lord where He leads?