All the Gospels portray the calling of the disciples in one-way or another. They have this in common: Jesus called them into a personal relationship of obedience to him. “Come and me” is the refrain.

Matthew describes it like this:

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.” 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 (Matthew 4:18-22).

Jesus found Peter, Andrew, James and John in the midst of their ordinary day-to-day lives. He did not say, “Stop what you are doing for a few moments and accept me as your Lord and Savior.” He did not ask for an intellectual commitment. He said, “Come, follow me.” In other words, he asked for a life commitment. He might as well have said, “Stop what you are doing. Leave your old accustomed way of life. Make your hobbies, families, and work secondary, and follow me.” He even offered them a new occupation: From now on they would not fish for fish; they would fish for people.

Sometimes, we think it must have been easier for the disciples than for us. We think that if we saw Jesus, if came and asked us personally to follow him, we would and we would find it easier than to hear a pastor, evangelist, or friend share what God has done in their lives and ask us if we are ready to follow Jesus. This is a mistake.

The disciples had it just as hard as we do. They had families. They had friendships. They had hobbies. They had occupations. They already had a religion. They probably went to synagogue in Capernaum if there was one. They had homes and responsibilities. One day, when they were out fishing or getting ready to fish, a man came up to them and asked them to follow him and become fishers of human beings. Our text tells us that they heard the invitation, left what they were doing, and followed Jesus.

Deciding to Follow Jesus

Somehow, amidst the hustle and bustle of earning a living, caring for spouses, parents, and children, the disciples saw something in Jesus and they decided it was worth the risk of following him. They did not have it easier then we do. In fact, they may have had it harder. We can look back at the generations of lives changed, of people healed, of ministries and missions of compassion and care. We can see the examples of people like St. Francis of Assisi and Billy Graham, and hosts of others. We have reason to know what God can do with one ordinary life. When Jesus called the disciples the cross, resurrection, and spreading of the gospel, the birth of the church, the example of the martyrs, the evangelization of the world, had not occurred. It was all to come. They had to look in the traveling Rabbi’s eyes and answer the question, “Will I follow Him or not?”

We have to ask and answer the very same question: “Are we going to respond to the call to follow Jesus?” As we ponder the question, we need to ask ourselves the same questions they must have asked. We have to ask are we willing to be committed to follow Jesus. When we ask another person if they are ready to become a Christian, we need to be careful not to make it sound too easy. We probably should not say, “Are you ready to accept Christ in your head as your Lord and Savior.” We should say, “Are you willing to be follow Jesus?” Eternal life, the forgiveness of sins, membership in the family of God, citizenship in the kingdom of God is really dependent upon our being willing to follow Jesus, not tell people we believe in Jesus.

The Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard puts it this way, “Jesus does not need admirers. He needs imitators.” As we shall see, in the ancient world a disciple was more than just a learner. A disciple followed his master and imitated his master. Jesus asks us to follow him because he intends to have us become little Christ’s living as he lived and doing the same kind of things he did. A follower of Jesus will have certain characteristics, the most important of which is that followers of Jesus try to become like him.

Counting the Cost

One of the most famous Christian books of the 20^th Century is by the Christian teacher, pastor, theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is called, “The Cost of Discipleship.” He begins his book with these words, “Cheap Grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for for costly grace”. [1] If these words were true in Europe in the years leading up to the Second World War, they are even truer today.

Bonhoeffer describes cheap grace in this way:

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principal, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian “conception of God.” An intellectual assent to the idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure the remission of sins. [2]

He later describes the calling of the disciples in these words, “The call goes forth and is at once followed by the response of obedience.” [3]

The call to be a disciple is a call to follow Jesus. It is a call to respond by committing one’s self to God in such a way that we follow Jesus, learn from Jesus, imitate Jesus, and grow to become more like Jesus. This includes cross bearing. This is why Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” Matthew 16:24).

Crosses are not difficulties. Crosses are not the consequences of our own behavior and choices. Crosses are the decisions we make to suffer for others though we are not required to by law, or compulsion, or some inner brokenness. Jesus went to the cross because God loves us, and Jesus was sent by God to bear our sins and brokenness on the cross. Being a disciple means bearing the sins and brokenness of others, loving them unconditionally.

The Role of Faith

From the beginning, Jesus warned his disciples that faith was required. Mark begins his gospel with Jesus proclaiming the good news and telling his hearers to “repent and believe (Mark 1:14)

In Galatians, Paul speaks of the Gospel that can only be accepted by faith. He speaks of the fact that people cannot earn their salvation. We cannot be justified by our moral behavior or following the law (Galatians 2:16). Paul goes on to say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Responding to the cross means dying to self and selfish desire (“I have been crucified with Christ”) and then living by the power of Christ (“it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”). Faith means responding by giving our whole selves to God, turning away from our selfish, self-centered ways, and living out of the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is a lot of confusion in our society and in our churches about the nature of faith. Is faith merely recognizing who Jesus is and calling upon him so that you can go to heaven when you die? Is faith simply believing Jesus is who Jesus is? The answer is, “No.” The Bible is the story of faith. The story begins with Abraham, who is told by God that he will be the father of many nations and have an heir if he goes to the land of the promise God will show him (Genesis 12:1-3). The Bible tells us that Abraham believed and went. In other words he trusted God not just with his mind (“OK, God I know you can to this”) but also with his heart, soul, mind, body and strength. Abraham went and followed God in the wilderness for years because of his faith. As James reminds those who think faith can be divorced from works, Abrahams faith was revealed and completed by his works (James 2:14-26). A faith that does not change the way we think, live, act, and feel is not a faith at all.

When Jesus says come and follow me, Jesus means just what he says. He wants us to follow him because we believe that he holds the secret to our becoming the people we were created to become. Our faith is shown in our discipleship.

Discipleship and Discipline

The word “discipleship” and the word “discipline” have the same root. A discipline is not something that comes naturally. A musician does not become a great guitar player naturally. There is natural talent, but that talent has to be disciplined by years of practice, of learning from teachers, of emulating those who are masters at the craft. An athlete has talent, but that talent has to be developed over years of practice and workouts. A musician may believe that they can become better. An athlete may believe he or she can play at a professional level, but there are years of discipline between the idea and mental conviction and the reality of being a professional.

One of the great mistakes of modern Christianity is the idea that being a Christian is easy or makes life easy. It does not! When we follow Jesus we have to learn to love when we desire to be selfish. We have to learn to be wise when we desire to be foolish. We have to learn to live simply when we would rather have everything we desire. We have to learn to serve others when we would rather serve ourselves. None of this comes naturally, nor is it easy. Like Abraham, we have to wander through life with God, gradually becoming a friend of God, becoming more like God in the way we think and act. We will make mistakes along the way. There will be unforeseen consequences.

The author of Hebrews wrote to encourage Christians to remain devoted to Jesus when life is difficult. In Chapter 11 he outlines what real faith is, and then gives examples from great heroes of the faith. Then, he talks about the discipline we undergo in the process of discipleship.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

 “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

If we are to be real, athentic children of God, we must recognize that our heavenly Father is going to discipline us. In fact, if he did not discipline us he would be a poor father. If he left us in the same condition as he found us, with the same sins and shortcomings, it would be a sign that he really did not love us. If we do not respond by enduring the discipline, it is a sign that we do not love our heavenly father. God’s discipline, just like any human discipline is not pleasant at the time. No one really desires to endure it. But we do because we believe that our loving Heavenly Father is disciplining us for our own good.

Almost every day, I run, walk, swim, lift weights, or engage in some form of exercise. I have been doing this for years. A man in his mid-sixties does not look forward to this in the same way that a young man in his twenties might. I often hurt. Running uphill is hard. My muscles can be sore from swimming. Why do I go on? Is it just a habit? The answer is that every year I have an annual check up. The doctor checks my blood pressure, my heart rate, my blood sugar level, etc. When it is over he says, “For a man of your age you are in good condition.” I endure the pain of daily physical exercise because I know that in the end it is good for me. The same is true of the discipline of our heavenly father. We endure it because we know that we are becoming children of God, followers of the Son of God, members of God’s family, and citizens of God’s kingdom. Loving others, denying self, remaining faithful in a fallen and sometimes unfriendly world is just the discipline we need to become the people God intended us to be, not just in heaven, but right here on earth.

We Are Not Alone

When Mark describes the calling of the first apostles, he tells of the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Mark 1:16-20). Then, Mark describes the calling of Levi (Mark 2:13-17). Finally, in Chapter 3, there is recorded the calling of the Twelve:

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),  Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot  and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him (Mark 3:13-19).

It is striking that the call is not to one, two, or four. The disciples have been called together into a fellowship, a little community of those called “that they might be with him” (v. 14). They are also called into that community so that they might go out into the world to share the gospel and heal the demonic fallenness of God’s creation (v. 14). This is not abstract group of people, “the disciples.” It is twelve concrete human beings.

It is the same with us. When we are called to follow Jesus, we are called not be alone, not to live separate Christian lives as is so often the case today, not to be a part of a kind of ethereal thing called a “Church.” We are called into a concrete community of real human beings, some of whom may even be traitors to the Lord who calls us together.

Once again, we were not called to be Christians alone or to do our good works alone. We have been called into the community of God (Ephesians 2:11-22). We are called into the family of God, the fellowship of his disciples, the kingdom of peace, the “ekklesia,” the called out, the Church of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [4] When Jesus speaks to our hearts and says, “Come follow me, he calls us into a community of faith.

Responding to the Call

In his letters, the Apostle Paul makes constant reference to the Gospel, the Good News of Christ. The Good News is what the disciples were called to learn about and then to preach “to the ends of the earth” (Matthew 28:16). At the root of the gospel is the cross. Paul sometimes refers to the Gospel as “the word of the cross.” This word of the cross is that God has acted against all human expectations to rescue the human race from sin and death and to reconcile the world to God by the sacrifice of his Beloved Son (I Corinthians 1:13). The gospel is not a word of wisdom. It is not a special kind of knowledge only a few possess. The Good News is the faithful retelling of what God has done in Christ. Our response is to accept what God has done.

In Ephesians, Paul speaks of the “word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians 1:14). He goes on to speak of the power of God at work in those called to follow him in these words:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:1-5).

Our response to the Gospel is first and foremost to thank God for our salvation, to recognize that we were dead in our sins, and to deeply understand and accept God’s great mercy shown to us in Christ.

Paul specifically tells us that our salvation is not our own, our call to follow Jesus is not our call. It is God’s. God called us to change us, from a people dead to God and dead to the world in ceaseless self-centeredness to a people alive in Christ, reaching out to the world, doing the works of love that God has called us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Called to Go

The Great Commission calls on disciples to “go into the world.” The fact is, we are all called to Go and we are all going somewhere almost all the time. We go to work. We go to school. We go shopping for groceries. We go on vacation. We go to church. We go on social engagements. There is no end to the places Christians go when they follow the God-given command to “Go.”

Normally our going takes us in a pretty predictable circle made up of clse friends, family, and co-workers. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee. We may be “going” about our day to day lives, sharing the gospel occasionally, meeting with our small group, taking on small jobs in our church, and then one day, we must take a plunge and go forward. I had been a Christian for about fourteen years when the call came to go further than downtown to the office.

Called to Share

The Great Commission does not stop when it asks us to “Go.” It asks us to do something else: make disciples. This means we must share our faith, our lives, our church friendships, our time, our talent, our energy, even a bit of our money. Sharing is a part of being a Christian. Of course, there is one particular kind of sharing that we all fear the most—sharing our faith and the Gospel. About a half of this study is going to be taken up with the business of sharing the gospel. For now, it is enough to know that sharing is a part of being a disciple. Jesus shared his life with the original disciples, and we are called to share our lives with the disciples in our church and with those disciples we make.

There are a lot of evangelism materials that concentrate on faith sharing. They cover a lot of important information. In this study, we have chosen to place faith sharing in the context of being in a discipling relationship ourselves in our church and small group. One reaason we chose to organize this study in this way is because it seems to be the way Jesus did it. He called the disciples. He shared his life with the disciples. He taught the disciples, and then he sent them out to share the gospel. If it worked for Jesus, perhaps it will work for us as well.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York, NY: McMillan, 1937), 45

[2] Id.

[3] Id, at 61.

[4] The Greek word, “ekklesia” literally means, “those called out.” The early Christians adopted this word for themselves because they were those called out of the corrupt life of the Roman world into the fellowship of the saints, the kingdom of light, the family of God, the ekklesia of God.