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I sure am glad that you’re here for part three of our series, “Who is Jesus Christ?”
Who can remember what passage we looked at last week?
That’s right, we looked at the temptation of Christ, and we looked at seven distinct facts that we can use to defeat temptation in our lives.
And who can remember what we talked about on the first week of our study?
Very nice, yes, we talked about the baptism of Christ, and how He set an example for us to be baptized.
So as you can see, as we have been exploring the identity of Jesus Christ, we are constantly reminded that His identity has very powerful implications for our lives.
In fact, knowing who Jesus is should turn our entire lives upside down.
So far, we’ve seen how we should be baptized, because Christ was baptized, and then we saw how we should defeat temptation, because Christ defeated temptation.
And this week we are going to look at how our Master began the movement that we now know as Christianity.
In today’s passage, we are going to see how Jesus called His first four disciples.
Have you ever wondered what exactly it means to be a disciple of Christ?
That’s one of the big things we’re going to look at this morning.
And perhaps a question that has even bigger implications for many of you, “How can I help other people become disciples of Christ?”
So to answer these two important questions, we need to turn to Matthew chapter four, and this week we’re going to begin in verse eighteen, and we are going to read through verse twenty-two.
So again, Matthew 4:18.
“And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
And He saith unto them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
And they straightway left their nets and followed Him.
And going on from thence, He saw two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.
And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him.”
Let’s pray together.
The title of my sermon this morning is, “Jesus: The Disciplemaker.”
And as I said a couple minutes ago, we are essentially going to be answering two questions this morning, and this text has two principles for each one of the two questions.
So the first question we are going to be looking at is “What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?”
Principle #1: Being a Disciple Means Committing to Follow Jesus
It’s not often that I handle verses out of order, but for the sake of answering question number one, we need to look at verse nineteen again.
“And He saith unto them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”
Verse nineteen is actually going to be the central verse we talk about this morning, and three of our four principles will revolve around these short ten words.
So the first principle is seen in the first two words of the verse.
“Follow me.”
When Jesus was issuing the call to discipleship for these two fishermen, the first thing He told them was to follow Him.
What does it mean to commit to following Jesus?
Perhaps a bigger question, is this the same commitment you made when you became a believer?
This is a difficult question, because when most American Christians think about what it means to follow Jesus, they have a very limited view.
This is a similar principle to what we talked about last Sunday night, about what it means to become a Christian.
So often in many churches, the prevailing opinion is that all we have to do is pray a simple prayer, and “voila!” you have your ticket to heaven.
It is like saying, “Congratulations, you have your ticket, now please sit down and wait for your heavenly train to arrive.”
But is that really what it means to follow Jesus?
Absolutely not!
When you became a Christian, you did not merely make Jesus Christ the Savior of your life, you also made Him the Lord of your life!
We cannot claim to follow Jesus with our lives, and yet do nothing that He commands us!
That doesn’t make any sense at all, does it?
That’s like saying, “Yeah, I’m in the army.
I mean, I skipped boot camp, and technically I don’t do anything my lieutenant says, but I’m still in the army.”
Or, for a personal illustration, when I was in seventh grade, I was on the basketball team.
Now, there were twelve of us on the team, and as you probably know, in basketball, there are five guys on the court at a time.
So on a team of twelve, being a starter wasn’t exactly an illustrious achievement.
And yet, I was not a starter.
And so that leaves seven guys left on the team to fill second and third strings.
But the coach had to pick five of us seven guys to be on second string.
And guess what, I wasn’t even on second string!
That’s right; your pastor was one of two guys on the illustrious third string of the Fredericktown Middle School Blackcats.
And the other guy on third string with me was a kid by the name of Matt Lawrence.
Now Matt was a good guy and all, but he wasn’t exactly the epitome of a hard worker.
Essentially, Matt’s older brother bet him that he couldn’t survive a year on the basketball team, so Matt decided to prove him wrong by making the team.
But get this, Matt absolutely refused to play one second of an actual basketball game.
Every game, the coach would say, “Matt, you want to play tonight?” and Matt would reply, “No thanks coach, I think I will sit this one out.”
Unfortunately, there are so many Christians out there that are just like Matt Lawrence.
They made a profession of faith, and yet they have refused to play the game!
And while I do not want to come across as too harsh, I believe that there are a lot of people out there who say that they are Christians, and yet they are just as lost as ever.
Because saying a little prayer at an altar some time is not what makes you a Christian.
You become a Christian the moment you place your faith in Christ, and commit yourself to following His ways!
Now, that’s not to say that you can’t be saved at an altar.
I was saved at an altar just like this when I was eight years old.
What I am saying is that we are not saved by a mere repetition of a sinner’s prayer.
No, we are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
And part of honoring Jesus as our Lord is that we agree to follow His ways and His commands.
And each one of the first three principles we’re going to look at this morning can be associated with a part of our bodies.
And the part of the body that principle number one falls under is the head.
Have you the head decision to follow Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life?
And frankly, this is something that even we who have been Christians for years need to hear.
Because deciding to follow Christ and obey His commands is not just a one-time decision.
No, we need to decide every day that we are going to submit ourselves to His leading.
And so right there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus said to two ordinary fishermen, “Follow me.”
So the first principle of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is that we must make a commitment to follow Jesus.
Principle #2: Being a Disciple Means Allowing Jesus to Change Us
Let’s read what Jesus said in verse nineteen again.
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
The four words in the middle of this verse are our focus now.
Jesus says, “I will make you.”
You might be wondering how on earth this preacher is going to develop an entire point out of four little words.
And that would be a good argument, except for these four words are such an important part of our Christian experience.
In the first point we talked about how we had to make a head decision to follow Jesus, but in this part of the verse, the commitment moves down into our hearts.
So to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?” we first said that we must commit to following Jesus, but the second half of the answer is that we must allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus.
I know I’ve said it before, but it is a grave mistake that many believers make in thinking that they are responsible for making themselves a good person.
When in fact, it is the Holy Spirit that moves in us and transforms our lives for His glory.
But that is not to imply that there is nothing we can do to help this process.
You see, in this verse, Jesus unveiled His plan to make these fishermen into something great.
And the fact is, Jesus has plans to turn you into something great too, but you have to let Him.
And part of letting Him change you is doing the things that He says will allow Him to change us.
Remember last week when we talked about how temptation is almost unbeatable when we go to the places where temptation lurks?
Well this is basically the flip side of that principle.
When we do the things that God says will cause us to grow, we simply can’t help but grow!
And to give this principle a little flesh and bones, if you dedicate yourself to being in church, God is going to use this church to mature you in the faith.
He is going to draw you ever closer to Himself because you are doing things His way.
And the same thing can be said about, Sunday school, Sunday night and Wednesday night services.
When we come together and spend time talking about God’s word, God will help you become a better Christian.
But just in case we start feeling too prideful about our spiritual walk, Jesus reminds us in this verse that it is He that does the growing.
He has plans to make each and every one of you into some of the best soldiers the Kingdom of God has ever seen, but we must do the things that God uses to change our lives.
So the first of our two questions this morning was “What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ?”
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