A motley crew

This morning I preached from Mark 3:7-19.  This passage includes Mark's account of Jesus calling his disciples, mentioning by name the twelve disciples that are also designated apostles.  Mark gives just a few details of these twelve people and if we take what we can learn about them from the other Gospels we find that it is a pretty rag-tag group.  A motley crew.

As far as we know they are a largely uneducated group.  Several of them, Simon, Andrew, James and John must be used to hard work, being fisherman.  Another, Matthew, is a tax collector, and yet Jesus also includes in this inner group a person, Simon the Zealot, for whom it is likely believed that the only good tax collector was a dead tax collector.  That is as if Jesus put a burning candle right next to a box of dynamite.  And there is Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus.  These are the people Jesus chooses to be his closest students and to lead the work of his ministry in the period after his death.    

In the past I have heard about all the phonies, the hypocrites, that one finds in a church.  I also heard things such as, "If that person is in church then I'm not having anything to do with it."  I imagine that some of that kind of thinking took place among those close disciples of Jesus.  But what they came to learn was it didn’t matter who was included as a part of the group.  What mattered was the leader of the group.  Eleven of those twelve men learned that the one leading them, Jesus, was infinitely more important than anything they thought or felt about the others in the group.  If they put their attention on Jesus and learned from Him then everything else would work itself out, and work itself out in ways that were pleasing to God. 

And that is a good lesson for us to mindful of today.  The church that gathers today is a rag-tag group.  Groups of unique individuals, with each one at times believing that all would be better if "that person" or "those people" would just change.  When we look at the twelve disciples of Jesus' inner circle we see that He knew each one of them and called them by name.  They learned from Him and He shaped them, so that they would go forth and serve Him until their last day.   

A motley crew, in service to the King of Kings.  And that is still the way our King is working today.  To Him be Glory forever.  Amen.

The Right Choice

Yesterday I preached from Luke 14:25-33.  The title of my sermon was “It’s Not An Easy Choice.”  Jesus is teaching a large group of people about the cost of being his disciple.  He’s tells them some things about being a disciple that were not easy to hear.  His words challenged his listeners then and his words continue to challenge us now.  He invites his listeners to consider the costs of being a disciple.  It’s as if he is inviting them to see if they can bear the cost of following him, the cost of learning from him.  In verse 33 he is very clear about the bottom line.  He says,

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”

Disciples of Jesus must be willing to renounce everything for the sake of their devotion to him.  He demands complete loyalty.  No exceptions.  

The costs of following Jesus are high.  The journey of discipleship can be hard at times, sometimes even seeming to be impossibly hard.  But being a disciple of Jesus is not just a hard choice, but it is also the right choice.  For anyone considering following Jesus it has always been the right choice.  It is always the right choice.  And it will always be the right choice.

It was the right choice for Peter, his first disciple.  It was the right choice for Stephen, the first martyr.  And it was the right choice for absolutely everyone person who stepped out in faith to follow him since the days he called his first disciples. 

Discipleship is an outgrowth of faith.  They go hand-in-hand.  A person wouldn't become a disciple of Jesus if they didn't first have faith in him, and it doesn't make sense to me that someone would claim to have faith in Jesus and yet not want to follow and learn from him, which is the essence of discipleship. 

The reason I believe that discipleship is always the right choice is that when stripped of everything else it is basically a choice between life and death.  Not life and death in an earthly sense, but life and death in an eternal sense. 

In Romans 10:9 Paul teaches that Jesus promises eternal life to all who would call on him in faith, saying,

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

It is my prayer that readers of this blog who are not Christians would look into their hearts and consider if God is speaking to them through my words.  Feel free to contact me if want any help with understanding what God may be speaking to you.

And for those of you who do have faith I give thanks to God and I invite you to prayerfully consider to whom you may share the Gospel with, so that they may walk with Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Conscientious Objector

Right now I’m reading a book called Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. The United States of America.  It is a story of the attempt to draft Ali into the United States Army during the Vietnam War.  When Ali was drafted into the Army he refused induction by claiming that he was a conscientious objector.  The book is centered on the roughly four years of legal wrangling between Ali and the US government. 

Central to Ali’s claim was that as a Muslim, who followed the teaching of the Koran, he was not allowed to fight in any war unless he fought on the side of Allah.  While claiming objection to military service on grounds of conscience was not new, and was done in both World War I and II, Ali’s claim was unique in its particular religious expression.  The statutes allowing objection due to conscience required that a person be opposed to war in all circumstances, and not particular circumstances.  Ali was agreeable to fighting a war for Allah, but he wouldn't participate in any other war.

And that got me to thinking a bit about living each day as a Christian and what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple in our culture.  Does it mean that I follow Him all the time, or just most of the time?  Am I obedient to His leading, to His teaching, every time I hear it or only when I remember it?  And if it suits me at the moment?  Are my eyes and my heart open to seeing His truth every time I open my Bible, or only when I am reading my favorite parts? 

To adapt Ali’s claim against the Army, when it comes to being a disciple, am I a conscientious follower? 

The truth is that I fall short, time-and-again.  All disciples do. I am aware of some of my more persistent shortcomings, things that our culture may accept but ones which I know are wrong when the Gospel is the measuring stick.  And I am thankful that God is rich in mercy and forgiveness, waiting for me each time I return to the foot of the cross. 

In his letter to the Galatians Paul gives words of guidance and encouragement to those following Jesus as His disciples.  He writes about this in Galatians 5:16-26, with the heart of his wisdom in verses 22-23:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

These words speak timelessly, to both the Galatians and to those of us following Jesus today.  May they form both you and me as we seek to be conscientious followers of Jesus Christ each and every day.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.