Those who have been here one of the last two weeks, know that we are currently taking a look at Three Things the Church Must Do in 2008. Last week, we looked at the importance of telling the story. Next week, we will look at blessing the world, but today we want to look at inviting others.
As we listened to today’s scripture, we heard the story of how Jesus called his first disciples. If you remember carefully from last week, you will remember John also gives us an account of the calling of the first two disciples. Matthew gives us a little more detail about how Andrew and his brother Simon were called by Jesus. John tells us that Andrew and Simon were John the Baptist’s disciples and Matthew does not dispute that fact. Matthew’s account first gives us some background. It also tells us how Jesus’ ministry began. Here is where we find some disharmony with the two gospel accounts, but I’m ok with that. Here’s why; I was talking with a paralegal a few years ago about this very issue. He said that, as a member of the legal profession, nothing proves collusion faster than all the witnesses’ testimonies being in complete agreement. We are all different people. We all see things different ways. Testimonies will vary and what we have in the gospels are four different men’s testimonies about who Jesus is. Each one of them wrote for different audiences. Each one wrote for a different purpose. Matthew tells us that Jesus ministry began after John the Baptist was arrested, while John tells us that John the Baptist was with his disciples. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah (since he was writing to a Jewish audience) to “prove” that Jesus was the prophesied one. He was the one about whom the prophets had spoke and had written.
In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.
Jesus didn’t start ministering in Jerusalem, but started in Galilee and then into the regions prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus message was this, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” It’s a simple message and one that we need to tell others as we looked at last week. But Jesus did more than just tell others, he invited them to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. The first two people he invited to be part of his Kingdom were Andrew and Simon. They were simple fishermen. They probably weren’t very highly educated and since they were fishermen, they probably smelled. In fact, when Jesus called them they were fishing. Jesus called to them and said, “hey, I see you are fishing for fish, but, come follow me and I will tell you how to fish for people.” They must have believed him because they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus. Just a little bit further up the shore Jesus meets James and John, the sons of Zebedee (otherwise known as the sons of thunder), sitting in a boat repairing their nets. Jesus calls them and they follow him immediately as well, not only leaving the boat and the nets behind but their father as well. Don’t you wish that you could be an effective evangelist like that? Jesus was four for four – He was batting a thousand.
What are some things that I notice? First, I notice that these four were unlikely candidates for building the Kingdom of Heaven. They were simple men. They had little education. They smelled bad and probably weren’t thought of highly in the community. They were highly unqualified at the task of building God’s Kingdom and yet, Jesus chose them anyway. Before we get into the importance of inviting others, I want to let you know that God calls each one of His children to build the Kingdom. It may not be in some spectacular ministry. It may be washing the dishes on Wednesday night. It may be driving the van full of excited students to church. It may be giving boxes of Jello to Grace Network. It may be writing cards to hurt service men. There are many little jobs to do in the Kingdom. In the acting profession there is a saying, “There are no small parts, only small actors.” Kingdom building is a lot like that. There are no small parts in building the Kingdom, only small people. God has called us, in no uncertain terms, to do our part in building His Kingdom. You might also think that you’re unqualified, well all we have to do is take a look at the scriptures. There are lots of unqualified men and women in the Bible – take a look and see what I mean.
Video Illustration – March of the Unqualified
Think you’re not qualified to do the work of building God’s Kingdom, well get in line right behind me. God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. You are looking at a living, breathing example of someone whom God called and then qualified. You’ve heard the story before. If you would have told me eight Januarys ago that I would be preaching every week, I would have told you that you were nuts. In fact, this very Sunday is the day that God started working on me to move me toward that very outcome. Who knew that in just five short months, I would preach my first sermon and a month later, be the pastor of Fort Miller Wesleyan Church? That is a God thing. That is a God story. God called me and I responded. Before we go on to the Corinthian passage, I want you to note that these men left everything when they put down their nets – there was no social security program – no welfare – no safety net and yet they followed Jesus – and it appears that they did that no questions asked – and they did it immediately.
We have Jesus calling his disciples and in turn he called them to invite others to be part of the Kingdom. Those that they invited, were to invited to be part of the Kingdom and they were to invite others and so on and so on and so on. That is how the Kingdom of God is built – one person at a time. Each one of us was a sinner until someone invited us to be part of God’s Kingdom. We, in turn, must continue to invite others. Wednesday night, we sang a song called “Not to Us.” God calls us to invite others, not so that we can get the glory, but that God alone gets the glory. We don’t invite others to be part of the Kingdom, so Pastor Dale gets the glory – we don’t invite others to be part of the Kingdom so Pam gets the glory – we don’t invite others so that Preston Wesleyan Church gets the glory – we don’t invite others to the Kingdom so that we get the glory – no, we invited others into the Kingdom so that God and God alone gets the glory – I want that to be our prayer – Not to us, but to God alone gets the glory.
Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians. He says, “Live in harmony with each others. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” He goes on to write about how there were arguments and divisions in the church regarding who they were following. Some were claiming to follow Paul, while others claimed to follow Apollos, or Peter and others claimed to follow only Christ.
Paul asks the question, “Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul?” Paul says, (and this is my paraphrase) “That’s ridiculous, you weren’t baptized in my name, but in the name of Christ. It wasn’t me who was crucified, but it was Christ – it was in His name that you were baptized.” Paul even made it a point not to baptize people so they wouldn’t follow him.
As I look around the bride of Christ (the church), I see a lot of this today. To be quite honest, I see it on both the liberal and conservative sides of the Kingdom and I see it everywhere in between – why are there so many factions within the Kingdom of God?
Paul goes on to say, “For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News.” Aha! There we are. You thought I wasn’t going to mention it today. The reason God called us was so that we could preach the Good News – that we could invited others into the Kingdom – church isn’t about us – it’s all about building God’s Kingdom – not ours. Paul says that is our purpose – to preach the Good News. I like what he says beyond that – it’s not with clever speech – remember what I said last week – people can spot a phony Christian a mile away. Tell your story and invite people to the Kingdom of Heaven – not with clever speech – because we don’t want the cross of Christ to get lost – our cleverness of speech might cover up the power of the cross. Church this is our job – to preach the Good News and to preach the cross – Paul writes, “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.” There will be those who reject our story and reject our invitation, but that is not our problem – there will be those who see our message and invitation as foolishness, but we cannot let that stop us. We must continue to tell the story – We must continue to invite them in – the very Kingdom of Heaven is counting on you.
