Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Is Jesus still picking the Common?


Matthew 4:18-22

These verses have been preached since they were recorded, and it has often been wondered, “why” would Jesus pick common men, men who made their living fishing, when He could have picked anyone?  I believe that the common, not the elite, the unlearned over the educated, has not been the model that the world or the church has wanted.  I believe that Buell H. Kazee may have hit on the reason in his book “Faith is the Victory.” 

Pastor Kazee, said the following on page 17 of the book listed above: “The glory of Israel among the heathen nations was always a display of what God could do for a people who were His for a possession.  God was always the big attraction.  Israel was merely a people chosen of God as the body of flesh through which He could manifest Himself to the world.  When they trusted in Him and let Him do great things for them, the heathen were impressed and God was glorified.  But the modern church, the body through which and on behalf of which God meant to demonstrate His power to the world and thus attract the lost unto Himself, has substituted its own works for His, and set up, after a world order, a great business institution in an attempt to impress the world.

If God should succeed through our great promotional organizations, He would get little or no credit for it, for, according to the world’s estimate, the set-up we have ought to succeed anyway.  It has all the expertness of the world in it – organization, efficiency, method, psychology, psychiatry, learning, culture, world appeal, and all that it takes to be successful after the wisdom of the flesh.  If it should succeed it would be apparent that we, not God, did it.  All of this is the product of the carnal mind.”

Do you understand how offensive it was to the Jewish leaders that Jesus had not set under one of their great teachers of the day, and who does He pick for disciples; fishermen.  This is Matthew’s account of what happened: “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-22 ESV

Is this still happening, men leaving their businesses and following Jesus, and the answer is yes, men and women are still hearing Jesus call out to them; “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  Let me share with you three examples; one is a RN nurse named Marcia, who God called to leave nursing and become a missionary to Asia with Pioneer Bible translators.  This is her story, she had a passion for nursing and yet as she prayed for God’s will to be done in her life, she felt the call to the Bible-less people of the world, and she followed Jesus.  Now let me tell you about Colin Millar, a very successful businessman who is a man of prayer, and God called him out of the business world to awaken Christians to the power of prayer.  He how leads a ministry called “Igniting Prayer Action,” Colin also heard Jesus saying follow me and he did.  And then Craig Hearn, also a business man who came to know Jesus Christ, who for years supplemented his income by playing his saxophone in local bars in the Houston area.   Craig did much like James and John, after being invited to follow Jesus, dropped his nets (so to speak) and followed Jesus, and now his saxophone, his voice, and his life are at the disposal of the Lord.  Craig’s ministry is called “Burning Hope” and the Lord Jesus is using Craig in many areas of Houston and the world, to show His power. 

“As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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