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Let us pray. Holy Father, as we sit now under your word, we pray that you would teach us and lead us to know you as you are revealed in Scripture. We ask this for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. What do you think it would have been like to encounter the Apostle Paul before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road? What do we know about him? He was a Jewish man who trained as a Pharisee. He was a zealous student of the scriptures and a defender of the established religious order. We have to take him at his word at this point, but he said that he had advanced beyond his peers and was respected by the rulers of the Pharisees, or rulers of the Pharisees in the temple. We know that Paul was such a zealous defender of the established religious order that he condoned the stimming, the stoning of Stephen, and he had letters of authority to arrest Christians in Damascus. I think it's safe to say, as a Christian, we would not have been terribly interested in spending any time with Paul before he met Jesus. With all that in mind, though, imagine, though, that you had a chance to sit down with him over a coffee and chat. Remember, he was a devoted student of the Bible. And more than that, he would have been full of energy and passion. Normally, when we meet people like that, we feed off of their excitement. However, on the other hand, the driving force of his passion was overtly negative, right? His goal was to root out any Christians he could find and take them back to Jerusalem to stand trial before the Sanhedrin. Perhaps the thing that would have stood out about him more than anything else if we'd met him before he met Jesus would have been his deep and abiding sense of mission. He had an unwavering belief in what he was doing until he didn't. All the confidence and self-belief crumbled away when the bright light shone from heaven, and a voice crying out to him said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? The man we know of as St. Paul or the Apostle Paul was confronted on the Damascus road by something so great, something so startling, that he could not go back to the way of life that it offered him purpose and guidance. The one who confronted him was so overwhelmingly glorious that not only could he not go back to his old life, but he would spend the rest of his life telling the world all about Jesus. St. Paul would go on to give his testimony of God's grace before synagogues, rich merchants, jailers, Roman officials, Jewish leaders, kings, and even before Caesar. The ministry that St. Paul had among the Gentiles across the Roman Empire has been the diligent study of bishops, pastors, church planners, and missionaries ever since. And while it's true that people have studied St. Paul's methods and theology, he would have told us that we were wasting our time trying to figure out what made him tick. You see, he told us what made him tick. He told us what drove him. After St. Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, the one thing that drove him more than anything other, anything else, was the cross of Christ. For St. Paul, the cross of Christ was the central, pivotal moment in the unfolding plan of God to redeem sinful humanity from the death grip of the law. And behind all of his theological precision and his keen pastoral insights, Saint Paul had only this one simple message. Everything that truly matters is found in Jesus Christ. In the gospel reading from this morning, we read about Jesus starting his public ministry and calling his first disciples. And his message is strikingly simple. He is announcing that the kingdom of heaven has come to the earth. The kingdom that has long been foretold and predicted by the Old Testament prophets and lately by John the Baptist is no longer some future event. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, himself has come down. And the people who hear this announcement are prompted to repent and come into the kingdom. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God with himself as the central figure. He is the Son of God who came down from heaven to bring the light of life to those dwelling in darkness. Jesus' preaching was aimed at gathering people into his kingdom. His message was repent or turn around and come into the kingdom of God. And as a preacher, Jesus declared the kingdom, but he did not wait on the responses of fickle crowds. In Matthew 4, 18 through 22, the call that Jesus issued to Peter, Andrew, James, and John was simple. He called them to follow him. Now the second half of Jesus' call to Peter and Andrew gets all the attention. The Fishers and Men part, right? However, the focus is not on what the disciples will become. The focus of the passage is on the call and the one who calls the disciples. When we respond to the call of Christ, we are not being called to a perfectly defined task. We are being called to follow Jesus. To understand the call of Christ better, we're going to look at the gospel reading, the second half of the gospel reading in particular, at the call that Jesus issues to the disciples and the one who calls. This passage of Scripture is well known because of the second part of Jesus' words to Peter and Andrew. He says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus is using the situation to communicate with Simon, Peter, and Andrew. This is a play on words, right? Jesus sees them as fishermen and he uses the situation. The play on words shows us that Jesus has a purpose for calling these men to leave their nets. As rough Galilean fishermen, they would have known how to read the tides, find the best fishing spots, and how to get the best price for their catch every day. These skills were going to be exchanged for pastoral compassion, theological depth, and a zeal to make Christ known to the people around them. Here's the catch, though. Jesus' call to Peter and Andrew was not to be fishers of men. To be clear, one of the things that Jesus was going to do in their lives was make them fishers of men. But Simon, Peter, and Andrew were going to go out into the darkness with the gospel light and compel people to come into the kingdom, just like Jesus was doing, just calling them to do, doing with them. However, the call that Jesus issues to them was not based on them accomplishing a special preordained task or getting lots of new followers for Jesus. His call to Andrew and Peter was far simpler than that. The actual call or command that Jesus issues to them was follow me. If we look at the construction of the sentence, then the point comes further into focus. The first part of Jesus' words is this imperative, a call or command. Literally, in the Greek, it's come after me. The second part is what Jesus will do in and through them. They are not being called to be fishers of men. I'm saying it again. They are not being called to be fishers of men. They are being called to follow Jesus. The transformation into fishers of men comes because of following Jesus. We must be clear. The emphasis, I'm just saying it over and over again, the emphasis is not on what Jesus might lead the disciples to do, but that they were to follow wherever he leads. When Jesus talks about discipleship in the other gospels and in the rest of Matthew's gospel, he doesn't say to some of them, you will be lay people, and you're going to be pastors, and some of you are going to be evangelists, and some of you are going to be missionaries, and so forth. The call that he issued was, follow me. And Jesus, when he wanted to nuance the call of discipleship and the call to follow him, when Jesus wanted to nuance what he was calling them to do, he would say things like, Take up your cross. Whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. And these phrases were given to show the cost of following Jesus. And the cost seems pretty high. But how high is the cost of following Jesus? As you know, there are lots of religions in the world, and they ask people to earn their salvation by doing good deeds, by giving money. And the list of deeds that they have to do may be simple or extensive. But either way, the list must be worked through in order to gain a reward in the afterlife. The cost of salvation for the Christian, though, is a little bit higher. May I say, may we take the words of Jesus about taking up the cross and losing our lives for the sake of him, we take that to mean that the cost of salvation for the Christian is an entire life sacrificed to God. Rather than seeing the bar for these other religions as too high, we have to say their bar is set way too low. A few good deeds or giving money is nothing compared to your life. However, let's pause again and just remind ourselves that we are neither good enough or capable with our sinful lives, even sacrificing our own lives to save ourselves, wouldn't cover the wouldn't cover the debt. Our sinful lives cannot save anyone, not even our own skin. We cannot exchange our lives for eternal salvation because our sins are condemning us. However, there is one person who not only can exchange his life for the world, but already has done that. Our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He died to satisfy God's perfect standard of righteousness. He died to set us apart as his own possession, a holy people devoted to God. The great division of the people of the world is no longer based on where you're born, what language you speak, or your economic status. The world is divided along lines of who is a follower of Jesus or not. Jesus is perfect sacrifice for our sins, his glorious resurrection and ascension have brought us back to life so that we can follow him. So when Jesus says to us, follow me, he's not calling us to a list of good deeds to accomplish so that we can earn a place in the kingdom of God that he came announcing. He is calling us to walk with him and in him to the cross, where he will lay down his life for us. Therefore, we can say that the call of Jesus is not easy, but it is simple. Follow Jesus wherever he leads. What I'm suggesting to you this morning about the call of Jesus might be different from the way you thought of, or you've thought of the idea of like the call that God has placed on your life. We've all prayed and asked God to show us the path he wants us to go down in life. We've prayed to ask for help with decisions about what job we should pursue, who we should marry, where we should live, and so on and so forth. So, how do we know what God is calling us to do with our lives? It's a big question. Lots of people always are seeking an answer to where what is God calling me to do with my life? The first thing to note in any discussion about God's calling in our life is that God's perfect plan is often a mystery to us until we look back at our lives. So the best thing that we can do most of the time in seeking God's will for our lives is read our Bible, pray, and serve in whatever way the Lord provides. And as we're serving the Lord, we won't be surprised when we find out the Lord has cleared the path. And we know what we're supposed to do. But more importantly, we can say that the calling that Christ has placed on our lives, the calling that Jesus has placed in us and on us, is not about the road or the paths that He's leading us down. The call to follow Jesus is all about the one who calls us in the first place. Our object is not to find purpose on the path that he leads us down. Look again at what he commands Peter and Andrew to do. He said, Follow me. The very Son of God is calling them to follow him. Jesus is making himself the object of pursuit. Peter and Andrew, James and John were adults with families that relied on them. They would not have traded the stability of their family businesses that afforded them, sorry, they would not have traded the stability of their family businesses that afforded them their lifestyle that they had to search for meaning in a religious profession. If they had been the kind of people who were destined for a position with the Pharisees, that would have already taken place in their life. Indeed, their settled and normal lives were interrupted by the call to follow Jesus. And we would do well, I think, to remind ourselves that Jesus had already met most of these guys. Just a day or so after his baptism, Andrew and Peter had gone to be baptized by John in the Jordan River, and Andrew was sitting there listening to John the Baptist preach and teach about the coming Messiah when Jesus walked by. And John declared to everyone listening that Jesus was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And that led Andrew to getting up, leaving John, and following Jesus. And in John's Gospel, last week we heard about Andrew going to his brother Peter and telling him John's words, and they both went and met with Jesus. When Jesus met with them for the first time, he called Simon Peter. Right? He renamed him in John's Gospel. And so shortly after his baptism, Jesus went off into the wilderness for a time of fasting and prayer. And after those 40 days in the wilderness and the temptation by Satan, Jesus returns to Judea, where he learns of John the Baptist's arrest. The arrest of John the Baptist has dispersed all those crowds. Remember, all the crowds that had been flocking all of Judea, all of Jerusalem had flocked out to the wilderness to see John the Baptist. John's arrested, and those crowds disperse, and that leads Jesus to go back to Galilee. And there the light of the gospel was going to dawn on those people. The light that was dawning was Jesus himself. So when Jesus walks up to Simon, Peter, and Andrew and calls them to follow him, they are not unaware of who he is. Their commitment to leave everything behind makes sense because they know Jesus. They know him as the miracle-working Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And they hear the call of the beloved Son of God and they leave their nets and they follow Jesus. Like these early disciples, we are being called to follow Jesus. Trying to find out the details of that path will lead the details of the path that He might lead us down is as difficult for us as it was for Simon, Peter, and Andrew. However, what is easy is knowing who it is that we're following. He came flesh and blood, eating and drinking and telling the world who he is. He revealed himself through authoritative preaching and displays of God's power that no one else could have ever done and no one else has ever done. He is so gentle that he does not break the bruised reed or snuff out the faintly burning wick, yet he is the cornerstone of reality and truth itself, and if you stumble on Jesus, it will shatter you. He binds up the brokenhearted and blesses the poor and needy. He resists the proud and will judge all things down to the thoughts and intentions of our sinful hearts. Jesus is the Lord of glory, and the whole world will bow their knee to him. He is the King of kings who left his throne to die in our place so that he could bring us to his Father. The call that Simon, Peter, and Andrew heard that day was to follow Jesus. And when compared with anything else, Jesus is just simply better. With him as the object and devotion, the object of our devotion and love, we can't imagine anything higher or better than following Jesus. The call then is to give ourselves to Jesus. Which might sound like a dangerous thing. After all, wouldn't we lose control of our own lives? If we gave ourselves completely to Jesus, wouldn't we lose control? And the short answer to that question is, when did you ever have control of your life to begin with? Think back to the life of St. Paul. He had an absolute confidence that he was on the right path. He knew who he was and he knew what he was supposed to be doing, persecuting those Christians. Every decision he made in life was applauded by the people he believed he should honor. So whether he was looking for validation in himself or he was looking for validation from other people, right? That is, until he met Jesus. When Jesus crashed into his life, St. Paul was undone. All his plans for life turned upside down. And the truth is that we can't control our lives any more than St. Paul could. The company we work for could move us to a new place, the company could close, a storm could sweep through and ruin our homes, a sudden sickness could take vital years off of our lives. And, you know, positively, those are all negative things. Positively, we might find a new passion that sends us off in a new direction. The call of Jesus, though, is to follow him through life's ups and downs. So Simon, Peter, and Andrew, they were both killed for their faith. Peter was even crucified upside down. But their deaths are not a sign that they wasted their lives because they gave up the very thing that they couldn't control to begin with to follow Jesus. So what do we do now? The call to us is the same as it was to those disciples 2,000 years ago. Follow Jesus. Following Jesus might lead you in ways that you never imagined and very likely already has. You're here in this place this morning because the Lord Jesus brought you here. What work will he do in your life? We can't say for sure, but here are two things we can know for certain. First, Jesus will not lead us to a place that he has not already gone. Think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. For us to follow him, he must go ahead of us. Jesus told his disciples that he was going to the cross. He told the disciples to take up their cross. We enter the Christian life through Jesus. And he calls us to walk with him through life. He might lead us into all sorts of paths. But as he promised in Matthew 28, 20, he will be with us to the end of the world. He never leaves us or forsakes us. And he's our true older brother who, when it comes down to it, lays down his own life to save us. And we can trust that no matter what path he may lead us down, he'll be leading us somewhere good. And the second confidence that we have is that the destination that Jesus is leading us to is a place that we want to be. We don't have to worry about the path that he leads us down. We are called to follow him. And we know already where he's leading us. He's leading us in paths of righteousness to the new heavens and the new earth, where we will, where he will be our God, we will be his people, and we will dwell with him forever. With our destination, the end destination of our lives, of our souls, of our bodies secure, we can trust that Jesus Christ will take care of, will take care to bring us through this life wherever he may lead us as we follow him. May the Lord Jesus guard our lives and strengthen our resolve to follow him. Let's pray. Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ, and to proclaim the good news of his salvation to all people. And that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.