Jesus Calls His Disciples

Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 16:24-28, Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:1-11, John 1:35-42

When Jesus calls his disciples, he calls them chosen. Remember in middle school when you were made a captain, and you had to choose your team? You had to uniquely choose the people who would be the quickest, bravest, or sneakiest. You chose people that would bring you a win. Jesus chooses people that will carry out his mission to the lost. He doesn’t choose us because we are the fastest, strongest, or bravest like you would for a dodgeball game, but he chooses us because we are his children. He chooses the broken to carry out the gospel to a dark world. He chooses us to bring his Kingdom here on earth. 

When Jesus interacts with Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they give a few types of responses. Andrew declares him as the Christ, James and John immediately leave their fishing nets to follow him, and Peter says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)

We are like Peter– sinful men and women.

Jesus chooses us despite our sin. He chooses to dwell inside us, making himself known to the world. If you follow Jesus, then you are his hands that reach out to the sick and broken. You are his feet that step into the darkest places, bringing the light of the gospel (Ephesians 2:10). 

His choosing of us is an act of love. 

But when Jesus asked the fishermen to leave their nets and follow him, he wasn’t inviting them to play a quick game of dodgeball and then to go back to their regular lives. Jesus was asking them to be willing to leave their homes, careers, and belongings to follow him wherever he takes them. He chose them to be his disciples, to watch how he lived, to walk alongside him, and to continue to bring God’s Kingdom to all the earth even after Jesus ascended.

The same is true for us. The Spirit makes a home in us, convicts us, and leads us. Out of love, God chose us as his children to carry out his good works for his purpose and glory. And we have the choice to proclaim that Jesus is better than any of our earthly desires. We get to choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow him.

I pray we respond to our Father’s voice with repentance and obedience, and may we believe that he is who he says he is.

How do you feel knowing you are chosen by the King of the universe?

How will you respond to the Father’s voice calling you today?

Prayer: Father, thank you for calling us your children. Thank you for choosing us when we were dead in our sins and calling us your own. Teach us to live for you in everything we do, say, and think. Teach us to repent and believe so that we may live the life you have called us to live. In Jesus' precious name, Amen.