What does it cost when Jesus calls? S31e32 Matt 4:22

What happens when Jesus calls me? 

What does it cost? Probably your profession, your possessions, and your preferences. (I think the preferences are the most precious, and therefore the most costly).

What do I gain? Person of Jesus; the People of Jesus and the Payment of Jesus. This is payment for sin that you are incapable of ever paying. 

Give me 7 minutes, to help you count the cost of the call. 

https://youtu.be/8sClJMtcu60

Transcript

What does it cost when Jesus calls? S31e32 Matt 4:22

What happens when Jesus calls me? What does it cost What do I lose?:maybe profession, possessions, preferences 

What to I get, gain? Person, people, payment.

Here’s a first thought: the following of Jesus costs you something.

         Maybe you’d be inclcined to follow Jesus but you are counting the cost.

Surely the first disciples GIVE UP something and there probably is an accounting for that in their spiritual equations

         Jesus says to Peter and Andrew in Matt 4:19 : Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. They Gain Jesus. They gain a new job description: fisher of men.

But don’t go too fast: the new Christian life costs them something: they leave their nets. They were probably good at it.  Literally, they were professionals.  This job kept me alive. Learned rules and the unwritten rules along the way. Jesus is asking to be the way of their life and this is going to change the ways of their life.

Some professions will have to be left entirely to follow Jesus: life of crime, flesh trade, anarchist

There are also some, like these that the Lord will call into full time ministry, even paid ministry that is supported by the church. 

There are some, like Paul, that the Lord will call in to full time unpaid ministry that is supported by a side hustle like tent making.

Most professions would be renewed, w now you’re working Jesus

If you knew that following Jesus would COST YOU SOMETHING, would you do it? What if that cost was significant?

Look what happens next: 4: 21 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. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

These two brothers leave some nets with holes in them, perhaps not of the greatest value, but it was probably intimately precious to them. They probably knew the ins and outs of that particular physical item, as if their life depended upon it. 

Left 3 other things:

1.  Boat: precioius item that extended their reach on the Sea of Galillee.  

2.  Left their father. There is always a relational cost to establishing a relationship with Jesus.

Some relationshiops have the cost of initiation: new relationshiop with a Pastor , with a people, with a fellowship group, with people that you are now going to serve. You make a new family in a sense. 

Some relationships have the cost of ending: Those you engaged in sin with. Markers of your old life. Those, perhaps like their father, that don’t now agree with Who you follow, or even agree that you are following them. 

3.  left their plans, as the following was Immediate.

Following Christ is a path of the Will.

Jesus is making a call: Follow me to Peter and Andrew

Seeing James and John, He called them

To obtain this great Treasure cost the most treasure: the wil

He called them.  Sweeter words were never heard in the spiritual life of these guys. Oh to be called by the Lord. I wonder if they were ready.

On one hand, how could any human be prepared to receive a call from their Savior? The fact that the Holy has come down, to dwell with us, to be our Immanuel, God with us is infinitely above our paygrade.  And, if you consider what Jesus will do for them personally and endure for them, it is to boggle the Spiritual mind. 

On the other hand, these guys were somehow prepared enough, that when the call came, they were ready. Had the good Lord given them some sort of a head’s up in their spirits He did so with Nathanael: John 1: 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

Perhaps the hardest to sacrifice as one comes to the Lord most costly is the will, the obedience, the submitting to Jesus, His ways, His people, His leaders.

By following of Jesus, it will cost you something: 

physical (boat, new relationship with possessions, generosity)

Profession (New work perhaps call to serve in the church professionally or more likely making work new: renewed enthusiasm for God-given work; relationship with work;)

Volitionally, ah the pesky will, that He’d change our desires for less of what charmed us before to the desire for Him. Here, obedience, who’s plans they are. Not my plans, but what are YOUR plans.

Lessons in the following:

What happens when Jesus calls me? What does it cost?: maybe profession, possessions, preferences

What do I gain? Person of Jesus; people He calls His own. payment for sin that you are incapable of ever paying;