Year 2 Day 42
Pray (ACts) Read - Mark 1:16-20 Message - Alan Burke It’s a Monday morning and I’ve just been on the nijobfinder website. You will either be shocked at that news or thinking it wasn’t soon enough, but I have no desire to go anywhere and it seems that from the job adverts that once you become a minister of the gospel you have absolutely no employability in any other profession. Here’s the reason why I was on the nijobfinder website to have a look at essential criteria and desirable criteria as employers often look for both. Terms like ‘A proven ability’, ‘Excellnet verbal and written communication skills’ and no that wasn’t my typo it was actually in the job advert. Those are things that employers look for. What is most surprising here is that Jesus calls the unexpected. You’ve read the passage, you know what happens, Jesus calls these men to follow him. These fellas lives were fairly insular, they would have spent most of them within a stones throw of where they were born, maybe having went down to Jerusalem for a festival. But largely the wouldn’t have strayed far, their lives would have consisted of how the fishing was going, of trade talk, local gossip, family matters, maybe local politics, they were born, grew up, worked, lived, spent all their lives in this place. But then Jesus comes and their world is transformed. The first two, Simon who is better know to us as Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were on the shore likely chest deep casting their nets into the lake fishing. Then their was James the son of Zebedee and John in the boat with the hired men. Think of the cost there was to leave everything, there is part of us that thinks this is madness. If I asked, “who’s up for it, follow me this day and we will leave everything behind and just go, let’s see where we end up" you’d think I’d lost the plot. Even if part of you wanted to go you’d be thinking, what about the cat, or the milk in the fridge will go off, it could by any number of things. Maybe for these first disciples they were furloughed from their actual jobs or there was a recession but I doubt it. They left everything because of the one who called them. We may find that hard to take in but think about it, I’m sure we’ve seen people who were transformed by the gospel, and we have heard of people coming to faith. Often they were not looking for Jesus Christ but their lives were radically transformed, when they were living their own lives, how they wanted to live, yet because of the gospel there was radical transformation. Want I want to leave you with is how the wisdom of this world teaches us that you would pick the most qualified, best experienced person for the task, the best of the best. Yet Jesus calls the unqualified, unimportant and unworthy he calls the unexpected. This is good news for us today, because often we can feel that we are not good enough, why would God choose me, I don’t have any gifts, I have done terrible things that no one knows about, what is it for you that makes you feel inadequate to follow? Think about Noah got drunk and was humiliated, Abraham was an old man, Jacob a liar and a cheat, Moses wasn’t a great speaker, Jonah ran from God, Rehab was a prostitute, David was an adulterous murder, Jeremiah was depressed, you could list their failures one after another. Often we can feel that we are not good enough that we are unworthy but none of us are worthy and that should comfort us that God calls us because it all about the one who is worthy Jesus Christ and he calls sinners like you and me to himself to follow. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q52 What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’ s sovereignty over us, (Ps. 95:2–3) his propriety in us, (Ps. 45:11) and the zeal he hath to his own worship. (Exod. 34:13–14)
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