THE CALL TO ADVENTURE - Matt Williamson is speaking this morning continuing our series on the church is..... So today is the last Sunday for our series on church, and to begin, I want to look back to how this series began - you may remember that Andrew started off this year talking about going from strength to strength, and going on a pilgrimage together as PCF. And he said there were 4 areas for us to really be mindful of as a church body, the first being advancement – Jesus building his church and us getting on board. The second is authenticity – being real with God and with one another. The third was attitude – being a people who influence the world by having a different mindset, bringing blessing in tough times rather than giving up. And the final one was adventure. To quote what Andrew said – “We need PCF to be a safe place to connect with God, be restored, replenished etc. but also retaining the mystery of our God. He wont be boxed in. He won’t do it the same way every time. “ So I want to finish off this series by reminding us that God calls us not into what is manageable and mundane, but he calls us into an adventure with him. I’ll start off this morning looking at Matthew 4, so if you have your Bibles feel free to turn there. This passage that we’re going to read describes the call of the first disciples. I’ll go from verse 18: 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. Now looking at that first encounter, it’s helpful to know that when Jesus says “follow me” there it doesn’t have the same cultural context of some stranger walking up to you whilst you’re at work and saying. “Hey follow me”. Because if someone did that to me my initial thought would be “they want my wallet and phone. They’re going to mug me.” But notice here Peter and Andrew don’t hesitate, they jump up, they leave everything and immediately follow. You see in those times when a Rabbi was looking for disciples to lead and to teach he would look for the smartest and the most articulate, he would look for the most able and the ones most likely to be able to flourish under his teaching, and once he found them he would say to them “You, you’re the ones I’m choosing, follow me!” So those words in that culture didn’t just mean come hang out with me for a bit. They meant “Hey, I’ve seen something in you – and I think you have what it takes to become like me. Come see what I do and discover how to do it, learn what I know and find out how to live it, walk with me, live life with me. For a young Jewish boy that was the invitation of a lifetime. Peter and Andrew knew they were being invited into a life unlike anything they’d experienced so far. But whatever they were expecting to learn from Jesus was about to be blown completely out of the water – if we carry on reading at verse 21: 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Dee-ca-po-lis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Can you imagine what these guys must have been thinking. Jesus comes to them and says “follow me” meaning “I want to show you how to be like me, how to speak and act as I do” and then they discover that he far from being an ordinary rabbi. They see that every disease, every illness is in submission to him, the teaching he gives is unlike anything that has been heard before, demons have no choice but to obey him, and large crowds are drawn to him because there is something about him and the message that he carries that is beyond what anyone has ever known before. What Jesus is drawing his disciples into is an adventure. And over the next 3 years as they travel with Jesus their perceptions of what is possible are completely ripped to pieces. Their understanding of God is given revelation and fresh insight in a way that they would never have dreamed of. That to me sounds like the kind of adventure I want to be part of. That’s the kind of life I think we as a church are striving for. And the most amazing part is that Jesus doesn’t just ask them to watch, he empowers them to do it! Luke 9:1-2 says this: And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Can you imagine that pep talk? “Okay folks, this morning we’re going to try something a little different, I’m going to go ahead and give you authority over all demons and empower you to go out, heal the sick, and cure diseases and proclaim the kingdom of God like you’ve seen me do. Everyone okay with that? Good, off we go.” Beyond just teaching them, he enables them to actually do the stuff. They began to learn that the reason Jesus saw them and thought “Yes, you have what it takes” is because the only qualification they ever needed was a willingness to step out in obedience – it’s God that gives the power, it’s God that gives the ability, and the way that He does that will always be beyond our ability to understand or reason. Here in PCF, Andrew said that for us as a church we need to never lose the sense of the wonder, excitement, the mystery and adventure of God. I think these guys lived day by day in jaw dropped wonder as Jesus modelled for them a life beyond all expectation and then showed them that they could live it out too. The crazy thing is that Jesus is inviting us into the same kind of life. –PAUSE- I’m going to get round to that soon – but first I want to look at another part of Peter’s story, I want to give you the whole picture - because the call on him to follow Jesus isn’t only found once in the Bible. You see, for the disciples – after some time, something happened in their journey with Jesus that made it look like the whole adventure had fallen apart. After enjoying such an incredible time with Him, they watched as he was taken, stripped, beaten and crucified. And Peter ran, he denied ever knowing Jesus. To him, the adventure was over. What a devastating feeling for him, it must have been so confusing. How many times do you think he tried to heal the sick or cast out demons after that moment? I don’t know the answer, but the dismay of being shown a life beyond your wildest dreams and then seeing it fall apart must have been crushing for Peter. He must have been devastated. But what he didn’t know was that it wasn’t the end of the adventure. It was just the end of the introduction, because Jesus didn’t stay dead. And he wasn’t finished with Peter. Turn to John 21, and let’s see what happens. I’m going to read from verse 15 – this is a little after the disciples have learned that Jesus rose again: 15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16 Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ 17 The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Now the next words from Jesus just really took me by surprise, and it might be just me but I imagine a cheeky, knowing grin on Jesus face as he speaks – it says this: Then Jesus said to him: “Hey Peter, follow me” And I see Peter’s mind jumping back to that first encounter with Jesus that marked the beginning of the adventure for him. And I see his eyes light up at he realises, ‘Jesus is inviting me into the next great journey’. The lessons of his first calling equipped him to do even greater things as Jesus said to him for a second time “Follow me”. Peter’s first call was to be a disciple, and his second was to be a shepherd. The time of transition between the two was painful, confusing, and disorientating but what hindsight showed Peter is that the call of Jesus on his life didn’t die when Jesus was crucified, but rather it was given new life as Jesus rose from the dead and offered a fresh invitation. For us if we want to make sure never to lose that sense of the wonder, excitement, mystery and adventure of God, then we need to understand that the call of Jesus on us as individuals and as a church family is not going to be the same years down the line as it is today. But it won’t be disjointed either, the work of God in and through us in the past equips us for what he has today, and the work of God today is equipping us for the next adventure he has for us. But whether it’s our very first time hearing the words “follow me” or whether it’s the next chapter in a long list of adventures – we need to be ready to respond to the call of Jesus. So I want to draw out a couple of brief thoughts from Peter’s story, and bring out some principles from how he responded to Jesus that can help us as we think about how we actually live this out for ourselves. OPEN EARS The first thing that Peter had was open ears. He was a skilled tradesman, and was probably a very busy man. He would have had fair reason to say to Jesus “Sorry I’m busy right now, I can’t talk”, but he didn’t. He had open ears, he made the time to listen to what Jesus had to say, and then was willing to follow. I wonder how often we miss the call of Jesus in any given moment because we’re too busy to have open ears – because we have one track minds towards whatever we’re doing, rather than doing what we need to do, but inviting Jesus into that and letting him speak even as we work. Has anyone ever had a moment where you’re so focused on something, there’s something that you need to get done, that when someone else comes along and tries to speak to you, you don’t even really register what they’re saying. You just sort of blank them? And then maybe 5 minutes later you think “Did they just say something to me?” Has anyone ever had that? The worst case of this happening to me was when I was in high school. I was in the canteen one lunchtime, and I don’t know if I’d just eaten something dodgy or if I just had a bug but I remember suddenly being very aware that I didn’t feel good. And I thought to myself – I think I’m going to be sick. And so I left my friends behind and made a B-Line for the school toilets. However as I was walking out of the canteen a girl from my class chose that of all moments to stop me and say “Matt, can I talk to you about something?” Now at this moment in time all my brain was thinking was “You really do need to be sick, you need to get away as quickly as possible”. And so I stood there nodding impatiently as this poor girl started confessing to me that she had feelings for me. Now trust me when I say this was not a common part of my high school day, this was the chance of a lifetime. Nevertheless my brain would not switch away from “I need to be sick, like as soon as possible”. And so I barely heard a word that she said. I was so focused on what I needed to do that I was completely closed to whatever ray of hope she was offering me to boost my high school social status, and in the end I just looked at her and said “That sounds really great, I’m sorry though – can you excuse me just for a minute because I need to go and throw up.” Needless to say we never ended up finishing that conversation. Let’s never be too busy, let’s never be so caught up in what we’re doing, that we don’t make space for Jesus to speak, because the call of Jesus is an invitation into something wonderful, be it just for a specific task or moment, or be it for a whole life mission – we need to have open ears. Peter was a busy fisherman, but not too busy that he couldn’t lend an ear to the words of Jesus. For us, we can go about what we’re good at, but it’s only in Jesus that we find purpose. Colossians 1 says: 15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything started in him and finds its purpose in him. Peter gained a talent as he followed his dad into the fishing business. But he gained his purpose as he followed Jesus into his calling. He had open ears. We need to have the same. OPEN HANDS The other thing Peter had was open hands. He couldn’t follow Jesus if he dragged his nets with him. He had to let them go. And second time round, in order to fulfil his new calling as a shepherd, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, he had to do something even harder – he had to let go of the security of having Jesus as a human walking with him. He had to understand that his method of ministry the first time round was fantastic, but that doesn’t mean it was to be the same the second time round. In John 16 Jesus says to him “Its for your advantage that Im going away, because if I dont go away, the Helper (the holy spirit) wont come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” For me, in the context of the youth stuff, I find it very easy to experiment by setting up new little initiatives with the youth here – over the years there are lots of projects that we’ve started. And many of them, not all of them, but many, have been really right for the season they were in. What I find incredibly hard is stopping something to make room for something new. It’s very scary to say “Okay, I think God’s calling us to have open hands and leave this one behind. It was right for then, but that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s right for now.” I think we need to stop defaulting to seeing the end of something as its failure. For Jesus, his crucifixion marked the end of his time as a human; it marked the end to his human ministry. But it wasn’t a failure, it was his greatest victory – and it flung open the doors for the next move of God. Many of you know that throughout my teenage years I was training and preparing myself to become a professional dancer. As it stands now I realise that that would have been a terrible idea as I have all the grace of a hippo. But nevertheless I enjoyed it, and still love watching professional dancers perform even now. However I remember the period where suddenly I became aware of an uneasiness with pursuing dance, there was something restless in me, and over time, through a variety of events I became more and more aware of the call of God towards young people. And eventually this burned inside me to a point where I knew this was Jesus saying “Follow me.” It was scary, because I was letting go of the familiar, something I was good at, and taking hold of something I didn’t know the first thing about. But I’m so grateful to God for it now, because the adventure so far has been wonderful… out of my comfort zone at times, but wonderful. I don’t know if there’s something that you need to let go of this morning. Maybe it’s an old habit, maybe it’s a familiar way of doing things, maybe it’s a situation or a problem. But we need to have open hands. For us, whether it’s a call to family or friends, a call to the business world, a call to specific communities or far flung reaches of the world, whether it’s a call to tackle one particular need, a call to church ministry, or like a number of my Christian friends, a call in the world of professional dance – whichever direction it’s in, we need to have open ears, ready to hear the call of Jesus, allowing our lives to be interrupted and we need to have open hands – ready, if it’s appropriate, to leave our nets and finishing boats behind as we submit to the words “Follow me”. And the same is true for us as PCF, Andrew has often said, we don’t want good ideas – we want God ideas. Let’s hear what God is saying and get on board. And as a final thought, it’s worth considering that whether it’s corporate or individual, these principles doesn’t just apply to big life choices. We often become so caught up in God’s will for our lives that we don’t consider God’s will for the next hour. We need to walk with open ears, and open hands, listening for the nudge of the spirit, and being open to him saying Hey, follow me!” at any moment. Because like Peter the only qualification we need is the willingness to be obedient – it’s God who gives the power, its God who gives the ability. We just need to be up for the adventure.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:19:52 +0000
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