Sermon Tone Analysis
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The title of the sermon this morning is Grow: Back to Basics.
We’ve been going through our four words on our logo - worship/grow/love/serve.
[SLIDE: WORSHIP GROW LOVE SERVE]
Repeat that back to me?
[SLIDE: WORSHIP GROW LOVE SERVE]
To grow spiritually is to grow in your knowledge of God, love for God, obedience to God.
Let’s start this morning with four questions related to spiritual growth.
#1:How many of you would say, “Yes, I want to grow spiritually?
I want to grow in my knowledge of God, love for God, obedience to God”?
#2: Next question: how many of you would say that you put some effort into growing spiritually?
#3: Now, this question requires honesty and humility: how many of you would say, “As of today, I have not grown spiritually to the extent that I had hoped I would by this point in my life”?
#4: Here’s the last question: How many of you would say, “I feel shame and guilt to some degree because of my lack of growth?”
The first thing I need to tell you this morning is that you are not alone.
The second thing I want you to know is that there is hope because Jesus is for you in this endeavor, not against you.
And the third thing is going to be the focus of this sermon: To grow spiritually, we must go back to basics and re-learn three things.
Before we start a new Bible reading plan, or set a new resolution, or make yet another commitment, go back with me to the basics and relearn along with me three things.
I’ve phrased each of these three things we need to learn as a question.
#1: Do you realize Jesus has chosen you for the purpose of growing you?
Do you realize Jesus has chosen you for the purpose of growing you?
This question matters more than you might thing.
But before we look at why it matters, look at the text with me.
Jesus has chosen you for the purpose of growing you.
We all are familiar with this text.
Four Jewish fishermen by the Sea of Galilee.
They’re going about their business — fixing their nets, casting their nets, making pay dirt, as it might be called.
In the first century, guys like this were in a distinct social class.
Fishing wasn’t a hobby for them; it was how they put food on the table.
And guys like this were tough.
My dad is an expert fisherman.
He’s been fishing Lake James so long he could probably be one of those fishing tour guides.
And he’s tough.
He’ll be there when the sun comes up and he’ll be there to see it go down too, even if it’s cold and damp.
Then again, fishermen usually weren’t educated; they weren’t very refined.
Sometimes their manners, their etiquette, was displeasing to higher classes.
[see ISBE vol. 2 p1115]
But the most important thing for you to know this morning about fishermen was that for them, it was a business.
Most of you guys who fish, you do it for fun.
If you could do it for money, I know some of you would.
These guys really did.
Keep that in mind - fishing was their livelihood.
That’ll become very important as we go along.
So Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee.
And He chooses four men.
Where do we see that?
The word “choose” is not in the text at all.
But another word is: Look at verse 18: “While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he” — here it is — “he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.”
Same thing two verses down in v. 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...”
You saw those two occurrences of that word: “He saw...” Jesus has all knowledge, past/present/future.
He knew where they would be, and when they would be there.
So when Matthew tells us Jesus saw the disciples, it means Jesus was seeking them out.
He didn’t walk along and happen to see them and it happened to occur to Him that here were four men who could be His disciples.
No, Jesus had already chosen them.
Hence He was searching them out.
And having seen them, He called them.
But we’ll get to that in a minute.
For now, here’s what I want you to hear, absorb, and take with you:
Learn to picture Jesus having hand selected you to be His disciple.
Learn to picture Jesus having hand selected you to be His disciple.
Rid yourself of the picture of you having chosen Jesus.
Does that sound unbiblical to you? Remember that Jesus Himself said this: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16 ESV).
Jesus also said this: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44 ESV).
Yes, of course I must make a conscious choice to follow Him.
Yes, it has to be my decision and mine alone to follow Jesus.
We choose.
And — not but, and — not only do we choose Jesus, but before that has even taken place we have already been chosen to follow.
This is important to grasp, church.
You need to see that Jesus wanted you.
You are not a nameless, faceless person in His mind.
He created you and knows you intimately; He knows you down to the darkest recesses of your heart and He loves you.
And what’s more, He has chosen you for the purpose of growing.
Remember that verse?
You did not choose me, I choose you?
Jesus goes on in that verse to say this: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you” — why? “that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16 ESV).
To follow Jesus is to grow, or seek growth.
The call to grow is one and the same with the call to follow.
The call to be sanctified is embedded within the call to repent and trust.
Do you realize that Jesus has chosen you for the purpose of growing you?
Next, do you understand the role He has called you to fill?
[SLIDE: DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE ROLE…]
#2: Do you understand the role He has called you to fill?
Do you understand the role He has called you to fill?
Jesus saw these fishermen because He already had chosen them.
What had He chosen them for?
Growth, right?
But what kind of growth?
What is the job?
Verse 19: “He said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
These are two things, not one.
There is a command here, and a promise.
First the command.
We Baptists focus hard on “I will make you fishers of men,” but we sometimes overlook what comes first.
First, before Jesus says “I will make you fishers of men,” Jesus says, “Follow me.”
If you were a young Jew in the first century and you wanted to learn God’s word, you would find a rabbi.
A rabbi was a Jewish teacher.
You would literally follow your rabbi.
You would go where he goes, do what he does, so that as he’s teaching you the OT scriptures, you’re also observing how he lives it out in his daily life.
It’s the best possible way to learn.
Teaching and relationship.
So when Jesus says, “follow me”, He is commanding your allegiance.
But that’s not all: Jesus, when he says “follow Me”, He is inviting you into a relationship.
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