Men That the Master Called
Luke 5:27-31, Mark 1:16-20, & Samuel 1 16:1-12
Let us think for a while on the men that the Master called. What kind of people were they? What did they do for a living? What was their age? Were they married? Did they own their homes? Were they busy making a living?
When they were called to serve the Master, did they have fears and doubts, or did they accept without counting the cost?
I: Jesus Took Them Where They Were… They Were, Without Exception, Busy People.
1. Peter and Andrew were casting their nets.
2. James and John were mending their nets.
3. Matthew was a prosperous tax collector.
4. Nicodemus was a busy lawyer and religious leader.
5. Paul was engrossed in stamping out what he thought to be a false religion.
6. God has never picked His fishermen from loafers.
II: They Would Not Have Met the Critic’s Standards to Serve.
1. Let us look at the first disciple:
a. Watch him as he walks up the sandy beach.
b. His boat shows signs of raggedness and usefulness, his head is almost bald, and his hair turning gray around the temples.
c. He has passed his 40th birthday.
d. His face is weather-beaten & his massive hands are calloused.
e. His whole appearance is rugged and he smells like fish.
f. His eyes dance with the challenge of battle, he is as tempestuous as the Sea of Galilee, rough, blundering, blustering, clumsy, and impulsive.
This man would cuss or fight when cornered, surely he would not make a good fisherman for the Master, but Jesus called him.
2. There, sitting in the boat, are two brothers with their father and servants mending nets.
a. Their nickname is “Sons of Thunder.”
b. Their father’s name is Zebedee.
c. They have been raised with rugged fishermen, their nickname will tell us of the smoldering volcano that burns with impetuous, firery, & bull-headed.
d. They would gladly call fire down on any that opposed them.
e. To make fishermen out of them would be like breaking wild colts to plow.
f. These men would never learn how to catch flies with honey, but Jesus called them.
3. Nathaniel, the dreamer, is called from the shade of a tree.
a. He is a ladies man, tall, handsome, & graceful.
b. He is given to dreaming and building air castles.
c. He could make friends, but would never be rugged enough to stand the storms of the future church.
d. No, this man just won’t do, but Jesus called him.
4. Thomas, the Missourian from Galilee, is one to consider with care.
a. He is cautious and slow to convince, he will demand a positive proof of success before he will venture.
b. He has two speeds: Slow and dead-still.
c. His theme song will be “This is not the time,” his advice will be “Let’s wait and see.”
d. Every committee he served on would be split by his ingenious questions and posing of problems.
e. He will be hard to convince of the resurrection and never be strong in his vision, but Jesus called him.
5. Here sits a Jew collecting taxes for the hated Romans.
a. He has amazed a fortune in money and is hated by his country men.
b. He is not affected by what others think or do, but adhere to the course that will bless him and his.
c. He would make any cause unpopular and keep many from coming to Church if he joined.
d. Two-faced hypocrites would use him as their stumbling blocks.
e. He would never help the Master’s cause for he is an unpopular tax collector, but Jesus called him.
6. Time would fail to name men and women Jesus ought not to have called.
III: What was the Cost to These Men?
1. Leave homes, business, and friends.
2. Follow a carpenter’s son that didn’t even own a bed.
3. Go to strange places and strange people with a strange message.
4. To go like sheep among wolves.
5. To live a life of sacrifice and die at the hands of those they came to help.
6. But they followed the Master.
7. “I know I ain’t got much sense,” Charley Finch.
IV: Jesus Calls You and Me – Others Through Us.
1. More than just to be saved. Power to Become.
2. More than to just join the church.
02/25/1962: Perris Valley, Baptist.
04/09/1962: Brantly, Greenfield.
July 1962: Bluffton Arkansas
04/01/1963: Perris Valley, Baptist.
April 1963: El Centro, California
April 1964: Carson City, Nevada
1964: Emanuel, Riverside
10/04/1965: Tehachapi – Sixth Memorial Baptist Roallo.
10/21/1967: Leonard Oloha