Category: Sermon Page

Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 14, 2021

“John 3:16, Up Close and Personal” (John 3:14-21)

It’s perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible. People know what it says simply by the reference, “John 3:16.” It’s so well known that folks will hold up a sign with just the reference on it, and people will remember what the verse says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” A brief, concise, beautiful summary of the gospel. In fact, this verse is often called “The gospel in a nutshell.” Well, let’s take a closer look at it now, as we explore “John 3:16, Up Close and Personal.”

You’ve heard this verse a thousand times. You may even know it by memory. But by its very familiarity, we may just gloss over the particulars of the content. So let’s see what each part of the verse is saying.

Let’s start with “God.” Now this word may seem obvious as to what it means, but it isn’t. Who or what you mean by “God” can vary from person to person, from culture to culture, from religion to religion. When people say “God,” they’re not all meaning the same thing, especially in a secularized, post-Christian society like ours. Different people have different ideas about God. Is God a “he,” a “she,” an “it,” a “they,” an “us”? Who or what is “God”? Is it just some generic “higher power”? How many gods are there? Or are there any at all? Can each religion have its own god? The truth is, men may think that God is whatever they imagine him to be, or want him to be, but such is not the case.

The reality is, there is only one true God, who created the world and all its creatures, all human beings included. This is the God who is revealed in the Bible. In the beginning, he created the heavens and the earth. In human history, he called together a people for himself, the people of Israel in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, the people of God has been expanded to be the church of all nations. The one true God is the one who has acted in history and has revealed himself in Holy Scripture. And, despite what men may think, there is no other god.

Now we know from Scripture that this God, the one true God, is the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the context of John 3:16, the term “God” here refers specifically to God the Father, since later in the verse God’s Son is spoken of distinct from the Father. So here where the verse starts out, “For God,” we’re talking about God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world.” We’ll get to the word “love” in a moment, but first let’s talk about “the world.” In the Gospel of John, the term “the world” is speaking of the world insofar as it does not know God. This is the world that has gone its own way, that has rebelled against its Creator. The “world” here means the world of men as they have set themselves against God, the world whose value system is opposed to the ways of God.

The people of this world seek to be independent of God. Each man wants to be his own god, really. And this does not work out very well. We think we know better than our Creator the best way to live. But how’s that working out for you? We end up doing damage to one another. We hurt our fellow creatures in countless ways. We shake our fist at God, and we turn a deaf ear to his Word. The Bible calls this “sin.” It is stupid, and it is deadly. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” That is the state of the world in which we live.

And you and I were part of this sinful world, according to our fallen nature. As Ephesians puts it: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world.” You and I were those dead sinners. We have hurt people and ignored God and dismissed what he says is the right way to live. By nature, you and I were part of the whole sinful world. By nature, we were children of wrath.

So what is God going to do to us? What ought God to do to us, to the world? You might think the verse would read: “For God so condemned the world.” “For God so hated the world.” That would be appropriate, given how badly we have acted. But what does it say? Surprisingly, it says. “For God so loved the world.” Now that is amazing! But that’s what John 3:16 tells us: “For God so loved the world.”

Here again we need to define our terms. Just as “God” means many things to many people, so does the word “love.” For many people, “love” is just some warm, fuzzy feeling. “Love” means not being judgmental, not saying that anything is wrong or sinful. But that is too shallow for the love that God has. “For God so loved the world” means that he loves us in spite of how we have sinned against him. And what’s more, God’s love doesn’t stop at mere feelings. God’s love goes into action. When God loves, he does something about it. He acts in mercy to fix the mess that we’ve made of this world.

So what has he done? John 3:16 tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave.” God’s love doesn’t stop with a feeling. God’s love gives. It’s part of his nature. “Every good gift is from above and cometh down from the Father,” says the Bible. Think of all the gifts our heavenly Father gives us, from day to day: food, clothing, house, home, wife, children–the list goes on and on. God is the biggest giver there ever was or will be.

And when God gave us his greatest gift, his love was costly. It was sacrificial. It cost God something very near and dear to his heart. What has he given? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Here we’re dealing with the profound mystery of the Holy Trinity. God the Father gave his only Son. This is God’s eternal Son, from before the foundation of the world. The Son of God was with God in the beginning, true God in his nature. This unique, one-of-a-kind Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, God sent into the world, to take on our flesh, to be our brother. This is God incarnate, Jesus Christ.

And God “gave” his Son. His only Son, the Son he loves, Jesus Christ. “This is my beloved Son,” the Father says, “with whom I am well pleased.” Even so, God gave him up for us all. He gave him into suffering and death. This is how much God loves us, that he was willing to make such a sacrifice. Christ Jesus went to the cross to suffer and die, to do the will of his Father who sent him and who loves us so much.

But why? For what purpose? To what end? John 3:16 tells us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” God’s giving of his Son was for our benefit. And there are two sides to this benefit: It’s what we get and what we don’t get. What we don’t get is the “perishing.” To perish is to die eternally, under God’s judgment and condemnation. To perish is to die without hope. It is to be lost forever. But Jesus died so that we would not perish. God does not want us to perish eternally. That’s why he gave his Son, so that we won’t.

That’s what we don’t get. What we do get, what we do receive, is life. Eternal life, the life that last forever. But there’s more to everlasting life than just a matter of quantity. It is first of all a new quality of life, a new kind of life. Life with God, the way it was meant to be. And you, dear Christian, you have actually received this eternal life already. You have eternal life now, present tense.

How did you receive this gift? By faith. John 3:16 says, “Whoever believes in him.” The Holy Spirit has worked this faith, this trust, in your heart. By the faith worked in you by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, now you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior. You rely on him for your salvation, not on yourself. Now you know the one true God. You have God’s name placed on you in your baptism, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It’s all a gift, both Christ’s dying for you, to redeem you from your sins, and the gift of faith, so that you believe in Christ and trust in him. As Ephesians says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God is the great giver of every good gift. And John 3:16 tells us how God has given us new and eternal life in Christ. You have this gift now. And one day, this gift will blossom into life with no more sin or sorrow. When Christ returns, we will have this life forever, with glorified bodies in a renewed creation. We will know God fully, even as we are fully known. We will live in fellowship with all of God’s people, love perfected all around. All this and more is what we have, because of God’s love for us in the giving of his Son.

John 3:16, the gospel in a nutshell. And now that we’ve taken a look at what’s inside the nutshell, up close and personal, we see how it’s packed full with meaning and good news for every one of us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Midweek Lenten Service
Wednesday, March 10, 2021

“‘Follow Me’: The Candidates for Discipleship” (Mark 2:13-17)

We just came out of an election year, in which we had to make choices among all sorts of various candidates. There were many candidates running for many different offices, at local, state, and federal levels. And in the campaign ads, each candidate would tout his or her qualifications for the position they were seeking. Because a candidate for office ought to have certain qualifications.

But how does that work when we’re dealing with qualifications for being disciples of Jesus? What qualifications do candidates for discipleship need–what do you need–in order to follow Jesus and learn from him? Well, there’s one essential qualification you must have, and today we’ll find out what it is.

Our text is the calling of Levi the tax collector–better known as St. Matthew–as found in Mark chapter 2. There Jesus calls Levi and says, “Follow me.” So, apparently, Levi had what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus. But what was that? And do you have what it takes? I think you do. In fact, I know you do. You are just as good a candidate for discipleship as St. Matthew was. You have the same exact qualification that he had, the one essential qualification for following Jesus. And it is this: You are a sinner. That’s it. That’s what it takes. You need to be a sinner in order to follow Jesus and learn from him. That’s what St. Matthew was. This saint was a sinner, and he knew it. And that’s what you need in order to hear Jesus calling you. Otherwise, you’ll just tune him out, because you think you don’t need him.

St. Matthew Levi, the sinner. (From here on, I’ll just call him by his more familiar name, Matthew.) Matthew was a sinner. How do we know that? Well, from his occupation, for one thing. He was a tax collector. But was that really so bad? I mean, nobody likes having to pay taxes. But being a tax collector–is that job really so sinful? Of course, tax collectors are never popular, simply because they’re taking money out of your pocket. But back in Matthew’s day the tax collectors were hated for a couple of more reasons: 1) They were widely known to be embezzlers, cheats, corrupt, taking more than they should to line their own pockets. And 2) they were working for the enemy, for Rome, the occupying force in the region. The tax collectors thus were viewed as traitors, quislings, by their fellow Jews. So that was Matthew, presumably: a crook and a collaborator. Matthew was a sinner.

Nevertheless, it is just this Matthew–sitting at his tax collector’s booth, no less–whom Jesus calls to be his disciple. “Follow me,” he says. And immediately, Matthew does just that. He follows. He gets up from his tax collector’s booth, leaves it behind, and follows Jesus. Then, to top it all off, Jesus goes to Matthew’s house for dinner. And there are other notorious sinners there, to boot. Jesus associates with them. He eats with them. He graces their table with his presence.

Jesus explains why he’s doing that. He says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” You see, this physician, this doctor, makes house calls. Jesus, the Doctor of Mercy. He comes to sin-sick sinners, and he makes us well. Oh, the great mercy shown to us by this Great Physician! So merciful is he that he even bore our sin and sickness in his body and died from it! On the cross Jesus bled and died to bring healing to both body and soul. The result is forgiveness now and life forever. This is a treasure far greater than anything we could gain at a thousand tax collectors’ booths!

Friends, Jesus says to us today, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” But if you’re content with your own righteousness, well, then you’re not going to have much use for Jesus. You won’t be very interested in following him and listening to his voice. If you don’t think you’re that much of a sinner, then when Jesus says, “Follow me,” you’ll be thinking: “Oh, that’s nice. Ho hum. Now leave me alone.” People who are content with their own goodness, with their own lives–they’re going to tune out Jesus’ message.

On the other hand, for those who know they are sinners, the call of Jesus comes as the most welcome invitation. To those who realize that there is no way out, no way up, no way forward in life on their own, Jesus comes to you and he says: “Follow me. I will lead the way for you. I accept you. I forgive you. Here is God’s mercy. Here is life and forgiveness and cleansing for sinners.” Wow! What could be better than that? Of course, when we hear such an invitation, we gladly leave our tax collector’s booth behind! We’d be a fool not to. It’s no great sacrifice on our part to leave that and to follow Jesus. No, this life of discipleship is his gift to us. He calls us sinners to follow him and receive from him.

Friends, never stop being sinners. What? How can you say that, Pastor? “Never stop being sinners”? No, I don’t mean keep on indulging in crookedness and corruption. When Jesus called those tax collectors and sinners and ate with them, he was not approving of their immoral ways. He was not saying, “Oh, go ahead with your sinning. That’s OK.” By no means! No, when I say, “Don’t stop being sinners,” what I mean is this: Never lose sight of the fact that you are a sinner, saved by grace, and that you are following Jesus because of his gracious call to you. Always remember that you receive your life from him. Never forget that. Then you will always have a hunger and thirst for Christ’s righteousness. You will always have ears ready and open to hear his voice.

Listen, today Jesus is calling you, just like he called Matthew the tax collector and sinner. Jesus is calling you to himself, calling you to follow him in faith for life. Our Master will teach you what he would have you to know, just as he taught his disciples of old. Our Lord will use you in his service, just as he used them.

Candidates for discipleship need to have certain qualifications. Where can we find such candidates? Well, just look around you. Disciples are people just like you, just like your pastor, just like Matthew Levi the tax collector. We all possess the one essential qualification, which is this: We know we are sinners called by Jesus to follow him.

Third Sunday in Lent
March 7, 2021

“March Madness: The Prophet-Driven Church” (John 2:13-22)

“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild”: That’s how we usually picture our Savior. And in many respects, that’s true. Our Good Shepherd is kind and gentle with his sheep. But that image of Christ is not enough. It doesn’t give the full picture of Jesus and his character and his range of emotions. Especially is that the case with our text today. Because today we see our Lord getting downright angry–or upright angry, I should say, since it is righteous anger that he displays. Today Jesus gets a case of “March Madness”: He marches right into the temple like he owns the joint, and he is mad. How come? What’s the problem? What is it that makes Jesus so mad? And what does it have to do with the church in our day? Let’s find out, under the theme, “March Madness: The Prophet-Driven Church.”

The problem was with what was going on at the temple. At the temple in Jerusalem, a lot of buying and selling going on, a lot of money was changing hands: “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”

Now to be fair, we should ask: What was so bad about that? I mean, if you look into this a little bit, it may not seem so bad. Think about it. The temple in Jerusalem was the one place where the Lord God had commanded his people to come to offer sacrifices for sin, as well as other sacrifices, for guilt, peace offerings, thank-offerings, and so on. This was God’s idea, and it’s all recorded in the Book of Leviticus. The Lord had provided the way for his people to get their sins forgiven. Instead of requiring their life for their misdeeds, the people could offer up burnt offerings and the blood of bulls and goats and lambs. This was God in his mercy and grace providing forgiveness, atonement for his people. And for hundreds of years, ever since there was a temple in Jerusalem, that’s where all of those sacrifices were supposed to take place: at the temple, in Jerusalem. Nowhere else.

But the thing is, the people at Jesus’ time had to come from long distances. The Jewish people had been scattered far and wide across the ancient world. They had been dispersed to faraway lands. So it would be extremely impractical for them to bring the sacrificial animals with them on such a long trip. What they would do, then, is when they got to Jerusalem, they would buy sheep or goats or bulls or doves–they would buy them locally, right there in Jerusalem. That made sense. So businesses were set up to handle that trade. And because in many cases the people coming to Jerusalem were coming from lands with different currency, there would also be money exchanges set up to deal with that.

So far, so good. Those things in themselves, you would think, should not make Jesus mad. They would be providing a service for people coming from long distances. But the problem was, the animal trade and money exchange morphed way beyond that and became a profit-making business that overshadowed the real purpose of the temple. The forgiveness of sins got lost in the shuffle. It got pushed to the side. Other interests, self-interests, took over. And they even set up shop in the temple courts.

All of that, then, is what gets Jesus so mad: “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’” So here where the profit motive was driving the profiteers, a true prophet, a prophet of God, steps in and drives them out.

Now it’s great that nothing like what was going on in the temple can happen in the church today, right? I mean, we’re not buying and selling animals or exchanging currency back in the narthex. And I’m not referring to bake sales or yard sales or things like that. Those can be innocent and helpful and acts of Christian service. But there is a problem, a big problem, when anything overshadows or pushes to the side the real purpose of the church, which is still the forgiveness of sins. When that happens, and it does, Jesus still gets mad.

There is a problem when other things become the big thing in the church. Some religious merchants sell entertaining worship and peppy pop music. Some capitalize on their big smiles, funny stories, and pleasing personalities. Some market their advice for being successful or “purpose-driven.” Church-growth gurus peddle their techniques for driving up numbers. When these things happen at the expense of truth and substance, when the gospel gets shoved to the side, when the forgiveness of sins is downplayed–or even is seen as an impediment to growth–well, that’s when Jesus gets mad. And all faithful prophets of God will get mad, too. We’d like to drive those religious hucksters out of God’s house.

God forbid that we fall for their tricks! Because you know what? Their appeal can be very subtle. It can sound on the surface like a good thing, and it’s easy for a church and church members to fall for it. Been there, done that. I used to be a proponent of some of this stuff. Thank God for his forgiveness and for helping me to see things better. And it can happen to any of us. What we’re looking for in the church may not be what God wants us to look for. The answer, of course, is to repent and receive God’s forgiveness, which he gives to us freely, for Christ’s sake. God help us to rethink things from the perspective of his Word, so that the doctrine and practice of the church remain faithful to his purposes.

The church back then, the temple in Jerusalem, had gotten off track. They had gotten away from God’s purpose of the forgiveness of sins. So Jesus goes and shakes things up, like a prophet of God. Yes, and more than a prophet. As I say, Jesus marches in there and acts like he owns the place. He even calls the temple “my Father’s house.” Jesus is claiming a unique relationship to God, one that gives him authority to act in the way he does.

This catches the attention of the Jewish leaders. They challenge Jesus’ authority. They demand a sign, an outward display of divine power. Jesus refuses. Their demand for a sign came from their unbelief. Jesus tells them the only sign they’re going to get from him is a sign of judgment: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

Whoa! Jesus is laying down the gauntlet! He’s challenging them right back. And woe, w-o-e! Jesus pronounces woe on these unbelieving, hard-hearted religious leaders. For they will reject him, the only Son of God. They will kill him, in fact. And so judgment will fall on Jerusalem and on the temple that was their bread-and-butter, their base of power. And fall it did. Within a generation, the Roman army would lay siege to Jerusalem and destroy the temple in the year 70, never to be rebuilt. The destruction of the temple–the physical temple in Jerusalem, the building–serves as a sign, a permanent warning against the stiff-necked unbelief that rejects God’s Son sent from heaven.

But is the physical temple, the one made of stones, the temple Jesus is talking about? The Jewish leaders thought he was talking about the physical temple, the grand stone structure that Herod the Great had started an ambitious renovation and expansion project on some 46 years earlier. How in the world was Jesus going to tear that down and raise it back up in three days? But really, the temple Jesus was talking about was his own body. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” “Yes, Jewish leaders, you Pharisees and Sadducees and chief priests, you will hate me and reject me and even kill me, but you will not thwart God’s plan.”

In fact, that is exactly how God’s plan will be carried out. Again, it comes back to the forgiveness of sins. For what all those bulls and goats and sheep were pointing ahead to is now going to be fulfilled in Christ. He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Lamb of God–the final one, the once-and-for-all sacrifice for all sin for all people for all time. He’s the one who will put the temple out of business, for he is the one the temple was pointing ahead to. Christ comes, and the old temple is no longer needed.

“Destroy this temple,” Jesus says, namely, my body, “and I will raise it again in three days.” Good Friday and Easter–those great and momentous days we are aiming for here during Lent–Good Friday and Easter are when these words of Jesus will come to pass. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” Christ’s death and resurrection: a dreadful sign of judgment and woe for the unbelieving religious leaders who had perverted God’s purpose. But that same death and resurrection for us who believe in Christ: a wonderful sign of forgiveness and everlasting life! If you need a sign, my friends, a sign to show you Jesus’ authority, it is the sign of the cross. That’s the sign that Jesus has the authority to forgive your sins! And the resurrection of Christ is the sign that you who are baptized into Christ–that your body likewise will be raised at the last day!

March Madness: My friends, Jesus is not mad at you–not in March or in any other month! Like a prophet of God–indeed, as the very Son of God, zealous for his Father’s house–Christ will continue to drive out unscrupulous merchants from the temple, so that the church will remain true to God’s purpose. And that purpose, dear friends, is to give to you and to all people the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.

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Midweek Lenten Service
February 24, 2021

“‘Follow Me’: The Call to Discipleship” (Mark 1:14-20)

Today we begin a series of four messages based on the four “Follow me” sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. “Follow me”: In saying those words, Jesus was calling people back then to be his disciples. “Follow me”: Jesus is still saying those words to us today. He is calling us to be his disciples. So hear him now, as Jesus says to each one of us: “Follow Me.”

Our first entry in this midweek series has to do precisely with “The Call to Discipleship.” We hear it in our text today from Mark chapter 1. And I want us to consider three points about this call to discipleship: 1) The call comes from Jesus; 2) The call is surprisingly simple; and 3) The call is profoundly transformative.

First point: The call comes from Jesus. By that I mean, the initiative lies with him, not with us. Notice how the direction of the call goes: Jesus was walking alongside the Sea of Galilee, and he sees Simon and Andrew, and he says to them, “Follow me.” Then, going on a little father, Jesus sees James and John, and he calls them.

Notice, the direction is all from Jesus to the ones he calls. Jesus was walking along and he found them. He saw them when they were just going about their business, not looking for him. They didn’t do one darn thing to merit or earn his attention. There was nothing about them that was so special. They didn’t seek Jesus; he sought them. And he said to them, he called them, “Follow me.” It was all at his initiative.

The late theologian Martin Franzmann writes: “Jesus takes the initiative and calls the disciples. In many respects the circle of disciples gathered about Jesus was no startling novelty in first-century Palestine: in the terminology of ‘rabbi’ and ‘disciple,’ in the fact that they ‘followed’ their Master. . . . But in this point, in the genesis of the circle of disciples, there is a striking difference. In rabbinical circles the initiative in discipleship lay with the disciple. ‘Take to yourself a teacher,’ is the advice given to the aspiring disciple by a Jewish teacher. . . . We have no record of a call issued by a Jewish rabbi to a disciple in all rabbinic literature. . . . What in Judaism was the pious duty of the disciple is here the sovereign act of the Master. . . . Jesus reserves the initiative for Himself.”

As with those first disciples, so it is with us. We didn’t seek him. He sought us, he found us, and called us to be his own. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. That was us. We were lost, lost in sin and darkness, and we didn’t even know it. Like those first disciples, like all the lost people in the world today, we were just going about our everyday business, casting our nets, mending our nets. We could mend our nets, but we could not mend our relationship with God. That net was torn beyond repair, and we couldn’t fix it. That’s what it means to be lost, lost in sin and heading toward death, eternal death apart from God.

But then Jesus comes walking. He seeks us, he sees us, he finds us where we are. He says to each one of us, “Follow me.” And those are words of life and forgiveness, because that’s what we find when we follow him. Jesus calls us by the gospel. He called you in your baptism, when you didn’t do a darn thing to choose him. You were dead in sin, and he brought you to life. You didn’t decide to follow Jesus. He decided to call you.

The call comes from Jesus. The initiative lies all with him, not with us. Jesus chooses us, we don’t choose him. The disciples Jesus called in our text today–Jesus will tell these same disciples later on, in John 15: “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” It’s like we sang in our opening hymn: “Lord, ’tis not that I did choose Thee; that, I know, could never be; for this heart would still refuse Thee had Thy grace not chosen me.

So the first point: The call comes from Jesus. The second point: The call is surprisingly simple. By that I mean, it is surprisingly simple in its content. It’s just Jesus saying, “Follow me.”

Suppose I wanted you to get from here to, say, the seminary in St. Louis. There are a couple of ways I could give you directions. Here is one way: “OK, leave the church and take the streets and the turns you need to get onto Highway 67. Take Highway 67 north till you get to I-55. Go north on I-55 x number of miles till you get to I-44 in St. Louis. Take I-44 west till you get to Hampton. Take Hampton north till you get to I-64 west (also known as Highway 40). Stay in the right line, because the next exit is for Clayton Rd. Go west on Clayton Road just a couple of stoplights till you get to Seminary Place. Take a right and straight ahead of you is Concordia Seminary. You got all that?”

OK, that’s one way to do it. But here’s another way: Get in your car and follow me. That’s it. Just, follow me and you’ll get there. No complicated formulas. Pretty simple. Follow me. Well, that’s kind of what Jesus does when he calls us to be his disciples. The call is surprisingly simple in its content: “Follow me.” That’s it. Follow Jesus, come after him. Not a lot of complicated directions to remember. Just one person to follow. Follow Jesus, keep on following him, and you will get to where you need to go.

To be sure, the disciples will find out more, a whole lot more, along the way. They will grow in their understanding of what all is involved in being Christ’s disciples. But at its heart, at its core, the call is essentially and surprisingly simple: Follow Jesus. Stick close to him. He is the way. And he’ll show you the way, as you follow him.

The call is to follow Jesus. To follow him in faith, to stick close to him. It means being where he continues to speak to us. That’s in the church. Through Word and Sacrament, Jesus is here, speaking to us, leading us onward. We follow Jesus through the church year: from his birth; through his public ministry; to his suffering, death, and resurrection; and to his return at the last day.

Discipleship is very personal. It means being attached to Jesus. He leads, and we follow. Jesus takes us where he is going. He will lead us through our daily lives. He will lead us to our neighbor in need. He will lead us all the way to our home in heaven.

Which leads us to our third point: The call to discipleship is profoundly transformative. By that I mean, it is transformative in its effects. The call changes things, profoundly. It changes us, profoundly. It changes the direction of our life.

Look at what happened with the disciples. Simon and Andrew, James and John, were fishermen. Then Jesus comes and calls them: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and their boats behind, and they follow Jesus. Now not all of us are called to be “fishers of men” like those guys were. We’re not all called into the pastoral ministry. But we all are called to be disciples, to follow Jesus. And that will indeed change things for us.

It changes things for us, in that it gives us life! We were dead, but now we are alive, in Christ! For to follow Jesus is to go with him to the cross, where he suffers and dies for us poor sinners. By his holy precious blood, all our sins are forgiven, and we are washed clean. The net is mended, that torn net of our relationship with God. Jesus mended it for us, he made it right. Now we have life, we have everlasting life. This is the most profound change that comes with following Jesus. It changes the course of our eternity.

And it changes things now in our daily life. Now we are disciples of Jesus. Our life takes a new direction. Now we have something more to do in our lives than just fishing. The call to discipleship transforms our daily life, even if we stay in our current occupation. Our vocation, our calling, is transformed. It “changes,” even if it doesn’t “change.” What I mean is, oh, you may still be a commercial fisherman, or an auto mechanic, or a retiree, or a mom, but now your life is different, even if outwardly it looks the same.

Now you know you can serve God and serve your neighbor as a mechanic or a mom, and your work is accepted as good work before God. That’s because it is cleansed by Christ and serves as a channel of God’s love and blessing toward others. That’s the new and different direction our lives take as Jesus’ disciples. We don’t need our works to climb our way up to God. No, Christ’s completed work gets us there. Now we are free to give away our good works to our neighbor who needs them. God’s love flows through us to others.

My friends, today we have heard “The Call to Discipleship.” Three points: 1) The call comes from Jesus. The initiative lies with him. 2) The call is surprisingly simple in its content. It’s simply Jesus calling us to follow him. 3) And that call is profoundly transformative in its effects. It changes our lives now and gives us a life that will last forever. So, my fellow disciples, keep on listening during this Lenten season, as Jesus continues to call us, day after day, saying, “Follow me.”