Our Original Purpose in Life

Mrk 1:16-20 (ESV) Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. [17] And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” [18] And immediately they left their nets and followed him. [19] And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. [20] And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

1. We were made for a lifelong journey with God.

• Gen 3:8 (ESV) And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
• The description here seems to indicate that this was the normal pattern in the garden. God would come down and manifest himself in some form and do life with and walk with and talk with Adam and Eve. Picture walking around with God in all his glory and experiencing life with him. Walking and talking with him and gaining from him, his perfect wisdom. We were made for a lifelong journey with God. A life where we constantly live in awe of him—his power, his majesty, his wisdom, his love. A life where we are constantly supplied with his wisdom for each decision we make. A life where we never walk in fear because we know we never walk alone. A life where we are never insufficient because we realize life is done in his strength and not ours.
• The journey was broken when we decided to stop walking with God and to go our own way. Adam and Eve determined that God’s glory and God’s wisdom was not enough for them. They desired their own glory and their own wisdom (one that wasn’t dependent upon God).

2. Jesus calls us to experience the journey once again.

• “Follow me.”
• Literally in the Greek it is “Come after me!”
• The invitation is given in a command. I think that is significant because it ties us back to the first point. This is the life we were made to live. We were supposed to walk with God every single moment of every single day. We were made to live in his glory and to do life according to his wisdom. Jesus Christ came to restore that lifelong relationship.
• But the only way we will ever experience that kind of life is to follow Jesus.
• Eugene Peterson (author of The Message Bible) wrote in his book “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:”

“The Christian life is going to God. In going to God Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground. The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God…”

• We were made for a life accompanied by God and Jesus came to invite us to experience that journey again.

3. Taking this journey with Jesus will cost you everything (but you will gain everything)

• In this passage Jesus gave the command to Simon, Andrew, James, and John.
• Do not make the mistake of thinking you can take the world with you on this journey with Jesus. It’s not all your people, priorities, possessions, passions, and Jesus too.
• Peter and Andrew were throwing their nets into the Sea of Galilee and then Jesus spoke, and they threw down their nets and followed him. James and John were in the boat with their dad mending their nets and then Jesus called and they threw away their father and their fishing business and followed him.
• Following Jesus cost them their careers and their families.
• Every time you see this command being given a change of direction and a change of life is required. There is a cost of discipleship.
• Following Jesus will change your priorities. Following Jesus will change your family relationships. Following Jesus will cause you to leave behind the things in this world that you’ve been clinging to. The rich young man was called to leave behind his love of money and follow Jesus, but he wouldn’t do it, so he walked away from Jesus in sorrow. Matthew had to leave the tax booth behind with all of its wealth and power.
• Following Jesus strips away everything you think is of value in this life in order to give you what is of real value—God, his glory, his love, his life, his character.

4. Taking this journey with Jesus will change you completely (but it’s for the better)

• and I will make you become
• Mrk 1:17 (ESV) And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
• The life of a disciple is one of becoming.
• Jesus does the life-giving work within us. Our work is to cling to him, to follow him. He does the work of transforming us—making us to become.
• Think about the life of the first century disciple for a moment. A disciple (a student, a learner) attached himself to a master (a teacher, a Rabbi) and followed him wherever he went. The goal was to listen and to learn and to do. Lois Tverberg described this as “training disciples through living and traveling together.” Often the teacher would lead the way along the road while the disciples followed walking in the dust cloud created by the Master.
• This ought to be our life goal as a learner of Jesus. We want to walk so closely listening to Jesus through his word, loving him and following him that the dust of his life is all over us. A good analysis of this kind of life is to ask the question—can the people around me see the life of Jesus all over me?
• Do you think that the same Creator God who spoke the sun, moon, and stars into existence can make you a brand-new creation?
• Are we sick and tired of being us yet? Do we hate our old life yet or are we still clinging to old attitudes and behaviors?
• Are we tired of being full of pride and selfishness? Are we sick of being bitter? Are we weary of worry? Does it offend us that we are so offensive? Do we not understand yet that the one who spoke us into existence and gave us life in Christ is the same one who promises us that if we will follow him, he will make us become what we can never be on our own?
• All of life’s questions find their answers in Jesus.
• Want to be a godly husband? Follow Jesus.
• Want to be a godly wife? Follow Jesus.
• Want to embody kindness? Follow Jesus.
• Want to be a picture of peacefulness? Follow Jesus.
• Recognize that the following is a lifelong journey. Peter walked with Jesus for three years and the moment before the cross he denied that he even knew him. Our journey with Jesus is a journey of life change and ongoing sanctification. Paul’s heart was turned around on the Damascus road but he was not made perfect in that moment. He had to keep walking with Jesus.

How do we follow Jesus today?

5. We follow Jesus by following the Word of God

• Heb 1:2 (ESV) but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
• 1Pe 1:23 (ESV) since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
• 1Th 2:13 (ESV) And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
• Col 3:16 (ESV) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom…
• Luk 8:21 (ESV) But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
• Luk 11:28 (ESV) But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
• 1Jn 2:14 (ESV) I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
• Heb 13:7 (ESV) Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
• Rev 19:13 (ESV) He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
• Listen to Jesus! We have life by Him through the Spirit of God at work in His word. Let his word live in you, saturating every moment of your life. Hear his word daily and do it. Hear it and guard it in your life. It is through the indwelling word of God that we overcome the evil one and the destructive work he wants to accomplish in our lives. Every time the word of God is faithfully proclaimed there is something to hear and to learn and to do. Pray for everyone that strives to faithfully study and to proclaim God’s word to you. Pray for protection and power and the pure truth of the word to come through. Never lose sight of the fact that Jesus Christ is the living word of God. Love him and love his words!!!
• “But to deviate from the truth for the sake of some prospect of hope of our own can never be wise, however slight that deviation may be. It is not our judgment of the situation which can show us what is wise, but only the truth of the Word of God. Here alone lies the promise of God’s faithfulness and help. It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple is always to abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Conclusion

1. We were made for a lifelong journey with God.
2. Jesus calls us to experience the journey once again.
3. Taking this journey with Jesus will cost you everything (but you will gain everything)
4. Taking this journey with Jesus will change you completely (but it’s for the better)
5. We follow Jesus by following the Word of God.

Do you recognize this morning that your lifelong journey with God has been broken by your sinful desire to live your life according to your design?

Are you ready to listen to Jesus’ call to begin the journey again?

Will you repent and turn to Jesus, asking him to forgive you of your sin and to be the Lord of your life?

Maybe you are a follower of Jesus, but life is still a mess. Do you need to come to Jesus this morning, asking for his help to “abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity?”