How Many Times Did Jesus Call the Disciples?

1210d

How Many Times Did Jesus Call the Disciples?

Tom: We’re continuing with our study of the Gospel of John, chapter one, and for the purpose of really understanding the gospel, that’s what we’ve been dealing with for over a year now, Dave, in this segment of our program. The Gospel of John—that’s a book in which we find so many teachings, so many basic doctrines, with regard to the deity of Christ, who Jesus is, what He accomplished for us, and so on, and that’s why we’re going through this—well, sort of verse by verse, but we’re jumping here and there to get to the specific scriptures that really underline who Christ is and what the Gospel is.

Dave: The Gospel of John, by the way, is unique. You could, I suppose, call the other three gospels “synoptic” gospels. The Gospel of John is…it does relate some of the things that Jesus did, the miracles that He did, and so forth. But it gives us more teaching from Jesus, and a different type of teaching. It doesn’t have the parables that the other gospels have—the Sermon on the Mount, and so forth. But some of the really, I think, deepest, most intimate teachings of the Lord are found in the Gospel of John.

Tom: Okay, well let’s pick up with—this is John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, picking up with verse 40: “One of the two which heard John speak [referring to John the Baptist] and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.”

Dave: Now, they’d heard John speak. He said, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

Tom: “He first findeth his own brother Simon and said unto him, We have found the Messia[h], which is being interpreted ‘the Christ.” Now, this was the Messiah to come, in Hebrew, “Messiah,” in the Greek, “the Christ.” “…And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon, son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.”

Dave: We’re having a little bit of the synoptics here. It says, “The day following”—we’ve had that expression several times. “The day following….” And chapter two is going to begin, “The third day, there was a marriage in Cana,” so these things are happening in sequence here. Exactly how Andrew had come to the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah, we’re not told. You would say, “Well, it was the conviction of the Holy Spirit,” however… and Jesus did tell Peter later, in Matthew 16, when Jesus said, “Well, who do you say that I am?” he said, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you, but my Father which is in heaven.”

But at this point, could it be that Andrew (and I don’t want to get into speculation, but there are reasons for this, now) that Andrew is, well, he’s been a follower of John the Baptist. And John the Baptist has pointed out Jesus is the Lamb of God. I don’t think—in fact, I’m sure he didn’t understand that. Andrew didn’t understand that. Because the disciples didn’t believe Jesus was going to die. And when He was crucified, that caused them to lose their confidence…

Tom: Right.

Dave: He couldn’t have been the Messiah. So, he didn’t understand that, but he [John the Baptist] said, “Behold, I saw and bear witness, this is the Son of God.” Now, whether Andrew—as a Jew, he would have been a very usual Jew had he understood that the Messiah was the Son of God. Now, the rabbis certainly didn’t, and there were clear scriptures that He would be, also, God himself. This would be God.

Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All..., of course, “”Unto us a child is born, unto us a on is given: the government will be upon his shoulder: his name will be called…” So He’s obviously the Messiah. The government will be upon His shoulders. “His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father.” But, again, I would question whether Andrew knew that. I don’t know! Whether there was something about Christ? It doesn’t say that He had done any miracles yet. But anyway, Andrew came to this conviction, and he was so convinced He got his brother Peter to come and see Jesus as well.

Now, that there may have just been enthusiasm seems to be indicated, because we know that they went back and stopped following Jesus.

Tom: Right.

Dave: So in Matthew chapter 4, I think it is, Jesus finds them by the shore of Galilee. They’ve gone back to their fishing profession. They’re casting their net into the sea, it says, for they were fisherman. And He calls them. “Follow me.” So they follow Him again. Then we have the third time in Luke’s gospel. Is it Luke 5? I don’t remember, Tom, but somewhere around there, where now they’re washing their nets, and Jesus calls them again.

So at least twice they started to follow Christ, and then they went back. They started to follow Him again, then they went back. And the third time, assuming that this is—the gospels are giving us the whole account—there weren’t other times, let’s assume, it’s not until the third time that Jesus called them that they really followed Him. And it says in Luke that Peter—well, first of all, he said, “Depart from me, Lord! I’m a sinful man!” And that, or course, is right in line with what we’ve been talking about, rather than thinking that God loves us because we’re so wonderful, to realize rhow unworthy we are, and that causes us to love Him all the more. That He would reach down so deep to pick up such wretches as we are, and then it says, “He forsook all and followed Him.”

Previous to that time, it says they left their nets, or they left their boats, but now it says they left all and followed Him.

Tom: Dave, is there any significance—I’m sure for some of our listeners that was probably, hearing you say that, they weren’t aware that there were these three times. But the scriptures really lay that out clearly. Do you think there’s significance to that? Or is this just showing the heart of man, that we start things, and then we fall back in the flesh, and we don’t continue?

Dave: Well, I suppose, lest we put these men on a pedestal, they were just human beings. They were just men, weak men. Peter, of course, was going to deny his Lord, finally, to save his own skin, for fear that he might be…[it’s a] mystery…that he did not want to be identified with the One to whom, just maybe  couple of hours before, he had said, “’Though all forsake thee, yet will not I. I will die with you!”

So, these were weak human beings, and I think it encourages us to know that God could take them…Paul says, “Not many mighty are called. Not many wise. He’s chosen the foolish things of this world, the weak things, to confound the wise and the mighty.” And so, I think it’s in there—first of all, it’s an honest account. It speaks of the accuracy of the Bible. If you were writing…making this story up, you would put these men in a different light. You would make them out to be heroes and so forth.

So, the Bible’s honest to that. It’s encouraging for us! Not that we want to go back and not follow the Lord, really, until the third time. It’s not encouraging us to do that, but it’s encouraging us of the steadfastness and the faithfulness of the Lord. He kept pursuing them!

Tom: Right.

Dave: He sought them out, until finally they began to follow Him, and then, you know, the scripture says when they came and got Him in the Garden and arrested Him and took Him off, it says, “They all forsook Him and fled.” It wasn’t just Peter, but all of them. So, you could say, “Wow! The Lord is not a very good trainer of His disciples. I mean, what a failure! It ends up they all forsake Him!”

But when He appeared to them…this, again, is another one of the evidences of the resurrection. They’d left Him! They’d had enough. They’re frightened, and suddenly these men appear as bold as lions. They stand in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, and on the day of Pentecost, they preach that this Jesus is alive! And now, they’re willing to die for Him! Something’s happened with the resurrection. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which occurred on the Day of Pentecost, a presence of God that had never been on this earth before, dwelling within man, never to depart, and this is true of each of us as believers in Christ.

So, you know, I think there’s a reason for telling it.

Tom: And, Dave, I think you’re informing us of something that’s good to hear. That the Lord sought after them. He continued to pursue them.

Dave: Right.

Tom: It wasn’t that He extended some kind of—I don’t want to get into this, because we don’t have any time, but —irresistible grace; or zapped them with something…

Dave: Yeah, if He were doing that, He could have done it the first time.

Tom: Right. Right. But here we have a God—and that’s been Jesus’s way throughout—pleading with and encouraging and enabling by His very presence there. It’s just wonderful! And He’s doing that to all of us today!

Dave: Right. We can all look back, I think, at our lives, and see where the Lord —He’s been so patient! And how could we not love Him? Yes, He’s faithful, and He pursues us, and He does want a real response on our part. And He finally got it, on the part of these disciples, and then they all forsook Him anyway. So, but then He empowered them. Once more, they were all willing to die for Him. So, I think it’s a tremendous story, Tom. You wouldn't have written it that way if this were a fraud. This is God’s Word, and it speaks so powerfully to each of us.

Tom: Dave, we’re out of time now, but I want to go back, you know, on our next program, I want to talk about Simon Peter, called Cephas. Why did the Lord change His name, in a sense, and what does that mean—a stone? There are a lot of interpretations out there of this, and maybe we can shed some light on it.