“Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (John 15:15-16)
Jesus was talking to His disciples, the twelve men that, as He said, He had chosen. Those men had not chosen Jesus BUT – when Jesus called them, when Jesus invited them to follow Him, they immediately left everything behind and went with Jesus. We read this account in Matthew of how it happened –
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow Me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:18-20)
Our story continues –
“Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother, John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:21-22)
Jesus was putting together a very special team – a team whose mission it would be to change the world with their message. This team of carefully chosen people would be entrusted with the task of getting the word out that the long-awaited Messiah had finally arrived. Salvation had come! The wait was over! To say being chosen for this special-forces team, comprised of those courageous enough to follow Jesus, was a very high calling and the most important of all jobs, is perhaps the biggest understatement of all time. The message was world changing, life altering, life saving, life giving. Their mission was to get the message out, bringing healing and hope to the entire hurting world.
So, we’ve just witnessed the calling of Jesus’s first four disciples. They are all fishermen. Are you surprised? If you were going to assemble a team of world-changers, who would you choose? I’m guessing you would seek out people with power and influence – people with money, people with an education, people with position such as politicians, kings, rulers and religious leaders. What was Jesus thinking? The fishermen that Jesus chose were not wealthy, nor were they educated. They had no social status. They held no high position in their current culture, so they wielded no particular power or influence over others. And yet, Jesus chose these four fishermen.
It’s not who I would have thought would be chosen for a team that would have to go up against those currently in power, the political and religious leaders of the day. Jesus next choice of a disciple is equally surprising. I would never have predicted this choice.
“As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow Me,’ He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.” (Matthew 9:9)
A tax collector? Are you kidding me? Why is a tax collector a most unlikely choice to become a disciple of Jesus? Well, the tax collectors of that day were despised because they worked for the Roman government which at that time was oppressing the people of Israel. The tax collectors were working for the enemy and getting rich doing it. They collected extra taxes from their fellow Israelites, paid off the Romans and kept some of the extra money for themselves. Tax collectors were notoriously dishonest and universally disliked. And yet Jesus chose Matthew, a tax collector! And Matthew accepted Jesus’s invitation immediately!
It would appear that the seven other men Jesus chose to become His disciples were also ordinary people. They were not rich or famous or educated. They did not hold positions of power and influence. We don’t know much about them at all. But we do know that they accepted Jesus’s invitation to leave everything and to follow Him. They each became part of Jesus’s Special Ops team – a team of individuals that would turn the world upside down. They became men of courage and of faith. Eventually, they would all be martyred for their faith in Jesus, except for John and for Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus for money.
Jesus chose these unlikely, ordinary men to do extraordinary things for God. They spent three years with Jesus learning from His example and wisdom. After His death and resurrection, Jesus gave the disciples these instructions before He ascended into heaven.
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ ” (Matthew 28:16- 20)
Eleven men, chosen by God and changed by God’s presence with them, were charged with changing the world – and they did. Today God still chooses the most unlikely among us to fulfill His good and eternal purposes. It’s never who you think. You and I are chosen. We just have to be brave enough to answer God’s invitation with a “Yes! Here I am. Send me. I will go for You no matter the cost.”
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-30)
sincerely, Grace Day
