Called to call others
Mark 1:14-20 After John was put in prison, Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. 15“The time is fulfilled,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
16As Jesus was going along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. 17Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 18Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat mending the nets. 20Immediately Jesus called them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
All these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18) Amen.
John and Andrew took the day off from fishing with their brothers to go out into the wilderness to see this new preacher they had heard so much about. He was like the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament. He preached a fiery message of repentance and forgiveness. He also baptized a lot of people. John and Andrew became followers of John the Baptizer.
Then one day, John the Baptizer pointed to a man walking by and exclaimed, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Luke 1:29)! John and Andrew left John and began following Jesus. They were so excited about meeting Jesus that they had to tell their brothers. Andrew told Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41)! John told his brother James.
Jesus went to Galilee – the region in the north where these four men lived – preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. “The time is fulfilled,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus then went to meet Philip and Nathanael and called them to follow him. He took his new followers with him to a wedding in Cana where he changed water into wine. His new disciples saw him clear the temple courts during the Passover. He talked to Nicodemus, preached throughout the Judean countryside, and then preached in Samaria (John 1-4).
Peter and Andrew, James and John were Jesus’ part-time disciples. In that time, they had seen and heard a lot from Jesus before he walked up to them along the Sea of Galilee. They were busy mending and fishing with their nets. Jesus walked up to them and said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (John 1:17). Immediately both sets of brothers left their fishing businesses to follow Jesus full-time (John 1:18). The disciples followed Jesus for three years of on-the-job Seminary training. Jesus called them to call others.
Jesus called you to faith when the pastor poured God’s Word and water over your head at the baptismal font when you were an infant. Or Jesus called you to faith when you heard God’s Word read to you by your parent or grandparent sitting on their lap as a child. Or Jesus called you to faith as a close friend, a boyfriend, a girlfriend – someone who cared deeply about you and your soul – shared the Savior in conversations with you.
Jesus called you to faith. Now he calls you to put that faith into action by calling others to be fishers of men and women.
Jesus calls each of us individually to do this work of calling others. But by his gracious plan and providence, Jesus also allows us to call others to assist us in this calling. We call men and women to serve us and others with the gospel in the public ministry as pastors, teachers, and missionaries. So, today, we are going to talk about the call into the public ministry.
You’ve heard this plea, we need more pastors and teachers in our church body. God is blessing us with tremendous growth in our Lutheran grade schools and Lutheran high schools, and with planning to start ten new churches every year for the next ten years. We need more called workers to go out in Jesus’ name and on our behalf to call others to faith with God’s Word and Sacraments.
I recall how God directed my life to become a pastor. I was with my mom registering for freshman classes at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School. We were in a classroom with Pastor Mehlberg who would be my advisor. Pastor Mehlberg told my mom, “Michael is a very smart young man.” I was thinking, “Yes, I am.” Then he said, “Michael could be a doctor or a lawyer.” I thought, “Yes, I can.” He said, “A lot of medical and legal terms are in Latin, so Michael should take Latin classes.” I thought, “I can do that.”
So, I took four years of Latin and two years of German … not realizing the Latin track was also the pastor track – not the lawyer or doctor track.
The Lord of the Church is blessing us right now at Water of Life with many students whom God is directing to consider serving him and you in the public ministry. One of our members recently graduated from Martin Luther College and accepted a call to be a Lutheran high school teacher. One is a current student at MLC. By God’s grace, we have two high school students considering becoming pastors and possibly six to eight who are considering becoming teachers.
What can we as a congregation, as parents, and as fellow Christians do to encourage these and other young people to consider the call into the public ministry?
One thing we can do is to repent, to confess our sins, and crucify our sinful nature.
What does that mean?
It costs money to educate pastors and teachers. We have scholarships in our church budget for MLC and WLC students. We have our CMO – Congregational Mission Offerings – for support of the WELS as part of our budget. Admit it, we can be stingy with our money. We can be content to give God our leftovers instead of our firstfruits. We can complain when we see how expensive it is to conduct ministry in our church and in our synod.
Young people may not desire the public ministry if they see their pastors and teachers being treated poorly. Parents badgering their children’s teacher. Members complaining about their pastor. Churches and schools overworking and underpaying their pastors and teachers.
So we – pastors and people, teachers, parents, and students – need to hear and put Jesus’ words into action, “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
We repent of our lack of financial support of the Lord’s ministries. We repent of our lack of verbal support of our current or past pastors and teachers. We repent of our lack of spiritual support of the Lord’s ministries and ministers with our prayers and involvement in our church and church body.
Then after we repent, by God’s grace and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe the good news. We thank God that Jesus gave up everything to cover over our stinginess of giving up a little. Jesus prayed for us and his future apostles because we neglect to pray for our called workers. Jesus was always passionate about saving souls to make up for our apathy and indifference to the plight of lost souls.
By his grace, Jesus called you to faith with water and the Word. He made you heirs of his salvation. He covered your sinful clothes with the white robe of his righteousness. He invited
you to stand before his altar to make your vow of faithfulness at your confirmation – to follow Jesus even to the point of death. Jesus forgives your sins and unites you to him and each other in his sacrament of Holy Communion. He announces the good news that your sins are removed as far as the east is from the west.
God also involves you in his ministry. God could have chosen to just tap people on the shoulder to call them to faith. Or he could have tasked his angels with making disciples of all nations. But he didn’t. Instead, he calls you to call others. He has chosen you to follow him and then uses you to make more followers through his Means of Grace of Word and Sacrament. He equips you for service in his Kingdom with his Word that comforts, encourages, and empowers, so that he can then comfort, encourage, and empower others.
This isn’t a call to sit in the pews or watch on your computer. It isn’t a call to remain comfortable wherever you are in your life. It is a call to action. A call to be fishers of men and women and children. A call to invite others into Christ’s kingdom.
God certainly calls each of you to receive forgiveness to then announce that forgiveness to others. To study the Bible to invite others to Bible study with you. To worship Jesus and invite others to worship Jesus with you.
As Jesus called Peter and Andrew, James and John to be his called workers serving in his name, Jesus also calls men to be pastors and missionaries, and men and women to be teachers in his name. What can we do to encourage our young people to consider calls into the public ministry in Jesus’ name … and in our name?
We support future called workers with our offerings. I take our young men who want to be pastors with me to visit shut-ins and then take them out to eat to talk about the pastoral ministry. We want to create a workshop for our students who desire to be teachers so they can talk to the dedicated grade school and high school teachers we have as members at Water of Life. But we have to feed them. They are teenagers, after all. That costs money. So, we support current and future called workers with increased financial support.
Support these young men and women with your prayers. There is often a petition in the Prayer of the Church for ministers of the gospel. Pray for your pastors and teachers, as well as our Synod’s called workers, in your personal prayers, too.
Speak well of your pastors and teachers. Young people are smart. They pick up on how you treat your pastors and teachers. Personally, I think that’s one reason why so many of our young people are considering the ministry. They see the way you treat your pastors and teachers – how much fun we have in the ministry together – and they like it. They want to be a part of it.
Talk to our young people – grade school, high school, and college students. They can all certainly follow your lead of being faithful servants as lay people. But some may also be willing to be public servants, serving you and others one day in the gospel ministry. They have heard and now want to share Jesus’ message, “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
Wherever we are – pastors in the pulpit, teachers in the classroom, or people in the pew – we are all called by Jesus to call others. Amen.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, inasmuch as God is making an appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20) Amen.