Lost And Found

Would you have followed Jesus if you were living when he walked the earth?

What if He called you to be one of His closest disciples?

Matthew 4:18-22 (CEV) 18 "While Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers. One was Simon, also known as Peter, and the other was Andrew. They were fishermen, and they were casting their net into the lake. 19 Jesus said to them, "Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish." 20 Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him.

21 Jesus walked on until he saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father, mending their nets. Jesus asked them to come with him too. 22 Right away they left the boat and their father and went with Jesus."

They left their jobs to follow the call of God.

I'm sure they were thinking...

"Hey... hooking up with Jesus means we'll have a better job!"

"We'll be top dogs in the kingdom He keeps talking about!"

"It sure beats this fishing thing."

"Let's go!"

The New Testament Gospels indicate they didn't really understand what Jesus came to do.

Luke 18:32-34 (NKJV) 32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." 34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken."

"Forget about that stuff. What about US?"


Luke 18:28-30 (ESV) 28 And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you." 29 And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."

As time went on..... and Jesus teaching got super serious... the outer fringes of His followers dwindled:

John 6:66-69 (ESV) 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"

Would you have left everything to follow Jesus knowing where the road led?

It's not a good career move to join a seemingly lost cause.

I think that may have played a role in the betrayal of Jesus.

Judas is seeing where this thing is headed.

"Better cover my tracks and cut my losses. This is a dead end."

Dead wrong.

In 3 days dead no more.

Those wavering disciples were involved in the greatest work of all time.

And if things had turned out the way they had originally hoped we would never even know their names today.

Who wants to trade eternal impact for earthly success?

Not me.

God help me to get it right.

Matthew 16:25 (ESV) "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."