Glory to God! The Lord God has added another week in our life on earth with the assurance that He will be our God and we will be His people, as God promised to the Children of Israel (Jeremiah 32:38). As we are the chosen people of God in this generation (1 Peter 2:9-10), we are commanded to love Him and obey His commandments. In fact, God does not demand or ask anything much from us except to walk in obedience to Him, to love Him, to serve Him with all our heart and with all our soul, and to observe His commands and decrees (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). The Lord God spoke through prophet Jeremiah: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you (Jeremiah 7:23). While many of God’s chosen people during the Old Testament times failed in loving Him wholeheartedly or obeying His commandments in its entirety; there have also been many who have loved Him, obeyed His righteous laws and decrees and served Him faithfully. Similar things happened even during the New Testament time up until now. Despite all that Jesus accomplished in and through His life and ministry for the redemption/salvation of the entire humanity from their sinful nature, a vast majority have ignored it and failed to acknowledge what He has done for their salvation. However, a small minority, then and now, not only acknowledge what He has done for them but also follow Him enthusiastically and serve Him wholeheartedly. The apostles of Jesus Christ, except Judas Iscariot, are the best examples of remarkable commitment to the mission of God.  Jesus also set an example for us as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith as the author of Hebrews mentioned:

1 Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1-3)

The apostles were very firm in their commitment to Jesus and served Him faithfully. This is evident from their response to the high priest and his associates and the full assembly of the elders of Israel (Sanhedrin) who ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus:

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him (Acts 5:29-32)

Not only did the apostles and disciples serve the Lord with great devotion and enthusiasm, they also encouraged others who came to faith in Jesus Christ through their ministry to do the same, as the author of Hebrews stated:

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, quip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen! (Hebrews 13:20-21)

The Scripture passage for this week’s meditation is taken from the Gospel according to Mark 1:16-20. This passage is one of the most profound passages we can find in the Scripture regarding Jesus’ call of His first disciples for ministry and their instantaneous response to His call. The vital point in this passage is that, ‘Jesus called them’ and, at once, ‘they left everything and followed Him.’ From this we can understand two important factors: firstly, Jesus, in His Sovereign will, knew the very people whom He is calling; and, secondly, the disciples whom Jesus called might have had heard about Jesus and believed that the One who is calling them is the Messiah. What we need to know in this context is that, if Jesus, in His Sovereign will, did not examine and find out the exact desire of their hearts, He would not have called them to be His apostles because He is calling them for a greater purpose; and if the disciples did not have the assurance that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah of the Jewish people, they, first of all, would have not believed in Him, but also, they would not have left everything and followed Him right away.

Let us try to understand briefly the purpose of Jesus’ coming to this earth. In the beginning, when God created human beings, he created them in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7). They were created as perfect beings. In every sense, they were morally right, they were without sin, and they had regular and ongoing fellowship with their Creator, the Lord God Almighty. However, when they willfully disobeyed the righteous laws and decrees of the holy God, they became helpless and powerless to defend themselves from any kind of evil that came across their life. Prophet Isaiah stated: Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2). Although God raised His saints from time to time to warn humanity against all kinds of evil, and invited them to repent and return to Him, they failed in recovering from their fallen nature. When the saints failed to reconcile sinful humanity with the holy God or save them from their fallen state (the reason being that both the saints and the sinners were not righteous before God according to Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Romans 3:10-12), God sent His Son who is without sin to reconcile sinful humanity with the holy God and save them from eternal condemnation. Apostle Paul wrote: God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). In a nutshell, what the Old Testaments saints or the Law could not achieve in regard to redeeming sinful humanity from their fallen nature was achieved through the coming of the Lord in human form, as Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4)

God the Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to this earth with a specific mission. At the end of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth, He gave up His life to reconcile and redeem the lives of sinful humanity (refer to: 1 John 5:11-12). Jesus willfully obeyed the Father and gave up His life in order to redeem sinful humanity for He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence (John 1:29; Ephesians 1:4; 5:27; Philippians 2:8). Jesus said: The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father (John 10:17-18). He died on the cross for the sake of all humanity who is sinful in nature and prepared the way for the redemption of their life from sin and death and offered them eternal life (refer to: John 3:16). Apostle Peter wrote:

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 1:17-22)

The Son of God who incarnated as a human being (Jesus Christ), came for a period of about thirty-three years and within that period He accomplished everything the Godhead had planned in the timeless past in connection with the redemption of the human race, as Apostle Paul stated in the Epistle to the Ephesians:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship ^c through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ (Ephesians 1:3-10)

God did this for humanity because ever since they were created, God maintained a sacred bond (a strong relationship) between Himself and the created human beings. God kept this relationship going through ongoing communication and fellowship with mankind. If we study the history of communication, we can understand that a person-to-person talk is more powerful and meaningful than passing a message to someone through a written code/letter.

Apostle Paul talked about this in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:4-6). There might be several examples in our known circle, if not in our own personal life, where some broken relationships were restored and existing relationship were strengthened through person-to-person conversations and communications. We can read in the Scripture that God talked to His people in each generation concerning everything they needed to know about their life. For instance: God talked to Adam (and Eve) in a very personal way (Genesis 3:8-19); God spoke to Cain (Genesis 4:6-16); [perhaps] God spoke to Enoch as he walked faithfully with God for well over three hundred years (Genesis 5:22-24 [also refer to Hebrews 11:5; Jude 1:14]); God spoke to Noah (Genesis 6:13-9:29); God spoke to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-22:19); God spoke to Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 26:1-33; 28:10-36:43); God spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:1-15; 33:9-11, 17-23; Numbers 7:89; 12:7-8; 27:12-23); God spoke with Aaron and Miriam (Exodus 4:27-28; 6:13; 12:1-9); and God spoke to and through His Servants/prophets and an untold number of His saints.

Jesus repeatedly stated during His earthly life and ministry that He did not come down from heaven to do His own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Him (John 5:19; 6:38; 12:49-50; 14:10), and He constantly talked to His Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9-13; 11:25-26; 26:39; Luke 5:16; John 11:41-42; 12:27-28). From this we can understand that communication with one another is the factor that kept the relationship going. God did it, Jesus did it, the Holy Spirit did it, and we too are called to do it. Jesus shared the testimony about the Father (what He saw and heard in the presence of the Father) with His apostles, and the apostles shared the testimony about Jesus (what they have seen, heard, and experienced from Him) with all those who came to the Lord through their ministry, and those believers shared the testimony they heard from the apostles to everyone who came to know Jesus Christ through their ministry, and they shared their testimony with all those who came to the Lord through their ministry. Thus, the faith in Jesus Christ that has been handed down from one generation to another through the testimony of mouth has reached us, and, now, we are responsible to share what we saw and heard (the gospel of Jesus Christ) to the next generation of people, so that they will share their testimony with the following generation and this process will continue until the return of Jesus Christ, for Jesus said: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10).

Jesus commanded the apostles, while He was handing over the beacon of Missio Dei (the Mission of God) to them just prior to His ascension to heaven (Matthew 28:18-20), to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:14-15), and teach those who accepted Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life to obey all that He has commanded them (Matthew 28:20a). Thus, the apostles were called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and teach everything Jesus commanded them. What we can understand from the entire process of calling the disciples is that God, being in charge of the Missio-Dei, is the one who showed the individuals whom Jesus must choose for the mission of God and He, the same God, is the one who guides the individuals to accept the call of God in their lives. Jesus did not call people with extraordinary abilities but He called the ordinary people and made/trained them to be extraordinary in their abilities and they did extraordinary ministry with the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus could see in them the sincerity of heart in everything they were doing and their commitment to complete the tasks were remarkable. Even though they were not exceptional people in the sight of the world with high caliber capabilities to do unusual things (they were just fishermen in the sight of others), they were hard working people. For instance, Simon and his brother Andrew were casting a net into the Sea of Galilee to catch fish and James and his brother John were preparing their nets to catch the fish, as it is mentioned in Mark 1:16-20

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him. 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him (Mark 1:16-20)

The apostles were called and trained by Jesus and He sent them out to preach the Gospel in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Prior to the ascension of Jesus to heaven, He handed over the responsibility of preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God and teaching everything Jesus commanded them to everyone who believe in Jesus Christ.  The apostles and other disciples presented Jesus as the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah, and savior of the world (Acts 2:14-41; 3:12-26), and preached that Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Their testimony about Jesus made a great impact among the people and thousands upon thousands drew closer to Jesus Christ (Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4). The gospel that saves us in the present time, is the continuation of the gospel that Jesus Christ preached to His disciples about two thousand years ago. From that time onwards, the same gospel is preached from person to person up until now, and it will continue until the day Jesus returns. People hear only when someone tells them, and people can only believe once when they hear the message/gospel, as it is mentioned in Romans 10:14-15, How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Prophet Isaiah foretold regarding the one who bring the Good News: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns (Isaiah 52:7).

Sharing our testimony is the best way to communicate the gospel to others. It is passed on from one generation to another generation. Jesus told His disciples that You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). We are saved because someone shared their testimony with us and preached the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ with us. Now, it is our turn to share our testimony with someone else and preach the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ to them, so that they will also come to saving knowledge of Christ. And, in turn, they will do the same with others. This process will continue until the return of Jesus Christ.

As Jesus called the apostles and other disciples about two thousand years ago, He is calling us today to follow Him. Are we responding to His call the same way Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16-18), James and John (Mark 1:19-20) or Matthew (Matthew 9:9; Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27-28) responded or are we having doubts in our hearts about what will happen to us if we leave everything behind and follow Jesus? All of the above mentioned apostles as well as other apostles and untold number of faithful disciples, upon His call in their lives, left everything and followed Him. There is no doubt that with the help of the Holy Spirit, they all did extraordinary ministry for the Kingdom of God. They were just ordinary people who did extraordinary things and changed the course of history. Remember, they were just ordinary people prior to the call of Jesus in their life but did extraordinary things as they responded to the call positively and followed Jesus leaving behind everything they called theirs in this world, as Simon Peter told Jesus: We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us (Matthew 19:27). Later, Simon Peter testified that the disciples/apostles believe that Jesus is the holy One of God, as John the Apostle noted: Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69; also refer to Matthew 16:16; Mark 8:29). Apostle Paul said: But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8). Their reward in heaven is great as Jesus promised them:

27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:27-29; also refer to: Mark 10:28-30).

Dear friends, with the help of the Holy Spirit, let us also respond to Jesus’ call in our lives positively and follow the example of the apostles and other disciples who followed Jesus faithfully in every situation.  Who reached out to the unreached ones and brought glory and honor to God the Father through Jesus Christ. Our reward in heaven will be great as Jesus promised His reward to everyone who follows Him faithfully (Matthew 5:12; 19:27-29; Mark 10:28-30).  Let us pray to God to fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit and grant us wisdom and knowledge to carry out the ministry that is entrusted to us. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!