Sunday Sermon: Heed the Call

Jesus Christ was approximately 30 years old, and he was ready to step from the shadows of a life which to that stage had been lived in relative anonymity. He had learned of the fate of his cousin, John 'the Baptist', and decided that it was time for he himself to begin a public ministry. It was what he had waited his whole life to do. It was the entire reason for his being alive.

Jesus knew as he began that he would need to start somewhere. And so he set out along the edge of the waters of the sea of Galilee, beginning to spread there a message" that the people should "repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

As he made those first tentative public speeches and teachings, he was mostly alone, and he quickly came to realize that he needed help. He needed people to help him travel, to organize, to simply be his companions on the journey.

Walking along the edge of the Galilean sea he observed two brothers named Simon and Andrew, and he began to talk with them. He talked and taught, telling the brothers "Follow me, and I will make you fisher's of men!" His divine inspiration was so great that the brothers left behind their nets and began to follow Jesus.

The trio moved along the sea a bit and came upon the fishing ship of a man named Zebedee. Tending the nets with their father were his two sons, James and John, and Jesus again began to speak to the men and called on them to join him, which they did. From this humble beginning has arisen the greatest church in the history of the world.
 The very church of the one true God Himself, founded by His only son.

That very first man he had called, the brother once named Simon, had his name changed by Christ prior to his own death to "Peter". Jesus turned over the church to this man saying "You are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven."

These men were just the first to be called by Christ to his ministry. The first to be asked to hear him, to listen to the message from God, to have faith, and to lay aside all they thought that they had previously known in order to follow Jesus. More would follow. First by the few, then by the dozens, ultimately by the hundreds and by the thousands. Over the course of human history, the same exact call would go out to billions.

A Pharisee named Saul was one that was called in those early years. It was after the crucifixtion of Jesus that his disciples were first trying to spread his word as a group which had become known as "The Way". Saul zealously persecuted Jesus' followers, and in the continuation of this effort was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus.

On the road to Damascus, Jesus suddenly appeared to Saul and called to him: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul asked who was speaking, and Jesus replied: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do." Saul ultimately heeded the call, changed his name to 'Paul', and along with Peter became one of the Founding Father's of the church.

But just as human death did not stop Jesus from calling people like Paul, neither has the passage of time stopped people from being called. You are called.

That's right, you reading this right now.  The simple fact is that we are all called by the Lord to hear his word and to yield our lives to him. Every single person reading this has heard of Jesus Christ. Every single person reading this knows exactly what Jesus claimed to be: the Truth. The one true way.

In Jesus own words we find the single most important call that any of us have ever received in our lives, and make no mistake, we have all received this call. Jesus himself said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."

You have been called. Have you heeded his call? If you have, congratulations brother or sister. Continue in your own personal journey during this life in trying to live as he would wish you to live. You will never reach perfection. You will stumble and fall and sin many times, for you are human. But you have heeded the call, accepted the truth, and will be rewarded.

Others of you have not heeded the call. You have either hesitated, or you have outright turned away from the truth. If you are reading this, you still have time to make the single most important choice that you will make in your life here on earth. You still have the choice to heed Jesus' call, to accept the truth, and to begin to try to follow the way as best you can.

From that first day along the sea of Galilee when Jesus called a quartet of fishermen to become fishers of men, the call has continued to ring out around the world. It has reached your ears. The next step is yours. If you are my family member or my friend, if you in any way have impacted my life, I am reaching out to you right now, personally. Heed the call. God bless you.

NOTE: this is the continuation of the Sunday Sermon series of articles that appear regularly at the www.mattveasey.com website, all items in which can be read by clicking on that label link found below here at the website

After the Fire, the Fire Still Burns

John the Baptist began to spread the new way with a fiery oratory style and a radical message that inspired the masses and threatened the establishment. So the powers-that-be chopped off his head and extinguished his fire. Or so they thought.

Little did they know that Jesus Christ was there to pick up the torch. He would not allow the flame to be extinguished. Instead his message and his style went even further, flaming up so brightly that many saw the hope of an entirely new world, one which would not see the current authorities retain their traditional power. And so again out of fear, they took him away. They beat him, mocked him, and nailed him to a cross where he would also die. They thought that they had extinguished the flame once again. The fire was out as Jesus died and his followers, it's final flickering embers, dispersed into the wind. Or so those same powers of this world thought.

Jesus had indeed been put to death on Friday, and his body taken away and buried in a tomb on Saturday. A massive stone had been set against the opening to the tomb, and guards set outside so that none would be able to remove it. And so night time fell, and into the early still-dark hours of Sunday morning, Jesus lifeless body lay there entombed.

Early on Sunday morning, three of Jesus' female followers arise before dawn, gather their spices and oils, and set out for the tomb. Mary Magdalene, Salome, and another Mary intended to further and better care for Christ's body, which had been hastily prepared for initial burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. They had followed Jesus in the group of his closest friends for some time. They had the fire lit inside them by his new teaching that included "Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted."

Setting out at about the same time was a 2nd group of women, led by Joanna, who had arranged to meet Mary Magdalene's group at the tomb. They too had the fire lit inside of them by Christ's teachings that included "love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." They knew that a large stone had been rolled in front of the tomb, but they had no idea that it had now been sealed and had guards placed at its entrance.

Before they arrived, an angel suddenly appeared at the tomb and frightened the guards with his brightness. The guards fled in awe and terror, and when they did the angel rolled the stone away from the tomb. As Mary Magdalene's group approached they immediately saw that the stone was rolled aside, and that the tomb was open. She left the other two there and immediately returned to town to let Jesus' Apostles know that the tomb was open.

The other two women decided to enter the tomb, and there they found the angel who said to them "Do not be afraid. I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you." The two women quickly ran back to town to give the message to the Apostles.

Then Joanna's group arrived, are met by two angels, and are given the same message. They also excitedly return to tell the message. They catch up with the first group, and all of the women are suddenly met on the road by Jesus. They immediately fall to his feet and do him homage as he gives them the message himself: "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

Peter and John, having been given the message by Mary Magdalene, run ahead of her and arrive at the tomb. The fire of Jesus' teachings which included "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" has fully engulfed their lives. There they see that Jesus is gone, and examine the burial cloths. They observe that in the condition the cloth is found, it appears as if Christ's body was not removed, but instead appears to have simply disappeared from within.

For all of these men and women, these close followers of Jesus Christ, the Word burns like a flame within. It will be further inflamed as the reality of his rise from the dead and the continuation of his teaching takes place in the coming weeks. Christ had died, but now he had risen and thus had defeated darkness, sin, and death. The authorities had once again misunderstood. Just as with the snuffing out of John's life they had not put out the fire of his message, neither had they with Jesus' death.

Jesus spread his fiery message during his lifetime and his public ministry, and the authorities believed that fire had been put out. These earthly 'authorities' failed to realize that after the fire of Christ's life had been extinguished, the fire of his message still burned. On his return it now burned again even brighter, and would begin to spread around the world as a raging inferno of peace, hope, and love.