Jesus Calls His Disciples

MEMORY SELECTION: “Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” —Mark 1:17

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 5:1-11

ONE of the important things to remember when we consider God’s dealings with his human creation is that there are times and seasons for the several phases of his plan. During the Jewish Age God dealt only with the nation of Israel. (Amos 3:2) And for the three and one-half years of his ministry Jesus preached the Gospel only to the nation of Israel. (Matt. 15:24; Acts 13:46) It follows, then, that the disciples and the apostles were called from among the Jews.

Jesus also indicates that the call to discipleship was limited in another way. In John 6:44,45 we read, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” And in harmony with this statement is the following quotation from Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17:6-8: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gayest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gayest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gayest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.”

In some way the Heavenly Father indicated to Jesus the particular individuals who were to be the apostles. These had ears to hear the message, and the result was an immediate response and a desire to serve. (Matt. 13:10-17) In Luke 5:11 we read, “And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.”

The commission of Jesus, and that of his followers, was not to convert the world, for this would not be in harmony with the times and seasons of the Lord’s plan. The time that the Lord has set aside, or designated, as the period when the world is to be converted is in the next age during the time of the thousand years of Christ’s kingdom. But now during the Gospel Age the commission of Jesus and his followers is to preach the Gospel in all the world as a witness. Jesus states in Matthew 24:14, “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.”

The Apostle Paul, speaking of the importance of witnessing in God’s arrangement, says, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:14,15) Here the apostle quoted from the wonderful prophecy in Isaiah 52:7 showing that those carrying forth the message all down through the Gospel Age are pictured as the feet of the Christ fulfilling the all-important responsibility of preaching the Gospel as a witness.

Again the Apostle Paul, in speaking of his own ministry in relation to God’s arrangements during this age, states, “What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Servants, through whom you believed; and to each as the Lord gave. I planted, Apollos watered; but God caused it to grow. So that neither the planter is anything, nor the waterer, but God who causes it to grow.”—I Cor. 3:5-7, Diaglott

The calling of the disciples began the great work of the Gospel Age—to call out from the Jewish nation and the Gentiles the bride of Christ, a people for his name. (Acts 15:14-17; Rev. 19:7-9; Rev. 21:9; Rev. 22:17) These have the prospect, if faithful, of living and reigning with Christ a thousand years and being the means of bringing blessings to all the families of the earth.

Jesus, in his prayer recorded in the 17th chapter of John, states, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”—vss. 18-21

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