The disciple John's life demonstrates a profound sense of duty rooted in his deep devotion to Jesus. This duty is illustrated through his progression from following Jesus, to becoming a fisher of men, and finally to fostering Jesus' mother. His affinity with the Master, stemming from the attractive report, person, company, and message of Jesus, led to his appointment and subsequent willing activity and abandonment to Christ's service. The sermon concludes that a sense of duty, when arising from a spirit of love and devotion, is essential for believers and exemplified by John's conscientious care for Mary and his impactful ministry.
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The first reference that we looked at on Sunday was that in chapter thirteen and verse twenty-three, now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. And in putting this text into the context and looking a little into the light of John, we were brought face to face with his spirit. of devotion. And we saw three things concerning it. First of all, that it was evidently part of his character. Secondly, it was instrumental in his sufferings.
And thirdly, it was appreciated by his Lord. Now let's turn to chapter nineteen for the next reference. And here, The verse is the twenty-sixth verse, and once again a reference to the Lord Jesus loving this disciple. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he sent unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then shalt ye to the disciple, behold thy mother.
And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. And I've suggested that here we have his sense of duty. I want you now to go back with me, please, to John chapter one. One or two other references that we'll place alongside this verse or two in John nineteen. John chapter one and verse thirty-five. And then the next day after, John, that is, John the Baptist, stood and two of his disciples. Now one of these disciples is named, it was Andrew.
The other one is not named, but he is so often anonymous in this gospel since he wrote it that we have no difficulty identifying him. and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he that is John the Baptist, saith, behold the Lamb of God, and the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They say unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted master, Where dwellest thou?
He sat under them, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him with Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And the other one, of course, was the subject of our studies, John. Now return to Mark chapter one. Go back to Mark chapter one. And we were just singing about when the master called us. And here we find him calling.
Verse sixteen of Mark one. Now as he, that is the Lord Jesus, walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. Now that's the word that we read in the first of John, concerning the apostle John. He followed the Lord Jesus. And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the ships mending their nets.
And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him. Now he has here called Peter and Andrew and James and John, and having followed him, now we find that following Following comes fishing. Now turn to Mark chapter three, will you? Mark chapter three. And let's make a little more progress. From following to fishing. And now verse thirteen of Mark chapter three.
And he that is the Lord Jesus again. And he goeth up into a mountain. And calleth unto him whom he would. And they came unto him. and he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons. And Simon, he surnamed Peter, and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanergies, which is the son of of thunder."
Notice what it says here. He ordained twelve that they should be with him. Notice the order. And then that he might send them forth to preach. So we have John with another following. You have John with three others, fishing. Now you have John with eleven others, and here they are fellowshiping with the Lord Jesus, with one another, before they go out to preach. And now finally, let's read again, or we have read, and so let me just make reference, to John nineteen, where the Lord Jesus commits his mother to John, and there, of course, we have John becoming a foster son to the mother of the Lord Jesus.
So here he is fostering. And that's a very special kind of word because it means to care for. And John was so conscientious about this that from that day's first that disciple took her unto his own home. Now we made reference to that on Sunday night. We're going to look at it again in a little more detail this evening. So the four key words for tonight are these, as we think about John's sense of duty, first of all following, and then fishing, and then fellowshiping, and finally fostering.
Now it is significant and interesting that his sense of duty should follow his spirit of devotion. And we've seen already that John was not half-hearted in his devotion, and we're going to see that he was not double-minded in his service. There was nothing stilted or formal or machinical in John's service. You see devotion and duty go hand in hand. There are people who say, oh, he just did this or he did that.
Speaking of someone other than John, I'm thinking of people who today might say of one another, well, he just did it out of a sense of duty. Now let us not be too quick to speak discouragingly of a sense of duty. Indeed, every believer should be marked by a sense of duty but a sense of duty that comes out from a spirit of devotion. If we really love the Lord Jesus, as John loved the Lord Jesus, seeking whenever he could to lay his head upon the breast of the Christ of God, we shall find ourselves as anxious as he was to be dutiful in every exercise of his.
It is for this reason, particularly, as I said Sunday night, if I had a title for this short series of studies, I would call it, what John nineteen says of John, the disciple standing by. Because there you have an undermining of the thought of this man's sense of duty. Now the reason why he was so anxious to be dutiful was because this man enjoyed a special bond with his master. Indeed, he shared the same burden with his master, and he was yoked together, or partners in the same yoke.
Has not the Lord Jesus said to each of his own, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me? And a master who is prepared with a servant to bear the yoke is a master that it is not going to be difficult to work with and to follow. You know, I have not been a superintendent of the Macaulay Water Street Mission in New York City very long before I discovered a sure way to make the man happy working. And that was to work with them. Every very few weeks I would get the crew together, the resident men, and they were all, they were expected always to carry out all the chores in the mission, and I would say to them, two days from now, we're going to have our spring cleaning, only we did it every two months.
We had several springs a year, and so early in that morning we would get our coats up and we would start. I would have my fail, I would have my mop, and they would have theirs, and we would mop the clothes together, and we would dust the place together, and we would polish the place together, and I never found a man while I was there doing it with them who docked at the job. And I think that it was a valuable lesson for me to learn. Now when a servant has a master, who is willing to work along with him, he's going to find his own load so much lighter.
Now John was yoked together with a divine master. And the four things that I've mentioned all indicate his appreciation of this bond. In the first place, I want to make reference to what I shall call his affinity with the master. As we look at the life of John, we find that there were poor things about the Lord Jesus that were extremely attractive to John, and it caused him to have this very real closeness and affinity with his master.
That's involved in the word following. He followed the Lord Jesus because he couldn't help it. He was so attracted to him, he became so attached to him that following became an automatic thing. His affinity with the Master. Now when we come to this thought of fellowshiping, we have the idea of if you will, an appointment by the Master. When the Lord Jesus drew aside from the crowds and appointed twelve men, he did it that they might be with him and that he might send them forth to preach.
So after his affinity with the Master, we have his appointment by the Master. Now you can see how that the first produced his sense of duty, and the second certainly called for a sense of duty. His appointment by a divine master was going to find this man ready at any and every turn. His appointment by the master. Now when we come to fishing, this was his activity for the master. He left his father, he left his nets, he left the ship, he left the hired servants together with his brother, and he came out, left fishing for fish, for he might with Peter and Andrew, fish for men.
Jesus said, I will make you to become fishers of men. And that was to be his activity for the master. When we look at the story of him fostering the mother of the Lord Jesus, here we have his allegiance to or his abandonment to the master. His whole life changed again at that point, because at that point he took the mother of the Lord Jesus into his own home that he might adequately care for her. Now, what kind of lessons can we learn from John's affinity with the Master, and John's appointment by the Master, his activity for the Master, and his abandonment to him?
What were the four things that indicated this man's affinity to the Lord Jesus? What were the four things about the Lord Jesus that were so attractive to this Apostle John? In the first place, before ever he laid eyes upon the Lord Jesus, John was attracted to him because the report of his coming proved to be a great attraction for John. He heard the words of John the Baptist, who said, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his part straight.
You know, he was speaking in the language of Isaiah forty. Don't lose your place, but turn back to Isaiah chapter forty, will you? And let's see what was the message of John the Baptist that so much attracted the Apostle John that he couldn't break away when the rest of the crowd left. He continued to follow John. Let's see what these words are. Verse three of Isaiah forty. The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight, in the desert, a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and replaces plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. You know, when these words were uttered, in the hearing of the Apostle John, Apostle at that time, to Vary, he bricked up his ears, and his heart leaped, and responded to that message. What was John the Baptist saying? He was saying, a king is coming, and the king must not turn a corner. Make the way straight. The king must not climb a hill. Lower the hills. He must not descend into a valley.
Exalt the valleys. Indeed, remove the rocks and make the waves smooth. Prepare you the way of the Lord. The king is on his way. And this report of the turning of the Lord Jesus was most attractive to John. And so he wanted to hear more. if such a person was on his way, and if indeed John the Baptist was the forerunner, for did he not say, they come at one after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. John said, I can't wait.
I cannot wait to meet that one. And he wasn't disappointed. Because just as the announcement or the report of his coming was attracted to John, so the sight of his person was attracted to John. When John the Baptist looked upon the Lord Jesus, that same look was shared by the Apostle John and by Andrew. It was a common look. And the word that is used for that look is a word that means an intensive gaze when John the Baptist gazed intensely upon the person of the Lord Jesus.
That intense gaze was shared by John and Andrew because having looked upon the Christ of God, they could not tear away their eyes. The sight of the Lord Jesus was attractive to John. I often think of that little boy. whose story is written up in the four Gospels, one of the few miracles it is. And I think that that boy didn't eat his lunch, because he was so taken up with the person of the Lord Jesus, even though he was a little boy, he forgot that he was hungry. And when eventually the multitude needed to be fed, it was with his lunch that that crowd, the meat of that crowd, will met.
It must have been, there must have been something wondrously attractive about the Lord Jesus to make a little boy forget that he was hungry. There was something else about the Lord Jesus. The experience of his company was attractive to John. When John the Baptist said, Behold the love of God, which beareth away the sin of the world, despite his devotion to John the Baptist, John the Apostle to be turned in the direction of the Lord Jesus, knowing that this is what John the Baptist expects of him. This is the one to whom they have been, to whose coming they've been looking forward. And so John and Andrew follow him.
And eventually the Lord Jesus turns round. How long do you let them follow without acknowledging their following? I don't know. But eventually he starts and he turns around and asks them what they seek. And they said, Master, where do you dwell? Come and see, said the Lord Jesus. And when they saw where he dwelt, they went in and abode with him. And this was something else. The company of the Lord Jesus, even over that shorter period of time, did something for John. And he never lost the mark of it from his life. If you go to that story again, you will find that when, or go back to the ones we've covered, when eventually the Lord Jesus begins to preach, John holds his breath.
For it says of his disciples at that time, and John among them, he spake with authority, and not as a scribe. So the message of the Lord Jesus was attracted to John. And so all of these things served to weld him to the Christ of God, to produce this affinity with his master. Now it is because he had that affinity, that he had a sense of duty, and he was going to let nothing stand in his way in the matter of serving a master like this. Should we find him following?
and it bespeaks his affinity with the Master. And then we find in fellowshiping. The Lord Jesus says Mark three, speaking to the crowd eventually appoints twelve men. Don't be afraid of that word ordination. You realize that's the only time that particular Greek word is ever translated ordination. He ordained every other time it is simply translated make or made. There's nothing magic about that word ordination. He ordained, he made them his disciples. That's, he appointed them. That's simply the thought. He appointed twelve men as his disciples, his apostles.
And he had a two-fold object in appointing them. First of all, and notice the order, he wanted them to be close to him. And then secondly, he wanted them to be concerned about others. Because he chose well that they might be with him. It is absolutely impossible for a man to do service for God that's acceptable to God, unless he does it out of a heart of love for God. You know, some of us have tried very, very hard to separate into watertight compartments, worship and service. We say worship before service.
But you know it's very, very difficult to separate these two because in fact there is a word that is at one point translated worship and in another place translated service because actually the two are so closely interwoven. Now there is a pure expression of worship and probably this is that. we come closest to when we gather together to break the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus, when we don't come to ask him for anything, that we come to pour out of his feet our adoration and our praise, that is indeed the purest form of worship.
But you know, unless our service for him is done out of the heart of love for him, and so is in a sense an expression of our worship, then it isn't really acceptable to him at all. So that we must not really try to divorce service from worship. They are part and parcel of the same. And so the Lord Jesus chose twelve men that they might be with him. What he wanted before their actual activity on his behalf was their companionship, their closeness, their intimacy.
He wanted them to be with him, and then secondly, that he might send them forth to preach. I wonder whether this touches a chord in your heart. Of course God wants your activity on his behalf. Of course God wants you to be busy for him. Of course God wants you to be a witness on every hand. But the first thing that he wants is that you spend time with him. He chose twelve apostles not primarily to make preachers of them, but primarily to make them companions that they might be with him.
And then, having been close to him, that they might like him become concerned about others. Preach and have power. I must hurry on. Let's take a look at them briefly fishing, shall we? And here, having seen his affinity with the master and his appointment by the master, now we look briefly at his activity for the master. It says of him he foresook his net, And it says of him that he left his father. And again it says of him he followed the Lord Jesus.
Now it seems to me that the nets spoke of his business, and that his father spoke of his home. Do you remember the Lord Jesus said, If any men hate not his father and mother, Some have thought that that is too strong language. Really what the Lord Jesus is saying is this, that only must you love me more than you love your father and more than you love your mother, that you must love me so much more that the two loves cannot be compared. That's the thought.
This man left his business. It was, it didn't matter to him. He did not know whether he would ever come back again to those nets, whether he would ever come back again to that ship. He did not know what the will of God for him in the future was. But because the Lord Jesus said, do it, he did it. And as many a man has given up his business and gone out into the mission field or into the home field, and it has been a costly decision. I think of doctors on the field today who could be making a very lucrative living today, who could have a very fine practice, who could have indeed become specialists.
Everybody's a specialist today. You know what a specialist is? A specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less. until he knows everything about nothing. Now that's a specialist, and everybody's a specialist, because I suppose specialists make more money. But you know, many a missionary on the field today has had to turn his back upon a fortune in order to be where God intended him to be. And yet having done that, he hasn't lost out. For the word of God says that God is no man's debtor. But you know, we ought never to forget this.
When we run our eyes down the missionary handbook, when we hear about the work of this missionary or that missionary, there's really not a single missionary on the field. But he's there because he was willing to make a sacrifice. Who was there because she was willing to give up the things that were dear to her. This was a costly decision for John. But it was enough for him that the Lord Jesus said, Do it. I've known parents who were not prepared to give up their children, because they recognized the cost, as much as their children recognized the cost.
But while the children were willing to make the sacrifice, the parents were not. And there are people today whose lives have been blighted, blasted, because parents interfered and they missed the mind of God. It is a costly thing to turn one's back upon one's career and business and so on. But you can't lose out if this is God's mind for you. For some it would be easier to give up their careers than to give up their homes.
But John did this too. He turned his back upon his father, just as he forsook his neck. He was willing to give up his home. Now the first is a great sacrifice. Probably the second is a greater sacrifice. There are ties that bind us to loved ones. There are responsibilities that rest upon us with regard to our homes. And sometimes it is difficult for a missionary to be, to have to face up to the fact that dear ones at home have specific means. And probably it may seem that those needs can only be met by they themselves.
That is, the individual who is being challenged to leave these things behind and to go out onto the mission field. And yet it is always true that God can better look after our affairs and indeed our families if needs be than we can. How many missionaries have had times of tremendous conflict over their children. There have been missionaries who felt that they could not leave their children behind in the homeland and go back to the field. And so they felt it was their responsibility to God to stay with their families until their education was complete.
There are those who have felt that because God could look after their children, great as the great must be, and heartbreaking the experience, they must leave their children behind and go back to their field. Only God can give the wisdom to make a right decision here. But one overriding consideration must never be missed. At whatever the cost, we have to know the mind of God. Even though it means the surrender of career, the surrender of business, even the surrender of home, and the saying goodbye to loved ones. John did it.
His sacrifice was complete. He left his fishing for fish, and he went out to fish for men. This was henceforth to be his activity for the master. Now some of us have known lives in which our careers were not interrupted. It was not the will of God that we should become missionary. Some of us, God raised up to become the supporters of missionary by our prayers and by our will with all. And we, at home, by the stuff and doing the supporting, are as much in the mind of God it may well be as those he has called out into the foreign field or the home field.
We must see that we discharge our responsibilities as they seek to discharge theirs. The thing is to be in the mind of God, to know that where we are is where God wants us to be. And even though we're staying by the stuff, even though we're here at home, even though we're carrying out our jobs and in the middle of our careers, or still running the whole, whatever it may be, we're still as surely called as other missionaries and the evangelists to be fishers. of men. And you know, when we sometimes speak of the missionary or of the evangelist as being out in the work, we probably are being a little inaccurate when we try to compare them with ourselves as though we were not out in the work.
When God gave gifts to the church and all how we've been trying to get this across to the hearts in Ocala, When God gave the gifts of men to the work, some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastor preachers, the word of God says he gave them to the church for the edifying of the believers unto the work of the ministry. We are all of us in the work of fishing for men. And whatever our lot may be at home or away from home, first things must come first. And we must make sure that just as we seek to cultivate the same affinity with the master, and recognize as believers the same appointment by the master, so we must be engaged in the same activity for the master, that of going out and fishing for men.
There are so many dying ones around us. You know it's possible for us in our closeted setup, here in Park of the Palms, not to even have an opportunity to witness for the Lord, unless we make it. Maybe when we go downtown, maybe when we ride on that bus, you know, for the senior citizens, somewhere or other, we've got to have an opportunity of fishing for men. The last thought is his abandonment to the Master. Then the Lord Jesus said, Woman, behold thy son, son, behold thy mother.
The follower and the fellow shipper and the fisher became a fosterer, a foster son for the mother of the Lord Jesus. You know, that experience was good for him because the one who became the foster son of Mary later became the foster father of the church. And if you will look at his writings, you will see how wonderfully the Spirit of God used him. He used him to write the Gospel, that he might for the people of God explain the past. He used him to write the epistles, so he might edify the people of God in the present.
And he used him to write the book of the Revelation, so that he might enlighten the people of God. with regard to the future. The one who made such a wonderful foster son became for the church such a wonderful foster father. Again I'm reminded of the word of our good brother near the front here. When I asked for the John's in the meeting to identify themselves, please don't compare us with the Apostle John. The Apostle John becomes for us an example. And may God give us grace to follow that example.
I don't think that we shall need to apologize to anyone for doing out of a sense of duty what we do for God. Providing that sense of duty has come out of a spirit of devotion. God wants a beautiful people. Shall we bow in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we know that these are days when duties are being turned away from, when obligations are being shed, when debts are being forgotten. For we pray the Lord that thou art impressed upon our hearts, as we know as impressed upon the heart of the Apostle John.
the debt that we owe to them, the obligation that rests upon us, and the duties that are ours to carry out, all we would pray that our lives might be marked by the same sense of duty that marked the life of this apostle. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.