Those last six verses from Acts 2 have not left me since Pentecost. Disciples – followers of Jesus learning everything they can– have become Apostles – messengers sent out to be the teachers, preachers, healers. And, now there are thousands and thousands of believers who are gathering together to learn, pray, eat, fellowship, share their worldly goods, support one another. And, I wonder, how is it possible to become that in our modern world.
How is it possible to build those kinds of 
relationships, that kind of prayer life, that desire to keep learning all we can from scripture, experience, reason and tradition. To keep choosing to be in relationship with one another, supporting one another. To share our worldly goods. To pray together in ways that are deeper than our Sunday morning corporate worship – not disrespecting that, but wondering is there a deeper way of praying together.
So a question this morning – in order to be those believers – who by the way they live their faith raise in others a desire to learn more about this faith we claim to hold – don’t we need to be disciples? Students of Jesus? Followers of Jesus? Can we claim that?
We have two call stories this morning – one from Matthew, and one from Luke. Let me read them now Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:1-11. Notice that in the call story from Matthew – Jesus doesn’t do anything but notice these four people and call out – come and follow me and I will make you fishers of people. All four immediately leave their boats and begin to follow Jesus. Why? What was it about him that made them drop everything in their life and follow him? Had they heard about him? Was Jesus that charismatic? Or is this a Holy Spirit moment – being nudged to follow him?
In Luke – Jesus he goes out on their boat and begins to speak to the crowds – know the love of God, repent and turn your hearts back to God – can you hear those words spilling out over the water? These four (Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John) hear these words, but the miracle is on the horizon. Put down your nets Jesus says – there is resistance – but dutifully they put down their nets and the number of fish they catch threatens to sink the boats. I will make you fishers of people – just trust me, follow me and put your nets down into the water.
What do we need to become these kinds of disciples of Jesus? These followers who are absorbing all that Jesus has to offer – his teaching, preaching, healing, performing miracles? Is it a Holy Spirit moment? Or is it an experience of Jesus so overwhelming that we have no choice but to believe? Whatever way you hear Jesus calling you to follow him – can you find the trust to do just that? And, if you have already accepted that call in your life to follow him – what do we still need to move from disciples to apostles? Tricky question – one I’ve never asked myself until this week!
And, as I have pondered this question, it has occurred to me that we can be both disciples and apostles. Our work together that has defined our dreams, visions and hopes is a testament to living as disciples and apostles. In that work, three themes emerged with an underlying desire to move from a church defined by its physical structure to one defined by the relationships built.
Those themes are a desire to be a relational church, a mission-active church and a community-integrated church. Acts 2:42-47 gives us a clue on how to build the foundation to achieve these dreams, these visions, these hopes and these desires. On how to live as disciples and apostles who are willing to drop their nets and accept an invitation to follow.
Over these next weeks, we are going to look at these last verses of Acts 2 – we are going to think about our prayer life – individually and together. We are going to think about how we learn more about Jesus and his impact on our individual and corporate life. We are going to think about our own spiritual healing and how we can be healers. We are going to think about what it means to be sent out. And, we are going to hear more about the notion of radical hospitality and fellowship – beyond our walls. What might happen if we take seriously those verses and our work as followers, students, learners, disciples, apostles? We will just have to drop our nets and see. May it be so. Amen.