Sunday, July 22, 2012
FISHERS OF MEN
Mark 1:16-20
When we
meet someone new, if we want to get better acquainted, asking questions is a
great way to do it. So what kind of
questions might we ask? Do you have a
family? How old are your children? Were you raised in this area? Those are not very threatening questions, and
as the person answers, you begin to learn something about him. Another common question goes something like
this: What kind of work do you do? Or if the person is older, “What kind of work
did you do before you retired?” Most
people are open to share with you what kind of work they do.
Let’s
pursue that theme for just a moment.
Work is honorable, is it not?
Whether a person labors in highway construction, works as a computer
programmer, or manages the home, his work is honorable before God and man. We are familiar with phrases such as, “Give
them a good day’s work for a good day’s pay.”
Most of us agree that we ought to give our employer our best
effort. When God put Adam in the garden,
He gave him something to do. Yes, he was
blessed to be able to enjoy the beautiful Garden of Eden, but he was also given
the responsibility to care for it. Work
goes hand in hand with responsibility.
We teach our kids to work in order that they may learn responsibility.
But what
about Christians? Maybe we don’t need to
work, since God has promised to take care of us. Did Jesus not say, “Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt.
6:33)? He didn’t say, “Work;” He
told us to seek God and His righteousness.
Again, we must put the words of scripture into their context. Jesus was telling the crowd (and us) that we
are not to be uptight about securing the basic needs of life, because that is
the way the pagan world lives. Instead,
we trust that God will provide those things.
However, Jesus is not saying in any way that we should not work, sitting
back and expecting Him to provide.
Listen to Paul’s words in II Thes. 3:10, “For even when we
were with you, we gave you this rule: If
a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Christians are to work. As a
matter of fact, believers should be examples of how a person puts his whole
self into his work. We read in Col.
3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for
the Lord, not for men.” When a person
works like that, his job becomes a noble labor, regardless of what it is. A school teacher can teach with all her heart
for the glory of her God. A mother can
raise her kids day by day, giving it her all for God’s glory.
This
morning I want us to read about some men who were doing noble work. Let’s read Mark 1:14-20…
Now after
John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." 16 And as He
walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net
into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you
become fishers of men." 18 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. 19 When He had
gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. 20 And
immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with
the hired servants, and went after Him.
As Jesus
was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He confronted four men whose names are very
familiar to most of us -- Simon (better known to us as Peter), Andrew, James,
and John. I want you to notice
immediately that these men were doing noble work. And what kind of work were they doing? They were fishermen. Most of us are not very familiar with
fishing. Let’s face it, fishing is not a
major industry in this part of the world.
In case you are not aware of it, fish require water in which to live,
and in order to find much water we have to drive a few miles. Don’t get the idea that these four men were
pursuing the hobby of fishing. No, they
weren’t entering bass tournaments on the weekends. They made their living by catching fish from
the Sea of Galilee and selling them for profit.
Fishing was their occupation, and there is no reason to believe that
they were not good at what they did. The
fact that James and John were fishing with their dad indicates that fishing was
their family business. No doubt, they
had been fishing all of their lives.
I. Jesus’ Early Encounters with the Four
Fishermen
Now before
we go any further, I think it will be helpful to compare a couple of other
passages with this one. We might ask,
“Is this incident recorded in any of the other gospel accounts? In other words, can we find the same story in
Matthew, Luke, or John? Yes, we
can. Sometimes people comment, “Isn’t
it amazing that these men would follow a man on the spur of the moment, a man
whom they had never before been acquainted.
First of all, turn to Matthew 4 to find a parallel account of this same
incident. As you scan down through Matt.
4:18-22, you will find that it is almost identical to Mark 1:16-20, down to the
very wording that is used. John also
speaks of Jesus’ encounter with three of these men, but the story is not the
same. Let’s read it in its broader
context in John 1:29-42…
The next day
John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He
of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was
before me.' 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel,
therefore I came baptizing with water." 32 And John
bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a
dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water
said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him,
this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have
seen and testified that this is the Son of God." 35 Again, the
next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking
at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" 37 The two
disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned,
and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?" They
said to Him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, when translated, Teacher),
"where are You staying?" 39 He said to
them, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and
remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40 One of the
two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first
found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the
Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ).42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He
said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A
Stone).
John, the writer, is telling us
about the ministry of John the Baptist, who was the one who pointed the way to
Jesus. Twice we see him point to Jesus
and say, “Behold! The Lamb of God.” Two of the disciples of John the Baptist take
to heart what he said go after Jesus.
One of the “two disciples” (35) is identified as Andrew. The name of the other is not mentioned. Down through the years most students of the
Bible have believed the other to be John.
As we have seen in Matthew and Mark, James and John were closely
associated with Peter and Andrew. But if
it is John, why isn’t he identified by name?
Simply because John, who is the writer of this gospel account, never
once mentions himself by name. It is
interesting that this same John is mentioned by name ten times in Mark’s much
briefer account of the gospel. It seems
clear that John’s name does not appear in his own writing because of his deep
humility. When he does find it necessary
to refer to himself very specifically, he simply speaks of “the disciple whom
Jesus loved” (John 19:26; 20:2; 21:17,20).
After speaking of Andrew and this other disciple, the writer then tells
us that Andrew brought his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. If we read on through the rest of this
chapter, we would see that Jesus then calls Philip, who brings Nathanael to
Him. Many believe that shortly after
this John brought his brother James to Jesus.
It is obvious that this is not the
same story that we read in Mark 1 and Matthew 4. The obvious question is this: Which one came first? Just from reading the two we would certainly
conclude that John 1 is prior to Jesus calling them in Mark 1 and Matthew
4. Otherwise, Andrew introducing his
brother to Jesus would make no sense.
And when we study the larger context and how these gospel accounts fit
together, we discover that there is a rather large gap between verses 13 and 14
in Mark 1. The events of John 1:19-4:45
fit nicely into that gap. The incident
at which we are looking in Mark 1 takes place about a year after Jesus first
met Peter and Andrew and John. So we see
that these men did not begin that day to follow a stranger named Jesus. They had already been associated with Him for
some time.
The other passage we need to examine
briefly is Luke 5:1-11…
So it was,
as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by
the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had
gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got
into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little
from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. 4 When He had
stopped speaking, He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down
your nets for a catch." 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have
toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down
the net." 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of
fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they
signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they
came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon
Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, O Lord!" 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch
of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who
were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From
now on you will catch men." 11 So when they
had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.
Is this the same incident that is
recorded in Mark? There is definitely a
difference of opinion. The classic
harmony of the gospels authored by A. T. Robinson view it as the same incident,
but others do not. I believe there are
too many differences to identify them as the same. The differences go much deeper than Luke
simply telling more. Furthermore, though
the gospel accounts are not always in chronological order, Luke 5:1-11 has to
be jerked abruptly from its order for it to be identified with the event of
Mark 1 and Matthew 4. It seems better to
take Luke 5 as occurring a little bit later than what we are looking at here in
Mark 1. (But it is a debatable issue).
II. Jesus’
Invitation to Become Fishers of Men
Now let’s come directly to this
passage in Mark 1 and think about what Jesus was saying to these men. Notice that Peter and Andrew were busy
fishing, when Jesus saw them. On the one
hand, that isn’t surprising because that’s what fishermen do, and they were
indeed fishermen, as our text reminds us in verse 16. But I thought they began to follow Jesus a year
earlier, as we read a little bit ago.
While they developed a rather close association with Jesus, it seems
clear from what we read here that they were still in the fishing business. They likely accompanied Jesus on short trips
and spent time with Him when He was in the area, but best we can tell, they
were still making a living fishing. No
one should find fault with them for that.
Jesus did not rebuke them because they were fishing; He simply called
them to something else.
Listen to Jesus words, as He called
out to them, “Follow me, and I will make you (to) become fishers of men.” Peter and Andrew wasted no time laying their
nets aside and going after Jesus. A
little farther down the shoreline Jesus found James and John and He gave them
the same invitation. These brothers left
their father and his hired hands in the boat and also followed Jesus.
So what did Jesus mean, when He
said, “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men?” Often there is a great deal of stress laid on
the way we need to go after people the way the fisherman goes after the
fish. That’s okay, but that isn’t what I
want to stress this morning. The main
reason Jesus spoke of being “fishers of men” is because these men were
fishers. Jesus is calling them to
something bigger than catching fish.
Rather than dealing with fish, as they follow Jesus, their lives will be
wrapped up in going after the souls of men.
We can’t ignore the question that
will inevitably come up: “If they left
their nets and followed Jesus at this point, why do we find them fishing again
in Luke 5?” This is one of the reasons
why many believe that Luke 5 speaks of the same incident. If not, then how can we explain these four
men back at their nets? I don’t have all
the answers to that question, but if the incident in Luke 5 comes shortly after
this, then it isn’t hard to explain.
(The only things that happened in between these incidents occurred right
there in Capernaum, close to where they were fishing). Here in Mark 1, Jesus does not tell them that
they are never to fish again on the Sea of Galilee. While we read here that they left their nets,
it may have been a temporary thing, so that they could spend some concentrated
training time with Jesus. But in Luke
5:11, the language is stronger. There
the record says, “So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook
all and followed Him” (Luke 5:11).
That sounds like a more permanent arrangement, and after that we
see them continually with Jesus.
III. What About
Us?
That brings up a more practical
question: “Can we apply these words of
Jesus to us? Or was this a unique
message for those fishermen?” What do
you think? We talk about following
Jesus, but is that accurate? If we have
not been called to follow Jesus, then it is not likely that we have been called
to become fishers of men. We must acknowledge
that shortly after this incident, these men began to literally follow Jesus
wherever He went. They would continue
following Him until He was arrested in the garden.
Please turn to the 16th
chapter of Matthew. Speaking to His
disciples, Jesus spoke these words in Matt. 16:24-26…
Then Jesus said to His disciples,
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever
desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it. 26 For what profit
is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what
will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Notice the word “anyone” in verse
24, the word “whoever” in verse 25, and “a man” in verse 26. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Jesus says that anyone who is willing to come
to Him, deny himself, and take up his cross can follow Him. So some of us here this morning are true
followers of Jesus.
So has Jesus also called us to be
fishers of men? To put it in terms we
can understand, has Jesus called us to focus on something greater than our
particular job? If you are retired, has
Jesus called you to something higher than the typical pursuits of
retirement? If you are a housewife, does
God want you to give yourself to something even more noble than caring for your
home? In short, is pursuing the souls of
other people something even more important than what we typically refer to as
our vocation?
I realize I am asking many questions
this morning, but now I have a couple more.
But what about our current jobs, our present situations? Doesn’t a man have to work to support his
family? Doesn’t a mother have to devote
herself in taking care of her kids day by day?
And besides, who says that all Christians must make it their life’s
calling to try to persuade others to come to Jesus?
Let’s deal with the last question
first. The Word of God makes it clear
that all believers are to zealously long for those around them to know God
through Christ. As surely as Jesus calls
us to follow Him, He calls us to pursue the salvation of others. We have established before from Matthew
28:18-20 that the command to make disciples of all peoples applies to us, just
as it applied to those apostles. Why is
that? Because Jesus told them to teach
those new disciples to obey everything that He had commanded. Since Jesus commanded them to make disciples
of all peoples, they were to teach new disciples to make other disciples. That principle filters down to every
believer. To come at it from another
angle, when the early Christians were scattered because of persecution, they
“went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). The context makes it clear that these were
not the apostles, but what you might call the “everyday, common
Christians.” They were consumed with
proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Those
early Christians were on board with Paul’s proclamation in II Cor. 5:17-21…
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all
things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and
has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore
you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of
God in Him.
We are sometimes inclined to stop after the part about being
new creations in Christ, but what we must understand is that those who have
been reconciled to God through Christ have the responsibility and privilege of
joining in on this ministry of reconciliation, as we proclaim the message of
reconciliation. That message is stated
concisely in that last verse, “For God made Christ who knew no sin to be sin
for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Every Christian is an ambassador,
representing Christ to a lost world.
Look at it
from a very practical standpoint.
Suppose you are surrounded by a hundred people who are starving to
death. If they don’t get food, they will
die. But you have plenty of food. Would you not eagerly get food to them so
that they could live? Brothers and
sisters, we have the bread of life, and hundreds around us are starving for
that spiritual food. If they don’t give
it, they will not only die, but they will experience the second death and be
cast into everlasting punishment.
Jesus said,
“Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” In other words, “Follow me, and I will teach
you to invest your lives in far more than your everyday vocation. I will show you that have a calling that is
far greater than your job and other earthly pursuits.” Jesus is not saying that what we do for a
living is not important, but He is saying that there is something that is far
more important. Fishing for a living was
noble indeed, but fishing for men was a far greater calling. Laboring to make a living or to perform a
necessary task is noble. It produces
necessary results for a limited amount of time, but functioning as an
ambassador for Christ yields eternal dividends.
But how can
give ourselves to caring for the souls of men, when we have to invest so much
of ourselves into our earthly responsibilities?
Do we need to quit our jobs? Surely
the Lord is reminding us of our focus.
Brothers and sisters, there are people all around us who work to make a
living, but their real focus is on having fun in life. They put in their 40 or how many ever hours a
week, but their real passion is to have fun.
They may be faithful workers, but if you talk to them about what really
keeps them going, it isn’t the job; it is that upcoming vacation they are
constantly thinking about. Students get
their work done so they can play video games or participate in a sport or get
together with their friends. That is
their focus. Where is your focus?
Brothers
and sisters, Jesus came to bring good news, and this is good news. If a man considers his job his calling, what
kind of future does that have? Trey lays
block. That is a noble profession. People need that work done. Trey is fulfilling a purpose. Praise God that it puts food on the table for
his family. But the results are only for
a temporary purpose. Every wall, every
chimney, every gate that Trey builds is going to be destroyed, and there are no
exceptions. Even the living he provides
for his family is temporal, because every member of his family is going to
spend eternity in a place where there is no need for physical food. That is why Jesus said, “Do not labor for the
food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life…” (John 6:27).
Though Trey’s work is noble, he has a much higher calling in
Christ. Trey is called to be an
ambassador for Christ, whether he is on the job or off the job. His job requires around 40 hours a week, but
his real calling is 24/7.
You might
say, “But that is so demanding. I don’t
want to be on call 24/7.” But we don’t
say that, do we? The good news is that
Jesus has given Himself to us by His Spirit 24/7. And because He is constantly with us, we have
the privilege of being His ambassador in everything we do. This isn’t a demand for a child of God; this
is life.
Consider an
illustration. Bill has a job that he
does not enjoy. He works from 8 to 5
Monday through Friday. He is there on
time every day and does his job in a satisfactory manner. The work he does provides a necessary service
for people and it provides a living for his family. But Bill does not enjoy what he does. He endures it as a necessary evil. Now what if we could find Bill a job that he
really enjoys? What if he could do
something that he really believes in?
Would Bill take such a job? In a
heartbeat. With this new job, Bill can
not only provide for his family, but he can do something he likes. Brothers and sisters, that is the calling we
have. Whatever life brings, our calling
is the same; we are called to represent Jesus, to share the good news of his
salvation. A believer may have a 40-hour
a week job that he does not particularly enjoy, but it’s okay because that is
just a small portion of his life. If he works
40 hours a week and sleeps seven hours a night, that means that he spends only
¼ of his waking hours on the job. And
even when he is at the not-so-exciting job, he still has the privilege of being
an ambassador for Christ even there.
Even on the job, he can be concerned about the souls of men.
When we
talk about “calling,” we are talking about something much bigger than jobs and
careers. Your job is not your
calling. However you want to refer to
your job and other pursuits in this world, biblically speaking, your calling is
spelled out in Eph. 4:1-3, “ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to
walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and
gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The
context of Ephesians makes it clear that this calling doesn’t have anything to
do with occupation and the like. Rather,
it is living the life of Jesus in this world.
It is knowing Him and making Him known, bringing glory to God, as we are
continually molded into the image of His Son.
Some of you know Terry Green. When he lived here, he was a volunteer with
the Navigators and invited us to go to conferences with him, etc. When Terry was asked what he did for a
living, he would respond something like this:
“I sell insurance to put food on the table, but my real work is to be an
ambassador for Jesus Christ.” That is a
an appropriate response to Jesus’ invitation:
“Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
But is everyone called to speak the
message of Christ with his or her lips?
Yes, that is the calling of every child of God. If we read the scriptures and ignore what we
see around us, we can come to no other conclusion. If we simply examine our situation and use
common sense, we will reach the same conclusion. No one who has the eternal riches of Christ can
be comfortable keeping them to himself.
If we walk in the Spirit, we will recall the words of Jesus, “ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Conclusion
Someone might say, “But our job isn’t just to tell people
about Jesus, because Jesus Himself told us to make disciples of all peoples,
and that includes teaching them to obey all the commands of Jesus.” That is absolutely true, but we can’t teach
them to obey Jesus commands until we introduce them to Jesus. Like the early Christians, we can go
everywhere preaching the Word, as we are empowered by the Spirit, even as they
were. Praise God that He has given us a
high calling in Christ!
Tuesday evening we are engaging in Neighborhood
Evangelism. Rhonda asked me some pointed
questions, as she sensed the lack of a definite plan. I have come to the conclusion that I might as
well be as honest with you as I can. I
don’t really know what we’re doing. It
is kind of difficult to plan when the group we attract could range from 0 to
who knows how many. What exactly are we
going to do? What exactly are we going
to say? The truth is: I don’t exactly know.
This is what I do know – we have Jesus and there are
people all around us who need Him.
Therefore, it is important that those two groups of people come
together. I am fully aware that
evangelism cannot consist of staged events like this; it must be much
bigger. Each of Jesus’ followers must
reach out to people every day wherever we are.
However, we need the encouragement of one another. We need a sense of working together. I am impressed that the early Christians had
that sense. Together they were sharing
the good news of Jesus.
My great fear is that if we wait until we have the
perfect plan, we will do nothing. Far
better that we jump in and get our feet wet.
After we do this, we will have a better idea of what we should have
done, and we will be better prepared for the next opportunity.
Brothers and sisters, I want to
encourage us. The New Testament
Christians who went everywhere preaching the Word were no different than we
are. They were simply ruled by the Holy
Spirit and followed His leading. May the
Lord give us grace to do the same.
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