Go Fish
When Jesus invited the first 4 guys to follow Him, He made His agenda clear up front. He said "I want you to follow me, and when you follow Me, I am going to turn you into something you are not already." Now we would expect Jesus to say something like: "Follow Me and I am going to make you more disciplined." That's what I would want anyway...
Or maybe some thing like: "Follow Me and I will make you more spiritual." After all, He is th.e Spiritual Leader, right?
Or "Follow Me, and I am going to make you smarter, because I know everything and you don't." (Not that that really sounds like God, but hey, why not?
"Follow Me and I'll make you a better Husband"
"Follow Me and I'll make you a better wife"
"I'll make you Richer."
"I'll make you more organized."
All Kinds of things that we think God would want to make us, And when He calls these first four guys to follow Him, He right up front says this:
"I want you to follow Me, and when you follow Me, I'm going to make you..." And What He said must have scared them to death. Or maybe more than scared them, it probably confused them. Because after all, this was not what they were interested in, and yet, they followed Him anyway. Essentially what we are going to discover, is that Jesus' agenda for them is His agenda for us. And Like those first four guys, it is a little confusing, a little intimidating. But here's the deal, for those of us who consider ourselves followers, Jesus would say to you, just like He said to these four guys: "I want you to follow Me, and when you follow Me, I am going to make you something..."
Now I would opt that He would make me more Disciplined, or richer, or healthier, or a better leader, or more organized. Maybe you would say a better father, a better mother, a better spouse, a better boss, more loving. There are a lot of things we would want Jesus to make us. And He says "ehh... that's fine. But Phill if you really want to follow Me, I'm going to make you into something else."
Our Story comes from Mark chapter 1, starting in verse 14. This is the account of when Jesus first called these first four guys.
Verse 14: 14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Now the People of heard this and they started to get excited. "The Kingdom of God is Near!" They were expecting a big military leader to come and stamp out Rome, and restore the Jewish People to their rightful place in the world. But as we know, God had other plans, plans Higher plans than this world. But nevertheless some of the Jews got excited. Jesus Says "Repent and believe the good news." Meaning, Get your heart in order! Pay attention to God! He is about to do something incredible, and if your heart is in the wrong place, you might miss it. So get your heart right, and when God does something great, you won't sleep through it.
Have you ever paid attention when they come on the news and say tonight at such and such time there is going to be a meteor shower? Are you like me and you always want to see it? And are you also like me, where either the bed is really comfortable, or you just forget all about it? Everytime I plan to get up and see it... I have never seen a Meteor Shower. They come and go, and I always miss them. But you know, the Meteor Shower came and went , and the fact that there were people out there in the cold to watch it didn't make it happen. But the people out there saw it and enjoyed it, and the rest of us slept, missed it, and only hear stories.
Jesus is saying God is about to do something, and you need to get your heart right, or you are going to miss it.
Do you know what kind of people find Shark's teeth on the beach? The people that look for them. You don't generally find a shark's tooth unless you look for it. I have a cousin, and we used to travel with each other's families as kids, and she always found sand dollars, and cool seashells, and shark's teeth, because she loved that and always went looking. Looking for them doesn't put them there, but you don't see them unless you look. This was the message Jesus was trying to get across. Pay Attention!
Now these for guys caught this message. First, we get Peter and Andrew in verse 16.
16As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you more spiritual, I will make you more Disciplined, I will make you a better person, I will make you honest, I will make you Holy." No! He says I want you to follow Me, and I know this makes no sense, and I know you have no interest in this right now, but I am going to make you something that you aren't. I am going to make you a "fisher of men." Luke tells this same story, and in He quotes Jesus as saying "from now on, you are going to catch men." And Peter and Andrew must have thought: WHAT??!!?! Like scale them? And put them on ice? And sell them for $6 a pound? What is that about? But look at what happens in verse 18:
18At once they left their nets and followed him. Now understand this, they were working with their Father. And He is probably close to retirement, and thinking my two sons will carry on the business... And they say "See ya dad, going with the preacher! We've known Him for 5 minutes, and we're leaving you and the family business and following Jesus."
Doesn't seem realistic does it? Let's read on. Verse 19: 19When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
They Left their father in the boat with the hired men and followed. WHY? I don't think they had a clue what Jesus meant by "Fisher's of Men." They may not have even heard Him, Yet they followed. Why? This is where Mark telling us the short abridged version hurts us. In Luke's version of this story, we see that this happens after Jesus sent these guys out in the middle of the day to fish (when you usually fish in the early morning or night), and filled their nets to the point they were almost breaking. That is why they Followed Him. I'm sure their Father Zebedee was Screaming "Follow Him!!! Can you believe this! Go!"
The Amazing thing is, a few chapters later, and by the end of the New Testament, Peter, Andrew, James, and John had become just that. Fishers of Men. They had become men who took Jesus message and begun to share it in their own sphere's of influence, which were very different; through their own personalities, which were very different. God used these four men to relay that message to a completely different generation of people. A generation that understood that it wasn't enough to follow. To follow is to fish. And they shared it with other people who understood, that to follow is to fish. And they shared it with another group of people who understood, that to follow is to fish. And so on... And here we are, halfway around the world, celebrating and worshiping a Jewish Carpenter who walked the earth over 2000 years ago. Not because people followed Jesus, but because a group of people understood that to follow is to fish. Followers Fish.
Now when these guys started, they were awful at it. I mean there was this time when all these children were around Jesus, and they shewed them all away. And Jesus is going "Oh Brother... THAT WAS MY ILLUSTRATION!!! Yeah, I was going to demonstrate what faith looks like, and you just ran off all the children."
"Oh! Sorry... OK Bring the Children back in!! Jesus wants the Children back!!"
Then there is the time they start arguing amongst themselves about who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven. Right in front of Jesus they do this. Like a couple of ants in front of an elephant arguing about who is bigger. REALLY!!??
Oh and this one- one time they go and try to cast out a demon and the demon won't budge. They go back to Jesus, and Jesus asks "Did you pray?"
"Well....no"
"You have to pray!"
"Oh yeah! Pray!"
So they struggled. But by the end of the story, these four guys, and a tax collector, and a doctor, and some prostitutes, and a bunch of people from all walks of life begin to get it. They became, not just followers of Jesus, they became fishers. Because when Jesus called you to follow Him it wasn't just to help you. His goal is for you to do in the lives of others what someone did in your life. If you are like me, you probably became a Christian for purely selfish reasons. I mean I was in high school, and I realized that when people die they either go to heaven or to hell. And heaven is good and hell is bad. And if you become a Christian, you go to heaven, not hell. That didn't take a whole lot of thought did it? Sign me up!! My reasons were selfish. Yours were too, right? Maybe you needed help in your marriage, or your finances were falling apart, or you had an addiction. Something was going on in your life. Or maybe things were going great, and you just felt an empty void, and you needed something. So you became a Christian, because you needed God to mend or fix something for you. And once you were on board, you realized "Hey God! I need you to fix some other things."
So when we pray, for the most part, isn't it: "Give me, Give me, Give me. Bless me, Bless me, Bless me. And Protect me, Protect me, Protect me! And get me a job, now get me a better job, and now even a better job. Or Fix my marriage, or find me a marriage, or get rid of this boyfriend! Help me! Help me!"
And God is so patient, and He interacts with us on a daily basis and answers those prayers. Then we show up on Sunday morning, or whenever you show up to worship, and we praise God for how big and faithful He is. But the early church knew there was more to it than just selfishness. They knew it was their job to tell others about what they had seen and knew to be true. If they didn't tell people, how would they ever find out?
Now most of us can get this pretty easily, or maybe you already have it. But isn't it interesting that in spite of the fact that we are grateful that somebody caught us, and we know that we have to share for people to hear, we still shrink back from our responsibility to be fishers. So, why do we do it? Why do we shrink back? It boils down to one word. We are simply _____. What? What is the word that came to your mind?
AFRAID. We are simply afraid.
-What if they ask a hard question?
-What if I sound stupid?
-What if it gets awkward?
-What if it gets uncomfortable?
-What if they walk away?
-What if it ends our relationship?
But because of our fear, we shrink back. And before we know it, we are on the sidelines. And then we just have guilt, because we aren't doing it. The primary players in the New Testament were all a bunch of cowards at one time. Look at Peter: A little girl came up to him and said "Don't you follow Jesus?" And He cursed at her, and said "Never Heard of him!" When Jesus was arrested, did his best friends stand by Him? No, they disappeared into the shadows, Scared to Death! Afraid to even be associated with Him. But in the book of acts (a book about what Jesus' followers did after his Resurrection), these same cowards became courageous witnesses to what they had seen and heard.
Let's look at one more story. Acts 4:23-29
This is after Jesus died, and rose, and went to be with God. Now Peter and John have gone to the temple to Pray. On their way in they see a man who has never walked before. Peter says "rise up and walk." The man does, and then he leaps, and then he jumps! He's excited, and he runs into the temple screaming "I'm healed!!" He gathers a crowd, and he points to Peter as the guy that did it, and Peter preaches a mini sermon about Jesus. Well, the people in charge of the temple weren't happy. Talk about God, Religion, the Law...But NOT about Jesus. That bothers me! So the temple guards arrest Peter and John and throw them in Jail. The next day they bring them out and say "Look, you have to stop talking about Jesus." So of course, Peter preaches another sermon :). "We have to talk about what we have seen. For there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved." In other words, God has done something, and if we don't talk, nobody is going to know! Is this the same guy that was scared of the little girl? Amazing what God can do!
So the leaders have a meeting and say, "Look, this is your last warning! Don't talk about Jesus ANYMORE!" And they sent them home. This is where we pick up the story in Acts 4:23
23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So they went back to the people who had been praying all night for their safety. Because honestly, these people probably thought they were dead ducks. After all, these leaders had enough leverage with Rome to get Jesus crucified, taking care of His followers should be no problem, right?
Verse 24: 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. OK, timeout for just a second here. If you were one of these followers back at the house, and these two influential Christians (who have not written their books yet) were just spared... What would you pray? Mine would be something like this "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day (because we always say that) Thank you for saving them. And now down to the serious stuff: Help Me! Help Me! Help Me! Protect Me! protect ME! Protect ME! Bless Me! Bless Me! Bless ME! And protect my family and those who I care about..." Sort of like the prayers we pray anyway, right? Why would I pray like this? Because I would be scared to death that they were coming after me!
But Suddenly these people have an Aha moment. And I don't know why, but if it would happen in my heart and in our churches today it would be revolutionary. It dawns on these people what's going on, and they begin to connect the dots. Suddenly they remember what they were taught about the Messiah. And they suddenly realize that they are in the middle of something incredibly significant. And not only are they in the middle of it, they are PLAYERS! God has decided to involve them in something He has been up to for all of time. And when they pray, it's not what we pray, "help me, bless me, protect me." No, when they pray, their eyes are opened, and they have the big picture, and they pray an incredible prayer. They don't start with "father, thank you for this day." No, Here's how they start: "SOVEREIGN LORD!" In other words, God who is Large and in charge. God even though it looked bleak, we realize that you never lost control. "You made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. How is that for Context? 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" 'Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One. It is a psalm they had memorized as kids, and all of a sudden, they realize that they are living it out right now! We've seen this fulfilled! verse 27: 27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people[e] of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. But now get this, they almost missed it. Why do I say that? Because they are like us. And when Jesus was arrested, their prayers were "Save Him! Help Him! Protect Him!" And He was crucified and He died... And we thought "OH NO! God has lost control!!" Then He was raised from the dead, and we couldn't believe it! Now We Get it! THIS was Your plan all along! You are the Sovereign God who is active in our midst!
How badly do you think the disciples wanted to go back and redo the crucifixion days? The ones where they ran and hid, and missed the greatest work God ever did. If only we could have seen what God was doing then! Now that they've had this realization, they get to their request... and they don't know what to ask. Because everything they have prayed until now has been against God's will, and now, they don't know how to pray. They are thinking, our lives are at risk, and they could come arrest us at any moment. A major problem! But, what if our arrest is part of God's design? We don't know how to pray! We don't know what to ask for!
So they go on. Verse 29: 29Now, Lord, consider their threats, Not, do away with out enemies. Who knows, you may be using them. Not, Don't let us be arrested, because maybe God wants us to be arrested. So what do they say about the people that could arrest them and take their lives? They say "God, at least consider those things." We don't know what to ask for. We just want You to know what we are stressing about. Deal with it according to Your will. You obviously know better than us. And then their final request, and I want to challenge you to add this to your prayers. Because if we do it wholeheartedly, it will change the face of the church. Their last request: and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
I've begun asking for it, because it is something I need. Because I realize that God wants me to be a player, and not just sit on the sidelines. Do you want to know what Boldness is? This isn't Boldness, I'm just writing thoughts down, for someone who might choose to read them. Boldness isn't your preacher on Sunday morning. He's standing up there and you are all staring at him. What do you expect? He has to talk!. Boldness isn't the guys downtown in your city with the banner whose yelling at women about what they wear, and proclaiming that Jesus is coming. (That's something else entirely, and maybe I'll get to it another day).
Do you know what boldness really is? Boldness is the soft spoken woman in the company who decides she's going to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. Boldness is getting in a car and driving three hours to go see your grandmother to tell her about Jesus, so that you know when you get to heaven your grandmother will be there, too. Boldness is the 35 year old guy who knows that his dad refuses to talk about Religion and God, but he decides, I'm doing it anyway, because I want my father to understand that there is a God who loves Him. Boldness is buying someone else's meal and saying "I wanted to show you Jesus' Love in a practical way." Boldness is speaking up when an opportunity comes along. Boldness is about men and women perfectly positioned by God to reach the people around them.
Their volume wasn't what made the early church scary and effective. No. It was because they had so much at stake. They could lose their jobs, their place in society, even their lives, yet they still spoke about Jesus whenever they could. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!? Because they suddenly realized that a Sovereign God was giving them the chance to be a part of the most important activity in the universe.
Ok Finishing up. I'm giving you homework :). Ha! who would have thought that by reading a blog you would get homework. For those of you in school still, I'm extra sorry, but I want you to take this seriously. It's a really simple thing, and it's very non threatening. I want you this week to just walk up to ten people and say "I love you, and God loves you."
I'm just kidding. Sorry, just wanted to scare you a bit. No but seriously, I do have something I want you to do. It will take you about 10 minutes. The point is to remind you of two things 1. That you were once a fish yourself. 2. To remind you of the gratitude that you had for the person that led you into a relationship with Christ.
I want you, sometime this week, to sit down and write a letter to the person who introduced you to Christ. You don't have to mail the letter. In fact for some of you, that will be impossible, because that person is no longer living. I just want you to remember that if it wasn't for this person, you might still be a fish. And if that were true where would you be today?
You are perfectly positioned by God to be that influential person in someone's life. Figure out who that is. Maybe one day, they will be writing a letter to you.
