Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2008 : January 27, 2008

Theme: Jesus Has Called You to Full-Time Discipleship

Church year occasion: Epiphany 3

Wouldn't it be great to get outside in the nice warm sunshine and stay out for hours -- maybe even a whole day? OK, I'm not talking about right now in January -- I'm thinking more of July or August when it's nice and warm and cozy outside and you have time to yourself and you can relax. One thing some folks like to do is go fishing on a day like that. But if your idea of catching fish is being nice and cozy and relaxing, then, chances are, you won't catch a whole lot of fish.

At least that's what Rick Warren discovered from his father, who was a great fisherman. Warren said, "If there was only one fish in a lake or stream, my dad would catch it. As I got older I realized his secret: My dad understood fish and caught them on their terms. In contrast, I never had a strategy whenever I went fishing. I'd cast out anywhere in the lake, hoping something might bite. While my dad would crawl through brush or get wet up to his waist in order to get to where the fish were, my fishing spots were usually determined by what was most comfortable to me, and my results showed it."

Warren thinks the same applies to the evangelism work of the church, and I think he's exactly right. We need to be willing to get uncomfortable, get out of our comfort zone, if we really want to be fishers of men and women, which is what Jesus has called us to be. So we need to:

Know what you're fishing for...(Unchurched)
Go where the fish are biting...(Not your living room)
Learn to think like a fish...(Why are they unchurched?)
Catch fish on their terms...(What are they looking for?)
Use more than one hook...(Although the gospel is the only thing that changes a person's heart, you usually need to have a number of contacts with a person before they are willing to give the gospel a hearing.)

In our text this morning, we are looking at Jesus as he begins his ministry in Galilee and as he calls his first disciples. Just like Peter, Andrew, James, and John, Jesus has called you to be fishers of people, so get your hip waders on and grab your fishing rod and reel: Jesus has called us to full-time discipleship.

As I just mentioned, we find Jesus beginning his Galilean ministry in Matthew, chapter 4. But Jesus didn't begin his public ministry in Galilee; he had actually been preaching for almost a year already around Jerusalem. After John the Baptist was thrown into prison, Jesus came north to preach where he grew up, around Nazareth. But when his hometown people of Nazareth rejected him as their Savior, he went to Capernaum, a small town on the Sea of Galilee. And that town of Capernaum really became Jesus' base of operations for much of his ministry that he conducted around Galilee. It might not seem that important to know where Jesus was preaching, but it is, because Matthew shows that even where he preached was a fulfillment of prophecy, from Isaiah 9. That northernmost part of Israel had been the tribes of Israel that had always been the first to be attacked and put under domination of other foreign powers in the Old Testament because they were the closest to Israel's enemies. But Isaiah had prophesied that they would be comforted when the Light of the World would shine among them.

We pick up our text in verse 18: "As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 'Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." A misconception many people have is that this is the first time Jesus had met Peter and Andrew, and that they immediately left everything and followed him the first time Jesus walked past. But actually, they had been disciples of Jesus for a year already and had seen him change water into wine at Cana, Jesus' first miracle. But they had only been with Jesus as his disciples in a limited way. They still had their jobs, and many of them returned to them after Jesus' miracle at Cana. The four we see in our text were fisherman. When Jesus said, "Come, follow me," they left everything and followed him.

Why did they follow Jesus so quickly? Was it because Jesus was an interesting preacher and they were spell-bound by him. Was it because of the miracles he performed? Certainly those things would have drawn them to Jesus first, but by this time it was much more than that. They already knew that Jesus was their Savior. That is why they would leave everything and follow him. The disciples knew that no matter what they did for Jesus, they could never repay him for taking their sins away, but they would do what they could to show how much they treasured that free gift.

We are really in the same boat as the disciples. Before we came to know Jesus, we were just fish in a big lake. In fact, by nature we were pretty ugly fish -- not good to look at, not nice to mount on a wall, not tasty to eat -- because we are sinful through and through. What's the ugliest fish you could catch? A carp, perhaps? Well, think of us as carp -- the kind of fish no one would want to catch. We get so wrapped up in our own world, our own jobs and home life, that we can forget what living as a disciple really means. By nature, we don't want to get uncomfortable. And that is shown by how easily we blend into this world and often don't show we are disciples of Jesus. But Jesus caught us with the gospel. He wanted us no matter what, no matter how ugly with sin we were, no matter how often we wanted to live for ourselves and not for him. But that's when Jesus said, "Come, follow me, you who are weary and burdened with sin, and I will give you rest for your souls." Come, take all your sins and follow me to the cross. Then take every one of those terrible sins, and lay them down at the foot of the cross and forget about them forever, because God has forgotten them forever when he looks at the cross, too. When God looks at your sins, his terrible anger burns at those sins you committed, but when he looks at the cross, he sees that all his anger was already poured out on his Son, who suffered and died to take all those sins away. And that will bring a reaction from us.

We see the reaction of two more disciples in our text: "Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him." The disciples' reaction to Jesus being their Savior and calling them was to follow him immediately. They became his full-time disciples. Jesus has called us to be his full-time disciples as well. That doesn't mean you have to leave everything you know -- your jobs and family -- and follow Christ as his full-time disciple. But it means that you realize just who you are in whatever walk of life you are. You may be five years old and just starting school, but you are first and foremost a full-time disciple of Jesus. You may be in high school and looking at an uncertain future of where you will go to college and what profession you should try to get into. Realize that no matter what you choose to do with your life, you are first and foremost a full-time disciple of Jesus. You may be middle-aged or you may be getting close to end of your days as far as you can see, but realize no matter what you are and whatever you do, you are first and foremost a full-time disciple of Jesus. Jesus has made you that when he called you to faith, when he said, "Come, follow me."

How do we keep the zeal for telling others about Jesus?

The Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno tells of an ancient Roman aqueduct, located near the city of Segovia. The aqueduct -- a sort of elevated trestle over which water flows -- was constructed in the year A.D. 109. For 1800 years, the aqueduct carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. As many as 60 generations depended on this marvel of engineering for their drinking water.

Then came another generation, in more recent years, who said to each other, "This aqueduct is an architectural marvel. It's a historical treasure that ought to be preserved. We should give it a well-earned rest."

That's exactly what they did. They detoured the water flow away from the ancient stones and channeled it through modern pipes. They put up historical markers so tourists would know who had constructed the aqueduct, and for what purpose. They celebrated the fact that their city's water system was now modern in every way.

But then, a strange thing began to happen. The Roman aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating down on its dry mortar, without the constant flow of water to cool it, caused it to crumble. In time, the massive structural stones threatened to fall. What 18 centuries of hard service had not been able to destroy, a few years of idleness nearly did.

In the same way, the more we are filled with Jesus' words of forgiveness, the more we will be willing and eager to tell others. Jesus has called you to full-time discipleship as fishers of people. It's time to get out of our comfort zones and go fishing. Amen.