The Secret to Fishing
Luke 9:23-26
Billy Bob and Jethro decided to go fishing on a cool spring day.
They arrived at the lake early in the morning and dropped in their lines in the water.
After fishing for a few hours, Billy Bob caught dozens of fish while Jethro hadn’t even got a bite.
Jethro asked, "Billy Bob, what’s your secret?"
Billy Bob answered, "Mmu motta meep da mmrms mmrm."
Jethro asked, "What did you say?"
Billy Bob answered, "Mmu motta meep da mmrms mmrm."
Jethro again asked, "What?"
Billy Bob spit into his hand and said, "You gotta keep the worms warm!"
As disciples of Christ, we have been called to be fishermen.
When Jesus called his early disciples, he exclaimed:
Matthew 4:19
19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
The one requirement Jesus insisted to be fishermen of men is that we follow Him.
And the same call comes to anyone wishing to be his disciple today. In fact, until you learn to follow Christ, will you ever find fulfillment in your lives.
Henry Ward Beecher, a preacher who led the antislave movement in the 1800’s, once commented, "The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too."
However, what does it mean to follow Jesus? Do we mysteriously follow Jesus walking behind him in a trace?
And do you ever wonder why we are not catching more men and women for Christ, even though we believe we’re following Him?
Well, there’s a catch (pun intended)!
In the same way that Billy Bob discovered that fish bite better if you keep the worms warm, believers will also discover that unbelieving men and women are searching for Christians who not only say they are Christians, but back it up by their actions.
Jesus even admits that being followers of his require action on our part. In fact, these actions or disciplines are found in Luke, chapter 9, verse 23:
23 Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
The crowds had gathered to hear every word that came from Jesus mind. They were intent on following Him. Some believed Him to be the Christ, the Messiah. In private, Jesus asked Peter who the crowds say he was, Peter responded,
Luke 9:19
“Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
What about you Peter, asked the Lord,
Luke 9:20b
Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
So Jesus goes back to teaching the crowds:
Luke 9:23
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me . . . ,
“If anyone would come after me,” is the perfect definition of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. “To come after or behind me,” means to that you’ve agreed to attach yourself to Jesus as his disciple.
Many of you this morning have agreed to be disciples of Jesus Christ. But perhaps you need to be refreshed on what is required of all of Christ’s disciples. Verse 23 provides us with three disciplines or actions of any disciple.
First Discipline: Deny One’s Self
Luke 9:23
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself..
“he must deny himself.”
“To deny one’s self” in the Greek literally means to turn one’s self off, to refuse to have companionship with, to disown one’s self.
Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush. He says it clearly and precise: “If you’re going to follow me, you must disown yourself, turn yourself off!
In our society at large today, there aren’t many professed Christians who are living a life of disownment.
Denying one’s self is much, much more than just not doing certain things.
Boiled cabbage
I can say to self, for instance, “Billy, I’m going to deny myself of eating boiled cabbage for the next six months, and I would pass with flying colors, why? I don’t like boiled cabbage in the first place.
But that’s easy: but stuff like not watching television for a month, or not eating sweets for a week, are more difficult.
And yet, denying oneself does not mean just stop doing one activity in your life.
. Jesus’ requirement is he wants all of you – Denying oneself means denying all of self.
What makes denying self really difficult is that we humans are naturally self-centered. We fight every inch to have our own way.
But Jesus calls for complete self-denial
R.C. Lenski
Bible scholar R.C. Lenski illustrates the meaning of self denial this way:
Peter once denied his Lord. He said to Jesus, “I do not know the man.”
The same is of necessary when you deny yourself completely. You admit to yourself, “I do not know myself.”
Jesus exhorts disciples: Forget about yourself! Don’t even consider self!
In another passage, Jesus even instead we hate our very lives:
Luke 14:26
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
You say, hate my very existence, disown myself completely? That’s what Jesus demands for any individual who wants to be His follower, his disciple.
Only when I disown myself completely will I ever be a fisher of men.
General William Booth
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was asked the secret of his amazing Christian life.
Booth answered, "I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth."
Henry Valey
Henry Varley in a prayer meeting admitted that he has never seen a man wholly committed to Christ.
Dwight L. Moody was in that small group that night. He asked God that he would be that man.
The rest is history. Moody became the greatest evangelist in the 1800’s. Biographers estimate his crusades alone brought over 1,000,000 souls into the kingdom.
When was the last time you caught a person for Christ? When was the last time you even got a nibble?
Perhaps its time you start denying yourself for Christ.
Second Discipline: Take Up Your Cross
Luke 9:23
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Followers of Christ must be willing to die.
Crucifixion
Jesus well knew what crucifixion meant. Historian William Barclay notes that when Jesus was a boy of about eleven years of age, Judas the Galilean led a rebellion against Rome. He raided the royal armory at Sepphoris, which was only four miles from Jesus hometown of Nazareth.
The Roman vengeance was swift and horrible.
The town of Sepphoris was burned to the ground; the women and children were sold into slavery, and two thousand of the rebels were crucified on crosses, set in lines along the roadside as a dreadful warning to any who would attempt to revolt against the Roman Empire.
Jesus is asking those who are serious about being his disciples: Are you prepared to die if you’re my disciple?
Tradition tells us that 11of the 12 original disciples died a martyr’s death for fishing for souls for the kingdom.
Question: How about you, who profess to be His disciples? Are you willing to die for Christ this morning.
If you definitely knew that you yourself were going to die tomorrow, Monday evening, if you worshipped God in this church today, I wonder how many people would actually be here in the service this morning.
Ken Kersten shares:
I remember a few years ago seeing an ad in the paper for a drive in passion play. It was like a drive in movie, you could watch the story of Jesus, the passion play without ever getting out of your car. And I’ll never forget the ad. It said this: “Come and experience the life of Christ all from the comfort of your own car.”
And I pondered that and I was overwhelmed with the truth that we will not experience the life of Christ or the life that Christ desires for us from within our areas of comfort. We will not be the church that God desires from within our areas of comfort.
You see, Jesus’ demand to be his follower is much more stringent than you will hear in many pulpits in America today.
You must be ready to die, if need be, for the sake of the Gospel.
Jesus goes so far to say that if you’re not willing to die for Him, you can’t be his disciple.
Luke 14:27
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Simon of Cyrene was forced by the Roman soldiers to take up Jesus’ cross and follow Him to Calvary:
Luke 23:26
26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
You and I are not forced, we are commanded to carry our crosses, not just on Sunday mornings at (9:15, 11:35), but, notice what Jesus says:
Luke 9:23
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
We don’t decide when it is convenient to take up our crosses. We must make that commitment every day for the rest of our lives.
Every day, you and I ought to be asking ourselves: “Am I willing to die today for Christ.”
The Apostle Paul made this a continuous discipline for his life. Every day, he was more than willing to die. His letters to the various churches expressed his willingness:
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 14:8
8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Philippians 1:21
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
We, disciples must be prepared to die, so that Christ be glorified, a many men and women are won to Christ.
Third Discipline: Follow Jesus
Luke 9:23
23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
In the original language, the phrase “follow me” is in the present imperative which means there’s continuous action.
What Jesus is really saying is, “Let my disciple be following me continually.”
Everyone who is a disciple has received a call to “follow Jesus.”
Jesus called Matthew the tax collector:
Matthew 9:9
“Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
Nicodemus, the Pharisee:
John 3:7-8
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
He called Paul of Tarsus:
Acts 9:3-6
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Every disciple of Jesus Christ has received the call. The call has come at different times, in different circumstances, and yet, if you are one of his disciples, you know without a doubt that Jesus has called you.
If you have received a clear call to follow Jesus, you know what it means to deny yourself, to take up your cross daily and to follow Him.
Carpenter shop
When Jesus left the carpenter shop at Nazareth, he never picked up a hammer or saw again. He had a total commitment to his work. Peter and his friends did go back to fishing once, but only once. They could truly say,
Luke 5:11
11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Godet
Godet says that three things are necessary in traveling: first, to say farewell (to self); secondly, to carry one’s baggage (the cross); thirdly, to proceed with the journey (follow me).
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor martyred for his faith for standing up against Hitler and his atrocities in World War II. Before his imprisonment and eventual death, he wrote a book for Christians which has become a classic called the Cost of Discipleship:
“If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it demand? To answer this question we shall have to go to Him, for only He knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow Him, knows the journey’s end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy.”
Matthew 4:19
19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
