This sermon explores the idea that Jesus chose ordinary people to follow him, emphasizing that anyone willing can join Jesus in his work, as illustrated through the biblical stories of fishermen.
Welcome back to week 2 of our Hooked series. If you weren’t with us last week it’s worth noting that this IS NOT a series about pirates - but IT IS a series about fishing, fisherman, nets, and the open sea… Which we talked a lot about in week 1 where we learned; “The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.”
As we expand upon this verse today we are going to take a deeper dive into Jesus’ original interactions with some of His disciples. We’re going to talk about who they were and how they responded to the call of Christ.
What can we learn from their response? What can we learn about our faith as we look at the kind of people Christ engaged in ministry? What are the broader implications of spreading wide the kingdom net?
As we learned last week, it’s our job to participate in the spreading of the kingdom net - the gospel of Christ - as it gathers up as many as possible.
God will do His part, and He’s invited us to be a part of the process. But it all starts with a divine invitation.
Let’s get started.
In our main passage for the day, it’s astounding to me that Christ gets such a profound response to His words, “follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men” Check it out from Mark 1:16-20;
“Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”
The invitation of Christ is a simple one. It’s not flashy, it’s not padded in promises of the good life, and it’s definitely not the kind of compelling sales pitch that you’d normally think would elicit the levels of response that we see throughout Jesus’ life.
He is after all the Son of God, but think about it for a minute. What if you were in Simon and Andrew’s shoes. Wouldn’t there be questions? Wouldn’t you want a little more information to make a final decision. At the least, wouldn’t you want to call a friend?
The whole scene makes me think that there must be something else going on here. Actually the gospel of John helps explain things further, listen to this;
“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
Let’s pray together.
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