When I was a little boy I used to slip off and go fishing in a little clear pond in a gravel pit behind my uncle Leon’s house, it was a nice little pond with sand and pea gravel around the bank and this gravel pit had long been abandoned so it was peaceful and quite. What I liked about it though is that this pond was full of sun perch and goggle eyed brim and I had found a great way to catch them. I would walk a few hundred yards to the little country store to get my bait then grab a cane pole and head to the pond. My bait was a pack of Rollo’s candy; I would sit down on a rock I had pulled over and unwrap that Rollo, pop it in my mouth and then wrap the wrapper of that piece of candy gold side out around my hook drop it in the water and BAM the fish would be all over it. My reward a stringer full of fish and a pack of those chocolate covered caramel Rollo’s.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet today’s message is going to be about Fishing.
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When we look at the text today we see the ending of one season of ministry and the beginning of another. John has been arrested by Herod Antipas and very soon will literally lose his head. You see John the Baptist was calling Herod out because the king had married his sister in law after she had divorced from his brother, John in his preaching of repentance and Baptism had called on King Herod to repent because his lifestyle was against the laws of God.
Now the incarceration of John the Baptist ended his ministry and allowed Jesus to begin his, it seems that the prophesy had been fulfilled and the lesser had moved out of the limelight so to speak and it allowed the greater to enter into the picture.
John had prepared the way with his preaching of repentance and baptism by water and Jesus has entered with a message that the Kingdom of God was near so we must get ready because the prophecy was being fulfilled the Messiah had come.
Now we know that the first thing Jesus did was call his disciples, some were followers of John the Baptist and some were just common everyday people like you and I, but in the text today we see that Jesus is calling Simon (Peter), Andrew, James & John, four normal guys who made a living as fisherman. Scripture says Jesus saw the brothers Simon and Andrew casting their nets and he called them, he walked a little further and saw two more Brothers James and John with their father mending their nets and He also called them.
Now the next thing I want you to see is this; St. Mark says in the text that IMMIDIETLY they left their nets and followed him.
These four guys left thriving businesses, family businesses to follow Jesus; they gave up everything to follow Him. Jesus must have had something about Him, a charisma that gave these men confidence that if they followed Him everything would be ok. Something about His demeanor or presence must have been seen by these four men that enabled them to have the fortitude and strength to leave the comfortable and go into the unknown. Who in their right mind would leave a successful family business to follow a young upstart preacher into the unknown? These four men did and hopefully all of us here today have also answered the call of Follow Me. Immediately He called them, immediately they left and immediately on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach.
No discussion, no waiting these men left the comfortable and familiar to enter the unknown trade of becoming Fishers of Men.
Now every Christian in the world has made the decision to Follow Christ. When he said follow me we said yes, when he said trust in me we said yes, when He said do you believe that I died for your sins so you could be forgiven once and for all we said YES! All of us have been called to be fishers of people. We say we are the hands and feet of Christ but how many have us are truly following Jesus, how many of us have gone fishing? Hopefully today we can get motivated to Go fishin.
How many of us here today like to fish or have ever been fishing? (Most everyone hopefully) Well there is really not that much difference in fishing for fish and fishing for people. All it takes is the right equipment, and we all have the right equipment we just need to use it. You can’t catch anything if you don’t cast your net! You can’t catch anything if you don’t put a hook in the water! You can go to Wal - Mart, or Bass Pro shop and buy all the equipment you need for catching fish but will never catch not one if you don’t leave the security and comfort of your couch and wet a hook. The same is true in another sense you can come to church every time they doors open, you can recite every verse in the bible and say Amen all you want during a sermon but you’ll never bring someone to church , you’ll never lead someone to Christ if you just warm a pew. You can have the best equipment in the world but you will never catch anything if you don’t get it out of the tackle box and use it.
Now there are all types of fishing, commercial fishing, sport fishing, recreational fishing and we could break it down even more but for all practical purposes fishing is fishing, the goal is the same, to catch fish.
You can’t grow up where I did and not know a little bit about fishing I have used all kinds of equipment and lures and fished for all kinds of fish. Where I grew up in Jonesville three rivers ran together and went into one and there were ponds, creeks and bayous all around and there were all kinds of species of fish. Now when I fished in the river I used trotlines and tight lines to catch them big ole channel cat and appaloosa cats, in the creeks I used ultra-lite fishing gear with beetle spins to catch fish, in the bayous I would use rod and reels with some top water baits and other fancy lures to catch all types of fish and in the little slews and ponds I just used a cane pole and night crawlers to catch whatever may come along.
Now that was my recreational fishing , when me and my uncle Johnny got into a little commercial fishing we used nets and webbing and then we started setting out catfish boxes baited with that ole stinky cheese. That stuff was nasty; it wasn’t like any other bait out there. We would come in from setting out boxes and our hands would smell like that cheese for days, you couldn’t wash that smell off but eventually we would get used to it.
The point is we have all kinds of equipment and bait that we use to catch fish, from a crappie pole with jigs and minnows to rods and reels with crank baits and artificial worms, to nets and boxes. We have all of this equipment and when we use it the results are the same WE CATCH FISH. ( use Crappie pole , reel, and tackle box )
As Christians it’s no different we have the equipment we just need to use it! The Holy Spirit has given us the equipment. You may be saying to yourself right now, “I can’t witness, I can’t fish for people, Jesus wouldn’t call someone like me” Bull - ony!! God doesn’t call the equipped He equips the called, think about it. Jacob was a liar, Moses had a stuttering problem, Gideon was afraid, Rahab was a prostitute, the Woman at the well was divorced and living with someone, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran but God used all of these people despite their afflictions and problems. We have all been called and we have all been equipped but we have got to go fishing.
There may be some places where what I call commercial evangelism takes place, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and mass advertising and mailing. Just getting the word out to as many people as possible about Christ and what events may be going on at our church.
But bringing things closer to home, it’s easy to post on social media but a little harder to fish one on one. But I promise you that God will equip you with the right bait, the right things to say all you have to do is start ta conversation. It’s just like when you were a kid. Put some bait on a hook and throw it out, people will bite, sometimes you have to be patient and when they bite just set the hook, tell them what Jesus has done for you.
How do I know this will work because people are hungry and thirsty if you put on Christ and have that attitude of love and joy that is supposed to come with it your friends and family are going to want to know what is going on with you. If you’re blessed they want to know why, they want to know how they can get blessed to.
Now I’m not going to lie sometimes fishing for people is hard and seems unrewarding, sometimes we feel like we have gotten some of that stinky cheese on us, it’s not always a nice shiny bass boat with nice shiny artificial lures.
Different people are like different fish some will be drawn to Christ just by seeing your sparkle and shine; others need to know how Christ pulled you up from the muck and the mire.
In order to be fishers of people we have got to meet people where they are even if it makes us uncomfortable.
The thing I hate most about fishing is cleaning them, thankfully when we fish for people we don’t have to clean them, Jesus does that.
A lot of times when I fished in the Bershley Bayou with a top water bait on my line I would see needle nose gar snapping at my bait so I wouldn’t set the hook, or I may catch a carp and through them aside because I didn’t want to clean them.
We don’t have to be afraid to catch any person no matter how many teeth they seem to have in their mouth or how ugly and smelly they are, we witness to them, get em in the boat and let Jesus do the rest.
We put the bait out, we cast the net, and Jesus takes care of the rest.
Jesus said “Follow me and I will make you fishers of Men.”
We have been called, we have been equipped!
Let’s Go Fishin!!
