The Call to discipleship

The Call

Mar 1:16  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.

Mar 1:17  And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men."

Mar 1:18  And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Mar 1:19  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.

Mar 1:20  And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

The Call: to follow, to fish, to fix

Jesus chose 12 men to be his closest followers. He conducted no job interviews, did not check their backgrounds or do anything that we would normally happen when choosing a team to work with you.

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus.  He was a wild man that must have drawn attention just by looking at his clothing.  He did not try to smooth talk people into repentance and getting their hearts prepared for the Messiah to arrive.  Perhaps the 12 disciples had some information about the coming Messiah that made it easier for them to make a decision to leave the fishing business in the hands of their father and follow Jesus. 

The calling of God upon our lives is to abandon our plans even though they may seem good to follow the Lord wherever he leads us.  The 3 fisherman, Peter, James and John along with Andrew had no idea what they were getting into when they left their businesses to become a disciple. 

Jesus simply ask them to “Follow me”.  Jesus assumed responsibility for them if they would follow him.  He would be investing his life into them and through this they would be transformed into “Fishers of Men.” The first requirement Jesus gave them was to simply follow him.  They were to go with him wherever he went, observe what he was doing and learn what he was going to teach them.  He would be their model and demonstrate the ministry that they would soon be doing on their own. 

In our relationship with Jesus we have to always remember that our first obligation is to follow him.  To allow him to lead us where we are to go, what we are to do and how we are to do it.

Jesus modeled how to pray, how to heal the sick and raise the dead, how to deal with religious people who lead people astray, how to take care of the needs of people, how to love the people who were rejected by society, how to trust his father in difficult situations, how to overcome temptation, how to forgive, how to honor others, how to stay focused on the mission, and how to teach God’s word and the principles to live by.

Jesus was one who preached what he practiced rather than one who tried to practice what he preached.

His life is our example, our model that we must follow.  We have to have Christ living in us as Paul stated in

 Galatians 2.20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The words of Christ are to live in us.

 Col 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

His words must saturate our lives so we can become imitators of him.

 We are to imitate Christ and let our lives be an example for others to follow.

2Th 3:7  For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you,

 Paul knew that he had to walk in obedience to the leadership of Jesus.  He was not interested in pursuing his own desires but submitted his life to accomplish the mission Jesus had given him and to seek him for guidance on how to carry out the mission.

Fish for men

After the call to “follow me” Jesus told them they would have a new identity and focus for their lives.  Jesus was going to make something different of their lives.  The fishing business was their livelihood but they were going to be made into something very different as they allow Jesus to make them into what he wanted them to be.

As we follow Jesus we have the assurance that he is going to make something different of our lives.  We become a new creation in him.  The old life has passed away and he begins the process of transformation. He exchanges our life for his life.  He orders our circumstances to bring about the changes that he wants us to experience.  He has good things planned for us and sometimes we go through difficulties that are designed to bring about the changes he desires of us.  He is molding our lives each day through our experiences, our interaction with the Word, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the people he has placed in our lives. He is at work in us to make us into the image of Jesus.  Our awareness of what he is doing and our cooperation with him.  He gives us the freedom to make the choice to follow him and allow him to make us or go our own way.

The Navy Seals have a rigorous training program that is designed to eliminate anyone who does not have what they feel is necessary to be in this elite group.  The trainees at any time can ring the bell that tells everyone that they are no longer in the program. We too have this option but in choosing to ring the bell we miss out on what God has for us in the situation.  Don’t ring the bell! Believe God is working in you and will bring you through whatever is happening to make you more like him.

The disciples were going to be given a new identity and a new purpose for their lives.  Jesus was going to make them fishers of men. The focus of their life would now be something completely different.  You have to wonder what the disciple where thinking when Jesus made this comment.  What could this possible mean to become a fisher of men?  How would they do it, what would they do with the men they caught?  I images they had a lot of questions in their minds about what it meant to become a fisher of men.

Over time they would understand this new spiritual language Jesus was using to communicate with them.  They would become evangelists who would win thousands of people to the Lord and make them disciples like they were trained to be. A fisherman in the time of Christ did not have an easy job.  They worked long hours and the best fishing was at night.  They had to make sacrifices if they wanted to be successful in the business.  It was hard work, manual work that demanded a lot from them.  They had to cast their nets throughout the night with the hope that they were in the right spot to bring in a large catch of fish.  They were probably not successful 100% of the time but they continued to do what they knew they had to do to get results.  As a fisher of men they would experience times of harvest and fruitfulness in their labors but also times when it was very difficult to share the gospel message to certain groups of people. Fishing was not a complicated business at that time.  It was repetitious work and the results were not guaranteed.  To be a fisher of men would require work on their part, faithfulness to share the gospel message and confidence in the Holy Spirit to take the words we share and make them alive in the person receiving them.  We don’t control the results but we can present the message in the clearest way we know to help them understand what Christ has done for them.

The calling to be a “fisher of men” did not change throughout their lives.  These disciples carried out their mission until their death.  We can never lose sight of this calling each one of us has to be sharing the gospel and modeling the gospel to others.  We have to be active in being a fisherman for the Lord and look for opportunities to share with others.

Fix the hurting

The other aspect of the life of a fisherman was that they had to mend the nets that were torn.  When I grew up my family was involved in seining the lake where we live to get rid of the unwanted fish.  We were part of a Sportsman Club that bought a huge net, over a thousand feet long that was placed out in the lake.  The net was drawn in by a rope that was wrapped around a machine that had a revolving part.  We would pull in one side of the net and then move to the other side to pull it in. It was a long process to get the huge net to shore.  Always the net would get torn and we would spend a lot of time afterward repairing the net.

Repairing the net to me is like repairing the lives of people that come to Christ who are hurt and who need someone to help them with the healing process.  As fishers of men we have to take care of those who are hurting and help them mend the wounds they have suffered. We all come to Christ with damage from the past.  Sin has a way of destroying our lives and causes great damage to our spirit, soul and body.  The call to follow and fish is also a call to fix broken lives with the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.  We live in a fallen world that is becoming more fallen do to the increase of evil through the media.  Pornography is just one area the enemy is using to corrupt the minds of children.  One of the videos we watched in the Leadership school stated the children as young as 8 years old are now accessing porn via the internet. Their minds are being destroyed at an early age and their abilities to relate in a healthy manner with the opposite sex are being damaged.  Abuse of children by adults, sexual identity confusion, depression and suicide are not seeing improvement in the statistics.  There are many nets to be mended as we make Disciples of Christ. The good news is that there is great freedom available to all who come to Christ.  He is the healer and we can become his healing hands as we involve our lives with those who have been hurt.