Fishing with a net

Fishermen and Fishers of Men

(Mark 1:16-20, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 1, 2018)

[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. [17] And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” [18] And immediately they left their nets and followed him. [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. [20] And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

As I prepared to give a message on Jesus choosing fishermen to become His “fishers” of human beings, I was happy to hear from my friend Tom Powell who serves on a lobster boat off the coast of Maine and the pastor of two churches on the Cranberry Islands. When he started to speak about the comparative benefits of working on someone else's boat, I asked him to send me his thoughts so that I could share them with you.

“On Fishing:

There is something about commercial fishing, especially when you aren't the captain (I guess Zebedee would have had that role, concerned with sales, maintenance, etc.) that makes it a freeing vocation. Your work is bounded to the boat. It begins and ends there. That's where the bait is, the traps are, all the adrenaline and rush are concentrated on a few square feet of deck. When you leave, it is done. The gear comes off, gets washed off, bait up, perhaps move some gear, clean it, paint it, but when you go home your time is your own—the most you worry about is the weather... and God alone controls that. Gospel ministry on the other hand asks our whole life—quite a contrast.”

Simon and Andrew, James and John

While there may have been more of a back story to the calling of these four men, Mark (Simon Peter's translator), does not consider it important enough to his point in writing this gospel to share it with us as listeners and readers. These men are presented as regular fishermen who come out of nowhere to be leaders of the most important religious movement in the history of mankind. What does Jesus know about them and their qualifications? Peter does not tell us. For that matter, what do they know about Jesus' abilities to make disciples or to teach them how to “catch men?” Again, no information for us on that topic.

What do we know? The men who were called were two sets of brothers. They were working men in a local industry around the Sea of Galilee. They were not just chosen as autonomous individuals but as a group of men who would learn from one Master, who is in many ways an unknown to them. What is most striking then is His commandment and their amazing response. Lest we miss this, it is repeated twice in these few verses. Jesus takes them from a working life that they knew well—a life with some reasonable boundaries, and He issues an order that they take up an entirely different calling that demands everything they have. And they agree to this. Why? We can only assume that it has everything to do with the Man who calls them, who is the same person who has called all who are a part of the kingdom that possesses the gospel that men like Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John eventually preached.

By the way, don't miss the obvious here, Jesus came fishing for some specific men that day, and he caught them very definitively. That's our Savior who gave His all for us. The only net he used was His own divine/human voice. That no-nonsense proclamation of the Word of God with really no supporting argumentation was all it took to utterly change the lives of four men. That's how powerful the Word of God is. We in the church have been told to speak that same Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. That is our only net. We trust the Almighty.

Fishers of Men

Ministers are not solo fishermen with a rod and a reel, a hook and some bait. We are part of a family operation, and we fish with a net. We want our words to be understandable, but our confidence is not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

In the late 1960s a man named Richard Bach would write a book about an autonomous seagull that would soon be the 1972 best-selling little novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Jonathan was different than the rest of the seagulls. Their passion was eating, while his was flying. Of course, his parents didn't understand him, and he was eventually ostracized by the elders of what was called the Flock, the oppressive community that tried to hold him back. None of that mattered much to him. He was a bird on his own mission. As he figured out the aerodynamic secrets that led to greater personal success, the narrator approvingly says, “What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone.” Like a Pilgrim's Progress for the postmodern world, this little book chartered a course for the the new world of autonomy.

We in the church are not our own. We have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). Our Hero calls us to be together as fishers of men. Our goal is not just being ourselves, but the glory of our Maker and Redeemer. When people leave the faith, we feel it, and we long for the reclaiming of the lost. God has found us, and He is finding, keeping, and growing others through us. This kind of fishing with a net is more than a personal preference, it is a divine call upon every community of professing Christians.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories to explain that there is rejoicing in heaven when one lost child of God is found again. If a shepherd would rejoice over finding a lost sheep, a woman would have a party because she recovered a lost coin, and a father would start a great public celebration because a disobedient son came back home, surely we should join angels who are happy about the reclaiming of any pilgrim who has lost his way to the celestial city. The Lord is calling you to care that way today. Jesus is speaking to you. This is what He says: “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” This is not an individual burden; it is a collective mission. When one is too weary to speak, pray, and love, others find their voice and do their part.

Jesus chose some surprising men to be His closest associates. He told them to follow Him, and they did, leaving everything behind. His announced intention was to take fishermen and to turn them into “fishers of men.” God made the heavens and earth with His own all-powerful voice. Who would have thought that He would bring a new world into being through the work of very ordinary human beings? This is what He has done.

Sermon Point: God will use us to build His kingdom.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 64 – Deep People and God

New Testament Reading—1 Peter 4:1-11 – Times Past and the End of All Things