Gone Fishing

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.