Opening illustration: "On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful lifesaving station so it became famous.
Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and their money and their effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new lifesaving crews were trained and the little lifesaving station grew.
"Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots and beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as sort of a club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where the club held its initiations.
"About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some of them had black skin and some had yellow skin. The beautiful new club was considerably messed up so the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out they were still called a lifesaving station, but they were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast a little ways, which they did.
"As the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that occurred in the old one. It evolved into a club and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself and if you visit that coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters but most of the people drown."
What a simple and striking illustration of the history of the church. But the work of lifesaving and the work of evangelism is nonetheless the purist and the truest and the noblest and the most essential work the church will ever do. The work of evangelism, the work of fishing men, as it were, out of the sea of sin, the work of rescuing people from the breakers of hell is the greatest work the church will ever do. It is God’s great concern.
Introduction: Many people are asking in this season, "What is God up to?" We seem to be living in a period of great silence. Believers are searching in vain for something God is doing powerfully in the body of Christ and trying to no avail to hear marching orders from Him for the church.
Do not mistake God’s silence for inactivity!
Here is the prophetic word God recently spoke to me when I asked that question:
"For some this is a season of casting nets whereas for others it is a season of net-mending in the body of Christ."
We are those nets. Many of you God has placed in the marketplace so that you can reach out to others for Christ, time for you to be casting your net so that many more people are drawn to Christ and the cross.
I’ve reflected on this statement the last few days, and I am convinced it is a word that must be shared. God is moving mightily on the earth! But at the present time, His efforts are largely focused on mending His nets.
We are connected to one another through strategic, covenant relationships. During the last few seasons in the body of Christ, we have been in both great battles and great revivals. The stress of these events has damaged and broken the nets in many places. When you look around at the church today, you can see evidence of the stress: broken lives, broken marriages, broken friendships, broken ministries, broken churches, broken relationships and broken people.
I believe that before the next great move of God, the Lord is going to repair those nets!
Consider how fishing nets are constructed. Each square in the net is connected above, beside and beneath. In the old days, small knots were tied at each connection point. The net was only as strong as its weakest connection. This is why we must allow God to test and strengthen key relationships in this hour.
"Strengthen key relationships." During the past two years, God has been strengthening key relationships in our lives so we can form a stronger net to contain the great catch of souls that is coming into the kingdom of God.
Process of Empowerment in Ministry
1 (a) Casting Nets (v. 18)
In Proverbs 11: 30, we have this great statement: "He that winneth souls is what, is wise." And if you know anything about the term wise in the book of Proverbs, you know that the term wise is a synonym really for righteous living. The truly righteous person, the person who really lives with understanding, the person who doesn’t just know but lives it out is the one who wins souls. He is truly wise.
Did you know that the term evangelize, the Greek term is used no less than 53 times in the New Testament, and it is all summarized, as it were, in the great commission in Matthew 28 when the Lord said, "Go into all the world winning people to Christ and baptizing them, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Someone said, "Evangelism is the sob of God." Evangelism is the anguished cry of Jesus as He weeps over a doomed city. Evangelism is the cry of Paul when he says, "I wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brother and my kinsman according to the flesh." Evangelism is the heart-winning plea of Moses who said, "Oh these people have sinned, yet now if Thou wilt forgive their sin, if not block me, I pray Thee, out of the book, which Thou has written." Evangelism is the cry of John Knox, who said, "Give me Scotland or I die." It is the cry of Wesley who said, "The world is my parish." Evangelism is the sob of parents in the night weeping over a lost son.
This is the greatest task and we must be about this task. At the same time evangelism is a great paradox. Winning people to Jesus Christ is paradoxical in this sense: Jesus said, "Whosoever would save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake the same shall save it." In other words in saving others we lose ourselves, or in losing ourselves in the task we will win others. In fact, we might put it this way: the one who would win the world must be rejected by the world. You can’t have both.
There were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, partners with Simon, Jesus said to Simon, "Fear not from henceforth," doesn’t matter you can’t catch fish anymore, you remember the story? They couldn’t catch fish on their own, not without the Lord. He was going to control the fish. He said, "You want fish? Put it down where I say and you’ll get fish." Without me you won’t get anything. Don’t worry about whether you’re going to be able to catch ’em without me. "From now on you shall," what, "catch men. And when they had brought their boats to land they forsook," what "all and followed Him." You see this is another level of commitment.
Now a drag net was used from a boat, or better two boats. It was cast into the sea with ropes at each of the four corners and it had weight at the foot of it so that it would sink right down into the water. And, of course, when the boat rowed it would just scoop up the fish, they would pull the ropes tight at the top and the net would be full of fish. The Bible talks about a drag net in Matthew Chapter 13. And so as the boats were rowed it became a great cone, as it were, in the sea, weighted at the very end it would fall into a cone shape and it would just scoop up the fish. They would tie the ropes tight at the end and they would be caught.
And then there was what was called the casting net and that’s what they were using here. They were casting a net, not saganae, which is the drag net. They were casting it. This is a circular net about nine feet in diameter and they were really skillful at it. They knew how to cast it from the shore. From the edge of the lake it could be knee deep in water and it had pellets all around the edge kind of weighted down with little stones or whatever they would use and it would sink and surround the fish and they would pull the rope and pull it in. That’s what they were doing. You say, "Why are you telling me all that for?" I think it’s interesting. The word, incidentally is amphiblestron, from which we get amphibious, having to do with standing on the shore and throwing something into the water, sort of a two ways.
1 (b) Mending Nets (v. 21)
(i) Make sure you allow God to strengthen your family ties during this season.
God wants to strengthen marriages and the bond between parents and children. Also, make sure that you remain in good standing with extended family members as much as possible—especially those in the body of Christ. Make time for each other and deliberately plan family events at which old connections can be renewed.
(ii) Make sure you are aligned under proper authority.
Don’t be caught without a connection to the portion of the net above you. Submit yourselves to spiritual leaders you can trust—those who will truly look out for your souls. Make sure you are in relationships with leaders who walk in humility but also have great power, vision and purpose.
(iii) Surround yourself with covenant-keepers (strong men and women of God)
Now is the time to make sure your friends are people who can make and keep their promises. Set yourself in the midst of committed friends. You need people of great love and integrity who can walk with you so that when the trials of life come, your relationships are not ripped apart by false accusation, jealousy, competition, offense, gossip, bitterness, and so on.
(iv) Beware of the spirit of offense.
Satan will try to come after your "net connections." He probably already has! Don’t let yourself get offended with your spiritual leaders. Don’t allow small issues to fester and become infected through bitterness and unforgiveness. Beware of the enemy’s devices that will bring division and offense between you and others in the church. This is all part of his ploy to further weaken the nets that God wants to strengthen.
(v) Do not get bored or impatient in this season and check out of the army of God.
As God is silently mending His nets for the next great catch, you must not allow yourself to get bored and stray from your assignment. Don’t let yourself wander off into something new unless God is specifically directing it. Presumptions about the will of God will get you into trouble. The enemy will try to lure you into some other activity if you let your mind get sidetracked and don’t stay focused on your last marching orders.
2. Making Fishers of Men (v. 22)
(i) Left boat ~ By leaving them immediately, and following him, they gave every evidence of sincerity. They showed, what we should, that they were willing to forsake all for the sake of Jesus, and to follow him wherever he should lead them.
(ii) Left their father ~ They had received a higher call. No earthly preference can excuse a rejection of the call of Christ. Which do you love more ~ God or our earthly relationships? Nothing should be able to hinder to follow Christ …
(iii) Followed Christ ~ No matter what the cost, our allegiance to God is above anything or any relationship on earth. To follow Christ one has to bear a big cost and endure all hardships. So we know not what awaits us when we become his followers; but we should cheerfully go when our Savior calls, willing to commit all into his hands - come honor or dishonor, sickness or health, riches or poverty, life or death. Be it ours to do our duty at once, and to commit the result to the great Redeemer who has called us.
3. Experienced God’s power and miracles (vs. 23-25)
(i) Tri-prong Ministry ~ Teaching, Preaching and Healing (v. 23) ~ He was also preaching the gospel of the kingdom." Now this is a different word. Karusoand it means to proclaim and it concentrates not so much on the didactic method, the relating of truth, the content as it does on the very voice, the very style of proclamation and it simply means He heralded it out, He cried out. That’s preaching. Teaching is where there is the careful instructive relating of content. It’s kind of from the mind to the mind. Preaching is the crying out, the impassioned cry of Jesus Christ to the people. And there it wasn’t so much in the synagogues, although He did both there as well, and the two are mixed up in His ministry so you can’t separate them. There was never teaching without preaching and there was never preaching without teaching, but the preaching is the crying out. It is the heralding of the gospel. Some have said preaching is the heralding of the gospel and teaching is the explaining of the gospel that’s been heralded. Jesus did both, preaching, making a public announcement.
(ii) Dealing with the spiritual realm; mental, physical and emotional state of people and their deliverance (v. 24) ~ When Christ cured them by a word, it was the clearest of all proofs that he was sent from heaven. This is one of the strong arguments for Christianity.
(iii) Reaching out to nearby and far-flung areas of Iowa (v. 25)
Application: Moody said a vessel was coming in to Cleveland harbor on a very stormy night. And in order for the vessel to know where it was there were two sets of lights in the harbor. One set on the bluff, very high, and one set right on the coastline so there was always a perspective in the blackness and they could see by the upper and lower lights where they were. But this night the pilot saw the upper lights on the bluff burning but not the lower.
And so the pilot asked the captain if he’d better put back out into the lake again lest they go in to far and hit the rocks. But the captain was so afraid of the storm on the lake he thought they’d better try to make the harbor. Moody said they made it but they were wrecked and many drown all because the lower lights had been put out by the storm. And then Moody said, listen, "The upper lights in heaven are burning as brightly as ever they’ve burned. What about the lower lights?"
Our empowerment in ministry directly depends upon how much of ourselves we surrender to God …
