When Jesus Makes You Become a Fisherman
Text: Mark 1:16-18
Proposition: When Jesus makes you become a fisher of men there is an irresistible drawing in to Him, He makes you become more than you ever thought possible.
Introduction: It was just another day, early to work, going through the routine, hoping for some outcomes, some improvements, some profit. Then along the shore comes this man, he’s maybe 20 yards away and he stops and watches us as we work. We see him but we keep on working and then all of a sudden he calls out to us. No mistake, he’s calling out to us and that’s when we suddenly remember where we’ve seen him before. His voice is clear and what he is saying is unmistakable, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
There’s a passage we’re going to look at this morning that begins with an invitation, a simple invitation that evokes a lifechanging response. Have a look at Mark 1:16-18.
I. The Invitation… Follow Me.
When you read this passage in Mark’s gospel, you remember that Mark wasn’t there to see this happen that day. Most of what Mark wrote came from what Peter had experienced and shared with Mark. The Holy Spirit inspired Mark to not only remember this conversation with Peter but also to write it exactly as the Spirit saw it take place. It’s Peter who was in the boat that day, it’s Peter that remembers they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Now we read this account and you might be shocked that such a simple invitation could provoke such a life altering reaction. If that seems unrealistic remember that this is not the first time Andrew and Simon have met Christ. Just read John 1:40, 41 and you’ll see that both Andrew and Simon Peter believed that this was the Messiah. On the very first encounter that Simon son of Jonas had with Jesus, this Messiah changed Simon’s last name. He changed it from Jonas, or Jonah, which means ‘Dove’, to Cephas an Aramaic word that meant ‘the hollow of a stone’. When that word Cephas is then translated into Hebrew it is Petros, ‘the rock’. Peter is the taken from that word Petros. The point is what would it be like to have someone tell you on the very first time meeting them that they say to you, ‘Your last name is now going to changed, this is now who you are going to be, you are Peter, or more formally, Simon Peter’. Who could possibly reach into your life and change your last name, your identity name, your family name, with such authority? Let me tell you that Jesus does exactly that with us even today, He changes your identity from enemy of God to child of God, from lost to found, from without hope to living hope. It was a simple invitation that had a promise woven into the center of it, ‘Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men.’ So let’s consider for a moment what that promise meant.
II. The Promise… I Will Make You Become.
If you are going to become a pilot you know that it’s going to be a process of learning and then doing. Whether you are forming concrete or performing surgery it starts out by showing up, being there, seeing things, doing small things. That’s essentially what that word ‘become’ means, ‘to begin to be, to be made’. It implies a process that starts out as most do, watching, being present, listening, learning and then doing. That’s what ‘become’ means but look at the four words that precede it, ‘I will make you’. That’s the engine room of this promise, that’s where the power is generated, that’s the place that drives this act of ‘become’. I served for a while in the Armed Forces and in that place the driving force is rank. If it’s a corporal telling you to wash floors, to make your bed so tight that a coin would bounce, your locker to be arranged so that even your socks are folded in a particular way, then that force drives you because of its rank. But it is a harsh force, it’s a completely different power than that which is in “I will make you become”. When does the training for ‘I will make you become fishers of men’ start? It begins the moment you immediately leave your former way, your former independent of God self. You leave that by faith, faith not only in the existence of Jesus Christ who calls you, but faith in His promise to catch you, to save you, to make you become someone you’ve never been before despite how hard you may have tried. The process begins by faith for sure, your faith in a very small part and the gift of faith that meets it and fills it. By faith hear, by faith know that you’ve met this Jesus before, you’ve heard Him speak to you before, you know His name and amazingly, He knows yours. But let me talk with you a little more about this assertive statement that Jesus makes, the ‘I will make you become’ part. This certainly implies not only His will working in and through us it also implies that it is this very will of His that guarantees outcomes. In John 15:5 Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” I think that to abide in Jesus for the disciples began by following Jesus. They didn’t follow 20 paces behind, they followed Him by walking beside Him, being close enough to hear Him, to look where He was looking. To abide in Jesus is part of that process of ‘become fishers of men’. It means though I don’t often see what’s next and many times don’t even know what He’s going to do right here and now nonetheless I follow Him knowing that this is Jesus the Son of God. Apart from Him I can do nothing of any lasting effect and in Him or perhaps better put, Him in me, I can do all things. So what did Simon Peter and Andrew see as they followed Jesus that day? I would submit to you that what they saw was why Jesus came to earth, what they saw was Him reaching all people.
III. The Purpose…Fishers of Men.
There is the invitation… Follow Me. There is the promise…I will make you become. There is also the purpose… Fishers of men. I would submit to you that from verses 19 to 45 Jesus was making them become fishers of men, likely with them just watching, listening, being available, standing by the door, abiding in Him. Let me outline what is in these next 26 verses:
- They see their friends right before their eyes leave their nets to follow.
- They see and hear Jesus preach in the synagogue and see His authority.
- They see right in the synagogue a demon possessed man set free.
- They see the people amazed at the power and authority of Jesus to do this.
- They see Jesus heal Simon Peter’s mother in law from a fever instantly.
- They see the whole city of Capernaum coming to Peter’s house for Jesus.
- They see various diseases healed, demons cast out, people amazed.
- They see Jesus walk away from fame, to pray and then to preach.
- They see a leper dare to come to Jesus, they saw Jesus touch and heal him.
- They see people coming to Jesus from every direction, desperate.
I think that at first all the disciples did was follow Jesus, many times wondering where it would lead them, what it would cost them. I think that at first the disciples heard and saw many things that seemed impossible and yet there it was. I think that they began to see that Jesus had a love and care for those that no one else seemed able to restore, lepers. demon possessed people, people laid down with fever. I think that they began to see and hear the authority that is in Christ, authority in preaching the truth of Scripture, authority over the demonic realm and they hadn’t even see His authority over the wind and waves yet or His power to replicate food, His authority to restore family members from death to each other. They had yet to see the authority that He had to lay His life down and His authority to pick it up again after the cross. They would one day even hear Him say ‘All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Look, I am with you always.
He is making us to become Fishers of Men. Follow Him!