Legacy Church
Legacy Church exists because every person needs belonging, fulfillment and relationship. We weren’t created to go through life alone. That’s why we’re building a community of authentic believers who can grow through life together.
Welcome back to week 2 of our Hooked series. In this series, we’re talking about fishing, fisherman, nets, and the open sea… Which we talked a lot about in week 1 where we learned:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away.”
As we expand upon this verse today we are going to take a deeper dive into Jesus’ first interactions with some of His disciples. We’re going to talk about who they were and how they responded to the call of Christ.
What can we learn from their response? What can we learn about our faith as we look at the kind of people Christ engaged in ministry? What are the broader implications of spreading wide the kingdom net?
As we learned last week, it’s our job to participate in the spreading of the kingdom net - the gospel of Christ - as it gathers up as many as possible. God will do His part, and He’s invited us to be a part of the process. But it all starts with a divine invitation.
In our main passage for the day, it’s astounding to me that Christ gets such a profound response to His words, “follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Check it out from Mark 1:16-20 ESV
Mark 1:16-20 ESV
Follow Me
The invitation of Christ is a simple one. It’s not flashy, it’s not padded in promises of the good life, and it’s definitely not the kind of compelling sales pitch that you’d normally think would elicit the levels of response that we see throughout Jesus’ life.
He is after all the Son of God, but think about it for a minute. What if you were in Simon and Andrew’s shoes. Wouldn’t there be questions? Wouldn’t you want a little more information to make a final decision. At the least, wouldn’t you want to call a friend?
The whole scene makes me think that there must be something else going on here. Actually the gospel of John helps explain things further, listen to this;
John 1:35-42 ESV
The point here, that the gospel of John makes more clear, is that the original disciples already had some idea of who Jesus was. John the Baptist had already been telling people, like we read from John 1:35 above, that Jesus was the lamb of God. And “the lamb of God,” is a reference to the sacrificial lamb, the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for.
Not to mention, news traveled fast in these early communities. You have to know there were whispers of the Messiah at dinner tables, trading posts, and fishing boats. So when Jesus shows up in front of Andrew and Simon Peter and says, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” They were ready to go…
When John pointed out Jesus to his disciples and said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” When the Apostle Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ…” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
When you ask your neighbor to come to a special service at your church. When you give a ride to the person walking to work in the rain.
When any of these things happen, there is an invitation being extended. And when we extend the invitation, we extend the edge of the kingdom net.
Extend the Invitation
Think about this for a moment… The gospel means, “good news,” and all of us here today are more than willing to invite anyone into the good news we have to share. A new job, a promotion, a grandchild, a trip to Cabo…
The gospel is inviting by nature because “good news” is always worth sharing.
And last week we talked about how the kingdom net gathers “fish of every kind”...Or said another way, the net is indiscriminate as it gathers.
This is a great reminder for us as we spread the kingdom net to others. If we’ll share pictures of our kids with strangers on airplanes, then why wouldn’t we also share the good news of Christ with them as well? Maybe we think we have to save it for those we think are ready for it. Maybe we’re acting like kingdom screening agents. And maybe we need to remember this is not how Jesus did it.
We learn the disciples are not a perfectly polished group. Think for a moment about the kinds of people gathered together through Christ in the gospels… And these are just some of the ones we know about.
Peter, the uneducated and mouthy fisherman
Zaccheus, the tax collector
Matthew, the tax collector
Mary, who was about to be stoned for her sins
If these same people were pre-screened for their kingdom worthiness how many of them do you think would’ve made the final cut?
Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:18 that He is building His church and we learn elsewhere what this gathered group might look like;
John's vision from Revelation 7:9 was;
Revelation 7:9 ESV
And Isaiah 49:6 says,
Isaiah 49:6 ESV
In and through Christ we know the invitation is extended to all.
No pre-screening.
No value assessments.
Just the good news of saving faith.
And what we see in response to Jesus in his 1st disciples is a radical response to His invitation.
Immediate Response (Faith)
As I’ve already mentioned, the original disciples probably heard whispers of Jesus. John the Baptist was busy preparing the way, and we know from the original timeline that Jesus was baptized, whisked away into the desert of temptation for 40 days, and then He began His ministry. It’s likely the early disciples had some inkling of what was going on.
So, let’s look at the response of Andrew, Simon, James, and John from our Mark 1 passage;
Simon and Andrew, “...immediately they left their nets and followed him.” While James and John, “...left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.”
The gospel of Mark highlights the immediacy with which these disciples responded to Christ’s invitation. In fact, they literally walked off their jobs. Simon and Andrew dropped their nets while James and John left their father standing in the family boat. What an incredible sight.
Can you even imagine walking out of your job to answer the call of Christ? For some here today who have left their jobs to pursue ministry this is a reality. For others this is an example of what it can look like to exercise immediate faith and obedience.
And for the rest of us, who aren’t Jesus, it’s our job to simply extend the invitation to everyone we can. Sometimes, we’ll see fast fruit, sometimes it will take months or even years, and sometimes the fruit won’t be visible to us. Their response is between them and God, but the invitation is something we are called, I might even say commanded, to be a part of…
So drop the nets.
Step off the boat.
And start walking with Christ.
Inviting anyone and everyone to come along for the ride.
It’s the greatest, most amazing and challenging journey that any of us will ever take.
Following Jesus, as many of you know, and as many have learned throughout history, isn’t easy. One author puts it like this;
“My experience with following indicates that it can be even more difficult than leading. Following requires humility, risk, attention, awareness and guts. It means serving someone else’s agenda and following her or his cues. Following requires that I let go of my own way and trail the leader. But everything in me resists trailing behind someone else, especially when I think I can make my own way or lead just as well. Following for any length of time tests both character and steadfastness.” - Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. ‘Invitations from God’
Laying down your agenda, your expectations - hopes - and dreams… it’ll cost you everything. And what do you gain in return? An eternity, a forever family, a divine love and acceptance to give that’s unlike anything this world has to offer.
Drop the nets.
Step off the boat.
Answer the call.
Extend the invitation to others.
Share the good news.