Has Jesus asked you to be a fisher of men?

These past four days the family went to the coast. I was raised in Corpus Christi, but we go to the gulf now more than when I was growing up. To go out on the beach, especially at night, is amazing. The vastness of God’s creation is overwhelming. The crashing waves, the wind and the salty taste in the air make for great therapy. I slept better the last two nights than I have in years.

All of that with a Whataburger close to the house rounds out the experience. Kaden and Emma look forward to going every year. The trip goes back to ’93 when Donna and I got married. Now Kaden has a wife and he and Hannah were able to go. Emma is leaving for college so this was definitely a trip that can’t be duplicated again.

Donna and I were talking about when the kids were young and most of my fishing time was spent working on their lines or poles, but it was truly the best of times.

A little while back I was looking through my father’s fishing gear and took apart his bait caster reel. To my amazement the insides looked brand new. I realized then what his fishing trips were like with four kids and several brothers-in-law in tow. His rod was generally secured in the boat.

My favorite was going to the Naval Air Station and catching crabs. I was six or seven so after having a rope tied around me and then to a cleat on the dock, I was in charge of the 30 gallon can we would fill and take back to the house for a crab boil. My job was pretty much the same here. Sitting on a stool in front of the stove, keeping the crabs from crawling out of the pot while they gave their lives for our eating pleasure.

I am getting off track, so let’s look at Jesus’ activity before the sermon on the mount. In chapter three, John the Baptist is about to fulfill his journey. We all know the story where Jesus comes to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. One of the most touching personal sentences in the Bible is where God speaks, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Earthly fathers need to praise their children as well. God the Father is a good example of the relationship of a parent and child.

Jesus at the time was preparing for his full-time ministry. The first Adam was tempted and sinned, as the Last Adam, Jesus must be tempted as well.

The Spirit led him into the wilderness for 40 days. Satan came to Jesus three specific times to try and cause him to sin. Jesus withstood his temptation. Notice the tempting was based off of scriptural facts, but in the wrong context.

Often today the physical church twist and turns the scripture to give the congregation what they want to hear. I will listen to a sermon and ask myself if it is true and calling us to be a part and build God’s kingdom. We have become accustomed to prayer being a laundry list. Yes, sometimes it’s about our need, but we seldom ask God what we can do for him.

Worship and service are not smoke machines, lights and trained singing and dancing. It’s falling on your face in humility in obedience. Worship now fulfills earthly gratification in a lot of cases.

Forty or more years ago, I heard a Sunday school teacher say something I wrote in the front of my Bible. The modern church tries to make God acceptable to man, rather than man acceptable to God.

Jesus has received word John is now in jail. His full time ministry is ready to begin. He leaves his home because they will not accept his reason for being here. He goes down between two places by the Sea of Galilee. Just being there was seeing Old Testament prophecy fulfilled.

He then begins preaching and calling all to repentance. Walking by the sea, he saw two brothers that were fisherman. In those days fishing was a poor man’s job. They mostly used nets and Galilee was no small body of water. Fed by the Jordan, it was 13 miles long, eight miles wide and at it’s greatest depth was 141 feet deep.

The two fishes the little boy gave to Jesus were small, most likely from the sardine family. The other common fish caught were from three families of carp.

So sweating and working with cut hands, a man walks up they know nothing of and he tells them put down the nets and follow me, I will teach you how to be fishers of men. There was no hesitation as they rose to follow him. Peter and Andrew now had a higher calling.

There is no indication they had a question or a doubt. James and John followed Jesus as well. Of the disciples only one, John, would not see death. These men would carry on Jesus’ message and even do greater works.

Not everyone will be called to be a missionary or called to work in the inner city. When he does call we are being offered the greatest opportunity to put God first and to forsake this material world. Has Jesus asked you to be a fisher of men?