Becoming Fishers of Men

1:06Well, friends, it is the time of the year in our community, August, that is, that is different for us than it is for most other people living in normal communities around the world. This is our new year. This is when, in our community, things begin. There's a freshness to all, not the weather outside, but to all things that we do. Starting over. And in the Christian life, this is very good for us that we have this seasonal restart. Because just like our computers and devices need to be restarted from time to time because programs are running slowly or applications are not running at all, in the Christian life, we all reach these times. We reach these seasons where we are not doing the things that we are called to do very well or at all. Our obedience in certain areas of our life is slow, in others, it's non-existent. And so it is very helpful for us as Christians to have this naturally built-in time, this naturally built-in season where we can reset, where we can have a restart, and we can examine our lives in light of Scripture and then make the necessary changes.

2:31Now, many professing Christians in America today, they're not disciples who are making disciples. And maybe you, that's true of you at this point in your life. At this point in your life, you are not a disciple who is making disciples, but that's what a Christian is. And I think maybe some of the confusion may stem, some of the reason that we are not disciple-making disciples as we're called to be in the Word of God is because we have substituted The term Christian for the term disciple.

3:05Now you might be thinking, oh my goodness, like Alan's been out of the pulpit for a few weeks and he came back and now he's saying we're no longer Christians. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is this: the term Christian is only used three times in the Bible. In two of those times, it is used by non-Christians to describe Christians. The term disciple, however, is not used three times in Scripture, but almost 300 times. For every instance of a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, being called a Christian in Scripture, there are 100 references to being a disciple of Jesus.

3:50And to understand that term disciple, we have to go back to the first century. We have to go back in our minds and understand first century Israel and particularly the religious culture of Israel and even more specifically the culture of rabbis and disciples. You see, in first century Israel, Jewish began formal schooling at age five, just like they do here in America, in most cases. They began formal schooling at age five and they went to Torah school. And what that meant was they studied the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now, between the age of five and ten, most of those young people, Men and women would memorize either the entire thing or large portions of those scriptures. And that's why when you read the Gospels and Jesus is speaking to large crowds of mostly uneducated people, he is almost always quoting from the books of Moses because everyone was familiar with those books.

4:54Now, at age 10, there was a kind of fork in the road. And all girls and most young boys went back home to their moms and dads and would begin helping with family life around the house and with the family business, all of those kinds of things. But the best students would continue on from age 10 to 17, and they would study not just the Torah, but also what is known as the prophets and the writings, what we would simply call the rest of the Old Testament.

5:24They would study these things in depth, along with what is known as the oral law. And the oral law was the rabbis' interpretations and teachings and applications of the scriptures that were passed down orally from generation to generation. And so when Jesus is disputing with the religious leaders of the day, most of the time the dispute doesn't revolve around God's word particularly, but the oral law specifically and what has been handed down from generation to generation. Some of it was good and helpful. Some of it was contrary to what the scriptures teach.

5:58So the best students from age 10. To 17 are doing this. They're learning more. But at 17, there's yet another cut, and many of these students return home. And if you wanted to go on to a career in religion, if you wanted to be a rabbi, if you wanted to be a synagogue ruler, if you wanted to be a lawyer or a scribe, then what you would do at that point was you would become a rabbi's disciple.

6:27And I want you to remember: this is a theocracy, right? Or at least Israel was set up as a theocracy. They're occupied by Rome, but it's still got those same principles. This is the first century. There are no movie stars. There are no professional athletes. No one is getting paid $3 million to win a Fortnite tournament. That just happened. More than the U.S. Open? More than the British Open? You push buttons on a remote control, and you win $3 million. We are all in the wrong field.

7:03To become a religious leader in first century Israel was to become respected and well-known and famous. This is what young boys dreamed of: a career in religion. But, friends, to become a religious leader, you first had to become a rabbi's disciple. That was the only path to that vocation. And so, prospective disciples, they had heard a lot of these rabbis teach around Israel. And they would consider. Whose teaching, whose lifestyle did they want to emulate, did they want to learn? And then what they would do is they would go and present themselves to one of these rabbis.

7:41They would go and sit at their feet, essentially making the request, Can I become your disciple? Now, of course, the rabbis could be choosy, right? This is the best of the best that are coming to them and sitting at their feet. And they're asking themselves the question: Who has the most aptitude? Who is most likely to be able to think like me and teach like me and live like me? And so, if a rabbi thought that you had what it took, he would ask you to follow him, he would ask you to spend every possible minute with him. If he went somewhere, you went. If he spoke, you listened.

8:26If he asked a question, you answered. That was the life of the rabbi and the disciple because the goal was to become exactly like him in every possible way. So, you were with him 24/7. So, think about all of that and all that's wrapped up biblically in the term disciple. And then consider that we don't often refer to ourselves or to other believers and followers of Jesus Christ as disciples, but as Christians. And perhaps. That starts to explain why so much of Christianity in America today is not about emulating and following Jesus, trying to be and do exactly like he was and as he did, as he calls us to do, but more about information and content mastery.

9:19It's more about knowing things up here than it is having that information translate into heart belief that results in lifestyle change. They were known as disciples, and that's very important. And so, friends, what we're doing at the outset of this little three-week series, you know that most of the time we go verse by verse through books of the Bible. We're taking the next three weeks here in August to just look at this concept of discipleship and how it relates to the things that we are called to do as Christians. We are beginning the study in Matthew 4, 18 through 22, and this is an appropriate place to begin because this is Matthew's account of the calling of the first disciples.

10:01And from this account, we're going to be challenged to reconsider how we think of ourselves and how we live our lives. Are we disciples of Jesus doing the things that he's called us to do? So the first four chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, if you are familiar with this book, you've got John the Baptist on the scene right away. And he is preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus goes to him and is baptized. Publicly beginning his ministry. He is tempted by Satan, and he overcomes all of those temptations. As the scripture says, he was tempted in every way, and yet was without sin. And then he begins his public ministry, preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

10:49So all of that happens. And that brings us to Matthew 4, verse 18. If you'll look there, on this particular day, Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee. And what happens? He comes across two brothers, Peter and Andrew, and then two more, James and John. Now, if you've ever read John chapter 1 before, then you know that these men have met Jesus already. This isn't the first time they've seen him. This isn't the first time they've heard from him. They've met him already. They know a little bit about him. They know a little bit about what he is coming to do.

11:29And so, what are these men doing right now as Jesus finds them? Well, they are fishing. And why are they fishing? Stay with me. Because they are fishermen. Slow down, Professor. It's true. They're fishing because they are fishermen. The next question: why are they fishermen? Well, that question can be answered in two parts. They're fishermen in part. Because that's what their fathers did. It was the family business. And so what happened was they took on the family trade. That's the simple and straightforward answer. But the second part of this answer, you can really only understand if you have some of the background that we talked about at the beginning of the sermon. Why are they fishermen?

12:25They're fishermen because they're not religious leaders. They're not religious leaders because at some point, whether at 10 or 17 or beyond that time, someone came to them and said, You probably don't have a future in teaching and interpreting and applying the scriptures. You need to return home and learn the family trade. You don't have a future in religious study and interpretation and application. And so that's what these men did. At 10 or 17 or whenever, they went home and learned the family trade, and now fishing is their life. They're fishing and doing all that goes along with that. And so one day, Jesus walks up, and this is incredible to us. He walks up to them and says, Follow me.

13:20Now, even without all the background that I gave you a minute ago, this is a crazy situation. He walks up and says, Follow me, and they immediately begin following him. But I want you to think about this. In light of what we've talked about, Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth, who has been preaching and teaching with authority, who has been casting out demons, who has been healing the sick, who has made the lame to walk, he walks up to these poor, relatively uneducated fishermen and he says, I choose you to be my disciples.

14:05I want you to become like me. There is almost no modern equivalent to this. This is Steph Curry coming to you and saying, We have a spot on the warriors for you. This is Bill Gates saying, We have a spot on the board at Microsoft for you. This is unbelievable. These fishermen didn't have what it took. That's why they were fishing instead of theologizing. That's the whole point. They weren't disciples because no other rabbi wanted them. That's the long and the short of it. And yet Jesus goes up to these ordinary men and says, Follow me. I choose you to be my disciples. I want you to become like me.

14:54Look at what Jesus will say and remind them of later in his ministry in John chapter 15. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. You see, these fishermen didn't walk up to Jesus and sit at his feet and say, Rabbi, we believe we have what it takes to be your followers, your disciples. And if you just give us a shot, we think that you will come to the same conclusion.

15:42They didn't do that at all. They didn't think that they had what it took, which is why they were fishing. And yet, Jesus went to them. He chose them. He called them to follow him, not because they had what it took, but because he had what it took. He could make them like him, even though they couldn't make themselves like him with a lifetime of trying. And so, friends, if you are a follower of Jesus, if you are his disciple, you must never forget this.

16:19You did not choose Jesus. Jesus chose you. We love him better. Because he first loved us. That's what the scripture affirms to us over and over again. He came to us and he called us while we were fishing, while we were working on our degrees, while we were living as a mother, a father, while we were advancing in our careers. Jesus came to us and called us, and he said, follow me. He didn't do it because we deserve to be chosen, but in spite of the fact that we did not deserve to be chosen.

17:06The Apostle Paul reminds us this in 1 Corinthians, the book we're going to be going through this fall, so you can get excited about that. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says this to them, for consider your calling brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

17:54That's incredible to think about that. That although we had nothing to do with the world, With which to commend ourselves to God, he came and he chose us to be his disciples. And so we can rest in that, friends. When you are discouraged, when you feel unworthy, when you are reminded today and at other times in worship and at other times throughout the week that you are not doing all that you've been called to do as a disciple, you remember that Jesus chose you.

18:26He didn't look down the tunnel of time and pick people whom he knew were going to be obedient. He chose you, knowing that your life would be filled with both obedience and disobedience. Worship and idolatry. And almost amazing as Jesus choosing these men is the response of the fishermen. Look again at the text. It says it two different times in verse 20 and 22. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

19:05Well, it's great to be chosen, but following Jesus was a costly decision for these men. I mean, think about this. They had to walk away from the two most important things in their life: their family and their career. A very costly decision. Now, in the 21st century, people often live far away from their Families. I know many of you in our church who are living far from your families. That's not uncommon in our day and age. Also, it's not uncommon for people in our day to change jobs many times, even to change careers many times. That's just commonplace in the 21st century.

19:51But, friends, it was very different in the first century, and particularly in first-century Jewish culture. First of all, family was everything. Families stayed together, they lived together, often on the same piece of land for generations. Grandparents helped to raise grandchildren. Children and grandchildren took care of aging grandparents. Family was very important. And beyond that, the family business was important. It was the way that the family was sustained. And so, sons were expected to learn the family trade, to become apprentices under their dads, and then to take that business over when they were of age.

20:40So, I want you to think about this situation for a minute here. You're Zebedee, and life is finally getting a little easier for you. Those boys who spent every single day fighting directly between their Mother's knees as she's trying to make dinner are finally old enough to be out there helping. More than that, they are out there as your co-laborers. And maybe for the first time since your boys are finally of age, you are not just scraping by as a fisherman, but maybe your business is actually taking off a little bit. Things are looking bright for you.

21:32Then, out of nowhere, Jesus the rabbi walks up, tells your sons to follow him, and they straight leave. Just immediately. Immediately, twice, immediately, they leave the nets and follow him. Zebedee's like looking around, like, they were here. They're in the boat. You see that? They're in the boat with him, and they're gone. Just like that. If you're Zebedee, how do you feel about that? Proud? Probably. This is a famous rabbi who's just come up, asked your sons to be his disciples. Honored? I'm sure.

22:06But he probably also feels like, great, there goes the help. Things were just starting to look up. And anyway, as every parent worries about their kid's future, how much money do you think you make as an itinerant rabbi's disciple? Right, they're finding out a real lucrative career with a good benefits package. But they up and leave. Friends, there's no doubt that Peter, Andrew, James, John, they knew all of this. They understood that this was costly. They knew what it would cost them. They knew what it would cost Zebedee. And more than that, Jesus doesn't even say anything to them about where they're going, about how long they'll be. There's no itinerary. He just says, Follow me. And immediately, they leave the nets, they leave their father in the boat, and they follow him. It was costly, but it was worth it.

23:05And you see, friends, the same thing is true for us today. Jesus is not calling us in a fundamentally different way today to follow him. He is using different means, but he is calling us to follow him in fundamentally the same way. He's calling us to follow him now. Not in a minute. Not after you finish your degree. Not after you've landed your big promotion. Not after you've gotten married or had children, or the children are older. Not after you're done with elite sports or clubs or hobbies or anything else. He's calling us to follow him now. Now, today.

23:57See, when Jesus calls us to follow him, we are called to. Count the cost and follow him. We can't put anything first. Family, career, sports, hobbies. When we answer the call to follow Jesus, we answer the call to follow him now. And he's first in our lives. And so, if you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus, ask yourself the question: have I truly left everything to follow him? And by everything, of course, it seems to be very clear in the scripture, that means anything that would hinder you from following him.

24:37Not all of us are called to walk away from family. In fact, in America, very few of us are. Praise the Lord. But some of you may have to walk away from family. Who would say, you have to choose between Jesus or us? You may have to walk away from a lucrative career because for whatever reason, that career and you following Jesus are incompatible. Jesus is calling us to follow him now. And he's calling us to leave behind anything that would hinder us from following him.

25:15Now, friends, here's where we're going with this. What exactly were the disciples being called to do? Well, follow Jesus, as we've said, but what does that mean? Look at the word. What Jesus himself says in Luke chapter 6. He says, A disciple is not above his teacher. But everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. Now, if you're familiar with the Gospels, you know that Jesus uses several different word pictures to describe who he is.

25:57He calls himself the good shepherd who is going after the lost sheep. He calls himself the great physician who came to heal, particularly spiritually heal, people who are broken and wounded because of sin. And here in this text, he implies that he is the great fisherman because he says that what he's going to do, he says he's going to make them fishers of men. Now remember, these are professional fishermen. They know how to fish. They've got the experience. They've got the gear.

26:34But they don't know anything about catching men. But you see, that's okay because what does Jesus say? He says, I will make you fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men. No previous training required. He is going to make us into fishers. Of men. So, what did Jesus' life look like as a fisher of men? Well, he went around preaching the good news of the gospel, went around preaching freedom for the captive, preaching forgiveness for the repentant sinner. He himself said that he came to seek and to save the lost.

27:21This is how Jesus describes himself and his ministry. That's what he did. So, what do we suppose that the disciples were trained to do after following him, after being with him, for a period of roughly three years? They were trained to be fishers of men, to go and seek the lost, so they could point them to Christ who can save them. That's what they were trained to do. And when we read the book of Acts, that's exactly what we see, isn't it? We see Jesus' disciples making disciples who are giving their lives to go and seek the lost, to become fishers of men.

28:10It was the vocational men serving in careers of ministry, and it was the men and women who were tent makers and laborers and servants and everyone else. That's why, when we read the epistles, the letters in the New Testament, there are references to just about everything. Kind of career. All sorts of people following Jesus, but with one job description, to love him and to make disciples of his, to become fishers of men. And so that brings it back to us, to you, to me, to anyone who considers himself or herself a Christian, a disciple of Jesus.

28:57If Jesus called these disciples and made them into fishers of men, who then fished for men and discipled them into being fishers of men, what do we suppose that our job description is as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as disciples who are supposed to become like our rabbi in every way? Well, friends, we don't have to guess at what our job description is. Jesus gives it to us. These are his last recorded words to us before he ascends into heaven in the Gospels. Look at Matthew 28. He tells us, go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

29:54This is the commission. Go, make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. That was the commission for these original apostles. That was the commission that they passed down to those that they discipled. And friends, that is the commission that has been handed to you and me. Not just to professional missionaries, not just to those who have the gift of evangelism, but to every single Christian. This is our commission. It's yours. It's mine. Go make disciples.

30:34And friends, this is exactly where most of us get stuck. This is exactly where most of us get stuck. We hear those things, we agree with them. And at churches like New Life, that talk often about the spiritual needs of the world, we are aware of the lostness all around us. Some six billion people on this earth do not even claim to be Christians. That's to say nothing of the one to two billion who do claim to be Christians who may not be genuine followers of Jesus.

31:22Our community, Bryan College Station, roughly a quarter million people. A tiny sliver of whom have any regular connection with a local church. 60,000 students at Texas AM University. 20,000 students at Blin College. You hear those numbers, and every one of us says, where would we even begin? How would you even get started thinking about all of these people and reaching them with the gospel? Where would we even start? Well, how about this? Instead of getting overwhelmed with the fact that there are 6 billion plus people in the world who need the gospel, a quarter million people in this area, many of whom need the gospel, 80,000 students, many of whom need the gospel, instead of getting overwhelmed with those numbers, how about if we start with one?

32:29How about if every one of us starts with one person? When you came in this morning, on your seat was one of these two resources. One of them is just a little business card ask this question, who's your one? Another is that same card asking the question, who's your one, with a 30-day prayer guide attached to it. You can mix and match, pick up both, take one or the other. Friends, these resources are for you. I think we agree that all of us are called to make disciples and be disciple makers. And if that's true, then we have only two choices before us: obedience or disobedience.

33:30It is really that simple. And so, what these resources are designed to do is to remove the barrier of getting started because we are so overwhelmed with the numbers. You cannot reach 20,000 students, or 60,000 students, or a quarter million people, or 6 billion people, until you have reached one. It starts with one. And so, on the back of this card, what you have are some action steps that I want us to participate in over the next few weeks that include identifying one person in your life who does not know Christ, interceding for them in prayer, beginning to intentionally invest in their lives and building a relationship with them, and then inviting them into a personal relationship with Christ through repentance and faith. The gospel.

34:34Friends, in our secular pluralistic society, the reality is that you may be the only Christian that someone in your life knows. You might be the only Christian your classmates know, your coworkers know, your neighbors, your extended family, you might be the only one. And if that is true, who is going to share the gospel with them if you don't do it? If I don't do it? And so I want you to begin praying about that. I don't want you to grab a pen. Kids, I don't want you to grab a pen. Adults, I don't want you to grab a pen right now and start scribbling down the first name that comes to mind. I want you to think about it. I want you to pray about it. I want you to consider this. Because I want this to become our language as a church body as we go into the fall. Where when we get together in life groups, when we get together for accountability, when we're having conversation and we're tempted to turn it towards Aggie football and the weather and everything else, the Aggies will be the Aggies. We all know what that means. The weather will be the weather. It will be hot and humid. We're done. Eight and four, 100 and humid. Okay?

35:52We're moving on. Nothing more to be said. Okay? Instead of that, let's walk into. This fall, and let's start asking each other important questions: like, who's your one? Who is the one person that you are praying for and intentionally investing in with the hope of sharing the gospel with them? God can use that to change our community, your family, your workplace, your team. And, friends, maybe some of you are here today and you can't get started making disciples because you're realizing that you're not a disciple yourself. You're not a follower of Jesus.

36:38And what I want to tell you this morning is that God brought you here today for a purpose. You are listening to this sermon today as part of God's providential plan, his design for you. He is calling you to himself today, just as Jesus called those first disciples. You being here today and hearing the word of God and hearing this sermon is God's invitation to you. He is calling you to be his disciple, to turn from your sin, to repent of it, is what the Bible calls it, to turning away from it, and instead receiving Jesus, his perfect life, his obedient life, his sinless life, and then his death on the cross in your place and for your sins, and his resurrection from the dead, where he defeated sin and all of its consequences. He is calling you to be his disciple today. Not in a minute.

37:36Not after you get done with school or you get married or have kids or any of the other stuff that we said earlier. He's calling you now to be his disciple and to make more disciples of him. You may be scared. I'm sure that Peter and Andrew, James, and John were scared about their future. It was costly, but it was worth it. And it's worth it for you as well. Friends, Christians are disciples. And disciples, by definition, make more disciples.

38:13And so let's kick off this new school year with this question for ourselves and for each other. Who's your one? Let's pray. God, what could we say when you have come and you have sought us, you have called us to yourself. Men and women, children who did not deserve to be called, did not deserve to be chosen, did not deserve to be your disciples. But because of your great mercy, because you are rich in love, because you love seeking and saving the lost.

39:18You did that very thing and called us to yourself. Father, we thank you for all of the ways that you have worked in us. You have sanctified us, you've changed our hearts and our minds, given us new desires, and we are becoming more like you. We celebrate that. We are not who we one day will be, but we are also not who we were. All glory goes to you. But, God, we still have a long way to go before we are like our teacher. And so, we pray, God, that you would help us. Help us, particularly in the area of making disciples. Forgive us for getting away from that and for just hoping that someone else would do it.

40:09Help us to be obedient and motivate our obedience with a glorious vision of you in your holiness and righteousness and perfect justice and mercy and grace. In Christ's name. We pray all these things. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.