FISHERS OF MEN

 "And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him."

Matthew 4:18-22

These men were fishermen. They were hard at work either casting out their nets or mending them. Today, it is much different--I would imagine much easier to fish with a net. Back then it was very hard work to keep their nets in good working order. They had to make sure the nets were clean, free from the debris that would collect on them. Also they were constantly inspecting, maintaining and mending the nets. But when Jesus showed up on the scene, and IMMEDIATELY they left everything and followed Christ.



The most important work in the Church today is presenting the Gospel to those who are lost. Sometimes it takes work. In the disciples' time and I suppose still today- keeping those nets clean was a job. A lot of debris would collect on them and they had to make sure that the nets were free of all that debris. In our Christian walk, we must be sure our "nets" are free from debris, baggage that we add onto our lives. When we come to Christ we need to leave all the excess baggage with our old lives and not pick it up again. If we want to be fishers of men for Christ- our lives-- our nets-- must be clean and in good working order. We must maintain our relationship with Christ without all the excess debris from our old life or add any from our new one. All the rips and tears of our lives can be healed and mended through Christ. When our "nets"- our lives- are in good order- a relationship with Christ-- it will attract those who are without.

The gospel is simple. Man has put a lot of other "debris" there. It doesn't need to be embellished by man's ideas. It is complete enough as it is. The apostle Paul made a statement in 1 Corinthians 2:2: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." We must allow the gospel of Christ to do the work. It is our job to hold onto the word and to make sure that our "nets" are clean and in good repair in order to be true "fishers of men".

(Taken from Pastor Keith's message 1/19/2014)