Jesus Calls His First Disciples - Mark 1:16-20
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Reflection:
As we mentioned, Mark is the hard hitting, fast paced gospel, which doesn't waste any time getting to the "nitty gritty". Right after announcing the kingdom is near, or at hand, Jesus calls his first disciples. This is important in the sense that Jesus is demonstrating that the kingdom is going to flow from him into a 3 year apprentice-ship program with his disciples, where they will learn from him how to be a conduit of then kingdom.
This begs the question what is a disciple? For most people it is a scary, or off-putting word associated with a super spiritual Christian. The word actually just means "learner". And it means learning how to follow Jesus in the setting in life he has places you. This is critical as you will notice Jesus didn't call them away from fishing to be holy, separatistic huddle. He called them to fish for people. It took what they knew and uses it for his purposes.
And notice for a season of training it meant leaving their homes and jobs to apprentice with Jesus. After the three year program they were sent back out to fish for people. And the metaphor was "they put down their nets and followed him". The nets represented what they knew and were comfortable with. They were called to drop them, take a risk, and trust Jesus.
What are your nets? It may be the thing you do to provide a living for your family? It may be a hobby, skill or relationship. God uses all of it as we fish for people. Jesus trains us his disciples, trains and sends us out often to the places we were previously employed or situated. There may be a time of training involved where we leave our environs, but we are always sent back into the harvest field, which is the world.
Where might God be calling you to fish for people? At the end of the day, no matter what we do, it is people that matter. People who matter to God and should matter to us. Take some time to pray for those in your life that God has placed in your life who got might be calling to a deeper sense of following Him. Ask him where you might fish for people in your neck of the world.
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Reflection:
As we mentioned, Mark is the hard hitting, fast paced gospel, which doesn't waste any time getting to the "nitty gritty". Right after announcing the kingdom is near, or at hand, Jesus calls his first disciples. This is important in the sense that Jesus is demonstrating that the kingdom is going to flow from him into a 3 year apprentice-ship program with his disciples, where they will learn from him how to be a conduit of then kingdom.
This begs the question what is a disciple? For most people it is a scary, or off-putting word associated with a super spiritual Christian. The word actually just means "learner". And it means learning how to follow Jesus in the setting in life he has places you. This is critical as you will notice Jesus didn't call them away from fishing to be holy, separatistic huddle. He called them to fish for people. It took what they knew and uses it for his purposes.
And notice for a season of training it meant leaving their homes and jobs to apprentice with Jesus. After the three year program they were sent back out to fish for people. And the metaphor was "they put down their nets and followed him". The nets represented what they knew and were comfortable with. They were called to drop them, take a risk, and trust Jesus.
What are your nets? It may be the thing you do to provide a living for your family? It may be a hobby, skill or relationship. God uses all of it as we fish for people. Jesus trains us his disciples, trains and sends us out often to the places we were previously employed or situated. There may be a time of training involved where we leave our environs, but we are always sent back into the harvest field, which is the world.
Where might God be calling you to fish for people? At the end of the day, no matter what we do, it is people that matter. People who matter to God and should matter to us. Take some time to pray for those in your life that God has placed in your life who got might be calling to a deeper sense of following Him. Ask him where you might fish for people in your neck of the world.
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