Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

According to Luke 5:1-11 [NLTse]
5:1 One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. 2 He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”
5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” 6 And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! 7 A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.
8 When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” 9 For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. 10 His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.
Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” 11 And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

Sermon
Did you know that you can “follow” Jesus on Twitter? (For those of you who don’t what that is, Twitter is a blend of instant-messaging, blogging, and texting where you can send out short messages to all your friends at the same time [and anybody else around the world who tends to find you and your “tweets” interesting.] You can also link a picture or movie to a “tweet”.)

But, did you know that you can “follow” Jesus on Twitter? Yup. (Or at least someone who’s set up an account named “Jesus Christ”.) You can “follow” sports figures on Twitter. You can “follow” Hollywood celebrities. You can “follow” politicians, and your teachers, and your neighbors, or different businesses: Whomever or whatever you might find interesting or curious about at a given moment you can “follow” on Twitter. But, back to “following” Jesus…

When Jesus encountered Peter and Andrew and James and John that day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee two thousand years ago, what happened? Let’s look in the Word together, if you have your Bibles open. Looking at v. 8, after the miraculous catch of fish, we see that they recognized Jesus’ holiness – this was not just any other man – and at the same time we see them recognizing their own unworthiness. And then we see the Lord Jesus do this amazing thing: In all His holiness and splendor He calls these unworthy fishermen to join Him and follow Him; and then they left their nets and their boats (and James and John even left their dad), and they went to be with Jesus.
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For Jesus and for the Christian disciple, “following” Jesus Christ is being with Him and learning from Him and being like Him. It’s leaving behind what used to be our life in order to make Him our life. We see this across the Gospels and Acts and written about in all the letters and even The Revelation? Disciples – followers of Jesus – are always with Jesus: They listen to His teachings; they watch Him interact with lepers and prostitutes and heal the sick and cast out demons. He teaches them to pray, and how to trust God when they don’t have enough food or don’t have the money to pay their taxes. And the Lord sends them out two-by-two to try it all on their own. And they experience some successes and some failures. And they come back to Him to watch and listen and learn some more.

Notice that for disciples it’s not just the Scriptures that are so helpful to them, but it is Jesus’ personal presence with them – the living Word of God bringing the written Word of God to life within them: Teaching them, guiding them, empowering them by the Holy Spirit. And it’s the same today: The day Jesus ascended into Heaven He said to those who were with Him and following Him, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” And then He ascended to the Father in Heaven and sent us the Holy Spirit to indeed be with us always – teaching us, guiding us, empowering us, Jesus’ spiritual presence with us always – even to the end of the age.

It gets me thinking how trite and trivial reading the Bible can sometimes be. What I mean is that, sometimes we can open up the Scriptures and read about Jesus Christ. We can sit here in our pews Sunday after Sunday and hear about Jesus Christ. And that does sometimes inspire us or make us feel good, but it is not the same as following Jesus, the way He first called Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John to “Come!” and follow Him. And reading about Him and hearing about Him can get us thinking of ourselves as lesser disciples. Afterall, we think that we can’t be with Him to watch Him and listen to Him and learn how to be like Him the way those first disciples could, right? But that’s not true!

The truth is, each one of us has been called by Jesus to “Come!” and follow Him the exact same way that He called those first fishermen to become fishers of people.

When you and I read the Word of God or hear the Word of God read, the Lord is not calling us to digest a variety of new information or facts or a new list of “to do”s or “to don’t”s, He is calling us to be with Him. In the reading, in the hearing, the Lord Jesus is calling us to follow Him: To be there with Him by the Sea or with the leper or before the mockers and to be there to watch Him and listen to Him as we read or hear.

Paul’s and the other apostles’ letters are a little different. In the letters Jesus is calling us to sit at His feet and let Him teach us and correct us and challenge us and rebuke us; to ask Him our questions (by the Holy Spirit) and to listen for His response in prayer or in His words as we continue read or hear.

But we never leave. There’s no leaving Him to get back to work or to get our schoolwork done or to take care of family responsibilities or to watch TV. No. We’re His disciples. And He’s called us to stay with Him throughout our days and nights, joining with Him at school and our workplaces and homes in doing our part among the hurting and the lonely, the sick and the outcast, and responding as we’ve watched and heard Him do when facing those who might make fun of us for our faith.
Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John continued to fish (sometimes) as they followed Jesus. The apostle Paul continued his trade as a leather-worker as he followed Jesus. But they were no longer identified by their trade. Now they were known by everyone who knew them as followers of Jesus.

This new life we’ve been given in Christ is not a religion or a philosophy or a teaching or even a crusade. Christianity is following the risen Lord Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit Whom He has given to us. And Jesus is not some celebrity or political leader out there who’s comments and activities are fun to keep track of from afar. No. Jesus is with us and wants us to be with Him, to follow Him.

So, think about your life in Christ: Are you following Jesus from the comfort of your pew or easy chair, learning some more Christian facts and moral directives as you read and study? Or are you up and running and following Jesus by the seashore, and along Broad Street, and into your school and your workplace and as you write your notes and talk with your friends?
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Jesus is calling us – Jesus is calling you – to “Come!” to follow Him, and to change the world!