Come and Do

Read Mark 1:16-20
Last week the invitation of Jesus was to Come and See. When Andrew & John wanted to know more about Jesus, Jesus said, come and see and when they went with Jesus they began to see and experience in him the kingdom of God. When we go with Jesus today, the same thing happens. The more we enter into the life of Jesus – the more we see and experience the kingdom and power and love of God. While the invitation to come and see is always being given, to go deeper into the life of Jesus we have to be willing to hear and follow the invitation of Jesus that we heard today. In Mark 1:17 Jesus issues a call to Follow me and I will make you fishers of men and women. What Jesus is really saying is come and do, come and do what I am doing. What Jesus has been doing is fishing for people. As Jesus travels around teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God, he is gathering people together and drawing them into a new relationship with God, and into new relationships with one another. Just as a fisherman gathers fish and draws them into a boat, Jesus has been gathering people and drawing them into a new community. Jesus is fishing for people and so his call to Peter, Andrew, James and John is to become fishers of men and women. Come and do what I am doing.

This wasn’t just the call of Jesus to 4 fishermen on the Sea of Galilee; it’s the call of Jesus for us today. Jesus wants us to come with him and do what he is doing and what Jesus is doing today is what Jesus was doing 2000 years ago, fishing for men and women. What Jesus did then was to call people into a relationship with God & form a new community that would live out God’s values and reveal those values & the love of God to the world. This is the same work Jesus is calling us to today. We are to reach out into the world and call people into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are to fish for men and women and invite those around us to enter into a new way of life, a new way of living, and into a new community where the values and the love of God will be experienced and then shared with the world around us.

Now many times when we think about being fishers of men and women we think it means we have to teach or preach like Jesus, or that we have to go out and knock on doors and tell people about God, but that’s not true. While teaching and preaching and door to door evangelism are all good things to do and they may be what God is calling some of us to do, the truth is that if we read through the gospels there is only one time when Jesus sent the disciples off to teach and preach. Most of the time the followers of Jesus are just trying their best to live out the love and grace that they have see in Jesus. Each day with Jesus was a new adventure of learning what it meant to love God and love one another. Each day they saw in Jesus what it meant to serve God and serve those around them. The disciples didn’t go door to door inviting people to church – they just lived out what they saw in Jesus and their lives of love and grace touched the lives of others and it drew people closer to God.

What this means for us is that the best way to fish for men and women, the best way we can gather people together and invite them into a deeper relationship with God is by simply living lives of faith that are passionate and filled with grace. A big part of sharing the love of God is simply living lives that reflect the teaching and example of Jesus. In other words, the more we look like Jesus – the more we follow him and do what he does, the better we become at fishing for men and women.

I think we forget sometimes how powerful living out our faith can be to the people around us. By simply following the example of Jesus, God can use us to touch the hearts and lives of those around us, and following Jesus and doing what he does can change our communities. Many years ago there was a missionary who went to China and he was having a hard time being accepted by the people in the village where he worked. Since most of the people were very skeptical of the man, few would talk to him and so he began to think about how he could make an impact in their lives. As the missionary watched life in the village he realized that every day the men would go off to work in the fields and every day they would return home dirty from their work. One day the missionary decided to wait for the men along the side of the road and as they entered into the village the missionary offered to wash their feet.
At first the men just laughed at him, but then they started to take advantage of his offer and have him wash their feet. For many weeks the missionary would just wash their feet until finally one of the men from the village asked him why he was willing to come out every day and wash dirty feet, and the missionary said, because it’s what Jesus did. And then the missionary had the opportunity to share the story of Jesus and in time many people in that village heard about Jesus and placed their faith and trust in him. That missionary was a fisher of men of women, he gathered people into the kingdom of God by simply doing what Jesus did. There was no great teaching or preaching, it was just washing feet.

When we get serious about following the example of Jesus and doing what Jesus did, people will notice and in time people will ask questions about the choices we make and the way we live, and when the opportunity comes up we can simply say, I do this, or I live this way, because of Jesus. I believe that God still wants to change our communities and the hearts and the lives of the people around us & I believe that God wants to use us to do this, so the call of God is for us to be fishers of men and women, it’s come and do. Come and do what Jesus did.

While doing what Jesus did involves doing so many things, which is why it’s important for us to be involved in Bible Study, there is one thing we see in this story from Mark 1 that we need to learn how to do because if we can do it, it will make a big difference in the lives of those around us and it will draw people into the kingdom of God. In these few short verses from Mark 1 it says 2 times that Jesus saw them. First Jesus saw Peter and Andrew – they were casting their nets into the sea because they were fishermen. Then it says that Jesus saw James and John in the boat with their father mending their nets. One of the things that Jesus did so well is that he saw people, he really saw them. Jesus didn’t just see what people were doing in that moment, he saw them for who they really were or better yet, he saw them for who they could become with the help and the power of God.

Let’s look at what Jesus saw in these four fishermen. Peter and Andrew were casting their nets into the sea. As a fisherman you had to be willing to cast your net into the sea not once or twice, but again and again and again because you aren’t always going to catch fish the first time out. So Jesus saw men who knew what it meant to be patient and persistent. And when Jesus saw James and John they were mending their nets, but what Jesus really sees are men who understand the value of being prepared because they know that at some point there is going to be a big catch of fish that will need strong nets to pull them in. James and John are positive, they are optimistic that something big was going to come, so they are getting prepared. When Jesus saw these four men, he didn’t just see common fishermen, he saw hardworking men who understood that to catch fish you had to be patient and persistent and prepared and positive. Jesus saw the best in them.

Now this is not to say that Jesus didn’t see the problems in them, because he did. I think when Jesus saw at Peter he could also see the moment when Peter would betray him, and when he saw Andrew, James and John he could see the night they would all turn and ran away from him. While Jesus saw the best in people, he also knew their shortcomings and their problems, but he didn’t allow those problems to keep him from reaching out to them, and loving them and calling them to work along side him. Jesus never allowed what he saw in people to keep them away from him, he was always willing to accept people, to love them, and to draw them close.

If we are going to do what Jesus did, then we need to learn how to see the best in people and not allow the problems we might see to keep us from reaching out to them. Too often when we look at others we are critical of them for any number of reasons, it could be how they look, or where they live, or what they do. We might be critical of them because of where they have been in life, or the choices they have made in the past or choices they are making today, but if we are going do what Jesus did, we can’t allow the problems we see in people to keep us from reaching out to them in love and inviting them to be part of our family.

What is always so amazing about God is that when he looks at us he doesn’t see failures – he sees a family that he loves. God doesn’t see the problems of our life, he see our potential. God doesn’t see sinners he sees saints who can change the world around us if we will get serious about following Jesus and doing what he does. Part of what Jesus does is see the best in people and see the potential that lies in every person – we need to learn to do the same thing. It’s time for us to stop prejudging others, or only seeing the problems in people or the things we may not like and it’s time for us to see the best in others and to see the God given potential that lies within everyone. If we really saw the best in people, if we really saw the potential that lies in every person, we would be reaching out eager to get to know them and to love them and to welcome them as part of our family. If we could learn to see the best in people and the God given potential in people, in would change our community and it would change our world.

Today Jesus still says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men and women. To each of us Jesus says, come and do what I do, live the way I live, see and love people the way I see and love people, because if you will do this, I will use you to change the hearts and lives and destinies of those around you and if you will do this, together we will change this community. So let us follow Jesus. With the same passion and dedication that we see in Peter, Andrew, James and John who immediately dropped their nets and went, with the same passion and enthusiasm, let us drop our nets and leave our boats and commit ourselves to do what Jesus did and live the way Jesus lived and love the way that Jesus loved. Together let us follow Jesus. Together let us fish for men and women and together let us change the world.