Sunday 01/26/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Isaiah 9:1-4
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 4:12-23
Welcome and
good morning once again! Welcome on this the Third Sunday after the Epiphany.
The Epiphany, this holiday that we celebrate the three-wise men or magi seeing
that bright star in the sky. That “Bethlehem Star,” that led them to the manger
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on that first Christmas so long ago. That
place where they gave the Lord of life, Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. That
place, were all people said, “Come let us adore Him.”
This Sunday
however, we remain in this season of “post-Epiphany,” until we reach Transfiguration
Sunday, on Sunday March 2nd. Transfiguration Sunday, celebrate that
day that Jesus went up on the mountain and was changed and transfigured before
some of his disciples, in what was a living miracle. Then only three days after
this Transfiguration Sunday, we will begin the Lenten Season on Ash Wednesday.
The season where we prepare our hearts, our minds, and our souls for the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Between this
Sunday and the Transfiguration Sunday on Sunday March 2nd, we will go
through many of the gospel readings of Jesus’ ministry here on earth. We will
hear of healings, miracles, and some of the many things that Jesus taught us and
continues to teach us all each and every day.
On this Sunday specifically, I want
to speak about the calling that Jesus Christ has placed on all of our lives.
That all of us who believe in Him, can likely say that we have experienced God,
that we have experienced Him. Many of us that believe in Him, can say that we
don’t just believe in the God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but we
can say that we have experienced our faith. That we have felt the presence of
God move in us. Much like a tingling sensation, a warm sensation, or even a
loving hug, we have felt the living God from within.
Yes then, for
many of us, we know the living God. For many of us, we don’t just believe this because
it is the nice or a good thing to believe, we believe instead because He has
shown himself to us. We have seen, we have heard, and we have felt the living
God within us.
For some of
us, we can recall praying as a child, and feeling God’s overwhelming grace fill
us and blanket us. For some of us, we were in church on a given Sunday, and as
we were singing or praying, we felt the Holy Spirit move through us. Perhaps it
moved us to tears, as we knew the truth and power of God’s presence in us, and
in the whole universe. Maybe we had an experience in our life of great grief
and mourning that brought us to throne of grace, where we found Jesus our Lord.
You see my
brothers and sisters, when God call us, when we are called to be followers of
Jesus Christ, it isn’t like filling out a form at the DMV to register that car
you just brought. Real conversion, is conversion of the heart, the mind, and
the soul. It is something that we don’t just believe in, it is something that we
know. When people say to me, “Paul, do you believe that there is God,” I say, “No,
I know there is a God.”
Real
conversion then is so powerful, that you will do things like I did. You’re
willing to shift the entire direction of your life, enter school for 4-years,
and even drive about 180-miles each weekend, to serve God’s people. You see for
me, as I did all of these things, not to obtain a “good job,” but rather because
Jesus said to me, “Paul will you come and fish for people in my name.” I felt
the presence of the Holy Spirit move in me so many times in my twenties, yet I
fearfully denied my call, and fearfully found reasons to not fully follow Him.
About three and half years ago though, I decided to fully and faithfully follow
Jesus, and answer his call on my life. As part of this, my wife Melissa and I
will soon be putting our house on the market in Moravia, as we are selling all,
and following Him.
So my brothers
and sisters, if you have not already done so, Jesus calls to you right here and
now and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” He says, “Follow
me to holiness, follow me to truth, follow me to the great beyond, and follow
me to eternal life.” Jesus says, “Will you serve me, will you rebuild this
world in my image, and will you build my kingdom in the here and the now?” You
see the blessings, the joy, and the grace that Jesus Christ offers us is so
much more fulfilling than anything that this world can offer.
When looking
at the scripture reading from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah from this
morning, the prophet Isaiah tells us that. “The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them
light has shined.” This light, this calling, is that of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who says, “Follow me, and I will teach you to fish for people.”
The prophet
Isaiah goes on to say, “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its
joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.” Our joy is found in
Jesus Christ, the one who said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for
people.”
In the Apostle
Paul’s first Epistle or Letter to the Church in Corinth or the Corinthians, the
Apostle Paul tells the church, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that
there be no divisions among you, but be united in the same mind and the same
purpose.”
The Apostle
Paul then says, “it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are
quarrels among you my brothers and sisters.” Well luckily, church conflicts and
quarrels only occurred 2,000 years ago, and luckily we never have those
problems today. The Apostle is worried that the church in Corinth is following
him, or Apollos, or Cephas, when it was Jesus Christ only that they should be following.
The Apostle Paul then finished this first letter to the Corinthians by saying, “For
the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved it is the power of God.” “Follow me and I will teach to
you to fish for people.”
So like the
Apostle Paul told the church in the Corinth almost 2,000 years ago, “who do we
serve, and who called us to follow?”
In the gospel
according Mathew reading from this morning, Jesus had just heard that John the
Baptist had been arrested by King Herod, as Herod feared John the Baptist’s
power. John the Baptist also did not always speak so highly of King Herod, and
Herod would ultimately have John the Baptist beheaded.
Mathew tells
us in his gospel account, that when John was arrested, that Jesus “withdrew to
Galilee,” and then made his new “home in Capernaum by the sea.” This move that was
prophesized by the prophet Isaiah, many years before this. When Jesus was in
the town of Capernaum, Mathew then tells us in the gospel narrative about Jesus
that, “As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is
called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the see—for they were
fishermen.”
Then Jesus
looked at them and said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” You
see Jesus called them by name, and the gospel says that, “Immediately they left
their nets and followed him.” Then after this, “As he went from there, he saw
two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with
their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.” These two the
gospel reading then said, “Immediately they left the boat and their father, and
followed him.”
So we have
four men, Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, and John, who have all immediately left
everything and followed Jesus. The gospel of Mathew reading from this morning
then concluded with, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every
disease and every sickness among the people.”
Four
fishermen, people like us, whom were called to follow Him. Interestingly enough
I met four such men in Israel on the Sea of Galilee. The story of meeting these
men, is the story I am going close this sermon with this morning. Here is how
it goes:
On one of the
days on our pilgrimage trip to the Holy Land, we went to see the now city of
Capernaum, which is located on the Sea of Galilee. We saw different holy site
and other places their first in the morning. This day then included a mid-day
boat ride. After leaving a MacDonald’s with a fellow pilgrim John, at the shores
of the Sea of Galilee, we got aboard a boat that was crewed by four men. All
four of these men were from Israel and were all raised Jewish. Before the boat
left the shore, our dean from the United Theological Seminary read the gospel
scripture that I just read about Jesus telling these four different men, “Follow
me and I will make you fish for people.”
Suddenly we
then began heading out into the Sea of Galilee, as we did so many people, such
as myself were overcome with emotion. Many of us had tears flow down our cheeks
as the gospel reading from this morning had come to life for us.
After cruising
on the boat for a little while, the boat stopped, and then the captain of this
boat presented our group with a large fishing net, that he said would have
likely almost looked identical to one used by Jesus’ disciples that were
fishermen. Before casting this net into the water, the dean of our seminary
once again read a gospel reading, but this time it was the reading about Jesus
telling the disciples to cast their nets over the right side of the boat, and
the catch ended up being so massive that they couldn’t hall all the fish in.
The captain of
the boat then cast the net to the left side of the boat, and then the right
side of the boat. Sadly, he brought up no fish when casted the net, but Jesus
hadn’t commanded to do so either.
After doing
this, the captain then began to speak to us all. He told us how he and his
three shipmates met “Yashua” on the Sea of Galilee about 4-5 years ago. In
Hebrew “Yashua” means Jesus. You see these men are still very Jewish in many of
their beliefs, but like Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they are now followers
of Jesus.
The captain of
this boat then proceeded to sing great Christian praise songs that where all
partially in English and in Hebrew. Before doing this, the captain said that
his boat, was the only Christian boat tour company on the entire Sea of
Galilee. As the captain sang beautiful Christian praise songs that were half in
English and half in Hebrew, we all had an emotional response to hearing this
music on the Sea of Galilee.
During this emotional
response that I and everyone else was having, I came to the realization that
4-men, 4 fishermen and tour boat men, who were all born Jewish, were called to
follow Jesus or “Yashua” and become “fishers of people.” As I looked at this
large calloused handed ship captain that was signing beautifully, I thought, “This
could have been Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, or John. For on the whole of the
Sea of Galilee there were only 4-men, 4-fishermen that Jesus had called and
said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Today, it is
interesting that there are still four Christian men, followers of “Yashua” who
are on the Sea of Galilee called by Jesus to “fish for people.”
As the
magnitude of this hit me, and moved me to tears, as I realized that no matter
how many years away from Jesus actually walking along the Sea of Galilee, that
Jesus will always call forth new disciples. That Jesus will always say, “Follow
me and I will make you fish for people.”
Towards the
end of this boat ride, the 4-men said that one of the things that they do to
raise money to pay their bills, was to sell CD’s of their music, and necklaces
made out of smooth stones taken from the Sea of Galilee. I then turned to my
friend and fellow pilgrimage Steven, and said, “Stephen are you going to buy
anything.” He then said, “I don’t think so Paul, I think I am going to save my
money to buy others things.” Then he said, “Are you going to buy anything Paul.”
I said, “Of course I am.” Steven then said, “Why is that.” I said to brother
Steven, “Jesus has called just 4-fishersmen to fish for people on this entire
Sea of Galilee. In addition, they are signing about Jesus loudly, so that
people can here it far it away. So don’t you think we should support the
4-fisherman whom the Lord has called.”
As I bought a
necklace from the four fisherman, I looked back as Steven, and saw tears were
in his eyes. I then bought the necklace, and as I looked over again, he gave me
a look and nod, and then a few second later, he got up and bought something to.
So my brothers
and sisters, if Jesus Christ the living Lord says to you, “Follow me and I make
you fish for people,” I urge you take that call very seriously. I bring this
message in the name of the one who still calls fishermen on the Sea to Galilee
to come and follow and to fish for people, Jesus the living Christ. Amen.
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