“Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men.”And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.And he saith unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.
6 sermons cite this verse
… he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little further, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Amen. The most successful manager of an English soccer team ever is a Scot by the name of Sir Alec Ferguson. He's the manager of Manchester United, which will be of interest to about 1% of those listening to me. But he has actually written himself into the record books as the most successful manager of all time. Therefore, it is no surprise when in reading his autobiography, you come on these two sentences. He writes, I have devoted my life to football. Everything has been thrown overboard for it. I have devoted my life to football. Everything has been thrown overboard for it. Well, that is absolutely unequivocal. It's clear. It's his focus. …
… the entire time. So the first thing we got to do before the ride even starts is we got to commit to the ride. Look at Jesus and Peter committing to the ride in Matthew chapter four, verse 19. It says, Jesus called out to them, hey bro, come follow me and I'll show you how to fish for people. Look at verse 20 power. And they left their nets at once and followed him. How do you know they committed to the ride? Because Peter had to sacrifice something to have this type of relationship. See, many of us aren't willing to sacrifice anything to have a godly relationship. And he had to leave his business the way he made money. He said, I got skin in the game right now. I'm not just doing I'm committing to walk with you no matter what's going on. We are going to walk together And most of us will not commit because we won't even give up time To have a godly relationship. We won't give up habits We won't give up other people who are taking us the wrong direction and god says if you want godly relationship If you want an inner circle a real one, you're gonna have to commit to sacrificing something so that you can have this and and that's what god is calling all of us to do in our relationship with others and and i want everybody to hear me say this this is why this type of relationship can't be with a bunch of people …
… They were fishermen. He said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every illness among the people. The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Wait, you have a seat. So back in 1973, my grandma Helen was a nurse. Actually, she was the head nurse at a place called Sinai Hospital down in the Twin Cities. And she was a really hard worker. She loved her job. She loved being a nurse. She loved caring for her people. In fact, as a head nurse, she took care of other nurses. …
… and his brother Andrew. He said to them, come after me and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus, the king, is now beginning to gather in the tribes. Now, why do I say tribes? Because he's going to gather 12 of them, right? The 12 are symbolic of the gathered tribes of Israel. And then what job is he giving them? I will make you fishers of men. Ah, that's the old dream, isn't it? That a gathered Israel would now become the means by which all the tribes of the world are gathered in. Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, land of darkness, exile, division. Out of you is going to come this great light. And his work is an ingathering work. Oh, you know everybody who got this in his bones was a fellow who was studying under Gamaliel, the great rabbi. His name was Shaul, Saul from Tarsus. When he becomes the apostle Paul, once he meets the risen Jesus, what does he know? My job is to be a fisher of men outside the boundaries of Israel. …
… They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Now, Jesus comes on the scene here. Now, this is probably not the first time these guys have met Jesus. A lot of people think that John 1 gives us the initial picture of these guys being introduced to Jesus. This may have been a second or third occurrence where they interacted with him. But Jesus comes to them and he says two words, follow me. Literally, come after me. And in those two words, we begin to unpack what it means to be a disciple of Christ. What does it mean to follow Jesus? …
… To be his disciples Matthew 4.19 Follow me he said and I'll make you fishers of men. He didn't do that in a moment. That wasn't like a quick baptism. That was a process. That was three plus years of investing himself in their lives, being with them, watching them, giving input, giving counsel, teaching truth, sharing life together. he made his ongoing investment in them that he might form them, might change the shape of their souls, form how they think, how they desire, what they long for. Here's what I mean when I think about disciple-making. I'll give you a definition. Disciple-making, the way I'm talking about it, is the process in which a maturing believer invests himself for a particular period of time in one or just a few younger believers in order to help them grow in the faith, including helping them also invest in others who will invest in others. It's so great to say this in Birmingham because my life has been personally impacted by disciple makers who came out of Birmingham. …