Matt. 4:18-20 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. (19) And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (20) And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
Jesus, as a teacher and a religious leader was a revolutionary. In so many ways he went against traditional thinking. In his sermon on the mount, he taught several lessons that went against the nature of man. For instance he taught his followers to “turn the other cheek”. Likewise, in this passage we find a similar radical thought. Instead of Jesus recruiting specialists to continue and spread his mission, he went to common, ordinary folks. Here in Matt. 4, Jesus finds two “blue collar”, uneducated fisherman. They have no formal training in theology. They are not accomplished public speakers. They have no experience in changing the minds of masses of people. But, ordinary, even uneducated people were the very kinds of people Jesus continually sought after and chose. Notice very carefully what he tells them as he recruits them. “I will make you to Be...”. Jesus was able to take fisherman, tax collectors and other common people and revolutionized the world. So what does that say about his disciples? They must be willing to be molded, shaped and trained to be what God needs them to be. There is something beautiful about this concept. Too often, I have run across people thought they were not good enough to be a Christian. And the reality is, that, in manner of speaking, they are right.
Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
No one, because of the sin that we have committed...not a single human being, with the exception of Jesus himself, is deserving of ANYTHING from God. But, when we are willing to be a followers or disciples of Jesus, HE will help us to be what God wants us to be. We do not have to be flawless in order to be a disciple, We don’t even have to fix ourselves first to become a follower of God. Jesus is will to take care of all of that. But...we have to be willing to change and to be changed by Him.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
That change or transformation must begin in our minds. And eventually must transform our whole being. But when we are willing to change and be changed, God can turn a fisherman into a world-class preacher. He can turn a murderer into a missionary. And he can turn what ever you are today...Into great things for his benefit.
Reflecting the SON,
Dennis Hogan
12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.
Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com
If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward
their e-mail address to me and I will add them to my mail list.
No comments:
Post a Comment