There's no-one around and the boats have been pulled up onto the beach, but the nets are still full of fish, awaiting attention. The sign by the nearer boat says GONE FISHING. That doesn't seem right though. Which boat have they used? Not their own, because those are still here. And there isn't a boat out to sea, so where are they fishing? You don't leave nets full of fish unattended anyway. Something must be wrong.
In fact, everything was very right. Peter, Andrew, John and James had been invited by the new Rabbi, Jesus, to go fishing with him - but for men (Luke's Gospel, chapter 5, verses 1-11). Jesus had been causing quite a stir with his track record of miraculous healings, exorcisms and powerful teaching. An invitation to join his team was not to be missed. So they had just left everything immediately and gone off into Galilee with the man who might possibly be the long awaited Messiah. After a while an older man, Zebedee, turns up and confirms that his sons, John and James, have left with Jesus.
Jesus is in the business of fishing for people. While on Earth he taught in a way that made you sit up and listen, not like the other religious teachers of the day, and performed miraculous signs and wonders wherever he went. Being part of his team was risky, but if you wanted to take a shot at finding the truth like you'd never known it before, he was the person to follow. If he asked you to leave your fish-fishing business to do that, the choice was simple: carry on living a mundane, smelly life on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, or be adventurous and throw in your lot with the most exciting person the region had seen for a long, long time, perhaps ever.
Peter, Andrew, James and John followed Jesus to go fishing for people; Jesus is calling us to do the same - and it's really exciting!
The two pairs of brothers decided to take the risk. Jesus trained them for three years and then left them, with seven others, in charge of his followers when he ascended to Heaven after rising from the dead. Then he sent his Holy Spirit upon them and these lowly fishermen, who had given up everything to be with Jesus, started to turn the world upside down. They told people about the risen and ascended Son of God, how there was salvation, freedom and healing in his name, and how anyone who believed in Jesus as the Son of God, who had died to set them free from the power of sin and death, could receive the Holy Spirit and live radically transformed lives themselves. Thousands of people gave their lives to God and joined the rapidly growing Church in the wake of their message and accompanying miracles.
Is that how you want your life to be? Then it can be. Are you a Christian frustrated by the limitations of what your church is offering by way of opportunity to get out and do the stuff that the early Christians did, as recorded in Acts? Do you think that you haven't been trained to do that stuff? Have you heard that that 'stuff' is the stuff of legend or that things are different now, because we have the Bible and an established church? The devil has a vested interest in letting us think these things, but God is still in the business of fishing for people. The harvest is ripe and he is calling for people to join his team. Nothing has changed - the Christian life can still be as it was in the 1st Century, as recounted by Luke in Acts and discussed in the pages of the New Testament letters.
If you want to break out into a dynamic, purpose-filled Christian life, then you can offer a surrendered life to God, ask him to fill you with his Spirit, tell people about the Good News of Jesus through whatever means you have at your disposal and expect miracles to follow as you pray for people and situations. There is nothing to stop us! Not ourselves or anyone else. If you don't yet know Jesus, then giving you life to him would be the most exciting thing that you could ever do.
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