Viewing page 12 of 40

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

"Mending Broken Nets"
(Seventeenth Street Baptist Church)
*   *   *

TEXT: And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. MATTHEWS 4:21.

Our text this morning accounts for some of the early activities of our Lord in securing workers. He made no pretension of working alone, he rather sought to pull others in on His program. He sought to ally men to Himself. In the story before us, He is calling the fishermen to become the fishers of men. These were personal calls that the Master made. Not just general calls, but personal. He still calls personally, to me, and to you.

Everywhere, the world was preoccupied by religions rooted in centuries of traditions and national memories, by philosophies buttressed by great and cheerished [sic] names, by venerable institutions, and local prejudices. So it was a matter of the kind of men that Jesus would commit the exceptional and arduous enterprise of establishing His own kingdom as supreme over all. This call was not made to Nicodemus, the Pharisee of position. It was not to the instructed Scribes who were seeking to get into His cabinet. It was not the noblemen of His day. Jesus turns to quite another class. He makes His selection from those who could sacrifice positions; those who had the spirit of subordination; those who could follow. His choice brought Him very speedily into a storm of indignation, but in spite it, Jesus called and used these men that had one essential requisite, men who could take orders and follow. One of His early calls was to a publician: [sic] as if some modern reformer should secure the help of an actor, or a tavern-keeper. 

Down on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee plenty business was carried on. Fishing in the lake gave employment to many. They were not fishing for sport, but for support, livelihood. It was to this place that the Master resorted to find some workers for His vineyard. Luke tells us that even those who were failing in the fishing business were given a build up by our Lord. He stimulated them by permitting them to catch some fish before He called them into His services. He said to them, try again under my direction. Thus He succeeded in pulling together, and around Himself a potential group of workers whom he could qualify.

We must first be Christians, if we would do Christian work. The most Christ-like make the best kind of fisher-

8