This sermon is from the series THINGS JESUS TAUGHT US and was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log Georgia on October 27, 2013 by Pastor Paul Mims. You can hear this sermon at www.csbccl.org

Matthew 4: 18-25Hear a parable of the modern day church.

On a dangerous seacoast there were often shipwrecks. Because of this a life-saving station was built there. It was just a little hut to begin with. In fact, they only had one boat. But those devoted lifesavers would constantly scan the area watching for ships on the shoals. Day or night, whenever there was a shipwreck, they would make their way out through the surf to rescue the sailors as their ship was breaking apart. They risked their lives to save the people who were drowning.

After a while, this lifesaving station became famous and others were drawn to it from the surrounding areas. They wanted to be a part of this life saving work. Some of those who had been rescued devoted their lives to this work. Their workers increased and the work became so great that they said, “We can no longer operate out of this little hut. Let’s build a larger building.”

So they did. They took out the emergency cots and replaced them with comfortable beds. They discarded the wooden chairs and replaced them with comfortable chairs and sofas. Soon the enlarged building became a place where the members loved to come and talk with one another. They would discuss the work of lifesaving. They continued to remodel and redecorate until the building took on the atmosphere of a club.

As time went by, fewer and fewer members were interested in going out on lifesaving missions. So, they said, “We must hire people to do this.” They employed a professional group of people to go out on the life-saving missions for them. The life-saving motif was still a part of this life-saving club. They had it on their stationery and in their board room. They even had a small model of a life-saving boat.

One day, a large ship was sinking near the coast and the hired crew went out and rescued many of the cold, wet, and half drowned people. They were dirty, bruised, and some were injured and bleeding. The beautiful club was soiled by having these people sit on their new chairs and sofas.

At the next meeting the property committee was so upset that they proposed that they stop this style of rescuing people from the sea. Others said, “No, we can’t do that. We were founded to save lives from ships sinking off our coast.” The majority said, “If you want to do it that way, you must go farther down the coast and do your life-saving there.”

They did. They went down the coast and built a little hut. They got a boat. They watched for ships in distress and they risked their lives to save others. This was their passion and they became very good at it. They became known for their work of rescuing people from the shipwrecks of life.

Which one of these groups would you like to be associated with? Would you like to be a church that sees life-saving as one of its major purposes and has the majority of the members involved in rescuing the perishing?

This is a day when the heartbeat of the church needs to be the rescuing of men and women, boys and girls, out of the seas of delusion, despair, and lostness.

Jesus described his mission in Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

The purpose of the Father in sending Jesus into the world was “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you, fishers of men.” I believe that this is the constant heartbeat of our Lord. We have to be reminded of why we are established on the coast of people’s lives and that we are given a life-saving and soul-saving mission. If we are following Jesus – that is our mission.

In our text today, Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. It was early in the morning and the fishermen were coming in from their night of fishing. They had encountered Jesus before this and were drawn to him. In John 1:35-42, Andrew recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and brings Peter to him. Now, in this scene, He called them to follow him and said that he would make them fishers of men.

I. JESUS SPOKE TO THEIR LONGINGS.

Listen carefully, because I believe that Jesus can speak to our longings in the same way today. I can imagine that as Peter and Andrew thought about the fact that they had found the Messiah that they wondered what this would mean for their lives and for the future of the world. They were no longer content to just devote their lives to fish. They saw a higher meaning to life than just casting nets. Jesus struck a chord in their hearts when he touched their longing to be a part of something that would have implications throughout life and beyond.

The concept of “longings” has been defined as “Thoughts and feelings about all facets of life that are unfinished or imperfect, paired with a yearning for ideal experiences. It has been referred to as “life’s longings”; or an individual’s search for happiness while coping with the reality of unattainable wishes. Such feelings are usually profound.

It is sometimes felt as a longing for a far-off country, but not a particular earthly land which we can identify. Furthermore there is something in the experience which suggests this far-off country is very familiar and indicative of what we might otherwise call “home”. In this sense it is a type of nostalgia, in the original sense of that word. At other times it may seem as a longing for a someone or even a something. But the majority of people who experience it are not conscious of what or who the longed for object may be, and the longing is of such profundity and intensity that the subject may immediately be only aware of the emotion itself and not cognizant that there is a something longed for. The experience is one of such significance that ordinary reality may pale in comparison, as in Walt Whitman’s closing lines to “Song of the Universal”

Is it a dream?

Nay but the lack of it the dream,
And failing it life’s lore and wealth a dream
And all the world a dream.” (from Wikipedia)

I know that there are unfulfilled longings in some of our hearts this morning. I know that many of you have become Christians and you have not yet found the path by which you can say, “By this, I serve my Savior.” Can you hear him saying to you today, “I want you to bring people to me?”

I want to show you how people did it in our church at Druid Hills in Atlanta. I kept a record of one who told someone and how it led on to others and brought them into the church.

We visited a home and found no one there. We were distributing paperback Bibles so we left one there with some information about the church. A young woman came home and saw the Bible, picked it up and read the materials and came to church the next Sunday. On the following Sunday, she brought her boyfriend with her. They soon made professions of faith in Christ and baptized. Soon they were married. Their names were Runelle and Spencer Williams. They invited their friends, Gary and Heidi Hunt. The Hunts became workers in the Youth department. Gary operated a television camera on Sunday mornings to televise our service.

Then Hinson and Evelyn McAuliffe went to Gary and Linda Mcnay’s home and left a Bible and gave them an invitation to worship with us. In time, Gary became the Director of our Adult 2 Department and also a deacon.

Someone went to the home of Eric and Tricia Barganier and gave them a Bible. Sometime later they came to church and in a few years, Eric became a deacon. Someone left a brochure and a Bible at the home of Leslie Heermans. She called her sister, Gloria Garrett and said, “This Bible study class is just what we have been looking for.” They both came, made professions of faith and were baptized.

This is the way that the kingdom grows: someone tells someone who tells someone who tells someone and on it goes. These families came from the simple acts of giving them a Bible and an invitation to church which had eternal consequences.

I first became interested in evangelism when I was in the eleventh grade in high school. On weekends I worked in Mr. Ramsey’s grocery store. On Saturday night, I had a thirty minute supper break and I would go around to Mr. Bush’s store where he offered some Christian books. I bought one on “How to Lead a Person to Christ.” I studied it and learned how to present the gospel to another person. The next summer, I served as a lifeguard at the swimming pool of Camp Ben Lippen near Asheville, North Carolina. Lots of children and youth came to the camp. I made it my goal to lead as many of them to Christ as I could. The Lord gave a good harvest and I was excited that He could use me for such a vital mission. There is a deep joy in doing something that will affect someone’s eternal destiny.

II. JESUS SPOKE TO THEIR FRUSTRATIONS.

They had been waiting all of their lives to hear of the Messiah’s coming. Generations before them had waited in vain. Now in their lifetime he was here and was calling them to himself. Their hearts leaped with joy that they could be involved in his Kingdom. He told them that they would catch men instead of fish. So, in an epic moment, they followed him to begin a lifelong journey as fishers of men. I sense a deep longing in our church to reach more people and a frustration that we are not reaching more for the Kingdom. The answer to this is that we all respond to the call of our Lord to be fishers of men, women, boys and girls.

There is a lot of frustration in us about what is happening in our culture. We see almost 70% of our neighborhoods un-churched. Then in a moment like this Jesus says to us, “You can be a fisher of men.” You can give copy of the pastor’s sermon or a CD, or a brochure with an invitation to those you come across in your daily lives.

I asked Janice if I could share this writing from her spiritual diary.

“I am walking down a Jerusalem street near Pilate’s Hall, when I am taken back by a scene most repulsive. Groveling in a dark corner is a twisted, blind, and leprous woman, seemingly half animal, half human. She is hideous to look upon, but I am mysteriously drawn to her. I ask her name, and in a muddled speed that comes from a muddled mind, she said, “My name is …” I cannot understand her. As I ponder her plight and the multitude of experiences that brought her to her present condition, I had seen in the near distance, and heard the sound of steel and leather being swung through the air, and heard it finding its mark. With each repetition of this sound, I faintly detected a low moan. After some seconds, my attention was drawn back to the woman, who also had been listening. What was happening to her? She looks changed. She looks as if her skin has lost its leprosy. That horrible sound continues to be heard, but with each swing of the whip the woman’s back becomes straighter. I am awed by this transformation that I see before me. At last I am conscious that the ugly sound is no more. In its place is the cry of the anxious mob, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

The woman struggles to her twisted feet. She begins to follow the swirling mob and she makes her way toward the figure in the midst. He is carrying a rough cross. Suddenly, the woman and I are standing before the cross upon which now hangs that figure. Her blind eyes are gazing into the abyss of blackness. No, she is seeing this one on that horrible structure and she is crying. And as she cries, her twisted back is made straight. Her ugliness is changed to beauty, her blindness to wholeness.

She begins to sing quietly. But what language is she using? English? Spanish? Japanese? Chinese? No. She is singing in all languages. As she turns to go, she is a beautiful woman. I call to her, “Wait! I know I have seen you before. Please, I must know who you are. What is your name?” In a voice clear as crystal echoing over Jerusalem, she says, “My name is World.” “For God so loved the World…by His stripes we are healed.”

Have you ever been fishing for souls? Can you name someone who is a Christian because of your witness? Have you ever intentionally sought someone for Christ?

What will we do? Will we just improve the looks of the place for our own comfort and satisfaction? Or will we thrust out into the seas where people are drowning and throw them a lifeline?

On Christ, the solid rock we stand. Let’s help others stand with us.

PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!