Why Jesus Became a Fisherman Or Mark 1:16-18 Modernized To Fit Our Current Strategies of Cultural Engagement

Mike Leake

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus, desiring above all to make friends and influence people, knew that his only hope was to spend a day fishing with the boys. Knowing that he had to become all things to all men, the next morning Jesus hopped into the fishing boat with Simon and Andrew, with his holy fishing net in hand.

After spending a good day chumming with his new pals, things got a bit awkward as Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they were offended because he didn’t affirm their lifestyle. Their very identity was wrapped up in being fisherman, it was the deepest part of who they were. So they scoffed at the notion that Jesus would call them to be something different than fishers of fish. Thankfully, before they leveled words like “narrow” and “bigoted” Jesus decided love and relationship was more important, so he left his cross and became a fisherman.

-Mark 1:16-18 (modernized just a bit to fit our terrific strategies for cultural engagement)

The False Freedom Which Leads to Bondage

Mike Leake 1 Comment

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. –Proverbs 16:25

There is a path that I see more and more people in my generation going down. It’s an appealing path in our post-Christian context. It allows us to capitulate and take the posture of humble question askers—all the while, denying thousands of years of orthodoxy. Such a posture will keep us from the label of ‘bigot’ and will allow us—at least in the eyes of the world—to continue down the path of love.

It doesn’t really matter what doctrine is denied this path has the same trailhead. I suppose you could call it the man-centeredness. But what it really is, is that instead of the heralding the biblical gospel of a holy God redeeming unworthy sinners the church has tried to Christianize our cultural narcissism. In our culture the good news of Jesus is that God primarily exists to make me happy. God has a wonderful and prosperous plan for my life, every thing He does is aimed at accomplishing this goal.(See here and here). Our culture is radically obsessed with self. Preach a “gospel” which affirms the self at the center and you won’t have a problem getting an ear.

I understand the appeal to this path. Everything we read in our Bibles tells us that people saw Jesus as loving. Love—whatever that might mean—seems to be the ultimate ethic. As the apostle said, if we don’t have love we “have nothing and “are nothing”. As near as I can tell few in the New Testament accused Jesus of being bigoted. (Though, I’ve often wondered if the rich young ruler muttered a few choice words as he walked away from the narrow gospel of Jesus). As followers of Jesus we know we are to be loving, so it throws us for a loop when the world views us as narrow, bigoted, and supremely unloving. Combine this with the fact that many in my generation have been absolutely burned by church people who actually are unloving, and it makes the path of “affirming our inherent goodness” and “affirming gay marriage” a rather attractive option.

But I’m convinced it is a path void of the gospel.

Imagine with me a styrofoam buoy anchored somewhere out in the sea. We all know that the only way the styrofoam is able to stand firm in one position is because it is attached to an anchor far stronger than the waves. Now what if this little piece of styrofoam desires to pursue freedom and detaches himself from the anchor. What’s going to happen to that piece of styrofoam? Is it going to be free?

What feels like freedom at first will inevitably lead to bondage. At first that little piece of styrofoam would have felt quiet free. No longer anchored to the buoy, no longer confined by the anchors desires and demands, it rejoices in its new found freedom. But after awhile, when the waves toss it to and fro that freedom won’t feel so free. That little piece of styrofoam is a slave to the purposeless will of the waves. The waves of freedom will take it wherever they want to go and not ultimately where the detached styrofoam was hoping to land.

Of course it isn’t of much consequence if a piece of styrofoam detaches while on the safety of the shore. If there aren’t waves then I suppose detaching from the anchor might be a bit safer. But buoys aren’t meant for land. They are meant for the sea. And detaching from the anchor is deadly.

In the same way the humble question asker and the guy who is perpetually “on a journey” might be able to get away with such things if he wasn’t out to sea and in the midst of a torrent of waves. But such question asking is never neutral. There is a real spiritual enemy who wants to shipwreck our souls. Detach from the anchor of biblical truth and you are at his mercy. The freedom that you so desire won’t end in freedom.

What is needed in this day and age…when scores of people are tossed to and fro by the waves…and beaten to death by the mock freedom of our hyper-sexualized and humanity destroying culture…are men and women bold enough and brave enough to believe God has already spoken. There are some questions that don’t need to be asked and some conversations that really don’t need to take place. As Spurgeon so aptly said, “We do not deliberate, for we have decided. To be for ever holding the truth of God, as though it might yet turn out to be a lie, were to lose all the comfort of it.”

God saves sinners.

When you place yourself in that statement it is the most glorious and offensive statement of all. And though it doesn’t appear to be so, those who are walking down any of the uber appealing man-centered paths of our culture are robbing people of this hope. They are promoting a freedom which is slavery, a life which is death, and a pleasure which is only temporary.

The narrow path is so much sweeter.

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Photo source: here

Today in Blogworld 11.02.16

Mike Leake

The Bible Never Says ‘All Men Are Created Equal’

Still chewing on this one, but interesting thoughts.

How to Pray For Pastor’s Kids

I’d appreciate anyone praying these things for my children.

When There is Unexplained Distance in a Friendship

Friendships are too important to not have hard conversations.

Do You Get Nervous Before You Preach?

I get nervous if I’m not nervous…if that makes any sense at all.

My son showed me this little gem:

You’re Doing It Wrong

Mike Leake

Is your prayer life sometimes boring? Hard to pay attention? Often get distracted? Feel just like you are going through the motions? I know that I’ve had seasons just like that. I’ve already confessed that if I’m not careful I’ll drift into rote and meaningless prayers before meal time.

I’m convinced that our theology and worldview is on full display in the way that we pray (or don’t pray). I agree with J.I. Packer who said, “I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face”. My prayer life lays bare not only the things which are important to me but also how important and self-sufficient I think I am. Prayerlessness reveals a self-sufficient heart.

Do you remember that old television show Rescue 911? We would get to listen to actual 911 calls and then watch relatively cheesy reenactments of the paramedics coming to the rescue. As a child I watched that show pretty regularly. Never once did I hear a caller suddenly stop and say, “Oh, sorry, I got distracted by the squirrels outside on the power line…what were we talking about?”

That never happened because when you called in to 911 you knew that this phone call was vital to saving the life of a loved one. The call was vital. Compare this, though, to the way we often pray. It isn’t desperate. I think we so often forget that we are in war. I love John Piper’s metaphor of this:

The number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of a believers is that they try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.

Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission (“Go and bear fruit”), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general’s headquarters, and said, “Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you or your comrades need it.”

But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den. (Piper, Prayer the Work of Missions)

If your prayer life is dull it’s likely because your theology is dull.

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Photo source: here