Luke 5:10 (NKJV) — 10 and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”

The phrase “catch men” comes from two Greek words:

ζωγρέω   zōgreō and ἄνθρωπος   anthrōpos 

“Zōgreō” means to “catch alive.” “Anthrōpos” means men.

It the most literal sense it means to catch men alive.

Jesus is saying to Peter, “Peter, what you are doing for a living is not what you are going to do with your life.  You catch fish for a living.  You are going to catch people for life.”

“Peter, you are spending your life catching fish to kill them so that you can earn a living.  However, you are going to now spend the rest of your life catching people so that they may live!”

Don’t let this go past you: What Jesus is telling Peter that he is going to do, is the exact thing that Jesus had been doing.  The reason that Jesus could tell Peter to catch people is because Jesus had caught him.

“Peter, you have been caught so that you may go out and find others.  You were lost…but now you are found so that you can go out and rescue other lost people.”

From now on Peter’s life was going to be built around two things:

Finding lost people and making them into committed, reproducing disciples.

That was God’s will for Peter and all of the early disciples and that is still God’s will for every follower of Jesus and every church.  That is why the mission statement of Grace Baptist (my church) is: “To reach West Tennessee, America, and the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.”  Why?  It’s simple.  Jesus said so.

Whenever you walk into your church and see an empty chair, you shouldn’t see the chair, you should see a missed opportunity–a lost person far from God–or a saved person that is not being discipled.

How do “catch men alive” and get them on the path to discipleship?  The answer is incredibly simple and may sound trite…you have to do exactly what Peter did:

Surrender to the call of God on your life.

Look at what they did:

Luke 5:11 (NKJV) — 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

If you are being honest with yourself, that will make you pause and swallow hard.  These men basically signed their names to a blank papyrus and Jesus hadn’t even spelled out the terms of the contract yet.

Christianity is so much more than simply accepting Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins so you can go to heaven when you die. That’s the beginning.

As a follower of Jesus, you are also called to live out His purpose for your life and make that life count…for Him!  We should be willing as once lost people to live our lives on a rescue mission to find other lost people.

Catch people like you were caught.

Is it scary? Yes, it is.  Is it costly?  Yes, it is. 

Read any news article…it is a risk to live the Christian life in 2017.  Make no mistake about it and don’t listen to anyone who tells you different: Christians are becoming one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world…and our nation.

It is a risk to share your faith with people you know.  It could be embarrassing or strain relationships.

It is a risk to stand firm for your beliefs when the world around you says they are out of date and you are a bigot or a hypocrite.

When you decide to step out and follow Jesus, He takes responsibility for the journey.

We need to follow Jesus, not because He needs us, but because we need Him to take life from the monotonous to the momentus.

Pastor Marcus