What does it really means to leave your nets to follow Christ?
To get an idea, let’s go back to Bible times. Imagine you’re living 2,000 years ago near the Sea of Galilee. You’re a fisher by trade. Today, as every day, you take your boat out to try to catch enough fish to earn some income for your family.
Recently, you’ve been pouring out your heart to God because, somehow you feel there’s more to life than just catching fish every day, or rather, trying to catch fish . Some days are better than others.
In fact, today is one of those days where you didn’t catch a single fish. You were out there all night long, and not a single fish, not one.
It’s pretty discouraging. You’ve just come to shore. You are exhausted. You feel defeated. You wonder is this fishing business is really worth it after all. You haven’t had a good catch in days.
In fact, you’re a little worried about how this is all going to play out. You need to catch enough fish to sell in the market so you can feed your family.
The “Stranger”
As you pull your boat to shore and start to put away your nets, a total Stranger walks up to you and says, “Take your boat out to the deep water and throw your nets in the water one more time.”
You can’t believe the audacity, not to mention the absurdity of this stranger’s remarks, and so you explain what has happened. But he is not impressed in the least. Once again he tells you to launch your boat and take it out to the deep waters, cast your nets, and that you’ll catch a bunch of fish.
It sounds so ridiculous.
But there’s something about this stranger. His voice has a calm conviction you’ve never heard from anyone else. And he speaks with such authority. It’s really impossible to refuse him.
So against your better judgment, you agree to take your boat out to the deep water again.
As you’re maneuvering your rig out to that deep spot in the lake, you can’t believe you listened to that guy. Who does he think he is? He’s obviously not a fisherman that you’ve ever seen before. How can he speak with such authority?
You get to the spot you have in mind and, for just a minute, wonder if you’ve gone crazy. You were in this same section of the lake less than an hour before and there was no sign of any fish at all.
Casting your net one more time
As you cast your net into the lake, for some unexplainable reason, you’re suddenly filled with an intense expectation. You actually think you might catch some fish.
And then it happens. The boat lurches to starboard. The water is churning. And you run to haul your net back into the boat. It is so full of fish you are giddy with disbelief. You try to get the net into the boat but it’s too heavy and starts to tear. You call to some friends who are out with their boat for help.
Together you struggle back to shore, trying to keep fish from escaping your torn nets.
As you come to shore, you see the stranger beaming with joy. He says to you with that same air of serene confidence and authority: “Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men.”
Back to the present
Let’s come back to the 21st century. Of course I’m talking about Peter’s encounter with Jesus, when Jesus called Peter and his brother Andrew to become his disciples.
There are so many really important aspects of this story. Sometimes, even after we have worked long and hard on a project at work, at church, or maybe even with our family, there may be no visible results. It feels like you’ve wasted your time, exhausted your resources, and have completely failed at what you set out to do.
It’s at these moments we need to hear and obey the words of Jesus: Launch out into the deep.
Does Jesus want you to get a boat and go fishing?
Now you’re probably be thinking: Hey James, I don’t have a boat. How can I take it out to deep water? How does this apply to me? Am I supposed to buy a boat so I can obey Jesus and catch a bunch of fish?
Of course not. It’s the spirit of what Jesus is saying we need to focus on.
It will look different depending on who you are and what you’re working on. It’s about not using your human mind trying to figure things out. It’s not about just doing what you want to do or the way you’ve always done things. It’s about hearing and obeying the voice of Christ.
It could mean you try one more time something you’ve tried a dozen times without any success. Or it could mean trying something completely different and going in a new direction. As I said, it’s about hearing the voice of Christ and following that guidance.
Peter and Andrew left their nets to follow Christ
The real lesson of this story for me is the fact that Jesus asked Peter and Andrew to leave their nets, their livelihood, the profession they knew, to follow him.
This incident happened at the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry. It’s fascinating to me that at the end of Jesus’s time here on earth, a very similar situation occurred.
Peter and a few other disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Early the next morning, Jesus, whom they didn’t recognize, was on the shore and asked if they had caught anything. Then he said,
“Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. John 21:6 NIV
You can read the whole story in John, Chapter 21.
I love the parallels between what happened in these two situations. Each time, there were disciples in a boat who had fished all night and caught nothing. Each time, Jesus gave them instructions to cast their nets one more time into the water. Each time, when they obeyed Jesus, they caught lots of fish.
James and John also left their nets to follow Christ
Now the really important thing to notice is that, when Jesus first called Peter and Andrew, they left their nets to follow him.
At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:20 NIV
The same thing happened with James and John, who were also fishermen.
Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1:20 NIV
There’s an immediacy here that we need to notice. Peter, Andrew, James, and John all responded instantly to Jesus’s call. And Jesus didn’t waste any time in asking them either.
Do you leave your nets to follow Christ the way Peter did?
Do we respond with the same immediacy?
All too often we think it’s all up to us to decide to follow Christ. It’s a personal choice we make. And that’s an important part of following Christ. But Jesus puts a different perspective on what it means to follow him and be his disciple.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. John 15:16 NIV
I sincerely believe Christ is calling to every heart, to every single person on this earth: Follow me. But a lot of people have not heard the call, or not yet any way. Some who do hear, don’t answer that call. They hold onto their own agenda, their own opinions, their own perspectives and desires, and their own way of doing things.
That’s kind of like fishing all night and not catching anything.
When you go back to your nets
Sometimes, even when you have answered Christ’s call to leave your nets, and are following him to the best of your ability, you return to your old way of doing things, the way Peter and others went back to fishing after Jesus’s resurrection. They really weren’t sure what to do next.
They returned to something familiar. It gave them time to think, and maybe even pray. But that didn’t really have the answers they needed.
But just as Jesus was standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee calling out to the disciples to cast their nets on the right side, Christ is calling out to you and me.
When you find yourself “fishing all night and catching nothing,” trying so hard but resorting to doing things the way you’ve done them in the past, or going back to something familiar and having no success, Christ is on the shore of your thinking calling you to cast your nets on the right side, to attempt whatever you’re doing with a right motive, a motive to glorify God instead of yourself.
Now the Bible doesn’t tell us every detail of the disciples’ lives, but there’s never another mention of them going back to their nets to catch fish. Once they had been baptized by the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they were truly focused on being fishers of men, as Jesus had promised they would be. They left their human opinions and ways of doing things and focused on preaching the gospel of Christ wherever God led them and to as many people as possible.
How to actually leave your “nets” to follow Christ
So, how does all this apply to you and me? What does it really mean to leave our nets to follow Christ and how do we do it?
Well, I’ll share a few ideas I’ve found really helpful. First, it’s important to realize Christ is calling you to leave behind your way of doing things, your agenda, your opinions and preconceptions of what life is all about and how to achieve your goals. And at the same time realizing you’re not just being called to leave behind your old way of doing things and seeing and think, but that Christ is calling you to follow him.
The first step in that process may be to do what you’re currently doing with a different motive. Instead of pursing your current job or approach to life because of what you want, or because of other people’s expectations and demands, listen for Christ telling you when and how to approach your normal routines.
You might have a really important position in a big corporation, or you might be a school teacher, a carpenter, or a stay-at-home parent. Whatever you do, if you’re going about your daily duties with no greater motives than to boost your own ego and influence, if you have heard Christ calling you and you truly desire to follow him, then the first thing you may need to do is either leave your nets altogether or cast them on the right side of the boat. In other words, leave what you’re doing altogether or commit what you’re doing to God’s glory instead of your own.
Listening for Christ’s voice
The point is to listen for Christ’s voice and follow whatever he says to do. You could be in a particular position that would give you an opportunity to glorify God more than if you left that position. Or, in hearing Christ’s call to you, you might have a clear idea of doing something completely different from what you do now.
It’s really important in this process to cultivate your innate ability to hear Christ speaking to you. And you do have that ability.
Sometimes we struggle with what we hear Christ calling us to do.
About fifteen years ago or so, I would ask God what He wanted me to do. Actually, I’ve been asking that question for decades, but it was about fifteen years ago that, every time I asked this question, the answer was: Preach my Gospel to all the world.
You’ll recognize this as what Jesus said to his disciples just before he ascended
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Mark 16:15 NIV
I felt a deep calling to do this. I had no idea what that involved or how I would do it, but I felt seen and that my prayer to further the Cause of Christ had been heard.
It’s hard to leave all to follow Christ all at once
But as I pondered the idea of what it could mean to preach the gospel to all creation, and the need on my part to be more obedient to Christ, and to be more Christlike in my daily thoughts and actions, I felt so far away from being qualified to even begin to think about sharing Christ’s message in a small way, let alone to the whole world.
Seeing my own spiritual shortcomings, and feeling alternately qualified and unqualified for the task, I basically told God , “Well. You just better find someone else, because I just don’t feel spiritually ready for this job.” But over the next several years, every time I asked God what he wanted me to do, I would get the same answer: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
I had no idea how that would happen, so I just kept trying to follow Christ more closely in my daily life.
One step at a time
It was about that same time that someone asked me to help them with a local prison ministry. I began doing weekly Bible study at the Danbury, Connecticut Federal Correctional Institution.
The more I shared Bible stories with the men and women there, the better I got at making the Bible relevant to their needs. I found ways to talk about the Bible in non-dogmatic but practical ways. People’s lives were being transformed. Their faith was rejuvenated. It was beautiful to see.
I began to realize how God was preparing me speak to a wider audience. The Bible study classes at the prison were my first little baby footsteps out into the world preaching the gospel to every creature.
At that point, about six years ago, I started feeling the call to start a podcast about the Bible. I already had a blog with the same name, The Bible Speaks to You. But I wasn’t very consistent with it.
And so The Bible Speaks to You podcast was launched in the fall of 2019. In the almost 5 ½ years since I’ve been producing the podcast, there have been, as I’m recording this episode, listeners in 193 countries and 8067 cities around the world.
That’s just so amazing to me. Several years ago when that number was around 80 or 90 countries, I realized that I really was going out into the world and preaching the gospel to all creation. This is even more so the case now.
This is all very, very humbling. As I said, it’s so amazing to me that this is what’s happening.
Leaving my nets to follow Christ
But in this process, I’ve had to leave some of my nets behind. I still have a few that I’m working on, by the way. I have had to let go of other activities, but mostly I’ve had to let go of old ways of thinking, limited beliefs about what I was capable of, self-doubt, and egotism.
In going forward, I can see some activities I need to let go of, things I’ve enjoyed in the past, but are no longer relevant to what I want or need to focus on in order to go forward with this calling Christ has put on my heart.
Just so you know, the way things have developed and unfolded were usually not according to the way I thought I should do things or the what people in the podcasting industry have recommended. Things have been more successful when I listen for where Christ is guiding me instead of trying to figure things out for myself or take someone else’s advice without trying the spirits.
When you can make the switch from doing something for your own benefit and for your own personal reasons to simply desiring to obey and glorify God, that is when you have begun to leave your nets to follow Christ.
To follow Christ, leave your nets (it may look different than you think)
Let’s say you wanted to be obedient to Christ’s call to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all mankind. One of the obvious ways to do that might be to become a missionary for your church, or perhaps some other church role that would get you out in the world.
There are lots of ways to do that. You could write a book, start a YouTube channel, or a podcast. You could start of be part of a foundation that ministers to a worldwide audience. But sometimes we need to start closer to home, literally and figuratively. Sometimes we need to start with ourselves within our own hearts.
Years ago I heard about a young man who went to volunteer with Mother Theresa in India. He was so inspired by what she was doing. He wanted to be part of it. She basically told him to go home and do something in his own community.
He had been willing to travel half way around the world to be part of something but it had never occurred to him he could do the same thing in his own hometown.
To follow Christ, start where you are
The point is, start with yourself. Start where you are, with what you’re doing, what you’re involved in. And see where God takes you.
What activities do you need to leave behind right now to follow Christ more closely? What habits do you need to let go of? What thoughts are you holding onto that keep you from following Christ?
It could be a sense of unworthiness or a sense of pride. It could be fear of some sort. It could be a preoccupation with material pleasures, attractions, and distractions. It could be a feeling of being buried in personal responsibilities at home, at work, or at church. Maybe you need to forgive someone and let go of resentment. Maybe you need to apologize to someone. It could be anything.
I encourage you to take an honest look at what motivates you to follow Christ and what may be holding you back from following Christ.
Whether you leave your nets all at once to follow Christ or take a more step by step approach, is not as important as actually hearing Christ’s call, be willing to follow, and beginning the journey from where you are right now, however much or little you have left all for Christ in the past.
God has given you the ability to hear Christ’s call on your life and empowered you to follow it. He has given you the strength and the courage, to leave your nets, to let go of whatever holds you back.
Photo credit: Willy the Wizard
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
John 21:6 NIV
6 “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Matthew 4:20 NIV
20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:20 NIV
20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
John 15:16 NIV
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
Mark 16:15 NIV
15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
