Bible Study Series 2011: Four Fishermen Follow Jesus: Jesus' Ministry Continues

My Brother-in-Christ and best friend Alex Aleman and I, David Brown, would like to thank our loyal followers and for those who are new to this blog site for sticking with us through the Christmas season as well as the New Year.  We truly hope and pray that this will be a God blessed New Year for you all and that you will continue to follow us as we continue to post Bible Study and more at the Mission Lighthouse Ministry blog site.  Remember to also follow us at our website:  http://www.missionlighthouseministry.org.  I would like to personally thank Alex for all of his hard work in revamping the website and to getting it back live.  You will really like what we have to offer at the website and check back with us often as I will be posting some interesting insight into my past life as a Conservative Jew and try to answer objections to Jesus through prophecy from the prophets in the Old Testament and to why I have accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, accepted Him as the Son of God and realizing that my Messiah has been here all along.

Speaking of following us, it is time to get into the first Bible Study of the new year and it is entitled, "Four Fishermen follow Jesus."  This study comes from The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 4: 18-22, Application Study Bible, NIV.  Here is the scripture and then we will discuss it.

"As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.  They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  "Come follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."  At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John.  They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.  Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

In reality, the Sea of Galilee is a large lake in Israel.  During the time of Jesus, there were nearly 30 fishing towns that surrounded it.  The largest town was Capernaum.

Are you a follower or are you a leader?  In this case, to be a follower was a great thing.  These four men were willing, so easily and so spiritually to leave their "business" of fishing and two of them to leave their father to follow Jesus who they actually already knew.  They knew what kind of man He was and found it necessary to be followers of Jesus.  Are you willing to leave what is so dear to you materialistically and something that can bring you your fortunes to follow Jesus?  This is something that I personally have been contemplating and feel that God is calling me to do.

You see, presently, I am not working full time.  This is not to say that I do not want to work full-time but as many of you know I have been searching and searching with little to no luck.  This is because I truly believe that God has something so much greater in store for me like Jesus had for his brothers, Simon called Peter, Andrew, James and John.  He is calling me to the ministry which I will be working on by attending school so that I can appropriately learn more about how to bring people to Jesus that need Him in their lives.  

I am looking to be a fisher of men.  I want to spiritually teach people about God and how to find Him if they have not done so already.  I am not saying that I have not been doing this, but Alex and I are working on this through our ministry.  We are doing it through Alex's music and through inspirational public speaking.

You can be fishers of men as well.  Actually men and women can help lead people to the Lord.  It is being done, but we need to "pick up the pace."

Speaking of picking up the pace, at Wednesday night's bible study at Mount Carmel Christian Church, we heard from adjunct professor (Atlanta Christian College) and Pastor Jim Street about what he calls "Listening Posts."  I will talk about them more in a post following this bible study series.

Tomorrow we will be learning about Jesus preaching throughout Galilee and then about His Sermon on the Mount.

Let's Pray:  Father God, we all want to be fishers of men.  You can make four follow Jesus, then there is no doubt that you can make millions more do the same.  We pray that You show us how and guide us as we leave the confines of our secular lives and enter a spiritual world where we can teach more and more people about You and how to follow Jesus.  Father God, thank you for these lessons and thank you for who You are and for delivering to us Your Son Jesus Christ.  In His Name, we pray!    Amen.