Calling the Disciples

Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; John 1:35-51

He didn't recruit from the seminary. He recruited from the docks.

Jesus walks along the Sea of Galilee and calls his first followers — not scholars, not priests, not anyone the religious establishment would choose. Simon and Andrew are casting nets. James and John are mending theirs. Follow me, Jesus says, and I will make you fishers of men. They leave everything. Others follow: Philip, Nathanael, Matthew the tax collector sitting at his booth. Twelve ordinary men — fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, a doubter. They have no theological training, no social standing, no obvious qualifications. Jesus will spend three years with these men, and after he leaves, they'll turn the world upside down.

• Calling
• Unlikely Choices
• Obedience
• New Beginning