Day 20

Jesus is now ready to begin what will be another year and a half of fishing expeditions with His disciples. We will be looking at the first six expeditions. These are the first six outreach events that Jesus does in order to train His young ministry team to reach the masses with the good news that He is the Messiah. There is a progression to these fishing trips, a good pattern for us to follow, and much to learn about fishing for men. Read the story from the two different points of view, or better yet, print them out and try to piece the event together chronologically. Jump in and learn to fish– Jesus style.

Read: Luke 4:31-37; Mark 1:21-28

Where is Jesus fishing?

Who is Jesus fishing for?

What is Jesus modeling about fishing for men in a religious setting?

How is Jesus fishing?

Jesus begins these fishing trips in the religious center of His day, the Jewish synagogue. After issuing the call to follow closer so that He could teach them to fish for men, Jesus takes His new disciples back to Capernaum and decides the first “fishing trip” will be at the synagogue. The event takes place on a Saturday, the Sabbath. Jesus most likely did some training on how to fish for men before the event, maybe at home.

Jesus comes in ready, ready to model for His team how to fish for men and ready to share with the masses in this large synagogue at Capernaum who He is. Jesus enters and begins to teach. Remember His strategy of sharing with the religious lost? Is it the same? He goes straight to the Torah, the books of Moses, the first five in the Bible, and shares with them who he is (Luke 24:27). Remember, Jesus is not  only sharing who He is, but also preaching that the time has come to repent and believe the Good News, because the Kingdom of God is at hand. While He is teaching, the crowd is filled with amazement. What was so amazing about what Jesus said and did? First, they were amazed that He taught with authority, like He really believed what He was saying, in comparison to the scribes who must have been teaching half-heartedly (Mark 1:22). Second, they were amazed at this new teaching, or new doctrine (Mark 1:27). And last, they were amazed that Jesus was in command of the evil sprit in this man.

How many demons has Jesus cast out so far? That’s right–none! More than a year and a half of ministry and this is the first demon that Jesus has cast out. Jesus does this major miracle in the synagogue to capture the attention of the people to His message. Something really cool to notice as you keep your eyes open to the declaration of Jesus’ deity and humanity is what the demon calls out about Jesus. Take a look back at Mark 1:24. Cool, huh? The demon jeers at him ‘“Jesus of Nazareth’” and ‘“The Holy One of God”. There is no doubt in this old demon’s mind about who Jesus is. The ‘“Jesus of Nazareth’” illustrates how fully human Jesus was, while ‘“Holy one of God”’ shows that even the demon knows that Jesus was sent from God Almighty. The Demon is responding, most likely, to what Jesus has been teaching. Jesus has just been saying that HE has come from God and that He is equal to God and that HE is God in human form, raised in Nazareth with a real family.

Well, lets evaluate the success of this first “fishing trip”. It's helpful to ask three simple questions when evaluating.

Question #1: Were there non-believers at the event?
Question #2: Was Jesus presented clearly in a culturally relevant way as the Messiah or the Savior of the world?
Question #3: Did anyone believe the message and put their faith in Jesus for salvation or move closer to accepting His claims to be the Messiah?

Take a moment and evaluate this first “fishing trip”, how did Jesus and his team do?

Now here's the tough part...


I am going to ask you to start praying about a “fishing trip” of your own in the next week. WHAT?!?! "You're kidding right?" you say. Nope. Not kidding. Think about it. It doesn't have to be something huge. Something simple, not a concert with 50,000 people, but something small. What might you do?

Could you have a family over for dinner? Maybe your "fishing trip" is while you sit in the bleachers at basketball practice.

Maybe your fishing trip is during a lunch break.

What can you do as a fishing trip?

Who can you invite to join to help you in this fishing trip? Get together with a few friends and start thinking and praying for those around you who do not know that Jesus. Couldn't we help each other in this?


 Start thinking of something you can do to present the claims of Jesus in a culturally relevant way.

You assignment today is to begin to form a group of friends and start to think about what you could do for a fishing trip. Who will help you? Will non christians be present? How will you present the gospel?

 Meanwhile, keep studying how Jesus conducted His “fishing Trips” and each day you will learn more in the process. But get started! Ask God open your eyes to those around you who need to know!

Don't wait! Get started! Let's go!