Calling of the First Disciples

The First of Many

"One day Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee. The people crowded around him as they listened to God’s word. Jesus saw two boats on the shore. The fishermen had stepped out of them and were washing their nets. So Jesus got into the boat that belonged to Simon and asked him to push off a little from the shore. Then Jesus sat down and taught the crowd from the boat.

When he finished speaking, he told Simon, “Take the boat into deep water, and lower your nets to catch some fish.”

Simon answered, “Teacher, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll lower the nets.”

After the men had done this, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. Their partners came and filled both boats until the boats nearly sank.

When Simon Peter saw this, he knelt in front of Jesus and said, “Leave me, Lord! I’m a sinful person!” Simon and everyone who was with him were amazed to see the large number of fish they had caught. James and John, who were Zebedee’s sons and Simon’s partners, were also amazed.

Jesus told Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will catch people instead of fish.”

Simon and his partners brought the boats to shore, left everything, and followed Jesus." Luke 5:1-11


Matthew 4:18–22 and Mark 1:16–20 records the calling of the first disciples of Jesus from the Sea of Galilee (or the Lake of Gennesaret).

At this time, Jesus was already baptized in the Jordan River, fasted and has been tempted in the desert. And He has already been going around preaching the gospel.

The passage above in Luke is a longer narrative of the calling of Simon and Andrew, and their business partners James and John, all fishermen.

In John 1:35–51, it was recorded that Jesus renamed Simon, Peter. It also included the calling of Phillip, who came from Andrew and Peter's hometown. And then it listed the calling of Nathaniel, making up the first six "fishers of men".

From then on, these men and the others called after them, followed Jesus as He went around preaching the new covenant and healing and performing other miraculous signs along the way.

These men left what they were doing, who they once were, their families, and their current concerns and conditions.

Simon Peter like most everyone, was a sinful person, and he admitted as much. And even after he started to follow Jesus, Scriptures record that his temperament and his mouth still got him in trouble from time to time. So although, he became a new man, his road from sinful Simon to Peter the Rock, was not a short trip. But this did not change the fact that at the end of his life, he fulfilled that which he was called to be -- a disciple, an apostle and a fisher of men.

This is a wonderful lesson to all new believers, who like the first fishers of men, has been called out of their sinful past into a new life of hope, forgiveness and ministry (your purpose and your calling).