A Sermon Delivered on January 25, 2026 by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

Matthew 4:12-25

¹² Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³ He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 

¹⁵ “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” 

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. 

²³ Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴ So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. ²⁵ And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan (Matthew 4:12–25, NRSV)

In other words, Jesus was moving all over the place! He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom is his theme throughout Matthew’s gospel and that he himself was beginning to inaugurate God’s reign and Kingdom. He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with a mental, emotional, or physical ailments and Jesus unhesitatingly healed them all. More and more people came, as his acclaim was gathering momentum. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.

This morning’s text marks a turning point in Matthew’s gospel. We hear the ominous words: “John had been arrested.” The Good News was already burning holes in the ears of the political and religious establishment. John exits the stage, and the spotlight swings to Jesus.

And what does Jesus do? He immediately gets to work and the very first thing Jesus does is build a team; notice I did not say “a committee” as committees tend to sit around and stare at one another. No, he began building a team which had an executable purpose. So, Jesus goes fishing for fishermen.

Picture it: Jesus is walking along the beach, and he sees Andrew and Simon Peter casting their nets. This is their livelihood, their identity, their family business. Jesus calls out: Follow me, and I’ll make you fish for people! 

And they drop everything. Nets still wet. They just… go.

Further down the beach, James and John are mending nets with their father Zebedee. Once again, Jesus calls and the pattern repeats itself: They abandon the boat, the family business, and their dad. For Jewish young men to leave family behind, well, that was a big deal.  Can you imagine Zebedee sitting there watching his boys walk away? “Wait, what about the nets? WHAT ABOUT ME?”

Here we have the first lesson, Church, about calling ourselves Christian: When we say “yes” to following Jesus, we’re simultaneously saying “no” to our former way of life. The disciples didn’t just add Jesus to their existing schedules. They left livelihood, family, and the safety of predictability. Following Jesus immediately put them in a position of reassessing everything.

Friends, following Jesus is not for the faint of heart.

Matthew has Jesus spelled it out pretty clearly:

Change your life. God’s kingdom is here. I’m going to make a new kind of fisherman out of you.

Everything changes when we say “yes” to the call of God in Christ.

This morning, I want us to focus on the reorienting of our perspective that Jesus requires of us; we are called to make a mental a shift from “What can I get out of following Jesus?” to physical exhibition as to “How can I demonstrate to others God’s presence in and through my life?” I love how Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message, translates verse 21 and 22 where it reads, 

Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.

Fishing is the biblical image for evangelism. And if you’re like most of us, you weren’t taught evangelism. We’ve watched others do it in ways that make us cringe, so we don’t try. So today, let’s have a fishing lesson. I promise it’s not hard, and nobody’s making you stand on a street corner with a bullhorn and shouting, “Are you saved?”

What we need to know to fish for people is the same as catching actual fish.

First, know what you’re fishing for. What you’re after determines your bait, your equipment, your location. You won’t find mountain trout off the Florida coast. We need to remember that we are to drop the line where the fish are and not where we want them to be. So, for example, all churches want to grow with young families. That’s all well and good but if you live in a community with an average age of 67, you better drop your hook into a different part of the pond.

Second, fishing can be uncomfortable, messy, and it demands patience. Your stomach gets queasy in rough water. You get sunburned. Baiting hooks with squirmy worms isn’t pleasant. Cleaning fish is all guts and smell. In evangelism as you listen to other people’s stories, your heart will break over their pain and loss while at the same time it will leap like a baby deer with the notes of hope and redemption.

Third, you need patience. The fish bite when they’re ready. We don’t make the fish bite. All we can do is drop our line and share what God has done in our lives. The Spirit determines which fish come into the net or takes a bit at the hook. Our job isn’t to catch people and consume them for our purposes like packing church rolls to make a budget. Our job is to winsomely attract people to Jesus. We can’t force anyone to take the bait; we just offer the Good News in a winsome way.

I wonder if this is why the Church struggles with evangelism. We’ve forgotten that we fish to expand God’s kingdom work, not to pad our membership rolls.

So, what can we learn?

We need to decide what kind of fish we’re fishing for. Look around – Who lives in our community? Young families in new developments? Service workers keeping our businesses running? Neighbors struggling with housing? College students at SUNY feeling isolated? Who are we actually fishing for?

For each of us, those we’re fishing for are determined by where we spend our days. Lawyers, your pond is professional associations and community boards. Teachers, it’s parents, and colleagues, and maybe students after school. Retirees, it’s the senior center, book clubs, pickleball leagues, and the waiting rooms where you’ve been spending time.

Here’s the reality: The Church has largely abandoned its fishing responsibility. We’ve grown comfortable sitting all fat and happy on shore while the cultural nets of consumerism, tribalism, and entertainment pull people in different directions.

Friends, Jesus is looking for you and me, indeed First Presbyterian Church, to cast our nets. Every one of us is an angler for Christ’s Kingdom.

But remember this my friends: We don’t convert, coerce, or manipulate. We simply listen and then share when we are asked to share the winsome gospel of what God has done for of us. The good news that Jesus continues to make all things new is because the Spirit is still moving about us; the Kingdom is breaking in right here, right now in the most subtle ways in each of our lives if we but stop and notice.

Here’s my challenge: Ask yourself three questions this week.

One: What’s my fishing pond? Where do I already spend my time?

Two: What bait am I using? When people interact with me, do they experience kindness, grace, hope? Or, do they experience the same anxiety and cynicism they find and experience everywhere else?

Three: Am I patient enough to wait for God to work and courageous enough to drop the line in the pond God is providing me?

Friends, the world is hungry for Good News. People are desperate for genuine community, for meaning deeper than their social media feed, for hope that sustains them through real loss.

As followers of Christ and members of the Church, we already have that. We have that, not because we’re better than anyone else, but because we follow the One who walked on water, calmed storms, upended the empires of religion and government, and even death itself.

So, let’s pick up our rods. Let’s wade into the water. The fish are waiting. Pray with me…

O God, who called fishermen from their nets to become fishers of people, call us again today. Give us courage to leave behind what’s comfortable and familiar. Give us eyes to see the ponds where you’ve already placed us. Give us patience to wait for your Spirit to move. And give us hearts willing to share the Good News of your love with everyone we meet. In the name of the One who still calls us from the shore. Amen.

© 2026 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.