The Fisherman’s Son: Called to Significance
Before Jesus, you were just a fisherman’s son from a small town — ordinary, overlooked, and convinced you’d never amount to anything. But when the Rabbi chose you, everything changed. This story follows the journey from failure to faith, from insignificance to influence, as Jesus transforms a humble fisherman into one of his most trusted disciples. It’s a reminder that when Christ calls you, He doesn’t just give you purpose — He gives you identity.
4/4/20263 min read
You are from a small town. You will never amount to anything. Your grandpa was a fisherman, your father is a fisherman, all you’ll ever be is a fisherman. People say you get mad too easily, they say that you take things too far, and they say at times you get a little over confident. You will probably live your entire life as an insignificant fisherman in an insignificant town on this insignificant lake.
These are things that you felt before you met Jesus. Just a fisherman’s son in a small fishing town. That is until Jesus called you and your brother to follow him. Just try to picture that for a moment. First off you are a fisherman, in order for you to be a fisherman in that time you would have flunked out of bible school. So you aren’t smart enough to do anything meaningful and on top of that you are from a small town that is known for the two towns that are around it and they are known for accepting the other religions of the countries that have taken them over.
Then you see this young rabbi who instead of letting his disciples choose him, he decided to choose. And instead of choosing the best and smartest students decides to choose you, someone that wasn’t even good enough to finish school. Instantly giving you significance but more importantly, he is accepting you.
And beyond that he is showing you how much you mean to him by putting you in his inner circle. And now Jesus has taken you from an insignificant trade in an insignificant town and has elevated you into his most trusted twelve. But Jesus didn’t stop there, he goes on to include you into his most trusted three. He takes you, your brother John, and your friend Peter to see things that even the other twelve disciples didn’t get to see.
And as time goes on you start to get more confidence and as you get more confidence you cross the line from time to time. One time you even ask Jesus to sit beside him for eternity in heaven. And when you cross the line like that Jesus makes sure to correct you but you also learn that Jesus’ acceptance of you isn’t going to change. And even with those things, Jesus chooses you to be one of the three to pray with him on the night that he is betrayed.
When Jesus is crucified, you run and hide. You abandon your leader, your best friend to die alone while your little brother is the only one to stay. You never understood what Jesus was talking about when he would mention that he would rise again on the third day but now it's then and you question if you messed up too bad this time. But just like every time before, he accepts you.
Now you get to be with him but it’s a little different now because everyone knows what happened. On the 40th day Jesus ascends into heaven. What are you going to do now, the easy thing to do would be to go back to fishing. But you can’t do that because something’s different with you, you’ve seen Jesus resurrect from the dead and know that he is the son of God. And with that you had an identity change. You can no longer live for yourself because your identity is no longer in you and what you used to do is no longer what you do. Now your identity is in Jesus Christ and you live to tell others.
So you obey the last thing that Jesus told you. You and the other disciples go to Jerusalem to wait for the Helper that Jesus talked about. And once you get baptized by the Holy Spirit things are never the same for you. You become passionate about telling others about Christ. So much so that you become one of the leaders of the early church.
Perhaps it makes sense, after all you were in Jesus’ inner circle. But now you’re becoming a problem for political leaders and they decide to arrest you. The decision is quick, you are to die for your faith but you're not the person you once were. This time you don’t turn your back on Jesus but instead you enter the situation with such courage that you are able to bring one of the soldiers to Christ even though he knows that means he will be executed with you. And even though that final act doesn’t make it into the bible, the story of what you were able to do, even in your last hours will be told forever.