When Christ started His campaign of world conquest, it was needful for Him to select His staff officers. There were plenty of students with high foreheads, and intellectual faces, and refined tastes, in Rome and Jerusalem. Christ might have called into His places of leadership twelve bookworms, or twelve orators, or twelve artists. Instead, He took a group of twelve ordinary men who had never made a speech, never taken a lesson in dramatics, and had never been sick enough to look delicate.

One was a former Zealot – a radical, determined to overthrow Roman rule. Another has been a tax collector – virtually a traitor to the Jewish nation and in collusion with Rome. At least four, and possibly seven were fishermen and close friends and family from Capernaum. And yet, with all their faults and character flaws, these remarkably ordinary men carried on a ministry after Jesus’ ascension that has left an indelible impact on the world. Their ministry continues to influence us even today.

He chose these particular men, also, because they were used to hard knocks. The man who cannot stand assaults is not fit for the ministry. In other words, the ministry is no place for ecclesiastical doll-babies.

In our text, Jesus boards the boat with one of those bronzed fishermen – Simon by name. This fisherman has been sweeping his net all night long, and had taken nothing as a result. “Push out,” says Christ; “what is the use of hugging the shore in this boat?” The Sea of Galilee was twelve miles long and six miles wide, and therefore, Christ gives the command to Simon Peter, “Launch out into the deep.”

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