Bible Studies
FISHERS OF MEN
“Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19)
I used to go fishing when I lived in North Wales – sea fishing. I was never very serious about it, but I did occasionally cast a line from the shore at Prestatyn or from the pier at Llandudno. I didn’t catch much: an eel on one occasion and a dogfish on another. (The cat enjoyed eating that!) Usually I caught nothing – I only did it as relaxation and I was not really single-minded enough about it. Because catching fish requires dedication and single-mindedness.
The first disciples of Jesus knew this all too well. It’s interesting to note that over half of the Twelve Apostles were fishermen. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Thomas and Nathaniel, they were all fishermen. And Philip also probably was one too. He came from the fishing village of Bethsaida whose name means “house of fishing”.
For these men fishing was no hobby. It was their very livelihood. If they didn’t catch fish they couldn’t put food on the table for their families. It was a matter of life and death for them.
But one day Jesus came and invited them to follow him. He wanted them to stop being fishermen and to live by faith and become “fishers of men”. Instead of seeking for shoals of fish they were going to seek souls of men and women. They were going to spread the Good News of the kingdom of Jesus and urge others to follow him.
These Apostles were to learn that being “fishers of men” required just as much dedication and patience as being fishermen. It was no hobby or sport. It was just as much a matter of life and death as fishing had been. (Only spiritual life and death rather than physical.)
For we also, if we are indeed true followers of Jesus, are called to become “fishers of men”. And for us also, our faith should be a life-style, rather than a hobby.
Those first disciples would have found their previous experience of fishing to be of great benefit in the task of winning people to Christ. We too, as disciples, can learn from the fisherman.
We can learn at least three lessons. To be a good fisherman you need to:
1) TO BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE
I remember spending many fruitless hours fishing, without a single bite. I was obviously in the wrong place. There were fish in the sea, but they were not where I was. They were probably down the other end of he beach. Now a good fisherman knows how to recognize the signs. They know about currents and tides, and the habits of the fish. They know where to expect to find them. They look at the sea birds and learn from them – where the birds are fishing, that’s where the fish will be.
And we need to be in the right place too. We need to go out to win people for Christ. We need to be where they are. Jesus didn’t just sit in the Synagogue and tell people about God. He went out into the streets, the market places, the taverns and the open country.
All too often, in the Church, we are fishing in our own pool. It’s a very nice pool: very comfortable, plenty of fish in it ( most of which have been caught previously). In other words: we are preaching to the converted. We have to realize that less than ten percent of the population of Wales attend church regularly. The other ninety percent or so hardly ever darken the doors of a place of worship. They remain largely untouched by the Christian message.
So we must launch out into the deep water and cast our nets. We can cast them in many places: at work, in the shops, in the pubs – everywhere. (This Christmas we went and sang some Christmas Carols in the pub across the road. I hope no one thought that was an inappropriate thing to do. We didn’t, of course, preach to them there. But they knew we are Christians and we sang Christian words.)
It’s not a hobby, this fishing for men and women. If the Church does not ‘fish’ it will die out. It is a matter of life and death.
2) TO HAVE THE RIGHT BAIT
The disciples knew this. Usually they fished with nets, either from a boat with a drag net or with a single man standing up to his waist in water and throwing a small weighted net out in front of him.
Sometimes, however, they would fish with a hook. For this you needed a hook, a line, a stone to act as a weight and a good strong arm to cast it out! (Nowadays we use a rod to make the casting more efficient.) But all these things are useless without bait, or some kind of lure. If you are a coarse fisherman you use a worm or a maggot. If you are a sea fisherman you use a strip of fish or a lugworm or an artificial lure. If you are a game fisherman you use a skillfully constructed artificial fly. Whatever you do you must have something to attract the fish.
Many times I have reeled in my line only to find the bait has gone – small crabs have stripped it of the hook before the fishes could even get to it. Well, it’s not much use fishing without bait!
Also you need to know which kind of bait to use for the the fish you want to catch. A sea fisherman would never use an earthworm or maggot – the sea fish would not be interested in them.
And so, in “fishing for men”, in seeking to win people for Christ and the Kingdom of God, the “bait” is vitally important. But what is the right “bait” to use? Some think it is a good thing to lure people within the walls of the church by means of all kinds of entertainments and social activities. Now I’m not against entertainment and social activities. They do have their place in the life of the church and they may provide some social contact with people. Without social contact and friendship we will never be in a position to win people over to Christ.
But in itself entertainment and the like will not draw people to Christ. They’ll come and join in our social activities, but they won’t come to worship. They won’t become followers of Jesus. The social actives of a church are like ground bait which you disperse through the water to attract a shoal of fish. But you won’t catch any of them unless they actually bite the hook. And they won’t bite the hook unless it is baited.
So how are people drawn to Christ? Jesus said on one occasion:
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:32-33)
“I will draw all men to myself “ – it is Jesus himself who will draw them. More specifically it is by his sufferings on the Cross he will draw them. Our message is Christ crucified as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. That is the only message which will draw them to Christ himself – that is the “bait”. The thought of him dying and suffering for us is what moves our hard hearts. The love shown at Calvary is what draws people to Jesus into God’s Kingdom.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Yes, the Gospel which saves people is the message of Jesus – firstly his Death, then his Resurrection, Ascension and Return. Without this message we are fishing without bait and wasting our time.
And of course that message has to be backed up by our lives. We need to demonstrate the love of Christ. We have to know the Gospel but we also have to show the Gospel. We have to be able to explain our faith and to demonstrate it in our lives.
3) TO BE ALERT AND SENSITIVE
I went boat fishing once. Most of us in the boat were catching nothing. You would think there were no fish in the water, except that one man was just reeling them in! He was far more experienced than we were. He was sensitive to the bites. When he felt a tug on his line, then he immediately reeled in. As for us: fishes were nibbling away at our baits and we didn’t even notice it! We were missing opportunities because we were not sensitive and alert.
In a similar way we, as “fishers of men”, can be insensitive to the needs of people. Maybe we can be unaware of their interest in spiritual things. Sometimes these “fish” are nibbling the bait without us being aware. They are seeking, but they are too shy to actually take the bait. They will not come straight out and say, “I want to be a Christian,” or “I want to find the meaning of life,” or “I want to know peace with God”. Now, if we are insensitive we can scare them off. It is possible to be so concerned with the task of keeping the church open that we do not see the needs around us. Or we can be so concerned with our own individual needs that we we don’t see spiritual need when it faces us in other people. So these “fish” are put off. They swim off elsewhere, and maybe get hooked by false religions such as Spiritualism or Mormonism.
CONCLUSION
You need to fish in the right place, you need to have the right bait, you need to be alert and to exercise patience and endurance.
The Disciples knew that fishing was a hard life. And Jesus did not promise that it would be any easier fishing for men. As fishermen, many times they had fished all night and caught nothing. But they had never given up. Eventually their patience had been rewarded.
And it was just the same when they became “fishers of men” -preaching the Gospel. It will be the same for us too.
Remember how the Disciples experienced the miracle of the great catch of fishes? on Lake Galilee Let us pray that there might be such a miraculous “ingathering” into God’s net in our day. The Church and the Nation desperately need a spiritual revival.
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