Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Beloved, I start out with a confession: “I in every way want to be like Jesus. So much so, it’s hard for me to think about anything else! However, I am afraid to become like Him, as His life however beautiful it shall forever be, is quite frightening at the same time. For this reason alone, I continue to cry out to Him (literally) that for His name’s sake that creates in men the image of Himself and the calling in which He was called to, I will once and for all not be afraid, but in all ways, resemble His Majesty— Christ the Soul Winner. Amen.” With that said, I now invite you into my HEART...
Now, I pray my words be simple, to the point, and that they shall reveal Jesus to you. In (Matthew 4:19) I am made aware that something quite extraordinary is going on. Jesus has called to men, yet at the same time He has called greatness to come out of them. When He said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” He was speaking to fisherman. Men who worked with their hands by trade. Caught fish and sold it in the market. This is how they made their living. It has been said these men were not the soft spoken type as it is to this very day with those who work on the shore or equivalent of the docks and fish markets of New York City. They were burly men. Men who were outspoken and at the least brutes of men (not to be messed with), and yet a beautifully amazing thing takes place. In (verse 20), these men Jesus called out to, “immediately left their nets, and followed Him.”
The question I think about, as I look at my own brutish ways of thinking and/or speaking. Why would Jesus call out to brutes in thought, speech and action to become what He was— a fisher of men? Why wouldn’t He call refined men, men of distinction, men who obviously have an intelligent and educated mind and upbringing?
What I gather from God’s Word is simply this. That is what He choose to do. Plain and simple, however difficult or ridiculous it may sound to us. From what society shows us, for the most part, these “high society” people tend to be so filled with their own wisdom they could never comprehend the ways of God as they have no room for anything else other than their own boastful pride, in which we take in:
“For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the manifestation of the power of God.
For it is written, I will baffle and render useless and destroy the learning of the learned and the philosophy of the philosophers and the cleverness of the clever and the discernment of the discerning; I will frustrate and nullify them and bring them to nothing [Isaiah 29:14].
Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world’s wisdom?
For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognize and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of preaching salvation, procured by Christ and to be had through Him, to save those who believed who clung to and trusted in and relied on Him.
For while Jews [demandingly] ask for signs and miracles and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom, We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, preaching which to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block [that springs a snare or trap], and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense.
But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. This is because the foolish thing that has its source in God is wiser than men, and the weak thing that springs from God is stronger than men. For simply consider your own call, brethren; not many of you were considered to be wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth.
No for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame. And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are, So that no mortal man should have pretense for glorying and boast in the presence of God.
But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, [revealed to us a knowledge of the divine plan of salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as] our Righteousness [thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God], and our Consecration [making us pure and holy], and our Redemption [providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin].
So then, as it is written, Let him who boasts and proudly rejoices and glories, boast and proudly rejoice and glory in the Lord [Jeremiah 9:24].”
(1 Corinthians 1:18-31 AMP emphasis added by me).
Therefore, we can see and I rejoice in this. The Lord deliberately chooses those who are not high on themselves though they may have been the roughest of the bunch and/or not the most intelligent by God’s standards, even the standard of men, to become as He is— a fisher of men.
Now, as I first mentioned, Jesus was indeed calling out to men and simultaneously as only God can do, He was calling the greatness out of them. Like what is dark yet has a hidden beauty within, or a very dark thing that needs to be illuminated then work can finally begin and be done, so has God illuminated into His people through Jesus Christ, and He continues to do so to this very day!
On day 3 of the Creation account, the Creator God spoke into, and at the dark void of it all and proclaimed one of the single most glorious commands ever to be uttered from His powerful life giving mouth: He said, “Let there be light.”
Now let us take in the fullness of this command: Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:3-4 NKJV)
Beloved, in verse 2, we see that the earth is void, formless like one without purpose and direction. We see that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, like one who sees his objective and knows when he shall strike; shall make his move and begin the task he has been given, to see it to its final conclusion.
So it is with all who come to Christ as Christ calls out to them to follow Him. God who is Light (John 1:4) shall shine His light into the dark state of our lives, in which all of us are in, apart from Him. He will say to us and into us, “let there be light” and true to His great command it shall be! What starts out as dark, void, formless without purpose, without direction and without life, God through Jesus Christ changes all of that, by the Word of His Command.
How I pray, my life, your life, and this great calling in Christ to be fishers of men, shall experience the abundance of His grace and the power of His Word. For in Christ, He calls out to all to come to and follow Him where He will make us to become fishers of men. We do not follow to remain in our own state, nor to become something divine out of our own strength. He Himself calls out to us. We in turn follow Him. And He commences to create in the void of what was the old a new creature; a new creation. One who will take part in the work of God— fishing for men’s souls. Praise the Lord!
Oh Lord, you know our great limitations. God I pray, you make us those fine fishers of men, who will cast our nets where you say to, and that by your grace, the catch will be so great, we will have to call out to other fishers of men to help us bring in the load (Luke 5:1-11). Amen and amen!
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