3. Fishers of men
Matthew 4:19
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Mark 1:17
Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
This promise is given to the first disciples, but the principle and the promise also applies to all of us who are called by the Gospel to believe and follow Jesus. It is a conditional promise as the promise is fulfilled as the effect of the condition: if you follow Jesus, then He will make you a fisher of people.
Most of us, and I imagine Peter as well, did not naturally have the dream and desire to become a fisher of men; it is probably a vocation I never even thought about before meeting and following Jesus. We did not say when hearing the promise: “Oh yeah, I always wanted that.” But once we begin following Jesus the desire to fish grows increasingly stronger within our hearts; and over time the ability to be effective at this job increases. Every disciple of Christ begins to sense a need to serve others in place of himself, and by so doing show the love of God to them. The Christian also begins to sense a desire to see family members, friends and neighbors saved by coming to the knowledge of the Truth; then he prays for them and their salvation, and in time God brings the Gospel to their hearts and they are “fished.”
God does not save people by dropping out of the sky, but His method is to use His people to pray and love and invite others to hear the Gospel and believe and be saved. God uses every child of God in some way to serve others and fish them into the kingdom.
This is really a wonderful promise that gives our lives a deep and an eternal sense of purpose, value and meaning. We will never know in this life how many lives God has touched through our “fishing” or even how He has done it; but in eternity we will know and see what Jesus has done with us and how He has used us for the good of others. Because we do not see the positive effects of our own life and witness we must believe that it is so: Jesus promised it and so it will be. These kinds of promises are given so that we can see what can’t be seen and take heart and courage to know that our life is meaningful to God and other people.
The Lord does the work and the fishing; we just follow. Following Jesus involves listening to Him, hearing the Word and praying and attending church services and doing the Christian things. The promise is: “Your life matters; I am using it to make a difference.”