Fishers of Men

Firshers of men

One of the most popular recreational things that people do in Minnesota is fishing. With over 10,000 lakes in the state, you can hardly go 10 miles in any direction without finding another lake to try. 

There are a few different ways to fish. You can use live bait such as minnows or worms, or use plastic lures. You can use a normal fishing rod, and some fish can be “hunted” with a bow and arrow. In the winter when the lakes freeze over, some people even use fishing spears to catch their fish. So there are a few different ways to try to catch your fish depending on the situation.

When I go fishing on a nearby lake, how many fish are in there? Purely for example, let’s say that there are 10,000 fish in the lake. Some days I might catch two or three and go home, some days I might catch 40 or 50. And some days I might not catch any. Some days the weather is warmer or cooler so the fish are at different depths in the water. 

On one particular lake that I fish on I will only try to fish for a certain kind of fish depending on the time of the year. Early in the fishing season I will use a certain lure for a fish called a “northern pike” because I don’t usually catch many sunfish until a few weeks later in the year once the water warms us and the weeds start to grow.  

We don’t always catch a fish immediately, or everyday. Somedays we can catch a fish or two withing the first five minutes, and sometimes we won’t get a single nibble at all the whole day. If that happens, we will try all over the lake, using different lures and baits, and changing the depths at which we fish. It might take a lot of searching around to find where the fish are, but if you keep searching you will eventually find them. 

And that brings me to the topic today. Besides being an animal, the word “fish” means “to search or seek for something.” As I described above, I search for fish by “fishing” for them. I am trying to find them, trying to catch them. I will look all over a lake, trying different things until I get what I am searching for.

In Matthew 4, Jesus was walking by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus found two men who were fishermen. Using their profession as an open door, Jesus told Andrew and Peter, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matt 4:19) Two verses later, Jesus called James and John, who were also fishermen, to come and follow Him. These men already knew what it was like to search for something. Fishing was what they did, so Jesus turned them into searching for others to tell the gospel to. 

That is a great way to introduce the word of God to someone. You might know someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus yet, but you can use something that they can relate to to help them understand the gospel. Maybe you know someone who likes to work on engines. To try to win them to Christ, you could ask them questions about how to fix something, or bring a motor to them to fix, and while they do that, you can slowly introduce them to the Word of God. They might not “bite” right away, but if you do enough “fishing,” Lord willing you will be able to “hook” them and convert them to Christ. 

Jesus used parables to try to help people understand. When Jesus told the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, that was probably something that most people at that time knew about. Without supermarkets like we have today, most people needed to grow their own foods, and Jesus used this as a way to teach them. 

We are God’s fishermen, and the earth is the sea. With billions of people on the planet, there are billions of different opportunities that we can take and use to bring in another into the net. You just need to keep searching. Don’t worry if someone doesn’t take that first “bite” when you try to win them to Jesus. Just keep going, try different things until you catch another one for Christ.

In Christ,

Andrew