Two young men were casting a net into the sea. Both were too busily engaged to perceive that they were being watched with evident interest by a Bystander, for they were fishermen, and their living depended on their success. Their whole life had been occupied with catching fish ever since their boyhood days. It had been precarious work. They had not grown rich with it, though they had often dreamed of an ideal catch, of breaking nets and overloaded boats sinking beneath the weight of fish.
And now the Onlooker addressed them–wonderingly they obeyed His command and their dream came true, success beyond hopes attended them, and their ship was overloaded with the harvest of the sea. What wealth was theirs, what reward after years of toil! And then the Stranger spoke again: “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Lk. 5:10).
At once a new career opened before their astonished eyes, something better than catching fish even when done superlatively as at that present, something nobler and higher and more to be desired than getting rich; more worth living for than success in their calling. A heavenly career had opened to them before which even a record catch and an overflowing market ceased to attract. “They left all and followed Him.”
Yes, it is true today as then: there is something more to be desired than a successful career, an occupation worthy of the Son of God Himself–it is fishing for men.
It was a calling in which Christ Himself was the Pioneer, the first great fisher of men, and in which He has always been supreme. Truly He was a Master of the art of catching men, and He was busy all day long in it.
As surely as He saw a multitude of fish in the sea of Galilee, so He saw a multitude that no man could number of every nation needing and waiting to be caught for the kingdom of God. And if His first concern was to catch men, His next was to make fishermen, for He needed an army of fishermen for that work that must be done. Men must be caught by men, and caught men must be converted into catchers of men.
His call to men was “Come” (Mt. 11:28). His commission to men was “Go” (Mk. 16:15). His promise to those who came was, “I will give you.” His promise to those who followed was “I will make you” (Mt. 4:19). Indeed it is not possible to follow Christ without being made a fisher of men. This is the astonishing effect of following Christ.
A new concern for the souls of others is born in the self-occupied mind, a wonderful concern for friends and neighbors, a longing that others may be saved. The believer becomes involuntarily a fisher of men.
How quickly Peter learned the noble art! See him casting the net at Pentecost and enclosing 3,000 souls. Watch him catch the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. Consider how he learned not to despise such unclean fish as Cornelius, the Gentile centurion. Christ had indeed made him a fisher of men.
The fishing has gone on ever since. How many readers of this article owe their conversion to the faithful angling of some wise fisherman? How many in their turn have become fishers of men, and how many, alas, have toiled all night and caught nothing?
Here are a few rules for the heavenly art of fishing for men. Remember it is an art that can only be acquired by following your Master:
1. We must follow Him in His pity for men. We must love sinners if we are to succeed in catching them. We must love them with the same kind of love that Christ had for men–He loved the unlovely, the unattractive, the harlot, the publican, the beggar, and the thief. He had compassion on the multitude. Compassion is rarely exhibited today. We patronize sinners and we preach to them, but, alas, how seldom do we have compassion for them.
2. We must follow Him in His passion for men. His heart yearned over the lost. He came to seek and to save them. Men are not won casually in the leisure moments of life; they must be pursued. His whole heart was in the matter. When He succeeded, He rejoiced in spirit, and when He failed, He wept copious tears. Hear His heart-broken cry: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I . . . and ye would not” (Mt. 23:37).
If we conducted our business and the pursuit of a livelihood with the lack of zeal and want of real determination and utter absence of initiative with which we sometimes carry on our gospel meetings and evangelical “efforts,” how would some of us live at all? We should be deservedly bankrupt within a year. To catch men, you must have a passion for men.
3. We must follow Him in His patience with men. This indeed is the first qualification of a successful fisherman. He must be prepared to wait and bide his time, to endure many disappointments, to persist and hope long after the ordinary man has given way to despair. Mark how the Son of Man dealt with men, how gentle He was with sinners; how He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself; how persistent He was in face of indifference and opposition; how He answered their objections graciously and won them where others would have repelled them. Fish are not caught at once. No fish desires to be caught, yet I have known Christian workers almost angry because the public do not throng their halls and eagerly press to hear what is sometimes anything but attractively presented to them. At length patience is rewarded and the fish are caught.
4. And we must follow Him in the price He paid for men. It costs much to catch men. It cost our blessed Lord His own life’s blood to save them. He must needs fall into the ground and die if He would bear much fruit, otherwise He would abide alone (Jn. 12:24), and He followed that profound statement concerning Himself with the searching words: “If any man would serve Me let him follow Me.” Where? Into the same ground and to the same death. It is the man who is crucified with Christ that becomes a successful fisher of men. I must take up my cross daily and follow Him who pleased not Himself. I must go forth bearing precious seed, weeping as Jesus wept and Paul wept–oh, how he wept over sinners! “night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31)–if I would win sinners.
Are we willing to pay the price? Is it surprising that the world is unconcerned when it perceives so little real concern on the part of Christians on its account? The man who preached to the slaves on the cotton fields found no response till he sold himself as a slave that he might win them, and then they believed his message when they saw the price he was willing to pay.
5. Lastly, we must follow Him in His prayers for men. “I have prayed for thee, Simon” (Lk. 22:31). Wonderful words! Wonderful unveiling of the secret of His success with souls. How little Nicodemus knew that the Lord was praying for him, and the Samaritan woman, and Zacchaeus, and the poor weeping adulteress, and the blind beggar Bartimaeus!.None of them guessed the Lord was praying for them–yet who can doubt it? And who can measure the power of prayer for those we seek to win? How many do we pray for thus? How often do we bring our neighbors by name to the Throne of Grace? Is it not easy to see why we fail?
Let us be up and doing. The time is short, the night cometh! There is a glorious reward, and it is within the reach of us all: “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever!”