Fishing...

"Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  And He said to them, 'Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.'"--Matthew 4:18-19.  At this point we are still in the opening stages of Jesus' ministry.  In Matthew 4:18-22, Jesus selects His first disciples.  The first two were Peter and Andrew.  We will look at the other two in my next blog.  But as we have read in Matthew 4:18-19, Jesus selects Peter and Andrew.  These two men were already fishing but Jesus tells them to follow Him.  Their response? Well Matthew 4:19 tells us that they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus.  They followed Jesus to go fishing for men. 

Fishing.  It's kind of funny this is the subject of tonight's blog because no more than 36 hours ago, I was invited by my good friend and brother in Christ Dustin Campbell to go fishing this weekend.  For actual fish though, not for men :-).  Unfortunately I had to decline because I already had prior plans to go hiking with another friend of mine Nolan and his wife.  It was right when I began to write that I remembered this actually happened.  So this is why I think it is really cool that Jesus essentially invited Peter and Andrew to go fishing.  The difference of course is that Peter and Andrew would no longer be fishing for fish but they would be fishing for men. I will come back to the illustration I gave in just a moment.

But my question for you tonight is quite simple.  When is the last time you went fishing for men?  To lay a little groundwork something we have to understand is that fishing for fish is all Peter and Andrew really knew but when Jesus said for them to follow Him, it does not seem that they even gave following Jesus a second thought so they left their fishing nets and followed Him.  But why? The text doesn't give us specifics but whatever the case was, they knew Jesus had something bigger and grander to offer. And Jesus did.  Peter and Andrew would be selected as two of the twelve apostles in Matthew 10:1-4.  

So again I ask when is the last time you went fishing, fishing for men? We see that Peter and Andrew did not think twice about responding to Jesus' "invitation to go fishing." Something we have to realize is that as Christians our invitation to go fishing for men is a standing invitation.  How will we respond to it?  Going fishing for men is a command we find (though not in those words) in Matthew 28:18-20.  However, it is also an invitation in the fact that Jesus gives us the choice whether not we follow this command.  

Fishing.  Let me return to the illustration I gave at the beginning.  Me and Nolan had to turn down the invitation we received to go fishing because we had other plans.  Now let's carry that over into yours and my walk with Christ.  A lot of the time people will turn down the command to go fishing for men because they too "have other plans."  For example, in Matthew 8:18-22, one man CHOOSES not to follow Jesus because he had to go "bury his father." Now the language of this to us would suggest his father was actually dead but this man's father was simply very sick but not dead so Jesus rebukes the man by telling him to let the dead (spiritually dead) bury their own dead.  I can relate to this circumstance because this very same situation was something I wrestled with prior to coming to school here at the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver a year ago.  However, I knew that this is where Jesus wanted me to be to better equip me to be a fisher of men.  that being said, I decided to follow Him. My dad did pass away though at the end of my first semester but God was gracious enough to allow me to return home to California to say good bye and bury my father.  I am forever thankful for that. 

Returning to the subject though, I ask again when is the last time you went fishing for men?  Me and Nolan turned Dustin down to go fishing due to other plans.  However, when it comes to fishing for men, what excuse do we have not to accept the invitation to go fishing for men from Christ Himself?  Other plans? Got too much homework?  Not enough time? You don't think you can do it? (Place Excuse here)? Excuses there is thousands.  But when we look at the Scriptures, I think one thing we quickly realize is that there is no room for excuses.  Christ has given every single one of us Christians a job to do and He expects us to do everything we can to get the job done.  Think of it this way, if you work a job or are in school, you know you won't keep your job or stay in school if you don't get the job done or make the grade.  There is no excuse. 

Fishing.  So when it comes to fishing for men, my encouragement to you in two words is this GO FISHING! Go fishing by getting past any fear you might have of simply inviting your neighbor to church services.  Go fishing by teaching a Bible class or even preaching a sermon.  Shoot, we can go fishing by posting things of God on our Facebook walls or by writing a blog such as this one.  Christ has given us the fishing rod, bait and tackle.  He has given us all our equipment with His Word and fellow Christians to help us along.  So now the only thing left to do is to GO FISHING! 

So in closing, I want to ask you the same question that was asked of me and Nolan yesterday. Want to go fishing? But of course here I mean it in the way Christ did to GO FISHING for men.

GO FISHING! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!