In our text from the Gospel of Matthew this morning Jesus Appears as the Fisher of Men. Now if you check out our children’s message from Sunday, you’ll see that not everyone knows about fishing – of any kind!
I think most all of us have a part time job. What’s that, you say? You think that you already have a full time job? God would agree with you. Your job is to be a full time disciple of Jesus. To be sure, most of us have a part time job that we may work 40+ hours every week. God has plenty to say about those part time jobs under the topic of vocation.
What does our full time job of being Jesus’ disciples look like? It looks an awful lot like being a fisherman. There is no silver bullet for fishing for fish or for fishing for men. There are tried and true methods. In fishing for men we call it friendship evangelism. We tell our friends about Jesus. In fishing for fish, I suppose worms is the old stand by. However if you want to talk beyond worms and friends, it isn’t the kind of bait that is important as much as it is how many lines you have in the water. In one article a professional fisherman talks about casting a thousand times just to get a bite on the line. How many times did the Apostle cast his line in a conversation? Christians don’t force people to believe by force or coercion. Christians lay out the good news of God’s love in Jesus. The Holy Spirit uses that powerful message to make the unwilling heart willing. Jesus catches and cleans hearts when we go fishing for him.
That might sound like a great full time job. Even if you have a bad day fishing for Jesus, I think there is a bumper sticker that says that’s still better than a good day at work.
I mentioned a ministry to the Chinese people known as 316NOW. You can click HERE to find out more information.
Want to hear more? Watch this Sunday’s message taken from Matthew 4 – Jesus Appears as the Fisher of Men.
Book(s): Matthew
Series: Jesus Appears
Tag(s): Epiphany, evangelism
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg