Fishers of Men

Matthew 4:19 (NKJV)

19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked up to a handful of men and said, “Follow me.”

What is a Disciple?

The word disciple refers to a student or apprentice. Disciples in Jesus’s day would follow their rabbi (which means teacher) wherever he went, learning from the rabbi’s teaching and being trained to do as the rabbi did. Basically, a disciple is a follower, but only if we take the term follower literally. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is as simple as obeying His call to follow.

Mark 1:17 (NKJV)

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

God will often do something similar when he calls us to become disciples; he’ll link our backgrounds and experiences to his purposes for our lives. Jesus then called his first disciples, two sets of brothers. He used the occupation of Simon (Peter) and Andrew to challenge them to follow him: I will make you fish for people (1:16–17). God will often do something similar when he calls us to become disciples; he’ll link our backgrounds and experiences to his purposes for our lives.

It’s impossible to be a disciple or a follower of someone and not end up like that person. Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).That’s the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus: we imitate Him, carry on His ministry, and become like Him in the process.

Yet somehow many have come to believe that a person can be a “Christian” without being like Christ. A “follower” who doesn’t follow. How does that make any sense? Many people in the church have decided to take on the name of Christ and nothing else.

This would be like Jesus walking up to those first disciples and saying, “Hey, would you guys mind identifying yourselves with Me in some way? Don’t worry, I don’t actually care if you do anything I do or change your lifestyle at all. I’m just looking for people who are willing to say they believe in Me and call themselves Christians.” Seriously?

Count the cost!

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:25–33)

Tremendous crowds were following Jesus (14:25). But he knew that many of them were merely following him for the show he was providing: the miracles, the healings, the exorcisms, the teachings. So he wanted them to understand that to truly be his disciple was costly and said that unless one were to hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, he could not be a disciple (14:26). Now, that’s a pretty tall order. Aren’t children called to love and honor their parents (see Exod 20:12)? Aren’t husbands called to love their wives as Christ loved the church (see Eph 5:25)? What did Jesus mean?

The parallel passage in Matthew helps explain. In Matthew 10:37, Jesus said, “The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” The point is that Jesus deserves priority over every other relationship. If you must choose between Jesus and a family member, then, Jesus wins. Our love for him must be so strong that unbelieving family members think our love for them might as well be hate, because we chose to obey Jesus rather than do what they want. This is the call to and cost of discipleship.

What are you going to allow to control your life? Are you going to follow Jesus and trust Him, or the world and what they have to offer?

Having it your way right away only works at Burger King, not with the King of Kings!

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

The New King James Version (Dt 30:19–20). (1982). Thomas Nelson.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Character of the New Man

The New King James Version (Col 3:1–12). (1982). Thomas Nelson.

How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing … it is irresistible. If even 10 per cent of the world’s population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?

C. S. Lewis

Let’s be Disciples together.

Let’s make Disciples together.

We have the ability!

King Jesus has called us!