Fishers of Men

One of the tendencies we have as believers when we stop to think about the experiences of our brothers and sisters in persecuted lands is to sit back and think “Wow. That’s horrible.”

And the persecution that believers face is horrible. I don’t want to water that down at all.

But if we aren’t careful, we can leave here this morning, and the only thing we get from their stories is a melancholy feeling about the situations that they find themselves in.

And that tendency reveals two things about us.

We will say that we understand that the world is going to hate us, but in practice, we really don’t think it’s going to happen.

We see the experiences of our brothers and sisters and we cry out, “it shouldn’t be like that, they shouldn’t have to endure those things”.

Yet Scripture is clear that all of us fall under that same hatred. That the normative experience throughout Church history is their experience, not ours.

Over and Over in the New Testament we are called to expect this adversity, and over and over we are called to rejoice in the midst of it.

And the idea of rejoicing while our families are being destroyed and we are being beaten and killed is utterly foreign to us.

And it is foreign to us because of the second thing this tendency reveals about us

2. We have a hard time remembering that Christ has already won the war.

The only death that really should be lamented is a death that is in vain. That’s why we don’t look at the death of soldiers the same way we look at other deaths.

We understand that war necessitates sacrifices. So we tell stories of battlefield valor, where soldiers throw themselves on top of grenades to save their men. And we don’t celebrate their deaths, but we recognize that their deaths were not in vain. There was purpose in their sacrifice.

Their death allows the rest of the squad to stay in the fight, to continue to wage war.

A soldier that dies for his brothers never dies in vain.

The same way that a Christian that dies in service to the Lord never dies in vain.

Every suffering that we face, every hardship we experience, every life we surrender for the cause of Christ is offered for the winning side.

Revelation 20:10 ESV

and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The main battle has been fought, and it has been won by our Savior. What we fight now are the skirmishes of a defeated foe who waits for the day when his number will be called.

And because of this victory, we can have confidence that our lives are not wasted in service to Him.

We can go boldly because if God is for us, who can be against us? The one who has already won the war is in our corner, the one who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth is behind us.

WE SACRIFICE NOTHING IN VAIN

There is one more thing that a service like this has the tendency to do. We start looking for differences between us and our brothers and sisters.

We get this idea that we could never endure what they have. As if they are some kind of Spiritual Special Forces, and we are support soldiers.

“Brandon, I can’t imagine doing that. I’m just not built that way.”

And by thinking that way, we disconnect the unity of the body in the work of the Church.

God may have called them to different circumstances, may have called them to different countries, but the same Holy Spirit that lives within them lives within you.

The same commission that sends them, sends you.

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:

And I know we haven’t gotten here yet, but I want us to look at one thing here in this passage.

First, look at that last sentence.

Jesus says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”

What does that mean? To the end of the age?

It means until He comes back!

Christ is sending them out, and giving them the mission to make disciples, and promises that He will be with them as they fulfill that mission.

But they didn’t live till the end of the age did they?

They are all dead. They are no longer making disciples. So then, who is Jesus with now that they are gone?

With us. Just as Christ was with the disciples as He sent them out at the beginning of the age, so also Christ is with us as we continue that same mission. The disciples are gone, but the mission continues.

This mission

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, that is your mission. To pick up where your brothers and sisters have left off, and to take this word of the Kingdom into the world

Turn to

Jeremiah 16:14-

Jeremiah 16:14–16 ESV

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

So we need to take a step back here and understanding what is going on here. God is speaking to Jeremiah the prophet, and is telling him what he should prophesy over Israel.

And God tells of the exile that He is going to bring upon Israel. Look back at verse 12 and 13

Jeremiah 16:12–13 ESV

and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

He is going to utterly hurl the Israelites into the nations. And directly after describing this exile, Look at what He says

I’m going to throw you out of the land, but I’m going to bring you back. And the way I will bring you back is going to be so great, and so awesome, that no more will you say I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, but I will be the God who has brought you out of all the nations I will fling you.

And look at how He is going to do that. Look at verse 16. God says that he will send many fishers, to catch them and bring them into the promised land.

That sounds familiar doesn’t it?

What does Jesus tell Peter and Andrew?

Matthew 4:

Matthew 4:19 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

That’s our mission. Our DNA. We are, as the disciples were, fishers of men.

God is drawing His people unto Himself, and the way He is doing that is by all of us fishing in the pond that He sends us to.

You may not be fishing in the pond of Ethiopia, but you are fishing in the pond of Clayton, or Willow Springs, or Benson, Or Garner.

There are fish in your pond just as there are fish in our persecuted brothers and sister’s pond. Our work here is not unconnected or less than theirs. Same work, different pond.

And we will never know how those we fish for will affect the kingdom. You can lead someone to the Lord right there in your office, or in your home, and God calls them to take His Word to the nations.

Jeremiah prophesied that God would send out people to retrieve His children 600 years before Christ came.

Jesus gave the Command for His followers to preach the Gospel 2000 years ago.

You are in that line of succession, inherited from those before you, and will pass it on to those after you.

But one thing is clear. The mission will be accomplished.

Remember what God told Jeremiah? That He would be known for this new act, bringing His children in from exile?

:9-10

Revelation 5:9–10 ESV

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

See? What God told Jeremiah 2600 years ago will come to pass. The war is won. But our mission is not complete.

This morning we stand with our brothers and sisters as they face persecution and death. We pray for their strength, their faith, and that the Word would take hold in HIs people.

But the greatest way we can support these believers is to tell people about Jesus. To raise up more workers. More fishers of men.

May we be found faithful to the task that we have all been given.