The Making of Fishers of Men

• 

An examination of the Commands of The Messiah

Matthew 4:19

Yeshua [Jesus] said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men! CJB

The Master’s Authority over Men

The calling of the Master to “follow Him” is a direct command to all those who heard this spiritual appeal. It was at this juncture in Jesus’ ministry that the call of “followership” demanded two responses, opposition/rejection, or heartfelt acceptance.

For those who accepted the calling of the Messiah, there was something about His person that deeply compelled both men and women to forsake all, to become a disciple of the Master. Just on the surface, the words of Messiah’s appeal of “come unto Me” sounds so simple, yet some theologians contend that this invitation of discipleship was one of the Master’s first parables.

How so, while looking at Matthew 13:47, “Again the Kingdom of heaven is like to a net, that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind of fish. When it was full, the fishermen brought the net up onto the shore, sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad fish away.”

• The sea is the troubled and evil world system, [see Isaiah 57:20, “But the wicked are like the restless sea-unable to be still, its waters toss up mud and dirt. These is no shalom, says my God, for the wicked.”
• The souls of men are the fish that have to be caught and taken from it, and the net is the “Beloved Community or the Body of Christ.

Jesus as a master teacher, having complete control of knowledge of, and living outwardly, the Torah, perfectly used parables as a means to educate those who were primed and ready to receive what He offered, especially in the very presence of opposition and persecution. To His essentially Jewish audience, they would have known or memorized Jeremiah 16:16:

“Look, says Adonai, I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish for them. Afterward, I will send for many hunters; and they will hunt them from every mountain and hill and out of caves in the rocks. For I see all their ways; they are not hidden from me; their crimes are not concealed from my eyes. CJB

The essence of the usage of Jeremiah 16:16 is in direct contrast to the appeal of discipleship that Jesus demands. This passage reveals that there are in life, more than one “fishers of men!” Jeremiah communicates the very darker aspect of the soul condition of humanity. In this passage, the “fisher of men” were all of the ungodly men and their systems [namely, the false religious systems] that held human-being their captors and slaves.

In addition, the origins of the idea of “fishers of men” are historically found in this chapter of Jeremiah. The context is that the 12 tribes of Israel are scattered among the nations and are there in bondage, just like they were in Egypt. So God is planning a new Exodus to bring them out of the nations, which will be greater than when He brought them out of Egypt.

The spiritual discerning power of Messiah and His presence upon those who encountered Him, not just compelled or rejected deeper commitment, it also revealed overall honest, soul analysis of the hearer. In essence, Jesus’ ongoing appeal to any soul is based upon this variable: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Mark 2:17

This calling was unique as well as prophetic in that, would-be disciples would leave their ordinary lifestyles, families, employment to become an attendant to the Kingdom of Heaven lifestyle under the new priesthood of Messiah. By hearing His Word, and being an eyewitness of the gradual unfolding of God’s Kingdom overtaking the evil world systems, these seasoned disciples would become fitted and groomed appropriately for service into the world.

And I Will Make You Fishers of Men

To be My disciple…, be like Me!

The Master is not on record simply teaching His disciples to just believe that He was the Son of God. He never required that they repeat any statement of faith, thus just by verbalizing their belief, they would be saved.

The actual calling by the Master to His followers in belief was to that of active faith that better communicates the lifelong practice of a disciple of Jesus. Even though there are many others, but Jesus gives at least three essential major indicators of one of His faithful disciples.

• Abide in my Word, “If you obey what I sat, then you are really my talmidim [disciple]. John 8:31 CJB. ‘If ye love me, my commands keep“. Young Literal Translation
• Love one to another. A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another. John 13:34 Young Literal Translation
• Remain united with Me, bearing much fruit. “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ..John 15:5 NIV [Gleaned from The Messianic Life: Discipleship Series, Kevin Geoffrey]

Each of these as well as other spiritual disciplines require diligence and faithfulness on the part of the disciple, but not without total reliance upon the Master. These characteristics come with consistent commitment, not merely to the concepts, but the bidding of the Master Himself. [I recommend the book: Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, Richard J. Foster]

Such a very specific calling into this life-long radical discipleship of the Kingdom of Heaven, was by God’s divine design, based upon the historic misleading of God’s people, as recorded during Jesus’ advent of His public ministry. By using an Old Testament image, Jesus is announcing the fulfillment of this image in His mission, as being a new Moses with a New Exodus, drawing all nations out of the slavery of sin and into the new promised land of God’s Kingdom.

Jesus major opposition throughout His ministry was the religious leaders who were guilty of what is found in Jeremiah 23:1:

Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD. Later in this same passage, the Word states, I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply.

So here the Lord is removing the old shepherds, namely the Scribes and Pharisees, and is replacing them with the apostles.

The calling of the initial disciples required that they would be with Him at all times and in all places, companions in His travels, witnesses of all His work, students of His doctrines, fellow-laborers in His practical school of experience. After which, at the appointed time, the reality of Matthew 28:19 is one’s realized pathway; [this segment was gleaned from the Words and Works of Jesus Christ, J. Dwight Pentecost]

Go and make people from all nations into talmidim, [disciple] immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Ruach HaKodesh, [Holy Spirit] and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age. CJB

As spiritually called and trained disciples of the Master, now the work of the Kingdom is the gathering of souls that belong to God Almighty, into the Gospel net of salvation. What is the basic definition of the Gospel message? It communicates clearly the person of Jesus Christ, His Words, and Works for humanity, and how by God’s divine design, how those who are excluded from God’s Kingdom, can now obtain all of God promises and blessings into their lives due to a redeemed and restored covenant relationship.

The faithfulness of Christ Jesus and His selection of the committed disciples of this era shall as was the case of the first century “called out ones,” shall gain over into the Faith, souls that belong to God Almighty! Those who are obedient and faithful to this great harvest, will as was the case of the initial twelve disciples, win more souls for the Kingdom of Heaven than what they/we caught as fishermen in the world.

“Fisher of men, the blessed,

Out of the World’s unrest,

Out of Sin’s troubled sea

Take in us, Lord, to Thee;

Out of the Waves of strife,

With bait of blissful life,

Drawing Thy nets to Shore

with the choicest fish, good Store.”

[An early extant hymn of the Church, by Clement of Alexandria]

•