Fishers of Men | Matthew 4:18-22
Brian Hedges | August 7, 2022
Let me invite you to turn in Scripture this morning to Matthew 4. We’ll be reading verses 18-22.
While you’re turning there, let me relate a story that comes from Rebecca Pippert’s book Stay Salt. Rebecca Pippert has done some wonderful writing and teaching on evangelism over the years, and she recounts an experience she had where she was speaking at a conference, and she asked two questions of the crowd. The first question was, “What image comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘evangelist’?” You might think of what images come to your mind. This was the list of answers that came back to her. She wrote these on the blackboard. They were words like:
- pushy
- rude
- intrusive
- don’t listen
- focused on their agenda
It was, by and large, a negative list of characteristics.
Then she asked a followup question. She said, “Can you describe in a few words that person who most influenced you to become a Christian?” This was the list of characteristics of those people:
- loving
- listened
- not judgmental
- took me seriously
- looked for the good in me
- appreciated my questions
- available
- hospitable
The audience was struck, of course, by the contrast between those two lists, as I’m sure you are as well. There’s a very striking contrast between what often comes into our minds when we hear the word “evangelism” or “evangelist” and what comes into our minds when we think of those people who actually led us to faith in Jesus Christ.
This is Pippert’s comment and observation based on this exercise. She says, “The words ‘evangelist’ and ‘evangelism’ elicit strong reactions, particularly in the west, not only in the culture but also in the church. The caricature of the guy with a placard shouting on the street corner is how many Christians fear they will be perceived if they attempt to share their faith. In fact, just say the word ‘evangelism’ and Christians often believe it means memorizing a technique to use on a ‘victim.’ But techniques do not motivate or inspire us, nor do they build authentic relationships with others. What this shows us is that we’ve forgotten what evangelism actually is . . . good news.”
What is it? It’s spreading the good news. In fact, the word “evangelism,” the word “evangelist,” those are words that come from the Greek word euangelion, or evangel, the word for “gospel.” Good news—that’s what the gospel is. It’s good news. We must remember when we start thinking about evangelism that we’re not talking about a technique, we’re not talking about pushy sales techniques that are trying to get people to buy Jesus; we are talking about spreading the good news of what Jesus Christ has done, in his death on the cross, to save us from our sins, his resurrection from the dead to give us the hope of eternal life. We’re talking about God’s grace for sinners, and it’s the best news in the world, and news that we are entrusted with, news that we are to share.
Well, we are beginning now the third week of our focus on mission, “Living on Mission,” a series where we’ve been looking at these different metaphors in the New Testament for evangelism. So far we’ve looked at “salt of the earth,” and then last week we looked at “light of the world.” Today our focus will be “fishers of men” from Matthew 4, and then next week on “sowing and reaping.” I’ve actually decided to add a fifth, and if you want to know what that is you’re going to have to show up on August 21st to see what the fifth metaphor is. But today we’re focusing on being fishers of men.
What does that mean? Let’s begin by reading this passage that comes from the Gospel of Matthew—Matthew 4:18-22. This is a familiar passage of Scripture where Jesus calls his first disciples. It says,
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is 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.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This is God’s word.
What Jesus gives us in this passage is a call to follow him, and then another one of these very simple images or word pictures for evangelism. The picture is “fishers of men”: “I will make you fishers of men.”
I think this metaphor suggests for us five characteristics of personal evangelism, five characteristics that should be true in our lives as we share the gospel with others. We should be intentional, strategic, prepared, confident, and obedient in sharing the gospel. I just want to look at each one of those with you briefly.
1. Intentional
The first one is intentionality. We should be intentional in sharing the gospel with others.
Think for just a minute about what this word picture or metaphor adds to our understanding of evangelism, in contrast to what we’ve looked at so far. Fishing emphasizes motion and movement. You have to go to the fish, right? You have to be intentional. Nobody catches fish by accident; you actually have to purpose, you have to decide to go fishing.
Now, salt is something that you taste. Salt is simply salty. Light is something you see. Light shines by virtue of being light. There is a certain inevitability to salt and light. If you are salt of the earth, you’re going to have some influence; if you’re light of the world, you’re going to shine. There’s inevitably going to be this missional effect in your life. I think that’s all right, that’s all true. A city set on a hill—that’s something that people come to. Salt and light and a city set on a hill—these are “come and see” word pictures.
But fishing is a “go and tell” metaphor. It’s telling us that there’s something for us to do. We need to move out of our comfort zones and intentionally share the gospel with others. So it takes intentionality.
I think the first application is very simply this—it’s just a question—when was the last time you shared the gospel with someone on purpose, because you intended to, because you planned to, because you prayed about it and you looked for the opportunity, you took the initiative, you started the conversation, and you told someone about Jesus?
It’s one thing when we have a conversation we didn't really plan on, and certainly there are those serendipitous moments where we perceive, Oh, this is a divine appointment! This person’s really open; I need to share the gospel with him. Of course we should do that. We should take advantage of all those opportunities.
But we should also initiate those conversations. We should also decisively, deliberately, intentionally, purposefully go to others with the intention of sharing Jesus with them. We’re to go fishing, fishing for men, and that requires intentionality on our parts. So that’s first: we should be intentional in sharing the gospel.
2. Strategic
The second point follows right along the first, and that is that we should be strategic in looking for opportunities to share the gospel. Strategy goes beyond intentionality. Intentionality involves just deciding that we are going to do it, but strategy involves deciding when, where, and how we’re going to do it. Strategy involves thinking very specifically about opportunities and about the conversations that we will have.
Part of this means just looking for strategic opportunities. When people want to fish, they have to go to where the fish are. You don’t go to where the fish aren’t; you’re not going to catch any. In the same way, we have to go to where people are.
Now, sometimes that involves a really radical commitment. Sometimes it means uprooting your family and moving to a different part of the world as a cross-cultural missionary, so that you’re going to one of the unreached peoples, one of the unreached countries of the world. God calls some of us to do that, and it’s a priority in our church here at Redeemer to support financially those that God has called to make that kind of a radical commitment and sacrifice.
But all of us are called to seek out those who do not know Christ. This may mean something less radical but still dramatic. It may mean that you deliberately move into an unreached neighborhood. It may mean that you choose to either get a job or stay in a job in some sector of society where Christianity is underrepresented. It may mean that you deliberately build relationships with unbelievers, but you are strategically looking for opportunities to share Christ with others.
Now, this does raise a potential objection, and the objection would go something like this: Isn’t there danger of us simply making people a means to our end, namely, evangelism? So we’re not so much thinking of just loving people simply, but we’re thinking of notching our evangelistic belts. We’re looking to make our next score, the next person that we win to Jesus. We’re trying to check that off the list, but we’re not really just thinking about people and loving people. Isn’t there a danger in thinking too much about being strategic in evangelism, building relationship in order to evangelize them, that we’re missing people in order to do evangelism?
I think the simple answer to that is that of course we should love people as they are, regardless of their response to the gospel. Of course we should love our neighbors as ourselves, and we should love anyone that we come in contact with. But part of loving people means seeing their needs, and it means trying to meet those needs. If you meet someone who is hungry and you love them, you give them food. If you meet someone who is lonely and you love them, you befriend them, you seek to invite them into community. If you see someone who is in physical danger and you love them, you try to give them help, you try to protect them, you try to remove them from that danger and move them into safety. Love meets needs.
But listen, every person’s single greatest need is a restored relationship with their Creator. Our greatest need—every single one of us—is for God’s grace, grace to pardon our sins, grace to change our hearts, and if we love people we will want to meet that need as well. We’re not doing that in order to boast of our evangelistic efforts; not at all. We’re doing it because we love people, we love Christ, we love God, we love the gospel, and we want to see people embrace this good news that has so changed our lives. So we need to be strategic in seeking for opportunities to do that.
We also need to be strategic in the actual conversations we have. Part of that just means sensitivity to where people are in the process of coming to understand the gospel and consider the claims of Christ. We have to be sensitive to where people are and whether they are open or not. Love can recognize that. Love can recognize whether someone is hesitant or opposed or whether they are open.
I think an illustration that can be a helpful tool for you to use when you’re in conversations is this idea of a traffic light. I owe this one to Brad. This, I think, is very helpful. Just think of a traffic light: you have red, yellow, and green. In the same way as a traffic light tells you whether to go or slow down or stop, in the same way, you’re getting signals when you’re in conversations with others.
A red light would mean that you’re getting complete resistance to the gospel. You’re getting pushback. There’s no openness to conversation. There may even be hostility to Jesus or hostility to the church or hostility to the words that you’re saying. If that’s the case, you don’t keep going. Instead, you back off and you pray and you respond with kindness. You try not to burn the bridge in that friendship, in that relationship. You just continue to love this person and pray for openness down the road.
You might get a yellow light, where someone is open but they’re cautious. You sense that they’re not completely closed, but they’re hesitant. They’re not shutting the door, but they’re also not ready to just move full speed ahead. In that case, what do you do? You keep pointing them to Jesus—gently, as the opportunity arises. You keep praying for them, you keep being friendly, you keep building the relationship.
Then sometimes there are those moments where you get a green light, where you sense that someone is interested, they are open to conversation, they have lots of questions. They’re ready! What do you do in those moments? You make the gospel clear. You share the good news: “Jesus Christ died for sinners. Your sins can be forgiven! He rose from the dead; you can have eternal life. God is a gracious God. This is not about making yourself a better person in order for God to receive you. This is about coming as you are to God through Jesus Christ, where you can be received by him and have a new relationship with him.” You make the gospel clear, and you encourage them to take the next step. You might invite them to come to church. You might invite them into your small group. You might invite them to meet you for coffee to begin reading through Scripture together. You might give them something to read as a follow-up. You might invite them in that moment to pray with you to receive Christ and to trust him.
Know what signal you’re receiving. Be strategic in those conversations; be sensitive people, and then move as you sense the Lord is moving.
3. Prepared
Now, in order to do all of that, we also have to be prepared. This is the third characteristic of personal evangelism that I think this metaphor, fishers of men, suggests to us. That is, we have to be equipped with good tools for sharing the gospel.
Fishermen need tools, don’t they? You don’t go catch fish with your bare hands. In the ancient world, fishermen had their boats and they had their nets. Fishermen today, especially in the world of fly fishing, have all kinds of fancy equipment. They have their rods and their reels, their spoons and their spinners, their flies and their jigs, their crankbaits, all the other kinds of things. Some of you are surprised I know all of that, because I’m not a fisherman. But I have the Internet, so you can find out things like that.
But listen, nobody goes fishing with their bare hands. You have to have tools. In the same way, we need tools for sharing the gospel with others.
I would suggest to you that we are equipped both in general ways—equipment that all of us have. We have the Bible. If we are believers we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have the word and the Spirit. Then sometimes we also need specific tools that help us have a focused explanation of the word, a focused explanation of the gospel to share with others.
Generally, we’re all equipped with the word and the Spirit. Listen, if you are following Christ, if you are in ongoing relationship with Jesus, where you are feeding on his word, where you are walking in the Spirit, you have the resources at your fingertips to share Christ with others.
Do you remember that story in the book of Acts, the story of Philip? He’s called Philip the evangelist, and he meets this man who’s in a chariot, and the man is reading the Bible, but he doesn’t understand what he’s reading. He’s reading from the Old Testament; he’s reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip jumps into his chariot, starts a conversation with him, and asks him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”
The man doesn’t understand, and the text tells us (Acts 8:35) that Philip “opened his mouth and, beginning with this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.”
What was Philip doing? He was simply using the Scripture, the very Scripture this man was reading, and he was showing him that there was a line straight from that passage, Isaiah 53, to the story of Jesus, the good news of Jesus.
The better you know your Bible and the closer you’re walking with the Spirit, the more equipped you will be to just take the passages of Scripture that you’re reading or someone else is reading and show people Jesus and talk to people about Jesus. So we’re equipped in that way.
But it does help sometimes to have specific tools to use. These can be tools that either help you become more familiar with the gospel so that you have an outline in your mind to walk through the gospel with someone; or a tool that you can actually hand to someone and share. I want to suggest two of them. These are tools that we actually have stocked here at the church. At least, we have some in stock, and we can order more if we give all these away. These are on the table if you go down that hallway, through the glass doors on the side, they’re on the table there. Two tools.
The first one is called The Story. This is just a little gospel tract that Good News Publishers puts out. It’s very good, and it gives you a simple, six-point gospel outline: creation, curse, Christ, the cross, recreation, and then a call to commitment. It uses alliteration, the c-words. This is really easy to use. It’s easy to familiarize yourself with. Even if you don’t give someone this, it’s easy to just have this outline in your mind.
I’m not saying you have to work through all the alliterated points in the conversation, but you just have the scope of the gospel in your mind. Pick this up and read it; it will be helpful to you.
The second one is a little book that I wrote years and years ago called The Story of His Glory. This was my attempt to put together a gospel outline, something a little bit bigger than a tract. This is about the length of a chapter of a book. What I’ve tried to do is include the gospel of Christ’s death on the cross and the resurrection, but situate it within the broader story of Scripture. So it begins with creation and it ends with the consummation, with Jesus coming again. In the midst of this book there is stuff about God’s covenant with Abraham, there’s stuff about transformation through the work of the Spirit. That’s my attempt, in a brief format, to clarify the gospel. I would encourage you, pick that up—not because I wrote it, but just pick it up and use this as a tool, either to equip yourself or to share the gospel with others. We need to be prepared.
4. Confident
Then number four, we also need confidence. I believe that we can be deeply confident that Christ is at work as we share the gospel with others. We should feel that confidence.
Now, let me just distinguish this from self-confidence. We’re not talking about confidence in personal evangelism. I don’t mean self-confidence. Many of us feel anything but self-confident when we start having conversations about Jesus. When I’ve talked to people about Jesus, there have been times when my hands are trembling, when my knees were literally shaking, when my voice was quivering, when my heart was beating fast, my palms were sweaty—I did not feel confident in those moments! Not confident in myself or confident in my ability.
Listen, that’s okay, and that’s okay if you feel that way. You can share the gospel with others without being confident that you know the right words, or you’re going to use exactly the right Scripture verses, or that you’re going to adequately explain the gospel, or that you’re going to be able to answer every question that someone might have. You don’t have to have confidence that you’re going to have all of that right in order to have a kind of confidence when you share the gospel.
The confidence I mean is a humble confidence not in yourself, but confidence in Jesus Christ, who goes before you and is always at work in the world.
I think when you look at Luke’s account of the call of the disciples, found in Luke 5, you can see why the disciples became so confident in sharing the gospel with others. It’s a wonderful story where Jesus sees the disciples; they’ve been fishing all night and they caught nothing, and after teaching the people for a little while that morning Jesus tells Simon Peter, “Launch the boat off into the deep.”
Peter says, “Master, we’ve been toiling all night long and we haven’t caught anything!” It’s just foolish, in Peter’s mind, to go launch into the deep during the heat of the day to try to fish.
But Jesus says to do it. He says, “Put your boat into the deep; let down your nets for a catch.”
Peter says, “At your command, at your word, I’ll let down the net.”
They go out, and lo and behold, they catch so many fish that the nets start to break. So they motion to another boat, “Come over here and help us!” Another boat comes alongside, and there are so many fish that the boats begin to sink!
When they get back to shore, Simon Peter drops down on his knees in front of Jesus and he says, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He has recognized that there is divine power at work here.
You know what Jesus says? He says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you’ll be catching men.” Fishers of men.
I think that story is such an important story, because it shows us that the mission of the disciples really flowed out of this power encounter with Jesus. They had seen the power of Jesus at work, and that must be true in our lives as well. It’s when we have seen the power of Christ at work, first of all in our own hearts and lives. We’ve seen him at work; that should give us confidence, not in ourselves but in him.
The story also shows us that they had to take a risk. They had to take a risk to let down their nets even when it didn’t look like there would be a catch. So many times in personal evangelism you have to take the risk to start the conversation, even when it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be a great outcome. But you take the risk.
I challenge you to do this. Take the risk of praying a daring prayer on a Monday morning, and say, “Lord Jesus, will you lead me to somebody today that I can share the gospel with?” Just see what happens.
Take the risk of initiating a conversation with someone, maybe someone that you’ve known for some time but you haven’t had a spiritual conversation, you haven’t talked to them about Jesus. Maybe just take the risk of launching your net into the deep, and you ask a question, and see what happens in that conversation.
I remember years ago when I was still working a secular job there was a particular woman I had been working with for some time, and she was from a Catholic background, but she was not a believer, at least not a committed follower of Christ. I felt this burden that I needed to share the gospel with her. I didn’t know how to do it. I wasn’t well trained. I was extremely nervous. I’m an introvert, folks; it’s really hard for introverts to strike up conversations like this, and it especially was for me at the time. But I felt like God was moving me to do it, so I simply asked her a question. I said, “Colleen, do you ever think about eternity?”
If I remember this correctly now, her eyes just filled up with tears, it got really quiet, and she said, “I think about eternity a lot.”
We ended up having a wonderful conversation; I gave her a study Bible, I gave her the testimony of someone, a recording. It was about an hour long, and I found out the next day that she had gone home; she didn’t even get out of her car. She popped that thing into her car and she listened to the entire thing before she even went in the house. The Lord had opened a door to share with her, but I had to take the risk, the risk of being rejected, the risk of being shut down, the risk of being embarrassed.
You’re going to have to do that. You’re going to have to take the risk of launching into the deep, but you do it with confidence, not in yourself, but confidence that Christ is at work, he goes before you, and he’s leading you in this. So, confidence in sharing the gospel.
5. Obedient
We need intentionality, we need strategy, we need to be prepared, we need confidence, and then (number five), we need obedience. Sharing the gospel is a matter of obedience.
As Rebecca Pippert says in this book, “Jesus did not say, ‘Go therefore, all you extroverts, and make disciples; the rest of you just hang out.’”
I know there are maybe half a dozen of you who are extremely extroverted; you feel like you have the gift of evangelism. You’re just eating this series up. This is your bread and butter. You’re doing this all the time anyway. Thank God for you! I’m so thankful that we have folks like that.
But a lot of us are more introverted, and we kind of hang back. But you and I need to remember that this command is for us: Go and make disciples. Share the gospel with others.
I want you to just look at what Jesus said to these first disciples. You know, I had missed this until this week, or if I had seen it before I didn’t remember it, but it just really struck me, first of all in reading Spurgeon and then also reading the great Puritan Thomas Boston, who wrote a book called The Art of Man-Fishing.
Both of them point out that there is both a command and a promise in this passage. The command is, “Follow me,” and the promise is, “I will make you fishers of men.”
The command is not, “Go fish,” the command is, “Follow me.” The promise is, “I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus is the one who actually makes us fishers of men, who gives us this heart for evangelism. But the command to us is, first of all, to follow Christ.
I want to read to you some of Spurgeon’s words that I think are really stirring. Spurgeon, by the way—I don’t know of anyone who had a greater passion for evangelism than Charles Spurgeon. Read his book The Soul Winner. Read sermons from Spurgeon. He will stir you up like nothing else will, and if you want to read from this one, find sermon number 1906, called “How to Become Fishers of Men.” I’m sure you can find it online.
Spurgeon says, "I think I may say to every person whom I am addressing, if you are saved yourself the work is but half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ. You are as yet but half-formed in the image of your Lord. You have not attained to the full development of the Christ-life in you unless you have commenced in some feeble way to tell to others of the grace of God, and I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means of leading many to that blessed Savior who is your confidence and your hope. His word is, 'Follow me,' not merely that you may be saved, not even that you may be sanctified, but, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"
Then Spurgeon spends four or five pages where he just expounds on what it means to follow Christ. He talks about being separated from the world and abiding in Jesus, being faithful to go and teach what he has taught us, and imitating his holiness; these different aspects of following Christ. It’s really heart-searching stuff; you should read it.
Then he says this. To those who feel intimidated, to those who feel hesitant, to those who feel like, I don’t really know how to do this, listen to what Spurgeon says. It’s a wonderful exhortation.
"Fear not, neither be dismayed. Let your responsibilities drive you closer to your Master. Let horror of prevailing sin make you look into his dear face who long ago wept over Jerusalem and now weeps over London. Clasp him, and never let go your hold. By the strong and mighty impulses of the divine life within you, quickened and brought to maturity by the Spirit of God, learn this lesson from your Lord’s own mouth: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' You are not fit for it, but he will make you fit. You cannot do it of yourselves, but he will make you do it. You do not know how to spread nets and draw shoals of fish to shore, but he will teach you. Only follow him, and he will make you fishers of men."
Brothers and sisters, there is a call on us as the church, on us as disciples of Jesus. There is a call to go, there is a call to make disciples, there is a call to spread the gospel, to share it with others. But the first call is a call to follow Christ.
May I suggest to you that if we are not sharing the gospel with others, we have to go back to square one. It’s because we’re not following Jesus. We’re not following him closely enough, we’re not abiding in him, we’re not walking with him. But if we will follow him—that’s the command. If we will follow him, if we will obey that command and follow him, he will make us become fishers of men.
Listen, there are enough people in Redeemer Church that if every single Christian in this church, coming to this church, whether you’re a member or an attendee—if every single one of us was actually seizing every opportunity we had to share Christ with others, if we were praying, if we were deliberately, intentionally, strategically well-prepared, sharing the gospel with others as we had opportunity, there’s no telling what God could do. He could lead thousands to faith in Jesus Christ. There could be a revival. God can do that. Let’s pray that he’ll do that, but let’s begin with ourselves. Ask yourself this morning, Am I following Jesus? “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Let’s pray.
Father, this is a humbling and a convicting passage and word this morning, but we trust it comes from you, and we want to receive it as coming from your heart. We want to be obedient to you by following Jesus closely and embracing the kind of life that that entails. We want to be intentional and strategic in sharing the gospel with others. We want to learn how to do that better. So Father, I pray that you would help us. I pray that you would work first of all in our hearts. Work on our motivations, break down our selfishness, our pride, our cowardice, our desire to stay comfortable—all the reasons that keep us from being obedient. Lord, help us put those things to death.
I pray that you would help us, Lord, to have the heart that Jesus has for those who are lost. Help us to see that the fields are white with the harvest. Help us see people who are like sheep without a shepherd. Help us see that there are people who are lost and headed for hell if they do not repent and come to faith in Christ. Help us see that we have the opportunity to share the best news in the world with them, the news of a gracious God who through Jesus Christ redeems sinners.
Lord, would you give us opportunities this week? Would you give us the courage to take those opportunities this week? Lord, would you make us fruitful as your people so that through the humble means of our sharing the gospel, however imperfectly we do it, your Spirit would work in supernatural ways to bring people to saving faith? We want to see that, and so we ask for it. Work in our hearts now what is pleasing in your sight. As we come to the Lord’s table, may this be a time of fresh commitment and repentance and drawing near to you. We pray it in Jesus’ name, amen.
Brian G. Hedges
