Follow Jesus to Become a Fisher of Men
Follow Jesus to Become a Fisher of Men
Zac Poonen | 16th March 2025
?
Let us consider the simple statement “I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Who is going to make you a fisher of men? Christ. No man can make you a fisher of men. You can go to a Bible college and spend years there, but it will not make you a fisher of men. You do not become a fisher of men by studying the Bible, by hearing a missionary challenge and raising your hand, or by coming forward and kneeling down to consecrate your life for God's work. No, if you want to be a fisher of men, the Lord says, “Follow Me.” Not even, "Study the Bible," but, “Follow Me.” The early Christians did not have a Bible. How could they become fishers of men? By following Jesus. We must understand this correctly. We certainly must study the Scriptures, as it is said “Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). But we must not become idol worshippers of the Bible. Do not become a biblio-idolator. The Bible is meant to help us follow Jesus better. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to show us the glory of Jesus Christ. And to follow Jesus is the way to become a fisher of men. It is Jesus Christ Himself Who is going to make you a fisher of men, not some missionary Bible training institute. God may use men, but ultimately it is Christ who wants to have a personal relationship with you, and He alone can make you a fisher of men. What does it mean to be fishers of men? To be fishers of men is to be just like fishermen who go into the sea or river and let down their nets to pick up fish and bring them to the shore. They bring them from one surrounding into another. The fish is not naturally comfortable on earth; it is comfortable in the sea! And a fisherman is picking that fish up from the water and bringing it to earth, to a completely different environment from what it was in.
“When a person is transported from the kingdom of earth to the kingdom of heaven - just like when a fish comes out of the water and onto the land - he is brought into a completely different environment altogether. The Holy Spirit makes us comfortable in the kingdom of heaven.”
It is important to understand that it is not like capturing a lion or an elephant and putting it in a cage, because the lion is already used to living on the earth, not in the sea. But when you catch a fish, it is being taken out of one environment and put into a completely different one. Land and water are like opposites. So, to be a fisher of men - a real fisher of men - is to go to people who are in the waters of this world, pick them up from there, and bring them into a completely different environment: the kingdom of heaven.
If you have not brought a person out of the kingdom of this earth and into the kingdom of heaven, you have not really brought that fish out. You may have kept that fish in your net perhaps, but if it is still in the water, you have not really brought it out. You have not really become a fisher of men. Which fisherman catches a fish in a net and leaves it in the net, still in the water, where the fish is very comfortable? But once you bring it out to the earth, you see how fish behaves. When it is on land, it flaps around and says, “Hey, I am not very comfortable here!”
When a person is transported from the kingdom of earth to the kingdom of heaven - just like when a fish comes out of the water and onto the land - he is brought into a completely different environment altogether. The Holy Spirit makes us comfortable in the kingdom of heaven. So, do not feel that you have completed your job, and you are therefore a “fisher of men” just because you made a hundred people say, “Lord Jesus, come into my heart.” Unfortunately, that is what has happened with many believers. They have not meditated on what it means to be a fisher of men because other human beings and teachers have made them fishers of men - not Christ. If Christ were to make you a fisher of men, it would be on the same principle that He preached two verses earlier, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). We must teach these ‘fish’ to turn around and seek for the kingdom of heaven, to come into a completely different environment than they were in. That is what a fisherman is doing. He is taking a fish from the sea onto the land, and we must take people out of the kingdom of earth into the kingdom of heaven - out of the kingdom of the devil and into the kingdom of God - if we are to be true fishers of men. It is only Jesus who can make us fishers of men. Nobody else can do it. It is not just the evangelist who is a fisher of men. The evangelist is only doing part of that job. The prophet, the apostle, the teacher, the shepherd and the pastor also have to complete the job of making these people really comfortable in their new environment, the kingdom of heaven. The complete task is to take a person out of the sea and onto the land - out from the kingdom of earth and into the kingdom of heaven. And the way to do that is to follow Christ. If I follow Jesus, I will do that just like He did it.