LIVING AS DISCIPLES:
Seeking The Lost

Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishers. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.

Week after week, month after month, and year after year these who called themselves fishers met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be the primary task of fishers.

Continually they searched for new and better methods of fishing, and for new and better definitions of fishing. They loved slogans such as "Fishing is the task of every Fisher," "A fishing outpost for every fishing club." They sponsored special meetings called "Fisher’s Campaigns" and "The Month for Fishers To Fish". They sponsored costly nationwide and world wide congresses to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and hear about all the ways of fishing such as the new fishing equipment, fish calls, and whether any new bait was discovered.

These fishers built large, beautiful buildings called "Fishing Headquarters." The plea was that everyone should be a fisher and every fisher should fish.

One thing, though, they didn’t do was..........

In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishers to other places where there were many fish. Everyone seemed to agree that what was needed was a board which could challenge fishers to be faithful in fishing. The board was formed by those who had the great vision and courage to speak about fishing, to define fishing, and to promote the idea of fishing in faraway streams and lakes where many fish of different colours lived.

Also, the board hired staff and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But one thing the staff and committee members didn’t do was........

Large, elaborate and expensive training centres were built whose original and primary purpose was to teach people how to fish. Over the years courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psychological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish.

Those who taught had doctorates in fishology. But, no matter how well they taught, one thing the good Dr.Fishers forgot was to.......

Students were trained, many were graduated and given fishing licenses. They were sent to do full-time fishing, some to distant places where the waters were filled with fish. Some spent much study and travel to learn the history of fishing and to see faraway places where the founding fathers did great fishing in the centuries past. They lauded the faithful fishers of years before who handed down the idea of fishing in carefully prescribed ways.

Further, the fishers built large printing houses to publish fishing guides. Presses were kept busy day and night to produce materials solely devoted to fishing methods, equipment, and programs to arrange and to encourage meetings to talk about fishing. A speakers’ bureau was also provided to schedule special speakers on the subject of fishing.

Many who felt the call to be fishers responded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. But they ended up behaving like the fishers back home. They engaged in all kinds of other occupations. They made all kinds of equipment to travel here and there to look at fish hatcheries. Some also said they wanted to be part of the fishing party, but they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Others felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishers. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neighbours, and how loving and kind they were, was enough.

After one stirring meeting on "The Necessity For Fishing" one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honoured for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit his fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience to the other fishers. He was also placed on the General Board as a person having considerable experience.

Now it’s true that many of the fishers sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. Some received the ridicule of people who made fun of their fishing clubs.
 

So –
-- imagine
....how hurt do you think some of them were when, one day, some person suggested that those who didn’t catch fish were really not fishers –
– no matter how much they claimed to be.

Yet.....
..... it did sound correct.
Is a person a fisher if year after year she never catches a fish?
Is a person a fisher if he isn’t fishing?
[John Drescher in Church Growth: America Sept/Oct 1978]

Over the last few weeks we’ve been spending evening worship time here at Calvin considering what it is to be and live as a disciple of Jesus Christ;
a follower,
a student,
of Jesus.

"Living As Disciples", we call this series.
Over the past weeks we’ve listened to the Bible tell us that being a disciple involves other people; we can’t be disciples alone.

Neither can we keep discipleship to one little corner of our lives; it involves full commitment of heart, soul, mind and strength.
Discipleship is, thirdly, an ongoing task - constant growing and maturing; if you don’t keep moving forward you will immediately begin to slide backwards.
And now, this matter about fishing......
"I have accepted Jesus as my Saviour and Lord" we say.

To which the Bible responds with these words of Jesus:
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." [Matthew 7:21]

The will of God -
It’s not very complicated to understand, you know:
"Come, follow me" Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of me."
[Mk 1:17]

Do you still hear echos of the last command Jesus gave before returning to heaven? "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore......."
GO.

You are a believer?
You are one who claims me as Saviour and Lord?
Then go.
Make disciples –
Invite others to follow me, baptize them, and teach them so that they can obey me, too.
Go, and make other people who are learning to live the life of me, their teacher.

You’ll notice that there are no exceptions listed here.
There is no talk that making disciples is something only to be done by people with certain gifts; or those with particular letters behind or in front of their name; or those with specific backgrounds; or in certain stages of life.
There is absolutely no talk about a spectator attitude, about being passive because, well, we humans can’t do anything about someone’s will. God will do His electing thing anyway. Jesus never said, "Well, I’ll go to heaven and then send the Holy Spirit to do amazing works in the hearts of men, women, boys and girls. Christians, sit back and watch this."

YOU....
.....DISCIPLE.....
GO!!

There are many elements involved in the life of a believer.
There are oh so many angles to living as the Body of Christ in this broken, hurting world.
But, ultimately, it comes down to the first thing that Jesus tells his disciples in Mark 1.
It comes down to the last thing that Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 28.
Fish for people.
Make disciples.

I think most of us know what a Mission Statement is, right?
A short, pithy, statement of why some agency is in existence;
why a person is setting out to do what she or he has planned.

Does any particular bible verse come to mind – a short and to the point verse – that could serve as a mission statement for Jesus’ life?
There are a number of different ones that you could go to.

But there’s one that keeps resonating with my soul:
"For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life."
[John 3:16]

New life to dying people.
Abundant life.
Peace-filled life.
Eternal life.
The free gift of God through Jesus.

Friends, we have been granted that gift.
And God has His holy eye on others to whom that gift will be granted.
He ALSO has a holy eye on US.
His eye is on us because we are the ones that He has mandated to be distributors of the gift.
He will provide the spiritual octane, so to speak. He will make effective what we say and do. That is the measure of His sovereignty, His irresistible grace, and His electing choosing at work. All of that works behind the scenes; in the background. It is the foundation and assurance which allows us to become active.

But we are to provide the hands and feet, the ears and eyes and mouths that, so to speak, get up and go to the lake, put the bait on the hook, hang on to the fishing pole, throw the line in the water, and haul the fish back into the boat.

I cringe whenever I hear people say, "Reformed folk shouldn’t participate in altar calls. We shouldn’t call people to decision. We shouldn’t get so bent out of shape about evangelism.
Because they can’t choose.
Because God will bring them in, anyway."

You see –
- the fact that God WILL call people to salvation;
- that God WILL miraculously change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh;
- that God WILL bring those of His choosing into the Kingdom
- that the Holy Spirit will not let His Word return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He desires and ensure that it achieves the purpose for which He sends it out (Is 55)
-- this huge bible-based truth, far from paralysing, far from sending us to Tim Horton’s instead of out to fish,
this truth becomes courage-building, hope-inspiring, excitement-filling.... ....unless, of course, you believe that all the elect in our city have already been drawn into the Kingdom. And that is hardly likely.
Which means that if we prayerfully, willingly, deliberately, and consistently reach out with the message of life, God WILL bless and cause fruit to be borne, lives to be changed, disciples to be made, and Calvin Church to grow.

We can go out and give it our prayerful, faith-inspired, Holy Spirit guided level best and leave the results to the Seeking, Loving Heavenly Father.
We could, of course, adopt the passive approach saying, "Ultimately it depends on God, anyway, so why bother?"
In which case heaven will heave a weary, sad sigh and by-pass Calvin CRC, turning instead to others who are actually willing to put bait on the hook and throw a line into the water.

In which case,
also,
the question would very legitimately be tossed back at those who sit by dockside with closed tackle boxes -
"Can someone be called a fisher if they never fish?"