During a recent fishing competition in New Zealand, an angler named Nathan Adams caught a 738-pound Pacific Bluefin tuna, which just may be the largest Bluefin tuna one has ever caught—as of the recent news, Adams is awaiting verification that he will hold the new world record. Naturally, he refers to this particular fish as a “fish of a lifetime.” The fish is indeed impressive, because the attached photograph that accompanied the news report showed the hanging fish measuring almost twice the size of the man who caught it.
Jesus knew about fishing, and He also enjoyed keeping company with some anglers, particularly, two sons of Zebedee (Matt. 4:21) and two sons of Jonah (cf. Matt. 16:17). It was on one infamous occasion that Jesus said to these anglers, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). Luke records the account with Jesus stating, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:10). Let us note a few lessons from this great statement of our Lord.
Fishing is the perfect metaphor for evangelism, just as Jesus illustrated with this great statement. Notice just a sampling of examples.
• In order to become successful, fishing is that which one teaches, just as my father and grandfather taught me when I was a boy. So it is with evangelism—it is that which one teaches (cf. Matt. 28:19-20).
• The more experience one has fishing, the better angler he or she will become; so it is with evangelism. No one should overlook experience.
• An angler will use whatever tools are at his disposal and with which he is comfortable, because he understands that some fish will bite at some lures/bait and not at others. So many factors play a part with fishing (weather, type of body of water, time of day/year and such like). So it is with evangelism—some people respond to some teaching methods while other people respond to others.
• Just as anglers can learn to diversify their talents (i.e., going from rod and reel to fly fishing), evangelists can learn to diversify their methods of reaching people (i.e., using videos to simply teaching straight from the Bible).
Jesus told these fishing disciples, “I will make you fishers of men.” He stated this early in His ministry as He was gathering/calling disciples and before He was selecting apostles. Please note the future tense of the verb—they would not immediately become such, but that He would prepare them for such. Some three years later, before He ascended back to His throne, He commissioned them, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:19-20). Even then, they still did not know everything (cf. John 14:26), but it would only be after some three years that He sent them to do what He initially promised—they would become “fishers of men,” which we see them doing throughout the book of Acts. The point is this—we should neither belittle evangelism to the point of making every Christian feel guilty if they are not doing it, nor should we discourage Christians who “fail” when attempting it. Just as the disciples took a three-year-long course in learning from the Master Angler/Evangelist, it takes time and effort to learn how to evangelize properly.
The feeling of catching the “fish of a lifetime,” whether it is 738-pound Pacific Bluefin tuna or a 21-pound largemouth bass, pales in consideration to the feeling of converting a sinner through the process of evangelism. Consider the stark contrast. When one catches a monster fish, while there certainly is a great feeling of adrenaline and excitement, it soon diminishes away. Whether one chooses to eat the fish or mount the fish, the memory is still there, but the fish, along with its excitement, is generally gone after a while. Not so with one who catches men. To see someone obey the gospel that I have taught provides a feeling like none other, but I am able to continue to enjoy such by watching that individual grow in faith, similar to the experience that new parents enjoy with the birth of their children, only this time, it is in a spiritual sense with a spiritual rebirth (cf. John 3:3-5; Tit. 3:5). In his classic work, “The Mission of the Local Church,” Wendell Winkler emphasizes the point of why all Christian ought to become personal soul winners for Jesus by exclaiming, “It will give him a thrilling satisfaction he has never experienced before” (p. 78). Such is true, and why we all ought to work hard and train to become “fishers of men!”