Articles
Fishers and Farmers - 9.1.2024 Bulletin
Fishers and Farmers
Jesus compared His disciples (which includes us) to many occupations throughout His ministry, and some of the more famous examples is that of fishers of men, and reapers (or farmers), found in Matthew 4:19 and Matthew 9:38 respectively. Let's examine the two.
It is well known that both fishers and farmers require a lot of patience in order to succeed in their occupation. A fisher armed with a net or a fishing pole may have to wait hours for a single fish to finally bite, and farmers need several months before they can produce a harvest suitable to feed themselves and their family for a time, much more if they wish to feed their community. Now consider how "in the vineyard of the Lord", it can take years if not decades for a soul to "grow" until it is ready for harvest. A well known verse that fits this example is 1 Corinthians 3:6-8. It is human nature to want to see quick results for our labor, yet we well know that God's timetable works differently from our. His Word is absolutely true in all generations, but we must remember that we as Christians are convinced of that truth. The world has not seen His truth, and so it will take them time and study before it can sink into their heart and produce a faithful Christian. I think it somewhat natural to feel like one or two really good sermons should be all it takes, but when a potential soul has spent its entire life in darkness, the Light of God's Word will take some adjustment. We must plant and water, and then wait for God to give the increase. And that may take longer than we would like sometimes.
Yet unfortunately, we are not the only ones active in the world. Consider the twin parables of the Sower/soils in Matthew 13:1-23, and then the parable of the wheat and tares in verses 24-30. The parable of the soils is another well known "farming parable", and something that always sticks out as interesting to me is how only 1 of the 4 soils is any good for producing crops. That means only about a 25% success rate. Imagine if only 1 out of 4 people you taught were willing to receive God's message. Honestly, I think that would be a major increase from our usual success rate, where it feels like even 1 out of 100 don't want to receive any teaching. In that parable, the devil is mentioned as being directly responsible for the failure of the roadside seeds. In the next parable, the Owner of the fields mentions how an enemy sowed tares along with the wheat to sabotage the Owner's good crops, again, the enemy obviously being the devil. As surely as we work to produce good crops on good soil, the devil is out to ruin our efforts to create new Christians, and he sure wouldn't mind if that discouraged us and made us give up as well. I think sometimes we forget that, although the devil is not all-powerful, he is still quite a formidable foe, and he's certainly not wasting his time doing nothing. He is surely much more present than any of us would like to admit; to make it a bit more personal I'm sure he's aware you are reading this bulletin right this very moment.
To focus a bit more on the fishers of men side of this article, we've already established that it takes no small amount of patience to be a worthy fisher, both in the ancient times and in the modern times. But it is equally important you choose the right bait for what you want. If you wanted to catch a grouper, you wouldn't use the same kind of bait as you would for a catfish now would you? Similarly, if you want to catch souls for Christ (i.e. souls that will become proper New Testament Christians), you must use the correct bait. To this end, doctrines such as prosperity gospel will not do. Nor will "once saved always saved", nor will the idea that you can literally pay your sins away by tithing to your local diocese. There's plenty of faulty bait out there, and you can certainly catch some kind of "fish" with them, but you won't catch the kind of soul that would be receptive to hearing the one and only truth which can save them (Acts 4:12). In John 12:32, Jesus said that if He is lifted up from the Earth, He will draw all peoples to Himself. This is the only kind of bait that will draw in believes: Jesus and His unchanging word.
As both fishers of men and farmers or reapers for God, we will need to take many of the lessons from these respectable fields. Patience, perseverance, "tending the soil", nurturing it, using the correct "bait", and resisting the efforts of our adversary the devil will all be required if we are to be profitable servants for Him. May we be so.
DY
- Glad_Tidings_9.1.2024_PDF.pdf (4.07 MB)
