My daddy and all my brothers (I have 4 brothers and 4 sisters) love to go fishing.  They even tried to talk me into going with them one time.  I don't think so!  They would go out on the fishing boat leaving before day in the morning, and be gone all day.   Sometimes they came home with a good catch.  Sometimes they didn't, but every time they went we had to listen to the stories about the "one that go away." (I still hate to write!) The days when they made a good catch, daddy would always bring those fish home and say to mama, "I caught 'em, you clean em."   Daddy wasn't into cleaning no fish.  

When we read the Gospels, we have to opportunity to see Jesus in his day-to-day.   Understanding that time was of the essence, Jesus went about His Father's business.  In the book of Matthew 4:18 we see Jesus approaching two brothers who were fishermen, Peter and Andrew and says, in Matthew 4:19, "And He says to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men."

                                  The word follow in the Greek is - deute

                                              1) come hither, come here, come

                                              2) interjection, come!, come now!

Jesus spoke in an imperative voice - it was a command.  Further down, he met up with two more brothers, sons of Zebedee who were also fishermen, James and John and calls them too.   In the Greek, there is one word for our english three words, I will make, which is poieō, it has several meanings, all similar but I will share one.

                                     I will make -  Greek - poieō,

                                      to (make i.e.) render one anything

                                      1) to (make i.e.) constitute or appoint one anything, to  
                                        appoint or ordain one that

                                      2) to (make i.e.) declare one anything

It's interesting how Jesus choose at least 4 fishermen out of his twelve disciples, who understood the dynamics of fishing.  They understood that you had to have a net to catch the fish (Word of God) and that you don't go fishing on dry land, you must be out in the deep, in the water (world of sin) in order to catch fish.  At the end of Jesus' commission he left yet another command to his disciples.  He said, Mat 28:19  "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"  in the Greek the words and teach is -

                                     matheteuo - which means to make disciples. 

NKJV Mat 28:19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."   This is the command Jesus gave his disciples than, and it's still prevalent for us today.  As Pastors, leaders in the work of Kingdom building, we must first go fishing, and then make disciples out of those fishes, and command those fishes to go fishing.   Let us follow the example of Jesus and his disciples.   Let us become fishers of men, women and children.  And know this, there is no water in between those pews, you can't go fishing while sitting in the pews.  You have to go out into the deep (the world of sin)  with your net (the Word of God) to catch some fish.

Let us remember this the next time we assemble ourselves together, let us remember as we fellowship with each other, as we gather to Worship the Lord, that we don't forget to bring the fish!  As Pastor I say this,  if you catch 'em, we'll clean 'em.

Pastor Aminata