" Now as He walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
"And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.'
The Lord here associates others with Him in His work. Now that ought to have a charm for every servant of Christ; it has, I may say, an unbounded charm for my heart. He is pleased to associate others with Him, and I want to call your attention to the way in which He does it, and to see the difference between it and all that prevails in the world, and almost amongst ourselves.
It is not a personal call here; that is elsewhere here it is the call to service. I beseech you earnestly to take note of that. It is not the call of persons to find their part in Christ and to find Christ everything. You find the personal call in John 1, and the call to service is here in Mark. And notice what it says-a beautiful word. Is it, " Go out and preach ye "? Not a word of it. " Go out into the streets and lanes "? Not a word as to that yet. " Come ye after Me." 0 the sweetness of that! Ah! beloved fellow servants of Christ, that must be before all service to men. It must be first to Him in our own souls, " Come ye after Me "-this is the school, this is the college, this is the training-house, this is where everything is adjusted, " Come ye after Me." Is it not the case that that element is sadly wanting oftentimes in our ministry? Do not we very often leave the impression upon the hearts of those that hear us that we have not been very much with the Master? " Come ye after Me," He says-that is first. Oh, the loveliness of that is beyond all expression. And mark what follows, " And I will make you to become fishers of men "-how instructive that is to us!-that is to say, I will train you. There is only One that knows the art, and that is Jesus. There is but one blessed Master of the art of catching men, and that is Jesus. Thank God that He trains others in His grace, " I will make you to become." But it is " after Me " where all that tuition is gone into; it is " after Me " where all that is picked up, where all that is learned; He educates, He is the One that initiates, " I will make you to become fishers of men."
I do not dwell upon the figure, but I am sure you know the pains, and the care, and the patience, and all that is necessary to make a man a really good, skilful angler. And do you not know what a difficult thing it is to win persons? Is it not too of ten that we try to drive people? God knows it is not very difficult to repel people, though sometimes it would seem from the very earnestness with which people set themselves to do it, that they think it is a hard thing to do. It is very easy to wound, to repel, to knock down; but to win, and, may I say, to warm, and to catch-these are the words here in the gospel, " I will make you to become fishers of men."
And observe this one word of the Savior here, " come." That is a word you constantly find, " come." Oh the power that there was in that word! And I will say more-oh the charm there was in that word! How that word must have fallen on their ears! Some of us, I fear, prefer the word, " claim "; but as for me I love that word " charm." But I think I hear you say, Does not the Lord claim you? Ah! but does He not charm you? They were charmed, and that is exactly what we find. And " immediately," they left property, ship, father, nets, everything. Now take particular note of this. Do not think for a moment that those men were idle, men that had nothing to do. All these men were busy men, every one of them was occupied; it was not that they were do-nothings; for my part, I cannot see where the virtue is in people that are do-nothings. Not one of those men were of that character; they were all engaged with their nets, or their fishing, or with their father, either drawing the nets, or mending the nets; they were all engaged in some way or another with their occupation. But oh! there was a heavenly charm in that " come " from those precious lips of the Lord Jesus Christ, " out of heaven," and so all was left-the father, the nets, the fishing, everything.
Again- once more, remember they were not called to great office, to a high position, nothing of the kind. Assuredly, catching fish was a great deal more lucrative than catching men, as far as that goes, far more would be made out of fish-catching; but that was not the point. There was no consideration with regard to the lucrativeness of it, or with regard to their position. As a matter of fact, the position was a far lower one than the one they were leaving, for they were to be the off-scouring of all things-despised, rejected, hated, like their Master, to receive the portion He got in this world. But that only enhances this to my heart, for though they were called out into a position which would expose them to all the hatred that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had, and to all the thanklessness of this world, sad though it be to say it, even of those who profess to belong to Him, still to come after Him was the highest glory. In that, without a question, they were recompensed, to come after Him, and learn His skilful love and grace, and catch men for Him-that was all. Oh may He give our hearts that are in any poor way allowed to be in His service to do likewise. I hold it a sacred responsibility to say to you, I do not believe in my soul that there is a child of God that He would not privilege to be a servant with Him in some way, if only the heart be true to Him. Thank God He has His servants here in this poor world, and earnest servants too; but the heart longs to see more of them, to see the number increased I believe there is not one that is not privileged through His grace, to be in some sense a servant of Christ, under Christ, assuredly not in the same way, that could not be, but all servants in some way having something to do for Him. And oh! who can express the sweetness of it!
You say, What can I do? Listen to me-there is a hovel away down in one of those miserable streets, and in a back room in it, there is a poor thing lying upon a pallet of straw; go and win her heart for Jesus Christ. Will you do that? I feel we need a little melting and thawing of the heart as to this. And when I think of the service here of the great Master and the great Servant, and when I think of His work amongst men, and how He was distinctly the Servant of God, I do feel how the Lord would touch the hearts of His people, first of all and most of all by " Come ye after Me." I believe there is the lack. If you would go after Him, He would give you something to do. Only keep His company, only follow Him, and you would learn the skill of love from Him and your heart will never rest until it is in some way expressing the grace and kindness of His heart among men. I do not say "for men," because I think that is a caricature of service, and a gross caricature as well, which, whatever else it does, leaves all of Christ out and only thinks of men, and I would desire for myself and for you to be kept as far from that as possible. But let us hear Him say, " Come ye after Me," and then it is after Him, and for Him, and to Him.