# 121 Fishers of Men

 

# 121 Fishers of Men

 

Joh 6:43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves.  44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. 46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.

 

Jesus hears their murmuring and basically says, “Stop trying to figure this out! The only way any of this will make sense to you or anyone else for that matter, is if the Father reveals it to you! As the prophets have said, “and they shall all  be taught by God.”(Is 54:13) Therefore, since the prophets have written this, everyone who has learned from the Father will come to Me.”

 

It’s not that the Father comes down personally and teaches us, that would be impossible. No one would survive such a direct encounter with a holy God! No one has seen the Father except He who is from God, and that would be Jesus! So He came to teach them and us about the Father.

 

Later of course, the Holy Spirit, who also proceeds from the Father, will come and do the same thing, and those who have received Christ, will be taught by the Holy Spirit, receiving instruction from the Father! Joh 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

 

Who then are those who are privileged to be taught by the Father? Those who have been drawn by the Father to Jesus! Not only will they be taught, but they will be raised up on the Last Day!

 

The word “draw” is interesting. We think of it in terms of a magnetic type of pull, but its biblical use is much more connected to fishing! The fisherman lets down his net in the water and draws it to the boat where it is lifted up.

 

In like manner, the net of God is the Word of God, (Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God) (Rom 10:17) The Word is cast out, and as men hear it, they are convicted of their sins and drawn to Jesus. And Jesus, the perfect fisherman, (just look at His track record of filling empty nets) says that He will raise up all that are in the net on the Last Day.

 

Unlike other fishermen who will inevitably lose some fish in the process and throw away the ones they don’t want, Jesus says, the one drawn to Him by the Father, will not be cast out, and not a one will be lost.

 

Remember His original challenge to the disciples? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men? The challenge remains the same for you and I today. We are to “cast out the Word of God and God will use that Word as His net. Souls will be drawn to Jesus and raised up the Last Day, and we too will be fishers of men!