El Bethel International Ministries
Fishers of Men Part 1 - Audio
You're the God of one day! Elbefell International Ministries welcomes you to the God of Wonders Radio from Me. Please listen as Guruva Stephen shares on how to follow Jesus and become fishers of men. What does Jesus mean when He's telling us to follow Him? Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. Then said Jesus unto His disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." We see three things here. The first thing Jesus says is we need to deny ourselves. The second thing is we have to take up our cross, and then we're going to follow Him. When He talks about denying one's self, we're going to look at how Jesus denied himself, and how Jesus took up his cross. And that's the same way that we need to do. We need to deny ourselves, like how Jesus denied himself, and how he took up his cross, and we have to follow Him. Luke chapter 14, verse 27. "Fuscoever does not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. If we want to follow the Lord, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him." That is to be a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus is saying here, in Luke, that if we do not bear our cross, it's not somebody else's cross, it's our own cross. The path that the Lord has for us, then we cannot be his disciple. We have to bear our cross, and then we have to follow Him. Follow the footsteps of Jesus. If we cannot do that, then we cannot be his disciple. And we can see the same thing in Matthew chapter 10, verse 38. "And he that take it not his cross, and follow it after me, is not worthy of me." So if we want to be the disciple of Jesus Christ, then the first thing we need to do is deny ourselves. We have to take up our cross, and we have to follow Him. So far we saw about what Jesus is saying to each one of us about being a disciple of Jesus by denying ourselves, taking up our cross. What does it mean to follow Jesus? We see that in one John chapter 2 verse 6, "He that saith, he abided in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." What the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through, 1 John 2 6 says, "We have to walk as he walked." That is to follow Jesus. That means how did Jesus walk when he lived on this earth? We have to follow his footsteps. If we say that we are abiding in Jesus, then we have to walk as Jesus walked. That is the only thing that is the proof to say that we are abiding in Jesus by walking as Jesus walked. That goes hand in hand with what the Lord Jesus said. If we want to be his disciple, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. That is to walk as Jesus walked. We want to see three groups of people that God calls. The call of God came to three groups of people, and even today the call of God comes to three different types of people. One group, they get the call, and they say, "Lord, I do not want this," and they are not going to follow Jesus. The second group of people are the people who come out to the Lord for food, for healing, and then they are like the outsiders. They stay afar off, and they receive the blessing, and they go back. The third group of the people leave everything, and they follow Jesus. We cannot come after Jesus just for food. We cannot come after Jesus just for miracles, and then stay away and say, "Okay, Lord, this is too hard for me. I'm not going to follow you." If that is the case, then we cannot be his true disciples. So when we see these three types of people, we can ask ourselves the question, "Where do I fall? Which category? Am I in the first group? Am I in the second group? Am I in the third group?" And if we say, "Okay, I feel that I am in the first group," then we can make a choice today, Lord, from the first group I want to move to the third group. If we are in the second group, we're going to make a choice, and we're going to say, "Lord, from the second group, I want to move to the third group." And if we are in the third group, we're going to say, "Lord, I'm going to keep pressing forward until I get everything from you." The key words that we saw today, and we're going to look over and over again while we're going to listen to God's word, is follow me, and I will make you forgive the men. So first half is following the Lord, and the second half is the promise that he says, "I will make you forgive the men." So it's not just like we're just following, blindly following our goal is we're going to become forgive the men. That's why it happened to a group of people who followed Jesus. So when we see the three types of people, it's time for us to self-examine before the Lord in God's presence, and honestly say, "Lord, where do I fall?" And of which category? And after we look at this, we're going to see how did Jesus walk? So we can imitate him. And then we're going to see what the Lord has for us when we walk this walk of following the Lord. Matthew chapter eight, verse 18 to 22. "Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side, and a certain scribe came and said unto him, 'Master, I will follow thee with us wherever thou goest, and Jesus saith unto him. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head, and another of his disciples said unto him, 'Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father, but Jesus said unto him, 'Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.'" - If you want to follow me, that is the life that you're going to have. That means it's not going to be okay. I know where I'm going to go tomorrow, where I'm going to go the day after tomorrow. We can't predict, but if we follow the Lord, our path is going to be very victorious, glorious path. This person who said that he wanted to follow Jesus, he's saying, "Lord, I will follow, but wherever you go, look at his response." He's saying, "Lord, let me first go do this." He did not follow him right away. And we're also going to see people who dropped everything when Jesus said, "Follow me." They left everything and they followed. So the first group of people, they'll say, "I want to follow, I want heaven." And they'll say, "I want to have the power, I want to raise the dead, I want to heal the sick, I want to do this and that, but they will not want to follow him right away." The timing is very important. When the Lord tells us to do something, we have to do it right away. When the Lord tells us, "Follow me," that means we have to follow him. Delayed obedience is not obedience, it's disobedience because their timing is very important. When God wants us to do something at a particular time, we have to do it. The second person that we're going to see, we have a lot of people in the Bible who did not follow the Lord, who said they wanted to follow, they did not follow, but we're just going to see two people from each category. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, "One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shall have treasures in heaven." And if you look at the next part, what he's saying is, come, take up your cross and follow me. What the Lord is telling here is, okay, you might have done some good things, you might have followed the law, but you're lacking something that's very important. You have to deny yourself, and part of denying is like his heart, and his soul is on the possession he had. He has not denied himself. So he's saying, "You deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." And you know what? Jesus didn't tell this to accuse him, and this verse is like such a strong verse, it says, "Jesus beholding him." That means he just saw him. He looked at him with such compassion, loved him. He really wants what you're asking for. That means you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Verse 22 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible because the invitation is from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And this rich young man, he did not know what was waiting for him. He didn't know the value, and it says that he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions. The same way there are a lot of people who come to Jesus, even today, and they say, "Lord, I wanna follow you. "Lord, I wanna do what you want me to do." And they have like great desires and ambitions. They think, "I can come to Jesus, Jesus can make me." One of the top officers, Jesus can make me rich, Jesus can give me good education, Jesus can give me a good family, all those things they can think, and they can think that I'm a good person. So when I come to the Lord, God will give it to me when I tell God, "Lord, I'm already a good person." But Jesus says, "There's one requirement "that needs to be met if you really want to follow the Lord." That is, we have to deny ourselves, take up a cross and follow him. These are the two people that we saw among many people from the Bible who fall under the first category where they got the invitation from the Lord, and they even expressed one actually said, "Lord, I want to follow you." He came and told the Lord, "I wanna follow you." We have to check our heart and ask the Lord, "Lord, "do I mean what I say? "When I come and ask you for something, "Lord, do I really mean when I come and say, "Lord, I wanna follow you? "Do I really mean we have to examine ourselves?" Secondly, when the Lord points out something in our lives, when we ask the Lord, the Lord says, "Get rid of this, I don't like this. "Get rid of this in your life." What do we say? "Lord, this is too difficult for me. "What will that person think of me? "I got to bury my dead. "I wanna be with my dead." And then I will follow you. See, that is not following Jesus. By the time Jesus will be gone somewhere else, when he says, "Follow me," we follow and we go with him. And we have to examine ourselves honestly before the Lord, saying that, "Do I follow Jesus? "Do I want to follow Jesus? "If I want to follow Jesus, "do I call under the first category?" I'm expressing my desire to follow Jesus, but I'm not, I'm turning back and going. And the second group of people, are the people who follow for benefits, who follow from afar off. They'll come for all the meetings. You can see them in all the meetings. They won't miss the Bible study. They won't miss the Saturday meeting. They won't miss Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service. They won't miss any of the service, but they have motive to come as my children need to get settled. I need to build my house. My children, they need to go abroad. I've built one house that's not enough. I need to build the second house. Lord, my husband needs a promotion. These are all the things that they run to the meeting for. And also, what am I going to hear about? What's going to happen with me? It's like another fortune telling, you know, thing like, I need to run prophecy here or prophecy there. That is a goal. And we're going to see the second type of people, why they actually in certain groups, in certain gatherings. A lot of multitude, whole multitude went up after Jesus, but who were actually His disciples? So we're going to look at the second group of people. John chapter six, verse 22 to 27. And Matthew chapter 19, verses one and two. This passage is about Jesus doing the miracle, feeding the 5,000 house. The Lord multiplied the bread and the fish and how they took excess, actually. They had so much remaining. They had 12 baskets remaining. So Lord is talking about the group of people who actually sat in eight who were at that incident where Jesus performed that huge miracle. And these people are now coming searching. They're looking for Jesus. Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? They're going all over the place looking for Jesus. And you can see how they're actually hunting for Him. If somebody's from outside, they'll think, oh, look at that. Look at the thirst they have, these people. They saw this miracle. Now they really want Jesus. But the sad part is, imagine how sad Jesus would have felt. Oh, this God, this is the Lord who performed this miracle. And I want Him. That was not your intention. You're coming because your stomach was full. You're coming because you got your physical mean man. It's not because you saw a miracle. We're not thrilled by the miracle, but you're coming for food. So there's a big difference between, in case somebody's saying like, okay, I'm going to the Lord because the Lord performed the big miracle and say, Lord, I'm yours. I'm going to follow you because you did a big miracle. I'm going to follow you. I'm yours, Lord, I belong. I'm going to follow you everywhere you go because you did this for me. These group of people were not like that. They were following because they got Christian bread. Now they want more. They're thinking, oh, what more can I get? And they're following Jesus. So it's similar to what we read about the rich young ruler, these group of people. Now they have received something from the Lord, very substantial. But they're going after the material benefit, not after Jesus. When we see this, we have to now think about our own lives, then examine. Lord, how many times did you do miracles in my life? How many times have I received multiplication, multiplication of income, healing in my body, peace in my family when there was chaos? And, you know, the Lord blessed your children's education and God has done so much. He's given promotion. After all of that, what do we follow Him for? Are we still following Him for our physical need? Are we still going after Him? Saying, Lord, give me more. There's nothing wrong in asking Him. Give me more if we follow the Lord for Himself. But if our sole purpose of following the Lord is for our stomach to be fat, it's for our physical need to be met, then something is seriously wrong. These are not. You can have like 5,000 people sitting, but those 5,000 are not His disciples. The disciples are going to be only the people that we're going to see in the third category. Those are going to be His disciples. So we have to examine ourselves before the Lord Lord. What is the purpose? Why am I going to this meeting? Why am I here? What is my motive? Is my motive to get some material benefit? Is my motive to get some blessing? Is that my motive? What is my primary motive in following Jesus? What is my primary motive in going to church and seeking fellowship? What is my primary motive? And we have to check ourselves in God's presence. It's only between us and the Lord. We don't have to tell anybody. It's between us and the Lord. And if we find ourselves in the second group, we have to tell the Lord, Lord, I don't want this anymore. Lord, I want to be among the third group. And we have to make a decision before the Lord. Lord, I want to be your disciple. The true disciple of Jesus, not just one among the 5,000, but I want to be one among the 12th. We left everything and followed you. The next one that we're going to see is Matthew 19 verse 1 and 2. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these things, he departed from Galilee and came into the coast of Judea beyond Jordan. And great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there. A lot of people followed here. Great multitudes followed here. These were not his disciples. And they were all going after Jesus for healing. Physical healing. And we can be one among these people who follow Jesus for a benefit. Physical healing. It can be physical healing. It can be a financial miracle. But the bottom line is, we are going to the Lord just for our earthly needs to be met. It's not to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. It's not to follow Jesus. So these people followed him too. Great multitudes followed him, but they were not his disciples. We have to ask ourselves this question, Lord, what is the reason for me reading my Bible? What is the reason behind me praying? What is the reason behind me going to church? What is the reason behind me going to this Friday fellowship? What is the reason Lord? Lord examine my heart, examine my motives and ask the Lord, Lord change me. If I fall into the second category, we have to say Lord change me so that I can move into the third category. We are going to see who followed closely, who were the true followers who truly followed. True followers of Jesus, they fall under the third category. Turn to Matthew 4, verses 18-20, we are going to see how God's call came to Simon and Andrew. And how did they respond to his call? And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, but they were fishers. And he said unto them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they straight away left their nets and followed him. Isn't that beautiful to hear what they did when the Lord came to them and they did not know who he was, but they knew to drop everything. They didn't ask any questions, they didn't say, "So what are you going to give me? What is my trade-off?" Because this is my job. We are fishermen. How much money are we going to get? How are we going to sustain our family? What's going to happen to our elders at home or my children or my family? We see no questions asked over here. What they did was, in the straight way left their nets and followed him. That means whatever they were doing, on the spot they dropped and they followed Jesus. That's what Jesus is looking for. He's looking for people who will deny themselves. The denying ourselves starts from there. That's the first one. When you say, "Not my will, Lord, let you will be done." Not my will. Let you will be done. When the Lord says, "Will you give this up for me?" At that point, we're not going to say, "Lord, so if this is what you're asking for, how is this going to work out?" We're not going to think in a human way thinking that, "Okay, how am I going to, if I give this up, what am I going to substitute in this place and how is the future going to be?" We're not going to sit and calculate. We do not want to play God. If the Lord says, "Give this up," if the Lord says, "You deny yourself," this is part of denying. It's following the Lord. Immediately when the Lord says, "What are you doing when the Lord says, "Come, leave there and come." We drop there and we leave and we follow. And then we see what the Lord did in the following verses, we see verse 21 and 22. And going on from then, he saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. You look at two other people over here, James and John, who immediately followed Jesus. They were with their father, they were fishermen too. And what did they do? They didn't say anything, "Let me go have a cerebral party at home. Let me talk to my father, consult with my father and see what my father is going to say. Let me talk to my brother's at home, let me consult, my family comes first. If they would have done that, they would have missed the great calling of God on their lives." They put the Lord first, they denied themselves. That means what was due to them on earth, they put it away to follow the Lord. That's why the disciples were able to ask, "Lord, we left all and we followed you." That's when Jesus said, "Whatever you leave on this earth, you will receive." And this time and in the time to come, many fold. So are we able to be in the opposition and say, "Lord, I have left everything and I followed you." "Lord, I have left all. Lord, when He told me to follow you, I followed you wholeheartedly." If we are not on the third category, we have to ask the Lord, ask ourselves questions. So what do I need to do now? I am not in the third category. What do I need to do now? In order to be among the third category, who followed Jesus closely, because these people left everything, you know the privilege they had, they went to Jesus everywhere, Jesus went. They saw Him raise the dead, they saw Him heal the lepers, they saw Him heal the blind, they saw Him make the cripple men walk, they saw everything and they even saw Him raise from the dead and they were with them and these people were the people who turned the world upside down after that. So did they really become fishes of men by following Jesus? Yes, they did. But in order for them to become fishes of men, they had to follow. They had to follow Jesus three and a half years. Watch Him, speak, watch Him heal, be with Him and they had to follow Him the rest of their lives. God truly made them fishes of men and they were the people used by the Lord to turn the world upside down. We see that in the book of Acts, how the Lord used them. So we have to think before the Lord and we have to pause and say, am I giving enough time in my life to sit before the Lord and think Lord, am I really following you? Because we don't want to be deceiving ourselves, thinking that okay I am following the Lord, you know reading, reading, reading, saying a little prayer, you know going to, lot of activity doesn't mean we are following the Lord, there has got nothing to do with following the Lord. In small and in big issues in our lives, we need to consult with the Lord and see what does the Lord say? Does He want me to do this? Will Jesus like me doing this or am I saying that, oh Lord, let me go bury my father first or Lord, let me go and bid farewell or are we saying that Lord, this is too much. I can give this up and return sorrowfully like a rich young ruler or do we come to Jesus and say Lord I want to follow you but we are not really following the Lord, do we follow the category where we go after the Lord for materials, benefits, for bodily needs but we really don't follow the Lord, we do not want to when it comes to denying ourselves we actually stop at that point and we say, I can't deny myself, oh cross I can't take up the cross, people who are in the third category we are going to see what does it mean to take up the cross. What kind of cross did Jesus carry? How did Jesus, we saw in one John two six that if we abide in him we have to walk as he walks, that means we need to first know how he walks. If we have to know how he walked, we are going to look at Philippians chapter two verses five to nine. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross where for God also have highly exalted him and given him a name which is about every name. And now we see from verse five to eight what Jesus did, how he denied himself and then verse nine on which we see the result, the price that he got because of denying himself. So denying himself, how did Jesus deny himself, he made himself of no reputation. That means the moment we say what about me, what would people think about me when we have to do something for the Lord, how this is going to reflect on me when we have that me, the worry about our reputation, we got to check ourselves, we have not denied ourselves. So at that point we have to say I have to make myself of no reputation. If I want to follow the footsteps of my Lord Jesus, I have to make myself of no reputation. And then to follow the footsteps of Jesus, the next part of denying ourselves is take the form of a servant, Jesus took the form of a servant, we have to take the form of a servant, doing God's work is not saying that, okay, I'm a president, no, we are called to serve because that's what Jesus did, that's his good steps in the Lord says, if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, then we have to become the servant of all. Jesus took the form of a servant, how much more we need to have, that's the magnitude that we are called to serve, not to Lord over, we are called to serve. And am I having that servant like attitude in my heart, anytime when the Lord wants us to serve him, am I saying, Lord, I'm willing to serve you, or saying, or do we thank Lord, what am I going to get, what is my title going to be Lord, where are you going to play is you know, and that is not denying ourselves, that is like being just like the world trying to establish ourselves and that is an abomination before the Lord. And if we want to follow the Lord, follow the footsteps of Jesus as we deny ourselves, that means we have to make ourselves of no reputation, take the form of a servant. And what the Lord did, if he took his cross, Jesus took his cross, that's what he's able to say, you deny yourself, you take of your cross and you follow. He took his cross, his cross is much, much more heavier than ours. He says our yoke is easy and our burden is light, because he took the heaviest burden, so he took the heaviest cross, where is carrying the little cross on this earth, that he is called us to carry, and our cross, we have to compare, our cross with Jesus cross, what did Jesus carry actually, what did Jesus go through, what was his cross, Isaiah 53 verse 3. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not, surely he have borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened it not his mouth, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, where he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken, and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, he had it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he have put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, he shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he have poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. This is the path of the cross that Jesus walked, he is despised, rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, it says that he carried, he bore a grief, he carried our sorrows, he looked at Jesus, he was the person who had the most grief, the most sorrow, the most faith, we look at verse 12, through what that the Lord gave him, because he carried his cross, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he had poured out his soul unto death, this is what Jesus did, he carried his cross unto death, he was crucified, beaten, he bore the thorns, and even while he was undesired even before his crucifixion, he was still carrying his cross, he was rejected, even though he did so many miracles, most of the people were ungrateful, they questioned him, even if we read the book of John, a lot of times it really turns my heart to read the book of John, because he's a lot of heaven and earth, and look at these people questioning him, asking all kinds of things and saying that he has a demon, when they are doing things that are not pleasing to the Lord, and they know that very well, but they will go and question him, and provoke him, try to test him and all those things, and he didn't have a place to stay, and Jesus was just walking from place to place, but he had a mission in his mind, he said I gotta carry this cross, and had to accomplish my mission, and then what will happen is, the Lord will quench the thirst, the purpose of his depth on the cross will be quenched by seeing soul state, that was his goal, and that is the same goal that the Lord has for us, if we follow him, he will make us sing with him, and if I thank you for joining us on this broadcast. If you'd like to correspond with us, please write to L-B-F-L International Ministries, post office box 966, Goshe, New York 10924, or email us at e-b-i-m-i-n at gmail.com. That's e-b-i-m-i-n at gmail.com. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your precious Holy Word. Thank you, God, for ministering to our hearts, and for teaching us how to follow Jesus. Lord, we thank you for helping us to deny ourselves, to take apart our crosses, and to follow you. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have you. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, as the ultimate example of the glorious path of the cross. We thank you, God, that you have a glorious reward waiting for each one of us, who submit to your authority in our lives, to your lordship, God in heaven. We want to be just like Jesus, and we ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen. I'm so happy that you joined us today on broadcast a lot of wonders, and you look forward to meeting you again until then, my God, Richmond. 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