B. The call to evangelism
This brings us to the second part of the transformation of a disciple. First, there is the call to follow Jesus, but when you begin to follow there is a call to evangelism. It is a call for you to seek to bring others to know the One you are following. Listen to what Jesus says: “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” When we commit ourselves to follow Jesus, it is not just to go on a stroll. Jesus has a purpose for you and me in following Him. It is so that God can mold us into those who will bring others to Him. This is how His Holy Spirit wants to work in your life to transform you. However, some who begin to follow Him realize the cost of following Him is high if they want to be faithful to His calling to become one who has a desire to reach others for Jesus Christ.
This is where many miss the point. They either don’t understand or don’t desire to enter into the transformation. So they don’t become fishers of men. It’s not that they don’t feel the compulsion to share the gospel with others. They understand the importance of bringing people to Jesus, they speak about the necessity of telling others about the Lord, they study methods of sharing the gospel with others, but they never tell others about Jesus Christ. They never call others to make a commitment to receive Jesus Christ as Savior.
Perhaps it is this very thing, the absence of the work of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, that was present in the early church. We become so enamored with other things that we miss out on the work of the Holy Spirit. We have this great and precious promise of the Holy Spirit, but we fail to rely upon Him to do this transforming work. The power of the Holy Spirit is not an isolated teaching in the Scripture. The building up of the body of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit is not relegated merely to the historical book of Acts (though it is clearly Luke’s major premise). This teaching is found throughout the New Testament.
In Luke 11:13, Jesus says that our heavenly Father greatly desires to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 1 how the Holy Spirit was the source of the power in the proclamation of the gospel (“our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit”). God’s Spirit was responsible for the conviction brought about through the gospel by His work in the lives of the apostles (“just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake”). And the Holy Spirit was the source of joy for the Thessalonians in the hardship they suffered for the gospel. (“You… received the word in much tribulation WITH THE JOY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”)
If you remember, 2010 was the year of the disciple. All year we talked about what it meant to be a disciple. For three months I spoke about how the Scripture calls us, as disciples, to talk to Jesus, whom we are following. In the next three months I preached upon the fact that we needed to then talk to others about the One whom we are following. We saw a dozen people come to know the Lord in the second part of the year. Why? Because people were praying and seeking the face of the Lord Jesus to intervene in their lives and on behalf of those in our church. I remember that there was a different spirit in the congregation. People were praying together after services and God’s Spirit was working. Bringing others to Jesus was the outworking of the Holy Spirit’s work through that prayer. But then difficulties came, people became busy again, things prevented us from seeing that God’s work in our midst was attributed to it. The flow of people coming to know the Lord ran down to a trickle. The Holy Spirit is the agent of transformation to make us fishers of men.
Don’t you know that those who prayed and those who shared the gospel had an equal part in the work of the gospel? Don’t you think that having a heart for the lost that results in praying for them is part of bringing the lost to Jesus Christ?
We must call upon and rely upon the Holy Spirit to make the transformation. It doesn’t mean that it still won’t be difficult because the Holy Spirit’s work in your life entails change and change is difficult. The work of the Holy Spirit brings conviction, not just of sin, but of those things that make us less fruitful. In John 15:2, Jesus said, “Every branch in Me… that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” The pruning work of the Master Gardener, the removal of that which saps the energy of the vine, may be a painful process, yet it allows the vine to carry out its purpose of bearing fruit.
Yet we see that it is only when a person abides in the vine that he can bear fruit at all. In verse 5, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” It is the transforming work of the Holy Spirit that allows us to become fruit bearers. It is the transforming work of the Spirit that allows us to be fishers of men.
As I’ve said, because our transformation into fishers of men is accomplished by the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that it will be easy, but let’s not miss the point that we are to be utterly dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Our cries for this work to be done in us must go up to Him. He can used the simplest individual who relies upon Him in the most amazing ways because God loves to use the foolish to confound the wise.
You don’t have to be well-trained, well-read, or articulate like Apollos (of whom Luke speaks in Acts 18) to bring people to the Lord. You can be of contemptible speech like the apostle Paul (the manner in which he was described by the Corinthians). God can use you with all your shortcomings, faults, quirks, eccentricities and other assorted troubles if you will be dependent upon His Spirit and His message. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1 that God has chosen to use us in all our foolishness so that no one may boast before God.
Dr. Walter Wilson was a great example of this principle of allowing the Holy Spirit to transform him into a fisher of men. He had a desire to bring people to know the Lord Jesus Christ and he allowed the Lord to use the simplest things to do it. One day, he was in New York City. As he started his morning he prayed, “My Lord, this is a large city of millions of people, and I am just a weak, unknown servant of Yours with no knowledge of the city and no acquaintance with the hungry hearts that may be here. You know where the needy ones are. You alone know whom You have been dealing with. Here is my body. Will you take it today to some troubled heart and speak through me Your words of light and life. Thank You, Lord, I believe You will do it.” With that prayer…
Perhaps you think, “Well, I could never do something like that.” True, you never can. But the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God in your life can. And He can take your simple prayer of humility when you tell Him about your inadequacies and turn what might be called deficiencies into the very things that will that will allow you to bring someone to Christ. And notice how Wilson concluded his prayer: “Thank You, Lord, I believe You will do it.” God’s Word to us is that He wants to make us fishers of men, laborers in the harvest (Matthew 9), bold speakers of the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6), those who seek the progress of the gospel (Philippians 1), those who believe and therefore speak (2 Cor. 4), ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5), those who proclaim the word of faith (Romans 10), people who are His witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1), people who desire to communicate our faith (Philemon 6), those who sanctify Christ in our hearts so we might give a defense of the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3)… If God’s Word is to make us all these things, then can’t we pray that God will do it in faith and, like Dr. Wilson, say, “Thank you, Lord, I believe You will do it”?
Now recognize that in this transformation certainly there is growth. As you share the gospel with others the Spirit will begin to teach you what to say and what not to say. I don’t know if you will ever be comfortable doing it. Maybe you will. Some of you are. But it must become obvious to us that we can never share the gospel with a power that will penetrate a human heart unless we continually depend upon the Holy Spirit’s work through us. Perhaps a new believer who understands this truth may have more success speaking with others about the Lord than one who has been a believer for a longer time and relies instead upon his or her own ability.
Don’t worry that you cannot speak (or think you cannot speak) to others about the gospel in a certain way. God may use some other way for you to clearly present the gospel to others, or he may transform your mouth like He did Balaam’s donkey. Don’t put a limit on what the Holy Spirit can do. In John’s gospel he said that “He gives the Spirit without measure.” He is able to deliver through great or small. Don’t fear that you can’t do what He calls you to do because all He asks you to do is to follow Him. Don’t get ahead of Him. Don’t begin to fear where there is no cause to fear. Satan wants to paralyze you with fear. This is where the joy of the Spirit can transform your thoughts. When you commit yourself to follow Him, then let Him lead.
When I was in college I drove a rental car from Florida back home for free. They needed drivers, and if you were willing to pick it up at one destination and drop it off at another it was an awesome way to get a free ride. Well, I drove a portion of the way and met my mom and stepdad at a certain place. I followed them home. Whenever I followed Nick I didn’t worry about where I was going. I knew I wouldn’t get lost and I knew I’d be safe, and I knew he wouldn’t leave me (though he might have liked to). Along the trip, I was pulled over by a state trooper for not signaling a lane change (a habit I picked up from learning to drive in Rhode Island). My getting pulled over probably had more to do with the fact that I was an unshaven youth driving a Camaro than that I didn’t signal. But I remember that when I was pulled over, Nick pulled over right behind me. And when the officer approached my rental car, Nick approached the officer. Of course he told Nick to get back in his car, but it set a tone for the entire event that may have gone somewhat differently. I was completely at ease because I knew Nick was there, watching out for me.
The point of this is that when you commit to following Jesus, don’t worry about where you are going. You are not going to get lost. You are going to be safe in His will and He will never leave you. Don’t worry about getting pulled over in life because He will be with you. Just know that you are to follow and He is to lead. We lose our joy when we forget this.
He wants to take you to a place where you can be a person who brings others to know Him. If you don’t know how that could ever happen apart from the Holy Spirit, then you are at the right starting place. It is when we admit that He must do such a thing and that it is completely ludicrous otherwise that He can work. I don’t care if you are a school teacher, an engineer, a mechanic, a manager, a domestic engineer (like my wife): God wants to bring you to the place where you see that your principal occupation in life is to bring others to know your precious Savior who loved you and gave Himself for you, shedding His precious blood to buy you back from the slave market of sin.
If you have committed to follow Him, will you now allow Him to transform you into a fisher of men? Will you pray for that and believe it and thank Him for it (as preposterous as that may seem)? Let Him transform you into what He wants to make you.
As you follow, seek to be transformed by Him. Allow the renewing of your mind through the Word and the Spirit to transform how you see the will of God for you. It may be difficult. It may be arduous, dangerous, filled with pressure and turmoil. But if we follow, we have the promise of His presence to guide us. If we’re not following, we don’t have that promise of His presence because He is over there going in that direction while we are here.
The call is still the same. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” The transformation is still the same. He says, “I will make you fishers of men.” The message is still the same but how it is worked out through each individual is different. It must start with each of you individually. Will you follow and be transformed?