Stay In Your Lane

Michael Green opens his remarkable book Evangelism in the Early Church, by pointing out that

It was a small group of eleven men whom Jesus commissioned to carry on his work, and bring the gospel to the world whole. They were not distinguished: they were not well educated: they had no influential backers. In their own nation they were nobodies, and in any case, their own nations was a mere second class province on the eastern extremity of the Roman empire. If they had stopped to weigh up the probabilities of succeeding in their mission…surely their hearts would have sunk, so heavily were the odds weighted against them. How could they possibly succeed? And yet they did.

The success of those eleven men in spreading the message of Christianity is a stupendous fact that continues to amaze historians of all stripes. When you also consider the array of obstacles that stood in their path, the admiration of their impact only intensifies. According to one estimate, there are 2.4 billion Christians in the world. That figure equates to roughly one-third of world’s population, and makes Christianity the largest religion on earth. And just think: all of it started with eleven men. Eleven men changed the world.

Peter and his brother Andrew were the first two men that Jesus selected to be a part of that small group of eleven men who changed the world. What Jesus said to them is noteworthy, and contains a clue that may help explain why they were so successful. A transcript of their conversation is provided in Matthew 4:18-20.:

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Their instructions were quite simple. They were instructed to follow Jesus. Beyond that, no other techniques were offered, strategies were given, or tools were provided. Three years later, Jesus left Peter and the other ten men in the group with an equally simple set of instructions. According to Matthew 28:17-19, Jesus said to them:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 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, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

There are four verbs in this set of instructions: go; make; baptize, and teach. Moreover, those four words are probably the best (and apparently the only) job description that we have for what it means to be “fishers of men.” Just those four words. Nothing more and nothing less.

Sometimes we try to make things much more difficult than they need to be. I was reminded of that truth early this week, when I met a man who was wearing a T-shirt. I was so moved by the message on the T-shirt that I asked him if I could take a picture of it. He agreed, so here it is:

The caption at the bottom of the T-shirt says it all. Our job is to catch. Jesus’ job is to clean. I’ve been in church all of my life. And I think that there are two primary reasons that our efforts at spreading the message of Christianity are not as effective nor as impact as that first, small group of eleven men. First, we try to clean the fish before we catch them. Second, we forget that our job is not to clean the fish that are caught. Perhaps we will become more effective fishers of men if we remember one simple truth: we catch. He cleans.

Only Jesus can clean people up.

Let’s stop trying to do what only Jesus can do.

Let’s stay in our lane.