Evangelism & Discipleship (Matthew 4)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Alright, so how is the Christian faith spread and what are some ways that we can help share this message of hope?

That's what we're going to be talking about today. Basically, the subject is evangelism. So turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 4. We're going to be reading verses 18 through 22. But if you remember from last time, Jesus had begun his public ministry and he did that in the northern region of Galilee.

So now that he is in the region of Galilee, he calls the four fishermen to be his disciples. So there's two sets of brothers, Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John. So Jesus is the teacher.

They are the students. And the call that Jesus has placed upon their life is this. He says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Let's open in prayer. Lord, I just ask that as we look to your word, that your Holy Spirit would open our hearts, open our minds, that we would understand it, that you would speak to us through your word and that we would glean something from it.

Not just information, Lord, but that you would place it upon our hearts of what we can do for you and for your kingdom. But Lord, we pray above all that Christ would be glorified and that the gospel would be spread.

And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. So this is the sermon. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. This is what Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, James and John. Now, if there is any distinction between a believer and a disciple, which is debatable whether or not there is.

But if there is any distinction, it's this, that the disciples here are called into full time ministry. Not every believer is called into full time ministry, but Jesus calls these men. He's going to train these men.

And once they're trained, then they're going to take that message of what they learned. And then they're going to go out and they're going to teach other men. And then those other men, once they receive the message, then they're going to go out.

And that's how Christianity has spread for the past 2000 years. So let's begin reading. This is called discipleship or evangelism. So let's look at Matthew chapter four, starting in verse 18. 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. And they immediately left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

And he called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. So in teaching this section, that's how I'm going to try to do it, how I usually try to do it. Go through the section, get the basic facts, what's happening, get the context.

Then we'll move on to the main thrust of this passage, which is evangelism, make you fishers of men. And then we'll try to end with some application of what this means for me, what this means for you.

So this passage, it begins with Jesus walking by what body of water?

Okay.

So the Sea of Galilee, this is a body of water been known by many names. It's been called the Sea of Kenneret, Lake Gennesaret. It's also been called the Lake of Tiberias, named after the second Roman emperor.

And that's actually what it's called today. I'm sure there's still some tourism places that call it the Sea of Galilee, because that's usually why people go there, because it's the Sea of Galilee as mentioned in the Bible.

But today it's generally referred to as the Lake of Tiberias. So if it's a lake, is it a lake or a sea? Well, it's a freshwater lake, but it's called a sea because of its immense size. So it's 14 miles long and up to eight miles wide.

So as we talked about last week, Galilee, the region, sort of an area that the people in Jerusalem didn't really care too much about. It's a working class area by car, just to give you some sense of where it is.

From Jerusalem to Lake Tiberias today would be about two and a half hour drive by car. So this is pretty far away from Jerusalem, which is why it's so unexpected that Jesus would choose this place to begin his public ministry.

I mean, the Messianic King, when he shows up, he's supposed to reign from Jerusalem. So what is he doing up in the Galilee region? Well, one of the reasons he's there is to call his main disciples, the four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James, and John.

And this is also not what people would expect. I mean, if you really want to start a movement, what do you do? You find the people that are rich, famous, influential. You know, that's what people are impressed by today when they hear of some Hollywood celebrity or some famous musician who is now a Christian.

And oftentimes it doesn't really turn out that way. But people get excited about when the rich and famous and powerful people profess faith in Jesus. But who's Peter? I mean, he's really a nobody. He's just an average, ordinary guy.

All of these men, they were not anything special in the eyes of the world. Working class men, normal people, right? And, you know, their personalities, let's face it, some of these guys are pretty rough around the edges.

But that's usually oftentimes the people that God calls. Why? To confound the wise. It is unexpected. God does it that way on purpose. Matthew Henry writes this. When Christ began to preach, he began to gather disciples who should be hearers and afterwards preachers of his doctrine, who should be witnesses of his miracles and afterwards testify concerning them.

Jesus went not into Herod's court, not to Jerusalem among the chief priests and elders, but to the Sea of Galilee among the fishermen. And the same power which called Peter and Andrew could have been wrought upon Annas or Caiaphas.

These were the high priests, the leaders of the nation. For with God, nothing is impossible. But Christ chooses the foolish things of the world to do what? To confound the wise.

I love that.

I don't know about you, but I love that. So when he says the foolish things, it's not that Peter and James and John, it's not that they were foolish necessarily. It's just that all of this goes against conventional wisdom.

It's unexpected. Also, Jesus, when he preaches, who are the people that Jesus is reaching out to?

It's the poor.

It's the needy. He even reached out to tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners. I think the point is made. The things that the world looks up to, those things that impress people, that's not where the power of God is.

The power of God does not lie in men. The power lies in the message. What does the scripture say? The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So the power is in the message, not necessarily in Peter.

Who's Peter? The power isn't really in John. Who's John? The power is in the message that they would preach. And the power is demonstrated by the testimony of a changed life. So Jesus goes and he calls these four working-class men to be his full-time students.

So he's the master. They're the student.

He's the rabbi.

They're the disciples. Verse 18 says, he saw two brothers. So Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother. And you probably know this, that Peter becomes the most prominent of all the disciples. Peter has been described as the leader, because eventually there ends up being 12 disciples.

Peter is described as the leader, or at least the spokesman of the 12. More is said in the gospels about Peter than any other disciple. What was his name though? To start out with, what was his name? Simon, right.

So he was Simon Bar-Jonah, which means Simon the son of Jonah. Later though, Jesus will change his name to Peter, which means rock. His brother Andrew, according to John chapter 1, was formerly a student of John the Baptist.

So this is something that isn't brought out in Matthew's gospel. And I don't have time to turn to all the passages and kind of lay out the chronology of events. But suffice to say, this is not the first time Jesus meets these four men.

That's kind of the way it appears by reading Matthew. If you just read Matthew chapter 4, and that's it, that's the idea you would have. That Jesus just shows up one day to complete strangers, is like, hey, follow me.

And they're like, okay, let's go. Well, that's not really how it happened. But what's Matthew do? He's just condensing the story. But this is a good time to point out that this is why we have four gospels.

This is why four gospels are necessary, to get four perspectives. And each writer kind of fills in the gaps. Either way, this is a very significant moment, the calling of the four fishermen. Look at verse 21.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers. James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brothers. Does anyone know the nickname that Jesus ends up giving these two sons? I said that they kind of have, they're kind of rough around the edges.

Their personalities, what's the nickname? Yeah, Boanerges, which means sons of thunder. Now, they're the sons of Zebedee. So I guess that could be a reference to saying something about their father. Most people agree it's because they had hot tempers.

James and John kind of, remember that one time the Samaritans didn't allow Jesus to pass through Samaria. Lord, should we call fire down from heaven and just burn them all up? They kind of reacted that way at times.

But you know, God can use even flawed people. Of course, that's all God has to work with is flawed people. But God can use flawed men and women, and He is doing that. So, these are the first four disciples.

And now as for the calling they received, Jesus says to them, look at verse 19 again, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. So, you are fishermen, but I will make you fishers of men. So, we have to understand this is a call to full-time ministry.

Jesus is going to turn these fishermen into preachers. All right, let's turn to Luke chapter 5, the gospel of Luke chapter 5. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Here's how this is sometimes preached.

I've heard this before and I've read books that seem to, it's almost like some people place a burden on the shoulders of all Christians. And I don't want you to ever feel like this, but I've heard people say stuff that, it almost makes people feel guilty that if you don't leave your secular job, if you don't go into the ministry, or if you don't go into the mission field, then you're not really being faithful upon the call in your life to become fishers of men.

Well, Jesus is saying this to these specific men. He's calling them to full-time ministry. So, you can never place that on the shoulders of just any old believer that, hey, you have to do this, you have to enter full-time service to God.

Why is that? Because, you know, we need Christians in all areas of life. So, we could all do our part, and we're going to talk about that, but, you know, we need Christian contractors. We need Christian doctors.

We need Christian lawyers. We need Christian musicians. We need Christian teachers in the schools. So, not everyone is called to preach. Not everyone is called to be a missionary. So, don't ever let someone make you feel like that.

You can be faithful whatever you're doing. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornerchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.