Matthew 4:18-22

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So thank you for doing that. I really appreciate it. We're just going to briefly look at Matthew.

We're going to continue our walk in Matthew tonight where Matthew chapter four verses 18 through 22.

If you have a copy of God's word with you, I'd love for you to follow along. We are going to, um, like I said, continue walking through Matthew.

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Hopefully we won't be on too long tonight. Matthew chapter four verses 18 through 22.

Um, just a brief summary of where we were. Hey apps, hope you're doing well.

I love all the stuff that you're doing on social media. Uh, appreciate all that you do and, uh, in reaching, reaching our community for Jesus Christ and with the gospel, with God's word.

I appreciate what you guys are doing. Um, so yeah, uh, in chapter four, between verses 11 and 12,

See Matthew is not as chronological as some of the other gospels are.

Matthew's main point is to show us that Jesus is King and he is, he is not as chronological.

So between verses 11 and 12, uh, you can go to John and look at chapters one through four.

And those are the events that, that happened in between verses 11 and 12 in, in chapter four of Matthew.

So, like I said, Matthew was, is telling us, uh, in, in his account, trying to show us that Jesus is

King. And we want to see that as we, um, read and walk through and study as we're students of God's word.

And we look in the book of Matthew, if that's his, um, Hey Nancy, hope you're doing well tonight. If that's

Matthew's, uh, main objective and main point, you know, we can't pull out of Matthew what we wanted to say.

So we want to look and see how Matthew is pointing to Jesus as King and make sure that we get that point, obviously.

So go to John chapter one through chapter four to see what's going on as a, as a context, um, chronological context, a light event, if you will, of Jesus to help you understand what's going on.

And it kind of helps us, um, as we study the, these next few verses, um, verse 17, before we get to our section, uh, is a, is a very powerful verse.

Um, you can go to Mark chapter one, verse 15, and you have something very similar.

You have Jesus's first sermon in Mark chapter one, verse 15, and here you have it in Matthew chapter four, verse 17.

Uh, it says from that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent, a word that is left out so often in, um, in modern evangelicalism, modern products,

Protestantism, um, left out in, in today's, in modern times, the word repent.

We, we need to reclaim that, that biblical word, word, repent, help people to understand it and know that it's a command of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we must repent of our sin. And he says, for there's a reason that we must repent because we're going in a wrong direction.

We've got to turn around and go in a different direction. And, and what's the reason for this repentance?

He says, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So that's part of Matthew pointing to Jesus as King and his kingdom.

He says, is that hand is so important that we, um, we recognize this time language and, and read it as it is written, read it.

Um, in its context and understand, um, what the authors, uh, mean and, and not change it to what we want it to mean.

Um, and, and not change Jesus' sermon to what we want it to mean and say, Jesus can't,

Jesus can't actually mean that his, his kingdom is, is here. Cause we're, you know, we're looking for that kingdom to, to come later.

Right. That's, that's our end times. That's our eschatology. We're looking for that kingdom to come later.

But if you want to, if you want to be consistent in, in your understanding, uh, you know,

Dan and I, if you follow along with any of the videos that we do, Dan and I are going through the book of Daniel in the old

Testament and looking at the prophecies in Daniel. If you go through the old Testament and go through these, um, prophetic books and look at the prophecies pointing to the

Messiah pointing to, um, end times, if you will, eschatology, then you get to Matthew and the gospels and you get to Paul and you get to revelation.

If you want to be consistent, understanding that Jesus means this literally, his kingdom is at hand.

And, um, the, the position that I hold as far as end times goes is often accused of being the end times view that is, that does not take the

Bible, um, as literally as, as other views. The more

I study, the more I understand, I really believe that, um, the view that I hold is the most literal view of, of all of them, uh, as far as end times interpretation.

But Jesus is saying literally, um, that his kingdom is at hand.

It, it is here. It's in your presence. Uh, you don't have to wait any longer. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And that's where we stopped last time is with that verse. Now let me read, uh, verses 18 through 22 and walking by the sea of Galilee.

He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter and Andrew, his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, this is Jesus follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And they immediately left the nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers,

James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother. And the boat was Zebedee, their father, meaning their nets.

And he called them and they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.

The, uh, the word that I want to focus on first in this passage, and I apologize for the, um, for the auto focus on this camera.

I really do apologize. I wish I was more technologically advanced and I could figure this out.

Um, I know it's trying to focus on me or the microphone. I can't seem to get it just right.

So let's see. Let me pull it to the side. I know that's probably annoying to watch.

It's a more annoying for me to watch. That seems, uh,

I don't know. We'll keep going and we'll see if it gets any better on its own. We trust that the

Lord will will handle these issues so that we can continue to look at his word together.

So the word that I want to look at first in this passage is the word immediately.

This is the word that jumps out to me. There's so many, so many things that we could talk about, so many different directions that we could go with this passage.

Um, but the word that jumps out to me, uh, is immediately. Oh, thank you,

Nancy. Uh, immediately. So Jesus comes along, he's walking by the sea and he sees, uh,

Peter and his brother, Andrew. And then he sees, um, James and his brother, John. And he sends the invitation to both sets of brothers.

Follow me. Actually, it seems less than a invitation and more like a command.

Follow me and I will make you fishers of me. And he's telling them to follow him. And their response is immediately.

And it makes me ask the question, how in the world, how in the world could they do that?

How in the world, um, could you just get up from what you're doing?

And I'm thinking about different degrees of, um, passion about this or different degrees of zeal about this.

Um, you know, if they were, uh, if they were sitting there playing, playing a game of, of checkers or whatever the equivalent first century equivalent would be of, of, of checkers, they're, they're, they're playing a game together.

And Jesus says, follow me and I will make you fishers of me. And they, and they left the game and get up and follow him.

That was still be amazing that, that they got up, left the game where it was and followed

Jesus. But you enhance it so much more when you read that they were performing their, their, um, profession.

They were fishermen and they were there, um, casting their nets. And then

John, uh, Peter and Andrew were casting their nets. James and John with their father were mending their nets.

They were both working on their profession, um, how they make money, how they provide for their family.

Um, and this intensifies the situation and magnifies their zeal that they would just get up and leave immediately.

And then not only do they leave their, their source of income, they, they leave their profession, how they provide for their family.

But then you have James and John, it says, um, and their father with them. So they leave the family business.

They leave their, their dad sitting in the boat to mend the nets by himself as they get up and follow

Jesus. So where does this zeal come from?

Why did they do that? Well, as I stated earlier, um, in between verses 11 and 12 in chapter four, you can look back in John chapters one through four and see the life events of Jesus more in order.

And chapters one through four and John are in between verses 11 and 12 in chapter four of Matthew.

And I look in chapter one, verse 40. These men have already been introduced to Jesus before this event, it seems.

So they already are aware of him. They already know of him, heard of him, heard him speak, um, uh, heard of some of the things that he's been doing.

In verse 40, listen to what it says. One of the two heard

John speak, talking about John the Baptist, and followed him. He was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the

Messiah, which is translated means Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are

Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which translated Peter. So that helps us understand a little bit better about the situation in Matthew where, um, they leave their profession.

They leave their means of income, their source of income, their family business, how they provide for their family.

It helps us understand the zeal a little bit better that they have when Jesus says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And they immediately get up and follow him. Helps us understand a little bit better.

Now, to me, it's a little bit of speculation on my part, thinking more about their motivation.

But we do know, and I'll speak on that just in a second, but we do know that their zeal and their response comes from the fact that they had a belief.

They had placed their belief in the fact that Jesus was the

Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, the king that had been promised, the

Messiah that had been promised, the one that they had been looking for for years and years and years and years.

I was listening to a review of the TV series called

Chosen, and it was actually a review of a review of the

TV show Chosen. And one of the emotional points that really jumped out to the reviewer was when one of the disciples looked at Jesus, and I've only watched episode one.

I've not seen it all, and I've not seen this particular part that they were talking about. But the disciples, they said in the

TV series, turned to Jesus, was speaking to Jesus and said, you are the one we've been waiting for you for so long or something to that effect.

That they had been waiting on him, them, their fathers, their father's father, their father's father's father.

They had been waiting on this promised one to come, and here, it was their generation that God had chosen for Jesus to send this promised

Messiah, the Christ, the king, to liberate them, to deliver them.

And so, you can somewhat better understand, excuse me, their zeal and their passion that they had when

Jesus says, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Because they had laid down their belief that Jesus was this promised one that they had waited so long to see.

Now, here's where my speculation, my mind begins to turn a little bit, thinking about maybe more of their motivation.

I think it's common knowledge, I think it's a consensus to say that most of the folks at this time in the first century, the first century

Jews, the disciples, especially at first and for who knows how long throughout

Jesus' ministry as they followed him. I think the consensus is that, yes, they were looking for the

Messiah, the promised one. That's why they were so excited when they believed, and they were convinced that they had met him, and he was there in their generation.

But I think the consensus is that they were looking for more of a military ruler, a general, a military type king that was going to be a liberator, a deliverer from their oppressors, which in this case was the

Roman Empire. So, that's more of what they were looking for. And if you look in John, if you stay in the, well, you go to the next chapter, chapter two.

So, these men are introduced to Jesus. They're convinced that he's the

Messiah, they believe in that. And then in chapter two, you have the miracle at Cana where Jesus turns water into wine.

And then starting in verse 13 of chapter two, Jesus goes into the temple where they're selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers are seated.

And he made a scourge of the cords and drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned the tables.

I mean, if the disciples were looking for and waiting for this

Messiah, this Christ, the anointed one, this military leader, and then here

Jesus goes into the temple, his behavior, it seemed, no, this is speculation.

This is kind of, to me, it's a good possibility.

But if that's who they're looking for, and then the one that you are convinced is that anointed one, the

Messiah, the Christ, you're convinced that that's him. And then here's his behavior of putting together a whip or scourge, turning over the tables, knocking over the money, you know, almost this violence.

And the disciples see that. And then you flip back over to Matthew chapter four and reading in verse 18 and 19 that Jesus says,

Peter, Andrew, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. They're gone because he is, in their mind, meeting the requirements of what they were looking for, this military type individual who is going to be seeking to overthrow the powers that be to liberate them.

And I could be stretching it, and I don't like to do that with God's word, but I'm just trying to imagine, based on the text, what could have been going through their mind.

These are the events that were happening, and it's a consensus that they were looking for that military type leader.

And then you have Jesus coming in with this seemingly violent streak in the temple.

So I could imagine maybe that could have been part of their zeal, part of their passion, as Jesus says, follow me, and they immediately get up and leave.

So that makes me think of the question, you know, for us, what does our passion and zeal look like for the

Messiah? Are the things of this world, are the things that we desire most pulling us back, holding us down, and keeping us from immediately acknowledging our dependence on him in everything that we do?

Immediately getting up to serve him, to obey him, what is holding us back from immediately getting up and following him?

And what is our perception? Which Jesus are we following?

Which Jesus are we immediately getting up to follow? Their conviction was right, that he was the anointed one that God had promised.

They were right about that, but it seems they, along with everyone else at that time, had a misconception of who he may be.

So what is our conception of who

Jesus is? It's possible that we can claim the name

Christian, but still follow the wrong

Jesus. You know, you imagine this in the disciples' case, where they held on to that belief.

No, he's got to be this military general, this military -style king that's going to overthrow the

Roman Empire, and Israel will rule this town and this world, and will begin to conquer again.

Imagine disciples holding on to that image, that perception of who the anointed one would be.

It would be idolatrous. And the same thing is true for us. We can claim the name

Christian and hold on to it. But if we are following a

Jesus, that we're following him, that he may give us a better life, give us all the things that we want, give us all the victories that we want in this life.

You know, we're serving his creation rather than him.

We are coming to him more like a genie in a bottle, as a butler to serve us.

You know, we're following the wrong Jesus, as that misconception that they had was very similar to that.

They had a misconception of who he was. And the sad part is, in our circumstance, is that we have

God's word compiled together for us. And we have so many copies of it. We have so great access to his word that we have no excuse to have a misconception of who

Jesus is. He's not a divine butler. He is not a genie in a bottle. He's not here to serve our needs and give us everything we want and all the victories that we want and give us favor everywhere we go and to just, you know, bless us to where we have no problems.

That's not the Jesus of the Bible. And the disciples,

God changed their heart and opened their eyes. They were able to see the Messiah because Jesus, you know,

Jesus opened up the scriptures eventually to his disciples and pointed out the

Old Testament and said, this book spoke of me and let me show you.

And he revealed to some of his disciples and eventually all of them, this is the true interpretation of the

Old Testament of who I was going to be and who I am. And so the scripture does the same for us.

And we must beg and seek the Holy Spirit to open our eyes so we may see the true

Jesus of the Bible and not one of our own making. The other thing that I wanted to talk about within this passage is part of Jesus' statement.

When he says in verse 19, he says this to both sets of brothers, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

And that pulls me to John chapter 21. You see, these two sets of brothers and many other folks at that time, but these two sets of brothers, they were professional fishermen.

And that's what they did for a living. That's how they provided for their family. And, you know, this was their, these were their tools, the nets, the boat, and of course, whatever they were using to mend the nets.

You know, these were their tools. This is things that they used to catch the fish, to make the money, to provide for their family so that they could eat, other people could eat.

That's what they did. And Jesus used that as an analogy, as a picture of what he wanted to do, what he wanted them to do in his kingdom, in his ministry.

I will make you fishers of men and not fish. But the key part there is,

I will, I will make you fishers of men. It made me think of John chapter 21.

And follow along with me as we look at John chapter 21, because it, to me, it pulls us back to this, this point in time.

When Jesus is with these two sets of brothers there by the sea, calling them to follow him, that he will, he will make them fishers of men.

And what that looks like. And as he, he uses the circumstances, he uses fishing again to teach them about being fishers of men.

Chapter 21, verse one says, after these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias.

And he manifested himself in this way. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called

Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee and the sons of Zebedee. There you have

John and James and John and the two other disciples.

Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. That's his profession.

That's what he knew what to do. And they were probably good at it. They said to him, we will also come with you.

They went out and got into their boat that night and they caught nothing.

But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach. Yet the disciples did not know that it was

Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them, children, you do not have any fish, do you?

That's an interesting question based on an upcoming verse. I want you to hold on to that question that Jesus says, children, you do not have any fish, do you?

And they answered him, no. And he said to them, cast the net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.

They cast their four and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

That disciple, therefore, whom Jesus loves, said to Peter, which was John, the author of this book, it is the

Lord. And so when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on for he was stripped for work and threw himself to the sea.

And the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish.

And so when they got out upon the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and bread.

Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of large fish.

A hundred and fifty three altogether, although there were so many, the net was not torn.

So the disciples went out. They they wanted to get together, these old fishermen, fishermen, buddies, go out what they did best and go out and fish.

And to me, what I'm seeing in this passage is that. Jesus is using, again, their circumstance, the situation here to teach them a lesson.

They go out on their own to fish. And they're coming back disappointed because they've caught nothing.

And then here's this man on the on the side of the shore says, you've not caught any fish, have you?

Or or you don't have any fish? They said, no. Cast it, cast to the right side of the boat and you will catch fish.

And the interesting part was that once they come on land,

Jesus already had a fire, already had fish. And he had bread.

He didn't he didn't need the fish that he had them to catch. He already had fish. He was there to teach them a lesson.

See, these disciples. They were going out on the on their own.

Going out, you know. Far into the sea, however far they went, casting in it, doing what they knew to do.

They were professionals. They knew how to fish. This was nothing new to them. Probably probably what was new to them was not catching anything.

But they they seem like here in the story, they fished all night and caught nothing.

And start to come back in close enough to where they can see somebody on the shore.

They see that it's the Lord. And he says, cast on the other side. And there's so many in the net that they can't even pull it in.

And then then when Peter goes to pull it in, they were there was some shock there that it didn't even tear the nets.

It was so heavy. There were so many fish. I think the point of the story here is that.

Jesus is going back to Matthew and their their first encounter of him calling them to be his disciples.

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. You can go out and do your own thing.

You can go out and do your own ministry. You can fish all that you want to. You can try to grow your church and build your kingdom.

And you can even try to build my kingdom and do it your own way. But your net is going to be empty.

But I've got three hundred thousand people in a. And we bought an old basketball arena.

And we've got ten thousand people that meet every week. What do you mean?

My net is empty. Jesus said, you've gone out even though you're trying to do it in my name.

You're not depending on me. You're not doing it my way. You're doing it on your own. You're building your own kingdom.

And I think Jesus is teaching them here. You can you can go out. You can fish on your own.

You can try to do things on your own. But you need to recognize your dependence on me. And here they are.

They come back even to the shallow end. He says, cast your net to the right side of the boat.

And they catch more than they can pull in. When they do it

Jesus's way. I think

Jesus is teaching them a dependence on him in ministry. He's making them fishers of men.

That's the point. And when you're doing ministry. When you're going out to share the gospel.

To make disciples. Of course obeying Matthew chapter 28. Discipling the nations.

Depend on me. And it's a message to us in church leaders.

To lay leaders. To laymen. Everybody that's a member.

A part of a local congregation. Don't depend on yourself.

Don't try to manipulate things. Don't try to do things your way. Recognize your dependence on me.

To do the work that I've called you to do. That's when you'll catch fish.

That's when you'll be glorifying the father. When you recognize your dependence on me. Let's look at what

Nancy says real quick. If I can find the mouse. Nancy says

I think Jesus allowed them to not catch anything. So he could show them that he was. His way was better.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's. That's where I was.

Yeah, I think we're on the same wavelength. Jesus wanted to show it that it was his way.

And they need to recognize their dependence on him. Because they were the professionals, right?

They were the professional fishermen. They've been doing all their lives. And they go out and catch nothing.

And here Jesus says. Try it on the other side. And it's more than they can pull in.

Now when it comes to being fishers of men. You need to do it the exact same way.

Don't go out and do it on your own. Depend on me and do it my way.

And in the context of chapter 21. We find Jesus' conversation.

Which most of us are familiar with. Jesus says

Simon son of John. Do you love me more than these? And he said yes

Lord. You know that I love you. He said to them tend my lambs. And he said to him a second time.

Simon son of John do you love me? And he said to him yes Lord. You know that I love you. He said to him shepherd my sheep.

And he said to him a third time. Simon son of John do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time.

Do you love me? And he said to him Lord you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him tend my sheep.

What was Jesus calling Peter to do? These fish that he was fishing for.

Point them to Jesus. What does a shepherd do? A shepherd takes his flock to the water.

A shepherd takes his flock to the green pastures to eat. Jesus was calling

Peter to what Jesus was teaching

Peter earlier. Depend on me. Now teach my flock to depend on me.

Teach my flock that I'm where the fish and the bread are. I already have breakfast made.

I already have the fire going. It's warm over here. Come eat. Come eat bread.

Come eat fish. And Peter these fish that you catch.

My sheep. Tend them. Feed them. How do you feed them? Bring them to me.

The fire's already made. The fish is cooked. The bread is cooked. Bring them to me.

Lead them to me. And take care of them. By sending them to me.

Teaching them about me. And helping them to live how

I've taught you to live. I think that's what

Jesus was meaning and going and later teaching them when he said follow me.

I will make you fishers of men. I hope that was helpful. If I made any mistakes.

If I stretched it too far. Be sure to let me know and help me out with that.

So that we can accurately interpret God's word and understand Jesus correctly and obey him rightly.

And honor the father in doing so. Because we want to depend on Jesus. And we want to lead others to do the same.

Like I said before, if I can pray for you, I'd love to be able to do that. Just let me know. All you have to do is type me.

I'm thankful to spend time with you tonight. Join with me as we pray and we'll close together. Father, we thank you so much for your word.

Thank you for this time of conversation as we look at your word. Thank you for being our true shepherd.

Thank you for giving us under shepherds here on this earth that lead us to you.

That give us your word and feed our souls. Thank you for preparing the way.

Thank you for all that you do. Help us to be obedient to your word as we try to lead others and point them to you.

In Jesus name, amen. Thank you guys for watching. Remember that Jesus is king.

Go live in that victory. Let's continue to go out there together and share the gospel.