Fish Caught in the Net of the Gospel

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 4th chapter.

00:31

When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving

00:37

Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.

00:43

So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. That the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

00:51

Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

00:56

For those dwelling in the region in the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. From that time,

01:02

Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And while walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

01:10

Simon, who's called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

01:15

And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

01:22

And 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.

01:31

And he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed Jesus.

01:36

And he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

01:44

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics and paralytics, and he healed them.

01:56

And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the

02:03

Jordan. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. All right.

02:10

We've all heard this text preached before, but there's some pretty bad preaching on this gospel text about being fishers of men.

02:18

And usually the way it gets preached in churches that kind of are heavy -handed with the law and kind of withhold the gospel, it goes something like this.

02:28

You see, look at Simon and Andrew. Look at James and John. They left everything in order to become fishers of men.

02:37

So what do you need to leave in order to tell people about Jesus? Do you need to drop everything?

02:43

You probably do. And have you? And you sit there and you scratch your head and you go, what do I need to do? Do I need to quit my job?

02:49

If I don't quit my job, will Jesus be upset with me? What do I do with this text? I mean,

02:55

I want to tell people about Jesus, and if you heard last week's sermon, then you remember the last week's sermon we pointed out that evangelism is simply a matter of telling people about Jesus.

03:05

You don't have to tell them about you. You have to tell them about Christ. And so that being the case, I'm going to make the argument from this text that to somehow put a heavy -handed burden on people and to lay a big burden on them that they've got to leave things, everything in order to tell people about Jesus is not what this text is about.

03:24

And I can prove it to you from the text. Consider this. Here's what it says. We'll start in the middle before we go back to the beginning.

03:32

Verse 18 of Matthew 4 says, It's a pretty interesting concept.

03:49

We'll talk about the type of fishing going on here in a minute. But immediately they left their nets and they followed

03:55

Jesus. And going on from there, he saw two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father.

04:04

So there's three fellows. Three of them. James, John, and Zebedee.

04:10

And they're mending their nets. And so Jesus called them and immediately James and John left the boat and they left their father and they followed

04:19

Jesus. Well, wait a second. What about Zebedee? What's he supposed to leave? He's not.

04:25

He's not supposed to leave nothing. He's got a business to run. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, yeah, you're gonna note here, did

04:33

Jesus die for Zebedee? Of course he did. Of course Jesus died for Zebedee.

04:39

So you're gonna note something here. Somehow putting a heavy -handed burden on you and saying, what have you left in order to tell people about Jesus?

04:46

Well, Zebedee didn't leave nothing. He didn't leave nothing. And I would note that in human history few men have been called by Christ to leave everything in order to be fishers of men.

05:02

Few. And in this particular case, to somehow say that the application here is that you need to leave things in order to be a fisher of men is to put a burden on you that this text doesn't put on you because Zebedee wasn't called to leave nothing.

05:17

Instead, he was just simply bled for and died for and the recipient of Christ's grace and mercy.

05:25

Now, all of that being said, now that we've got the bad conclusion off the table, let's work our way through this text and see if we can figure out what's going on here.

05:34

And I need to make a note up front. And that is that we need to make a distinction between types of fishing.

05:41

All right, I know some of you here enjoy when there's warm weather for like two weeks.

05:47

You enjoy getting out on the red and going and fishing and getting catfish. All right,

05:52

I've seen the photographs on Facebook. I've seen the photographs on Instagram.

05:57

I know what you guys are up to. All right, but all that being said, that fishing of that type requires you to engage in deception, shall

06:07

I say. Deception, what you're basically doing is you are putting some little rubber thingy with weird little tentacles and stuff with a hook hidden in it and you're casting it out there and the catfish are going, ooh, ooh, that's my favorite food ever.

06:20

And what do they do? They bite on it and then you drag them into the boat and you kill them and you eat them, right?

06:26

That's not the kind of fishing that we as Christians engage in. We do not use deception to bring people into the church because the ends never justify the means.

06:35

So let's get that one off the table. Think of it this way, is that net fishing is what we're called to.

06:42

And I will note this, that in my vocation as father and as husband, the

06:50

Roseboro family has tried all kinds of caring for different animals. We've cared for cats with some success, okay.

06:59

We've cared for dogs with little or no success. We've cared for hamsters, which are so cute, by the way, a rabbit, parakeets, and for a little bit of time, we cared for fish.

07:14

Not so well. Unfortunately, many of the fish that we were caring for ended up swimming upside down and being flushed into the nether regions for their burials.

07:25

But aside from that, I noted that I was really the one that was responsible for caring for the fish tank.

07:30

And when you had to do work in the fish tank, move things around, clean things out and stuff like this, it required you to transfer them into a temporary aquarium, like a bucket, while you were working on the tank.

07:42

And the thing I learned about fish is that, man, these things can see a net coming, you know, so fast.

07:48

So like if you were to like pop the net in and get it in front of them, they're not having anything to do with it. And then you look like an idiot going like this, getting yourself all wet, trying to catch that fish, which can outmaneuver your every move.

08:00

All right. And if you try to come in from the back, that doesn't work. Forget the sides, their eyes are on the side.

08:05

So how do you get a fish into a net? By going underneath it.

08:11

You just carefully, slowly put your net underneath the fish and then catch it right up. It's a blind spot.

08:17

Okay. Think of it this way. All of y 'all are fish, but you were born in the waters of darkness, in the chaos.

08:26

Yeah, we're going back to a couple of weeks in our thing. And that Christ has cast the net of the gospel through the preachers that have served here and around the world.

08:36

And that net of the gospel caught you in your blind spot. And when you weren't looking, you were drugged right into the church.

08:46

And if you think about this for a second, work with me on the metaphor here. You were dragged into the church and all fish that are caught with nets are, well, they've got to die.

08:55

And so you have, you've died, but don't worry. Jesus is like the ultimate catch and release guy.

09:01

And so he's caught you in the waters of sin, drug you into the church, bled and died for you, united you with him in clean waters, the waters of baptism and where the blood of Christ has washed away your sins.

09:14

And you've been united with him in his death and his resurrection. And all of that being said, you've been drug into the church and you've been killed, but don't worry.

09:23

He's making all things new again. And in the new earth, you will be released back into freedom and the waters of the new earth.

09:33

Ultimate catch and release guy. And it's beautiful when you think about it and you're going to note here, that's kind of what's going on here.

09:40

So if we go back to the beginning of our gospel text, here's what it says. When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to into Galilee and Isaiah, the prophet describes

09:51

Galilee as Galilee of the nations. And we know from old Testament history, this is where the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali used to live.

10:00

And they were kind of the first to go into idolatry and refused to repent. And so God scattered them into the nations.

10:07

Galilee is a great place to go if you think about it. So a good way to think about this text is that now that Jesus has heard that John has finished his course, his ministry,

10:17

Jesus picks up where he left off and Jesus begins the ultimate fishing business.

10:25

Jesus has gone fishing in Galilee. What a great place to fish, by the way. When you look at Galilee on a map, so the northwestern part of Galilee where Capernaum is, this is where the

10:35

Jews reside. Across on the eastern shore, that's where the Decapolis is. All the pagans are there.

10:40

And then just south near where the mouth of the Jordan River is, brand new Roman colony named after Tiberius Caesar.

10:48

And so this is a great place to go. You've got Jews and Gentiles all in the same region. And Jesus has decided this is the place where we're going to start fishing.

10:58

And so Jesus starts his fishing business alone. But like every good entrepreneur knows, every good entrepreneur knows that you can only do that for so long.

11:10

Before long, you've got to bring in partners. And if you're going to be starting a fishing business, who better to start a fishing business with than guys who understand how net fishing works?

11:22

So here's how it goes. When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.

11:28

Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet

11:36

Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the

11:42

Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

11:48

And for those dwelling in the region in the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

11:53

So the ultimate dark fishing hole, Jesus begins fishing. And so here's how he casts the net of the gospel.

12:02

From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

12:07

Oh yes, that's right, Jesus is a repentance preacher. Hmm. That's a little awkward, because I know some fellows today.

12:16

I've actually had conversations with seeker -driven, vision -casting leaders. In fact, one particularly notable one by the name of Rick Warren.

12:23

And I asked him, why don't you preach repentance? It's noticeably missing from his messages.

12:32

Well, his claim was, well, I do, but I just don't say the word. Jesus said the word.

12:38

Why should we think that we can't? In fact, Jesus, when he sends out the disciples who become the apostles after his resurrection, he says to them in Luke 24 that repentance and the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all generations, to all nations, starting in Jerusalem.

12:57

Repentance and the forgiveness of sins. So what did the apostles preach? Repentance. Read the book of Acts.

13:03

Jesus preached repentance. And so you know, to cast the net of the gospel is to not engage in deception, but to cast the net of the gospel out and to proclaim the good news of Christ and him crucified for our sins and call, well, fish swimming in the darkness of sin to repent.

13:24

And what does the net of the gospel do? It drags them into the church. And that's exactly what's going on.

13:30

And so Jesus at this point realizes, well, I'm going to need some partners in this business.

13:35

I'm going to only be around for a few years anyway. So he brings some partners on board, and that's where we get the call of Peter and Andrew, of James and of John, and the exclusion of Zebedee.

13:47

Zebedee gets to stay back and keep working the family business. And so you'll note then that if you decide that you would like to engage in some recreational net fishing, you are free to do so.

14:00

You are free to cast the net of the gospel, to tell people about the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, but ultimately this text isn't about you becoming a fisher of men.

14:09

It's about the good news that you've been caught in the net of the gospel. You're the fish.

14:16

I'm the fish. And so rejoice in that, that this Jesus who started this fishing business in Galilee, hired some partners.

14:26

These men working then and continuing to work in the Scriptures, the

14:32

Scriptures were written by John and Peter, right? Part of them were.

14:39

These men are still fishing today. And you, by the mercy and grace of Christ, have been caught, drug into the church, forgiven, bled for, died for, and given an inheritance all as a gift.

14:54

And so you'll note then that what follows next, we'll take a look at the theology involved in this, is that Jesus then went throughout all of Galilee teaching in the synagogues, fishing for men, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, fishing for men.

15:10

And then note here, he healed every disease, every affliction among the people. His fame spread throughout all

15:17

Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.

15:26

And great crowds followed Jesus from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the

15:34

Jordan. And so note the fame of Christ spreads. Now note, I'm going to say something here. If you haven't spent any time in the charismatic movement, consider yourself fortunate.

15:42

But the charismatic movement, there's this thing that they say, and we'll have to kind of put this down right here. And the thing that they say is that the gospel is completely powerless today unless you demonstrate its powers with signs and wonders.

15:58

So, I mean, how many of you guys are miracle workers here today? What's wrong with you people?

16:04

I'm not a miracle worker either. You'll note that the only miracles I'm able to perform are at the altar and the font, and I'm not even performing them.

16:14

Christ is, right? So it's like, what kind of a lousy miracle worker are you?

16:20

So I would note this, that the signs and wonders that Christ performed are the signs and wonders we point to to validate the gospel, and that there is no command for us to perform signs and wonders today.

16:35

There is no command. Jesus performed them, and ultimately, the perfect and most amazing miracle of all that proves that Jesus is who he claimed to be, because Jesus didn't claim to be a

16:46

Galilean Boy Scout who was out there helping little old ladies cross the Sea of Galilee. Jesus claimed to be none other than the

16:53

Son of God in human flesh, and his miracles, the signs that he performed, prove that he is who he claimed to be, culminating in the ultimate one, the ultimate one being that he rose again from the grave victorious on the third day.

17:07

In fact, John, one of the fellows who was, well, contracted by Christ to participate as a partner in this fishing business of Jesus, when he wrote his gospel, he said that Jesus performed many signs and wonders in the presence of the apostles, and he said if all of them had been recorded, he suspects that not even all the books in the world could contain them.

17:30

But he notes this. The ones that he wrote into his gospel, he said these signs, these things were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

17:39

Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.

17:45

So note, then, that these signs that are listed here are designed to exemplify and glorify and show the truth of Jesus so that his fame may spread.

17:58

And so when we come to God in great need, needs regarding us being sick or afflicted with various diseases or pains or epilepsy or being paralyzed or even those who are demonized, we note that Christ is the one ultimately who heals all of those afflictions, and he has not promised to do that in this lifetime.

18:23

How many people in Christ's time alone in the Roman Empire had all of these diseases and afflictions and demons and went unhealed?

18:32

Is it that Jesus didn't care for them? No. These signs were given so that they might bolster, they might buttress the fact that Jesus is who he claimed to be so that we can believe that we ultimately will find all of our healing, all of our peace, all of our being released from the oppression of the devil in him.

18:57

Not necessarily in this life, but as Christ has promised in life to come. So then as we consider this text, breathe easy, fish.

19:08

Breathe easy. You are presently in the boat of the church because the net of the gospel has drug you in.

19:16

You are bled for, you are died for, and you are presently dying and you will rise again because Christ did.

19:24

So rejoice in the forgiveness that you have. Rejoice in the death that you have died.

19:30

Rejoice in the life that you currently have in him. And note this, that if you would like to partner with Jesus, you can do so at any time.

19:42

But you don't have to leave your vocation to do it. Few men are called to do that. But let that kind of resonate with you.

19:49

Let it ruminate in your head. Know that you have the freedom to tell people about Jesus. Not because you have to, but because you get to.

19:58

In the name of Jesus, Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

20:18

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

20:26

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

20:32

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

20:39

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.