Opening illustration: Show video “Leave: Follow.”
Introduction: This is dizzying. If we read these verses honestly and thoughtfully, they really do take our breath away. And so I’m left at the end of these five short verses asking myself: “What just happened?” I don’t know about you, but it totally freaks me out that Jesus’ call is so shockingly sudden. It gets deeply uncomfortable when I consider that those who followed Jesus were the type of men who would just leave their jobs—and their families—without a moment’s notice.
Come to think of it: maybe we shouldn’t teach this story in Sunday School, after all it might inspire young Christians to run off with a stranger, leave their job, and do a crazy thing like “fish for people.” Friends, this is not child’s play, but what Karl Barth called, “the strange new world of the Bible.”
In recent years, one of the biggest dangers to the church is that what was considered normal Christianity is now considered abnormal and what was not even considered Christianity at all is now become the norm and hub of our faith. For Matthew, this story gives us a model and a pattern against which all other claims to discipleship can be measured.
1. Why did Jesus choose Simon, Andrew, James and John to follow Him?
(i) They were fishermen (v. 18)
Jesus' first chose fishermen to be His disciples because "seeking and saving" of men is similar to fishing in several ways.
• Firstly, like fishermen, we must be self-denying and willing to lead a life of difficulty, struggles and challenges. Fishermen lead hard lives and work irregular hours. Though their lives are not easy, they are amply compensated by the satisfaction of the catch.
• Secondly, like fishermen, we must learn to depend on God. Fishermen know that their safety in the open sea and their success depend on God.
• Thirdly, we must be patient and persevering. Fishermen continue to cast their lines and nets even if they repeatedly fail to catch anything. They know that the more often they cast their nets, the greater the likelihood of catching fish.
• Fourthly, we must be willing to go where the prospects are. This often involves much effort, sacrifice and risk.
• Fifthly, we must realize that different methods are required to reach different types of persons. Apostle Paul said "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). To the child, we speak with childlike illustrations, to the scientist we speak scientifically, to the unloved we highlight Jesus' love, to the self-righteous we highlight His holiness, etc.
• Lastly, fishermen realize that their skill is a practical one which must be learned by doing. We will never be able to witness until we do it. Attending classes on evangelism will be useless unless we are willing to try it.
He could easily tweak their professional aspirations and make them fishers of men. Just as they had worked in going after fish, now they would be going after men! … making more disciples (Matthew 28:19).
(ii) They were working hard (v. 18)
These are hard-working men who wanted to make an honest living. And then there are James and John. Matthew tells us not just that they were busy mending the nets, but that they were sitting in the boat with their father, mending the nets. Preparing the nets would include cleaning the nets, repairing any tears, and folding them up so the nets would be ready to cast again. This is what Jesus saw James and John doing. So these brothers, too, are occupied with the regular, everyday work of the family business. How many times in their life had they prepared the nets for another cast? How many different things had they talked about with their father and each other while they worked? Matthew really does paint for us a very simple and a very vivid picture of life as usual for four hardworking fishermen.
Throwing a fishnet into the waters and pulling it back into the boat filled with fish is not an easy task. They also knew how to mend something that was torn or broken. They knew what hard work was …
(iii) They were lowly and ordinary folks (v. 18)
Fishermen of that day did not operate in a "free market" economy. The fishing industry was state-regulated for the benefit of the urban elite. These urban elites were Greeks or Romans who had settled in Palestine following their military conquests, or they were Jews well-connected with King Herod and his sons. Everybody else was poor. In addition, there were taxes on both the fish product and on the processing, as well as tolls on shipping and land transport. Fisherman were at the bottom of a very detailed economic hierarchy, the main beneficiaries of which were Caesar, then Herod and …
Jesus told them He was going to change them by making them into something they are not. It has been said that “Jesus does not call the equipped but equips the called.” Putman writes, “discipleship involves a heart-level change: a disciple is being changed by Christ.” To be a disciple means that the truth you confess at the Head level is moving to the Heart level and is changing your thoughts, desires, and responses. When we are being changed by Jesus at the heart level, we naturally begin to see the fruit with our hands.
2. How did Simon, Andrew, James and John respond to the call of Jesus?
(i) Dropped everything (vs. 20a, 22a)
Who then is this, that he commands four fishermen to follow Him and they freely and willingly choose to drop everything, leave everything, and follow Him? He is Jesus. The one who calls with sovereign and absolute authority and yet the one who will also lay down His life for those whom He has called.
We are aware that no one comes to God of his or her own free will: we naturally hate God and seek to run away from Him and rebel against Him. God has to go after those He has chosen to be His and drag us back to Him, changing out our heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. God said, “And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them …,” (Ezekiel 11:19, ESV).
(ii) Left their families (v. 21)
Does this mean that Jesus calls into question our family ties and creates conflict with our occupations? In a sense, yes. The kingdom of heaven doesn't exist to serve the family; the family exists to serve the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 10:34-39 and 12:46-50). The goal of the kingdom is not to serve us in being more effective and productive in our jobs. Our work is truly effective when it serves to express the will of God. The patterns of our lives are not made secure by the kingdom of heaven; the kingdom of heaven rearranges them into the new design of God's own making.
(iii) Followed Jesus (vs. 20b, 22b)
But what’s this about a “call”? There were plenty of “disciples” in Jesus? day who followed various Rabbis and Jewish teachers, but it wasn’t because they were called, or even because they were invited. No, they actually went and sought permission to follow the master of their own choice. They took the initiative to choose their own teacher. So in the normal world of following cultural protocol and etiquette, this story would never have happened – Jesus would never have done this! But here Jesus is, standing on the beach and interrupting you right in the middle of your day’s work – calling you to follow after Him! Jesus came to them. They did not go to Jesus. And perhaps even more amazing is that Jesus didn’t just extend to them an optional invitation, He summoned them. Jesus commanded them saying, “follow me.” This is simply unheard of! No Jewish teacher did this, and even if he did have the “audacity” to do this, it’s highly unlikely that anyone would have actually got up and followed. And especially not if he called people who were in the middle of casting their net for a catch of fish or busy preparing their nets for the next cast. But this is exactly what Jesus has done. Jesus has come, unannounced and unlooked for, to four fishermen on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and commanded them to drop everything, leave their work and family, and follow Him. It is stunning. But how will these four fishermen respond?
If you think about following after Jesus, it really is a very practical and powerful picture. To follow Jesus means that we are at all times watching Him and so we are at all times learning from Him and imitating Him and becoming always more and more like Him. Jesus describes this “following” in great detail in the Sermon on the Mount. But I think what Matthew wants us to see here is that all true discipleship begins with the sovereign and absolute call of Jesus upon our lives and requires nothing less from us than an immediate and complete break with our former life as we follow not just after an ideal or a lofty code of ethics, but after a person, a man, Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God who gave His life for us. Apart from Jesus? sovereign and absolute summons, and apart from our free and willing and unreserved and immediate obedience to that summons by faith alone, there is no true discipleship and so we can conclude that neither is there any salvation. This is the lesson we learn. This is the sermon that Matthew is preaching to us. This is not lapel-pin hook evangelism; this is nets thrown into the sea to gather fish of every kind. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers” of men, women, children, of every kind.
3. Why I did NOT want to DROP IT ALL and FOLLOW?
(i) Fear of Peer-taunts: I hated the questions and peers poking crude fun at me.
• Do you think you have gained sainthood or become divine?
• Let’s see how far you will go or how long will you hold?
• Do you think you are better than us?
• How dare you follow Jesus when we are around? (bullies)
(ii) Too much to give up: I did not like the expectation and responsibility that would come with it.
• Can’t have fun or do what I want to do.
• Focus only on church related stuff.
• Change my behavior, attitude and perspective on things.
• Will not feed my family and have no savings.
(ii) Others better than me
• There is already a clergy, so why should I get involved?
• God can easily find better people that me to do His business.
• Why are you chasing me down? Please go and find someone else.
• I know my cons pretty well. Are you sure you want me? No kidding!
In my case God did not bring any illness upon me nor did He kill me, but put me in a situation which I thought was monetarily beneficial to me which shaped my patience, long-suffering and self-control. It brought about a fear of God in my life and drew me to the call of God that I had neglected and run away from for many years. What is the roadblock in your life that is not allowing you to leave and follow Jesus?
Application: So what about you? Let me ask you this question: Have you responded with willing obedience to a sovereign and absolute and gracious summons from Jesus to leave everything and follow Him? Ask yourself: Have I left everything to follow Jesus by faith alone, and through His grace alone? He laid down His life and bore God’s wrath in the place of sinners so that now, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
For those of us who have heard the summons, we know that it came to us by God’s grace alone and that we have willingly left everything to follow Jesus by God’s grace alone. And that’s exactly what enables us not to have any fear as we measure our own claims to discipleship by this model and pattern that Matthew has given us. If we are truly disciples, then we have heard not just an invitation, but a sovereign and absolute summons from Jesus. If we are truly disciples, then we have willingly and freely left everything to follow Him.
