Title: Getting Started
Text: Matthew 4:12-25
Thesis: Getting started begins with following Jesus.
Introduction
These days I am a vicarious adventurer… I will never toss a sleeping bag and a camping stove and a copy of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass in the back of a pickup truck and chronical my meandering around the United States for 13,000 miles using only the out-of-the- way blue roads in the Rand McNally Atlas but I can read William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways and vicariously go there.
I will never be a Last Alaskan or a Yukon Man but I can watch the Discovery Channel and go there vicariously. I will never live in the countryside of Ireland but I can read Patrick Taylor’s An Irish Country Doctor novel series and go there vicariously.
I am currently on a bit of an adventure visiting the Greek Island of Corfu. I am watching the PBS Series: The Durrells in Corfu which is a British comedy-drama based on Gerald Durrell’s three autobiographical books about his family’s four years (1935-1939) on the Island of Corfu. It began airing in 2016 and ran through 2019.
The series begins in 1935, when Louisa Durrell suddenly announces that she and her four children will move from England to the Greek island of Corfu. Her husband has died some years earlier and the family is experiencing financial problems. A battle ensues as the family adapts to life on the island which, despite a lack of electricity, is cheap and an earthly paradise. The island is dense with vegetation and unmatched in natural beauty with dozens of beautiful beaches and I enjoy being vicariously immersed in Greek culture.
So when I hear the voices of Louisa Durrell and her four children calling, “Come, follow us to Corfu” I log onto my Amazon Prime account and go on a Mediterranean adventure.
There are all kinds of voices calling out for our attention: There are the voices of our social lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” There are the voices of family lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” There are the voices of our work or career lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” There are the voices of our church lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” There are the voices of our recreational lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” There are the voices of our civil service lives calling out, “Come, follow me.” Everyone wants a piece of us… everyone wants all of us.
I think Jesus knew what it was like to hear voices vying for his attention.
I. Jesus’ First Teaching
He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee… from then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (has come) Matthew 4:12-17
We know that following his baptism Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he spent 40 days and 40 nights without food being tempted by Satan. When tempted to prove he was the Son of God by turning a stone into bread, he resisted. When tempted to prove he was the Son of God by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple, he resisted. When tempted with the authority to reign over all the kingdoms of the world if he would only bend the knee to Satan, he resisted.
Luke’s Gospel tells us that when the devil had finished tempting Jesus he left him until the next opportune time. Matthew’s Gospel account tells us that when the devil left angels came and took care of Jesus. Matthew 4:11
Our text today doesn’t tell us much. It simply says Jesus went to Nazareth and from there he moved on the Capernaum where he began to preach.
However when we look at the parallel account in the Gospel of Luke, following his temptation he returned to Galilee, filled with Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly throughout the region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures… Luke 4:14-30
This little snippet from Luke telling us that reports about him spread quickly throughout the region and that he taught regularly and was praised by everyone is important to know… Jesus did not just get off the bus and begin going door to door selling vacuum cleaners. He had been around. God had identified him as “This is my Son, who gives me great joy.” John the Baptist had on two occasions pointed him out as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Two of John’s disciples had left John and asked if they could come with Jesus to where he was staying and learn from him. He was known and respected and praised as a teacher in area synagogues.
So it was inevitable that the day would come when he would expand his movement…
In verses 18 - 22 Jesus called his first disciples.
II. Jesus’ First Disciples
One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers – Simon, also called Peter and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.
This is kind of a shocking development because if you’re at all familiar with fishermen you know that, “A bad day fishing is better than the best day at work!” There is no such thing as a bad day fishing. To get guys who love to fish to lay down their rods and reels and their nets and their tackle boxes and walk away from their Bass Tracker Boats rigged with depth finders and fish detectors is absolutely unheard of!
A little further up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind. Matthew 4: 18-22
There was once a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower." (S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases)
Isn’t it interesting how Jesus went about recruiting his disciples? A disciple is a follower, a learner, a student. No apparent interviews. There is no hint of any previous friendship or relationship. No screening process. Certainly in accounts of the calling of other disciples there was no hint of any previous relationships. Just a call to come and follow and an immediate response to leave it all and follow.
It all seems crazy to me. Who does that? These men, Peter and his brother Andrew and the brothers James and John were all fishermen. They had jobs. Who walks away from their job to follow after anyone who comes along and says, “Come, follow me?” Who just runs away with the circus?
I don’t know what they were thinking but I suspect they knew Jesus was the real deal. I suspect they knew about him and perhaps had even heard him speak. I suspect they wanted what Jesus had and like the two who followed Jesus home that day, they wanted to be with him and learn from him and become like him.
I suspect they knew that Jesus had come to give them life and not just life but a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10
Joe Stowell points to the unique diversity of those whom Jesus called to be his first followers. The first four were fishermen. Peter was an intense and spontaneous man who often acted impulsively. His brother Andrew was quiet and reserved. John was warm and loving but had a volatile temper and was known as the Son of Thunder. Doubting Thomas was the cynic of the bunch… Mr. Negative! Then there was Matthew the Tax Collector. What a jerk he must have been. Doctor Luke had to have been the “heady” one of the bunch. Simon the Zealot was the political radical in the mix. Imagine him posting on Facebook and Tweeting away every day. Then there was Judas… what a sneak!
The other day I took a number at the deli and was standing with the other number holders waiting to be served. I had # 34 and the lady next to me had #33. I commented that I was surprised it was so busy… I actually thought it was a good time of day to shop but she reminded me a storm was brewing and people were stocking up. Her husband likes the Boar’s Head turkey at this deli so she has to shop here but she also shops at three other stores. I told her that Bonnie shops at those stores too but that I prefer this deli because it’s close to home and easy.
As we chatted we noticed the group began to thin a bit. People were impatient and some left. Someone commented about how the deli needed to hire more staff to speed it up. It occurred to me that in order to be a deli staff person you needed to have a certain kind of temperament. Deli workers and postal workers have similar temperaments. They are unflappable. Nothing ruffles them. They are methodical. They have one speed. They are gentle and gracious people. They carefully remove the plastic wrap, place the slab on the slicer and slice off a sample to show you for thickness and give you a taste. They slice some and weigh it and then slice some more. They weigh and package your purchase and stick the price on it and hand it over the counter to you and ask, “Would you like anything else?” Then they go back and carefully cover the chunk left on the slicer with cellophane and place it back in the cooler. Then they look up and check the number on counter and call out 34…
Jesus was and is not looking for personality types or for any particular temperaments or dispositions or outstanding qualities or gifts or abilities. In fact, I read a quote just yesterday to the effect that “whatever makes you weird is probably your best asset.” Maybe it’s our weirdness that makes us so potentially useful in the plans and purposes of God. Jesus was not going for homogeneity when he called his followers… he was going for diversity. Maybe even weirdness!
Jesus seemingly had a slow start but it was not nearly as slow as we might have thought. He was methodical. He began locally by teaching in area synagogues and then he moved on to a larger setting in Capernaum, continued teaching and preaching, there he called his first followers, and then things seemed to expand exponentially.
In verses 23 – 25 Jesus began what we call his first public ministry.
III. Jesus’ First Public Ministry
Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. News spread as far as Syria… and people began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease or if they were demon possessed or paralyzed, he healed them. Large crowds followed him wherever he went – people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea and from east of the Jordan River. Matthew 4:23-25
(Geographically the areas referenced include what we now know as Israel, Lebanon and Jordan)
It was a Season of Epiphany... a period in which Jesus was made increasingly known!
Conclusion
Dan Meyer cited Ray Ortlund in The Great Adventure pointing out that we are not integrated, unified, whole persons. Our hearts are multi-divided. It's like we have a board room in every heart. Imagine: a big table, leather chairs, coffee, bottled water, and a whiteboard. A committee sits around the table in your heart. There is the social self, the private self, the work self, the sexual self, the recreational self, the religious self, and others. The committee is arguing and debating and voting, constantly agitated and upset. Rarely can they come to a unanimous, wholehearted decision. We tell ourselves we're this way because we're so busy with so many responsibilities. But the truth is that we're just divided, unfocused, hesitant, and unfree.
So here we are, divided, unfocused, hesitant, and unfree and we hear Jesus calling out to us, “Come, follow me.” What do we do?
1. One way to ‘follow Jesus” is to invite him onto the committee. We give Jesus a chair at the board table. We let Christ become one more complication in an already crowded, confusing, and clamorous life.
2. Another way to “follow Jesus” it is to say to him, "My life isn't working. Please come into my life and take the chair at the head of the table… be the Chairman of the Board.”
3. A third option even better because it goes even further. Paraphrasing Russell Moore, who says, “For too long we have said to people that we follow Jesus by inviting Jesus into our lives.”
But here's the news flash: Jesus doesn't want to be in my life or your life. Our lives are wrecks. He wants to call us out of our life into his life. He wants to take us boldly where we've never gone before, into the life of the Kingdom of God. He wants to take us on this great adventure.
This is no vicarious adventure traveling the Blue Highways around and about the United States or to vicariously live the adventures of a Yukon Man or vicariously live into the culture of the Irish countryside or the Greek Island of Corfu… this is not even an invitation to vicariously live the Kingdom of God life… it is an invitation to come and actually live the adventure of the Kingdom of God life.
That is what Jesus has in mind when he says to us, “Come, follow me!”
Next week I am beginning a new series on the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus teaches us what it means to live a Kingdom God lif
