Week 17 ——— Jesus invites Four Fishermen
Matthew 4:18-22 Mark 1:16-20
Last week, we discussed Jesus’ sermon in his hometown of Nazareth and how they wanted to throw him off a cliff when he was finished. After Jesus was rejected at Nazareth, he moved his ministry base to Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee.
Matt. 4:18-22 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 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, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
When did Jesus call the disciples? Because most of us have only read the Gospels individually, we don’t understand the chronology of how Jesus called his followers. If you are reading the Gospel of Matthew, you don’t hear of anyone following Jesus until the story in Matthew 4 above. Then you hear of the four fishermen “immediately” leaving their boats and following Jesus, making you wonder what would cause them to suddenly leave their jobs, their only way to feed their family, and follow someone they had never met. If your 19-year-old son came home and told you he had just given up the family business to follow some religious teacher whom he had never met before, how would you react? You would likely be quickly trying to find out what kind of cult had recruited your son. This is part of the reason we are walking through the 70-week ministry of Jesus chronologically. When you put the story of the disciples and Jesus in the proper order, it makes more sense.
We have already discussed how two of John the Baptist’s disciples began to follow Jesus after his return from the 40 days in the wilderness (John 1:35-42). One was Andrew, who first found his brother, Simon, before he went to Jesus. The other is unnamed, but everyone agrees it was John. The next day, Philip and Nathaniel began to follow Jesus. All of this happened before John the Baptist was arrested and before our passage today. So, if Simon and Andrew were already following Jesus, why would they be fishing over two months later in Matthew 4? Because we don’t read the gospels chronologically, we tend to mash up the stories of Jesus and the disciples and think there was only one encounter where they met him and became full-time disciples. In fact, there is yet one more encounter with Jesus and these men about a month after our passage today. That encounter is in Luke 5:1-11. In Jesus’ day, it was uncommon for rabbis to have full-time disciples. Most disciples maintained their ‘day jobs’ (or, in the case of fishermen, their ‘night jobs’). At this point, Andrew, Simon, James, and John have been following Jesus part-time.
Look at the invitations Jesus gives to them. In John 1, they ask where he is staying, and he says, “Come and see.” Not only do they spend the day with him, but they follow him to Galilee, where they see the miracle in Cana, and then they travel with him to Jerusalem for Passover. After Passover, they are baptizing people in the Judean countryside and then travel back through Samaria to Galilee with him. However, when Jesus returns to Jerusalem for Shavuot (Pentecost), there is no mention of disciples on that trip. Simon and Andrew likely stayed in Galilee and ‘caught up’ on their fishing until Jesus met them again at the Sea of Galilee in our passage today.
In Matthew 4, Jesus tells Simon and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” “Will make” in Greek is a future tense verb, so Jesus is saying, “And I will in the future make you fishers of people.”1 Matthew says they “immediately left their nets and followed him.” But they haven’t left their nets for good because they are fishing again (unsuccessfully) in Luke 5. Clearly, Luke 5 is a different story. Jesus teaches from their boat, and then they catch an ‘astounding’ amount of fish. Then Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; from now [this present moment] on, you will be catching men.” Then Luke 5:11 tells us, “And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” At this point, they become full-time disciples. Peter later says in Luke 18:28, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” Also, as in Matthew 19:27, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
For years, we have thought that Jesus had one meeting with Simon and Andrew, and they became disciples. In the same way, we think of our coming to Jesus as a one-time decision. Instead, we see with these men that it was a process, a journey. The old Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” is indeed true. But it’s not much of a journey if the only step you take is the first one. So let me add my own Southern Boy proverb: “A journey of a single step is not much of a journey.” Today, our churches are filled with people who have decided to believe in Jesus, taken that first step, and then halted. They may attend church, but if you engage them in a conversation about their spiritual journey, they often mention their church membership and baptism. They have little to say if you ask about their ongoing relationship with God.
Let’s say I invited you to go on a trip. I ask you to ensure you have your passport and I pick you up and we load your suitcases in the car. We drive to the airport and then sit in the parking lot for an hour and never leave the vehicle. Then, maybe one day a week from then on, we load up the car again, drive to the airport, sit there for an hour, and then go home. That is not much of a trip. But this is like many people’s walk with Jesus. They start, then they stop. They think about starting again once a week or so, but they don’t. This is not discipleship.
Discipleship in Jesus’ day was much like the idea of apprenticeship. In Jesus’ day, and for thousands of years afterward, if you wanted to learn a trade, say you wanted to be a blacksmith, you didn’t go to blacksmith school. There was no correspondence course or YouTube videos. You became an apprentice. You would often go and live with the blacksmith in his house. You would follow him everywhere he went. You would wake up when he woke up, sleep when he slept, and do whatever needed to be done. For a long time, you would just tend the fire or sweep the shop, all the while watching your mentor. One day, he might let you hold the sword in the fire or the horseshoe as he hit it with his hammer. Over the years, by observation and then imitation, you would slowly become like the blacksmith, able to see when the metal was hot enough to form and swing the hammer as he did. It was a process over the years.
When Jesus called the disciples to ‘Follow me,’ it literally meant ‘come after me’ or ‘come behind me.’ Think of putting your feet right in the footsteps of Jesus, who is walking ahead of you, as if walking in a minefield. Where Jesus stepped before is safe, so keep your feet in line with him. You move as he moves; you step where he stepped. You see how he greets people, how he talks to people, how he loves people. You see how he prays to His Father, seeks His Father’s direction, and studies and memorizes and uses His Father’s scriptures, how he teaches, and how he heals. All of this to become like him.
The point is not just to know what Jesus knows or even to do what Jesus does. The point is to be who Jesus is—a reflection of Jesus.
Francis Chan, in his book Multiply, said:
“It’s impossible to be a disciple or a follower of someone and not end up like that person. Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). That’s the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus: we imitate Him, carry on His ministry, and become like Him in the process. Yet somehow many have come to believe that a person can be a “Christian” without being like Christ. A “follower” who doesn’t follow. How does that make any sense? Many people in the church have decided to take on the name of Christ and nothing else. This would be like Jesus walking up to those first disciples and saying, “Hey, would you guys mind identifying yourselves with Me in some way? Don’t worry; I don’t actually care if you do anything I do or change your lifestyle at all. I’m just looking for people who are willing to say they believe in Me and call themselves Christians.” 2
Again, discipleship is not a one-time decision. It is a journey full of decisions. Discipleship is not knowing the right things. The process is not informational but transformational. You don’t just learn more about Jesus; you become more like him.
For Jesus’ disciples, things didn’t come instantly or even quickly. Jesus’ disciples made many mistakes. He had to explain many things repeatedly because it took them a while to understand. He tried to teach them about compassion to the Samaritans, and a bit later, they asked him if they could ask God to rain down fire from heaven and consume them. Another time, Jesus is explaining God’s great plan of salvation and how he had to suffer and die, and Peter says, “No way I’m letting that happen.” Even up to Jesus’ last day, they had trouble grasping what was going on. Yet Jesus had patience with them. “While the Gospels record many instances of Jesus instantly healing people’s illnesses, we know of not even one instance in which he simply waved his hand to fix an ugly habit for one of his disciples immediately. Instead, he kept teaching and correcting them, giving them time to grow.”3
Ok, fellow disciples, does that make you feel better? You don’t have to understand everything and get it all right to be a disciple. The process of discipleship is about learning from your mistakes by keeping your eyes on the master. Jesus knew his disciples were going to step off the path. He knew they were going to take their eyes off him. Remember the story of Jesus walking on water. That is an excellent picture of discipleship. Peter saw his master walking on water and began to imitate Jesus. He got out of the boat and started walking on the water. Then he got distracted by the wind, took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. But Jesus didn’t just watch him falter; he didn’t yell at him for being a poor disciple. He reached out his hand to pull him up, and they walked back to the boat together.
There will be times in your walk with Jesus when you take your eyes off the master. Like Simon Peter, you get distracted by the things of this world. You will make mistakes and wander off the path; you may feel you have made such a mess of your life that you are sinking in the deep. But Jesus is standing there holding his hand out to help you back on the path. If that is where you are today, know that you can’t frustrate Jesus more than Peter did. I am so glad the Bible shows all the impulsive, goofy things that Peter said and did. If Jesus can put up with Peter, he can certainly put up with you.
Just before Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, Jesus washed their feet.
John 13:12-15 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you
He is discipling unto the end. Follow my example. Act as I act. Love as I love, serve as I serve. Be who I am. Did you notice that he said, “You call me Lord and Teacher?” There is an essential difference in those two terms. You can be a student of someone without being a disciple. You can sit in their class and listen to their lectures. Perhaps you even take notes. You can gain information. But it is only about being informed, not being transformed. A disciple is much more. A disciple seeks to imitate the heart and actions of their master, their lord. A disciple is changing behavior. Jesus expected his disciples to be obedient:
Luke 6.46 “Why do you call me lord, lord and not do the things I say?”
A student of a Rabbi (teacher) seeks information, while a disciple of the lord (master) seeks transformation.
At the meal that follows the foot washing, Jesus tells them one of them will betray him.
Matthew 26:20-22 When it was evening, he reclined at the table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another…
Matthew tells us each disciple asks, one after the other, “Is it I, Lord?”. Then, in verse 25, Matthew tells us, “Judas who would betray him said: “Is it I, Rabbi?” You see, there is a difference between calling Jesus your rabbi or teacher and calling him Lord or Master. If you are a student out to learn information, you have a rabbi or teacher. If you are a disciple out for transformation, you have a master or Lord. Judas was only a student, not a disciple.
The last thing Jesus says in Matthew is Go and make disciples. Somehow, we read this and think he said, Go and make people who believe in me. Go and make converts who believe the right things.
How can we be apprentices of Jesus? Again, an apprentice would live with the master, watch his every move, and imitate everything he does. So, we need to live with Jesus. We can’t do that like the original disciples did. Even before Jesus left the earth and ascended into heaven, only a few could be with him constantly; only a few could apprentice under him. But God had a plan. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth (John 13:16-17). Later, Jesus tells them, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). God had a plan for us. God’s Holy Spirit will come and be with you forever. We can’t live with Jesus right now, but his spirit will live in us and teach and help us. However, an apprentice not only lives with the master but also observes the master and imitates all he does. How do we observe and imitate Jesus’ actions?
Fortunately, we have 4 Gospels that tell us much of what Jesus said and did. But we must read them like disciples, not as students. We must not just read the Bible for information; we read for transformation. Jesus didn’t just read the scriptures; he studied them, memorized them, and lived them. This is why we read, study, and memorize — to imitate Jesus. Not just to know what he knew but to live as he lived. So we have Jesus’ Bible (the Old Testament), the gospels of Jesus, and then the records of what his disciples did — examples of his apprentices who went out and did what Jesus did, lived as Jesus did.
We must pray like Jesus. Jesus prayed a lot, and he taught us how to pray. The prayer he gave us (the Lord’s Prayer)—don’t pray it like a student who memorized it but a disciple who intends to live it.
Acts 10:38 tells us Jesus went about doing good. Everywhere he went, he lifted people up. He healed the sick, freed people from oppression, helped them in the moment, and gave them hope. That’s what he gave the woman at the well who was living in depression in a hopeless state. He gave her hope.
You probably have Romans 8:28 memorized. It says:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
But do you know the next verse?
Romans 8:29 “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,”
Don’t get hung up on the “foreknew” and “Predestined” words. I don’t think the point of this verse is the theology of limited or unlimited atonement but more about discipleship, God’s plan to redeem the world. The process of discipleship is transformational, becoming more like Jesus. Or, to say it another way, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. This is the story of the Bible. In the beginning, God created us in His image. Our destiny is to be in the image of God. This is what God predestined for us from the beginning of time. But sin tarnished that image. When we choose to sin, we abandon that image. By allowing Jesus to cleanse us from sin and becoming his disciple, we become more like him.
The story of the Bible is the story of God redeeming all of creation. He is in the process of redeeming us, returning us to his Image and to a place where we can commune with him as he originally designed in the Garden. Discipleship is God’s plan to conform us to his image.
Where are you in your journey with Jesus? Have you taken that first step? Have you decided to follow Jesus, become his disciple, his apprentice? Have you taken that first step or those first few steps and then stopped? Maybe you are sitting in the car with Jesus once a week at the airport and never getting out. Have you gotten distracted and stepped away from your apprenticeship? Have you stopped following in his footsteps and wandered a little off the path? Or maybe you are ready to go all in—no turning back. You want to be a proper apprentice, study the master’s ways, and do as the master does.
Jesus is still calling.
- The Greek word ‘anthropoi’ refers here to both men and women
- Chan, Francis. Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples. page 16.
- Spangler, Ann and Tverberg, Lois. Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith. Kindle edition, Location 937
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