Matthew 4:18-20 - Fishers of Men
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Intro
Intro
The Holy Spirit has an amazing way of comforting and convicting with His Word.
Pointing out things you didn’t know you needed confronted.
The Lord confronted me with the text through the invitation of Ricky Person’s to preach this text.
I’m grateful to be here today. I pray this serves you just as it has served me.
Jesus is in Capernaum, the base city of His ministry
He just began preaching (v. 17)
Now He’s going to start building His core team.
As a church planter, you can’t just come into a city and just start preaching and things go well for you.
You have to build a core team.
Jesus is taking a walk on the beach where He finds His first core team members.
18 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. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Peter and Andrew are fishermen (v. 18)
Fishing was a major cultural occupation
This was how people made their money and earned their food.
These were hard-working men
Often sweaty and smelled like fish.
This was their livelihoods—How they provided for their families, bought their kids shoes, afford food.
Some of us are co-vocational ministry.
It’s a lot of work.
Full time job
Full time church
Full time families.
Jesus is going to appeal to their craft.
He doesn’t say, “Follow me and I’ll make you pastors.” “Follow me, and I’ll turn you into construction workers.”
He’ll give them a wordplay.
Jesus uses what they know to turn their minds toward discipleship.
You are working jobs that is forcing you to be around people that you can bring to Jesus.
You aren’t doing anything that you can’t invite someone else into.
Hobby
Work
We can leverage all the elements of our lives to point to Jesus.
They were fishermen by trade
They’ll be fishers of men by calling
But I want to back track.
Notice how Jesus first calls for them to follow Him. (v. 19)
He was calling them to be with Him
To become His students
To learn from him.
APPLICATION: Our ministry should not start without following Jesus
Ministry comes from the overflow of our joy in Jesus
More than that, we’re just vessels
Ministry is what Jesus does from the overflow of intimacy.
What do your devotions look like?
Do you read the Bible to preach or do you first use it to nourish your own soul?
Is Jesus your first delight? Your treasure?
Ministry is a terrible mistress.
Doing things for Jesus often takes us away from being with Jesus.
For many of us it’s not the big things that take away our affections of following Jesus.
It’s good and right things.
It’s good and right to answer emails—But if it becomes an obsession, it’ll rob you of affections for Jesus.
It’s good and right to have hobbies—But if you’re not careful, it’ll rob you of affections for Jesus.
I can’t follow sports too closely, because I’ll start to care.
I’m an all in kind of guy.
I don’t want my mood to be effected based on if my team wins or loses.
Is it weird that some people will paint their bodies, go to a public event, and go absolutely bananas over 20-30 year old men chasing a ball?
APPLICATION: Identify what stirs your affections for Jesus
For me, it’s early mornings, black coffee, and my Bible.
I get up at 5am, because no one else that usually wants to talk to me knows I’m awake yet.
That’s my focus time with Jesus, where no one gets in.
Charles Spurgeon set aside Saturday nights to prepare for Sunday mornings.
This was a time for him to be away with the Lord to prepare his heart and pray.
A man came, eagerly wanting to speak with Spurgeon, but Spurgeon’s house servant told him that Mr. Spurgeon wasn’t seeing anyone during that hour.
The man told the servant, “Please tell Mr. Spurgeon that I am a servant of the Lord and that the matter is urgent.”
The servant reported to Spurgeon what the man had said
Spurgeon replied, “Tell him that I am with his master at this time and have no time now for servants.”
Brothers, don’t forget to be with Jesus.
Our ministries will only be as blessed as we are in Christ!
We need to be intentionally with Christ.
Pastor Ray Ortlund gives a comparison between the thinking pastor and the unthinking pastor
An unthinking pastor has an office
A thinking pastor has a study
An unthinking pastor has his door always open
A thinking pastor’s door is sometimes shut.
An unthinking pastor wonders what to say on Sundays
A thinking pastor wonders what to cut out on Sundays.
An unthinking pastor read the Bible piece-meal
A thinking pastor sees his Bible in it’s totality
An unthinking pastor has sermons with oppressive exhortations.
A thinking pastor has sermons with helpful insights.
An unthinking pastor is bored with the gospel
A thinking pastor is in love with the gospel
Brothers, following Jesus leads to fishing for men.
Jesus is a multiplier.
He will lead you toward Him in godliness and character
When you are in love with the gospel, you’ll talk about the gospel
Not as a formula, but as a first love.
They begin following Jesus and immediately see Jame and John, the sons of Zebedee (v. 21)
They immediately began to multiply.
Jesus called James and John and they started following too!
If we’re truly Great Commission Baptists we believe this, but we often forget verse 20.
We’re really good at verse 19.
“Go, make disciples. Baptize. Teach them to obey” (v. 19).
Aye, aye, Captain!
“I will be with you always” (v. 20).
If you want to be fishers of men, you must first follow Jesus.