Twelve Disciples: Fishers of Men
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We recently finished a series on living by faith, by following the examples of individuals of the Old testament, who lived in a time Before JEsus,
But what about the People who lived after Jesus Came, what can we learn from them?
And so, I want to look at the lives of the 12 men who knew Jesus better than anyone else.
the 12 Disciples
And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
The First of these 12 listed are Simon Peter and Andrew his Brother, so we are going to talk about them first.
They were fishermen.
And we know a lot about Simon Peter, but not as much about andrew
Simon was part of Jesus’s inner circle - his 3 closest disciples.
Andrew was not.
However, Andrew was the First disciple of Jesus, and he was the one that introduced Simon to him.
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
Andrew was originally a disciple of John the Baptist, which means he was there when Jesus got baptized, and he heard John call him “the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
and then He left John to Join Jesus, and he went and found his brother to tell him about Jesus.
Church when you find Jesus, do not keep it to yourselves! tell others! because they need to hear it as well.
But Simon didn’t join Jesus right away, it was not until later, after he had seen Jesus’s power that he began to follow him.
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Simon becomes the foremost of the Disciples, he gives everything to follow Jesus, he expereinces thing the other never do,
He walks on water
And when it comes to it Jesus give Simon a new name
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Peter is one who speaks up and claims that not only is Jesus the Christ - Messiah he is also the Son of the Living God
And Jesus says that Peter (Rock) will be the Rock that Jesus builds his church upon
THe rock of recgonition that Jesus is the Son of God
But for all the good thing peter did, he also had some moments when he was an idiot
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Peter tries to twll Jesus what to do and Jesus calls him Satan, litterally only 5 verses after calling Peter the rock upon which the church will be built.
And Of Course when Jesus is arrested and in a sham trial in the middle of the night, Peter is there and he denies Jesus.
And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.
PEters last words before Jesus Died were denying that he ever knew Jesus,
PEter the one who had faith enough to walk on water, who’s words became the foundation of the church.
PEter who litterally took up a sword to fight for Jesus. has denied him.
And When Jesus is and after he reveals himself to the disciples, at one point peter goes back to fishing, not for men, but for fish.
Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.
Jesus performs the same miracle that he did when he first met PEter,
As if to Say “I called you to fish for men, but you are still catching fish!”
And after they eat breakfast on the shore, Jesus pulls peter aside.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Jesus repeats the question 3 times, one for each time Peter denied him, and he calls him Simon instead of Peter.
And now he caalls him to “feed his sheep” to be a pastor, to care for the church.
And peter does so
The Book of Acts is full of stories of Peter becoming one of the largest advocates and witnesses fro Christ,
From his Sermon at Pentecost when 3000 people are saved, to His ministry to Cornielus, the Roman Centurion, showing the Jesus came to Save the Gentiles as Well, To the times he is in prison and an Angel lets him out.
PEter became the rock that Jesus always knew he could be
Peter became a fisher of Men.
PEter does write a couple letters that are preserved in the New testament, and in his letters he calls the followrs of JEsus : Living stones, built upon the foundation of Christ the Son of God,
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Peter Now tells us that all who believe are rocks, and the church is built out of them.
and that the church is a holy nation a people that once were not a people. but now we are.
And towards the end of his book he speaks to the leaders, and calls them to shepherd the flock, Just like Jesus told him to do
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
Peter realized that there was nothing special about him, but only that God had called him, as God calls each of us, to be rocks that build the church, to be shepherds that guide those, not fighting by way of the sword, not arguing with Jesus, but by simply following him.
According to Church tradition, Peter was eventually arrested in Rome and crucified.
and as he was about to be crucified, he requested to be crucified upside down, because he did not think himself worthy to die in the same manner as Jesus.
What about Andrew?
We already talked about how Andrew led Peter to Jesus, or rather led Jesus to Peter.
There is very little said about andrew after this in the Bible,
he’s only mentioned in passing as one of Jesus’s disciples.
And he is not part of Jesus’s inner circle.
Matthew was always one who help point people away from himself, and towards Jesus.
Tradition says that Andrew spent much of his later days preaching in Greece, founding the churches that would one day become the Greek - Orthodox tradition, which became the cornerstone of Christianity and today is centered in Russia.
Eventually he was crucified in Greece on an X shaped cross.
But his influence did not stop there, as the church Spread, teachings of Andrew went far and wide, even to what was thought at the time to be the ends of the Earth, or Scotland.
Which is why the Scottish flag has a white X on it, which is incorporated into the flag of the UK.
I want to Go back and look at a few verses
This statement takes place right after Jesus rebukes peter and calls him Satan, because Peter’s mind was on the things of men.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
When it came down to it Simon Peter, and his brother Andrew took up their crosses and followed Jesus.
They followed him in Ministry
as Fishers of men
as Rocks of the church
as shepherds of the flock
as people who lead others to Jesus
and the Followed him in Death
Dying on the cross, but now in Heaven with their Lord and Savior.
So Church, as we are called to also be disciples of Jesus
Will you follow him?
Will you lead others to him
or will you be ashamed of him.
Church I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!
Peter was ashamed, for a moment, and denied Jesus, but he repented, he turned around, and he led the church as Christ called him to do.
