Drop Your Nets (Matthew 4:18-22)

Sermon

Key Passage

Matthew 4:18–22 NIV

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

VMP

We exist to reach the world for Jesus, one person at a time

We do this by creating Biblical disciples in relational environments.

Our nation has had some massive tragedy over the last couple of weeks.

The death of Charlie Kirk opened up the reality of a battle that is being waged in the world around us.

We have seen different things that will open our nations eyes and drive us to God

Most recently in my memory before this was 9-11.

I remember 9-11. It was tragic. I couldn’t register in my mind what I was seeing on television.

It seemed that the entire nation went to church.

We didn’t know what to do. There was evil in the world and inherently we all knew the antidote to evil is Jesus.

People attended church, listened to sermons, mourned with other believers, then after the pain and shock wore off, they stopped attending and went back to their lives.

Now we stand in the aftermath of another national awakening.

Our nation came face to face with the reality of evil in this world again and we went to church.

Again, we went to church because somehow we know the antidote to evil in this world is Jesus.

As a church, we want to mourn as our nation mourns.

We want to comfort, because our nation needs comfort.

But unless we attach the realities of what we saw to the mission of the Kingdom of God, it won’t mean much when the emotion wears off.

There IS a battle

It is a battle of the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus invites us into that battle.

We have a place in the Kingdom of God.

We have a role to play in His Kingdom

We must realize that these times call for action, but that action isn’t just getting a month of church and posting on social media.

That action requires us to know the battle. Know the King. Connect for the long term

Jesus loves you and wants you to be a part of His Kingdom.

Much like the last few weeks, we have been driven to a choice.

Will I follow? Or will I allow my feelings and emotions to dictate the path that I follow?

Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at the core foundational elements of what it means to follow Jesus

Jesus says: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

By the authority of Jesus, our part in the Kingdom of God is to engage in this journey of discipleship.

He called 12 men to follow Him. They were His disciples. It was through this process of discipleship that these men went out and changed the world.

These 12 men understood their part in the Kingdom

These 12 men maintained unity, but not in conformity. They were unified in Jesus

The mission was not that there would only be 12 disciples in this world.

The mission is that those disciples would make disciples and that this world would know Jesus through discipleship.

Discipleship is the gateway into the Kingdom of God

Discipleship our pathway to knowing Jesus

Discipleship will be our marching orders in the battle to win this evil world for Jesus.

Because of this, we need to know what discipleship is.

That is what this brief sermon series is about. It will bring clarity to the core elements of what discipleship looks like.

These are things that Jesus modeled and taught His disciples

And these are things that we can all hear and apply to our lives to connect to the mission of the Kingdom of God.

We can make a difference in this world.

This is our part to play in our time.

We will be talking through a “shift” each week in this series

Each shift will identify where we are and where we need to be.

Today we will talk about the biggest shift of all. A shift of Kingdoms.

Preach Time

Our key text today is a verse that we use as the baseline for our definition of a disciple.

Today, I would like to break that verse down so we can see what Jesus is doing and what He is calling us to do.

Matthew 4:18–22 NIV

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

To step into this story, we need a little bit of context.

We see a couple of guys sitting by the lake and it appears some random guy walks up to them and says, “Hey guys follow me.”

Then those guys said, “Hey let’s quit our jobs and follow this stranger. He seems legit.” And they did.

If this is how we view this story, we will miss some of the weight of their decision.

I want you to hear this

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all fishermen.

What was a fisherman? I think this is probably something that we can all understand from the lives we live.

They very well may have been electricians, or plumbers, or loggers, or construction workers.

What was special about fishermen? Nothing. They were normal every day guys.

Normal every day guys don’t just quit their jobs to follow a guy.

Application Today

This is something that I recognize in our world today.

We can preach the Gospel. We can give the call to discipleship. We can proclaim the truth from the mountaintops.

But normal, everyday people will ask the same question, “Why would I follow Jesus?”

It doesn’t give me reason to upend my entire life for something or someone, just because they said, “Follow me”

Why did they follow?

Peter, Andrew, James and John lived in a time in Israel where the predominant religion was Judaism.

Their heritage and their religion were intertwined.

This was God’s chosen people and just by being a descendant of Abraham, there was a promise from God attached to their DNA.

They embraced this. It gave them meaning and identity.

Much of the culture revolved around religious practices like: sacrifice, following the law, giving, and prayer.

A part of their heritage that they also held onto was the promise from God that a Messiah would come.

He would be a King. He would be a Savior. He would be Lord. He would be God in the flesh.

This was a promise that they all knew and hoped would come soon.

Also, during that time there were teachers that would teach their history and religious law.

These were called Rabbi’s.

These rabbi’s would have much of the Bible memorized. They didn’t just know the Scriptures, but they had specific interpretations for the people involving the Scriptures.

Another important role of the rabbi would be to have disciples

We are not talking about Jesus or His disciples yet.

The rabbi would go from town to town teaching. When he would come across an exceptionally bright person (usually a 12 year old), they would invite that child to follow him.

The rabbi would teach the kid daily and basically imprint his teachings into the child, so they could be taught for one more generation.

The disciple would follow the rabbi so closely that there was a phrase that was used during that time. “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi”

This paints the picture that the disciple would walk so closely to the rabbi that the dust from the rabbi’s shoes would cover the disciple.

This was a compliment to how well the disciple followed the rabbi.

Being a disciple of a rabbi was a high honor.

Back to Peter, Andrew, James and John.

They were fishermen. Not disciples.

What does this say about their intellectual horsepower?

Not much. They were seen and passed over.

They were not exceptional. So they were left to pick up the family business and live their lives.

Actually, there was one who became a disciple: Andrew.

He did not become a disciple of a conventional rabbi. He was a disciple of a strange guy who came out of the wilderness in southern Israel.

I don’t know how he got down there and I don’t know how he was chosen as a disciple. But he was.

We see that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist

Jesus had gone into southern Israel to meet with John the Baptist and this is where Jesus’ baptism took place.

Jesus baptism was a significant moment.

Likely Andrew was there to witness the event.

Matthew 3:13–17 NIV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Can you imagine Andrew seeing this?

As Jesus approached John, John says, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Then he is baptized.

The heavens were opened

The Spirit of God descended on him like a dove

A voice from heaven spoke

Would this be significant?

100%!!

Shortly after this, John the Baptist was put into prison.

Likely, this is when Andrew returned home and began fishing with his family again.

Matthew 4:12–13 NIV

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—

Jesus went to northern Israel and began to preach

Matthew 4:17 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

I don’t know how many sermons Andrew, Peter, James and John had heard from Jesus.

But I do know of those four, one of them very clearly knew that Jesus was not some random guy.

Jesus was sent and approved by God.

So when Jesus approached these four guys on the lake shore and said,

Matthew 4:19 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

There was very little discussion. The discussion had already happened. They knew who Jesus was. They knew that He wasn’t simply a rabbi. They knew Jesus was the Son of God.

God had said this and Andrew had heard it.

Witnesses not attorneys

Application Today

Why should we follow Jesus?

We see in the Scriptures that Jesus told those guys, “Follow me”

We know there was some context and understanding about who Jesus was.

They knew they were face to face with the calling that it wasn’t just “some guy”. This was God saying, “Follow me”

Andrew was a witness to what he saw from Jesus.

When we are making a decision in life, we will collect information in order to make wise decisions.

There are two types of people, witnesses and attorneys.

A witness says what they saw and nothing more. There is no ulterior motive. Just the truth with nothing to gain or lose.

An attorney will try and convince you of something so they will win the case.

They will convince, cajole, and embellish their words so that you will choose their direction.

Andrew was a witness to Jesus.

He didn’t have to try and sell Jesus. He said what He saw and they followed. If they didn’t follow, there was nothing lost by Andrew.

Andrew was following based on what he saw.

For us today, why would we follow Jesus.

I am not asking you to follow Jesus so you’ll put money in the plate, or that our attendance will grow.

I simply want to be a witness of Jesus

A witness of how His love changed my life

A speaker that accurately tells the eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus.

We ought not follow Jesus because someone sells it to us.

We are compelled to look at the witness testimony of Jesus and choose for ourselves, will I follow when He says “follow”?

There is a cost to following Jesus

The Andrew, Peter, James and John were called by Jesus. here was their call:

Matthew 4:19 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus was telling them what it would mean, and also giving them the path of where it will lead them.

Follow Me

Andrew, Peter, James and John were all at the lake side processing fish and cleaning their nets.

Jesus said, “Follow me”

They knew that these words coming from a rabbi did not mean, “Come follow me for 10 minutes”

Rather, this meant that when they walked away from their nets, there would be no returning to their nets.

This was a decision that would impact their entire lives.

The call to follow Jesus is a high cost.

The step out of the Kingdom of this world into the Kingdom of God means that we must sacrifice the kingdom of this world to enter the Kingdom of God.

Luke 14:28–34 NIV

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Being a disciple of Jesus wasn’t simply applying a few new rules to life.

It wasn’t akin to starting a new diet or joining a gym.

This would be the life defining aspect of our future.

Jesus said that we must count the cost before saying that we will follow Him.

This means that He becomes Lord. He leads the way. He is our guide.

I will obey Him in everything.

We cannot retain authority, when we surrender our authority.

My life, my identity, my future and my actions will all be defined by Jesus if I choose to follow.

It is complete surrender.

I will make you

We leave our authority and follow Jesus.

The parts of us that remain will be pruned, changed and conformed into His likeness.

He will chip, and prune and cut into our lives.

We might feel pain and struggle along the way.

It is painful to leave ourselves behind.

But He will not finish until we look in the mirror and see Him rather than us.

Fishers of Men

Jesus tells the disciples that there is one outcome to leaving your life and being chiseled away by Him.

This outcome is that you will find your joy, your value, and your purpose in the Kingdom of God and your life will be defined by being a witness to His work and glory and making disciples of Jesus just like you have done.

Andrew, Peter, James and John knew what it meant to be a fisher of fish.

This was their family career.

They would go out into the lake. Everywhere they went, they were on the water for one purpose. That one purpose was to catch fish.

Their boat, their nets, their gear and their crew had a single purpose in existence. It was to catch fish.

Jesus was telling them that as a result of following Him, they would live for one singular purpose and it was also fishing.

But this fishing was different. It was being a fisher of lost, dying, hopeless, and sinful humanity.

Application Today

There is a cost for us to follow Jesus

So many people will try to sell Jesus to you. They will convince you that you just need to say a prayer and avoid hell.

Jesus never sold fire insurance.

Jesus invited people to follow Him as His disciples.

What is the cost?

You might be saying: “Are you saying that I need to quit my job and spend my whole life in Bible study and prayer?”

I don’t know the path Jesus is going to lead you on.

To one guy, Jesus said, “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor.”

He didn’t say this to everyone, but following Jesus means that He is our hope, not the things of this world.

Jesus will be certain to win every battle in our hearts that compete for His Lordship.

Following Jesus means that everything changes.

We change, then Jesus will send our changed selves into this world to draw others to Him.

This ties to who we are as witnesses.

We can never be fishers of men if we are attorneys.

We can only be fishers of men if we are witnesses to the power, change, and goodness of God.

In this series, we will be making a handful of statements beginning with “Every disciple...”

These are things which we believe are clearly instructed by Jesus that are unique characteristics of a disciple of Jesus.

In this, we find one “EVERY DISCIPLE...” command.

Matthew 28:19 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

EVERY DISCIPLE MUST BE BAPTIZED

Conclusion

The biggest shift we can make in our lives is to shift Kingdoms from the kingdom of this world (our kingdom) to the Kingdom of God.

The call is there. Jesus says, “Follow me, I will change you and make you into fishers of men.”

That call stands through the generations to you today.

Don’t ask for convincing arguments about why you should follow.

Don’t try to analytically decide if it is worth it.

Look at the testimony of those who are disciples.

How has God changed them? What has He done?

Then count the cost.

Am I willing to give it up? Make Jesus the Lord, the authority, the lead in my life?

If so, it is not just me.

It is that changed heart that God will use to change the world.

This is where our motivation and emotion turn into a change in this world. A change that will last for generations.

After Jesus ascended into Heaven, God healed a man who was not able to walk.

Peter and John were called into court for causing an uprising and preaching about Jesus.

Here was their response:

Acts 4:9–14 NIV

If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

Peter and John didn’t make any promises.

They didn’t try to convince the magistrates of anything.

They said, “It was the power of Jesus. Jesus who you killed. Jesus who resurrected from the dead. And a man who could walk where he couldn’t before.”

They were witnesses, not attorneys.

God changed the world through these guys.

The change that we want to make will not happen overnight.

It will not happen by attending church.

It will happen by following Jesus and being His disciple

Gospel Presentation

Communion.

Conclusion

They were unschooled ordinary men but they had been with Jesus