The Twofold Gospel Call

Pre Service Psalm: Psalm 99.

What a blessing as we gather to proclaim this very Truth, may it be on our lips, may this thought burn with passion in our hearts and minds: The Lord is great, We must exalt the Lord, Worship at his footstool.

As we begin this service with a time of silent prayer and reflection may this be the concern of our hearts, to offer to God all due glory honor and praise!

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:7-13

Psalm 51:7–13 ESV

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Sermon:

GMC! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Before we dive in to Matthew 4:12-25 this week, I would like to begin by asking a question that is in on sense easy, in another sense extraordinarily difficult What does it mean to be a Christian? We could say simply “Well, it is one who follows Christ” and I think that is a suitable and acceptable answer, in some sense it is a full answer. But we all know that we could and could say a lot more. There are issues like: Sanctification; justification; there are issues like our walk and giftedness; there are issues like are we living the life we are called to by God; there are things we have to wrestle with, deal with; its a life devoted to Christ; it is a life serving Christ; it is a life saved by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, anointed by the Father; It is a very difficult thought to simply “sum up” because it becomes our WHOLE LIFE.

I was having a conversation a few months ago trying to share the Gospel with some people near and dear to me and at one point in the conversation we were talking about why Christians are so set on proselytizing, so set on having people believe what we believe, for lack of a better way to put it, why do we care so much about what people believe in their own time, why can’t we just let them believe what they want to believe, I believe what I want to believe and leave well enough alone? And I said this, You need to understand that when we say, when I say I am a christian, I don’t mean I am a Christian AND… I mean I am a Christian Period. Let me explain what I mean by that. I am not a christian AND a father, AND a husband, AND a pastor, AND a nerd… I am A Christian father, A Christian husband, a christian pastor a christian nerd. It informs and infiltrates and flavors and dictates every act and every moment. It is not PART of me it is the FOUNDATION of me. And this is because I believe we have been called by a gracious loving God by the work of the Son and the empowering of the Spirit to respond to and hear the Gospel. When we talk about the Gospel the “good news” it encapsulates our entire lives and being. And so it is easy to summarize that it is following Christ, but this is difficult because it includes, and demands our entire lives.

And I say all of that because my goal is to try and boil down, the ministry, the call, all really of what Jesus will do and teach and say in one sermon, in fact I am going to try and boil it down to two points, (with two cheating middle points) in one sermon. Because as we look at Matthew 4:12-25, our passage for today, what we have is in many ways the foundation and the introduction to all of Jesus’ ministry in the rest of Matthew. So then in chapters 5-28 we see that the teachings and words and deeds of Jesus are show foundation ally here. We will be looking at the call t follow Jesus, the call to see him as our savior, the Gospel call and I Believe we will see it coming to us in two separate but tied together calls that have given to us. So taht is the introduction, so lets read, we are not going to walk through this passage like we usually do instead we will kind of chunk it up, but lets read together today

READ: Matthew 4:12-25.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, LETS PRAY

PRAY.

The best way, I think, for us to interpret and to wrestle with this passage, is to look at the two “red letter” passages, the two things that Jesus says in this portion of Scripture. As a side note, we will see a whole lot of red letters, i.e. the direct quotations of Jesus in Matthew. And in one sense it is good for us to know that these are the words of Jesus and the words of God therefore, but we should always remember that all of Scripture is the words of God. the red letters and the black letters in your bible are not separated by any sort of extra power or weight or anything, But yet we are called to hear an know and listen to God in ALL that he said.

But this morning I think it is useful to look specifically at the red letter passages because they mark for us what becomes the to cornerstone, the two foundations of what will be Jesus’ ministry. and so by using them as the lens from which we can see this passage it will show us how we can understand who jesus is what he has done and what he has called us to.

And so the foist call comes to us in chapter 4 verse 14

Matthew 4:17 ESV

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The first call of the gospel, the first call from our savior and the first thing we must see and understand, is that there is a CALL TO REPENT.

The First Call: REPENT

It is fascinating that Jesus’ message here in verse 17 is not just similar to the message of J the B in chapter 3 it is the SAME ans the message of J the B in Matthew chapter 3. Matthew 3:1-2

Matthew 3:1–2 ESV

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus began to preach once again Matthew 4:17

Matthew 4:17 ESV

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The call is the exact same. I was reading the great Prince of Preachers, Charles Surgeon's commentary and he said this: “that happy, BLESSED IS THE PREACHER , whom his Lod will endorse his message.” To that I say Amen and therefore it is best for me to make sure that my message aligns with my Lords and it would behove me to echo this first call, REPENT.

Truly this should be for us the first thought in our mind, the first words on our lips, REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND! The message of Jesus and J the B is the same and yet the location is different. J the B is in the wilderness, Jesus is preaching in Nepthali and Capernum and the territory of Zebulon, simply put he is not in the wilderness he is with the people, in Verse 25 we read he is in the decapitates and the great metropolis of Jordan and Jerusalem.

But also if we think about WHO is preaching this same message there is a new and important weight that Jesus is adding. John said the kingdom is at hand, as in it is quickly coming, it is immediate it is the light that is breaking on the horizon we must repent. When Jesus said the Kingdom is at hand he meant that it is manifested in HIM. IN him, his person, his work, when jesus says the kingdom is at hand it is because the king has come! he is here.

But what is fundamentally the same is that Jesus call, just like John’s is to repent. to turn form you vile evil wicked ways. this call is like Peter would would say, be holy as God is holy and if you are not reaching that standard (news flash, you are not) if you are not reaching that standard you MUST repent. Repent for the kingdom is at hand.

If we look further in this passage, lets skip down to verse 23 Jesus is, after calling the first disciple, teaching in the synagogues AND verse 23 “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” This is an interesting thought there is a lot of debate, are there three things Jesus is doing or just two? Is he Teaching AND proclaiming AND healing OR how I would read this passage is he teaching and preaching (that's one thing) and healing. But in reality that debate doest matter that much because there is a centrality either way to this thought, that the Gospel of the kingdom summarized in “repent for the kingdom is at hand” is central and most important. But in this, in this Gospel call we begin to see that there is a vast difference between how some people will respond to this first call. We are introduced in verse 25 to a group of people who in some sense are an important character in the book of Matthew. The crowd. We will often see the crowd show up, here in verse 25 the first time

Matthew 4:25 ESV

And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

But we often see the crowd show up and they are painted as a sort of middle ground. and we will see this a lot in Matthew so it is good to deal with it here. the Crowd is, in Matthew almost always given to us a the moderate position between on one side the disciples and on the other the Pharisees and Sadducee. So you have those who love and are devoted to and deeply care for led by and taught by Jesus and the other extreme those who despise and hate Jesus and his message and then here in between is the crowd. They are attracted to jesus because of, and we read this here, his sensational deeds and because of the things he is doing but yet they are not his disciples. and so what we begin to see that in this first call, jesus call to repent is that some misunderstand!

Some MISUNDERSTAND

And so we must be careful as we look at we hear and we try and understand the message of Jesus that we do not fall into this trap. The crowds, jesus is going again verse 23 Proclaiming the gospel and healing every disease. then in verse 24, we might miss this if we read too quickly and we don’t ponder this like we should.

Matthew 4:24 ESV

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

But we know from Jesus later teachings, other things Jesus said, or even just looking at verse 23 that here is much more to what Jesus is doing than JUST healing people. and More important than the healing of one’s body is the healing of ones SOUL.

And yet the people don’t see that they don't hear that. they completely skip over the gospel of thin kingdom part and dive straight into the healing of every disease part. How different would this passage be if it read something like this: and so, verse 24 his fame spread throughout all Syria and they came to him and repented of all their sins! But we don’t read that. They bring their sick and graciously Jesus is faithful to heal even these. if you were to divide up verse 24 there are those “oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics” this is a summary way to say that he was healing all portions of these people. Paralytics ie their BODY was not working, seizures, their Mind is not working (that was the understanding of the time) and being oppressed by demons was considered the great malady of both body and mind. And so Jesus will heal all of those and YET this great crown verse 25 that follows him is looking for all the wrong things.

As we see later these crowds come, they follow for a time but they will in some sense slowly evaporate, in some times (looking at the triumphal entry, palm Sunday to Easter Sunday) we see that this crowd will QUICKLY evaporate. But they come and follow for a time and then find other things that tickle their fancy. They find other sources of whatever it was that they were actually looking for. The thought is” Jesus healed me, but now that I am not sick I no longer need him”. They found the solution to their temporary malady and yet their deep fundamental spiritual void still lingered. they did not understand the true weight of the Gospel. For Jesus was calling them to something greater, he was offering them something bigger he was GIVING them something better than JUST some physical healing. He had the solution and really he WAS the solution to what truly ailed them. what truly afflicted these people was not their paralysis. was not their seizures, and ULTIMATELY and we have to wrap our minds around this one, ULTIMATELY those oppressions of demons were not what fundamentally we messing with these people their biggest issue was their sin!

and so they misunderstood the message of jesus. Jesus says “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. and they HEAR the kingdom of heaven is coming and that I’m gonna get something Good. They missed the first Word Repent, they missed the first half of verse 23 he came teaching and preaching. The crowd, whom we will see often in Matthew they misunderstand the very nature of What Jesus is coming to do but we skipped over the middle section of what we read this morning because for those that do hear the whole message, who, by the grace and mercy of God have their eyes open to understand what it is that Jesus is calling them to, they will FOLLOW!

Some FOLLOW

We are shown what it means, what it looks like to follow Jesus in verses 18-22 in the calling of the first four disciples, conveniently two groups of two brothers. And in these two narratives we see the same fourfold structure. One: Jesus sees them. Verse 18 and verse 21. So first he sees Simon, also called Peter, and his brother Andrew and then he sees James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

So One Jesus see but then two we get some short commentary on what they are doing. again verse 18 “casting their net into the see”and verse 21 “mending their nets with their fathers”. So on group is actively fishing, one is mending their nets, fundamentally they are doing the same thing, they are all fishermen.

So one, they are seen by Jesus, two they are doing something, and then Three they all receive a call. Verse 19: he said to them “follow me” in verse 21 he sees them mending their nets and he “called them”. He calls them. There is something beautiful here that we don’t necessarily understand because we are not as familiar with the culture. In the time of Jesus to be a Rabbi meant that you were a leader and a man of Great esteem and worth and so men from all around would seek you out and they would ask you if you would be willing to teach them/disciple them. they would come to you. But here these four men don’t come to Jesus jesus comes to them and HE calls THEM. Jesus calls those He wanted. and he calls to them and he says follow me. and then, the first thing that we see in both stories it summed up in one word in their beautiful response to the call of Jesus “Immediately!”

Verse 20 and verse 22. So they follow. but in this a thing we will see often in Matthew, and we would be wise to remember this, is that to follow, and this is part of understanding, to follow Jesus will cost you. For these 4 men it cost them everything. Matthew 4:20

Matthew 4:20 ESV

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

and the nets are in some ways symbolic of their livelihood and their stability. You are called to leave that thing by which you are looking for your own sense of I can do it, your own sense of can provide and follow Jesus. You are called to abandon you stability and livelihood for the sake of following Jesus. if that is not bad enough in James and John this is magnified because they leave not only their boats, but also their father. So leave your possession (boats) and your family!

Now a lot has been written about this, is jesus actually calling us all to leave our family, I would say no. Is he even actually calling us to abandon our jobs and sell ALL our things, again probably not. but he is asking if you are willing to. he is asking what your priority are, and WOULD you abandon all to follow him?

When I would teach youth and they would talk about, I remember one Year at camp specifically, the guy doing the preaching did a great job of calling the kids to give up their plans and the things that they saw as what their lives would be and look like and give that all up to Chrsit. And they would come to me and say “but I have spent my whole life trying to get into this college, Or I had this plan of this job and career. And my response was, BUT if Jesus asked you to abandon that, would you? Its not that you cant go to that college, you very well might, its not that you won’t get a gob or marry that guy, the question is what do you care more about?

The issue is not that you have to hate your family, or even abandon them, but as David Platt said, the question is do you love Jesus so much that the feelings you have for your family look as disdain in comparison? And are you willing, for the call of following Chrsit, to abandon all, for that is what it is going to cost.

This is the gospel call. I was reading one of my commentaries and it was reflecting on this, this call to follow, and IMMEDIATELY they do it. and the commentary said: now we don’t know for certain if they knew and understood exactly what Jesus meant when he called them to follow and become fishers of men, but, and here is the quote “they must have discovered that Jesus was inviting them to something worthwhile”. And As I read that i thought, what a beautiful understatement of the call and why we follow. “they must have seen and understood that Jesus was offering them something worthwhile”.

That something”worthwhile” we are being called to us the greatest hope the greatest joy the greatest life; it is total SPIRITUAL healing; it is the renewal of our Soul; it is new life; it is walking in the glorious promises of God. We are called into the greatest service to the king of kings, we are called into the glorious good news of the kingdom of God. It is more than worthwhile it is everything!

and so when when we do hear that gospel call we are to abandon everything, your nets boats and even, if need by, your father and follow the king of Kings! If he is calling you do not tarry, do not misunderstand. he is not calling you so that you can fel better and then continue your life as it was before, he is calling you to follow him!

Finally spurgeon notes, he calls Fishermen. He calls from the estimate of the world average men at best. Poor to lower middle class fishermen. In acts they are called “uneducated common men”. people who were it not for the call of Christ would disappear into the obscurity of history, not know of 200 years later. That’s who jesus calls. So Spurgeon says that these men were “briars to which he would graft his rose of grace.” and I just loved that thought. because I know that is ME. and I know that is what the gospel call does. It makes us, though we are those who are prickly sticky unworthy selfish briars, the call changes. It grafts onto those briars the rose of grace, so we are beautiful testimonies to the work of God.

Repent! for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But then, as we begin to follow, as we look here we have been dancing around it, there is a second call. First we repent, but not the call given by our savior to Peter and Andrew: Matthew 4:19

Matthew 4:19 ESV

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

I was going to try and figure out a way to fancy this one up but the picture is not fancy and we do a disservice trying to make it more fancy than it is. Our second call: Go fishing

The Second call: FISH

It is to follow him, repent, and the second call go fish for men. What is beautiful and interesting if we look at this is that Jesus doesn’t reason with them he doest plead or dance around. he doesn't even polity ask them to maybe if it fits with them their goal, if they want to. no he says: COME! and I WILL make you fishers of men. One commentator says it is an unconditional unexplained demand, not a polite, reasoned invitation.

Jesus comes and says come do this follow me and we are going fishing. Come follow me and then YOU will be the ones that go into the world and YOU will find more YOU will be tasked with the exact twofold call. and this is why we cant miss this. Our call is to be the same as these two calls of Jesus. ONE we are to preach to lost and broken and hurting people the hope and truth of the Gospel, that they MUST repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and if they repent there is new life, there is hope restoration and healing. there is Grace greater than all our sins, it is all here in the gospel. And the second, we are called to fish and we are called to make more fishermen.

And again I want to push us. We looked and saw for these four fisherman, they must have discovered that Jesus was calling them to something worthwhile. And that is the same thing we are inviting people to. Yet so often we are filled with trepidation and shame. we are apologetic, and not in the good meaning of that word. We are calling people to the greatest most wonderful, must beautiful truth in the history of the entire universe. when we go and talk to our coworkers and our neighbors, the person who is checking us out at the bank, the lady at fiesta foods, when we are dealing with these people d proclaiming the Gospel we are proclaiming the most beautiful wonderful thought that has ever come down from heaven and given to frail broken men.

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

We should be bold. this picture we are given of fishing is one of those illustrations of Jesus that is really the gift that keeps giving. If we think of it this way: when you fish you should pick out the fanciest nicest lure, the one that is attractive to the most fish so that you are successful in your fishing efforts. well when we fish for men we have the GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL. But yet we water it down. We have the gospel and think we need to hide that message in jumpy houses and pizza because, for some reason we don’t think that the unbridled gospel is not good enough. We are afraid of those who misunderstand or worse, those who hate the good news so we drop the weight of REPENT, and therefore we are not effective fishers.

Let us walk in boldness knowing we have been called to repent and join the kingdom. And let us walk in boldness knowing we are called to be fishers of me!

PRAY