How Do We Follow Jesus (Part 2 of 3)

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

(Matthew 4: 17-19)

The opening part of this passage tells us he went to Galilee. That’s the region, Capernaum, was the regional city. Now it tells us what he did when he got there. He preached, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven, is at hand”. We’ve already looked at it wat that means when we looked at the Ministry of John the Baptist so if you have been following along, you will already know what the meaning of the word repent was. Repent means to change your mind. Also, by this time we want to know what the phrase Kingdom of heaven means, in this context. Is that a reference to a spiritual Kingdom where Christ reigns in our hearts? Or is it a reference to the time when he comes back and sets up a Kingdom on this Earth.

There is some sense in which there is the Kingdom of God is in our hearts when we invite God into our lives. However, in the Gospel of Matthew the Kingdom is the one promised in the Old Testament the one which Jesus sets up when he comes back. It’s the Messianic kingdom and that interpretation fits with the whole prophetic and fulfilment outlook of Matthew. This is critical to our understanding the Gospel of Matthew. Look at that verse again, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. But what then about this kingdom, is it here or is it near? 

Note, Matthew doesn’t say it was here, he said it was near. That’s an important distinction because those who say that this is a reference to the spiritual Kingdom that exists in our hearts would have to say it’s here now. Hpwever, that’s not what Jesus said.  Rather He is seen to preach the repent the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent, meaning to change your mind, changing your mind from trusting in yourself to trusting in God. In that day it meant thinking that just because you’re a son of Abraham,  and a member of the Jewish nation that you had you got it made. Today it might mean you think because you live in a Christian country or attend a church of live in a Christian family that you are made right with God through your lineage, or your heritage. 

The Bible tells us very clearly, John the Baptist said it, “believe on him who comes after me”, and Jesus himself says it about himself. Jesus preached the identical same message as John the Baptist, but Jesus knows there’s a lot of villages to cover, and a lot of recruits needed to go proclaim this message not just to this region but eventually to the whole wide world. 

The next verse tells us when He sees two brothers, Simon/Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the sea, he calls them to follow him. It’s helpful to understand that he already had met them. Andrew was a follower of John the Baptist and John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God that take it away then of the world. The Bible also says Andrew and the apostle John went and spent the day with him and that passage tells us that after that Andrew, found his own brother Simon and said to him, I have found the Messiah, and he brings him to Jesus. All of that has already happened, so when this passage in verse 18 talks about Simon, Peter and Andrew, these men at this point were believers. They already understood that Jesus was the Messiah. Therefore, it is too believers that Jesus says, “follow me, and I will make you to be fishers of men”.

So, if we are going to take follow him what do we have to do to move from being just a believer to become someone who follows Christ. They had already become believers, this is a call to become disciples, and the word disciple means learner or student.  In our modern mindset the word student or learner paints a picture of academic study but as a matter of fact, this was an expression used by all the rabbis of that day who would say to potential students follow me and they would literally follow him around. When Jesus said that to these men, he also meant it literally. He was physically present, he was talking to fishermen, and he said, in essence, leave what you’re doing and come travel with me and learn by seeing what I do. That’s what follow me means in this context. And we see their reaction to his call upon their lives in verse 20. 

20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

(Matthew 4: 20)

For them this meant leaving their businesses and following Him

Verse 21. 

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.

(Matthew 4: 21-22)

Going on from there he sees another two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. So, there were two brothers, first, Peter and Andrew, now there are two more, James and John. Three of these four men will become the inner circle, Peter, James, and John They were also involved in the fishing business of their father, only they were mending their Nets. The first set of brothers were casting their Nets. This set of brothers were mending their Nets, and he called them, and they immediately they left the boat and their father. A parallel passage from the other gospel accounts says that he had servants, and their father was in charge of the family fishing business, so they weren’t causing him any significant financial harm, or leaving him in the lurch by leaving, so don’t be misled by people who say this means we should always give up all our worldly resources to follow him. On the surface that can appear to be an compelling spiritual message, but I don’t think it is an accurate representation of this passage.However, this much is significant, for them to follow Christ meant that they left their family and their family businesses.

What does it mean to follow Christ? In their case, it was literal. It was physical. It meant leaving your business and their boats and their friends to go travelling with Him, but what does it mean for us if we today become followers of Christ? The call to, follow,  is a synonym for discipleship. Disciple means being a learner, and it simply means we should begin to learn as much as we can from him, about him, as we get to know him and if we do that that he will then train us to also be, “fishers of men”. Fishers of men is one of the main metaphors used in the New Testament concerning the seeking of others in order to introduce them to Christ. Another is the shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes and seeks the one lost sheep. Another metaphor is the farmer who sees the field white and ready for harvest and goes out into the field to bring that harvest in.  However,  the most familiar is that we should become fishers of men and go and “catch” other people for God. 

That expression can easily get misunderstood as it is foreign to our modern way of thinking. If I were to ask unprompted a group of primary school children today, what do you call someone who catches people it’s likely most would say said the police.  Fishing here is clearly man is a metaphor for catching people for Christ, catching them to save them, captivating them meaning capturing their attention so it turns towards the person of Jesus. If you are a follower of Christ, you should be seeking to get others to follow Christ. Follow me, he says and I’m going to teach you how to go catch others and teach them also to follow me. 

Let me turn this around for a moment by saying if you’re not seeking to catch others then you’re not following. I’d really like to do is camp on this for a while and squeeze this metaphor and get a little extra out of it. I feel justified to do this because it is the metaphor that Jesus himself choose to use, and not just one of the metaphors used about Him by other biblical writers. I’m going to give you a short list, suppose you want to become a “Fisher of Men. Well, there are certain qualities of a good fisherman, so I’m going to give you some. This list is not original to me. It was created many years ago by a minister called K Carson. I have borrowed it and edited it, but here is my version of it. 

·        A fisherman has to have patience, you’ve got to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait until the fish bite. Only rarely do teachers quickly see students develop. One of the hardest lessons of the ministry is that you teach and teach, and you’ve often don’t get to see the fruit. But if you’re going to catch others for Christ, you’re going to have to be patient, and sometimes only later will other see the fruit of your labours. 

·        The second quality you’re going to need is perseverance. Fishermen are an interesting lot; they rarely get discouraged. They just keep trying and trying and trying and trying. And if you’re going to catch people for Christ, you’re going to preach or teach and just go out and do your job as a believer and be a follower of Christ, you’re going to have to be persistent and you’re just going to have to keep going no matter what.

·        Third quality is courage, fishing especially at that time on the Sea of Galilee, in the basic types of boats they had then, storms came up very suddenly. We’ll see that later in the Gospel of Matthew. Telling people spiritual truth can be dangerous at times. People don’t want the truth, especially if part of your messages is the fact that they are sinners and need to be saved. They don’t like that, so you got to have some courage. 

·        Forth quality of a good fisherman, is you got to have to wait for the right moment. I not a fisherman but Paula and I love watching a programme here in the UK called gone fishing where two well know comedians go to some of the most beautiful locations in the UK and fish and chat. One of the things, I’ve learnt watching that program you need to wait for the right moment. That means waiting for the right moment to strike. For fishermen that often means getting up early in the morning or just witing for a nibble and the right moment to strike. You got to have an eye for the right moment, which for teachers sometimes waiting for the teachable moment to appear. There are times when people welcome truth, and there are times when they resent of the truth, and a good fisherman knows to lookout for and wait for that teachable moment. 

·        Fifth, fisherman fit the bait to the fish. Different fish respond to different bait. Paul writing to the church in Corinth tells them to “Become all things to all men that I might by all means win some people”, (1 Cor 9: 22B) . The same approach won’t win everyone over, a good fisherman knows which bait to use and when to use it. The sixth quality of a fisherman is one of my favourites, one a never would have thought of by myself. Fisherman keeps himself out of sight. Fish will often flee if they see the Fisherman. So, the teacher must always seek not to present themselves, but present truth or present Jesus and keep themselves out of the issue. 

I could go on from this original list, it has other characteristics like, Fishermen are busy, keep actively seeking others. Fishermen cast their line near and far. Fishermen know the nature of the fish they are trying to catch. The fish down there is going to bite the bait provided you put on the hook. I could go on can go on and on and on. But the point is, Jesus said, “follow me and I will make you to be fishers of men”. There’s one more thing Jesus did, and it kind of under pins all these other things and that is,  Jesus confirmed the Scriptures in everything he did.