What if your ordinary life is exactly where Jesus plans to call you into something extraordinary?

So many people believe God only uses the exceptionally gifted, the highly educated, or the spiritually mature. But when Jesus began His public ministry, He intentionally sought out ordinary fishermen, overlooked regions, and everyday people—and He changed the world through them.

In this episode of the Word Alive series, we continue our verse-by-verse study through the Gospel of Matthew as we explore Matthew 4:12–25. Together, we'll discover how Jesus fulfills prophecy, moves toward people with purpose, and calls ordinary men and women to become His disciples.

You'll discover:

• Why Jesus began His ministry in Galilee—and why that matters
• How Matthew proves Jesus is the promised Messiah
• What Jesus really meant when He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near"
• Why Jesus chose fishermen instead of religious leaders
• What it means to become a "fisher of people"
• The cost—and incredible reward—of following Jesus
• Why Jesus' ministry of teaching, preaching, and healing is still significant today
• How God specializes in calling ordinary people into extraordinary purpose

Whether you've been following Jesus for decades or are just beginning your faith journey, this study will encourage you to recognize His invitation to follow Him more closely and trust His purpose for your life.

Scriptures Covered

• Matthew 4:12–25
• Isaiah 9:1–7
• Mark 1:14–20
• Luke 4:14–15
• Luke 5:1–11
• John 1:35–42

Key Takeaways

• Jesus always moves toward people with purpose.
• God often chooses the people and places the world overlooks.
• Following Jesus often requires leaving something behind.
• Every disciple is called to become more like the Rabbi.
• Jesus still calls ordinary people into extraordinary purpose.

If this episode encourages you, would you take a moment to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs the reminder that God can use them? Your support helps more people discover God's Word through The Higher Pursuit.

Until next time, keep pursuing Him—because He is always pursuing you.

Transcript

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Was there a day that Jesus moved toward you on purpose? Maybe you just were in church one Sunday and you heard a message or you were invited by a friend or you were in kids' Bible camp, or maybe like me, you were sitting in the middle of your mess, the disaster of your life, filled with shame and regret and bitterness and sin. And Jesus moved toward you on purpose. I mean, that's my story. Or maybe you're praying for someone and you're saying, Lord, could you even reach them? They are so closed to you. They're so hard-headed, they're so hard-hearted. Is there even any hope for them? And Jesus wants you to know tonight, yes, I am moving toward them on purpose. I have a time and I have a place and I have a way and I'm moving toward them. So I believe the Lord wants you to know keep praying, keep standing in the gap, keep biting your tongue, keep not being their Holy Spirit, and understand and have faith that the Lord is moving toward them on purpose. Hey there, friends, I'm Cecily LaChapelle, and this is the Higher Pursuit Podcast. I'm so glad that you're tuned into this podcast where we talk specifically about things that will encourage you and strengthen you in your pursuit of the Lord. For more content, check out our ministry website at HigherPursuit Ministries.com. You can also find me on YouTube at Cecily LaChapelle with Higher Pursuit Ministries. Okay, now let's dive into the podcast. Hey everybody, so good to see you. Welcome to the Higher Pursuit live stream and podcast. I'm your host, Cecily LaChapelle, and this is a place where we seek to grow more intimate with the Lord, where we seek to know him more personally, to understand his word, to be able to hear his voice. These are the things that are important to us because we're chasing after truth, transformation, and a faith set on fire. So that we're not going to settle for anything less than all that God has for us. We know that this Bible is full of promises. We know that it's full of covenant. We know that it's full of truth. And we want to dig for that. So that right now we are in a series to that end called Word Alive, How to Study Your Bible. So I'm Cecily LaChappelle. I'm your host, in case I didn't say that. And if you're new, if you're joining us, I'm so excited that you're here. Make sure to jump in the chat, give me a wave, tell me who you are. I'm really excited when I know that there who's in the room with me so I can chat with you. All right, Whitney's here, Harmony, Linda, come on, we got some people in the house. This is so great. All right, guys. Well, today we are gonna be diving into Matthew chapter four, verses 12 to 25. So here's where we are.

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Matthew 12. Nope, sorry, Matthew 4, 12 to the end to 25.

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You're gonna open your Bibles and get ready to go. Because as we walk through this last part of Matthew 4, verse by verse, there is gonna be a theme that keeps coming up. And I want you to be looking for that theme. And the theme is that Jesus is moving toward people with purpose. Jesus is moving toward people with purpose. That's the theme that we're gonna be talking about tonight. And you want to know what? They're ordinary people. They're ordinary people like look at yourself. Are you just like an ordinary flesh and blood person? Well, guess what? The good news is you're exactly the kind of person that Jesus moves toward on purpose. Let's make a personal application before we we even get started. Was there a day that Jesus moved toward you on purpose? Maybe you just were in church one Sunday and you heard a message, or you were invited by a friend, or you were in kids' Bible camp, or maybe like me, you are sitting in the middle of your mess, the disaster of your life filled with shame and regret and bitterness and sin. And Jesus moved toward you on purpose. I mean, that's my story. Or maybe you're praying for someone and you're saying, Lord, could you even reach them? They are so closed to you, they're so hard-headed, they're so hard-hearted. Is there even any hope for them? And Jesus wants you to know tonight, yes, I am moving toward them on purpose. I have a time and I have a place and I have a way and I'm moving toward them. So I believe the Lord wants you to know keep praying, keep standing in the gap, keep biting your tongue, keep not being their Holy Spirit, and understand and have faith that the Lord is moving toward them on purpose. So that's what we're gonna be talking about. And do me a favor, guys, um, share the link to this live stream with someone. You can do that right now. You can share the link to this live stream with someone, maybe someone who's sick, because we're gonna be talking about how Jesus moves toward the sick people, people who are oppressed of the devil, and he did that on purpose. Or maybe there's someone like you who wants to know how to study the Bible. They know that there's more in the word, and they're not sure how to dig for that treasure, share that with them. Maybe they can't join us right now on the live stream, although that would be cool, but maybe they'll catch the replay and it might make a huge difference in their life. You have no idea. But for you guys that are here in the house, I want you to grab your Bible, open it to Matthew chapter four. And if you have a study Bible, it's great to use that one. And speaking of study Bibles, I did want to make mention of something. Um, there's a really great free study Bible that is on the Biblehub.com app. Biblehub.com is the app that I keep talking about. That's the tool that we're using throughout this study. I should get some sort of a kickback or payment from Bible Hub for mentioning them so many times, don't you think? Yeah, I gotta start. I start have to start using them as a collaborator, I think. Who knows? Uh, all right, so biblehub.com. But when you look underneath the main menu and you see the list of all of the Bible translations that you can choose from NIV, ESV, AMP for Amplified, KJV, there's one there that it has these letters. B S B. It stands for Berean Study Bible. It's an excellent study Bible because it gives all the Old Testament references in the footnotes, and it also gives all the parallel gospel comparisons right under the subheading for every section in the chapter. And you know that I highly recommend that you read those things, that if there's an old testament reference, go back and look it up because and read the context around it because you you want to understand there's a reason that Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John pulled those Old Testament references. So, um, oh, and you and you also want to read the parallel comparisons in other stories. I mean, just in this one that we're gonna be talking about, we're gonna be comparing what Matthew said about something versus what Luke said about it. And Luke gives way more detail than Matthew does, and it makes it so much more interesting. And if we didn't have those comparisons, we'd only have part of the story. So, all right, let's start right at the top at uh Matthew 4, 12. So it says, When Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, he withdrew to Galilee. So, what are you gonna do in your Bible? Put in your chat what you're going to mark in that verse and why you're going to mark it. And I have a feeling Linda Nardella is gonna jump right in while I clear my board here. What are we going? What is the very first thing that we're going to mark? I've been saying it for all of the live streams. We mark something when we see it. And I'm going to give you a second to reply because I know that I have a slight delay on my app here.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Aha.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

John La Chapelle, location change. Amen, brother. That's right. That's right. Where is Jesus going? Exactly. So where is Jesus going? It says he withdrew to Galilee. So if you look on that map of Israel that I gave you in your resources, we're actually gonna show it um later on in my PowerPoint. But um, actually, speaking of PowerPoint, let me just put that up here for you. Okay. Hi, everybody. While I hate to interrupt a good discussion, I do want to tell you about my book, Repurpose Your Pain: Moving from Pain to Purpose and from Instability to Firm Faith. In the book, I share 10 pain points that are common to most people, and I share my personal stories, my experiences with those pain points, and how I repurposed that pain. Then we dive into what the Word of God has to say about how we repurpose that pain. You need to know that this book is really two books in one because it includes workbook activations to help you apply the truth that you've learned to your life. So grab your copy today on Amazon, Christian Book Distributors, or anyplace books are sold. We'll talk about Galilee in a second. I think I want to go back. I don't want to give away all the stuff about Galilee yet. Okay, so what the very first words we hear when Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned. So if you remember my story when I told you guys why I even started marking movement, it was because I was in a season of extreme striving and frustration in my life. And the Holy Spirit clarified to me, like, hey, time out, Cecily. If Jesus, the savior of the whole world, which by the way, you're not, could do his job without any stress or striving, you might want to watch what he did. And so I started marking movement. Like, how many times do I see that Jesus moved because he came out of a time of prayer or he had been by himself in a solitary place and then all of a sudden something happens. But in this instance, he responds to a current event. This isn't a word from God saying, you know, go into he wasn't driven by the spirit like he was when he went into the wilderness. Now he's coming out of the wilderness and he hears that John's been arrested. So he makes a move based on just natural circumstances. It's very interesting. So he he goes, he moves to the Galilee, which is a region, sort of like we could say, you know, New Hampshire versus Massachusetts. It's a region, and he moves because of John's imprisonment. Why would he do that? Because John is imprisoned in Jerusalem and he needs to go to a more remote place. So because he's guilty by association, he just had a baptism where that was pretty public. And John said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and God appeared at his baptism. So that was pretty public. But then also they're related, they're family, and they have been associated. You're gonna see there's even some associations here with their disciples. So they have already been associated. So Jesus needs to separate himself from John because it's not his time yet. He's got it, he has work to do. So he heads up to Galilee. So then in verses 13 to 16, it says, leaving Nazareth. Tell me in the chat what is important about Nazareth. Nazareth is a town in the Galilee region. What is important about Nazareth? If that rings a bell to you at all. So then, while you're writing, I'll move on. He went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. In the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, but beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people living in darkness have seen a great light. On those in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. It is so cool. Here is Jesus, the light of the world. And he's walking into a place that says, This is a land living in the shadow of death. And here the light has dawned. The light of the world has come and appeared to them. So Nazareth, if you remember, is where Jesus was brought as a young child when Joseph and Mary moved out of Egypt back into Israel, and they went and lived in Nazareth. So that's where Jesus grew up. But he didn't stay there long. He moved to Capernaum because that's where he's going to start calling his disciples. So he's moving based on purpose and based on need. So Matthew is pro he's quoting Isaiah here. Tell me in the chat why does Matthew quote the Old Testament? If you remember what we talked about, why does Matthew quote the Old Testament? And bonus, extra credit, I will do a little dance for you. If somebody can tell me how many times Matthew quotes the Old Testament, there's a number, and I told you in the very first lesson. So if you remember that number, or you can go back in your notes and find it, I will do a crazy little dance. It will just be an exciting moment for us all. If you can remind, if you can tell me, Jessica, hey, good to see you, girl. I hope. Okay. So yes, because he's talking to the Jews is the answer that Linda Nardella just gave us. Matthew quotes the Old Testament because he's talking to the Jews, and he is trying to prove to the Jews that Jesus is their king, he is their Messiah. Amen. So that's why he keeps quoting it. How many times, though, extra credit, does Matthew quote the Old Testament in his gospel? It's more than any other writer. Okay, so let's talk about Galilee. Galilee was far 50 to 60 times more than that. And I'm not going to give you the number because I don't want to have to do a stupid dance for no reason. All right. So Galilee was more than an overlooks northern province. It was actually culturally mixed and it was often despised by Judea in the south. Here's why. Do you remember how in the old in Isaiah 9, which we just read, it said Galilee of the Gentiles. It had been a Gentile region, but I can't remember exactly which one of the Maccabean rulers it was, but one of them, and his name starts with A, he forced all the Gentiles in that region to become Jews to convert, which they did. And many of them converted wholeheartedly, but they still had Gentile backgrounds. So they had very distinct accents. Does that ring a bell? 90 times. Oh, you're so close, Linda. You are so close. I'm getting close to having to do a silly dance. She's really, really, she's smoking hot with that number there. It's very close. Okay, so um Galilee, Gentiles who had been converted. So they because they came from a whole um all different, it was like a melting pot. The Galilee region had a very, Linda said she's trying, um, had very distinct accent, which we find out about when Peter was recognized for having a distinct accent at the um at the trial of Jesus, when someone said, We know you're a Galilean, we know you were with him, we can tell by your accent. Um, it Galilee also had a very large population. Josephus said that they had three million people in the Galilee region. Why would it have been, I mean, it's very remote, but yet populated. What's the deal with that? Agriculture there was incredible. So people could grow pretty much anything in the Galilee region, and plus they could fish. We know that because Capernaum is on the sea. So there were so many different occupations that people could do in the Galilee region. And it um it had an expectant population. This is the cool thing. Even though these people were forced to convert to Judaism, out of all of Israel, this is the place that had the highest expectation for the Messiah. So interesting, isn't it? What I think is interesting about that is that the place that had the highest expectation for the Messiah was the place the Messiah decided to go and make his home base. So let me tell you personal application point right here. Where is the enemy trying to kill your expectation? Is he trying to kill your expectation that a dream that you've had in your heart is going to happen? Maybe you're trying for a baby and the enemy is trying to kill that expectation because you have tried and failed, or that you're supposed to start a business, and he doesn't want you to try that ex have that expectation because you've tried and failed. But that's exactly where the Lord will come walking in on purpose, in the area of your expectation. He's called the living hope. So we need to keep expectation alive and fed with the word of God. So, anyway, Galilee was a place that had a high messianic expectation. It was the ideal setting for uh Jesus' ministry and the calling of the men that would carry the gospel. 11 of the 12 disciples came from this region. No surprise. I also thought it was interesting as I studied that the people from Galilee were considered the best warriors in Israel. They were the best swordsmen. Does that also ring a bell? What happened in the garden at Jesus' arrest? A man from Galilee grabs a sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus. We've all always been told that Peter was aiming for his head but got his ear because he was a fisherman, not a swordsman. I'm not sure that I buy that anymore. I think there was just chaos in mayhem and it was dark. But still, they the men from Galilee were they were fierce, they were courageous. Now is this starting to kind of bring all the pieces together? Like, yeah, I see you, Peter. I see you, sons of thunder. I get why you are the way you are. You're not just like, I don't know, jughead fishermen. No, these men were courageous and expecting the Messiah. So cool. So that's some information on Galilee. And what I also love is that God often chooses places and people that the world overlooks. Because Judea always overlooked Galilee. That wasn't one of the places that one of any of the Herods really wanted to go rule. It was just kind of remote. Okay. So have you ever felt overlooked or underestimated? Put it in the chat. Put a me in the chat. If you have ever felt overlooked or underestimated or invalidated, because you are just the kind of person that Jesus loves to exalt. He loves to lift up the lowly in heart. He loves to lift up the ones that are sort of like the dark horse coming from behind. So good. All right. So guess what? God knows every hair of your head and he sings over you. And the farthest thing you are is overlooked by God. All right, let's go on with verse 17. From that time on, Jesus began to preach repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. I think it's so interesting. Yeah, Linda, me too. Linda put me in the chat. I tell you what, I've definitely felt overlooked and invalidated so many times. And especially like when you do the kind of thing that I do where, you know, I'm a I'm a content creator of sorts. You see people who are really killing it out there, who are really like making a difference and have a huge following and are doing this much better. And it's so easy to feel like, why would I even bother? Why should I even bother doing this? Do I even have anything to say? Is anybody even going to get anything out of this? But I answer to the Lord God Almighty, and so do you. And we don't have the right to bury our talent just because we think, well, I only have one. And this other guy got 10, or this other lady got five. We have to maximize and make the most of whatever God has given us, no matter how small it might look to other people, how Galilee it might look to Judea. We have got to be who God called us to be and leave the rest to him. Okay, so Jesus comes along and says, repent. Why repent? Why is he using that word? Well, first of all, it's the exact same message that John the Baptist said. He is showing his congruency. He is showing where John the Baptist left off, Jesus is picking up. He's showing the transition now, the congruency of the message. He doesn't have a different message than John. He just has the fuller message than John. So the reason they're both saying repent is because you cannot even enter the kingdom of God unless you come through the door of repentance. None of us can. There's level ground at the foot of the cross. It all starts in the place of repentance. So basically he's saying, listen, put your hand on the door, turn the doorknob. That's repentance. Then push the door open and come through into the kingdom. Up to this point, what is so interesting is that all religions, Judaism included, had been corporate only, where God spoke to Israel, the nation, the people, or God spoke to the Moabites or the Syrians or the Ammonites. But this is the first time that both John and Jesus are doing something new. They're talking about individual repentance, not corporate repentance, but individual repentance and the need for that. So interesting. Jesus isn't preaching a new message, he's using the same language as John the Baptist, and he's continuing that message. All right, so now let's move on to Matthew 18. Um, this is where Jesus is calling the first disciples. So as Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. And at once they left their nets and follow him. So marking movement, what are we going to mark as far as the movement of Jesus in those in those verses right there? We're gonna mark the part that says, Jesus is walking beh beside the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers. So he's he is on a stroll, but it's a purposeful stroll. He knows where he's going, but he's walking along the sea. This is how I envision it. That he knows where he's supposed to go. The Holy Spirit is revealed to him. This is where your disciples will be. But he doesn't know exactly until he sees them. Because all of a sudden it says he saw two brothers. So he's looking, he's looking, he's looking, and then he saw, but not just saw, like, I saw a really cool car driving by. So this is the cool thing that I'm learning through studying the movement of Jesus, that there's part of our movement that's natural. There's part of us where we surrender our day to the Holy Spirit and we say, Lord, guide me, lead me, direct me. I'm going to move along in my schedule according to my plan, but feel free to move me out of the way, on my way, into your way. Help me to be sensitive and help me to see what you want me to see. So when I'm at the grocery store, if there's someone I'm supposed to pray for, help me to see that person. So they stand out from all the other hundred people in the store at that time. I think you understand what I'm saying. So there's a mixture of the natural, you're just walking along by the Sea of Galilee, and then the spiritual, where the Holy Spirit says, this is what we're doing right now. So Jesus is still moving, it seems random, but it's not. So Peter and Andrew, what's interesting about them is they were previously following John. We know Andrew definitely was, but many Bible scholars think that there's a high chance that Peter was also a disciple of John. But guess what happens? Their rabbi, John the Baptist, is imprisoned.

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So what do they do? They go back to fishing. So let me pull up this next slide here. And go to Peter and Andrew, the first disciples chosen.

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So um Jesus is meeting them in their ordinary life. It says that they were casting their nets and they were fishing. Now, this is where reading the parallel accounts in the Bible is so important because Luke gives much more detail about the calling of Peter and Andrew than Matthew does. You probably remember the story having heard about Peter having a really frustrating night of fishing and he can't catch anything. And Jesus is on the beach and he yells, he's like, cast your net to the other side. And Peter's like, Yeah, well, Lord, we've tried, or you know, sir, we've tried all night long. Basically, like, this is kind of what we do. You don't look like a fisherman. I don't think you understand when you've been trying all night, what difference is casting your net to the other side gonna do? But for whatever reason, he was like, What the heck? What do we have to lose, boys? And over it goes to the other side, and you know the story. The nets were so full that they were almost breaking. And then Jesus says, Well, when Peter jumps out of the boat and runs to him and throws himself down at Jesus' feet. Have you ever wondered why that reaction was so strong and so specific and so precise? He's been waiting for the Messiah. He is a disciple of John the Baptist who is declaring that the Messiah is coming. And if if Peter himself was not, his brother Andrew definitely was, and Andrew's back to fishing, so they are very engaged in waiting for the Messiah. And so along comes a man who performs a legit miracle. So he, everything is going off on the inside of him. I am seeing what I expected. And he responds and throws himself at Jesus' feet. And Jesus said, If you follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. So that story is in Luke, and you would have missed it if I didn't tell you if you didn't read your gospel account. So your gospel parallel. So this is why we got to read these things. It is so absolutely cool to do these comparisons. And that's how we get the deepest, fullest context. So let me ask you this question: Where is Jesus calling you to follow him? Where is he calling you to jump out of the boat and stop looking at your life through the eyes of, well, this is the way I've always done it. This is how I was trained, this is who I am, this is who everybody expects me to be. What is God calling you to stretch into? And are you as eager to follow Jesus as Peter and Andrew, who left a prosperous fishing business and their family to go follow Jesus? These are the personal questions that we need to ask ourselves. If you're going to become a student of the Bible, the worst thing that we can do is to learn cool facts. It's very easy to do. It's very easy to get into the commentaries and be like, oh, that's really cool. I didn't know that about Galilee, or I didn't know that. Oh gosh, you know, that's that's right. That's why Peter would have had that distinct accent. Oh, that's cool. And it's so easy to read interesting information and not ever do this part right here. Make the personal application. But honestly, the personal application is the most important part. It needs to come last, but it is the most important last step. Because without personal application, the word of God can't change us. That's how the Holy Spirit turns the turns that mirror right around and turns it right on us and says, Okay, now look inside. How are you doing with that? Whether it's how somebody failed or someone succeeded or whatever it is, we can turn it towards us and say, Am I following Jesus that way? If Jesus showed, if Jesus were to tell me tomorrow, quit your job and go do do this or that, could I? Would I trust him? Or do I just love Jesus as long as he stays in his neat tidy box? Hmm. So have you ever sensed God asking you to step into something that felt bigger than you? Just say yes. If you've ever sensed God asking you to step into something bigger than you, I could put both hands up on that one because I remember when God started speaking to me about becoming what I call a ministry preneur, doing ministry on my own, breaking out, launching out, doing something I hadn't seen before, and not having anybody to coach me, anybody who had been in these shoes before me, and to do it, quitting a job I loved. And Jesus made it so clear that I had to step out and do it. Now, maybe God's not calling you to ministry. Maybe He's not calling you to step out like that. Maybe it's something like stepping out to develop a deeper relationship with your neighbor so that you can get to a place where you can begin to witness to them about Jesus. That's a huge step. That's a really big step. And that's becoming a fisher of men, like Jesus was talking about. So, all right, where are we gonna go ahead now? Um, all right, let's oh, I'm gonna just pause for one second and tell everybody that if you have not subscribed yet to this podcast, please do so. If you are on an audio podcast platform, please rate this podcast. It helps so much. The algorithm is literally looking for ratings. They have no idea if you like it, they have no idea if you're a regular listener. All they care about is ratings. And that's what helps them understand that it's time to spread this podcast and promote it in some of their streams to other people who are looking for this kind of content. And the same thing applies, even more so on YouTube. If you comment down below the video, if you um say I enjoyed this, I got something out of it, if you uh leave a review, all the things that you do to interact with this content is just helping the algorithms promote this content so that it goes farther and reaches more people. And I have been hearing some people say, Oh, Cecily, you're showing up in my feed. I'm seeing you in LinkedIn or in my YouTube feed all the time. And that's awesome. But that's because you have a connection with me. We want people who don't even have a connection with me yet to be able to see this content. So if this blesses you in any way, this is the way you can support my work, my research, everything that I do to give you my best every week. All I ask is that you would help me get the word out by taking a few minutes to rate, to review, comment, like, subscribe, do all the things. Share. That's also really big. Okay, commercial over. So now let's look at Matthew 21 to 22. Now we're talking about James and John. And let's put up our handy-dandy slide.

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Oh, we had a little, okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Here we go. James and John, the sons of thunder. So verse 21, going from there, he, Jesus, saw two other brothers. So there's movement going from there. Where? Where he met Peter and Andrew when they were fishing. And it says he saw two other brothers, saw, like Holy Spirit says, stop right here. And James and son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father, and they followed him. So Jesus keeps moving. What I think is interesting is that um John is likely the youngest, and we note from this that some time has really gone by because between the calling of the first two disciples and now James and John, because the first disciples were fishing, right? So that's the middle of the day during the workday. Now, James and John are mending their nuts. So this is hours later. So there's been a conversation or something has happened in between the calling of these two sets of brothers. So it's the end of the day, they're mending their nuts. John is probably most likely a teenager at this point. And so I have um I have some thoughts. This is just my speculation. I have no reason to think this other than just my speculation. But you notice that their father Zebedee is mentioned a couple times. So James, the son of Zebedee, they were in a boat with their father Zebedee. Jesus called them and immediately left the boat and their father. So their father is very integral in this scene. And my thinking is Peter and Andrew had already been disciples of John the Baptist. At least, at the very least, Andrew was. So he was already following a rabbi of sorts. It was already sort of living that life. But Sons of Thunder here, with especially one of the brothers being very young, I believe that Jesus would have shown honor and respect to Zebedee to run this by him, to have a conversation with this father. So the father is involved. The father is releasing his sons, especially his really young son, John. So that is my speculation on that. I have nothing to go on other than it just makes sense to me. Tell me in the chat if that makes sense to you, if you kind of could could see it that way, or if you think that's stretching it a little bit. So I had an interesting personal application for this. I know as parents, sometimes the Lord is going to stretch our faith concerning our children. His call for them might involve them taking a risk, maybe going to a foreign country on missions before we're ready to see them get on a plane without us. Or maybe we think that country is dangerous, or maybe he calls them to a um a very to live in a very rough area, working for a nonprofit, or um to go to school for something that we think is risky, whatever it is. There are times that the Lord might call us to trust his voice in their heart and to release them into something that feels super risky to us. And are we willing to do that? Zebedee was, I mean, first of all, he's lost two workers, two sons in his fishing business. That's no small sacrifice. And then one of them is a young teenager or a teenager. So Zebedee had to really trust the Lord with his boys and with his own finances. You know, there comes a time that we have to turn our children over to the care of the Lord and trust that he is a much better parent and shepherd than we are. And he's well able to take care of our children. It's hard to do. I think, especially for us moms. I think it's just really hard for us moms, especially moms with boys. Just for some reason, that just seems to be be a tough one. But um, so parents, have you ever had to trust God with one of your children in a way that stretched your faith? Tell me in the chat, put a yes, or no, I haven't yet. Or I only have cats, thank God. Something like that. I'd love to hear what you have to say. All right, and we'll just we'll just keep going while you type that in the chat. Yes. Had to trust your, yep, six times, John La Chappelle said, six times I've had to trust the Lord with my children. Heck, more than that, John La Chappelle. I think we've 60 times six times we've had to trust the Lord with our children, that is for sure. Let's move on. Verse 23. Um, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness from among the people. Guys, I made a slide for this verse because this is a verse you should memorize. It was one of the very first healing verses that I memorized. Besides by the stripes of Jesus, I have been healed. That was kind of an easy one. But this is one that I memorized on my own without anybody ever telling me to memorize it. Back when I was a brand new Christian, reading through the gospels for the first time, and I saw this, and it stood out to me right away that Jesus healed every disease and sickness among the people. It didn't say most of them. It didn't say the ones that were the will of God to heal.

unknown 43:04

No.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

Every sickness, every disease is God's will to heal. Everyone. And it also struck me that he taught in their synagogues, which meant he was teaching the word of God and he was preaching the gospel, which is a theological term for good news, the good news of the kingdom. So he's teaching and he's preaching and he's healing. So he's teaching the word of God, which builds up faith on the inside of people that God is good, that he sees them, that he loves them, that he knows them. It also builds their faith so that they can understand that God is a God who restores. And then he said, Okay, so now that you have that faith, let's do this in the name. Well, he doesn't have to say. In the name of Jesus, but that is a practice that we need to adopt. A lot of times we just go right in to lay hands on someone and pray for healing for someone, but they don't have faith to be healed. They haven't heard the word of God. They don't understand. They might even be feeling like they're sick because God wants them sick. How are they going to reach out in faith to be healed if they think it's God who put that put it on them? So many times we need to teach people. We need to explain and preach the good news that God is good, that He loves them, that the devil is bad, the devil puts sickness on people. God does not. So we have to do some groundwork sometimes before we go slamming in there with the oil and the name of Jesus, trying to make somebody believe that God is good when they don't have that basis first. So memorize this verse. That's why I made a slide for you. So Jesus taught, he preached, and he healed. Let me tell you, whatever you see Jesus do on earth, that's your mission too. Whatever you see Jesus do, that's part of your assignment. And not just part of your assignment, I was just thanking God tonight before the live stream started. I was just thanking him for the fact that he does not call us to do something that he has not already empowered us to do. There's not a single time that I'm watching the live stream countdown that I feel like, oh, I got this. Lord, you can just take a night off. I don't need you. I've got this. Every single time I'm seeing that countdown happen on my end, I'm thinking, Jesus, I need you. Holy Spirit, would you please show up and fill my words, fill my preparation? I have studied to show myself approved, but still, if you don't show up, it's going to be a bomb and no one will be blessed. So God never calls you into an assignment, whether it's as an accountant or um in the military or as a mom, that he's not already empowered you to do it. That is the absolute good news. Jesus went first as our rabbi, but disciples always followed in their rabbi's footsteps. You want to know something that's really cool. Fun fact about um rabbis, especially back in the ancient times like Jesus' times, the disciples would actually literally try to step in their disciple, in their rabbi's footsteps. So he, as he's walking along a dirt path, they're trying to exactly match his footsteps. If he ate, they ate. What he ate, they ate. When he prayed, they prayed. When he was quiet, they were quiet. When he talked, they listened and asked questions. That's how a disciple should be. We should be so interested in stepping right in the footsteps of our rabbi Jesus. If Jesus healed every sickness and every disease, let's do it. If Jesus raised the dead, come on. Let's do it. Why do we think that we're we have some junior version of the Holy Spirit? That's not at all what Jesus said. He said, You will be endued with power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And these works and greater works shall you do. The body of Christ, we can rise up and we can live like Jesus. Next week, we're going to start talking about the Beatitudes. That's fire right there, because that's the character of walking in the footsteps of Rabbi Jesus. This scripture right here, verse 23, are the works of Rabbi Jesus. Amen. All right, so we're gonna start winding this down. Um, let's just do. Well, we'll go very quickly. Let's go, let's skip down to verse 25. Large crowds followed him, having come from Galilee, the decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. So I do want to show you the map. Now remember, you have this map as a resource. So if you go back to the link where you got the handout from, that all those resources are on my website on the tab that says resource. So you can see this map a little bit larger. But look at all those regions that are mentioned, you where people are coming from. So as soon as Jesus gets into his ministry, he goes viral right away. Right away. So you have people coming from Galilee, which we already said there were three million people according to Josephus, but then you have the decapolis. Decapolis Decca stands for 10. So that is like the um ten heads were there, like 10 rulers had been there at one point. But so Decapolis is very populated. Jerusalem is a city, and then Judea is a region that Jerusalem is in, and then beyond the Jordan, another region. So Whitney goes, I love Cecily fun facts. Thank you, girl. I I love popping out fun facts. So thanks for appreciating them. So think about this. So many people are hearing about Jesus. There's there's no telephone, there's no internet, there's no Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, any of this that is getting the word out. This is literally people walking from wherever Jesus was. And she told two friends, and he told two friends, and they told two friends, and word is spreading like wildfire about Jesus. They're coming from everywhere. All right. So, what is one truth from today's study that stood out to you the most? Put it in the chat. What is one thing that stood out to you the most from everything that we talked about tonight? I would love to see that in the chat. And while you're typing that, I'm gonna review the big ideas that we talked about. We talked about how Jesus moves intentionally, he moves with purpose, he moved toward you with purpose, he's moving toward your loved ones with purpose. You're not invisible, you're not unseen, and you're not unimportant. Jesus fulfills prophecy. He fulfilled that prophecy from Isaiah, but he fulfilled many more prophecies. He is the fulfillment. Jesus meets us where we are. Peter and Andrew, James and John, just doing their job, having a regular day.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

And Jesus came along and met them. Uh John LaChapelle said, Um, by the way, was it 120 Matthew Old Testament references?

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Oh. All right, guys, nobody has guessed the number. So I'm just actually gonna go back and just make sure. Yes, okay, good. I was right. 93 Old Testament references. So that's why Linda was so close when she said 90. But you only get a Cecily Crazy dance if you get the exact number. And the number was 93. Nobody got it, but thanks for playing my fun game. That was awesome. So good. All right, let's go back to our big, our big ideas. Following Jesus always requires leaving something behind. And then the mission of every disciple is to be like our rabbi, to follow in the footsteps of Rabbi Jesus. And there is a really, really great book that I read in Bible school called Following in the Footsteps of Rabbi Jesus by Lois Tverberg. I'm probably butchering the pronunciation of her last name. It was a wonderful book that explains a lot of the cultural historical things that I'm going through here. And probably a lot of the fun facts I pull out, Whitney, are from that. I probably just remember them from Caneo. But um, but yes, it was a wonderful, wonderful book. And lastly, guys, the most important, big important theme from tonight is Jesus calls ordinary people. And he makes us ordinary people, extraordinary where we are. We don't feel extraordinary, no, because we live in our own skin. But people looking at you from the outside see something different. Trust me, they do. You're kind of like tea, where you're the water and Jesus on the inside of you are the tea leaves. And when you put tea in the water, it infuses the water with the flavor and the fragrance of the tea. The water doesn't become the tea, and the tea doesn't become the water, but the water is now infused with the essence of the tea. So the more time that we spend with Jesus, the more his presence infuses every part of us, and we're not even aware of it a lot of times, but people around us are, and we give off the fragrance of Christ. So that's the goal. Don't downplay yourself because you're ordinary. That's exactly the kind of person Jesus comes for. All right, guys, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that Jesus calls ordinary people. Father, I ask for courage for every single one of us that we would immediately obey your voice when you call us. Help us to be those that will just lay down our nets, we'll lay down whatever to follow you, Jesus. Because we trust you, because we love you, because we know you are trustworthy. You don't drop anybody. Anybody who follows you is better off. And whatever we lost or we leave behind, you will either restore it or it wasn't worth having. Father, I pray for anyone wrestling with a new calling or with obedience, that Holy Spirit will make it so clear and plain that they will desire you more than holding on to the old ways, the old wineskins. And Father, I also pray for parents who are releasing children into God's purposes for them in this season. Lord, I know how hard that is. And I just pray that you will just be that comfort for every parent, knowing that you have got their kids. I pray for healing over anyone who is sick. And we command healing to your body right now in the name of Jesus, by the authority of Jesus Christ given to us, where he said that he has given us the keys of the kingdom and all authority to heal all who are oppressed of the devil and sick. We command healing to your body from the top of your head to the soles of your feet right now in the name of Jesus. Receive your total healing. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. And Holy Spirit, we just ask that you would help every single one of us walk closely in the footsteps of Jesus all week long. We give you all the praise and the glory for your goodness and for your Holy Spirit that lives and moves and has have has your being within us. Infuse us this week with the nature and the fragrance of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, guys, I love you. Thank you so much for joining me on this live stream. I'm so glad that you were blessed in harmony. Thank you so much for that comment. I appreciate you. Thank you for joining. It's so wonderful. Oh, Delisa's here. Amen. So wonderful. Well, guys, you are the reason I do this. You are the reason I show up on Tuesdays. So keep joining me when you can because you make it worth it. Believe me, you make it worth it. I love you all, and I look forward to seeing you in the next live stream, if not sooner. Take care. God bless. Hey family, I pray that you were blessed and encouraged by that episode, and that you took away something you can use in your walk with the Lord starting today. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So I thank you for making me a part of your pursuit. Until next time, abide in Him.