Title: A Man with a Plan
Text: Matthew 4:12-23
Thesis: Jesus makes himself known through his followers.
Epiphany Series: Encountering Christ in Epiphany
• The First Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Identity. The First Sunday after Epiphany we encountered Christ at his baptism where God reveals to Jesus and to us who He (Jesus) is. “This is my Son, whom I love, and with whom I am very pleased.” Matthew 3:17
• The Second Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Power. The Second Sunday after Epiphany we encounter Christ at a wedding where he performed the first of many miracles that would follow. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” John 2:13
• The Third Sunday after Epiphany: Christ’s Leadership. On the Third Sunday after Epiphany we encounter Christ walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee where he saw fishermen going about their business of fishing. So, he called out to them. Jesus said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Matthew 4:12-23
Introduction:
Denver Post Columnist Mark Kiszla is a man with a plan. On January 14, 2011 he posted his: 7-Point Plan to Broncos’ [new Head Coach] John Fox Includes Benching Tim Tebow.
1. Tell Tebow it’s not his time.
2. Get in Champ Bailey’s corner and get him a contract extension.
3. Trade down in the NFL Draft for defensive linemen.
4. Go back to the 4-3 defense.
5. Show General Manager Brian Xander who’s the boss.
6. Restore Mile Highs magic.
7. Never, ever wear a hoodie.
I don’t know how Kiszla’s plan is going to pan out. But we have something of an idea of how God’s plan is going to pan out and we are grateful that did not bench his favored Son.
When Jesus came onto the scene it was the result of a first-round draft pick eons ago, when according to Philippians 2, the Godhead decided that Jesus would empty himself of his right to be God and humble himself taking on the likeness of a man. It was the plan of God that when Christ died for sins he died for sins once for all… all the sin of all the people of all time, that he might bring us all to God. I Peter 3:18
Jesus is the key figure in God’s unfolding prophetic plan to restore our relationship with God.
I. Jesus was the prophetic match for God’s unfolding plan.
Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali – to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Matthew 4: 13 - 17
A. Matthew’s understanding of prophecy
Matthew understood Jesus’ actions in light of a specific prophecy. In verses 13-16 Matthew quotes from Isaiah 9:1-3 were he cites the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali and the area around Galilee saying that it is there that “the people living in darkness have seen a great light… in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” Matthew understood that prophetic light to be Jesus Christ.
B. Matthew’s understanding of prophecy as the unfolding of God’s plan
Matthew understood that what Jesus did was not just a random decision but a deliberate and necessary one to demonstrate that Jesus was in fact fitting into God’s plan and fulfilling God’s plan.
Jesus was did not move from Nazareth to Capernaum to get work. Jesus did not move to Capernaum to be closer to his family….
We live in a very mobile culture and people move for many reasons. If you are looking for a great place to find an entry level job you might move to New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco or Dallas… all among the top ten cities in our country for entry level jobs. If you are looking to live where the taxes are low you could move to Alaska where there is no income tax or sales tax and they still give tax refunds. Among the least taxing states are New Hampshire, Tennessee, Alabama or South Dakota. If you are looking to move to the best retirement cities you might want to move to Tucson, AZ or Loveland, CO. If you’ve a yen to live among the wealthiest people in our country you might begin with Westlake, TX… a suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth where the median income is $250 K per year or the Cape Cod community of Popponesset Island. If you are looking to live where you are least likely to find employment you would want to move to Detroit, MI. If you wish to live among the poorest in our country, nine of the ten poorest states are in the south. If you wish to live among the most prosperous people of our country, nine of the ten wealthiest states are in the north.
But Jesus was not looking for a good place to retire or a place where he would not be too heavily taxed or to a safe place or to an historic place or a metro-sports center or to a water front or a place in the mountains.
He went to the place God led him to begin to do what God had called him to do… “to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom to captives and release for the captives, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Isaiah 61:1-3
He came because “God predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will.” Ephesians 1:5
The coming of Christ was not Pat Bowlen and Joe Ellis and John Elway and Brian Xander putting their heads together to find a new head coach for the Broncos. The story of the coming of Christ unfolds with God revealing to the world that Jesus is his Son and that he has come with great power and he with a plan to make it possible for everyone everywhere to be a child of God. And today we see Jesus unfold a bit more of who he is and what he had come to do.
Today we see him begin to pull together a group of individuals who would be his closest followers… individual who would be entrusted with continuing his work here on earth when he was gone. (Acts 1-2)
II. Jesus was a compelling leader.
And as he was walking beside the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers… and Jesus said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers… Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22
Someone once said that the proof of one’s leadership skills was whether or not he or she had any followers. Good leaders may or may not have good causes but good leaders will always have followers. They may be crack-pots or nut-cases or extremists or racist, violent or peaceful… but they have followers.
I was interested in an article in read in Forbes Magazine, Why Introverts Can Make the Best Leaders. In her article, Jennifer Kahnweller cites a number of introverted business leaders who are very successful and are so because they draw on strengths extroverts may not have. She cited Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Charles Schwab and Barack Obama as leaders who fit this profile.
Introverted Leaders:
1. They think first and talk later.
2. They focus on depth.
3. They exude calm.
4. They let their fingers do the talking, i.e., they write out their thoughts.
5. They embrace solitude to reflect and recharge their batteries.
It would seem that Jesus exemplified many if not all of those qualities as a leader and when he invited people to follow him – they did.
In our story today Jesus reveals this ability when while walking along the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew. They were busy casting a fishing net. He invited them to follow him and they did… it says they did so “at once.”
Shortly thereafter he saw two more brothers, James and John who were also fishermen. They were in a boat working with their father. Jesus invited them to come and follow him as well and the bible says they did so… “immediately.”
I don’t know about you but I am quite sure that if any of us decided to become leaders this afternoon our success would be unlikely. Suppose you began strolling around the neighborhood looking for potential followers… maybe at lunch today you might ask your server to lay down his or her apron and order pad and say, “Come, follow me.” Or while ordering a pound of smoked turkey at the deli you gaze into the eyes of the person slicing up your turkey and you say, “Turn off your slicer. Wrap up my turkey and come, follow me.” It’s a silly and preposterous.
When we lived in Red Oak, IA I would on my day off, occasionally take a day trip a few miles east on Highway 34 and then I would drop down into Decatur County and roam around where my dad’s family had their roots. And sometimes I would return on Highway 20 through Clarinda. One day I was eating lunch in a tiny little tavern in Grand River, IA and a young farmer struck up a conversation with me. And before I got out of there he had asked me to become an Amway Representative… it was as if he said, “Come, follow me and I will put you under me on my pyramid scheme and you will become a highly motivated, rich, self-employed businessman.” I explained to him that I already had a calling that was sufficiently compelling.
It appears that these first followers of Christ made very spontaneous decisions to drop whatever they were doing to become followers of Christ. I don’t think that was necessarily the case. Jesus had been around and they were familiar with who he was and what he was doing. In fact, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” Andrew was one of the two who left John the Baptist and began following Jesus. It was Andrew who asked Jesus where he was staying and to whom Jesus said, “Come and you will see.” And according to John 1, Andrew went to his brother Simon Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah, that is the Christ.”
Not only was Jesus the prophetic fulfillment of God’s plan, when Jesus invited people to follow him, they did. I suspect the fact that he was passionate about his purpose in life was a factor for those who followed.
III. Jesus was passionate about his purpose in life.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Matthew 4:23
The verses that follow indicate that Jesus’ influence began to snowball. The bible says that “news about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering from severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” And the chapter ends with “large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Matthew 4:24-25
Conclusion:
The story of the Pied Piper has been around for a long time. In 1284 the town of Hamelin, Germany was infested with rats. A man came to town dressed in the colorful dress of a piper and told the townsmen that he would rid the city of rats if they paid him his fee. They agreed and the piper piped and all the rates in the city followed the Pied Piper out the town and into the Weser River where they drowned.
The Pied Piper then returned to the city to receive his payment but the townsmen refused to pay… after all, the rats were gone. The Pied Piper was angry and promised to return.
On Saint John and Paul’s Day, while all the townsmen were in church, the Pied Piper returned and began to play his flute. That day, all the children, except a lame child who could not walk, a blind child who could not see to follow and a deaf child who could not hear the piping, followed the Piper out of the city to a cave.
The happy ending is that the townsmen paid up and the children returned to their homes and everyone lived happily ever after.
Jesus is no Pied Piper. Jesus was not a carnival act or a street performer. Jesus was not celebrity bound and on the fast track to appear on American Idol or America’s Got Talent. Jesus was not running for office. Jesus was not working on his Kingdom of God pyramid scheme. There was nothing self-serving about the way Jesus presented himself.
He simply invited people to follow him.
Jesus Christ never asked for admirers, well-wishers, benefactors, worshipers, or adherents. But he did invite people to, “Come, follow me.”
In closing, that is the invitation Jesus poses to each of us, “Come, follow me.” I encourage you to make the closing hymn your own prayerful commitment to follow Christ all the days of your life.
