“Come, Follow Me…”
Matthew 4:18-22
June 13, 2004
NOTE: I am deeply indebted to Rob Bell, Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, and Dr. Ray VanderLaan, from Follow the Rabbi.com.
Introduction
We’re back in our walk through the book of Matthew, and I need to warn you that it will be another three weeks before we continue, due to next week being Father’s Day, and then I have another message that I want to bring before we get into that wonderful portion of Scripture called the Sermon on the Mount, which we will begin after the fourth of July.
Today, we see Jesus calling the first disciples as they were fishing. This episode is pretty familiar to us, but I want us to focus for a bit on two phrases that Jesus uses when He calls these first four men to follow Him.
My intention today is to give you not only some information about what Jesus was doing and saying, but to challenge you in your view of discipleship, or that aspect of following Jesus.
Our passage is Matthew 4:18-22, and is printed in your bulletin, but you may want to have your Bibles ready because later we are going to head over to the book of Acts, chapter four.
Please follow along as I read our passage for today.
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. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
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, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Folks, I want to focus on the sentence Jesus uses here, and we are going to break it down into two parts. The first part is…
Part one: “Come, follow Me…”
Jesus approached these men with the invitation to become His disciples. Now I don’t know how you would react if someone from out of town came up to you and said, “Drop everything and come with me.”
But we do know the response of these men. The response to the invitation was immediate.
In every one of the gospels, we find that when Jesus invited these guys to follow Him, they did so immediately.
They did not say, “You know what, Jesus, I need to think about this a bit. I should probably go home and do an analysis of what this might do to my earning potential.
“You know, my mom and dad were kinda hoping I’d take over the fishing business. And I’m pretty well vested in the pension plan with the company.
“And I really should pray about this.”
No, they just left. They may have taken care of their affairs and such, but I think that when they heard the invitation from Jesus, there was no discussion. They simply went.
What would move them to just up and leave like that? Why would they take Jesus up on that invitation?
First of all, it’s…
1. Because Jesus had authority. His teaching was different than everybody else’s.
Part of the explanation for this lies in the way rabbis were thought of in those days. There were…
Two types of rabbis.
- There were Torah rabbis, who taught the Torah, which was mainly the Laws of Moses, but which also included the Prophets and the Writings.
These guys just taught the Torah. They were limited, if you will, by this, and could only teach what was accepted by the Jewish community as truth.
- The other kind of rabbi was a “S’mikah” rabbi. These guys were a whole different kind of rabbi. These guys were so brilliant, they were thought of as having “authority” or “s’mikah.”
They could bring new teachings, as long as it didn’t contradict the Old Testament.
One of the requirements of being a S’mikah was that they had the entire Old Testament memorized. These guys knew the text. And only about a dozen or so of these guys were around every 100 years. It was a pretty exclusive crowd.
But it wasn’t just the memory. It was the authority – that “s’mikah” that set them apart.
S’mikah rabbis were like the rock stars of their day. And when one of these guys came to town, the crowds would flock to be see, hear, and just be around them.
It’s kinda like if Michael W. Smith came to Aberdeen. Okay, Bill Gaither for some of you!
But if either of these guys came to town, I’d want to be around them. I’d want to learn about their life for Jesus, and how they handle their fame in light of Scriptural calls for humility, and such. And I’d want them to acknowledge me as their friend or acquaintance.
These rabbis had disciples. Torah rabbis had students, but not disciples. John the Baptist had disciples; so guess what kind of rabbi he was?
So what kind of rabbi was Jesus? A “s’mikah rabbi. The Bible says all over that Jesus taught with authority, not like their teachers of the law. There was something extra special about Jesus.
That’s why He could say things like, “You have heard this, but I tell you this…” And you notice that Jesus didn’t contradict the earlier teaching, He either clarified it, or made it even tougher by setting a new standard.
“You have heard not to commit adultery – but I tell you that even thinking about it is committing the sin.”
“You’ve heard that you should not murder – but I tell you that even being contemptuous of your brother brings the same judgment as murder.”
But you know, in spite of that, or maybe even because of that, people had the reaction we find at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 7:28-29
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
The teachers of the law were the Torah teachers, the Torah rabbis. Jesus brought new teaching, and He brought it with authority.
Jesus was a s’mikah rabbi.
But these guys didn’t leave their lives and livelihoods behind just to hang out with the coolest rabbi in the area.
They left because not only did Jesus have authority, they followed Him…
2. Because His authority was rooted in who He was: the Living Word of God.
They left because God had opened their hearts to what Jesus said and also to who He was. These early disciples were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, and they wanted to be in His company.
The Bible says in the gospel of John that Jesus was the Word of God in the form of a human. So he could speak with the authority that comes from not just knowing the Word of God, but because he was the Word of God.
Even the most brilliant of the other S’mikah rabbis couldn’t hold a candle to Jesus in the authority with which He taught the Word of God to people..
These men that He called followed immediately because they knew something deep down inside them that this rabbi wasn’t like the others, and that He would hold eternal importance to them.
Let’s move on to part two, and I’ll draw both parts together in a bit, okay?
Part two: “…and I will make you fishers of
men.”
Jesus didn’t just say, “Follow Me.” He said something else: “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”
What I want to point out here is that Jesus called them to change them.
He helped the disciples become people who saw others from an eternal perspective.
Their lives were transformed. “Follow Me and I’ll transform you. Follow Me and I’ll make you into something you weren’t before.
“You’re used to fishing for fish. I’ll get you ready to impact the lives of people.”
Folks, Jesus didn’t just call His disciples so He could look good and say, “Hey look at the crowd gathered around me.”
He had a purpose in mind from the beginning. And that purpose was to work in these guys so that He could work through them later.
And you know, that’s what following Jesus is really all about. Allowing Him to change you from the inside out, so we can be use to bring others to faith in Christ.
Are you allowing Jesus to transform you? Jesus invites you to follow Him so He can change you into something you weren’t before – Christlike.
Someone who lives a life with the things of God as your priority, living in the grace and holiness that He affords to everyone who calls on Him. Someone who sees others as needy for God – a fisher of men.
Think about it for a minute – none of these guys were professional clergy types. They were generally small businessmen, blue-collar types, except for maybe Matthew, and later Paul, who though he was a Pharisee, would find out just how out of touch with the Scriptures he really was.
But after three years with Jesus, they became men who would turn the world upside down, and would lose their lives for the sake of Jesus.
To look at them before Jesus called them, you may never have guessed what Jesus had in mind for them. But being with Jesus transformed them.
An episode of this is shown in Acts 4.
Peter and John had just had the audacity to heal a crippled beggar, and now they were in huge trouble. Not because they healed the beggar, but because of what they said when they did it.
They said, “Mister, we don’t have money to give you, but we do have we give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
Well the religious leaders thought that they had finally gotten rid of this Jesus, and now here were two guys using His name to heal people!
So they had them arrested by the temple guards and then we pick it up verse 13 of Acts 4, which is printed in your note-taking guide:
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Can people say this about you? When they look at you, when they see how you operate in your work, in your recreation, in your family, etc., can they tell that you have been with Jesus?
To me, this is what separates disciples of Christ from hypocrites. They decide to let their relationship with Jesus impact every area of their life, and the Holy Spirit gives them the courage to live and speak as someone who is a healthy, authentic follower of Jesus.
Folks, like these first disciples, we follow Jesus so He can transform us into His image. And then we allow Him to work through us to impact others.
I hope that’s your desire, because that’s my desire for you. The world is full of people who call themselves Christians but who don’t really follow Christ.
Jesus said, “Follow Me – stick with Me, learn from Me. And let Me transform you into someone who reflects Me and My priorities the priorities of My kingdom. Let me make you fishers of men.”
Well in light of all this, let me offer you…
Two Invitations:
1. Move from just being a believer to being a disciple.
Move from being someone who just has his “fire insurance” to being someone whose life is transformed by Jesus into someone who reflects Christlikeness and kingdom priorities.
This doesn’t happen automatically. You need to be decisive in inviting Christ to have you. Recognize Him as the “S’mikah” rabbi in your life. Recognize His authority to claim your life.
The Bible says that He deserves all of us anyway, so why not let Him have it all? I can guarantee you that it’s worth it.
You want security? Live as a disciple of Christ, allowing Him to constantly remind you of His presence and care.
You want significance? Allowing Christ to have the control allows you to be used by God in significant ways. And what’s more important – significance in gaining possessions or significance in making a difference for the kingdom of God?
The second invitation is much more basic and is for those who have never placed their faith in Jesus.
2. Take the first step of faith in Jesus.
Being a disciple of Jesus starts with establishing a relationship with Him.
What does it mean to have a relationship with Him?
It basically means that you acknowledge Him as your Savior, putting your trust in what He did in Calvary for your sins.
You see, the Bible says that without Christ you face an eternity in hell, paying for your sins.
But Jesus said, “You know what? How about instead of you dying for your sins, how about Me dying for your sins?”
And that’s what He did. What you need to do is just accept His gift of eternal life that He bought with His own blood.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. All you need to do is just accept the gift. If someone gives you a birthday gift or a Christmas gift or whatever, the gift does not become yours until you take it for your own.
So do that today if you never have before, okay? I’m going to give you that opportunity in just a moment.
But now before we pray I want to end our time with a…
Challenge – Get “dusty!”
Here’s what I mean. I talked quite a bit about those S’mikah rabbis, and how people would just gather around them as they walked the dusty roads of Israel.
One of the biggest privileges a person could have would be to be so close to the rabbi that they would get covered with the dust that the rabbi kicked up as he walked.
And whatever the rabbi walked on (or in!) would sometimes end up on the robes of his closest followers.
A dusty follower was recognized as a close follower – a good disciple of the rabbi.
When I heard this just a couple weeks ago, it changed my life. Because I began to wonder, “Does the dust of Jesus cover me? Do I walk so closely with Him that His dust covers me?”
And I had to confess that there are lots of times I hang out in the back of the pack. Just close enough to be recognized as a follower, but not close enough to get covered in what He kicks up, so to speak.
So here’s the challenge – get “dusty.”
Make a decision right here and now that you will walk so closely with Jesus that His “dust” covers you.”
I think that if you really start to grasp that concept, it will change your life, just like it’s changed mine over the course of just a couple weeks.
I love the fact that Jesus is not done transforming me to be more like Him, to know Him better and to love Him more. He’s not done with you, either. But you need to get close to Him for it to happen.
Let’s pray.
