One of my all time favorite bible verses is in Matthew chapter where the Christ selects the first of his apostles. It goes exactly like this:
Matthew 4:18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Imagine what was going through the minds of Peter and Andrew. Who is this fellow. He seems interesting enough. I guess we could go with him for a while and find out what he’s about. And then what happened next went exactly like this:
Matthew 4:21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
James and John joined Jesus little group of apostles and they probably thought this chap seems interesting. I guess we could go with him a while and see what happens. We can come home and fish tomorrow. And then this happened exactly like this:
Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. 24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. 25 Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
Peter and Andrew with James and John got caught up in a most extraordinary sequence of happenings. This charismatic young leader that they had decided to follow was some sort of prophet or healer. They found themselves at the center of a the most wonderful and exciting supernatural events. People being healed and the possessed being delivered. Crowds of people coming to Jesus from all over the region.
This all started with Jesus being baptised by John and anointed for his ministry. and is described exactly like this in Matthew chapter three:
Matthew 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Christ Jesus baptism marked the beginning of his ministry and his anointing with the Holy Spirit (Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον). This endued him with power from on high to enable his preaching and healing ministries. This event was enormously significant because Jehovah blessed Jesus to seal his baptism by John with water and by the Holy Spirit (יְהוָה֮ רֽוּחַ־.).
In Matthew chapter four things begin to happen at pace. We have seen he began to gather the first of the apostles. But before that he is tested in the desert by the devil and he begins to preach. From then on, the scripture says, he began to preach “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17
Jesus began to preach on godly living and the importance of loving your brother as you would desire him to love you. This is a paraphrase of course and I will give examples of the stories, parables and themes that Christ used to illustrate the Kingdom of God and what the repentant life should include. Matthew chapter five gives us possibly the Lord’s most famous sermon, The Beatitudes in the verses below:
5:1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
As we continue reading Matthew we will note that Jesus preached on topics such as: Believers are the Salt; His fulfillment of the Law; Murder begins in the Heart; Go the Second Mile; Adultery in the Heart; Love Your Neighbor; Not Making Oaths; Marriage Is Sacred and Binding and many, many other important life lessons and illustrations from point of view of the only begotten Son of God.
In Matthew chapter sixteen Jesus asked the disciples “Who do you say I am?” This was a poignant moment because this was now sometime further into his three year ministry and Peter, Andrew, James and John the fishermen were still with their Lord. In fact they had been joined by Bartholomew, James, Judas, Jude, Matthew, Philip, Simon and Thomas. Their were now twelve apostles.
During his three years of ministry Jesus was involved in an on going verbal battle with the Sanhedrin. The religious leaders and domestic government of Israel in the Lord’s time. It became apparent that they saw Jesus as a threat to their hold on power. They were comfortable running the country in the way they liked it and they saw Jesus as a dangerous usurper and so began to plan against him. Seeking to entrap him on occasion with the intention of arresting him. An example below from the book of John.
John 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
The scene was being set for the Son of Man to come before the priests, and the Roman Governor, to become the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Before this came to pass Jesus preached about the End Times Prophecies. We read below:
Matthew 24:5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake
This passage gives information about the signs of the last days by which we may know that the time of the end is upon us. Next Jesus spoke about the actual tribulation which the prophet Daniel spoke of:
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened
This time of judgment in the last days is to be so destructive that if it were not shortened no one would survive. Do we live in a time when such destruction is possible? This is the time of the return of Jesus to judge the wicked gathered against him at the end. It is the time of the resurrection of the saints living and dead and a sure sign is that the nation of Israel will be regathered and all of the nations will burgeon into nationhood around the globe.
Finally, we come to the the time of the Saviors Death Burial and Resurrection. Matthew twenty six describes Jesus Celebration of the Passover with his disciples in the upper room in verses seventeen through twenty two. Verses twenty seven through thirty shows Christ instigating the Lord’s Supper with the Bread and the Wine. Verse forty seven tells of Jesus betrayal by Judas while verses fifty seven through sixty five describe Christ Jesus before the Sanhedrin where he is is accused of claiming to be the Son of God and he states that it is as they said.
Matthew chapter twenty seven shows Jesus being sent before Pontius Pilot by the Sanhedrin. Pilot endeavors to set the Christ free but the crowd will have none of it demanding Barabbas be set free instead then he is mocked by the soldiers of Rome and forced to carry his cross to Golgotha. The verses below join Jesus as Simon is compelled to carry the cross for him.
Matthew 27:32 Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. 33 And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. 35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”36 Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. 37 And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:
THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38 Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. 39 And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, 42 “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 43 He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.
Jesus Dies on the Cross
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. 49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” 55 And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
Jesus is Buried in the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea
57 Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. 59 When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.
Chapter twenty eight brings us to the Resurrection and the verses concerning the the women at the tomb and our Lord visiting the apostles in the days after he was resurrected
Chapter 28:1-7 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door,[a] and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.
The last event in the book of Matthew is Christ Jesus giving the disciples The Great Commission. Below is the description of how this all played out.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore[c] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
So my fellow fishers of men. What can we say of the journey of Peter, Andrew, James and John? Could we say that Jesus called them to follow him and began a three year process of education and instruction in the art of fishing men for the Kingdom of Heaven. A process that took them from an interesting day with a charismatic young leader to love and appreciation for their true leader Jesus of Nazareth. On to practicing their new trade of preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 4:17 and leading people to Jesus. Then head long into conflict with the Sanhedrin and the Romans. Just when they thought Messiah was there to save Israel from Roman domination Jesus is crucified and it seems all is lost. Where too now was the deslolate voice in their hearts.
Just as they thought they had lost it all God resurrected his only begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. Victory was won but over sin not over Rome. Finally these trained fishers of men and their brother disciples were equipped to take the gospel to Israel and the World. This they all did faithfully which is a testament to their training and their master, our wonderful Savior - Jesus Christ.
