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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. 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. ~ Matthew 4:18-22
Today, we continue our study in the gospel according to Matthew where the Lord Jesus is beginning His ministry. With this, in today's passage, the Lord called four men to be His disciples. I find it most interesting that the first four disciples of the Lord Jesus were fishermen. As we will see, being the disciple of the Lord Jesus radically changes our lives. This change only comes about as we choose daily to render control of our lives to the Holy Spirit. It is one thing to know the truth in our minds, but it is quite another to know it in our hearts. The late Howard Hendricks once said, "We teach what we know, but we reproduce what we are."
In v.18 of today's passage we read, "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."
It was at the Sea of Galilee that the Lord Jesus began His ministry. If the committee on evangelism at that time would have made a recommendation to the Lord Jesus as to where He should have started His ministry, they would have undoubtedly suggested Jerusalem. But, not so with the Lord Jesus whose ways are often the exact opposite of ours. When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He told the people to reconsider their ways because the kingdom of heaven had come to visit them. It was also at that same time, the Lord Jesus called two other brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew to follow Him as His disciples. This was their second call from the Lord Jesus. The first call was issued to them in John 1. His initial call to these two was for salvation. This call in today's passage was for discipleship. Having said that, there is a clear difference between our call to believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation and the call of the Lord Jesus to be His disciple.
In v.19 of today's passage we read, "Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"
To be the disciple of the Lord Jesus is to be a fisher of men. The choice of the Lord Jesus had been made, and the disciples were given the opportunity to respond to the call of the Lord Jesus to be "fishers of men." This idea of fishers of men is not first found here in this passage. Rather, it goes back to Jeremiah 16 where the Lord judged Israel for its sin and then promised restoration. Even in the Old Testament, the idea of Gentiles coming to the Lord was clearly stated. The Lord Jesus used the fishers of men terminology as a metaphor for what these men would eventually do.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "They immediately left their nets and followed Him."
The first four disciples responded rather immediately at the request of the Lord Jesus for them to leave their nets and to follow Him. This is the first use of the word translated "nets" in the Bible. According to John 1:35-42, these four men heard the teachings of the Lord Jesus and they followed Him after He called them to do so.
In v.21-22 of today's passage we read, "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."
After the call of Peter and Andrew came the call to James and his brother John. Then, according to Luke 5, the Lord Jesus came along when the disciples had finished fishing, which was another call to them to follow Him as disciples. This call was made when the Lord Jesus stood by the Lake of Genessaret which is a lake on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord Jesus saw two boats by the lake, and the fishermen were gone out of them. He entered into Simon’s boat. It was then that He said to them, "If you want fish put your nets down where I say, and you’ll get fish." Of course, they caught so many fish they had a hard time pulling their nets ashore. The point was this: Without the Lord Jesus, we cannot catch men.
Here, we are introduced to two more disciples, James and John. The name James comes from the name Jacob which is derived from the word "heel." The name "James" was based on the birth of Jacob in Genesis 25 where he grabbed the heel of his brother during birth. The name John means "to show favor" or "grace." James and John were in a boat with their father and they were "mending their nets." Every person who has ever believed in the Lord Jesus had a calling. Once we believed, God saved us. Our calling, initially, was to enter into a personal relationship with God. Then we are to get to know Him and in time we will make Him known to others.
By the way, this James was the son of Zebedee. There was another disciple named James, the son of Alphaeus, also known as James the Less. Later on, James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, became a believer after His resurrection. He wrote the book of James and he became one of the leaders in the church at Jerusalem. So, there are three James we have to keep in mind as we study the Bible. In today's passage, this was James the fisherman, the brother of John who wrote the Gospel of John, the epistles of John and the Book of the Revelation.
James and John were the sons of Zebedee. Later, the Lord Jesus referred to them as the sons of Thunder, because they were hot heads. There was a point in time during the ministry of the Lord Jesus while on this earth that these two suggested to Him that He let them call fire down from heaven and destroy all the Samaritans because they were unbelieving and wicked. James and John grew up as the tough kids on the block. These two were miraculously changed over time as they followed the Lord Jesus and they became effective makers of disciples over time.
