Fishers of Men (Matthew 4:18-22)

Matthew chapter 4, starting in verse 18.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

And he, speaking of Jesus, was walking along the Sea of Galilee.

He saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Follow me, he told them, and I will make you fish for people.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with Zebedee, their father, preparing their nets, and he called them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father and their father and followed him.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness.

We thank you for all that we've been able to witness you do over these last five years, and so much more beyond that.

But specifically, Lord, what you have have done to plant this church and to grow this church and to make it what you desire it to be.

So, Lord, I pray for each one of us that we'd be faithful to continue to listen to you, to continue to follow after you, and to continue to do what you ask us to do.

Lord, we love you so much, and we pray today that you would speak to us through your holy word, and that you would do a work inside of each one of us that you desire to do.

Help us to be clay in your hands, help us to have open ears and eyes and hearts and minds to the things that you have for us, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So, we as a church in these first five years have really put an emphasis on discipleship.

And discipleship, if you're not familiar with that term, just means learning how to follow Jesus and how to become more like him.

And that really should be the goal of every Christian.

You know, we've tried to do that through how we teach on Sunday mornings, how we approach scripture and how we teach here, trying to make sure that everyone here is growing in their understanding of God's word for themselves.

Not dependent on us, not dependent on me or any of the other elders to explain what you should believe, but for you to fully understand it and form those opinions for yourself.

You know, we've been doing discipleship through home groups, a different approach that's kind of the Acts 2 model, where we get to pray together, we get to have an interactive time in the Word together.

Uh it's an opportunity to build community and relationships with each other through fellowship.

And then we've tried to put an emphasis on individual discipleship as well as well.

Sharing life together one-on-one, where a more mature, experienced believer pours into somebody that maybe has less experience in their walk with Christ.

And most of those relationships, especially the one-on-one, those are things that need to be sought out from both parties.

Parents, if you have kids, you are in that relationship right now, that one-on-one discipleship.

It is built in, and it's your responsibility to teach your kids about Jesus and to be an example of Jesus within the home.

And discipleship should never stop being our emphasis as a church, as individuals of becoming more and more like Jesus on a daily basis.

You know, Jesus said, go therefore, the Great Commission, and make disciples of every nation.

That needs to be something that we're always focused on, always thinking about.

But as I've been praying about it and discussing it, as I was saying with the elder team, I really think that it's time that we start to emphasize the second part of Jesus' call in verse 19 to Peter and Andrew.

The first part is follow me.

The second part, and I will make you fishers of men.

So look at verse 18, we'll just take this verse by verse.

As he walked along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

What were these guys doing in this moment?

They were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

With what God had given them to that point.

They were working, they were being responsible, they were making a living, they were being productive citizens.

And Jesus met them where they were, and he said, I can use the life skills that you've developed as fishermen, and I can use that for God's kingdom.

Follow me, and I'm going to use those life skills as fishermen to help you learn to fish for people.

Now, I love that God placed the Good Deeds Club on Kelly's heart this year, back there in the back, not to embarrass you, Kelly.

And I love that it's up and running.

You know, what the Good Deeds Club is, is it's simply taking people's life skills and their availability and their giftings and saying, here's what God's giving me.

And I want to use it for the Lord's kingdom.

And I just love that that is up and running.

Kelly, thank you for getting that going.

And I want to just encourage everybody here to be faithful with what the Lord has given you right now and follow him.

You know, these fishermen that are out in the boat, they could have been sitting there thinking, if only I had more education, then I would be able to serve the Lord.

If only we lived closer to Jerusalem, then we'd have more resources, and I could sit under the greatest teachers, and I could be at the temple, you know, every afternoon doing this, that, and the other thing.

If only my parents had more money, if only my dad was a rabbi, you know, whatever it might have been.

Jesus found these future disciple apostles being faithful in their everyday life, being faithful exactly where God had put them to use those resources and those skills to be productive citizens.

They were being faithful with what the Lord had given them to that point.

And regarding fishermen, Warren Wearsby has this quote that I want to read to you.

He says, Jesus had four and possibly even seven men in the band of disciples who were professional fishermen.

Why would Jesus call so many fishermen to his side?

For one thing, fishermen were busy people.

Usually professional fishermen did not sit around doing nothing.

They either sorted their catch, prepared for a catch, or mended their equipment.

The Lord needs busy people who are not afraid to work.

You go where you're sent, you stay where you're put, and you give what you got.

And that's until, of course, the Lord calls you to something else, or the Lord calls you somewhere else.

And then you do it again, wherever He places you there.

Jesus found these guys doing just that, I think, until they received further instruction from the Lord on what to do next.

You never know how the practical skills that you are learning now, that you are using now, may be used for God's kingdom later.

And this is just an encouragement to be hard workers with where the Lord's put you and what he's given you right now.

So then Jesus says, look at verse 19.

Follow me, he told them, and I will make you fish for people.

You know, as I was saying, our first five years, we really put that emphasis on follow me.

And I think that was correct.

I think that's exactly what the Lord wanted us to do for that season.

To really focus on becoming more like Jesus as we're with him, as we're near to him, as we get to know him better, to do those things through prayer and through his word, through walking by the power of the Holy Spirit, really abiding in Christ.

And like I said, that's never going to be stop being an emphasis for us as a church.

Because as pastors, elders here at this church, our job is to shepherd the flock that is among us.

That's what 1 Peter 5:1 instructs shepherds to do.

1 Peter 5:1

Shepherd God's flock among you.

That's those of you who are here that consider abide their home.

It's our job to lead, feed, and protect you.

And it's our job to do the best that we possibly can to help keep you healthy and holy.

That's not a call to somebody else's flock or another group of people that we would like to shepherd or an online audience that we're never gonna meet or interact with.

A pastor's number one job is to shepherd the flock that is among them.

Which is why this church will always be about abiding in Christ.

At least we're gonna try our best to always make sure it's about abiding in Christ.

And we kind of gave that away in the name, didn't we?

But I really sense that it's time to add to that focus.

The second part of verse 19, where Jesus says, and I will make you fish for people.

But that is a call to each and every one of us.

Not exclusively for the leadership of this church or exclusively for the non-leadership of this church.

Each and every one of us, myself included, to not just follow Jesus, but to bring people along with us into his eternal kingdom.

Through our example and through the words that we speak, to really cast the net of the gospel and just see what happens.

As Ben was talking about earlier.

You know, the gospel is the power of God to salvation.

We simply need to faithfully cast that net of the gospel and allow the Lord to do his work in people's lives.

You know, and with this coming up, I felt like I had to share with you my favorite comic of all time.

It is, it says, no, James, he wants us to cast a net.

If you don't know what cast the nets are, ask the person that's next to you.

That one gets me every time.

But there are two things from verse 19 that I want to talk about regarding being fishers of men.

So the first is how we as a church as a whole, how we're gonna approach this.

And then the second part's gonna be how we also do this individually within our own circles that we're in.

So as a church, we'll cover this first, moving forward, we want to start looking for more opportunities to serve our community outside of these walls, to really start to build trust and relationships within our community, to show the love of Jesus in a very relational and practical way.

So we're actually looking for someone to become our outreach coordinator this year.

You're someone that's gonna actively be looking for opportunities outside of these walls for us to reach out and then to also coordinate things for our church to be able to put something together and then to go out and serve our community and outreach into our community.

You know, we already do Easter at the park, which is coming up.

We do Trunk or Treat, we do Winter Wonderland.

We want to continue all three of those things, but we also want to look for other opportunities as well.

You know, figuring out a way to cast that net into different areas of our community.

So that's what we're looking to do as a whole this year, is to find a coordinator and to look for more opportunities to do those things as a whole.

But being fishers of men really should start by us doing that within our inner circles.

And I'm not trying to freak out the introverts here this morning.

Not trying to come at you with a heavy hand.

I'm an introvert myself.

So I'm right there with you.

Uh, this is as much for me this morning as it is for you, I promise.

And for those who are getting a bit freaked out with where this is going right now, maybe for you it's just gonna be as simple as inviting somebody to church with you, as Ben was talking about.

Which is, hey, you know, you want to you want to come with me if it's your neighbor, co-worker, classmate, whatever it might be, and then bring them here.

They will hear the gospel.

They're gonna hear about Jesus when they come here.

Um, there might not be a formal invitation every Sunday, but there will be the good news of Jesus Christ going out every Sunday.

That net will be cast and God will work on their heart through the gospel.

But at the same time, we don't want you to depend on us to do the fishing for you.

Or depend on a large outreach to do the fishing for you.

You know, some people will come to church and they'll just think, well, I'll leave the fishing up to the professionals.

Well, I hate to tell you, I am not a professional fisherman.

I'm much better at shepherding than I am at fishing.

I promise you that.

I'm still called to fish as a follower of Christ, but some of you are way better at fishing than I am.

I've seen it.

Some of you are way better at fishing than all of the other elders as well.

Like God has gifted you with that gift of evangelism.

Like you can't help it.

The gospel just spills out of your mouth, and you're a gatherer that brings people with you.

Um, and praise the Lord for you out there that have that gifting.

But we're all called to follow Christ and to fish for people.

And I also say this so that you don't depend on the programs and you don't depend on organized outreaches to do the fishing for you, uh, or to be the only time that you're fishing for people.

You know, especially now in 2026.

Our culture has changed a lot.

Even since when I was a kid, even since when I was in college and doing outreaches, even since COVID hit, a lot has changed on how outreaches look and what effective outreaches look like.

You know, people don't like attending events like they used to.

It used to be when I was a kid, huge outreaches and bands and speakers, and tons of people would show up and stuff like that.

But now a lot of you know people, my my generation included, would rather sit on the couch, you know, in something comfortable with their phone all by themselves than go out and and do something with other people or with strangers.

You know, a lot of us would rather pay 20 extra dollars for takeout instead of leaving our house to go get food, you know, or something like that.

A lot's changed.

And on top of that, the trust level of strangers talking about their faith, you know, the trust level of somebody hearing it from a stranger has really plummeted.

In some ways, I think that could be good because of all the false doctrines that are out there, but it makes it a lot harder for us to share the gospel because that trust level is so low.

All that to say, effective outreach, effective being the key word here in our modern day, has become a lot less about programs and big events and a lot more dependent upon relationships.

In our current culture, outreach looks much more relational than it used to.

A lot more trust has to be established before anybody's gonna even be willing to hear your testimony, to hear your story of what God has done in your life.

I think in a lot of cases, our current culture wants to see how we live first before they're gonna open their ears to what you might have to say.

All that to say, we're gonna be doing larger outreaches, but we really don't want you to depend on those to do all of the fishing for you that Jesus is calling his disciples to do.

Now let's look at verse 21 together.

He says, immediately they left their nets and followed him.

So a question for you.

Did Jesus force them to follow him and become fishers of men?

Yeah, it wasn't like Jesus went up to them and like, you're gonna follow me.

I'm gonna force you to tell people about me, whether you like it or not.

I'm gonna guilt you in to do this.

Please hear me in this.

I truly believe that Jesus never wants us to tell people about him out of guilt.

I really don't.

Will he ask us to take a step of faith?

To act outside of our comfort zone and to be uncomfortable in telling people about him?

Absolutely.

I think he's gonna challenge us in that way.

But to share the gospel message out of guilt?

Absolutely not.

Yeah, I don't see that with his disciples in the gospels at all.

I don't think he wants his disciples back then or wants us, his disciples today, to ever share the gospel out of guilt.

I mean, could you imagine if you were engaged to somebody and you only told other people about it because you felt like you had to?

You would feel guilty if you didn't tell people that you were engaged to this person.

You know, when I got engaged, I couldn't wait to tell people that I had a fiance.

I couldn't wait to tell people about her and then like, I can't wait for you to meet her.

This is a very special person.

Like, I can't wait for the two of you to get to know each other.

And I think that's how God wants us to tell people about him.

Jesus wants us to tell people about him, of that same passion and enthusiasm as if we were telling somebody about uh a newly, you know, I don't even know how to say it, uh, a new fiance.

Let's just say that.

You know, it I think so often we get caught up in, what if I mess up?

You know, what if I don't have that verse perfectly memorized?

What if they think I'm weird?

You know, we have all of these doubts and stuff.

It's like just tell people about Jesus and how much you love him and how much he's changed your life, and then let the power of the gospel, you know, that's that doesn't have anything to do with us.

We're called to cast that net out and God to take care of the rest.

Now Matthew goes on, verse 21.

He says, going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

They were in a boat with Zebedee, their father, preparing their nets, being faithful, right?

And he called them.

Immediately they left the boat, and their father and they followed him.

He chose them, he called them, then they chose to leave everything behind and follow him.

And Jesus then discipled these guys for three years.

He taught them first how to be like him, and he taught them how to fish for people by his example and by his training and by his words.

You know, we've spent five years largely focusing on becoming like Jesus, and now it's time to add to that focus.

To bring people to Christ and to be discipling them faithfully.

And if you're sitting here and you're just like, Chris, you don't understand.

Opening my mouth in any capacity is my greatest fear.

Like, this is not gonna happen.

I just want to encourage you.

Start to build that relationship with somebody.

Maybe it's your neighbor and it's inviting them over for dinner, or just having a conversation over the fence, or it's a classmate and just sitting with them at lunch, you know, or doing something like that.

A co-worker at work that you just start to get to know and you make an effort to be the light of Christ in your office and to show the love of Christ to your coworkers.

And then it may just be as simple as inviting them to church, or to inviting them to Easter.

Tell them, you know, I'll come pick you up.

Or I will meet you there and I will latch on to your arm and I will not let go of you, I will not strand you at church, I will sit next to you.

Or invite them to Easter.

Tell them it's outside and there's an infinite number of escape routes if they don't like it.

Like they can go any direction and get away from the service if they wanted to.

But let me encourage you, if you have the choice of serving in some capacity at Easter or even here on a Sunday morning, if you have a choice of doing that or inviting a friend and sticking with them the whole service, invite a friend and stick with them whole the whole service.

Don't worry about anything else.

We just really, like I said, we're not about numbers here, but we want to be about fishing and we want to be about discipling people.

And then just inviting them into this community.

You know, this year, the message at Easter in particular is going to be all about hope.

The hope of Jesus Christ, how He is our living hope, according to 1 Peter.

Does anybody here know somebody that needs hope in their life?

I would be shocked.

I would be shocked if you didn't know of anybody.

I think everybody is longing for, is craving for something to hope in.

The world around us, you just watch the news and everything seems to just be crumbling and in chaos.

The world needs hope right now.

A hope that we have in Jesus Christ and they don't.

Go to the people that need hope and say, we're going to be talking about hope, the hope of Jesus Christ at our service.

Why don't you come and hear about this hope?

It's a great way to invite somebody.

You know, like I said, I hope you can hear my heart here today.

This isn't about filling seats.

This is about inviting people into God's eternal kingdom and faithfully following after Jesus and his commands to be fishers and to make disciples.

You know, part of how we grow spiritually, if you are a more mature follower of Christ, but how we continue to grow is by doing this.

We grow when we share the gospel and when we disciple other people.

You know, if we only come here and we consume the word and then we consume some more of the word and then we consume some more of the word and we don't apply it, we become fat sheep.

We're supposed to consume the word and apply it.

Consume the word and apply it.

Consume the word and apply it.

So I just wanted to encourage you this morning to pray about how the Lord wants to use us as a church and you as an individual to be fishers and men.

Both relationally in your inner circle, whatever that might be, but also within this church body.

To pray about how the Lord would have you cast the net of the gospel, you personally, both in this church through outreaches and whatever it might be, but also within your inner circle.

And like I said, I don't want to come at you heavy-handed.

I don't want to come at you and guilt you into sharing your faith and the hope of Jesus.

But if we are truly believing in Christ, if we truly have a relationship like we're engaged to somebody.

Because we are.

We're betrothed to Christ as believers.

But if that's truly our relationship, we're gonna want to bring people along with us because we love Jesus and we can't wait to introduce them to Jesus.

We can't wait to bring them along with us into an eternity with Jesus Christ.

And that's really just what the Lord has been laying on my heart.

And I wanted to share with you and just tell you this is where we see things going in this next season.

So you're gonna be hopefully seeing some more outreaches and ways to get into the community, but on a personal level, just start praying about okay, God, how do you want me to do this with my neighbors?

How do you want me to do this with my coworkers?

How do you want me to do this with my classmates?

Whatever your circle is, whatever that is, would you just take time to consider that and to pray that?

Amy, can you come up?

I want you to start, yeah, finger picking a little bit.

Because I want to do something a little different this morning.

You know, usually I pray at this time we jump into the next song, and then we're gonna have cake and peak dioramas and all that stuff afterwards.

We could leave and kind of forget to pray about this, kind of forget to think about this.

So just take a couple minutes before we jump into that first song.

Sorry, I'm throwing this on Amy last second.

Um, and uh just take a minute in quietness and just ask the Lord these questions.

Lord, how do you want to use me in this way to become a fisher of men?

How do you want to use me in my circle?

How do you want to use me within this church?

And just take a couple minutes, and then in a couple minutes, just jump into the next song, and we'll go from there.

So, yeah, let's take a moment of quiet in prayer and reflection.