Episode 303: Repent and Follow Me and I will Make You Fishers of Men | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Alright, friends. We are in Matthew chapter four. Matthew four. I'm a little worried my grandkids are gonna grow up not knowing there's actually a book called the Bible because everybody's on the phone. And that's awesome. Like, hey, any way you get the scripture is awesome. Billy Graham said the best Bible is whatever one you'll read. But all that being said, maybe I'm a luddite, but I kind of miss having a book in my hand. You know, just sometimes having learning visually. I love this Bible. It's got duct tape on it. And you'll think I'm very spiritual because it's worn. But actually, I think I left it outside my truck about ten years ago. And I love it. The only challenge with it is the print that was so awesome when I bought it fifteen years ago seems to have shrunk. I don't know. It's kind of like my clothes. I put them in Annette's dryer and they just shrink. And you laugh and think, oh, it's not really the dryer. It's you. Actually, we took a pair of pants down to the place where you buy the pants, and that 38 had become a 34. So no wonder. But anyway, the Bible shrunk. I'm going to try to use this old Bible because I love it. Okay?

The Context of the Passage

So we're in Matthew four. As my friend from the Hill Church, Charles Wilson, awesome guy if you don't know him, he always says context is king. Context is king. And it really makes practical sense if you think about it. Like you wouldn't walk into a movie or pick up a letter and dive halfway in not knowing what's going on. Or you might draw the wrong conclusion. So what has just happened if those of you who have a Bible or if you can maneuver the app, what's just happened in Matthew four? Jesus is the temptation of Christ. Satan tempted—actually, the word really is better tested. He tested Jesus, right, to see if he would prove that he's the Son of God. Trying to get him to avoid going to the cross. When he was hungry, he tried to tempt him. Tried to tempt his flesh with, hey, make these stones turn into bread. Jesus was tempted more than anyone in this room put together. The temptations were fierce at a time of great weakness. And Jesus answered, but it is written. I wonder in times of temptation, what are we going to do? Are we going to be sucker punched? Or do we have God's word hidden in our heart? That's my prayer for not only our church family but for my children and my grandchildren. I don't want them to be religious freaks. I want them to be faithful Christians who have God's word hid in their heart. Hid in their heart.

That's one bookshelf. And on what's happening, if you turn to Matthew, really Matthew five, six, and seven. What's that section known as? The Sermon on the Mount. And so a lot of teaching from Jesus. So testing on one side, teaching on another. But in between, we have where Jesus actually leaves his hometown, goes to Capernaum. It's awesome. And he begins to tell people the basic message of the gospel. And then he gets some people to follow him and join him in this ministry. So that's where we are. That's what we're doing. Let's look at the text itself. All right. Here we go.

The Passage: Matthew 4:12-18

Matthew 4 verse 12. It said, now when he heard, that's Jesus. When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested, Jesus withdrew into Galilee. Now, and leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali.

So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah may be fulfilled. Now, if you're like me and you hear about Zebulon and Naphtali, you're thinking about chronicles and kings and probably mildew and the numbering of the tribes and the ladles. And you start to gloss over. And think about maybe getting whooped yesterday in football or whatever you're thinking about. But I want to tell you that these aren't wasted words. As 1 Corinthians encourages us not to do, the Lord's not simply speaking in the air. So let's actually look at it.

He says, so John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, the one who said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Right? John was a forerunner. He said, I’m not even worthy to untie his sandals, but there's going to be one that's going to come after me. The Messiah. He's coming. Get ready. Repent. The kingdom of God's at hand. Repent. And people went in. They went into the water and John baptized them, repenting of their sins. But now, John ended up in jail. Does anybody, can you help me remember how he ended up in jail? Has something to do with Herod and Herodias and a dancing daughter and bring me the head of John the Baptist on the platter. Anyway, he's in jail. So he's in jail. So it looks like the lug nuts are beginning to come off. It looks like either this thing's going to crash and burn or perhaps our Father in heaven is unveiling and unfolding exactly as he purposed.

And so it's when Jesus learned that John the Baptist, his cousin, was arrested, Jesus withdrew from his hometown. Now, why do you think he withdrew from Nazareth? About 29.9 miles to Galilee and the Sea of Galilee around Capernaum. Why would he make that seven-hour walk? Why would he leave home and go to Capernaum? There's a practical reason and then there's a deeper biblical reason.

What's a practical reason? How did his hometown receive his miracles and his teachings? Jesus said, a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown. In other words, I mean, you could get it. Like if somebody comes out of Big Lick, Virginia, for a lot of us we're like, well, he's just a boy from Big Lick. Right? And there's a sense of like, if you grow up in that town, nobody thinks you'll ever be special. But hey, if you come from a foreign place, oh boy, they're from Seattle. Or they're Texas. Or they're from New York City.

So, on a practical level, they weren't receiving his ministry. And maybe now that he knows John the Baptist, the forerunner, the prophet who spoke about Messiah coming. Now that he's in jail, Jesus goes, it's game time. It's game time. And so he moves to—I would have thought he would have gone to Jerusalem. That's the center of life. That's the center of religious life. That's where they make sacrifice for sin. That's where the temple was. But he didn't go down south to the temple. Where did he go? Up north, thank you, to the Sea of Galilee. A beautiful little fishing town, Capernaum. And that's where Jesus did most of his ministry.

And actually, there's a biblical reason for him moving from Nazareth to the land of the Galilee. You see, for the Jews, Galilee was a pagan outpost. Now, I don't know what you think might be the most pagan city in the world—don't say it because you'll hurt somebody's feelings—Portland. Okay. I don't actually know. Who knows? It might be a Bible-believing town in Texas that looks good on the outside but really isn't.

But let me clarify. So, the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali—each of these tribes was given a section of land in Israel. Zebulon in particular got a little bit of land compared to some others, but in that place, it became a place the Jews hated because it was filled with nonbelievers. It was a pagan place. Not just a pagan place—pagan, in the sense that it was dark. And it was wicked. It was a place where they did things in the light that we don't even think should be done in the dark. And so God, in his love for his people—this land of Zebulon and Naphtali, both his people—they were his. He brought judgment.

You would think, love is love, God is love. Part of love is loving enough to say no. Loving enough to correct. God corrects his kids. We see it here. And he brought correction, and it was fierce. Zebulun and Naphtali and all that region of the North we know as Israel was crushed by the Assyrians. They were wiped out. But before that happened, it was still dark. They had wicked kings in Israel. Wicked. And people invented ways of doing wickedness.

And so Jesus is moving to that place. And he reads from Isaiah chapter nine. Look at verse 14. So, the prophet Isaiah, what was spoken by him might be fulfilled. And this is straight out of Isaiah nine. The land—i.e., the land of the tribe of Zebulon and the land of the tribe of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles. In other words, it's so weird—you would think Messiah would come to the Jews, his chosen people. But here we see Jesus coming. He'd done a few little miracles, but now the ministry really cranks up. And he's doing it in a place where there are lots of pagan people, lots of Gentiles.

So it says, the people dwelling in darkness. You know, I came from Japan, and honestly, our country can learn a lot from them. We could. We should. But I couldn't help thinking that in spite of how kind they are and how respectful they are, that when I heard their pastor tell me—I'm not judging, he's just telling me—that what you see on the outside doesn't necessarily equal what's going on on the inside.

In a shame culture, if you're depressed, you don't go to the doctor. You don't go to a counselor. You don't take anxiety medicine. You just suffer in silence. And maybe one day you jump in front of a bullet train. See, all these things are hidden. All these things look so beautiful. And we can make the outside pretty, right? I can get a facelift and I can get my hair done, and I can have Zach suck out some of this fat here, and I could look good. But what about inside?

What about inside? I think we've all gotten pretty accomplished at putting our best face forward. You know the whole, this is Instagram, this is life. Whatever the case is. To these people in this day, it was dark. Think wicked. Think hopeless. They may have had things to eat and fancy things to play with, but inside, and pervading this place and these people was just sheer darkness. Desperation.

And so it says, the people dwelling in the darkness—not just darkness as in light, but darkness as in sin, and ugliness, and hatred, and bitterness, and every wicked thing. These people, the one whom God had judged so many years earlier, these people now have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in this region, for those living here, and the shadow of death, on them, a light has dawned.

Now, what do you think they're talking about? Who do you think the light is? See, this is about seven, some thirty years before Jesus was even born of Mary. And he's God, through Isaiah in chapter nine, is whispering that God loves people who dwell in darkness. He will punish them. He will correct them. But he loves them.

Jesus said, I came not to condemn. I came to save. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And so to God's people of Northern Israel, it says, they were dwelling in darkness. It was terrible. Sometimes, maybe you feel like our country, our city, or the person you look at in the mirror is filled with darkness. And it leads, honestly, to deep despair. Because we all know—there is no Christian or not—we all know this isn't how things should be. It's broken. And we glue it together, and we try to polish and put wax on it, but it's still dark and broken.

But it says, to those who are living in this dark place, this wicked and evil place, a light is dawned. In other words, Messiah. And Isaiah was saying, Messiah is coming to those who don't deserve it. Messiah is coming to those that he loves. Messiah is coming to those who had been punished and corrected. A light has dawned.

For the land that was deep in darkness, a great light has shined. — Isaiah 9:2

Jesus’ Call to Repentance

Verse 17. And after quoting Isaiah, Matthew goes back and gives the basic message of what Jesus came for. See, I think if you read social media, everybody thinks either Jesus was a myth or he's just a nice guy who likes to be nice to people. Right? He's just love. Like some skipping little whatever, whatever. That's what they think Jesus is. They minimize him. They don't understand his king. King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the one that was and the one that is and the one that ever shall be. Who dwells in light inaccessible. His holiness would blind all of us in a nanosecond.

And so Jesus, now that John’s in jail, it's time for that light to shine, for Messiah to reveal himself. And then, so he says in verse 17, from that time Jesus began to preach. You know, a lot of people go, hey man, I'm spiritual. But like, don't give all that Bible stuff to me. Like, I'm not really into all that. I mean, plus it sounds like Shakespeare. Okay. But Jesus came preaching the word. He didn't just give nice platitudes. He didn't give advice. He wasn't a life counselor. He's saying this plainly.

Could it be more clear? What did Jesus say? Verse 17. What's the word?

Repent.

You see, I don't know. Maybe we've fallen into this, Brian. It's so easy when you've got a machine to run, when you've got an organization, when you've got a church, to not want to tell people the truth. Right? Don't tell me the truth. Tell me what I want to hear. But Jesus goes, no. No. No. No.

It's kind of like when you're a kid. Remember getting a cut? Remember in the old days? They were cruel. They had methylate. Do you remember that? Everybody in their forties is like, what? I don't know what that is. It's just a cruel medicine they put on kids. I don't know. It's terrible. And so, you know, as you're a kid, you get in a rock fight. We used to throw rocks at each other. How dumb is that? It was fun, though. Wasn't it?

You get a cut, and you get dirt up under there. And your mom or whoever's taking care of you, your grandma, somebody thinks, hey, I think I should scrub that out and then I'll put my thiolate on it. The only problem is, grandma, I don't want you to scrub it out. Can we just like run water on the outside and then put a bandage on it? But invariably the answer is no. My mom loved me. And so she cracked it open, scrubbed it out. I'm screaming. I'm crying.

And to make matters worse, she gets this cruel medicine called methylate that stings. I mean, it stings like a bunch of bees. And they put that on there to kill all the germs.

Anybody say amen to that? Amen. Yeah. Well, now, Jesus, who is love and who is truth, tells the people that have been living in darkness, hey, the light has come. But in order for you to receive Messiah, you've got to receive the gift. And so the first thing I'm going to tell you is repent. Repent.

When you hear that word, that conjures up an image in your head. Repent. Right? What image does that conjure up in your head? Self-righteous, condemning, hyper-religious kind of person you don't want to have a beer with. Okay? You really don't even want to have lunch with them. I don't really like those kind of hyper-religious people that quote odd scriptures about all. No. But Jesus is saying, repent. He's saying it.

What does it actually mean? The word repent is simple. You're going this direction, turn around. If you're trying to be your own god, stop and turn around. Have a change of mind.

I remember sitting in church for all these years. And I would be sorry for things I did or left undone, things done and left undone. But there was never a sense—I never fully understood the enormity of my sinfulness. How deep and ugly and wicked it was while I glossed it over. And the most freeing message was not somebody yelling at me, but telling me to stop and turn. Turn. Have a change of mind.

The problem is, we can't do it. It's impossible to repent. It's impossible to have a change of mind unless God gives you the grace to do it. See, this whole sport is not merit-based. It's merit given.

And so Jesus is like, hey, if you want to enter the kingdom, if you want to come out of a place of deep darkness, the first thing I got to tell you—the truth—the first thing I got to say is you got to repent. You’ve got to stop doing the wicked things you're doing. You've got to stop living for yourself. You've got to stop being your own God. And you need to turn positively. Turn to me and have relationship.

I wonder why churches never say that. You won't get invited to the country club if you tell people they're in sin, that God's holy wrath is coming, and that they need to turn away from that. Not legalistically, but as a gift of grace to receive the one who has come.

Repent. Turn around. Get a change of mind. And so, if you're not a Christian this morning, what I'd say is just ask the Lord. Lord, I don't even understand all this stuff. Help me. I don't want to dwell in darkness. I want you, Lord, to change my mind. I can't stand living on this broken world without you.

And so he says, repent. And why are we repenting? So we're turning away from something. We're turning to something and someone. Who are we turning towards?

Jesus. Jesus. We're firing ourselves as God and we're calling upon him to be our God. Repent because the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is saying, like, you guys probably cannot grasp this, but all that brokenness and all that ugliness—that's not how things were and that's not how it's going to be. I am calling you to a place where I reign and where I rule. And I'm going to invite you to be part of what I'm doing. And that kingdom is starting to break in.

As you can all tell, it's not fully here. Right? Read the newspaper. But it is here. Jesus said, it is here.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. — Matthew 4:17

The Call to Follow Jesus

Verse 18. Thing I love about Jesus, he doesn't need—you know, he doesn't need you. Like, totally, he doesn't need me. He could do like they did on the show Bewitched—Craig, you're using illustrations from forty years ago. I know, sorry. I'm old. Bewitched. Do you remember Samantha? He could have just done that and the whole world would be evangelized. But what did Jesus do? He called sinners to turn from being their own gods, their own wickedness and sin, and as an act of grace, he's going to help them turn towards him, receive him as Lord.

And he goes, it's not just about repenting and getting into the kingdom. He said, I'm going to make you fishers of men. I'm going to actually use you. Could you imagine?

What do you do for a living? Never mind. I got something greater. And so he says, verse 18, while walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. I love this. Walking by the Sea of Galilee.

What other god walks along the Sea of Galilee? What other so-called god can actually see and understand you and where you live? And doesn't live on a cloud or up in some metaphysical place, but actually humbled himself and came down.

And so he sees two brothers. He sees Simon, who's called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They're casting a net in the sea because they were fishermen. There were three golly fishermen. Do you know the song? He saw the fishermen and he goes, hey, come and follow me.

Actually, it says here literally, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now, I don't know about you, but if some guy in a white robe came to you on Monday morning and said, hey, whatever you're doing for your job, everything that you've trained for, the way that you provide for your family, I need you to leave that and I need you to follow me. And you don't know where I'm going and you don't understand very much, but I am the one who gave you life.

And I'm calling you to stop, to drop, follow me. These fishermen, they had their own boat, so they weren't dirt poor. And Jesus is saying, hey, leave the boat.

Whereas he said, burn the boat. You know, like was it the Spanish ruler? Burn the ships. He says, leave the boat. Leave the boat.

And if I'm one of those men, I mean, like, well, Jesus, I gotta prepare. I gotta provide. This is what I've been doing my whole life. It's what I was trained to do. My father and my father's father and his—leave the boat.

Now, Jesus is not necessarily calling people to leave their professions. But he is saying, what I'm about is so much bigger than anything else you have your hand on. And so I need you to stop being your own God. I need you to turn around. I need you to trust me. And I need you to start to follow me.

Walk with me. I've never heard of another god that made that offer. Walk with me. Are you walking by yourself? It’s pretty lonely. You could have received Christ when you were 14 and you really meant it. But maybe you haven't walked with him in two decades. And rather than yell at you, God says, come. Come. Follow me.

I'm going to do something in and through you you will not even believe. Come and follow me.

As I sarcastically always say, I love the Bible and the people in it, but they're all—except for Jesus—dead. They're dead. So this word that the Lord has given us—people living in darkness—to repent, to turn, and to come and follow Jesus, not for one day, but for the rest of our lives.

That's a word for us. So we want to open our rails. We talked to staff about, well, somebody's not a Christian, church. They're never going to walk the blue mile. I don't believe that. I'll tell you, when I first heard the gospel—that Jesus Christ gave his life for me—I knew what it was to live in darkness. I knew brokenness. There was no shame in coming up the aisle. I ran up the aisle. I wanted to know freedom. Christ was changing my life and I didn't even understand it, but I wanted to be with him and in that place.

So whether you're repenting for the first time, turning away from your sin and being your own god, or maybe for the thousandth time, we're going to open the rails. Our staff and our prayer people will pray. Not only that you might repent, but also that you might be used of the Lord. Used of the Lord for his glory.

Is there anything better that the Lord could give you? These rails are for those who want to pray by themselves. Straight rails are for those who want us to pray with you. Brian, Barbara, prayer ministers, let's get on the side rails. And we'll just allow the Holy Spirit to come.

Father, your word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. But don't let it just work in the guy behind us or the lady beside us. We pray that your word is doing its work in us. We don't want to live in darkness. A light has come. Amen.