FISHERS OF MEN
[p. 503] FISHERS OF MEN
Matthew 4:12-25; Matthew 5:1,2
One is always inclined to make comparisons between the different gospels, and in taking up Matthew, one has in mind that he discredits and disparages religious pretension. Anyone resting in mere religious practice for his soul’s salvation, or hiding behind religion, earthly religion, as a refuge, is exposed in Matthew. He takes occasion always to dissipate all such claims and pretensions; they are of no value in God’s account. However much they may be worth in the eyes of men, for religion is a great asset in the world, they are of no avail in God’s account.
So Matthew introduces the Lord’s ministry as beginning in Galilee, in proximity to the nations, and He ends that ministry in Galilee. God was setting aside the claims of Jerusalem which stood for religion. It represented, not an ordinary religion, but one that God Himself had primarily set up and owned. Indeed, the Lord Jesus had the deepest affection for Jerusalem. He recalls what the city represented in the mind of God. It was the city of the great King; there David had ruled, and Solomon, and many other kings. As Jesus was ending His journey on earth Jerusalem came into view from mount Olivet, and He wept over it. But weeping over it did not save it. “O Jerusalem”, He says, “thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37) The temple stood in all its majesty on mount Zion; the priesthood was there, and the service was carried on every week; Moses was read there, but they would not recognise or respond to the divine overtures in Christ.
[p. 504] What must Jerusalem have represented in those days to a religious mind, as the temple was looked at across the ravine from mount Olivet! The Lord, sitting on that same mount, says, looking at the buildings, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down”. (Matthew 24:2) Such is the end of mere religion. If God has refused it, it is without value, and it must go. So the quicker you get from behind it, seeing its worthlessness, and you surrender to Christ, the sooner will you secure the benefits that are in Christ. “Ye would not”, He says; their will was active. Although they read in the temple the scriptures that spoke of Him, they would have none of Him. So Matthew takes that point of view, and instead of the ministry of the Lord beginning at Jerusalem, or ending there, it is in Galilee of the nations.
Now Luke, on the other hand, being minded not to stir up any feelings of resentment in men, introduces the thought of God coming down to where men were. Whether they were Pharisees or Sadducees, or ordinary Israelites, Romans, Greeks or barbarians, Luke presents God coming down to men where they were, without raising any question as to their temple, or religion, or national customs. It was in the spirit of what the apostle Paul said, he became all things to all men that he might gain the more. There is no effort to create any irritation in Luke: hence he begins with the temple. He begins with a priest who is a righteous man in it, Zacharias, who was serving in the order of his course. Things are right so far. He is at the altar of incense in the holy place, offering up incense, and the angel appears to him at the altar of incense, and reveals to him that his prayer is heard. That is Luke; he comes in on the line of reconciliation. God wants your soul. He is not raising any religious or political question: He wants your soul.
Paul, on Mars’ Hill, stirred by the idolatry that he discerned, preached to the men as one of them; he wanted those men for God, and tonight, I would not irritate anyone, or stir up anyone’s prejudices. Christ wants you in spite of your prejudices. That is Luke; and you must remember that when the Lord ordained the twelve apostles, He looked out on the wide field of men and women and children of Adam’s race, and saw the great need. The need remains; everyone who is with God recognises that. How the heart of God went out to all those men and women! They were to be enlightened. “A light for revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel” (Luke 2:32); that is what Christ was. So the Lord comes down after a night of prayer and appoints the twelve who were to be His witnesses; and at the end of Luke’s gospel it says, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. (Luke 24:47) Jerusalem must not be irritated; the gospel must begin there, for God has nothing else in His heart but forgiveness for everyone in Jerusalem, even for the murderers of Christ. The apostles were to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father; the Holy Spirit should come, and in the power of that Spirit they should go forth. The Spirit coming from the Father, think of that! He sent down the Holy Spirit so that there should be a power here to carry the glad tidings to the utmost bounds of the human family.
The apostleship of the twelve was only to emphasise the authority in which the gospel should go forth. God commands all men everywhere to repent. The more authority you have the better, if the authority is what is good. And Paul further tells us, “Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained: whereof he hath given assurance unto all [p. 506] men, in that he hath raised him from the dead”. (Acts 17:31) So that the resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the guilt of man. The Lord having appointed the twelve, He comes down from the mountain on to the plain. How one would love to bring the Lord to you; He would come down to where you are. As the verse of a hymn beautifully puts it:
“Sinner, see thy God beside thee,
In a servant’s form come near:
Sitting, talking, walking with thee,
Drawn by love, no longer fear”. (112:3)
He comes down in grace, and He is on the plain, so that He is available to everyone. You have not to climb the mount to reach Him; He has come down to be beside you, to talk and to walk with you.
What you notice in Matthew 4 is that when Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea, and He calls them whereas in John, Peter is brought to the Lord by Andrew. Now what I would remark about John is that he emphasises the work of God in the soul. Luke does not emphasise that, neither does Matthew, nor Mark. All are inspired by the same Spirit, and there can be no possible discrepancy or contradiction. The Spirit has an object in each narrative. So John, amongst many other things, emphasises the work of God in your soul; he sets you in movement. But how can men move unless they have power? John supposes the work of God. Andrew is one of the two who hears John speak, and he follows Jesus. Now he moves, and finds his brother Simon, and brings him to Jesus. Have you ever been conscious of any movement of that kind in your soul? Something that would lead you away from evil? Any principle like that is not natural, it is of God. Any power or influence in your soul that [p. 507] drags you away from evil and that would lead you to learn about God in Christ, however faint or indefinite, is of God. The Lord’s people discern it: they see there is something introduced into your being that is different from what was there. Your parents know about it, they have been watching you. It is the work of God, without which the gospel must be ineffective. And so Andrew is moved; he abides with Christ that day, and he brings his brother Simon. The Lord looks upon him. It is not his ability to fish that is evident; the Lord beholds him, and gives him a name.
In the same chapter, Philip finds Nathanael. Nathanael is sitting under the fig-tree: that does not indicate movement. It is all well enough in millennial times, but with sin and need in this world, and death reigning, it is hardly the place. Movement is the order of the time. Philip says to Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”. Philip was instructed in the Scriptures; it is a great thing to know the Scriptures. Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote about Him, and Philip adds, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Nathanael says, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” His mind is on Nazareth, and he forgets Moses and the prophets. Had he been spiritual, he would have dwelt on Moses, and the prophets, and on what they said. They were much more important that the town of Nazareth. Philip did not reason with him, he said, “Come and see”. John’s ministry is to bring to light the work of God. If there is no work of God, then no preaching is effective. So I say to you tonight, if you are inquiring about Christ, Come and see. Many of us have come and found what is in Christ. So Nathanael arose for the work of God was there. He came to Jesus, and when Jesus saw him coming, He said, “Behold an [p. 508] Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile”. (John 1:47) He did not call him that while he was sitting under the fig tree. There is no evidence of the work of God in your soul as you sit just as you are in your everyday circumstances.
In Matthew 4 the people were sitting in darkness, oblivious to the fact that it was darkness. Multitudes of people are sitting there. They have no exercise about things; they go to their employment in the morning, come home at night, and follow their ordinary routine week in, week out. They have no thought of God, no sensibilities as to the death that is all around them; they are sitting in darkness, quite at home in it. So Matthew says, “they that sat in the region and shadow of death”. Think of people sitting there, in the region of death, and the shadow of it! Whilst Nathanael was sitting, the Lord did not call him by name. There is no evidence of the work of God in you until you become exercised. When you read the Scriptures, when you realise that you are a sinner, God takes account of you. One would love to see souls coming to Christ. One can easily discern how it is the declension has set in, when the difficulty arose about being able to distinguish between those who were real and those who were not. Who are the real ones? Those who move. Those who sit still and are oblivious of the conditions that exist, are the unreal ones. If you are sitting in the region of death, wake up! The light is shining, and directly you move, the Lord will take notice of you. You will become more interesting to your parents. They watch for their children, and directly there is a spiritual move, they take note of it; it cheers their hearts.
Well now, coming back to Matthew, the Lord is presented, in the passage I read, as the light, and the Spirit goes on to say that “from that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. In verse 13 it says He dwelt in Capernaum.. How affecting to one who loves the Lord now dwelling in heaven, to think of His actually living in some house in that little town, in the district of Galilee! If one had lived close to Him and seen His life and ways, one would have felt the effect of it. The Spirit says, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light”; but it does not say they were all affected by it. John says, “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not”. (John 1:5) But it was there, so he says further, “That was the true light, which coming into the world lighteth every man”. That does not mean that every man is affected by it. So John says later, “The true light already shines”. (1 John 2:8) That is Christianity: the light is shining; it is for you to respond to it.
Now it says, “From that time Jesus began to preach”; that was when the preaching began. His dwelling among men preceded the preaching. As John says again, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. (John 1:14) Think of the wonderful privilege of those people! God was there, and there in a Man, who moved about as a Man amongst men. He saw these two brothers, Simon and Andrew, who were fishers. I believe that God today is in a very great measure working family-wise; He has great interest in His own institutions. The family is a divine institution; there are divine exercises there, whether of the parents toward the children, the children toward the parents, or the children toward one another. Satan would disrupt families; he hates every divine institution, whereas Christianity is intended to preserve such intact. God would preserve the family; He preserves parents, children and others connected with the family, and through the relationships He has formed in nature He would speak to souls. So you find in the gospels, parents exercised about their children and praying to [p. 510] the Lord about them, and He answers them.
Here were two men, comparatively young, engaged in the same employment, the same calling, and they are acting together; they are doing the same thing at the same time, casting a net into the sea, and the Lord calls them. How He would call some child here, the child of some godly parent or parents, and how He would adjust that child in regard to his or her parents! But then He wants you for Himself. He is not going to rob your parents, for you will come back to them after you have been to Him; you will come back to them a better child.
Now He says, “Follow me”, and He adds what might be called a premium: He says, If you follow Me, I will make something out of you. I believe that many young Christians today have no conception of what the Lord would make of them. We are altogether too general in our apprehension of things. I want to know, as a Christian, not only that I am the Lord’s and that I am saved, and have all the benefits of His death secured to me, but I want to know what He is going to make out of me. Have you any exercise about that? He is going to take you up in relation to His people here. Are you not going to be occupied with something distinctive yourself? He says here, “I will make you fishers of men”. They would understand that. The Lord does not put anything before you in the way of service that is beyond you; He takes you up in relation to what you are fitted for, and employs you in that. Perhaps you say, If only I had a college education! But the Lord knew you had not had one when He took you up. Or you may say, If only I had So-and-so’s ability! The Lord is going to make something out of you. He did not tell John what He was going to make out of. Peter. What He is going to do with you is a secret: it is for you to know; the result will come out later.
[p. 511] It was a considerable time before Andrew and Peter became fishers of men. It is a time of work, not that I would put you to work, but I would impress upon you levitical responsibility. If you go to the Levites’ book, the book of Numbers, you will find that every Levite was taken account of for service from a month old. He could not do anything when he was a month old, but he took up the work when he was ready for it. So the Lord, who is indeed the great Prince of the Levites, as typified by Eleazar, says, “I will make you fishers of men”. Would to God that we were moved today in regard of men! They are in dire need, and the Lord would lay it upon us to go after men. But then we have to be made fishers of men. Peter might say, I know how to fish. Yes, but not in the sea of the nations. The Lord would have to make him a fisher in that. It is when he announces the gospel on the day of Pentecost that he fishes for men, bringing the truth to their souls, and three thousand are caught in one haul, a wonderful result of the Lord’s formation of Peter for this great work.
Now you will observe there were two other brethren, James and John, “in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets”. That is what they were doing. I do not dwell on that, only that I have no doubt it indicates John’s line, mending the nets. What you will observe is that they were not only two brothers acting together, but they were with their father. The family tie was evidently there, and the Lord calls them. Now He does not say anything as to what He would make out of John. It is not that He did not intend to make something out of him, but there are no repetitions in Scripture. The Scriptures lay down a principle, and it is there, then the Spirit of God goes on to something else.
So now it is a question of the call, a call without any premium attached to it. Jesus called John and [p. 512] James, and they immediately left the ship and their father. Perhaps you may say in regard to your case that it would be no great hardship to you to leave your employment and your father. If you are not content in your employment and in your father’s company, you are not subject to the will of God. What is mentioned here indicates the opposite of that. They were quite satisfied in their father’s service and in their father’s company, but they valued the call, and they followed Jesus. Are you prepared to come just for the call, without anything else added? John could do that; he valued the Person of Christ, and he followed Jesus. How important, to be on one hand occupied with the service, and on the other content to be with Christ, to leave all to Him! So it says they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed Him. It meant something for them to leave their father and to follow Jesus.
Now you will see the great result of Christ’s service: there followed Him great multitudes of people. The Lord sees the necessity of that crowd being regulated; it is a great thing for a young Christian to be regulated by divine principles. In Luke 14:25,26) He tested the crowd; “He turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother ... he cannot be my disciple”. Terrible! But He said that to them, when He saw that they were following Him for some other reason than a spiritual one. But here, seeing the crowds, He goes up into a mountain, sits there, and teaches His disciples. It is a question of legislation; so when His disciples came unto Him, He opened His mouth and taught them. God would not have a crowd here; Christians are set up and regulated by divine principles. I say to anybody who is not in fellowship, Christian fellowship is regulated by legislation according to divine principles. When the Lord sees [p. 513] the crowd, He goes to the mountain, in order that the crowd should cease to be a crowd and become an assembly. He teaches the disciples, in order that they in turn should teach the crowd.
May God bless His word!