The hallmark of Jesus’s ministry was calling people to be His disciples. At the very beginning, He calls four, and at the end, He entrusts His followers to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28.19-20).
This is the account of the first four disciples.
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers.
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.”
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.
Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (Matthew 4.18-22).
Jesus issued the call to follow Him. In response, Peter, James, John, and Andrew followed Him immediately.
As we study the Gospel of Matthew, I will point out the many times that people follow Jesus. You know someone is one of his disciples because they follow him.
Ultimately, why do we follow Jesus? We follow Jesus because we want to live a Jesus-kind-of-life, as Dallas Willard puts it.
I can’t prove it, but I believe that the disciples had previous experience with Jesus. I think they had been around Him long enough that when He issued the call, they were ready to leave everything and follow Him.
That is usually the way it works with us. We get interested in the Lord and then the day comes when we decide to begin following Him. At that point, we start a blessed journey of learning to live life like the Savior.
A Summary of Jesus’ Ministry
In Matthew’s summary report of Jesus’ ministry up to this point we learn three significant things.
Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, people possessed by demons or having epilepsy or afflicted with paralysis, and he cured them.
And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan (Matthew 4.23-25).
(1) Jesus conducted much of His ministry in the northern part of Israel, about 150 miles away from Jerusalem, where people were more receptive to His message and there was less opposition.
(2) Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom (Matthew 4.17), and in the following chapters 5-7, we will witness His teachings directed towards His followers. Two key aspects of his ministry were declaring what God had accomplished and instructing people on how to live by His actions.
(3) The proof of the arrival of God’s kingship was evidenced by Jesus’ healing of all sorts of illness and His liberation of humans from the influence of evil.
There is no reason why the church should not have the same ministry as Jesus. Yes, we proclaim what God has done and teach about the impact of his work. But we show what God has done through acts of healing and deliverance.
It’s interesting to note that the first hospitals in the world were started by Christians. So healing can be healing through medicine or miracles. Either one reveals God’s glory.
The same comes when we think about deliverance from evil. All sorts of evil can be dealt with through the love of God.
We need to make it a point in our lives to preach, teach, heal, and deliver.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 