“And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him (vs22).”
When the Son calls us to Himself, then we leave all and follow Him. If we haven’t left all, then we haven’t been called in irresistible grace. If we can say “no”, then God has not called us with the calling of His elect, and we are in sin. But, when He speaks, the Son of God enables us to do what He commands.
First, He reveals Himself to us as the Savior of sinners – “light is sprung up” (Matt 4:16). We couldn’t have known Him, until He unfolded the glory of His love for sinners, which is that He does all in our salvation (Ex 33:6-8).
It is not that He does His part, and then I do mine; it is NOT that He LOVES me, but I can perish in sin. God reveals SAVING love towards sinners, whereby He bears the sins of His elect, puts them away, and establishes righteousness whereby we are saved. God’s love does EVERYTHING because we can do nothing, and when His love is REVEALED, then we follow Him as He has said.
He says, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, which is stop living for your glory and live for Him who died and rose again, the Savior of your soul (Matt 4:17). Live that His name be glorified acknowledging the forgiveness of sins. Live knowing that He is FOR you, and live to make sinners BELIEVE on Him. Not only has light come, but it came to a dark place, and by forgiveness, we obey.
Secondly, He sees us first – “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers” (Matt 4:18). We are lost in sin, doing all manner of evil. We are backslidden, and He returns. We are SAINTS of God, but when He CALLS us to serve Him more gloriously, He gives more light, calls us to Himself, and does so with a call that we cannot stop.
He doesn’t observe our deserving; He knows what good He has in store. John didn’t DESERVE to baptize the Lord Jesus, but getting past unworthiness in himself, he glorified God’s love and did as commanded, “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him” (Matt 3:15). We are the same way. He speaks to us, calls us to service, and every time He has more for us to do, He calls us to Himself saying, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt 4:19).
Believers are saviors of other men, living so that God be glorified in the gospel. As soon as Andrew was called, he found Peter (John 1:40-41). Now, he’s called to higher and more visible service. And, when God calls us, He says, “Come after me”, which is walk as I command, “and I will make you fishers of men”, the goal of this following is to save sinners, to live that God’s grace… that light that shines in darkness… can be seen and believed. Paul says, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:8).
Thirdly, we are not what we were when He called us – “they were fishers” (Matt 4:18). We were fishermen, but now we are fishers of men. We were SINNERS, but now we are SAVED by the grace of God. We were WITHOUT HOPE and without God, but now we have eternal life. You and I may have been thieves, fornicators, liars, and all manner of things when He called us, but now we are holy, forgiven, and graced by God, “And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Cor 6:11).. God’s call takes into account what we were and takes account to do everything to make us what He says, but God’s call isn’t minimized by our past performance. He doesn’t call us to His service by merit but by grace, and grace is powerful to accomplish the task.
Finally, we follow Christ because of power He gives – “…He healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from
