Sermon: Fishers of Men

We're gonna turn open to Matthew. Matthew chapter four, verses 18 through 20 is 22 is what I wanna look at together this evening.

I'll remind you and remind you of this again and again until Lord calls me home that one of the great signs that the gates shall not prevail against the church is that we see leadership of a new generation raised up. And we're seeing that again tonight. Great gift that, ah, the church goes on. It goes on Matthew chapter four. Tonight we're gonna look at verses 18 through 22 and let's pray before we open God's word together this evening.

Our Father, we are thankful for the gift of your word. Thankful that you are God who is at work in this world. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church to keep her. You will always keep the bride of your beloved son. We're thankful that we get a tangible reminder of that this evening. You take your word and sew it deep in our hearts and our minds. May we find that we are encouraged once again and strengthen once again.

Look to you with the eyes of faith in Christ new amen. Matthew chapter four, verses 18 through 22. This is a holy inherent sufficient word of God. Well, walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Simon was called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him and going on from

there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother in the boat with Zebedee. Their father mending their nets and he called them immediately. They left the boat, their father and followed him. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks. Speak to God. Amen. Want, uh, this evening just, uh, briefly consider this passage

in light of ordination. Uh, first I want you to notice this, that these are common men. These are common men. Uh, I'm thankful that over the years that I've been in ministry that uh, I have met very few men who have been called to the office of deacon or elder, whether that's teaching elder or ruling elder that have felt as if they were qualified for it. In one sense, cuz the Lord calls common men to be ordained. But I wanna take just two steps backwards or back before

we consider that, that call to office because there are other calls that we see in scripture. First is this. All people are called every single person on the face of the earth is called man, woman, and child is called. It is what we would call the the general call of God. Come and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Everybody is to hear that call. That call is for all people. Every person has this call from God.

There's a second call that not all receive to all. Receive the call to come to Lord Jesus Christ and be saved but not all receive the second call. Only some receive it. And that is the efficacious saving call of Christ. All people receive the general call, but there are only some who receive that saving call from the Lord Jesus Christ is that af efficacious saving call that takes a sinner from darkness to delight that takes him from death to life

that takes him from sinner dis saint. Every Christian has this call from God.

There's a third call that we're focused upon this evening. Every Christian receives that efficacious saving call, but only some Christians receive the call to the office, to the office of Elder or to the office of Deacon. A call upon a man's life to be a steward of the mysteries of God and to rule over the church office of Elder or to the office of Deacon. What our book of church order calls an office of sympathy and service

serve the body in that way. And just like all the other calls, it does not originate from man, it didn't come primarily from us. The call from God we're just simply recognizing it. This, you ratified it as a congregation when you voted, the call came from God. We recognized it.

Now, no one in one very real sense should ever feel worthy of these calls. Any of these Calls I know of, no one who feels worthy of that efficacious saving call of Christ. The person that does feel worthy of that call has not yet been called. They don't understand it. And in many ways, person that feels entitled to the call of office or to elder or deacon also probably doesn't have the call. They feel entitled to it. They think somehow that they are worthy for it.

Almost without fail, every man feels unworthy of that call. A man that feels worthy of that call I also believe has probably not actually received that call. Now there there's some difference, of course there's the difference of this, that when a man is called to the office of Elder Deacon, there are qualifications that are listed in first Timothy three and Titus one. And so he must see himself in reflection of those qualifications.

There's also very much what we call that inward sense of call that is that not only has a court of the church called them to this service, not only have they received that outward call from the body of Christ, but they have an inward sense of that call. That is that they feel a burden upon their own hearts. Said indeed the the Lord has called me to service as an elder deacon, and yet the man called to serve as an elder deacon

rightfully should feel unworthy of the call. If you men feel like that this evening, you're in a good place. You're in good company. I've sat with many men over the years and often the conversation goes like this. I will sit with them and I'll say, have you ever considered whether the Lord is calling you to serve as an elder deacon? Often the conversation goes like this. The response is, well,

I I I don't really feel like I'm there. My, my prayer life's not strong enough. It impatient with my kids and then it almost inevitably goes to this I, I don't know that I belong in the room with. And they start naming different elders or they start naming different deacons that are serving now

feel very common and they usually end with something like, I'm not anything special and I usually respond. You're right, you're not. You're common. And those men are common

men this evening are common men.

And that is precisely what Jesus, Coles, Andrew and Peter and James and John were common men. They were fishermen. There was nothing special about them, nothing that would distinguish them from all of their peers and all the other men walking around Galilee and walking around Israel at this time. There was nothing, nothing that distinguished them except for this, that they had the call of God upon their lives. That's what distinguished them. He calls,

we respond and without fail he simply calls common men.

Some of you have probably heard me tell this story before. It's one of my favorite stories from ministry. But when I've served at different churches, I've served at uh four different churches, five different churches in one capacitor or another, uh, on staff over the years I've always, in those first weeks and months, I've always sought out the old people in the congregation and I've taken them out to lunch for the breakfast and I just, an open-ended question.

I'll say something like, tell me about the history of the church.

First church I was ordained in, uh, in North Carolina. I did this with the older men in the congregation, just took them out to breakfast. So tell me about the history of the church and they would all tell the story. And in each story, as I was meeting with these different men, this name kept coming up. Simon pve, Simon pve, Simon pve, Simon pve, I'm listening to this is going out with these different men for lunch. And I thought, oh, Simon must have been an early pastor in this congregation,

but he wasn't. He had his name kept coming up all the time and the story was always the exact same about Simon. He was a man of very small stature. They would all do this when they talked about Simon and they said he would never speak publicly. You would never hear him stand up here and talk. He would never teach a class a Sunday school class where he was standing in front of people. You would never hear him. And yet every single one of these men,

they pointed to Simon Pve and they said that it was that man that the Lord used to lead them to saving faith. All these old men in the congregation, Simon pve was not a pastor. He eventually became a ruling elder at this church and was not a man of incredible gifts by everybody's account. And yet what he did is every Sunday afternoon he would invite all the young boys of the church over to his house, 8, 9, 10 years old and he would go for a walk in the woods with them

and he would point out to them different trees and different plants and they would look at them and they would talk about them and he would pepper the conversations with the gospel.

All those little boys became the first generation of elders in that church.

By the time I got there, they were all elders emeritus. They were all in their eighties and they were fading out. But they were the first generation of elders in that church and every single one of them pointed to Simon Bette as the man that the Lord used to lead them. Save faith was um, decided to show Sunday morning the church this the impact one man could have, one common man could have upon children of the church and on the entire church.

And so this was before the service started and we're doing the announcements and I was recruiting childcare workers. Uh, and so I said, I just wanna ask you a question. If Simon Pervet was the person that the Lord used in your life as a primary means from a human perspective to lead you to saving faith, would you stand at least seven or eight old men stood up And then I said, the congregation, look around now. If the primary person that the Lord used to lead you to saving faith is one of

these men, would you stand up? About a third of the congregation stood up. They were the early elders of the church and then I asked the question. I said, look around. If the one of the people standing now is the primary person that the Lord used to lead you to saving faith, would you stand? I'll never forget it. Church of 400, 450. There were maybe maybe 20 of us left city.

This one common man

who was just attending to the call of God upon his life and the Lord worked extraordinary things. He uses common men. Second point, he calls common men to an uncommon task, an uncommon task. Jesus says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew tells us twice they immediately, this was true of Andrew and Peter. This was true of James Jinja. Immediately they left their nets and they followed him. The son's Zeb immediately

Left. Not only their nets, they also left their father and they immediately followed Jesus. They went chasing after him. When the kingdom has come, complacency is not an option. When the kingdom has come, there is to be no hesitation on our part, no way in the cost. Jesus is always worth following. Follow me. Jesus says, so they do. They drop everything and they follow him. Now notice when he calls, he calls us not only to himself,

he calls us to a task.

Those who are his he calls and those who he calls he sins. There's no idleness in discipleship. There's no languishing when you're following the Lord Jesus Christ. No purposelessness. We have been called to the person of Christ and to the task of ministering to others for the sake and glory of Christ. That's the task. When they were called to follow Jesus, he called them to be fishers of men. I will make you fishers of men.

Jesuses and I love that He puts it in language that these common men would understand. This is what you do during the day. Guess what? We're changing it and now instead of drawing fish from the deep sea, you're gonna be drawing men from the depths of hell.

This is the task. Andrew, Peter, James and John, I'll make you fishers of men. Did they know what it meant in that moment? No. Did they have some sort of understanding? Probably not. Do you men this evening who are being ordained? Do you know what you're being called to? Not really. You have a sense you've watched it read about it, but you know it in many ways. Like I often think when I'm marrying a young man and a young woman to each other and I ask them if they're covenanting

together and never to leave nor forsake each other and whether through sickness or health. And they say with cheer smiles, yes I do. They know, but they don't know but they're gonna find out and so are you men. He makes us what he calls us to. He said, I will make you fishers of men. He would make them this and he did. They grew into it. Listen, Christ Uses sinners to save sinners. He uses sinners to minister to sinners.

We look often at people in the church or our coworkers or our neighbors and we say, oh, they need Jesus.

So easy to say, but how about thinking about this, this way? They need you.

They need you to share with them. Jesus.

He works through sinners to convert sinners. He works through save sinners to encourage, save sinners.

He works by that same power of the spirit which Christ did his earthly ministry by. That's how he is chosen to work. He works by his spirit as the word goes out and the word goes out through our mouths, through our laborers in you men being ordained tonight, you have very uncommon task of ministering to this little flock. U c, the sheep of u c need in a very real sense, your ministry among, they need you to be fishers of men,

not because of who you are. You are very common because of who Christ is and he has chosen to do a portion of his labors in this vineyard through you.

Again, these disciples weren't perfect. Peter had zeal, but he lacked a lot of knowledge. John and James, they are far from perfect disciples. Jesus will call them sons of funder because they lack patience and they're ready to call down fire upon anybody that stands in their way, but he makes them fishers of men.

They all become it. He uses common people to minister to common people. It's an uncommon task, but it's a glorious task. This is what I want to press home. Maybe as we think about this, as we think about it being the task that is set before us, I want you to be, have this upon your minds and your hearts that it's not so much a task. Uh, concerns me even as I'm saying it, as an officer in the church, you are not laboring for the budget or for the

finances, for the church building or or even the vision or for this or that ministry. That's not why you're laboring. You labor for the sheep, you labor for the people Fishers of men. You've been called the minister to people and the finances and the budgets and vision and ministries and buildings. They only matter as they matter in ministering to people. Otherwise they don't really matter. Who cares?

Your task is ministered to people. It's people that are to be upon your mind and that are to be upon your heart. Buildings disappear. Budgets get blown up. Ministries come and go. People last eternally and called to minister to people. But so often what happens is we get into these session meetings or diaconate meetings and oh, what becomes the heartbeat of the room is the things. May it never be here. It's to be people

and called the minister to people.

It's the people that matter

why cuz they matter to him. His people matter beyond all those because his people matter to him when you're serving God by serving his people.

Finally, I want you to know that common men are called to this uncommon task and are called together. It is no mistake that Andrew and Peter are called together that James and John are called together. Even Paul, when he gets that miraculous calling on the e Emmaus road, he is immediately sent to go study with Priscilla and Aquila. He is called together. When Jesus sends out the disciples, he sends them out in prayers two going out together.

The kingdom is never contingent upon any single one of us. The Lord never places the burden upon your individual's shoulders. He never says Andy or Blake or Paul or Blake. He never says that it's not contingent upon you. The church needs godly men leading it, but it already has the Godly man leading it. So we lean into him and we are always laboring underneath his headship always. And we are here united together as it were a kind of band of brothers.

The session the elders are to be a kind of band of brothers where they're laboring side by side, the diaconate, the deacons are to be a band of brothers. The session and diaconate together are to be a band of brothers that see themselves shoulder to shoulder, arm and arm underneath the headship of Christ, laboring together for the good of the people for his glory. Listen, Jesus could have done his ministry all by himself.

Isn't it fascinating? As soon as he begins his public ministry, he calls the disciples and he spends three years with them teaching them, modeling before them, instructing them, helping them learn patience, helping them to love others, helping them to see themselves as a servant, all of this, all of that. So that when he departs he could send them out to be ambassadors on his behalf. He could have just done that himself or he could have just called John to

himself and put everything upon John, but he doesn't. He sends them out together. It is always together. The SEC session and diaconate together is to be abandoned brothers, not for its singular benefit, not primarily for those who sit in the meanings, but for the body it serves to the glory of Christ.

He put us together to minister together for the benefit of others to his glory.

Let me just leave you with this one last thought. If that's true, if we are common men that have been called together as abandoned brothers to a very uncommon task, then that means that you and I have to lean into that great shepherd of the sheep, that great head in chief of the body and that means that you have to be men of the word and prayer. That's how you depend upon him. You're constantly upon your knees cuz you're common men

where you're constantly in the word and growing and your knowledge and your ability to apply that word to the sheep that have desperate need for this means of grace in their life. You have to be men that see yourselves as utterly dependent. That's the call so that you can actually be a earthly benefit saint. You've been called to serve, uses common men for a very uncommon task and he's called you together. Let's pray.

Father, we do thank you this evening for the calling of these men.

You have called labor for your glory and your praise and our congregation pray that they would do so well and may you be exalted. May we find that they're ministering to us in times of need, in times, even when we don't know it is need you continue to preserve the peace and the purity of this congregation in and through them, leaders in it. Pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen.