Read Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20. After moving to Capernaum, Jesus begins to choose men to follow Him and be trained. While Matthew and Mark do not mention it, we know from John’s gospel that Peter and Andrew, James and John had already been introduced to Jesus and had traveled with Him. This was their official invitation to follow Him.
1. What, do you think, it cost these men to follow Jesus?
The immediate cost was a good living. They were prosperous fishermen. In human terms, the ultimate cost was their lives, for all would be put to death for their choice to follow our Lord. However, what they gave up cannot compare to what they gained.
Read Matthew 8:14-17, Mark 1:21-34 and Luke 4:31-41. This records events taking place on the Sabbath after the calling of the four fishermen. The Sabbath was from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. It was a special day for Jews, for God had instructed them to keep this day holy by not working. It was to be a day of rest. The people, however, had taken God’s simple command and had added their own traditions to it. They started to meet in synagogues (church services). They developed a very long list of strict rules for what was considered work and what was not. These were human traditions rather than God’s commands.
2. What event took place in the synagogue?
Jesus cast out a demon from a man who was disrupting the meeting. There is much we do not know about demonic possession, what it is or how it works; however, we do know that it is real. Demons are those angelic beings who sided with Satan in his rebellion against God and fell with Satan as a result. They are spirit beings. This seems to mean that they are not confined to the spatial dimensions of this universe to which we are now confined., and they do not have material bodies as do we.
They are able to appear in many different forms and have the ability to possess or indwell other physical forms of life. Since we know very little about man’s soul and/or spirit, we understand very little of how this is brought about. We do know that a demon or demons may take control of a person’s physical being and control his actions in some unknown way. This is called being possessed or being indwelt by a demon.
The person who is indwelt or possessed becomes the means by which a demon interacts with the physical world. While it seems that a demon may exist in our world independent of a physical host, it appears that they prefer one. (Luke 11:24-26) The demons called Legion requested that they be allowed to enter a herd of swine upon being cast out of their human host. (Mark 5:1-12) There is no Scriptural evidence that an inanimate object may be possessed by a demon.
Some demons have been locked in the Abyss, a place of imprisonment for demonic beings awaiting judgment, while others remain free. The demons called Legion begged our Lord not to send them into the Abyss. In the last half of the Tribulation Period, some of the demons imprisoned here will be released upon the earth as part of God’s judgment upon humanity. Satan himself will be imprisoned here during the thousand-year reign of Messiah upon the earth. (Luke 8:31, 1 Peter 3:18-19, Jude 6, Revelation 9:1-21 and 20:1-3) Following the last judgment, all demonic beings, including Satan, will be cast into Hell forever.
Since believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for a demon to indwell or possess them.
3. What impressed the people about our Lord’s teaching?
He taught them with authority, unlike the scribes. When the scribes and teachers of the Law taught, they interpreted the Law based upon what other authorities had said about it. They taught the oral and written traditions concerning the Law. When Jesus taught, He cited the Scripture and said, God, says this! The scribes said, “These people say the law might mean this.” Jesus said, “I tell you, it means this!”
4. How was our Lord’s authority confirmed?
It was confirmed by the fact he had the power to cast out demons. If our Lord had authority and power from God to cast out demons, He had the authority to state what God meant! It was this ability to cast out demons, so evident to everyone, that the religious leaders had to explain away before they could condemn Him.
5. Why do you think the people waited until sunset to start coming to Peter’s house to be healed?
They had to wait until the Sabbath was over, which was at sunset.
6. Why did Jesus forbid the demons to speak?
They knew He was the Messiah. Our Lord never accepted or allowed the testimony of any demonic spirit. When they began to identify Him, He forbid them to continue to speak. One reason for this was that He did not want the people to attempt to make Him king and begin a popular uprising. This would not accomplish God’s purpose. The route to the throne was via the cross. Another reason was He needed no witness from beings known to be liars and inherently evil.
Read Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 1:35-39 and Luke 4:42-44. The crowds did not come until after sunset and stayed late. It would have taken time to deal with each individual need, so He probably was up quite late. But even with very little sleep, Jesus still got up before light and went to pray.
7. Why did Jesus not want to stay with the crowds that were looking for Him there?
He was more interested in proclaiming the message of the coming kingdom than performing miracles.
Read Luke 5:1-11. Sometime after He called the four fishermen, He reaffirmed their call. They, after following Him a while, sort of drifted back into fishing part-time. At one of these times when they were fishing, Jesus calls them again.
8. What miracle does Jesus perform to get their attention?
He had them throw their nets into the water (after they were unsuccessful) and catch so many fish the boat was about to sink.
The Applications:
What are the applications of these passages to our lives today? Identify as many as you are able.
1. There is a cost to being a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ. By the very act of choosing one course of action, a person chooses not to follow others. If a person chooses to follow and obey Jesus Christ, it must mean a choice not to follow and seek the world. You cannot serve God and the love of money! These fishermen, by electing to follow Jesus as Messiah, initially gave up good jobs, family comforts and ultimately their lives.
Yet what they gave up does not begin to compare with what they gained in the short term, fellowship with God and other believers, and what they would gain in the long run, the glory and honor of being a son of God and reigning and ruling with Jesus Christ. Jim Elliot, one of the five martyred missionaries to the Auca Indians in Ecuador, wrote these words, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
2. Our Lord had a very busy day and an even busier evening. It had to have been quite late before He finally was able to get some sleep. Had it been us after a busy day and exhausting evening, we might have been tempted to sleep in to catch up on our rest. But Mark tells us our Lord did not do this; He had an even greater need than rest, the need to pray. We are told He arose early in the morning while it was still dark and went to a secluded place to pray. If He so felt the need for prayer, what about us?
Unfortunately, very few of us labor at prayer today. One reason we find it so hard is that we treat it as a ritual rather than a conversation with our heavenly Father. We feel we must begin a certain way, say or pray for certain things, and close with a particular phrase. We speak without even thinking about what we are saying. We are repeating words and not consciously speaking and having fellowship with another person.
3. While some liberal scholars sometimes point to this account of the calling of the four fishermen in Luke as contradicting the accounts given in Matthew and Mark, it is much more reasonable to understand this as a separate event that occurred after the initial call of these four. What likely took place was that Peter and Andrew; James and John left their nets and boats and followed our Lord as recorded by Matthew and Mark. After a period of time, they just drifted back into fishing again. Remember that Jesus’ home was now Capernaum, where these four lived. Being in the area, it was easy to take a break and help their friends and family with the fishing. In Luke’s account, we should understand the four have already been called. They have already spent time with Jesus. At this time, our Lord finds them, having drifted back into fishing and dramatically reaffirms their call.
Each of us must, from time to time, have our call reaffirmed. We tend to drift away and forget the calling of our Lord. We become entangled with nets, which keep us from spending our time at our primary tasks.
4. There are many religious ministries today in our culture that push and advertise the miraculous. The drawing card is often the promise of miraculous healings and other miracles. The idea is that if we can get people to come to see the miracles, or come for some other reason, then they will hear the message. It is important to note our Lord’s ministry while He was here on earth. At this instance, there was a crowd waiting, drawn because of the miracles that had taken place the night before, yet our Lord chose to go elsewhere and proclaim the message. He did not use the miracles as a means of drawing people. In fact, He tried to heal in secret and strictly told those who had been healed not to tell anyone. The emphasis of His ministry was preaching the message of the coming kingdom, not the practice of performing the miraculous.