“While
walking 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 fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.’” Matthew
4:18-19 ESV
Fishermen
have to know what they are doing and apply that knowledge if they wish to
succeed. If we want to be fishers of
men, the basic knowledge we need is to know God.
John 17:3
says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (ESV) Might know
(γινώσκωσι). Might recognize or perceive. Eternal life consists in a continuing,
progressive perception of God in Christ. (Vincent, 1887)
Eternal life
is not just prolonged life. It is a quality of life that comes from being in
relationship with the Father and Son. John
usually uses Christ as a title. It is
used with Jesus’ name only here and in 1:17. The statement in 17:3 helps us understand
1:18, that Jesus fully revealed what God is like, with Jesus’ statement in
10:10 that he has come that people might have life, and have it abundantly.
These two purposes are really one, according to 17:3, because (abundant)
eternal life is defined as knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and
the Son. The only way to gain eternal life is to know the Father through the
Son (cf. 14:6). This knowledge is not intellectual, but relational. It involves
being in relationship. (Press, 2006)
“What is the
most important thing in the world to every Christian? It is to grow in the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is the heart of
salvation and all true spiritual experience.
Knowing Him is what we were created for.” (Ferguson,
1986)
It is not
enough to know about God. We need to
know Him personally. We know God through
His Word and the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Knowing Him involves spending time with Him, conversing with Him, and
thinking about Him. The more we know
Him, the more He changes the way we think and live. It is an ongoing process that is vital to our
life.
Colossians
1:10-11 exemplifies this change. “So as
to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in
every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with
all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with
joy;” (ESV)
“God says, ‘Get
me out of the box.Know me as I am- the One
who was and is and is to come. [Rev. 1:8].Eternal.Holy.Awesome.Sovereign.Lord of all.’ God invites us to be gripped by His greatness.Shaken to the core of our being at the
realization of what He freely offers.” (MacDonald, 2005)
“There is no
such thing as genuine knowledge of God that does not show itself in obedience
to His Word and will. The person who
wants to know God but who has no heart to obey God will never enter the sacred
courts where God reveals Himself to the soul of man. God does not give divine knowledge to those
who have no desire to glorify Him.” (Ferguson, 1986)
In Jeremiah
9:23-24, God explains what our goal should be.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not
the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I
am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the
earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’”
“The
knowledge of God is a personal knowledge of a personal God. It is received by those alone who seek to
know Him in a spirit of dependence upon Him, and who ask for His Spirit to lead
them into the truth.” (Ferguson, 1986)
Philippians
3:8-10 says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of
all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be
found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that
depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and
may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” (ESV)
“Genuine
encounters with God must be measured against and can never stray from the anchor
of God’s Word.” (MacDonald, 2005) God wants us to continue to grow in our
understanding of who He is and to experience Him relationally. He is the great and awesome God, but also our
loving Father. His revelation of His
character and will must conform to the revelation of God in the
Scriptures. He never changes, and He has
given us His Word to help us know Him.
Is knowing
God a major focus of your life? What can
you do to not only learn about Him, but to know Him better personally? Spend time focused on Him. So, in conclusion,
as 2 Peter 3:18 states, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen.”
For those interested in knowing more about fishing in N.T. times, read on.
There are
different kinds of nets in the Gospels. The dragnet (sagēnē, σαγήνη) is a
football field in length and 10’ wide with floats on top and sinkers on the
bottom. It is spread out parallel about a hundred yards off shore. The net is
dragged ashore by ropes on either end surrounding and capturing the fish as it
is pulled ashore. (Laney, 2016)
The cast-net
(diktyon, δίκτυον) is a circular net with weights around the outer edge to make
it sink. This net is arranged on the arm and then cast into the water with the
opposite arm. The net spreads out and the weights pull it to the bottom
trapping the fish. Fish can be retrieved
one-by-one or by wading around the net gathering the sinkers and pulling the
net with the fish to shore or into the boat. The cast-net is mentioned in Mark
1:16–18 where Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of
men.” (Laney, 2016)
The trammel
net consists of three layers of connected nets - two exterior walls of large
mesh and a middle layer of smaller mesh.
The plural “nets” (diktya) rather than the singular “net” (diktyon)
distinguishes them in the Gospels. Trammel nets are about 100’ long and
attached in a series. It was used
during the night when the fish could not see the net. Weights pull the net down into the water while
floats keep the top side of the wall near the surface. Fishermen wade in the water making noise and
splashing with oars. The fish attempt to swim away but are trapped in the small
mesh. The trammel net is probably the type in Mark 1:19–20 and Matt 4:21–22
where James and John were mending their nets. The trammel net also appears to
be the one in the great catch of fish (Luke 5:1–7) and John’s account of the
miraculous catch (John 21:3–11). (Laney, 2016)
Works Cited
Ferguson, S. B. (1986). A Heart for God.
Colorado Springs: NavPress.
Laney, J. (2016). Fishing the Sea of Galilee. In B.
(Eds.), B. Beitzel, & K. Lyle, Lexham Geographic Commentary on the
Gospels. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
MacDonald, J. (2005). Gripped By the Greatness of
God. Chicago: Moody Publishers.
Press, B. S. (2006). he NET Bible First Edition
Notes (Jn 17:3). Biblical Studies Press.
Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word Studies in the New
Testament (Vol. 2, p.263). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
“While
walking 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 fishermen.
And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’Immediately they left their nets and followed
him.”Matthew 4:18-20 ESV
Jesus asked
the disciples to become followers, but a different type of follower from ones
that followed other Rabbis.They were
not just asked to follow to absorb teaching, but to actively participate in the
ministry of fishing for men.This
required a total change from their normal way of life. (France, 1985) In the
same way, along with learning from God, we are also asked to participate with
Him in what He is doing in the world.He
uses our lives to bring change to the world.
They heard
Jesus and obeyed.Often when the Bible
tells us to hear something, it means to listen and obey.Obedience is a response. God has already
acted on our behalf, and our response should be to follow his will. In both OT
and NT, hearing (שָׁמַע, šāmaʿ, “to hear”; ὑπακούω, hypakouō,”to obey”) often
is a call to God’s people to follow him (or his law).In the NT, Jesus obeys the Father, even to
die on a cross (Phil 2:8). Following Jesus’ precedent (Mark 12:28–34), love is
the motivation for obedience (e.g., Rom 13:8–10; Jas 2:8). (Gabrielson, 2014) Nicole Given, Worship Pastor at Deep Rivers Church, shares her experiences with following God in this video.
We do not
serve God out of fear, but out of love.1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts
out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been
perfected in love.” (ESV)
“Our wants
and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from
which our actions and behavior flow.Our
wants reverberate from our heart, the epicenter of the human person.Thus Scripture counsels, ‘Above all else,
guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it’ (Prov. 4:23).Discipleship, we might say, is a way to
curate (pull together, sift through)
your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love.”(Smith, 2016)
Phil. 1:9-11
says, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with
knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and
so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of
righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
(ESV)
We seek to
know what we love.Love is a subconscious
desire that works without our even thinking about it. (Smith, 2016)The
question is what do you love?What is
your deepest desire?It is easy to allow
culture to corrupt and replace what we love so that our actions and habits push
us in a direction away from following God.Recognition, financial security, possessions, acceptance, and power are
all examples of things we can desire that push against trusting and loving God.We need to constantly check to see what is
motivating us, because it is very easy for the world to slip the wrong things
into our hearts. That is where
repentance comes in. Is there anything that you long for that has snuck into
your heart and changed your behavior?
Col. 3:12-14
tells us, “Put on then,
as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint
against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you
also must forgive. And above all these
put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (ESV)
Compassion,
kindness, and humility are examples of virtues. Love holds all the virtues together.Virtues are the good moral habits that are
woven into who you are and how you are inclined to act. (Smith, 2016)“to become virtuous is to internalize the law
…so that you follow it more or less automatically.” (Smith, 2016)People will see the change as we choose to
keep our eyes on Christ and follow His ways.
We learn
through God’s revelation in His Word, through His Spirit, and through imitation
(1 Cor. 11:1), and we change as we incorporate new habits into our lives as we
are compelled by love.
Works
Cited
France, R. (1985). Matthew: an introduction and
commentary (Vol. 1, p.109). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Gabrielson, T. (2014). Lexham Theological
Workbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Smith, J. K. (2016). You Are What You Love - The
Spiritual Power of Habit. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press.
