Matthew 4:17-22

Matthew 4:17-22

True Purpose 

1. Jesus promises to give us true purpose when we follow Him, but that means we must be completely committed to Him with our whole life

1. As Jesus began His earthly ministry, He began calling those who’d be His closest disciples by coming to two sets of brothers who were fishermen, Andrew and Peter, and James and John, with the simple but life altering command, “Follow Me”. It’s important to understand what Jesus meant by this command because, even though the role of these men as followers of Christ is distinct among His disciples, the call to follow Him is the same for all believers. Therefore their response to His call is also the desired and required response for all disciples. Both groups of men responded with immediacy and completeness, leaving their nets, boats, and families to follow Jesus. Just as Jesus was calling for repentance from sin, or a renouncement, abandoning, and leaving behind of sin at the coming of the Kingdom, so being His disciple requires the renouncing, abandoning, or leaving behind all things in complete commitment to Him. Jesus called these men to abandon their careers, possessions, families, friends, comfort, and certainty, and trade it for a life following Him, as the absolute priority of their lives. To be a disciple means committing yourself as an apprentice under the tutelage of a Master, learning from Him, and reshaping the whole nature and meaning of your life. Discipleship isn’t the process of learning about the Master, or the process of learning what the Master knows, it’s the process of becoming what the Master is. This command and call is completely contrary to the self-centered world which calls us to be self-seeking, self-serving, self-preserving, self-promoting, and self-loving. Jesus commands us to selflessly abandon all, and radically, love, treasure, seek, and serve Him! He calls us to hold loosely to everything in this life which is temporary, and cling tightly to Him who is eternal. Being a disciple of Christ requires us to renounce our lordship over our lives, and submit to Jesus’ Lordship in every area of life. He must be Lord over our thoughts, feelings, words, actions, relationships, occupations, possessions, policies and politics. Have we truly done that? Have we truly abandoned our sin, career, family, possessions, comfort, and desires, and entrusted them to Him? Or are we still trying to act as Lord over some or all areas of our lives? He calls us to this radical abandonment of all things because by reconciling us to God through His radical sacrifice on our behalf, He restores us to the only true source of meaning in life, which is the image of God created in us. And this meaning is the necessary prerequisite to living purposely in life. (Gen. 1:26-31; 2 Sam. 24:18-25; Matt. 4:12-22; 6:19-21, 34; 7:13-14; 10:16; 13:44; 16:13-17; 24-25; Luke 6:46; 9:23-25; 57-62; 14:33; John 13:1-8; 15:1-4; Phil. 3:7-16) 

2. Jesus promises to give us true purpose when we follow Him, but that means we must live urgently and obediently for His mission

1. Having called these disciples to abandon their lives and follow after Him, He now promises that in their doing so, He’ll give them the purpose which governs their whole lives, by making them “fishers of men”. By this Jesus means that as they submit to follow Him, learn from Him, and become more like Him, He’ll give them the power, ability, and desire to make sharing His gospel the primary, unifying purpose in every area of their existence. The same is true for us, Jesus saves us, transforms us, restores us, gives our lives meaning, and gives us true purpose by reordering our lives and priorities to accomplish His eternal purposes, and make us disciple makers. The world calls us to “find our purpose” in life by fishing for wealth, success, influence, status, recognition, comfort, possessions, recreation, physical relationships, empty acts of service, social activism, and political activism, all in our own strength, and promises it’ll satisfy our craving for purpose. But all these things are constantly shifting, contradictory, and fleeting, and the sense of purpose which we experience is just as fleeting and unstable. The reality is that if we’re not making disciples in Jesus’ Name we’re missing our purpose! Jesus may be calling you to radically abandon everything for the mission field or vocational ministry, but most likely He’s calling you to urgently and obediently serve Him by radically abandoning your own priorities as a busines owner, employee, student, church member, family member, or citizen and reorder your life to make His mission your ultimate purpose. We only experience true purpose in life when we’re disciples of Christ who make disciples for Christ. (Matt. 4:18-22; 6:24-33; 20:28; 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 19:10; John 11:20:21; Acts 1:6-8; 20:24; 1 Cor. 9:16-23; 2 Tim. 3:14-17)