Good evening, good evening. I'm so happy that you could join us this evening. And share with your friends and family of the channel, the CTNWVLR, share with them so that they may be able to come to this channel and watch our show. Let me open this up in prayer.
Lord God, I thank you, Lord Jesus, for this show, Lord God. I thank you for this TV station, Lord God, to be able to broadcast your word through it, Lord God. I pray, Lord Jesus, that everything I say is not my own accord, Lord God, it is your words, Lord God. So I pray, Lord God, that I speak what you would have to speak and say what you would have to say.
And I pray, Lord God, that maybe it will bless someone. Maybe that right person will tune in at the right time to hear the right word that they need at that right moment, Lord God, that they need to answer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen.
I'm so happy that y'all could join us this evening here for the show. Today I want to talk about the call. Everybody from one end of the spectrum or another, there is a call that God is calling. God's calling every single one of us.
Maybe calling you to be a preacher, maybe you to be a Christian, maybe you to be a teacher, or maybe an evangelist. So let's talk about the call. And I want to talk about Peter. Out of scripture, there's always someone in scripture that you can grab a hold of.
And I believe that Peter is someone that we can connect with. One of the things that I've always been curious is the call, what happened when Jesus, what made Peter turn and decide to follow Jesus like he did? So what I've done is I went through the different chapters. When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you studied the Four Gospels, it is actually somewhat difficult because if you start in Matthew, you'll read Matthew, but then you'll, after you're done with Matthew, then you'll go to Mark, and then you'll go to Luke, and then you'll go to John.
But in reality, I believe that to study the Four Gospels correctly, well, I'm not even gonna say that that's the correct way, but you should probably study them together. If I can explain that, because in the Four Gospels, it's a lot of the same stories show up in different ones. And so I want to talk about Peter. I'm sorry, excuse me.
Matthew's account about the call that Peter had. And Matthew 4, Chapter 4, starts in about Chapter 4, verses 12 through 17, Jesus begins his Galilean ministry. Now, I'm not sure what version of Bible that you read. I typically use the New King James Version, but I also use the new, what is it called?
The New American Standard Bible. And I also read the Passion Translation, too. Some people don't, I've heard some good and bad on that, but I like to read that. But anyway, right now I'm kind of focused on the New King James Version.
But Matthew's account in Chapter 4, verses 12 through 17, that's where it talks about Jesus begins his Galilean ministry. Starting in verse 18, it's that he comes about the Four Fishermen called as disciples. So in verse 18, it says, in Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, Saul two brothers, excuse me, Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, passing in the Sea for they were fishermen. So before we go any further, understand that this is written after the fact.
This is written after everything has already taken place. So sometimes they put things in here, like Simon called Peter to give you to, so as you know who we're talking about. But at that moment, he was only Simon. So anyway, Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting in the Sea as they were fishermen.
So they were fishermen. Then he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Verse 20 says, they immediately left their nets and followed him. Why did they just, in Matthew's account, it doesn't give you everything that, why all of a sudden did Jesus walk by and says, hey, come follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
And they immediately left. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers in verse 21. James, the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat was Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. He called them and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
And they done the same thing. And then in chapter, same chapter, verses 23, 25 says, Jesus, he was a great multitude. And then in Matthew chapter five, it goes on to the beatitudes. So chapter four, verses 18 through 22 that I just read, is the synopsis of Matthew's account of the call.
He called Peter and Andrew, and then he called James and John just in those, but immediately when he called them, they left. But why? What took place? What was it that when Jesus says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men and they left immediately?
What took place? There's something that took place. Now let's go to Mark's account because Mark's account, kind of when I was putting this together, I wanted to give you the, to be able to look and compare. So Mark's account, Jesus begins his Galilean ministry in the first chapter of Mark, whereas it didn't start until the fourth chapter of Mark.
So before that, there was other things that was taken place, Christmas, our holiday of Christmas, the beginning of Matthew, who talks about that, there's the baguettes, that's the first chapter of Matthew. And then it talks about the baptismal, it talks about the wilderness, Jesus being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the enemy. And actually that is actually would be right before him starting his Galilean ministry. That's where we're picking up, we're picking up, right when Jesus come out from his temptation, and that's when he begins his Galilean ministry.
Also, now I'm not taking, I don't have it in here, but also there is the baptismal, that John the Baptist baptized Jesus, but that was before the temptation, that was before he was led into the wilderness. So now Mark's account will pick up in Mark chapter one, Jesus begins his Galilean ministry. And then in the 16th verse starts the call again that I'm referring to. It says, and he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, see, it only specified Simon, I didn't say Simon called Peter.
So that's giving you an understanding that at this moment when Jesus called them, he was not Simon at that moment. He was not Simon prior to that, I mean, he was not Peter prior to that, he was Simon. He saw Simon and Andrew as brother, passing in and into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, verse 17, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.
How did the same as Matthew? They immediately left their notes again, they just right after the statement that Jesus makes, they just leave their notes, and that's immediately unfollowed in. And when they had gone a little further from there, he saw James and John and they were brothers and they were meeting their nets and they left their father and followed Jesus. Then in Mark, right after this took place, Jesus cast out an unclean spirit.
Then in Mark 129, Simon and Peter's mother-in-law is healed. Then in Mark, still in Mark chapter one, many healed after the Sabbath sunset preaching in Galilee and in Jesus' cleansed leper. So this all was taken place at this, now that's Mark's account. So now let's look at John's account because John has a little bit of different, an account on this.
John's account starts in chapter one. And it says again, the next day, chapter one verse 35, again, the next day, John stood with his two, we're talking about John the Baptist, stood with two of his disciples, and looking at Jesus, he walked and said, behold the Lamb of God. Now see, earlier before we didn't hear about John, now all of a sudden in John's account, Saint John's account, we hear John talking about John the Baptist standing and seeing his two disciples. And looking at Jesus, he walked and he said, behold the Lamb of God, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus.
Immediately John's account says they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and seen them following. Said to them, what do you seek? They said to him, they said to him Rabbi, which is to say, when translated teacher, where are you staying?
He said come and see. They came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day. Now it was about the 10th hour. One of the two heard John speak and followed him, was Andrew Simon Peter's brother.
Again, we're putting the word Simon Peter in there. But now listen to this, because he's not Peter yet. It's Simon Peter's brother. His first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated in Christ.
Verse 42 says, and he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon, the son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone. In John 142 in the New American Standard Bible, it says that it's also translated into Peter. So Cephas actually is translated into stone and also translated into Peter.
Peter means stone. So now in John's account, it actually shows you in his account that Jesus changed the name, or actually because he was called Simon. That never did cease. But Jesus now is calling him Peter, which is a rock, which we later understand that Peter was the rock that is talked about.
In Matthew 16, if you recall in Matthew 16, it says, Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ and son of the living God. This is when Jesus is asking everyone his disciples, who do men say that I am? And all of them didn't know what he was looking for. But finally, Peter picked up and says, you're the Christ, the son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you Simon, Mark Jonah, means the son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I also say to you are Peter, remember Peter, he was actually Simon and then Jesus now calling him Peter and Peter is translated into stone. He says, Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against that. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven.
And if you follow the scripture, you will see that all of a sudden that in the first couple of books, first couple of chapters of Acts is when the Holy Ghost came down and the church was birthed and actually Peter began to preach. And there was a lot of things that took place in that. So that was when Peter's name was then given to him. But now let's look at, because I'm still talking about the call, I'm still trying to figure out what made these men just turn and immediately follow Jesus.
Immediately, that's what Matthew said, that's what Mark said. And John, you can see that there's actually a little bit more to, he didn't talk about that they were fishing or that they were mending, but you can see it from a little bit different view. But now let's look at Luke's account. Let's look at Luke and what he has to say.
In Luke chapter four, we see Jesus is rejected in Nazareth and it says, so he came to Nazareth in verse 16, where he had been brought up. Now understand that Jesus lived, he was brought up in Nazareth. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. So we see that Jesus was always going to the synagogue and reading, and reading scripture.
And that's, and that was something that he'd done all the time. I believe in my heart when he says that this was his custom, then they probably knew him there and that he came there all the time. And he was handed the book. So they knew him, so they handed the book.
Maybe he was one of the preachers, if you could say it like that during that time. So they handed in the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. And this is Luke chapter four, verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He was sent, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recover of sight to the line. I said at liberty, those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closes the book, and he hands the book back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in this synagogue were fixed on him because they're waiting for some shutdown message, I guess.
I don't know really what they were waiting. And he began to say to them, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Now see, this is Luke's account. Matthew didn't have this, Mark didn't have you this.
And actually John didn't have this in there, but we see it in Luke. Now if you go on past this part, you'll see Luke account and he talked about Jesus cast out the unclean spirit, which we remember if you remember, that was in Mark. Simon Peter's mother-in-law was healed. Wait a minute, that was also in Mark.
So Mark and Luke's account on that seems to concur. And in many healed after the seventh sunset, wait a minute, that was in Mark also. Matthew didn't say any of that, but Mark and Luke said, but now let's look at Luke chapter four versus 40. And let's start reading there.
When the sun was setting, so now we know it's at the end of the day, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons were also came out of many and crying and saying, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew he was the Christ.
So he was already doing a work. And this is Jesus preaches in Galilee. Remember at the beginning of Matthew where it says, Jesus begins his Galilee in ministry? There you go.
Jesus begins his Galilee in ministry and Mark's account. There's only just a couple of verses there, but it doesn't really give you a whole lot. Now we see his ministry and what he's doing in his ministry. Now when it was day, he departed and went into a deserted place and the crowd saw him and came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them.
So now he's preaching to a large crowd and it happened to be the next day now. And he said, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also because of this purpose I have been sent. And this is what he's telling them. This is what he's saying to this group of people.
He is preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. And now moving to chapter five verses one to 11, it says, so it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of just center Rhett. I don't know how to say that. Maybe somebody can send me a message on Facebook and tell me how to say that.
And it's all two boats. Now this is Jesus and he saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. So now Jesus has been preaching to a group of people and now he's now beside this lake and he sees the boat, but the fishermen are over washing their net. Then he came into one of the boats, which was Simon and asked him to put out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the multitude from the boat. So wait a minute. Now we understand in Matthew's account and Mark's account where he just says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men and they just immediately followed him. Now all of a sudden you see, wait a minute.
There was actually a little bit more to the Peter and Jesus conversation. It didn't just, Jesus didn't just walk by and sing from Odysseus. Hey Peter, how you doing Simon? Come on and follow me.
And I mean, it wasn't that. It was a little bit more. So now we see in Luke's account that now Jesus got into his boat and he says to launch out into the deep and let down your net, no. It says then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon and asked him to put out, to put out a little bit from the land and sat down and taught the multitude from the boat.
So now he's teaching the multitude from Peter's boat. When he had stopped speaking, he looked at Simon and he told him, launching to the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Understand that they already been fishing all not long and now they didn't catch nothing. But Simon answering and says, master, we have told all night and caught nothing.
Nevertheless, at your word, I would let down the nets. And when they had done this, they called a great multitude of fish, a great number of fish and their nets were breaking. They called so many fish that their nets begin to break. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled their boats and they begin to sink.
When Simon and Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' feet. Oh, wait a minute. Now I see why Peter left so quickly in the Matthew Mark and even John's account if you see this because now his boats are sinking so because they have so much fish and he falls to his knees as a department for me where I'm a simple man, oh Lord, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. And so also was James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
So wait a minute, those four men were partners and Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men. So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Jesus. Now I know that this was a quick, quick little message but the call, there was something that happened and I've wondered that for many times before but I didn't read the gospels together like I did today.
It wasn't that just Jesus walked by and says, hey, how you doing? Come and follow me and I'll make you fish as a man and they just left. No, something really happened. They went into the boat.
First off, we understand that Simon, Peter's mother and all was healed. They seen other aspects of what Jesus' ministry was taking place and now all of a sudden firsthand, he says, hey, can I use your boat? And I got to speak but after I'm done speaking, go catch some fish and they call so much fish that their boats begin to sink. Not just him but his partners, their partners.
The boats begin to sink. And so when they got back to shore, they were astonished at what had taken place and all of a sudden they says, look, this is the guy, this is our savior, this is the Messiah and they foresoaked their boats, their nets, their fish, everything and they begin to follow Jesus. So I'm gonna ask you, what will you leave today to follow Jesus? Let me give you a quick little prayer, Lord God, I pray Lord Jesus that you will put a call on their life, Lord God, that these people will walk away from whatever they have and follow you.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen. I appreciate y'all watching our show this evening. If there's anything, anything whatsoever that you have heard that has spoken to your heart and you feel the need to either rededicate your life or turn your life over to Jesus, I encourage you to reach out to us. We would be more than happy to speak with you either on the phone or via email or however you can reach out to us and it's easy, we can say a prayer for you.
Jesus says to Nicodemus that you must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven. So I encourage you to turn your life over. If you need to rededicate that is also to turn your life back to repentance is simply turning from the direction that you were going to a new direction. You're no longer the old person that you are.
You become a new person through the gift of salvation. So I encourage you to reach out to us at egewingsfaith.org. You can click on the tab, contact us, and you can put it through the website or you can email us right ewfmchurch at gmail.com. And we look forward to hearing from you.
God bless you and we will see you later.