Jesus Calls People to Follow Him • Matthew 4:12-15
By Carl M. White
There are pivotal events in life that result in something new. A woman loses a job but then starts a successful business, for example. Jesus began his earthly ministry not on a whim, but at the arrest of His cousin, John the Baptist. That changed everything.
“He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This happened so that what is spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled…” (Matt. 4:13-14 NASB)
Matthew notes the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 9 concerning the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. What is the significance of this?
These are the two sons of Judah and the lands east of the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea and north beyond the city of Dan is their inheritance. Nazareth is in this territory. These are the first tribes to be conquered by the Assyrians and are not seen in a favorable light in Jesus’ time. Nathanial reflected this, saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Yet, Isaiah had the prophetic foresight to see a great light coming out of this land. That light is Jesus, the Messiah!
Jesus isn’t led to Capernaum to fulfill prophecy. Matthew, with his great knowledge of the prophets and of Jesus’ life sees this fulfillment in hindsight. Isaiah sees it in prophetic foresight. The same is true in our own lives. Often, we do not see God at work until later, when we look back at events and realize God’s providential hand was there all along.
Jesus is in Capernaum to fulfill the will of His Father. This begins with His preaching the same words of His cousin John, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2 & 4:17). It is followed by the calling of disciples, two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and James and John.
While we live in a completely different culture, the call to discipleship is exactly the same. Some people try to separate the call to discipleship from the call to salvation, but you can’t. The call to be saved is the call to be His disciple. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” He saves you by grace, and you are created by the Father to do good works, which is discipleship.
Trying to separate these is one of the sins of the modern evangelical church. It results in churches full of people who have had a salvation experience but are not serving the Lord by doing the good works He prepared for them. What are those good works and how does one find them? That is the discipleship journey. It involves spiritual gifts, walking daily with the Lord, prayer, Christian fellowship, worship, and a growing understanding of the Word of God. This is how we “leave our nets,” and follow Him!
In verses 17 and 23-25, we get the first generalized description of Jesus’ ministry, traveling from one synagogue to another, proclaiming the Gospel, and healing people. His cousin John is now in prison. It was Jesus’ time to step forward to do the Father’s will. The light is starting to shine from the land formerly known as Zebulun and Naphtali.
People were healed, and for that we rejoice. But there were other people in other parts of Israel who were not healed. Why? Because this was part of God’s revelation of His plan of salvation. People began coming to Jesus from “Galilee and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (vs. 25). This would not have happened without the miracles.
In these events alone the significance is not clear, but the results are. John is arrested. Jesus withdraws, goes home to Nazareth, but then goes to Capernaum. There he meets two sets of brothers and calls them to be fishers of men, and inexplicitly, they drop their nets and follow Him! He goes around to synagogues preaching. He heals people so that soon great crowds are attracted to him. The result is — His ministry on earth is begun.
White is a member of Pineview Church, Clinton.
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