Gospel of Matthew Chapter 4 Vs. 20

 Jesus Calls the First Disciples

Matthew 4:20 “And they straightway left [their] nets, and followed him.”

left their nets... Leaving all is required of all men. It is an idiom of putting God first in life (Mat. 19:27-30; Luke 14:33).

These men were strong. It takes a lot of muscle to pull in fish nets full of fish. The name “Andrew” means manly, and “Peter” means rock. You can see by their names, that these men were powerful physically. Jesus was about to make strong spiritual men of them. They would face more hardships as ministers of the Word than they ever did as fishermen.

These men were just ordinary men. They had no degrees in ministry, only the call of God upon their lives. These two were to become part of the elite l2 that would, through Jesus, make a giant impact upon the world. We will look at them, again and again, as we go through this study. For now, it is enough to know that they would no longer fish for food, but for the souls of men.

The message of the coming kingdom needed to be proclaimed widely so that many could hear and could become, by repentance, subjects of His kingdom.