Anchor My Faith

Peter and Andrew again with Jesus

Scripture: Matthew 4:18; Lk 5:1-3

As we walk with Jesus along the gospel path, we will find times when he has special relationships with certain men. For example, that first time occurred after Jesus had been tempted by the devil in the wilderness and had returned to the Jordan where John the Baptist was ministering and he pointed out Jesus to be the Lamb or God. At that time, we identified five men as possible disciples. They were Andrew, John, Peter, Philip and Nathanael. In this section we will identify four men as possible disciples. They are Peter, Andrew, James and John. Peter, Andrew and John were mentioned in the first group, but here we add James. Later in our walk we will come to the official call of the twelve.

Let us continue our walk with Jesus along the gospel path. “Mt 4:18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.” Peter and Andrew apparently stayed with Jesus for a while when they first met, but from what we see here they went back to fishing sometime after the wedding at Cana.

“Lk 5:1 [Later Jesus] was standing by the lake of Gennesaret [Sea of Galilee], [and] the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.” It is clear that by this time Jesus was popular enough to have a large following as “the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” We don’t know for sure why he was popular, but one can make a very good guess that it was because his lifestyle was so different when compared to that of the Pharisees and scribes. He taught with authority and demonstrated much of what he taught with power. What he taught had strong spiritual overtones, but yet were very practical and real life. I believe the main reason is that Jesus is the Word become flesh and when he spoke what he said was truly the word of God.

With the crowd pressing in on him, he was hindered in his teaching and was unable to be seen by those who were not up real close. To solve this problem, he need some way he could put some distance between him and the crowd and elevate the crowd so they could look down to him. Jesus sees two boats that were pulled up on the shore, because the fishermen had left them to go and wash their nets, and he sees in his mind a solution to his control of the crowd.

“3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.” Jesus selects Simon’s boat and gets into it and asks Simon to move the boat out away from shore. Being in the boat would be like being on stage in an auditorium with a floor that rises to the back. As the people stood on the land they could all hear and see Jesus.

We are not told what Jesus taught the crowd, but we are told that when he finished he made a request of Simon Peter. We will continue from this point in our next lesson. 

Prayer

Father, I find it interesting to see that Jesus is still not traveling with disciples. From time to time he sees them, but officially they have not been called to follow him and stay with him. His purpose seems to be to develop a relationship with them and then when the time is ready, he will officially call them.