SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2020
9:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Calling
Peter and Andrew”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
4:18-20
Message of the verses: “18 And walking by
the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said
to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 And they
immediately left the nets, and followed Him.”
The
following will give us some statics on the Sea of Galilee: It is an oval-shaped body of water which is
about eight miles wide and thirteen miles long.
The lake is somewhere around 700 feet below sea level. Luke is the only gospel writer that calls it
a lake as he was a world-wide traveler and saw man large bodies of water and so
he called Galilee a lake. I surely agree
with that. Josephus reports that in the
first century A. D. that there were some 240 boats that regularly fished the
waters of this lake. There was even more
fishing done from the shore. Simon
(Peter) and Andrew brothers also had a fishing business on this lake, and at
the time Jesus called them they were “casting a net into the sea.”
The
fishing business used three different methods of fishing in that day, and not
much has changed as nets were used from the boats, and small nets were used
near the land, and then using a line with a hook was the third way, as stated
not much has changed. Peter and Andrew
were here obviously were at this time when Jesus called them fishing from shore
using a net, a smaller net than was used from the boats. We know that they also used that method
too. The net they were using according
to MacArthur was probably about nine feet in diameter, and the two brothers
were skilled in the way to use it.
MacArthur writes “The Greek term for that particular net was smphiblestron (related to our amphibious, an adjective describing
something related to both land and water)—so named because the person using the
net would stand on or near shore and throw the net into the deeper water where
the fish were.”
Jesus
in calling these first disciples was gathering together the first fish-catching
crew of His church. All we have to do is
to think about who was the first person to preach the very first message of the
church and we can come back to this moment when Jesus called Peter. These two were Jesus first partners in the
ministry that He began. These were the
first two evangelists who would help to fulfill the great-commission. This was Jesus plan all along to have these
two fishermen to begin to evangelize the world.
He did not use the so-called learned people like the Pharisees, Scribes,
or Sadducees. We know that Jesus would
call these men to do other things in the ministry, but His first call to them
was, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
John
MacArthur writes “We are given specific details of the callings of only seven
of the original twelve. But Jesus
individually selected those who would become part of the first marvelous
ministry of winning people to Himself. ‘He
called His disciples to Him; and chose twelve of them, whom He also named as
apostles’ (Luke 6:13). God always
chooses His partners. He chose Noah and
Abraham, Moses and David. He chose the
prophets. He chose Israel herself to be
a whole nation of partners, ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Ex.
19:6). Jesus told His disciples, ‘You
did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and
bear fruit’ (John 15:16; cf. 6:70; 13:18).
Paul called Epaenetus ‘the first convert (lit., ‘first fruit,’ aparche) to Christ from Asia’ (Rom.
16:5).”
We
will divide this section into two parts, and Lord willing, we will finish this
up in tomorrow’s SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To me it is mindboggling to think that I too
was chosen by the Lord, but that is the only way that I can explain the change
that was brought over me after the Lord saved me. To think about Peter’s life and for that matter
the rest of the apostles lives as I look at the beginning of their relationship
with the Lord seems to put more understanding to me in their lives and how they
did what they did for the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to seek to be humble, and to find
joy in the study of God’s Word.
2/27/2020 10:21 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment