Teaching Text

Matthew 4:18-22

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Keithen opened our new series, FOLLOW, with a question that kicks off the heart of the series, “Is it possible to be a Christian and not a disciple of Jesus?”

Drawing from Dallas Willard, he suggested that much of the weakness and confusion in the Western church comes from separating the two. Before talking about spiritual growth, leadership, or mission, Pastor Keithen returned to the foundation. A disciple is not merely a student but an apprentice. A student gathers information, but an apprentice learns a way of life.

That distinction became sharper as he unpacked the rabbinic context of Matthew 4. In first-century Judaism, apprentices of a rabbi were not casually recruited. They were the exceptional few. Most young men returned to family trades long before they ever had the chance to follow a rabbi. So when Jesus walks up to Peter and Andrew, already back at their nets, the surprise is not that He calls disciples. It is who He calls. These are not the obvious candidates. They are fishermen who had already been passed over.

Jesus’ invitation comes before any proof of worthiness, “Follow me.”

Pastor Keithen then framed the rest of the sermon around three aims of apprenticeship: presence, formation, and mission. The goal was never simply to know what the rabbi knew, but to become the kind of person the rabbi was and eventually carry his work forward. That was the invitation beneath the message—not simply to admire Jesus, but to apprentice under Him. Admiration can leave our lives largely unchanged, but apprenticeship asks us to reorder them around the One we follow.

In a world where "follow" has become little more than a social media gesture, Pastor Keithen recovered its original weight: to walk with Jesus, be formed by Jesus, and eventually join Him in His mission. He closed by offering an ancient rabbinic blessing over the church, “May you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.” May we live close enough to Jesus that His life is evident in ours.