Day 7: Leave the Nets
Sunday Rhythm
Bible Reading
Devotional
Bible Reading: Matthew 4:12-25
Jesus Begins His Ministry
12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is 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 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Devotional
Leave the Nets
Matthew 4:19–20 ESV
"And he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Immediately they left their nets and followed him."
Matthew 4 brings our first week to a fitting conclusion. We have spent the week thinking about surrender, and now we see what surrender actually looks like when Jesus calls ordinary people to follow Him.
Jesus begins His public ministry proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Then, as He walks beside the Sea of Galilee, He sees two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They are fishermen. Jesus looks at them and gives a remarkably simple invitation: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Matthew tells us that they immediately leave their nets and follow Him. A little farther down the shore, Jesus sees James and John in a boat with their father, preparing their nets. Jesus calls them too, and they leave the boat and their father and follow Him.
It is easy to read this story quickly and miss what those nets represented.
Fishing was not simply something Peter and Andrew enjoyed doing on the weekends. Those nets represented their livelihood, their routine, their skills, and probably a significant part of their identity. This was what they knew how to do. It was how they provided for themselves and their families. When Jesus called them away from their nets, He was asking them to surrender something familiar in order to follow Someone they were only beginning to understand.
That is one of the difficult parts of surrender. Sometimes what Jesus asks us to release is not necessarily sinful. There was nothing wrong with fishing. The issue was that Jesus was calling them somewhere else, and they had to decide whether they trusted Him enough to leave what was familiar.
I think sometimes we assume surrender is primarily about giving up bad things. Certainly, following Jesus means turning away from sin, and we have already seen that clearly in Matthew. But surrender can also involve releasing good things when they begin competing with where Jesus is leading us.
Sometimes our "nets" are the things that make us feel secure.
It may be a plan we have spent years developing, a position we have worked hard to achieve, a relationship we are afraid to lose, the approval of certain people, financial security, or simply the comfort of knowing what tomorrow will look like. None of those things are automatically wrong, but they can become difficult to release because we have slowly allowed them to tell us who we are or convince us that we are safe.
The disciples had to discover that their security could no longer be found in what they were holding. It had to be found in the One they were following.
There is something else in Jesus' invitation that I love. He does not simply tell Peter and Andrew what they need to leave. He tells them what He intends to do in them: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Jesus was not only calling them away from something. He was calling them toward something.
That distinction matters because Christian surrender is not about emptying our lives of everything meaningful. Jesus calls us to surrender our way so that He can lead us into His. The disciples could not yet imagine where following Jesus would take them or the people they would eventually become, but Jesus could.
He said, "I will make you."
Transformation would happen as they followed.
Peter did not leave his nets that morning as a finished disciple. If we continue reading the Gospels, we discover plenty of moments when he gets things wrong. He misunderstands Jesus, speaks too quickly, struggles with fear, and eventually denies that he even knows Him. Yet Jesus continues shaping Peter along the way.
That encourages me because sometimes we want to become the person Jesus has called us to be before we actually begin following Him in a particular area. We think we need stronger faith, greater confidence, more knowledge, or fewer weaknesses before we can take the next step.
Jesus' invitation works differently. We follow Him, and He changes us as we go.
The rest of Matthew 4 gives us a glimpse of what the disciples were following Jesus into. He travels throughout Galilee teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing people from diseases and afflictions. Crowds begin gathering from throughout the region. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had left an ordinary day of fishing and suddenly found themselves watching the kingdom of God break into people's lives.
They could not have experienced any of that while refusing to leave the shore.
This is where the theme of surrender becomes very practical. We often focus on what surrender might cost us, and sometimes that cost is real. The disciples genuinely left something behind. But we can become so focused on what Jesus is asking us to release that we forget to consider where He might be leading us.
Following Jesus is not simply a life of giving things up. It is a life of discovering that His way is better than the one we would have designed for ourselves.
That does not mean His way is always easier. This week alone, Matthew has shown us Joseph having his plans completely disrupted, the family of Jesus fleeing to Egypt, John calling people to repentance, and Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness being tempted. Following God has not produced a comfortable or predictable life for anyone in these chapters.
Yet through every one of those stories, God has been faithful.
That brings us back to the question underneath this entire week: Whose way are we following?
We began the week recognizing Jesus' right to lead. We looked at the places where we grip control. We saw God faithfully leading through disruption. We considered repentance, identity, and surrender. We looked at what pressure reveals about what is happening inside us. Now Matthew brings us to the shoreline and makes surrender incredibly tangible.
Jesus says, "Follow me."
The question is whether there is anything we are holding so tightly that it keeps us from responding.
As you read Matthew 4:12–25 today, think about your own "nets." Is there something familiar that has become a source of identity or security for you? Maybe it is something good that has simply become too important. Maybe you already sense an area where Jesus has been asking you to trust Him, but releasing what you know feels much more frightening than remaining where you are.
Surrender does not always mean physically walking away from something. Sometimes it means loosening our grip enough to say, "Jesus, this belongs to You too. If You want to use it, change it, redirect it, or ask me to release it, I trust You."
The disciples could leave their nets because the One calling them was worth following. That is still the heart of surrender today. It is not primarily about what we leave behind. It is about trusting the One walking ahead of us.
Prayer
Jesus, thank You for inviting ordinary people to follow You and for patiently shaping us as we go. Show me the things I am holding too tightly because they give me a sense of identity, comfort, or security. Help me recognize anything that has become more important to me than following where You lead.
Give me the courage to hold my plans, relationships, possessions, opportunities, and future with open hands. When You ask me to take a step I do not completely understand, remind me that I do not have to know the entire road ahead in order to trust You. Continue making me into the person You have called me to become as I follow You one faithful step at a time. Jesus, I surrender my way to Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.