Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
January 25, 2026
Matthew 4:13-25
Due to winter weather, church services at Mayberry and Bluemont are cancelled for January 25, 2025. There will be a “zoom church” at 10 AM. If you would like to receive an invite, send an email to parkwayrockchurches@gmail.com
At the beginning of worship:
I’m sure many of you have read Norman Maclean’s novella or seen the movie, A River Runs Through It. We even showed the film at movie night at Mayberry several years ago. It’s one of my favorite books, and I love the movie. In the opening, Norman describes his family who lived in Missoula, Montana early in the 20th Century in this manner:
In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fisherman on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.[1]
As the film and book both point out, to be a fisherman, you must gain certain skills. Jesus calls us all to be disciples, just as he called the fisherman on Galilee. But once we have been called, there are things we need to learn, just as Norman and his brother had to learn from their father and how the first disciples learned from Jesus. Matthew, as a gospel, focuses on the necessary teachings we need to be effective disciples for Jesus Christ.
Before reading the scripture:
Today, as we work our way through the beginning of Matthew’s gospel,[2] we’ll look at the three paragraphs between Jesus’ temptation, which we looked at last week, and Jesus’ great sermon which we know as the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew provides just a brief account of the beginning of Jesus ministry.
As with Mark’s gospel, Matthew link’s Jesus’ beginning to John’s arrest. In fact, there are many similarities to what the two gospel writers’ emphasize about Jesus at the beginning. But there is one big difference. Mark, if you remember from my sermons on the gospel from two years ago, spends more time discussing Jesus’ miracles. Mark tells us consistently that Jesus also taught, but without going into detail.[3] Matthew, however, focuses on Jesus’ teaching. We’ll see an example of this in our passage this morning, but Matthew’s focus becomes even clearer when we get into Jesus’ great sermon.
Another similarity with Mark is the rapid rise in Jesus’ fame.[4] But Matthew, who with the story of the wisemen has already shown an international interest in Jesus, notes from the beginning Jesus draws attention from outside of the Jewish community.
A final thing we’ll see in this passage and have seen consistently in the opening chapters of Matthew is how Jesus fulfills prophecy from the Hebrew scriptures.
Read Matthew 4:13-25
In this short bridge between Jesus’ temptation and the Sermon on the Mount, we watch as our Savior starts out alone and then quickly gathers quite a following. Last week, our passage ended with angels nursing a famished and exhausted Jesus. We can assume his stomach no longer growled and he regained strength so he could make his way north to Galilee, where he’d do most of his life’s work.
Place plays a role in ministry.[5] Jesus may have even passed through, or certainly traveled close by Jerusalem, as he returned from the wilderness. Jerusalem was where the power in this part of the world resided. It was also considered a holy city, which is why the wisemen went to Jerusalem first in their quest to meet the baby born to be a king.[6] But as we’ve already seen in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ birth wasn’t in Jerusalem but Bethlehem, a lowly village outside of Jerusalem. That, Matthew told us, fulfilled prophecy,
“And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler.”[7]
Jesus’ shunning Jerusalem for the backcountry of Galilee also fulfills prophecy, as we see in verses 15 and 16 which quote Isaiah. At the time the prophet cited these words, the area formerly known as Israel, or the Northern Kingdom, had been conquered by the Assyrians. Gentiles had moved into the area, as our text points out. Again, as with the wisemen, Matthew foreshadows a time when Jesus’ message will be taken throughout the world.
Furthermore, as with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, his ministry in Galilee shows the heart of God. We’d pick Jerusalem or Rome or someplace big and prominent if we were going to start a new ministry, but God choses the small and obscure. And we see this throughout Jesus’ ministry as he speaks repeatedly about the last being first.
So, Jesus begins his ministry in Podunk Galilee and his first sermon, in verse 17, is the same one given by John the Baptist,[8]who has just been arrested. So, John is off the mission field, but God makes sure he has a witness, as Jesus begins his preaching.[9]
And the first thing Jesus does is to gather disciples. In this way, he’s like a traditional rabbi, who would have disciples to teach. Jesus’ first disciples, as we see in Mark and Luke, are fishermen, making a living from the sea of Galilee. Matthew tells us the briefest facts about the calling the disciples as two sets of brothers leave their nets behind.[10] The Zebedee boys even leave their father behind to follow Jesus. If you want more details about the calling, look at Luke’s gospel.[11]
Jesus then sets out on a preaching, teaching, and healing tour throughout Galilee, stopping at the synagogues along the way. His fame quickly grows, not just in Galilee, but to the north into Syria and south to Jerusalem, and even on the others side of the Jordan River. Again, some of this is gentile territory. Matthew wants us to know that while Jesus’ earthly ministry took place within Jewish lands, his message is for all the world.
What might we take from these passages? Matthew makes it very clear that Jesus’ message is for all the world. Mission is important. Teaching the gospel is important. And every place, but especially places we tend to overlook, are important. Ministry doesn’t have to be flashy or showy. It can start with a few uneducated fishermen and grow from there. It’s paramount we claim Jesus as our Savior and call people to repent and to know that God is close at hand. Amen.
[1] Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 1.
[2] My plan is to preach through the Sermon on the Mount between now and the first of June.
[3] As an example see https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/01/21/jesus-in-the-synagogue/
[4] Mark 1:28.
[5] See Scott Hoezee, Commentary on Matthew 4:12-23, https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2020-01-20/matthew-412-23-2/
[6] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2025/12/28/lessons-from-the-wisemen/
[7] Matthew 2:6. Matthew paraphrases Micah 5:2.
[8] See Matthew 3:2.
[9] [1] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. 5, Matthew (1721), 40. As referenced by Fredrick Dale Bruner, The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (1990, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), 135
[10] Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew: Interpretation, A Biblical Commentary to Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1993), 30.
[11] Luke 5ff tells of the calling of the fishermen in greater detail than Matthew or Mark (1:16-20).
One thing I find fascinating is the transformation these humble disciples go through before and after Jesus’s death, like Simon Peter.
The disciples take their time understanding, but then they’re also human and struggle with temptations.
Thank you for this. I’m in a season where I feel ineffective and overlooked so it was good to be reminded that the last will be first.
I think we often overlook this because we don’t know what to do with it, but in various forms, it’s one of Jesus’ most repeated sayings found throughout the first three gospels.
I have not seen the movie OR read the book! I have it tagged at Libby, so maybe I need to try and read it this year.
Read the novella and see the movie. This is one book/movie in which both are excellent. Partly because so much of the movie used Maclean’s words.