“The Master’s Plan For His Disciples” Message Notes (Matthew 4:19; Pastor Curt Audet 8/17/25) SERIES: The Master’s Plan For Making Disciples
BI: The Lord Jesus calls and designs His disciples to make disciples.
The early church grew among Jesus’ disciples with Holy Spirit power! The growth is recorded in the Book of Acts. From 12 apostles to 120 in the upper room to 3000 turning from their sin at Pentecost to 5000 new disciples in the following weeks! Addition turned into multiplication. Faithful disciples making disciples in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, then in the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus promised:
“I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
So what was Jesus’ plan for building His church? Matthew 4:19 answers in Jesus’ call to the first four disciples. Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and He saw two brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. Jesus called out, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Then Jesus saw two more men, themselves brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father, mending their nets. Jesus called out, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
These four men became followers of Christ. Followers became believers of Christ at the mind and heart level. Believers became disciples—or students—of Christ. Disciples then, became disciplers calling anddiscipling others to know and follow Christ. ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Let me tell you my 1st fish story:
In a coastal town in Maine a group called themselves The Fishermen Club. There were fish in the waters all around the town; in the streams, lakes and ocean bays. All filled with fish. And the fish were all hungry all the time.
Week after week, year after year, The Fishermen Club held meetings and talked about the call to go fishing regularly. They searched for improved methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. They sponsored regional conferences to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and to hear about new fishing equipment, new fish calls, and new bait.
The Fishermen Club built beautiful buildings called Fishing Headquarters. Their plea was that everyone should be a fisherman, and every fisherman should fish. One thing they did not do, however. They did not fish.
All The Fishermen agreed. What was needed was a board of directors to challenge fishermen to be steadfast in fishing. The board was formed by those with great vision and courage to speak about fishing. They defined fishing. They promoted fishing in distant streams and lakes where fish of different varieties lived.
Large and expensive training centers were built to teach fishermen how to fish. Those who taught had advanced degrees in ‘Fishology’. The teachers taught how to fish. But they did not fish.
Some studied and traveled to learn the history of fishing and to see faraway places where the founding fathers did great fishing in centuries past. They praised faithful Fishermen of years before who preserved the idea of fishing. Many who felt the call to be fishermen responded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. They went off to foreign lands to teach fishing; yet did not fish.
The Fishermen endured deep difficulties. Some lived near brackish waters and bore the burden of the odor of dead fish. People ridiculed the Fisherman Club. The Fishermen anguished over those who were not committed to the weekly meetings to talk about fishing. You can imagine the surprise when one day a man dared suggest out loud that those who don’t catch fish were really not fishermen at all. Is a person a fisherman if he or she never catches fish? Is one following the Master if he or she isn’t even fishing?
Jesus’ disciples make disciples. Since Jesus first called His first disciples us to ‘follow Him’. He makes disciples to be disciplers;
‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Have you responded to this call? By His power His church grows. He grows it through His disciples making and discipling new disciples. His church has grown among persecution; grown among worldy cultures; grown among hostile religions; grown among primitive and sophisticated peoples. Jesus’ Church has triumphed over traitors, persecution, famine and sword.
The Church’s One Foundation (by Samuel J Stone)
The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the Word
From heaven He came and sought Her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.
Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth.
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hopes she presses with every grace endured.
Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.
Jesus’ Church continues today by faithful disciples making disciples.
As of today, there are more Christ followers on earth than ever before in history. Still there is a vast, unfinished task. In our communities there are winnable people waiting to be won to Christ. More fish to become followers. Yet very few disciples of Christ are making disciples. Why is this?
The Great Commission from Jesus to His followers remains unchanged. His commands are not updated nor are they revoked.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ is our call to engage in making disciples according to Jesus’ great commission. Is the goal of making-disciples at the center of what we do at Valley View Baptist Church? Is ‘making disciples’ a personal and family goal for each of you here today?
- Making-Disciples is a high priority for healthy Christians and healthy Churches.
Every local congregation of the Body of Christ begins as a disciple-making community. It must in order to exist. It must to thrive and grow at all. The heartbeat of this local Church must be making disciples beginning with our nearest community. “Making-disciples’ must be our measurement for strength and agenda. Effective ‘fishing for men and woman’ must be our deliberate action.
Gospel conversations, redemption activities, home to home visitation, and cultivating disciple-making must be of high importance for this Body of believers. Making disciples must be the main thing in our church thinking and church living.
Jesus determined that the local Church would be the primary instrument to reach the lost world. Many believe—mistakenly—that someone else on the internet, radio or television ministries are the ways to accomplish the Great Commission. God designed this local congregation as being God’s tool to reach this community as He had intended. This has always been the Master’s plan for us, His disciples.
It is my aim, my mind and my heart to strengthen, enable and mobilize us all–our church people–to be get to making-disciples. I want to disciple you to share your faith. You may be enthusiastic about your relationship with Christ—but it is time to communicate it. I want to enable you to share Christ with your unbelieving family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers in a natural, biblically sound way.
Do you may feel inadequate in expressing your faith in Christ? Do you feel unsure of what exactly what you believe? Are you ready to grow in understanding, in confidence and in Biblical thinking to disciple another person from unbelief to maturity in Christ?
2. ‘Lostness’ must never be lost from our grasp of the Gospel.
Living in darkness. Hopeless in the face of our own mortality. Unaware of how to know God. Not sure what God expects of us. Remaining in a hostilestate of rebellion before God. Confused about the meaning of life and death. This is what ‘lostness’ is. Jesus told a chilling story about this in Luke 16:19-31 –
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Being lost means having no hope of heaven; no forgiveness of sin; no salvation without Christ. There are not many ways to Heaven. Salvation is in Jesus Christ alone. He is the only way, truth and life. A person who has not been born again will not enter Heaven, will not experience God’s presence. Instead, they will be eternally, physically and spiritually lost. Do you realize this? If Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life, and you and I know this. Then we must let everyone we know know this as well.
Light in your heart a burning conviction that without Christ, every person is forever lost. Stoke a fervent zeal for your friends and family. Recreate graphic portrayals of the terrifying damnation of a God-less eternity. Pray every day for souls—dear people you know–to be saved. Work while you still breathe for souls to be saved!
3. The Gospel demands disciple-making over decision-making.
Coming to faith in Christ is a full mind and full heart transaction.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Let’s move away from the idea getting a ‘decision’. The simplistic verbal commitment is not the response to the Great Commission. ‘Getting a decision’ is not the object; ‘making a disciple’ is the object. Becoming a ‘disciple’ requires commitment, participation in the local church, and an ongoing, disciple-making lifestyle as a follower of Christ. ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
3. Disciple-making includes soul-winning.
In the Great Commission, Jesus makes clear that the command to go and make disciples includes winning souls. This is the first step of making-disciples. The soul must be converted before the soul can be matured. This reflects Christ’s vision to make disciples. The first step is winning the soul or leading them to faith in Christ or being born again. One more fish story (from Luke 5:1-11):
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, He was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and Jesus saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. [Being that this was end of the long, unproductive evening for them.]
3 Getting into one of the boats, which [belonged to] Simon Peter, Jesus asked [him] to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 And when he had finished speaking, Jesus said to Simon, “Put [back] out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we [just] toiled all night and took nothing! [Awkward pause?] But at Your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a[n incredibly] large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to [James and John] in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Jesus.
How? You and I ‘making disciples’. This is the Master’s plan for each of His disciples. I’ll close with four questions.
(1) Are you lost this very day? Turn to trust and believe in Christ crucified, buried, risen again for forgiveness of your sin.
(2) Are you a believer today? Make the move to be an active follower of Christ rather than a passive believer.
(3) Are you a follower of Christ? Make the step to be a dedicated disciple a student of Christ.
(4) Are you a committed disciple of Christ? Make the move to be a discipler and let our Lord and Master Jesus make you into a fisher of men!
Closing Prayer
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