This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. Matthew sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 23, 1985.

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. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, and he called them.” Father, we would receive from you that which you have delighted in giving, namely the word of life. May it come to us as bread for our nourishment, and by it may we be empowered so as to live for you, for Jesus said. Amen.

What do you think I’m doing here? What kind of job description would you give for me? Now it’s become the habit of some to look at the pastor of a congregation as something like a corporate executive. His major task is to deal in coordination. His responsibility is to make sure that things are run efficiently. He is to oversee the various activities and programs of the Church Corporation, and to make sure that as few as possible are offended, and as few toes are stepped on as possible. Well, am I a corporate executive?

Some of you who know me well laugh There is another approach to the pastor, however. I wouldn’t have thought that we needed to consider this within an Orthodox Presbyterian Church until recently I heard an Orthodox Presbyterian minister speak of the pastorate in these terms. He saw the pastorate for the minister in the pastorate in athletic terms. The pastor in his mind was a coach.

And he was to get the best team out on the field. Extending the image of it, it seems as if the coach has multiple tasks. not just running the show, organizing the team, but he is also the primary cheerleader. It’s as if he was conducting a pep rally and his job was to convince you that you really can win. and to motivate you to do nothing less. Am I a corporate executive, a coach, a tutor leader?

My job is to preach and teach the word of God, so that you might understand that word as best as you can, so that you might understand your place in that work. There is a variation on this approach to the pastor and the ministry that is worth taking note Many in their definition would start exactly as I have. But the pastor’s job is to preach and to teach the word of God so that you might understand it as best as you are able.

But then, as they go on, there’s a subtle shift. They say, in conclusion, that the purpose of this preaching and teaching is in order that you might know how to apply the word of God to your life. Now, it’s a subtle shift, but I want you to feel the significance and weight of that shift.

For the latter definition suggests to you that there is an inherent deficiency in the word. In other words, the word cannot be applied without my expertise. There is an application, you see, inherent in the word itself. And that’s why I said to you that my task is to preach and to teach the word of God, so that you might understand it as best as you are able, and might understand your place in the word. For the sufficiency and adequacy is in the word, and the word is not sufficient. One wins. My task, then, is to point you to that word in which you find your life. and out of which you must live. In order to fulfill my calling to do what I’m supposed to do.

I am committed to the Word of God and a specific understanding and approach to it. And therefore, you see, when I come to the Word, I come to it as if it were a gold mine. And the task before me is to go down into that mine and dig gold, to bring that gold out and to present it before you, to show you just how marvelous the riches are in that Word for yourselves.

This means that we can never be content with a mere superficial reading of the Bible. We have to dig deeply to pull out of this word all those precious gems, all that precious metal that is there for us. Now let’s take a simple passage, a passage like the one we have in front of us this morning, one that You’ve known since you were a child.

Jesus calling two brothers, Peter and Andrew, and then, in a repeat performance, calling two more, James and John. But even here, there is a will. Even here, there is a mind to enter and treasure to be done. in looking at the test. You notice something about this passage. The two stories told are so similar. There is a mention of two brothers in each. So you have two in the first instance, Peter and Andrew two in the second, James and John, then you have the two stories themselves, as if the same story were being told all over again. It’s a multiplication of twos. It’s as if two is cubed, two times two times two. Why this multiplication of twos? If you will, why this doubling within the text?

Now, we might not be struck by this feature of the text if it weren’t for other passages in Matthew’s gospel in which we can observe a similar phenomenon. For instance, if you were to turn to the end of the eighth chapter, the twenty-eighth verse, You will notice there a story of Jesus as he casts out demons.

But as you read through that story, you may be struck that this doesn’t sound exactly the way I remember it. You may have in mind the recording of these events as they come to you from Mark chapter five. And in Mark chapter five, you hear about a single demoniac possessed, living amongst the tombs, Jesus comes to him and asks him what his name is, and the man responds with the voice of the demons themselves, My name is Legion.

And then Jesus heals him. But then, returning to Matthew chapter eight, as you start that passage, You remember, you recall, you take note of the fact that here Matthew mentions not one demoniac, but two. This isn’t an isolated instance. If you go to the 9th chapter, the 27th verse, you find there Jesus not dealing with one blind man, but dealing with two blind men.

And then in chapter 20, verse 30, the same thing occurs. In the twentieth chapter, you see a story once more, one quite familiar to us, the story of Christ’s sojourn in Jericho before he ascends up into Jerusalem to face crucifixion. In Luke, chapter 18, you find out that there is a blind man in Jericho by the name of Bartimaeus, and Jesus heals him. But then, when you turn to Matthew 20, you read that there are two blind men, and they aren’t named. There is an obvious, deliberate doubling by Matthew in his gospel.

He deals with things in terms of truths and personages in terms of truths. Now, what does this doubling mean? Now, we’re going into the mind, and it isn’t easy to go down in the mind. So I want you to hang with me as we work through this problem. What is the intent of Matthew’s doubling? In order to understand it better, we need to take stock of another way in which Matthew presents to us his doubling intent. And he does that in terms of two individuals.

First, John the Baptist, and then Jesus. Thinking about John the Baptist as he is treated in Matthew’s gospel, first of all, you know how he appears on the scene, you know how his ministry progresses, you know of how he is arrested and finally executed. But there is an assessment of John the Baptist by Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, and that occurs in the eleventh chapter. You may want to take a look at that. In that eleventh chapter, Jesus is rehearsing the ministry of John, and it is obvious from the eleventh verse of that eleventh chapter that John the Baptist is looked upon as one who has a restricted function.

He is one who, yes, Amongst those born of women, there is none greater.” But then Jesus goes on to say, at the conclusion of that eleventh verse, that he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. And in this fashion, Jesus calls attention to the restricted function of John the Baptist. and positions John, as he truly was, as an Old Testament figure, the last of the Old Testament figures, the last of the prophets who should herald the coming of the kingdom. So that causes us to conclude that on the one hand we have John appearing in an Old Testament context as part of the Old Testament age and epoch. But there is a doubling, for having considered John from that vantage point is hardly adequate, and that is proved by what we read in verses twelve and thirteen of that eleventh chapter.

Jesus goes on to say, and from the days of John the Baptist until now, The kingdom of God is exerting itself, and determined men are taking hold of it. So it is that John the Baptist is seen not simply as an Old Testament figure, but he is actually seen as the one in whom the New Testament age is inaugurated. It’s as if, then, the doubling is with regard to epoch. John the Baptist, straddling both, seen as an Old Testament figure, but then also as a New Testament figure. That this interpretation is correct is borne out by what we read in verse thirteen.

For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John and from John. From the time of John on, the kingdom has been manifest in itself. Now, that’s the doubling with regard to John the Baptist in terms of the epochs of salvation, the times of God’s dealings with his people. Now, I said as well that there’s a doubling with regard to Christ also.

Maybe you recall a sermon preached around Christmas time on the genealogy of Jesus. He turned to the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel. You remember the opening of that gospel, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham? From verses two through sixteen, you have three tables of names for this genealogy.

The first one running from Abraham to David, the second from David to the captivity, and the third from the captivity to the birth of Christ. Now, at the end, in verse seventeen, you are told this. But from the time of Abraham to David, there were fourteen generations, and so it goes. From the time of David to the deportation to Babylon, there were fourteen generations. And from the time of the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ, there are fourteen generations.

Well, then you decide to do a little bit of figuring on your own. So you go back and you count names. And sure enough, if you read through that first section, you get fourteen names to read through the second section, you get fourteen names. You come to the last section and there are only thirteen. Now, you’ve heard me say this before or ask the question. Couldn’t Matthew count? No, you see. You see that last name. becomes the double generation. He becomes two generations at once.

For you see, in him there is first of all a generation which he himself is, namely the generation commensurate with his life in the flesh. That time in which he lived here as the son of Mary and Joseph. that time in which he ministered, he healed and taught, that time in which he suffered, in which he was interrogated, in which he was crucified, and then was raised from the dead. There is that time. But then, as you run on to the conclusion of the gospel, you hear Jesus say, as his departing words to his disciples, and Jesus is also as much present in this epoch, the one in which we live, as He was in the epoch when He was present in His flesh and in His body.

Jesus stands both. There is a doubling. First of all, with regard to John the Baptist He being an Old Testament figure, a New Testament figure, now with regard to Jesus, he’s spending the time, first of all, with regard to his ministry, his death and resurrection, and secondly, with regard to the time in which his church lives. You could say it like this. Jesus spends the time of his life in the flesh and also his life in the spirit. And we live in the time of Christ’s life in spirit.

Now we have to go back and ask ourselves a question. What is the intent of Matthew’s judgment? When there are two demoniacs, when there are two blind Matthew wants you to see in those two, not just one who is there when Jesus was in the flesh, but another who is there when Jesus is in the Spirit. He wants you to see yourself in the past. You are present and being administered to. by Jesus as much as that demoniac, as much as that blind man.

The two men then represent two epochs, the epoch of Christ’s time in the flesh and the epoch of Christ’s time in the spirit, or the age of the Church. in which you live. But what do we do with Matthew four. Here we have a compounding of two. Two times two times two. Let’s look at the past. In terms of the things we learn. Who are the first two Specifically addressed here by Jesus, the address absent when he comes to the second two.

Who are the first two brothers to whom he says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men? In these men you are to see all who are ordained, called to draw the nations just as men draw nets to boats. having left them down for a catch of fish. Not just those who were called when Jesus was in the flesh, but a doubling, those who are called when Jesus is in the Spirit, so that you might understand that in whatever epoch you find yourself, it is the sovereign power of God through Christ who calls his disciples to himself, those who will make the disciples of the nation. But why the other two? Let me ask you this. Is this passage only about preachers? Is it only about fishermen and those who are sent to catch fish?

The second two, James and John, become indicative of disciples. In the first instance, Peter and Andrew, you have disciples, those who are disciples. In the second two, you have the disciples. Once more, a doubling. Not just those disciples when Christ was here in the flesh, but those who are disciples when Christ is in the Spirit also. You see, the whole of the Church of Christ is in this text, in this passage. Whether they were the called to preach during the time of Christ, or those called to preach in the time of the Spirit, whether they were discipled by Jesus when Jesus was here on earth, or discipled now, as you are being discipled presently.

You are in the passage. This is a passage as much about you as it is about Jesus. It is a passage as much about you as it is about Peter and James. To what intent? For what purpose? to confirm me in the knowledge that finally my call is from Christ. And in your case, what? That when everything has been said and done, It is the Lord Jesus who, in his sovereign, electing power, has chosen you and drawn you to himself.

Now, what confidence is yours? What encouragement becomes yours? for you are as called as James and John, and as beloved. And Jesus is as much present with you now in the Spirit as he was with them in the flesh. In fact, your experience in Christ is much better than even theirs was. And as that experience is much better, so also should be the certainties and the assurances that are yours. This is the source of your buoyancy and your confidence. This is the source of your direction and acclimation and orientation towards life. You don’t need a corporate executive standing up here. You don’t need a coach who’s going to put out the best team on the field. You don’t need a cheerleader.

What you need is the Bible. and someone who will tell you just how wonderful it is, and how wonderful your life is in light of that word, and someone who will tell you that this Bible is about you. Father in heaven, may we have the word of God of life.

Father, may we see the riches that are here them out, and may we delight in what we find. May we dote upon your word, rehearse it in our hearts. May we find it to be all that you have declared it to be, the source of our life and nourishment. And Father, may we know that being fed by this word which is none other than the word of Christ, we shall never die, but rather live. Father, we pray that we might be disciples indeed, who observe all that you have commanded, in the knowledge that it has been your sovereign call that has brought us to yourself, and

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.