Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 702
Delivered by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.” John 1:37.
“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:18,19.
“And when He had called His twelve disciples… the first, Simon, who is called Peter.”
Matthew 10:1, 2.
PERHAPS YOU are aware that there has always been a certain set of persons who have tried to disprove the Gospel narrative by picking out what they suppose to be discrepancies, especially in the statements of Matthew and Luke. Four independent persons have each given us a separate story of the Life of Christ, each story being written with a distinct object. Of course, from the fact that each one was written with a distinct object, it was natural that one Evangelist should give more attention to certain points in the history of Christ than the others. And it was natural for his eye to be fixed upon those things which most concerned the point which he had in hand, and for his ears to be most quick to catch those words which had a relation to the object he was driving at throughout the whole of his Gospel.
Now these divergences and differences have been so many pegs upon which quibblers have hung their quibbles and these men have constantly been saying, “How do you reconcile Matthew with John in a certain place.” Or, “how do you reconcile Mark, in such another place, with Luke?” It is not always easy to harmonize the testimony of four perfectly honest witnesses upon the same subject! I will venture to say that if there should be a simple accident upon the railway, and four persons present were to give their accounts of it with rigid exactness, yet they would each one be likely to mention some point not mentioned by the other, and, moreover, differ upon the points which they notice in common!
Although we might be morally convinced that they all spoke the truth, yet it would be difficult to put the story together so as to make a harmonious whole of it. Sometimes it is not easy to put the stories of the Evangelists together, and many of the “Gospel Harmonies,” so called, which have been produced by very admirable writers, are not quite correct—they show at once the difficulty attaching to that which some Brethren have been trying to attempt, and which perhaps will never be fully carried out—namely, the making of it into one harmonious idyll.
It so happens, however, that the difficulty in the case before us is no difficulty at all! John tells us that Peter was called by Christ through the preaching of John the Baptist, who bore witness that Jesus was Christ, the Messiah. Matthew, on the other hand, tells us that Peter and his brother were fishing, that Christ was walking by the lake of Galilee, and that as He passed by He saw these men fishing, called them by name, and said, “Follow me.” Now, the key to the whole may be found in the fact that there was yet a third call, and that afterwards Jesus called not Peter and Andrew alone, but the whole twelve of His disciples and set them apart to be Apostles.
And so we gather from this last call that the other two might perhaps have been different and distinct from each other. Coming to look at the subject we find that the first call was the call at Peter’s conversion, which called him to be a disciple while still at his daily avocation. The second was the call of Peter, not to be a mere disciple, but to be an Evangelist. And the third was the call of Peter, not to be an Evangelist or a common servant of the Master, but to be a leader, to take a yet higher grade, and to become one of the Twelve who should be associated with Christ as the founders of the new system of religion, and witnesses of the life of Christ Himself.
I. I want you, then, just for a moment, to bear in mind that we have under our consideration THREE CALLS:
(1) The first is that which Christ gave to Peter when He called him out of darkness into marvelous light, blessing to him at first the testimony of John, and then by manifesting Himself to him.
(2) The second is the call by which the servant, already converted, already willing, is bid to put himself into closer relationship with his Lord—to come out and be no longer a servant whose allegiance is true but not manifest—but to show that fealty by following his Master.
(3) And the third call is that which the Savior gives only to a few whom He has picked out and chosen to do some special work—who shall have fellowship with Him more closely still, and become captains in the ranks of—
“The sacramental host of God’s elect.” We shall speak of these three calls in the order in which they occur. Very briefly I shall go through the subject, speaking at length about the second call which Peter received.