Matthew 4:18-22 - Jesus Calls His First Disciples

¹⁸ As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He noticed two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And He said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].

²¹ And going on [further] from there He noticed two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets; and He called them [to follow Him as His disciples]. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].

¹⁶ As Jesus was walking by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon [Peter] and Simon’s brother, Andrew, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen.

¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.” ¹⁸ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example]. ¹⁹ Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who were also in the boat mending and cleaning the nets. ²⁰ Immediately Jesus called to them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers, and went away to follow Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].

²¹ They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

¹ Now it happened that while Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee), with the people crowding all around Him and listening to the word of God; ² that He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the shore. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat.

⁴ When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon [Peter], “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch [of fish].”

⁵ Simon replied, “Master, we worked hard all night [to the point of exhaustion] and caught nothing [in our nets], but at Your word I will [do as you say and] lower the nets [again].”

⁶ When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were [at the point of] breaking; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats [with fish], so that they began to sink.

⁸ But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were completely astounded at the catch of fish which they had taken; ¹⁰ and so were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon [Peter]. Jesus said to Simon, “Have no fear; from now on you will be catching men!” ¹¹ After they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him [becoming His disciples, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].