Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:1-11

Summary: Jesus rarely calls the famous, the powerful, the influential, or the religious groups to preach the Gospel. He works best with those who feel they have nothing to offer Him but will follow and obey Him anyway.

The message of Jesus has not changed in over two thousand years. He still tells those with ears to hear to repent and believe in the Gospel. In His early ministry, He preached in His hometown synagogue and nearly got Himself killed as a result (Luke 4:16-30). Wherever Jesus went, He either brought about a revival or a riot. In His humanity, He knew He would not be able to go everywhere to preach. He would need the help of people who could lift some of the burden of proclamation off of Him.

To whom would He turn?

The priests? They were going through the daily routine of sacrifices and rituals before the LORD in the Temple, as had their ancestors before them, going back to the days of Aaron. Theirs was a daily, continuing, never-ending slaughter of bulls, lambs, oxen, doves, and goats upon the altars in order to atone for the sins of the people. A constant river of blood flowed from the altars, and the work had turned into routine and mere motions without the awe, reverence, and devotion to God that had once accompanied it. Adoration for God had become apostate religious duty. The prophet Amos had condemned such actions on the part of Israel (Amos 5:21-24).

The High Priest at that time, Caiaphas, had been operating the affairs of the Temple as a type of “racket,” with worshippers exchanging money and sacrificial animals they had brought with them for “approved” coinage and animals that were conveniently sold to the people for a “reasonable exchange fee” that enriched the coffers of the Temple officials. They would incur the wrath of the Lord Jesus during the last week of His ministry (Matt.21:12-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-22), exposing their thievery, deceit, and blasphemy. This group would not be of any use to Him at any time.

What about the Pharisees?

These men were considered devout, reverent, scripturally knowledgeable, orthodox, and kept to a high standard of what they considered to be holiness before God. They had been given the charge of teaching the people the Word and Law of God, and their teachings were to be obeyed as part of the social and religious structure of Judea.

They started out well but went downhill over the years; they were more concerned with keeping the rituals and interpretations of the Law as prescribed by the teachings of other rabbis and scribes over the years. They were seen as just as sacred, if not more so, than the Scriptures. Their fanatical attention to every little detail of the Law, especially where it involved the keeping of the Sabbath, had made obedience to God a source of worry, fear, and strain on the lives of the people over the years. Their teaching had now become adherence to traditions and regulations and had turned them into nitpicky fanatics whose lives did not measure up to their teachings.

Jesus continually accused them of rank hypocrisy, disobedience to God, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and murder (Matthew 23). He called them serpents and vipers heading to hell for their wickedness wrapped in religious garb. He would get nothing from this group but hassle and a hard time.

Would He get any notice or assistance from the household of Herod Antipas?

Absolutely not. Antipas’ father, the madman Herod the Great (40 B.C.- 4 B.C.), had gone on a murderous rampage toward the end of his rule in an evil attempt to eliminate Jesus while He was a toddler, and ended up killing all baby boys under two years old as they were all seen as threats to his throne and royal privilege granted to him by an act of Rome.

Nothing good came from the lineage of Herod. Antipas stole his brother’s wife away from him, married her, and adopted her daughter. His wife, Herodias, was his niece, and he lusted after the daughter when she performed a sensuous dance for him while he was drunk. His foolish decree cost John the Baptist his life by beheading. Antipas ridiculed Jesus on the day of His trial and crucifixion, and he ended his days as an exile in Gaul on the orders of Emperor Caligula in 39 A.D. Nothing good would come from this family or situation.

Where does our Lord go to find the servants of His choice?

He does not often go to the big fancy churches in America or the rest of the world where the congregation and pastor are merely “going through the motions,” oblivious to the joy, peace, wonder, and majesty of worshipping, adoring, and glorifying the great God and King. Instead, they tend to be content with pleasing the crowds, the politicians, the ideologues, the civil agitators, the deviants, and others in order to look “acceptable,” “tolerant,” “non-judgmental,” “progressive,” “open,” “relevant,” and all the while leading these souls to contentment and damnation after they take their last breath.

He does not bother to go to “churches” where emotion, experience, odd behaviors and confusing gibberish are the center of attention, nor will He use so-called “preachers” with “revelations” and “words from God” who never once open a Bible, nor will he use anyone in the congregation who have everything but a Bible in their possession for that matter.

Jesus prefers to go to the highways and hedges, the streets and routes, and seek out those who have been crippled by sin and know it (Luke 14:16-24). He seeks the ordinary, plain, unimpressive, and oblivious man, woman, boy, or girl who does not seem to really stand out or shine like their peers. He tends to look for the people who are not afraid to work hard and call things for what they are, unimpressed with the antics and words of the rich and powerful.

His first four disciples were fishermen; rough, coarse, smelly, sweaty, swearing men who did not take guff off of anyone. They probably had been in a fight or two and were brawny veterans of rough weather, torn nets, bad days, poor catches, and a few choice words for the Roman authorities and the Herodian rulers who taxed them constantly. As He walks on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He finds these men and tells them to follow Him. Their days of catching fish had come to an end. Now they were going to be commissioned to catch men in the nets of the kingdom of God from that day on.

He first called Simon Peter, also referred to as the “Big Fisherman” by some Bible teachers and contemporary writers. He was big-mouthed, boisterous, rough around the edges, and a natural leader of people. Jesus had been with him earlier (Luke 5:1-11), and now the Lord had called him out of the business he had known all of his life to walk in faith as a follower of the Carpenter from Nazareth. Peter tends to be the kind of person who thinks he knows what he is talking about, but it ends up being so much wind.

Andrew is not as prominent and tends to be content in the shadow of his older brother Peter, yet he is just as rough a character. He is the type of person who will not put up with nonsense from anyone. If you are his friend, he will be with you until the bitter end. Andrew is described in the Gospels as constantly introducing people to Jesus and be, for all practical purposes, an evangelist that we as believers in Jesus would do well to imitate.

The other two fishermen whom Jesus calls are the sons of Zebedee, John and James, each of whom has a reputation for being “hotheads,” ready to get into an argument or fight over the things of God, and who asked Jesus to call down fire upon those people or places who did not see things their way. They are examples of the phrase, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.” With the assumption of giving them his blessing, Zebedee sees his boys leave the boats and the business to follow Jesus.

These men will become the “inner circle” of what will be a group of twelve ordinary men, growing from a motley bunch of hardheaded, prideful, confused, at times dense glory seekers to Spirit-empowered preachers of the Word of God and of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as the years progressed. All but one would be loyal to the mission and work of Jesus and remain devoted to Him even upon pain of death.

We need to see that Jesus does not look for “super saints” to do His work and follow Him. He uses people who tend to fall into the category of plain, ordinary, everyday living who don’t possess a lot of ego or self-reliance. He calls the helpless, ragged, and hurt. He calls people who have “blown it” in the eyes of the world. He calls you where you are.

Think about it. The Almighty, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of All Things loves you and wants you to be with Him. He has a purpose for you. You are no accident or fluke. He has given you meaning and worth and the means of having real peace, forgiveness for sin, and rest for your weary soul and wounded heart. Repent of your sins and come to Jesus for salvation and eternal life, where you will one day be free from sin, sickness, heartache, and all that the world has thrown at you. Embrace Him today and be part of His eternal family. Jesus is calling now for you to come home. What are you waiting for?

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.realitycityreverend.com

I’ve started a daily broadcast on YouTube entitled “The Reality City Daily Review” every weekday morning at 10:00 CST live (USA). It will then be posted on Facebook and on my website: www.realitycityreverend.com later that day. My main area of discussion will be on the basics of the Christian faith but will also deal with prophetic issues and other topics as the Lord impresses upon me to handle.

Overnight, the world stopped trusting in America. That shiny, bright city on a hill. The beacon of hope! The nation that ALL nations have turned to for help has become exactly what God said we would become of end-time Babylon. Hated and hissed at.

“Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified And hiss at all her plagues” (Jeremiah 50:13b).

God said all nations would come against end-time Babylon and destroy her. What we have done to others shall be done to us.

When America fled Afghanistan, yes fled, we left our own citizens to die. We left thousands of people who helped the US for twenty years to die. We left behind a victory that surely would have happened with an orderly and peaceful withdrawal. Had we left special forces behind, as Trump planned on doing, none of this would have happened. We looked weak, ineffective, and unorganized. For the first time in over one hundred years, the world is looking away from the US.

“She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the
LORD.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
Cut off the sower from Babylon…” (Jer 50:15-16a).

We drew other nations into a war with us and then left them there. America did that. We set the Middle East on fire for two decades in an endless war with endless deaths. This nation has blood on her hands, and it pains me to say it. We went from a nation minding our own business to pushing our way of doing things and our way of living on the world, and if they didn’t like it, so what. We will give them democracy whether they want it or not.

We toppled regimes, spied on governments, removed political leaders we didn’t like, and threatened to withhold aid if they didn’t fire certain people within their governments. Does Ukraine and Biden sound familiar? The entire Biden Administration is compromised from the top of the head to the soles of the feet.

We corrupted other nations, and we caused many to fornicate against God. Now, what we have done to others is coming back to us. The chickens have come home to roost.

This nation fell on January 20, 2021. There is no coming back from this.

We are undergoing a communist takeover right before our eyes. The land of the free? Not anymore.

What constitution? It’s now just a piece of paper with a warning label for offensive content slapped over it. Yes, that really happened.

General Mark Milley, a four-star general turned communist, betrayed the Commander in chief, President Trump, and this entire country. Or was he always a communist and simply infiltrated us?

Milley called China two different times, once in October 2020 and again in January 2021, to assure them HE WAS IN CONTROL of the military, not Trump. Milley removed the nuclear access from Trump’s power without him even knowing. He held a secret meeting behind the back of the President of the United States, and in this meeting, he essentially seized control of our military.

He then made these Sr. officers basically swear an oath to go around the chain of command, bypass Trump, and go through him. And he then called China to reassure them that if Trump did decide to attack, he would warn them. That’s the very definition of treason. He’s a communist wearing the uniform of American heroes. Every single pin on his chest should be removed. He should be court-martialed and given a traitor’s sentence. If I have been correct all along, the red horse of communism has been galloping towards us at full speed. Our entire system is embedded with communists.

Did you know that in Norfolk, Virginia, there is a fully operational NATO base? Guess who was also behind making this happen? Having foreign troops on American Soil? Mark Milley. Of course.

The entire Biden Administration is compromised. They sold you out to China while you were playing on your Chinese-made cellphone for the last two decades. Not just economically either; it goes much deeper than that. They sold us out, knowing it would destroy us as a nation. Now they’re ready to destroy the American people.

God warned us that our leaders would become godless. In Jeremiah, God calls Babylon (America, in my opinion) a golden cup in His hand. This nation was His pride, and for good reason. We acknowledged Him and thanked Him as a nation. We helped the widows and fed the poor. We, as a nation, grew a man’s heart. We once prayed as a nation and even mourned together. Not anymore. In Revelation, we read about a golden cup full of abominations and fornication. We took the golden cup from God and handed it to Satan. This nation turned its back on God.

The Israelites and the tribe of Judah both turned on God, too, in exactly the same manner. They became intrigued by the false gods being introduced after the land split into. There was Israel and then Judah. With time, Israel, to the north of their brother Judah, moved further and further from God. So God sent in the Assyrians. Just as America is no longer one nation under God, we are a divided nation with many gods.

They were plundered, winnowed out, and taken off into captivity by the Assyrians.

You’d think Judah, having witnessed their brother being carried off, would have changed its ways. No. So God did the same to them. Babylon came in and plundered them, winnowed them out, and forced them into captivity. The Assyrians and Babylonians showed no mercy.

America is about to face the same situation. God says in Jeremiah that we would be killed and enslaved and that they would be a people with no mercy. Those that remain in strongholds will only hold off the enemy for so long. Who exactly will our enemy be? The US military? Are we splitting? If this nation ever has a civil war, China and Russia will invade us, as we are too busy killing one another in the streets. Things are not looking so hot for us. Like a frog, our demise didn’t come all at once. It’s happened over the last few decades. The traitors in DC slowly boiled the American people. The water is boiling hot, too late to jump out now.

God warns Babylon that a nuclear war is in our midst too. He describes it in Jeremiah as a “destroying wind.”

In Revelation, we read that Babylon will be hated and burned with fire. We also read that she is a nation with many different nationalities and has a large multitude of people. America is the melting pot of the world. Where immigration was once our strength under God, it’s become our weakness under Satan.

“Then he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire'” (Rev 17:15-16).

The world was shocked over our abrupt departure from Afghanistan. Even more shocked that we left our own behind to die.

We know the Antichrist does not honor the desire of women. Not that he won’t desire them, but that he won’t care what women want. The Taliban is showing us exactly what Satan thinks of women. They are being beaten in the streets. Remember that plane full of Afghani men with no women? They left their own to die too. Those men had sisters, mothers, wives and daughters.

This nation is not ready for what’s coming. We are not the superpower anymore. China is. We helped them crawl from the ashes at the peril of our own country. Our politicians used the backs of Americans to do it.

People like Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin now run our military. Communists running the American military just 75 years after we stopped communism in Europe. We have dishonored the heroes who died storming the beaches of Normandy, those who gave their lives to stop communism there so it wouldn’t come here. The Biden administration is not keeping you, the American people, safe; they are keeping Chinese interests safe.

Before Trump, Milley would be sitting in a cell for treason. Today, Biden, through his handlers, backed Mark Milley, giving full support.

We no longer carry the “moral authority,” as phony as it even was the last couple of decades.

George W Bush started the chaos in the Middle East. He created terrorist groups like ISIS, who murdered and tortured Christians, who raped and disregarded women and children. He then had enough nerve on 9/11 to tell this nation that we have terrorists, just like Al-Qaeda, within our own communities. Who are these terrorists? YOU, the American people. He, on one hand, talked about all the sacrifices our vets have made, and then on the other, called them terrorists. Who do you think most of our vets supported? Trump. Who’s primarily in Oathkeepers, now being labeled a terrorist group by our own government? Veteran Patriots.

People like GWB and Obama are one and the same, controlled by the same deity. Satan.

There are new alliances forming all over the world, but you just need to read God’s word to know who will align together.

In Daniel, we read of the fourth beast. The last world Empire. In my opinion, it includes the Bear (Russia), the lion (the UK), the leopard (Germany), and rooster feathers (France). They are being led by a dragon, marveling after it. This beast is given its power by Satan. I can think of only one nation that would be represented by a dragon in these last days. China.

Jesus tells us that we will be persecuted for His name’s Sake. As the Covid lie continues, Christians face more backlash. Biden just attempted to further divide America, this time not along racial lines but along vaccination status. He claimed that he needs to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated, even though the vaccinated are the real carriers. He then said he has been patient enough. Really? What are you going to do, call corn pop on us? If only it were that easy. We are going to soon see Americans fighting Americans just to survive. Scripture says that other nations ask, “Have you become weak like us?” (Isaiah 14:10).

I truly believe that America’s fall will lead to the downfall of the world. With her, the world had order. Without her, chaos reigns.

The Democrats are losing even some in their own base over forced vaccinations.

People like the homophobic queen of Twitter, Joy Reid, went from saying the vaccine should be a choice and not forced on people under Trump, to now suddenly saying you should be mandated and forced to do it.

The vaccine is not the mark of the beast. It’s just preparing people for the coming beast system. And nothing can separate Christians from God other than rejection of His Son Jesus Christ. It comes down to what a person is willing to accept or reject.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

The American dream is gone. Stolen from us right before our eyes. We weren’t asleep. We watched it happen.

We watched Obama disrupt our entire government, trample our constitution, and create the most uninformed and weak generation in the history of this nation.

While we were warning against the dangers of “toxic masculinity” and lowering our requirements in boot camp for women, China and Russia have been breeding men just to fight… and they aren’t fighting one another.

While we abandoned our national pride to appease newcomers, China has become a nation that represents national pride. Their national pride is applauded while proud Americans are considered offensive.

We raised a generation of soft boys who play video games ALL DAY, knowing nothing about the real world. Today, we have 25-year-olds who won’t work and have become teenagers forever; do you really think they will fight for this nation?

There is something evil brewing in America. With Milley outed, Biden’s dementia getting worse, and chants of F*** Biden spreading across the country, we may be closer to camps or civil war than you think.

They’ve lost control and have absolutely nothing to lose. The left needs something major to happen; what better time than right now for a false flag attack?

Are you ready for the return of Jesus? It may be closer than you think. Will you be like the five virgins with no lamp oil, or will you be prepared? With acceptance of Satan’s mark comes a godless life with no moral code. With rejection of Satan comes acceptance of Jesus Christ.

All I can say right now is DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID. The left has turned into a cult. Stay sober and awake.

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury” (Rev 18:2-3).

Vanessa P

Womanofchrist@yahoo.com

Twitter @NessaRedKingdom