Follow Me

Well, good morning again, church.

Would you turn with me to Mark chapter 1, verses 1, verses 14 through 20.

Mark 1:1

Mark chapter 1, verses 14 through 20.

Mark 1:14–20

That's page 785 in the Pew Bible.

It'll be on the screens as I read it in just a second.

But let me encourage you to actually have it open throughout our time of considering

this passage together.

Let me read, and then I'll pray for us.

Mark 1, 14 through 20.

Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God

and saying, the time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon,

casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,

who were in their boat mending their nets.

And immediately he called them.

And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

All right, let's pray together.

Father in heaven, help us now as we come to this word to do what we just sung,

to turn our eyes upon Jesus and to see in him our Savior ever true, our good and rightful king.

We ask all this in his name and by the power of your Holy Spirit, Father.

Amen.

Well, perhaps you can think of a time when you were waiting for something big to come.

I have to confess, every time I place an Amazon order, truthfully, whether it's small or big,

I get a little excited waiting for that package to show up on my door, right?

But that's nothing compared to waiting for, say, something bigger like your birthday to come,

or if you're expecting, you're waiting for the day when your child will come,

or perhaps you're waiting for a loved one to come home from a long trip,

or perhaps waiting for news about some big event, waiting for something big to come.

Maybe in your life right now you're kind of waiting for something big,

something bigger than an Amazon package anyway.

I think at the deepest level, I think at the deepest level,

we're kind of all waiting for something big, aren't we?

I mean, if we pause and we're just quiet for a moment,

we're waiting for the day when finally, maybe, possibly, hopefully, something will change.

In this broken world, we all catch ourselves sometimes waiting and hoping for something big.

When will the day come?

When will things finally get put right?

Not just the little things, but like the whole thing, right?

When will the world finally get put right?

And I wonder if those little kind of everyday expectations that we have

are like little glimmers or little echoes of that deeper human longing.

You know, at a silly level, I'm waiting for my Amazon package to come

because I'm out of my favorite pens,

and once that package gets here,

finally, my writing needs will be put right at long last.

You're waiting for your promotion at work

because then maybe your financial needs can get put right.

You're waiting for your baby to come

because then maybe your desire for a family, for a home,

for a deep love can get put right.

But maybe, perhaps, something even bigger can come

that will put everything right.

And you know, if you've ever felt that longing,

the good news is you're in good company.

One of the great themes or threads or desires

that kind of drives the whole Bible is exactly that.

It's the hope that the world could be put right again.

If you start reading the Old Testament,

you'll see, well, you'll see that things go wrong pretty quickly.

But then there's a promise.

A promise that one day the wrong will be undone,

everything sad will come untrue,

and at last sickness, sorrow, and death will be no more.

But keep reading the Old Testament,

and you'll see that there's a growing wisdom that develops.

A growing wisdom that the human problem,

the world's problem,

is so intractable and so great and so deep

that humans can't solve it.

As the last chapters of the Old Testament come to a close,

we see that if the world is going to be put right,

then God must be the one to do it.

And as the ages kind of roll on

after the close of the Old Testament,

the Jewish people begin talking about this hope,

this longing in terms of God's kingdom.

That is when God, the Lord,

the world's true king,

comes to reign

and comes to put the world right again.

If you ask many Jews in the first century,

what is it that's going to heal the world?

What's going to take this broken world

full of injustice and wrong and suffering and death,

what's going to heal it once and for all?

The answer would have been

God's kingdom.

Now listen again to verses 14 through 15 of Mark 1.

Now after John was arrested,

Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God

and saying,

the time's fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Jesus' message was that the reign of God,

the kingdom of God,

the hope of the world,

the healing of the world,

the putting right of all things had arrived.

The time is fulfilled,

the wait is over,

and the healing has begun.

It's at hand.

That is, it's pressing down right now

in this moment.

And Jesus says,

that's good news.

And it's not just the good news,

the gospel of Rome or of Caesar.

It's not the good news of any human empire

or any human endeavor or human striving,

but it's the gospel,

the good news of God.

God's tremendous, history-changing good news.

God's kingdom is at hand.

God's kingdom is at hand.

So this passage from Mark that we just read

helps us to understand then

two very important things,

and we're going to look at them both together.

First, in verses 14 through 15,

Mark helps us to see Jesus' message.

And then in verses 16 through 20,

we see Jesus' call.

That is, how should we respond to that message?

There's a lot of misunderstanding

about both of those things,

but Mark's going to help us to get it right.

What is Jesus' message,

and what is Jesus' call?

How should we respond to that message?

So when we consider first Jesus' message

in verses 14 through 15,

we see that ultimately the message of Jesus

maybe isn't what we expect.

After all, it's common to think of Jesus

as just one of the great religious leaders, right,

who came to start another religious movement.

And what do great religious leaders do?

Well, they come and they give new teaching,

and they give new instructions to follow, right?

The Buddha came and he taught the four truths,

and Muhammad brought the five pillars,

and Jesus, well, well, actually,

Jesus is quite different.

He breaks the mold.

Because his message isn't primarily

a new code of ethics.

Of course, Jesus did teach us how to live.

But the heart of his message,

the real heart of Jesus' message

wasn't something that you and I should be doing,

but something that God was doing.

God's kingdom had arrived.

The time was up.

And that's why Jesus uses the word gospel.

Of course, that's a pretty kind of religious-y

sounding word today, isn't it?

Gospel.

But it wasn't in the first century.

In Jesus' day, the word gospel, or good news,

referred to what messengers proclaimed

when great battles had been won,

or when emperors had been born,

or when kingdoms rose and kingdoms fell.

A gospel in the first century wasn't a religious word.

It was a political word.

It was a social word.

It was a word that you would read

on the front page of the New York Times,

not in your church bulletin.

It was news.

So it's quite significant that Jesus' message

is first and foremost not a dogma or an ethic,

but a gospel,

a message of something that is being done.

Something is happening.

God is doing something.

And God is doing something good.

He's come at last to make things right.

The healing has begun.

But you see, Jesus' message wasn't just

that God's kingdom had arrived,

but that God's kingdom had arrived in him.

Now, we'll take the rest of Mark's gospel

for this reality to unfold,

but we do see it here.

What is it that starts the inbreaking of God's reign?

It's Jesus when he steps forward and says,

the time is fulfilled.

His arrival, his proclamation

is the beginning of God's kingdom.

And so what Mark wants us to see,

even at this earliest point in his gospel,

isn't just that God's kingdom is at hand,

but that God's kingdom is at hand in Jesus.

The healing of the world comes through him.

That is a bit challenging for us today, isn't it?

We can think of all sorts of things we think

that need to happen in order for the world to be healed,

in order for things to be put right.

But if at the center of that,

hope and longing and dream and plan

is not the Lord Jesus,

then we've departed from God's own plan and way

of bringing his kingdom and healing the world.

So, you know, if you would have asked

a typical Jewish person in the first century,

as I said, what's going to heal the world,

they would have said God's kingdom.

But if you would have asked a Christian,

whether Jew or Gentile,

they would have said the same thing with this twist.

God's kingdom, and it's come in Jesus.

God has begun to reclaim his fallen world,

to heal what's broken,

and he's doing it through his eternal son,

the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.

And isn't that good news?

Why?

Well, think with me for a second.

Imagine God,

who he's revealed himself to be,

holy, just, good, sovereign, mighty,

beautiful beyond measure.

Imagine God,

upon whom we all depend for every second,

coming to put things right,

taking all the wrong and injustice and evil

in the world and putting it away once and for all.

That's a wonderful hope, isn't it?

Until you stop to think,

what about my own wrongs and my own injustices?

What about my own heart?

That yes, more often than I care to admit,

is so self-centered and at times even evil.

And then you might start to think,

God's kingdom, yes,

it might be good news for the world,

but is it good news for me,

a sinner?

When God's kingdom comes,

how could there possibly be a place for me?

But consider Jesus.

Jesus arrives in Galilee.

Now, that's a pretty curious place

to begin the kingdom,

to begin the reign of God, Galilee.

After all, think about it.

In the first century,

Rome was the center of the Gentile world

in the first century.

Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish world.

If you were going to start the in-breaking reign of God

and fix things,

you think you would start there, right?

No.

Jesus begins in Galilee.

He begins in the margins.

Galilee is just this ordinary place.

But there,

that's where Jesus begins.

Not among the political elite,

not among the religious or the moral elite,

Galilee.

But Jesus doesn't just begin His ministry on the margins.

He ends it there as well.

Where does the gospel of Mark lead?

Do we see Jesus in a liberating victory march to Rome

to overthrow oppression and injustice?

Do we see a sort of triumphant march to Jerusalem,

toppling all the sort of corrupt religiosity

happening in the capital?

No.

Jesus' ministry comes to its climax

on a hill outside of Jerusalem,

surrounded by criminals,

hung up to die on a Roman cross.

And we ask,

is this how God's kingdom comes?

Through the tragic execution

of a young Jewish man named Jesus?

Is that God's kingdom?

But don't you see?

Jesus wasn't just any young Jewish man.

He was the king of God's kingdom.

And the king knew that if God's kingdom

was going to be good news for you and me,

for sinners,

then he would have to step,

not just into the margins of our ordinary life,

but he'd have to go even further

and step down into the sin

and self-centeredness

that broke the world in the first place.

He would have to take your place

at the judgment

so you could join his place

in the kingdom.

That's what the king does

for you and me.

And that's why it's such good news

that God's kingdom

has come in Jesus.

So do you believe that?

Do you believe that God's kingdom

has arrived in Jesus?

that here lies the secret,

the answer to the healing of the world,

the crucified rabbi from Galilee,

the risen and reigning Lord Jesus?

That is the very proclamation

of Christianity from beginning to end.

And if so,

if you do believe that,

how should you respond?

Well, that brings us

to the rest of our passage.

In verses 16 through 20,

what we see is Jesus' call.

And these verses give us

a vivid picture

of what the end of verse 15 means.

Jesus says in verse 15, right,

repent and believe the gospel.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, we see it here

in verses 16 through 20.

When Jesus comes to Simon,

whom Jesus will give

the new name Peter a little later,

when he comes to Simon and Andrew

and James and John,

he says, follow me.

And what do they do?

They leave their nets

and they leave their family

and they follow him.

Now, let me point out three things

about this call.

First, Jesus says, follow me, right?

He is the object of the call.

Without qualification,

without hesitation,

Jesus says, follow me.

And that was very radical

in the first century.

It wasn't something

that other teachers

or rabbis would do.

You know, notice he doesn't say

like all the Old Testament prophets,

follow Torah,

follow the law of Moses.

And he doesn't say

like everyone says today,

follow your heart.

You know,

a dream is a wish

the heart makes.

Find it and follow it.

Keep navel gazing

until you discover

your true self, right?

No.

Jesus says, follow me.

If you want to be part

of God's kingdom,

you must follow me.

And that means

you must leave something behind.

Your nets

and your family.

If you want to understand

the real meaning

of Jesus' call to repent,

repent,

here it is.

Repentance, you see.

Again,

it's not this sort of

narrow religious word.

We hear the word repent

and we think it means

sort of like

be sorry for breaking the rules.

Well, it is that,

but it's deeper than that.

In reality,

repentance is a whole

life shift

of allegiance.

The direction

of your life changes.

What defines your life

right now?

Your vocation?

Your work?

Your family?

Your people?

Your tribe?

I think for most of us,

it's usually one

or the other

of those two things,

isn't it?

It's either my work

that defines me

or it's my people

that define me, right?

You meet someone new

and eventually

they're going to ask you,

so what do you do?

Right?

And then you tell them

your job

or where are you from

or who are you a part?

What, you know,

what's your people, right?

I'm a Mets fan

or whatever, you know.

Jesus says,

you have to leave them both

and follow me.

I'm what defines you now,

Jesus says.

Now, you might be thinking

that was easy

for a handful of poor fishermen

on the shores of Galilee.

What did they have to lose, right?

But, you know,

the reality is

Simon and Andrew

and James and John,

you know,

they weren't sort of

poor, desperate fishermen

with nothing to lose.

I think that's a pretty,

pretty big historical misconception

we have

about these first disciples.

You know,

when we look at the history,

we see that

the fishing industry

around the Sea of Galilee

was actually this sort of

thriving business

in the first century.

And it wasn't just

sort of a local trade.

You know,

you remember,

in the Greco-Roman world,

fish was like

the staple food, right?

Everyone ate fish

all the time.

It's how they got

their protein.

And fish

from the Sea of Galilee

were exported

and prized

and valued

as far south

as Alexandria

and Egypt

and as far north

as Antioch

and Syria,

which were two

of the biggest cities

in the Roman Empire.

So the fishermen

on the Sea of Galilee

were actually competing

in an international

Mediterranean market

and by all accounts,

they were pretty successful

at it.

I mean,

consider Zebedee

right here,

the father of James

and John.

He has hired servants

working for him.

These aren't poor fishermen

living hand to mouth.

So what were Andrew

and Simon

and James and John

walking away from?

They were walking away

from a thriving

family business

in a culture

where family

meant everything.

In other words,

they had everything

to lose.

So why did they do it?

What would make them

drop everything

and follow Jesus?

Well,

we know from

John's Gospel

that they had met

Jesus

and even spent

some time with him

before this encounter

in Galilee.

So Jesus wasn't

a totally unknown

quantity to them.

But still,

this moment

right here

on the shores

of Galilee

while they're at

their boats

and with their family

and working

on their nets,

this is the decisive

moment.

Why did they go?

What was it

about Jesus

that they were willing

to leave everything

and follow him?

Well,

I think that question

is exactly

the question

that Mark wants

his readers

to be asking.

What would make

four ordinary,

prosperous men

drop everything

to follow this Jesus?

Aren't you curious?

Don't you want to see

what they saw?

And Mark's Gospel

takes us

on a journey

where we can do

just that,

to see in Jesus

what they saw.

So if you're wondering

what would make

people leave

their job

or leave

their family

and follow Jesus,

you need to stay

tuned

and keep reading.

But I like

what Jerome,

the church father,

has to say

about this passage

writing in the

fourth or fifth century,

I think it is.

He writes,

there must have been

something

divinely compelling

in the Savior's

guileless

countenance.

There must have been

something divinely

compelling

in the Savior's

guileless

countenance

that persons

merely upon

seeing him

could trust.

Just

one

real look

at Jesus

is what it takes

to trust him.

Now,

will you literally

have to quit

your job

and abandon

your family

to follow Jesus?

Some of you

might be thinking,

I kind of don't

like my job

and my family

annoys me.

I would love

to quit everything

and follow Jesus.

Sign me up!

Right?

Right?

Well,

no.

You know,

more often than not

in the Gospels,

Jesus tells people

who trust in him

to go home

and tell your family

and your hometown

how much I've done

for you.

The point here

is that work

and family,

vocation

and tribe,

however you define it,

they don't have

our ultimate

allegiance anymore.

They aren't

our identity

anymore.

And that means

if we have to quit

our jobs to follow

Jesus,

we would.

And if we have

to leave our social

tribe or our social

network,

we will.

He gets the priority

over everything else.

That's real repentance.

And that's what it means

to follow Jesus

and enter God's kingdom.

But notice the second

thing about this call.

Notice that Jesus says,

follow me

and I will make you

something.

I will make you

become

fishers of men,

he says.

Now of course

Jesus is using

an obvious wordplay

on their profession

but there's also

a subtle allusion

here to the Old Testament.

Earlier in the service

we read from

the prophet Jeremiah

where Jeremiah

looks ahead

to when God

is going to judge

and save

his people

and even extend

his kingdom

to the Gentiles.

And what does

Jeremiah say?

He says,

the Lord through

Jeremiah says,

I'm going to send

out fishers

and I'm going

to send

out hunters

and I'm going

to gather

them all in.

So you see,

the call

to follow Jesus

isn't a call

to mere

observation.

Following Jesus

isn't about

becoming a mere

spectator

to the work

of God's kingdom.

It's about

becoming a participant.

with this new

identity

comes a new

mission,

a new purpose,

a new reason

to get up

in the morning.

Peter and Andrew

and James and John

they were presumably

really good

at catching fish.

That's what got

them up every morning

probably a lot earlier

than you and I

get up in the morning,

right?

But now

it wasn't going

to be about

bringing fish

from water

to land.

Now it was going

to be about

seeing people

brought from

death to life.

Seeing men

and women

lost under

the curse

of the fall

come to know

that God's kingdom

had come in Jesus

and that forgiveness

and new life

could be found

in Him.

You see,

every follower

of Jesus

is also

a minister

of Jesus.

God has

good works

prepared

for you

to do.

God wants

you to not

just enjoy

His forgiveness

and grace

but to join

the mission

of advancing

His kingdom.

A Christian

who doesn't

serve

and minister

is sort of

like a kite

that never flies,

right?

What a shame

to be stuck

on the ground

when you could

be feeling

the wind

carrying you

up

into the sky

and clouds.

That's where

God is calling you.

God is calling you.

The call of Jesus

is the call

to join the work.

Of course,

Peter and Andrew

and James and John,

they probably

didn't understand

all this at first,

right?

And they certainly

were not ready

for it.

Ah,

but notice carefully

what Jesus says.

He says,

I will make you

become fishers of men.

Now,

I have to confess,

as I was studying

for the preaching

this week

and I read that verse,

I thought,

that is a clumsy

translation,

right?

Certainly,

we could have

cleaned that up

a little bit

and made that

a little smoother,

but actually,

as I got into it,

it's a really good

translation of that verse,

even though it sounds

a little strange.

I will make you

become fishers of men.

In other words,

Jesus is promising here

that along the way

of following Him,

He will make them

what they need to be.

He will make them

become what they need

to be in order to do

the work He's called

them to do.

The call of Jesus

is a call to follow

and become.

So,

if you're thinking

that you're not ready

to follow Jesus,

you're not ready

to follow Him

and join the mission,

if you're thinking

you're not ready,

well,

you're right.

no one is ever ready

to follow Jesus.

That's why He says,

follow me

and I will make you become.

So,

trust Him.

Put your life

in His hands

and He

will make you

become.

To be sure,

He will use all sorts

of means

to get you there.

He'll use the means

of worship

and community

and His Word

and He'll use the means

of His Spirit

and prayer

and He'll even use

the means

of suffering

and trials.

But the promise

stands,

I'll make you

become.

So,

you don't need

to clean up

your act

or get your life

together

before you follow Jesus.

It's His job

to do the cleaning

and the changing.

What you need

to do

is let down

your nets

and follow Him.

But lastly,

notice one more thing

about this call,

this call

to enter

God's kingdom

and this call

to follow King Jesus.

It's also a call

to a fellowship.

Jesus knows us

and calls us

individually by name.

Isn't that wonderful?

Simon,

Andrew,

James,

John,

we're known

and we're called

by name

but we join

something bigger

than ourselves.

Following Jesus

means following Him

alongside others.

There's no such thing

as a lone ranger Christian.

We have to do this

together.

And when we do it together,

following Jesus

as our King,

then it's like

the mustard seed

that Jesus mentions

in Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Jesus said,

with what can we compare

the kingdom of God

or what parable

shall we use for it?

it's like a grain

of mustard seed

which when sown

in the ground

is the smallest

of all the seeds

on earth.

Yet when it's sown,

it grows up

and becomes

larger than all

the garden plants

and puts out

large branches

so that the birds

of the air

can make nests

in its shade.

The kingdom

starts small

and then it grows

and then it becomes

a place

of shelter

and shade,

a place of healing

and a place

of home.

So according to Mark's gospel,

according to Jesus,

what we're waiting for

is here.

It's here

in Jesus,

the crucified

and risen Lord.

And of course,

it's here

oftentimes

in a seed.

Right?

God's kingdom

in Jesus

one day

will come in fullness

and then the glory

of God

will cover the earth

like the waters

cover the sea

and that day

is still in the future

but already

that kingdom

has begun.

The fall

is starting

to set in.

Winter is passing

and the signs

of spring

are starting

to spring up

so come

and follow him.

Mark says,

let down your nets

and follow him.

He's not looking

for polish

and prestige.

He's not looking

for perfect people

because there are none

he's calling you

right where you are

right there

in the ordinary.

Come and follow me.

Come enter

God's kingdom.

Come join

God's reign

and let the healing

begin.

Let's pray together.

Our Lord Jesus

as we pause

and take a moment

before you

we ask that you

would soften

our hearts

to you

and to your call.

God some of us here

have heeded this call

many years ago

and we continue

to heed it

and we thank you

that that is not

because of our own

wisdom or grace

or strength

but because of your

grace and Holy Spirit.

Lord renew in us

that sense

to let down

our nets

and to even

leave our family

and follow you.

Father for those

who are feeling

the tug of this call

but are perhaps

unsure

would you help them

to see in the face

of Jesus

one who can be trusted

and who has gone

to the very uttermost

to love them

and bring them home.

O Lord

we pray

that your kingdom

would come

in and through our church

for Jesus' sake

Father.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.