Following Jesus

Father God, I pray that you would fill me full of the Holy Spirit to preach.

Lord, I pray that you would make me a conduit for your word.

Lord, that you would pour your truth to me.

That you would speak to your people.

Lord, I pray that you would draw everyone to yourself, that Christ would be exalted, that Christ would be lifted up, that he would draw all men to himself.

Protect us from the evil one.

Protect us from any distraction.

Help us be fully here, fully present.

Speak, O Lord.

Your people listen.

Feed us from your word.

Lord, we're hungry.

And even if we don't know that we're hungry, we are.

We should be.

Make us hungry.

Change us from one degree of glory to the next.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

All right, Mark chapter one, and I want you to think about this.

I want you to imagine that you're living in America.

Some of this will not be hard for some of you to imagine.

And you have a heart for your country.

You want things to be better.

And you are longing for maybe some political candidate to come along who would be the best of all possible solutions.

Maybe some third-party candidate who would be a truth teller.

You could trust them, a person of integrity.

They would be a moral example.

Your kids could look up to them and say, I want to be like him one day, and you'd be excited about that.

But they'd also be very compassionate, very tender, a loving person, but also wise and shrewd, not a pushover.

And maybe you pray for this, you hope for this, and sometimes you think, maybe one day.

But to be honest, you've been living a long time and you've kind of given up hope.

You've kind of resigned yourself to status quo.

But then somebody comes to Birmingham and they announce they are that third party candidate.

And they're starting their campaign today, and they're calling you to be a part of their team.

They come to your place of work, you hear them speak, and they're like, hey, I want you to come hop on the bus.

This thing is starting.

I'm gonna announce my political candidacy, and I want you to be a part of my campaign team.

Well, don't worry, I'm not about to announce a political candidacy for anyone.

What am I doing?

I'm trying to put us in the mindset of the original hearers the way they would have heard as best I can, Jesus Christ coming onto the scene.

Okay?

It's so important when we read the Bible, at least in the beginning, to hear it the way the original hearers would have heard it before we jump to what's the application for me living in 21st century America.

We need to do that, but we don't need to skip.

How would the original hearers have heard it?

So very briefly, for devout Jews, they would have read the Old Testament, loved the Old Testament, read the prophecies of a coming Messiah, a coming anointed one, a David part two, and he was going to be a godly man, a godly king, a godly leader.

But he would also be a great political strategist and a military general who would throw off the oppressors.

David threw off the Philistines.

This guy was gonna come and throw off the evil Roman oppressors and set up the golden age of Israel all over again.

Better than the kingdom ever was, even under David, even under Solomon.

And then start spreading the borders one day to conquer the whole earth.

For Yahweh.

That's what they were looking for, that's what they were thinking for.

But the problem was if there was a problem at least in our mind, there had been 400 years of prophetic silence.

This would be like us living today and saying, we hadn't heard anything from God since the 1600s.

So even probably some of the most devout Jews maybe hadn't given up hope, but probably had this mindset, not gonna happen in my day.

I need to just kind of eke out a living, try to be a nice person.

That's all I can hope for.

Now, in light of that, we read this text.

Mark chapter 1, starting verse 14.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Now, after John, that's John the Baptist, now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God 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 the nets, and immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Now, what's going on here?

John the Baptist was the first prophet in 400 years, and he had come preaching a message of repentance, that he was the advanced team, the Messiah's coming after me.

And listen, we had this thing kind of like baptism, where if you were a dirty, rotten, sinful Gentile, not a good Jew, but you wanted to worship the one true God, Yahweh, you need to go through this ceremonial ritual of washing off your sins.

But I'm telling you, even if you're a devout Jew, when it's time for Messiah, you got to get right.

You got to get baptized.

Repent of your sins.

But then John the Baptist's ministry only lasted six months.

He gets arrested.

And then Jesus comes onto the scene, full force in his ministry.

The forerunner's ministry is done, and Jesus starts his ministry and essentially is preaching a very similar message.

Repent.

John was a prophet.

Jesus is a prophet.

He says, the kingdom of God is at hand.

It's near, it's coming, it's on top of you.

One commentator said, the time is ripe.

Two different words in the Greek for time.

One is like chronology, just time.

But another has the sense of the opportune moment, the perfect time.

One commentator said it's like a golden opportunity.

The time is now.

Don't get left behind.

And so what do you need to do?

You need to repent and you need to believe the gospel.

Believe this good news from God, this good news about God.

He's coming close.

Don't doubt his word.

Trust him.

Now, he's walking by the Sea of Galilee, which in reality is really a lake.

It's about 13 miles by eight miles, but it was called the Sea of Galilee.

And there was a thriving fishing industry there.

And he comes across Peter and Andrew.

They're still fishing.

Maybe they didn't catch anything last night.

Come follow me.

They dropped their nets, they leave their work, a lucrative business, and they follow him.

Then he sees John and he sees James with their father Zebedee and even hired servants.

Listen, if there was any such thing in the Roman Empire as middle class back then, John and James were it.

They got hired servants working for them, family business.

And Jesus says, Come follow me.

And literally it's come behind me, is how you would literally translate it from the Greek.

Come behind me.

And they drop everything and they walk after him.

There's a story in the Bible, it's a little more obscure, but it's a really good one.

Okay.

2 Kings chapter 9, don't look there now, but if you're bored this afternoon, go read it.

2 Kings 9 · chapter mention

And there had been a lot of wicked kings in Israel.

And God raised up a new king named Jehu.

And part of Jehu's job was to wipe out the wicked kings.

And at one point, Jehu, this godly king, he's riding towards an enemy king.

And the enemy king doesn't know who he is, so he keeps sending out one of his men to figure it out.

And the rider would get to Jehu in the chariot, and the rider would say, Are you for peace?

And Jehu would say, What do you have to do with peace?

Get behind me.

Basically, get in this godly campaign.

And in a sense, that's what Jesus is doing.

Jesus is a prophet, Jesus is a king, and he's like, Get behind me and follow what I'm about to do, what I'm about.

Okay?

Um, listen, all of these Old Testament prophecies that God had been prophesying, I will come near, I will start my kingdom.

It's coming, it's happening.

Do you remember Elisha?

Oh, excuse me, Elijah, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament.

And when he was going to call his successor, he went and threw his mantle over Elisha, who was a farmer.

And Elisha got to go home, say goodbye to mom and dad.

He had a big feast, a big party for everybody in town.

He was a rich guy too.

But then he left it all and he followed Elijah.

And in a similar way, Jesus is saying, Hey, come follow me right now.

And I'm better than Elijah.

You don't even get to go home and have a party and say goodbye.

You just drop everything right now and follow me.

I'm the true prophet.

I'm the true king.

And then he says, If you follow me, I'm going to make you a fisher of men.

Now this makes sense.

They were fishers.

He's using a metaphor they could understand.

But he's doing more than that because in the Old Testament, there were a couple of different times in the prophets where God would say, I'm going to send out fishers to get men, but it was always about judgment.

You're trying to hide from me?

I'll find you and I'll judge you.

But this is not about judgment.

This is about mercy.

This is about redemption.

This is about taking people alive for the purpose of salvation.

And then he sees John and James, he calls them as well.

They leave everything to follow him.

Now, I don't know about you, but for years, I've grown up in the church reading this passage.

Get a similar passage in Mark, I mean, excuse me, in Matthew.

It always seemed a little strange to me.

And here's what I mean.

It seems like these men have never met Jesus before.

And he just shows up at work one day and he's a little bit like Obi-Wan Kenobi in the old Star Wars movies, if you remember.

And he says, These are not the droids you're looking for, right?

And the stormtroopers say, These are not the droids we're looking for.

It's like Jesus did a magic trick.

But John chapter 1 through John chapter 4 give us a little bit more information.

John 1 · chapter mention John 4 · chapter mention

You see, these fishermen, certainly Andrew and John, fishing's a seasonal business.

And when they had heard about this prophet John the Baptist, they were devout Jews.

They left their fishing business for a while to go follow John the Baptist and his revival preaching.

You know, some people leave their jobs to go follow the grateful dead or something like that.

You're a devout Jew.

This would be like going and following around the Billy Graham Crusade.

And while they were doing that, Jesus comes and is baptized and has his 40 days in the wilderness, and John says, That's the Lamb of God.

That's the one I've been preaching about.

And John and Andrew leave John the Baptist and they go follow Jesus, and then they go get their brothers, Peter and James.

And for a matter of months, we don't know exactly how long, but it was seven months, maybe as long as a year, they hung out with Jesus.

They followed him.

They saw him turn the water into wine at a wedding.

They heard about the conversation where he leads the woman at the well to Christ, and then she basically leads the whole village to Christ.

God can use anybody.

But at some point they're like, we gotta go back to work, we gotta make money, we got families.

And in that context, Jesus comes back to them and says, No, leave it all and follow me.

So this wasn't a magic trick.

This was they had seen and they knew here's the Messiah.

Now, what is the application that we can take from this?

Okay.

First thing is this a lot of people really wrestle with exactly what does the kingdom of God mean, especially in this context.

Okay, and in some sense, though, it's really simple.

Here's William Hendrickson.

Okay, listen to this.

God's reign in the hearts and lives of men would begin to assert itself far more powerfully than ever before.

This indicates God's kingship, and it's recognized in the hearts and the operative in the lives of his people, effecting their complete salvation.

So here's the point.

Is God one day going to set up a literal earthly kingdom where he rule?

Yes, that's coming one day.

But what was happening right here is Jesus is like, I'm setting up my spiritual kingdom.

I'm taking over men's hearts, I'm saving human beings.

I mean, ultimately it's this, guys.

What does it mean the kingdom of God is here?

It means the king is here.

And when the king is here, you swear loyalty to him.

You align your life with his.

Now listen, when we sin, we don't ruin God's kingdom, but we do diminish how clearly it's seen.

Does that make sense?

God's still sovereign, he's on his throne.

You can try to be a rebel, he's gonna win in the end.

But what you are doing, though, is you are, at a human level, marring how his glory is displayed and seen.

The second thing I'd say is this life is a roller coaster, so don't be shocked or surprised by the ups and downs that come in life.

Now, what do I mean?

Just think about this passage, okay?

The whole, if we started back at Mark 1:1.

Mark 1:1

He starts out, he says, I'm about to tell you the good news, the good announcement about the Son of God.

I mean, that sounds high and exciting.

And then he says, You know what it starts?

Out in the wilderness with a weirdo named John the Baptist.

That kind of seems low.

But then he says, you know what?

It was a revival.

It was like all the countryside was going out to hear John the Baptist.

Revival! It's exciting, it's big.

And then he says, but then the Messiah came forth, and you know what he did?

He said, I gotta be baptized just like all these other dirty, rotten scoundrels.

That didn't sound very exciting.

That sounds low, that sounds humble.

But then at the baptism, God the Father audibly speaks.

The Holy Spirit comes down like a dove.

That's amazing, it's transcendent.

And then you know what happens?

Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, gets driven out into the wilderness all by himself with wild beasts to fast and do battle with Satan and sin for 40 days.

That doesn't sound fun, that doesn't sound exciting.

But then what happens?

Jesus Christ comes back and he announces the kingdom of God.

It's here, it's happening.

And then he says, Uh, let me go get these four random fishermen over here.

Really?

That's how you start, Jesus.

Guy named R.

T.

France, great New Testament scholar, he said, It is through this flawed and vulnerable group of people that God's kingship will be established.

Here's John Calvin.

Christ selected rough mechanics, persons not only destitute of learning, but inferior in capacity.

I think Calvin's basically say that's how he says they're stupid.

That he might train or rather renew them by the power of his spirit.

Why does God do it this way?

Listen, so as to excel all the wise men of the world, God intended that we may learn to implore from heaven the light of faith when we know that it cannot be acquired by our own exertions.

You hear what he's saying there?

You read stories like this, and if you think God could never use somebody like little old me, yes, he can.

And you ought to say, God, just like you used a bunch of rough mechanic fishermen, please use me.

It's not gonna be by my power, not by my strength, not by my might.

Guy named Dawson Trotman said, think big, start small, go deep.

In a very real sense, that's what Jesus was doing.

He was thinking globally, hey, I'm taking over the whole planet.

But I'm gonna start with four fishermen.

And I'm gonna go really deep with these four fishermen.

Now, third, and this is really important.

Today, when we hear the word gospel, we rightly think about the life, the death, the resurrection of Christ, and salvation in his name by faith alone, grace alone, right?

And and we should.

Nothing I'm about to say is going to diminish that.

That is what you ought to think about today when you hear the word gospel.

But here, this is important.

When the very first hearers heard Jesus saying, believe in the gospel, that's not what they thought about, you understand?

Because Jesus hadn't died, Jesus had not risen yet.

So when they heard Jesus say the gospel, what were they thinking about?

They were thinking about God's coming, God's bringing his kingdom, God's keeping his promises.

And notice Jesus says, repent and believe.

That's how sinners, that's how all of us are supposed to respond to God.

Now, here's the thing: repent and believe are not two different steps.

Repent and believe are not two different phases.

Repent and believe are not two different ways to get to God.

Repent and believe are two sides of the same coin.

Repentance is turning away from being the Lord of my own life, and belief is trusting in Christ to be the Lord of my own life.

Let me give you a very practical example.

The one John used this morning in the confession.

We didn't plan this.

The Holy Spirit did.

John used a great one.

Let me give you another one.

About a month ago, I broke my wrist.

I didn't know that at first.

I fell, it hurt.

I just I don't like going to the doctor more than the average man, right?

And so I went to the doc in the box.

They took an x-ray.

They said, we can't really see anything.

Do you want us to put like a stint on it?

No.

You want us to give you some prescription medicine?

No.

I'll be fine, right?

Because I'm a tough man.

And so basically, what I like to work out.

That's my hobby.

So what did I do?

I would go to the gym and I would just tape it up as tightly as I could and basically still do whatever I wanted.

That's called stupidity, okay?

But that's what I did anyway.

And after about three weeks, I realized it was not getting better.

So I got humble.

And I went to an orthopedic, right?

Somebody who's an expert in bones and muscles and joints.

And they did an MRI.

And then I went back and he said, You actually do have a tiny crack, a tiny fracture in your wrist.

And he says, Here's what you need to do.

You need to put on a wrist brace.

I don't like a wrist brace.

You need to take advil.

I don't like Advil.

It messes my stomach up.

It's like take the Advil.

And he said, and you need to baby your wrist for three weeks.

And then it'll heal itself.

And again, here's my stupidity.

I said, so by baby it, do you mean like when I go to the gym?

He said, don't do anything with your left wrist.

Now, here's the thing.

I don't know this guy very well, but I trust him.

He's not just a random doc in the box on 280.

He's an orthopedic.

He was old, and this is a place where I want somebody old.

He's got gray hair, he's got wisdom, he's got experience.

I trust him.

And you want to know how you can know that I trust him?

It's not because I say that I trust him, that's nice.

The way that you know that I trust him is I'm wearing the wrist brace, and I took an Advil this morning.

If you trust the doctor, you obey him.

If you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, you obey him.

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do it?

I say true belief and true repentance always go hand in hand.

Don't try to separate the two, and unfortunately, many in the church today try to.

Listen, I think there's at least two reasons for that.

Some of us get so caught up in the amazement of grace.

It's by grace alone, through faith alone, not by works.

And that's a quote from the Bible.

That's true.

That we say, I don't want to mess that up, so don't talk about repentance.

But guys, let me just here's the life principle I have in my life.

Don't try to be more spiritual than Jesus.

If you ever try to find yourself being more spiritual than Jesus, well, I don't want to talk about repentance because I might mess up grace.

Read the Bible.

There is a very gospel-centered, grace-based way to talk about repent.

Turn from your sins, turn from your self-lordship.

And then, secondly, this there are legalistic, works-based ways of pursuing God that are wrong, that are sinful.

And I won't do a show of hands here, but probably most of us have had one season in our life where we kind of got into that for a while.

Or maybe we knew people.

We had parents or pastors or a school teacher or whatever that was so legalistic and ritualistic and rigid.

And we hate that.

Rightly so.

But the danger is what do we want to do?

If they had the pendulum all the way over here, it's like, man, I'm going to swing the pendulum all the way over here, baby.

And I'm going to abuse the heck out of grace for the glory of Jesus.

So everybody knows I'm not a legalist.

Don't do it.

Because you know where that'll happen?

You're just setting up the next generation, probably your kids, to swing the pendulum back over there to be a legalist.

The best thing that all of us by grace can do is keep it in the center of the road biblically.

Full belief in Christ, full repentance unto Christ.

Now, let me just give you several quotes.

Okay, Kent Hughes says, belief is all that is necessary to become a Christian, but it must be a belief that changes the life.

Jesus would look at us who say, we are believers, and ask, have you repented?

Is there a constant spirit of repentance?

Now is the time to do it.

Following Christ eliminates the trivial, it expands our hearts.

There is nothing that will make you grow more.

In following Christ.

So, what does it really mean to be a disciple of Christ, to be a follower of Christ?

Here's France again.

The essential elements in discipleship, there's three.

It's a relationship with Jesus.

And then there's the active promotion of his mission and the total commitment to his cause.

A radical renunciation of even family tires that goes far beyond anything they would have been familiar with in normal society.

He takes precedence over livelihood and family.

You hear that?

If you're like, I like a Christianity that just kind of fits into normal society.

That's not the Christianity we have.

Another commentator said, it is a radical redirection of men's lives.

The kingdom cannot be built up or attained even by the most heroic human endeavor alone and is only God's to give.

Yet it is not for men to hope for it endlessly in complete passivity.

Do you hear how these authors are saying, listen, it is total faith, it is total grace, it is not by works, and yet it is not passivity for Jesus.

It is by his grace you repent and he changes your life.

Okay?

And listen, my guess is most of us here, we have repented before.

We have had that once and for all surrender and repentance to Jesus.

I just did a wedding yesterday.

I've used this illustration before, but it's fresh on my mind, right?

When the minister pronounces your man and wife, legally, you are 100% one.

Practically, you got a long way to go, baby.

And it's the same way in the Christian life.

When you bow the knee to Jesus for the first time, you are all in, and you can't lose it because it's by grace alone.

But it is a lifetime of growth and maturity into further repentance, deeper faith.

Another commentator, the way in which all people should respond to Jesus' summons is promptly and completely.

Discipleship is responding to a summons, an attachment to a person, an acceptance of authority, an imitation of example.

They left a lucrative business.

Following Jesus is costly and sometimes even involves severing family ties.

So many Christians today idolize the family.

I mean, one of the Ten Commandments, honor your father and mother.

Right?

So I'm not against that.

Listen to what another commentator said about when they left their dad.

In such a patriarchal society, leaving their dad was bordering on irresponsibility, even disrespect.

At work, with daddy, in the boat, fixing the nets, after a night of work, Jesus comes by, come follow me.

They drop the nets.

Bye, Daddy, bye business.

I'm all in with Jesus.

Another commentator.

Jesus confronts people with a crisis of decision, and their immediate and wholehearted response is a thing to be imitated.

Let me just put it in modern day vernacular.

Like, I'm sick of the quotes.

All right, here's me.

When Jesus says jump, you say, how high.

All right, John Calvin.

Can't get mad in the Presbyterian church.

Somebody quoting John Calvin.

So I'm gonna, one more time.

Those whom the Lord is pleased to lead and draw to himself are inwardly addressed by his Spirit that they may obey his voice.

No, guys, there's a I don't have Jesus standing here in his beard and his robe and his sandal speaking to me.

But if you are a Christian and you immerse yourself in the scriptures and you immerse yourself in the people of God and you're a person of prayer, the Holy Spirit can speak to you.

What is the Holy Spirit calling you to leave?

And I'll give two very quick practical examples.

When I was a high school student, and I really had started walking with Christ, and I had kind of left the party scene, and I started dating a girl in the youth group.

But you can still get in a lot of sin with a girl in the youth group.

And I got convicted and I broke up, but it was one of these things.

She was a senior, I was a junior, and we broke up.

We're still gonna be friends, right?

And prom is close, we'll still go to prom together.

And even as I promised it, I realized this is stupid.

And the Holy Spirit was working on me, and at some point I just had to go back and say, I'm sorry, I cannot go to your prom with you.

Now listen, my youth pastor, her parents, my friends, everybody I knew would like, bad decision, you're mean, you don't blah blah blah blah.

The only people humanly speaking that supported me more are my parents.

They're here, thank you.

But I just knew if I go to prom with her, even as friends, I know how this night ends.

And at one point she came to me crying and said, You made me a promise.

And I said, I know, but I made Jesus a promise first.

I got another good buddy.

In the business world, he had a very lucrative career.

And humanly speaking, pretty easy job.

Stock options, right?

Ownership, all the stuff.

But he felt like the Lord was calling him to leave that and go into ministry and take a pretty big pay cut.

He wasn't rash, he prayed, he fasted, he sought the Lord, he got out of the bottom line is Jesus was saying, leave your career and go into ministry.

And he did that.

What is Jesus calling you to leave?

Now, one more Calvin quote.

Peter yielded so readily to the command of Christ, whom he did not know yet to be a prophet or the son of God.

No apology can be offered for our disgraceful conduct if while we call him our Lord and King and Judge, we do not move a finger to perform our duty to which we have ten times received his commands.

Guys, the fact that we understand the full gospel, the true cospel, so much better than Peter and Andrew and James and John did when they were standing in their boat.

You realize when we do, we understand the death of Christ for all my sins, the resurrection of Christ, because God accepted the payment and I'm vindicated, and now He's ascended into a throne.

We understand all that?

That doesn't give us an excuse to sin more.

It ought to be more power, more holy motivation to obey more.

Out of love, out of overflow.

Guy named C.T.

Stud in the 1900s in England, he would have been like Michael Jordan.

Famous athlete, played cricket.

I mean, who cares about cricket, but it'd be kind of like baseball for us.

And he was super rich as well.

Two things tend to go hand in hand.

Great athlete, famous, wealthy.

He became a Christian and he left it all and he went and he was a career missionary in Africa back when it was hard to be a career African missionary.

And he said, if Jesus Christ be God and died for me, no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.

Isaac Watts, love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.

Jesus, we are unworthy.

You're so amazing.

You're so startling.

You're so majestic.

You are so worthy of all of our life, of all of our thoughts, of all of our words, of all of our desires, of all of our emotions, of every drop of sweat, every ounce of energy ought to be directed towards knowing you, loving you, obeying you, pleasing you, honoring you.

We fall so short.

We are so grateful for grace.

We're so happy about mercy.

But Lord, I pray for myself and I pray for all of us that we would never want to abuse your grace or take advantage of your kindness.

But we would be so smitten with the way that you have loved us that we would truly be motivated with a holy love to obey you.

And whatever we do, whether we eat, whether we drink, it would all be for your glory.

Pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.