Mark 1:16–34 — Following the Lord of Heaven and Earth

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This sermon is from Mark chapter 1 verses 16 through 34.

Mark 1:16–34

It is entitled "Following the Lord of Heaven and Earth," and it was delivered to Ecclesia

churches on May 11th, 2025.

I remember when I first started college and my roommate that had planned to live with me in

the dorms had some kind of family crisis come up and dropped out of college,

literally the day that we moved in. I called him on my way to the dorm with my van full of stuff,

and he said, "Oh, I'm actually not going to college anymore."

And hung up the phone. I never heard from him or saw him again.

And so for the first couple of weeks, I actually had a room to myself, which was pretty sweet,

actually. It was awesome to have the space, but it was also really lonely.

And people started throwing around the name Nick, and they said, "Nick, have you met Nick?

Do you know Nick?" And I was like, "No, I don't know Nick. He's the greatest guy. Everybody loves him."

And it turns out Nick was looking for a roommate. And so I had somebody ask, "Hey, would you mind

if I brought Nick by your room just so you like the two of you could meet?" And so I said, "Yeah,

sure, whatever. I meet Nick. He comes and, you know, to my room says, "Hi, shakes my hand."

But I didn't know anything else about him when he moved in. I actually invited him in because of

what other people had said. He had glowing reviews from everybody that knew him, even after just a

couple of weeks of college. And so I invited him in to be my roommate. And I found out that he was

everything that people said he was and more. He was a great friend. He was a fantastic roommate.

Like, you couldn't have asked for a more compassionate, kind, conscientious, nice guy

to know. And I really did end up kind of following him everywhere for that first year because he was

way more outgoing than I was. And he introduced me to new friends and new interests. And my life

in that first year of college was different because of Nick and really the investment that he made

in me. And Nick actually came to mind as I was thinking about the way that these disciples

in our passage today had their lives completely changed by meeting Jesus. In today's passage,

we get Mark's account of Jesus not only beginning to call his disciples to himself,

but also showing them who he is. And we're going to see that Jesus is the one that initiates this

call. And he is the one that is going to the disciples. We're also going to see that this

invitation is personal, but it requires a response from these disciples that he's calling.

And then we see Jesus show these disciples and the people around them a little clearer picture of

who he is. And we'll see that Jesus is not only a spiritual authority that we can trust

to lead us well and teach us what is true, but we also find out that Jesus is not just interested

in the spiritual, but cares deeply about our physical reality and loves us in the midst of it.

And so we get a picture of Jesus as the Lord of heaven and also of earth, who took on flesh and

stepped into our reality to show his great love for us. And I hope that we walk away from this

passage with a new sense of wonder, not only at the authority of Jesus, but also a greater sense of

his love for us and a trust in him, because he is not only someone with the authority to handle

our every care and burden. He is also the one who invites us to bring all of ourselves to him,

to know him and be fully known and loved by him. So in today's passage, we're going to look at a

pretty good chunk of it. This is Mark 1, verses 16 through 34. And instead of reading it all together

Mark 1:16–34

at once, we'll actually read kind of one section at a time as we look at these three locations

around the city of Capernaum, where Jesus is doing ministry. Let's start with verses 16 through 20.

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 further,

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. So let's talk about the where and the who for a moment. Jesus is walking

along the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, which is basically an eight-mile wide freshwater lake

that is fed by the Jordan River and surrounded by very hilly country. It was a huge source of

fish because it was a large freshwater body of water. And it stayed warm there almost year-round.

There are stuff being harvested there agriculturally for like nine to ten months out of the year.

So it's very temperate as far as climate goes. And fish were in demand all throughout the Roman

Empire at this point. So in an area that was relatively poor, fishing was one of the booming

businesses in this area. So fishermen, particularly the established ones who were succeeding with a

thriving business, had to be not only skilled at fishing, but also at business because it was

very competitive. Most would have been probably fluent in Greek. Shrewd businessmen with some

people skills necessary for trading and establishing trade deals all around the Mediterranean

to move this product. And I think that helps us to understand something about Simon, Andrew,

James, and John, these four disciples that were called from their fishing boats alongside the Sea

of Galilee. These men that Jesus is calling, these fishermen, are not unintelligent or unskilled.

But they certainly aren't the Torah scholars or the Jewish law scholars that you might

expect him to call. They're also deeply invested in their community, in their business. It would

have taken work to build up a family business to become good at it, to be successful. And for most,

it would have been a lifelong family business kind of thing that was passed down from father to son.

And so for them, there is a significant cost associated with leaving it behind.

These are not a group of guys that are just looking for the next best thing and anything is

better than sitting in their fishing boats and so they follow Jesus. These are guys who are leaving

behind an established business that they've worked with their family and they're following Jesus.

So what is Jesus actually calling them to? What are they responding to? Jesus called these men

is unique in two ways specifically. First, usually rabbis or teachers didn't call followers.

Usually it was the other way around. Students would go apply to a rabbi's school at their synagogue.

They would find a rabbi that they really wanted to be trained and taught by and they would apply

and the rabbi would pick the best of the best applicants, not unlike a college application

process today. Jesus though instead goes to them and he doesn't go to the synagogue. He doesn't

go to find where the best of the best. He actually goes to the shore and he goes to their boat. He

seeks them out while they're minding their own family business. He calls them to a different

business entirely. The second thing about Jesus call is that it's not a call to his synagogue.

He's not going to the fishing docks and saying, "Come back with me to the synagogue. We're going to

learn Hebrew." It's a call to himself. He says, "Come follow me." It's not a call to his synagogue

membership, his school, his program, his group. It's a call to himself. Even what he follows with

is not, "Come do this for me." It's, "I will make you." So you see how this is unique that Jesus

sought them out, called them to himself and promised to remake them into something new. Jesus is the one

doing all of the heavy lifting here. Their role is to respond. Do you see how everything about

this call to the disciples is initiated, centered on and fulfilled by Jesus? You'd better believe

that there are some applications in that for us before we even go any further. It's important,

I think, for us to realize that Jesus is in the business of seeking out the lost and that every

person who was a follower of Jesus can attest to this. We did not just happen to find him.

He found us. That was through our parents raising us in the faith to know who Jesus is,

or that was somebody else who introduced us to Jesus later on in life. It was Jesus that found us.

Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners,

Romans 5:8

Christ died for us." Jesus sought us out before we even knew that we needed him.

So even those who grew up in a Christian home and were introduced to Jesus early and often at some

point had to choose to respond to that call. I know that applies to a number in our church.

And I want us to understand what that call is to. It is a call to Jesus himself. He says,

"Come, follow me." You do not become saved by joining a church or an organization or being a

really good moral person. None of those things save you. The invitation that Jesus makes is to

follow me. And so the first rule of discipleship is it's all about following Jesus.

And then finally look at who's doing the qualification of that call. This was really

helpful to me this week. Jesus is the one who qualifies them. Yes, they do bring some skills

to the table. They have some people skills, some work ethic. These fishermen even have some Old

Testament scripture knowledge as Jewish men. They would have been raised with that. But

that is not why Jesus calls them. There were tons of more qualified people if Jesus was looking for

people who came with their own qualifications already. He doesn't call them to be disciples

because they're qualified. He qualifies them himself by calling them. Let that sink in for a

moment. Your qualification to be a disciple of Jesus relies 0% on who you are and what you bring

to the table. And it 100% relies on your decision to follow Jesus. That's the qualification that I

have decided to follow Jesus and he's going to qualify me. Also recognize that discipleship

is a process. A better translation of that, "I will make you fishers of men," is "I will make you

become fishers of men." It's a process over a course of time. Jesus is inviting them to submit

to his will for them by following him and he was going to do a work in them. I want to call one more

verse in here. This is something that Paul reflects on and just says really clearly in First Thessalonians

5/24. He says, "Faithful is he who calls you who also will do it." Jesus is faithful and he's the one

calling us. That's our qualification and he is going to complete this good work in us as we submit

to his leadership and follow him. So just to say this super clearly, the invitation of Jesus is not

clean up your life and then come to me. It's not figure out your priorities and then come to me.

It's not even go learn everything possible about Christianity and then come to me. The invitation

is to come follow me, identify with me, walk with me, and I will do something new in you.

And so for those of you who remain unbaptized yet, my encouragement to you from God's word is

don't wait until you feel like you have it all figured out. Respond in simple faith to Jesus call.

Choose to walk with him and trust him to do the work in you.

So who is this Jesus that has called these disciples to follow him? We really know very

little about who Jesus is at this point if we're the disciples. The disciples would have had some

general idea likely. This is a small community. The region of the Galilee is not huge and so they

may have known kind of who he is and some of the things that he was doing, but this is early in

Jesus' ministry. And so Mark is going to take us with Jesus to two locations around the city of

Capernaum and he's going to show us two different sides of the same Jesus. In short, he's going to

show us something of Jesus' authority, but also something of his heart or us. He's putting Jesus

on display as the Lord of heaven and earth with all authority, but also as the King who came not

to be served, but to serve. And so Jesus is going to leave the beach and he's going to head with his

new disciples into the city, the nearby city of Capernaum. Now I say city. It's really more like

a large fishing village. There's probably a thousand to fifteen hundred people. Think very small town.

And let's find out what happens there. What kind of authority is going to be shown about Jesus?

This is starting with verse 21 and we'll go through 28. And they went into Capernaum and

immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at

his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately

there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out, "What have you to do

with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him." And the unclean spirit convulsing

him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed so that they questioned

among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the

unclean spirits and they obey him." And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the

surrounding region of Galilee. The first thing that Jesus does is teaches in the synagogue. So

I want to paint you a picture of a week in the life of a synagogue because this helps us to

understand what Jesus does that actually astonished people. If you lived in a city with the Jewish

community in the first century, you would have likely gone to synagogue often. It was a small

building that served several purposes and it was built by the Jewish community in that place

for education of the boys through a certain age and also teaching on the Sabbath. So if you were

between the ages of about six and 12 years old, you would attend the synagogue daily to be taught

by your local rabbi or teacher. The things you would be learning would be to read Hebrew scripture,

specifically the Torah, which is the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus,

Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and some of the prophets. And you would have memorized key

passages to the Jewish faith. So Jewish men would have received at minimum six years of basic training

in their faith. They would have been like a synagogue ruler who was the authority in that

synagogue, but the ruler wouldn't have been like a pastor. He would have been more like

someone who kept order and cared for the building. And the real seats of honor in a synagogue would

have been for the scribes. So the scribes who also come into this story were trained professionals

in the reading and writing of Old Testament scripture. Now I say writing, not that they're

writing new Old Testament scripture, but rather that they're copying it from one scroll to another

with perfection. And they were also experts in the associated laws that had come up in the years

since the Old Testament was complete with Malachi. So they were one part college professor and one

part religious lawyer who could tell the people how to behave themselves. And these were the guys

that were teaching them most often, right? Sounds like a really encouraging bunch. This was who people

were used to being taught by, led by, like spiritually guided by lawyers, religious lawyers who knew

the law, but could only say what other people had said about it. And then Jesus comes in.

And the people heard him and were astonished, amazed, because he didn't speak to them like

the scribes in their synagogue. He speaks to them with words that stir their souls. He teaches them

as someone who has authority to teach, not just explain what has been taught. He's not just reading

a commentary from other rabbis. He's not just giving them moralistic rules for being a good Jew.

And he's not teaching them more tradition. He's teaching them with all the life and authority

of God himself, because of course, that's exactly who he is. Question, did you ever get put in charge

of your siblings as a kid, right? Mom left for an hour and said, "All right, for me anyway, Dan's in

charge until I get back." And suddenly you're feeling a few inches taller, your voice gets a

little deeper, and you expand your vocabulary to use only your siblings full names. I was the oldest

of five kids. And so I speak with some experience of doing this, embarrassingly. And I remember the

look that my sister gave me when I started using this tone of authority with her. And she looked at

me like, "Who do you think you are?" And I think the people were looking at Jesus with more wonder

than being upset, except maybe the scribes. But apparently their astonishment was leading them

to ask a similar question. Who is this guy to speak with authority like this? And as if on cue,

a man who is possessed by a demon comes into the synagogue and makes the second declaration of

Jesus' identity in the Book of Mark. The demon expresses two things to Jesus. He expresses concern

over what Jesus is going to do with the demon. And he says, "I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

So let's look at that. Why is the demon concerned? I can't say for sure. But the title he gives Jesus

actually says a lot. The title, "Holy One of God," is only used in one other place in all of Scripture.

It's used to refer to the judge, Samson, in the Old Testament, when describing his role to rescue

Israel as the strong man who would save them from the Philistines. And so it seems that this demon

recognizes Jesus as the Son of God, to be sure. But I think he seems also to have an inclination

about what this mission involves. And then in some way, this is very bad news for the demon.

So Jesus tells the demon not to speak anymore, and he casts him out. And he is compelled to

obey the command of Jesus. And now the people are really in shock. Because Jesus' spiritual

authority that he's been teaching with up to this point is now proven by the declaration

of the spiritual enemy and his submission to the command of Jesus. So what do we know about Jesus

at this point? He is the absolute spiritual authority. You've got to think that these disciples

are just their jaws are hitting the floor. This is the guy that called us. And he has absolute

spiritual authority. We can trust his word and his power to defeat the enemy of our souls. This is

good news, right? For us, this is good news. There is no spiritual enemy who comes against us who is

greater than Jesus. And we can trust the things that he taught us. Why does Jesus say that the work

of discipleship involves teaching people to observe or to do everything that he commanded?

Because the teaching of Jesus has authority. The gospel message is not just good news for

one day when we die. It is a current day declaration of victory in the present.

Jesus is the authority, and his word carries authority. And we can trust him.

So moving into the last section of our text, Jesus leaves the synagogue and heads to the home

of Simon and Andrew. And here we see another side of Jesus' authority, not just over the spiritual,

but over the physical. And alongside that, we see something perhaps even more amazing,

that even while being God in the flesh with absolute authority over matters of heaven and earth,

Jesus has such compassion on us. Let's read these last few verses. This is verse 29 through 34.

"And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her, and he came,

and he took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and the fever left her. And she began to serve them.

That evening at sundown, they brought him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.

And the whole city was gathered together at the door, and he healed many who were sick with

various diseases and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak

because they knew him." So again, the authority is on display. People would have been used to

the Jewish leaders' methods of healing, and also like the Hellenistic Greek healers. For the Jewish

leaders, it would have been kind of a, "Ew, you're unclean, and you should go wash in the river and

stay away from everyone. And if you get better, then come back so that I can tell everyone that

you're clean again." That was the experience. It was a very isolating experience. And they also

would have been used to the Greek healers who would have used very showy spells and incantations

and magic potions, but rarely actually healed anyone. I want you to look at what authoritative

healing looks like for Jesus. He goes to a home and into the room where a sick woman lay. And then

he takes her by the hand and quietly lifts her up, and at the touch of Jesus, the fever leaves.

And don't miss her response either, because Jesus moves on to continue serving other people,

but she begins to serve Jesus. What a beautiful and appropriate response to the intervention

of Jesus in her life that she simply begins to serve him. Jesus is not just some spiritual guru

with a message of transcendence and telling us to rise above the physical and living like a

celebrity in a separate megachurch green room, right? Look how personal the encounter is.

He goes from doing this miracle and goes directly to the home of a local fisherman. He goes specifically

to the home of someone who can't even serve him because they are sick. And then he goes back to

the door of the home and continues to heal every person who is brought to him, not the wealthy and

the influential, not the top donors to the synagogue, the sick, the spiritually oppressed, the possessed,

who can't help anyone, not even themselves. I want you to picture this crowd of people who is leaning

in at the doorway, standing in wonder at this teacher who teaches them with authority,

speaking words to their very souls, telling their spiritual enemy to leave,

and taking their hands to make them whole. This is the Jesus that we serve. And he is very much

alive today and in the same business that he always has been in of making people whole.

That is a lot of content, a lot to go through and talk about. And honestly, we could probably

expand it into three sermons, one on Jesus' calling, one on his spiritual authority and

one on his physical authority. But I do think Mark shares these stories back to back for a reason.

All of this is happening really in one general location, making this passage kind of a

story of what Jesus did in Capernaum. Remember, he begins by walking along the shoreline outside

of the village and inviting some locals to follow him. And then he goes to their synagogue and

teaches them. And then he goes to a house. And at the end, we have the whole city at the doorstep

being ministered to. This is the story of when Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth, visited a

village of fishermen and he loved them. And this is so different from the Greek stories in which a

God or a demigod visits and demands service. And if they don't get the service they want,

they smite the village. This is a story, a true story of when God came to serve and love the

people, telling them what was true, touching them. And that is how he shows his authority.

And Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which means he is the same God to us

today. And I think the only remaining questions are how do you respond to that?

To those of you who know an awful lot about Jesus, but haven't yet decided to follow him

in baptism. I want you to see this. The demons recognize Jesus for who he is, but they did not

submit to him and follow him. Right knowledge of Jesus alone will not save you. Some of the most

brilliant minds of Jesus' day and ours remain hopelessly spiritually lost. Enemies of God,

because they will not submit to the Lordship of Jesus. Take up their cross and follow him.

Remember, following Jesus is a simple choice. It involves repenting and being baptized.

So let Jesus begin the process of making you become a disciple. Let the people of God, the

church, that's us, walk with you in that process. Trust the authority of the one who calls you to

follow him to finish that work that he has begun in you. To those of you who worry that it feels

like the enemy is winning. Remember that Jesus is king. This is the Lord of heaven and earth whose

word created everything. Whose word compels the enemy to flee. His plans are never sidetracked,

and we can take him at his word. And finally, to those of you who are wondering if Jesus can be

trusted. If he really cares about us, especially when his word is telling you to do something that

is hard. When he says, "Love someone anyway." When he says, "Leave that habit behind for good."

When he says, "Prioritize my kingdom and not yours." Remember that Jesus is the God who comes near

to us. Who takes us by the hand and offers us new life in this life and in the life to come.

He loves us and he wants what's best for us, and he is what is best for us, and we can trust him.

Jesus is the God of all authority, the Lord of heaven and earth, but he is also the God of

nearness, and he invites us to follow him.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Council Bluffs, Iowa,

and in homes throughout the week. We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching

from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus. You can learn more about our statement of faith

and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesiachurches.org.

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