Repent, Believe and Follow Me

Good morning, church.

We are reading today on Mark, Mark chapter 1, verses 12 to 20.

Mark 1:12–20

Immediately the spirit drove him into the wilderness.

He was in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by Satan.

He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon's brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

Follow me, Jesus told them, and I will make you fish for people.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother, John, in a boat, putting their nets in order.

Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired man and followed him.

This is God's word.

Also want to welcome those who are visiting with us.

Some of us have some uh visitors here this day, so we're thankful uh that you are here.

Uh some of us have visitors from Alberta.

Um, I won't point you out because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but uh uh we're just thankful the Lord has brought us all here together for this moment, this period, this time, uh to be under his word together.

So we are in the book of Mark, chapter one.

We started our series last week.

Um, this is Jesus, Savior, sufferer, servant, king.

Um, and as we go through the book of Mark, we're gonna see that this really is Mark's message.

Look and behold Jesus.

Look how amazing and beautiful He is.

Look at all that He's gone through and all that He's done for you and for me.

And so this morning we're gonna talk about repent, believe, and follow me, which is really the message of Jesus as we make our way through the Gospel of Mark.

But before we do, we're just gonna briefly ask for the Lord to bless our time together in his word.

Father, we ask for your help in understanding your word of truth.

We ask for your guidance in applying your word of truth.

Lord, we ask for your encouragement as we see who Jesus is, what he's accomplished on your behalf for our good, for our eternity.

So, Lord, please we come this morning humble before you, ready to listen to you.

Let us hear the words you have to say.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Uh, did you know that you can't believe everything you see on the internet?

I don't know if you knew that, but it um you would you would think that, I mean, we would know better by now, right?

But um, you know, the internet's been around for a while, and we've seen and heard things, we've experienced things that have kind of circulated around the internet that have uh that have been misleading.

You know, just because it's a nice graphic shared on Facebook by your friend doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

Like in 2014, there was this really convincing graphic or advertisement going around.

Uh, then a new and quick way of charging your iPhone uh would be to put it in the microwave.

This was known as the iPhone microwave hoax.

And so people would be they were putting their phones in the microwave, turning it on, and they would be literally shocked uh by what would actually happen.

And I wonder if the hoax was created by some Windows users out there.

But we get that in life, right?

We've got to use some some discernment.

Is this true or is or is this not?

Uh you can't or you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet.

But as we go through the book of Mark, we're gonna see this message from Mark to us, to the audience of the day, to the world, that you can and you should believe everything you see from Jesus.

Everything he says, we should pay attention to.

And can I go as far as saying that everything in the Bible, as we've talked about time and time again, we remind ourselves, is from God.

It's from Jesus.

So, really, all the letters should be read in this book.

But everything that we read in Scripture, we know, should be paid attention to.

We're gonna see this important message of Jesus.

Repent, believe, and follow me.

And it's gonna come up over and over again throughout the Gospels.

But today's passage, what we're gonna see is it authenticates the message, it authenticates his ministry as Jesus proclaims the truth.

He's worthy of our trust.

And what we're gonna see this morning is that in his power, first, Jesus is to be trusted.

Then we're gonna see that in his message, Jesus must be listened to, and then we're gonna see finally, in his invitation, Jesus becomes our everything.

So, first thing, in his power, Jesus is to be trusted.

The power of Jesus further authenticates his worthiness.

And last week we saw Mark introduce Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ in verse 1, and the Son of God.

We saw the Trinity affirm Jesus at his baptism.

God the Father declares pleasure over his son Jesus, which shows his worthiness.

And then we see the heavens tear open and the Holy Spirit descend like a dove.

But now in verses 12 to 13, excuse me, we will see his worthiness displayed in his power over sin, his dominion over creation, and his dominion over the heavenly realm.

So starting in verse 12, it says this, immediately.

So Jesus is just baptized.

God says, looks at Jesus in the baptism moment, verse 11, and he says, You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.

Gets up out of the water, verse 12, immediately.

Immediately the spirit drove him into the wilderness.

He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.

These two opening words in the Greek that that describe immediately alert us as the readers to a change in the scene.

Something's different now.

We're moving on from before.

And this is typical of what Mark does throughout his gospel.

He moves pretty quickly through some of these stories.

And so already Mark is starting to show us, you know, this is what you can expect from the next 16 chapters as we work through the rest of the story of Jesus in this way.

His baptism takes place.

Now we're switching gears.

And it's here, again, we begin to pick up on Mark's immediacy.

But here, immediately, immediately, sorry, it's immediately.

Do you see that?

Holy Spirit drove him out.

Holy Spirit didn't lead him out, didn't say, hey, listen, now it's time to go.

But Mark says the Spirit drove him out.

And that's different than the other Gospels.

See, the other Gospels talk about the Spirit leading him out.

But here Mark is purposefully giving this force here.

No, no.

Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

And so why is that?

Why would Mark say drove and the other gospels say led?

Well, the force of Mark's words and the softer language of Matthew and Luke reminds us that the will of the Holy Spirit is the will of the Son.

They're one and the same.

This also highlights how Mark's theme, that Jesus is the great servant.

If you think about it, right?

Servants aren't led, servants aren't encouraged.

Hey, servant, it would be a really good idea for you to go and do this.

But rather, servants are driven.

They're forced to.

And so Mark is even, as he's getting into this whole theme of Jesus being the savior, the servant, the sufferer, the king, he's highlighting this servanthood of Jesus.

He was driven.

What does it say in verse 13?

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent.

Or sorry, verse 13.

I was already skipping ahead.

The verse 15.

So excited for 15.

Just wait.

Verse 13.

He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

And he was with the wild animals.

And the angels were serving him.

40 days in the wilderness.

This has the undertone, right, of the reflection for us as we look back over Israel's history.

We remember Israel's wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

But Jesus is driven to the wilderness for 40 days.

I mean, I think it's meant to make us think of Israel for 40 years.

While he's there, what happens?

Satan tempts him.

And Mark doesn't give us the details that Matthew or Luke give us, but we know this story, right?

Satan tempts Jesus three times and Jesus denies.

Jesus resists Satan's best shots that he takes.

And it's interesting here, too, how Mark explains this because again, he doesn't even tell us that Jesus responded to temptation.

He just gives us this fact.

He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.

It's interesting he uses Satan.

This is something different than the other Gospels as well.

See, the other Gospels instead use the devil or the accuser.

Where here we see the word Satan used, focusing more on adversary.

So Satan, your adversary.

This seems to indicate that Christ striving with his adversary, Satan, or his adversary's sin and death throughout his ministry until his final victory.

So again, he's foreshadowing this adversarial attack of Satan as Christ would then go to the cross and ultimately defeat Satan and death.

However, the importance of what's taking place here, again, in the wilderness cannot be understated.

Think about this.

Satan tempts God the Son, and God the Son resists.

Again, we see where Israel failed in their obedience in the wilderness over forty years, Jesus fulfills and redeems by his obedience in these forty days.

The forty days are also suggestive of Moses again, forty days and nights on Mount Sinai, Elijah's forty-day journey with supernatural provision, Jesus fulfilling and redeeming the forty days.

Previously, Jesus' baptism identified him with the weakness and sin of mankind, but here, here in the wilderness, forty days, this theme continues as he refuses to sin even when Satan himself tempts him.

You know, Satan didn't send his minions.

The demons could have done the job, but he went after Jesus himself.

And this is important because Satan brought out the big guns, and our servant savior resisted.

It's important for us to remember.

Satan is not like God.

He is not omnipresent like God is.

We love blaming it on the devil.

Jesus is going to say in verse, verses 21 to 23 in Mark 7, that our own temptations come from our own hearts.

In fact, let's turn to Mark 7.

21 and 23.

And he said, What comes out of the person is what defiles him.

For from within, out of people's hearts come evil thoughts.

Sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

All these evil things come from within.

They defile a person.

So back to chapter one.

You know, there's no way that Satan can be present for all the temptations of 8.3 billion people around the world.

And so he has to be strategic of where he goes, of how he seeks to cause destruction.

But I mean, how disappointing for him, right?

He thought I'm gonna be able to tempt God.

He went after Jesus, and Jesus said, Nope.

Not today, Satan.

You see, Satan knew the temptation couldn't originate from the heart of Jesus.

Jesus knew no sin.

So he threw all he had at Jesus externally, and it didn't work.

I mean, you and I though, we we give in the temptation, and it's only coming from our hearts.

Imagine how much more irresistible it would be coming from the Prince of Darkness, the God of this age, as Corinthians tells us, who has blinded the hearts and minds of men.

But he was tempted.

Tempted by Satan.

It's important for us to remember that.

And then John, tempted by Satan, he says, or sorry, Mark, he's tempted by Satan, and then he was with the wild animals.

You love that?

He's with the wild animals.

Um what's all this about?

Wild animals.

Uh, wild animals are often associated with evil and opposing forces in scripture, but it's also possible that the Mark is uh doing something else here, and that he's showing us that being our Messiah and Son of God, Jesus will also be the new Adam.

Which seems to be the view that was predominant among the early church, the patristic fathers such as John Christostom, Irenaeus, Bede also focuses on this view of this passage.

And if you remember how things started with the first Adam, we're gonna be getting into that into the book of Genesis.

But as things started with the first Adam, they began in a time of peace and then harmony between Adam and humanity and creation.

Mark is expressing that Jesus was in the wilderness, wild animals and all, the whole shebang, all the dangers that Israel faced in the wilderness for 40 years, Jesus faces for 40 days, but he would do it all without sin.

Without sin.

I don't know if you knew this, but the World Animal Protection of Canada estimates that there are about 7,000 privately owned lions, tigers, and leopards in Canada.

Say that again.

Based on some calculations in the past, um, some believe maybe 500 or so.

Um I think that brings being a cat person up to a whole new level.

But we know those stories, right?

Of people trying to domesticate a lion, a tiger, a leopard, wild animal.

We had friends that would try this with raccoons uh growing up.

And uh it would kind of work, but then they would tear apart the furniture and their living room.

I mean, wild animals, they're just they need to be in the wild.

And we even know with the big cat thing, there's been lots of terrible things happening with people that have tried living with uh large cats like that.

I mean, things aren't the way they were for Adam.

Adam, there's peace and there's harmony, but but Christ, he comes as the new Adam, redeeming all creation, bringing a new heavens and a new earth, where lion will lay down with the lamb.

Shows his power.

I mean, all this shows his power even over creation.

He's with the wild animals, and he's fine.

And then we see the angels serving him, Mark says, and the angels were serving him.

This is interesting.

This could indicate that the angels were keeping him safe from the elements of the wild.

But just think about this.

All of this is packed into one little verse.

Out in the wilderness for 40 days, resisting temptation from Satan.

With the wild animals, angels were serving him.

I think with all of this, Mark is showing us the power and the dominion of Christ our King over sin, over Satan, over creation, over even the heavenly realms, which pretty much sums up his power and his dominion over all things.

And in this power, Jesus is to be trusted.

God the Father affirms him, he goes out in the wilderness because then look what happens in verses 14 and 15.

His ministry starts because in his message, Jesus is to be listened to.

Verse 14 says this.

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.

And so we see John was arrested, and this is going to be important later as we revisit the story of John in Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

John's arrested.

Jesus, what does he do?

Proclaiming the good news or the gospel, same word, the gospel of God.

Same phrase that Paul the Apostle uses in Romans 1:1.

Romans 1:1

Jesus is proclaiming the gospel of God, showing the full authority of the Godhead.

This is the good news straight from heaven, straight from God Himself.

And then verse 15.

Here's this message.

The time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

Or repent and believe the gospel.

Verse 15 gives us this wonderful message that he declares.

Repent and believe.

The good news of God, the time is fulfilled.

This phrase, the time is fulfilled, shows us the exactness of God's timing.

All right, here we go.

It's repent time.

It's what we've been talking about since the beginning, Jesus is saying.

And it's time, it's fulfilled.

And after the wilderness, I love this.

Jesus, he gets up, and what does he do?

He gets right to work.

His message, the kingdom of God, has come near, was central to his teaching, and we'll see throughout Mark, as we notice in the other Gospels as well.

This was a rule of the Messiah, the kingdom of God that was being declared.

The rule of the Messiah, the rightful king on the throne of David.

The time has come, he was here.

And he really, what he does is he picks up where John the Baptist leaves off.

John says, repent.

Jesus says, repent and believe the good news.

He adds to it.

Tim Keller mentions that he makes a comment about this passage, and he says that at the time there was a prominent message and prominent document that was being circulated around Roman culture that was called the Gospel of Caesar.

And it was an important document for the Romans because in the Gospel of Caesar, it was propagating this message that Caesar was the Lord, he was the savior, and he was the sustainer.

It was really to propagate Caesar's deity.

And so Jesus shows up, and Mark, he's writing from the city of Rome, and it's mainly going to Gentiles who would know of this whole gospel of Caesar thing that's also being circulated and being taught and being forced.

And so Mark says this.

He goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, forget the gospel of Caesar.

Let me tell you the gospel of God.

This was the gospel of God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

All other gospel counterfeits would fall flat.

This was the one straight from Yahweh Himself.

I mean, Romans would have just heard of just the legends of things happening, God intervening on behalf of his people, the Israelites.

But here, listen, here comes his good news.

This was the real good news.

It was the real good news that required a genuine response.

Repent and believe.

John already preaching this message of repentance, Jesus adding the message of belief.

Repentance needs to be accompanied by belief for it to stick.

Repentance is turning away from sin and turning to something else.

But in the case of the gospel, we turn away from sin and we turn to belief in Jesus.

We behold Jesus.

We listen to what he says.

And the Gospels, the this is interesting.

I've done this study before, but when you look throughout the Gospels, the word for repent is used 23 times in direct relation to salvation.

In the book of John, so the Gospel of John, the apostle, he doesn't use the word repent once in his entire gospel.

Rather, we see the word for belief.

So 23 times repent is used, direct relation to salvation.

But what we do see used a lot more is the word belief 132 times.

A hundred of those are in the book of John.

Jesus is bringing repentance and belief together here.

You can't have one without the other.

And there's also this immediacy to his message.

The time is fulfilled.

It's now to respond.

The beginning of Jesus' ministry and message marks this beginning of a new era of fulfillment, and the proper response is summed up in these two imperatives: repent and believe.

You know, to believe means to trust in Christ's work of salvation.

Trust in his forgiveness of sin.

The things we've been singing about, talking about, praying about even this morning.

To believe is to trust in Christ, but also to believe means to follow Christ, which Mark is now going to detail us, detail for us in the rest of the book, in the rest of his book.

Belief is not reduced down to an intellectual acceptance, but an active one.

Repent and believe.

Turn from sin, turn to Christ, embrace him, and then what's the final piece of the message that Jesus gives here?

Follow me.

Repent, believe, follow me.

And this is the third point.

In his invitation, Jesus becomes our everything, starting in verse 16.

His invitation, Jesus becomes our everything.

Verse 16 says, as he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, so he's going, he's declaring this message of repent, believe the kingdom of God has come near.

And as he's going along the Sea of Galilee, he sees Simon or Peter and Andrew, Simon's brother, casting a net into the sea.

For they were fishermen.

Verse 17, follow me, he says, Jesus told them, and I will make you fish for people.

Peter and Andrew are seen by Jesus as they're fishing, and he looks to them.

He says, Follow me.

I'll make you fishers of people or fishers of men.

See, it's an immediate call that resulted in an immediate action and response from them, as we're going to see in the following verses.

And what's interesting again is that we see this immediacy.

You know, in verse 18, immediately they left their nets and they followed him.

We see this, see this immediacy that's been kind of going as a thread through the passage.

We saw it in verse 12, the first word, what was it?

Immediately the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.

And then we saw the immediacy of Jesus' message.

The time is fulfilled.

It's time.

Let's go.

And here Simon, Peter, and Andrew in verse 18 immediately leave their nets and they follow him.

The immediacy came from the call to follow.

And when you say, I will make you fishers of people, that's an interesting word, people.

The Greek here for people or men in some translations is a genitive plural, meaning, this is what it means.

It means that it refers both to men and women in the context.

And so people is likely a more accurate representation of what's being understood and seen here, as this is what the early audience would have understood it to mean, and this is what the ancient Greek language means for it to mean.

And Mark is certainly implying that.

It's people, not just men, women, it's everyone, it's all people.

And so the phrase, I will make you fish for people, is uh is also fascinating because it has this um this prophetic nature to it.

And we see this in the book of Jeremiah, verse 16, verses 16, or chapter 16, verses 16 to 18.

So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Jeremiah, back in the Old Testament.

If you hit the table of contents, you went too far.

Look at Jeremiah after the book of Psalms.

Jeremiah 16, starting in verse 16.

We see here described punishment of exile.

In verse 16, I am about to send my or send for many fishermen, Yahweh is saying.

This is the Lord's declaration.

And they will fish for them, then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, and out of the cleft of the rocks.

For my gaze takes in all of their ways.

I see everything.

That was the end of the book of Ecclesiastes from a few weeks ago.

Everything in secret, whether good or bad, will come to light, will be judged.

And God says, For my gaze takes in all their ways.

They are not concealed from me, and their iniquity is not hidden from my sight.

I will first repay them double for their iniquity and sin, because they have polluted my land.

So he's talking about Israel here.

They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their abhorrent and detestable idols.

Back to Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Jesus says, I'm going to make you fishers of people.

I'm going to teach you how to fish for people.

There's implications here from the Old Testament.

As the implication of a fisherman and hunter, as God is using here, is for judgment because of the wickedness of the people in the land.

And in a way, he's saying to these men, you know, you're going to announce judgment and you're going to urge restoration.

This will be the message: repent, believe.

Kingdom of God is at hand.

These fishermen really would be prophetically instrumental in the plan of God.

Jesus will, as the text says, will make them fish for people.

I think that's interesting.

It says, I will make you fish for people.

It will be a process as we gather.

He will have to teach them.

He'll have to push them.

He'll have to push us as he makes us in the sense that he develops within us as his disciples, and he will also have to make them and make us do it too.

And what do they do?

Immediately leave their nets and they follow him.

No questions asked.

Absolutely, we're on board with this, Jesus.

Use us.

Verse 19 and 20, they keep walking.

They go a little further, it says.

Walk a little further, and then he sees James, the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, putting their nets in order.

Immediately, verse 20, again, there's that word immediately, he called them.

And they left their father Zebedee in the boat, and they hired men, and they followed him.

Left their father Zebedee with the hired men, they followed them.

You know, we see the same thing happening here with James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee.

And as we know later in Mark 3, 17, Jesus will call the sons of Zebedee the sons of thunder.

And he calls them here, though.

He says, follow me.

And they respond immediately.

And what do they do?

They left their father.

Ooh.

You think about that?

Think about what that meant in this culture.

To leave the family business.

To leave mom and dad.

Leave dad out on the fishing boat with the hired men.

They left their father.

You know, we have a limited understanding of this in our culture in the West.

But those who are here this morning that come from an Eastern culture, I mean, you get this?

You can sense probably more of the weight of this than some others in the room.

I mean, Jesus was saying this, and they were doing this in the shame-oriented culture.

And to get up and to leave your father or your mother like this would be intolerable.

We see this as a theme even in Jesus' ministry.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke fourteen with me.

Luke fourteen, starting in verse twenty-five.

Now great crowds were traveling with him, so he turned and he said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you wanting to build a tower doesn't first sit down and calculate the cost?

To see if it has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, This man started to build and wasn't able to finish.

Verse 31, or what king going to war against the other king, will not first sit down and decide if he's able with 10,000 to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000.

If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

And in the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple.

Now salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty?

It isn't fit for the soil or for the manure pile.

They throw it out.

Let anyone who hears, who has ears to hear, listen.

What Jesus is teaching in Luke, what we see displayed here is so countercultural.

So countercultural.

And particularly in Luke, this hate your father, your mother, your brothers, sisters, even yourself, this is not actions or thoughts of hate.

But the weight of this is this is compared to following Jesus, it's as if we hate everything else.

And what's amazing about the teaching of Jesus, he picked one of the most important things in their culture.

He grabbed it, dethroned it.

And he's saying, I belong on that throne.

Not your livelihood, not even your family.

I do.

Follow me.

Much like, you know, in our Western society, to get up, leave your well-paying job, your comfortable job, to follow Jesus into a place without comfort or luxury, that would just be ridiculous to so many.

You know, we had the privilege working with a couple in ministry years ago.

He went from being a VP at Manual Life Financial to serving in a poor gospel ministry for a fraction of what he was making, but for a thousand times more stress.

He probably got more Christmas bonus than he made all year serving in this ministry.

And the things that people said to them in the church.

It's embarrassing.

And they didn't make a big deal about it.

I mean, people thought this couple was crazy.

Maybe you think it's nuts.

What do these disciples do?

They get up, they leave their work, they leave their family, and they follow Jesus.

It also reminds me of a story of a friend of mine.

He actually was my best man at my wedding.

His mom was in her late 40s, just finished cancer treatments, had three kids that were, you know, late teens, and uh she finds out she's pregnant in her late 40s.

The shock, right?

But the things that people in their church said terrible things, telling her to abort her child.

And this was coming from a good Baptist church.

Other Christians.

Simon and Andrew, James and John, and their reaction is in step with Jesus' teaching.

They value Jesus, they took seriously his message more than anything else.

And what's also important as we see this is like Jesus doesn't drag people into the kingdom.

They follow him.

What is it you might be dragging your feet on?

Following Jesus is not convenient, it's not always comfortable, it involves countercultural decisions.

It's not a popularity race, but it's a new identity, it's a new purpose, and it's a new family.

And in following Jesus Christ, we value Christ above all else, and he becomes our everything.

Let's pray.

Ask him, by your grace, Lord, what is it you're calling me to do?

By your grace, Lord, where is it you would like me to go?

Who is it that you'd like me to talk to?

Father, I pray we would heed and listen to the words of Jesus.

Repent, believe, and follow him.

By your grace we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.