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Walk Worthy is our official podcast from Hespeler Baptist Church featuring sermons, encouragements, discussions, and more as we strive to be disciples and make disciples who walk worthy of the gospel (Philippians 1:27).
Visit us at hespelerbaptist.ca or send us an email at podcast@hespelerbaptist.ca
Be seated. Thank you, pastor Caleb and Chad and Mike and those behind the scenes who have facilitated our worship of the Lord in song and pastor Kevin in prayer. Very fitting, last line to sing right before a preacher gets up. You know, the longer I, the longer I'm in pastoral ministry, the more and more I wish I could do it without a face and a name attached. So that for there's various reasons for that, and if you would be interested in those, you can always ask me.
Speaker 1:But I love that sentiment that Jesus Christ would be fronted and centered in everything that is done in the life of the church. So, Caleb, thank you for leading us to sing that way. As already mentioned, in our service, today is a family Sunday. And since we have most of our boys and girls, the littlest ones are still where they are, as we have most of the boys and girls, as we continue worshiping through the preaching of his words or his word kids. I I wanna show you something to begin.
Speaker 1:I have a box, and I was telling some kids about this when they were coming in this morning. And I have something in the box, and I didn't even tell my own kids, even though they were asking if they could look look into it on the way to church this morning, and they were making all sorts of guesses as to what was in it. None of them were right. But I have something today with me that I want you to see, but before I show you kids, I need you to promise that you will not get too excited when I bring out what's inside this box. You need to stay calm, and you need to remain in your seats when I reveal this surprising item.
Speaker 1:Now kids, I want you to nod if you think you can stay calm and stay seated. Just nod where you are. Do you think you can do that? Okay. Are you ready?
Speaker 1:This is a random pencil that I found near the table where my kids do their schoolwork. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why on earth would I get so excited that I would jump out of my seat to come for a closer look at that? After all, what's so special about a silly old pencil? That's a good question.
Speaker 1:A pencil doesn't seem like much, and on its own, it isn't much. But this pencil could be used for all sorts of things. I could use this pencil to write you a hilarious comic strip that would make you laugh. I could use this pencil to write a story that you would absolutely love. I could give this pencil to one of my cousins who is an incredible artist, and she does pictures.
Speaker 1:She draws pictures of people that take her days to finish only using a pencil, and when they are completed, they're beautiful, and she even sells them and makes money doing it. This pencil could be used to compose the most stunning music, and it could become famous all over the globe. This pencil could be used to write a best selling novel. This pencil could be used to write a word of encouragement that could change the whole direction of someone's life. In fact, this pencil could be used to write down ideas that could change the entire world.
Speaker 1:Imagine, boys and girls, what you could do with a simple pencil. I know at first it doesn't seem like much, but in the right hands, used in the right way, this pencil has lots and lots of possibilities. Our lives are like this pencil. They are ordinary. Most people on the planet don't get too excited about me, and they probably don't get too excited about you either.
Speaker 1:Most people on the planet don't go out of their way to get a closer look at us and our lives. But just like this pencil, our lives in the right hands, used in the right way, have the potential to make a difference in this world, even an everlasting difference. As we're about to see from Mark's Gospel, that can happen, and that does happen when our lives are in the hands of Jesus. When we follow Jesus, when we're shaped by Jesus, when we're surrendered to Jesus, he takes our ordinary lives and he makes them count for what matters most. And if I could sum up what we're about to read and explore together, it would be saying it this way, Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through ordinary people.
Speaker 1:Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through ordinary people. Ordinary people, we're going to explore three aspects of that, three parts of that. Ordinary people who are close with him. Crafted by him, and committed to him. But before that, why don't you turn with me to Mark's gospel?
Speaker 1:So Mark chapter one. We'll continue in our series. We're going to read 16 through 20. So, Mark chapter one, you can turn there. The page number is eight thirty six.
Speaker 1:So, Mark chapter one verses 16 through 20. Let me pray. We'll read it, and then we'll see how it is that Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through ordinary people. Let's pray. Lord, would you give us ears to hear and hearts to understand all that we are given here about your matchless son as we continue in Mark's gospel.
Speaker 1:Help us to see Jesus clearly, and help us to give ourselves entirely to him for his glory now and forevermore. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Mark one sixteen through 20. This is what it says.
Speaker 1:Passing alongside the Sea Of Galilee, he, that is Jesus, 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 the boat, 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.
Speaker 1:This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, following the introduction of Jesus as the mighty Savior foretold in Scripture and the point of John the Baptist pointing, following the introduction of Jesus as the beloved Son confirmed by the voice of God the Father from heaven upon his baptism, And following the introduction of Jesus as the righteous one, the true and better Adam, who was actually able to resist the temptations of the devil in the wilderness, Jesus begins his ministry as Pastor Caleb taught us last week in Mark one fourteen-fifteen. He began his ministry saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
Speaker 1:This pronouncement by Jesus of his Gospel is an absolutely pivotal moment in all of history. Because finally, after all the Old Testament promises, finally after all the Old Testament types, finally after all the Old Testament shadows, finally after all the Old Testament prophecies, the moment has arrived. King Jesus has come to proclaim and bring the fullness of God's kingdom. And he tells everyone the terms of peace so that sinful rebels like us can enter God's glorious rule and reign, and we do that by turning from sin and believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And Mark is writing this down because this is extraordinarily good news that is to be spread everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yet, look at how unexpected Jesus next move is where we pick up in verse 16. If this were up to me, if this were up to our human wisdom, I'd have Jesus march straight to Rome, demand an audience with Caesar, hire the best orators, the best speech writers, the most accurate and speedy scribes, and I would rally the whole Roman Empire to get the word out of the Gospel. That's what I would do. To put that in modern terms, with a message of this significance, we'd want to get the attention of all the world leaders. Maybe we'd hope to land an interview on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Speaker 1:We'd hope for a spot on the most popular YouTube channel. So, MrBeast or Cocomelon kids, don't know if any of you watch that. But that's not what Jesus does. As Jesus begins his ministry with this proclamation, he takes a stroll by the Sea Of Galilee, and he recruits four fishermen as his first disciples. What on earth is that all about?
Speaker 1:These ordinary guys are the first followers he will call to participate in his global mission of spreading his extraordinary gospel to Ziva people for himself. And from Jesus' first move, we learn a great deal about what it looks like for ordinary people like us to be used by him to do so. And in the process, we just we see just how incredible Jesus is. And what's fabulous about this is that based on what we're going to observe, absolutely no one is ruled out of being used by Jesus from the get go. It wasn't about how smart these guys were.
Speaker 1:It's not about education. It's not about social status. It's not about appearance. It's not even about experience. There's no upfront inherent requirements that Jesus has for those he would use to spread his his gospel.
Speaker 1:Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel to ordinary people. First and foremost, people through people who are close with him. Those who have a depth of relationship. Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through ordinary people who are close with him. The passage that we're looking at has has kind of two parallel interactions.
Speaker 1:I mean, can I picture two sort of train tracks running rails running alongside each other? In verse 16, we have Jesus passing alongside the Sea Of Galilee and he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon. And then in verse 19, he goes on a little farther and he saw James, the son of Zebedee and John his brother. There's kind of a repetition here. In verse 17, Jesus says to the first pair, follow me.
Speaker 1:In verse 20, Jesus calls the second pair. In verse 18, Simon and Andrew, we are told immediately left their nets and followed him. Then in verse 20, James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. So there's two interactions. And from these two interactions, we see first and foremost that there is a call to follow.
Speaker 1:Specifically, the call is to follow Jesus. Follow me, he commands. Now, compared to the practices of the teachers of the day, the rabbis as they would be known to Jewish people, this is highly unusual behavior. Usually, if someone wanted to learn from a rabbi, that person would go to the rabbi, and they would ask to become their student, and the rabbi would say, okay, you can learn from me, and that rabbi would point people to God. They would point people to God's Word and they would say, Follow that.
Speaker 1:But Jesus is doing something altogether different. Someone writes, The personal prominence or importance that Jesus assumes in the call of the four fishermen is highly unusual in Jewish tradition. In one sense, Jesus is acting much more like a prophet than he is a teacher, a rabbi. He takes the initiative, just like Elisha did when he called his prophetic apprentice Elisha in the Old Testament. But Jesus does what not even Elijah did.
Speaker 1:Jesus is calling these four men to follow Him, to literally come after Him. It's a full time apprenticeship rooted in relationship with Himself. He's saying to these guys, be near me. Watch me. Listen to me.
Speaker 1:Learn from me. That's what it looks like right out of the gate of Mark's Gospel to be a disciple of Jesus. That's what it would look like for someone to be taken in Jesus' hands and to be used by Him. He uses those who are close with Him, those who follow in His footsteps, Those who are so eager to hear what He says that they are hanging on every single one of His words. Who delight to obey His every command.
Speaker 1:Who enjoy His delightful company, which we do today by His Spirit who indwells and leads those who repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus uses those who ordinary people who are close with him to spread his gospel, those who have Jesus as the object of our faith and our hope and our love and our every emulation. And boys and girls, maybe you've heard as you've grown up someone say to you, you look a lot like your mom. Or you laugh like your dad. Or you walk like your mom, or when your dad talks and he uses his hands, you do the same things.
Speaker 1:You won't even notice that you do this. But it's because you're around them so much you copy them in ways that you don't even realize. That's what Jesus was calling Simon and Andrew and James and John to do, To be around Him so much, to follow Him so closely that they would eventually think like Jesus and sound like Jesus and talk like Jesus and act like Jesus and want what Jesus wanted and loved what Jesus loved and hated what Jesus hated. Now, they didn't do this perfectly. We are going to find that out in Mark's Gospel.
Speaker 1:They didn't always get things right. Sometimes they take two steps forward and sometimes they take one or two or three steps back. Sometimes they have brilliant moments when all the pieces click into place and then sometimes they had awful moments. And if that's all we knew about them, we would wonder, are these guys even followers of Jesus at all? But through all the ups and downs, through a close relationship with Jesus, he was always faithful.
Speaker 1:As these guys spend years with Jesus in life and ministry, they are transformed. Though they were ordinary people and though we are ordinary people, Jesus will make us like him as we follow him, and in doing so, he will use us to spread his extraordinary gospel. That's what he does with people who are close with him. So much so that later, in Acts chapter four, when the people in charge in the city of Jerusalem didn't like Peter and John, two of the men, Simon and Peter, the same person with two different names. They didn't like Peter and John telling people about Jesus and they tried to stop them.
Speaker 1:And afterwards we're told this in Acts chapter four verse 13, the people in charge, the rulers, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Charles Spurgeon once said, It is not great talents that God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. Our lives in his hands leave an unmistakable mark on us, a mark that is seen by others. And if we would make a difference in what matters most in the spreading of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, son of God, then we get close with Jesus. We listen to his word.
Speaker 1:We ask him to make us more like him. We keep company with others who are following him better than we are so that we can follow their example as they follow him. We walk with him every day to know him, to know and feel we are loved by him, to know and feel we are forgiven by him, to cry out in all of our desperations regularly knowing that he hears us as we depend on him for life and breath and everything. Those are the ones that Jesus uses to spread his extraordinary gospel. Now not only will Jesus make us like himself as we follow him closely, he also tells us he will prepare us for the job that he gives us.
Speaker 1:Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through ordinary people, people who are close with him, people who are crafted by him, people shaped by him for the job that he is giving us to do, people who are crafted by him. Look at what Jesus says he will make Simon and Andrew, as well as James and John into. Follow me, he says in verse 17, and I will make you become fishers of men. So, he's going to shape them and mold them and train them and craft them for a purpose that is both similar and different to what they are used to. These guys are used to being fishers of fish.
Speaker 1:That's what they were doing as Jesus walked by the sea that day. Simon and Andrew, they're in the middle of their workday. Verse 16 tells us that they would have been taking this big large rung net. They would have thrown it either over the side of the boat or wading into the water, maybe up to their waist. They would throw this giant circular net into the water.
Speaker 1:It had weights on the outside and it would sink to the bottom and it would trap all the fish as it sunk down to the bottom. And then they would either take a rope and tighten the net at the bottom, or someone would actually swim down, gather up all of the ends of the nets, and then haul net back in, and they would then deal with the catch. These guys were hard workers. They worked in a pretty important trade that would send fish far and wide and which had lots of competition around the shores of the Sea Of Galilee. We're also told about John and James.
Speaker 1:They're also in the middle of their workday. They're in their boat preparing or mending their nets. As we'll come back to you a little bit later, their business is a bigger operation. So, they might have been handling large dragnets that could bring in even more fish than Simon or Peter and Andrew could have done. All that to say, these guys were accustomed to working long, hard days in a major first century industry.
Speaker 1:And Jesus likens what they have known to what he would make them become fishers of men. Many lessons that we can parallels that we can draw between the hard work of catching fish and the hard work of catching people. But on the surface, this might sound like a strange analogy because after all, boys and girls, what do you think happened to the fish once they were caught? They were killed. They were cleaned.
Speaker 1:They were cooked. And they were eaten. Now, I won't name any names, but one day when they were very young, one of our kids, while we were eating ribs, said, dad, why do people let us eat them? Let that sink in. He thought he was eating human ribs for dinner.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure if it was more hilarious or horrifying when they asked us while they were licking their fingers, but we quickly corrected them. This is not a person. This is this is an animal. We're not eating a a person. Like I said, they were very young.
Speaker 1:This is the same kid who, when asked what their favorite dairy product was, said beef. But, anyway Now, obviously, Jesus is not meaning that people are going be caught and killed and eaten like the fish these four guys caught. In fact, it's quite the opposite. In the Old Testament, there are quite a few references to people being caught in the net of God's judgment. To be caught was not good in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:But here, soon as he begins to preach the gospel, Jesus is enlisting others to go out and to spread the net of the good news because he came not to condemn the world, but he came to save the world, and he is sending people out to catch men and women for not judgment, but salvation. And so in his ministry of proclaiming the gospel, he's raising up this workforce, so that people all over the planet can be rescued from sin and judgment and death and hell. These men who knew from experience the labor and knowledge required to catch fish would be redirected by Jesus and more importantly crafted by Jesus to spread out this net of the gospel so that people would wonderfully be caught up in it. And in fact, that's what's happening this very moment. An ordinary guy is standing at the front of an ordinary room of ordinary people as is happening in churches all over the world today, and they're saying to everyone who is not yet a Christian, You too can be saved from the judgment to come by turning from your sin and believing in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So, the forgiveness of sins in the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved, the name of Jesus. Whether you're a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, I urge you to repent and believe in the gospel. That's why He sent people out. That's why you're hearing me say this, so that you can be caught up into God's wondrous salvation rather than face the judgment to come when Jesus returns and everyone's life is laid bare before God. That's what Jesus was going to teach these guys to do, spread the gospel net to catch people for everlasting life in the company of Jesus Himself.
Speaker 1:Now, how would Jesus make them into fishers of men? Well, first He was going to show them. I want you to follow this thread with me for a moment. The next stop after the Sea Of Galilee is in verse 21. We're told the synagogue in Capernaum where in verse 21 we're told, Immediately he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
Speaker 1:As Jesus' fame began to spread from his teaching and casting out demons and healing people who were sick of various diseases, everyone was looking for him. In verse 38 of chapter one, he says, let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Later in Mark two, when he returns to the Capernaum we're told in Mark two:two, maybe your Bible is open to there already, you can turn over and see it for yourself. We're told that many were gathered together, Mark two:two, so that there was no room even at the door and he was preaching the Word to them.
Speaker 1:In Mark's Gospel, that's the same as the Gospel. And then in verse 13 of chapter two, he went out again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them. Guys, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. What does that look like? I will show you.
Speaker 1:I will preach, and I will teach, and I will let them see what life is like in the kingdom of God, and what happens? Large crowds come to Him. So, as they follow Jesus, as they watch Jesus, they would learn both the priority of preaching and teaching as the means of spreading the net of the gospel to rescue people unto salvation. At the same time, they would also learn the content of what was to be preached and taught. Jesus sets them an immediate example.
Speaker 1:As Paul writes in Romans ten seventeen, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. So, as these ordinary guys follow Jesus closely, becoming like him through a relationship with Jesus, these ordinary guys would learn to become fishers of men. They would simply do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said. It's really that simple. And that's why we give ourselves to what we do as a church.
Speaker 1:That's why there's a sermon every Sunday. It's why we teach the kids the Bible. It's why there's women's Bible studies. It's why we want to get men together to look at what the Bible says about a particular area of life. And for our encouragement, let's just trace for a minute where these guys ended up as we consider where they started.
Speaker 1:We've got Simon, later and more commonly known as Peter. He preaches the first sermon in the book of Acts and what happens? 3,000 receive his word. You think he's learned to become a fisher of men? They're baptized.
Speaker 1:They're added to the church. Jesus makes these ordinary fishermen fishers of men because that's what Jesus is capable of. As Peter and John speak to the people in Acts four, presumably with the rest of the disciples, we're told that many of those who heard their word believed and the number of men came to about 5,000. He made these ordinary fishermen fishers of men because that's what Jesus is capable of. Andrew, Peter's brother, church tradition tells us takes the gospel to the borders of Russia.
Speaker 1:There he's crucified on an axe cross rather than the same as that of Christ. He didn't deem himself worthy to be killed in that way. And so here we have this man going far and wide, an ordinary fisherman made fisher of men because that's what Jesus is capable of. Then we've got James, the brother of John, an early pillar in the church. He was beheaded for his faithfulness to Christ.
Speaker 1:And how many brothers and sisters do you think throughout the ages have looked to James and have been encouraged to remain faithful in the hardest of circumstances to spread the good news of the gospel. An ordinary fisherman made fisher of man because that's what Jesus is capable of. And of course, have John himself, author of the fourth gospel. He wrote what he did. He tells us, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name, abundant life in His name.
Speaker 1:And only the Lord yet knows how many have and how many will be caught up in salvation through John, an ordinary fisherman being made a fisher of men because that's what Jesus is capable of. And if Jesus can do that with these four guys who followed him closely, what would make us think he couldn't make us become useful and fruitful in his mission to save a people for himself. These were ordinary guys, but that's what he uses to spread his extraordinary gospel. Now that said, there's no being close with Jesus or being crafted by Jesus without commitment to Jesus. Jesus spreads his extraordinary gospel through people who are committed to Jesus, people who are all in.
Speaker 1:The response of Simon and Andrew, James and John to the authoritative compelling call of Jesus to follow him, it involves a leaving. We see that in verse 18. We also see that in verse 20. Again, there's a sort of parallel conversations happening between these two groups of brothers. In verse 18, we're told after hearing Jesus say, Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.
Speaker 1:Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Now, Mark uses the word immediately a lot. And sometimes Mark is just saying, and this is what happened next. Sometimes Mark is communicating urgency. This here seems to be urgency.
Speaker 1:Immediately. Immediately. They left their nets. And they followed. In verse 20, and immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
Speaker 1:And so the picture I have in my mind is the net of Simon and Andrew just slowly sinking to the bottom of the water as they turned their backs on what they've always done to an entirely new way of life. No hesitation. They didn't talk together about a pro con list. They didn't go on Reddit to ask other people what they thought. Jesus calls them to follow, and they commit.
Speaker 1:They are in. There's no questions asked. There is zero delay. There's no indication that they think what they're leaving could possibly be better than what they're gaining. So, they leave behind their livelihood and they follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:That's what discipleship looks like out of the gate according to the Gospel of Mark. Then there's James and John. You don't just leave their livelihood. They leave behind dad with the family business. Simon and Andrew left their nets.
Speaker 1:James and John left their father. We're out, dad. Business is booming. We know. I know we're going to inherit a fishing enterprise because they can afford hired workers.
Speaker 1:They've got a bigger operation. These are not just hardworking guys. These are business savvy guys. And they walk away so they can walk with Jesus. If that's not commitment, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1:Leaving nets and fathers, someone says, symbolizes the renunciation involved in following Jesus. He takes first place over livelihood and family. All that we are and all that we have becomes subservient to following Jesus. The whole trajectory of the lives of these four men was different from this point forward because now they live to follow and serve Jesus. Everything else came afterwards.
Speaker 1:And even what they did keep, and there's indication in the Gospels, there's still boats and resources available through the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, but even that is used for His sake and His purposes. Someone writes, The abandonment of the nets represents a decisive change of lifestyle. That's what Jesus calls us to, to a commitment to follow, where all of us and all we have is now brought to him in an open hand, and it's gladly surrendered to him and his purposes. And for some disciples, that will mean full time vocational ministry. For some of us, will mean our only employment in this life will be full time ministry employment.
Speaker 1:For some of us, that might mean leaving a career, a business, maybe even the family business that mom and dad are counting on us taking so that they can retire and instead engage in full time service in the kingdom of God. Perhaps some of you are wrestling with the very decision such as that this very moment. And if Jesus is calling you to do so, based on what we're reading here, I simply ask, what is it that you're waiting for? Commit. Commit today.
Speaker 1:That's the loud and clear message that Mark is saying right out of the gate of his gospel. This is what discipleship looks like. Jesus first over everything else. And then we trust him. As we follow him closely that he will craft us into all he intends us to be for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do the good works he prepared in advance for us to do.
Speaker 1:That might be what discipleship looks like for some especially. Then I've been thinking a lot about Zebedee and how Jesus might be calling others of us to give up expectations, hopes, dreams that we have for our kids or our grandkids because of what Jesus is calling them to do. You know, one of the biggest obstacles is for young men going into pastoral ministry and young men and women going on to the mission field, it's parents. And we're not told about Zebedee's response as he watches his two sons walk away from the boat and the nets and the work and the business, but we do know his company just takes a massive hit. But the question that's been going through my mind is this, could there be any greater honor or joy or privilege than watching the backs of our sons and daughters as they follow the king in any way he calls and commissions them for his service.
Speaker 1:We may even pay a greater price for that than they do in certain respects. But isn't he worthy? Let's ensure nothing gets in the way of our commitment to following Jesus. Let's also ensure that we're not what is getting in the way of our children's commitment to follow Jesus. Let us trust him with them, even though he may call them to what is hard, what might not be safe, what might not be secure, what might not grant them the financial means to live the same lifestyle that we might have had or wanted to have or wish that they would have.
Speaker 1:In fact, perhaps in Jesus' design, we've been given more than what we need to make up for what they might lack because we're following Jesus together. Whatever the details, whatever the outcomes, following Jesus means everything is on the table for all of us, of the time in our commitment to him. Now, just to underline before we wrap up, to highlight that he is indeed worthy of such commitment, let me answer a question that more than one of our life groups asked about this text this week. Why do these four ordinary guys so quickly and so readily drop everything and follow Jesus when according to Mark's Gospel, it seems like they have had like no exposure to him. That's a good question.
Speaker 1:The answer is actually right in front of us, even in Mark's Gospel. First, would say this, and if you I'd love to sidebar a little bit to talk about why you'll not hear me reference the other gospels so much when we preach the gospel of Mark because I want to take each gospel for itself. And we'll talk about that on our podcast tomorrow. So if you want more on that, tune in. But just looking at Mark for a minute.
Speaker 1:I'll bring in John for a moment in a second, but look at Mark first. The answer is there. There's not a chance that they would not have been aware of all that was happening in the lead up to Jesus because Mark one:five tells us about John's ministry, John the Baptist, All the country of Judea and Jerusalem are going out to him and were being baptized in the River Jordan confessing their sins. They would have known about this, that the forerunner had come, the pointer had come to point to the Messiah. They would have been ready.
Speaker 1:Actually, Gospel of John confirms this. Andrew, Simon's brother, is called a disciple of John the Baptist, and he follows Jesus because one day John points to Jesus and says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then Andrew goes and finds Peter and he says, Peter, you're never going to guess what? We found the Messiah. And he brings Simon to Jesus.
Speaker 1:We're also told in Mark one fourteen-fifteen that after John appeared, then he was arrested, Jesus shows up in Galilee preaching the Gospel of God. Do you not think these guys have heard Jesus preach yet? Of course they have. I would say it's a very good assumption that we can say that they have. These guys fish on the Sea Of Galilee, which we clue in later from Mark was a hub of business because after all, that's where Levi, the tax collector has his booth set up.
Speaker 1:This is commerce. This is the industrial section. Like everything is going on here. And so combining this all together, Jesus would already have been known to these guys. They would have known about John.
Speaker 1:They would have met and even heard Jesus preach. And so when Jesus comes to them and formally calls them to follow, they drop everything because of who He is. Because of what they've heard. Because of the good news of the gospel. Because Messiah has come.
Speaker 1:And they recognize, is there any greater call to receive from anyone anywhere than the call to follow Jesus Christ? For our lives to be in his hands, used for his designs. There is nothing better than this. And let's not kid ourselves. We're not whole when Jesus comes into the picture and places the call on our life.
Speaker 1:I don't even know I used a pencil a lot in school, this happened all the time. You'd lean hard at this is the kind of state we were in. We weren't spiritually alive. We weren't inherently useful. We weren't holy when he called us.
Speaker 1:We weren't whole when he called us. When he calls us he takes our sinful broken lives and he forgives us of all of our sin. And then he says come with me and I will give you work to do in the kingdom that I am building which will endure forever and ever and ever. And he recreates us and He restores us, and He renews us, and He repurposes us to make much of Him. No wonder these guys dropped everything and went after Him.
Speaker 1:You could live forever. You could search the whole universe and you would never discover better than hearing Jesus say, Follow me. Are his hands the hands that you are in. We're ordinary. I don't know of anyone in this room who's of noble birth.
Speaker 1:I don't know anyone who is unbelievably wealthy. I don't know that there's really anyone in this room who has influence in the halls of power. But Jesus comes to the sinners, the ordinary. And he says, you follow me, and you'll become like me, and I'll give you a job to do. You commit to me, and he will make us make an everlasting difference through what he is doing to save a people for himself.
Speaker 1:There is no one better and nothing better that you could give your life to than to him. Let me pray. Lord, help us to see the incredible offer of salvation that Jesus extends to us so that we would receive it. I pray, Lord, for any here who came in this morning who are not yet Christians that today, now, this moment, your spirit would be at work to draw them to yourself so that they would trust in your son, and that you would make them a new creation, and that they would follow after you all the days of their lives. For those of us who already have done so, Lord, we are so easily distracted.
Speaker 1:We so easily cling to what we think is better than letting go for the sake of your beloved son. Oh, forgive us, Lord, we pray. Give us open hands, hearts. Help us to see, from an eternal perspective that everything that we might be asked to let go of in this life is of infinite value because of the one that we follow and because of the task that he has called us and given us to do. Help us to be close with your son.
Speaker 1:Help us to be crafted by him. Help us to be committed to him that we might have the joy of seeing the looks on others' faces as the news of the gospel reaches their ears and their hearts and they trust in Christ. O Lord, use as we pray to spread a broad net that we might see many caught up for salvation in the kingdom of your beloved son, in whose name we ask this. Amen. Would you sing this prayer?