Following Jesus

· Good morning!

· We’re going to be Mark 1:16-20 this morning.

· We began a new series last week in the book of Mark, looking at the start of Jesus ministry.

· So over the course of the next several weeks we’re going to keep walking through this book and taking a deep look into this Gospel, the Gospel of Mark.

· If you have found your places in your Bibles I will have you stand with me this morning for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

· Mark 1:16-20

· Read.

· Pray.

· If you are a believer then you have a testimony.

· You have a time in your life that you said “Yes, I will follow Christ.”

· And the beautiful thing about a testimony is that they’re all different.

· Some people grew up in the church and they said yes at a young age and they have been serving ever since.

· And I’ve heard people call that a boring testimony, but I’m telling you that is the exact testimony I’m praying that my kids will have.

· Know Jesus young, and never waver in that!

· For others of you maybe you got saved later in life, maybe you had a rough past and Jesus radically changed you.

· Maybe you were lost and you were at church and you heard the word and you felt convicted by the spirit.

· Maybe you were at a Revival or a summer camp.

· Maybe you were in one on one conversation with someone.

· Every Christian has a different story about the first time they responded to a call to follow Christ.

· And here this morning in our text, we see the first four disciples to say yes to Jesus.

· Jesus has started his ministry.

· We saw last week how He was baptized and then sent into the wilderness where He resisted the temptations of Satan and then He prrached his first sermon to repent and believe in the Gospel.

· And now as he continues on his way he begins calling people to be his disciples.

· And there are four things I believe we can learn about being a disciple from these few verses.

· Number 1 a disciple Follows Christ.

· Number 2 a disciple is Formed by Christ.

· Number 3 a disciple Fishes for men.

· And number 4 a disciple forsakes everything.

· So number 1, it seems obvious.

· A disciple Follows Christ.

· Jesus walks up to the sea of Galilee where Simon and Andrew are fishing and with a specific and dramatic call in verse 17 he says to them “Follow me!”

· Jesus invites Simon and Andrew to come alongside him.

· He invites them to experience his ministry firsthand.

· Jesus is inviting these two men to have a front row seat to all that He is about to do.

· They will have the opportunity to witness Jesus many miracles, which He hasn’t even started yet.

· They will have the opportunity to listen to all of Jesus’ teachings.

· They’ll be able to sit in private with Jesus and ask Him things that no one else could ask.

· They’ll see exactly how Jesus lives his life.

· He will set the example for them.

· And they will Follow Him.

· That means they will emulate what He is doing.

· When you hear someone say “Follow my lead”

· That means that you are going to follow what they do as they lead the way.

· And Jesus is leading the way and he is inviting Andrew and Simon to follow what He is doing.

· Being disciple of Christ does not mean that you one day prayed a prayer or walked an aisle or even got dunked in water.

· There has to be more than that.

· There has to be a life change.

· Being a disciple of Christ means that you follow His lead.

· You do what He does.

· You do what he commands.

· You follow Jesus.

· But more than just doing the right things, it’s a relationship with Him.

· Jesus is inviting Simon and Andrew to follow him, through a personal relationship with him.

· And Jesus invites each and every one of us into a relationship with him.

· He doesn’t just want you to do good things, He doesn’t just want you to avoid doing bad things.

· He wants to know you personally.

· And when you know Him personally the rest will start to come.

· A disciple follows Christ.

· And number 2 a disciple is formed by Christ.

· Verse 17 again says, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

· Follow me, and “I will make you”

· I love this point here because this point can answer a lot of concerns.

· Jesus words right here show us that its not what we do, it is what HE does.

· And Its sometimes important to note what Jesus didn’t say in order to really understand what He did say.

· Jesus did not say “Hey Simon and Andrew get out of the boat and get cleaned up and come follow me.”

· I imagine Simon and Andrew if they had been out on the boat for very long were pretty dirty.

· They were probably muddy.

· If they had been having any luck they were smelling like fish.

· They might have been smelling like fish bait.

· They might have been soaking wet.

· And Jesus didn’t say anything about them being dirty.

· Because Jesus wasn’t concerned with their outward appearance.

· And He wasn’t concerned with where they had been.

· He was only concerned with where they were going to go.

· And Jesus didn’t say get out of the boat and then learn how to fish for men and then come follow me.

· Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you.

· I will make you.

· Let me tell you something, Jesus isn’t concerned with your outward appearance.

· And He’s not concerned with how dirty you are or how dirty you think you are.

· Jesus isn’t concerned with where you have been.

· He’s concered with where you’re going.

· You don’t clean yourself up and then come to Jesus, He cleans you up.

· You don’t learn what it takes to follow Jesus and then follow Jesus.

· You follow Jesus and He will show you the way.

· I know there are people who would say “But Tyler, You don’t know where I’ve been.”

· You don’t know what I’ve done.

· God would never want me.

· Or God could never use me.

· Let me tell you, that’s exactly why Jesus came.

· And He is saying to you, just as He says to Andrew and Simon, “Follow me.”

· And I know there are people who have believed the lie that they somehow have to clean up their act before they can go to Jesus.

· But let me say to you, you will never be able to clean up your act without Jesus.

· It is Jesus who makes you clean.

· You can quit smoking.

· You can quit drinking.

· You can quit cussing.

· You can put on your finest clothes for church and slick your hair back.

· But that’s not what makes you clean.

· Jesus is the only one who will make you clean and He’s not asking you to do any of those things before you come to Him.

· He is asking you to come to Him and He will take care of the rest.

· On the other hand, I believe that there are people in this very room who are being called by God to do something specific with their life.

· If you notice in the text, Jesus specifically called on Andrew and Simon.

· And he specifically called on James and John.

· And I believe that God still calls specific people to do specific things.

· And I’m telling you I know your excuse right now.

· “I’m not qualified for that!”

· Maybe you’re being called to be a Sunday School Teacher.

· Maybe you’re being called to get involved in our church’s grow ministry.

· Maybe you’re being called to be involved somehow in Upward.

· Maybe you’re being called to help with Awana or with Children’s Church.

· Maybe you’re being called into the ministry somehow.

· Maybe you’re called to go on the mission field.

· And you’re thinking, “Not me Lord”

· I’m not qualified to do that.

· I don’t know how to teach.

· I don’t like getting in front of people.

· I don’t know enough about the Bible.

· I’m not good with kids.

· I’m just not qualified to do this!

· And to you, I would ask this one question, what were the qualifications of the disciples?

· These guys are fishermen.

· They hadn’t been to seminary.

· They hadn’t been professionally trained.

· They weren’t teachers.

· They weren’t public speakers.

· They weren’t scholars.

· They were just regular blue collar guys out minding their own business, drawing their net into the sea like they did every other day and one day Jesus showed up and said “Follow me!”

· In fact in Acts 4:13, it says that the Pharisees perceived that Peter and John were uneducated.

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”

· When they looked upon the disciples in Acts they didn’t see scholars.

· And they didn’t see known public speakers.

· They saw uneducated and untrained men.

· And there was only one explanation, it was evident that they had been with Jesus.

· Jesus was the one who had trained them.

· Jesus was the one who had given them their courage and their boldness.

· If you are worried about Jesus calling you into something and you think that you are not qualified to do, let me remind you that Jesus is the one who decides if you are qualified.

· And Jesus decides if you are qualified because Jesus is the one who qualifies you.

· When I felt called to ministry, I didn’t like public speaking.

· I used to do everything I could to avoid it.

· I was afraid to give class presentations in front of kids I had known my entire life.

· I stand before you today not because of something I have done.

· I stand before you today not because of training and education.

· I stand before you today by the grace of God!

· Its not me, its HIM.

· And if you’re telling God you’re not qualified, you’re not listening to what He says about it!

· “I will make you” Jesus says.

· Don’t wait any longer, Follow Him and HE will take care of the rest!

· A Disciple Follows Jesus.

· A Disciple is formed by Jesus.

· And a Disciple Fishes for men.

· “Follow me and I will make you become Fishers of Men”

· A disciple seeks to make other disciples.

· This is a core doctrine in the Christian faith.

· Jesus would disciple Andrew and Simon with the expectation that they would go out and do that for others as well.

· And this call is the same call we have on our lives as believers.

· If you are saved, it is your responsibility to tell other people how they can be saved.

· We have the answer that the world needs and it is up to us to give that answer to the world.

· The first thing Jesus says to the disciples is that he is going to make them people who go after other people.

· As the fishermen catches fish, the follower of Jesus goes after other people.

· This language comes from a prophecy in Jeremiah.

· Jeremiah 16:16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”

· There is a reality that we all face and it is eternity.

· There is a heaven and there is a hell and everyone you know is going to one of those two places.

· There’s no way around it.

· And this truth alone should be enough that each and every one of us be out sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ every chance we get.

· That’s why we give invitations in every service.

· That’s why we make every event as evangelistic as we can.

· That’s why we have Upward Basketball.

· Its why we have the car show.

· Its why we have a food pantry.

· Its why we have Awana.

· Everything we do as a church we do because our mission is to make disciples!

· It is the heartbeat of everything we do and the day we cease to make that our mission is the day we cease to be a church.

· What have you been fishing for lately in life?

· Maybe you’ve been fishing for success.

· Maybe you’ve been fishing for money.

· Maybe you’ve been fishing for popularity.

· Maybe you’ve been fishing for relationships.

· Jesus says, our mission, is to go fishing for souls!

· Who can you be witnessing to?

· Who in your life needs to hear the gospel?

· I want to challenge you to find a way to share it with them.

· And if you already have, and they’ve shot it down.

· Don’t give up.

· Continue to pray for them.

· A disciple follows Jesus.

· A disciple is formed by Jesus.

· A disciple fishes for men.

· And lastly, a Disciple forsakes everything.

· Verses 19 and 20 “When he had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And Immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.”

· When Jesus called Andrew and Simon, they left their boat.

· Verse 18 says that “Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.”

· They left their profession.

· They left their livelihood.

· They left everything they knew.

· And they followed Jesus.

· Now Jesus sees James and John in their boat, and calls them, and they also leave to follow Him.

· They leave their profession, and they leave their Father there in the boat to follow Jesus.

· Imagine the excuses these guys had not to go.

· Jesus, we would like to follow you, but we really enjoy fishing.

· Jesus, we would like to follow you, but we’ve got a job here to finish up.

· Jesus, we would like to follow you, but we can’t leave our father behind.

· But that’s not what they did.

· They dropped everything to follow Jesus.

· Its not that their jobs were unimportant.

· And its not that their father was unimportant.

· Its just that Jesus was the most important thing that had ever happened to them and they were going to do what they had to do in order to follow Him and be with Him.

· In the gospels of Matthew and of Luke, there is a story of some people coming to Jesus and they tell Him that they will follow Him wherever they go.

· And Jesus, famously almost seems to discourage them.

· The first guy comes and he says “Teacher I will follow you wherever you go.”

· This story comes from Matthew 8.

· And Jesus says to the man “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

· And then it says another person came to Jesus and they said “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

· And Jesus responded to him and told him “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

· And the moral of the story is that we all have excuses.

· We all have things we like to try and hold onto, but those things, even if they aren’t bad can keep us from Jesus and that is a problem.

· Was it a bad thing for a man to want to bury his dead father before he skips town?

· I would say that’s not an overtly sinful thing.

· And would it have been bad if the disciples wanted to stay with their Father?

· Not necessarily.

· But the Bible teaches us that ANYTHING that gets in the way of serving Jesus Christ is a problem.

· HE IS NUMBER 1!

· Over everything.

· What excuses are you making from being all in?

· Maybe you would say, “Lord, I want to follow you, but we’re really busy on the weekends, I can’t give up my Sundays.”

· I don’t want to give up my hunting and fishing routine, Lord.

· Lord, I want to follow you but my kids have sports on the weekends, we can’t fit anything else into our schedule.

· Lord, I want to follow you but we love traveling, and its hard to be tied down to a church.

· Maybe its your pursuit of wealth that is holding you back.

· Maybe it’s a relationship you are clinging to.

· Or an addiction that has its grips on you.

· Give it to the Lord.

· Forsake it, and follow Jesus.

· Have you answered Jesus call on your life?

· Number 1, have you answered his call to follow him?

· Have you given your life to Christ?

· Has Christ made you new?

· If not, this is your opportunity to make that right.

· Right here, right now.

· (ABC)

· Is God calling you to do something specific?

· Are you feeling God call you into the ministry or the mission field?

· Say yes.

· And if He is, I would love to know about that, so that we as a church can help you in the next steps.

· Number 2.

· Disciples fish for men.

· Who are you fishing for?

· Is there someone on your heart right now that you know needs Jesus?

· In just a minute when we start our invitation, I want to encourage you to pray specifically for the person.

· Pray that God would draw them to salvation.

· Pray that God would give you the opportunity to share with them.

· Number 3.

· Is there something in your life keeping you from a closer walk with Christ?

· Is there something you need to forsake in your life?

· Give it to the Lord right now.