Follow Me

Open with a Prayer

Discipleship therefore cannot simply be a function of church programs. We need a theology of discipleship “to make sure that in talking about the church and its mission we keep talking about God.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Read Mark 1:16-20.

Main Point: The Gospel Leads Us to Make a Choice.

Discipleship is more than getting to know what the teacher knows. It is getting to be what he is.

Juan Carlos Ortiz

Jesus has officially begun his teaching ministry in Galilee.

(The Sea of Galilee is roughly 14 mi. in length, and 8 mi. in width, it is the lowest fresh water lake in the world)

John the Baptist has been imprisoned for the message of repentance.

Jesus Christ emerged victorious over Satan’s temptations.

(Points to who He is and the eventual resolution of the redemption story)

4. Jesus Galilean Ministry is also recorded in Matthew and Luke, in chapter four of the respective Gospel accounts.

I. Jesus Calls to More than Changing Professions or Vocations. (v. 16)

Jesus is the one who is going along the road seeking/calling His disciples.

The active voice in the text refers to the state of being, rather than what is being done.

Here the text begins to introduce a prophetic picture that most hearers would understand, if they are paying attention.

Election is the cause of our vocation and vocation is the sign of our election.

Thomas Watson

II. The Gospel Call is to Apprenticeship. (v. 17-18)

Jesus uses the image of fishing, to recall the ministry of the Old Testament Prophets.

Hear the Inspired Words of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 16:16–18 LSB

16 “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,” declares Yahweh, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the rocks. 17 “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 “I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

Hear the Inspired Words of Amos:

Amos 4:2–3 LSB

2 Lord Yahweh has sworn by His holiness that, “Behold, the days are coming upon you, And they will take you away with meat hooks, And the last of you with fish hooks. 3 “And you will go out through breaches in the walls, Each one straight before her, And you will be cast to Harmon,” declares Yahweh.

Hear the Inspired Words of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 29:4 LSB

4 “I will put hooks in your jaws And make the fish of your canals of the Nile cling to your scales. And I will bring you up out of the midst of your canals of the Nile, And all the fish of your canals of the Nile will cling to your scales.

Ezekiel 47:10 LSB

10 “And it will be that fishermen will stand beside it; from Engedi to Eneglaim there will be a place for the spreading of nets. Their fish will be according to their kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea, very many.

Hear the Inspired Words of Habbakuk:

Habakkuk 1:14–17 LSB

14 And You have made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them. 15 The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they are glad and rejoice. 16 Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net And burn incense to their fishing net Because through these things their portion is rich And their food is fat. 17 Will they therefore empty their net And continually kill nations without sparing?

The Gospel message and the call to Discipleship is one that ushers in the judgement that God has in place for those who rebel.

Jesus’ ministry, and the ministry of the Church today, removes the excuse of ignorance, or misunderstanding the consequences of rebellion against God and the rejection of His free offer of Grace.

Because we have personal agency, we must make a logical decision about Who God is, and what He has accomplished.

Because we are tainted by original sin, and the offense against a Holy God is our inheritance from Adam, we bear the curse at birth, evidenced in us as we come into old age.

The original language is focusing on the radical change that leads not in the are of what we do, as much as it is about who we are.

Paul makes this case eloquently for readers and his original hearers:

Romans 6:5–6 LSB

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

III. A Disciple’s Life Develops New Priorities. (v. 19-20)

Jesus meets the sons of Zebedee, who are fishermen, as well.

These two have a thriving business, as the Scriptures make a note that their Father has hired men working for him.

the account makes a strong case for the totality of discipleship and the Christian life.

Matthew 10:36 explains this:

Matthew 10:37–38 LSB

37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

Luke 14:26-27 echoes the same worlds from our Master:

Luke 14:26–27 LSB

26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

What is the LORD attempting to convey to His audience?

Discipleship will be result of repentance and a new life.

New Life will lead you to center all things around Me (The Living God).

This New Life will make it appear as though you hate everything else in your life.

In Short: I (Jesus) require to be your All in All.

IV. The Call to Follow is Anew Everyday.

When Christ calls us by His grace we ought not only to remember what we are, but we ought also to think of what He can make us.  It did not seem a likely thing that lowly fishermen would develop into apostles;  that men so handy with the net would be quite as much at home in preaching sermons and in instructing converts.  One would have said, “How can these things be?  You cannot make founders of churches out of peasants of Galilee.”  That is exactly what Christ did, and when we are brought low in the sight of God by a sense of our own unworthiness, we may feel encouraged to follow Jesus because of what He can make us. O you who see in yourselves at present nothing that is desirable, come you and follow Christ for the sake of what He can make out of you.  Do you not hear His sweet voice calling you, and saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men?”

-Charles Spurgeon

Our Sanctification leads us on a road paved with repentance, leading to joy.

The end goal is more about who we are, and why we act; not what we do.

When we encounter God we are moved to total surrender.