Called from the Water

Back to Basics:

Over the next few weeks, we will explore the topic of Discipleship. What is it, and what do we do with it? Today, we are going back to the basics. If you follow any sport, at some point, the coach of that sport will say when the team is struggling, we need to get back to basics and learn those things really well.

Same with the church. It is good to remember the basics of the faith, as we may have forgotten what they are and how to apply them. Then, we start to rely entirely on our talents rather than on the God who gave them to us.

Mark 1:14-21 is a return to the basics of what the Gospel is and what our response to it should be. To fully understand what the Gospel is, we need to use Mark 1, I Corinthians 15, (Which we have already read today) and Mark 8: 31— And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again, .

When we say the word Gospel, what do we mean? Gospel translates to Good News. Sharing the Gospel means sharing the good news, but what is that good news?

There are several gospels that people share, which are not the same Gospel as Jesus taught. One of the gospels that is not the true Gospel, a lot of us have been teaching for years, including myself. These false gospels are not found in the Bible.

That is the back-to-basics we need. The first false Gospel is the prosperity gospel. This is the Gospel that says everything you want; Jesus will give it to you. Claim it and believe it. If your faith is strong enough, whatever you believe and claim, Jesus will give it to you. Or it is also the give us this amount of money, and Jesus will give it back to you 10 fold. Joel Osteen would be an example of this Gospel. If you are not healing, then your faith is not strong enough. It puts the focus on you.

There is the right and left gospels. These aren't political, but they usually align with the views of specific political parties. The left Gospel is primarily concerned with social justice. They are about taking care of the poor and fighting for the rights of the underprivileged, among other things. The right Gospel is about believing the right doctrines. You need to believe this in order to be saved. Think Pharisees. It was more about rules than grace.

There is the consumer gospel. This Gospel tries to attract people like a store. To use the Giant Eagle convenience store, Get in, Get out, Get Going. The consumer gospel is about attracting people and so sometimes things of the Bible are left out so people keep coming back.

This gospel that I share now is the one I taught for many years and probably the one you most adhere to and it seems legitimate until you examine what Jesus was teaching. That is the forgiveness-only Gospel. This takes the Kingdom gospel but doesn't go far enough. This Gospel states that you must recite a specific prayer to gain entry into heaven. That is it. That is all you need to do. It is all about getting into heaven.

There will be a gospel presentation of some kind, but it does not go far enough. There is no repentance for a life change, just the prayer of forgiveness and no continued life of following Jesus.

All of these gospels leave out something that the Kingdom gospel has, and that is the emphasis on following Jesus. Jesus as King in a kingdom. The others are more about us and what we are doing rather than what Jesus is doing.

The Kingdom gospel is what Mark and 1 Corinthians deal with, and there are seven parts to the Gospel. There are four declarative statements and three imperatives, which break down into four statements about what the Gospel is and then three reactions to those statements. This is the Gospel we need to start having as our back-to-basics. This is the proper way to tackle, the way to skate, the way to grip the club and the proper swing of the bat.

Mark 1, the first declarative statement we have is that the Kingdom of God is near. God's Kingdom is the first thing we must know. His Kingdom is near, and with his Kingdom near, there must be a king, and that is the second part that Mark 8 and I Corinthians 15 grab onto—Jesus—the Messiah.

That name alone means anointed King. So, the first two parts of the Gospel are tied together. There is a kingdom, and there is a king. Then that King came and died, was buried, and on the third day rose again, and now is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Four parts--the Kingdom of God is near, Jesus is the Messiah, he was killed and rose again, and our response to that is in Mark 1—Repent and believe and then Follow me.

Repent is not just saying sorry but a complete lifestyle change. You turn entirely away from something and then turn completely towards Jesus and his Kingdom. Jesus and His Kingdom are now the primary focus of believers' lives.

You become an ambassador to that Kingdom, and you follow the King and what he says and does. When you repent and believe, you live for him and him alone. Everything now is about Jesus. You live for him, which means that you are living for others.

That is why he tells Simon and Andrew to follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. This Kingdom of God, which Jesus then showed the disciples through parables, is what they are to live for now. All of the parables and Jesus' teachings are about the Kingdom of God and how it is here and not just in heaven.

That is where the forgiveness-only Gospel fails. It fails because it does not address the present moment. In the Kingdom of God, you are called to serve every one of us--no exceptions. If you repent and believe, then you have a job to do in the Kingdom.

When you are working in a job, you do it for the glory of the Kingdom. It is about spreading that Kingdom. As a church, it should be all about the Kingdom, not our Own. It is about sharing with others the story of the King and what He has done and then helping them become a part of this Kingdom.

That might mean they worship somewhere else. That's okay because it's not about us growing this place, but about us helping people see that the Kingdom of God is all around us and they can be a part of it. Within that Kingdom is a God who is the King who loves them and wants them to be with him.

Jesus called Simon, Andrew, John, and James out of the water after they had been fishing and told them that He would send them to do the same thing with men. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, there is nothing we can do to make that happen. He does, however, call us to follow him back into something similar to where he called us from.

He called these four men to follow him by becoming fishers of men. Eventually, these men become that after the Holy Spirit, but they spend three years learning the ins and outs of the Kingdom of God from the King Himself.

That is the most significant part that all the false gospels miss: following Jesus and living like him. That is what is called a disciple—someone who is loving Jesus, Learning from Jesus, and Living for Jesus. Loving Jesus is the repenting part, Learning is following, and living is making fishers of men.

We all have been called from a specific place to follow Jesus. Jesus will most likely use that place for you to call others to follow Jesus. That is the other part of the Gospel that is left out--the multiplication part of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is all about multiplication.

You are to go and multiply, not for you but for the Kingdom. It is a different way of thinking, especially for us Americans, whose history is all about leaving the Kingdom. We have also molded our faith into our politics, believing that America is the Kingdom of God. That is not the case. The Kingdom of God transcends all earthly kingdoms. It is the place where God reigns and where his people live for him.

The beginning and the end of the story are about God dwelling with his people, and in between those two places is how we are to live as if we are already there. We don't live to wait to die. We live because we know we won't die, and we have a job to do while we are here. That is why there is no retirement in the Bible.

The back to basic we need to embrace is the idea of a kingdom mindset and what it means to live for Jesus and not ourselves. We know that whatever we do, He is with us because all authority has been given to the King. Since that is the case, go and make disciples.

Some of you may think that I am not called to do that and that I am not gifted to do it. We are all called to do this, and Jesus calls us to do things we can do; we rely on Him to help us through. The problem is that we have taken the Great Commission and made it an option because of the word' nation.' Go and make disciples of all nations. 

We think geographically when nations come up, but the disciples to whom Jesus told this did not think that way. Nations referred to people groups, and the 11 standing there listening to him say these words represented different people groups. Fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots. They were to go to those groups and tell others.

That means the people that surround this building are the people we should be going to. Those are the nations to which Jesus is calling us to go. That is the kind of thinking associated with the Kingdom of God. You think about the people who don't know about the Kingdom.

So I ask you, What group are you from? What nation is Jesus calling you to go to? That is the group you need to share Jesus with.

If you are a grandparent, it could be your grandkids you are going to.

If you are retired from a business, others in that group may look to you for advice.

Some of you are people out in the streets, but no matter what, we are all called to do this, and that is why we need to start with the basics of what the Gospel is and what it means to be a disciple.

The Gospel is that the Kingdom of God is near; Jesus is the King; He died according to Scripture and rose on the third day according to those same Scriptures. That is the Gospel that Paul got from Jesus. Our response to that Gospel is to repent, believe, and follow.

The other gospels either leave out certain aspects or overemphasize others, such as the Gospel of the Left, which thus leaves out Jesus. The Kingdom Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus, is all about others and not yourself. This is not about just getting into heaven. That is the bonus, not the main thing because if you live in a kingdom gospel mindset, you are already experiencing heaven here on earth.

We pray every week your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If you are living to get to heaven, then you need to stop praying this part of the prayer because you are praying that heaven will come here.

It is here when you live for others and share the Gospel. We are saved to do work for the King; we aren't saved because of the work. However, Jesus calls us to follow Him so that we can accomplish something here for Him. The King has called you, and that should be encouragement enough to do the work.

The creator of the universe has called you by name to go and further his Kingdom for him. He could easily do it himself, but he calls you to do it for him.

The game is not over, and we still have time to get back into the game, but we need to remember the basics. The basics that got us to love this game in the first place. You all, regardless of your age, have a part in this game, and we need each other to finish it strong.

The Kingdom is near; the Messiah, the anointed King, is Jesus, and he died for your sins, was buried and rose again, and ascended into heaven.

Your response is to repent, believe, and follow him. Out of the water, you were called, and back into the water he sends.