Gospel Beginning: Starting the Work of Discipleship

Picking back up in our passage in Mark, Jesus has been called out as that promised Messiah and King by the promised messenger, who’s made ready the people for His coming, and by the divine Trinity who all were present at His baptism, a baptism that didn’t symbolize His need for forgiveness but a baptism that would show His perfect obedience to the Father’s plan and to foreshadow His eventual death of the cross as He identified with sinners even though He Himself was not one. Furthermore, Jesus has proven Himself to be the perfect son of God and perfect son of Man by overcoming the temptations in the wilderness. Thus He began to prove Himself as the promised one. Now it was time to begin His work, a work that He Himself would describe as a “kingdom work”. The Kingdom of God is at hand. The arrival of Jesus meant that the Kingdom had come, and it was time for that Kingdom to be spread. This Kingdom isn’t of geography of map or physical location with an earthly throne, that time will come at a later date, a date we are still with much anticipation waiting for. But this Kingdom is of a spiritual sense. A kingdom where Jesus is the Lord and master of people’s hearts and minds. With that rule comes in expressible blessings from the heavenly realm. The people longed to be apart of God’s Kingdom, but they weren’t excited about what it would take to get it. Repent and believe in the gospel.

Jesus didn’t usher in His Kingdom with military conquest or force, but rather with 3 main things… we looked at last week that of those three things, Jesus ushered in His spiritual Kingdom with preaching. Proclaiming the gospel of repentance and belief. What Jesus called them to was humility. A humbling of oneself about their current state, an agreement that they were the problem, and that only through the hope of this Messiah would they have life.

So Jesus preached to usher in the Kingdom. But Jesus didn’t do this work alone. And this is where the second main is that Christ did to usher in the Kingdom. This is where He spent His much of His energies. He spent time picking Kingdom people to follow Him, learn from Him, and carry on the work to which He started. It still should amaze us that Christ the King should choose to still employ sinful beings to carry out the work. Yet, this is His plan, a perfect plan. A plan that still exists today and is still the most powerful and God honoring method of doing the Lord’s work! And to what work does He call these people to, and what kind of people does He call into doing this work? We will answer some of those questions as we discuss the passage today.

The title of our sermon today is Gospel Beginnings… Starting the Work of Discipleship.

As we look at the beginning of Jesus’ second main thrust of ministry.… discipleship.

Let’s begin by reading Mark 1:16-20

Mark 1:16–20 ESV

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he 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 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.

Let’s first consider the choice of those whom He would entrust to do this work.

I. The Choosing of the Official Disciples (v.16)

As we pick our passage, we see where Jesus goes to find these helpers in the work. Let’s look at our first subpoint of the choosing… the place in which Jesus found them.

A. The Place of His Choosing

If we were heads of business, meant to find workers for an very important job, in fact the most important job, where would you consider looking for this desired worker. If this is a Kingdom work, perhaps we need to look inside the religious schools of thought. The schools of Rabbis where young people were being brought up in learning of the “torah” and the religious traditions of the day. Perhaps if not there, then one of the political centers where people had a good grasp on such and such.

But we don’t find Jesus searching those locations, or He didn’t pick up these workers while He was in Jerusalem turning over their money tables (John chapter 2) rather we find Jesus passing alongside the sea of Galilee, where we would give the call to “follow Him.”

The sea of Galilee was obviously a sea located in the northern regions of Israel called Galilee. As we mentioned last week, Galilee was considered by most of Israel to be the outskirts of Israel since it was far north of where most of the main religious and political things took place in Judea. The sea of Galilee was a large freshwater “lake” similiar to our own Lake Michigan. It was roughly 13 miles long by 7 miles wide at their longest and widest points.… a total area roughly 64 square miles. This location was home to lots of travel and business for that region, especially the business of fishing. The sea of Galilee was home to many variety of fish and was one of the primary ways that the Jewish people in that day ate. So industry wise, it was a prominent area, and it become a prominent center for much of Jesus’ ministry.

Let’s consider next the...

B. The People of His Choosing

Four names are listed here.… Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Two things can be understood about these people from this passage.

-Relatives

2 sets of brothers. Simon and Andrew.… James and John

-Trade

They were fishermen and that makes certain sense as this was where Jesus went.

By why fishermen? Fishermen had to be hard-working because the job required it, often working throughout the nights because that’s when the fish were out. They had to be brave… because the “sea” was unpredictable and at times dangerous. They had to be wise… in order to make a living in their business and to thrive as fishermen in an overly saturated field of work. It seems within the realm of possibilities that Peter and John came from families with a pretty decent means of income within the fishing world. Peter is said to have owned a boat himself and it appears they had other boats as well. Zebedee, father of James and John- who were partners with Andrew and Peter, had hired servants to help in the fishing industry. They had to be patient and perseverant… because the results of their work didn’t come fast. They had to be humble… since being a fishermen wasn’t a prestigious job but was often looked down upon by the elitists. It was just a blue-collar job for the lowly.

So is that why Jesus picked them?

It certainly wasn’t because of their modest wealth. That’s never highlighted in the gospels. It wasn’t because of their humility because they were often fighting about who was the greatest in God’s kingdom. It wasn’t because of their patience… James and John were given the names “Sons of Thunder” because they wanted call down fire on the Samaritan people for refusing to lodge Jesus, and it wasn’t because of their persistence for they all abandoned Jesus and the mission when Jesus was sent to the cross. It wasn’t for their courage either as many times and moments they are said to have been in trembling in fear and lacked faith. And it certainly wasn’t because of their wisdom or understanding as Jesus often rebuked their lack of understanding or being so slow to understand.

So why fishermen?

When we consider the pick of fishermen, and of these particular fishermen, it is once again to remind us that God picks the unexalted things of this world to further exalt the King of this World. Christ picks people whom no man would ever chose so that He can confound the wisdom of the wisest person by the empowerment that He gives to what we deem as nobodies.

This should be so encouraging once more to us. When we ever consider ourselves unable to do a task. Can you imagine the response of the disciples? You’re asking us to do what? But Christ is the King and what He says, He will do. Let’s now consider this call from the King in our next point.

II. The Calling of the King (v.17)

What kind of call was this?

We know from the headings in our Bibles that this was a call to discipleship. We have spent and will continue to spend a good amount of time considering what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the days ahead as we look at the gospel of Mark since this is one of the 3 main thrusts of Jesus Kingdom building ministries and work.

But I want to consider today this initial call.

Is it more of an invitation? Like a multiple choice option?

Two things I will note about this particular call as seen in this text.

A. It was an Authoritative Call

John 15:16, 13:18

When Jesus said to these fishermen, “follow me” that wasn’t intended to be one option of several. It was a command to action.… option one of one.

The gospel of Mark lends itself to this understanding as well for its the really present theme of Marks writing in this section. Having officially proclaimed Christ is the King, the Messiah… having told of these major events that identified Him as such… John the baptist, baptism of Jesus.. etc, it was now time for Jesus to prove the validity of this claim. A king has authority and power. A King of the Universe has absolute authority and power. Mark chose these events and put them in this order to proved this authority.

In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted by the devil. Yet in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus prevailed. In fact, not only did He just “prevail”, He conquered. Every time the devil thrust His temptations at Jesus, Jesus responded with scripture. “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Time and again, Satan thrusted his best assaults at Jesus and Jesus came back with a defense rather an assault that the Devil couldn’t stop. Eventually the Devil fled in defeat as Christ’s authoritative words from the Holy Scriptures won the days. Thus the temptation of Jesus proved His authority over the prince of this world, His archenemy, the devil… this comes before our text today. The authority of Jesus over Satan. Following the disciples call, we will see Jesus’ authority over all such manner of diseases, demonic forces, incurable deformities and the like. So authority is the theme of Mark’s writings right now. Jesus’ authority over all. This includes His absolute authority in those that He commands to enter into His kingdom services.

Jesus had authority over these 12. Total and absolute authority. When He beacons, they listen and obey.

This is made very clear in other sections of scripture where Jesus speaks of His selection of the 12.

John 15:16 ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Here Jesus made it very clear. In speaking to His disciples about His love for them, and even His friendship to them, He says that this friendship did not exist because of them. In fact, nothing they have done merited such friendship. Nothing in them inherited such choice. It was God’s own divine prerogative. But not only to chose them for friendship but also for service. Appointed (which means to make, ordain, set forth, fix in place, to establish) them to bear fruit.

Therefore Jesus’ appointment of the 12 was absolutely authoritative. As King, who conquers disease, infirmities, disabilities, nature, He too would most certainly accomplish His purpose of rule in peoples hearts in submission to His spiritual reign. And it began with these disciples.

Another word we ought to consider in this is certainty. Jesus mission was always secure. Thinking about these 12, their appointment was certain. All the details God had already worked out.

We have confidence in this because scripture speaks with clarity and certainty even done to the smallest of details. Jesus picked 12 disciples. One of them was Judas, whom we are well aware would betray them. Yet Jesus not only picked Him, but picked Him knowing what he would do, and on top of that was moving in a direction to fulfill what had been prophesied… Jesus had even said to Judas, “what you are about to do, do it quickly.” Jesus didn’t work to try and change Judas’ mind or to find another way. Nope, He worked within the Sovereign plan of God. God’s plan included Judas betrayal. That’s not to say God is the cause of Judas betrayal, but it fit within His plan. Judas’ betrayal was long predicted in the Old Testament, down to even the details on how much money he would betray Jesus for.

John 13:18 ESV

I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

This shows His incredible authority and sovereignty over the world and over the hearts and minds of men. Who are we to think we can rebuff His call.

Mark 1–8: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Jesus’ Kingdom Means: His Authority over Sinners (1:16–20)

The One who defeated Satan, both in the wilderness and at the cross; the One who declared victory over sin, through the proclamation of the gospel; and the One who continually demonstrates His power in the lives of those whom He saves and empowers—He alone is the messianic King. All rule, authority, power, and dominion belong to Him (

So it was an authortative call… but notice not only that but it was a...

B. It was a Life-Changing Call

The second half of the verse tells us another important thing about this call. It was a life-changing call. Jesus says follow me and I will make you.… “fishers of men.” In other words, these men who are just plain fishers are promised to become something entirely different and entirely more.

I love this quote from our 19th century preacher… Charles Spurgeon....

Mark 1–8: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Jesus’ Kingdom Means: His Authority over Sinners (1:16–20)

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 to you, and saying, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men?”

So what application should we draw upon here.

Application:

Submission to Christ as King is submission to radical change.

If you are going to obey God’s command to “follow me”, then you must also be willing to submit yourself to potential radical change!

Some of us are maybe shy about serving in aspects of teachings roles, God maybe wanting you to try… are you willing to submit… (I’ve not know many including myself that are just itching to teach right from the start… more times than not, testimonies bear that people were first just willing to submit to the possibilities.)

III. The Response of His Followers (v.18)

Following Jesus authoritative and life changing call, we see the reaction of the disciples. Mark records that they immediately left their nets and followed Him. This isn’t just a word choice that Mark uses to move the narrative along, like at other points in this gospel. This word truly describes the on the spot reaction they gave.. Matthew records the exact same testimony of them.

Matthew 4:19–20 ESV

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

We talked about how Christ had such authority in His calling to the disciples. But we should also note something else about this calling, revealed in the response of His would be disciples. Mark’s account is helpful in it’s brevity… especially giving us the importance of immeditate, but to get an even greater appreciation for what took place, we should turn to Luke’s account for a moment and understand what all the were willing to set aside.

Luke 5:1–11 ESV

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

There’s alot of interesting facts in Luke detailed account to the most excellent Theophilus not contained in the other accounts.… things like Jesus preaching from Peter’s personally owned boat, details about going fishing during the middle of the day when it seemed odd to fish and then being instructed to go out to the deep waters where fishing with nets made far less sense (most fished in the shallow waters where fish gathered close to the surface). Details in this account of a massive haul of fish, and an appropriate response from Peter.

But here’s what I want us to think about. The desirous response

A. The Desirous Response

Luke 5:1-11

What this texts brings out that makes this decision all the more incredible is considering how much they had just left behind to follow Him.

Yes, they were leaving behind a modest wealth as we’ve stated already, but what we need to also consider is that they are leaving behind the catch of a lifetime. How heavy does a load of fish need to be to sink a fishing vessel in that time?

In 1986, a fishing boat, dated back to the time of Jesus was discovered off the shores of the sea of Galilee preserved in mud. It was carefully excavagated and brought to a museum in Israel. It’s called Sea of Galilea Boat or “Jesus” boat as some have called it.

It measures 8.2 meters long or about 27-28 feet long. Which makes alot of sense. Most boats entering Lake Michigan, that want to cross its broad waters need to be close to 30 feet. Anything less than 20-25 feet really struggle to stay upright and not gets tossed around like crazy. So this is a big vessel. Not only is it long, but it’s built to hold a lot of weight. Most experts agree that based upon the boat that was discovered and other data, these fishing boats could hold alittle over 1 ton of weight (over 2000 lbs). Typically fishing boats were crewed by 5 members and whatever fish they caught or the crew and about 10-12 additional people. So when we consider how much fish were caught this day, requiring two boats, its a catch that likely exceeded 3-4000 lbs. Easy the biggest catch they have ever received and likely the biggest catch ever recorded in that day.

This is the catch of a lifetime. The biggest payday they’ve ever received. This would have been MASSIVE for their missing business. Think of all the things they could have done with all that fish. Boat more boats, hired more servants, made better contracts, man they could have been set for life!!!!

But notice that none of that was was on Peter’s mind. What saturated His thoughts. Woah, he says. Who is this guy? He is greater than anything I ever seen! Who am I compared to such greatness. I am nothing. I am far worse.… a sinner, not worthy to be in His presence.

Why would Peter be enthralled with the “catch of year” when He is standing in the presence of the “master of the seas”.

And that’s the thing this, whole narrative tells us. Yes, it’s an authoritative call, but it’s a desirous call. Why would Peter and the others forsake all they had, leave behind their successful business and eagerly follow Jesus. Because Jesus revealed to them something far greater, something of far better value and wonder and amazement.

Application:

Why are we not willing to leave all to follow Jesus? Answer because we haven’t come to see the far greater worth of Christ. We haven’t read His Word enough nor stopped to consider His power and authority and might over all the universe. We are too busy scrambling around to fulfill the tasks on earth that seem valuable to us then to see the eternal value of Christ.

As we consider the craziness in our world’s eyes of what had just taken place, there is something else we must also consider when thinking thru the disciples response to leave all and follow Him.

Did the disciples really just drop everything after a quick visit with Jesus? Did they really just leave everything after just a single call?

Some have preached and taught that… and if that’s what we believe, there’s a good chance we will walk away quite discouraged in our disciple-making journey as well because what if others reject our initial invitation to follow Jesus. What if after a short time we don’t see a radical change, and a willingness to forsake old ways. What if they continue to seemingly stay stuck where they are at and nothing we do will move them. Is it time to give up because our initial efforts failed?

If the discipleship process is ALWAYS “immediately” then I think many of us would just walk away from it feeling worthless and confused. Wondering if we are the problem or if the process is broken.

But let’s look a little closer at the discipleship process of Jesus as this will inform us as we seek to make disciples in this world as well. Let’s now consider the timely response of Christ followers.

B. The Timely Response

John 1:35-45

Matthew and Mark’s accounts of the calling of the first disciples is almost identical. Luke’s gospel gives much more abundant detail of this particular event, but there’s one more gospel account that doesn’t seem to line up at with the other accounts. That’s the account of John. Turn with me now to John chapter 1 starting in verse 35. Before we read this portion of scripture, just take notice of what event immediately proceeded this one.… the questioning of John the Baptist by the priests and Levities sent from Jerusalem. Notice especially where this event took place. Let’s start in verse

John 1:28–29 ESV

These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

So where was Jesus? Bethany! That’s nowhere near Galilee but close the the dead sea but further south. Keep this in mind as we now look at verse 35.

John 1:35–45 ESV

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

So looking at this event, and the ones in Matthew, Mark, and Luke and say, man these events appear to be completely different events yet some of the headings of my Bibles in the gospel of John say that these was the calling of the first disciples. But why are they so different? Location is different, the people called are different, the occasion for their calling is different, so how do we explain this?

When it’s actually quite simple. These were different events. John’s account explains there initial call to follow Jesus as their Savior… their conversion to Christ if you will, while the other gospels give record of their call to follow Him in what we might in our terms today define as “full-time” ministry. That’s why they returned to fishing and Jesus would seek them out to follow Him into active and full time service. Many scholars believe this to be almost 12-18 later before Jesus would head to the sea of Galilee to call them to active service. By the way, Jesus call to discipleship for these men was in 3 phases. A call to confession and repentance, a call to discipleship, and a call to apostleship. Jesus had many, many disciples. But only 12 of those many disciples would be selected as His appointed apostles. We will see that event later in Mark. A call to conversion is always a call to discipleship and service. So we can’t read this and think, of we might get a call to conversion but we might not be called to discipleship like the disciples of Christ since they were a specially chosen 12. Nope are called to discipleship, but there may be a few that are called into certain roles in discipleship… apostles do not exist anymore but special roles of pastor and evangelist still exist, but all are called into discipleship and service. No one gets to just be a Christian without being also a servant and slave for Christ to use their gifts to grow Christ’s Kingdom through our witness and raise up others to become strong in their faith.

Application:

But here’s the main application from this thought. Discipleship is a process rather than single moment in time.

This doesn’t change the fact that they made a significant decision in a single moment of time, but it wasn’t an out of nowhere decision. It was a decision that was reinforced through many interactions with Jesus already. Read the first 4 or 5 chapters of John and see how much interaction Jesus had with these men before he called them on the sea of Galilee to forsake all and follow Him. They had much opportunity to grow and to process what all was taking place in their lives. It took faithfulness of Jesus part to continue to cultivate the seed of change in their lives so at the moment of the miraculous catch, it all clicked and now they were ready to make the next big step in their walk with Him.

Sometimes it may take us 12-18 months to see the next big step, sometimes it might take even longer. But we continue to faithful invest in those who will continue to build the Kingdom of God? Why, because this is the Jesus way! One soul at a time, through one more get together at a time.

I’ve met with so and so over 68 times for over 2 years.… it might just take one more. Keep faithful. Keep going. Keep teaching. Keep seeking Christ. Keep growing yourself. Keep meeting. Keep reaching and one of these days it will click. And you will see great reward for your labor.

This is the way of the King.

Application Thoughts:

-Submission to Christ as King is submission to radical change.

-Discipleship is a process rather than single moment in time.

Close with Wonderful Words of Life

Teach me faith and duty!