"One Call" Mark 1:16-20

Following the call of Jesus requires us to exchange what is familiar for what is faithful.

Introductory Comments: Happy Labor Day weekend!

According to the History Channel: “Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day weekend also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, cookouts or family reunions”

When you meet someone, almost everyone will ask the same two questions “what’s your name”— and next: “What do you do?” or “what is your job”. We, especially in our western culture, we define a lot about ourselves based on our occupations— our vocations. What we do everyday for a living. We can sometimes be swayed away from our God-given identity, who we believe we are, by our commitment to our work. Our culture sets us up to pour ourselves into our work. And unfortunately that isn’t working out for us.

83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress. US businesses lose up to $300 billion yearly as a result of workplace stress. Stress causes around one million workers to miss work every day. Sep 25, 2019 Gallup

Is there another way to find meaning and purpose in this life? Is there a calling that “supersedes” the cultural default to find our worth in a job alone? I’m here to tell you today that the answer is a resounding “Yes”. Not only is there a higher and more Godly perspective on our identity, our security, and our true purpose, but there is ONE Call, to Follow Jesus, and if you will answer that call, and follow him with all your heart--- that simply changes EVERYTHING.

Today we will look closer at the response that four of Jesus’s first disciples, VERY important men, as they heard the Saviors “call”, and literally dropped everything to follow Him.

Mark 1:16-20 “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.”

#1 Jesus calls us to exchange our old identity for a new one he gives us.

Simon and Andrew are brothers. They live around the Sea of Galilee and every day they go about their daily lives of jumping into a fishing boat, sailing out into the deep waters of the lake, cast nets into the water, and hope that when they draw those nets back up into their boats that they are filled with fish. It’s a living and one that probably brings them enough to live on and help feed the village in which they live. They had likely inherited the family business and carried it on. So, when Jesus calls out to them, invites them to be in relationship and follow him, they are giving up a considerable amount. Now, we know for certain that Simon was married and probably had a family to support. Can you imagine leaving your family and giving up what you have known, to follow a man you might have just met only a few days or weeks before?

Peter and Andrew knew fishing. They knew everything about how to catch fish. When to go, what bait to use, how to execute the catch, how to process and preserve the fish, sell them, and make a living everyday working this trade. It probably had become who they “were”. Jesus takes who we are, he created us you know… And he gives us a new identity “in Him”. Come follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men. Jesus says “I can take who I’ve made you to be, your body, your mind, emotions, everything about you, and I can use it to build my Kingdom.”

Jesus states that he will make them “fishers of men”.

Note verse 17, Jesus states that he will make them become “fishers of men”. It’s a beautiful way that Jesus can take who we are and create in us a new purpose and identity. (SHOW NET)

Let me take some liberty with the passage here: Jesus is saying “Let me use the skills, knowledge, experience, wisdom — the attitude, the personality that I have created you to be--that you have developed fishing for these, and if you follow me, I will use all of that to “gather” men for my kingdom.

Have you experienced that in your life? Here’s a little background on me: as you may know I was involved in sports my whole life. My earliest memories at even 5 years old involved various sports. I grew up on fields, in practices, around locker rooms, coaches, and competition— all the way through college I was immersed in a culture of training, discipline, victories and defeats. At a very powerful point in my college years, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit challenged me to consider what it would look like if “Jesus was a decathlete”? How would he act, train, how would he compete, how would he treat his coaches, teammates, opponents, the officials, the fans? In essence Jesus asked me to follow him— and he would make me an athlete, and then a coach for his Kingdom. Now as in many ways, he has brought us together— and pastoring for me will find its roots in that same type of question: What would it look like if Jesus were the pastor of WC? I’m taking all my years of experience as a participant and a coach in athletics, and continuing to apply it to being a pastor, and “coach” and partner a “Teammate” with you in this thing we call “life”. God is using my earlier experience to shape how I lead and teach today.

How about for Peter, Andrew, James, and John? Did that really happen for these men? Let’s look at Peter’s story: Let’s fast-forward about 3 years or so---He becomes one of the most prolific evangelists (fishers of men!) and very first church leaders!

Acts 2:14 ESV

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.

Acts 2:40–41 ESV

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Jesus knows who you are, and he wants you to follow him. In saying “yes” to him, you will exchange your old purpose and identity for a new life in Him!

#2 Jesus asks us to exchange our old security for a new one he provides.

VV. 19 The second set of brothers, James and John, appear also to have very common ordinary lives. They are also fishermen and do much the same things that Simon and Andrew do each day. The main difference is that we know that James and John’s father is still alive and has a large enough fishing business to hire additional men to help fish. So, this means that when their father dies, James and John will too inherit a family business. For them, it might even be a larger business than Simon and Andrew. So, as Jesus journeys along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and invites James and John to join him, they too are leaving a prosperous business but they are also walking away from their future prosperity as well.

Think of the uncertainty that these men must have considered. We don’t read specifically that they hesitated or needed any time to think about the commitment. It appears as though they simply dropped their nets and followed Jesus right at that moment.

They were challenged to leave everything they knew, their homes and their future security. Yes, it was certainly a challenge. Imagine doing that in your own life. Would you be able, let alone willing, to just give up “everything” and follow someone that you might have only heard about or perhaps had just a chance meeting with?

Put yourself into their position for a moment. What do we find our security in today?

Today, we often find our security in several different areas:

Family

Work

Finances

Friends

Our competencies

Our service to the church

A big part of their decision to follow Him involved a conclusion that Jesus was trustworthy to provide for them. They needed to make a conclusion on who the “Me” was in his invitation— “Follow ME”.

How about you, do you think we can really trust Jesus to provide what we need?

Consider what Jesus taught later in the gospel story:

Luke 12:22–24 ESV

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

Luke 12:30–34 ESV

For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Jesus knows what you need, and he wants you to trust him. In saying “yes” to him, you will exchange your old security for a new peace in Him!

#3 Jesus wants us to exchange what we love most for what HE loves most.

Note in verse 20, James and John specifically are leaving their father, probably a mother and perhaps other family members. This is extremely difficult to imagine.

Luke 14:26 ESV

“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.

Jesus knows how deep the conflict can be. These men left everything they knew, everything they loved to follow Jesus. You and I too will be challenged to place what Jesus loves above what we love. But I can assure you that Jesus also has a plan for us.

Mark 10:29–30 ESV

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

One of my favorite quotes is from Jim Elliot. Jim was one of five missionaries killed by the very people of Ecuador that they were trying to share the Gospel with. It’s a heartbreaking story— but before he died in reflecting why he would leave a wife and children behind to share with an unreached people group in the jungle, Elliot said:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” - Jim Elliot

In these first four disciples, Jesus was creating a whole new thing in the world. He was inviting ordinary people into relationship with him and with one another. Aside from these 4 men, none of the others were related or had any knowledge of the other disciples. Yet, all 12 of them formed a community because they believed that Jesus was doing something. And, Jesus has not done anything spectacular yet, and still they believed that he would and so they answered the call to follow. And follow they did, even after their friend died on the cross for them.

They truly became fishers of people because without their commitment to Jesus, none of us would be here now.

They accomplished something spectacular with Jesus.

They created a community out of nothing and it grew to be the family of God. We are part of that family because we trust and believe today. The call of Christ to these men calls across generations into our lives today.

The call can be heard if we open our hearts and ears to hear it. The call is one that we can carry into the future. Can you just imagine what would happen to our family of faith if we asked one simple question:

What would it look like if Jesus were in my position:

In your family?

In your occupation?

In your finances?

In your friendships?

In your competencies?

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let’s consider our call to follow Jesus. To love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How might he change our world through us this week?