The Power of Jesus’ Call

16 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. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 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. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Introduction

Jesus abruptly appears by the Sea of Galilee and without warning calls unsuspecting fishermen to be disciples. Jesus is not going to be a lone prophet wandering in the desert but a leader, whose task as Messiah is to create a community of followers. Since Peter and Andrew cast nets from the shoreline, they are possibly too poor to own a boat while the Zebedees are more upscale, with a boat that can take them anywhere on the lake and hired hands to help with the labor.2Whatever their circumstances, these men show their repentance, their desire “to turn,” by dropping everything to heed Jesus’ call. Their repentance is more than just a matter of an internal transformation; they turn into something that they are not now, from fishermen to fishers of men.[1]

The Call

Why did they Follow Jesus?

Jesus preaches to the crowds, but the call to follow comes to individuals. Mark does not tell us why Jesus singled out Simon and Andrew and James and John as disciples or why they decided to respond instantly. The accounts of the calling of the first disciples in John and Luke make more sense to the modern reader, who typically wants some rational explanation for their behavior. In the Fourth Gospel, John the Baptist tips off the first disciples (John 1:35–37). In Luke, Jesus gives them a remarkable preview miracle (Luke 5:1–11).

Nothing in Mark’s narrative has prepared the reader to expect these fishermen to drop their nets and leave everything to follow Jesus.

How do they even know who he is?

Is there some psychological basis for their rapid response? Perhaps they were having bad times in the fishing business and were ready to make a career change. They had been longing for some time for the Messiah to come to relieve foreign oppression and to bring the new Jerusalem or whatever restoration they might have imagined. They had an itch for some kind of action and jumped at the chance to take the plunge and follow him. They had made a decision during one of his sermons to rededicate their lives.

But Mark provides no such explanations, and one is not allowed such psychological speculation. These men have witnessed nothing of Jesus’ powers and have no idea what his battle plans might be. They do not take a few days to mull over their decision, to ask their families’ permission, or to seek counsel from a panel of religious experts. To us it may seem an incredibly hasty decision to take off after someone who happens to pass by and abruptly beckons people to follow him. We know that something more must have happened—and we learn such details from Luke and John. They must have heard and believed his preaching that the kingdom of God had come. But Mark’s text presents us with a sudden call and a response that is just as sudden.

Explaining the Sudden Response

The only explanation for the sudden response of disciples is that Mark wants to underscore the force of Jesus’ call. It alone propels them to follow him. He chooses whom he wills, and his call comes like “a sharp military command” that produces obedience. His call, however, is much more than a dramatic summons. Lohmeyer concludes, “He commands as God commands.… He makes of the fisherman something new, that which he wills.”28

Psalm 33:9 “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm,” and provides the backdrop for understanding the response of these disciples. Like God, Jesus speaks, and it happens.

Jesus speaks, “Come, follow me!” and it creates obedience that compels people to follow and join his band.

Mark 1:16–18 (ESV)

“Follow Me”

What is striking is that Jesus calls them to “follow me.” Prophets did not call people to follow themselves but to follow God (compare 1 Kings 19:19–21). The sages of Jesus’ day never called people to follow them, only to learn Torah from them. Jesus’ call of the disciples is therefore dramatically authoritative and matches the biblical pattern of God’s calling of humans: a command with a promise, which is followed by obedience (see Gen. 12:1–4).3 The call so overpowers these disciples that their lives will never be the same again.[2]

Who is this who can create such immediate obedience?

The power of the one who sees persons long before they see him and calls as God calls is the only explanation why these disciples respond immediately as they do. and it may escape the notice of modern readers. This unit has a Christological dimension, and this first incident immediately raises the question: Who is this who can create such immediate obedience? The miracles that Mark records in this unit prompt a similar question: Who is this who can do these things? When interpreted from a biblical perspective, they reveal that Jesus, the bringer of the kingdom, has unique power as God’s Son and can overmaster demons, offer forgiveness of sins, and effect healing of disease. The powerful call of this one can still transform lives today.[3]

Jesus does not call them to be shepherds

Gathering in the lost sheep of the house of Israel, or to be laborers, bringing in the sheaves (Matt 9:36–38), but to be fishers.

Old Testament prophets used this metaphor for gathering people for judgment (Jer. 16:14–16; Ezek. 29:4; 47:10; Amos 4:2; Hab. 1:14–17), and One should not assume that Jesus uses fishing as a benign reference to mission. When the fisherman hooks a fish, it has fatal consequences for the fish;life cannot go on as before. This image fits the transforming power of God’s rule that brings judgment and death to the old, yet promises a new creation (see Rom. 6:1–11).

The summons to be fishers of men is a call to the eschatological task of gathering men in view of the forthcoming judgment of God. It extends the demand for repentance in Jesus’ preaching. Precisely because Jesus has come fishing becomes necessary. Between Ch. 1:15 and Ch. 1:17 there is a most intimate connection; fishing is the evidence of the fulfilment which Jesus proclaimed, the corollary of the in-breaking kingdom.

The disciples are called to be agents who will bring a compelling message to others that will change their lives beyond recognition. Jesus’ call has the same effect on them.[4]

Amos 4:2 (ESV)

2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

Jesus is Center Stage

In this significant moment as we again are being confronted with who Jesus is and how we will respond to Him, again Christ is center stage.

This is not so much the story of followers; this is the story of the Messiah, Jesus: His plan, His purpose, His authority, His power; Jesus is front and center. And the reason that has to be the way the story is told is that that is the core of what it means to be a disciple. The core of that is to recognize that what God does is He invades your life, and He places Himself at the center of all that is you. He becomes King! He is your Savior! He is your Messiah! He is your life! He is your hope! He is your peace! It’s Him! It’s Him! It’s Him! It’s Him! And Mark is ‘want’ to tell the story that way.

If you were going to write this little drama, it’s remarkable! These guys just got up and they left family; they left business. I have lots of questions. You would think that this story would be three or four pages of details, but Mark is confronting us with something: this is the Lord, and He has the right to enter the life of a person and say, “You follow me!” This is sovereign King Christ.

It's not about your kingdom working; it's about your invitation to participate in the work of a greater Kingdom, and even the way Mark tells the story is that.

This is the Lord; this is the Messiah; this is the Christ, and He has the right to enter people's lives and say, “I have a plan for you. You follow me.” Being a disciple is submitting to His authority. He has the authority to come into our lives and to call us to His purpose.

The immediate function of those called to be fishers of men is to accompany Jesus as witnesses to the proclamation of the nearness of the kingdom and the necessity for men to turn to God through radical repentance.

Their ultimate function will be to confront men with God’s decisive action, which to faith has the character of salvation, but to unbelief has the character of judgment. In specifically calling Simon and Andrew to be fishers, there is reflection upon the unpreparedness of the people for the critical moment which has come. In time the fishers will go where Jesus has not gone and they themselves will proclaim the message by which men are gathered. At this point, however, it is the eschatological urgency in Jesus’ mission which is expressed in the sudden call, and the immediate response of the fishermen who abandon their nets to follow Jesus.

The sons of Zebedee, James and John

Mark 1:19–20 (ESV)

19 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. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

On this same occasion Jesus saw the sons of Zebedee, James and John, in their boat preparing the nets for another night’s fishing. The terms in which they were called are not explicitly stated, but the intimate relationship of these two incidents indicates that they also are summoned to be fishers of men. The stress in Mark’s brief report falls upon the sovereign authority in Jesus’ call, and the radical obedience of James and John. So compelling is the claim of Jesus upon them that all prior claims lose their validity.103 Their father, the hired servants, the boat and the nets are left behind as they commit themselves in an exclusive sense to follow Jesus. The urgency in Jesus’ call and the radical obedience of the fishermen pose the question, “Who, then, is this who calls?” The use of the fisher image in proximity to Jesus’ proclamation summarized in Ch. 1:15 provides the answer; it is the eschatological Lord who calls. He summons men by an act of grace to serve as agents of the kingdom drawn near, who shall gather a people for judgment.

It anticipates the call of the Twelve in Ch. 3:13–19 and their subsequent mission in Ch. 6:7–13, 30, but looks beyond this point to the conclusion of the Gospel. Jesus affirms his relationship to those called in terms of a program for the future:

He will make them become fishers of men. What they will become depends upon their following him. The initial command to follow Jesus receives a final and dramatic extension in the concluding resurrection story. Mark implies that the promise to be made fishers of men finds its fulfilment in the meeting in Galilee promised in Ch. 16:7.[5]

The nature of Discipleship

Although we should surely say that the calling of these four men is unique; we can learn from this calling because Mark’s going to expand this subject of discipleship to all of the followers of Christ. And so he begins to introduce to us, in this moment, this theme of, What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? What is that actually about? And I want to just mention three things, and then we will be done.

1. Submission to His authority. One of the transactions that takes place in the heart of a person coming to Christ, one of the things you let go of, one of the things that you ask forgiveness for, is you let go of your authority over your life. You ask for forgiveness for your godlike intentions, and you submit yourself to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you understand from this radical picture here, There is no such thing in the New Testament as part-time discipleship. You are either living under the authority of Christ, or you're setting yourself up as your own authority, because that submission to the authority of Christ is not first a set of words or a set of actions; its first a surrender of my heart.

Isaiah 29:13–14 (ESV) And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, 14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

And it is the very surrender that was absent in God's people in the Old Testament that angered God so. “I don't want just a piece of the religious dimension of your life. I don't want that. That's actually an abomination to me. I want your heart.” It's the thing that Christ goes after in the Pharisees, the shocking externalism of their religiosity that wasn’t a surrender of hearts to God. And because of that, these men, who were the religious leaders of their day, were unable to recognize the Messiah. And so God wants the surrender of our hearts, that we give the thoughts and the motives, the deepest desires, the deepest purposes, the deepest cravings, the deepest motivations of our hearts to Him. And we confess and forsake the rulership that we have wanted over our own lives. Discipleship means submission to His authority.

2. Obedience to His call. That not only in all ways am I recognizing now that I'm under a new authority, but I submit to that call that this God of authority makes in my life; His call in my thought life, His call in my marriage, His call in my friendships, His call in every dimension of my life. My answer is not what would make me happy, but what has the Messiah called me to do in this domain of my life? Following Him means that His will, His plan, His authority, becomes the thing that sets the agenda, the pathway, the motivation of my life.

The emphasis is not on the tough things that these guys are going through. Jesus doesn't say, “Follow me, and I'll heal all your hurts. Follow me; just give me this seed response, and there will be wealth to follow for you. Follow me and there's the good life.”

3. Entrusted with His mission to people

That’s an amazing thing to think about. We know some things about these guys. If you were the Messiah and you were going to pick your first four followers, I would wonder if you would have picked these guys. Think of the story of Simon Peter. Think where that story went. Think that James and John were more concerned about who was going to be greatest in the Kingdom than they were about the work of the Kingdom. Now this is remarkable that

God calls people in need of grace to be tools of transforming grace! That's the wonder of the mission--that God calls broken people to be instruments of healing. God calls people still in need of redemption to be His tools of redemption.

The wonder of grace is not just what grace is able to do, but part of the wonder of Grace is whom grace employs to do its work. And again, does that not put Christ at center-stage? These men are not called because of who they are. They're called because of who Christ is - that’s the Gospel.

Conclusion

Discipleship means allegiance to His mission. I’ve said it already that the Zeal of Christ is “…to seek and to save those who are lost.” He is Redeemer; that is the zeal of His heart, and that should be our zeal as well. That somehow, some way, we could be part of His redemptive agenda. We don't see ourselves again as just containers, sponges of grace. But we joyfully become conduits of that grace to others. We long to be the light of the world; we long to be the salt of the earth; we long to be the look on His face, the tone of His voice, the touch of His hand; we long to incarnate His love; we long to speak of His grace. We don't get tired of telling the ‘old, old story.’ You can't look at what it means to be a disciple, submission to Christ's authority, obedience to His call, allegiance to His mission, without saying, “

The call to follow Christ is way too high. The call drives you to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ to say, “Only by Your forgiveness, only by Your power, only by Your presence and Your provision. that catalog of gifts of grace that was purchased as You stood in my place and took my punishment, only by that grace will I ever be Your disciple.

I cast myself on Your grace. I find my hope in Your cross, and I long to be Your disciple; I long to live as one who submits to Your authority, who is obedient to Your call, and has deep allegiance to Your mission. I want to end by a quote from John Owen on his work on sin and temptation. It's a quote about our affections.

Where are your affections this morning? What has your heart? What brings you joy? What claims your desires and your thoughts? Is it King Christ and His mission? Is it the love of the story of His cross and a desire to bring that story to people who don't know it? Owen says, “When someone sets his affections on the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ, and you will find no room for sin.” May God help us by His grace to be His disciples, crucified Christ in the center, gladly pursuing His mission.

2 So Waetjen, A Reordering of Power, 78. [1]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (p. 69). Zondervan Publishing House. 28 Ernst Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des Markus (MeyerK; 2 Aufl.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963), 32. 3 Gundry, Mark, 70. [2]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 69–70). Zondervan Publishing House. [3]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 78–79). Zondervan Publishing House. [4]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (p. 69). Zondervan Publishing House. 102 Mark’s term means properly to put in order, or to make ready, and so includes cleansing, mending and folding the nets in preparation for the next evening’s fishing in the deeper waters. Presumably the heavier drag nets are in view, on which see F. Dunkel, op. cit., pp. 377–380. 103 Cf. E. Lohmeyer, op. cit., p. 32: “He commands as God commands … He makes of the fishermen something new, that which he wills.” Lohmeyer likens the words of Jesus to the compelling nature of “a sharp military command” which made possible only one response: obedience. See further K. L. Schmidt, TWNT III (1938), pp. 489 f. [5]Lane, W. L. (1974). The Gospel of Mark (pp. 68–70). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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