If you would take a copy of God’s Word this morning and we are going to turn open to the gospel of Mark, Mark chapter 1. This morning we are going to look at verses 16 through 19 in Mark chapter 1. It’s there in your pew Bible on page 836 if you just want to turn in your pew Bible.
Let me thank you for having me this weekend. First Pres holds a dear place in my heart. You’ve ministered to me for over 20 years as I have attended Twin Lakes Fellowship and the way that you give as a church and support works all around the world. As I often tell people, from a human perspective, Twin Lakes Fellowship, which is a gathering of ministers that you help to support here in Jackson each year, from a human perspective, what has kept me in the ministry has been that fellowship and gathering together with those men. Ligon and Derek have been mentors, and David is one of my best friends in the world, and you have treated them well and I thank you for that. It is a delight to be with you as we turn to God’s Word this morning. Let me pray before we read and hear God’s Word.
Our Father, we thank You for Your exceeding kindness to sinners such as us, that You would reveal Yourself to us by Your holy, inerrant Word, and through the person of Your Son and by the power of Your Spirit. We pray that even as the Word is read this morning, that You would search us, that You would know us, and that we would know that we have heard an authoritative word from heaven. Stir us, we pray, by the power of Your Spirit. In Christ’s holy name, amen.
Mark chapter 1, verses 16 through 20. This is the holy, inerrant, sufficient Word of God:
“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.”
For the grass withers and the flower fades; the Word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.
I want to encourage you this morning to continue in what you already do as a congregation and maybe challenge us as well a little bit from this passage from Mark chapter 1. It begins, Mark says, that they are on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and the sea goes by different names in the Scriptures. You will see it as Lake Gennesaret or the Sea of Tiberia, Sea of Galilee. It was a lake that was teeming with fish at the time and there was quite a fishing industry that was on the shores of this lake. And it is there that Jesus sees Simon and that He sees his brother, Andrew, verse 16. And then verse 19, going a little farther, seeing James and John, He “called them.” And then verse 17, and the call was, “Follow Me.”
Three points this morning. The first is this, it’s that Jesus calls. “Follow Me,” He says. Just two words. A command, an imperative – follow. And the direct object – Me. Jesus’ call to these men was not to an idea. It was not to a morality. It was not to a program. It was not to a thought. It was not to an experiment. It’s to Himself, to His person. He says, “Come, follow Me.” You are a lot of church people in here, and so you have heard that a lot. It doesn’t sound very strange to your ears. But to Jewish ears at this time it would have been very strange. Rabbis didn’t go around calling people to themselves. In fact, it would have often, I think to their ears hearing this, it would have been something that would have been even offensive. It was God alone people were to follow. Deuteronomy 13:4, “You shall walk after God, the Lord your God, and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice. And you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.” This is a unique call that Jesus offers.
And this call of discipleship to Jesus that Andrew and Peter and that James and John yielded to in this text is not something that was, I think, just for them. It is for them, clearly it is part of their apostolic call, but rightly you have heard it over and over because it’s applicable to all of the disciples of Jesus. Jesus will echo these very words when He says later in the gospel that you are to “pick up your cross” and you are to follow Him. Their lives are to be oriented to Jesus. “Follow Me,” He says.
Why would they follow Jesus? In a very similar passage in Matthew 11, one of the first passages that ever struck me as an unbeliever, was what Jesus says there in Matthew 11. He says, “Come to Me, come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and I am lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” What’s He doing there? He’s laying out His character. “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” And then He gives a promise. “You will find rest for your souls.” No doubt they are allured by His character. They’ve surely seen Him before this day and they have heard Him teach before this day and they have been lured to the man. When they chose to follow Christ upon His call to them, they didn’t yield to Christ reluctantly. This is a happy yielding. It’s a happy following. And I know this because this is always the case. When Christ comes to us, when He calls the sinner to Himself, when we hear Christ, when we see Him for the very first time in His beauty, we come. And it’s a happy yielding. It’s a willingness that we come to Him with.
Think of how the apostle Paul speaks of himself. Romans 1:1, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.” He is not grousing; he’s delighting. Galatians 2:20, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ.” It’s all Christ. He says to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6:19, “You are not your own.” Why? “Because you were bought with a price.” When you follow Christ, you do so because He calls you to Himself, and when He calls you to Himself, you will Him, and when you see Him, you see His beauty and you come willingly. And that changes everything. It changes everything. Your life is now oriented to Him because you’ve seen Him.
A number of years ago when my daughter was probably seven years old – she’s nineteen now – there was a full lunar eclipse that was going to happen, and she was a buddy astronomer at the time and was ecstatic. And so for weeks we talked about that upcoming event. She discussed what it would look like, where it would be in the sky, at what time it would hit its zenith, and what we needed to do to make sure that we captured that moment. She decided that she would lay out all kinds of things the night before and we would be ready. And she told me, “Dad, you have to wake me up at this very early time in the wee hours of the morning so that we can see it at the zenith.” And finally the day came and she laid out all of her colored pens at the foot of the stairs, she had a journal there at the foot of the stairs, she hung her binoculars on the railing of the stairs, she had a coat – because we live in Michigan – she had a coat laying there at the bottom of the stairs with her shoes. And then she reminded me before we went to bed, “Dad, this is the time, very early in the morning, that you have to wake me up.”
And so my alarm went off, very, very early in the morning. I got out of bed, I went upstairs, I woke her up, and she leapt out of bed, she ran down the stairs, she threw on her coat over her pajamas, I threw on my coat, she put on her shoes, she grabbed all of these things she had laid out and we went out in front of our house and we stood on the driveway. We were there to capture this astronomical phenomenon, this event in history. And I’ll never forget, she and I looked up at the moon and I looked down at her to capture this moment, and I watched her look up at the moon and then she looked over at me, she looked back up at the moon, she looked back over at me, and then she looked back up at the moon and she looked at me and she said, “Daddy, this does not change my life one bit.” When you see Christ in all of His beauty, it changes everything. Everything. “Follow Me.”
They followed Him immediately. Mark tells us that Jesus comes upon Simon and Andrew as they were casting their nets in the sea, they’ve thrown it in and Jesus says, “Follow Me.” And Mark says, “Immediately they left their nets.” No hesitation. You’re meant to understand that they left their nets right there in the lake where they were. They were fishermen. What if they drift away? What if someone comes along and steals them? These are their livelihood. Nets are expensive. Someone might take them. “They immediately,” he says, “left their nets.” They received the call of Christ and that matters more than anything else. And that doesn’t always make sense in the eyes of the world, but once you have seen Christ and you hear His call upon your life, you follow immediately. And some of you in this room this morning are hearing Christ for the first time, because He says it as much to you as He said it to Simon and Andrew and John and James. He says to you, “Follow Me.”
Maybe you’re starting to do the calculations. It doesn’t make worldly sense. Well, the sons of Zebedee are described in verse 19 as “mending their nets” out on their boat. These were bigger nets than those being used by Andrew and Peter; nets that required not only a boat but multiple people to wield them in and to bring them in. In fact, we are told in verse 20 that they had hired servants to help them. This was no small operation. If there was a plaque on the outside of that fishing shack, it probably would have said something like, “Zebedee and Sons Incorporated.” This is a big deal. And yet, when these sons of Zebedee heard the call, having seen Christ, they left their nets, they left their business, they left their father and they followed Jesus. When He calls, you follow. And there’s nothing wrong with nets, and there’s surely nothing wrong with fathers, but nothing is to hold us back from Christ. It costs to follow Jesus. And anything you give to or for Christ is not lost. It’s never lost. Maybe we have to leave our nets, maybe we do not have to leave our nets, but we do have to be willing to leave our nets. Jesus calls.
Second, Jesus calls common men and He calls common women. Notice He did not choose to call the prominent. He did not call the prestigious here. He did not call the powerful. And this tends to be His way. Jacob was the second born. David was a ruddy little boy. Simon and Peter and John and James, they are fishermen. And you may think this morning, “Well, I’m not very bright. I’m not very talented. I’m not very gifted.” Jesus wouldn’t call me. He calls common men and He calls common women. I think every disciple of Christ has to be at a point where you say, “Why me?” I often think of that Isaac Watts hymn, “How Sweet and Awful is the Place.” Those two verses, “While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cry with thankful tongues, ‘Lord, why was I a guest?’” Or that next line that I have trouble singing without my eyes filling with tears, “Why was I made to hear Thy voice and enter while there’s room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?” He calls common men. He calls common women. Don’t you understand? It’s not what you are or what you have or what you give. It’s all of grace.
It’s fascinating, in Acts 4, when Peter and John, after Christ is ascended to the right hand of the Father and they are dragged before that Jerusalem religious council, Luke says the response was “Now when they saw” – meaning the religious council – “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.” And then this wonderful line, “And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Common men, common men that had been with Jesus.
Which leads to our final point. He calls, He calls common men and He calls common women and He calls common men and common women to an uncommon mission. When we are called to Jesus, we are called to the work of Jesus. The Father covenanted with the Son that He would send the Son into the world. You have heard it this morning, you have sung it this morning – that He would come into the world and that He would live a righteous life for sinners, that He would die an atoning death on the cross for sinners. The Son Himself says, “I came, I came into the world to seek and to save the lost.” This is His mission. And He says to His disciples, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” When we are called to Christ, we are called to the mission of Christ, the work of Christ. We are on mission. They are to be fishers of men. It isn’t simply a cute little turn of phrase. You say, “Oh, how creative Jesus is. They’re fishermen, and He says, ‘I’ll make you fishers of men.’” There’s much more there than that.
The context for this passage makes it starkly clear. The context is that the kingdom of God has broken into this world in the person of the King, Jesus. If you look back at verses 14 and 15, He says, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.” And fishers of men, it has an Old Testament history. It is God who is often the Fisher of men. And the scene in which God is a Fisher of men is often a scene of judgment. So Ezekiel 29, verses 1 through 6, God speaks against Egypt and says He will put hooks in their jaws and casts them into the wilderness with all the fish of their streams. And then He closes by saying that, “All the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord.” In Ezekiel 38 verse 4, a prophecy against enemies, God says this, “And I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws and I will bring you out.” And then we are told of the judgment. And it closes with, “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” Or in Habakkuk chapter 1, verses 14 through 17, all mankind is referred to fish, and what follows is the famous Habakkuk 2:14 – “For the earth will be filled with all the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” God is the Fisher, the scene is judgment for sinners who have rebelled against the Lord of all, and the result is that all will know that He indeed is Lord.
Mark 1 is making it clear – judgment is coming. Why? Because the kingdom has broken into this world. How has the kingdom broken into this world? Because the King of kings has come into the world. Judgment is just over the horizon. Ahhh, but this King that comes into the world and will sit as Judge is also the Savior of sinners who will live for them and die for them and will say, “Come to Me.” So you get that verse 15 there, the great charge and response to that good news, “Repent and believe.” He’s on mission. And when we come, we also come to His mission. “I will make you fishers of men.” Would it be about the work of our King? Time is short. The kingdom has come and it’s coming. In part, this is why their response to the call is immediate. It’s for their sake, and it’s also for the sake of those that they are to be fishers of men for. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus calls common men and common women to an uncommon mission.
A few applications. First, would you count this not as a weight – “Ahh, what a weight!” No, it’s a privilege. What a privilege to participate in this mission. The Lord grants His disciples this privilege of laboring for that which eternally matters. I was reading a book recently about Ulysses S. Grant. It was a fascinating read and I read about all these great political bosses during the late 1800s, men that were household names, men that were just as important as the President of the United States at the time because they controlled all things. And yet no one in this room would know their names. Boss Clocks, Richard Croker, Hugh McLaughlin – they loomed so large. It’s hard to believe, after a news event like this week, but in 250 years, it will be the rare historian that knows the name, “Zelenskyy, Putin, Trump.” They fade. It’s only one name that endures eternally, and that’s a name worth expending yourself for. And it’s not my name; it’s not your name. It’s not even the name of First Presbyterian Church. It’s not the name of the fraternity or the fraternal order or whatever else, your business. It’s only one name. And we have been given the honor of laboring for that which eternally matters. That’s your life worth. Things of eternal weightiness. What you do today matters for eternity.
Second, our time to labor for this is so short. I have this picture above my desk. It’s a picture my wife took twenty-five years ago when I was in seminary. We were out one day, this was before cell phones and I just bought her a new SLR camera for her birthday. And so she had it and we took an afternoon and we went all around Dallas, Texas where I was at seminary and let her just take pictures all day. And she took this picture of this steeple – I think it was Highland Park Baptist Church – this steeple that rises in the sky, and on that steeple there is a clock. And I had her zoom in on that clock. And that clock sits, a picture of it, sits above my study desk at home. The big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is just past the 4. But what I love is the words that are in bold, black letters right underneath the face. It says, “Night cometh.” “Night cometh.” It reminds me when I sit at my desk each day when I can, “Uhhh, the days are evil, Jason.” I can waste them. I only have so long, so long to labor for His name. I don’t know how many days I have until the Lord takes me home or He returns. Follow Him. Follow Me.
Third, I want to challenge each of us to be willing to follow wherever Jesus leads. There are lost souls throughout the world, some that have never heard the name of Christ. They have never had Him laid out before them in all of His beauty. They have never heard that call that He utters, “Follow Me.” You’ve sung it this morning, “How are they to hear unless they are preached to? And how can there be preaching unless there are feet that deliver that good news that have been sent?” The church has to go out, and that requires that some Christians go out. Andrew and Peter and James and John, they go out. They don’t stray far. The call of discipleship doesn’t mean for most of us that we are going to the ends of the earth. But all should be willing.
There’s a couple in our church that retired in their late 60s, early 70s last year, and they looked at retirement, they said, “What are we going to do?” And they said, “Well, let’s be missionaries.” Now they’re not going to learn a foreign language; they don’t feel like they have the time for that, so they didn’t go to Scotland, David! They chose Ireland! And they’re in Ireland! And they’re spending their years as missionaries there. Are you and I willing to go? If I can be so bold, I don’t think that’s a question you just answer once and you move on. I think we have to keep returning to it and say, “Lord, I’m willing if You want to send me.” He says, “Follow Me.” “Well I’m pretty settled in life.” So was John, so was James, so was Andrew, so was Peter. “But I have a family.” So did John, so did James. We find out Peter had a wife. “I have a business and a home.” So did John, so did James. “As a disciple, I am not my own.” “Follow Me.” It doesn’t just end at conversion. It’s a lifelong pursuit wherever He leads. That’s discipleship. He leads. We follow. He may not lead anywhere beyond Jackson, Mississippi. It’s a fine lane. Wherever you’re at, remember to live as those who are called to Christ, working Christ’s work, engaged in Christ’s mission. If you’ve been called to Christ, you’ve been called to the mission of Christ. So we support foreign missions by sending out people with our money and our resources and our time. But I want to encourage you to aim a little higher than that, give more than that 1-point whatever million, but aim higher.
Mothers, would you be willing to raise your children to go out? Fathers, to teach your children that their lives are not their own? To pray with them to this end? What if instead of it being an anomaly that one of our covenant children was a missionary it became a regular occurrence? What if 5% of the children of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, 5% in University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, 5% of our children went to the foreign mission field? How would that impact people? I was recently reading about Princeton Seminary during its faithful orthodox days. And at its peak, 1 out of every 3 graduates went to the foreign mission field. How did that happen? It just became part of their culture. It became part of what they prayed about. It became part of their conversations. It became part of their aim. They labored for it. They encouraged each other to that end. The mission of Christ was always before them. What if First Presbyterian Church so lived on mission as a congregation here in Jackson, Mississippi that it not only impacted this community but it became the habit, it became a regular occurrence that your best you were sending to the ends of the earth? What if that was just part of the culture of my church and your church? I want to live with an air about us that we are on mission together for the name of Christ to see perishing souls brought from darkness to light, to see them saved from judgment, forever hid under the shadow of Christ’s wing, to gaze upon His beauty all the days of their life.
One of the most encouraging things to me going on at my church right now that I serve is something I have nothing to do with. We are on the edge of Michigan State University’s campus where there are 55,000 students. There are a group of older women in our congregation in their 70s and 80s, there are a couple of young ones in there in their mid-60s, and they decided that as a group that they weren’t living on mission enough and that they were afraid of doing certain things. And so they challenged each other and they said, “Let’s start going on campus and evangelizing.” So they do this every week. These grandmas go on campus, they set up a table, they put a sign on the front of the table that says, “Would you like prayer?” and then sometimes they have cookies on the table! And who doesn’t want a prayer and a hug and cookies from grandma? And they do this for hours each week.
It challenges me. It challenges our congregation. Their evangelism matters, but maybe even more importantly is the culture they are helping to encourage in our congregation and in my heart and in the hearts of the people that are rubbing shoulders with them. I stopped one of them a few weeks ago and asked how it was going and she said, “Pastor, it’s become the highlight of my week.” Because it’s a privilege. What a privilege to labor for that which eternally matters. He gives us good gifts and this is one of them. Be a church on mission. Continue to be a church on mission, First Pres.
Let’s pray together. Our Father, we are thankful for Your abounding grace to sinners. We are thankful that Your Son was willing to come into this world to live and to die for people such as us. And we thank You for the great privilege that we have to labor for His kingdom, for the lost, for Your glory, that Your name might be renowned throughout the world. For we say, “You are worthy, You are so very worthy.” May we follow the lead of Your Son. May He always be before the eyes of our hearts until that day that our faith becomes sight and we gaze upon Him face to face forevermore. May you add more to our number we pray, here in Jackson and to the very ends of the earth. In Christ’s holy name, amen.