Mark 1:14-20 E3B 1/25/09 Hope Lutheran, Plainwell
Pr. Dale B. Krueger
One Leader and Many Followers
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the gospel.” 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen.17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
Fifty-six years ago, in 1953, I was in my second semester at the seminary. The pastor of my home congregation, Trinity Lutheran in Faribault, Minnesota invited me to preach my first sermon on Easter Sunday, at all three services, one of which was broadcast over the radio. Imagine that, he asked me to preach the Gospel on the highest Sunday of the Church Year. Among the thousand people at worship that day were my father and my mother, my sisters and brother, uncles and aunts, cousins, the kids I went to school with and their parents, our teachers, the guys I had played basketball and softball with, the people for whom I was the paper boy. It was like I was a 21 year old rookie preacher send to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded. Dear Pr. Lemke must have had confidence that I wouldn’t strike out.
I don’t claim to have a direct line to the Holy Spirit. But sometimes I look back and say, “Oh, it was You God behind all that.” You wanted all those people to affirm that You had called me to preach the Gospel as a pastor in your church. And so that is what I have been doing for the past 56 years, and that is what I have come to do in your midst.
You may think that my being in your midst is certainly temporary. Yes it is! At this point you have rented me to the end of February. But all pastors are temporary, whether they be senior pastors, associate pastors, assistant pastors, assistant to the pastor pastors, emeriti pastors, supply pastors, guest pastors, campus pastors, visitation pastors, vacancy pastors, intentional interim pastors. All these pastors are temporary. There is only one permanent pastor, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. I am a very temporary pastor in your midst pointing to Him as I proclaim the Gospel of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.
A father was filling out an application form for his daughter who was seeking entrance to a very exclusive college. He came to the question on the form which asked whether the applicant was a leader. In honesty he wrote, "No, but she is a good follower." The application was sent in and a month later a letter arrived notifying him that his daughter had been accepted. At the bottom of the page the dean had written, "Since the entering class of 500 has 499 leaders, we thought that there ought to be room for one follower."
Unlike the entering class of that college, every congregation has just one leader. JESUS CHRIST is our leader, and we have come together this morning to hear Him encourage and strengthen us in the task that He calls us to do as a congregation. He speaks to us in the Word and says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the gospel.” “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” You are a fellowship of people who are following Jesus on His mission of bringing the Gospel to people.
The first words of His ministry were “The time is fulfilled”. Into the world that He created, God placed the human being. Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with God and nature and each other and within themselves. We were there in Adam and Eve. But then, we decided that we could do better on our own and the result was disharmony. But God had a plan. He would restore the human being to himself again at the right time. Paul wrote, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Galatians 4:4-5)
Jesus announces that the time has come for God to fulfill his plan. “The kingdom of God has come near.” The Kingdom of God is the Spirit of God working in the hearts of people to restore them to Himself. Jesus came to love us, to forgive us and to carry us in himself beyond our sin and into a new life. Our sin is no longer ours to bear because Jesus has bore it in his body on the cross and in his resurrection God declares we are all forgiven for Christ’s sake. He suffered and died on the cross in our stead. But on the third day the Father raised him from the dead in victory and the good news is that Jesus shares His victory with us. God has come in Jesus to save us, to redeem us, to rescue us, to forgive us and to give us a sure hope for the present and for the future. The Gospel is that God has forgiven you through the work of Jesus Christ.
Therefore Jesus says to us, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” To repent is to get a new attitude, a new mind. That can’t happen by the strength of our will or by any power within. After all, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But the Spirit of God coming through the proclamation of the Gospel overwhelms us. It is not that we have somehow accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, but that God in Jesus has accepted us and made us His dear children and brought us into His family. It is all by grace. That is the Gospel and for many of us that grace was given to us in the waters of Baptism.
16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen.17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
The reason you exist as a congregation is follow Jesus and bring people under the influence of the love of God and into the fellowship of Christ`s Church. But, as I said last Sunday. “Many, I am afraid, think that being a Christian is primarily just a personal individual thing, like something that will benefit me. Even a church can be a very selfish venture if it is meant only to enhance the members. A congregation is not a religious club run for the benefit of the members.” Hope Lutheran Church in Plainwell exists for the sake of those who are not its members. That you may agree with what I have just said with all your hearts and minds, doesn’t mean you are done. You need to live it out on a daily basis. The need to rethink your purpose and mission is a never ending task. We can forget or we can tend to drift into aimlessness, just keeping the machinery functioning. Or we can get caught up in details, or just in getting ready to get started on our purpose.
Next Sunday organized football brings us the Superbowl. Think of how many people are involved? There are offensive and defensive players; lineman, ends, centers, quarterbacks, substitutes; there are coaches and managers, and water boys, and trainers, and front office people, and owners; grounds keepers, and electricians, and people who prepare food and sell it; and many others...all involved in bringing that game to people. We could call that "organized football" couldn’t we?
When we talk about evangelism, we need to think of ourselves as a team working together for the purpose of bringing the Gospel to people. A coach helps make a plan and demonstrates how to carry out that plan. A pastor is to be about the task of training you for your Mission. Each member is to have some task in the overall mission and ministry of our church. Not everybody can be a quarterback, or lineman, or a full back, but each one of you must see yourselves as part of God’s team. One of the older members lamented to me last Sunday that she is simply unable to work as she once was able. My response to her was that she now has moved to the most important back up team. She can take the church directory and pray over and for each and every member and for whomever might be the temporary pastor at the moment.
We will be involved in studying the Word, discovering our gifts, caring for one another, being hospitable to all, and sharing in the nurturing food of the Gospel and Sacraments. We are God`s team following Jesus who says to us, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
Edward Perry wrote an article entitled, "Where are the People?" It is a summary of his findings on why churches lose or gain members. He concluded that the “key is how people do or do not nurture and support each other in the local congregation”. He says, “We discovered that there were no program gimmicks, personality gimmicks, or outreach gimmicks identifiable in any congregations that are successful in attracting significant members of persons from traditionally non-Lutheran sources, or in retaining the faithfulness of their members to a more significant degree than most of our congregations” .
Thus the question clearly is: "How do we make the Gospel felt and real among our people? How can people feel loved and wanted by Christ if they don’t feel loved and wanted by the congregation? One of your tasks is to show how you make people feel loved, cared for, and wanted. We are to share the Gospel, witness to the love of Jesus in our lives. We need to win the right to be heard, however, by the kind of people we are. . .by our attitudes and actions. We establish our credibility by our love for people. The content of our witness is the Gospel, but our lives must be illustrations of the saving power of the Gospel. So, let’s go fishing. Let’s follow our leader Jesus Christ and be the best fishers of people we can be. This will happen as we draw on the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel and in the Lord’s Supper. May Jesus keep coming into our lives with that power that transforms us from self-centered people to people who love and give. Jesus will always be the good news. The time has come. May we be examples of lives that have been transformed by His power. Amen.
