Christ's Ministry and It’s Message
Aim: To show the call of the disciples, the nature of their commission and responsibilities of their calling
Text: Mark 1:14-20.
Introduction: I remember reading several years ago about a man who went into the ministry, and who was a rather hopeless minister. One day he was asked in exasperation about his call. He said, “Well I used to be in farming, and one day I was out ploughing a filed when I looked up in the sky and saw two clouds that seemed to form the letters P and S. So, I wondered what that might mean, and I realised it was a message from God telling me to Preach Salvation.” The enquirer having listened patiently to this tale responded, “Don’t you think it might just have meant Plough Straight?”
Unfortunately there are many men in ministry today who have no sense of God’s calling upon their lives and whose gifts and ability seem ill suited to the role they are filling. The call of God always comes by way of the Word of God. When I came to pastor this church God gave me a clear direction from His Word. When I went into ministry God assured me from the Scriptures that that is where He wanted me to be. You know, it is not good enough to just pursue the ministry as one might pursue a secular career. The ministry is a calling of God, a vocation rather than an occupation.
In our opening text we read of 4 men, all of whom had an occupation, they were fishermen. Simon, Andrew, James and John. Fishing is a tough occupation, there is no doubt it calls at times for tremendous courage and tenacity. But it is also a very ordinary occupation. Though it has its own skills, it is not up there with what we some times call the professions: teaching, medicine, law etc. But that is often the way of God. That is often the will of God. It doesn’t necessarily look to those with the brightest minds, or the greatest skills, or the most learned, but to those who are the most willing, and the most committed, these are the people the Lord is the most likely to call.
Now though these men had humble beginnings God did some wonderful things in their lives. Simon Peter went on to become one of the great evangelists who opened the gospel up first to the Jews then the Samaritans and finally the Gentiles. It was Peter who preached on the day of Pentecost and saw 3000 saved, and of course he would faithfully serve the Lord until at last they took this great apostle and nailed him to a cross, his feet to the top his hands to the bottom and thus Peter died, blood streaming down his face, - totally committed to Jesus. But of course Peter would never have done any of that without Andrew. Remember when they first found the Lord, it was Andrew who “first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.” Andrew never wrote a book. You will not read any of his letters in the bible. We read of no miracles that Andrew performed. We are not told that he even preached a sermon - but he led Peter to Christ.
Then there is James, the brother of John, one of Christ’s inner circle of three along with Peter and John. James became the pastor of the church at Jerusalem, and was martyred by Herod; you can read about that in Acts 12. What a privileges role this man had in church history, to pastor the first church, the church that was born out of Pentecost. And then, of course, there is John, that beloved apostle, the one whom Jesus loved. John who left us with one glorious gospel account, three epistles and of course the only book of prophecy in the N.T. Revelation. John whom Christ entrusted with his own mother, and who was faithful unto death, ending his days an old man isolated and alone on the island of Patmos. Who could have foreseen what would become of these four men? Who could tell from reading this simple account, here in Mark, that their lives would hold such deep worth and their influenced felt for the millennia to come? It is amazing what Jesus will do with an ordinary man.
Let’s look then at the call of these men to the work of the Lord:
I. The Message of the Gospel – vss 14-15.
A. Having been identified by His baptism and tempted in the wilderness, the ministry of Jesus began, and it began by His gathering around Him a band of men to whom He would entrust His gospel.
B. Here we meet four of them but before we consider these men and their respective roles, I want you to think about the message Jesus brought.
C. Mark says He came, “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.”
1. This was the messianic message – it was the promise of a King and a kingdom.
2. And it’s called here, the gospel – “gospel” meaning good news.
3. Aren’t you glad that in a world filled with bad news that we have some good news to share?
4. A man or woman may have access to God’s kingdom, both His millennial kingdom, here upon the earth, and the eternal kingdom that follows it.
5. He may be born into that kingdom today – He may have His name written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life, His place reserved, His eternal future secured, but there are ever two conditions for entry, and Jesus, from the outset of His ministry, name them here.
D. Notice His message, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
1. The time has arrived, the kingdom has drawn near, now you must repent and believe the gospel.
2. The gospel is ever a message of repentance and faith.
E. Repentance is a prerequisite of the gospel message.
1. For a man to be saved he must be convicted of his sins – he must realise that he has grossly offended God, not only by what he has done, but also by the nature that gave birth to the doing of it.
2. In other words he must recognise he is a sinner before a holy God.
a. Have you ever seen yourself that way?
3. You see for a man to be saved he needs to understand that his heart and life have offended the holiness of God, and that because of what he is, a sinner and a rebel, he has no place of entry into God’s kingdom.
a. There needs to be a change. There has to be a turning around – and that is what repentance is.
b. It is agreeing with God about who I am, and what I am, and who He is and what He is, and admitting my guiltiness before him and changing my direction – no longer running from Him, and vainly hiding from His reach, but rather exposing my true self before Him and running to Him for His grace and mercy.
4. Over and over again Jesus taught us that if we are to have any hope of heaven there would have to be repentance before God:
a. He said, “Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
b. He said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
c. And that is truly what is needed. It is needed all over our land tonight. It is needed from the heart of the government all the way down to the heart of the lowliest child who understands his need.
F. But that is not all – the Gospel doesn’t rest upon personal penitence alone, it rests upon a promise.
1. The promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. To be saved you have to believe that promise – you have to believe the gospel, you have to exercise faith in God’s Word.
3. Jesus said, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
a. That is, turn from your sin and accept for yourself the good news of god’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
4. And that message remains the same until the end of time.
a. And people need to hear it. You may need to hear it tonight. You may be the one in this meeting tonight who needs to repent and believe, who needs to get right with God.
b. But you know, no one will hear without a preacher – and that is why God calls men into ministry.
II. The Ministry of the Gospel – vs 17.
A. Notice what Jesus said: “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
1. You know that is the main thing – we are to be fishers of men.
2. We are to engaged, all of us – for the Great Commission applies to all – in the winning of souls.
3. Are we doing that? Are we doing it as a church? Are we doing it as individual believers – are we reaching out to those around us?
B. Now, if we only had Mark’s gospel available to us we might be rather taken aback by this account.
1. It seems as though these men were busy about their work when Jesus, a total stranger to them, appeared and called them to follow Him, which they did without question.
2. I don’t know about you, but I cannot imagine anyone responding to the call of a stranger in this way.
3. The fact is that Jesus was not a stranger to them, that they had met Him already.
4. You see Mark, in writing his account, chooses to edit out large chunks of what happened – he is the gospel writer who cuts to the chase.
5. But in comparing the Gospels we determine that a whole year has passed between verses 13 & 14.
a. This year is referred to as “the year of obscurity” because we have a few scant details, mostly from John’s Gospel of Jesus’ activities during that period.
b. During that time these men had already met Jesus. At that time they had come to faith in Christ, so the call here is not a call to salvation, but to service.
c. In fact if you piece it altogether you will find the reason that James and John were mending their nets. – they had just caught a miraculous catch – See Luke 5:1-11.
C. Now the call is to become fishers of men, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
1. Now I want you to see just how definite this call is.
a. The Lord said, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
b. Fishers of men – that’s it.
(i) Do you know what I find in Christian circles?
(ii) I find two kinds of Christian: Those who are net casters and those who are stone casters.
(iii) There are those whose only business seems to be to criticize and critique the work of others.
a. Illus: One Bible college in America that allegedly employs a man 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, to dig up dirt on another college – what a waste of God’s money and of man’s time.
(iv) Do you know what I have found? I have found there are those who are busybodies in other men’s matters, and there are those who make their body’s busy in the Master’s matters.
(v) And what matters to Jesus is that we be “fishers of men!”
D. Now I want you to think about this business of fishing – and we are not speaking here of recreational fishing, not fishing with a rod and line on the bank of some pool or other, no, we are thinking here of commercial fishing.
1. When I think of commercial fishermen I think of four clear traits in that industry.
2. I think of men who are fearless.
a. Illus: Have you ever watched “Deadliest Catch” about the men who fish off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea? Those are rough, tough men. And that is true of commercial fishermen the world over. Do you think the men who fish in the North Sea, or the Atlantic have an easy time? Not at all. There are times when they are risking life and limb to bring their catch home.
b. Andrew and Peter, James and John were not gentle men. They were courageous men who often faced the driving winds over Galilee to bring home their catch – they toiled, they knew what it was to take the strain, to risk their lives.
c. Later these same men would “hazard their lives” for the gospel.
d. If you and I are going to be fishers of men we might as well accept now it’s going to take a holy boldness and courage.
e. Soul winning is no occupation for those who want an easy life.
3. I think of missions that are far reaching.
a. Commercial fishermen go far from home in search of their prey. They sail international waters to get their catch.
b. How far are we prepared to go to win someone to Jesus?
4. I think of methods that are focused.
a. Fishermen apply different methods to catch different fish. Sometimes they cast out purse nets, sometimes hooks and lines, sometimes they trawl, sometimes they trap – it depends what kind of fish they are after.
b. Is that not true of soul winning. Some may be won over a cup of tea, others may be won in a great crusade, one might be spoken to softly and another sharply rebuked – it takes skill, and discernment and dependence upon the spirit to know what is best to do to bring a man to Jesus.
5. I think of moments of frustration.
a. Sometimes those men, though they have been on the sea all night, though they have battled the waves, suffered the cold, driving rain, eaten little and slept hardly at all come home with next to nothing.
b. Yes they always go out again. Have you noticed that?
c. Yet how often are we rebuffed in our witness and we refuse to go out again?
d. Listen, Jesus has called us to be fishers of men – we have no business sitting on the shore of ease when men and women are being lost on the high seas of sin.
III. The Ministers of the Gospel – vss 16 & 18-20.
A. Now I want you to see two things about the men Christ calls:
1. They were inconspicuous men.
a. They weren’t men numbered among the intelligentsia?
b. They weren’t academics, they weren’t wealthy, they weren’t nobility – they were just four ordinary guys doing an ordinary day’s work.
c. They were common people. That is true in fact of all eleven of the Lord’s disciples – the only one who might have had any culture was Judas, a southerner, and he was a devil!
(i) “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” (1Cor 1:26-29).
d. God often chose the simplest of men for the greatest of tasks.
(i) Joseph – Jacob’s errand boy, incarcerated in Potiphar’s jail
(ii) Moses - a shepherd on the back side of Sinai.
(iii) Gideon - called whilst threshing wheat.
(iv) David - a teenage shepherd boy when called.
(v) Amos - a herdsmen
e. How the Lord loves to do extraordinary things with ordinary men.
2. They were industrious men.
a. The Lord always, it seems calls men at work.
b. He calls workers, not shirkers, to the ministry.
c. If you are thinking of missionary work, or pastoral work, then let me ask you: What are you doing right now? Are you doing your present work unto the Lord?
d. Are you industrious, punctual, conscientious, respectful, cooperative?
e. Wherever you are right now, that is God’s school.
(i) For Elisha that was in farming.
(ii) For David it was shepherding
(iii) For Peter it was fishing.
(iv) For you it is the office, shop, factory, college, school, the church or elsewhere.
(v) But mark this: God always calls busy men.
C. Notice a difference between the activity of Andrew and Simon and that of James and John?
1. All are called to be fishers of men, but when they were called, “Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea,” whilst, “James… and John his brother… were in the ship mending their nets.”
2. They were all working to the same end – they were all seeking to catch fish, but whilst Simon and Andrew were casting the net, James and John was mending there’s.
3. Here is one of the great failings of the Christian church.
a. How often do we cast our net and catch men, only to lose them again shortly thereafter?
b. We see people saved, but then they don’t go on!
c. Why is that? Because we think the great commission stops at the preaching of the gospel and fail in the part that calls us to make disciples; the “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” part.
d. We cast the net, but don’t mend the net. We evangelise, but don’t mentor – and that is a folly on the part of the church.
e. Isn’t it interesting here that the men who were casting their nets were great evangelists? Andrew, who won Peter – every time we meet this man in Scripture he is bringing someone to Jesus. And Simon Peter who went on to preach to thousands and saw them saved and added to the church.
f. But the men who were mending the nets, so as to be sure to keep the catch, were James and John, men with great pastoral hearts. James, the pastor of the church at Jerusalem, and John the apostle of love.
g. It is two sides of the same coin – two aspects of the same ministry – evangelism and discipling – both are the work of fishers of men.
Conclusion: Well what about you? Are you a fisher of men? Who are you trying to catch for Jesus? Are you busy about the Master’s business? Are you praying for the souls of men? Are you labouring in search of the lost? Are you far reaching in your efforts? Are you focused – seeking to win some one in particular? Are you fearless in your testimony for Jesus?
What extraordinary things the Lord can do with ordinary people who are committed to Him. May God help us, each one, to be fishers of men.
