Immediately
(Mark 1:17-20)
Intro:
A. It may have happened in your life. You get a phone call and drop everything to leave. There isn’t time to plan. What you just heard calls for immediate action. It may have been upsetting news like an accident or death, or it may have been exciting news like the birth of a grandchild. What you know is that you have to go immediately.
B. I know I could do better with time management. I am the king of putzing around when I ought to be doing something more constructive. Even as a child I could sit and daydream for a long time. Now, some might justify that by saying they work well under pressure, but the truth is some of us work well under pressure because we didn’t do the work when we should have.
C. So what causes us to sometimes just go along in life without any hurry and at other times act so quickly it makes other people’s heads spin? The answer is: the importance we put on the situation. The more important, the more immediately we respond.
D. Mark writes his gospel with a sense of urgency, a need or news that is so great that it must be dealt with immediately. This morning, I want us to consider one of the passages where Mark uses this word “immediately” and see what is so important it needed an immediate response.
I. Jesus Called
A READ Mark 1:16-17a
B. I want you to understand that this is not the first time these men have met Jesus. According to the Gospel of John, these men were disciples of John the Baptist and had spent time with him down in Judea. It was there, while with him, that they saw Jesus and heard John speak of him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It was Andrew that went and got Simon, who Jesus called Peter, and most like James and John were also in Judea.
C. While they were disciples of John the Baptist, they were fishermen by trade. They had a real life, not just a spiritual life. They had work that had to be done, not just go to retreats and sing Kum By Ya. So, sometimes soon after their time in Judea, they were back home in Galilee fishing. Doing what the family had done for a few generations.
D. The Gospel of Luke fills in this story a little more, but Mark wanted us to see the urgency and importance of what is happening. Jesus comes to Galilee and after speaking from a boat and providing to Peter a miraculous catch of fish, Jesus call them to “follow him.”
E. Understand, Jesus didn’t say, “Let me tell you about a new way of understanding scripture to see if it makes sense to you.” Jesus didn’t say, “Have you ever did a word study on Messiah to understand what that really means?” Jesus used two words to these men, “Follow ME.”
F. He didn’t give a Bible lesson, he called them to a relationship that would change their lives. The call to “Follow me,” is not a casual invitation, it is a call to change their devotion from John the Baptist to him. That’s not easy. How many of us have faced a spiritual battle concerning how we were raised and what God’s word reveals to us now. It was not a statement against John, but an invitation to deepen their connection to God.
G. The call is no different for us. Jesus says, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But that’s not the end of that passage. Jesus goes on to say, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” It is Jesus that tells the disciples, “I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The call is not just to read your Bible. Yes, you need to, but you need to let God’s word be living and active and powerful inside you. Jesus chastised the Pharisees because they read the law, but they didn’t realize that Moses was speaking of Jesus. Instead, they believe the law saved them.
H. I challenge you today to seriously think what it means for you to “follow Jesus?” I know it’s more than just attend worship and a life group.
II. Jesus Commissioned
A. READ Mark 1:17b. Jesus says, “Follow me” and immediately commissions them for role of being his disciple. That commission is to “become fishers of men.” Obviously, Jesus is making a play on words, taking them from their occupation as fishermen and calling them to fish for other men to be his disciple.
B. If you answer the calling of Jesus to follow him, he commissions you to action as a disciple. Jesus was going to make them to “become” fishers of men. That is not who they were at that moment, it is who they would if they chose to follow Jesus. It was a calling for them to leave what they know, fishing, to become what they didn’t know, “fishers of men.”
C. So much of our life is wrapped up in what we know and who we think we are. If someone asks me “who I am?” I would answer, “a preacher for the Glen Rock church of Christ.” I don’t know how you would answer that question, but many people answer it according to their profession, where they are at that moment in their life, or maybe what they think need to say. But Jesus defines us for us. Who am I? I am a fisher of men. That changes me. That changes how I view life, how I view success, and how I view you.
D. In 2023 we are going to spend time learning what it means to follow Jesus and become fishers of men, but I want to conclude where I started, with the word “immediately.”
III. They Came
A. READ Mart 1:18-20. I can almost see it. Zebedee comes home, frustrated, shaking his head and turns to his wife Salome and says, “Do you know that James and John did today? Those two ran off with Andrew and Simon to follow some untrained rabbi. This preacher comes along and starts talking about the kingdom of God and they just left their nets and followed him! Can you believe that?”
B. The calling by Jesus demanded an immediate response. These men left their nets and followed him. That’s a commitment most of us will never understand.
Conclusion:
A. Jesus called – follow me. Jesus commissioned – Become fishers of men. They came – Immediately left their nets. The same is a work right now.
B. Too many people put off what needs to be done immediately. They want to go home and think about it. They want to do a little more study about salvation. They need to clean up their own life before coming to Jesus. But hear me – that is the power of darkness in the present age speaking to your heart and head. The last thing Satan wants is for you to act immediately and whole-heartedly to the call of Jesus.
C. Paul stood before King Agrippa and shared Jesus with him. The king responded, “in a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul’s response was “short or long, I would that all who hear me be as I am except for these chains.” To our knowledge King Agrippa put off that decision, but what about you?
D. Jesus calls and commission, it is up to us if we will come and follow him.
