When The Master Calls Series

A. The kingdom of God is like a man who wanted to build a carousel and began to build a team and find the supplies he needed.

1. In 2008, a man named Gale Joh wanted to do something special for Kingsport, Tennesse, the place that had become his home.

2. He had grown up in Binghamton, NY, the “carousel capital of the world,” where he had spent his youth riding the city’s half-dozen carousels.

3. Gale thought the kids of Kingsport should know the same joy, and so he proposed the pipe dream of building a carousel to a city alderman who scoffed at the cost, declaring, “Kingsport will have a carousel when pigs fly!”

a. That city alderman happened to be his wife.

4. Undeterred, Gale turned to his local Kiwanis club and four of his Kiwanis friends adopted his enthusiasm for the project and Gale called them his “Four Horsemen.”

a. They were not the carpenters and mechanics he needed, but they were problem solvers.

b. Gale and his Horsemen attended woodcarving classes 3 ½ hours away in Chattanooga to learn how to carve carousel statues.

c. Gale and the Horsemen returned from Chattanooga as adept carvers, and the city gifted a facility to use as a workshop.

d. The carousel project had found it hooves!

5. Then, tragically and suddenly, Gale Joh passed away from Lewy body dementia in 2010, just two years into the project.

a. Would Gale Joh’s dream die with him?

b. The Four Horsemen and the community wouldn’t allow it.

6. The Horsemen taught volunteers to sculpt (each statue took about a year) and local artists taught them to paint.

a. The sculptures took on the characteristics of their carvers.

b. Valerie Joh (widow of Gale Joh) carved several sculptures, including a pig with wings.

7. When the group needed a frame, floor, poles, gears and an electric motor, they made their needs known to their community and to the virtual community.

a. Every need or obstacle was somehow taken care of.

b. The Connecticut zoo just happened to have an old carousel frame sitting in storage that they donated and a Kingsport shipping company gave it a free ride to Kingsport.

c. Mechanics emerged to reassemble the frame, and a local man who was a chemist by trade built the flooring for the entire platform.

8. In 2015, after seven years, with the help of 300 volunteers and 700 sponsors, the Kingsport Carousel was ready to ride.

a. It has become a treasured part of the community and a go-to for date nights, proposals and a great family activity on sunny afternoons.

b. The lilting, whirling work of art stands as a symbol of vision and cooperation, and fun for fun’s sake.

B. Why would I begin with a long, feel-good story? I do so because I believe it is an excellent illustration of the task that faced Jesus at the beginning of His mission and ministry.

1. It was incumbent on Him to cast the vision of building the kingdom of God, and to gather a team to train who would carry on the mission after His sudden, but not unexpected death.

2. Today in our study, we will see the Master call His first four followers – we might call them “The Four Horsemen,” of course, Jesus would later call eight more to complete His 12 apostles.

4. Let’s jump into our study for today and let’s seek to understand how we also should respond when the Master calls.

C. Today, we begin our exploration with Mark 1:14-15.

1. Mark wrote: 14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

2. Notice that Mark gave a specific time stamp in his opening phrase of verse 14: “After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee…”

3. It would be easy to miss the fact that Mark skipped about 6 to 12 months of the ministry of Jesus that took place in Judea following His baptism (much of it is recorded in John).

4. During that period, John the Baptizer and Jesus were both ministering and baptizing people in Judea as their ministries overlapped.

5. You might recall the incident in John 3 when John the Baptizer’s disciples came to him concerned and complaining, “That man you baptized and testified about (Jesus) is baptizing people on the other side of the Jordon River and everyone is going to him.”

a. John the Baptizer answered them, “He must become greater; I must become less important.”

6. John the Baptizer’s job was done, and so God used King Herod’s arrest of John to move him into the background so that Jesus’s ministry could have all the attention.