I'll be teaching tonight from Mark chapter 1 verses 14 through 20. If you don't have a Bible, you should be able to find the text in the back of your order of worship. I'd say to you, hear the word of God. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. 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 fissures of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little further, 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. Let us pray. Father, I pray now that as we consider your gospel that you would open the eyes of the blind in the ears of the deaf, I pray that we would be encouraged by the grace of Jesus and I pray that we would be moved to follow him. In Christ's name, we pray these things. Amen. Well, as we're looking at Mark chapter one, if you remember last week what we talked about, we talked about Jesus in the wilderness. And Jesus going into the wilderness after his baptism. It is baptism. He identifies with us and then immediately goes into the wilderness. If you remember that, basically Jesus when he's in the wilderness, lived the life that Adam should have lived. Adam took paradise and turned it into a wilderness. He lived the life that Israel should have lived and he also lived the life that we should have lived. And now as the passage moves on, Mark, the patron saint of the ADHD, Mark begins immediately, he begins to talk about Jesus' ministry. And earlier, the first part of this text, I'm just going to give you the background of it. Remember that Jesus basically arrives on the scene after John's ministry is over and it says he came proclaiming the kingdom of God, preaching the gospel of God and he did two things. He made an announcement and he made an appeal. The announcement was just this. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand and the appeal is repent and believe the gospel. The announcement is that the time is at hand. In other words, Jesus said that all that God has been doing in history in order to draw people unto Himself is now at hand. It is now is the time. In other words, John, when he came baptizing and preaching, John was pointing to the one who would come. And what Jesus came proclaiming is that now the one who would come is here. I am the one. And so he preached that proclaim that and then he asked people for a decision. Jesus, one thing you've got to love about Jesus, at least I do, is that Jesus is sort of a bottom liner. He doesn't do a lot of chit chat most often. He either says, you love me or you hate me but don't let's not just chit chat about it. Don't like me. And so he comes and he calls for a decision. He basically says the kingdom of God is at hand. That God is going to reconcile all things to himself. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with me? And he does that in sort of in verses 14 and 15 in a sort of general sense. It says Jesus came preaching and his preaching was this. The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. That's sort of the general picture. That's the view from 10,000 feet. And then immediately the next thing you see is Jesus sort of calling two very specific sets of brothers. In other words, the call goes from general to here's what he came preaching to seeing a practical outworking of that preaching. And that's particularly what I want to focus on tonight. And I have no points. You know, some of you say you never do. But I'm not good. I'm just going to walk through the text here and look at what it means to follow Jesus. What does it mean to be a fisher of men? You know, a lot of times we think that's just a play on words but it's actually it's a lot bigger than that, I think. So let's look first at verse 16. It says passing along the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. Remember Jesus said last week we looked at Jesus baptism that Jesus was the only representative at least in Mark's gospel who came from Galilee. Galilee would have been the other side of the tracks in Israel. It would have been called Galilee of the Gentiles where the unclean would have lived. And so the first place Jesus goes when he's going to start preaching his gospel is not to the religious people but to the irreligious. So if you're not a frequent church go or if you consider yourself to be irreligious and somehow found yourself here you're you're in good company at least with Jesus because Jesus always pursues those who are outside the camp not necessarily those who are inside the camp first. So he goes to Galilee and he finds two brothers Simon and Andrew and we know that they probably came from they were Jewish but they probably came from from an irreligious family or a family that wasn't particularly faithful to Judaism just by virtue of their names. Simon and Andrew are Greek names they're not Jewish names which meant their parents didn't really care what people thought about them. And so their names Simon and Andrew and Jesus finds them fishing and remember I've talked about before that when in the ancient Near East when a rabbi would take on disciples it was the disciples who would actually pursue the rabbi and you would go to the rabbi with your resume normally had to be from a good family. So they may say T scores certainly better than mine and you would go and present them to the rabbi and say would you let me follow you would you let me study the law with you and he would either accept you or reject you. In this case the rabbi goes and finds the students and he doesn't find the students with with the best SAT scores right he comes and finds people like me who fell asleep. Hello he comes and finds people like me who didn't really care about the school who didn't really care about the law and he says to them follow me. You see the normal mode was for the student to come and pick the rabbi and for the rabbi to accept or deny acceptance of the student and in Jesus case the rabbi finds the student and it's up to the student to decide whether he's going to accept the rabbi or not. So he goes to Simon and Andrew Fisherman and says follow me. Everything you've heard if you've been in church for a while about Fisherman is probably wrong except for the fact that most people would agree that they dig cussed quite a bit. But other than that they weren't uneducated because if you look later on in the text it says when James and John left they left their father and their hired servants. In other words they weren't educated in the law they weren't educated in being religious but they certainly were educated in business. Fisherman apparently were pretty wealthy back then so they had these businesses and they weren't stupid they were just smart in a different way and Jesus goes to them and he says follow me. Now here's one thing you need to learn about Jesus that you often don't hear the call of Jesus is completely and utterly unqualified. Did you catch that did Jesus did not walk up to them and say you know what I've been watching you guys and I see a lot of promise. You know I've been watching you guys Peter Simon you got a filthy mouth but I bet if we clean it up you might make a decent preacher someday. Or if you two if you think you can get your act together what do you think about following me. You see Jesus doesn't ask you and he never asks you to get your act together in order to follow him. He simply says will you follow me. Remember what I just talked about in verses 14 or 15 with Jesus is always decision time. Are you going to follow me and that's the question you have to answer and it's always yes or no question. Right often times people will come and they'll say Tommy can I can I be this and be a Christian or can I be gay and be a Christian or can I be this and be a Christian. And I always tell people you're asking the wrong question at the wrong time. The wrong time has to do with this is that Jesus always asks the first question and Jesus always says will you follow me and you answer yes or no. And if you say no then the conversation's over go on your way and if you say yes then you get to ask your question. Jesus I said yes I will follow you now what do you want me to do. How do you want me to live. What do you want me to do with my lifestyle. But Jesus calls on qualified he doesn't ever say get your act together. He says will you follow me. Yes or no. That's a question everyone here has to answer. And then for them he says follow me and then he attaches to it a promise and I think this promise is actually what lends itself to them being so immediate. Have you ever wondered that did not seem a little bit crazy when you read passages like this that here are some apparently prosperous business men. Simon and Andrew and James and John and this how to work carpenter comes up and says follow me. And immediately they left their nets and immediately they left their father and seem a little crazy. And most often we think well you know they've probably heard about them before and they've been thinking about it for a long time and the writer of the gospel is just sort of you know smashing things down to make the story shorter there might be some of that but there's more than that to it I think. And it has to do with what he says to them after he says follow me. He says I will make you become fishers of men. Usually when we read that we think of fishers of men as being a sort of a cute play on the right you used to be fisherman now I'm going to make you fishers of men get it. That's not what Jesus is saying here. What Jesus is saying to them he says follow me and I will make you eschatological agents of the apocalypse. What do you think about that boys? That's what he's saying to them. You see this this term fishers of men or God being involved in fishing you find it all throughout the old testament I read you one passage tonight from Jeremiah. He says when it comes time to draw the nations in I will send many fishers out to catch them the problem with most of the passages in the old testament is almost every one of them has to do a judgment. Almost every one in other words God says at the end of time when when when the end of time comes and remember Jesus has just announced that the end is beginning right now with me when the end comes I will go out as a fisherman. And I will put hooks in their mouth and I will drag them out into the desert those who have rejected me or I will drag them in my cast net it's sort of like the sheep in the goats and I will keep the good fish and I will cast away those who would not embrace me and so it's almost always has to do with with God's coming at the last day to either to bring grace or to bring judgment. And so when Jesus says come with me and I will make you to become fishers of men what he's saying is you are going to be coagents of mine you're going to be preachers with me and what you will be preaching to people is that it is decision time just as it was for them. You will go out and you will tell people the same thing that I have told him that the kingdom of God is at hand because the king has arrived you will be fishers of men just like I am a fisher of men just like God is a fisher of men and I have to believe that Simon and Andrew and James and John they they had not only believed in Jesus but when they heard this language they were moved and that had to contribute to their immediacy because as they thought about it. If they really believed what the gospel said if they really believed that in Jesus God had arrived and in Jesus God was going to bring final judgment down upon him and that depending on what men or women did with Jesus that it would mean their future for all eternity that that moved them to immediately follow them to immediately go out and begin this work of fishing for men in other words if you really understand the gospel if you are Christian at least how can you not be a fisher of men how can you not be moved to think Jesus has come and every single person that hears this message of Jesus they have a decision time for them. It's either yes or no they will either be reconciled to God or not be reconciled to God and every person who doesn't hear will also either be reconciled to God or not reconciled to God and if you really believe that does it move you to any kind of immediacy let me ask you when is the last time you invited someone to anything. I'm not saying that to convict you I'm saying it to make you uncomfortable. When's the last time you invited someone to coffee when's the last time you invited someone to play golf when's the last time you invited someone to anything when's the last time you invited them to church because if you really believe the gospel how could you not. If you really believe that when Jesus comes it really is the beginning of the end and everything in the world hinges upon him and every person's destiny hinges upon him how could you not. Jesus promises them I will make you become fissures of men and then finally did you notice what what they left behind with James with Peter and Simon and Andrew it says immediately they left their nets to fall and followed him in a verse 20 with James and John it says immediately called them and they left their father. The two things that are most important to anybody these guys left in order to follow Jesus right the first two left their business the second to left their family and is that the call the gospels it to leave your business is it to leave your family in order to become a missionary or to become a pastor for some of you it might be but the question is what defines your life. Does this the call of Jesus upon your life define it to the extent that everything else is secondary that your job is secondary that even your family is secondary to Jesus because if your family is secondary to Jesus your family my guests will thrive your business is secondary to Jesus truly and honestly your business probably will thrive but the question is is he the one that defines you or is he not the one that defines you. When he calls you to be genuinely follow follow or do you sort of like saying you know I'm going to be with the net sometime and I'm going to be with Jesus sometime I'm going to be with my business sometime what is it. Jesus says follow me when you look at these guys they left everything and followed and some of you I know sit out there thinking you know well those I'm not that spiritual when you look at Peter throughout the the New Testament he's not that spiritual either. You see Jesus never calls the best of centers because there's no such thing he always calls the worst and the more unlikely you think you are to be to be a gatherer the more unlikely you are to think you would be effective at reaching people is inversely related to how effective you probably would be. One of the one of the primary things the ways that you can judge whether or not you think you you have to be doing something as if you're unlikely. When they were searching for a senior pastor I think the reason I ended up here is because the whole time I thought you know I'm never going to be there I don't have what it takes I don't have the you know it's just so far above my head I couldn't do it and God I think chose maybe because he said Tommy you're the kind of person I can use. I said I don't know what I'm doing and he said that's right but I'm afraid of that bingo right. So every excuse that you throw out he says that's the kind of person I want the person that I can use can he use you think about that let's pray. Father I pray that as we consider the gospel we consider your call that we would be encouraged for one that it's unqualified that you call us to follow you you call us to together you call us to be defined by you. But you you call us in an unqualified sense you don't say get better before you come in fact you say come and get better. And so we pray that more and more we would understand your grace in Christ's name we pray these things amen and amen.