2nd reading in the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 1, to be reading verses 16 through 20. As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men at once. They left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets without delay. He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. This is the word of the word. Let's pray. Almighty God, we pray now that all other ideas, competing words, would be set aside and that our ears and eyes and minds and hearts would be opened now to the word of God, the word that never changes. And may we hear it, but what it is, the very word of God. And may we hear it in it, life, liberty, and all that we seek. May we find it in you as we listen. And may we be given hearts to understand, will they, and to have faith, to pray on Jesus now. Now, I've been thinking a lot about warm weather, lately, and as my wife and I were reminiscing this weekend in the hospital, we were looking at the ice falling around, we were thinking about warm days in New York, and how different it was, having children in Manhattan than at North Side Hospital. Let's just say that it's a little different cultural experience between those two worlds. And as we were there, I was thinking about one of the unusual things I would often see on a hot day in New York, you see on almost every street corner in the city. There are these lovely little markets, little grocery stores that everybody uses, and every one of them has these enormous sprays of flowers. It's such great ammunition for husbands because, you know, if you're ever in a little trouble, you know, very easy for five bucks, you know, your 30 feet from a spray of flowers, which is always a great thing. And on a really hot day, as you walk by those sprays of flowers, you know, just often, you know, whole racks of them already plundled and ready to go, let's see bees buzzing around these flowers. Now I always thought that was kind of sad, because here are bees, they're doing their little pollination thing, and, you know, the poor bees don't know that these flowers have already been cut and gathered, and there's absolutely no possibility that new life is going to spring into any of these flowers because of what they're doing. I'd see that as a symbol, if you will, of my greatest fear, is it for me? I see that as one of my greatest fears about my life in the ministry, that after, however long I'm given to live in ministry, maybe another 34 years, that that's all my Christian life, that's all my Christian leadership would have amounted to, was being among these who simply pollinate ourselves without any, you know, with all the buzzing and all the activity among the gathered flowers, but without in any way connecting the reason we're pollinating, the reason we're here, which is to carry life beyond ourselves, which is why Christ hasn't returned and why we're gathered here to be a worshipping community that does that. I imagine, what would it be like on Judgment Day? I spend my life simply buzzing among the cut flowers. What would we say? How would we be given a count for ourselves? What was your life like? You know, I buzzed, I was busy, I was busy, I pollinated all the gathered flowers, there's a lot of encouragement, I think, in this text we've just read, because in it, I think Jesus Christ makes it very clear and very simple, what He's coming to do in this movement, in this church that He's building. This is the call of the very first disciples, the very first gathering that He does, and what He says is this, He calls them and says, now, let me tell you why I'm calling you together. I will make you fissures of me. It's very clear, you know, it doesn't take a lot of imagination, frankly, it's kind of simple, let's get this right at the beginning. I call you, I call you together to follow me, and my desire is to make you fissures of men. Now, I think this text, this story, is one of the most arresting and in some ways, I think difficult to understand. If you read the Gospel of Mark, particularly the first few chapters, the image that Mark is drawing of Jesus as one who is truly God and who is absolutely sovereign, there are lots of wonderful stories that show His authority over things like evil spirits, and, you know, the weather for crying out loud, and all sorts of things, a man of amazing authority and amazing power. And yet, here when He calls the disciples, where you see His amazing light giving, transforming power, is in the call of the disciples Himself. You know, I'm sure we have lots of conversion stories in the room here, people who grew up in Christian faith, and they don't remember ever not believing people who fought it, Fizz and toenail, people who had intellectual questions they wrestle with maybe for years or for a year or for months, people who maybe to cross the following Christ, there was something in your life that you just didn't want to change, you were afraid, you would die if you had to repent and turn from it, and there's maybe a long, counterverted conversion experience. In this case, there is no time element. What you see is sort of a pure distilled snapshot, almost a microscopic slide of the spiritual reality behind any and every conversion, which is the authoritative word and call of Jesus Christ that works in a human heart and turns and changes that person. If you read it in the original language, when Jesus says to them, come here and follow me, it's literally, it's like a military command, it's basically fall in. You almost imagine Him not even stopping, He just says fall in and they do, and the change that comes over these men is radical and amazing. They literally leave their vocations, two guys even leave their daddy in the boat, you know, we'll just, you know, that's kind of an interesting story, you know, no comment, and they let their daddy in the boat and follow them. Their whole lives turn around, why? It's a picture of the amazing, unstoppable power of the grace of God. It is, Mark is introducing, you see, the reality, the church is going to live in, which is the reality of the kingdom of God. Remember John the Baptist, who we've been reading over the, you were here a few weeks ago, John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of God, it's going to come. Jesus doesn't preach that it's going to come. When Jesus begins to preach, He says, it's here, and that's sort of a simple concept, you know, if you, what do you need to have a kingdom, well, let's say, let's start with the king. Okay, well, I'm the king. I'm here, the kingdom is here, I guess it's here, because I'm here, and the gospels begin to regale us with these stories of, you know, dead people getting up and sick people getting well, all these amazing things. Why? Because the king is here, the kingdom has begun, and the gospel of Luke, checker of 16, Jesus says, don't you see now that I'm here, the kingdom of God is within you. That is, as you come to follow me, when I work this grace in your life, my kingdom is really within, working within any and all, who will read. Now the theologian, one of the most famous theologians of the church, Saint Augustine coined this phrase, he referred to what you see in scripture as prevenient grace, prevenient, not convenient grace, I'm sure all of us will be for that, but prevenient grace, it's a simple word that means it comes before, and what you see in the call to become a Christ follower is this, Jesus is the one who does everything that brings us to him, his word, his call, comes before our response, it is in fact his word that creates the spiritual reality that turns a human heart, turns a human heart towards repentance, gives them new life, where before there was only death, so that you can respond, and you see that happening, as he calls, the disciples come following me, it's not compulsion, as much as it is liberation, before there was slavery, and it takes, it is a reality that takes precedent of everything, I mean, if one of our key leaders was thrown in jail, and we knew is about to be beheaded, you know, the church newsletter would probably run that as a headline, you know, John the Baptist on the brink of death, you know, send money, something like that, but notice that the gospel of Mark, the exact emphasis is there, this chapter begins and says, now, John the Baptist was in prison, peridot thrown him in prison, but Jesus was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. This news is so good, his power to change a human life is so great and so amazing that literally, there is no headline that takes precedent over it, it is the headline, this news is good, this news is powerful, this is defining reality news, it even leads you to leave your daddy on the boat if you have to. Now what the disciples do, the only thing they can do, because of this good news, this experience of the power and love of Christ in their lives, they leave their nets, never to return. Now why do they do that, and by the way, nets here, you know, I call this sermon leaving the nets and I couldn't resist the temptation because you see nets and nets, all you have to do is switch the letters around, and they are kind of the same idea, leaving a net and leaving a net. You know, the net, what were these nets, well, there weren't bad things, you know, there were, for the disciples, of course, they are leaving their vocation, they are having a vocational change, but it's not just that, I'm sure they continue to catch fish, they still have to eat, and I'm sure they still caught out of fish, but there was a real sense in which the good things of their life, the necessary things of their life, family, vocation, career, all the needs that particularly North American evangelicals are extremely committed to, take a second place to the reality to follow Jesus and being a fisherman, they leave the net, they leave the nets because there's a reality they've become more interested in, and that reality is knowing Jesus, following him and becoming a fisherman. Now what Jesus says in verse 17 is this, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now boys and girls, there are any of you still here after that popcorn thread. Boys and girls have any of you here at Entam, I don't know because I grew up in a Baptist church and we had a little song we sang that went, I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, did you? I'm saying that, and I'm sure in some of the mainline churches they sing, fishers of humankind, you know, trying to be a little more, you know, inclusive, and we want to be inclusive here, this is just males we're talking about here, but you know, fishers of humankind, that is such a benign picture, in the first service I saw Chris Mitchell, one of our elders sitting out in the audience, Chris is a Mr. Master Fly Fisher, you know, everybody wants to go fishing with Chris because he's, you know, watch, you probably see him on television one of these days early on a Saturday morning at 5 a.m., you know, Master Fly Fisher, you know, you think a fishing is great recreation when we talk to children about being fishers of people, it's a sweet little song about what a great thing, but let me tell you something, fishing is not such a sweet thing, if you are a fish, okay, and don't allow the edge of this metaphor to miss you, I will make you fishers of people, you know, if you are a fish, and you are caught, this will change your life, okay, the old things will pass away, behold, the new will come, all right, fishing, fishing is going to change you, and in scripture, fishing is actually one of, if you will, it's one of the big gun reserve metaphors, you have to have lots of good metaphors to get attention, it's one of the favorite metaphors of the prophets. Isaiah uses it, Jeremiah uses it, Amos uses it, Obediah uses it, though he probably doesn't get read as much as the rest of the voice, Obediah uses it, Ezekiel uses it, and I'll give you an example, for example, the prophet Ezekiel writes and speaks God's judgment against the Egyptians, his concern with the Egyptians at that time was their lust for power in the way they heard and used people, and God says to the prophet Ezekiel this, to Egypt he says, you say the Nile is mine, but I will put hooks in your jaws and pull you out from among your brains, and I will gather all the other fish to cling to your scales from Egypt, and then I will leave you in the desert to flail, and I will give you as food to the birds of the air. Now that's a thought for the day, isn't it? That'll kind of stick with you there for a moment with it. There is fishing imagery to stay with you. What is the image of fishing? Listen, I'm going to put hooks in your jaws. That is, you think you're swimming along and you're doing fine without God in your life. Turning your back on me, turning your back on the needs of others, but let me tell you something, if you live your life that way, one of these days you're going to bite and it's going to be my hook, and it's going to be over. That is almost invariably what fishing means in the Bible. You see, these are people who actually fish. They knew what happened with you in fishing. Now why does Jesus use that picture? You see, he takes something that is horrible, and he says something that is amazingly beautiful and powerful about himself. What he's saying is this, to his disciples and to us, I have the same effect on people, but it's for life, not for death. I have come into the world, why? You see, Marcus presenting the one who's coming into the world, Marcus does the story. He's coming into the world to live a perfect life, a holy life, and to give himself the die for sinners and across, to go in our place, to Calvary. Why? Why is he going there so that all the judgment of God against the guilt in your life, against the power of your sin in your life and all of its effects can be finally hooked and obliterated. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's come to bring destruction, but not destruction upon you, the child he loves. He's come to bring destruction on all the things that are separating you from him. The guilt, not, I'm not talking about the false guilt, I'm talking about the real guilt in your heart. I'm talking about the power of the setting sins that all of us have, the power of those things, to keep us from him, to keep us from others. What he's saying is I have come to destroy the power of those things over here. And to come and follow Christ doesn't mean just to clean up your act and take a picture. It literally means to be hooked in a life-transforming way so that the power of those things no longer define who you are. And rather the new definition is the life of Christ over here and living here. In the same way that Jesus could have said, you know, the way he said, take up my cross, he could have said, take up my fish hood. That's what I've come to do. I've come to catch you and literally change it. In the great commission when he sends his disciples after his death and resurrection out into the world, what does he say to them? He doesn't just say go. He says, all authority has been given to me now. All authority, that means there is no community, there is no place, and there is no person. I mean no person that I can't do this to you. There's nobody that I can't bring you life to. You go. Now I know where I'm going to do it. I know with whom I'm going to do it. You just go and go with confidence because I have all the authority. I am the Fisher. I will I will catch lives and I will transform them and I will liberate them. Watch me work there. All authority has been given to me. Now what you see in the lives of the disciples, all right? These people, first of all, they've been hooked by Jesus. And anytime we look at Jesus, that's the great question. And I've been hooked by him. Do I believe this is true? Secondly, not only they've been hooked by Jesus, they leave their nets because they've been hooked by Jesus, because they've been hooked by the power of the gospel, they leave their nets. And this is my great question for you congregation, is in what ways do you struggle? Those of you that I'm speaking now, very specifically, you identify yourself as a Christian, a follower of Christ, in what ways right now? And this isn't for some of you. All right, I've already preached to myself on this. I had to sit on this one for two weeks. This was supposed to be last week. So I've done all sorts of repenting already. So I'm including me here and I'm talking to everybody in the room. And what ways do you struggle with clinging to your nets rather than following Christ as a fisher of men? And what ways do you find the nets a greater comfort? Now what do I mean by a net? What does it mean here? The stuff of life, the stuff you need, the stuff you like. And what ways do those things become more defining and important to you than experiencing the life of Christ? The Fisher. In what ways do you struggle? They always struggle. I know you do. I know I do. I think the Christian life is a lifetime of constantly day by day, leaving the nets in the sense that we're not defined by them, we don't live for them, we live for the power and love of Christ. Now let me tell you a story. I just read recently an account of Valkov Hubble and the revolution that took place in the Czech Republic from communism now to post-communism. They often call it the velvet revolution because there was very little bloodshed or violence. And then reflecting on it, I read Hubble said this, they asked him, how did it happen? How did you have a velvet revolution where all the people's hearts were completely on another channel, even though all the institutions of society were saying something else. And Hubble said this, well, we had a parallel society. In the parallel society, we wrote our plays, we sang our songs, we read our poems until we knew the truth so well, that we could go out into the streets of Prague and say, we don't believe your lies, we know their lies and communism had to fall. Now that is exactly what the gathered Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be. Those who followed Christ, they've been fished and now they see themselves as fishers, people who have a message. And when we come together for worship, when we come together to pray in one another's homes, when we gather here on a Sunday, all the things we do, the promise is this, the risen Christ meets with us and speaks the truth. The truth of his love for us, the truth of his love for the world, and he is here with power. And as we experience him in his power, we know the truth. Now, why am I telling you this? You know, one of the things I hear, I'm going to be very specific here. One of the things I hear among Protestant evangelicals all the time, is our parents who are afraid for their children. You know, we're raising our kids, I just had a child, this is on my mind, sorry, you've got to hear it. You know, we want to raise our children, we want to raise them right, we want to, we worry, are they going to follow our values? Are they going to make wise choices? What's going to become of them? But where do we put our trust? Often, I see people wanting to put their trust in the nets. That is, I need a great program. If I could just find a program that will, that will turn my kids around, then I know great things will happen. Or maybe it's the same way with your marriage. If I could just get in a good course that will teach me the 32 principles to have a really humming marriage, I know that my marriage will change. Don't you understand? Those are nets. We look for programs, we look for methodologies, things that are somehow going to make our children safe. There's only one thing that will save your children. There's only one thing that will save your marriage. Do you know what it is? The Savior. It's Christ Himself. It's Christ. It's in seeking Him and following Him. Then when we come together, it's His presence among us. He's the picture. He's the one who changes hearts and changes lives. And it's only by looking there and trusting there that we will experiencing, experience Him. Abel said that they had a parallel society. Well, life in the church, life in the kingdom is both parallel to life in the world and alternative to life in the world. Marvadawn and her recent book on the church caring for children says this, Christians need to be parallel. Parallel keeps our lives, need to be parallel. That keeps us from being so alternative that we don't relate to our neighbors. To be alternative prevents our parallel line from moving closer and closer to modes of life, alien, to the kingdom of God. You see, here's the great balance that comes to follow Christ. On the one hand, we've got to avoid the attempt, we've got to avoid the net. On the one hand, becoming so alternate as a society. That is, we hype off it everywhere we can. I had somebody in my office the other day who said, every single person I speak to every day of the week is a believer or a member of this church. That's a frightening thing. You know, where my whole life has become so alternate, there's no way I can experience Christ as the fissure of men. Don't you understand? You're missing the presence of Christ in a powerful way. Or to become so parallel, which is just as real, you become so parallel to the world and so removed from the deeper life of community, that your children are totally wrapped up in the world and everything the culture has to say, they're being fed because you're not giving them any alternative. Now you see, the kingdom says, leave the nets, follow and experience Christ. Let me close, but telling you this story, I keep saying I got to stop telling New York stories on one last one. When I was first planning the church in New York, then I came from one Sunday morning, I was preaching, and I nearly choked because through the back door walked a man. I won't tell his name, but one of the greatest theologians living, walked into the back end of the church and sat down. A man who said, tremendous influence as a writer, tremendous influence in theological formation in seminaries, one of the most brilliant minds I know, walks in the back as I'm beginning my sermon. I, of course, thought, well I spoke to him afterwards and I said, what are you doing here? And he said, well, I've come to New York to visit my daughter. And I thought, wow, your daughter's here, wonderful, tell me who she is. And he said, well, you see, my daughter, when she grew up, you know, we were in a great church, we had amazing programs, great Bible teaching, but when she went away to college, she abandoned the Christian faith, and not only that, she's an atheist and she married a man who's an atheist and they live here in the city, and they really don't have anything to do with the faith, but I still love her and I'm here to visit her. And I said, how is that possible? And he said something to me, I will never forget. He said, you know, my daughter grew up in a home where we taught the Bible and we prayed, but we never opened our home in hospitality to other people, particularly real outsiders. And she grew up in a congregation where she never saw anybody really changed by the power of Christ. And when she left, she thought it just wasn't real, because it didn't work. Now you want to see, listen, what's going to make our children safe? What's going to make our family lives flourish? I will tell you, come follow him and he will make us fishers of man. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that your Spirit would descend on us, that you would analyze us and search, or searcher of hearts, come among us. And would you highlight and make clear to us all of our net-cleaning, Jonah-like ways, enable us to leave them so that we have a pure desire to follow the one whose heart is to be a fisher of the people around us. Lord, descend on us so that your love is a vehicle that draws us closer to one another than we've ever been. And that pushes your love out in ways that transform with power that would genuinely amaze us. Come be among us as you were among the first disciples so that we may know you as they knew you, we pray, and Jesus name of Him. Would you stand and to get...