Mark 1:14-20
As we’ve seen the last few weeks, Mark tends to leave quite a few details out of his gospel that the other authors choose to include. It’s important to start this week by setting a more accurate stage than what we see at the beginning of the passage this morning. Go ahead and turn to Mark chapter 1, and we’ll be in verses 14-20. Mark 1:14-20.
Read vs. 14
After John was arrested. We don’t see it here, but between verse 13 and verse 14, we actually have a whole year that has passed. This has become known as the “Year of Obscurity.” In John 1:19-4:54, there is substantial ministry that takes place before Jesus appears on the scene in Galilee in Mark 1:14. Here’s a summary:
In John 1, we see Andrew as being one of the disciples of John the Baptist. He was the brother of Peter, and we’ll talk about them in our passage in Mark this morning. But we see in chapter 1 that John introduces Andrew to Jesus, and Andrew runs to grab Peter to come to meet the Messiah. Jesus doesn’t “call” them in this passage, but they do begin to follow Him where He was teaching and performing miracles.
During this time we have the wedding in which Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus travels from Galilee to Capernaum, and then Jerusalem. This is where we find the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus in that famous passage in John 3. Jesus and His followers leave Jerusalem and go into the Judean countryside where John the Baptist is still preaching and still baptizing people. Listen to John 3:22-24:
“After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized (for John had not yet been put in prison).”
Evidence of our time gap here, with John not yet being put into prison. Jesus decides to return to Galilee, but had to pass through Samaria to get there, this is where we see the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. Jesus finally returns to Galilee, and this is where we pick up in Mark 1:14.
Read Mark 1:14-20
Big Idea: Following Jesus requires us to leave much behind, and live on gospel mission.
John’s work is complete. He has paved the way for Jesus, and Jesus picks up right where John left off, preaching the same message of repentance. What does He mean, though, when He says that the “time is fulfilled,” and “the kingdom of God is at hand?”
Time is Fulfilled - “The time which God had appointed for the Messiah to come had arrived.” The Old Testament prophecies about the coming King have been realized. Jesus’ ministry has commenced!
Kingdom of God is at hand - This literally means “as close as your hand.” The King has arrived, and the building of His kingdom is taking place. Believers are being gathered. The Kingdom is growing. And it’s all happening through the message that Jesus is proclaiming: “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
“Turn from your old ways,” Jesus says, “and believe that I am the Chosen One sent to Redeem mankind!” This is the same message that John the Baptist was preaching, only now it’s Jesus Himself who IS the good news. He preaches it, and he embodies it.
The meat of our message this morning is found in verses 16-20. We’ll see 3 truths about following Jesus.
1.. Following Jesus often has begins with the work of preparation (1:16a)
Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee and sees Simon, or Peter as he would come to be known, and Andrew, his brother. Remember, this is not the first time that they had encountered Jesus. Andrew was introduced to Jesus by John the Baptist, and Andrew then introduced his brother Simon to Jesus as well. Before that, though, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was preaching the message of repentance, and Andrew was a believer of that message. So when Jesus comes on the scene, Andrew was already bought-in to the person of Jesus, because of the preparatory work of John.
We don’t see Simon being a disciple of John the Baptist, although I’m sure his brother Andrew told him all about his experiences while they were out fishing. But Simon encounters Jesus and starts to follow Him, sitting under His teaching and observing some of the miracles that Jesus performed.
Both of these men, before we get to their response to permanently follow Jesus, had been prepared for the call from Christ. Each of them had a unique road of preparation, but nonetheless they had a season of observing, learning and exploring. I’m sure there was some deep wrestling taking place as well.
Is this always the case, though? No. Sometimes someone has no prior knowledge of Jesus or Christianity for that matter, but when introduced to Jesus for the first time, they accept His gift of salvation. That happens. But, let’s not miss the importance of the preparation.
Preparation by a friend - Maybe you have someone that you have been trying to reach, but it’s been a really slow process. That’s OK. Sometimes, our responsibility is simply to plant the seeds. It may be that those seeds that have been planted won’t be watered until years later by someone else! It may be that after that person waters the seeds, there is no growth for another couple of years! We tend to beat ourselves up when we don’t see an immediate response from people. But guess what? It’s not up to us to save people. It’s up to us to plant seeds by loving them and talking about Jesus. It’s up to us to water the seeds that have been sewn, but the Holy Spirit is ultimately the One doing the drawing and removing the scales from their eyes.
2.. Following Jesus will be difficult (1:16b-17)
In our passage, Andrew, Simon, James and John are all fishermen. This was a labor-intensive job with long hours and often no reward. The Sea of Galilee was a tough place to fish, with storms rolling in at a moments notice over the hills, making it impossible to fish. The boats were long wooden boats, about 27 feet in length, and the nets they were using were circular, with heavy weights around the perimeter to create a kind of parachute shape to trap the fish. Then when they would pull the rope, the weights would come together, trapping the fish inside.
It was a daily grind. It was their life. It was their livelihood. It was their identity. They were fishermen.
When Jesus officially calls them to follow Him, He uses their occupation as a way to relate to their experience. He uses a fishing analogy because that’s just about all they know. There’s a great lesson there perhaps for another message, but let’s talk about what Jesus is calling them to.
I think often we think of this idea of “fishing for men” as a fishing rod with the proper evangelistic bait that we use to hook people and reel them into Christianity. That’s the type of fishing most of us know. Bait the hook, and try to catch fish, one at a time. But when Jesus was talking to Andrew and Simon about becoming fishers of men, that would not have been where their minds went. They would have taken their knowledge of net fishing, and applied it to people. So what would this have evoked in their minds?
“Man, this is going to be really hard. This is going to be labor-intensive, with days where we don’t catch anything at all. It’s going to be exhausting. It’s going to be frustrating. It’s also going to be exciting when we catch something. Our nets are going to break, and we’ll have to work to repair them before going out to fish again. It’s going to require perseverance. It’s going to require persistence. It’s going to require dedication. We are going to have to give our lives to this.”
By using the analogy of fishing, Jesus was giving them insight into what following Him would require, and with that in mind, it makes their response even more incredible.
3.. Following Jesus requires radical obedience (1:18-20)
Immediately, they left their nets. They were willing to leave everything: Their jobs, their boats, their nets, their own fathers. What a huge risk they were taking! And it’s awesome that after the road of preparation had been paved for each of them, there was an immediate obedience, a radical obedience.
How do we know they left it behind? Look at verse 21, “And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching.” He’s walking along the Sea of Galilee. He sees Andrew and Simon, calls them and they agree to go with Him. They continue walking and they come upon James and John, same thing happens. They continue walking together all the way to Capernaum. Like, they left it all behind and didn’t look back. They had seen and heard enough that when the Savior called them there was no hesitation whatsoever, even though they knew the road would be difficult, because they believed that He was The Promised One, come to deliver them.
They didn’t know what was coming! They didn’t know where they were going! They had no clue. But, they knew that there was something about this Man that was worth leaving everything behind. They knew there was something better in front of them.
Application
Let’s take point 2 and point 3, and lay them over our lives as Christians. Nowhere in the Bible do we ever see Jesus, or anyone else for that matter, tell us that following Jesus would be easy. It’s actually quite the opposite. We’ll talk about a lot of it as we work through Mark, but here are just a few things that are said about being a disciple of Jesus:
Luke 9:62 - Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 14:33 - So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 10:38 - And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Luke 14 - Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Following Jesus requires a daily denial of self. Saying no to ourselves everyday, and instead saying yes to Jesus. Following Jesus requires us to completely turn from our old way of life, and not look back. Following Jesus requires elevating Him above all other relationships. Jesus also promises persecution:
2 John 15:19-20 - If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
Matthew 5:10-12 - Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
WIth all of that in mind, we would have to be crazy to choose this life! It requires a radical kind of obedience. Dying to myself for the sake of Jesus?! Expecting persecution and rejoicing in it?! But like Simon, Andrew, James and John, something about Jesus makes it so worth it. So with them, we jump out of the boats and leave the nets behind, no matter the cost, no matter what is to come.
