Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #7

Jesus Sees, Jesus Calls. We Leave Our _____ and follow Him
Mark 1:16-20

16 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. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 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 God. Let's pray...

We are not going long with the message tonight because we are also holding a celebration on the hilltop right after this when Gwen gets baptized.

Here's the big idea that I want you to pick up tonight and carry with you tonight. And it ties in closely with the last sermon that I gave from the Gospel of Mark.

The big idea from this text is that:
Jesus sees. Jesus calls. We leave our ______ and follow Him.
Let me go through the text with you again and if you have your own Bible with you tonight, I would encourage you to underline or highlight a few of the words in this passage.

16 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. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Do you see the pattern? Pay close attention when you see repetition like this in Scripture.

If you jump ahead to Chapter 2 you will see the same pattern again in the calling of Levi, the tax collector. In 2:13-14 it says this:

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. (Mark 2:13-14)

This kind of turning away from the comforts of a family business and a steady, safe, life did not start with Simon, Andrew, James and John. It didn't start with Levi.

It is a call that we see throughout the Bible. Way back in ancient times, God called out a man named Abram and told him to leave the land of his family and to follow a new, God given path.

Later on, when God's people went off in their rebellion, God called a farmer named Amos to leave his fields go to the people and call them out on their sin.

And like we pointed out a few weeks ago, Jesus incarnate – in the flesh – had to leave the human comforts of his home, and life and family in Nazareth of Galilee to follow the will of His Father in Heaven.

Now that is a big point that we need to see and understand and keep close to our hearts. That is the point that we are going to end on tonight, we are going to circle back to it in a few moments.
Before we wrap it up there though, I need to address another point.

The point is that Jesus called us out for a specific reason. What did Jesus call us out for? To be fishers of men. He used that phrase with the fisherman, because that is what they understood. He contextualized the mission statement so they could better understand their role in the Kingdom movement.

He made it more pointedly in a way for all of us to understand in what we call the Great Commission. When He saw you and called you, He called you to leave your old pursuits for your own glory, and your own gain, and your own comfort – and He called you to follow Him in one very clear and distinct mission on this side of eternity:

Starting with the people closest to you and then branching out into wider and wider circles, He called you and He called me to go to all the nations, that is to all of the people groups of the world and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded.

If you are His, if you are a Christian – meaning a Christ follower – then that is your call.

It will not always be easy. Most of the time it will be down right dangerous to your reputation, to your standard of living, to your former life goals, etc.

The Gospel mission may be dangerous to your health, to your life and even to the lives of those closest to you depending on the time and place you are born and where He calls to you go.

Today, so many of us are quick to grab hold of the gift of God’s grace without ever looking into the clear implications. I think that is true – at least partially – because we pastors are negligent in our duties to spell this all out for you on a regular basis. This kind of message does not generally help to build a big church.
But, in other parts of the world this mission is clear.
It other parts of the world it is undeniable that this is an eternal gift that comes with a very clear instruction and a very high, though temporary, cost.

Now let's wrap this up where we left off. I said earlier that this kind of turning away from the comforts of a family business and a steady, safe, life did not start with Simon, Andrew, James and John. It didn't start with Levi.

We also need to understand that it didn't end with them either. Read the rest of the New Testament you will see the pattern over and over again. Look through the history of the early church. Look through the Reformation. Over and over and over again, the pattern plays out.

Even in our own country this has been true. Especially back when we lived with more reckless abandon in our faith.

While listening to a biography one day I had to pull aside and just pause when I heard the following letter being read.

John Piper was discussing the life of Adoniram Judson, a Christian missionary who reached into India and later into Rangoon, Burma (also known as Myanmar).
On the same day that Judson pledged to leave his life of comfort in the states for an uncertain life in the mission field — on that same day — he met the woman who would be his wife, Ann Hasseltine.

The letter that Piper read, the letter that caused me to stop and take notice - the letter that very well may stir in your heart a desire to give more of yourself to the cause of Christ - was this letter that Judson wrote to Anne’s father.

It was a letter to ask for Anne’s hand in marriage and a letter to recognize what a heavy price such an agreement would entail. Here’s the letter, which Piper got from the biography, To the Golden Shore The Life of Adoniram By: Courtney Anderson.
Please listen to this though the heart of a parent receiving this letter in the mail:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

How would you have responded to that letter? How will you respond when God makes it clear that the Gospel will cost you something in this life?

Will you turn away from your God and cling to the fleeting comfort of what is around you now, or will you hold everything here in open hands with a steadfast faith in what is to come?

Listen, He may be showing some of us real soon what the Cause of Christ will cost us. When the rubber meets the road, when he calls you will you leave ______ and follow Him or will you ignore the call?

Anne's father read that letter and, more in love with God, more concerned with the lost souls on the other side of the world than with his saved daughter in the states, he agreed to allow her to marry Judson.

Oh! I pray that our convictions would be so strong. What would you do if you got that letter? What if your child came to you tonight and said, “I’m being called to serve Jesus in North Korea” (or Pakistan or even in Rangoon, Burma, which is still very hostile to Christians).
Listen the story isn't just about Judson or Anne's father, but also Anne, herself. Anne wasn’t some unwilling tag-along.

She knew what she was getting into. Jesus saw her, Jesus called her, she prepared to leave and to follow Him ANYWHERE.

Before she went, she wrote this letter to her friend, Lydia. This letter came from the same book that Piper cited in his biography.

I feel willing, and expect, if nothing in Providence prevents, to spend my days in this world in heathen lands. Yes, Lydia, I have about, come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his Providence, shall see fit to place me.

And what Anne understood and her father understood and her husband Adoniram Judson understood was this: They were not doing anything that Jesus had not done already. We talk about it all the time here. Jesus didn’t leave a comfortable life in 1800’s America like the Judson’s. And He didn’t just leave the stability of a family fishing business and the fellowship with His dad in that business like James and John.

He gave up the grandeur of Heaven and all of the praise that He rightfully got from the angels who sang of His holiness. He left that and followed the will of the Father into the muck of this broken world and he took on the danger and the scorn and the rejection that He knew would come with this missionary journey and - on the cross - he clothed Himself with the sin of the world, EVERY SIN.

So that we could be saved from the punishment that was due to us for those sins and so that God might receive all the glory.

Now, we are going to pack up and caravan up to the North Madison Christian Church, where Gwen will truly begin her walk in obedience to the will of God by being baptized as a believer in Christ.

It is a time of celebration and we want all of you to be there. Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan for Gwen’s life.

Jesus saw Gwen, Jesus Called Gwen. Now Gwen is leaving her old life and following Him. That’s the picture of Baptism.

When she goes under the water it is a symbol of dying to herself and when she is brought out of the water it symbolizes being made alive in Christ.

As we talked about two weeks ago, baptism is just one of many steps of obedience that we are called by Jesus to take.

Gwen is stepping out into the public eye and saying, “I stand with Christ!”

What is Jesus telling you to leave tonight so that you might better follow Him? Is it a job? Is it a level of comfort or standard of living? Is it a spirit of unforgiveness? Is it a life of paralysis caused by the fear of the unknown? Is it a life of fighting for your rights at the cost of pushing the gospel forward?

I will never make the promise that the Christian life is easy or safe. But I will call you to step away from what holds you back from living in the Gospel because I know that it is better than any tiny treasure of this present age and it is worth any period of struggle or suffering on this side of eternity.

Jesus has seen you and Jesus has called you. It’s time to leave your _______ and follow Him.

Let’s pray…