The Message of Jesus. (Mark 1:14-20)
When Jesus began his public ministry, the first thing he did was speak out a particular message. Before he had even told any stories before he had healed the first person, or worked the first miracle, he delivered a message. He gave a message he did what we would call today preaching a sermon. Jesus was in a very real sense a preacher. Some would say probably first and foremost he was a preacher. As a matter of fact, as we shall soon see, Mark 1 Chapter tells us that is one of the main reasons he came, in fact ,later in verse 38 Jesus says.
Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also, for that is why I have come.’
(Mark 1:38)
So, Jesus himself not only said he came to preach, but that that was why he had in fact came in the first place. That leads me to say, if Jesus came to preach, then Jesus must have had a particular message he wanted to give us and it’s that message I would like for us to look at today.
In the opening verses of Mark that we looked at last week we see the beginnings of Jesus public ministry. Verses 1-13 showed us what events had occurred in preparation for his ministry, but these next verses show us what he actually said and did. The first thing we are told he did was preach to the crowds and also talk to individuals. Individuals like Peter and Andrew and some others as we shall see later. This passage we are about to journey through together, contains two parts, two specific messages that he will give. The first message is he tells people to believe, then he will call them to follow. So, let’s look at these verses and see how they might apply to us. and let’s begin by looking at Mark 1:14-15
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
(Mark 1: 14-15)
The passage opens by saying; “after John was put in prison.” Mark is beginning his account by giving us a timeline and saying, John the Baptist has been put in prison, and around this time Jesus begins to preach. The details are scant, but then with the events described happening less that thirty years earlier there is probably a assumption that those reading his account have a reasonable idea of what occurred and when. He continues by telling us that “Jesus came to Galilee, “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God”.
Let’s just pause for a minute and talk about the kingdom of God. This is a very important concept in the bible and frankly many people don’t really understand what the kingdom of God is. In fact, some people talk about the kingdom of God being here today in the church. “Kingdom Now” theology some call it. But this verse clearly has Jesus;” saying, “the kingdom of God is not now, rather it, is at hand”. So, what is the kingdom of God? Is it a personal spiritual thing?
I believe that’s not really what the scripture teaches. To really understand the kingdom of God, you have got to first get a grip on concepts only found in the Old Testament. In II Samuel chapter 7 a kingdom is promised to the heirs of David, which is the beginning of this idea being revealed ,but the really critical passage is found in Daniel 2 where we are told that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom.
‘In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to other people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure for ever’.
(Daniel 2:44)
Think about this for a minute, this means that this kingdom will chronologically replace all others. The Old Testament is full of references to a coming kingdom, a literal kingdom that would be on this earth. As a matter of fact, at the time of Jesus when he appeared, Israel as a nation was expecting a Messiah who would set up a kingdom. A physical kingdom on the earth. The kingdom of God is not some spiritual kingdom that just exists because we say, Jesus is in our hearts, because in the word of God the kingdom of God is something that is still to come and lies off sometime in the future. As Christians today, we are told to pray, “thy kingdom come”, not thy kingdom is here. But the real verse that demonstrates that this event is in the future is at the end of the Gospels where Jesus institutes the Lord’s supper. In Matthew 26 he says this. “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” The kingdom of God is a coming kingdom in the future. It is not now, it’s not fulfilled today in the worldwide church, it will be fulfilled sometime in the future at the end of the ages. And it is this, kingdom that Jesus came preaching about here in Mark and elsewhere. So, how is that significant to us? Mark continues.
Saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel”.
(Mark 1:15)
So, what has actually been fulfilled, certainly not the kingdom has come, because that kingdom is only, at hand. The kingdom of God is not here. The kingdom of God is near is what Jesus taught. Because the kingdom is coming, then of course time is short, and a decision has to be made. Jesus comes preaching, saying I’m here, the Messiah is here, and this is now what you need to do. You need to repent,
You need repent because the kingdom is at hand, because it is just around the corner. Repent and believe.
The concept of repentance is another concept in the bible that is grossly misunderstood by many people. People think that repentance is about regretting or feeling sorry for your sin. But the word repentance simply means to change your mind about how sin should be dealt with. By recognising that you can’t justify yourself and sort this sin problem on its own it means by changing you mind to such an extent that you can begin extract yourself from the moral entanglements you’ve brought upon yourself, by acknowledging the need of God help and you then continuing on through life in a completely different direction. Repenting when combined with believing means to stop trusting yourself to try and achieve this. Rather you trust in the Jesus the Messiah (The saviour) that God has sent in order to achieve it. Jesus is saying here, you people are trusting in yourselves to be right with God.
Isn’t that what we often do. We come before God thinking that because we have done some good things, we can trust in the merit of those good deeds to make us right with God. But Jesus here comes along and says, No, you need to change your mind about what sin is. You need to change your mind about believing that you can deal with that problem through your own actions. You can only deal with sin by repenting and trusting in me. I am reminded of what Jesus said to Nicodemus when he questioned Jesus on this matter.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”.
(John 3:3-5)
Nicodemus didn’t get that straight away because he reply back to Jesus was, “How can a man be born when he is old?
The Jesus replies in verse 5; “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”.
So, Jesus says, in order to enter the kingdom of God you must be born again. Here is the first message Jesus Christ came to preach he said, believe in me. Believe that I am the Son of God. Believe that I came and died on the cross to pay for your sins. Not for the corporate sins of whole nation or a society, but your own personal individual personal shortcoming that have caused you and other people so much pain and heartache. Believe I rose from the dead and trust me alone to deal with that barrier that exist between you and God so that you can experience eternal life.
Repent, change your mind, don’t come to God anymore saying look at me, look at what I have done, just come back to father God and say thank you for providing the way, through your Son Jesus. Don’t come to God saying, look at me, I’ve joined a church. Good for you, but that won’t get you to heaven. Don’t come to God saying, look at me I help little old ladies across the road. Good for you, but it won’t get you to heaven. Change your mind about all that stuff, that false religion and supposed holiness, stop trusting in that stuff, and instead trust in Jesus Christ and what he has done on your behalf. Believe, in me, Trust in me, not in yourself or your own good works. And that was the first part of the message of Jesus. But he has a second message for us.
And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
(Mark 1:16)
John chapter one tells us they knew and recognised Jesus as the Messiah prior to this happening. Chronologically they already knew who he was before what we read about here in Mark. In other words, Simon Andrew, and Peter had already trusted in Christ. (See John account in John Ch 1) So, after trusting in him, perhaps a few days later, Jesus meets them again, and they are carrying on with their occupation (fishing- which is what they did for a living). The Jesus says.
Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
(Mark 1:17)
I said Jesus has two messages for you this morning. We’ll he has, and the first message was, believe in me. And the second message is, follow me. Do you know that there were exactly 330 fishing Boats plying their trade that day on the sea of Galilee? How do I know that (Josephus – Governor of Galilee recorded it) 330 boats meaning slightly over 1000 men were making a living fishing the sea of Galilee.
So, these were ordinary working men and here is Jesus’s message to ordinary common people. Believe in me, and after you have done that, follow me.
Just think about that for a minute, suppose you are going about your daily business and Jesus comes up to you and says, hey, ??? follow me. In order to follow him you might have turn around and go in a new direction. But also, in order to do what he says you would have to obey him. In order to follow him you have to obey him. Whatever I do, you should do, he says. Whatever I teach, you should obey. Now at that time, Jesus is there in the flesh, so it meant for them to physically follow him and be his travelling companions. Jesus did not say to the disciples, I have a systematic theology I would like you to follow. Jesus did not say, I have certain religious theories, I would like you to discuss. I have an ethical system I would like you to live by. No, he just said follow me. It all began with a personal call, and a personal response, to a personal relationship with him.
Jesus called his followers not to live a comfortable life of ease, not to be passive not to be inactive. Rather, he called them to task that involved getting up of their back sides and doing something. Jesus said, trust me, then follow me, and you can only follow him, if you obey him. Tt this point we just see him call Peter and Andrew and text tells us in verse 18 that they.
“Immediately left their nets and followed him.”
When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets.
(Mark 1:19-20)
In other words, Jesus just travelled a little further along the shores of Galilee and he bumps into another boat of fishermen, two brothers, “James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John”. So, John and Andrew go and tell their brothers and then we have two sets of brothers and friends who are among the first disciples of Jesus Christ.
As a matter of fact, Luke 5 tells us they were partners with Peter in the fishing business. The first disciples are all people who know each other well, and some of whom are even brothers. The text at this point says.
And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after Him.
(Mark 1:20)
What do you think he called them to do? That’s right, follow him. I want you to notice something very carefully, look a few verses. Verse 18 says, “They immediately left their nets and followed Him”. Simon Peter and Andrew left their occupation and immediately followed him, we see, James and John, left their family and also followed him. Being a disciple is just a word that describes the process of following Jesus in order to learn from him how to live a life where Gods will is paramount in your life, to obey God will and that process often means putting the Lord first in every part of your life. It means you put the Lord first in all your activity and your decision making. When Jesus says follow me, he means, put me first, and you do that by obeying me. Putting him above every other thing in your life.
What does it mean today, in the 21st century, to put Jesus first. Should it mean you leave you job and your family and head off into the sunset. Not necessarily, but, if you put Jesus first, and that means in a work situation if your boss says you have to lie, or cheat, then you have to say no. If you put Jesus Christ above other relationships that means if there comes a situation like lying or cheating in order to get even a friend or family member out of trouble, that a step too far and you have to say no. In the final analysis following Jesus, means he calls the shots, and you now march to a different tune. Do you ever feel out of step with the world. Well, it may be because you are marching to the beat of a different drum.
When you become a follower of Christ everything is different. You will not live to own stuff, you may have stuff going on in your life, but it will no longer control you. You no longer should try and control people, you will try instead try to serve people. That’s the message of Jesus. Believe in me, trust me, he says. Follow me he says and also you do those first two things by obeying me. That’s a radicle decision in anyone’s life. So, that’s it, right there at the beginning of his ministry Jesus preached this right from the get-go. Since the kingdom of God is coming, you must trust me in order to one day enter into it. Follow me to continue on together in this life and obey me to be blessed on that journey.
I would like to wind this up by making a couple of quick observations.
Trust me has to do with salvation.
Follow me as to do with discipleship.
And those are two very different things.
This passage among other make that very clear, because it says trust me, then it says after they trusted him, they followed him. You don’t follow the teaching of Jesus in order to gain salvation and eternal life.
You trust him first. Some people today are mixing those two things up. Keep them distinct and clear in your mind. You first trust in Christ, and the result of trusting in Christ is you immediately gain eternal life, you are saved. Then you choose to follow him. Keep these two things separate.
There is a coming to Christ, for salvation, that’s one thing and afterwards a following of Christ to serve him, which is another thing.
Two blessed, but separate events. There are plenty of people in the modern worldwide church, who are trying to follow the example for Jesus, without trusting in him first. If you haven’t done the 1st thing first, then you need to do that today, so you can then continue on by doing the second thing. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was……lost.
So, the message Christ has for you today is, trust me, and then the message is follow me, and you do that by, obeying me. Perhaps you look at your life and you might feel, if I trust him, I still might fail more than I succeed in following and obeying him. Well, even if you do sometimes fail, the grace of God tells us all you have to do is get up and carry on. You get up, in fact you are raised up, in order that you can carry on, and maybe you work a little harder to make up for what you lost. I believe most true Christian’s feel they fail most of the time.
The picture of life being a race run is referred to a great deal in the New Testament. But the emphasis is never on being first, it’s just about running the race and finishing. As you run the race you may stumble, you might even fall, but you just get up and carry on. It’s not how you start the race, it now how fast you run the race, all that matters is that you finish. Hebrews 12:1, tells us.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”.
(Hebrews 12:1)
For the Christian believer, failure is not final, you don’t win by being first, you win by finishing. So, when you fall, get up and continue the race. When you fail because sin entangles you and trips you up, get up, throw it off, and continue with perseverance. The race has already been marked out for you; you win it by simply crossing the finish line.