2- A Motley Crew: Mark 1:16-20+ - Mike Olynyk, Meadows Church

You're invited!  Come on a journey as we see the sights, smell the smells & experience Jesus' story told by Mark in an immersive way.  Engage in the story as one of the crowd, the disciples or even as a religious leader.  For an even more immersive experience, click the link below to follow along with the PDF media with maps, pictures of historical sites and more.

A Motley Crew PDF - CLICK HERE

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

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You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. Tell me if you've heard this story before. In June 2011, Gilbert and his girlfriend were heading to a park in West Vancouver. You see, they were in town to watch game one of the Stanley Cup finals between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins, and they have their German Shepherd in the car, and they're trying to get some exercise before the rain starts. Well, to their chagrin, it starts to absolutely pour. And as they're driving down the street, they see two guys with their thumbs up looking for a ride. And so they show kindness and they stop for them, and they not realizing that this is a moment that they would remember forever. You see, in their vehicle now sits Bono, the lead singer of Vue 2 and his assistant manager. Well, Gilbert gives Bono a ride to Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal and gets to talk with him all the way there. And then Gilbert ends up not going to game one of the Stanley Cup finals. Instead, Bono hooks him up with backstage passes to his Edmonton concert the next day, and Bono even names him on stage for his charitable act. This is such a right place, right time moment for Gilbert and his girlfriend. Have you ever had a moment like that in life? Where you're just you just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Well, for 12 young men, it would seem that they were in the right place at the right time too. Only this time, Jesus would very intentionally call them to something that would change their life forever. Well, we've been walking through uh the book of Mark right now in our new series called Encountering Jesus. And if you weren't here last week, I encourage you to listen to the uh audio online at meadowschurch.ca slash messages. I'm gonna clump together three passages this evening from Scripture, uh, Mark 1, 16 to 20, Mark 2, 12 to 17, and Mark 3, 13 to 19. In these passages, this is these are the moments where right time, right place, Jesus calls his twelve apostles. And I say that tongue in cheek because, of course, Jesus was very intentional. God knew that they would be at the place to be called, and he had chosen these twelve from the start. Well, in the process of clumping these passages together, we're gonna miss something today. You see, Jesus is is preaching, healing, and teaching in Mark 1. Then it goes back to the story. And then Jesus confronts the Pharisees on topics of Sabbath and fasting. And so there are two reasons why I want to bring this to your attention. And the first is don't worry, we'll be circling back to these stories in the coming weeks. And then two, it's important to know that Jesus didn't just pick 12 people out of a crowd as Mark III would infer if you're not reading the whole story. But he handpicked them within several scenarios as he was doing ministry. And so let's dive in in Mark 1, verse 16 to 20. But why don't we start in prayer? God, I thank you for this time. I thank you that we can dive into your word. God, would you just uh may it just come to life in our minds as we read the true story of your life? God, you're so good. Bless us in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Mark 1:16. One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and I'm gonna stop right there. You see, let's talk about the Sea of Galilee. I I was telling you that as we encounter Jesus, I want to dig into the story. What did it smell like? What did it look like? And so we're gonna do that. You see, the Sea of Galilee was a truly important sea for Israel. It was a huge source of income for the region and fishing. The lake was quite big, it was about 53 kilometers if you were to hike around it, and it was 21 kilometers long, and at the widest spot of the lake, it's kind of a teardrop, it uh was 13 kilometers. I want to give you some reference on that. Cultist Lake has a shoreline of 14 kilometers, so the Sea of Galilee, if you've ever been to Cultist Lake, is three times the size of the Sea of Galilee. Galilee became a huge commercial fisheries for the Romans. The Romans used it and heavily taxed the fishermen that went there. And so small fishermen, small fishermen families like Peter and Andrews and others, they'd be actually struggling to survive right now against bigger commercial fishermen that were there. And the sea at the time was severely overfished. And what were they fishing for? Well, I love this. I want to see what's coming out of their nets. They fished for sardines, for tilapia, and for a fish called barbel, which is quite a large fish that dwells on the bottom of the lake. Let's continue. Now we know what the sea is like. Well, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, Come, follow me. I will show you how to fish for people. And they left their nets at once and they followed him, just like that. There's a little more to the story that we'll get into, but no, they dropped everything to follow Jesus. That's what Mark wants us to know. And a little farther up the shore, verse 19 says, Jesus saw Sebedee's sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boats with the hired men. Well, Matthew's gospel tells us that they had actually been out all night and hadn't caught a thing. Fishing at night, you might actually think that that's kind of weird. But in the culture of the day, that was actually normal. It was actually what fishermen did. You see, fishing nets were not made out of the virtually see-through nets that we have today, made out of nylon. Their nets back then were made out of thicker linen, and the fish could see the net coming in the daytime. And so fishing was far less effective in the daytime, and night was the best chance to catch fish. But you see, in spite of their best efforts, overworked and all, underpaid and heavily taxed, these fishermen had caught nothing. And then suddenly Jesus walks up to them, and their response is to leave everything and to follow Jesus. But I want you to understand something because I think getting into the character and using the other gospels, Matthew and Luke and John, to help us inform our reading of Mark, it's really important. You see, Andrew, this isn't the first time he's seen Jesus. He actually saw him near John the Baptist in verse 135. Let's read it together. The following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples. And as Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, Look, there is the Lamb of God, talking about Jesus. And when John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. Who were these two disciples? Well, verse 40 tells us this. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these two men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. Andrew went to tell his brother Simon and told him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. So there's a priming of the pump in faith. I have experienced this in my own life. I can look back before I was a Christian and see Jesus tugging at my heartstring through numerous events in life. This is happening for Andrew, too. Mark's gospel doesn't get into a lot of detail, though, about character development here. Mark is very precisely focused on one thing. Even glossing over almost, or giving a very short account of Jesus' baptism, his temptation, and the calling of Peter, Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee. You see, in verse, in chapter one, Mark is making a very special point, a clear point, that Jesus is the Messiah, and that the calling to come to him is actionable. It is a weighty decision. They didn't get to weigh their decision at home at the dinner table or count the costs of leaving their lives as fishermen. In an instant, they dropped everything to follow Jesus. See, Mark wants us to be very clear on that and actually leaves out what he thinks is less important information for his point that they dropped their nets and followed him, period. And we'll come, I think we should come back to this. We're gonna like end our discussion time looking at this. But I don't know about you, but I want to know a little more about the story. We've gleaned from John's gospel that Andrew met Jesus before his calling, and Matthew actually has some information based on his telling of Jesus' life that we can glean from as well to kind of flesh out the narrative. Let's check it out. Matthew 5, verse 1. One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. You see, Mark didn't tell this because he wanted a very specific thing to be mentioned that I just talked about. So know that these four gospel accounts are true and real accounts of Jesus' life, but each author has a nuance. Mark is speaking to a predominantly Roman audience, and so he wanted Messiah, and he wanted the cost of following Jesus to be really forefront in our center. Matthew is different, and so I love that we can get this story in full. Verse 2. He noticed two empty boats on the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. Remember, Andrew and Peter would have known that this is Jesus, that he was the Messiah, or that he claimed to be the Messiah. And so, yeah, get in the boat, do your thing. He pushed it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowd from there. I love that scene. Just sitting in a boat. The reverberations of his sound from his voice off the water would would mean he didn't have to shout for the crowds to hear or talk loud. He could just talk normally and they could hear him. How cool is that? Now it's time for the repayment, the payment for the boat rental, if you will, in verse 4. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Now go out where it's deep and let down your nets to catch some fish. Remember, it is daytime, it is not nighttime. It is not the ideal time to fish, and they have been out all night. Verse 5, Master Simon replied, We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets again. And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear. Hmm. Like I'm so curious about the science of this, of what actually happened under the water. Was God keeping fish in some kind of compartment in the water, a forest field or something? Or was the miracle that Jesus actually made fish come out of thin air and get in the nets? You ever thought about those? Like how the miracle actually happened? All I know is that if Jesus made fish come out of thin air, it would probably be the best tasting fish somebody's ever had, and they probably wouldn't even know it. Well, let's keep going with our story. I'm a curious guy. I love to get in the get in, right? We're gonna do that a lot in scripture. Verse 7. Well, a shout for help brought their partners in the other boats. This is the sons of Zebedee, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking. And when Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, Oh Lord, please leave me. I'm such a sinful man. For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Well, Jesus replied to Simon, You don't need to be afraid. From now on, you'll be fishing for people. And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus. The biggest catch of their life. Payday. Pay off the debts and get going with their company with the with the amount that they made in one day. No, they dropped everything. And they followed Jesus. Well, let's move on, because Jesus calls more people to his inner circle, and I thought I would pair them together. So let's go to Mark 2, verse 13. Then Jesus went out to the lake shore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alpha, sitting at his tax collector's booth. This is also Matthew. Levi was named Matthew. He said, Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him. And I gotta wonder, like, what was Jesus thinking in this moment? I know the Pharisees were thinking it, because Levi or Matthew, or whatever you want to call him, he's a traitor to Israel. I mean, you gotta understand something. Rome has come in and taken over, and there's soldiers everywhere, and the Jews have to pay this extra tax to a dude who lives in Rome, and Levi is the one who is taking this tax. And if that's not bad enough, not only is he taking tax for the emperor, he's skimming some off the top and making himself rich off the backs of poor Jewish people. Heck, Peter and Andrew, James and John, they would have most likely come to actually pay taxes to Levi at one point or another with gritted teeth. And here Jesus is calling him as an apostle. Oh, it gets worse. Let's read. Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, why does he eat with such scum? I love Jesus' next answer. It's so beautiful. It shows that there should only be love in the church and that there shouldn't be any judgment to people coming to church. There's no bouncer at the door because of what Jesus says in this moment. We talked about it last week, but let's read it. Verse 17, he told them healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know that they are sick. I love that metaphor. We this is a hospital meadows church. And we can come with infirmities and we can be healed. The scars on our hearts, physical pain. Come. Pray for each other, live life together. Oh, so good. Alright, let's move on. Mark 3, 13 to 19 gives us the list of this motley crew of regular old Joes that have been used in powerful ways by Jesus. So let's check it out. Verse 13. Afterwards, after he talked to the Pharisees about fasting and Sabbath rest, Jesus went up on the mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. Then he appointed twelve of them and called them his apostles. They were to accompany him, and he would send them out to preach, giving them authority to cast out demons. And these are the twelve he chose. Simon, whom he named Peter, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, but Jesus nicknamed them Sons of Thunder. We'll talk about that in a sec. Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, son of Altheus, and Thaetus and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed him. By the way, you see the bracketed and the and the quotation marks text. That's not my own personal addition. That is the text. This is Mark talking to us and telling us who the disciples are. But let's look at this list for a second. I mean, you got Simon and Andrew, who are just poor fishermen, completely uneducated. While other people were at the temple trying to take in as much scripper, memorizing the Torah and getting all religious, they were in the boats with their dads. James and John as well. And James and John, Jesus has labeled the sons of thunder. Well, let me tell you, I did some research, and scholars believe that they were named this because of their fiery temper and their quick to violence disposition. And Jesus calls them to be apostles. Let me give you an example. In Luke's gospel in chapter 5, they are so over the top with this one scene. You see, there's a village, and they're not being hospitable to Jesus, and they don't want anything to do with them. And this is what James and John come to Jesus with. They say, Should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up? Jesus scorns them. Jesus was about love. Sons of thunder. Let's go down the rest of the list. You have Philip and Bartholomew. We don't actually know much about them. They're only listed in the four lists of the disciples. And then you have Levi, who is Matthew. Matthew is Levi the tax collector. And he probably changed his name because he lived such a horrible profession. You have doubting Thomas, who won't believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead unless he puts his fingers into the holes where Jesus was nailed to the cross. That's how much he doubted God. And yet Jesus says, Come follow me. Then you have Thaedis and James, and not much is known about them, but then you Jesus calls a zealot. Simon, and and I just want to give you the heads up on zealots. Zealots were people that were very, very passionate and trained to basically become Jewish assassins against Rome. You see, they were trained, and they thought that they would violently overtake their land back from Rome. And so he was trained in all sorts of deadly encounters. Maybe he had even done some of these. Yet Jesus says, Don't be a part of violence, come follow me. Where love is the answer. We know that because Jesus died on the cross. Last one, don't get me started about Judas. Who selfishly takes on treasurer of the group so that he can siphon off money for himself from the donations? Well, and and he ultimately betrayed Jesus. We're gonna look at that in a little bit. It's gonna be one of our table discussions. Why did Jesus choose Judas to be part of his inner twelve? So all the wisdom in the world would say that four uneducated fishermen, a greasy tax collector, a doubter lacking faith, a zealot, and a betrayer are not the consortment of star church planters. You know, people who would bring Jesus' kingdom forward and take over for him when he raised from the dead. And yet this motley crew of misfits is who Jesus chose to hang out with, to live life with, to teach, to unleash, to heal, and to cast out demons and all that on their own, two by two. And they would ultimately lead the first church. And you know what? As I think about that, the character of God, it is yet another reason why I believe Jesus is Lord of my life and why I want to follow him. Because he chooses to use schmucks like me to do amazing things for the kingdom. Just I just love it. And you guys aren't schmucks, but but he chooses to use you too if you're willing. It's incredible. The kicker. I said we come back to Mark precision focus on this. And just quickly, it's this one Jesus. Is calling us to something bigger than ourselves. And two, accepting that calling is not an easy decision. It takes being willing to put aside everything. It's not giving up everything because there's this cool part in scripture that says that if we ask, the Father will give us great gifts, but it's willing to put ourselves aside to make Jesus King of our lives and to follow him instead of what we want to make of life. And what I've found is that in the process of putting aside my own hopes, desires, and dreams and putting my trust in Jesus, he fulfills all of that and we gain so much more. So I want to say if you're still on the fence, continue to lean in at Meadows Church. Come and let's encounter Jesus together. Let's uh be the contemplating crowd who asks the question: could he be the real deal? Could he be the Messiah? And my prayer as we encounter Jesus together is that you would dive headfirst into relationship with him. There is an adventure of love that will change your life forever. But you can't half adder. It's a give everything to Jesus and follow me type of faith. And the craziest thing is that when we give everything to Jesus, we gain the world. Our life changes, and we live the best life that we could ever live, filled with purpose and hope and freedom. God, I thank you for my friends. I thank you that we can dig into the word and that we can encounter you through Scripture. Jesus, for those that are on the fence, that are still seeking you, that are here. God, would you just rock their world? Would you come and meet them? Would they have no choice but to accept your hope and your freedom? You are so good, God. We love you. We worship you for all that you do in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with a pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to meadowschurch.ca.