[0:00] Please take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. And I will read from verse 14 through to verse 20.
[0:17] Mark chapter 1, verse 14. This is the word of God. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
[0:28] The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. 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.
[0:45] Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishes of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets.
[1:01] Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Amen. Let's hear the word of God preached. Brother, that's warmed more than my vocal cords.
[1:16] If that doesn't warm our hearts, what will? Hallelujah. What a Savior. Amen. What a Savior. Well, we've just begun a study of the Gospel of Mark, his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[1:32] And he begins his account not with a record of his birth, but he begins his account with the ministry of Jesus' forerunner, John the Baptist. In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied of this coming messenger of the Lord who would come in the desert as a voice to prepare the people's heart for the Lord.
[1:54] And 700 years later, John came, John the Baptist, and he was preparing people for the Lord's coming. And he did that by preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins, baptizing those who were confessing their sins, and then urging them to put their faith in the one who was coming after him, even this Savior.
[2:18] And so Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptized by John. In that baptism, he was demonstrating his willingness to take the position of the representative of his people and to identify with him and to take their sins upon him.
[2:35] He didn't need to be baptized for his own sins. No, he would stand there in the waters of baptism, identifying with our sins, just as he would stand one day and be punished for those sins on Calvary.
[2:50] And so pleased was the Father with the Lord Jesus willingly coming to do the mission that he sent him to do, that he tore the heavens open, and the Holy Spirit came down as a dove and settled on Jesus.
[3:07] To equip him to do his mission, that of saving sinners. And then the Father voiced his approval as his voice was audibly heard from heaven.
[3:21] This is my beloved. You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased. And at once, the same spirit that came down upon him, then took him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for 40 days.
[3:38] It didn't end then. He was tempted all the way up to the cross. And unlike Adam, the first Adam who represented us, and sunk us all in sin and death and condemnation, this last Adam was obedient to the Father under the worst temptations.
[4:00] And in so doing, he undid that condemnation for his people by himself suffering the condemnation that was due us and giving to us the righteousness we needed to enter into heaven.
[4:15] Well, with that glorious introduction to the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Mark now takes a leap forward in his life of about one year.
[4:27] When he says in verses 14 and 15, after John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
[4:38] The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. So Mark will make his readers wait until chapter 6 to learn how was it that John got thrown into prison and what happened to him there.
[4:53] He chooses to overlook Jesus' year spent in Judea, which John's record records in the first three chapters.
[5:06] And instead, Mark overlooks that year and launches right into Jesus' ministry up in Galilee. Our Lord grew up in Nazareth of Galilee. He came from there to be down into Judea, to be baptized in the Jordan River, to be tempted.
[5:21] And once John was put into prison, he then goes back to Galilee to begin that Galilean ministry. And what I want you to notice at the very beginning is that at the heart of Jesus' ministry is the proclamation of a message.
[5:41] Jesus came to bring us a message from heaven. He came preaching, heralding the good news of God. That shows us the source was from heaven, a divine source.
[5:55] This good news is the good news of God. And that's the first thing we need to realize about this message, that whoever we are, whoever you are, whatever you've done, there is good news from God for you.
[6:10] That's the message Jesus came to bring. And by his preaching, those people sitting in darkness saw a great light. The light and life of Jesus Christ.
[6:24] Two messages this morning, or two points, main points from our text this morning. First of all, the message Jesus preached. And secondly, the first disciples Jesus called.
[6:36] So the message that Jesus came from heaven to deliver to us from God. It's good news. That's the character of his message.
[6:48] And I trust it's, that's why you were singing so loud. It's good news that God sent his son into the world. Well, what was this message that Jesus brought from heaven?
[7:01] Well, we have it summary for us here in verse 15. The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. You notice there's three elements to his message.
[7:13] First of all, the time has come. And it begs the question, what time? What time has come? Well, the time spoken of by all the Old Testament writers, the prophets, from Moses to John the Baptist, the promise of this coming Savior and King coming to save his people.
[7:36] Hundreds of prophecies saying, he's coming. He's coming. And now Jesus announces, the time has come. There's a new time that has arrived.
[7:49] It's the age of fulfillment. It's here because I'm here. God has sent me now. So the Old Testament was a time of promise.
[8:02] Yes, the promise of his coming. The New Testament begins with the announcement of Jesus that the time of fulfillment has come. As Galatians 4.4 says, when the time had fully come, or in the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a woman.
[8:24] So Jesus' message is in the first place then a call, a call to realize what time it is. What time it is on God's calendar.
[8:38] Do you know what time it is? Does anyone really care what time it is? Well, it's the time of fulfillment that has come of all that had been promised throughout the ages.
[8:52] Sadly, Jesus will have to say to his generation in a couple years, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but instead of peace, it will be horrific judgment because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.
[9:17] Luke 19. So that's the first thing. The time has come. Jesus gets more specific in the second statement about this time when he says the kingdom of God is at hand.
[9:32] So the Old Testament kept promising about this coming king. He's coming to establish God's everlasting reign on earth.
[9:44] It's the one to whom the scepter belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. Genesis 49.10. It's that virgin-born son of David who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[10:03] Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
[10:17] It's Daniel, son of man, whose kingdom is going to come and crush all the other kingdoms of the world. The one to whom the Ancient of Days gave authority, glory, and sovereign power so that all peoples, nations, and men of every language worship him.
[10:36] His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Jesus is saying the time has come.
[10:47] The critical moment is here. The long promised kingdom of God is at hand and it's here because God's anointed king is here. And that's the good news.
[11:02] God is acting to establish his kingdom on earth in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. God's kingdom is wherever his reign is acknowledged and submitted to.
[11:17] It's wherever the king rules and reigns in the hearts of people. There his kingdom has come, not merely in word, but in power, kingly power.
[11:29] There his sovereign authority is recognized, appreciated, and submitted to. And because the kingdom of God is now at hand, it is to be entered at once.
[11:42] And that's the third point. The third part of his message tells us how to enter God's kingdom. Repent and believe the good news. Now Mark has told us something of the identity of Jesus.
[11:58] He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the God-man. He's told us something about his mission. He is Jesus. He will save his people from their sins.
[12:14] He has come as this great king to our hearts and demands admission. And now we have the response given.
[12:25] What's the response that you're to make to this fact of who he is and why he's come? Well, this is the response. He's God's anointed king and he's come to establish God's kingdom in men's hearts here on earth.
[12:40] And now the king with authority commands every one of us repent and believe the gospel. That's the response required. And this is alone the way to enter the kingdom of God.
[12:56] Now entering the kingdom of God is the same as getting saved. You have that in the story and we'll see it later on in Mark's gospel of the rich young ruler. He comes and falls down at Jesus' feet and he says, Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
[13:11] And Jesus sees the idol in his heart of money and he says, well, you've got to sell all you've got and give it away and then come follow me. And he went away sad because he had a lot of money.
[13:23] And Jesus said how hard it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. He came looking for eternal life. Jesus is talking about entering the kingdom of God.
[13:37] In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples said, well, then, Lord, who can be saved?
[13:50] Jesus didn't say, I'm not talking about being saved. I'm talking about entering the kingdom. No, they're one in the same. And Jesus said, well, with man, this is impossible, but not with God.
[14:01] With God, all things are possible. So to enter the kingdom is to be saved, is to receive eternal life. And that's what's required of you, to enter the kingdom, to be converted.
[14:18] And notice, there's two things commanded as to your response. Repent and believe. this has been the one message of salvation since the fall of man.
[14:32] It's the message that Noah preached. It's the message of the Old Testament prophets, of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's the message of the apostles that Jesus trained and sent out to preach.
[14:46] Repentance and faith. It's the only way to be saved and to go to heaven. The apostle Paul says to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, 21, I have declared to both Jews and Gentiles, that's to Jews and non-Jews, that's everybody, that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[15:12] In other words, there's just one message for all people. Jews and non-Jews, religious and irreligious, moral and immoral, they must repent and have faith, believe in the gospel.
[15:29] So, let's look at each of those individually. First, to repent. This is a change of mind. The word has that idea, a change of mind that leads to a change of life.
[15:45] So, to enter the kingdom of God, repentance is necessary. Why? Because I've got my back to God as I come into this world. I'm going my way. I'm doing what the world says to do.
[15:58] I'm doing what my depraved nature says I want to do. I'm doing what Satan wants me to do. That spirit that is now at work in the children of disobedience, that's why it's necessary for me to have a change of mind, to turn from the direction I'm going.
[16:20] And so, repentance is that. It's a change of mind. You see, we were just fine living without Jesus. We were just fine to do what we wanted.
[16:32] It didn't bother us at all that we weren't serving the king, that we were instead serving sin and self and Satan. And so, if we are to enter the kingdom of God, we need to turn around and repent.
[16:48] It's a radical change of loyalties. It's renouncing our old allegiance to sin and self and Satan.
[16:59] It's saying, that's it. You've had all of me you're going to have. I renounce you. Just like Peter renounced his Savior, denied his Savior. I don't know him.
[17:10] That life is done. That's what we're to do with the old life, to renounce it and to come and to give allegiance to another master, to a different king than me.
[17:28] To throw down our weapons of hostility against God, to repudiate the kingdom of darkness that we've been serving and to submit to God's reign in Christ that we had been avoiding.
[17:40] There's no salvation without repentance. John the Baptist said so. Jesus of Nazareth said so. And every one of his apostles preached the same message.
[17:52] A change of mind. A change of kingdoms. A change of kings. This is part of the salvation that Jesus has come to bring. This is part of the good news.
[18:03] Colossians 1.13 that the Father has rescued us from what? From the dominion of darkness. And he's done what? He's brought us over into the kingdom of the Son he loves. Out of a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light.
[18:18] Out of a kingdom of hatred into a kingdom of love. Out of a kingdom of bondage and into a kingdom of freedom. It's good news that Jesus brings when he calls us to turn from the kingdom of darkness.
[18:35] We had been saying my kingdom come not yours. And now we say not my will. Not my kingdom but your kingdom come. We've been saying not your will but mine be done.
[18:47] And now we say not my will but yours be done. You see it's an absolute shift of orientation of life. Now around a new master a new king the one Jesus says the Father has sent me.
[19:03] So it's a change of mind. It's a change of direction. It's a change of kingdoms. It's a change of loyalty. And that's one part of the necessary response to the good news.
[19:17] It's to turn. To turn. But we not only turn from we turn to God believing the good news.
[19:30] It's really one act if you want to really boil it down. It's this. You were going this way and you do this. And what have you done?
[19:41] You have turned from your idols and you have turned to the living God. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. It's always this from and to that is required in the gospel.
[19:59] So believe. We turn to believe the good news. You say what good news? Well the good news that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world and that He crushed Him and condemned Him that we might not be condemned.
[20:22] That He redeemed us by cursing Him. That Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God so that whoever believes on Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
[20:36] That's the good news we are to believe in and it is good news. what does believe mean?
[20:48] It means shifting the weight of your trust off of anything but Him. We come into the world leaning on ourselves and we think we know and we repudiate that and we now say no I'm going to trust in the Lord and not lean on my own understanding.
[21:08] we trust in the good things we do. I'm not as bad as him or her and we no longer put weight on that for our soul's salvation. We put all of our weight on what Jesus does.
[21:20] His works not mine. What He did for sinners in His life death and resurrection. It's a shift of trust. It's a commitment to Him.
[21:32] You remember Blondin crossing the tight rope across Niagara Falls and he goes and the crowd's roaring with applause and then he gets a wheelbarrow and he hauls the wheelbarrow across the Niagara and they're applauding and he says do you think I can go back with the wheelbarrow and they all say of course you can.
[21:52] He says well who will get in the wheelbarrow and there wasn't a taker until his own trainer got in and he wheeled him across. That's the difference between just yeah I believe Jesus is the Son of God I believe Jesus died on the cross to save sinners that's not saving faith that is required but saving faith believing the good news is to get into the wheelbarrow is to get on to Christ and to put all your weight on Christ to get you across into the city of God that's a faith that's a belief a commitment to this Savior where He is all my trust and He's all that I need.
[22:34] now we live in a day and age where we have two ditches in religion the one ditch is just repentance without believing and it gets skewed into just turn a new leaf over just try to be better start going to church start giving money and start reading your Bible start praying start being kind to your neighbors and quit beating the dog and we think by doing all these things that we can get to heaven there's no need for Christ there's no need for Him to be damned on the cross in my place my sin is that serious no no I'll just turn over a new leaf that's a ditch that leads to hell and it's it's the mainline denominations that go on the route of the liberals and that there's no need for Christ other than He's a good teacher and He said a few good things but there's a ditch on the other side people say oh no we're not saved by our works we're saved by faith faith alone and there are people that would like to say all you need to do is just believe that Jesus is the Son of God
[23:42] He died on the cross and He'll save you if you ask Him and if that's all you do you don't need to repent you don't need to shift your loyalty from self and sin to Jesus Christ and that's a ditch that's going right to hell as well and Jesus' words you see spare us from either ditch it's not one or the other it's repent turn from and turn to Jesus Christ and only those who do are converted enter the kingdom are saved you see really they're just two sides of the same coin as I said it's just two sides of the one action you're turning from and as you're turning from you're turning two and if you've got a coin you've got a heads and a tails wherever the heads is there's the tails and wherever there is true saving faith in Jesus there's always repentance and wherever there's true saving repentance there's always saving faith that looks to Jesus all repentance is believing repentance there's faith in all true repentance sinful rebels will not stop running going their own way and come to the judge unless they have hope that he will receive them with mercy that's faith and that's why
[25:15] Isaiah when he's holding out the call to repent includes the good news Isaiah 55 verse 7 let the wicked forsake his way that's repent let the evil man forsake his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord for he will have mercy and let him turn to our God for he will abundantly pardon what is it that gives the sinner any reason to turn from his sins it's the hope that this God if I come to him will have mercy you see that's faith this is repentance they work together all true repentance has this element of faith that if I come he will receive me Lord Jesus I come now have we grown so accustomed to the gospel that we no longer are moved by how good it is that's the first thing Mark wants us to this is good news from heaven good news from God we're like Hamas backed into a corner with no way out justice is at last caught up with us our complete destruction is certain there we are guilty vile and helpless we and then we see a one man mission of peace envoy of peace
[26:51] Jesus Christ the incarnate son of God coming towards us offering peace and so much more a place in his kingdom full privilege is given us and we want to know what are the conditions of this peace and he reads to us the peace treaty and it says repent and believe the gospel repent and believe the good news that's it just throw down my weapons quit fighting unconditional surrender and receive the full pardon and forgiveness of all my sins all my crimes forever that is good news no wonder Jesus would call it good news from God you know in 1st Samuel 11 the Ammonites had a strong army and they came and they surrounded the city of Jabesh Gilead and the men of Jabesh Gilead said to them make a treaty with us and we'll serve you and they hashed the Ammonite replied
[28:00] I'll make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on Israel those terms of peace could hardly be called good news I suppose if it's one or the other yeah okay here's my eye but that's not good news how different are the gracious terms of peace from God the God against whom we have rebelled he says do and we say not if I don't want to and he says don't and we've said I will if I please he comes to us in the person of his incarnate son and he says just throw down your weapons walk away and trust in my promise to forgive you repent and believe the good news that's unbelievably good news and you know that's the only offer on the table we need no other and he'll take no other it's repent and believe as Matthew
[29:18] Henry says Christ has joined these two together let no man think to put them asunder as if we can do one without the other and be saved and be forgiven well there's another error that our Lord's words correct not just one without the other but his word repent and believe these commands are put in the present continuous tense so the meaning is repent and keep on repenting believe and keep on believing you see this corrects the error where some people say yeah of course I repented 50 years ago I went forward at a meeting and I and I repented of my sins and I put my trust in Jesus so there I'm good to go no need to repent anymore that's not what Jesus is saying these are not one and done graces repent and believe indeed
[30:23] Martin Luther's first of 95 theses said when our Lord and Master Jesus said repent like he does in Mark chapter 1 he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance and we could say the same thing about believe when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said believe he willed the entire life of believers to be one of believing how do we get to heaven we walk by faith you see believing we walk repenting we walked believe the whole Christian life from the very first steps to the last steps are are these steps of repenting and believing it's the two legs on which we go to heaven repenting believing turning trusting all the way to heaven and every act of repentance and faith is strengthening us for the journey every time you come to the Lord and confess your sin and look again afresh to Jesus and his atonement to forgive your sin and the power of his blood to break the power of that sin and cleanse you every time you do that you see grace is being strengthened in you for the journey to persevere to the end so what are you doing with the good news that's the most important question you could answer this is the message of good news do you know what
[31:56] Satan has called it he slandered it as bad news this is bad news for you if you turn from your sin and follow Jesus that's the end of your joy you see he's on a slander campaign against God he hates God and he doesn't like people leaving his kingdom and going over to Christ's kingdom and so he's he's got propaganda techniques and he's he's threatening if you leave me say goodbye to all your fun and friends you've got a doleful life to live and here's the thing Jesus says it's good news Satan says it's bad news who you're going to believe the father of lies or the one who is himself the truth the way the life and the sad thing is some of you here this morning are still believing the lies you know how I know that because if you if you weren't believing the lies you would be repenting and coming to Jesus because this is good news this is unbelievable news and if you're not repenting and believing it shows you're still blinded by
[33:14] Satan's lies Jesus is calling you to wake up to what time it is the time of fulfillment has come the king is here his kingdom is here enter the kingdom by repentance and faith right now every time the gospel is preached he is watching your response what is she going to do with it and he's taking it seriously you either enter the kingdom of God by repentance and faith or you exclude yourself by not doing so do you know what time it is it's time to enter the kingdom it's time for good news come to Jesus well that's that's the message he came to bring and oh that in this world of such confusion we'd hear the voice of Jesus we'd hear his message and respond so that's the message he preached Mark then tells us the first disciples Jesus called and here we must be brief the first disciples
[34:17] Jesus called were two sets of brothers you've got Simon Peter and his brother Andrew you've got James and his brother John the sons of Zebedee they're all fishermen not as a hobby as some of you fish but as a way of life to put food on the table and all four of them work together in partnership we learn in Luke 5 and Jesus called them right on their own turf right on their as they're putting in another day's work he's right there walking along the sea of Galilee and there's two of them casting their nets and there's the other two who are mending their nets cleaning their nets getting ready perhaps for another night out on the open sea of Galilee now we need to know that this call is not a call to salvation these men were already saved oh to be sure they had much to learn but they were already believers in the
[35:21] Lord Jesus Christ they'd already entered the kingdom of God by repenting and believing the good news of Jesus Christ this was now a call to leave their fishing business and to literally and physically followed Jesus around as his pupils his devotees his followers his disciples and to have this master teacher Jesus train them to become fishers of men just like he had done to call others to enter the kingdom of God by repenting and believing on Jesus now how do we know that these four fishermen were already believers well John's gospel remember it fills in the gap of that first year of Jesus down in Judea before he went back up to Galilee where he called them what we're seeing this morning but we go back to John 1 35 to 42 and this is what
[36:25] John tells us the next day that's the day after Jesus was baptized what we saw last week the next day John the Baptist was there again with two of his disciples one was Andrew and another one was John and when John the Baptist saw Jesus passing by he said behold the Lamb of God and when the two disciples heard him say this they followed Jesus literally walking behind him and Jesus turned and saw them following and asked what do you want and they said Rabbi teacher where are you staying and he said come and you'll see and so they went and saw where he was staying and spent the day with Jesus what a day that must have been they were never the same after a day spent with
[37:32] Jesus and Andrew Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard Jesus who heard what John the Baptist said and who had followed Jesus and the first thing Andrew did was to go and find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah the Christ this is the one that has been promised the one we've been waiting for praying for longing for he's here come on I'll show you and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and he said you are Simon son of John you will be called Cephas or Peter which means rock and it's a fair assumption to make that the first thing John did as well was also to go find his brother John or to find his brother James and to tell him we found the Messiah so all this happened down in Judea a year before
[38:33] Jesus called them to follow him up in Galilee so we shouldn't read Mark's account and think well Jesus is just walking along the shore of Galilee and he sees these fishermen and he says follow me and they don't have a clue who he is and they just drop everything and follow him that's not what happened not at all they had been with Jesus they had seen his miracles they knew and embraced his identity as the Messiah and they were already spiritual followers of Christ by repentance and faith Jesus is now calling them to a new occupation to leave the fishing business to others and to physically follow him and learn of him so as to become his apostles and to carry on his mission once he's gone and notice Jesus call to discipleship is here given in terms of their calling as fishermen Jesus could have said come and plant seeds with me like a farmer but no he's talking not to farmers here but to fishermen and so he says come follow me and
[39:42] I will make you to become fishers of men from now on you'll catch men just as you put your nets in the water to pull fish up into your boat there are men and women boys and girls lost and wandering endlessly in the great ocean of the world who need to be drawn by the gospel net into the kingdom of God and that's what I'm calling you to as Hendrickson says instead of catching fish for the table they would recruit men for the kingdom and let's not miss the kind of men chosen by Christ they were not chosen from the ranks of rabbis and priests from respectable schools of the religious parties he chose ordinary hard working labors in the fishing business he chose those things that are foolish in the eyes of the world to confound the wise the ordinary things the things that are not to confound the big shots and the somebodies in this world so that the excellency of the power of conversion might not be seen to be something in these men but in me not by their might or power but by my spirit says the
[41:03] Lord and so he chooses ordinary men these men were not ready made disciples far from it the gospel of Mark will show us that warts and all these they were definitely diamonds in the rough rough when Jesus called them they had much to learn about the mission of Messiah why he came they're all confused they had much to learn about life in the kingdom of God that it's a life of ongoing humble repentance and looking away to Jesus it's a life of daily praying for their bread and for the forgiveness of sins and for the name of God to be hallowed and for his kingdom to come and his will to be done it would only be the process of living with Jesus learning from him watching him fish for men that they themselves would become fishers of men and he has less than three years to teach them the art of man fishing and if you like that job these guys that's
[42:13] Jesus job to teach them the art of man fishing to the point where they would be as eager to catch men with the gospel net as they had been eager to catch fish with their fishing nets and yet it was through such unschooled faltering believers that Jesus would extend the kingdom of God on earth and indeed turn the world upside down or right side up if Jesus choice of these four fishermen was amazing so was their response to the call for upon hearing the call of Jesus at once they left their nets and followed him wonder what it was in Jesus that moved these men to leave behind the security of a fishing business and to venture all on
[43:14] Christ to follow him into uncharted waters has was was it the compelling magnetism of his love that had captivated their hearts was it his lips were anointed with grace and he spoke like no man ever spoke was it to see the attributes of deity in this man who turns water into wine was it just the authority and power that attended his words that actually moved them to do and be willing to do whatever he said so that when he said follow me they willingly left their nets and followed him oh the excellencies in Christ to move the heart to follow him to believe all that he says to do all that he commands well here we are then 2000 years later reading
[44:16] Mark's account of Christ's message and his call of the first four disciples Jesus Christ is no longer physically present for us to physically follow him and to learn from him in that way oh but he is still calling sinners to come to him for salvation every time that message is proclaimed he is present by his spirit calling men to enter his kingdom by repentance and believing the good news to follow him in the way he set before us in his word have you answered his call of course you have you've already answered it if not yes you're answering it no you say oh but I haven't given my final answer but your answer today is no that's the thing Jesus sees she will not have me today that's rejection oh he's still calling sinners to the good news of freedom forgiveness light love enter the kingdom and he's still calling some men to follow him in vocational ministry of his word to leave behind their fishing nets and to become pastors and to fish for men to evangelize preach his word and shepherd a flock of his people have you considered such a call and he's still calling everyone in his kingdom to some service in his name to spend and be spent for the kingdom of heaven for his gospel for his church for his glory he's calling all of us to let our light shine and to bear witness of who
[45:55] Jesus is and why he came and what he's done for us telling others what a wonderful savior he is calling us out of the kingdom of darkness and putting us into the kingdom of the son he loves you see we've been gathered into the kingdom of God every one of us as I said we were born in the kingdom of darkness and if you're a Christian today that means you've been gathered by someone and now we the gathered become gatherers we who were the fish who some fishermen caught and brought into the boat are now ourselves to be fishers of man Jesus said whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters oh let's be gatherers not scatterers gathering people to
[46:55] Christ by our words and by a life that commends him to all men what a savior let's fish for sinners that need this savior let's get our gospel nets into the water the good news is still too good to be kept to ourselves so who will you tell this week about the savior let's pray father father we would realize that this is spirit is spirit of christ is with us every time this word is preached and that you take our responses deadly serious and so I pray for those who are yet in the kingdom of darkness to throw down their weapons today to renounce the mastery of self and to come and to swear allegiance to
[48:00] Jesus Christ to receive from him the free offer of salvation to receive from him forgiveness of sins and so to enter into that kingdom a kingdom of joy of love of peace a kingdom where we we're not robbed of joy but we come to find a joy that can only happen when we are walking with the God the ever blessed happy joyful God and so bring others into your kingdom bring us all to be more like Jesus fishing for men and even call some to leave their fishing business and to venture into the gospel ministry the need is great the fields are many and the labors are few thank you for harvesting us thank you for catching us and bringing us into such joys we pray in Jesus name amen