Jesus is Calling; Are You Answering?

I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Mark 1.  This morning we will be looking at verses 14-20 of this first chapter and the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  I invite you stand for the reading of God’s Word.  God bless you, and you may be seated.

 

This morning I want to share a message with you entitled Jesus is Calling; Are You Answering?  I can’t remember when caller ID began, but it can be a great resource whether you are using it on your home phone or on your mobile phone.  You know what I mean right?  You get a call.  You wait to see who it is.  Then you decide whether or not you want to take the call.  If yes, you answer it.  If not, you wait to see if they leave a voicemail.  We all do it.  If it is Christy, I always answer.  If it is anybody else, I probably will answer, but maybe not.

 

What about when Jesus is calling?  Do you always answer?  Or, do you see if he leaves a voicemail?  Today, Jesus is calling.  He is calling some to be saved, and he is calling others to be disciples. 

 

 

Exposition

Take your Bibles and look at verse 14.  We see that after John the Baptist had been arrested and thrown in jail, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the gospel of God.  So we know that Jesus’ earthly ministry was first of all composed of preaching.  What did He preach?  He preached the gospel of God.  What does that mean?  It means He was issuing the call of salvation. 

 

You can see in verse 15 that the word “saying” is used in place of “preaching” that was used in the previous verse.  Jesus is preaching or saying, and His message is made up of two parts.  The first part of His message is that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”  What does that mean?  It means that the promised Messiah is here.  He has arrived.  You have been waiting for Him and looking for Him, and now He is finally here.  It is also means that your opportunity to respond is now.  Time is running out, and you don’t want to be left behind.

 

As a result, the second part of Jesus’ message is repent and believe.  For simplicity sake, let’s break this message down into two parts even though they actually are one.  The only requirement for salvation is belief in Jesus Christ, but it must be a belief in Jesus Christ that changes your life.  In other words, salvation requires repentance and belief.  These two cannot be separated.  They are different sides of the same coin. 

 

When you talk about repent, many people immediately turn off their ears, because their experience with repentance has to do with a holier than thou hypocrite telling them they need to turn or burn.  How dare anyone tell you you need to change?  Well, from my lips to your ears, Jesus said you need to change!

 

Another reason we shut down when someone talks about repentance is because we have a shallow view of sin.  We don’t really believe that God hates any and every sin. 

 

Finally, we shut down when someone talks about repentance because we have a shallow view of repentance.  We have heard it so many times, we have become callused to it, and it doesn’t mean anything to us anymore.

 

I want you to understand this morning that repentance does not mean the changing of some external characteristics or actions, but it means a change of everything on the inside and outside.  It is a change of life.  Furthermore, it is essential to the gospel and essential to salvation. 

 

I want to take just a moment and remind you of prominence of repentance in the New Testament.  The following are those who preached repentance:

 

 

• John the Baptist, Matthew 3:2, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”
• Jesus Christ, Luke 13:3, 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
• Twelve disciples, Mark 6:12, 12 So they went out and preached that people should repent.
• Peter, Acts 3:19, 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
• Paul/God, Acts 26:20, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

 

As you can see, repentance is essential to the gospel of God and the New Testament.

 

Of what are to repent?  If you have never received Jesus Christ, you are to repent of your rejection of the Messiah.  You are to repent of your sin of trying to get to heaven on your own. 

 

If you are saved, we must repent of our materialism, and our adulteries, and our pride, and our gossip, and our envy, and our jealousy, and our lying.  We too must repent of our sin.

 

The other part of this second aspect of Jesus’ message is belief.  We usually don’t find this to be too difficult.  We must believe that we are sinners.  We must believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  We must believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. 

 

Therefore, again, salvation is belief in Jesus that changes your life.  In other words, salvation is repentance and belief in the Messiah who has come. 

 

There are those of you here this morning, whose lives have never changed.  You may have believed, but it wasn’t life-changing belief.  If I were a betting man, I would bet that you don’t have a place in heaven as we speak.  Jesus is calling today with the call of salvation.  Will you answer the call?

 

 

The second call that Jesus is issuing is the call to discipleship.  We see that in verses 16-20.  In verse 16, Jesus encountered Simon or Peter and Andrew, his brother.  They were fishermen and fishing at the time.  Jesus called them to discipleship.  He said to them, “Follow Me.” 

 

Now I want you to see something very interesting.  The call to be a disciple of Christ means that you will be a fisher of men.  There are no two ways about it.  It doesn’t have anything to do with the type of personality you have or what you are comfortable with or about your amount of courage.  Inherent in the call of discipleship is the act of becoming a fisher of men.

 

Brothers and sisters, if God has saved you, He has also equipped you to share the gospel.  It may take the form of sharing a certain presentation or your salvation testimony or a gospel tract.  That process may start by you inviting someone to church or praying with a waiter or waitress as a restaurant.  Regardless, to be saved includes being fishers of men.

 

Let me now go back to the text and give you three characteristics of discipleship.  First of all, it means immediately.  Notice that Mark used that word twice to describe the reaction of these two sets of brothers.  Peter and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.  James and John immediately left their father and fishing and followed him. 

 

In the OT, we see this with Abraham.  Turn to Genesis 22:1-3.  God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son.  If Abraham was like Christians today, he would have told God that he needed to pray about it and get back with him.  You don’t need to pray about being obedient.  Just do it, and that is what Abraham did.  He got up first thing the next morning and off he went doing exactly what God told him to do.  It has been well said that delayed obedience is disobedience.  Discipleship means acting just as soon as Jesus calls.

 

Secondly, discipleship might mean leaving your present circumstances.  For Peter and Andrew, it meant leaving their job.  Notice that we don’t any record of them asking a lot of questions or lining up stuff for their future.  They just left.  They trusted Jesus and honored His authority in their lives and answered the call lock, stock and barrel. 

 

Some of you are saying that is not realistic and wouldn’t happen today.  You are right, and is it any wonder that our churches and our country are in the shape we are in?  I would suggest it is because all to often Christians are issued a call for discipleship and they simply look at the caller ID and let it go to voicemail. 

 

In Luke 9:57-62, we see Jesus issuing a call to discipleship, and notice His words to those who don’t come immediately leaving their present circumstances. 

 

Luke 9:57-62, 57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”  58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”  But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”  61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”  62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

 

Is Jesus calling you to discipleship this morning?  Is he calling you to leave your present situation?  That may mean leaving a lifestyle situation or a work situation or whatever.  When He calls, won’t you answer?

 

The final aspect of answering the call to discipleship might be the most difficult.  It involves leaving family or friends or any relationship.  You see in verse 20, James and John left their father.  They left the family business.  They left their security.

 

In your relationship with Jesus Christ, your family can so many times make you.  However, so many times they can also break you.  I’m going to make a pretty strong statement and some of you aren’t going to like, but here goes.  It is a sin to be more loyal to your family than to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Heaven help us! 

 

Listen to the words of Christ in Matthew 10:34-39:

 

Matthew 10:34-39, 34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

There is only one person who is worthy of your worship and it isn’t your spouse or your son or your daughter or your parents.  It is the Lord Jesus.  What this means is that some of husbands need to say some difficult things to your wives, and some of you parents need to say some difficult things to your children, and just remember, the call to discipleship is to the call to put your relationship with Christ above your relationship with any other human being.

 

 

Conclusion

So what about you this morning?  Is Jesus calling you to salvation?  Is He calling you to repent and believe for the very first time? 

 

Is He calling you to discipleship?  I challenge you to respond immediately to change a lifestyle situation, to change a relationship, to follow through with believer’s baptism, to join this church, to rededicate your life or whatever He is calling you to do. 

 

Jesus is calling. Are you answering?