Hello my ‘walking with Jesus’ friends,
If you’ve ever been selected from several applicants and hired or invited to serve as a personal assistant to someone you highly respect or commissioned to carry out an important mission… then you have experienced a little of what changed four men’s lives. Today let’s join that remarkable experience.
Today is day 17 of our 40-day journey with Jesus toward His Easter weekend. I find the story in Mark chapter 1. Almost all of Mark’s 16 chapters are found also in either Matthew or Luke. Mark begins his account of Jesus not in Bethlehem at His birth but in the experience of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. Mark was believed to be a young teenager in the days of Jesus’ ministry and while he is not mentioned by name in any of the four Gospels, there is one brief glimpse that he gives of a late-night event which many Bible scholars believe is Mark identifying himself. It happens in chapter 14 where Mark recounts the events of the Thursday night before Jesus’ crucifixion including Judas’ betrayal and the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. In that garden scene Mark writes this: “A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.” (Mark 14:51,52) Many Bible scholars believe Mark had watched the crowds and been intrigued by Jesus’ miracles and messages and had somehow found out about Jesus bringing His disciples to the garden that night. Mark had made his way there and in the scuffle that occurred, as the mob grabbed Jesus, someone also grabbed the young boy in his nightgown, and he ran into the night. If that was Mark, we can only imagine how that experience impacted his teenage heart.
This Mark is also known as John Mark, and he lived with his mother in Jerusalem. When Peter was miraculously freed from prison by an angel one night, Peter went immediately to the home of Mark and his mother Mary where a gathering of Jesus followers was praying for God to intervene for Peter. That story is found in Acts 12:12. At that time Paul (Saul) and Barnabas had come from the city of Antioch, Syria bringing some financial help for those followers of Jesus who were suffering great persecution and famine in Jerusalem. Acts 12:25 tells us “When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem taking with them John, also called Mark.”
Young Mark was fascinated by these two courageous men who had come from Antioch and evidently requested that he accompany them back. It is possible Barnabas was uncle to Mark. Sometime later, when the Holy Spirit called Barnabas and Saul to venture out with the Gospel to new places, they took Mark with them. And years later Mark also traveled with the Apostle Peter in his Gospel preaching tours. Thus, John Mark was profoundly impacted by the lives, preaching and writings of both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul, and also Barnabas.
Mark gives us the details of an exciting day on the shoreline of Lake Galilee when four men experienced a life changing selection. It begins in Mark 1:14. “After John (the Baptist) was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” I wonder if you noticed an important piece of information? John the Baptist was the premiere voice speaking to the people on God’s behalf at that time. Crowds of people came out to hear him preach and watch him baptize. He assured the people God was fully aware of all that was going on in their world and God loved them and was soon sending His Messiah. John also did one other, fearless thing. He called out King Herod for living in an affair with the king’s brother’s wife! (Matt. 14:3-12) High profile public figures don’t like it when their secrets are aired publicly so John was arrested to be silenced. His arrest set the stage for Jesus to begin His preaching and His declaration that a significant moment in history had arrived.
Mark tells us Jesus was walking along the shoreline of Lake Galilee one day, a place He loved dearly. Perhaps it was quite early in the morning, as Mark gives us no indication anyone else was walking with Jesus, and that was rare. “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. ‘Come and follow Me’, Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed Jesus.” (Mark 1:16-18) Now does it seem strange to you, my friends, that these two brothers would pull their boat up on shore, pack their nets into their boat, and join Jesus walking the beach? You’ll remember this was not the first time Andrew and Peter had seen Jesus, for over the past few days we’ve traveled with them as they had spent perhaps two or three weeks with Jesus in Cana, up to Jerusalem, then to Sychar, Samaria, and back to Cana. In each of those places they’d seen Jesus do amazing miracles and say remarkable things. For some time they had returned to their fishing business and I’m sure they’d been thinking frequently about Jesus and what they might do if He showed up and again asked them to come spend more time with Him.
May I ask, do you often give consideration to what you would do if Jesus reached to you with an invitation? Would you recognize it if it happened? I don’t mean Jesus physically walking up and knocking on your door, or calling you on your telephone… but would you recognize it if you received an offer to step out in great faith doing something that required an anointing and empowering from God? What would you do?
These two brothers only needed enough time to close up their fishing boat, and entrust the boat and nets to others in their fishing business, and begin the beach stroll with Jesus, ready to find out what He meant by saying “I will make you fishers of men.” Fishing for fish they understood well. They had grown up on the water, and it was their livelihood and their love. But fishing for men…what could that mean? How might it change their lives? I think they came to learn from Jesus that fishing for men is quite the opposite from fishing for fish in at least these ways…
* We fish for fish to ensnare them and eventually kill them.
We fish for men to help them find freedom in Jesus Christ! Freedom from their sin guilt, their sin bondage, the domination of evil in their lives… and freedom TO a wonderful relationship with God now and for eternity!
* You fish for fish with bait and deception, which captures them.
You fish for men with truth that sets them free and then guides their life!
Mark tells us Jesus continued His stroll down the beach walking and talking with Andrew and Peter, and ahead He saw another set of fishermen brothers. “When Jesus had gone a little farther He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay He called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Jesus.” (Mark 1:19,20) This John is one of the five who had been with Andrew and Simon Peter in the past few weeks with Jesus. Undoubtedly he had told his brother James and his father Zebedee about the water turned to wine at the wedding, and the remarkable two days at Sychar. So not only were John and James ready to jump at the opportunity to join with Jesus, Mr. Zebedee, it appears, was delighted to send his sons, while he and the hired men worked with the nets, the boats and the fish. So it’s time for a very important question if you are a parent or grandparent: If Jesus were to call your children or grandchildren to follow Him in something significant, would you do as Zebedee did and encourage them to go with your blessing?
As these four men walked the beach with Jesus that day, it was more than a stroll by Lake Galilee. This was their personal calling from Jesus to spend the next several months with Him, full time, experiencing becoming a ‘fisher of men’. May I give it the term “disciple maker”? While there were likely times these four men got back in their boats and went out for a fish, from this day forward, their lives were focused on helping other people know Jesus as they were coming to know Him. Helping others become followers, disciples of Jesus as they were becoming.
About three years later these four, and seven other disciples sat with the resurrected Jesus on a hillside when He said to them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Now you go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20) And because they did, you and I have a Bible, and the opportunity to know about Jesus and His Gospel, and the chance to live our lives doing exactly what they did… living every day ‘walking with Jesus’ and bringing the hope and help of Jesus to the people of our world, wherever Jesus leads us.
As those men walked the beach that day having said YES to Jesus’ invitation to walk with Him, their lives began to change, just as Jesus promised. So I ask you… are you intentionally walking with Jesus everyday, learning from Jesus, and expecting that Jesus is changing your life so you become more and more the man or woman God designed you to be? Are you becoming a ‘disciple maker’? Here’s a song to help you consider that remarkable investment of your lifetime… one day at a time!
Today’s Scripture is Mark 1:14-20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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