Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008
All Rights Reserved.

Campbell Chapel
Free Will Baptist Church
1709 Campbell Drive
Ironton, Ohio 45638

Contact Webmaster

 

Fishers of Men

September 5, 2007

 Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

 

Mark 1:14-20

 

Mark writes his gospel of things that he has talked to Peter.  Mark would have been a very young fellow when Jesus was here.  Most theologians think, by some of the writings, that Mark was the young man that when they come to get Jesus, the night He was betrayed, when the soldiers laid hand on Him, that he left his garment or outer coat and ran off into the night.  However, it does not tell us much about Mark.

 

14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

19 And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.

20 And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

 

The Bible says:

 

14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

 

When we finished reading verse 13, last week we finished up talking about the temptation of Jesus.  Then we read verse 14.  What we don't think about sometimes when we read verse 13 and 14, we don't see in Mark's writing of these two events, he wrote about the temptation of Jesus, and the next thing that he mentions is about John being cast into prison.  There is about a year in between those two verses.  Mark does not write about the events that took place between these two verses.  When you look into the book of John 1:19 through John 4, he records the things that happened between verses 13 and 14 here in Mark 1. 

 

The Bible says:

 

14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

 

We know what happened to John.  We know who John was.  This same John baptized Jesus.  This same John had told Herod that he could not have his Brother Phillip's wife, Herodias.  We know that it was not right.  We know that this got John put in prison and ultimately it got his head cut off.  We know that those events took place.

 

We know that Jesus leaves Judea and comes to Galilee.  As He leaves Judea, He is going from south to the north.  Do you remember reading in the gospel of John about the Samaritan woman?  The Bible says that He must needs to go through Samaria.  This was His journey.  He was traveling from Judea and going to Galilee on this journey.  He was going to end up in Galilee.  This particular journey from Judea to Galilee is when that particular thing happened. 

 

He comes to Galilee.  The Bible says He is preaching the Gospel of the kingdom.  He was not going to say too much, in the beginning, about His death.  He was not going to say too much about the cross.  The Bible says that He begins to preach the Gospel of the kingdom.  When you look at the word "preach" simply means "to proclaim," or to proclaim as a heralder. Someone, in the days of Jesus and in past history, if a king or an emperor had something that he wanted the people of his domain to know, he would give the message to a heralder.  He would take this message, go throughout the whole land, and proclaim the message that he had been given to proclaim. 

 

We know that Jesus Christ came here to do the Will of His Father.  We know that He did not come here to do His own will.  We know that He did not come here to do things that this world wanted Him to do.  When He comes preaching or heralding, He comes preaching the Gospel.  The Bible tells us the Gospel.  We know that the Gospel means "good news."  We also know that it is good news because the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That is our good news.  This is what Jesus is beginning to preach.  When you look at this in the original, when it makes the statement, "preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God," in the original, "of the kingdom" is not in there.  He says “He comes preaching the gospel of God.”  We know the good news that He came preaching everywhere, we know it was the gospel from Almighty God.  We know that:

 

John 3

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

We know that the gospel that Jesus is proclaiming, the good news that Jesus is proclaiming is coming from Almighty God.  He starts preaching the simple gospel.  He was not telling people that they needed to join church.  He did not tell them that they needed to do this or that, as we are hearing today.  He was simply preaching the gospel of God, the good news that came from Almighty God.

 

15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

 

He was telling folks, He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and He was saying that time is fulfilled.  In other words, it is time for this thing to happen.  It is time for me to come.  It is time for the Messiah to come on the scene.  It is time for some things to be changed.  We know that the people had lived under law all these years from the time of Moses, when God gave them the law.  They looked at that.  We know that they broke the law.  They broke the commandments.  We know they had made themselves all kinds of commandments and traditions that they had.  They were living under law.  Jesus was saying some things here are going to change.  It is time for some things to change.

 

When you look at the gospel, what it does, and what it has done it should make us shout for joy because we had no hope under the law.  There was no hope given to mankind under the law.  There was nothing in the Ten Commandment law that could save me.  There was nothing in the Ten Commandment law that could keep me.  It was not there. 

 

When He came, Jesus came preaching the gospel.  He was giving us hope and He was giving humankind hope.  The gospel is good news for a far country. 

 

People need to hear the gospel today.  People need to hear that Jesus Christ loves them and that He will save them.  People need to hear that today. 

 

Much of the garbage that we hear today, people do not need to hear.  Nine times out of ten when you turn on a religious channel, they have somebody on there talking about finances.  They say, “if you send me fifty-eight dollars then God is going to send you back fifty-eight hundred dollars.”  That is a lie.  Do you know what you are going to do if you send in fifty-eight dollars?  You are going to be fifty-eight dollars poorer.  That is what is going to happen.  God does not work that way. 

 

He came preaching the gospel of the kingdom.  He came preaching the gospel of God.  That is good news unto a world that is lost, unto a world that is in darkness; the gospel is good news and we need to hear it. 

 

Do we need to support God and His work, and His people?  Absolutely.  These people that are living in three million dollar houses and asking me to send them fifty-eight dollars are wasting their breath. 

 

The time is fulfilled.  It is time for the Messiah to come on the scene.  "...the kingdom of God is at hand..." 

 

I have been doing some studying about what the kingdom of God means in the Greek, and it is an awesome thing when you look at this.  We know that the kingdom of God is within us.  We know that we that are saved are part of the kingdom of God.  When you look this up and do a little bit of studying about this phrase "kingdom of God" in the original; it will tell you that it includes all the intelligence, or all those that are intelligent, all those that are willing to allow and to submit unto the leadership of God.  They are part of the kingdom of God.  I know that is saying a whole lot, but do you know what that means in very simple terms.   Any of us that will submit our will unto the will of God are part of the kingdom of God.  Not only those that are mortals, but it also brought out the idea of angels being part of this.  We know there were some angels that were disobedient, but it is talking about the Holy angels, those good angels that are part of the kingdom of God. 

 

When we totally and completely surrender our will unto the Will of Almighty God, then we become and we are part of His kingdom.  That is called being born again.  We understand all that.  When we will willingly surrender our wills and our lives unto the leadership of Almighty God then we become part of His kingdom.  We become followers of Him.  Praise His name!

 

It excites me to understand the position that we have today because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.  I could not be part of the kingdom of God had it not been for the good news of the gospel.  You could not have either.  We could not have been part of the family of Almighty God had not Jesus came and died on a cross.  We could not have been born into the family of God. 

 

People are saying today, "we are all children of God" that's a lie.  We are the creation of God.  The only children that God has are those that have been born into His family.  That is the children of God.  Do not let anybody convince you that everybody is God's children. That is not right. 

 

We that have been born again, we that have surrendered our lives and our will totally unto God, we are His children and we are in His kingdom.  That's great!

 

To know whom we are, where we have been, all that we have done, and that we have nothing to offer God, yet He has saved us and made us a part of His family.  How much more blessed do you want to be?  We are blessed!

 

If you are saved tonight, and you know that you are saved tonight, just think about what you have done today on this side then come over here and know that God still yet loves you; that does not add up sometimes.  Does it?  Some days may be worse than others may, but we mess up.  I mess up and you mess up.  You might say, "I don't ever mess up."  You are lying.  We sin from time to time.  We are not habitual sinners.  We do not live everyday in sin.  However, we do mess up, but God still yet loves us. 

 

He comes preaching the gospel of the kingdom.  It is at hand, it is time for the gospel of the kingdom of God to be preached.  It is time for the Messiah to come on the scene.  He says, "...repent..."  The word “repent” means to “turn around.” 

 

This nation of Israel that He is preaching unto, they have been living in darkness; they have been living in sin.  It was a very dark time here in Israel.  There had been no prophets around until John the Baptist came on the scene, this nation had not heard anything from God for four hundred years.  It was a very dark time spiritually.  Jesus came preaching, "...repent ye, and believe the gospel."  He is saying to change your mind, change your way of thinking, and how that you have been thinking about God. 

 

If you do not ever change the way that you think about God, and the way that you think about sin, you will not ever get saved.  You will never repent.  You will never change your mind.  Everybody knows that God is a God of love.  You talk to people today; they say well I know that God is a God of love.  However, if we never understand that God is also a God of judgment then I will never reverence God as whom He is.  He is all-powerful.  If He wants to, He can just wipe us off anytime He wants to.  We have to understand that He is all-powerful and that He is Almighty God.  We have to change our way of thinking.  Do not look at me as a God that does not care about you.  Do not look at me as a God that has forgotten about you.  Change your way of thinking about God.  That is what we have to do. 

 

When it goes more than just changing our way of thinking, He says, "...repent..."  In other words, change the way you are thinking about God, about judgment, and all these things.  “...repent...” turn around, go the other direction, and "...believe the gospel."  We look at the word "believe"—the majority of people in America today believe that there is a God, when we use the word "believe" that way. 

 

Ask them, "Do you believe there is a God?" and they say, "Sure, I believe there is a God."  "Do you believe there is a moon out there in the sky?"  and they say, "Sure, I believe there is a moon in the sky." 

 

The word "believe" goes further than just saying, "I believe."  It goes further than our intellect.  It goes further than our way of thinking.  We have to change the way we are thinking.  The word "believe" here, means "faith."  In other words, when I change the way that I am thinking about God, understand, reverence how great, how mighty and how awesome that He is; I change my way of thinking.  When I put my faith in Him as being my Savior then my life will prove that.  When I say I have repented, when I say that I have changed directions in life, and when I say that I have believed God, I have put faith in Him then I will no longer be going in the same direction that I was before I said that.

 

Many folks today want to say that they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but they never change directions.  They never change their way of thinking.  They never have put any faith in Almighty God at all.  They continue living in sin, day by day, by week, by month and by year.  They never change directions.  That is not what He is talking about.  Repent changes direction, changes the way that we are thinking and puts trust/faith in Him that He is who He said that He is.  When we do that then our lives will change. 

 

He says, "...believe the gospel message..."  Believe the good news that is coming from God.  When I say that I believe the gospel, when I say that I believe that; I am saying that I believe that Jesus Christ came to planet earth because God loved me.  I was lost, undone and I had no hope at all.  I was dying in my sins and I was bound for a lake of fire.  When I say that I believe the gospel, I believe that. 

 

I believe that Jesus Christ came to pay a price that I could not pay.  He came to rescue me and to pay a ransom for me when He died at Calvary.  I believe that.   I also believe that He died and He was buried.  He died.  He just did not faint.  I believe that they put Him in a tomb.  I believe they rolled a big stone up there.  I believe they sealed it up.  I also believe, that on what we call "Easter Sunday" morning, that He was raised from the dead by the power of Almighty God and today we know that He is alive, sitting on the right hand of God, making intercession for you and me.  That is what it means when I say that I believe the gospel.  When I believe that, then my life changes.  He moves in.

 

Sometimes we think these things are complicated.  Preachers are the worst in the world to make things complicated, but the gospel is very simple.  It was not done in a complicated way.  It was not done in a corner, but He did this for you and me.

 

It continues to say:

 

16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

 

He has come preaching the gospel of the kingdom and He is walking down by the Sea of Galilee.  The Sea of Galilee is about seven miles wide and twelve miles long.  What I have read about the Sea of Galilee, it is very clear, very deep, with steep banks along the outside of it.  However, here comes Jesus walking beside the Sea of Galilee. 

 

When you look at the word "walk" in the original it means that He is walking "along side."  In other words, He is walking right along the edge of the water.

 

The Bible says:

 

16 Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

 

When you read in John 1, you will find out that this is not the first meeting with these men.  They had already met Jesus before and they had already recognized Him as being the Messiah.  When you go over to John 1, and read, it will tell you that.  They had already recognized Him as the Messiah.  When they met Him they went their way and went about their business.  They went back to working and fishing.  When we get here to this particular time; which happens some time later, He sees Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea...  Casting a net into the sea...we think about these guys as being fishermen. 

 

We think about them using Zebco 202s or Zebco 33s and sitting on the edge of a boat casting out a little worm; that was not what they did.  They were hard working fellows.  They would take nets, big nets, and they would take more than one of them; they would take these and throw them out into the water.  They would go along a little bit farther and they would through it out into the water.  They when they would go out into the water and they would sink a little bit, then they would pull the net in.  As they pulled the net in, sometimes they would catch fish and sometimes they would not.  This is what they did and how they made their living. 

 

We look at it as leisure today.  We talk about going fishing, going to the creek bank, and we just think about getting away from the wife, kids, and telephones.

 

These guys were hard working men.  This was very hard work for these guys.  They had a lot of patience.  They had endurance.  The Bible says Jesus, "...he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers."  He is getting ready to do something.  Before we get that far, I want you to remember something.  Jesus Christ...as you look at the men that Jesus Christ called to be disciples and apostles, when you look at those He called, He called men that were busy.  He never called anybody that had their feet propped on a milk can, sitting and drinking lemonade, or watching TV.  He did not do that.  He called these men for a very special task, but He called men that were busy working.  They were not working for Him necessarily. 

 

In 99% of the cases, you take an individual man or woman that is willing to work on their job, wherever it is at, you take an individual that is not lazy, likes to work, and do things when he or she gets saved, that individual is going to make a good worker for the Lord.  The lazy people that are lazy on the job are usually going to be lazy working for the Lord.  That is true.  I know that God can change us, but laziness is hard to get out of people.

 

He calls people that were working.  He says: "...Come ye after me..."  What He is saying, "Come here."  He is talking to them from the shore.  They were probably out 100 feet or so from the bank or maybe a little farther.  Jesus said unto them, "...Come ye after me..."  We know the word "come" means to come.   Look at the word "after."  The word "after," we think about three being after two and so forth.  That was not the word "after" that He is talking about.  What He is saying...the word in the Greek means, "come join my party."  Come and join yourself to me. 

 

He continues on to say, "...I will make you to become fishers of men."  The words "to become" in the Greek means something very different from what we think.  We think that He is saying here, "Come ye after me, and I [immediately] make you to become fishers of men." 

 

I have wondered about some things for 30 years why things work the way they do.  Now I understand why they work the way that they do.  When you look at the word here "to become" He says here, "...Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men."  Those two words in the Greek tell us that if these will come after Him; come and join themselves to him, that He will make them to become ... 

 

Do you know what we want to do when we get saved?  We have so much zeal, and energy sometimes that we think the whole world is going to be saved.  We go out here and just want to tell everybody about what Jesus has done.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Sometimes we get embarrassed.  Sometimes we say things and do things that are completely wrong.  Jesus says that if you will come and join yourself to me that I will make you to become (process of time) fishers or (soul winners) for me.

 

How many of you today...if you got saved 10 years ago or 10 months ago, should know more and have a greater understanding about how to lead someone to Christ today than you did then?  Jesus says if you will come and affix yourself to me, or come and be part of my party then I will make you to become (process of time) fishers of men.  That is a promise.  If I will come and join His kingdom, attach myself to Him, and then He will make me to become fishers of men.  He said that He would do that.

 

Even in our own conference here, we have seen boys get saved on Sunday morning then announce their call to preach on Sunday night and two weeks from now they are pastoring a church.  A year from now they have made shipwreck concerning faith and don't even go to church anymore.  Do you know why?  God was not in what they were doing. 

 

When we come and follow Him, when we come and attach ourselves to Him, if we will continually follow then He will make us to become fishers of men.

 

18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

 

Do you know what they did?  When He made the command “come and join yourself to me,” they forsook their nets.  He is calling them now into full-time ministry.  These guys are going to become full-time now. 

 

I want to talk about the word "follow."  We know that they forsook their nets.  We know that they yield them up.  They totally separated themselves from the fishing business and they are going to come and work for Jesus Christ, come and follow Him, let Him teach them. 

 

The word "follow" means this.  When we think about following Him, we think that Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night sometimes or just Sunday morning in most churches anymore.  The word "follow" means to walk the same road.  Jesus says come after me, come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.  The Bible says they forsook all and followed Him.  They were going to walk the same road that Jesus Christ walked.  If I am following Jesus Christ today, that means that I am walking the road that He is walking.  He is leading the way.  If I am following Jesus Christ, that means that we have fellowship with Him.  If I am following Jesus Christ today, I am walking the same road, I have fellowship with Him, I have joint participation with Him.  It brings out the idea of walking side by side, hand in hand, but with Him.  When we do that, we are disciples.

 

The word "disciples" means “to cleave steadfastly to one”, “to hold one's hand,” “to walk beside of one,” to confirm wholly to His desires and His will.  That is what it means to follow Him. 

 

Jesus Christ is calling today.  He is calling men today to come into His kingdom, to come and affix themselves unto Him.  He is asking men to do that today.  You have to forsake the world.

 

You may get saved tonight, you may go back to the same job tomorrow and that is fine, but we have to forsake the world and we have to come and walk the same road that He is walking.  Walk the road that He is laying out for us.  You will be just as these disciples were.  Their lives changed.  You can become fishers of men.

 

 Back • Up • Next

|  Home |  Pastor  |  Sermons  |  Testimony |  Salvation  |  Sunday School  |  Youth  |  Men  |
|  Ladies  |  Classes  |  Photos  |  Choir  |  History  |  Contacts  |
|  Sign Guestbook  |   View Guestbook   |

EXIT to CalvinEvans.org