“YOU HAVE A CALL FROM JESUS”
Mark 1:14-20
Written by Pastor Mark Weis
In 1975 the group Manhattan Transfer recorded a song titled “Operator.” In part the lyrics went: “Operator, give me information. Information, give me long distance. Long distance, give me heaven. Operator, information, give me Jesus on the line.” Predictably, perhaps, I found myself wondering how I would react if Jesus actually called me on the telephone.
Suppose Jesus called me while I was watching the Super Bowl? Would I leap to my feet and race for the phone and say breathlessly, “Oh Lord, I can’t believe it’s You. I’ve waited so long to hear Your voice?” Or would I say, “Lord, I do appreciate Your call; but it’s the fourth quarter. Two minutes remaining. No timeouts. And my team is behind by a touchdown. Could You call me back?”
Suppose Jesus called me while I was driving in rush-hour traffic—the name JESUS on the caller ID of my cellular phone. Would I immediately look for a safe place to stop and talk? Or would I ignore the ringtones and let Jesus go to voicemail?
Suppose Jesus called me while I was at the office, overwhelmed by multiple projects and tight deadlines? In a way, Isn’t this what happened to Peter, Andrew, James, and John? Weren’t they hard at work mending nets when Jesus called them to discipleship? They had jobs to do, families to feed, livings to make, and bills to pay. Yet, according to today’s text, these men immediately left everything and followed Christ.
Would I do the same? “Mr. Weis,” the company operator would say, “Jesus is on line five. He says He needs to talk with you. He says it’s very urgent.” Would I immediately drop everything and talk with the Lord? Or would I tell the operator, “Operator, take a message. Tell Jesus I’m too busy to talk right now?”
You have a call from Jesus. No, not a telephone call, but a call to discipleship exactly like that of Peter and Andrew, James and John. In fact, though two thousand years have passed since the call of these first disciples, everything about the manner in which Jesus called them applies equally to us. Let’s see how.
First, your call from Jesus came through God’s word. In Mark 1:14-20, the emphasis is consistently on the words of Christ. Verse 14, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” Verse 15, “The time has come,” He said. “The kingdom of God is near.” Verse 17, “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said to Simon Peter and Andrew. Verse 20, “Without delay, He called” James and John.
How then did Jesus call His first disciples? Through His word. And He called us in exactly the same way. “Well,” you may be thinking. “That’s correct, Pastor. But Peter, Andrew, James, and John also had the advantage of seeing Jesus.” True. But what did they see when they looked at Jesus? Did they see a powerful dignitary? Did they see an influential world leader wearing fine clothes and expensive jewelry? No, they saw a man of seemingly humble origin and appearance—and so much so that when Philip told Nathanael in John 1, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” Nathanael responded: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
The disciples were not attracted to Jesus by His appearance, and purposely so. In fact, Isaiah 53 suggests that Jesus was very likely ordinary-looking, what we might even dare to call “plain.” Isaiah wrote, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” Why? So that the emphasis would always be on Christ’s person, deeds, and words, and not on His appearance.
Christ calls us to discipleship through His word too. I can give you many reasons for regularly hearing the word of God in church or Bible class or family devotions, but none more powerful than this: Through His word Christ calls, Christ works, Christ saves. Only, far too often we are tempted to take that word for granted; forgetting its power and origin; forgetting how that word moved simple fishermen to leave their homes and families and livelihood and to follow Jesus Christ without even knowing where He was leading them.
Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,” Roman 1:16, Peter said, “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,” 2 Peter 3:5. How did Jesus calm the storm on Lake Galilee? Through His word. How did Jesus heal the ten lepers? Through His word. How did Jesus raise dead-buried-decaying Lazarus from the grave? Through His word.
So, where should we turn then when we have problems; when we are hurting, lonely, depressed, or overwhelmed by sin and guilt? Shouldn’t we open our Bibles? Instead, far too often, we look elsewhere for solutions when the only true solution is so very close to us. “The kingdom of heaven is near,” Jesus said. The kingdom is near when the King is near. And the King draws near to us in His word.
And so Paul told the Romans: “But the righteousness that is by faith says: ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the deep?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved,” Romans 10:6-9.
Second, your call from Jesus is a personal call; or said differently, a Person-to-person call. Yes, Jesus went about Galilee, proclaiming the good news of salvation and calling all to repentance and faith; but notice how personal His call became in verses 16-20: “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, follow Me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed Him. When He 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 Him.”
Who is doing all of the searching, seeing, finding, and calling in these verses? Did Peter, James, John, and Andrew find Jesus or did He find them? Did they accidentally discover Jesus or did He deliberately select them? Some years ago—probably about the time Manhattan Transfer was recording the song “Operator”—many well-intentioned Christians wore buttons proclaiming, “I found it.”
Even one of Jesus’ first disciples, Philip, said, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law,” John 1:45. Only, that is not what really happened. In his zeal and excitement, Philip forgot the circumstances of his own call to discipleship; as recorded in John 1:44, “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, He said to him,’ Follow me.’”
Who found Philip? Jesus did. Who found Peter, James, John, and Andrew? Jesus did. And who found every one of us here this morning? Jesus did. The Bible tells us clearly, “We love because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19. Jesus Himself said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you,” John 15:16.
Think about these precious words: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” You may be going through difficult times today. You may feel worthless, undesirable, unlovable, and even un-savable. At times, we all feel this way. But can there be anything more joyful or uplifting than to know that Jesus Christ, God the Son, searched for you; that Jesus Christ wanted you; that Jesus Christ chose you to be one of His followers. And I want you to ask yourself right now: “If Jesus Christ searched for me and saved me and sacrificed Himself for me, will He ever abandon or fail me? If He called me, when I call upon Him will I ever get a busy signal or poor connection or service interruption?” Not a chance.
Third, your call from Jesus is an urgent call. How many words can you find in today’s text that convey a sense of urgency? Look at verse 15. “The time has come”—the Greek is literally ‘the time has been fulfilled.’ “The kingdom of God is near.” Don’t both of these phrases suggest that the time to act is now? What urgency do you see in verse 18? “At once they left their nets and followed Him.” How about verse 20? “Without delay He called them.”
The urgency of Christ’s call is also emphasized in two other ways. Verse 14 states: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” Some Bible translations use the word “preaching” instead of “proclaiming.” But the Greek word KARUSSO is much stronger and louder. It really means to cry out with a loud voice.
A suitable analogy might be the old ‘town-crier’ who would walk through village streets shouting loud enough for all to hear: “Nine o’clock and all is well.” Can you imagine Jesus going through all the towns and villages of Galilee, crying out with the same urgent voice? He did. Only Jesus did not state the time of day; He stated, “It is time to act.” He didn’t say “All is well;” He said, “Repent and believe.” And grammatically, even the terms “repent” and “believe” in verse 15 contain a sense of urgency. Both appear in the present tense and imperative mode. Think exclamation point.
Admittedly, the examples I gave earlier about a telephone call from Jesus—“Call me back after the game, Jesus” or “Just let Jesus go to voicemail” or “Operator, tell Jesus I’ll return His call when I’m not so busy”—may be humorous on the surface, but they are deadly serious in substance. “Today thy mercy calls us,” says one of our hymns. Why today? Because there might not be a tomorrow.
Scripture tells us in Romans 11:29 that “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.” What can be more comforting? Yet, while God’s call is eternal, the opportunities to heed that call and to repent and believe in Jesus Christ are limited to a lifetime—no matter how long that lifetime is. This is why Scripture never speaks of the opportunity to believe in Christ in terms of yesterday or tomorrow, but always “today” and always “now.” Romans 13:11, “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber.” Hebrews 4:7, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”
During the two years I worked as a Family Services Counselor at Lakeland Funeral Home, I often wondered how many people in the embalming room had previously thought that they would have another day. Who will be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and justify the failure to believe in Christ by saying, “I didn’t have enough time?” Now is the time. Today is the day to hear and heed Christ’s call and be saved. “Here I am,” said Jesus in Revelation 3:20. “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me.” Do you hear Him knocking? Are you hearing His Word—the Word that contains and conveys the power to open the door? Don’t delay.
Fourth, your call from Jesus is also a call to change. Change, after all, is what repentance means. People often associate repentance with sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus for forgiveness. This is absolutely true. But from the biblical perspective, repentance is much broader. The Greek word translated as “repent” in today’s text literally means “to change your mind.” Change your mind about what? About everything.
Repentance means a change of direction; a change in language, priorities, attitude and lifestyle; a change in relationships, goals, desires, speech, deeds, thoughts, and behavior; a change in the way we view sin and salvation; specifically, the knowledge that as sinful human beings, we cannot save ourselves. Our salvation is entirely the gift of God.
Often we are tempted to believe that we can follow Jesus and still go our own way and lead our own lives? How is this possible? Imagine yourself hearing the call of Jesus along the shores of Lake Galilee. “Follow Me,” He says to you. If He sets out for Jerusalem, can you go to Nazareth? If He invites you to step into a boat and cross the stormy lake, can you remain on land? You can’t be two places simultaneously. You can’t go in two directions at one time. And if that is true geographically, it is equally true spiritually.
To follow Jesus, we must be willing to immediately and completely leave everything else behind: boats, nets, fish, livelihood, and even earthly relationships. Does that worry you? Do you think that your call from Christ is too costly; that where He leads will be much less desirable than what you left; that Christ’s good news is really bad news? Simon Peter said to Jesus in Luke 18:28, “We have left all we had to follow You.” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life,” Luke 18:29-30.
Yes, the call to follow Jesus can be costly; but the rewards of following Jesus are infinitely greater—and the reason why Paul wrote to the Philippians: “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith,” Philippians 3:7-9.
Finally, your call from Jesus is a call to serve. Through His call, Jesus enabled average, unschooled fishermen to become fishers of men. Through their writings and ministry, the good news of Christ spread throughout the world, and in the space of three centuries overcame a pagan Roman Empire that had endured for a thousand years.
You and I are not called to be apostles or prophets. But Jesus does call each of us to serve in His kingdom. Whatever our form of service, whether pastor, teacher, organist, acolyte, lector; whether doctor, lawyer, rancher, farmer, plumber or politician; whether husband, wife, mother or father; whatever Christ calls us to do, Christ will empower us to do. “I will make you fishers of men,” He said. “I will.”
You have a call from Jesus. A call that comes through His word. An urgent call. A personal call. A call to change. A call to serve.
The phone is ringing. Can you get that?