Back to Home Page

ABOUT US

MINISTRIES

TEACHINGS

NEWS

TEACHINGS TO VALLEY VIEW COMMUNITY CHURCH

The Good News of Jesus

10/19/2008 - Follow Me!, Mark 1:14-34

I grew up the younger of two boys and my father was a businessman. He was Irish and my mother was German. And through dating my mother who was a member of a German club my Dad met a lot of his friends who were also of German descent. And back in 1950's he and some of those friends went into business together. They formed a company called SGI which stood for seven Germans and one Irishman.

And their first venture was to open a gas station because one of them was a mechanic. And a few years after that they opened a variety store and then after that they opened up a supermarket together. And that one supermarket grew into a number of stores.

And so my very first job was unloading trucks and bagging groceries and collecting shopping carts in the parking lot of one of my Dad's stores. I was 15 at the time and worked that job on the weekends and during the summers all through high school. And because I thought I might go into the family business one day I majored in business in college, at least on paper. I really majored in swimming, but I couldn't get a degree in that.

My older brother graduated from college three years ahead of me and he eventually did go into the family business. But my life took a different path. During my college years I really wasn't all that interested in the business courses I was taking. Instead, I developed a hunger to study the Bible. I would come home from college each weekend and teach Sunday School in my church and found myself really wanting to know what was in this book.

So after graduating from Drexel, instead of going into the family business, I went on to seminary and followed what I believed was the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life. I had trusted Christ as a child, but now I was learning what it meant to follow Jesus and for me that was the path that it took. It was never dramatic. I didn't see handwriting in the sky or hear a voice from heaven. Instead, there was this growing sense that God wanted me to serve him in some kind of Christian ministry.

And so after seminary I went back to Drexel for a couple of years to teach and coach swimming and work with college students. And then after that I took a position as an assistant pastor at a church not far from here. That's where I met Tim who was already serving there and after eight years we left that church together and our two families started this adventure back in 1992 which we now call Valley View Community Church.

Folllow me! That's what Jesus is calling all of us to do. And it's not going to look the same for any of us. But after we believe in him he wants us to follow him. And that's a day to day decision because following Jesus relates to every area of our life … the thoughts we think, the words we say, the attitudes we have, the values that we live by. Every day we're faced with the choice to follow Jesus.

This morning we continue this study in Mark's gospel that we began last week, The Good News of Jesus … As Told By Mark. And that good news was first announced by John the Baptist. The Messiah, the Savior, who had been promised for hundreds of years was finally in the house. He's here! And so he's baptized by John, affirmed by the Father who says, "you are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased," and then sent by the Spirit into the desert where he defeats the evil one who tempts him relentlessly for forty days and forty nights.

And now he's ready to begin his public ministry. If you have your Bible open to Mark 1:14. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"

We don't know exactly how long Jesus stayed in Judea after his baptism and temptation. Some scholars suggest that it could have been as long as a year. And then John the Baptist was arrested. He was thrown in prison because he publicly criticized one of the rulers, a guy named Herod Antipas, for illegally marrying his brother's wife. And that ticked Herod off so much that he threw John into prison and at that point Jesus moved north back to his home area of Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.

And what was the good news of God that Jesus preached? What's the good news that we all need to hear? It's the news that the kingdom of God has arrived in the person of the King. After four hundred years of silence God finally shows up, not just through a human prophet like John the Baptist, but God himself, in the person of Jesus and that's good news. But what the nation of Israel didn't understand was that the doors of God's kingdom are open wide to any and everyone, you and I included, who repent and believe the good news.

The word repent means "to change our mind or to turn around." John the Baptist used that word repent to urge people to turn from their sin and be forgiven. And that certainly is a big part of repenting. We need to humble ourselves and ask God for forgiveness. But it also involves changing our minds about who Jesus is. He is more than a carpenter from Nazareth. He's more than a Jewish rabbi. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And he wants us to believe in him and then align our life with his priorities because once we believe we become part of his kingdom and our number one allegiance is to Jesus and to making his kingdom known throughout the world by our words and our deeds.

And so after Jesus and John part ways Mark takes us right to the beach to show us a few examples of those who followed Jesus. Look at verse 16, 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. ¹⁷"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Now for a long time when I read this passage it seemed to me like Jesus had some kind of hypnotic power where he could just walk up to people and say, "Follow me," and like robots they would drop everything and fall in line behind him. Now, of course, Jesus had the power to do that if he wanted to, but I don't think that's what's happening here.

According to John's gospel, the day after Jesus was baptized, he met John and Andrew, two of these fishermen. That was probably a year earlier. They were disciples first of John the Baptist, intrigued by his message of the kingdom and waiting for the Messiah to come. And when John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, "Look, there he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" they immediately followed Jesus.

And Jesus turned around and said, "What do you want?" And they said, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" And he said, "Come and see." So they spent the day with him. And that must have been an awesome experience. And after it was over the first thing Andrew did was run and find his brother, Simon, and he said to him, "We have found the Messiah" and he brought Simon to Jesus.

And the first thing Jesus did was change Simon's name, "You are Simon son of John now you will be called Rocky," which is what the name Peter means. It took him a long time for Peter to become a rock, but eventually he did. So these four men had come to faith in Jesus. They believed he was the Messiah maybe a year earlier and after John the Baptist was arrested they went back to the family fishing business in Galilee. That's what they were planning to do with their lives.

So when Jesus calls them in Mark 1 they already had a relationship with him. They had already believed in him. But now he is asking them to make a major life change. And they could have said, "No. We're not ready for that. We're going to stay in the family business. The fish are biting, there's job security here, and you can't beat the benefits." But they didn't. At once they left their nets and followed him which I think means they were considering that for a long time.

There are times in our journey with Jesus when he will say those same words to us, "Follow me." And it may involve a major life change. I've had a few of those in my lifetime, a change of vocation, a change of location, a change of marital status, the changes that children bring to your life. "Follow me." But then there's the everyday, "Follow me" that puts Christ and his concerns above me and my concerns everyday. That's what these men were about to see for the next couple of years. Both are part of what it means to walk with Jesus.

So these guys are excited and their nervous and their anxious to get started to see what's all involved in going out to fish for people. That's what Jesus told them they were going to do, "fish for people." And their first fishing lesson happens in a synagogue.

Look at verse 21,They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

Jesus and his four disciples go to the synagogue in Capernaum which is on the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus did a lot of his ministry on and around that beautiful fresh water lake fed and drained by the Jordan River. In Hebrew, it's called the Sea of Chinnereth which means "harp" because it's shaped like a harp about 14 miles long and 7 miles at its widest point.

Now Capernaum was the hometown of these men. It's where Peter, Andrew, James and John lived. It was the largest of about thirty five fishing villages dotted around the Sea of Galilee with a population of about 15,000 people. It was a hub of activity. There was a major highway from Damascus that ran right through town and there were shops and people buying and selling and lots of hustle and bustle in Capernaum.

And right away we see that Jesus has a totally different ministry than John the Baptist. John the Baptist lived out in the desert and was a bit of a loner and people had to come out to see him on his own turf. But Jesus went right in to where the people lived and worked and played and shopped and worshiped. And so his first venue is a synagogue. And he's going to spend a lot of time hanging out in synagogues.

The synagogue was like the Jewish church building. The word synagogue literally means "place of assembly" and wherever you had ten Jewish men you could establish a synagogue. And because you could only travel so far on a Sabbath Day there were lots of small synagogues scattered around. This one probably sat about 150 people.

Now you're not going to find the word synagogue in the Old Testament because the synagogue movement didn't start until after the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jewish people were scattered. The first synagogues actually began in Babylon to give the Jewish people a place to meet and to pray and to study together.

And Jesus grew up going to the synagogue. And Peter, Andrew, James and John grew up going to this synagogue. They were very familiar with it, but they never saw anything like what they were about to encounter. To be honest the synagogue services were rather boring. There was no music or singing, no sacrifices like they did at the Temple. Instead, there were prescribed readings for each Sabbath Day and the Jewish men would take turns doing the reading. There was no pastor that did the teaching week after week.

Now occasionally a visiting rabbi would come in and teach. And when that happened that was a big deal. That was special. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He begins to teach as a rabbi.

Look at verse 22, And the people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

You see visiting rabbis would come in and they would read a passage of Scripture and then they would spend the rest of the time quoting other rabbis. This is what Rabbi Hillel says about that passage. And this is what Rabbi Shammai says about that passage. But Rabbi Cohen disagrees with them both and this is what he says about this passage. And on and on they would go leaving the people scratching their heads not knowing what or whom to believe.

But Jesus reads the passage for the day and says, "You have heard that it was said, but I tell you." Then he reads another passage, "You have heard that it was said to the people of long ago, but I tell you." And the people are amazed because he's teaching with authority. The Word of God is teaching the Word of God. And Peter and Andrew, James and John along with the rest are like, "Wow! We never heard anything like this. He knows what he's talking about!"

But just as they're hanging on every word all hell breaks loose. Look at verse 23, Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

In the middle of this wonderful teaching a demon cries out. And it's frightening! I mean nothing like that ever happened before in that quiet little synagogue. This was the most exciting service they ever had! "Boy am I glad I came today!" Don't get any ideas! I don't want that to happen here!

And suddenly everything stops and everybody's staring at this madman when Jesus says in verse 25, "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly (literally, be muzzled or shut up). "Come out of him!" ²⁶The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. No fasting. No praying. No negotiating. Just "shut up and get out!"

And there's silence. And Peter and his buddies are like, "Whoa! What was that all about? Is that what Jesus means by fishing for people? What did we get ourselves into? Do we really want to do this? Maybe we should go back to fishing! It's nice and quiet on the lake."

Verse 27, The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Jesus teaches with authority. He casts out demons with authority. And the news spreads quickly, but the day's not over yet. Jesus shows up at the synagogue service in the morning and now the five of them head up the road to Peter's house.

Look at verse 29, As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. ³⁰Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her.

The apostle Peter, still called Simon here, is married. Maybe you didn't know that. And his mother-in-law lives with him and his wife. And she's sick in bed with a fever. Luke calls it a high fever in his gospel. So Peter says to Jesus, "Hey, I wonder if you can help me out here? Can you do me a favor?" And Jesus says, "Sure. What is it?" And Peter says, "Well my mother-in-law is burning up with a fever, do you think you can do something about it? I mean after all you did such a great job with that demon in the synagogue this morning!"

So we read in verse 31, So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Jesus goes in to this sick woman and gently takes her hand and helps her up out of bed. And immediately her fever breaks. Again, no fasting. No long prayer. No abracadabra. Not even a recorded word. Just a touch of his hand and she is completely healed so much that she begins to cook dinner and wait on them. I don't know about you but when I have a fever it wipes me out and when it breaks I'm drained. It takes days to recover. But that's not the way Jesus healed people. They didn't gradually get better. They instantly did.

And so while they're eating dinner together there's a knock on the door and the whole town is out on the front lawn asking to be healed. Take a number! They came after sunset because they didn't want to break the Jewish Law and travel on the Sabbath. They had to wait for the Sabbath to be over and it was over when the first three stars appeared in the night sky.

Look at verse 32, That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.

And so Jesus with boundless energy took care of this mob of hurting people until deep into the night. And Peter and Andrew, James and John are speechless. They have no categories for what they are seeing. Nothing like this has ever happened in Capernaum or anywhere else in the world for that matter in the long and storied history of the nation of Israel. And Jesus looks over and winks at them and says, "Hey guys, welcome to my world. Welcome to a day in the life of the Messiah." Twenty-four hours ago they were fishing for fish and now they're fishing for people. And I'm sure these four guys fell into bed that night exhausted wondering what in the world is going to happen tomorrow!

The passage ends with these words in verse 34,He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

That's an interesting statement and I'm not sure I understand it all. Why wouldn't Jesus let them speak if they knew who he was? But I do that know it shows Jesus' authority over the demonic. Jesus tells them to shut up and they shut up. And apparently he doesn't want demons spreading the good news about who he is. He wants his followers to do that. That's your job and that's my job to let people know that the king has come, the kingdom is near, and we can all be apart of it by repenting and believing in King Jesus. That's what it means to be fishers of people.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.