Jesus in Galilee (Part B)

There are some really beautiful lakes, but Galilee is not one that you look at and say, oh, this is so beautiful. And those of you who may have seen Galilee and you say it is beautiful, you're just saying that because it's in the Bible.

It really isn't. And it's made beautiful by Christ. It is the most important lake in Western civilization history since Christ appeared in human form.

And that's what makes it special to us. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now, here's Pastor Rick in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 1 with a new study called Jesus in Galilee. Rock stars will always out-attract us. We're not after the crowds. We're after souls.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit. And setting up a bait-and-switch that turns out only to be bait is not honorable. It's not what we're supposed to do. The Bible disagrees with that approach. We are to preach the Gospel.

And then we see Christ with John in prison not saying, well, you know, maybe John did it wrong. Maybe I shouldn't preach the Gospel like John did. I'll give people something that makes them feel comfortable just to get them to come out to hear me. And then I'll keep giving them something comfortable so they continue to come out to hear me. But I won't give them the Gospel.

Thank you, Lord, that that is not the case. And we should not be ashamed of these things. We should be eager about them, excited, in a rush to tell the story.

The world can get more of the world from themselves. They need truth from Christians. And when the Church becomes like the world, we only give them a defeated Christianity, just what Satan wants.

We play into their hands because Christians are ashamed to be different. We're ashamed to stand up and say, I don't do that. I don't even like that. And if I do like that, I know I shouldn't like that. And I'm fighting that.

And I don't appreciate you trying to get me to do that. When the Christian becomes like the world, they're no longer becoming like Christ. We're supposed to be Christ-like.

And that's hard enough. That's hard enough in a sheltered environment, returning to what Jesus has delivered us from whenever we try to be like the world. When Israel adopted pagan lifestyles, the pagans that were around them, they lost. That's the Old Testament holds us up to us time and time again. Just read the books of Kings and Chronicles. Read the prophets, major and minor alike. When Israel turned to idols, God stopped blessing them. The doctrine of Balaam was to mingle in the world with those who claimed to believe in God's Word.

And in so doing, he corrupted individuals. And if it had not been resisted and stopped, there would be no Israel today. They would have gone the way of the Amalekites and the Philistines and the Canaanites and all the others. But Israel is still here, because God's Word does not return void.

And she is proof of that. Israel, whether they believe or not, is not the point. The point is God said, that nation, that people as a nation will not be removed from the earth. And if you take them out of the Promised Land, they will retain their identity as my people.

And I will come back to them. And the guilty Jewish people will be treated like guilty Jewish people before the throne of God. And the righteous Jewish people will be treated like righteous Jewish people before the throne of God. And so it is with the Gentiles also.

But Israel is this blinking light in the face of the planet throughout all history that God is real and there's nothing you can do about it. You can come up with theories. You can come up with your arguments. You can write books.

You can do movies. You can slaughter Christians. But the light keeps blinking. Verse 15. This is, of course, still speaking of Christ, Mark is, and saying. This is what the preaching involved or included. And saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The time is fulfilled.

It has arrived. It is a distinct action of God. It is a fulfillment of prophecy. That makes it spiritual.

It's a spiritual feature now. It's not just a man standing up and saying, hey, I've got a good idea. I am the one and everybody should listen to me.

And if you don't listen to me, we're going to kill you. There are other religions that do that. Not Christianity. Christianity has this long record, this unbroken witness of prophecy that is being fulfilled to this day. John's gospel, chapter one, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. Oh Lord, may we have grace and truth. And may we hold onto it tightly.

May we treat it as though it is gold and more. A new era begins with the coming of Christ and to his preaching and his God's dealing with human beings. Paul writes about it in Galatians to those churches in that region. He says, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, the virgin birth. That's what Paul is saying. He continues in verse 15, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Christ visible, that is, walking on the earth, the kingdom of God personified in him. There's more to it, but we just don't ever have enough time to go in depth in depth.

We do go in depth here routinely, but then we don't go to the next level because it really takes up a lot of time. And the surface lessons of the scripture are powerful in themselves. He's touching lives and he's being touched. We know that because the crowds pushed and shoved and came to him and he touched them and they touched him. Remember the woman in Christ said, who touched me? And Peter said, you kidding, right? You're here in a mob and you're going to ask, it's like getting on a New York City subway at rush hour and say, don't touch me, which I have seen.

And the fistfights that followed. Well, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Luke's gospel chapter 10, when he was sending out the 70, Jesus said this among other things to them. He says, say to them, the kingdom of God has come near you in Christ. Preach to them about the Messiah coming. A specific imperative, a directive to believers to this day.

Say to them the kingdom of God is near to you. Luke 10, 9. Then he says, repent and believe in the gospel. So John is in jail, but he's still alive and Jesus continues to preach the same message as John was preaching. Rather than kind of just shoving him out of the way, okay, now it's my time.

He will not shove him out of the way. He will develop, he will develop the message, but right now, while John is still on earth, Christ preaches the message of repentance. Repentance is an attitude with action. That's what repentance is. It's not just lip service. It's not just, you know, a nod of the head. There's a determination that goes with it.

To control, to fight, to stop, to slow down the progression of sin in my own life, in my own heart. You're the salt of the earth. That's what that means. You slow it down. Resist it. Don't give in.

Salt is that which not only tastes good and raises your blood pressure, but it also slows down corruption. And the Lord reinforcing John's message is saying, people have to face their sin, their personal sin, and they're going to have contact with God. Nero would not, for example. Paul preached to Nero. Nero was the Caesar when Paul was arrested and God said to Paul, you will stand before Caesar. And he did. We don't have to have it verbalized. We have that promise.

That's good enough. Nero would not repent. In fact, he got worse.

Way worse. Simon Peter, who we'll come to in a moment, he would repent. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, he said to Jesus. And Jesus said, no, I don't depart from sinners. I've come here to seek and to save them. Impenitent, fake believers will not repent plus they will cause trouble amongst believers. They bring division with them. Paul writes to the church in Rome, he says avoid the divisive.

They just come in an impenitent. They won't repent. They won't face their sin. And they want you to entertain their sin.

You know, put out little finger foods and little cups of this and that. And just everybody sit down and be happy in the face of sin. Peter preached at Pentecost. He said, and remember, just remember this point, Peter's preaching because we're going to get back to that. Repent, Acts chapter 3 verse 19, therefore and be converted, change teams. He continues, that your sins may be blotted out.

Who wouldn't want that? So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. You see, that's what repentance brings. And so those who say I'm a believer but refuse to repent, refuse to deal with sin, they're not refreshed. And they do not refresh others. Quite the opposite.

They strip everybody down, demanding that everybody excuse them and turn a blind eye to the things of Christ. And those who accommodate sin will be dominated by sin. This is just a fact. It's not, you don't have to believe me.

It doesn't care whether you believe me or not. It is a fact. And the challenge is, is to preach to Christians who have repented and struggle with sin and not crush them because they're doing the right thing by fighting their sin even if they've not gotten the victory.

The fact that they're on the battlefield distinguishes them from those who try to pretend that sin really isn't that bad and you should have a sip. Take a bite of this. We know what the fruit was there in the tree in Genesis chapter 3. In case you don't know, bananas. Bananas. Clearly I don't like bananas because it's an unbiblical fruit. Little fact about bananas. I know some of you really like bananas and you need to be rebuked for that.

But little fact is a gorilla will kill you for that banana. So all right, a little pastoral help there. No charge for that. If you would like more, never mind. Where was I?

No, I am right here. 1 Corinthians. You know, again, look, I know of churches that when I go past them or hear about their name, I say, I'm Corinthian. It's a Corinthian church. Anyway, they were just, you know, very happy about how they were excusing sin in the congregation. And Paul writes to them, he says, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Of course you know that.

In those days, everybody knew what leaven did. And he's saying, don't play with this stuff. Ask the ancient churches in Galatia and Thyatira and Pergamos and Laodicea, ask them about not repenting or make believing that they're believers while they trample God's word. Revelation 2 21, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent.

So when Christ comes along and he says, repent and believe in the gospel, he's got this thing for understatement he does. It's quite powerful. If you were, if I were to, again, back with the subway deal. I don't know what it is this morning. I'm maybe just thankful that I probably will never have to ride another subway again. But anyway, if I were to take you down to the subway in some city where there were subways and say, that's the third rail.

There are two rails for the carriage, the train, to roll upon and there's a third one. Looks just like them but it's elevated and there's more electricity going through that than your body can handle. And if you touch it and your foot is not, you know, not where it's supposed to be, you're going to be cooked, microwaved, instantly. Believe it or not, I forgot why I brought that up.

Because I worked on these things and I'd have to go to these classes and I remember one time they had this, this is a picture of someone in the hospital that touched the third rail and it was horrific. And that's what I'm thinking of now. So, I forgot the point and, you know, you miss out. Okay, I got it, I got it. Understatement.

So if I said don't touch that rail, it's an understatement. But when I show you pictures and now I'm more graphic with this, making my point. Christ did not usually hold up pictures outside of his parables and the things surrounding him. So when he speaks, it is, there is a sustained seriousness in his prohibitions and we'd have no right to come along and downsize him. Well, you know, he was, he gets a little over the top sometimes. No, he does not. He's full of grace and grace does not lose its balance.

Verse 16, and as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. Now, some of you have mentioned to me that, you know, don't, don't apologize for going over. Just keep preaching.

Well, we're going to try that this morning. So, at two o'clock we should be done with this section. You asked for it.

Yeah, yeah. This Sea of Galilee, 60 miles from Jerusalem, because Jerusalem's the hub. We need to know that if you're not familiar. Okay, Jerusalem, that's where the temple is and so you go 60 miles north and there you are heading to the Sea of Galilee. I've got some stats here.

Who wants to hear them? Let's just handle it that way. This Sea of Galilee has several names. The Jews call it Caninaret, the shape of a harp, the harp.

And there's, you know, Gennesaret's an aggression version of that. It's the Sea of Tiberius when the Romans came in. They named it after, of course, their heroes. The Galilee to the north. And it is an underwhelming body of water. When you go to Galilee, at least for me, when I first went to Galilee it was like, that's it? Not entirely, because I knew that Christ walked on that. But still, it's really not, I mean, there are other lakes and other places that are beautiful.

Ansel Adams likes, the guy that kept running out of paint, colors, did everything in black and wine, whatever. You know, there are some really beautiful lakes, but Galilee is not one that you look at and say, oh, this is so beautiful. And those of you who may have seen Galilee and you say it is beautiful, you're just saying that because it's in the Bible.

But it really isn't. And it's made beautiful by Christ. It is the most important lake in Western civilization history since Christ appeared in human form.

And that's what makes it special to us. Even the Jews came to know it as Galilee of the Gentiles. And whenever the Jews spoke of Gentiles, it was not a compliment. When Paul is preaching and he mentions the word Gentile, the crowd went nuts and tried to kill him. They weren't cheering, not like a sporting, and the crowd goes wild.

No, the crowd went wild to tear him apart. And were it not for the Roman soldiers, he'd be in pieces. So Isaiah, oh, I don't know, 700 years before Christ was born, over 700, says this, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles. And there he is promising the coming of Messiah will bring light. But it had that mark because usually the invading armies would come from the north and towards Jerusalem and they would come by this Sea of Galilee.

This is just the way it was. It was a place that the foreigners had come to enjoy and claim and thus the Jews looked down on it even in Jesus' day. Their dialect was different. They spoke differently from the Jews in Jerusalem.

And so it was a different place even in those days in the Promised Land. Well, here at this Sea of Galilee, it says he saw Simon. Well, Jesus always sees. He sees you. He sees everybody. And he just, he's God the Son. But as with Simon and so with us, when Jesus looked at Simon, he saw what no one else saw. He does that with everyone who comes to him. You know, as an artist looks at a canvas, you know, you and I, I look at a canvas, I see something white for somebody else to draw something on. An artist looks at it, they already see what they're going to do with this, where they're going to start.

They don't see the canvas. And it is the same here with Jesus. Gutzon Borglum, how many of you have heard of him?

Yeah, one. He's the guy that did Mount Rushmore. And if you look at pictures of Mount Rushmore before Gutzon shows up, it's just, you know, stone face rock, a mountain.

It's nothing. How he saw these faces in there and got them on that mountain is incredible. This is what Gutzon said, Borglum, that's his last name. We'll say it three times fast before we leave this morning. Anyway, this is what Borglum said, the faces are in the mountain.

All I have to do is bring them out. That's what Jesus does. Long before Borglum comes along with a difficult name, Jesus would look at, he looked at Simon and he just, he saw the rock in Simon, he just had to bring it out. And he did. Jesus saw Simon as a canvas to be covered with Peter.

The face of the mountain to be sculpted. John chapter 1 verse 3, all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. Christ is the one that makes things happen in people. Simon Peter, always the center in the crowd, always where the action was, always giving Christ opportunity just by the things he said.

Who do men say that I am? And Simon blurts out, of course, you're the Messiah, you're the Christ. And then the next sentence, you know, Jesus is saying to him, Satan's in you, Peter, you know. So that's Peter, the beloved disciple of Christ. Mark names him first among the apostles in his gospel and we'll come to him later. He's the first of the apostles actually to really call Christ the Messiah directly.

Philip did flirt with the idea himself early on. And Andrew his brother it says here. This is, you know, Peter's an easy one. We do a whole sermon on Peter very easily.

We can do a couple of sermons in a row. Andrew, ever comfortable and content with being his brother, quote unquote. And Andrew, look at verse 16, and Andrew his brother. And that's how Andrew's all pretty much introduced to us.

Each time we meet him, as you know, those of you familiar with the scripture, he's bringing someone to Christ, the Andrew spirit. And the Lord saw that. He saw that in Andrew. When he called these men, he saw what he's going to put on that canvas. He saw what he was going to chisel out of these men. Not, you know, like a con artist chiseling out of people, but as a sculptor. Michelangelo, when he looks at, you know, a slab of marble, he saw David. Well, his version of David. I see a man that needs a towel.

Just saying. It's like, that's not funny, Michael. I wonder if it was too hard to draw a towel. I mean, to chisel one?

Or was it that difficult? Anyway, he saw them casting a net into the sea. So he's calling these men while they're doing up, working.

There are lessons here for us. Here, he sees them casting their nets. But at the same time, he sees Peter, oh, three years later, leading 3,000 souls in a single sermon to Christ. Saying those words that we, you know, repent that times of refreshment may come from the Lord. That's what Christ saw in Peter. He even saw him crucified.

He says, for they were fishermen. The Lord doesn't make a habit of calling idle people to be his disciples, but busy people. This lesson comes out in Scripture. In Luke's Gospel, he says in the parable that the master said to his servants, do business till I come.

Work until I come. This was true of Moses. He was working as a shepherd. Gideon, thrashing wheat, hiding. David, the shepherd. Elisha, with 12 yoke of oxen. Nehemiah and Amos, the apostles. Even Paul was working at persecuting Christians when he was called. That's thorough. Rebecca, she was hauling water with her jug.

And Rachel was a shepherdess. When God brings these people into our presence from the pages of Scripture, we find them working. Because laziness is not a virtue, it is a vice. And it's so easy to be lazy. There are some people that are afraid of being lazy, so much so, they just are constantly working.

I'd rather burn out than rust out, but I'd rather last altogether. And that is possible. Verse 17, then Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. I'm going to pause there before we get into verse 17. Martha, she was one that was working to a fault. She lost the balance. And Mary wasn't lazy, she just put first things first.

I should just throw that in. And I always like to put Martha's response to Jesus' rebuke was admirable. Because she doesn't make the same mistake twice.

The next time she finds who she is, she works that, and she leaves her sister alone. And you have to applaud that. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.