Jesus in Galilee (Part C)

You can be a better you today and be happy. You can be a smiley face if you want.

Okay. I just, you know, just, I know people's hearts, they hurt and they want rest and peace, but you know, there's, what does it profit a man if you gain the love of everybody and go to work? What good is that?

We've got something better. We can give them the hearts, but the truth too. 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. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through his message called Jesus in Galilee in Mark chapter one. 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. It's, 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. 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 white, whatever. You know, there's 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'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 faced 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 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 it, 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. 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 his idea. Now, you know, Peter's an easy one. We do a whole sermon on Peter very easily.

We 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 in a, 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 just 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 what?

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. Verse 17, then Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. Now you've already met these men several months before. The wedding of Cana, those things are behind this, but he comes back to them in Galilee. Probably, you know, one of the draws of him going to Galilee was to bring these men around him. And you can't miss the fact that he bypasses Jerusalem. He bypasses Athens. He doesn't go to the seminaries of his day, nor does he seek the very successful people, though these were not unsuccessful fishermen.

We'll find a signature of that in a moment. But he found these men on the lake working hard. And he starts out with men who worked with their hands. Later he goes for the intellectual who worked with his body because Paul could take a hit. Paul could take a beating for Christ like nobody else in the New Testament. Paul writes to the Galatians, he says, from now on let no one trouble me, for I bear on my body the marks of Christ. Question, whose marks are on your body?

Who's on my body? Whose image is on you, Caesar's or Christ? These are the lessons that come out from the scripture. And in the early years of Christianity, they are wonderful lessons.

Yes, I love that. As time goes on and you try to develop those lessons, you meet with resistance from hell. Because hell's not a pushover. Hell is not going to just say, yeah, you learned that in church? Well, just go ahead and do it. Trample us.

They rise, raise up their ugly heads. And that's, you know, I used to preach, you know, well, Satan's just coming into view. That means you can, he's in range. Well, he's bad when he's in range.

He can shoot you. So it's a, you know, that's the fight. It's not this romantic story only. Paul, the intellectual, the great man of Christ, with his body also. Verse 18, they immediately left their nets and followed him. Well, that immediately, again, Jesus already met these men. The groundwork was laid, but now he's pulling them into full-time ministry. Mark is seemingly always in a hurry with his gospel, leaving out so many details that we'd love to hear. When he uses the word immediately, he's saying, this is the next big thing.

The Old Testament prophets, or in our Old Testament English translations, we read this word often. Behold. Well, that's Mark's, I mean, Mark, I'm not using behold. I'm going to use my own word.

Immediately. I don't know if he had that kind of attitude, but that's where it ends up. It's his style. It's not a literal statement with Mark. Luke's gospel, chapter 14. So, likewise, Jesus says, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. What does that mean? Does that mean I got to leave my stuff on the road for somebody else, somebody I don't like, especially to come get my stuff? Well, that would not be a good testimony.

That would cause problems, actually. I think in this verse is this idea that when you come to Christ, nothing that you think you own is yours. It's all his. It all is for him. If God gives you wealth, it is for the kingdom.

If he gives you, you know, looks and brains and dynamics and charisma, these are some of the things he's given me. Whatever Christ gives, it belongs to him. And so, likewise, whoever does not forsake, does not, whoever's still clinging to, this is mine.

You know, the daffy duck syndrome, the little miser. This is mine, mine. That's not Christ. That's not Christianity. Verse 19, and this Peter, who is a born leader, is now a follower. Verse 19, when he had gone a little farther from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. Now, this James is not to be confused with the brother of the Lord, that who writes the letter of James, but this is a quiet man who's not overlooked. He gets to be in the inner circle of Christ.

I think I mentioned this a few weeks before. I think he was a stabilizing influence between Peter and John. You know, John was more the visionary and Peter was more just, you know, Peter, and there's James to keep them in line. We don't know what great influence he had on that early church in those early days, but he would be the first of the twelve to seal his loyalty to Christ with his blood, with his life of the apostles, that is. No heroics, no exclamation marks concerning the cold recital of his death. Acts chapter 12, then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. Just like that.

Nothing more. No metal pinned on him, no monument made. He just gave his life for Christ. James showed us how to die for Christ. John's going to show us how to live for Christ, because he's going to be the oldest one of the apostles.

The sons of Zebedee, well his wife Salomee, she'll ask a special favor for her boy. She'll come to Jesus' moms, right, and just say, grant whatever I ask. And Jesus said, excuse me? No, he didn't say that. But anyway, she asked, you know, make my son to sit one on your right, one on your left, and Jesus said, you're out of your mind. No, he did not. I just think that's what I would have said.

That's what he should have said. You know, anyway, John his brother, it continues here in verse 19. Now, this is the John whom Jesus committed Mary to, his earthly, his mother, according to the flesh.

This is quite an endorsement, don't you think? Honor your mother and father, and he says, I'm dying here. I'm not coming back to be in your life anymore like I was before Mary. John, take care of her.

And we see that happening. Mary is amongst the believers there, praying with them. So James, he becomes the first apostolic martyr, but John is the last of the apostolic messengers.

You can't make this up. It's interesting. The book of Revelation is the last document that we have as Christians, and John is the scribe to that document. So when James again shows us how to die, John says, this is how you live, and we have the Gospel of John, his epistles, and the Revelation. He says, who were also in the boat mending their nets. When he called one pair of brothers, Peter and Andrew, they were casting their nets in verse 16. They're not castanets, but they were casting their nets.

So, and I just thought of that. I mean, all right, metaphorically, they represent evangelism. I mean, you look at that picture, and you see the men casting their net to catch fish, fishers of men, and it's the preaching of the Gospel. And when they did this, except for when Jesus was around, they caught something.

Their results were immediate. When Christ was there, they just couldn't fish. It's just the funniest thing that comes out of this story. But Spurgeon in his book, The Soul Winner, this is what Spurgeon says. He says, rely implicitly upon the old, old Gospel. You need no other nets when you fish for men.

Those your master has given you are strong enough for the great fishes and have meshes fine enough to hold the little one. Spread these nets and no others, and you need not fear for the fulfillment of his word. Preach the word is what Spurgeon is saying.

Preach the, you want to save soul, give them the Gospel. Not some, you know, you can be a better you today and be happy. You can be a smiley face if you want.

Okay. I just, you know, just, I know people's hearts, they hurt and they want rest and peace, but you know, there's, what does it profit a man if you gain the love of everybody and go to hell? What good is that? We've got something better. We can give him the hearts, but the truth too. So this other pair, here they are mending their nets and metaphorically that's the pastor-teacher.

You can see that, right? Casting the nets, you're saving souls, you can see the results, they're flapping around in the net. But then it's the hard work of cleaning them and mending them, taking care of them, and the results are not immediate to that. The church needs both types, needs both types of people and leaders. The church needs those who can get souls saved and those who can build those souls up. We, you know, reaching the lost and strengthening the saved and it's pictured in the calling of these two brothers, two groups of brothers, these two sets of brothers.

The patient and the hard work. Verse 20, and immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Well, of course, the fact that they have servants, the Greek word for servants there is what we would say employees hired laborers and so they had some success with their business. There's some indication that they sold fish to the temple, to the high priest and that's why John knew everybody there when Peter's, you know, warming himself by the fire again.

John's inside because they knew him. But we see, again, in verse 20, and immediately he called them. Christ is the one, as always, that takes the initiative. When Elijah was plowing with his 12 oxen, Elijah comes up and throws his mantle on him. The initiative was on the side of God.

You can't call yourself is the idea. And it would have been interesting if Elijah went to anoint Elijah at his desk studying the scriptures. That's not where he was. He was working. He was busy. And he forsook all he had in saying these 12 oxen that I have and the yoke that hold them, they're not mine. And so what does he do?

He makes a sacrifice for everybody, not a ritual sacrifice, but he slaughters the oxen and he says goodbye to his mom and dad and he goes and follows Elijah the prophet and then Elijah becomes, you know, the one that says if grant me a double dose of whatever it is you have and Elijah says that's a hard one. He does. What do you mean? Okay.

If you see me go up in a chariot, you know, then you got it. And that's precisely what happened. And anyway, Levi, of course, he was sitting collecting taxes. He was still working.

These men mending nets, casting nets. Nathaniel, you know, he was doing something too. He was having his devotional time in the Word when Christ comes to him.

And as I mentioned Saul of Tarsus, when Christ called him, what was he doing? Persecuting Christians. Does that justify the persecution of Christians? Of course not.

But that kind of shuts down. If someone gets saved in a place they're not supposed to be, you know, I got saved in a car. Well, that doesn't mean you should be hanging out there now.

I got saved while I was selling drugs or buying drugs. Well, that stuff stops now. You forsake that stuff.

And that's your biblical platform for that. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat. What did these men know about ministry?

Absolutely nothing. And we need to remember that if you've never served in ministry, go into it as an empty vessel, you know, a new wineskin with nothing in it that's, you know, you've got some elasticity about you so that God can pour in and you don't burst and make a mess of things. He says, and went after him. Little did these fishermen know that they would be numbered amongst the heroes of the Old Testament like Moses and Jeremiah and all the other, you know, Abraham. And Peter's scripture, his letters, as uneducated as he was, as unschooled as he was, he wasn't an ignorant man, but he wasn't formally polished either. And his letters bear that, and yet his letter is equal with the Pentateuch, the Torah, the books of Moses. And only God can do these kind of things. These men didn't know that that was going to happen, nor did they know they were going to die for Christ, suffer for him. They thought as they began to find out he was Messiah that he was going to establish his kingdom. That's why Salome comes up and says, Grant to my, that they're going to, she meant today, when you go into Jerusalem in a few weeks and you take over the city, can you give them a place in your, your, your palace? Well, so much for Christ's Galilean ministry now beginning. We'll get more details.

There's so much more to come. 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.