Today on Insight for Living, it has been a dark day in the church when preaching took a back seat. It was never meant to be. The church of Jesus Christ is always to be a place where preaching is prominent.
Sometimes personal invitations change everything. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll brings us to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where four ordinary fishermen were mending their nets and doing what they'd always done. And then Jesus walked by with two simple words that would turn their world upside down: "Follow me." No questions, no long explanations of where they were going. Just a call to follow him.
So, what made these men drop their nets and leave their boats? And what might Jesus be asking of you? We begin by reading the passage together. We are just underway in our journey through the Gospel by Mark. If you're unfamiliar with your Bible, it is the second book in the New Testament.
Chapter one. We'll begin our reading at verse 14 down through verse 20. You will also find an outline in the worship folder that I always fill out ahead of time, and during the message, you will. If you have a pen handy, you'll find that the thoughts will stay longer if you will write a few things down that will be helpful for you. Mark one, beginning at verse fourteen.
Now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled." And the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. As he was going along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets.
Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went away. To follow Him. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "Saying Yes to Christ's Call." Every preacher remembers his first sermon.
Unfortunately, we were all younger back then, all less experienced, and most of all, we were scared out of our minds. And when that's true, you always say things that later you realize should never have been said. I could fill the next thirty minutes with my own stories. One former DTS faculty member told me when he first preached, he uh. Brought to his with his Bible to the pulpit, 20, 21 pages of notes, and just as he opened his Bible to preach, the notes just flew all over the platform, and he spent the first two or three minutes gathering the notes back together, and realized when he did he had forgotten to number the pages.
The late great S. Lewis Johnson, whom I always loved to hear preach, told our class that his first sermon was memorable. He said, "Thankfully, it was preached way out in the country." And he said, "Just as I stood up to preach, boom! The back doors burst open, and in came a herd of goats." Climbed over the pews and around, and all kinds of noise. He said, "I've been spending my years ever since then trying to get the goats out and the sheep in." Clever line.
One of my first sermons I remember came when I was a student at Dallas Seminary, and the local funeral home needed someone to preach the service for a man who had no family left, no one. It'd be a small service. You don't to preach very long. He didn't know it was my first sermon, and of course, I didn't tell him.
So, when I showed up to preach, no one was there except a man sitting very near the back with a fox terrier in his lap. I learned later that the man who died left a boatload of money to the dog, and the man holding the dog is the lawyer in the church room. I don't know whether to preach on obedience or greed that day. One of the funniest true stories came from the backroads of Kentucky, where the funeral director didn't know it was the young man's first sermon, but he needed someone to preach a homeless person's service, and it would be held at the gravesite, really at a pauper's cemetery.
Well, the young man said he would do it, but he got lost going there, and he was one full hour late when he arrived. He had driven all around and finally came to the place. And by then, the funeral director and everyone else had long since left. Only the grave diggers were sitting there, and other members of the crew having their lunch. And he walked over and he looked in the hole and he saw that the lid of the vault was already in place and didn't know what else to do.
But he turned to the workman standing there and opened his Bible and preached his sermon.
Well, they stood up, put their cap over their hearts, and they listened as he finished his sermon. And then he felt led to sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." And one of the workers started to cry and. Another, and before long, the preacher was weeping, and finally, he just sort of stopped. And he prayed with his head bowed low. He walked back to his truck, and just as he reached out to open the door, he overheard one of the workmen say, "Man, I ain't never seen nothing like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for thirty years." Don't know.
Rule number one is: you always need to know your audience when you preach a sermon. There once lived a man who preached his first sermon when he was about thirty years of age, and he not only knew his audience; he knew them better than he knew himself. And when he preached that sermon, everyone listened. In fact, they gathered and they sat down on this slope near a body of water, and he preached what came to be known as the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew covers the story or the sermon in chapters five, six, and seven, which we'll not turn to.
But this was the first sermon he delivered, and what a masterpiece it was! It was the beginning of a lifetime of masterpieces, though his lifetime would last only three and a half years on this earth. Interestingly, Mark doesn't even bother to mention the Sermon on the Mount or a number of other events, as he moves quickly from Jesus' temptation in the wilderness to his ministry in Galilee. If you wanted filled in this. Passing of time that occurs that Mark doesn't cover, you'll need to read John chapter one verse nineteen down through chapter four, verse fifty-four, and you'll cover those events.
We'll turn to that in just a moment. But for now, our attention turns immediately to use Mark's word. Immediately we go to verse fourteen of chapter one. Just before we hear the words of the master, we observe two things in this fourteenth verse. First, that John has been arrested and incarcerated.
That's John the Baptizer. Last time we saw John, he was baptizing and preaching in the wilderness, and now we find John. Pushed away from the crowd, and in fact taken and left in prison. The reason for it is covered in Mark chapter six. When we get there, we'll return to that then, but not now.
The point is, John is silenced, and the hope of Herod was to keep him silenced from him from here on. Though admittedly he did see John as a bit of a novelty, and he enjoyed hearing what he had to say, though it never reached his heart. There are still a lot of people like that. John is is arrested and incarcerated, but Jesus, we read in verse fourteen, begins his ministry in Galilee. You see the verse.
After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God. Before we look at what Jesus said, let's observe where Jesus was. And right next to the scriptures, my favorite part of my Bible is found in the very back of the Bible. The maps.
So, if you will turn back to that section of your Bible, there really are maps there. I'm going to watch little dust pockets form around the seats as you turn back there, since you've not been there in a long time, quite likely. My map is map number twelve, but yours may not be numbered. That the maps are numbered chronologically, and this one takes us to the ministry of Jesus.
So, if you'll find the map that describes the geography in the days of Jesus, and the reason for that is the map changes from one era to another, and so this one is important that you find. You know you are there when you come to the map that shows two bodies of water. Smaller body of water is to the north; the larger body is to the south, much larger. One is a body that is filled with living fish and other living organisms. The last one, the bottom body of water, is dead.
Nothing there by way of fish, fish life, organisms. Nutrients are there, but nothing else. The little serpentine body of water that trickles, or at least flows, from Galilee, the Sea, down to the Dead Sea, is called the River Jordan. The Jordan River connects these two, as the Sea dumps into the body of water that's even lower than the Sea of Galilee. Look at the Sea of Galilee on your map.
It's an inward lake of warm water called, interestingly, a sea, though it is in fact a lake. It's twelve and a half miles long. It's about seven and a half miles wide. It's located six hundred eighty feet below sea level, so it's low. It is also deep.
It runs in its deepest part from somewhere between eighty and a hundred and sixty feet deep. It's there on this body of water. Much of Jesus' ministry takes place, and it's around this body of water we find the area of Galilee. Look to the west, to the left of the lake, and you will see Galilee and all of those places. If you look at the At the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, up on the shoreline, you'll see the little town of Capernaum.
We'll be there next time, but for now we're along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. I love maps, so let's go back now to Mark chapter one. Why would he minister early in the in the area of Galilee? Because it was less Priest-ridden and certainly less Pharisee-dominated. More of the legalism rested in the south, in the region of Judea.
Jesus was there and had been there, but his main ministry, at least as it's kickstarted, if you will, takes place in Galilee. Here he is freer, much more able to minister. Not so many obstacles. Not so much of a hostile opposition. Except from his own hometown, we'll get to that later.
Also, notice, if you will, in verse fourteen, he comes. His method is preaching the gospel of God. See the word "preaching." It's the same Greek term as in Second Timothy four, verse two, where Paul exhorts younger Timothy to preach the word. "Keruso" is the Greek term, and it means to make an authoritative proclamation, to be a herald before the public. In those days, kings would send out their edicts verbally, and they would hire, or they would have on what we would call their staff, their own courier, and he would go into the marketplace or the public square, and he would caruso the message.
He would make a a authoritative proclamation. It was always bold, and it always captured the attention of the public. It has been a dark day in the church when preaching took a back seat. It was never meant to be. The church of Jesus Christ is always to be a place where preaching is prominent.
No minister should ever apologize for the bold proclamation of the message of Jesus Christ of His Word. When the preaching is replaced with something else, the church instantly loses its voice. It becomes less significant in the community and becomes less of a teaching place for the education of God's people. The preaching of the word is to include the declaration of the gospel as well as the communication of information regarding the Christian life. In this case, Jesus isn't at a church; he is along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
But he is making an authoritative proclamation regarding what? What is his message? Look, he is preaching the gospel of God. The word rendered "gospel" is "euangelion." It means good news. It is good news of truth, as opposed to the messages that were given in that day that were deceptive.
It is a good news of peace. As opposed to that which is chaotic and filled with unrest, it is good news of hope in a in the midst of hopelessness and emptiness. It is good news of immortality, the life after this one in a world that's given to temporal happiness and momentary relief. Jesus' word regarding the gospel of God is a bold declaration, making people aware of their need for the living God.
Now he gets even more specific. Mark adds with the word "saying" verse fifteen. See. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, and if you carry a Bible with red letters, that is those those words spoken by Jesus, you immediately notice your text. The font has turned red because these are the first recorded words of Jesus in Mark's gospel, not the first time he's preached.
John covers that. Other gospels cover that, but this is the first time in Mark's gospel. Notice that his message has three characteristics: one, it is urgent and relevant; two, it is transforming and personal; three, it is free, based on grace. Let's go over all three of them. First, it is relevant.
It's we read here the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. There is urgency. Every time someone preaches, you ought to feel a sense of urgency. Another word is passion. Passion.
It it it bothers me greatly that preachers bore audiences. As my dear friend Howie Hendricks puts it, a mist in the pulpit puts a fog in the pew. If the pulpit's sleepy, the congregation is snoring. The ministry of the word is always to be delivered on tiptoe. It is to be delivered with relevance and urgency.
The kingdom is at hand. You have been waiting for Messiah. I am He, says Jesus, and He's able to stand before them, personifying the message of Messiah. You've been looking for the coming of Messiah. You are looking at the one who qualifies.
The fulfillment of God's promises. The kingdom has come and is at hand. Second, you will notice his message is transforming and personal. Repent, repent. What does that word mean?
Listen carefully. It means to change the mind. To change the mind. Meta around. Nos mind metanaeo is to change the mind.
What does that mean? A person without Christ lives in sin. If you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, you may not look like a sinner. You may look like other believers sitting around you. You may not even sound like you are depraved and debauched in your soul.
You may pay your bills and certainly take care of your family and live a responsible life. But you are living without God and without Christ. Your whole life, your frame of reference is sinful. Your motivation is sinful. Your goals in life are self-serving.
Your purpose for living is to please yourself, to find happiness, to take care of just your own and very few others. You are not by nature generous. You are not by nature giving. You you are driven by selfishness and sinfulness. Most places won't tell you that.
Count on it. Here you'll hear about it. Jesus is declaring, "You need to repent." In other words, change your mind regarding a lifestyle and a mentality of sinfulness, and turn toward the gospel, the good news of Christ. And how do I do that? I believe.
Think of them as going together. Don't separate them. You haven't really believed in the Lord Jesus until you have turned from a mentality toward trusting in sinfulness and turning toward the one who can forgive you of your sin. You have not really repented—that is, in full sense—you've not really turned until you've believed in the Lord Jesus. And please observe—it stops with the word "believe." Believe.
Don't add one thing to it. The gift of God is the free gift. Don't force people to make Jesus Lord of their lives before they can believe in the Savior. That's called lordship salvation. Stay away from it.
It will confuse you. There are many who teach you must be sincere, you must be deeply committed, you must follow Christ with your whole heart. And if things don't aren't transformed in your life, you didn't really believe. You just claimed to have believed. That's adding to the message of salvation.
Do I not believe in Lordship? Oh, I do with my whole heart. But I don't believe a sinner can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He can only trust in the Savior. Jesus died for me.
How can I know Jesus? I must believe in Him. That is, I acknowledge before you, God, that I'm a sinner, and I know Christ can forgive me of my sins, and I trust in Him and Him alone by faith alone because of grace alone. It's a message that's freely given.
Well, isn't there a purpose in in the Christian life? Absolutely.
Now that I've come to Christ. I need to grow in Him, and that's where lordship plays its part. But don't be confused about it. One man put it this way: Many Christians today disagree over what a person must do and believe in order to become a Christian.
Some attempt to front-load the gospel. Which includes adding the need to confess all known sins and committing one's life for service to Christ as a condition for gaining the free gift of eternal life.
Well, the point is that's not free. You're adding to it in order to receive it. For others, he continues, there's the need for backloading the gospel. Stipulating that if a person truly believes in Christ, there will be a changed life evidenced by continued good works. If there is not enough visible change, then the reception of eternal life was a mere profession.
You know the problem with that? You never know when it's enough. You know I'm sometimes criticized for teaching easy believeism.
Well, what's hard believeism? What's hard, believeism? I do believe that you must believe. And I do believe that the Lord offers the message of repent and believe to this day. That's the good news.
And when you trust in the Lord Jesus with your heart and your soul, you turn to Him. Simple prayer, Lord. I realize I'm lost. I believe Jesus can save me from my sins, and I trust in Him. You have believed.
He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. That's his message. Don't try to make a gift cost anything. It's free.
It's free. Jesus paid it all. That's where the cost is paid. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.
Sin left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow. The old hymn goes. What a relief to be reminded that the gospel is free. There's nothing to add to it, nothing to earn.
When you turn to Christ and trust in Him, you have believed, and the life He offers is yours. Jesus paid it all. You're listening to Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll. Chuck titled today's message in Mark's Gospel, saying yes to Christ's call. To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks for this brand new series in Mark, just go to insight.org/offer or call us at 800-772-8888.
Well, it's mid-October, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. We want to tell you about a creative resource that we've designed for your family, hoping that the next few months will become rich with spiritual meaning. I'm referring to a book published exclusively by Insight for Living. Everlasting Light is a 25-day Advent devotional that invites you to step out of your busy schedule and into a prayerful rhythm of waiting, reflection, and preparation. This includes scripture to anchor your heart, a quote from Chuck Swindoll to shape your thinking, and pastoral reflections from our own Carlos Suesweta to carry into your day.
This hardcover devotional is ready today, so you'll receive it in plenty of time for Advent. Ask for the book called *Everlasting Light* when you include a contribution to support the ministry of Insight for Living. I'm sure your heart is heavy as mine is about the tension prevailing here at home and around the world. Do we need any more convincing that our troubled world needs the love and compassion of Jesus? This only amplifies the need to shine the everlasting light of God's love through Insight for Living.
You can partner with us right now by going to insight.org/donate or call eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight. And when you give, remember to request the twenty five day Advent devotional called Everlasting Light. What does it truly mean to follow Jesus? I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll provides a biblical answer tomorrow on Insight for Living.
The preceding message, "Saying Yes to Christ's Call," was copyrighted in two thousand and ten and two thousand and twenty-six, and the sound recording was copyrighted in two thousand and twenty-six by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
