This sermon focuses on the early beginnings of Jesus’ ministry, particularly his calling the first four disciples: Simon and Andrew, James and John. Jesus invited these four professional fishermen to leave their vocation and begin a new one. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he assured them.
The fishermen responded to Jesus’ call and spent the rest of their lives serving him—even unto death as martyrs. If you desire to be a devoted follower of Jesus and a loyal citizen of his kingdom, what is required of you? Listen to this sermon to find out—then follow Jesus.
Read the full sermon transcript below!
This morning, we return to our series of sermons from the New Testament Gospel of Mark, where we find our Lord calling the first four of his twelve disciples. Understanding and rightly interpreting Mark and the other three gospel authors—Matthew, Luke, and John—requires reading and studying them against their historical backdrop. The four gospel authors write to explain that the Messiah, or Christ if you prefer, had come to the world and was beginning his ministry with the Jews.
For millennia, the Jewish people longed and prayed with hopeful hearts for the arrival of their Messianic Savior. They were expecting a great political leader—a mighty king—who would restore the political nation of Israel and make it a powerful kingdom and world empire. Because of their mistaken expectations, Christ’s arrival seemed like less than they had hoped for. In reality, however, it was far more than they had ever imagined.
Their Messiah was Jesus—who came not to inaugurate a political kingdom, but a spiritual one under the new covenant: a kingdom made up of people from every nation, background, and status. This King, Jesus, laid claim to all authority in heaven and on earth. He came to set in motion a reign that would transform the entire world, culminating in a new creation—a new heaven and a new earth. How small the Jewish expectations were by comparison.
Every kingdom requires a population—it must be filled with citizens. And the citizens of a kingdom must recognize and gladly submit to the rule of their king. Furthermore, each citizen has a role to play, a job to do—a personal contribution to the prosperity of the kingdom.
In today’s portion of Scripture, we see Jesus issuing the call for kingdom workers. The citizens who populate God’s Kingdom under Christ’s rule are to be loyal, dedicated workers. There is no unemployment in God’s kingdom—every citizen has a vocation, a calling in life, through which to employ the gifts, skills, and opportunities given by God. In this way, every follower of Christ is to do his or her part in service to their great Lord and Master.
The event we are about to consider in the ministry of Jesus brings everyone who hears it today to the same point it brought those who first saw and heard it from Jesus himself. The question is this: Will you be a committed follower of Jesus? Knowing with certainty that Jesus is the Son of God—the great King and Christ—will you follow him? Will you serve him with your whole life and entire self in his great and blessed Kingdom? Will you be a kingdom worker?
Before you answer, know this: being a citizen of God’s Kingdom of the redeemed—a loyal follower of King Jesus—comes at a cost, and not a small one. To answer the summons of the King costs everything you are and everything you have. Nothing can remain yours—not even your own self. To be a follower of Jesus, you must belong to him alone, just as those in today’s narrative did. As we are told in verses 18 and 20: they immediately left and followed Him. Forsaking all else, they followed Jesus—and so must we.
Those four men—the brothers Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew, and the brothers James and John—were the first to respond to Jesus’ call for disciples who would follow him. They spent the rest of their lives serving Jesus, even unto death as martyrs. If you want to be a loyal citizen of Christ’s Kingdom, like these men, what is required of you?
The first prerequisite is, of course, spiritual life. By the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, you must become a believer in Jesus. You must believe that he is God’s Son, who went to the cross of suffering to take away the guilt of your sin.
But that is not the end of the matter—no, it is merely the beginning. Once you believe, how then do you set out to follow Jesus, devoting your whole life to him? How do you begin—and then continue—living as a kingdom worker, a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ?
First you must hear the word of your king. As we have noted during this sermon series, Luke’s gospel provides details that Mark’s does not. So, turning to the fifth chapter of Luke, beginning with verse 1, we find the following: 1 So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret [Sea of Galilee in Mark’s gospel], 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
Simon and Andrew, James and John, and the others assembled that day by the Sea of Galilee, had come for a specific reason—to hear the word of God. They had come to hear the good news of God’s kingdom taught by Jesus. And that is the reason we are here this morning, isn’t it? We are here to meet with Jesus in spirit and to hear his word.
Jesus was causing quite a stir in Galilee in those days. People all around had heard of his mighty power, how he was healing the sick and casting out demons. They had heard of his astounding wisdom—teaching spiritual and heavenly truths as none of their Rabbis had ever done.
As we might expect, a great crowd turned out to hear Jesus that day. There were, in fact, so many people gathered on the seashore that some of them couldn’t hear very well—if at all—what Jesus had to say. There were some fishing boats docked by the shore, with fishermen having finished a night’s labor. They were busily washing their nets and hanging them out to dry in the sun. One of the boats was Simon’s, another belonged to Zebedee’s sons, James and John, and Andrew was there, too.
Jesus solved the problem of being heard by commandeering Simon’s boat and asking him to take it a little way out from the shore. The surroundings instantly became a natural amphitheater. The audience stood on the shore, slightly elevated, while the surface of the water acted as a natural amplifier, allowing Jesus’s voice to carry clearly to the crowd.
The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Everyone there that day heard the word of God. They heard the good news of the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus himself. Some of them—especially the two sets of brothers—heard the audible voice of the Master with faith in their hearts provided by the Holy Spirit.
This is one of the key elements of being a devout follower of King Jesus. Everyone who hears the voice of the preacher hears the gospel message. Those in whom the Holy Spirit resides hear it with faith unto salvation, and their life in this world will verify it.
With that, we arrive at our next point of discussion. Hearing the word of God is good and necessary, but to be one of Christ’s redeemed followers—his kingdom workers—you must obey the word of your King and follow his directives and commands.
Simon had already complied with Jesus’s request to borrow his boat as a pulpit. He must have felt quite honored to accommodate the Master Teacher. But what Jesus asked Simon to do next didn’t seem very reasonable.
Simon and his partners were not sport fishermen, out on the lake for fun. They were professional commercial fishermen who depended on their skill and hard work to make a living. These tradesmen knew their business well.
If you wanted to catch a good haul of fish, you wouldn’t cast your nets in the bright, hot sun while the fish lay at the bottom of the lake. Nighttime was the prime time for fishing—when the fish came near the surface to feed.
Few things are as annoying as someone who knows little about a thing trying to tell experts how to do their jobs. And here now was this carpenter-turned-teacher, telling a seasoned, salty old fisherman like Simon to do something every fisherman knew was a fool’s errand (Luke 5:4): He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
It was morning—possibly later—and Simon was being asked to net fish in the bright sun? Preposterous! Besides, Simon and the others had fished all night without success and had already washed and hung their nets for the day. It was quitting time! Who wants to go out and work another shift, especially when the one they had just left was a bummer? Nevertheless, recognizing Jesus’ authority and calling him Master, Simon replied, “At your word, I will let down the net.”
When Simon dropped the net, it quickly filled with an astonishing number of fish—the catch of a lifetime! There were so many fish in the net that it began breaking under the weight, creating a potentially dangerous situation. James and John came out in their boat to help rescue Simon’s struggling vessel. When they emptied the nets, placing the fish in their two boats, the catch was so heavy that both boats nearly sank.
The amazing power and sovereign authority of the Messiah Jesus were openly displayed again! And Simon responded as all of us must if we will be Jesus’ followers. We must realize who we are and who Jesus is (v. 8): When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
Simon’s response was not a confession of a particular sin or two. No, this was a spontaneous act resulting from a keen inner awareness of his fallen, sinful, human nature. The sinful self of the man, Simon Peter, was awakened in his conscience with the sudden awareness that he was in the presence of the sinless nature of the very Son of God. As Philip Ryken explains it, “Peter understood that he was in the presence of someone perfectly holy, and that by contrast, he himself was totally depraved. So he fell down and confessed the sin of his entire nature.” “I am a sinful man!”
Every follower of Jesus must practice a life of repentance. “We must see ourselves as we really are, in all our sin. The way we see ourselves as we really are is by seeing Jesus as he really is, in all his power and majesty. The point is not so much that we need to repent of this sin or that sin [though we do], but that we need to repent of our whole sinful selves.” We need a changed life that becomes a constantly changing and improving life.
Peter’s response, once his sinful nature was exposed by the holiness of the Lord, was not unusual. He felt so unworthy to be in the presence of the Holy One that he begged Jesus to depart from him. “Go away from me!” he pleaded. Perhaps Simon Peter reached the same mistaken conclusion many do: “I can’t have any kind of relationship with Jesus, being a sinner as I am.” Once we see ourselves as we really are, sinful and broken, we sometimes feel too guilty to be in God’s presence.
Simon was partly right. Our King demands his followers to rid themselves of the leaven of sin. But that can’t be accomplished by running away from Jesus—trying to avoid him of wishing he couldn’t see what you’re trying to hide.
Sin cannot be dealt with like that—not by pushing Jesus away. Never. The only way is by drawing near to him with true, honest, sincere, and humble hearts. Instead of avoiding Jesus and fleeing from our sin, we must confess it, draw near to him, hold on to him, and trust in him. We must acknowledge our need for divine cleansing and ask for the forgiveness that only Jesus can give, submitting to his authority as Lord, Master, and King.
To such a heart, Jesus replies—as he did to Simon in Luke 5:10—“Fear not. Do not be afraid.” Jesus never departs from his redeemed people. He never leaves nor forsakes his dear ones who draw near to him with the heart of David in Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. A broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, you will not despise.
When we come to our Savior on his terms, what do we find? That brings us to our next point of discussion: Your king has plenty of work for you to do. That’s exactly what Simon found, isn’t it? As we read in Luke 5:10-11: And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.
“They” in verse 11 refers to Simon and Andrew, James and John. All four of them became kingdom workers that day—lifelong followers of Jesus. They left immediately, forsaking everything else to follow him.
Those four fishermen traded vocations. They walked away from their old livelihood and set out as evangelists. From that day forward, they began fishing for people—casting the gospel net into the waters of the world and drawing souls into the safety of Christ’s kingdom of the redeemed. Just as they had brought in a miraculous catch of fish, these new disciples would go on to haul in thousands of souls.
By the end of their lives, those men—and others who labored with them—had traveled throughout the civilized world. They took the good news of Christ’s Kingdom to places like India, Persia, Eastern Europe, and Spain. They went virtually everywhere in the world of their day as kingdom workers, preaching and teaching men, women, and young people—who in turn became kingdom workers themselves, calling others to the same mission.
In other words, it is not only the evangelists, ministers, and church leaders who are the kingdom workers. No, they simply help you to see the good news of the kingdom. In turn, other workers are needed, so that you yourselves will make disciples, who in turn make disciples, and so it goes.
As Paul exhorted Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” Likewise, as in Ephesians 4, [Christ] gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers… Why? For what purpose? The very next verse: to equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
The theme we have taken from this passage, as reflected in our sermon title, is calling kingdom workers. That is exactly what Jesus was doing that day out on the lake—calling disciples to become workers in his kingdom.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on that word calling. People often assume a calling from God applies only to pastors, church leaders, missionaries, and so forth. But that’s a misunderstanding. It’s not accurate, nor is it biblical.
The Latin word vox means “voice,” and the related vocare means to call. From vocare we get the English word vocation. Your vocation is your calling. It is what God has called you to do in service to him in his kingdom. Every Christian has a calling—a vocation—through which to serve Christ. Whatever your gifts, skills, resources, and opportunities may be, they are to be used in service to our king. That is your kingdom calling, your kingdom vocation.
So, who are God’s kingdom workers? You are. We are. Every citizen of this blessed kingdom—under the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ, is a disciple—a worker in Christ’s Kingdom on earth.
There is one more feature of kingdom workers which we mentioned at the opening of our discussion, and we will touch on it briefly in closing (Mark 1:20): And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after him. Also, in Mark 1:18: They immediately left their nets and followed Him. And yet again, as Luke says it (Luke 5:11): So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.
A disciple of Jesus, a kingdom worker, devotes all that he has to his King. He holds back nothing, including all of himself. When these men were called, they answered, understanding fully well what the call to serve their new Master meant. It meant—for them and for us—that everything else is at best secondary.
They left behind their boats and fishing tackle. James and John left their father Zebedee. They left their career, their old one at least, and began another life’s vocation. They left the security of a good trade that had always provided a living for them, something they could depend on, to follow Jesus, who said of himself, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
They left friends and at least some family, although we learn elsewhere that the disciples took their wives and probably their children with them. Jesus didn’t come to divide families; he came to unite them. But they left anything and everything that could hold them back from complete service to their Lord. They left behind the right to call their lives their own and gave that right and their lives to Jesus.
People say they want to follow Jesus, but often they’re not willing to leave some things behind. They try to cling to things that are dear to them but which true devotion to our Lord will not allow. As our commentator puts it:
“They call themselves Christians, but they are not willing to give up their selfish ambitions, sinful pleasure, comfortable surroundings, bitter grudges, precious idols, or simply the right to live the way they want to live. How foolish it is for us to pretend that we are following Jesus when in fact we want to keep our lives intact the way they are. True discipleship is always costly because it means giving up what we want for us so we can have what Jesus wants for us. We do this in principle as soon as we begin to follow Christ. Then we do it in practice every time something threatens to stand between us and a total commitment to Christ.”
Is it worth it? This total commitment to Jesus? Will we not lose some things in life? Yes—but only worthless baubles and passing pleasures. Things we cannot take with us after this life anyway. Job wisely said, “For naked we came into the world, and naked we shall depart.”
Peter once asked the Lord an important question that many of us have wondered about—and he received an encouraging answer that we should all take to heart: He said to Jesus, “See, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what will we have?”
Jesus replied, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”
Eternal life? Life forever in the new heaven and earth? Heavenly rewards and life forever in the joyous love and presence of our Lord? Is it worth it? Yes, it’s worth it! It is infinitely worth it! Amen.
Benediction: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.