Well, we have the wonderful privilege of once again looking at the Word of God, so I'd like to invite you to take your Bible and turn to Mark chapter 1. We've already looked at the title of the book and the ministry of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus, the temptation of Jesus, and last week we looked at the gospel of God. And now we're looking at verses 16 through 20 where we learn about the calling of Jesus' first four disciples. Mark chapter 1. And beginning at verse 16, it says, And 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 fisher 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. The calling of God is without repentance. And what I mean by that, it has no regrets. God has no regrets in who he calls. The same is true with our calling at salvation as well as our calling into ministry. It is God who calls and gifts us for service into his kingdom. Every believer is called to minister the word of God. Over in Romans chapter 12 and verse 6, we hear these words by Paul, He says, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly, if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness, Each of those gifts highlight a believer's calling in ministry. And I know over the years, I've heard people say that they're not really sure what their spiritual gift is. And I think that one of the ways that you could figure that out is by looking at the one another's that we find in scripture. Now we know our calling is twofold. We know that we are called to make disciples, according to Matthew 28, 19, and 20, and we also are called to minister our gifts to believers. And we already heard what those gifts are, so now we just need to evaluate our use of them, and as I said, one of the ways you can do that is to look at the one another's. There are actually 22 of them in the New Testament. And I believe it's from these we can learn how to use our gifts. Because listen to what they are. We are to love one another. We are to serve one another. We are to bear one another's burdens. We are to encourage one another. We are to pray for one another. confess our sins to one another, forgive one another, teach and admonish one another, show hospitality to one another, live in harmony with one another, be kind and compassionate to one another, submit to one another, do not judge one another, accept one another, greet one another, be of the same mind with one another, build up one another, comfort one another. So you see as many things that we have as a responsibility as children of God and just a few others is stirring up one another to love and good deeds, being hospitable to one another and clothing yourself with humility and then of course having fellowship with one another. I believe that if you think about the one and others and you begin to minister to each other based upon those one another's, you're going to use your gifts because you can't do this in the flesh. I mean, we are told in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 that the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And we just heard in those one another's all of that. I mean, the first one I read to you said we are to love one another. And so if we're not doing this, then we're not ministering to each other. And so it is very important for us to understand our gifts, to use our gifts, and like I said, if you're struggling with understanding that, then focus in on those one another's. And I would certainly add that you want to do this in the power of the Spirit. You don't want to manufacture this in your life. You don't want to Do this in the flesh. So, you have two primary ministries. The first one is to make disciples. The second one is to mature disciples. That's what we would call reach and teach. We reach the lost with the gospel, and then we teach the saved, the Word of God, all things Jesus said that I've commanded you. Now, as we begin to look at this, we see Mark records the calling of Jesus' first disciples, as do the other gospel writers. But John is the one that actually helps to fill in the gaps, because if you remember, there's a year of ministry that Mark doesn't mention that Jesus had prior to coming to Galilee. And it was his Judean ministry, and as I said, John deals with this in chapter one of his gospel. He says in the calling of the apostles, or the disciples, they were first disciples and then apostles, he mentions that Andrew was first, and possibly John the apostle, and then you had Peter and Philip and Nathanael. The other disciples listed we find in the other Gospels like James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Thomas, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, also called Judas, son of James or Labius, and then Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot. Mark's gonna go into more about this later, but if you'll notice, when you look at the list of the disciples, that you find somewhat a little different order, but we do know if you bring in Jesus's Judean ministry, then you pick up some of these gaps. But when you look down to verse 16, he begins with Andrew and then or rather deals with Peter and then Andrew, and then of course he goes in verse 19 to James and then John. So as we look at this this morning, we're gonna see that the first recorded act of Jesus's ministry was not something sensational, it wasn't a miracle, wasn't even a powerful sermon like we read in Matthew 5 to 7. It was really four common laborers being called by Jesus into fellowship with himself. And so, first we hear Jesus' call to Andrew and Peter to follow him. Mark begins by telling us in verse 16 where they were located at, and it says, as he was going by the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee was really one of the largest freshwater lakes in Israel, and today it's the largest freshwater lake in the world. It was fed by the Jordan River up in the north, and then it emptied down in the south as well. It was a very important source of fresh water for that region. They would use it for irrigation. They would also use it for drinking. It was very clear and it was excellent for fishing. The lake itself, though it's referred to here as a sea, it's really more like a lake. It was 13 miles long and eight miles wide. A couple times, our family was able to go up to South Carolina and use a lake house, and it was on about a 20-acre lake. And so just to give my kids their perspective that this lake was actually smaller. But as I said, it was known for many things. In fact, it's interesting that it's also known for other names. It was called, in Numbers 34 and verse 11, the Sea of Chenarith. In Luke 5, one is called the Lake of Gennesaret, and then in John 6, one is called the Sea of Tiberias. So all of this is referring to the same location. It's actually mentioned 197 times in the Bible. And the interesting thing is, is that the word Gennesaret means harp. And if you were able to get an aerial view of this lake, it would be shaped like a harp. Some actually say it looks more like a kidney, but that was its shape. And the name, Gennesaret, reflected that. But this was really home for a thriving fishing industry. Some of the popular fish that they would catch would be tilapia. And tilapia in that area was also known by another name, and it was called St. Peter's fish, but it was tilapia. Other fish that they would catch would be barbell, catfish, sardines, mullet, carp, pike, and crayfish. And some of the guys might run around fishing when we're done today. According to Josephus, that when the Romans had invaded Palestine in the year 68, they commandeered some 250 fishing boats from the Sea of Galilee, which gives an indication of about how many fishermen were working the sea in those days. Even Josephus said in his day that there were some 330 fishing boats that sailed through those waters. But it was a very fertile place. And so we see as Mark tells us in verse 16, Jesus was going along the sea, the lake. And he sees Simon and Andrew. They were brothers. And what were they doing? Well, they were doing what other fishermen did. They were casting a net. And, of course, we're told here that these were brothers. Do a little bit of history about them. You find out that they were from Bethsaida in Galilee, which was not too far from this location. Their father's name was Jonas, or John. Peter and Andrew both shared a home together. We find in Mark 129 that they're in a home in Capernaum. And Capernaum was situated on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and so it was also located in a place where fishing was good. And one of the reasons for that because it was right at the juncture where the trade routes were. And so the first one he mentions here is Simon. Simon literally means rock. Actually, let me correct myself, that's the name he changed him to, which was Peter. It's from the word Petros. Petros means a rock. Petros means a stone. And so when Jesus meets him for the first time, the first thing he does, he says, you are Simon, son of Jonah, but you shall be called Cephas, or literally Petros, or rock. In fact, the Aramaic equivalent is Cephas. And so his original name was Simon, or in Hebrew it's Shimon. And that name meant he has heard. But Peter is the name that you and I really know him for. And we find it very interesting that even though Jesus changed his name, there were times when he referred to Peter by his old name. And it seems that when he did that, that was when Peter was acting like his old self. So he would call him Simon. But when he was acting like a rock, he was referred to as Peter. In fact, in the transitional stages of his name change, many times he was called by both Simon Peter. But as time went on, he later dropped Simon and he was known as Peter. But he was an apostle, according to Matthew 10. Now there was another Simon in the group and he was called Simon the Zealot. And so you had Simon Peter and Simon the Zealot. But Simon Peter, he's mentioned about 150 times in the New Testament. He is a pretty dominant figure. He's very prominent in the Gospels. He's very prominent in the book of Acts. In fact, he dominates the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts. He's a key disciple, key figure. In fact, when you look at all the list of the disciples, he's always at the head of the list. In fact, many times we would refer to Peter as the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth, because he was always opening his mouth and sticking his foot in it. He was always saying things that you and I probably wouldn't say. But as I said, very prominent figure. He later wrote two letters that bear his name. But what's even interesting about him, he was very presumptuous, he didn't always think through things that he said, and we find on one occasion when Jesus is talking about going to the cross in Mark 8, Peter rebukes him and tells him that that's not gonna happen, and therefore Jesus had to rebuke him. because of that. On another occasion, we know that Peter was the one that denied the Lord three times. So he has some areas where he really was raw material and he messed up. And I'll tell you what, if anybody can use a person like Peter, then he can use us. because Peter did have a lot of flaws. And I would just equally say that would be true with the rest of the disciples. They were raw. They were no different than you and I, but they turned the world upside down because they obeyed the teaching of Christ and they spread the teaching of Christ. John MacArthur tells us that no one speaks as often as Peter. For no one is spoken to by the Lord as often as Peter, no disciple so frequently rebuked by the Lord as Peter, and no disciple ever rebukes the Lord except Peter. No one else confessed Christ more boldly or acknowledged His Lordship more explicitly, yet no other disciple ever verbally denied Christ as forcefully or as publicly as Peter did. No one is praised and blessed by Christ the way Peter was, yet Peter was also the only one Christ ever addressed as Satan. The Lord had harsher things to say to Peter than he ever said to any of the others. So this is Mark's first mention of him. He does mention him later on in the chapter in verses 29 to 31. He also mentions him in chapter 3, chapter 5, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 13, chapter 14, and chapter 16. So he's almost in every chapter. Now, Simon Peter's brother is also called, and that's the next name that we see, and that's Andrew. Andrew originally was a disciple of John the Baptist, and he was the first disciple called by Jesus. His name occurs 12 times in the New Testament, and it means manly, or mighty one, or conqueror. And the one main thing that Andrew was known for, and that was bringing people to Jesus. We see two occasions of this. One is with his own brother. It's in John 141, it says that he first found his own brother Simon and he said to him, we have found the Messiah, which translated means Christ. And he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon the son of John, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. So that's on one occasion. We find another occasion where Philip brought some Greeks to Andrew and they wanted to meet Jesus. And so we read in John 12 and verse 20, Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida, of Galilee and began to ask him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And Philip came and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. So Philip and Andrew were involved in this process, and Andrew, we see it definitely in these two instances of bringing people to Jesus. That's a good thing to be known for, right? Now, he mentions their trade. He tells us that they were casting a net in the sea for they were fishermen. Many fishermen practiced their trade of fishing with nets. And the nets, they were about 15 feet in diameter, and they would actually have weights going around the diameter, and they would throw it high in the air, and it would cause it to land flat on the surface. And then because it had the weights on it, it would drop down to the bottom, and anything under the net would get caught in the net. Now, one thing that I read was that there was a rope that came down the middle of it, and one author actually said that they would actually have to dive in and go under the net to pull the rope. Another one didn't mention that, but the thing is that that's how they caught their fish, is through these nets. And so, They would pull that rope. It would close it up. It would trap the fish. They'd pull it to the shore or the surface or the boat. They had one end of it tied to the boat so they could haul it in. And then they would begin to take it and sort it out. And they would take it to the marketplace to sell it. It was a very lucrative business. And so Jesus sees Simon, Peter, and Andrew at their trade of fishing. And what does he tell them? He tells them to follow me. and I will make you to become fisher of men. So he plays off of the analogy of what their livelihood was like and he calls them, and I want you to notice two things about this call in verse 17. He says, first, follow me, that's the first part, and the second part is I will make you to become fishers of men. Now notice first, follow me. That's really a majestic invitation and it has the force of a command. It wasn't a request. He wasn't coming alongside them and saying, hey guys, good to see you again. Why don't you come follow me? No, it wasn't anything like this. It was extreme. When you look at the implications of this command, it's certainly unmistakable. Because what follow me meant was that they had to abandon everything. And that included, of course, their careers as fishermen in order to follow Christ. It was a very unique, non-negotiable, all-encompassing mandate that came from the king of kings to his first chosen subjects. We find it used again over in Matthew 9 and verse 9 when Jesus called Levi, or Matthew, to follow Him. He even uses it in John 12, 26 when he tells all of his disciples, Now Mark doesn't tell us if they knew anything about Jesus prior to this calling, but John does, and that's where I was mentioning earlier where John fills in the gaps for us. We're told in John 135, again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Well, one of them is named in verse 40. It says, one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Some believe that Peter was also a disciple of John the Baptist. And that's how both of them would certainly know about the Messiah, because even when Andrew comes to Peter and tells him, we have found the Messiah, obviously that they were looking and listening, and they were searching the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. And having John the Baptist already been on the scene for two years, because what was the issue prior to that? 400 years of silence, no prophet, no prophecies, nothing. So they know something is going on because John the Baptist is speaking about the Messiah. And John the Baptist declares right there to them, here He is, the Lamb of God. So they listened to John the Baptist. They repented. They were baptized. Jeff Thomas says these brothers had had a whole year to hear and observe Jesus, to question Him all over His answers. They had heard His preaching to the crowd, so when Jesus came to them at the side of the Galilean Lake and invited them to follow Him, it was not a leap into the dark as far as they were concerned. They had thought about Him for 12 months. In fact, there was scarcely anything else they had talked about this extraordinary Jesus from Nazareth. So His invitation to them to follow Him was preceded by observation, information, knowledge, and a heavenly revelation that He had given to them and their response was to the light of the world. So the call. that they first initially had to follow him, they had obeyed, and that's what we find actually in Luke 9, 23, because this is said to all the crowd, it wasn't just said to the disciples, and it says, and he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. Now this is different than what we're reading here in verse 17. And here's what makes it different. It's clearly speaking of salvation because in verse 24, he speaks about losing or saving one's life. So that makes it pretty clear right there. And verse 23 is telling us what it truly means to believe in Christ. And you're doing that by following Him and by denying yourself and by taking up your cross every day. This is really an invitation to a life unlike what false prophets, false teachers have tried to tell us about Christianity or what it means to follow Christ, is a life of ease, a life of liberty. No, really it's more of an invitation of persecution. It's a life of daily self-denial. This is something that a true believer signs up for life. It's a lifelong commitment. There are no reservations. There are no uncertainties. There's no hesitations. There's no knowingly holding anything back. You're not purposely shielding yourself from His Lordship. You're not keeping anything stubbornly from His control. It's a painful severing of the ties with this world. It's sealing the escape hatches, if you will. It's ridding yourself of any kind of security to fall back on in case this all fails. It's following Christ all the way till death. It's what we hear in Luke 9, 62. But we rephrase it this way, you put your hand to the plow and you don't look back. You are the sheep, according to John 10, 27, that hear the voice of the Son of God and you follow Him. And so when you do this and you make this kind of commitment, because it says here that it was immediate obedience, They were already followers of Jesus, and now He's calling them to full-time ministry. But think about this. He's calling them to leave this lucrative fishing business. These were not some poor fishermen as they had been portrayed in the Bible. No, these were experienced professionals. And He's telling them to leave. Leave that lucrative business and follow me." And when you do that, he says, I'm going to make you fishers of men. You're no longer going to fish for fish, but you're going to be evangelists. You're going to be heralds of the kingdom. you are going to become. Become is genomai, which means to emerge. It's a transition from one point to another. It signifies a change in their state from fishermen to fishers of men. So they're moving from this one state to this now permanent state. They're leaving that profession that really if you compared it to today, I looked this up and I found out a similar profession today would take about three to five years to become a pro at. There are professional fishermen out there that do this for their livelihood and it's a long process to get in. So again, they weren't poor fishermen. All indications tell us that Simon and Andrew were running a very successful catching operation. They had James and John, the two brothers of Zebedee. They also had the father. The father had hired servants. And they were all in partnership together in this fishing industry. And so they were prominent men. We know even Peter owned his own house. And John was even well-known among the high priest. So, notice in verse 18 that it says that they immediately left their nets and followed Him. That's amazing. And it would have been even more amazing, or it would have been more of a jump in the dark if they had not known anything about Jesus. And so, if that would have been the case, we would have thought of them as being gullible. See, again, you know, when we have the privilege to share the gospel with people, we need to take the necessary time and share with them from the Bible who Jesus is. So when we do that, we're establishing His person, we're establishing His authority, so then when we hear words like this, follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men, we have no problem with submitting to that because we understand who Jesus is and the authority that He possesses. So they obviously understood this for them to have such immediate response and you know we've told you that Mark is the one that uses that term immediately so many times throughout this gospel and a number of times here in chapter 1 and we see it again in verse 18 here that indicating that this was something that they did with no haste it wasn't a or they did with haste, it wasn't something that they sat on for a few days to try to decide, is this what they were going to do? They immediately left their nets and followed Him. And as I said, this was not a whim. They already knew who Jesus was. They already heard from John the Baptist, Him preaching about Jesus. They personally saw and met Him. And we even know from John 1, 9, that they spent a day with Him. But what Jesus is doing here is also something else that's pretty unique. Because, you know, we find down, if you look at verse 27, when they heard Jesus teaching, it says that they were all amazed. So that they debated among themselves saying, what is this, a new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him. See, they didn't understand a lot of what Jesus was doing because He's out selecting people to invest in, people who would be His disciples. He is in the role of a rabbi, but He's doing something a rabbi never did. Listen to how R.C. Sproul describes this. He says, what Jesus was doing was very unusual. In the ancient Jewish world, rabbis never recruited students. Students applied to study with certain rabbis just as students apply to study at colleges today. They had to pass examinations to demonstrate that they were qualified to study under people like Hillel or Gamiel or any other rabbi. But Jesus was different from every other rabbi in Israel. He went out and he handpicked his students. And that's what we see him doing here. When he goes out, as he's walking on the shore, and he sees two brothers fishing, and he calls out to them and he says, follow me. He is handpicking his students. And when He said to follow Me, that was a complete surrender, a complete commitment, giving up everything and submitting to Christ's authority. This is what Jesus said over in Matthew 16. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Luke adds the word daily. But this is a call to a life of holiness, a life of obedience, a life of service, a life of ministry. And if you really want to know what marks a true follower of Jesus, look for their love for God. and look for their obedience to His commandments, and look at their willingness to serve and to sacrifice for His kingdom. Jesus said in Mark 10 verse 29, that truly I say to you that there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms along with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. In other words, you give up this life to follow Christ without any hesitation, any reservations. You abandon all, you leave all to serve Him, to follow Him. It is not without God's notice. Lenski adds to this, he says, Andrew and Simon obeyed the call at once. They stopped work, left boat, net, and fish on the shore, most likely in the hands of helpers, and followed Jesus for the schooling that they were now to receive for a far greater calling. They have just now entered into seminary. You know, I believe that when when I first surrendered to ministry that I really did not understand what I was surrendering to. And I don't think that's unusual because I don't think any person or any man going into pastoral ministry that has surrendered to pastoral ministry understood everything that was gonna come with it and everything that was gonna go on in the duration of that time. And I'm still amazed at things that I see. Well, Mark tells us that this whole process is repeated now in verses 19 and 20 with the calling of James and John to follow him. Notice that it says in verse 19, going on a little further, He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother who were also in the boat mending nets. And immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went away to follow him." We notice the same characteristics that they were brothers. We knew who the father was for Peter and Andrew. We don't know the name of the father It's possible that the mother of James and John was Jesus' mother's sister. And if that's the case, then James and John and Jesus would have been cousins. You can read more about that in Matthew 27, 56. These two young men had a nickname. You know how we all have our nicknames? Well, they had a nickname, too, and they were called Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder. And Luke 9 actually records a situation where they were wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan village because they would not accept Jesus. And so they were like, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven that they may consume them? Yeah, that's how brash they were. Well, Mark mentions the first one, James the son of Zebedee. We don't really know a whole lot about him because he was martyred in 44 AD by Herod Agrippa. We do know that this was the cup that he was told that he would drink. And what do I mean by that is, over in Matthew 20 in verse 20 through 23, there was a situation where their mother came to Jesus and had a request of him. And so Jesus said, what do you wish? And she said, well, command that in your kingdom, these two sons of mine may sit one on your right and one on your left. What a request, but you could understand the nature of it, being a mother or a father. And of course, Jesus answered and said, you do not know what you are asking. And I believe that he was speaking to James and John because he said, are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink? And they said to him, we are able. And he said to them, my cup you shall drink, but to sit on my right and on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared by my father. And so James was the first to experience that cup. by his death. Jesus also called his brother John. John is the one who authored five books in the New Testament. He authored the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and also the book of Revelation. The only time he names himself is in the first chapter of Revelation. In the other books, he doesn't name himself. except for him appearing in the list of the disciples. But he was part of the inner circle. He was the longest living disciple. He died on the island of Patmos. Patmos was a small Greek island that was in the Aegean Sea. According to tradition, John was exiled to Patmos by the Roman Emperor Domitian in the late first century because of his preaching and teaching about Jesus. Jesus told Peter Right before his ascension, over in John 21, because Peter was jealous about John, Jesus had just told Peter what kind of death that he would die, and he turns around and he sees John, he says, well, what about this man? And Jesus said, if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. And John puts this little statement in there, therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? And so he was the longest living apostle. These two men, They were fishermen, just like Andrew and Peter. Here, we hear that they were in their boat, mending the nets. Fishermen would fish at night because the elements were better. Fish were feeding at night. This is, when I read about shark attacks, most of them I read about is where these guys are going out, ladies too, and they're swimming in the ocean at night. which is not a good idea because that's a feeding time for sharks. That's why that there are problems. But they were in their boat mending the nets. They were preparing them for their next opportunity. Now, Vincent tells us that it wasn't necessarily that they were repairing the nets, they were adjusting them. And preparing the nets for their next fishing could have involved something where they would actually cut away and they would unpick at the knots. I don't keep my fingernails long at all because I play guitar. And so if any of my kids pull their shoestring too tight and need help untying it, I'm the last person to ask. I have to pull out a pocket knife or something so I can reach into that knot and pull on it. Fishing nets, they would have a tool that they would use, a piece of bone, and they would run this material through it. The nets themselves, they were made out of flax or made out of hemp or cotton. And so they would have to pick away at this and cut away at this, and they would have to strand in new pieces to replace the old, and this would take hours to do this. But that's what they were doing when Jesus saw them. working with the nets. And then we hear his call to them. The call is the same as Peter in Andrews. It says, immediately he called them. The only thing that we don't hear is the words, follow me. But we know that that's implied because it says they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went away to what? Follow him. So it is the same kind of call. They were involved in leaving their livelihood. They were involved in something even more, at least we see from here, where they left their father with the hired servants. So there was a family break. And, you know, Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 10 that if you're not willing to love him more than your father, or your mother, then you're not worthy to be his disciple. So there does have to be a family break in the sense that if your family is trying to stop you from following Jesus, you have to make a clean break from that. Naturally, we want our family members to come to Christ, right? So we come to Christ and then we turn and we witness to them and try to lead them to Christ. So we see their response in verse 20. Immediately he called them, and obviously immediately as well as implied, they left their father Zebedee in the boat with their hired servants and went away and followed him. And the idea of leaving, or the word left or forsook, it means to send from oneself, to leave, to yield up, and the preposition there implies a separation. a separation from the fishing business to now emerging into the preaching business, if you could say it that way. The participle occurs here in the Aorist tense, which is speaking of a once-for-all action. Once and for all, leave your livelihood and come follow me. A complete break from the former life to now coming to a permanent life. Again, the word follow is the same word as verse 17. This is implying fellowship, it's implying joint participation, it's implying a side-by-side walking with another. The word itself came to mean to join one as a disciple, to cleave steadfastly as one, to conform wholly to His example. So again, their response wasn't whimsical. Again, they already knew about Jesus. Some actually believe that the unnamed disciple in John 1.35-40 is actually the Apostle John. Wouldn't surprise me since he doesn't want to identify himself. He wants the glory to be on Christ and not on himself. Beloved, we see four men here. Four men that have a task. And what's their task? Their task is to be fishers of men. Their task is to make disciples. That was the task of all of the disciples before the choosing of Matthias. You had the eleven in Matthew 28, 16 that went to Galilee where Jesus told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him, even though there were some that were doubtful. But He spoke to them and He said, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And this would be the very command that they would carry forth. They would preach as the king preached. And how did he preach? We saw last week, he called for repentance and faith, right? And that's the same thing that they would preach, having also sat under John the Baptist who preached that same message. But this is what they would be called to do. They would be called as full-time evangelists. Now, I know not everyone is called into full-time Christian ministry in that official sense where you leave your job and your 100% vocation comes from the church or a parachurch ministry. But I will say this, that we are all called to make disciples. We're called to do exactly what they did. They come to Christ. and they make him known. That should be our preoccupation all the time. That every person that we come in contact with, that our desire and our mission is to share Christ, is to talk about Christ. And as I said, you know, take the time to do it. This is where tracts are helpful too, because like if you're in the line at a store, and you only have just a couple minutes, And you don't really have the time to go into all the details about who Christ is. Well, you can leave a tract that does and say, you know, would you take some time to read this? And of course, if you use the million dollar bill tracts, that's going to attract some attention to it. Or maybe it's somebody that you see often and you frequent a store and you can go back on another occasion, follow that up. Or maybe it's a family member. Or maybe it's a friend. The point is, is that we are to make disciples. Putting it in the words of Luke, where Jesus said in Luke, we are to preach the gospel to every creature. And so since that's the case, then every creature, every person needs the gospel. You know, we tend to think that some kids are too young to hear the gospel. That's not true. We need to tell them the gospel and keep telling them the gospel till they understand it. The gospel is a very simple message, but it's not one in which people readily believe. Right? There's a veil over an unbeliever's eyes. And unless God lifts that veil, it's described in Acts 16 as God opening the heart. Unless He does that, that veil will remain. And that simple message that's simple to you and I because He did remove the veil and we understand it, becomes a stumbling block to them. They don't understand it. It's foolishness to them. Makes no sense. But beloved, that's the message that God has given to us. That's why when we talked last week and we noted that this is the gospel of God about His Son. Let me say something, too, about our Christian ministry. Christian ministry does cost you a lot of time, a lot of sacrifice, whether you're part-time or full-time, whether you're volunteer or whether you're paid by the church. It takes a lot of time. And sometimes you may do multiple things. But we know that it costs you everything. It costs you, sometimes, your family. Sometimes it costs you your friends. I know that this is something my wife and I have talked about oftentimes, but you know as a pastor, pastors don't have very many friends. We may have a pretty high count on Facebook for Facebook friends, but I guarantee you I do not have 600 friends in my life. I can guarantee that. If I have one handful or maybe two handfuls, I'm blessed. Know what I mean? And so are you. To have someone you could really call a friend. But sometimes you lose friends in that commitment that you make to Christ. And when I came to Christ, I went back to my old friends and started sharing the gospel with them. Two of them came to Christ. The rest of them, well, I'd say three of them, yeah, three of them came to Christ. The rest of them didn't want anything to do with me or that message, and we all just kind of parted ways. But sometimes it will cost you your friends. Sometimes it'll cost you your job. We know that with COVID, don't we? You know, being told to do something, then you have a conviction of not doing that, and your job and livelihood is threatened over it. but it will cost you everything. Steve Lawson says this, it will cost you your popularity, it will cost you promotion, perhaps at times, it will cost you an easy life, you will have to discipline yourself, you will have to buffet your body, you will have to say no to temptation, you'll have to say no to this world, you'll have to break with the crowd, you will have to be willing to stand alone for Christ, You will have to be willing to walk to the beat of a different drummer and to step out of the crowd, even if no one else follows after Jesus Christ. You will be willing to stand if you were the only person in the world for Jesus Christ. That's the cost factor. You will have to be willing to suffer persecution for Christ, and let me tell you, it will come. It might even cost you your life. He's not coming to play games. He's not coming to be docile. He is coming to dominate. He's coming to slaughter. He is the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords. And at the end of this age, he will blot or bolt out of heaven on a white steed and his garments are dripped in blood and the blood of his own enemies. And he is coming back to conquer and to damn. You need to make terms of peace with this coming King, or you will be subjected in damnation forever, and Jesus Christ has made terms of peace. You need to settle out of court with Him. You do not want to go into that final day of conflict with Christ, for He will be ruthless in the execution of His justice, but He offers you mercy today. He will agree to terms of surrender. He will agree to terms of peace, but they are his terms of peace, not ours. And his terms of peace are very simply this. You must hate your own father and mother and brother and sister and even your own life more than me or you cannot be my disciple. And you must take up a cross and follow me or you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not, you will not meet me in the final judgment or you will meet me in the final judgment and it will glorify God in your destruction. So Lawson says he's pressing for a decision, one that can't be put off, one that you can't hit the mute button on any longer. You must answer him. And you know, beloved, we do come week after week and we do hear a strong appeal to repent and come to Christ. And I think that's right. But I also think, too, that sometimes people can hear that message over and over and be without Christ and become kind of hardened to it. And I trust and pray that that's not anyone in here today. Christ calls for us to forsake everything and follow him. And he's worthy of no other devotion than that. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word of God today. We thank you for the reminder that we're given about the high cost of following you. And we know, Lord God, that we can't follow you in this way unless you help us to follow you like this. And my prayer for every person in here is that they would look in their heart, they would evaluate their life, and to ask the question, am I truly a follower of Jesus? Do I truly follow? And I pray, Lord, that they would weigh the cost. and that they would come to you. We thank you for your word today. We thank you for each person that you have brought here today so that we might share together in the things of Christ. We pray as we leave here today, Father, that we will take these things that we have heard and we will publish them everywhere. And we pray all this in your precious name.