The Choice Everyone Has -- Mark 1:15-20
The Choice Everyone Has -- Mark 1:15-20
By Pastor Lee Hemen
August 23, 2009 AM
We all make good and bad choices in life. The choices we make can have a huge impact on our future. Such things as where we live, what school we go to, what we decide to do for a living, whom we marry, and such have important consequences, but there are far more important choices we make as well. One of these, that can have eternal significance, is what we deiced to believe or whom we decide to follow in life. This is why when Joshua stood before the people of Israel and bluntly demanded of them, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) they knew that their choice had eternal consequences.
When Jesus came he immediately began to declare that “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” In this declaration of Jesus’ there is a choice that has to be made by every listener. It is the same choice everyone has. To either believe the good news or not. We find Jesus beginning to form the group of men who would follow him as his disciples that would believe and also spread the good news. To follow Jesus or not is the choice everyone has, let’s find out what that means for us this morning.
READ: Mark 1:15-20
It is often hard to make the right choice when you are forced to hurry. I can remember my father telling us to “Hurry up and decide,” when we had to choose what we wanted to eat during the Saturday matinee. It was a precarious decision for a child to make. You wanted candy that would last as long as possible, would not easily fall out of its container onto the dirty floor of the darkened theater, and something your big brother would not try and force off of you when his candy ran out during the movie previews. While the hastened decision to choose the right candy was irritating, it was and is nothing compared to making the immediate decision to follow the Lord. We discover that…
I. The choice is made without delay!
1. Following Jesus means we decide now! Why? Notice the wording here: “The time has come,” Jesus relates. It carries an immediacy with it. He meant that the fullness of God’s timing was complete in that Jesus as the Messiah was coming to share the “good news.” It was now. Jesus had come. God’s time was fulfilled in Jesus, but also notice that when Jesus spoke with the men by the Sea of Galilee they had an instant choice to make: At “once they left their nets” and “without delay he called them.” The choice Jesus gave them carried with it an immediate response as well. The idea is that there was no hindrance in their way and they instantly made the decision to follow Jesus. In our day and age we want to make a long list of “reasons,” actually excuses, as to why we can or cannot change our lifestyle. We think we need to have time to think on it or that we need more information in order to make the “right decision.” While this may be true in picking out candy for the movie theater, the decision to follow Jesus demands an immediate response! Why? When we begin to make excuses we are failing to see that at that particular moment in time is the occasion God has appointed for us to hear the gospel and to respond to it. We have no way of being certain there will ever be another opportunity to do so. This is why the writer of Hebrews related, “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert… .’”(Hebrews 3:7-8) Paul wrote that Christians should “not receive God’s grace in vain” because “now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2) He knew that often the choice to follow God or not must be made without delay and should never be hindered in any way. We are to follow Jesus without delay.
EXAMPLE: There is a poignant story of how Jesus and his followers were headed to another area to preach after leaving one that had rejected Jesus’ message. Several people come up to Jesus and say they will “follow” him. The first one declared he would follow Jesus wherever He went, but was reminded that to follow Jesus means you have to be willing to give up the comforts of life. The second man wanted to go finish burying his father, and was reminded that even the needs of life take second place to following Jesus. And, finally, the last man wanted to simply say “goodbye” to his home, and he too was reminded that unless one was willing to let even their family go, they would always have a greater allegiance to them rather than following God. Jesus tells him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) Sounds kind of harsh to our modern ears doesn’t it? We think, “Surely Jesus would allow me to go home to say goodbye to my family or bury my beloved father!?” When we think this way we fail to understand the call of following Christ. It demands all that we are and it demands an immediate answer. God’s message is perfect for our lives, just as God’s timing is always perfect. And, the time has come, the gospel is here, the choice is yours to make, and it must be made without delay.
We all like to think we would immediately know the right decisions to make when bad things happen. Like what things to grab if our home was threatened by fire or flood. I know what it means to lose important things in a fire, but none of the tings lost were more important than my family. When a building is burning down, you do not care what worldly “things” you have gathered you left behind, only that your family is safe. Following the Lord is the same in many aspects. Our lives without Him are aflame with the fire of hell lapping at the door. The house is burning down and if we linger too long over the things of the world we can suffer the consequences of hanging on to stuff that does not matter. Here in Mark’s gospel, we discover that…
II. The choice involves leaving some things behind!
1. The jetsam and flotsam of life is not as important as the glory and blessings of God! These men had families, friends, and livelihoods. They were established fishermen. Not just their own families, but they also had several boats and crews they were responsible for, and earning one’s living by the Sea of Galilee was no easy task. Notice too that Jesus’ call of the four fishermen, to be His followers comes immediately after the summary of His message. It is a clear message that one has to break off from their old way of life, to “repent and believe” and follow Him. Jesus expresses to these fishermen a new task of fishing, Jesus said that they were to “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They had to leave behind their old way of life and gain a new way. Paul wrote, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8) The call to “come” involved repentance, a turning away from their olds lives by the Sea of Galilee fishing, and following a new way of life learning to fish for men instead. When Jesus calls, we have to be willing to leave some things behind. Just as these fishermen’s old nets would not have worked with their new lives, our old ways of doing things does not work well when following the Lord. It would have been senseless for them to drag their old tackle and nets with them. It is senseless for us to try and drag around our old way of life as well. The choice involved repenting of their old lives and leaving some things behind that would hinder their walk with Jesus. The same is true for your life in Christ. Have you repented of your sins and followed Jesus, leaving the old things behind? Your choice to follow Him involves leaving some things behind.
EXAMPLE: Have you ever noticed that while dogs are great companions, they are also kind of gross. You know what I mean. The same tongue that licks their behind places is the same one they want to lick your face with! And, well, then there is the grotesque habit of eating the droppings of felines that is simply, well, ugh! And, do you know what? People are just as gross! Peter was very “earthy” in his description of life. The reason was he had been a fisherman most of his life until he followed the Lord. In fact, he would later write about the importance of not only leaving one’s old way of life behind, but just how foolish it was to return to it again. Kind of like a dog’s gross habits. He wrote that if a person had “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’” (2 Peter 2:20-22) When you follow the Lord, the choice involves leaving some things behind.
Conclusion:
We all make good and bad choices in life. The choices we make can have a huge impact on our future. Today we all have a choice to make. The choice is made without delay, and the choice involves leaving some things behind!
----
This article is copyrighted © 2009 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission to use the entire article.
By Pastor Lee Hemen
August 23, 2009 AM
We all make good and bad choices in life. The choices we make can have a huge impact on our future. Such things as where we live, what school we go to, what we decide to do for a living, whom we marry, and such have important consequences, but there are far more important choices we make as well. One of these, that can have eternal significance, is what we deiced to believe or whom we decide to follow in life. This is why when Joshua stood before the people of Israel and bluntly demanded of them, “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15) they knew that their choice had eternal consequences.
When Jesus came he immediately began to declare that “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” In this declaration of Jesus’ there is a choice that has to be made by every listener. It is the same choice everyone has. To either believe the good news or not. We find Jesus beginning to form the group of men who would follow him as his disciples that would believe and also spread the good news. To follow Jesus or not is the choice everyone has, let’s find out what that means for us this morning.
READ: Mark 1:15-20
It is often hard to make the right choice when you are forced to hurry. I can remember my father telling us to “Hurry up and decide,” when we had to choose what we wanted to eat during the Saturday matinee. It was a precarious decision for a child to make. You wanted candy that would last as long as possible, would not easily fall out of its container onto the dirty floor of the darkened theater, and something your big brother would not try and force off of you when his candy ran out during the movie previews. While the hastened decision to choose the right candy was irritating, it was and is nothing compared to making the immediate decision to follow the Lord. We discover that…
I. The choice is made without delay!
1. Following Jesus means we decide now! Why? Notice the wording here: “The time has come,” Jesus relates. It carries an immediacy with it. He meant that the fullness of God’s timing was complete in that Jesus as the Messiah was coming to share the “good news.” It was now. Jesus had come. God’s time was fulfilled in Jesus, but also notice that when Jesus spoke with the men by the Sea of Galilee they had an instant choice to make: At “once they left their nets” and “without delay he called them.” The choice Jesus gave them carried with it an immediate response as well. The idea is that there was no hindrance in their way and they instantly made the decision to follow Jesus. In our day and age we want to make a long list of “reasons,” actually excuses, as to why we can or cannot change our lifestyle. We think we need to have time to think on it or that we need more information in order to make the “right decision.” While this may be true in picking out candy for the movie theater, the decision to follow Jesus demands an immediate response! Why? When we begin to make excuses we are failing to see that at that particular moment in time is the occasion God has appointed for us to hear the gospel and to respond to it. We have no way of being certain there will ever be another opportunity to do so. This is why the writer of Hebrews related, “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert… .’”(Hebrews 3:7-8) Paul wrote that Christians should “not receive God’s grace in vain” because “now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2) He knew that often the choice to follow God or not must be made without delay and should never be hindered in any way. We are to follow Jesus without delay.
EXAMPLE: There is a poignant story of how Jesus and his followers were headed to another area to preach after leaving one that had rejected Jesus’ message. Several people come up to Jesus and say they will “follow” him. The first one declared he would follow Jesus wherever He went, but was reminded that to follow Jesus means you have to be willing to give up the comforts of life. The second man wanted to go finish burying his father, and was reminded that even the needs of life take second place to following Jesus. And, finally, the last man wanted to simply say “goodbye” to his home, and he too was reminded that unless one was willing to let even their family go, they would always have a greater allegiance to them rather than following God. Jesus tells him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) Sounds kind of harsh to our modern ears doesn’t it? We think, “Surely Jesus would allow me to go home to say goodbye to my family or bury my beloved father!?” When we think this way we fail to understand the call of following Christ. It demands all that we are and it demands an immediate answer. God’s message is perfect for our lives, just as God’s timing is always perfect. And, the time has come, the gospel is here, the choice is yours to make, and it must be made without delay.
We all like to think we would immediately know the right decisions to make when bad things happen. Like what things to grab if our home was threatened by fire or flood. I know what it means to lose important things in a fire, but none of the tings lost were more important than my family. When a building is burning down, you do not care what worldly “things” you have gathered you left behind, only that your family is safe. Following the Lord is the same in many aspects. Our lives without Him are aflame with the fire of hell lapping at the door. The house is burning down and if we linger too long over the things of the world we can suffer the consequences of hanging on to stuff that does not matter. Here in Mark’s gospel, we discover that…
II. The choice involves leaving some things behind!
1. The jetsam and flotsam of life is not as important as the glory and blessings of God! These men had families, friends, and livelihoods. They were established fishermen. Not just their own families, but they also had several boats and crews they were responsible for, and earning one’s living by the Sea of Galilee was no easy task. Notice too that Jesus’ call of the four fishermen, to be His followers comes immediately after the summary of His message. It is a clear message that one has to break off from their old way of life, to “repent and believe” and follow Him. Jesus expresses to these fishermen a new task of fishing, Jesus said that they were to “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They had to leave behind their old way of life and gain a new way. Paul wrote, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8) The call to “come” involved repentance, a turning away from their olds lives by the Sea of Galilee fishing, and following a new way of life learning to fish for men instead. When Jesus calls, we have to be willing to leave some things behind. Just as these fishermen’s old nets would not have worked with their new lives, our old ways of doing things does not work well when following the Lord. It would have been senseless for them to drag their old tackle and nets with them. It is senseless for us to try and drag around our old way of life as well. The choice involved repenting of their old lives and leaving some things behind that would hinder their walk with Jesus. The same is true for your life in Christ. Have you repented of your sins and followed Jesus, leaving the old things behind? Your choice to follow Him involves leaving some things behind.
EXAMPLE: Have you ever noticed that while dogs are great companions, they are also kind of gross. You know what I mean. The same tongue that licks their behind places is the same one they want to lick your face with! And, well, then there is the grotesque habit of eating the droppings of felines that is simply, well, ugh! And, do you know what? People are just as gross! Peter was very “earthy” in his description of life. The reason was he had been a fisherman most of his life until he followed the Lord. In fact, he would later write about the importance of not only leaving one’s old way of life behind, but just how foolish it was to return to it again. Kind of like a dog’s gross habits. He wrote that if a person had “escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’” (2 Peter 2:20-22) When you follow the Lord, the choice involves leaving some things behind.
Conclusion:
We all make good and bad choices in life. The choices we make can have a huge impact on our future. Today we all have a choice to make. The choice is made without delay, and the choice involves leaving some things behind!
----
This article is copyrighted © 2009 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission to use the entire article.
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