Go ahead, grab a seat. When I get invited to be a guest speaker, they usually give me an introduction, and some of these introductions get really awkward. They introduce me, Bobby Blakley is here to speak to us today. He comes from Campus Bible Church. And sometimes, what they usually will say about me is, this guy, Bobby, he's really into evangelism. Now, if you know what evangelism is, evangelism is sharing the good news of Jesus. It's preaching the gospel. Everybody needs an introduction to Jesus, and we're inviting people to come and follow Jesus. And so, people will say, oh yeah, that church in Huntington Beach, they've got an ice cream truck. They're into evangelism. And I used to think that was like a compliment, like, yeah, let's go tell people about Jesus. But over time, I've come to see it's actually a cop out. It's actually a way a lot of people are saying, oh, well, he's into evangelism, like he's into it. But we don't have to be; we're not like that. So now, when people say, oh, he's into evangelism, it actually just makes me sad, because aren't we supposed to all be into evangelism?
I want you to hear what Jesus says about it. Jesus is going to say one line, and if you really listen to what Jesus says here today, it will completely change your mind. I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Mark, chapter one, verses 16 to 20. And Jesus is going to say one thing in Mark 1:17, and we're going to spend our whole time thinking through the implications of what Jesus says. So, Mark 1:16-20 is our text. And out of respect for God's word, I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I encourage you to really hear what Jesus is saying to you today. This is the Word of God. Please follow along as I read, starting in Mark 1:16.
Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And there is a handout there in your bulletin if you want to take some notes, as we're going to look at these verses together. And I want to remind you of the key word of the gospel of Mark. We just started Mark a couple of weeks ago, and the key word is this Greek word, euthus. In English it looks like “immediately”. We have two examples of this key word in our text. So, if you're taking notes, look at verse 18, and circle “immediately,” right there at the beginning of verse 18. Jesus says something, and immediately, at once, straight away, they leave their nets. And then you can see it again in verse 20, when Jesus sees James and John. Immediately, at once, he's compelled to call them to follow him. So, you’ve got two of these key words in our text.
Now, go back, if you're in Mark one, go back to verse 3, because this is where we met this idea of euthus, or immediately. In the Gospel of Mark, he got it when he quotes Isaiah 40. So, he quotes Isaiah 40 as the beginning of his whole book. Everything Mark is going to say, it comes from this launching pad here, of quoting Isaiah 40. And you can see in Mark 1:3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.” And that's the word right there, euthus. Make his paths immediately. Make his paths at once. Make his paths straight away. The Lord is coming. Are you ready? Get ready now. Make his paths straight away. Be prepared. That's the idea of what is being said here. So, Mark picks up on that idea. Have you made the path straight? Are you prepared for the Lord? Because he's coming for us all, and so you’ve got to get ready. And as soon as you hear him, get ready now. Now, he's already used this. Look at verses 10 and 12. “hen Jesus got baptized and he came up out of the water. This is Mark 1:10. “And when he came up out of the water, immediately...” This is from Jesus’ perspective, “he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him.” The Spirit comes upon Jesus when he gets baptized. Now look at verse 12. “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” It's like the spirit cast him out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days. So, this is how Mark is trying to get our attention, like Jesus is coming, and there needs to be a response at once.
And so, the Spirit comes upon him that kicks off his ministry. The Spirit takes him out into the wilderness to be tempted. Now he's coming, and he's calling his first disciples. Immediately, they're leaving their nets and they're following Jesus. And so, some people just say, Mark writes action-packed, or this is Mark's style. I think Mark is trying to help us see the urgency with which Jesus is coming and the urgency with which we need to respond. We have two examples here of Simon and Andrew and James and John and the immediate, at once, straight away response; they have to leave what they're doing and follow Jesus. So now, go back to verse 18, where it says, “immediately they left their nets and followed him. Right? So, I want you to pay attention to what they're leaving here is net.
So, we have to make sure whenever we study the Bible, we can't just think about it the way we think today. We have to get into the context of what the author was thinking when the author originally wrote it. What did the author intend for the readers to get because, when I hear fishermen, and I think about being a fisher of men, fishing, in my mind, is done with a pole. I see the guys on the piers fishing. I think about people out in a river fly fishing. So, the examples that I have of fishing don't really match the fishing that is taking place here. Notice what it said in verse 16, as we're going along the Sea of Galilee, which is an awesome place. If you ever get the chance to go to Israel and go to the Sea of Galilee, it will inspire you in your faith in Jesus. It's still today similar to how it was back at this time. And there, notice it says, Simon and Andrew, they are casting a net into the sea. Okay. And then notice it says in verse 18, “immediately they left their nets.” So, this is our kids’ craft that the kids are doing in the other building right now. It's a different kind of fishing than what we might think of. And so, we want, if you’ve got kids, put this up in your house. Maybe, if you don't have kids, you can go scrounge around for an extra craft later, and you can get one of these in your house and think we're fishing with nets. Okay? Fishing with nets is different than fishing with poles. Fishing with nets implies you need a whole group of people, at least two people, to cast out these nets. And it also implies we're not just trying to catch one fish. We're trying to catch a whole lot of fish at one time. That's what they're doing. They're casting their net. In fact, when we go down and we see James and John, we learn even more about fishing because they've got their father, Zebedee, they've got hired servants. There's a whole team of them, a whole business of them. And what are they doing? They're mending the nets. These nets take a lot of work. They take a lot of preparation. They take a lot of skill. It takes multiple men to cast these nets into the sea, and if the nets come back with one fish, you're not thinking, that's a good catch. You're trying to catch a bunch of fish. That's the kind of fishing we're talking about here. And these guys, they cast their net. Jesus comes. He says, our line of the morning, “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
Let's think this through. They already went through all the time in preparation to cast this net. It says in verse 16, they cast the net. Jesus says something in verse 17, verse 18, at once they leave the net, the net that is cast, the net that has fish in it, the net that is their livelihood. They leave money on the table, they drop it, and they follow Jesus Christ. That's what's happening. That's the point that this historian is meant to give you, is look at their commitment to follow Jesus. They're leaving money on the table. And then we get to James and John, and they're even introduced to us. James the son of Zebedee. Zebedee is a somebody here. He's got hired servants. He's not just running this like Father Son business. He's running a real business. Two of his sons are working for him, but he's got more of a business to it than that. And notice what it says they left in verse 20, “and immediately, when Jesus called them, they left what? Not their nets. They left their… what does it say there, everybody? They left their father. They're leaving the family. Like, they have a household where there's clearly some means to have servants in this house. And they're leaving their father behind. I mean, the father's where you get the inheritance. At this time, the father is going to have the family finances. He's going to pass it on to the next generation. And wow, you're leaving behind money. You're leaving behind family. That's what's happening here. To follow Jesus, you have to leave something behind.
Now, I think a lot of us, when we read a story like this, and maybe many of you have read this story before, people ask questions like, well, did that just happen out of nowhere? Like, is there just something about the power of Jesus when he says, “follow me,” that you just have to follow him. Like, do these guys not even know who Jesus is before that? Well, if you go read the other gospels, like if you read Luke, or if you read John, you'll be able to see that Simon and Andrew, James and John, they already had interactions with Jesus before this, so they had an idea of who Jesus was. And when he comes to say this to them, that's their official call. But see, all these men, they would have known stories like this, just like maybe you know this story of Jesus calling his disciples with those iconic words, “follow me.” Well, they would have known a story that would have already given this idea of what it's like to be someone's disciple and to leave your life, to follow, to learn a new way from the one who's going to disciple you. They would have known how Elijah did it with his disciple, Elisha. So, I need everybody to grab your Bible and go with me to 1 Kings 19:19. Let's flip on back to first 1 Kings 19:19, because even though we think of this as the calling of the original disciple, it's not the original disciple story. And Elijah, he's the most famous of all the prophets in the mind of the Jews. And Elijah may not be the most famous of all the prophets today because he didn't write a book of the Bible. And sometimes when we're looking through the table of contents, or we're putting our tabs on our Bible, or we're trying to learn the books of the Bible. There's not a book that says Elijah. You want to know about Elijah, you’ve got to go to Kings. But in the mindset of the Jews, Elijah, he's the man. He speaks for God. Elijah, he's a man like us, but he prayed and it didn't rain. He prayed and it did rain. Elijah called fire from heaven, and it came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. Elijah pointed the wayward people of Israel to turn back to Yahweh as their God. Elijah, he's the man in the mindset of the Jews. You think of a prophet, you think of Elijah. So, this story of Elijah, making Elisha his disciple, this would have been on their mind. This would have been a story they might have known. And so, Elijah, if you know 1 Kings 19, Elijah gets to a place where he's very discouraged, he's very overwhelmed because he's been zealous for the Lord, and there's still so much evil with King Ahab and Jezebel, if you know about her. And so, Elijah, he's very kind of like hit the wall here in 1 Kings 19. And God says to Elijah, as he's in this cave, and God speaks to him, he says, Elijah, it's not just about you. I need you to pass it on to other people. In fact, you're going to pass it on to Elisha. And then that story is given to us here in 1 Kings, 19:19, “So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth.” So, Elisha is not a fisherman. He's out there. He's in the field. He's plowing the field with these oxen. And it says, “Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.” And casting your cloak upon him is like, come and follow me. It was an invitation to discipleship. And so, look what it says. “Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah.” So, he has that immediate response. But he says, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again. What have I done to you? Hey, that's fine. Yeah, go ahead, go say goodbye. So, look at what Elisha does when he returned from following him. “And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.”
Now, in the gospels, when Jesus calls people to follow, it's like, immediately they follow. They leave the money on the table. They follow. They leave the family. They follow. So, some people, when they read this, they're like, oh, Elisha, he should have followed right away. Well, I want you to observe that Elisha does follow right away. But then he says, can I go back and say goodbye to everybody? And that's not him having second thoughts. It's not him having a double mind about it. Actually, what it shows us, what it teaches us, is that he goes back to do two things. One, officially say goodbye to his family, officially say I will not be receiving the inheritance. I will not continue to be here as a part of the family. And he says goodbye to his father, goodbye to his mother. So, he's leaving his family. And then what does he do? He kills the oxen. This is like burning the bridge, burning the ships. This is like crossing the Rubicon. There is no going back, because he's got twelve yoke of oxen. So, you think of two big oxen yoke together. This is like twenty-four oxen here, yoked in twos, twelve twos. You’ve got to have a massive field to have that many oxen. You’ve got to have a large lands, like Elisha. He's coming from what seems like an established family with plenty of land to have all these oxen. He goes and sacrifices the oxen. There's no turning back now. He's saying goodbye to the family. He's leaving the money on the table, and he's all in to be in the disciple of Elijah.
So, this story of Elisha, it would have been on the minds of Simon and Andrew, James and John. And so, when they're leaving money on the table, when they're leaving their father in the boat, they're thinking, that's what disciples do. If you want to follow, then there's always something you’ve got to leave behind.
Let's get that down for number one. Let's ask the question: “What did you leave to follow Jesus?” What did you leave to follow Jesus? Because in our example here of Simon and Andrew, they left their nets, and with James and John, they left their father. Going back to their example, Elisha, he clearly said goodbye to his family, and he said goodbye to his livelihood, where he made his money. So, what are you willing to leave to follow Jesus? And if you would say that you have left, you have followed Jesus, well then what did you leave behind? And maybe there's some here today, and today is the day that you need to leave it behind and hear Jesus say, “Follow me.”
Now, one thing we know we need to leave behind is our sin, and we often talk about this with repentance. We turn from our sin and we turn to a new way of life in Jesus, and when we get to Mark 2:14 and 15, we'll see when he calls Levi, or Matthew, the tax collector and a whole bunch of sinners start following Jesus. Okay, well, Jesus talks about them leaving their sin behind. So yes, you do need to leave your sin behind, but I want you to see that's not what our text is saying. Our text is saying you’ve got to leave behind the things of this life. You might feel very comfortable with the money you have. You might feel very familiar with your family, and you wouldn't want to rock the boat in your family by putting Jesus first. Some of your family may not like that. You may not want to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. You might lose some money if you really put Jesus in the first place. If you're really going to be a disciple who's here to learn the way of Jesus and follow your master, well, that might make you feel uncomfortable with family, or it might make you feel uncomfortable with your amount of money. And Jesus is saying, if you want to follow me, you’ve got to leave behind this life, and you’ve got to follow me into eternal life. And so, Jesus is saying, take your pick. See, this is what I'm sad that some of you didn't hear this clearly when you went to a church or somebody shared with you the good news. It was actually sold to you, like, if you follow Jesus, your family will get better. If you follow Jesus, your finances will get better. That's the opposite of what we learn in the Gospel of Mark, that there could be persecution and division in your family, and you might actually lose out on some of the comforts of this life, but it's worth it for the sake of following Jesus. After all, who else loved you enough to die for your sin so you could be forgiven of what you've done wrong before God? Who else has the power to rise on the third day and can actually deal with the problem of your upcoming death and offer your life forevermore? Is there anybody else worth following then Jesus? Well, if you want to do it, though, you have to leave. That's the message of Mark.
And so, I want to actually apologize if you got sold some false gospel where, if you follow Jesus, it gets better for you. That's true. It does get better for you, but you have to leave first. You have to lose first. It costs something to follow Jesus. It's not just about your personal benefit. No, it's going to cost you something in the here and now. In fact, you can't get Jesus in this world. It's one or the other. And if you're saying, well, I'll follow Jesus and I'll bring all my family and all my money, and I'll just make it all work, no, then you're not really following Jesus at all.
And some of you are thinking even right now in the sermon, as we're getting started, well, this is just for the disciples. This isn't for regular old Christians like me today in Southern California in 2025. Hey, can I ask a question about that? When did the disciples become somebody different than us? What verse showed you, that's how we should interpret the Gospels of Jesus. When did the disciples become the exception rather than the example? Because I'm pretty sure these are ordinary guys who are fishermen, and they're meant to be like, this is what it looks like to follow Jesus. This is what it looks like to be a disciple. But somehow, in our mind today, these guys are on some other level, and they're not normal people like us. Well, who taught you that? Was it Jesus that taught you that? Or is that something that we made up along the way, so we didn't have to feel guilty when we're not doing what these guys do. See, I think the message has really gotten twisted along the way. That's why I'm so glad you're here and I'm so glad we're going through Mark. Let's get back to the original source. What did it mean to follow Jesus by the original people who did it? And what it meant is, if you're going to follow him, you're going to leave something else behind. And this wasn't just for the twelve disciples.
Go with me to Mark, chapter 8, verse 34. Mark 8:34. let's just go a little bit ahead in the Gospel of Mark, and let's see how Jesus is going to extend this invitation to follow him, not just to the twelve, but to everyone. Mark, chapter 8 is such a critical chapter in this gospel. It's when Peter says, “You are the Christ.” And it's like, yes. And then Jesus begins to tell them what he's going to do. And then Jesus does this. This is Mark 8, verse 34. Notice how it begins, “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples.” So, this is not just Jesus in the close inner group. This is Jesus who has been talking to his close disciples, now, opening it up to everyone, now, bringing in the whole crowd, and here's what Jesus said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” So yes, you can come after me. Here are the words of Jesus, follow me, but you have to deny yourself, and you have to take up your cross. If you're going to follow Jesus, there's always something that gets left behind. You're going to have to tell yourself no and yes, you're definitely going to have to say no to sin as you turn to follow Jesus. But there are even other things in this life, things like your family, things like money, things that are not necessarily even sinful or evil. In fact, if we have money, praise God for providing that to us. If we have a family and we love these people in our lives, praise God for giving them to us. The money that we have, the family that we have, these are good gifts given to us by God for which we should give thanks, but we can't love the gifts more than we're ready to follow the giver. God's not handing out idols. You can't make your family and your money more important than following Jesus Christ, and so you're going to have to deny your own comfort, your own security, your own familiarity, the things that you feel like I want these things, you have to say no to yourself, Jesus says. And then, it's not just like you’ve got to leave some stuff behind. He even says you have to take up your, what does he say, everybody? Your cross.
Now it's hard for us to understand what that means. It's hard for me to understand because when I hear “cross,” you say the word “cross” to me, I have a positive connotation with the idea of cross, because when I think about the cross, I think that Jesus loved a sinner like me so much that he would die in my place to pay for my sins. Like, what amazing love that Jesus paid for the wrong things that I have done, that I should be judged before God, and Jesus goes and he pays my entire debt before God. So, I hear “cross,” I think, thank you Jesus for loving me. We're in Mark 8. Jesus hasn't died on the cross. Nobody has a positive connotation with the word “cross”. Jesus is saying, hey, deny yourself, and let's go to the guillotine. Hey, deny yourself, and let's go stand in front of the firing squad. Hey, deny yourself, and let's go put our necks out in that noose for when they hang us. Hey, deny yourself, and let's go sit there till they come and give us that lethal injection. Hey, deny yourself, and sign up for death with me and come and follow me. That's what Jesus is saying, and that's what most Christians today do not understand that when they decided to follow Jesus, they signed up to die, and that is our problem. We think you can follow Jesus and still get all the things of this life. And Jesus says, no, you’ve got to deny yourself this life. You’ve got to be willing to die to this life, and then you can follow me.
And so, what did you leave behind? What were you willing to say? Yeah, I'm not going to keep hanging on to that, because I would rather follow Jesus than have that now. Notice how Jesus goes on to talk here. Look at verse 35, “For whoever would save his life will…” what? “lose it. You see how he creates these only two options, whoever loses his life. And notice how it says it here in Mark, “for my sake and the gospel.” So, Mark likes to give us two purposes. Mark wants to show us we're doing this for Jesus’ sake, to follow Jesus, and we're doing this for the gospel’s sake, to share the Good News of Jesus with other people. So, notice how Mark puts those two ideas together. You follow Jesus, and along with following Jesus, you share the Good News of Jesus with other people. So, here's the choice, you either hang on to this life and then you lose your soul, or you lose this life and then your soul gets saved. Your soul that's the you that's made in the image of God, the you that will live forever. Okay, well, do you want to have the things here and now, or do you want Jesus to save your soul for eternity? Take your pick. It's one or the other. You save this right here, you lose your soul. You lose this right here, your soul gets saved. And then he asked that famous question in verse 36, “for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Even if you have the best possible experience right here, right now, how does that compare to losing your soul for all of eternity? That doesn't make sense. And so, Jesus, he's not saying, come with me, I'll make your family better, I'll make your finances better. He's saying, what are you willing to lose to gain eternal life? That's how Jesus put it. That's how it should always be put. No one should think they're following Jesus without dropping their nets and leaving their father in the boat. This is the way of discipleship.
In fact, go to Mark, chapter 10. Remember this guy? He's a very common story. If you were here last week, we already talked about the guy, the rich young ruler. He's sometimes referred to as “the man who knows Jesus is good.” And he comes to Jesus, can't quite see that Jesus is God. He just thinks he's a good teacher. He's also trying to be a good person himself and keep the commandments. Can't quite see that he's a sinner who needs salvation. But the guy comes up, he has a conversation with Jesus, and then in verse 21 “Jesus, looking at him…” And remember, in Mark, whenever you get the perspective of Jesus, Jesus always sees things how they really are. He sees through the external appearance. He sees into our souls. And when Jesus looks at this man, he loved him. He cared for him. He had compassion upon him, and he said to him, “You lack one thing. Go sell all that you have, give to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.” What is Jesus telling this guy he needs to leave behind? His money and the things it can buy in this life. Because when Jesus looks at this guy's heart, guess what? He knows the guy wants his stuff, he says, you’re going to have to leave that behind to follow me, and the guy walks away what, everyone? He walks away what? Sad.
See, the sad thing today is that sometimes you could go to church today, and you could get the idea that you could just bring all your stuff with you and follow Jesus. And people don't walk away sad anymore. If you don't leave it behind, you walk away sad. And let me just tell you, over the last week when we had our good Friday services, our Easter services, we've been having a lot of conversations with people about Jesus here at the church. I can't remember the last time it was this exciting to be here at this church. There are a lot of great conversations going on where people are repenting and believing in the Gospel, because the Kingdom of God is at hand. And people may be sitting around you in this service, some of them have just recently turned to Jesus Christ. It is very encouraging. But then, other people, they're going out to the white tent after the service, they're going to talk to somebody, and it's like you can see the struggle going on within them, like they heard it. They know they should talk to somebody, but then they're saying things like, no, I'm not ready for that right now. No, no, it's not time for me right now. And we're watching people walk away sad from some of our services. That's what's happening. Just like this man, like, there's Jesus, he's offering me, he's saying, “follow me,” but I'm not willing to leave behind what I would need to leave behind to follow Jesus. And if you can't leave something behind, then you walk away sad. You don't get to walk with Jesus, hanging on to the money and the family and the things of this world. You have to leave them to follow Jesus. And Peter, when this thing happens with this man in Mark 10, Peter's there. And Peter, if you haven't figured it out yet, Peter is the Simon, back in Mark, chapter 1, and he's the brother of Andrew. And and Peter goes back in his mind to the Sea of Galilee. And he and Andrew, they cast the net out. And then Jesus showed up, and he said, “Follow me,” and they left. And Peter's like, wait a minute, Jesus, look at verse 28 here in Mark 10. He's like, “Peter began to say to him, see we have left everything and followed you.” Hey, I remember that day when you came and called us. We did leave the nets to follow you, the nets that had fish in it. We left that money on the table to follow you. Now look what Jesus says. Pay attention to what Jesus says in verse 29. “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you.’” And whenever Jesus says “truly, I say to you,” it means whatever is about to follow is hard to believe, but you need to believe it. It's true. Jesus is telling you truly. “I say to you, there is no one who has left…” notice the list of things Jesus expects that we would leave, “no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel.” That's how Mark says it. You leave it to follow Jesus, and you leave it to tell other people about Jesus, for my sake and for the gospel. If you've left that, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. Here's Jesus saying, yes, Peter, you did leave that and it will be worth it. It will be worth it in this life, and it will be worth it in the age to come, even though now you might have persecutions, it will be worth it for you, Peter. Here's Jesus promising it is worth it to follow him. And even if you have a hard time believing it, you're going to receive it, both now and in the age to come. But can we all pay attention to what Jesus said? We would leave house, which, for a lot of people today, that's your biggest financial investment right there, house. And then what else did he say? He talked about our families. He talked about siblings. He talked about parents, he talked about children, and then he brought up lands. And “lands” to them was like, that's where they did their business. The more land you had, the more seed you can throw out. The bigger crop, the bigger harvest, the bigger harvest, the more money, houses and lands, referring to their livelihood, their money, and then parents, siblings, children, their families. Is there going to be division in a family if you follow Jesus? Are family members perhaps not going to appreciate that you're making Jesus your most important relationship, rather than them. If you seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, might you then lose out on some money here in this life? These are the things Jesus is expecting people to leave to follow him. What did you leave to follow Jesus?
You know the truth is, there are people at this service right now you have not left this life to follow Jesus, and today is the day that his voice all the way from the Sea of Galilee could echo to you right here in Huntington Beach, and you could hear Jesus say those words that so many have heard over hundreds of years all across the world, “Follow me,” and the people out there in the white tent saying, well, I'm not I'm not ready yet, or now is not my time. No one's ready. Nobody has enough time. These guys, they didn't know it was their day. They're out there casting nets. They're out there doing their work like normal. See, that's the false conception that we have. We think it's about us getting ready. We think it's about us having more time. Here's how lives really change when you hear Jesus. It's not about us, it's about him. And if you can hear Jesus calling to you, faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ. If you can hear Jesus saying, “follow me,” truly, I say to you, if you leave your houses and lands, if you leave your father, your mother, your siblings, your children, you will receive a hundredfold now in this time and in the age to come. But you need to leave them. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. It'll be worth it. But you need to leave to follow you. You need to hear what Jesus is saying and respond. It's not about you getting ready. It's not about you having more time to do whatever you want in the world. Jesus is speaking today, you can either reject what Jesus is saying, or you can respond to what Jesus is saying. It's about him. It's not about us. Nobody's like, I got saved because I was ready. I got saved because I had enough time. This is the story. I got saved because I heard Jesus calling. I got saved because I heard the words of eternal life. I got saved because God opened my eyes to see it would be better for me to lose everything right now and gain Jesus, because who cares if I have this world if I lose my soul. And God opened my eyes to see that, and I heard Jesus calling, and I've been following him ever since. That's how the story goes. And today could be your day that you hear him say, “Follow me.” What are you waiting for? He's calling today. Now that's not all that. Go back to Mark, chapter 1, and look at this with me. Mark, chapter 1.
And as you're turning back to Mark 1, I want to say something to my brothers and sisters that you have already denied yourself, taken up your cross, and followed Jesus before today. Okay, let's say you're thinking, well, I did that. I followed Jesus at some point in the past. Well, I want to put this verse up on the screen. Luke, chapter 9, verse 62. Luke 9:62. “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” So, if there was a time when you were willing to leave your family, you were willing to leave money, houses and lands, brothers and sisters, children, parents, you were willing to leave that all to follow Jesus, if you're like, yeah, that happened for me in the past, I still want to ask you today, are you two hands to the plow? Are you looking all in for Jesus, or are you looking back, like, how can I keep my family with me? How can I keep the money with me? Are you in this place that I think so many Southern California Christians are at right now where I've got one hand on the plow with Jesus and I’ve got one hand still trying to bring the world with me. Jesus says that kind of living is not fit for the kingdom of God. You can't be double minded about this. You're either all in to follow Jesus, or you're not in at all to follow Jesus.
So, I want to encourage all my brothers and sisters, examine your hearts. Is there something in you causing you to look back at the things of this life like you want to grab onto them? Or are you two hands all the way in with Jesus? This is very important. This idea of following Jesus is central to being one of his disciples, and you can't follow Jesus without leaving something behind. Now that's not all he says. Let's go back to verse 17. Look at what he says. “ Jesus said to them, ‘follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.’” So notice what the promise is. Follow me and I will make you to be someone you are not. Jesus is not looking at Simon and Andrew and thinking, these guys have the right personality. These guys have the natural giftedness that I'm looking for. He's not typecasting these guys. Now, Jesus is seeing them. You can see it's very clearly said here that Jesus, he saw Simon and Andrew in verse 16. So, it emphasizes seeing it from Jesus’ perspective, he sees these two guys. It also says it in verse 19. “Going on a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, there in the boat.” And when he sees them, he calls them so Jesus. He wants these guys. He intentionally seeks out these guys. He's looking at these guys. But what he says is, I will make you to become fishers of men. And so, he's using the fisherman analogy here, right now, you're throwing out these nets and you're catching fish, well, I'll teach you how to catch people. I'll teach you how to catch souls. I’ll make you disciples who are able to make disciples. That's what Jesus says, I'm going to make you to be someone you are not. It's very important. We all hear Jesus say, this is how discipleship works. He makes us to become fishers of men or women, fishers of people around us. He makes us to become like that. He's not recruiting a team that's already like that. He's making us to be like that.
In fact, go over to Mark, chapter 3. It uses this same word in the Greek. It's a very common word, poieō, and it is usually translated, “to make” or “do”. It's used many times in the Greek New Testament, all the time. Well, here, in Mark 3, when he's calling the twelve in Mark 3. He goes up on a mountain, he calls to them. This is verse 13. “He calls to them, those whom he desired. They came to him.” Look at verse 14, “And he appointed twelve.” Okay. It's the same word in Mark 1:17, “and he made twelve.” I don't know why they decided to translate it “appointed” there. It's this normal word, “to make” or “to do.” He made twelve. So, Jesus is making them. That's the idea here. And he also named apostles so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach. Do you see that, from the very beginning of there being the twelve disciples, there were two purposes for Jesus’ sake and for the Gospel’s sake. There are two purposes for you to be with Jesus, to learn his ways, to follow him, and because Jesus wants to send you out to preach to other people about him. That's why he makes them disciples, two purposes, not just following Jesus yourself, but he calls them. It says here, “From the beginning,” and notice that, in parentheses, “whom he also named apostles.” So, we think of them as the twelve disciples, but then later on in the book of Acts, they get known as the apostles. But here it says they were “called apostles” from the very beginning because the whole purpose of them following and learning the way of Jesus was so they could be sent and tell other people the way of Jesus. To be called by Jesus is to be sent by Jesus. This is the way of discipleship. He made them this way. He made them to be a way that they were not. Look at verse 16, “he made the twelve.” Same word, right there. He made the twelve. And then look how much he made them different. It says Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter. Did you even know Peter was originally known as Simon? You may not know he was Simon, because Simon doesn't says a lot in the Gospel of Mark, until he gets the name Peter. But now you all know, I know who Peter is. Well, here's the thing you need to know about Peter. He wasn't that way, originally. Who you know as Peter, well, he wasn't that guy. He was some other guy, Simon. And then when Jesus makes him one of the twelve, he says, I'm going to call you Peter. Peter, which means stone or rock, because Peter's the guy who's going to say, “You are the Christ.” And Jesus says, yes, I am the Christ, “and on that rock I will build my church.” So, did you even know that Peter got a new name that Jesus gave to him? Because Jesus is making Peter someone he's not. He's making him to become his disciple.
How about James and John? Look at Verse 17, “James, the son of Zebedee and John, the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder.” Here's Jesus talking about the zeal that James and John are going to have as his disciples. Jesus gives them the nickname “Sons of Thunder” because he's making them to be the man they will become. So, we give people way too much credit. Oh, that person's naturally gifted. That person, they're into evangelism. That person, I know we mean it like a compliment. Oh, hey, but, but let me just tell you as someone that people say, oh, Bobby Blakey, that guy from Compass Bible Church, he's into evangelism, and they might mean it like a compliment, but what it is, it's a cop out. People want to say, I do evangelism like I'm in some special category of people, and the regular Christians don't really do that. But there's another group of people that do that that's not true. In fact, it actually really bothers me now when people say that because they're trying to make it about my personality, my giftedness, when this is who Jesus made me to be; this has nothing to do with me. When I was in high school, I wasn't running around campus sharing the gospel with other people. When I became a High School Director at a church and I would go visit the students on campus, my first thought wasn't, let's evangelize the whole campus. I was just sitting there eating lunch with the kids I already knew from church. I wasn't born an evangelist. I don't have an outgoing personality that wants to go get rejected by people all day long. That's not natural to me, but the more I follow Jesus, the more I read who Jesus is, he makes me to become someone I was not, and he could do this with anybody. It doesn't matter what your personality type is. It doesn't matter what your natural giftedness is. Jesus is making you one of his disciples. He is making you to become. It's not about what you think about yourself. It's about what you really think about Jesus Christ, and can he make you someone you could never be by yourself? Could he put in your mouth words you would never say by yourself? Could he cause you to do things, things that you would have been completely incapable of doing, but he said, “Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men.” He made these guys the way we know them to be; they were not like that when he called them. And Jesus can do this with all of his disciples. He will make us to become fishers of men and women.
And again, some of you are like, I disagree. I think it's just for those guys at that time. Well, turn with me to Mark, chapter 8 again, and let's go to the chapter where he takes it from the guys he's calling and he takes it to all people. Let's pick it up right where we left off in Mark, chapter 8, when he's giving the call to the crowds, and he's saying, you’ve got to, you want to, come after me. You’ve got to deny yourself. You’ve got to take up your cross and follow me, and you’ve got to lose this life if you want your soul to be saved. And then, look at what he says. This is Mark 8:38, I need everybody to see this. Mark 8:38, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Okay, so Jesus here, he's going Son of man. Daniel 7:13, where the “Son of Man is going to come riding on the clouds.” Here, Jesus comes unveiled in all of his glory. Here Jesus comes to judge the nations, establish his kingdom and reign with almighty power and dominion. Here, Jesus comes, and every eye is going to see him, and everybody's going to mourn who's not on the right side of his story. Here comes Jesus when he comes back to judge the world. And if you're ashamed of Jesus today, he's going to be ashamed of you on that day. That's what Jesus says, and it needs to be said in every church across America. You cannot live your life ashamed of Jesus and his words and expect Jesus to be accepted, to accept you when he comes if you're ashamed of him now, he will be ashamed of you later. That's what he's saying. Jesus is making this a deal breaker. Jesus is saying, if you're really one of my people, here's what will happen. I will make you to become a fisher of men. You won't just be a follower of me. You'll follow for my sake. And in the Gospels, to be called by Jesus is to be sent by Jesus. And so, if you want to say, no, those are two different things. For me, I'm just called, but I'm not sent. So, what you're saying then is you're saying that you believe in the words of eternal life, that you believe there's one way to be saved. His name is Jesus, that he loved you so much he died for all the wicked, evil things you've ever done. He paid your debt to the full, and then he rose again on the third day, so you could live a whole new eternal life. And Jesus, who's this treasure to you? You just want to keep that treasure all to yourself and not let anybody else in on it. That's what you're saying. How did it become acceptable for people to say, I'm following Jesus, I'm just not telling anybody else about it.
Can you imagine if I went out in public later today and acted like I wasn't married? Would anybody think that was wrong? Can you imagine if I went out in public today and act like I had no children? Would anybody think that was wrong? Well, people are going to leave this church and go out in public today and act like they have no Jesus, and I'm here to tell you, it's wrong. You're ashamed of him. That's the number one reason people don't talk about Jesus. Fear. You're afraid of the rejection, you're afraid of the persecution, you're afraid of what other people are going to think. And we even act like we have it hard in California in 2025. It's a very liberal place. It's very hard soil. It's very tough to talk about Jesus around here. Let me just tell you that if we have a big picture of the whole world and a big picture of all two thousand years of church history, we are not one of the hard places to talk about Jesus.
I've been meeting these brothers from India, Grace Bible Fellowship, with Pastors Feb and Finney in India. I've been zooming with these guys. They're becoming my friends. I'm getting to know these brothers. They're the church that's on the third floor. We're trying to bring them to the ground floor. They found a place. We gave them the money they needed. I had a zoom with these guys. It's like Wednesday night here. It's Thursday morning at eight in India; we're having fellowship. On this zoom, this was the most excited I had ever seen these men. They said this to me, so I think it's okay if I share it with you. They said, you know us here in India, we're not very expressive people, is how they describe themselves. We don't really get very excited. But on this zoom, I saw a level of emotion from these men that I had never seen before. In fact, they started opening up with me now that they had a space to move into, and now that they knew they had the money to move into it. One of the pastors started saying, you know, a few months ago, I fell off a third story building. I fell from the third floor, and I'm still in pain, going up the stairs to our church. Another pastor opens up and says, I had a doctor's appointment just the other day. And he said, my heart is in no shape. I'm not even allowed to go up those stairs anymore. Another pastor turns the camera to his mother-in-law, this elderly lady and the joy that is radiating off of her space from India, I get to go to church again when we get on the ground floor. I haven't been there for weeks. I can't wait to go back to church. I've never seen these people so pumped up. And so, they spread it to the congregation. We're going to get this place. We're already starting the construction. We're going to move to the ground floor. It's a bigger space. Tell everybody you know. And the church is excited, and they're going over to this place, and they're looking at the construction, and they're creating a commotion. And these Hindu people start gathering around. These Hindu people say, what? you guys are going to come to church here? This is our neighborhood. You guys can't bring Christianity into this neighborhood. And they start threatening these church goers with physical violence if they move into this building. They go find the person who owns the building, who's not a part of the church, is not a Christian, and they begin to threaten this person. What are you thinking bringing Christians into our neighborhood? How dare you bring Christians in here? If you let those Christians come in here, we're going to come after you. Threats of physical violence to people just being excited about where their church is going to be. And so now, I'm on another zoom, and now people aren't excited anymore. Now it's like, hey, we can't move into that building. This is not safe. We're going to put church goers at harm. If we move in there, we might put the owner at harm. So, we're not going to be able to go to that place; that's a Hindu neighborhood. They're not going to let us. And now we're back to this where we try to find all these different spaces, and as soon as they hear we're a church full of Christians, it's a no deal. And you know what those people do? They get out in the streets and they talk about Jesus all the time. They're not ashamed of him. They’ve got people threatening violence upon them, they’ve got people saying, don't bring your Jesus into this neighborhood, and they're out on the streets spreading his name.
Are you possibly ashamed of the words of Jesus? Is that something that you maybe need to think about and own up is the reason that you don't tell people about Jesus, not because you're not naturally an outgoing person, or not because that's not your personality style, or not because you don't feel like you're gifted as an evangelist. Is the reason you're not telling people about Jesus because you're ashamed of him and his words. That's how Jesus calls it. Jesus is saying it doesn't make sense to say that you have found a treasure worth selling everything for, and then not to share that with anyone else. And the only reason you wouldn't share that with anyone else is you're ashamed of the treasure you found.
Jesus is calling us out. Jesus is speaking to us here, and he's giving us this promise, I will make you to become fishers of men. He's not asking anybody to go try to be somebody. He's not asking you to put on some fake thing. He's saying he will make you to be someone you are not. He will make you, he'll start out with how you are, and he will make you one of his disciples. He will make you be someone who cares for other people's souls. He will make you someone who's bold to share the good news, no matter what other people are going to think. Jesus will make you this way. That's his promise. Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And I can just tell you from somebody who's not naturally like, let's go make people not like you as someone who doesn't really feel comfortable going and upsetting people and talking about sin, I can tell you that the reason I am the way I am today has nothing to do with me being Bobby Blakey. It has everything to do with who he has made me to become. Because I just keep reading this book, I've been blessed to hear the Bible taught to, read the Bible for many years of my life with the Holy Spirit inside of me, and I hear Jesus say things like, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” And I start realizing people getting saved is a very big deal to Jesus. And I start asking myself questions like, why isn't that more of a big deal to me? And I hear Jesus saying things like, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and I'm thinking, wow, Jesus came to die. Jesus came to give his life away. How can I be like, yay, I'm all about you, Jesus, and I'm over here trying to keep my life for myself. If I'm going to follow him, I’ve got to be ready to give my life away for other people. I remember one day I'm just reading, and Jesus is saying, disciples, can you guys see it? Look and all the crowds are coming out to him. He's like, look at the field. Look at the field. Can you see how ripe it is? Can you see how white it is for harvest? Can you see all the souls out there? They're coming to us. Now is the time? Are you guys ready? And do you realize how many thousands of people you regularly go by in Huntington Beach and all the cities here in North Orange County, and they all need to know Jesus, every single one of them. And most days you don't even care. Let the world be damned. That's how a lot of Christians act these days. Can you see the fields? They're ripe, they're white for harvest. Oh, Lord, send out laborers into your harvest. The harvest is so plentiful, but the laborers are so what? Why aren't you one of the laborers who created a category where you can be a Christian without being a laborer? I don't think Jesus created that category. I think he made that up.
Go back to Mark 6, and you can see how it works when he calls these guys. Right? He calls them, he made them disciples in three. Well, here it is in six, seven. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two. We're not saying you’ve got to go do this by yourself. Do it together. Do it in the team. See, he called them by twos. He sent them by twos. We're not trying to say you go talk to all the people in your life. Yes, we encourage you to shine the light. We encourage you to speak up about Jesus, bring the people in your life. Here. We'll talk to them with you. Introduce people you know, to other Christians you know, let's go talk to them together. We can do this as a team. We can all get together. We can throw out a big net together, and we can see Jesus catch many fish. That's the example. So, we're not saying you’ve got to go do something. What we're saying is, let's all go do something together here. That's what we're saying. We can all become fishers of men and women, because Jesus will make us to be that way. So, let's go do it together. Mark 6:12, “And so they went out and they proclaimed that people should repent,” and they did amazing things. “they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” How in the world could these guys do those things? Because Jesus made them to become that way, and he can make you become someone who's not afraid to say, I know Jesus. Oh, that's not what Jesus says. Oh, well, why don't you learn about Jesus? Why don't you come to church? It's not about how good of a speaker you are. It's not about how much of the Bible you know. It's just about being willing to say his name. It's just about being willing to be unashamed. All you have to do is open your mouth. He says to these guys, guys in the future, when they're against you and they put you in prison and they bring you on trial, like when they're really coming after you in the future, don't worry about what you are to say. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. Number one reason people don't talk about Jesus is they're ashamed, they're afraid. Number two reason people don't talk about Jesus is they say, well, I don't know what to say. When Jesus already told us it's not about you knowing what to say, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say.
See, I want to talk about this guy Simon for a minute, because I don't know much about Simon, but when he gets called Peter, I know something about Peter. I know that the first time Peter hears the gospel, when Jesus tells the disciples that “I'm going to go to Jerusalem and I'm going to be handed over to the chief priests, elders and scribes, and I'm going to suffer at their hands, they're going to kill me, and on the third day, I'll rise from the dead,” first time he says that to Peter, how is Peter's response? Is Peter like naturally gifted with the gospel? Oh, I really like that message. Is that what Peter says? Peter pulls Jesus aside, and what does Peter do to Jesus, everybody? He rebukes him. And then Jesus turns to Peter, and he says, “Get behind me” who? So, when the night actually comes the night that Jesus is going to spend all of Mark warning the twelve, hey guys, the chief priests, the elders and the scribes, I'm going to suffer at their hands. They're going to kill me. On the third day, I’m going to rise. When the night comes, here they are, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes. They're coming. He's been betrayed. He's being arrested now. They're taking him on trial. They're falsely accusing him. Where is Peter, who said he would be there to defend the Lord. Peter's out here, warming his hands with the other servants. Peter's outside the trial. And one of the ladies is like, hey, aren't you from Galilee? Aren't you one of the disciples? Peter is ashamed. Peter denies Jesus not one time, not two times, like it was some kind of mistake, but he denies him three times. That's who this guy originally was, a guy who wasn't for the gospel, didn't like that plan, a guy who, when Jesus really needed him, bailed on Jesus. That's who Peter was, and then Jesus, after he died, after he rose from the dead, he said, Peter, let's go on a walk. And three times he asked, Peter, “Do you love me? Peter, do you love me?” And he says, Peter, you're my guy, feed my sheep, tend my lambs. And then Jesus, he ascends into heaven. And he said, after he ascended, he would send his Spirit, and when the Spirit comes upon them, this guy, Peter, he's not like he used to be. He was made to become someone new, someone like a stone, someone like a rock. And he fills the streets of Jerusalem with the name of Jesus. He tells so many people about Jesus. He's not denying Jesus anymore. He's not ashamed anymore. He's on fire by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he's filling Jerusalem with the name of Jesus so much that the corrupt religious leaders put Peter and John on the same trial where they falsely accused and killed Jesus. Now, here comes Peter before those same guys. He was denying Jesus, over here with the servants. Now he's the guy on trial. And what does Peter say, filled with the Holy Spirit? I'll tell you guys what happened. You're the builders, and you rejected the cornerstone, and now he's going to build something beyond what you could imagine. And there is no other name given among men under heaven by which anybody can be saved, but the name of Jesus. And these guys are like, “Wait a minute. He's just a common man. This Peter. Wait a minute, this guy, Peter. This is in his natural giftedness, this is in his personality type. And then what do they recognize about Peter? He had been with Jesus. He had been made to become someone he was originally not.
And I wonder how many people in this room are actively working against Jesus, making you to become who he is calling you to be? Well, that's somebody else's job. Well, as somebody who receives way too many compliments, let me just tell you, it's not somebody else's job. It's our job, and we all end up sharing the good news of Jesus the same way, because Jesus makes us to become that person. There's nobody naturally gifted at evangelism. There's no personality type to go get rich, rejected by your family. There are just people who have been with Jesus, and they've been made disciples. To make disciples, you need to see that Jesus wants to make you become someone you were originally not. That's how he called his disciples. That's how he's calling you. You need to hear echoing all the way from the Sea of Galilee to you here today, “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” Those are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Father in heaven. We confess our lack of faith, and we need to hear these words today. And I pray that you'll take these words from Mark 1:17 and you will put them on our hearts. And Father, I come to you on behalf of people who are here today, and they still want this life, they still want this family, they still want this money. They still want right here, right now. They're not ready. They need more time. I pray right now for those people who are here today, for those souls that you see and you love. Oh, I pray they could hear Jesus say to them, follow me, and they could realize it was never about them being ready, it was about Jesus coming to get them. And I pray that today people would leave their nets. They would leave their father in the boat. They would sacrifice their oxen. They would tell their father and mother goodbye. And today is the day that people will follow Jesus Christ. And Father, I also want to pray on behalf of my brothers and sisters, everyone here who would say, no, I have left this life to follow Jesus. I have denied myself and taken up my cross to follow Jesus. Well, then let us hear what Jesus said. Let us hear what he said to this guy, Simon. Let us hear what he said to James, who would be killed by Acts chapter 12. Let us hear what he said to John, who they would eventually put on a little rock in the Mediterranean Sea to exile him. Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. Let us all hear that today, and let us stop thinking somebody else is going to go fish for the souls. And let us start thinking, here am I. Jesus, send me. I don't want to just read about people in the Bible. I want to be like the people in the Bible. I don't want to make them exceptions. I want to make them my example, I don't want to be afraid of what other people are going to think of me. I want to hear the words of Jesus Christ. God, everybody here could be a disciple, and everybody here could be made to be a disciple maker. You're calling all of us to follow Jesus, all of us to be fishers of men and women. So let us decide today that we're going to follow Jesus, and we're going to go wherever he leads us, and we're going to say whatever he tells us to say, because we're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's your power to save our souls, and we believe in Jesus, and we're not afraid who knows it. So let us follow Jesus today. We pray in His name. Amen.
Father in heaven, I just want to thank you for every soul here and that you brought us together on this day that we could hear these words of Jesus, follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And I pray that these words would be on our hearts today as we leave, and that we would see there is nothing in this life that compares to following Jesus Christ. He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE and that you will give people faith here today and increase the faith of those you have already given it to. We ask you to do this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now I know some of you are very frustrated after that sermon, because you're like, where's point number two, right? And so I apologize. So, if you want to write this down, point number two, everyone: “What has Jesus made you to become?” And the good thing is, that's the question we want to talk about at our fellowship groups this week. Fellowship groups are back, ladies and gentlemen, and if you're like, well, I would like to be in a fellowship group. We'll come to the Foundations class right now, have lunch with us. We'd love to welcome you in. Thanks for being here, everybody. Have a great rest of your day.