Deo Gloria
Sermon for January 24, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Mark 1:14-20
Theme: The Time Has Come!
- To repent and believe
- To follow and fish
Complete this sentence: Some day I’m going to… take a trip to Hawaii? Own a cabin on a lake? Lose 20 pounds? Find a different job? We all have goals and dreams like that, places we’d like to visit, things we’d like to do, goals we’d like to accomplish. Some may be more realistic than others. Some we may be well on the way to achieving. While others we may be no where close to achieving because we keep putting them off. We know it would be good for us, something we really ought to do, but we just keep putting it off and putting it off.
Unfortunately, people often do the same thing when it comes to spiritual matters. “Some day I’m gonna get serious about my relationship with God.” “Some day I’m gonna sit down and read my Bible every day.” “Some day I’m gonna get more involved in the Lord’s work.” “Some day I’m gonna talk to that friend of mine about Jesus.”
Well, guess what? That day is here. When it comes to spiritual matters at least, today is the day. No more making excuses. No more putting it off till another day. Now is the time. Or to borrow a phrase from Jesus, “The time has come.” The time has come for us to repent and believe. The time has come for us to follow and fish.
Jesus was just beginning his public ministry. In fact, in these verses we have the unique opportunity of hearing his very first sermon. It went like this: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news”( v. 15). Pretty basic stuff, don’t you think? Simple and to the point. He probably got the people out of church in less than 30 minutes. No wonder Jesus was such a popular preacher! Actually, what we find in these verses is more than likely just a summary of Jesus’ message. No doubt, Jesus had more to say than just these few words. What Mark captures for us here is probably just the highlights, the main points of Jesus’ message.
So let’s look at his message more closely, shall we? “The time has come,” Jesus says. Literally, he says, “The time is full” or “complete.” “The time is fulfilled.” Indeed, the time was full. The time was ripe. Or as Paul puts it in Galatians, ch. 4, “The fullness of time had come”(v. 4). For thousands of years God had promised to send a Savior. Now the waiting was over. The time had come. The time God’s people had been waiting for and longing for for so many years had finally come. The Messiah was here. And now he had begun his public ministry. Needless to say, the time had come for people to sit up and take note.
“The kingdom of God is near.” The Crown Prince of heaven himself was here in this world, establishing a kingdom that would surpass all other kingdoms and would never be conquered or destroyed, a spiritual kingdom, one that exists in people’s hearts, where he himself rules as Lord and King.
“Repent,” Jesus continues. “Repent and believe the good news!” Or another way we might put it: “Repent and believe the gospel.” In order for people to enter the kingdom of God, they must first repent of their sins. God, being holy and righteous, is not one to tolerate sin. Nor does he tolerate sinful subjects in his kingdom. Those who wish to be part of his kingdom must first acknowledge their sinfulness and confess that they have fallen short of God’s standards. Secondly, having confessed their sinfulness, they must look to Christ the Savior for forgiveness. As Jesus said, they must believe the good news, the wonderful news that God sent his own Son to save us from our sins, so that we might be holy and righteous in his sight and might live with him in his kingdom. “Repent and believe the good news.”
So let’s apply this succinct, little sermon Jesus gave to our lives. “The time has come.” Indeed, the time has come. We just celebrated that again, didn’t we, exactly one month ago? God kept his promise. He sent a Savior. While he was here, that Savior accomplished his mission of salvation. He established his kingdom. And then he returned to heaven. In light of that, now is hardly the time to take spiritual matters lightly. Now is not the time to neglect our relationship with God. Now is not the time to get caught up in a sinful lifestyle. The kingdom of God is near. Jesus our Lord could come back at any time. As Paul says to the Christians in Corinth, “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation”(2 Cor. 6:2). The time has come! Repent and believe the good news.
You know, when you and I hear those words, I think we may be tempted to say to ourselves, “Been there. Done that. What’s next?” But if that’s the way we look at these words, then we really miss the boat. Repentance, you see, is not a once-in-a-lifetime thing—unless, of course, you only sin once in your lifetime. What’s that? You mean, you sin more than once in your lifetime? Me too. In fact, I have to admit that I sin more than once a month, even more than once a week, yes, even more than once a day. I’m not proud of that fact. I hope you’re not either. I need to repent every day. You do too. We all do, because every day we sin.
Every day we do things and say things and think things we know we shouldn’t, things we know are wrong in God’s sight, things we ourselves resolved we would not do or say or think again. And yet we still do them. You know, like losing our patience with our spouse or our children and saying things that are hurtful and demeaning. You know, like cursing and swearing at the guy who pulled out in front of you and didn’t even look. You know, like spreading juicy gossip about someone at work or running others down behind their backs. You know, like spending an hour or two on the internet each night, but saying you’re just too busy to spend time with God in his Word. Do I need to go on?
Jesus hit the nail on the head, didn’t he? “Repent.” We need to repent. Every day we need to recognize that we have fallen short of the kind of life God would have us live and confess our sins to him. Martin Luther caught the gist of what Jesus was saying. In the very first of his 95 Theses he wrote: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
Repentance is the first step. The second is to believe, to believe the good news. After confessing our sinfulness, you and I need to believe the wonderful news announced to us in the gospel, the incredible news that God himself has come to rescue us, that God has provided forgiveness for all our sins, for all our failures, for all our shortcomings, through his own Son Jesus Christ. Our Christmas hymns express it so well:
Hail, the heav’nly Prince of Peace! Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, Ris’n with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!” (CW #61:3)
Like repentance, I’m sure you realize that faith too is not a one time event. It’s something that is on-going. It’s continuous. Just as we’re never done repenting, so we’re never done believing either—that is, of course, until we get to heaven. Until then, however, each and every day is a day to repent of our sins before God. And each and every day is a day to look to our Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness. The time has come to repent and believe.
In addition to hearing our Savior’s first sermon, in these verses we also have the opportunity to see Jesus call his first disciples. Mark tells it like this:
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.(vv. 16-20)
Once again, Mark gives us the condensed version. He doesn’t tell us the whole story. He makes no mention, for instance, of the miraculous catch of fish hauled in by Peter and his fishing partners that day. He also does not mention that this was not the first time these men had met Jesus or that they had spent time with him prior to this. No, Mark spares us all of the details and simply relates how four fishermen—Peter, Andrew, James, and John—became disciples of Christ. Fishing, you see, was not going to be their life’s work. Jesus had something else in mind. The time had come for them to set aside their fishing nets and begin training for a new occupation, one that would require every bit as much skill and patience and persistence as fishing ever did. And yet one that would be far more rewarding. “Follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
And notice how they responded. There was no hesitation on their part. They didn’t say, “You know, Jesus, we’d really like to follow you, but we’re kind of busy right now. Can we follow you next week?” No, they just dropped what they were doing and left. James and John even deserted their dad right there in the boat. “Hey, guys, where ya going? We’re not finished with the nets. James? John?” They just dropped everything and followed Christ.
Like these four fishermen from Galilee, you and I have also been called to be disciples of Christ. A disciple, remember, is a follower. You and I are followers of Jesus Christ our Savior. In fact, you and I have promised to follow him faithfully all our lives. A disciple is also a student. You and I are students as well, students who are continually growing in our knowledge and understanding of our Lord and his Word, Christians who are constantly learning to be more like Christ.
So what’s holding you back? What keeps you from following Christ the way you should? What keeps you from reading and studying God’s Word? What keeps you from becoming more like Christ? Is it a sinful lifestyle, a pet sin perhaps, one that continues to trip you up more often than you care to admit? Or is it the hectic pace of your life, one where you hardly have time to feed your body, much less have time to feed your soul? Or is it perhaps a case of mixed up priorities? Somehow you seem to find plenty of time to watch the Timberwolves play or watch the latest episode of “The Voice,” but rarely find time to tune in to God. What is it that keeps you from following Christ, that hampers your walk with him? Whatever it is, the time has come to get rid of it, to set it aside, to straighten it out, to make a fresh start. Haven’t you messed around with it long enough? Take care of it, won’t you, so that you can follow your Savior freely and wholeheartedly like Peter and Andrew, like James and John? The time has come to follow Christ.
Like Peter and Andrew, James and John, you and I have been called into a very unique line of work. Whether we are pastors or teachers, we are fishermen. Whether we drive school bus or drive semi truck, we are fishermen. Whether we work for a large corporation in the Cities or stock shelves at a local grocery store, we are fishermen. We all have the job of fishing for people and catching them for Christ.
It’s a job that takes patience, lots and lots of patience. Sometimes the fishing can be pretty slow. It’s a job that takes persistence. Sometimes people can play awfully hard to get. It’s a job that takes courage. Generally, people don’t like to hear about their sins. It’s a job that takes trust, trust that God will bless our efforts, just as he did the disciples. And he will. He has promised to, and his Word never fails.
And most of all, it’s a job that is extremely important, because it involves the salvation of people’s souls. Think about that for a moment. It involves the salvation of people’s souls. When we look at it that way, what a wonderful job we have! To lead a friend, to lead a classmate, to lead someone we’ve worked with for 20 or 30 years, to lead a cousin or relative or maybe even someone in your own family to Jesus Christ their Savior and rescue their souls from eternal death in hell. What a privilege God has given us!
And what an obvious priority! The time to fish is now. The time to catch people for Jesus is now. Next year may be too late. Next month may be too late. For some, even next week may be too late. As Jesus said, “The time has come.” To repent and believe, to follow and fish–the time has come! Amen.