Sermon for MHBC (26 June 2022). You can watch on our website or on Facebook or YouTube. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
Over the years, I’ve asked people to tell me when they became a Christian, a follower of Jesus. And more often than not, I’ve heard something like this. I grew up in church. I’ve always been a Christian. I was baptized when I was a little kid. Sometimes I’ve gone a step further and asked people to tell me what it means to be a Christian. This is one of those questions that seems easy enough to answer until we try to put it into words.
So what does being a Christian really mean? Does it just mean I believe in God as opposed to someone who doesn’t believe in God? Does it mean I go to church on Sundays? Does it mean I don’t cuss? Does it mean I vote a certain way? Does it mean I was baptized? Or I said a prayer? Or I read the Bible?
Mark shows us in our passage what being a Christian is all about. Jesus announces that the kingship of God has come and then he says, “Repent and believe” or “humble yourself and depend on me.” Then Mark gives us two illustrations, two stories, to show us what it means to be a Christian.
Here’s how we can summarize this passage. A Christian is one who hears and responds to the message of God’s Kingdom and learns to live in the Kingdom by being a student of Jesus. Let me repeat that. A Christian is one who hears and responds to the message of God’s Kingdom and learns to live in the Kingdom by being a student of Jesus.
Now I’m using this word student intentionally. The biblical word is typically translated disciple. The noun alone is used over 250 times in the first five books of the NT. And while we typically use the word disciple, there are lots of English words that are helpful to understand the biblical word. The leading Greek dictionary for NT study defines the Greek word disciple this way: “one who engages in learning through instruction from another.”[1] Then it suggests the following English words: pupil, apprentice. It also gives us a second definition: “one who is constantly associated with someone who is a teacher or who has a particular set of views.” Here it suggests the English words: disciple, adherent. All of these words help us understand more of what it means to follow Jesus.
So is a Christian someone who simply believes in God? No. Is it someone who simply goes to church, even regularly? No. Is it someone who follows a political party? No.
A Christian is a student of Jesus. A Christian is one who has responded to the announcement that God is redeeming creation through Jesus and is following him. What things would we expect from a student of Jesus? Let’s just name a few. 1) See the world the way Jesus does. 2) Believe the things Jesus says. 3) Learn from Jesus. 4) Do the things Jesus does. 5) Spend time with Jesus. This is what we mean when we say “follow Jesus.” See, in the first century, students would literally follow their teacher. They would eat and sleep and walk with their teacher. They learned from him. They took his life as the pattern for their own. They copied it. This is different than begrudging obedience. This requires thinking the teacher has the right answers. And this isn’t a call to made up rules or boring and soul-sucking rigidness. It’s a call to study Jesus’s teaching, to practice what he says and does, and to abide with him. That is a student of Jesus.
Look at the passage in Mark 1 with me. Jesus makes the announcement that God’s Kingdom has come. The Kingdom Jesus refers to is not a place or a location. Better words would be kingship, rule, reign, government. Two Greek scholars write, “An expression such as ‘to enter the kingdom of God’ thus does not refer to ‘going to heaven’ but should be understood as ‘accepting God’s rule’ or ‘welcoming God to rule over.’”[2] The gospel, this good news, is an announcement that God has acted in Christ. And this action has brought a life under God’s rule to this world. So Jesus is announcing that God is on the move. A new way of life is here. And he tells us the proper response in v. 15. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.
Repent and believe in the gospel.These two words—repent and believe—are the basis of discipleship. This is where discipleship starts. Repentance doesn’t just mean to feel sorry. It refers to a change in how we see things. It means seeing things how Jesus sees them—the way God sees them. Believe doesn’t just mean acknowledge some facts. It means to trust and to accept that what Jesus says is true. That he is God. That he offers a better way to live. That he is smarter than we are. This is where discipleship to Jesus starts. Repent and believe. See the world the way Jesus does and trust what he says and does. Now repent and believe are words that we’ve heard so often that we may have forgotten what they mean. But Mark shows us what this looks like. Look at vv. 16–18.*
Jesus calls in v. 17, “Follow me.” This idea of being fishers of people has to do with the promised kingship of God. It’s an OT promise. Jesus is once more saying that time has come. And he’s inviting Andrew and Simon into that new way. He’s calling them to repent and believe. Notice the proper response. There aren’t formulas. No, look at v. 18. They left their nets at once and followed him.
Bonhoeffer wrote, “The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. The call to follow at once produces a new situation. To stay in the older situation makes discipleship impossible.”[3] So they leave their profession to follow Jesus. That’s because they trust that Jesus is worth following.
Mark gives us a similar story in vv. 19–20.* Again, notice their response. “[T]hey left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.” This was not leaving their father on a Saturday morning fishing trip. Fishing was big business in Galilee. This is a business operation. Zebedee and Sons Fishing, inc. What we see in both stories is that discipleship to Jesus is costly. One commentator writes that the disciple “breaks all other ties to follow his master as a servant.”[4] That’s easy to lose sight of.
In Mark 10, Jesus has an encounter with a prospective disciple. He’s a good guy. He has a clean record. He’s the type of person you would want to follow you. He asks Jesus, “What do I need to do to gain eternal life.” Jesus, knowing that this man wants an easy answer tells him to obey the commandments. The man says, “I’ve obeyed them. I’m a good person.” Then Jesus issues the call to discipleship. He says, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” It’s the call to repent and believe, the call to trust that Jesus has a better way and to be his disciple. The man turns away returning to his clean living, his religion, and his rules.
The call to repent and believe, the call to discipleship, is a call not to rules. It is a call to a person. Jesus calls us to follow him. And this is what it means to be a Christian. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “If you’re thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you’re embarking on something, which will take the whole of you.”
When did you begin your apprenticeship to Jesus? What changed when that happened? Have you ever experienced a radical change in how you think, talk, and live?
Dallas Willard is the man responsible for this language of apprenticeship. In an interview he was asked to explain the gospel. Here’s what he said.
Two words, trust Jesus. Trust him for everything, not just what happens when I die. Trusting Jesus and becoming his disciple is the same thing. I like the word apprentice because it means I’m with Jesus learning to do what he did. When you look at the first disciples, that’s what they were doing. They watched Jesus and listened to him, and then he said, “Now you do it.”
A Christian is one who hears and responds to the message of God’s Kingdom and learns to live in the Kingdom by being a student of Jesus.
I want to wrap this up with an initial call. And starting on July 10, we will start looking at some of what it means specifically and practically to be a student of Jesus.
I had a fascinating conversation with a former missionary this week. This man is in his 90s. I asked him after decades of study and missions, what were the big thoughts at this latter stage in his life. The first thing he said was his concern about younger generations entering into vocational ministry. He is deeply concerned that people aren’t taking the call to discipleship, especially in a vocational setting seriously.
I agree completely. Here’s what I said. The single biggest indicator of the health of a church is not budget, not attendance, not website clicks, not activities, not ministries, but reproduction. The healthiest churches develop disciples and send them out. And there’s a rich legacy of that here at MHBC. But as we say so often, Jesus is speaking to us today, asking us to lay down our nets, each of us as individuals, to become serious students of Jesus. And to invite others to join us as his students.
So the question for all of this morning is: What will you do with Jesus’s call to follow him? What are the nets that you need to lay down? What are the comforts you’re afraid to let go of? What intellectual doubts are keeping you from following him? The call is extended to every single one of this this morning. Jesus says to each of us, “Come, follow me.”
[1] BDAG, s.v. μαθητής
[2] GELNT, p. 480.
[3] Cost of Discipleship, p. 62.
[4] Lane, p. 67.