Mark 1:1-28, “Time Is of the Essence”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Urgency of Mark 1

Mark chapter 1 verses 1 to 28, hear the Word of the Lord. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now, John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locust and wild honey. And he preached saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came out of the water immediately, he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven.

You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. 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. And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, What have you to do with us?

Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, Be silent and come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him.

And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

The Baptism of Jesus and the Revelation of the Trinity

The Lord had his blessings to the reading of his holy word. A week ago last Thursday, I just finished a bike ride about 10 miles and did some other exercise when I had to stop at a traffic light. Anyway, I made the mistake of leaning to my left side where my shoes were clipped in.

And so couldn't extend my leg to brace myself. So I fell on the road hard and I immediately felt something was wrong. I managed to get up off the pavement, kind of using the bike as a crutch. And I noticed that my left hip felt bad and I could hardly move my left leg.

I used my bike like a walker and kind of hobbled over. I was right in the middle of the road and I hobbled over to the side of the road. And I realized that my left leg was so bad that I couldn't even cycle.

It was only like a quarter of a mile from home, which is practically almost there. But I still realized that I couldn't make it that far. And so I realized that I was in trouble. And so I called Mary and I was afraid that she had left for Danville.

Her plan was to go to Danville already before I even left. A man driving by saw that I was in distress and he stopped to ask if I was OK. And just at that moment, I started talking to Mary on the phone.

So I think the good Samaritan and said, yeah, I'm fine. Now, if Mary had been away in Danville, I probably would have then asked the man for a ride home, since we're always so close and kind of hobbled inside thinking, well, I'll be better after a good night's sleep.

You know, maybe I just strain some muscles or something like that. Time will make it better. Good night's sleep will be all that it takes. Maybe some aspirin or something like that. But Mary came by and she picked me up and she took me directly to the urgent care at Yanceyville Clinic where they gave me an X-ray and saw that my leg was broken near my hip.

And they told me that I needed to go to the emergency room in the Danville Hospital immediately. They gave me two choices. Mary could drive me right away or an ambulance could take me. But those choices, well, she drove me.

And I was hoping now that they were wrong, that it wasn't really so urgent, that it was, you know, a hip pointer, whatever that is. And they would just give me some painkillers and send me home that night.

Instead, they gave me a CT scan. And soon the doctor, my orthopedic surgeon, who had done what they call an arthroscopic surgery on my knee, had done it about three and a half years ago. He came and he described the injury for me, which is a femoral neck fracture.

And he told me that if I didn't have surgery right away, meaning like right away, like right now, that I could have a vascular necrosis. And he explained what a vascular meant. And I could figure out what necrosis mean, having taken Greek.

Necrosis, necro, from death. A vascular necrosis means that the blood is cut off from the bone, in this case the ball joint in the hip, and it dies. Now, obviously having parts of your body, large parts of your body, die within you is an urgent situation.

And remember, if it had been left up to me, I probably would have gone home and plopped myself down on the couch and just hoped I'd gotten better by tomorrow. I probably would have procrastinated, probably put off going to the clinic and thought, well, it can't be so urgent.

Whatever it is, it'll be better by tomorrow. And if it's not, if I wake up Friday morning and it still feels bad, well, then maybe I'll go to the doctor and see what it is. But instead, there was the surgeon, the orthopedic surgeon, telling me, quote, time is of the essence.

And he wasn't kidding, by the way. He told me that. He went out, changed clothes with that kind of surgical garb, came back, and there he was just a few minutes later. Time is of the essence. Now, some things are so urgent, you can't put them off.

Any delay, any waiting for something else, you know, just hoping things aren't so bad and for any kind of reason not to act, any lack of immediate action could do you great harm, could even kill you. Some things demand urgency.

Time is of the essence. Now, here in Mark, we see urgency. We see an emergency, immediacy. Notice how many times, if you read through, did you notice how many times he uses the word immediately? We'll see him again as we go through the passage.

We see that the demand of Jesus's kingdom is now. You can't wait for something else and then you'll take care of your relationship with Christ, with God, maybe until your business is profitable, maybe until you have a lot of money in the bank, you paid off your debts, or maybe until your house is paid for, your relationship is settled, there's peace, your family's taken care of.

You can't put it off for anything. Whatever it is, the kids are grown. You finish your education. The kingdom of God is urgent. It demands that you act now. You can't delay one day, one hour, seeking it first in believing in Jesus.

And we see that here in this introduction to Mark in six parts, the urgency of the kingdom, that when it comes to Jesus, time is of the essence. We see the six parts. First, the preparation. Second, revelation.

Third, temptation. Fourth, inauguration. And fifth, invitation. And finally, demonstration. First, there's the preparation. And the first eight verses begins, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Do you notice that in verse one? Mark is giving away, in the very first verse, right from the beginning, what will eventually be his climax, the climax of the book of Mark, which is in chapter 15, verse 39, where this pagan Roman centurion, who has just helped put Jesus to death, and he sees Jesus die on the cross, and he exclaims, truly, this man was the Son of God.

That's where we're heading. Understand? That's where the book of Mark is heading. That's its conclusion. He will show us that. But he starts telling us that from the beginning. No delay. No suspense. No, Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus, the Son of God. Now, it had a lot of preparation behind it. We might be so used to hearing about things from the Bible, you know, so long ago to us, long, long time ago, that the Old Testament maybe enfolded over a period, over a thousand years, about 1500 years, or like Isaiah, who's quoted here, lived 700 years before Christ.

Imagine 700 years it took when he said that till it's fulfilled. And so we're used to dealing with all these long periods of time. And we might think, well, come on. God's been—he's been doing this for so long.

He must be used to waiting, right? So he counts one day as a thousand years. So he won't be bothered if I—he won't be bothered if I put him off a little longer, will he? I mean, he's been putting things off for thousands of years.

He won't be bothered if I put him off for—until I graduate from college or until I get married or something like that. Maybe I'll get the relationship taken care of until I'm financially secure. He waited a thousand years to fulfill these prophecies.

He could wait for me. He's used to waiting, right? Is that the way we kind of think? A lesson we inadvertently draw from this? It's now true that the preparation was a long time in coming, like laying a trap in the woods, maybe like for a bear.

They take you a long time to put it there. But when it springs, it's immediate. And it demands immediate action. It goes fast. There was a lot of preparation for Jesus to come. But now that he's come, he demands that we move immediately.

A messenger was sent to prepare the way. Now, he would go out into the wilderness. That's John the Baptist. He went out into the wilderness. That's the desert. It's what they call the wilderness. It's this desert land wilderness, and no one hardly lives there, maybe a few people passing through.

But he would go out there and proclaim to the few people who were there, prepare the way for the Lord. By the way, it's kind of interesting to us. Here's the Lord's way of doing things. He sends the messenger out into the wilderness where there's hardly any people.

Isn't that odd?

Wouldn't you think, well, he should go to Jerusalem, the city where all the people are? Instead, he sends John the Baptist out where hardly anyone is. And the few people are there who hear him. Well, they realize, man, this man's a prophet.

He's preparing the way. Prepare for the Lord's coming by getting your life right, by getting rid of the obstacles in your life, whatever it may be, the obstacles to the Lord. What are they in your life?

Maybe a love of money. You're seeking things first, like houses and cars and careers or relationships or thrills. Put those aside for that. Get people to prepare themselves for when the Lord came with judgment.

He is coming to judge John the Baptist king. He appeared. That's the way Mark puts it in verse 4. It's not like he just materialized. But suddenly, for people in Israel, they started to hear about this.

All of a sudden, there's these reports about this wild man out in the desert preaching about the soon coming judgment and preaching about how you, even you, you Jewish people who thought you were God's people already, who thought you just had God taken care of by born into the right nation.

Even you needed to get ready. You need to get your life in order. You need to get cleansed. You need to be converted so that you could be really his people. He proclaimed a baptism that showed your repentance and so showed your forgiveness.

If you believe this message, you believe that he's from the Lord, then you will be baptized and your faith will give you forgiveness. Right. So but hurry, be baptized if you believe to show that you've turned from your sins.

So people from all over Judea and Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city, Judea, the area around the southern Israel, they believed they felt the urgency. They knew that there was an emergency of judgment. The judgment could come any moment now.

And so they got baptized. They confessed their sins, said these things I've been doing. They are sins. They renounced them. And they came to John who was preparing the way. He's just like a wild wilderness man wearing camel's hair and a leather belt, eating whatever wild things you could find out there in the desert.

Bugs, locusts and honey. And by the way, not honey in a jar. I mean, like nest of bees. And he would go in there and grab out the honey because John knew he was for preparation. His message wasn't about himself.

You know, I'm so great. I'm the one I'm the messenger. His his urgent message was in verse seven after me, just behind me. In other words, not long after me. It's not like, well, hundreds of years, sometime way after me, somewhere down, long down the quarters of time, way in the future is going to come someone mightier.

But no, it's next. After me, like right on my heels, right around the corner, is coming one who he says is mightier than I, because he has this reputation for being mighty, for being powerful, just in this camel's hair and the leather belt, eating his bugs and telling everyone what is what, telling Herod he needs to repent of his sin.

Well, man, this man is mighty. John is saying, no, after me is coming one who is mightier. And his message was not about himself. He's saying, I'm for preparation. I'm for someone greater. He's so much greater.

The one coming next right on my heels. Now, you might think I'm great. You think I'm impressive. I can tell by the way you're looking at me.

I'm powerful.

The next one is so great. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to be the servant who stoops down and unties his shoes. That's how much greater he is than me. He's so much greater. John is saying, I baptize with water.

Understand, I'm baptizing you with water. That's the symbol, water. That's all I have is the symbol. The one after me has what the symbol represents, has the substance. He has the spirit. That's what the water is supposed to represent.

He has it.

I don't.

I just have the symbol. One after me has the real thing. And the spirit will change your heart. And he will give you new life. Now, after this, now for us, the preparation is done. For us, we don't need baptism to be prepared.

We don't need water baptism to be prepared for spirit baptism. You understand the order? Things have changed now, before and after Jesus. Before, with John the Baptist, you get baptized to prepare for Jesus.

After Jesus, you get baptized because you've met Jesus. Because he's baptized you with the Holy Spirit. We need urgently, immediately, now, to be baptized in the spirit. That's our need, to have that old, stone-cold, dead heart replaced by a living, spiritual one.

That's our immediate need. And then, once that's done, then we show that by being baptized in water. So, our immediate need now is not baptism in water. That's not our immediate need. As if we do, as if we get baptized in water, that will somehow make us born again.

No, it's not like that. Baptism in water is the symbol that points to the greater baptism in the Holy Spirit. Think what John is doing with it here. Me, I'm not as great, the one coming is greater. I have the water, he has the spirit.

Having the spirit is greater than having the water. So, now, after Christ, that's changed. What's changed is that we show our faith, our spirit baptism, that we've had it by getting water baptized after.

Before Jesus, you got baptized before getting spirit baptized. After Jesus, that's like now, you get baptized in water after getting spirit baptized. So, it's not water baptism that's urgent for us. It's spirit baptism.

That's why we don't put a lot of pressure on people here to get baptized. What we try to put pressure and the emphasis on is to get a new heart, is to believe, to be transformed. Of course, only God can do that for you.

And once he does, then you will be baptized. It's getting a new heart, being born again. That's the urgent need. That's what you urgently need now. So, don't wait for anything until you have it. Then once you have it, baptism will take care of itself.

Your new heart, you really have a new heart. You will then follow the Lord's command to be baptized. You will, because your heart will want to. He writes his law on your heart and his law says to be baptized.

So, you will follow him.

Now, what's the hurry, you might think? Now, I think you have plenty of time. Take your fill of everything that the world has to offer for now. You can always get back to God later. Right, that's the way many people think.

But here he says that now is the time. After all, the revelation has been made.

The Inauguration of Jesus’ Ministry and the Call to Repent

Second, revelation.

In the days of John the Baptist, in verse 9, while he was preparing the way for the Lord by telling them of the urgency, the emergency, get baptized to prepare. Jesus himself was baptized. Now, if he was baptized, so should we be.

And when Jesus comes out of the water, notice that in verse 10, by the way. I think it's a minor point, but it is a point.

He was immersed.

Right, they didn't sprinkle water on him. He was immersed, came out of it. Immediately, notice again. Immediately, it was like the skies where it says torn open. It's the word Mark uses. Torn open, like a fabric or like a tent canopy.

The tent is torn and there it's something as a whole. And the Holy Spirit comes through that hole in the sky and a lights on Jesus like a dove with a light on a branch. Then a voice booms out of the hole in the sky.

You are my beloved son. You're the unique one in you. I am well pleased. Now, here in this scene, this is a very important scene. All together in one place. We see we see God, the persons of the Trinity in the theological language.

We see the father speaking from heaven. We see the sun coming up out of the water. Called the sun and the Holy Spirit alighting like a dove. So you see three persons. It's not three different expressions, like an actor playing three parts, right?

Actor plays three parts in a movie or a play. They do that sometimes in movies and plays an actor. One actor can play different parts, but he can't be in the stage at the same time, can he? Right, right.

You understand an actor plays different parts. He can't be on the stage playing himself at the same time to play the different parts at the same time. Here on the stage, it is baptism. Three persons together because the persons of the Trinity are are are different persons.

They're not just it's not like God playing different parts.

Understand.

So the revelation is that this from this Trinity, Jesus is the sun. That's what Mark will reveal. That's what the centurion will see and what was declared to to us from the beginning. And now that's the revelation.

And there is nothing else to wait on for it. Nothing else. We need to wait to begin to believe. Now, for thousands of years, people were waiting on God to reveal who he was, who his son is. Now he's done that.

So now we don't have to wait. There's nothing. No revelation that we are waiting on. Everything was revealed from the time of the New Testament. We must not wait. But act now. Third, the temptation in verse 12, the Holy Spirit immediately.

Notice that a drove him not like the Holy Spirit. What kind of gently led him gradually suggesting maybe you should go this way. No, it says drove him. He's driving urgently like you've been told that time is of the essence.

You've got to get to the emergency room here. It's not as though Jesus was unwilling. It's not suggesting that Jesus was resisting and the Holy Spirit's making him go somewhere he doesn't want to go. I wasn't unwilling to be driven to the emergency room once we knew there might be a problem.

It's not that the Holy Spirit overcomes Jesus's resistance. Jesus is a resisting and just kind of drives him where he doesn't want to go. It's about the urgency of the situation. Now, I sometimes kind of like to look at pictures or maybe movies of what people say.

Jesus, that this is Jesus pictures, what he's supposed to be like. And I'm looking when I see that there are a picture or a movie for how the artist thinks of Jesus. Because that's what pictures and movies show.

Understand some people don't think you should have any of that because they're afraid you will think that's really Jesus. And some people will if they're a little naive. But what representations of Jesus show is what the artist thinks Jesus is like.

And they may be more or less accurate. But they always show the artist's interpretation. Pictures or acting always show someone's view of Jesus. Their opinion of what he must have been like. Really what they think of a spiritual person is.

And Jesus is almost always represented. Notice, he's almost always represented as someone kind of serene, above it all, otherworldly. In the Middle Ages, he looked stoic, like not in no sense of any emotions.

Today, he'll look kind of like a happy surfer dude. You know, like he likes everybody. He's, yeah, dude, I want to go have a good time. Like you just love to hang out with him. Right. That's the way he's represented today.

He's almost never represented as driven, as urgent. Like he's a man on a mission. But that's exactly how Mark reveals him here. Jesus is immediately going from the time he was baptized. Jesus is immediately going from here to there.

Propelled by the Spirit. He's a man on a mission. And he was out in the desert for 40 days. That's where he's driven here. First thing, tempted by Satan. He was there with the wild animals.

He's with the beast.

He said that he's in the realm of Satan. He's in danger. Like his followers, who a generation later would be fed to the wild beast, to the lions in Roman coliseums for sport. But he overcame them. He wasn't devoured.

But he was supported by angels. Now, in Mark, it doesn't say anything about Satan withdrawing from him. As though he was left, you know, without Satan battling him. Because in Mark, the emphasis of Mark is that he is battling Satan the whole way.

As we see here in the passage we read. Now, next is the inauguration of Jesus' ministry. Time is of the essence. After John the Baptist is arrested, things change for Jesus. Notice the sequence of events here.

Jesus goes from the south in Judea, where John had been. Then John's arrested. So then he goes back up north around the Lake of Galilee. Now, this is his home area. He's from Nazareth, which is up there near Galilee.

Now, John is now decreasing with his arrest. And so Jesus knows now is the time for him to increase. Now, the past time, what he's just finished, from after John's baptism, when he's baptized by John, to John's arrest, has been like a transition between, like we have in America, a transition between two presidents.

You know, on election day, or soon thereafter, hopefully, there's a revelation of who the next president will be. And then there's a transition period, about three months. Here, in this passage, and then after the transition period is the inauguration.

Now, here in this passage, the revelation was at the Jordan River, at Jesus' baptism. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. Now, in between the revelation, at the baptism, and his inauguration, is this temptation.

Now, the inauguration. Jesus comes out in the open, preaching. Particularly in Galilee, in that area, up north. His message was a proclamation of the gospel of God. Now, first, several points about that.

Almost take apart every word here. First, it was a proclamation. That is, it was an announcement. Jesus was the herald of the announcement. He's the announcer. In their day, heralds would be sent out.

The king wanted to make some proclamation. I'm raising taxes by so much, or whatever. We've had a son, so this is the prince, my next heir. The king is coming. Or maybe the king is traveling around his kingdom.

He would always send out men ahead.

Heralds.

To announce, the king is coming.

Make way.

Now, get your little booths and stuff out of the way of the road, because the king is coming through. The announcement here, that Jesus is declaring, was the gospel of God. Now, the gospel just means good news.

It is the actual announcement. It's what's being announced. It's the proclamation of the herald. It could be, you know, a new king is born. The king is coming through. It is a gospel. It's good news. The gospel, that is the announcement, Jesus is heralding, is, as he says, of God.

That is, it's from God. It's about God. It's not just about an emperor or a king or politics or sports. It's the most important kind of announcement. That is the most important kind of gospel, of good news of all.

Now, that's what Jesus was doing. He's the herald of this good news. God's good news. That announcement, God's good announcement, it comes in three parts. Notice the parts. First, in verse 15, the time is fulfilled.

Did you notice that, verse 15? The time is fulfilled. Preparation time is over. Time is of the essence. Now, he's telling people. Thousands of years, he's been building to this. From Adam's fall, you know, to Abraham and Moses and David and the prophets, like Isaiah quoted here, to finally John the Baptist.

All of that is the preparation. It's to get prepared for now. It's all been pointing to this, to when Jesus has come. The time is now fulfilled. Ready or not, here I am. Finally, Jesus says, time's up.

Time is of the essence. Well, that's the first part. Time is of the essence. From now on, don't let anyone tell you that you have plenty of time. You know, you're in no hurry to get right with God. He's been waiting thousands of years.

You can put him off to after college or after you're married or after you have a lot of money. You can put him off to seek first his kingdom, to believe in the mightier one, that you can procrastinate because God is slow.

No, you must act now. Understand the urgency of the emergency. The second part, verse 15, the kingdom of God is at hand. Otherwise, what you've been waiting for, the kingdom of God is so close. It's at hand.

That is, it's so close you can reach out and grab it.

It's here. It's not far off.

It's within your grasp. Like this microphone there. The kingdom of God is the rule that is the government of God. That is, it's his being in charge. His in chargedness. His authority is here now. He's judging you.

His court.

If thousands of years people were waiting, Lord, when are you going to come and judge the world? And Jesus is saying now. A lot of people think God's judgment, his court is a long way off. At some tribunal, maybe after they die, we say always assume will be many years from now.

Until then, you can put it off. You can run your life as you want for as long as you want. And you can take care of God's judgment. You apologize to God just before you die. You'll be like 100 years old.

You have plenty of time. That's the way many people think, right? You'll have plenty of preparation. Don't worry about it. You can keep putting them off. And when it gets close to death and then they can apologize for not living God's way and and then they'll be all right.

Nothing to fear. They have plenty of time, they think. But here, Jesus says that God's judgment, his tribunal, his court is now in session. It's right now. Here within reach and God can reach out and grab you.

Now, we've heard announcements every four years or maybe some eight years that new leaders are elected. But most of us have never been where one government is overthrown and another one is put in place.

Now, in the last week, we've seen that happen in Afghanistan. The kingdom is the rule of the Taliban has been announced much to the horror of many people, including God's people, our brothers and sisters in Christ and in that country.

Now, that's that's unlike the gospel and that it is bad news. It's I don't know the term for I don't know what the Greek term for bad news would be, but it's not a gospel. It's bad news. But it is like the gospel and that it is a proclamation of a new rule, a new regime.

Now, in one of the things I have in common, both in Afghanistan and where the kingdom of God is advancing, people who resist that kingdom, that regime, they're in trouble. You know, if you resist Jesus's regime, his rule, and you resist it by clinging to your sins, then the announcement of the kingdom of God will be bad news to you.

It means that your judgment is coming. It means that it's here. The third part of the announcement is then what we are to do in response. Remember, the time is at hand. The first part means it's right now.

The kingdom of God is at hand. Also emphasizing it's right now. It's the rule of God is here. And the third part is kind of the application. What we do in response to that repent. What do you do now that the kingdom of God is at hand?

Time is up. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent means to turn around. Stop living like you have been living right now. Change. Live God's way. Turn from whatever your sin is trying to make worship about you as if you were the customer.

And this this church, this is a shop meant to give you the product you want. If you don't like the product here, you'll go to another one to the competitor. Turn from that way a whole way of thinking.

Turn toward worship. Turn from that toward worshiping in spirit and truth. Worship to be about God. Turn from living as if you were your own boss. As if you didn't have to give account for how you spend your money.

Live for the Lord. Turn from sexual immorality or pornography. Using your body for yourself. As if you were not a temple of the Holy Spirit. Turn from your life of chasing and of hoarding, splurging money for yourself.

As though that's all it was about. Making a lot of money for yourself and spending it on yourself. Every penny for yourself. Turn from that and live as if every penny belongs to God. Seek first the kingdom, the rule of God.

And being in a right relationship with Him. Let that be the relationship you seek first. Now, turn and believe that good announcement. That God's rule has come with Jesus. If that's not good news to you.

If you think that's not good news. I want to seek those other things. I want that money or that relationship or whatever. If the kingdom of God is not good news to you. You urgently need to seek to make it good news.

Time is of the essence. Well, that's the inauguration of Jesus's ministry. Then comes the invitation. That is, he invites his apostles, starting in verse 16. First, Jesus is walking this lakeshore. I call it a sea.

It's a big lake. We call it a lake in our language. And he sees Peter and Andrew fishing. And they're casting a net into the lake from their boat. And Jesus invites them. Follow me. That's the invitation.

It's pretty direct. To the point, no time is wasted. Because there's no time to waste. You know, it's not... Gentlemen, why don't you consider following me? Here's my... I'll email you my pay package and perks.

You talk it over. Take some time. Talk it over with your wives and family. Don't make a hasty decision, of course. I understand. You've got to consider it a little while. Get back to me when you can. After you've thought it over.

I understand.

No hurry.

No! It's not like that at all, is it? It's the opposite. No, it's follow me now. Now is the time. It comes with a promise. Just like you've been catching fish. You'll be catching people. For me. That's the pay.

And the perk.

Now, who's going to jump at that deal? By the way, in verse 18, immediately... Notice how many times that word is used in this passage. Again, immediately.

Without delay.

They left their nets. And followed Jesus. They're so urgent. You know, they're not even going to take the time to put their gear properly away. They just drop it. And dad and their helping hands will take care of it.