Today is Father's Day. Most of you woke up this morning thinking about your dad. Maybe you called him. Maybe you drove to see him. Maybe you're missing him.
Hold that thought. Because in this passage, a group of men got up one morning, went to work, and before the day was out, they left their father behind and followed Someone else. Not because they didn't love their father. They did. But because Someone had walked up to them on the edge of the water and called them to something they could not say no to.
That moment on the shore of the Sea of Galilee was not just the beginning of twelve men's journey. It was the beginning of something that would shake the world and has never stopped. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ was born right there, in a fishing village, with the smell of saltwater and nets still on their hands.
Where Did the Church Begin?
Before getting into the text, there is something worth addressing. There are four theories about where the Lord's churches, known today as Baptist, began.
The first is right here, seaside, in Mark 1. That is the one this pastor subscribes to. Some say the church doesn't begin until later, up on the mountain in Mark 3:13–14, when Jesus formally appointed the twelve. Whether you are a seaside Baptist or a mountain Baptist, we have much in common.
Some say the church began on the day of Pentecost. But that cannot be right. In Acts 1, there was already a business meeting. The language of that chapter doesn't describe the birth of a church. Acts 2:41 says that three thousand souls were added to them. If something is added to something else, what it's being added to already exists.
Still others say Baptists began with the Reformation. A date and a founder can be identified for every major Protestant denomination. But finding the date and founder of the Baptists is difficult. It shouldn't be, if we were all the same origin. Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18:
If the Reformed theory is true, then Catholicism was the true church, it got corrupted, and the gates of hell prevailed until the Reformation started something new. That directly contradicts what Jesus promised.
The churches weren't always called Baptist. They were known by different names in different centuries, in different places under different pressures. But the Lord always had a people who never bowed to Rome.
As Baptist historian George W. McDaniel once put it, the point is not to trace every link in a chain across the centuries. The point is identification. When a man finds a horse that exactly matches the description of a lost one, he doesn't need to track its hoofprints from the stable door. He looks at the animal, and says: that is the one. So with the Baptist churches. If there are churches in the world today that can be identified with those of the first century, that is sufficient proof of apostolicity.
He said the gates of hell would not prevail. Look at the blood that was shed. The padlocks on the doors. The fires. And here we are. He kept that promise through two thousand years of pressure no one thought could be survived. That history is not just interesting. It is a foundation for faith. Whatever you are facing today, whatever is pressing against your soul or your church, that same Jesus is still keeping His word. You can trust Him. The track record is there.
Who He Called
These are the charter members of the church. Notice what they were. They were not rabbis. They were not doctors of the law or professors of philosophy. They were fishermen.
Paul understood this:
Not many wise. Not many mighty. Not many noble. That is the Lord's pattern. He has always done it this way.
There is nothing wrong with a good education. A man should always be learning. It is a shame when a preacher reaches a point where he thinks he knows it all. But there are two extremes to avoid: glorying in degrees and glorying in ignorance. We are to glory in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Always.
The reason Jesus chose fishermen was not because educated men are useless. He chose them to show that the power behind this thing is not human learning or worldly influence. God is greater than those things.
John Bunyan was a tinker. He mended pots and pans for a living, working the roads of Bedfordshire, England. He had almost no formal education. He joined a Baptist congregation in Bedford, began to preach, and was thrown in prison for twelve years for doing it without a license from the crown. He refused to stop. While he sat in that jail, he wrote more than sixty books, including The Pilgrim's Progress, which has never gone out of print and has been translated into more than two hundred languages. When King Charles II mocked John Owen for going to hear "an illiterate tinker prate," Owen replied: "May it please your Majesty, could I possess that tinker's ability for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning." One of the most educated men in England said he would trade it all. For a tinker. God is not impressed with what impresses us.
People could see the difference in these disciples:
Uneducated and ordinary. Marveling. The explanation was simple: they had been with Jesus. That was it. That is still it. If you are worried that God cannot use you because of what you don't have, look at who He started with. He builds His church with ordinary people who have been with Jesus. The question is not your resume. The question is whether you are walking with Him.
What He Called Them To
Jesus does not just say come to Me. He says follow Me, and I will make you. He is the one doing the making. Your current occupation is honorable. But follow Me, and He will show you a calling that is better. What you catch now feeds people for a day. What He is sending you to catch will last forever.
John's gospel fills in some detail here. These men were already disciples of John the Baptist. John 1:35–42 shows they had received John's baptism, which was Christian baptism. They did not need to be baptized again when the church was formally organized. Our Protestant friends are in error on that point.
The wise man wins souls. That is the high calling of every one of His people, especially those who are in His church. If you are not winning souls, not fishing for men, you are not following Him as close as you ought to be.
We talk to people about the cold weather. We talk about football. We're quick to talk politics. All of it will be over and done with soon enough. But the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on that Cross for sinners, that is news people actually need. When was the last time you shared it?
Some hide behind the Sovereignty of God and the Doctrines of Grace. Those doctrines are precious and true. Cling to them. But do not use them as an excuse to be slack in soul winning. Salvation is of the Lord, and God has given us a commission to go.
It begins with go. Are you going? You don't have to go far. Think of one person in your life right now who does not know the Lord. Make it your business to speak to them about Christ. Not a lecture, not a tract left on the counter. A conversation. You know the news. Tell it.
How They Responded
One word appears twice in the text. Immediately. There was no deliberation, no committee meeting. They left their nets and they left their father and they followed Him.
These men understood something many modern Christians do not. Christ is more important than anything else. More important than a livelihood. More important than family. He comes first.
That is not a rebuke of fathers or of family. These men surely loved Zebedee. But they left him in the boat. It is a statement about priority. When Jesus calls, the answer is immediately. Not after the weekend, not after Father's Day dinner. Immediately.
He who loses his life for Christ's sake will find it. These fishermen did not lose anything by dropping those nets. They found everything.
Where are you on the Lord's Day? That question is not just about attendance. It is about who is first. We have got to get our priorities right. Not as a rule to keep, but as a love to live. Is He first?
The Gospel
Jesus walked up to men who had nothing to commend them and called them. Not because of what they were, but because of what He was going to make them. That is exactly what the gospel is. You come to Him with nothing, and He makes you into something. He died on that Cross not for the righteous, but for sinners. And He rose from that grave so that every person who puts their faith in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
The gates of hell did not prevail against His church. And if you are in Christ, they will not prevail against you. You are His, and He keeps what is His.
But if you are not in Christ, those same gates are exactly where you are headed. There is one way out. Follow Him.