The New Kingdom Community

October 16, 2016 Series: The Drama of the Gospel: What It is and How It Changes Everything

Passage: Mark 1:14–20

After Jesus arrives on the scene and begins His public ministry with His proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, He begins to form His new kingdom community. He does so by calling His first disciples, Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. In calling them He gives them both an identity and a purpose or commission. And that will be the simple outline we will follow this morning as we dive into this text in Mark’s gospel. We will look at first the new kingdom community’s (1) Identity as Followers. Our fundamental identity is as followers of Jesus. That takes priority over everything else. Jesus is forming a new family around Himself. And second the new kingdom community’s (2) Purpose as Fishers of Men. Jesus promises that His new family will become fishers of men. It is so encouraging that this is not automatic but a process. Jesus promises that His people will become fishers of men. That is our purpose and Jesus promises that He will fulfill it.

We, of course, are fishers of men because that was what Jesus was for us. Jesus did not wait for us to go to Him. Instead, He came to us. He left His Father’s throne above and came to “fish” men out of the realm of darkness and bring us into His own kingdom. And, of course, for Jesus that path led Him to the cross. For Jesus to fish men required that He take upon Himself all that we deserved on the cross.

More in The Drama of the Gospel: What It is and How It Changes Everything

April 1, 2018

He is Risen

March 25, 2018

The Victory of the Cross

March 18, 2018

The Suffering Servant