“Three Calls, One Message”
Mark 1:14-20
1/25/09
Today in the Church year we not only celebrate the
third Sunday after the Epiphany, but also the Conversion of St.
Paul. Given that Paul was converted by the Lord in order to
preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, his call fits in with today’s
theme, which is that the Lord calls disciples for the purpose of making
them fishers of men, in order that through their proclamation of the
Gospel others might come to faith in Him. We see that this was
the case not only with the Apostle Paul, but also with the prophet
Jonah and the Lord’s disciples - three calls, but one
message. And the Lord is doing the same thing today with us -
calling us to be His disciples as well as giving us the message of the
Gospel to proclaim to others. This is what we are given to
meditate upon this morning.
First we turn to Jonah. Most of you are
familiar with the fact that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish, but
you might be less familiar with the reason why. Jonah had been
called by the Lord to give a message to the Ninevites. Now,
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a pagan country that would later
invade the northern kingdom of Israel and carry her away into
exile. The message that God gave Jonah to proclaim to the people
of Nineveh was a message of judgment: “Yet forty days, and
Nineveh shall be overthrown.” It was a message that any Jew
would have loved to proclaim to these enemies of theirs, who had
already attacked them on a number of occasions. But Jonah knew
that though God threatened, He would be moved to mercy, if the people
repented of their sin and turned from their evil ways. It was for
this very reason, then, that Jonah refused to go to Nineveh. He
knew that if they repented at his preaching, God would be merciful to
them and would not destroy them, and this is exactly what Jonah
didn’t want for these hated Assyrians.
So, Jonah tried to run away, but the Lord caught him
(with the use of a fish) and sent him back to Nineveh, where it
happened just as Jonah had expected it would: When the people
heard God’s threats of destruction, they believed God’s
Word, called for a fast, put on sackcloth, and repented of their evil
ways. And when God saw this, He relented of the disaster that He
had threatened to do to them and didn’t do it. True to His
nature, God had mercy on those pagan unbelievers and did not pour out
His wrath upon them, something that irritated Jonah to no end.
But regardless of what he thought or how he felt
about it, Jonah was called by God to proclaim a message to the people
of Nineveh. It was a message of Law, a message of judgment, which
Jonah would have been more than willing to proclaim, if only God
weren’t so merciful. His Law is not the last word that He
wants people to hear. He only wants it proclaimed, so that people
will recognize their sin, confess and repent of it. But then He
wants to show His mercy. He wants people to hear His message of
forgiveness. Although this isn’t what Jonah wanted them to
hear, it’s ultimately what God wants all sinners to hear.
But God’s mercy and forgiveness comes at the
cost of a sacrifice, a sacrifice which costs God to make. In the
O.T. God forgave sins for the sake of animal sacrifices. The
blood of sheep, goats, and bulls was to be shed daily to atone for the
sins of God’s people. And yet, the author of the book of
Hebrews writes that it’s impossible for the blood of these
animals to take away sins. The day of atonement came every
year. Once a year the sins of the entire people of God were
atoned for as the blood of a bull was sprinkled upon the ark of the
covenant in the holy of holies. If the blood of these animals had
taken away sins once for all, they wouldn’t have had to be
sacrificed over and over again. But the ongoing nature of these
sacrifices was a continual reminder to the people of their sins.
Another more perfect sacrifice had to be made for them in order to take
away their sins once and for all, and that was the sacrifice of the
Lamb of God, who took away the sin of the world with His sacrifice on
the cross. It is for His sake that the Gospel of God’s
mercy and forgiveness can be proclaimed, because He suffered the wrath
that we, the Ninevites, the Jews, the Muslims, and all human beings
deserve on account of our sin and with His blood paid for our
trespasses. God wants us ultimately to hear this good news, but
first we need to hear to hear the bad news given us through God’s
Law, so that we, like the Ninevites, might repent of our sins and then
trust in the Gospel, that God will have mercy upon us and will not
destroy us for the sake of Christ.
This is why Jesus proclaims, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the
Gospel.” The time is fulfilled means that the time had come
when the One whom God had promised in the O.T. to send as the sacrifice
for sins had come. Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
was on the scene, and so the kingdom of God was at hand. God was
setting up His gracious reign in Christ, that those who repent and
believe the Gospel might live under His mercy now and in the age to
come.
And so this is the message that He gave His
disciples to proclaim to the world. He called them to be fishers
of men. They were to catch people with the net of the Gospel and
bring them into God’s kingdom. They were to do this by
proclaiming both God’s Law as well as His Gospel. Like
Jonah, they were to proclaim God’s wrath and threats of
condemnation on account of sin. Repentance happens when
God’s warnings of punishment hit us and we are terrified by His
words of judgment. It causes us to despair of any attempts on our
part to save ourselves, as we realize that we cannot escape His
sentence. With His words of Law God kills us; He brings us to the
point where we acknowledge our wretchedness and helplessness before
Him. But once His Law has had its way with us and brought us to
our knees before Him, its job is finished. Now it’s time
for us to hear the Gospel. God does not leave us in
despair. He points us to His Son, our Savior, who gave Himself
into death under the condemnation of the Law in our place, so that we
might escape.
And this is what the Apostle Paul was called to
proclaim, especially to the Gentiles. When we read about his
conversion in the book of Acts, we see that he himself was a recipient
of the words he proclaimed. As a Pharisee and a persecutor of the
Church, he was on his way to Damascus one day to arrest the Christians
there and bring them bound to Jerusalem, when suddenly a light from
heaven flashed around him. As he fell to the ground the Lord
Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me?” This was a Law experience for Paul. He had to
literally be brought to his knees before the Lord, whom he was
persecuting in persecuting His people, so that like the Ninevites he
might repent of his sin and trust in the Gospel. And shortly
after his Law experience on the road to Damascus came the Gospel
experience, where the Lord gave him his sight back (since he had been
blinded by the light) and he was baptized and given the commission to
carry the Lord’s Name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel. As the Lord had called Jonah, as He had
called His disciples, so He called Paul and gave him the same message
that He Himself had proclaimed: “The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.”
This Epiphany season we celebrate the fact that this
message is for us Gentiles as well as the Jews, and we give thanks to
God that He called people like the Apostle Paul to proclaim the Gospel
about Jesus Christ to us, so that like the Ninevites we also might
repent of our sins and trust in the Gospel. The Lord calls
ministers today and puts in their mouths the same message that He gave
His Apostle to proclaim, that though you deserve God’s punishment
and wrath, Christ has taken that upon Himself for you. God
doesn’t threaten you with His Law, because He hates you and wants
to send you to hell. The Scripture says that He takes no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and
live. And the Apostle Paul writes that God desires that all
people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
It’s out of His love for you that God proclaims His Law to you,
in order to show you your need for the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, you too, can take the message of God’s
Law and His Gospel to those who don’t yet know their
Savior. You, too, even though you are not pastors, apostles, or
prophets, are called to be salt and light in this world. You are
fishers of men, using the net of God’s Word to draw people into
His kingdom. And so the Apostle Paul writes, “Let your
speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how
you ought to answer each person.” And the Apostle Peter
writes, “...always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks
you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” You carry
with you the same Word of God that the prophets and the apostles did,
the same Word that Jesus proclaimed, and it will do what the Father
sends it out to do. It humbled the mighty Ninevites and led them
to repentance. It humbled a Pharisee named Saul and led him who
was once a persecutor of the Church to repentance. And it humbled
you also, who were once lost in your trespasses and sins, and led you
to repentance, so that you might confess your sins and trust in your
Savior, Jesus Christ. This weapon destroys arguments and every
lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, it takes every
thought captive to obey Christ, and it causes the devil to flee.
It kills with the Law, and yet it makes alive with the Gospel, the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes it. It takes
sinful fishermen and turns them into forgiven fishers of men. The
Word does all of this because it’s the Lord’s Word.
He’s the one who does the calling and it’s His message that
He gives us to proclaim. Hear that message again for yourself
today. Repent of your sins, trust in the good news that your sins
are forgiven for Christ’s sake, then armed with the Word of God
and by the power of the Spirit take the message about Jesus with you
into your various vocations, throw out the net, and see what kind of a
catch the Lord brings in. Amen.