Mark 1:14-20 Follow Me!
Take time every day to communicate with God through prayer and Bible study.
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: December 27, 2017 Mark 1:14-20
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now after John had been arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and proclaimed the gospel about the kingdom of God.
(Understanding the Passage) God’s timing is always impeccable but not always clear to the ones experiencing it. In this case, John needed to leave the stage so that Jesus could be the focus. Even though John himself had testified that Jesus was the Messiah and John had humbly pointed to Jesus, if John had stayed on the stage, Satan would have used the situation to confuse people and keep them from believing in the Messiah. John’s arrest stopped people from focusing on him and brought their focus onto Jesus. This might seem like God is cruel, except for three things. First of all, the arrest was made by a man under Satan’s control and thus it did not come from God, but from Satan. Second, John had showed and stated his willingness to serve God wherever He sent him. Third, death is not the end that we think of it. God thinks of death differently. John had served God well and was now needed in prison to witness to Herod’s court and to demonstrate that even in persecution, Jesus’ followers would still be loyal to the Father. Thus, James was not exactly the first martyr for Jesus, John would be. As he was the first to lead people to Jesus, he was also the first to give Jesus’ disciples an example of how to handle persecution. I wonder if it is significant that the same man who would imprison and kill John was the first to kill one of Jesus’ disciples-James. Is it significant that James, John, and Peter were all John the Baptist’s disciples before they became Jesus’ disciples? Herod killed the disciple John’s beloved first teacher, John the Baptist, and the disciple John’s beloved brother, James, yet John was the disciple who preached love, not revolution, which was a decided change from when he was nicknamed one of the sons of thunder.
He said, “The time is now! The kingdom of God is near! Repent, and keep believing the gospel!”
(Understanding the Passage) Jesus’ message was that the time had come. It was not in the future. It was now! He told them that the kingdom of God was near and so they needed to repent and keep believing. That is still the message for today. Jesus’ second coming is near, so what do we need to do? Repent which, as a friend of mine pointed out to me, is not feeling bad about our sins, but instead, it is turning away from sin. Jesus’ second message to us is to not give up our faith in Him. We are to keep believing in His message, keep believing in Him.
While Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were throwing a net into the sea because they were fishermen. Jesus told them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishermen of people!” So immediately they left their nets and followed him.
(Understanding the Passage) First there is the title-this is about Jesus. Then, there is the introduction about John the Baptist to pave the way for Jesus’ baptism and temptation. Then, there is a statement that Jesus had been preaching for a little while before calling His disciples. Now Peter immediately follows at his own calling by Jesus. If Mark is just retelling the stories that he had previously heard from Peter, then this is Peter’s testimony of how he first started following Jesus. He and his brother Andrew were throwing a net into the sea. Why? Because they were fishermen, of course. Peter’s thinking is always direct and related to the events that he is experiencing rather than the details and thoughts behind the experience. Jesus was walking beside the sea coming toward them. When He came to them, He gave them their calling to be his disciples. He called them to follow Him. Both men had been with Him before as interested observers, but they knew that this was a rabbi calling for apprentices. They both immediately went with Him not stopping to put things away. They both knew that when a prophet called, the apprentices were to go with Him immediately. They would have known of Elisha’s calling. “Elijah left there and located Shaphat’s son Elisha, who was plowing, along with a total of twelve pairs of oxen. (He was plowing with the twelfth pair.) As Elijah passed by, he tossed his cloak at Elisha. He abandoned the oxen, ran off to follow Elijah, and asked him, “Please, let me kiss my mother and father good-bye, and then I’ll come after you.” “Go back again,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha turned back, took the pair of oxen, sacrificed them, boiled their flesh using the farm implements for fuel, and gave the food to the people with him. Then he got up, followed Elijah, and became his servant” (1Ki 19:19-21). Simon and Andrew both believed that Jesus was more than a prophet, so it was even more imperative to follow immediately without question.
Going on a little farther he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat repairing their nets. He immediately called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
(Understanding the Passage) So Jesus walks by Himself along the lakeshore and comes to Simon and Andrew and tells them to follow Him. Then, He walks farther along the shore with Simon and Andrew following Him. James and John were in a boat on the lake near the shore sitting down and repairing their nets. Their father Zebedee and some hired men were on the boat also. When James and John looked up and saw Jesus with their partners and friends behind Him, did they immediately know what was happening even before Jesus opened His mouth? Did their heart leap for joy because they were about to be chosen to follow the Messiah as His servants and students? He called them to come with them. Peter does not tell us what Jesus said to them. I think that for Peter, his own calling was all-important but details of others’ callings were irrelevant to him. John does not even mention this calling in his gospel. Instead he focuses on his first meeting with Jesus, but for Peter, the significant event was not the first time he discovered Jesus, but rather the first moment that he knew that he, Peter, was special to Jesus. For Peter, the life changing event was his calling; this was when Peter left his old life behind and became someone else. For John, the life changing event was his discovery of the Messiah. He was younger and for him everything in his life changed when he found the Messiah, Jesus.
James and John, also left immediately. However, this may not have been as much of a shock to their father as it seems here. James and John had probably been bubbling over with their discovery of the Messiah since John the Baptist had first pointed Him out. Salome, their mother, would later become one of Jesus’ patrons. Thus, the whole family believed in Him. Therefore, when the rabbi, the Messiah himself, came to Zebedee’s boat to call not one, but two of his sons, he may have been swelling with pride and grinning ear-to-ear. I can imagine John quickly looking back at his father and exchanging big grins as they quickly nodded goodbye to one another. Then, I can imagine John and James quickly hopping off the boat and following Jesus away. Did they grin and punch shoulders with their partners Simon and Andrew?
(Revelation about God) What did Jesus think as He called them? Was He checking off a mental list of activities He had to do? Did He smile at their enthusiasm? Was He sad as He looked at them and saw their futures of persecution and pain? Or did He feel satisfaction because He knew that these four would serve Him well and be His friends for eternity? Did He think, “I’ve got a lot of work to do to get them ready.” Or did He see beautiful diamonds in the rough? I tend to think the positive. For example, God called David a man after His own heart even though He knew all the really stupid and sinful stuff that David would later do. “but now your kingdom won’t be established. The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as Commander-in-Chief over his people because you didn’t obey that which the LORD commanded you.” (1Sa 13:14). God was pleased with Solomon’s request for wisdom even though He knew that Solomon would later bring apostasy into the kingdom. God’s love is different from human love.
(Application and Prayer) When we love someone, we see the good and bad and sometimes the bad keeps us from celebrating the good. If we know that someone is going to die, we cannot be happy and enjoy the present, but God, while knowing our future failings, celebrates our present triumphs with us. How can You do that? I don’t understand it. I pray to love as you want me to. I pray to please you and see your smile. I pray to love You intensely and passionately.