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The Authority of Jesus Christ
(Mark 1:12–20)

Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him. Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him. (1:12–20)

The glories of the Lord Jesus Christ are inexhaustible. The fullness of His majesty and the wonder of His person cannot be conceived or contained. Every comprehensible truth about Him enriches His people profoundly, so that they long for more. While His human history is the subject of the four Gospels, the eternal Son is the theme of the entire Bible. Each gospel record is unique, reflecting the perspective and purpose of each inspired author, so the four Gospels present a perfectly harmonious, historically accurate, and Holy Spirit–revealed portrait of Jesus.

In keeping with his condensed, fast-paced style, Mark leaves the account of Jesus’ birth to Matthew and Luke, and begins his gospel by focusing attention on the ministry of Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist (1:2–8). Mark does not linger there. His brief survey of John’s ministry quickly shifts to the divine One of whom John preached. When the time came to be revealed to Israel, Jesus left Nazareth and came to the Jordan River. There He was baptized by John (1:9–11)—the event that constituted His divine coronation ceremony and the inauguration of His public ministry.

In the verses that follow (1:12–20), Mark continues His rapid pace. Appropriately, the word immediately occurs three times in these nine verses. Whereas Matthew and Luke each provide a detailed account of Jesus’ temptation, Mark’s brief record is stated in two verses (vv. 12–13). He subsequently skips Jesus’ initial ministry in Judea (recorded in John 2:13–4:2), along with His travels through Samaria (John 4:3–42), reentering the story with His arrival in Galilee (vv. 14–15). In verses 16–20, with seemingly no connection to the preceding verses, Mark advances to describe Jesus’ calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Once again, the staccato nature of Mark’s gospel is evidenced in the brevity of these vignettes. Why does Mark take this condensed approach—moving quickly from one short snippet to the next? Why does he put them together in this way?

The answer goes back to verse 1, where Mark announced that his account was a royal proclamation (or “gospel”) of Jesus Christ, the messianic King and the Son of God. It is Mark’s tight purpose that keeps his narrative streamlined. In order to move to the main part of the story, Mark proceeds quickly to those details that will clearly establish Jesus Christ’s royal credentials. The vignettes Mark selected in these opening verses are not a random assortment of disconnected details but thoughtfully connected events that collectively demonstrate that Jesus is the messianic King. Mark’s sequence is designed to show that Jesus was not only preceded by a royal herald (1:2–8), but like any ancient monarch would be, He was crowned and commissioned as a king with one major point of distinction: in His case, He was crowned by God Himself (vv. 9–11)—something no other king could claim. After His baptism, Jesus demonstrated His royal authority over all evil forces by defeating His archenemy in the wilderness (vv. 12–13). Then He exercised His sovereignty by preaching His kingdom message of salvation from sin (vv. 14–15). In the final segment, He commanded His servants to follow Him (vv. 16–20).

This emphasis on Jesus’ royal authority provides the common thread through these brief episodes in Mark 1:12–20. The scope of that authority extends to three areas: over Satan and his realm (vv. 12–13), over sin and its dominion (vv. 14–15), and over sinners in their salvation and submission (vv. 16–20). If the new King is to take His rightful throne, He must demonstrate His might and overthrow the usurper. If He is going to conquer the kingdom of sin and free its captives, He must have complete power over evil. If He is to rescue lost people, He must have the prerogative and power to transform them into His righteous servants, so that through them He may advance His kingdom truth and power to the world. Clearly, that kind of authority—over Satan, sin, and sinners—is not only royal, it is divine.

JESUS’ KINGDOM MIGHT: HIS AUTHORITY OVER SATAN

Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him. (1:12–13)

In all three Synoptic Gospels, the account of Jesus’ temptation directly follows His baptism. The two events stand in stark contrast. Having received the royal accolades of heaven, Jesus immediately faced the fierce assaults of hell. His coronation by the Spirit and confirmation from the Father are followed straightaway by His confrontation with the devil. Given the majesty of His baptism, readers might expect a glorious celebration complete with angelic choirs and resounding doxologies. Instead, they are flung into the desert with hardly a moment to catch their breath. There is no time to relish the joy and glory of the baptism. Mark’s description does not even include a transition sentence: Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.

One of the paradoxes visible through Jesus’ earthly ministry, all the way to the cross, was that He came to earth not only as the messianic King but also as the Suffering Slave. As King, He was exalted and glorified, a point majestically illustrated at His baptism. As the Suffering Slave, He was demeaned and mistreated, a reality vividly demonstrated during His temptation. The most exalted One was also the most humiliated One. The juxtaposition of Jesus’ baptism with His temptation manifested those contrasting realities early. The final contrast would come at His death where He was numbered as a criminal while a sign declaring Him to be King hung over His bloody head.

The Spirit here is the Holy Spirit. According to Luke 4:1, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.” Being filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus fully submitted Himself to the Spirit’s control. The third member of the Trinity was the power behind all that Jesus did (cf. Luke 4:14, 18). The word impelled (ekballō in Greek) is a forceful word, meaning “to drive out” or “to compel one to depart.” The verb fits Mark’s dramatic style and certainly does not imply that Jesus was resistant to the Spirit’s leading. Rather, it underscores the reality that the Spirit was in control—perfectly leading Jesus to fulfill each element of the Father’s plan.

Mark does not reveal the reason why the Holy Spirit impelled Him to go into the wilderness, but Matthew 4:1 does: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Within God’s purposes, it was necessary for Jesus to be tempted by Satan himself—to confront the devil in face-to-face combat and defeat him. The Greek word for “tempted” (peirazō) is a morally neutral term that simply means “to test.” The testing can be either good or evil depending on the intention of the one devising the test. Because Satan is the one doing the testing in this instance, peirazō is rightly translated by the English word “tempt.”

Although the Spirit led Jesus to the place where He would be tempted, it is important to note that God is never the tempter. James 1:13 is clear that God cannot tempt anyone. God allowed His Son to be tested for the sole purpose that through His victory Jesus might demonstrate His absolute power and authority over the devil’s devices. Christ’s temptation then did not happen by the will of Satan. In the will of God, it was another way to authenticate the Son.

The stakes could not have been higher, especially following His messianic coronation ceremony. Would He, as the divinely commissioned King, be able to meet and conquer His archenemy? Could He endure the most alluring assaults the devil could devise? He would never be able to establish His kingdom if He were unable to overthrow the usurper. It was His royal duty to crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15), “to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), and to depose the illegitimate “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). But would He be able to do that decisively when, after fasting for forty days, He was physically weak, emotionally drained, and completely isolated?

The setting for Jesus’ temptation was the wilderness—a place of desolation where He was removed from people and provision. In a very short period of time, His circumstances had dramatically changed. He had gone from the elevated experience of His coronation, among the massive crowds that surrounded John the Baptist, to utter isolation. At the Jordan River, the Father commended Him, the Spirit descended upon Him, and John the Baptist declared Him to be the Messiah. His public ministry had been supernaturally inaugurated from heaven. After waiting for thirty years, He had been commissioned to commence His earthly mission. At that highest moment, the Holy Spirit drove Him into the desert to face a severe, supernatural assault from hell.

The Judean wilderness is an arid, inhospitable desert that stretches west from the Dead Sea toward Jerusalem, encompassing an area roughly thirty-five miles long and fifteen miles wide. The dusty, desolate, and dangerous landscape is broken up by rocky peaks, craggy cliffs, and plunging ravines. The first Adam—tempted by Satan in the garden of Eden, a lush paradise where everything was good—succumbed to sinful temptation despite being innocent and dwelling in a perfect environment. The second Adam, perfectly holy, faced the devil in the middle of a foreboding wasteland—a place utterly unlike Eden. It was there, in the parched heat of a barren desert, that Jesus found Himself all alone and weakened by fasting, accompanied by the fiery serpents and scorpions that lived there (cf. Deut. 8:15). Mark’s explanation that He was with the wild beasts emphasizes the reality that He was completely isolated from human care. Such untamed animals may have included leopards, foxes, jackals, and wild pigs.

Mark summarized Christ’s encounter with the devil in one succinct phrase: And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan. Both Matthew and Luke indicate that Jesus went the entire forty-day period without food (Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2). Jesus’ fast was not the first forty-day fast recorded in Scripture; both Moses (Ex. 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) went without food for that long. Interestingly, it was those same two Old Testament saints who later met with Jesus at His transfiguration (Matt. 17:3).

Nearly six weeks without eating creates a desperate condition, especially in the location where Jesus was moving. His physical state would have begun to rapidly deteriorate after just two weeks, so that His strength was undoubtedly gone long before the temptation reached its final assault. Yet, as the royal and divine Son, He had to face and conquer His strongest enemy even when He was at His weakest. Mark’s description of Jesus’ temptation implies that the Lord was being tempted by Satan throughout the entire six-week period—a time of testing that climaxed in the final temptation recorded in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

The three episodes recounted by Matthew and Luke indicate that Satan primarily attacked Jesus in His role as the Suffering Servant. The devil did not entice Jesus to give up His sovereign prerogative. Rather, he urged Jesus to exercise the power and privilege inherent in His divine status and thus abandon the humiliation of His incarnation. When Jesus was hungry, Satan asked Him to exercise His sovereign power and create bread (Matt. 4:3–4; Luke 4:3–4). After Jesus resisted, the devil took Him to a high mountain and offered Him dominion over all the nations of the world (Matt. 4:8–10; Luke 4:5–8). Again, Jesus rejected Satan’s ploy. Finally, the devil brought Him to the pinnacle of the temple, urging Jesus to give a public demonstration of His messiahship by leaping off the edge (Matt. 4:5–7; Luke 4:9–12). Once more, Jesus refused. In the face of each attack, the King responded with Scripture from Deuteronomy.

In each case, Satan attempted to persuade Christ to abandon His humiliation—to exercise His divine right apart from the Spirit’s empowerment and outside of the Father’s will. To do so would have undermined God’s saving purposes. The success of Jesus’ earthly mission depended upon His humiliation, ultimately leading to the cross. As Paul told the Philippians, Jesus “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). If Jesus had abandoned His humiliation and disobeyed the Father’s will, He would have demonstrated Himself to be an imposter, another false messiah, who could never have gone to Calvary to die as God’s Lamb. The hope of redemption would have ended in failure and defeat. On the other hand, Christ’s victory led to the salvation of the elect and His ultimate exaltation (Phil. 2:9–10).

It must be understood that this was not a unique, even singular experience of temptation for Jesus. Hebrews 4:15 explains that He was “tempted in all things [or at all points in His life] as we are, yet without sin.” From childhood on, He faced the same enticements to sin that every human being experiences. Nor would this be the last time that He would be tempted. In Luke 22:28, Jesus told His disciples that they were those who “have continued with me in my temptations” (KJV). He was again assaulted in the garden of Gethsemane as He anticipated the cross (Luke 22:53). But He was never tempted so intensely over such an extended period of time as He was in the wilderness. This was Satan’s major attempt to cause Him to sin and be discredited as Messiah and Savior.

If the new King was to be triumphant, He had to demonstrate His victory over the devil at his most clever and opportune effort. He could not claim absolute and complete power over sin itself if He did not demonstrate personal power in defeating Satan. His call to deliver sinners would have been meaningless, if He Himself had not been able to quench the fiery darts of the evil one. Hence, His public ministry began by directly confronting the most powerful demon ruler who opposes God and all His purposes.

All the Son of God had known from eternity was infinite honor, power, and divine privilege. Here, as a man at the moment of His greatest weakness, He was urged by Satan to claim what was rightfully His as the Son of God, but in a way that was contrary to the Father’s plan. Would Jesus withstand such intense temptations? Would He endure the test, claim victory over the devil’s seductive schemes, and thus demonstrate His deity?

Mark’s concluding phrase and the angels were ministering to Him implies what Matthew and Luke state explicitly—that, indeed, Jesus triumphed over all the temptation Satan brought, emerging victorious from His forty-day isolation in the wilderness. The word ministering (diakoneō) indicates that these angels provided Jesus with food. But the angels also ministered to Him by their very presence, which served as confirmation that the Father who sent them was still well pleased with His Son.

Jesus’ subsequent life and ministry prove His divine holiness beyond argument. It was here, during His temptation in the wilderness, that His holiness was assaulted most acutely and relentlessly. It was not until after “the devil had finished every temptation, [that] he left Him” (Luke 4:13) and the angels arrived. Jesus had entered the wilderness as the newly commissioned King. He left as the conquering Monarch. Jesus continued to overpower Satan and demons throughout His ministry.

JESUS’ KINGDOM MESSAGE: HIS AUTHORITY OVER SIN

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (1:14–15)

Mark followed his brief description of Christ’s temptation with an equally terse introduction to Jesus’ preaching ministry. At least six months had passed since Jesus’ baptism. He had been in Judea, ministering there and even cleansing the temple (cf. John 2:13–4:3). Mark bypassed those events, along with Jesus’ journey through Samaria (John 4:4–42), to focus on the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee. Mark picks up the history after John had been taken into custody, an event he will describe in more detail in 6:17. It was after John the Baptist’s arrest that Jesus began His public preaching and miracle working in Galilee. Prior to that, John was still baptizing in the Jordan and Jesus was ministering in Judea, so their two ministries overlapped (cf. John 3:24). After John’s arrest, Jesus returned to Galilee for extensive ministry there (cf. Matt. 4:12).

Galilee was the northern region of the land of Israel. From a first-century Jewish perspective, it was regarded as the outskirts, located far from the religious center of Jerusalem. The fact that Jesus launched His ministry in full power in Galilee was in itself a rebuke to the apostasy and corruption that existed in Jerusalem at that time.

When Jesus came into Galilee, He was preaching the gospel of God. Traveling from town to town, from synagogue to synagogue, and in the countryside, Jesus preached the truth of God’s good news about Himself and His kingdom of salvation (cf. Luke 4:14–30). The Father’s method of reaching the world in the first century was through the preaching (or proclamation) of the gospel, first by the Lord Jesus. In the modern age, preaching is still the means that God has ordained, as faithful spokesmen herald kingdom truth. Contemporary ministers have the same divine message to proclaim, and faithful ministry always articulates that message clearly and exclusively. The gospel of God (a common New Testament term—Rom. 1:1; 15:16; 2 Cor. 11:7; 1 Thess. 2:2, 8–9; 1 Peter 4:17) refers to the truth that comes from God Himself to the world concerning the salvation from sin and judgment available only through Jesus Christ.

As in 1:1, the term gospel carries with it the idea of royal pronouncement: the arrival of a king and his kingdom. Jesus’ gospel proclamation was no exception. Thus, He was saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Christ offered His hearers a place in His eternal kingdom of salvation, the sphere of forgiveness and redemption, if they would repent of their sin and believe in Him as Lord and Savior. The clarity and simplicity of Jesus’ message stands as an example for all who would seek to preach and teach faithfully today. Preachers are not called to analyze the culture, give politically charged speeches, or design new gimmicks for persuading the audience. Rather, they are called to proclaim the same message that Jesus Himself preached: the good news of eternal salvation that comes from God.

Christ’s announcement that the time is fulfilled indicated that His coming marked the turning point of salvation history. The word time is kairos. It does not refer to clock time or calendar time (like the Greek word chronos does) but speaks of the fixed point in history for an event to occur. As Paul explained in Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son” (cf. Eph. 1:10). Jesus’ ministry took place according to God’s sovereign timetable. This was the hour for which the world had long been waiting; it was the most significant moment in earth’s history. The Savior had arrived to pay in full the penalty for sin and thus provide salvation for all the elect—from the beginning of history to the end.

This was God’s great epochal moment. The promises of the Old Testament regarding Messiah and His kingdom of salvation were about to be realized. Christ had come not only to conquer Satan but to destroy sin itself, and its consequences for His people. The new King had come in order to initiate His kingdom. The message was unmistakable: the kingdom of God is at hand. In essence Jesus was saying, “Because I am the King, wherever I am My kingdom is present.”

The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed ought to be understood in three dimensions: as a spiritual kingdom, a millennial kingdom, and an eternal kingdom. Though it is invisible and spiritual in the present, it will one day be manifest as a physical, earthly kingdom. In His first coming, the King preached the good news of salvation. Consequently, He established His spiritual kingdom in the hearts of all who believe (Luke 17:21). Christ’s kingdom is being advanced even now, as sinners come to saving faith in Him and are transferred out of the domain of darkness, and into the realm ruled by the Son of God (Col. 1:13). To follow Jesus Christ is to seek the expression and honor of His kingdom and His righteousness. Such is the spiritual and invisible sense of the kingdom.

At His second coming, the King will establish His kingdom in a visible and temporal way here on the earth. According to Revelation 20:1–6, that kingdom will last for a thousand years. During that time, all of the millennial promises of the Old Testament will be literally fulfilled. Jesus Christ will reign as the King in Jerusalem, and the entire world will be under His rule. After the millennial kingdom, God will inaugurate the final eternal kingdom by creating a new heaven and a new earth, where the triune God will reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:1–5).

In the present, the kingdom consists of all who embrace Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The King rules over and is resident in the hearts of those who belong to Him. His kingdom advances one soul at a time. It will continue until He returns to establish His earthly reign followed by His eternal reign.

How does a subject of Satan escape that tyrant and enter Christ’s kingdom? Jesus’ answer is simple and straightforward: repent and believe in the gospel. The word repent (metanoeō) means to turn to the opposite way. Having turned from their sin and unbelief, sinners must believe in the gospel—meaning they turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Him and His finished work of redemption from sin and victory over death. As Paul explained in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” That kind of belief is not a nebulous faith but a wholehearted embrace of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Having conclusively demonstrated His authority over Satan in the wilderness, and anticipating His final victory over Satan at the cross, Jesus proclaimed the message of deliverance from sin for all who would believe in Him. The whole world has been given an invitation to enter the kingdom of God from the King Himself.

JESUS’ KINGDOM MEANS: HIS AUTHORITY OVER SINNERS

As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him. (1:16–20)

Jesus displayed His authority over Satan in the wilderness and declared His authority over sin in the gospel. Here Mark shows that Christ demonstrated and delegated that authority through the people whom He transformed and empowered for use in His kingdom.

One day, as Jesus was going along the shore by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon. Jesus already knew these men. According to John 1:35–42, Andrew was with John the Baptist when John pointed to Jesus and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36). After spending the day with Jesus, Andrew went and found his brother Simon Peter, who also came to see the Lord (vv. 40–42). Though several months had passed from that introductory meeting, Jesus pursued these brothers to call them to abandon their mundane work and follow Him to share His eternal work.

The Sea of Galilee is really a large, freshwater lake—sitting approximately 690 feet below sea level and measuring thirteen miles long and seven miles wide at its most expansive points. In the Old Testament, it was known as the Sea of Chinnereth (or Genneseret in Greek), a form of the Hebrew word kinnor that means “harp” or “lyre” (cf. Num. 34:11; Josh. 13:27). The name was fitting because the lake is roughly shaped like a harp. It also became known as the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; 21:1), because the city of Tiberias (founded by Herod Antipas c. A.D. 18) was located on its western shore. That was the name preferred by those influenced by loyalty to the Roman emperor (Tiberius) after whom the city was named.

It was there that Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. Evidently, after John’s imprisonment, they resumed their normal lives as fishermen. The net used was likely large and circular, up to twenty feet in diameter, with weights positioned around the perimeter. As experienced fishermen, they would throw the net so that it unfolded in the air, landing flat on the water’s surface. As the edges began to sink to the bottom, the net would capture whatever fish were swimming underneath. The fishermen would then dive into the water, where they would pull the bottom of the net closed, using a rope that also ran through the perimeter. The loaded net was subsequently affixed to the boat so that the fish could be hauled back to shore (cf. John 21:8).

The lake supported a thriving fishing industry. Ancient sources indicate that it was accessed from at least sixteen harbors, with hundreds of fishing boats. Since fish was the predominant meat in the Mediterranean world, the fishing industry was big business. All indications suggest that Simon and Andrew ran a successful catching operation—in partnership with James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother (Luke 5:10). They were prominent men, not poor day laborers. Simon Peter, for example, owned his own home in the city of Capernaum (Luke 4:38), and John was well-known to the high priest (John 18:15).

When He found Simon and Andrew along the shore, Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Jesus’ statement was a command, not a request. Unlike the rabbis, who instructed the people to follow their legalistic traditions, Jesus commanded these Galilean fishermen to follow Him. And He did so with ultimate authority, a power that no scribe or Pharisee possessed (cf. Mark 1:22). The implications of His command were extreme and unmistakable: Abandon everything, including your careers as fishermen, and follow Me. It was a unique, nonnegotiable, all-encompassing mandate from the King to His first chosen subjects. The Lord would later echo that same kind of call in spiritual terms to all who come to Him. He said in Mark 8:34: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” That first call to the disciples was an illustration of the comprehensive call our Lord gives to all who would enter His kingdom—not the abandonment of an earthly career but of all other masters.

Jesus promised that He would make them become fishers of men, an analogy they would have immediately understood. Instead of casting nets for fish, they would be trained to preach the gospel for the purpose of gathering in sinners. They would be prepared by Jesus Himself to become heralds of the kingdom through the proclamation of God’s gospel. With this command, Jesus established the means by which His kingdom would advance. He uses transformed sinners whom He sovereignly identifies and summons. Such absolute authority behind such a summons belongs only to the messianic King, who possesses the divine right to demand and gain that kind of allegiance. Remarkably, immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Though these rugged fishermen were hardly pushovers, there was no resistance or hesitation on their part. They immediately dropped everything to follow Jesus. Their response demonstrates both the Lord’s authority and the power that moves in those He calls to respond.

The scene is essentially repeated in verses 19–20, where Jesus called and empowered two more disciples to follow Him: Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him. The sons of Zebedee were anything but milksops. In fact, they would earn the nickname “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). On one occasion, they angrily suggested calling down fire from heaven to destroy a village that had refused to welcome them (Luke 9:54). Standing farther down the shore, these fiery siblings were busy mending the nets, a critical part of repairing the fishing gear for the next trip out. Their father Zebedee and his hired servants were there too, all working as part of the larger fishing operation. Yet, in an instant, the “Sons of Thunder” were compelled to leave everything and everyone to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

That kind of amazing obedience would be repeated with the rest of the disciples too—like Levi, who simply walked away from his tax collection booth to follow Jesus (Mark 2:14). Their response may seem shocking from a human perspective. From the divine standpoint, it is not at all surprising. As Jesus explained to His disciples in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Clearly, the scope of Jesus’ authority encompassed the disciples whom He called to follow Him. It was through those regenerated and transformed sinners, and their proclamation of the gospel, that Jesus would advance His kingdom purposes (cf. Matt. 28:18–20).

The Lord’s power over sin and Satan is still demonstrated today—every time an unredeemed heart is given life and set free from Satan’s dominion and sin’s power and penalty (cf. Eph. 2:1–4). Having rescued believers from sin, the King employs them in His service, empowering them through His Spirit to be instruments for the advance of His kingdom. All of this takes place under the authority of His sovereign prerogative (Eph. 1:18–23). The One who defeated Satan, both in the wilderness and at the cross; the One who declared victory over sin, through the proclamation of the gospel; and the One who continually demonstrates His power in the lives of those whom He saves and empowers—He alone is the messianic King. All rule, authority, power, and dominion belong to Him (Eph. 1:21).

For those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no greater joy than seeing His kingdom advanced through the faithful proclamation of His gospel. The promise He made to Andrew and Peter on the shores of the Sea of Galilee still applies to all who are willing to unwaveringly proclaim His message: Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men. In a sermon on that subject, the renowned nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon encouraged his hearers with these words:

Later in that same sermon, Spurgeon balanced his words of encouragement with some apt words of warning.