Sermon on Mark 1:14–45: Jesus as the King who calls, restores, teaches, and cleanses
A sermon from Latimer Church on Mark 1:14–45, exploring four ways Jesus brings change to the world.
Summary
This is a solo sermon delivered at Latimer Church, most likely by James de Costobadie (Costa), working through Mark 1:14–45. The sermon addresses the question of when the world will change for the better, arguing that Jesus — as the arriving King — is the definitive answer. Drawing on four episodes from the passage, the preacher argues that Jesus changes the world by calling ordinary people into his kingdom, restoring wholeness to the broken, prioritising the preaching of salvation above even miraculous healing, and cleansing those who are spiritually diseased by sin. The sermon closes with a direct invitation to receive the free gift of salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
When Will God Bring Change to This World?
This morning we are looking at the question: when will God bring change into this world? When will this world change for the better?
I was reading the news just recently and came across an article about a pensioner defrauded at home by a community liaison officer who had gone round to visit and, over a period of a number of months, had helped himself to over $50,000 from her accounts. In another article on the same day, I read that police had conducted a raid in Christchurch and found hundreds of 3D-printed guns with ammunition, just before they made their way into wherever they were going. And then a couple of days later it was confirmed that 2026 has been the year when Youthline, the emergency youth services, has hit a record high, with kids as young as seven reaching out. New Zealand has cemented its place as last among OECD countries for youth mental health.
When is this world going to get better? The world is not the world as it should be, as any of us who are alive know. And the cracks that are in the world so quickly manifest themselves into cracks in our own lives — not just out there in news headlines, but in here, in the lives of people that we live. People suffering from chronic illnesses, or nagging loneliness, or relational fallout, or financial stresses, or a lack of hope, or for some people just a genuine sense of despair at life. Sometimes our own lives tell the tale that all is not right with this world.
No wonder that people dream of a better world. But when they do, says the Bible, it's not actually a dream but more a memory — for God did not create the world the way it is today. He made a good world, a beautiful world, a safe world, a satisfying world, and it's only since we humans rejected him that the whole thing has gone downhill.
So the question is: when is the world going to get better? And this morning, ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to be able to give you a definite answer to that. November the 7th, after the next election. It's all going to change. I've heard it on the news from a range of different politicians — it's all going to get better, you don't need to worry anymore.
Well, last week we saw that Jesus announced that he is the one who will bring real and lasting change. "The time has come," he said in his first sermon — the time for change has come. He is introducing into this world the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is near because Jesus the King has arrived into his world. And this morning, in the passage that was read for us, we see four ways in which Jesus brings change.
First: The King Who Calls People
First of all, he is the King who calls people. That is, Jesus changes lives — and many of us here today can testify to that because he has changed our lives. No one's life is changed more than the person who begins to follow Jesus.
When Jesus speaks about the kingdom of God, he is speaking about the dominion or the rule of God shown in Jesus Christ, where people actively submit to him. That is what the kingdom of God is. It is a spiritual realm in this world, although in the next world it will be physical as well. It would not be true to say that wherever you find love, or wherever you find people being good neighbours, that's the kingdom of God. No — that's just people being loving or good neighbours. The kingdom is to be found where people submit to the rule of Jesus, acknowledging him as their Lord and Saviour.
And it's no surprise that the first thing Jesus did as he introduced the kingdom of God was to call people to follow him. Because if you have a kingdom, what do you need? You need two things. You need a king — the King has arrived — and you also need people, subjects of the King. There's not much fun for a king to rule in glorious isolation. You need people there as well.
And that explains the first section we are looking at. Have a look down at verse 16:
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." And at once they left their nets and followed him.
The kingdom of Jesus is one day going to be made up — the Bible tells us — of an uncountable, innumerable number of people from every tribe and nation. But in keeping with how God has always operated, he begins the kingdom here by choosing just a few people, to show that it is God and God's power that will bring this about, and not the might of any people.
And you see that the first people he chooses are not the educated or the great. He doesn't go straight to the rulers or the judges or the high-flying religious people of the day. He goes to fishermen — ordinary people doing ordinary jobs — to show that it will be God who brings this about. But it also shows that ordinary people are welcome into the kingdom. Jesus sees these fishermen by the sea and invites them to follow him. And if that's true of them back then, it must be true of us today. If anyone is welcome into the kingdom, it's good news, because it means that you and I are being invited in as well. The kingdom is going to be made up of ordinary people. You don't have to have a particular job. You don't have to come from a special background. Jesus here throws the doors open.
And as he does so, there is an urgency to responding. You see that in the invitation. He says, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." In the Old Testament — the first two thirds of the Bible, referring to the time before Jesus came to earth — the image of fishing and of being fishers of men was actually one of judgment. Let me read out Jeremiah 16:16, where God said, "I will send for many fishermen and they will catch people." He is talking about catching people in judgment — catching the nations in judgment. But here Jesus turns it around, so that those he calls will fish for people to fish them out of judgment and into salvation — that is, to bring them into his kingdom with the message of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. This would be the mission for the disciples. Yes, they would learn from Jesus, but as they learned from him they would then go out and speak his message so that others would in turn join them and themselves become fishers of men.
You remember — in fact you don't have to remember because the words are up here on the east side — Jesus in his last recorded words on earth said, "Go and make disciples of all nations." And then he said, "Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." And seeing as one of the things he commanded them is to go and make disciples of all nations, it means that in every generation this is what Christians are to do. This is what has fuelled Christian missionaries across the world.
I'll tell you what kills Christian mission — it's a belief that every religion is the same. When we realise there is one message and only one message that can save people from the judgment of God, it sharpens the focus and sharpens the mind. And Jesus says he is the only way by which God has come into this world as a person. He is the only one who has died for our sins. He is the only one who is able to offer us life with God. And that's why we're praying for the local areas around here, why we're delivering the flyers around here, as well as speaking to our friends and neighbours and colleagues — because we long for others to come to know the good news of Jesus and follow him.
But as these fishermen respond, they do so with urgency. Do you see verse 18? "At once they left their nets and they followed him." It is this urgency of the judgment of God which explains why they give up what they do. At once they leave their nets, because the message is too important. People are under God's judgment. Here is the method of salvation. Therefore, the disciples give up everything to follow Jesus and get the message out.
Again, verse 20: "Without delay, he called them." There's no time for delay because the message is such an urgent one — it is a message of salvation from judgment. And so the people in verse 20 leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and follow him.
This has always been the case — the call of Jesus to follow him is an urgent call. It's not just a kind of offer, not like someone standing in a shop saying, "Oh, do you want to taste my ice cream?" as you sort of walk past. This is a message of life and death. This is a message of eternity — where people spend eternity. That's why it's important. And those who follow Jesus, therefore, need to make him the number one in their life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's famous statement: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." For here is the King calling us to follow him. And when the King calls you to follow him, it's not time to say that other things are more important. It's a time to put to death our own preferences, our own ambitions, our dreams, our rights, our privileges, our comforts, our worldly attachments. Jesus is to come first.
That works itself out in so many different ways for people, but all of them are good ways. When a person begins to follow Jesus, they find that he gets to work on us, changing us from the inside out. And every change is a good change and a change that needed making.
For some people it means a radical change of lifestyle. I've known a couple here at Latimer — an engaged couple who were living together — but they stopped living together when they realised they needed to submit to Christ, and then they got married a few months later and moved in with each other and lived as husband and wife. A radical change of lifestyle.
For others, it might mean a radical change of effort. I heard this week of a lady in her nineties who started attending a prayer meeting for missions overseas each week. I said, "Gosh, why did you do that?" She said, "I can't think of anything more important I could be doing." She's 94.
It may mean a radical change in the use of money. In our culture it's just absolutely embedded that money, once you've paid the bills, is there for our own comfort and pleasure. But once you understand the kingdom, we understand that money is to be invested in the kingdom — that's the priority.
Or, like these people here, for some it may mean even a radical change of job, because making fishers of men is so important that for some people to stay in the job they're in would be to put Jesus and his kingdom second.
One thing it will definitely mean for all of us who follow Jesus is a radical change of mindset, where he comes first and anything else is second, third, or fourth. And I think that's a challenge in Christchurch — the city of ease and comfort. I'm not saying it's easy for anyone in particular or comfortable for any particular person, but as a city it's a very beautiful city. Green parks and lovely views and weather that's always like this — it's just a great place to be. A city of ease and comfort. But when a person follows Jesus, it's death to comfort. Not that we can't enjoy the good things that God has given us — we do so now with thanksgiving — but as we do so there's a priority of following him over our comfort and over our ease.
Second: The King Who Restores Wholeness
The King who calls people. Then secondly, he is the King who restores wholeness.
Jesus now gets to work. Have a look at verse 21:
They went into Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. And just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!" "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
We're told it was a Sabbath day. God had given the Sabbath day to the people of Israel in the Old Testament — a period of 24 hours once a week, from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday — when they were to remember the Lord their God and so were not to do any work. Now allow yourself to imagine a day in the week when you did no work at all. No work — meaning no washing up, no big-scale cooking or anything unless you like doing it. You don't have to do anything. No work. Oh yes please — what's not to like about this? And the purpose of the day was to help people refocus on God, on what he had done for them, how good he is — to get minds and hearts realigned with God. That was what the Sabbath was about.
By Jesus's time the Sabbath was still kept, but the reason for it had been forgotten. So it was just: don't do any work, don't do any work. And what does Jesus therefore do on the Sabbath? He deliberately comes and does some work, to show that this is really what it is about. And what it's about is him bringing wholeness back to this world. Because in the book of Genesis, the Sabbath rest — when God rested — was a state of wholeness. It was like the pieces of the jigsaw were put together perfectly in Genesis chapter one. And so what does Jesus do here? He puts the broken pieces of this world back together as a picture. It's just a slice of what his kingdom will be like.
You notice how the tide of evil just rolls back in front of him. This person comes up with an evil spirit. Jesus says, "Come out of him." And the evil spirit shakes and then he's gone. Jesus putting the broken pieces of the world back together.
The people are amazed by his teaching, because he's teaching about the kingdom of God and that he is the King who has come to introduce it. The people are absolutely flabbergasted. They love to hear it. It's not like anything they've heard before. It was interesting — the other day we had our commissioning service here, and we had the builders and construction workers, people who've been involved in the building. One of them said afterwards, "I've never heard anything like that before." Well, that was what it was like when people first heard Jesus — it was a message of life, of being able to come to know God again for themselves.
Now the story carries on. We're still in the Sabbath day here — it's still the same day. Verse 29: they leave the synagogue. Now there's a smaller number. They go with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. And Simon — he's a good bloke, isn't he? Not every son-in-law would do this. But his mother-in-law, there she is in bed with a fever. We tend to think of fever as a headache or a temperature or something. A fever here means a deathly disease. We don't know what disease it was, but this person — his mother-in-law — is near the end. She's critically ill. They tell Jesus. What does he do? He goes to her, takes her by the hand, and helps her up, restores her. She is back to wholeness. We read that the fever left her and she began to wait on them — so she is instantaneously healed to the extent that she is now able to wait on the people there.
And then when the Sabbath ends, it gets really serious. Verse 32: that evening after sunset, the people now come out and they bring to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. And verse 33: the whole town gathered at the door. Suddenly this is mayhem — there are enormous numbers of people here, bringing to him all of those who were suffering. And Jesus healed many who had various diseases and drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons testify to who he is. Not appropriate. The tide of evil rolls out before him as Jesus puts the broken pieces of this world back together.
There is a lot of evil in our world, isn't there? Sometimes it comes in the systems — systemic problems. Sometimes in powerful individuals. Often it seems overwhelming, not much that we can really do about it. But Jesus is able to push it back almost effortlessly. And one day when Jesus returns and institutes his kingdom in its fullness, there will be no evil and there will be no suffering.
So many people imagine that Jesus is somehow bad news — that in some way, if they get too close to him, or they allow him to get too close to them, he will detract from life, or damage them in some way, or bring them harm, or take away their joy. But here we see that Jesus is the answer to the root of every problem in this world, and that those who come to him benefit only from what he gives to them.
It's amazing what Jesus is able to do. And one day when he returns he will bring the kingdom in its fullness. On that day when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth — not just as a baby, as he did that first time, but as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords — he will introduce his kingdom in its fullness. Our physical ailments, mental health issues, the tiredness that we feel, maybe disabilities that we suffer from, everything that is wrong with this world — and those who suffer the effects of illness and abuse or neglect — everyone who has had their trust in Jesus will be restored to a complete wholeness.
I wonder what it'll be like. Maybe we'll barely know ourselves, the experience will be so wonderful. Maybe we'll look back and think, "How on earth did we get through those short lives on earth?" It felt like they were going on for eternity while we were struggling. But now we are here, stepping into eternity. And there is an answer. We'll realise that Jesus kept us the whole way. And now he has restored us to be the people that we were always designed to be — liberated from our decaying bodies and troubled minds.
Third: The King Who Prioritises Teaching
He is the King who restores wholeness. Then thirdly, he is the King who prioritises teaching.
The very next day we're told it's a very different scene. One evening with all of these people coming, and Jesus heals anyone who needs to be healed. But very early the next day, we're told Jesus gets up. Verse 35: he left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.
Jesus may be the most powerful of all. He may be the authoritative King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But he doesn't grasp that power for himself. It is a derivative power — it is given to him by God, his Father. And all the way through, yes, he has power without limit, authority without limit, but he also has this beautiful humility where he comes and kneels before his Father and prays — no doubt for God's help and God's blessing.
Well, eventually Simon and his companions track him down, and when they find him they explain, "Look, everyone is looking for you." Now this is like a politician's dream — everyone wants you. "Jesus, come do a photo shoot for us. We could get you into the local hospital and you could empty it in about three seconds. Think how many people will come and follow you after this." But Jesus has a very different agenda.
Surprisingly, verse 38, he replies: "Let us go somewhere else, to the nearby villages, so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
Four times in the Gospels, Jesus says why he has come to this earth. On one occasion he says, "I have come not to unite but to divide." On one occasion he says, "I have come to seek and to save the lost." On another occasion, "I have come that people may have life and have it to the full." And here he says, "I must preach, for that is why I have come." For the healings are important, but there is something more important. And that something more important is that people must hear about Jesus. They need to hear about the opportunity that Jesus gives.
And Jesus would say to each one of us this morning that there is an opportunity for you to enter the kingdom of heaven, for you to be put right with God, for you to have your sins taken away, for you to be given forgiveness, for you to be made right with God, that you may have an everlasting hope after this world. It's a real offer. It's a genuine offer. It's a free offer, because he paid the price in his death to give it to us. And Jesus would want us to know that, and wants everyone to know that. That's why he goes somewhere else — to the nearby villages, to preach to them also. People must hear of Jesus, for their eternity is in peril if they don't.
It's sometimes pointed out that one of the worst inventions of the last 150 years has been the camera. The camera? I thought it was great — it gives us pictures of what everyone else is eating on Instagram, and people celebrating the best day of their lives all the time. Sounds fantastic. Yes, well, it does. But the camera also shows us suffering from across the world. It captures that suffering and brings it into our own homes.
One of my earlier memories was seeing pictures of the dreadful famine in Africa and Ethiopia in the 1980s. You may remember that awful situation where little children had misshapen bodies, were dreadfully malnourished, and had no energy to swat away the flies gathering around their faces. It was the famine that inspired the Christmas song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" The camera captures suffering across the world and beams it into our own homes.
The trouble is, you cannot photograph a soul that is going to hell — which is a far worse suffering. And so our minds are taken up with the suffering of this world and we don't see the invisible reality of people after this life being faced with the judgment of God. And this is why the message needs to be taught and heard.
"I have come to preach," says Jesus — to preach the way of salvation, to preach the way to heaven. "It's through me," Jesus says. "I am God in the flesh. If you have seen me, you have seen my Father." He has come to open the doors to heaven. This is the message.
And if he has come to preach, the question for us is: are we coming to listen? Do we come on a Sunday with open ears to listen? When we open the Bible, do we come to listen, to be corrected, to be educated? Or do we come already unable to hear what he's saying because we already know what he's going to say — "Oh, I've already heard that before"? We should come with a hunger in our hearts, with an appetite. We should be ravenous, with a sharpness to see what he is saying in his word.
And for those of us who are here this morning and maybe don't know what brought you here from your point of view — I do, from God's point of view. He wanted you to be here this morning to hear that Jesus is offering you the best news you will ever receive in this life: free salvation. You don't have to do anything to gain it except to receive the gift, to repent and to believe in Jesus.
And when we tell someone about the gospel who has never heard it before, we are therefore getting very close to the heart of Jesus. He wanted to go to the other villages to tell them also. And when we go to places or people who have never heard about Jesus — even if they're in the next-door street to us — we're getting very close to Jesus's heart.
Fourth: The King Who Cleanses the Disease
He is the King who prioritises teaching. And then fourthly, he is the King who cleanses the disease.
Jesus has just refused to meet with more people. He turns and preaches in the synagogues and in the areas around. And then this one man comes to him. We're told in verse 40 that the man had leprosy — the scourge of the ancient world, desperately painful. And prescribed in the law, so that those who had leprosy were declared to be unclean, were outcasts, not able to go to the temple to meet with God, and not able to mix with other people. A social outcast.
And this man comes to Jesus. He falls down on his knees before Jesus and he begs him, saying, "Jesus, if you are willing — if you are willing — you can make me clean."
And it's as if time for a moment is suspended. What will Jesus do? He has just turned people away. And this one person comes forward. "If you're willing" — is Jesus willing?
And the next thing we read, verse 41: filled with compassion. Because that is what Jesus is like. Yes, a King with power, but also the King with unlimited, overflowing compassion. That's what he's like. And he reaches out his hand and touches the man — touches his leprosy. "I am willing," he says. "Be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
Jesus is compassionate because he understands what it is to be an outcast, and he understands what it is to suffer in this world. And he cleanses the leper.
At the height of the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, people were dying and there was a great fear of people who had AIDS and were suffering from AIDS. And then Princess Diana visited an HIV hospice — an AIDS hospice — and there is very famous photography of her reaching out her hand with no glove on, no protection. She came, reached out her hand, and shook the hand of people suffering with AIDS. And it changed the perception of those people. It was an act of great compassion.
Well, here Jesus shows that same compassion — but he is also able to do something she couldn't do: actually cure them of the disease. And to that end, it's a vivid picture of what Jesus offers to each of us. Because we are the diseased. Like this person here who had leprosy, as Jesus touches him, it's as if Jesus's righteousness goes into him and the leprosy leaves him. That is, Jesus cleanses him. That's a picture of what he has come to do for each and every person. He cleanses us.
Naturally, we need to be cleansed. We're diseased with our sin, and that sticks to us, and in the end it will kill us. It's fatal because of God's judgment upon us. But when we come to Jesus, we find that he is willing to take our sins from us — in fact, far more willing than we are to ask him to do so.
Here is the cleansing that he offers. You know when you feel dirty on the inside — you know you've done wrong, your conscience is not right — he cleanses our conscience. He washes us clean on the inside, gives us a spiritual bath, so that we are pure and spotless before the living God.
I wonder if you can see the goodness that he is offering to bring. And if you're a Christian, I wonder if you rejoice in that goodness more now than you ever have done before. Can you see who Jesus is — that he is the King who offers forgiveness and cleansing?
Many can't see. And that's why I think Jesus says this here. Verse 43: he sends him away with a strong warning. "See that you don't go and tell this to anyone" — otherwise there are going to be enormous numbers of people coming back to Jesus — "but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
It's really a testimony against the priests. He's saying: you go to the priests, and the priests will declare you now clean, because that's what you are. But even now, the priests will not acknowledge it was Jesus who made it so. So go to the priests and act as a testimony against them.
Can you see who Jesus is? The priests and the religious people almost unfailingly could not see. But to those who can, cleansing is ours.
Conclusion: The King Who Has Come to Disturb and Restore
Here is the King. Everywhere he goes, his message is that the kingdom of God is breaking in. And this kingdom — it disturbs us. It disturbs this world. It cuts into our ease and comfort, cuts into our lives. That's what Jesus has the right to do. He is the King of Kings, and he has come to put the broken pieces of this world back together.
Do you think his kingdom is a good place to be? It is the best place to be, because he is the best person to know. Here is Jesus, unfiltered, in Mark chapter one — powerful, pure, prayerful, and personal. He is the King who has come to disturb us in our comfort, who has come to bring the change that we long to see. He calls people, restores people, teaches people, cleanses people.
Next week, when we come to the guest service, we'll have a look at Mark chapter two and the healing of the paralytic — where we see a man who comes to understand that his greatest need is not what he thought it was, and Jesus is not who he thought he was, and that Jesus is able to more than meet that need.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you saw our need and more than met it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that he has come into this world to bring your kingdom, and we pray that you would help each of us to submit to him as the King in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.