A Clear Mission, A Powerful Ministry: Mark 3:7-19

You still know where the gospel of Mark is in your Bible?

It's been a while, right?

We're back in our sermon series on Mark.

We left for a while for Advent, and then we took a three-week journey on our theme for the year: thinking, praying, and living a missional life.

But the Lord is bringing us back to Mark's gospel, and we are in chapter three this morning.

Chapter three, verse seven is where we pick up.

Let's hear the word of God.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon.

When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him, and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him.

For he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

And whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, You are the Son of God.

And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

And he went up to the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him, and he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.

He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee, John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Penargus, that is, Sons of Thunder, Andrew and Philip, and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant word.

Let's pray for the Spirit's work.

Lord, we do thank you for how you trained, discipled, mentored your leaders, knowing full well what they were going to need.

And you know full well what we need this morning.

So awaken our ears.

Give us instructed tongues.

Lord, give us minds that understand, give us hearts that believe what you have put before us this morning.

We pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So as you have printed in the bulletin, you see really two paragraphs.

The first paragraph, we're going to just note what's there, but we're going to focus a bit more on the second paragraph.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea.

Why?

To get away.

The crowds are picking up.

They're after him.

They've heard, and some of them have seen what he can do.

Oh, what he can do.

He can heal the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf.

The paralyzed.

Raise the dead.

Who is this?

Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?

They couldn't get enough of him at this point.

This will draw a crowd.

While his popularity with the crowds is growing, the religious leaders are starting to plan his death.

We see that in the previous text we didn't read today.

You see, what Jesus is doing is upsetting the status quo.

And ever since he came, he's been upsetting the status quo.

Has he changed your world upside down?

That's what he does.

When you get to know the real Jesus, life doesn't go on the same.

If life goes on the same as when you before you met him, you haven't met him.

It's true.

If life just goes on the same before you met him, you still haven't met him.

You may know a lot about him.

You may be learning even more about him.

There's no status quo with Jesus.

A great crowd, not just locals, but Mark gives us the geography.

People are coming to him from over 50 miles away, a hundred miles away.

And it's not like today for us, right?

You can click off 50 miles, 100 miles pretty quickly around here.

Not there.

That took planning, preparation.

That took sacrifice just to be with him.

And they got close.

Mark tells us that the crowds are pressing in on him.

And let's go back to the fall.

Remember where Mark got much of his material?

From whom?

Peter.

An eyewitness.

Crowds are pressing in.

And Jesus says, I'm going to need a boat.

Not to fish, but to teach.

I'm going to need a vote, like a it's going to be my pulpit.

Jesus had a lot of different pulpits.

He knew how to use anything to communicate.

The crowds are pressing in.

Verse 10 tells us that they are falling upon him in order to touch him.

Some fell forward out of a sense of need.

Jesus, I need to get to you because there are things that only you can do for me.

And maybe that's you this morning.

Maybe you're here this morning because you know in your heart you need to get to Jesus.

You've come to the right place.

Others are falling upon him not out of a sense of their need, but under compulsion or even defiance, the evil spirits.

We don't have time to unpack the different understandings of why the demons, when they would see and encounter Jesus, they would cry out, Jesus, Son of God.

Was it because they had no choice?

Was it because they were trying to get some control over him?

I'd be happy to discuss that later with you if you're really interested in discussing that more.

Not everybody who comes to Jesus comes for Jesus.

Some come even today, is then, some come to debate Jesus.

Some come to defy Jesus.

Some come to worship Jesus.

And you know you can do it without understanding, even really, your heart, why you're here.

You may have come this morning to debate Jesus.

Very possible.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

I had an opportunity to counsel a couple yesterday, and they both acknowledged after we had some conversation, no, I'm not a Christian.

I'm not a Christian.

They came to understand that they're not in Christ, as I explained the gospel.

But they became very curious.

And they said, we want to know more.

So we're going to have a call Tuesday night.

They're curious.

They want to know more about Jesus.

But some people come to debate him, to defy him.

Some people you can come to worship to tell him where he needs to stop.

Jesus, you can come this close in my life and no further.

That could be you.

That could be me.

How do we know?

But by the Spirit's work.

Some people come to Jesus for Jesus.

Why are you here today?

Do you know why you're here?

Now let's unpack the second paragraph.

The choosing, verses 13 to 19.

After he got alone with his disciples, and it's as if it was in the inference between the paragraphs, Jesus says to his disciples, Okay, guys, it's time to get away.

It's time to get away.

We're going to get away.

And then Jesus says, I'm going to really get away.

I need time with my father alone.

And he goes up on a mountain.

Why?

To pray.

Luke tells us in the companion gospel, Luke tells us that he went up to pray all night.

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter?

I did in college.

Kids don't do that.

There were occasions where I pulled an all-nighter to make sure I was really ready for the exam.

Jesus pulled an all-nighter to pray.

To pray for whom?

For what?

He knew that this was a key, decisive moment in his ministry.

Who will I pick?

And some of us armchair theologians who don't really understand would say, oh, he knew.

He knew everything.

Well, he was also, he accepted some limitations with his divine, with his human nature.

You think if he knew everything?

Do you think if he just it was that clear every day?

Why would you, how do you explain his prayer life if you think that's true?

He was the most dependent person who ever lived.

And he was a son of God.

Father, I need to know.

I need to know who you're calling to me.

I need to know who to call.

I need the right gospel team.

And he prayed all night.

How much do you pray for the officers of this church?

I don't mean that as a jab, but it's an honest question.

I think it's a fair question.

How much prayer do you pray before we elect elders and deacons?

I'm gonna let that sit for a minute.

Well, I think about it.

I write down a I'll maybe nominate somebody.

Come on.

Tom, pray.

Pray.

This is important.

You are spiritual leaders.

And you may find yourself learning how to pray in a different way.

And that's a good thing.

He appointed the twelve.

We read the names.

There's a lot we don't know about these twelve apostles.

There's a lot we know about the last one.

Why did he choose him?

There was a divine purpose to choose the one who would betray him.

The twelve apostles seem to be replacing the twelve tribes of Israel.

But before he chose him, he spent the night in prayer.

There is no call without a caller.

There is one who prays for you before you ever pray for him.

Did you know that?

Before you ever uttered a prayer to him, for him, he began long before that praying for you.

Man, that gives me hope.

The apostles would become the foundation of God's household.

Paul tells us this in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19 to 22.

Ephesians 2:19–22

In that passage, the apostle Paul tells us that the apostles and the prophets are the foundation of the household of faith.

God's church.

And who's the cornerstone?

Jesus Christ.

But the apostles are the foundation, and along with the prophets.

They were different than us.

We're not technically apostles.

The word apostle means the sent one, the one who was sent by Jesus on a mission.

But what about us?

Did you know that Jesus still calls?

If you care to, turn in your Bibles to John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

There's an amazing message here from Jesus.

Verse 16.

I'm just, you know what I'm taking in right now?

The rustling of the pages of your Bible.

That kind of can get lost.

I mean, I know we can follow it on the this and we can follow it on our phones, but.

I'm serious.

People turning their pages of God's Word.

John 15, verse 16.

John 15:16

Well, go back to 15.

No longer Jesus says, Do I call you servants?

For the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

Listen to it, it's coming.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Jesus is still calling people to himself for salvation, for eternal life.

He's still doing that.

Have you received his call?

Have you responded to his call?

Your life will never be the same when you do.

Is Jesus still calling?

Let's turn over.

Let's hear some more pages for that.

Ephesians chapter one.

Verse three.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us, who's the us?

You, Christian.

Even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through the blood, his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness to come.

Are you having tough times?

When did the father start thinking about you?

Before there was one blade of grass on this earth, before there was one cloud in the sky.

And he didn't think generically.

This was not junk mail that he sent out that just happened to fall on your doorstep.

This is a personal invitation with your name on it.

Man, that's why I love him.

That's why I want to obey him.

He has lavished us with the grace of his son.

He has cleansed us, he has adopted us into his family.

Yes, he chose us before we ever would think about choosing him.

This is part of his plan, all of this.

For us as well as the disciples, the apostles.

Second point, the training.

Look at that little phrase in the second paragraph.

Boy, he packs a punch.

So that they might be with him is why he chose them.

I don't know about you, but I found in my life it's not hard for me to find reasons to be with the people that I love.

It's not hard to find reasons, to make excuses to be with the people that I love.

How about you?

Jesus says to his disciples, who did not go to rabbinical school, they never went to seminary.

He said, I just want you to be with me.

If you're with me, that will be enough.

So let's go.

Let's take long, leisurely walks.

I've had some good conversations on long, leisurely walks, have you?

With people that you love.

And let's just be together.

So we can listen to each other, we can talk to each other.

That's good.

It's good.

This was the focus of our leader's retreat back in November a couple months ago is training, spiritual training.

Our leaders just spent a weekend focusing, thinking, how do I train?

What's the difference between training and teaching?

And I dare say, guess, that most of us are much more familiar in the Christian life with teaching than training.

Teaching is the transmission of concepts, truth, like right now.

What's training?

Training is the transmission of skills.

Training is the how you do what you do for Christ.

This is what Jesus is modeling to his disciples.

How well do we do the basics?

And so at the leadership retreat, on the cover of our retreat, we had a picture of Vince Lombardi.

Now you all know Vince, right?

No.

Yes.

He was a very famous, successful football coach.

His heyday was in the 1960s when he won NFL Championships, Super Bowl.

And on the front cover of our retreat folder, we had a picture of Lombardi holding a football.

Now why?

Every training camp, when the season would begin, at the beginning of every training camp, he would hold up a football and say to everybody, probably 70 or 80 men in that camp.

Gentlemen, those guys that you guys that were with us, the retreat, what?

This is a football.

This is a football.

Like, duh.

These guys were all very successful at the high school level.

They were successful at the college level.

That's why they were invited to training camp to try out for the famous Green Bay Packers.

He understood something that many people don't.

Success in life has a lot more to do with doing the basics well than trying to do the spectacular not so well.

And so they worked day after day.

And they just blocked better than other teams.

They tackled better.

They ran pass routes better.

My brothers and sisters, this is a Bible.

And I don't mean that facetiously.

How well do you know your Bible?

How much time do you spend with him?

This is what it's about.

No, the disciples did not go to seminary.

They didn't go to rabbinical school.

They were simply with Jesus.

And that was enough.

And it's enough today.

I believe.

He chose them so that they could be with him.

There's nothing better than being with Jesus.

It's still true today.

Jesus shows up waiting for us to show up.

Did you know that?

He shows up.

Every day.

Are you going to show up?

Am I going to show up?

Am I going to give him a quick five?

Jesus, it's hard to schedule you in today if you only knew how busy I am, because I live in Washington.

Yeah, okay, big deal.

I have a lot to do.

But I'm going to try to squeeze you in.

Do we even know what we're talking about?

He says, Tom, I hope that you're not trying to just squeeze me in.

Tom, I've got time for you.

I've got a lot of time for you.

Do you have time for me?

Because there's nothing better than to be with him.

He shows up waiting for us to show up.

He still speaks through the Bible and he still listens to us as we pray.

He appointed us.

Do we make space to daily, make daily appointments with him?

Yes, that is a challenge, but I pray that it's more than a challenge.

I pray that the Spirit is speaking to you now.

And the Spirit is saying, This is the Father who called you, who chose you.

This is the Son who died for you.

This is the Spirit who wants to continue to grow you and work in you and point you to Jesus.

Let's make time for him.

When they were with him, just simply with him, all the questions started to pop up.

All right, we know one of them.

The disciples are having this conversation, probably a side conversation.

Do you hear him pray?

He prays differently.

And what do they say to him?

Jesus teaches how to pray.

I don't think that's the only thing they asked him.

That's the only thing that maybe the scriptures record.

They heard him preach.

They watched him preach.

They watched his prayer life closely.

They watched how compassionate and tender and kind he was with people.

Look at him.

He doesn't brush the kids aside.

Look at him.

He takes, he respects people.

Oh, he'll take on.

He'll take on his enemies who are trying to kill him.

He'll call them out.

Don't think that he's weak.

But he's gentle.

He's gentle to all who want him, who come to him.

He's patient.

Surely the elders must have, I mean, the apostles must have just, time and again, like, wow.

It's good to be with Jesus.

We're learning a lot.

From the Chronicles of Narnia.

Remember Lucy, the girl, and Aslan representing Jesus, the lion.

Lucy says, Aslan, you're getting bigger.

After seeing him for not seeing him for a while.

Aslan, that's because you are older, little one.

Lucy, not because you're getting bigger.

Aslan, I'm not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger.

Are you finding Jesus bigger?

Are you finding Jesus more beautiful?

The older you get, the more you grow as a Christian.

That's what he wants to do with us.

Training is how you grow a disciple.

Learning from somebody who is further along the path than you in your prayer life.

Do you have somebody that you're learning how to pray from?

Somebody who's further along in their prayer life.

Are you learning from somebody who knows their Bible better than you?

Hey, don't you dare tell me that there's nobody around here that would do it for you.

All right, I'm going to shoot that one down.

If you've got to raise your hand, raise your hand.

But there's a lot of people in this church.

There's a lot of women and there's a lot of men who would love to come alongside of you and say, let's study the Bible together.

Let's pray together.

You have no idea.

I don't even know how many meetings are going on this week, every week, in what we call triads or quads with men and women, three or four that get together on a regular basis just to study God's word together, to pray together, it's spreading.

It's growing.

If you're looking for someone to come alongside of you to help you grow in your knowledge of Christ, please let one of your leaders know.

One of your elders, one of your deacons know.

We will set you up.

There are so many groups right now, and 16 different fellowship groups around the city that are meeting on a regular basis.

There's women's Bible studies.

There's just discipleship opportunities all around us.

Do you have a mentor in your life?

Paul, who certainly was a mentor to people in the New Testament.

Do you have a Paul?

Do you have a Pauline in your life?

Ladies?

Do you have somebody who's just coming alongside of you and saying, let's just do this together.

Let's study the word together.

Let's pray together.

Let's ask questions to each other.

Let's iron sharpens iron.

Let's do this.

The statistics show that this does not happen very much in very many churches.

Most churches across this land, Christians come in on Sunday morning, they sit for an hour and they leave and they have no further interaction.

That's not right.

That's not right.

About a member of our church, Red McDaniel, Red and Dorothy, his dear wife, are pretty much homebound to a lot of.

He can no longer come to worship with us.

If you've been around for a while, you know the name Red McDaniel.

He was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War.

He was locked in the Hanoi Hilton, they called it, prison camp for six years.

One of the most tortured men in that six-year period.

He's got a book you can read about it.

He tells this story.

When we finally got a Bible, when we finally got our hands on a Bible in that prison camp, after a lot of beatings, interrogation, we had problems because everybody wanted it.

And there was only one Bible to go be passed around.

And so if someone had it and others of us didn't, sometimes we could get upset with that guy.

He was hogging the Bible.

So they had a post, a reading list for the Bible, each man taking a certain time, a certain hour of the day to read the Bible.

If your slot was 2 a.m., you got up at 2 a.m.

If it was 3 a.m., 4 a.m.

5 a.m.

you he said, rarely did a man miss his appointment.

They needed the word of God.

They hungered.

They hungered for the word of God.

They knew they were desperate for God in their life.

I haven't forgotten that.

That they might be with him.

You know the best part of my seminary education?

I went to a good seminary.

It was helpful.

The best part of my seminary education was my year internship, where I got out of seminary.

I'd learned a lot, and I'm thankful for it.

But I needed people to teach me how to do ministry.

And I learned by watching.

And I learned by asking questions.

And I learned by being given opportunities.

It was the best year of my four years.

Do you know we do internships here?

They're not all paid.

Some of them are non-paid.

Some of those internships are being done right now by your elders that I know of.

They're just saying, let's just do this together.

I want to go deeper.

Let's go deeper.

That we can be with him.

When you are with someone who makes you want to be more with him, spend more time with them.

Can I run that back?

You ready this time?

When you are with someone who makes you want to be with him, when you are with someone who makes you want to be more with him, spend more time with them.

That's a great gift in the Christian life.

That's training, that's mentoring, that's discipling.

That's good.

We always, again, as I said earlier, we always want to be with the person that we most love.

We look for reasons to be with that person.

Sharon and I, after 48 years of marriage, still have a lot of date nights.

That's a good night.

We make excuses, reasons to be together.

And I can we can both say honestly, our love for each other has just grown deeper and deeper and deeper.

It's kind of crazy when I think that when I was courting her for three years.

The more we get to know him, to be with him.

So I've got a very short third point.

The sending.

That they might be with him so that he might send them on mission.

As you spend time with him, he will send you where he wants you to go, just like he did the apostles.

But you won't know your assignments if you're not spending time with him.

The more time you spend with him, the more clarity you will have on the assignments he's giving you and the assignments he's not giving you.

The tyranny of the urgent.

You'll become more discriminating on what not to pick up and what to pick up.

That only comes by spending time with him.

Go in his name this week.

Go in his name, go with his authority, go on his mission as his ambassadors, as we have been reminded recently.

The more that we are with him, the more we will accomplish for him.

There's a real problem in the Christian life when we get more excited for what we're going to do for him than what we do with him.

Mission always goes awry when we spend more time, more energy, what we're going to do for him.

That's when it creeps in.

Is this really his mission or my mission?

Is this his agenda or my agenda?

And oftentimes friction comes with that.

Problems creep up.

They don't need to creep up.

The more we spend time with him, the more we will accomplish for him.

That's just the way it works.

Let's go to him now.

Lord Jesus, you trained your apostles.

I thank you that you're still training.

You are still training women and men, boys and girls, and you are calling us to spend time with you.

Father, we have to repent.

We have to repent when we don't schedule you in.

Forgive us.

Lord, how foolish of us when we think that it's more important what we get done for you than the time that we spend with you.

God, change us.

Holy Spirit, change us.

Give us a desire to be with Jesus.

Make Jesus look more and more beautiful to us.

Make the Father look more gracious to us than ever.

You've put us on mission, Lord, for 2025.

We're on your mission.

May we go with your authority, your power, and your name for your kingdom.

We ask in Jesus, Jesus' name.

Amen.