The Church of Jesus

Well, good morning, church. Would you turn with me to Mark, chapter 3, verses 7 through 19.

Mark 3:7–19

Mark 3, 7 through 19, that's page 787 in the Pew Bible.

As we continue our series in the Gospel of Mark this morning, we come to Mark, chapter 3, verse 7.

Mark 3:7

So let me read our text for us. It'll be on the screens above, too.

Let me read, and then I'll pray for us as we come to God's Word.

Picking up in verse 7.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea 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 spirits 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 on 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, and John, the brother of James,

to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder, Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas,

and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Let's pray together.

Savior, like a shepherd, lead us as we come now to your word.

Help us to hear what your spirit is continuing to say to us through this life-giving message that you've inspired and gifted to us, your church.

Father, our desire is to be who you've created and recreated and redeemed us to be.

So help us now in this time to hear what you are saying, to receive it with faithful hearts.

Oh, Lord, do your work in us as we come to your word, we pray. Amen.

Well, you know, it's easy at first to kind of miss the significance of what's happening here in our passage.

You know, on the first, it sort of looks like Jesus here in Mark 3 is simply being strategic, right?

I mean, the crowds are clearly getting too large for one person to manage.

So Jesus picks a dozen helpers to whom he can delegate some of the responsibility.

Perhaps we're reminded of that passage in the Old Testament in Exodus when Moses is kind of overwhelmed by the responsibility of judging the people and deciding their cases.

He's at it kind of day and night.

So his father-in-law Jethro comes and says,

Moses, you have to find some trustworthy people to help you here or else you're going to wear yourself out.

So Moses takes Jethro's advice and it ends up being a really good idea.

But is that what's really going on here in Mark 3 as the crowds are pressing around Jesus and Jesus appoints the twelve?

Are we merely learning from Jesus the principles of effective delegation?

Or the key to strategic ministry multiplication?

No, there's something much more significant happening here than that.

Consider, after all, what Mark tells us about this great crowd in verses 7 through 8.

They are from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Ijumia and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon.

In other words, nearly everywhere you could find a significant Jewish population in Palestine of the day,

even if it was known to be a Gentile area like Tyre and Sidon.

Wherever there was a significant Jewish population in Palestine of the day,

they were all coming to Jesus.

Last week we saw that some of the Jewish officials had begun turning against Jesus,

but despite the rejection of Jesus that was starting among some of the religious officials,

all of Israel was beginning to gather to him.

And what they found when they gathered was more than just words, but power.

Power over their physical sickness.

Power over their spiritual bondage.

This was no mere religious revival.

This was revolution.

And just as all Israel is gathering to him,

Jesus then goes up on a mountain and appoints 12.

And of course that number is not an accident.

Everyone around Jesus would have picked up on the symbolism.

Every Jew knew that there were 12 tribes in Israel, or at least there had been.

And those 12 tribes corresponded more or less to the 12 sons of Jacob, the patriarch.

Now 10 of those tribes had been lost seven centuries earlier when the Assyrians invaded and carried them off.

But the prophets had spoken of a coming restoration.

And a great many Jews were longing for it.

The time would come, they believed, when their God would turn everything around

and restore his people once again.

And so when Jesus called 12 of his followers apart from the crowds

and gave them a special status and a special commission,

nobody who heard of it could miss what he was doing.

Jesus was saying more clearly than words could have done that

this isn't simply a great healing mission.

This isn't simply a time of spiritual renewal.

This is the restoration we've all been waiting for.

So what is the significance of this passage?

If it's about more than just strategic delegation or ministry multiplication, what is it about?

Well, ultimately, it's about what it means to be the people of God.

The people of God called and created by the very Son of God.

In other words, in appointing the 12, we see in kind of seed form what will be true of the whole church.

The church that would come to include not just Jews, but Gentiles as well,

as our earlier reading in the service made clear.

Now, that's not to say that the 12 didn't have a unique role in redemptive history.

They certainly do.

On one level, what's true of the apostles is utterly unique to them and them alone.

The apostles, both the 12 commissioned during Jesus' ministry

and a select few like Paul after Jesus' resurrection,

think about it, they were personally commissioned by the Lord Jesus

to be his authoritative representatives.

They could teach and preach with his very authority and his very name

in a way no one else could.

Even the miraculous signs that the apostles performed

to verify their message was in many ways unique to them.

You know, this unique role that they had

was why their teaching and writings became what we now call the New Testament.

These apostolic writings still have authority over all the church

because Jesus endowed these particular men by his Holy Spirit

with a unique role in laying the foundation of the church.

So that in listening to the apostles,

we listen to what the Lord Jesus himself desires for his people.

So in that sense, the apostles are unique,

but in another sense, they represent what would be true for the church

throughout its history.

When Jesus came to call and create anew the people of God,

when he came to restore Israel and even bring in the lost Gentiles,

he began with the 12.

And we see in them, even at this earliest stage in Mark 3,

what it means to be the church.

So let's consider together what this passage has to tell us about being the church,

about being the people of God created by the Son of God.

And first, what we see is that the church exists by the call of Jesus.

The church exists by the call of Jesus.

Look again at verse 13.

Jesus went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired,

and they came to him.

Other translations translate this verse to read,

Jesus summoned those whom he willed.

It is the solemn and powerful call of Jesus that creates the church.

Discipleship ultimately begins not with our decision to follow Jesus,

as if we're doing God some favor by becoming Christians and joining his movement, right?

No, it begins when God summons us out of darkness into light.

When the Lord summons us out of spiritual death into everlasting life.

And notice that this call comes from Jesus, but it also leads to him as well.

He's the beginning and the end.

He summoned those whom he desired, and they came to who?

They came to him.

This scene of Jesus on a mountain calling the twelve.

You know, the clearest Old Testament echo isn't Moses and Jethro trying to manage the crowds, right?

The clearest Old Testament echo is of the Lord God on Mount Sinai,

constituting the twelve tribes of Israel formally, covenantally, as his people, his nation.

That's the echo here.

Morna Hooker, the great New Testament scholar,

and her commentary on Mark makes a very interesting observation,

and I'm paraphrasing, but she basically says,

you know, if Jesus had chosen eleven apostles,

then it would have been clear that he saw himself as part of a renewed people of God, right?

But he didn't choose eleven.

He chose twelve.

In other words, Jesus wasn't part of the people.

He was the Lord of the people.

He isn't a new Moses sorting out duties.

He's the sovereign Lord calling the people into their very existence.

So the church then isn't just another social club or non-profit organization.

It's the people called into existence by the word of the sovereign Lord.

So I wonder, friend, have you experienced this call?

As God's word is opened up and read and explained,

as you hear the words of Jesus preserved in Scripture,

proclaimed in the church,

do you hear them not just as human words,

but do you hear in them the divine word,

the divine voice calling you,

summoning you to come to him?

And in response, have you turned and believed in him?

Believe not merely in a set of doctrines,

although sound doctrine is wonderful.

Believe not merely in a code of ethics,

although right living is wonderfully liberating.

Believe not merely in a set of spiritual practices,

but have you entrusted your life to him,

the living Lord,

who calls?

That's where it begins for every Christian.

That's how the church exists at all,

by the call of Christ.

You know, we get our existence not by a common set of interests

or by a joint social agenda

or by a shared religious history.

None of those things are why the church exists.

It exists because Christ calls us into existence.

And he's calling you today.

And if that's true,

if we exist by the call of Jesus,

then certainly how we order our life together,

the purpose, the goal towards which we exist

must also be centered in the word of Christ as well.

And that brings us to our second point.

We see here that the church exists by the call of Jesus,

but second,

we see that the church exists for the mission of Jesus.

The church exists for the mission of Jesus.

Look at verses 14 and 15.

And he appointed 12,

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.

So notice the twofold purpose in these verses.

First, that they might be with him.

And second, that he might send them out.

So first, Jesus wanted the 12

to spend time with him,

to be with him,

because it was in fellowship with him,

in communion with him,

that they would be formed and changed

more and more into who he wanted them to be.

He was going to create them

and make them into something.

And how was that going to happen?

It was going to happen through their fellowship with him,

their presence with him,

because it was there that they would learn

what it meant to be truly human.

As they beheld and as they fellowshiped

and as they communed

with the one who was fully God and fully human,

who was the true human,

the second Adam,

they would learn how to be human again.

But Jesus also had a plan

to send them out.

That's what literally the word apostle means.

It means a sent one,

an emissary.

Their work would not simply be

in beholding him

and communing with him,

but also in joining him

in the work of restoration

and reclamation and renewal.

Theirs would be a mission of liberation,

preaching good news,

casting out demons.

They would be sent by him.

And all of this is true for the church today.

You know, it's not merely some human agenda

that drives the church.

And when the church has fallen captive

to worldly or human agendas,

it's been disastrous.

The church exists for the mission of Jesus.

And today this mission has the same twofold shape,

to be with him and to be sent by him.

The life of the church is both contemplative

and active, right?

It's contemplative.

It's worshipful.

We're meant to enjoy Christ together,

to worship him,

to commune with him,

to rest in him.

Like Mary,

to sit at his feet and listen to him.

And in beholding him,

we become like him.

But the life of the church

is not just contemplative.

It's also active.

We have a great passion

to see the gospel proclaimed,

to see the darkness driven back,

and to see Christ's name honored among all people.

And again, all of this is a work of liberation, isn't it?

We proclaim the good news

of the forgiveness of sins

through Christ's death and resurrection.

Friends, the heart of the message of the church

is nothing less than reconciliation with God.

What could be more liberating than that?

To be set free from sin

and death

and judgment.

And we also stand against

the forces of evil

at work around us.

We see in our text

that Jesus gave the apostles

the authority to cast out demons.

And you know,

the church still has

spiritual authority today.

Now perhaps he isn't calling you and me

literally to cast out an unclean spirit,

although maybe some of you

have experienced something like that.

Certainly in other parts of the world,

this is a very real thing.

But even so,

even if that's not our particular calling

to perform literal exorcisms,

the battle that we wage

isn't against flesh and blood.

There is a very real spiritual battle going on.

And it is through prayer

and mercy

and generosity

and peacemaking

and by speaking the truth in love

that this war is waged.

And so we are sent into the world

to be salt and light.

And so the church exists

not to serve itself,

but to serve Christ

and his mission.

We see here that the church exists

for the mission of Jesus.

Now the third thing our passage shows us

about being the church is this.

The church exists

in the unity of Jesus.

So we exist by his call

and for his mission,

but we exist in the unity of Christ.

You know, as we consider

a little more closely

the men that Jesus called

to be his apostles

in verses 16 through 19,

and you can kind of scan

through their names there

in that list,

you know, as we start

to really look a little deeper,

we see how radical this group was.

Of course, they were all Jewish

and they were all mostly from Galilee,

but consider their differences.

In verse 17,

we're told about James and John,

two brothers to whom Jesus

gives the nickname

Sons of Thunder, right?

That's a pretty sweet nickname,

isn't it?

You know?

He called Peter like a stone,

but you get to be

the Sons of Thunder.

That's pretty sweet.

Now, it's possible

that this nickname

means something like

the loud ones

or the hot-tempered ones.

Okay, maybe it's not

that great of a nickname.

It's sort of Jesus

maybe poking a little fun

at them, right?

So here are James and John,

the Sons of Thunder.

But then you have

other apostles on this list

about whom

we know very little

apart from their names.

History is nearly silent

about them.

Of course,

that doesn't mean

they didn't fulfill

their call faithfully,

boldly proclaiming Christ,

but, you know,

Sons of Thunder,

loud, boisterous, fiery,

they apparently were not.

But it wasn't just

personality differences

that was being united here

in this apostolic band,

in this nascent church.

Consider the difference

between Matthew,

the tax collector,

who we met a little earlier

in Mark's gospel,

Levi,

also called Matthew.

Consider the difference

between Matthew,

the tax collector,

and the other apostle

we meet on this list,

Simon,

the zealot.

Tax collectors,

you remember,

were collaborators

with Rome, basically.

You know,

they spent their time

collecting money

on behalf of the empire

and kind of robbing

their own people.

But zealots,

zealots were the party

in the first century.

They were the movement

in the first century

who were ready

to take up arms

against Rome.

Right?

The zealots were the ones

who were thinking,

you know,

maybe a militaristic overthrow

of the Romans

is probably our best bet.

So here are two men

with utterly different,

what we might call today,

political backgrounds.

One who lived life

collaborating with Rome

and the other

who lived life

hoping one day

to overthrow it.

Together.

together.

In the same group

around Jesus.

Could these differences

ever be overcome?

And yet what we see

in the apostles

is yes.

A former zealot

and a former tax collector

united by a common Lord

engaged in a common mission.

You see,

their allegiance

to the Lord Jesus,

the reality of his call

on their lives,

took precedence

over these former

allegiances

and identities.

What they held

in common

in Christ

was far superior

to what divided them.

Now I think we can,

we know

that Levi

sort of left

his tax collecting booth

to follow Jesus

and we can imagine

probably something similar

was the same true

for Simon.

You know,

he wasn't out there

plotting political

and military overthrow anymore.

But do we imagine

after coming to Christ,

do we imagine

Matthew and Simon

always agreeing

about everything?

Right?

Probably not.

And it's the same today.

Christians don't always

agree with each other

about a whole range

of things.

And it's good

and right

to develop convictions

about those things.

But united

by a common Lord,

we can treat each other

with charity

and with honor

and we can learn

from each other.

Perhaps we might

not be persuaded

by one another

at the end of the day

and our differences,

some of them

might still remain.

And yet,

we can still embrace

each other

as fellow family members

of the people of God.

In the early church,

this unity in Christ

would become

even more radical

than we see it here

in the calling of the twelve

as the gospel goes forth

and Gentiles

are added to their number.

Suddenly,

the differences

that are being united

in Christ

are even more profound.

And as the gospel

continued to spread

throughout church history,

the cultural diversity

of the church

continued to expand.

But the church

continues to exist

in its great diversity

in the unity of Christ.

And so,

in our own local church,

we learn to love

one another.

Even though we are different,

we view one another

as brothers and sisters

in the same family.

Christ has embraced us

and so we turn

and we embrace

one another.

And the backgrounds

in our church family here

are wildly different,

are they not?

Cultural backgrounds,

educational backgrounds,

different genders,

different races,

different classes,

but united in Christ.

No,

we don't always agree

about secondary issues,

do we?

Sometimes we have

lively discussions

around the proverbial

dinner table.

But we don't let

those things divide us

or sow seeds

of contempt and scorn.

We continue to love

each other for Christ's sake

because we have been loved.

And that brings us

to our last point.

The fourth and last thing

we see here

is that the church

exists because of

the grace of Jesus.

So it's his call

and his mission

and his unity

that ultimately exists

because of his grace.

You know,

in verse 19,

we read the last name

in the list of the 12,

Judas Iscariot,

who betrayed him.

And then that final note

of this list of the 12 here

casts a bit of a shadow

over the whole passage,

doesn't it?

The 12 would not be

a perfect band of brothers.

Right?

They would not

in themselves

be the new creation,

the new people of God.

In fact,

in the end,

they would all deny Jesus

and abandon him.

And Judas,

one of the 12,

would even be the one

who betrayed him.

And yet none of this

was a surprise

to Jesus.

Think about it.

Jesus could have chosen

someone else

to join the 12.

Right?

The sovereign Lord

could have chosen

someone else.

It didn't have to be Judas.

He didn't have to be betrayed.

But Jesus didn't choose

someone else.

Why?

Why?

Because Jesus knew

that his mission

was about more than

just healing the sick.

It was about more than

just casting out demons.

It was about more than

just building a team

and expanding his influence.

Jesus had come

to address

the deepest human need

imaginable.

Jesus had come

as the remedy

for sin.

And that meant

he had to go

the way

of the cross.

You see,

Jesus' choice

of Judas

was ultimately

the choice

of the cross.

The choice

to undergo

the betrayal,

the denial,

the abandonment.

This was the choice

to lay down

his life

for his people.

The work

of renewing

and recreating

the people of God

was going to cost

more than

a few busy days

of ministry

by the sea.

It was going to cost

more than

a few long days

on the mountainside

training his disciples.

This work

that Jesus

had come

to do

was going

to cost

him everything.

And yet

he was willing

to do it

through his own

choice.

He freely

chose to be

betrayed

so that he

might choose

to forgive

your sins

and mine.

So we,

all of us,

stand

as members

of Christ's

body,

Christ's

church

because of

sheer,

undeserved,

costly grace.

Christ doesn't

call us

into his people

because we've

earned it,

but because

he's earned it.

So don't you

see how much

he loves you,

Christian?

Who would

ever choose

in their right

mind to be

betrayed,

right?

And yet

he did

for you,

for us.

And it's

this grace,

this love

that stands

at the very

bottom,

the bedrock

of the church.

This is the

cornerstone.

Christ,

rich in grace,

full of

steadfast love.

This is the

grace on which

we stand.

And this is

the grace

that we extend

to others

through the

mission that

he's called

us to.

Let's pray

together.

Lord Jesus,

we give you

praise as

the Lord

of the church.

Thank you

that it is in

your deep

love and

grace and

through your

sovereign call

that we exist

to be a part

of your

people.

Oh Lord,

help our

hearts to be

full of that

grace and

love so that

as we go

forth on your

mission,

we might truly

be your

ambassadors,

seeing your

kingdom advance

in our place,

and our time

to your

great glory.

We pray this

in your name.

Amen.