The Dirty Dozen-Mark 3:13-19
The Gospel According to Mark • Sermon • Submitted
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· 31 viewsA study of what Jesus is and isn't looking for in His disciples.
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As we begin this morning, I want you to turn to 2 different passages. We will be spending the majority of our time in Mark 3:13-19, but we will do our Scripture reading and begin in the Gospel of Luke 6:12-16. So, if you would, begin by turning to Luke 6:12-16, but put a finger in the Gospel of Mark 3:13-19. We will do our Scripture reading a little later.
Last Sunday morning in our journey through the Gospel according to Mark, our passage was Mark 3:7-12 in the message entitled The Slippery Slope of Being a Fan of Jesus. As we studied the passage together, we watched as Jesus, understanding that the time to lay His life down on the cross was not yet right, “withdrew with His disciples to the sea”. Had He continued with the constant confrontations with the Pharisees and other religious leaders in Capernaum, His death would have come before the perfect time that had long ago been established by the Father. He didn’t leave Capernaum because of fear, but because He had much more to do before His death. However, wherever Jesus went, the crowds followed. Most theologians estimate that crowds the followed He and His disciples to the Sea of Galilee, numbered into the 10’s of thousands.
Most of the message last week we compared the huge crowds that “followed” Him with the small number of disciples that were “with Him”. With the exception of Judas Iscariot, the disciples that were “with Him” became His fully devoted followers and as a result were impacted for all eternity. But those that followed at a distance, quickly turned their backs on Him when He stopped performing public miracles. They had no interest in the eternal impact of the Biblical truth’s He taught, only in the temporary impact of His miracles. They were nothing more than fan’s of Jesus, but He didn’t come to build a fan base, He came to build an eternal kingdom, He came to transform lives. In the end, we were challenged to move beyond being just fans of Jesus, and to become fully devoted disciples, that He might transform who we are and begin to do a mighty work through us.
That is a perfect lead in to the next 2 weeks as we look at the calling of the 12 Apostles. These next 2 weeks we will be given pictures of what He is looking for in His followers, but we will also get a look at what He isn’t looking for in His followers.
With that in mind, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s inspired Word? Next Slide
12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,
15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot,
16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Please be seated.
There was never a point in time during Jesus public ministry that He wasn’t fully aware that in the end, He was to lay down His life on the cross, that in the end the Pharisees and their partners in crime would deliver Him over to the Roman authorities to be crucified. That time was now a little less than 2 years away. As a result:
The time had now come for Jesus to chose the men who would carry out His earthly ministry after His death. He knew they needed intensive preparation and training in the time remaining before the cross, for their roles as His official representatives... Recognizing the critical importance of His choice of these men, Jesus went off to the mountain alone to pray. MacArthur, J. (2011). Luke 6–10 (p. 15). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
That brings us to an important lesson for all of us here this morning, and that lesson is: Next Slide
The Importance of Prayer. Luke 6:12
Look again at Luke 6:12 & 13 as well as Mark 3:13. There are a couple of key things about what He is doing I don’t want us to miss. The first is: Next Slide
The Importance of Solitude. Luke 6:12-13; Mark 3:13
One of the hardest things for most people to deal with during this coronavirus pandemic, is the isolation, the solitude. In fact beyond the physical effects of the decease itself, the next great fear among many health experts is the mental anguish that often accompanies times of loneliness. As a matter of fact there are some health experts that see this as a bigger threat than the decease itself. There has been a dramatic increase in depression and even suicides throughout the world, that has been directly attributed to the isolation that has come with the forced social distancing. I would love to say that this is unique to those who have not yet surrendered their lives to Christ, because it should be, but that is not the case.
Solitude is an important Spiritual Discipline. Jesus understood it’s importance, which is why we see, over and over again in the Gospels, Jesus leaving the crowds behind, leaving the disciples behind, even leaving great need behind, for an alone time with the Father.
That is exactly what we see taking place in these verses. Jesus had just left a crowd that likely exceeded 10,000 people, for some solitude. A time away from everyone. With less than 2 years between Him and His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus understood the importance of making sure that His ministry would not only continue, but strengthen after His ascension into heaven. This meant that He needed to select a group of men to continue where He would be leaving off. With this in mind He slipped away to a nearby mountain to pray. By the way, there is no indication in Scripture that He took with Him His smart phone or any other smart device. Someone else probably kept track of His laptop while away. And yes, I jest, but the point I want to make sure we all understand is, He was careful to bring with Him nothing that would distract from is time with the Father. We would do well to do the same.
That brings us to the next key thing we don’t want to miss: Next Slide
The Importance of Time. Luke 6:12
I probably should have added another word on this slide, the word is “considerable”. This was not a time of a fleeting prayer like we have the tendency to do, He went away to a solitary place to spend the entire night seeking the face of God. The weight of the decision before Him was huge and a quick 5 minute prayer in the midst of a crowd of followers would not be enough. No, He spent the entire night in solitude and prayer.
Oftentimes God speaks the loudest in the times of quiet solitude when we fervently seek the Face of the Father. That is what takes place here in Luke 6, Jesus leaves the crowd behind and goes off to a quiet lonely mountain side to spend the entire night in prayer, and it is during that time God speaks to Him.
Should we do anything less? Here we see that knowing and understanding the will of the Father was so important to Jesus, Who by the way is God in the flesh, that He spends the entire night in quiet prayer.
I would venture to say that the reason that we as modern day believers struggle so much with knowing and understanding what God’s will is for our lives, is we don’t do this, we don’t follow the lead of Jesus.
There is little doubt in my mind that this is something I need to commit to making a priority, and I am pretty sure that I’m not the only one here this morning struggling in this area. The more we commit to doing this, the more we will hear the still small voice of the Lord.
Turn now in you copies pf God’s Word to Mark 3 as we look at what takes place after this night of solitude and prayer. Starting in verse 13 we see: Next Slide
The Calling of the Twelve. Mark 3:13; Luke 6:13
While we don’t know this for certain, it appears that after spending the night in prayer, the crowds found Him. We get the impression that there was 3 distinct groups there that day.
Those that, as we looked at last Sunday, were part of the crowd that followed Him, sort of at a distance. They were fascinated more by His miraculous works than His proclamation of the very Word of God.
The 2nd group was the disciples, but not just the 12, it was a smaller group and this group was far more dedicated to a closer following of Jesus. While they too were fascinated by His miraculous power, they were also moved by His teaching. Their devotion far exceeded that of the crowd.
The third group was what would soon become the 12. Out of that small crowd of devoted disciples, and based on His all night consultation would God the Father, He placed a specific call on these 12. Next Slide
Look at verse 13. Do you see the phrase "called to Him”?
“called to Him”
This phrase makes it clear that He took the initiative to call, and His call was determined. He was not calling for volunteers. In other words, Jesus didn’t call this smaller group of more dedicated, devoted disciples to Him and ask for a show of hands of all of those who would like to be a part of the 12. Far from that, in fact Mark makes that clear as we read on and see: Next Slide
“and called to Him those whom He desired”
He specifically called out the 12, and again this was only after spending the entire night in prayer seeking the will of the Father.
Moving on we see: Next Slide
The Response of the Twelve. Mark 3:13
“and they came to Him.” the compound verb used implies separation. It was a definite call to them to leave the uncommitted crowd and the more committed disciples and take their stand with Him as His inner group, whom Mark states in verse 14 will be later named “apostles”. Luke 6:13 expressly asserts that Jesus first called His disciples, “those whom He desired”, His recognized followers, and from them He chose the 12.
Then we see: Next Slide
The Assignment to the Twelve. Mark 3:14
In verse 14 we read; “so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach”
We see here a 2 fold purpose; one relating to the present and a second relating to the future. Next Slide
Relating to the present:
The 12 were to be constantly with Him as His personal associates. This constant companionship with their Master would qualify them for their future work as His personal witnesses-Clearly we see here that: Next Slide
Fellowship with Him must precede preaching about Him.
This lesson is absolutely vital for us. It is our time of daily communion, daily fellowship with Him through our time in the Word of God and prayer that qualifies us and empowers us to tell others about Him. During that time of fellowship with Him, He begins to transform us and as that transformation takes place in our lives, our transformed lives become evident to others. That is part of the power of our proclamation. If there has been no change in our lives, why on earth would anybody want to listen to us when we try to tell them what Jesus has done for us? Visibly, they don’t see any evidence that Jesus has done anything. But when we are “with Him”, when we spend time daily in fellowship with Him, seeking Him through our time in His Word and prayer, we can’t help but change, and that change will be clear to those who watch us. As a result they will be far more apt to listen to us when we share this new found life with them.
Moving forward in this mornings passage we see the second fold purpose of the calling of the twelve, that: Next Slide
Relating to the future:
Their primary future purpose was to preach, proclaiming the message He had given to them in the time they were “with Him”. Some of this preaching took place during His earthly ministry (Mark 6:6-13), but the lion share took place after His ascension. I just mentioned their primary future purpose, well their secondary future purpose was “the authority to cast out demons”. They were given both the power and the right to expel demons, but this is not limited to just the casting out of demons but it representative of the miraculous powers they were to perform as evidence that they had been with Him.
Historically this became true of all of the 12 after Jesus ascension. By then, Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, had been replaced by Mathias, but each of the 12 were given the power to work miracles, thus proving they had been with Jesus. Additionally, the Apostle Paul, who became the Apostle to the Gentiles, was also given the power to work miracles.
There is one other very important thing that is at play here in the 12 Jesus chose to carry on His message. We will look in more detail at the 12 next Sunday, but a brief study of these men tells us that not only was there nothing special about these men, even more so, these 12 would have never been on the radar of anyone looking to build a strong following of spiritual leaders. That is why I entitled the messages for this week and next week “The Dirty Dozen”. At best this was a motley crew, but we will find out next week, to a large degree this was a team of losers, every single one of them turned tail and ran on the night He was betrayed. So, what is the last important thing at play in the men He selected?
When Jesus selected these 12 men, He was making a clear statement of: Next Slide
Judgement On the Current Religious Leaders. John 2:14-18; John 5:18; Mark 3:6; Ezek. 34:1-10; Matt. 23:15; Matt. 15:14; Mark 7:6-13; John 8:44; Luke 22:28-30; Rev. 21:12-14
The caretakers of apostate Judaism had totally rejected Him. The Sadducees resented Him for cleansing the temple and exposing their system of greed and corruption (John 2:14–18). The Pharisees and scribes wanted Him dead for opposing their Sabbath observances and for claiming equality with God (John 5:18). Even the Herodians, who were working hand in hand with the hated Romans, agreed that Jesus was an agitator who had be eliminated (Mark 3:6). When the leaders of Israel rejected God’s Son, God rejected them. The Pharisees and scribes, along with the Sadducees, had demonstrated their unworthiness as the shepherds of Israel (cf. Ezek. 34:1–10). The religious nobility and rabbinic academy of Judaism was altogether unqualified to represent God. They misrepresented the Old Testament, corrupted the people, and produced sons of hell (Matt. 23:15). They thought they were enlightened about God, but in reality, they were “blind leaders of the blind” (Matt. 15:14 kjv). They perceived themselves to be the protectors and purveyors of God’s Word, when in truth, they had substituted the traditions of men for the commandments of God (Mark 7:6–13). Though they convinced themselves that they were pleasing the God of their fathers, they were actually children “of [their] father, the devil” (John 8:44). It was not Jesus who was of Satan but them.
Clearly, they needed to be removed. That Jesus did so by selecting a group of twelve nondescript laymen, none of whom came out of the religious establishment, was a rebuke to the entire system. Additionally, the number twelve was not arbitrary or accidental. It represented the fact that, in the messianic kingdom, these twelve men would be given the responsibility to rule over each of Israel’s twelve tribes (cf. Luke 22:28–30; Rev. 21:12–14). By selecting twelve apostles, Jesus was sending an unmistakable message to the leaders of Israel that they were spiritually disqualified, and therefore shut out of His kingdom. He confronted them directly, publicly, and repeatedly with such denunciations. Instead of repenting, their determination to kill Him increased. MacArthur, J. (2015). Mark 1–8 (pp. 165–166). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
God’s rejection of unqualified spiritual leaders did not end in the Biblical times. He does so today as well. And just like in the days of Jesus, the qualifications have little to do with what college, university or seminary these leaders come from and everything to do with their having spent time with Him and having been transformed as a result of that time. That is why He often times rejects powerful leaders who have multiple religious degrees, and does some of His greatest works through men like my father-in-law Doug, who tried 3 times but never even passed the 8th grade, but men like Doug were “with Him” and transformed by Him and God moved powerfully. Or men like my dad who almost got kicked out of Moody Bible Institute because he couldn’t maintain the required GPA. But my dad, like my father-in-law Doug was “with Him” and transformed by Him and went on to be the leader of Village Missions.
This morning’s message, as well as next Sunday’s message should be a source of great encouragement to all of those present, to all of those listening. Because if God can do a mighty work through the 12 He selected that day. If He can move powerfully through the lives of men like my father-in-law Doug and my Dad. There is hope for all of us. If we will just be “with Him”, spending time daily in fellowship with Him, seeking Him through our time in His Word and prayer, allowing Him to transform us. That is, after all, His specialty.
Let’s close our time in prayer.