Good
morning, it is a joy and privilege to be continuing this series on ‘the called
ones’ and to be with you all up here.
Let’s
pray.
Jesus
– thank you for your word. I pray this
morning that Holy Spirit you would take it and package it in a way that
transforms, challenges and encourages each one of us to be the called ones you
want us to be. May it be for your
glory. Amen.
Ok,
let’s read our passage for this morning.
It’s from Mark chapter 3, starting at verse 7:
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a
large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many
people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the
Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to
have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he
had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.
Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out,
“You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others
about him.
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him
those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be
with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to
drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the
name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the
name Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder’), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas
Iscariot, who betrayed him.
A
pilot made an announcement over the intercom, “I have good news and bad
news. The good news is that we have a
tail wind, and we are making excellent time.
The bad news is our compass is broken, and we have no idea where we are
going…”
A
similar statement could be made of many churches. What is our purpose? Why are we here? Where are we going? Well this morning, we’re going to use this
passage in Mark 3 to help us answer that question. We’re also going to use some maths – I was
inspired by Dan’s use of Newton’s Second law of motion and relativity a couple
of weeks back – our maths this morning though is much more accessible and I
expect everyone here to be able to keep up.
All you need to remember right
now is 1, 2, 3. Simples.
So
let’s start with 1.
Our
series is all about the called ones.
Last week Ken took us through Luke 5 looking at the four who were
called. This week, we’re investigating
when Jesus called the twelve.
Our
number 1 for this morning is ‘called’.
Let’s
have a look at who Jesus called. Mark
handily lists them for us in verses 16-19.
We’ve got a merry band of 12 men from all sorts of walks of life. They are not professional Christians. None of them have been to Bible College (as we heard about
last week). They have different political views,
different roles within society – you’ve got a reformed tax collector,
fishermen, a fanatical nationalist in Simon, brothers. As we read more about these twelve through
the New Testament we discover that they were men who at times lacked faith, at
times they lacked courage and commitment.
They lacked power, spiritual understanding and often lacked
humility. They were hasty and often
wrong. These men got into trouble, they
lashed out at people who were different.
They often said the wrong things.
They doubted and didn’t understand.
They were weak, yet proud. These
were not men who would have passed a psychological profile used by mission
organisations for the mission field.
These men, were ordinary.
And yet Jesus called them,
changed them, and used them mightily.
Regardless
of your shortcomings. Regardless of your
ordinariness. Regardless of your faith
level. Jesus wants to do the same for
you too. He is calling you.
Couple
of other things to note about Jesus calling these men. The word for ‘called’ here in verse 13 isn’t
just a ‘Hey you’, or ‘Yo Jo, wanna hang out?’ This word in the Greek has an
urgency. It implies ‘an urgent
invitation to accept responsibilities for a particular task, implying a new
relationship to the one who does the calling.’
Jesus is summoning the twelve to himself. It is an urgent invitation for them to come
and it’s the same for us. Jesus doesn’t
call us with apathy and ‘yeh, if you feel like it, maybe, do you want to hang
out…’ No this is urgent. Come here. Come. To. Me.
Jesus is calling. And the twelve
don’t hang about in responding. He
called… “and they came to him”.
And
why? Why is he calling them – what
for? To come to Him. Because he wants them we see in verse 13.
He called to him those he wanted… and then into verse 14… that they might be with Him. When you are called
by Jesus, your first job is to be with Him.
Jesus called these twelve to have a relationship with them. So they could be with Him, watch Him, learn
from Him. Jesus wanted to teach them and
that requires closeness. He wanted to
train them by personal example, but most of all, He just wanted to be with
them. Because He loved them.
Jesus
loves you. He wants to be with you. He wants intimacy. He wants you to come ‘be’ in His
presence. Stop. Be.
With. Him. In the 90s, in an area of Africa where Christianity spread
quite rapidly, new believers were eager to spend time with Jesus and so would
find their own spots in the wilderness and pour out their hearts in prayer to
the Lord. After a while, these spots
would become worn and paths to the different locations were formed. As a result, the prayer lives of each
individual became public. If someone
started to neglect spending time with Jesus, others would gently encourage the
believer to return to their devotion by saying “the grass grows on your path.”
Jesus calls us to be with him.
Don’t let the grass grow on your path.
Don’t let the grass grow on your path.
A
final thought in this first section of number 1 – called. Why twelve of them? Twelve disciples because these men were going
to be the foundation of the new chosen people.
As Israel had twelve tribes, Jesus would have twelve apostles. These apostles are the foundation of the
church
and representative of all of us. These twelve, these ordinary twelve, were the
ones Jesus was going to send out to carry on what He had started and we follow on
from them. You see there’s no call without a
corresponding mission. Jesus was calling
the twelve to himself, 1) that they might be with him and 2) that He might send
them out.
And
that brings us to number 2. Number 2 is
Sent. Number 1 = Called. Number 2 = Sent.
First you’re called, then
you’re sent.
Your
calling as a Christian doesn’t stop at salvation. Receiving Christ is only the beginning. As you’re aware a couple of weeks ago I ran
the half marathon. Assuming it wasn’t
immediately before Church on a Sunday morning, if I had invited you all to come
watch it with me many of you might have joined me – you know we could have
taken a picnic, made a day out of it – could have been fun. If I had invited you to all come run it with
me, I suspect the number of takers would be significantly less. We can be in danger of thinking that the
Christian life is merely observing and admiring Jesus and his example – “oh
hasn’t he done well”. We can forget that
the Christian life is a call that takes us beyond observing him to actually
getting out there and following Him, to running the race with Him.
Did
you know that ekklesia, the word for Church, literally means “the called out
ones / the called out people / the sent
ones”? The twelve here symbolise the
church. Ephesians 2 tells us that the
church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as
the cornerstone. The calling that Jesus
gave these twelve men is the same calling He gives his church today. He calls us first to be with him and
secondly, to be sent by Him. We are the
church. We are the sent ones. Ever wonder what the purpose of the church
is? Where is the church going? Like
that aeroplane with its broken compass?
The purpose of the church is to be - one - in the presence of Jesus and then - two - to be sent. Our purpose is to
go out. That’s the direction our compass
should be set to - out - sent. We are the sent ones.
This is our DNA and heritage. Francis
Chan says this:
“Only months after calling His disciples, Jesus sent
them out. This doesn’t mean they were fully trained and mistake free (ordinary people
remember?!). It shows that sending was part of their
training. Jesus didn’t teach them in a
classroom setting. They walked with Him,
and they were sent out by Him. He
expected them to proclaim repentance, cast out demons, and heal…”
And
if you look at Luke 10, when they returned they were like “oh my gosh – Jesus –
check out what happened. We used your
name and all this stuff happened” they were as surprised as we would be. Ordinary people – part of their training.
They
were sent. We are sent, verse 14… to preach.
How’s
that make you feel. Fancy preaching?
Don’t
let that word freak you out. It simply
means to announce something and it was used for the King’s heralds who
announced His message to the people. We
serve the King of Kings who has appointed us to announce his message to all
people. You’ll notice that just before
this Jesus tells the impure spirits not to tell others about him. Why?
Because it’s our job. It’s the
job of the church.
Martin
Luther said that “anyone who is to find Christ must first find the
church”. Why? Because the Church are the sent ones. The church are the ones who are supposed to
be speaking the name of Jesus. We are
the ones sent to preach. Sent to
announce the message our King has given us.
The idea of preaching might still be worrying you somewhat. But remember the twelve? They weren’t trained speakers, they were
ordinary blokes… It doesn’t have to be complicated.
When I was working in the
city, I used to read on my way to the office and so when I got to work I’d just
dump my book on my desk. Some of the
titles that would then appear on my desk included “Adamant - Finding truth in a
universe of Opinions” or “Good Faith: Being a Christian when Society thinks
you’re Irrelevant” (there’s a catchy title for you!) People would come past my desk and pick up
the book I was reading and ask questions, like “oh universe of opinions,
finding truth. How can we know what is
truth?” “ah, Jesus. Let me tell you
about Jesus”. It doesn’t have to be
complicated. Most of the books were
about Jesus. So that’s what we’d talk
about. God doesn’t need eloquence, just your voice. Just speak the name of Jesus. Say his name - it’s that simple. We are
all called to be witnesses. What are you
witness to?
Well
– when you’re counting, you can’t get to number 2, you can’t get to sent,
without first having number 1 – called to be with Jesus. When we count, we start with 1. We spend time with Jesus. We get to know Him. We dwell in His presence. We listen to His voice. We learn from, and watch, and copy. Then, after 1, comes 2. We go
and witness to what we’ve just seen Him do - not only what he
did in your life 20 years ago when you were first saved - but what he’s doing
in your life now! What we’ve heard him say. What his Word says. We preach, we announce the good news. You can’t display to others what you haven’t
seen. The church will only be sent
successfully, when it has learnt to invest in being with Jesus – watching,
learning, listening.
One, then two…
If
you try and count but miss out number 1 and go straight to being sent, then you’re left with guilt, religiousness, rules. You must start with one. A
captivated, intimate relationship with Jesus will naturally lead to going out. You are filled up so you can overflow. 1 leads to 2.
But if you try to go without first spending time with Jesus then you
will go in self-reliance and end up burnt out and disappointed.
Right,
so. Number 1 = called. Number 2 = sent. This is the clever maths now
people, your
equation for the morning, hold onto your
hats. 1 + 2 = 3.
What?
1
+ 2 = 3. What is number three? Power.
Called
+ Sent = Power
We’ve
seen that there’s no call without a corresponding mission. Well, there’s no mission without equipping
authority and power. Look at verses 14 and 15. “He
appointed the twelve that they might be with him (one) and that he might send
them out to preach (two) and to have authority to drive out demons (three).” Jesus doesn’t call the qualified – we can see
that by looking at these ragamuffin twelve.
He qualifies the called. When
Peter and John were before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4, it says of the rulers and
teachers of the law that “when they saw the courage of Peter and John and
realised they were unschooled, ordinary
men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with
Jesus.”
What
has just happened in Acts? Peter and
John have preached Jesus. They have
announced the good news of salvation for all in the name of Christ. They’ve
healed a man. How? They had been with Jesus. 1 + 2 = 3.
Called to intimacy with Jesus + sent to preach His name = power and
authority to drive out demons.
It
is impossible to truly be with Jesus and not leave
changed. If you’re not seeing God at
work in your life and the lives of those around you
then are you a) spending enough time with him (not just observing from a
distance like the crowd) and b) are you
going out and opening your mouth?
I
appreciate it can be hard, but if you want to be sent to preach the name of
Jesus then he’s going to give you the opportunities if you ask for them.
When we were back in the UK
earlier this year we popped in as a family to see my 95 year old Grandad. It was crazy and very brief before we moved
on to see the next lot of people. A
couple of days later I said to Dan that I felt really short-changed and wanted
to go back to see him for some proper time. Well as it worked out I was able to
go back and visit him on my own. As I
was driving there I prayed and asked God that I would be able to talk about
Jesus. I dared to even ask that if
possible could I pray with him. My
grandad is not a Christian. All my life
I remember him talking about being an atheist or even not talking that far and just
shutting down any conversations around faith.
He doesn’t go into church buildings because he feels it would be
hypocritical… So to ask this prayer was a big deal.
Anyway, I got to my grandad’s
and we started chatting. This was the
only time in my life ever that it was just the two of us together. Within moments we were talking about faith
and he, on a total tangent said, “He was murdered, he was innocent, they
murdered him, they murdered Jesus”. As he
was saying this, he was tearing up. We
talked about faith for over an hour. We
talked about how faith is a gift from God.
As I was leaving, I asked if I could pray for him to which he replied
that I “must do whatever I think is right”.
I explained that I’d love to pray for him but didn’t want to offend him,
or presume anything. He told me he
wasn’t against religion. He also told me
that he was an agnostic and not an atheist and so I got to sit, next to my
wonderful grandad, and pray that, among other things, God would give him the
gift of faith.
I asked on the way over to be
able to speak the name of Jesus.
God doesn’t mind us praying that prayer!
God doesn’t mind us praying that prayer!
Or more recently, a couple of
weeks ago I asked God for more
opportunities to speak his name in a way that wouldn’t be weird. Because let’s face it - no one wants to be the
odd bod shouting the name of Jesus and freaking people out. So,
‘opportunity to speak your name please Jesus without scaring people’. Totally
out of the blue, someone at the Rawene Centre said to me “I’ve been meaning to
ask you, does it bother you when people say ‘Oh my God’?” Well the question
took me totally by surprise and I was like – “well yes, and no…” we chatted
some more about how my kids are taught not to use God’s name in vain, and why
it might or might not bother someone and that was the end of the
conversation. Until a couple of days
later. I had been mulling on his
question and I said to him, “you know what, when
you asked me about God’s name and whether I find it offensive other people
using it etc. well actually, what
bothers me most is when people use the name of Jesus in that way.”
We
then chatted and joked about how when people say ‘Jesus’ in my head I often
finish with “loves you” Jesus loves you (I
think I might start saying it out loud) but then from that small comment we
ended up having a massive conversation about who is
Jesus. Why does it matter what He said
about himself or how we speak about him.
Why is he different from any other little g god? And then from that, why
can we trust the Bible as a historical document and we even spent 5 minutes watching a clip from the alpha
series… All from saying that the name of Jesus is important. We need to be speaking his name. There is power in the name of Jesus.
On Fingers 1, 2, 3
Spend
time with Jesus. Speak the name of
Jesus. Then you will start seeing the
Power of Jesus.
You
see – one of the wonderful things about being the church, being sent by Jesus,
to preach his name is that Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on
earth (Matt 28:18). ALL authority. All of it has been given to Jesus. And he’s given it to us (check out Luke 10
again – really cool chapter). Jesus has
ALL authority. And you know where we are? IN Christ.
We
are In Christ. We have His
authority. Christ in you, the hope of
glory. His authority. His power.
His impact. Remember how the
twelve were these awesome superhuman incredibly exceptional people who did
amazing things because they were so fantastic? No. No
you don’t. Because they were
ordinary. They were you and they were me. They were
‘nothing special in the eyes of the world’, the world would not have called
them exceptional – maybe their mums might have – but not anyone else. And yet.
And yet they did exceptional things because Jesus is exceptional and He
has given us the power and authority of His name. That hasn’t changed.
1+2
still equals 3.
We
go in the authority and power of Jesus’ name.
The twelve here when they were called went from being disciples to
apostles. What’s the significance of
that you ask? Well, I shall tell you. A disciple is a learner that follows a teacher, but an apostle is
someone who is sent with both the power and the right to act on behalf of the
one who sent him. At the beginning of
our passage we see that there were crowds and crowds of people following Jesus,
pressing in on him. Many in those crowds
would have called themselves disciples of Jesus. They were following him - watching (albeit from
a distance) and admiring - But these 12 were called out and sent so they became apostles.
Dan
and I have been watching Homeland recently and there’s currently a lot of
action going on with an ambassador. An
ambassador personally has no authority, but as the representative of her
nation, she carries the authority of the nation that sent her. Jesus is entrusting to these twelve men His
authority to carry out specific responsibilities on his behalf. The harvest is plentiful – check out the
crowds here, they’re insane, people are crowding in from regions all around,
desperately trying to touch him, to receive what he has to offer – and Jesus
needs more workers. He commissions these
twelve as His co-workers in the harvest, and gives them his authority to carry
out the work. When you are sent by
Jesus, with a specific task (to preach and drive out demons), you are an
apostle – a conduit of His power - an
ambassador. Listen to these verses from
2 Corinthians 5. Starting at verse 17:
Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ (in Christ),
the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ (in Christ), not counting people’s sins
against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation (there’s
number 2 – sent to preach. It continues)
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though god were making his appeal
through us.
That’s
what we’re supposed to be doing church.
We are the sent ones. We are the
ones sent to preach God’s reconciliation through
Christ. We need to be spending time with
Jesus if we’re going to be preaching who he is and what he’s done.
1+2
= ………..3
You’ve got it!
So
what does this practically mean for us, right here, right now?
Well, calling and mission don’t fade away. You can’t retire from being called and
sent. And I feel like for some here, you
may have taken an attitude of ‘passing on the baton’ to the younger
generation. Perhaps you feel like you’ve
done your time. You’ve served your
stint. You went when you had the energy! But actually we need you. We need your wisdom, and your faithfulness. We need your gifts and skills. For
some here, it might be considering, or reconsidering, becoming an elder if the Elders approach you. Don’t disqualify yourself – no such thing as
too ordinary, too old, too weak – if we look at these twelve excuses don’t cut
it anymore – because it’s not your power and authority you’re sent in. It’s Jesus’. So don’t disqualify yourself – but also –
warning to the wider room – don’t you dare start disqualifying others. Listen to this:
“The greatness of God’s grace is seen in His choosing
the undeserving to be His people and the unqualified to do His work. It should be a marvellous encouragement to
every believer (every believer, every one. Not just professional Christians or some
special few, but every believer) to know that, just as Elijah (Elijah - remember
him? Elijah who defeated the prophets of
Baal, Elijah who was fed by divine supplies, Elijah who divided the Jordan, Elijah
who brought a child back to life. Just
as Elijah, just as Elijah), the apostles
had a nature like ours…” (MacArthur)
Isn’t that incredible? You don’t need to stress about what will or
will not happen. You just have to go and
speak the name of Jesus - and the SAME power as Elijah and the apostles had
will be at work in you as you are in Christ.
Amazing. Just be you and open
your mouth to say what you see Jesus doing.
You
are all needed in the body of Christ.
The church will not function as it should without you. We do not want the church to function as the
rest of the world where 20% of the church do 80% of the work. Perhaps for some of you the application is
that you see the church doing all these things – maybe getting involved with
CAP, kidzchurch, bread ministry, community meals and you find yourself saying
“oh it’s really good that the church is doing that, I’m so glad the church is
doing that.” And if they were to stop you’d be like, “oh gosh, that’s not ok,
the church should be doing these things…” But when it comes to it, you’re not
involved in any of it. You’re not doing
anything. You are the church. Put your hat in the ring and get involved. Let’s
not be a place where 20% do 80% of the going and speaking. This is an all-in, 100% mission. We are
not simply a random assortment of individuals.
We are greater than the sum of our parts. Ephesians tells us that the purpose of the
church is to display God’s glory and to equip the saints. That’s you and me. Our equipping is so that we can be sent, so
we can go, to display God’s glory.
For
some here, being sent will be speaking the name of Jesus in the places he has
put you – be that school, the supermarket, the bank, the gym, the office, the
garden. Preach Jesus in the playground,
the home,
on the sports field, in the staff room and the waiting room. Challenge yourself to see how many times you
can say the name of Jesus in one day! For
others, preaching Jesus is going to look like radically realigning some habits
in your life that other people are watching, and when they see the
transformation from spending time in His presence and copying his example, and when they ask
you about it, then you speak the name of
Jesus.
This
is not some new formula. 1+2 has always
equalled 3.
For
example in the Old Testament, Moses – 1) spends time in God’s presence at the
bush, 2) gets sent to speak the name I AM, and 3) goes with God’s authority
and power.
Or
for example the woman at the well in the New Testament – 1) spends time with
Jesus and has a revelation of who he is.
2) Is sent back to her town when she preaches what she knows, she speaks
of who she’s been spending time with.
And then in verse 39 of John 4, 3) “many of the Samaritans from that
town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” Power
in the name of Jesus.
Maturity
in your faith doesn’t look like sitting listening to a deeper analysis of a
text. It looks like getting out there
and doing the maths. 1+2 = 3. Some of you have got stuck on 1. You’ve got too comfortable with being just
you and Jesus. You haven’t realised that
he wants to send you. This isn’t
mind-blowing new information for many of you but perhaps a reminder that you
need to move on from one to two. Yes, spend time with Jesus – he has called you to himself. But then go – with Him, in His power,
in His authority to preach His name.
It
has been said (Billy Sunday) that “there wouldn’t be so many non-church goers
if there were not so many non-going churches.”
I’ll say that again. Ouch. Let’s not be a church that could be accused
of that. We are the ekklesia – the sent
ones – all different, none of us qualified or deserving – but sent in the power
and name of the One who holds all authority.
Let’s
flick to the end of Mark and look at the very last verse of the book. Chapter 16, verse 20 in the Passion
Translation says this:
“And the apostles went out announcing the good news
everywhere, as the Lord himself consistently worked with them (1), validating the message they preached (2) with
miracle-signs that accompanied them (3).”
1+2=3
They
were with Jesus. He was working with
them. They went out, they preached his
name. Power and authority confirmed His
word. What do we want to see? Miracles of lives transformed by the
gospel. We will only see this when we
start doing the maths. You have been
called exactly as you are, as ordinary as you are, to go with Christ, to speak
His name, in His power. Colossians 1
says this:
“Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and
bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry
to labour with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to
present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus
Christ.” (Colossians 1:28-29 TPT).
So as we come to communion
now, be grateful that none of this is about you! You don’t go in your strength, but in
His. Be grateful that it isn’t
complicated maths. Jesus didn’t set a
task before you that was too great or too difficult - the cross shows us that
first and foremost He has done the hard work of allowing us to come close to
Him. He is calling you to himself and
then He will go with you as you speak His name, and will equip you with the
same victorious Spirit that raised him from the dead.
1 + 2 will always = 3.
Let us pray:
Oh Jesus, thank you that you
call us to relationship with you. That
you are alive and speaking. Help us to
make the time to listen to you, to be with you, to watch and learn from
you. Just as you were sent on mission
from heaven to earth, would you help us to go out as your sent ones. Help us to
be the Church. May we be a people who
are recognised as having been with you.
Give us obedience and power to speak your name with your authority. May we see lives miraculously transformed as
people encounter your glory. In your
powerful and strong name, Amen.
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