Well, and good morning to you, more officially.
Sometimes I hate that my introduction each morning of myself is being silly with the kids,
! but that's also okay. Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Mark chapter 3. We'll be looking together today at verses 7 through 19.
And as you're getting there, I just wanted to publicly say that I'm really thankful for our musicians.
We have been just immensely blessed with musical talent in our little congregation, and I hope you can be as thankful for them as I am.
They get together and put together the arrangements of all of these songs on Sunday morning, usually about 8 o'clock, 8.30 they show up.
Get up a little bit earlier than the rest of you and get here and work really hard at making that happen.
And I love Christmas songs here, and I don't normally like Christmas songs too much, and so I'm thankful for them.
I'm also really thankful for Wes. I realized last night, Wes was telling me his little heads up on his voice failing him,
and he's been feeling really sick, and realized that Wes has a perfect attendance record.
He has never once called in sick on leading us in songs.
Sometimes he stands off to the side and lets somebody else sing more, but he's never actually said,
I cannot get on stage this Sunday, and I'm thankful for that as well.
Let's read together in Mark chapter 3, beginning in verse 7.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed,
from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edumea 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 the 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 Canaanian, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Let's pray together.
Father, we pray this morning that you will bless the reading, the preaching, and the hearing of your word.
That you will find us humble, submitting to its authority over our lives,
and finding it sufficient as a guide for holy living.
Father, we cannot accomplish any of this on our own.
We are not wise enough of ourselves to understand.
I am certainly not gifted enough of myself to properly speak what this has to mean for us today.
So we pray, Father, you work by your Spirit in us, and we pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
So we've come through a number of different accounts of events that have happened,
and Mark, he moves.
Boy, does he scoot right along.
And he does it again to us here in 7 through 12.
Just really presses through stories quickly.
And I've said to you before, I've struggled a bit knowing,
what do we preach about?
What do we say?
I often read at the beginning of each week, kind of the next text as we work through this.
And I don't really know where to stop, because often I read, in this case,
I read all the way to the end of the chapter until I really felt like,
okay, that's enough to talk about on Sunday morning.
But then as I continue to meditate on it and re-read it and meditate on it some more
and pray about what it means for us, I'm able to back up a little bit and see more of the value
and see why it is that Mark's account is so punchy and he moves so quickly here through the text.
Recall recently we've been talking about all of these encounters that he had with the religious culture,
namely the Pharisees and the scribes.
And he gets us now here to verse 7, saying that Jesus withdrew,
which I think is rightly understood in light of verse 6.
That after all these encounters, the Pharisees went out immediately and held counsel with the Herodians,
or would have been a kind of a political party of the day, against him, how to destroy him.
And so he withdraws again to the wilderness to be by the sea.
And we see again a great crowd following him.
And it seems that he always in his ministry was walking a fine line between making himself known,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
and having people know that he was in fact the Son of God, and death.
And he did so because his time had not yet come.
It had not been fulfilled.
He was trying to perfectly complete his ministry.
John chapter 7, verse 30, we see he says,
excuse me, that it says,
they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him,
because his hour had not yet come.
And we see in our text here, verse 11 and 12,
this account of the unclean spirits,
or people who were possessed by demons,
falling down in front of him and proclaiming who he is.
You are the Son of God.
And he gives to them a strict command not to let him be known.
So it's interesting that we see this activity as it seems to be juxtaposed against the activity of all of those who were following him.
Notice these people are coming from all regions now.
It's an expanding area as he's been ministering in Galilee.
We see them coming from Jerusalem, which would have been the center of life for them.
From Edumea, which was south of Jerusalem, a whole region south of Jerusalem.
From beyond the Jordan, which would have been east of Jerusalem,
as Jerusalem lied to the west of Jordan.
And from Tyre and Sidon, which are far north, kind of northeast on the coast of the Mediterranean.
So people are coming from all over.
And I've said to you repeatedly that these people were not necessarily disciples of Christ.
Notice in our text, it says,
because they heard all that he was doing.
Verse 10,
For he had healed many.
So they came to press in around him to gain what they could from him for their benefit.
They were following him for what he could do for them, not for who he was.
So it's interesting that he records here that the demons, when they encounter him, recognize who he is.
They lay prostrate before him and claim that he is the Son of God.
But it's not proper to think that they worshipped him in spirit and truth as they should have.
James 2.19, James is giving us a case for faith and works and how they function in together.
And he says, even the demons believe in shudder.
And he's setting that up against those who are of faith, who are disciples, who follow, are also obedient to his ways.
So I found that to be quite fascinating.
So we see this juxtaposition going on here between the crowd and the demons, as well as great crowds and true disciples.
Remember in Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out 72 disciples to begin advancing the kingdom work.
We see here that he has 12 apostles, three of which were his close friends.
And after his crucifixion and the beginning of Acts, we see that 120 are gathered, trying to figure out what they should do next.
And so this seems to be the sum of the beginning of his ministry as he puts the wheels into motion for the gospel to advance amongst all peoples.
And that's where we find ourselves today, still in that process of preaching the gospel amongst all peoples everywhere.
So recognize that.
That Jesus in many ways was very narrow.
We live in a day of acceptance of all things.
And you seem to be a good person if you're open-minded and willing to wrap your arms around all things.
I have a very good friend that I kind of went through the college years with who was, by his own definition, very open-minded.
But if you weren't open-minded the same way he was, he didn't like you, which made him a very closed-minded, open-minded person, did it not?
Right?
But we see here that Jesus is very specific about who he comes to preach to and who he calls.
Verse 9 says that he has the disciples prepare a boat for him.
We can understand this, that what he was going to do was put some water between him and the crowd so they could no longer come to touch him,
so they could no longer come to be healed, but so that he could preach.
This is the primary thing that Jesus came to do.
That was to preach.
Remember that the signs that he was performing simply existed to validate the power of his message.
That's why they existed.
Remember the message.
Chapter 1, verse 15.
Jesus says,
This is what he's driving at.
So we can see chapter 4, verse 1.
He teaches behind the sea from a boat.
So it's likely that this is why he would have had them prepared.
Right?
Both to spare his life, but to separate himself from what they were coming for and to rather give them what they needed.
He steps away from this scene in verse 13.
And in the ESV he says he went up on the mountain.
And I spent some time this week trying to figure out what mountain this was.
I thought there could be some significance and some weight to it.
And had quite a time until I thought, you know, I really probably ought to check the original text.
Or to see what it really means.
And in fact, you could easily render this and he went up on a mountain.
There is no article in the Greek.
So he just went up on a mountain.
Likely to escape what was going on by the sea.
To step away.
To go to a place that was more reclusive.
And he calls out of the group that is with him, that are his disciples,
those whom he desired and they came to him.
And we see here at work God's elective purposes.
You notice that he does not go up on the mountain and post a job description and take applications
and choose amongst the applicants the best fitted for the job.
But he rather calls those whom he desired.
And then we see the poignant, short response of Mark.
And they came to him.
John chapter 6, verse 44.
Jesus says,
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And the Greek for draw here is not a nudging.
Right?
Imagine a tug of war.
I hope that none of you get into a tug of war.
It's probably been years for most of you since that's happened.
Right?
And I hope that in your mind when you're drawing somebody in a tug of war,
you're not gently coaxing them across the line.
If you do that, I never want to be on a tug of war team with you.
Right?
You drag.
And the Greek word here means literally that.
To draw.
To drag.
Right?
We find often in Greek literature this word used.
The way water is pulled up out of a well.
Right?
You don't beckon the water to come,
but you rather put the bucket in and you bring it up by force.
And it comes out of the well.
So here we see God's good purposes in electing men to be his apostles.
These are no great men that he called.
You remember that some of these men are tax collectors.
They would have been viewed as the lowliest of individuals in the society.
They would have been seen as betrayers of the nation of Israel.
They were serving Rome by collecting taxes.
They were extortioners.
In fact, the way they made their money,
they were given permission to tax at whatever rate they wanted to,
provided that Rome got theirs.
Right?
They were typically very evil men.
They really weren't fair.
And we see fishermen who were not wise men by any stretch of imagination.
In this region, this was the commons man job.
The blue-collar work was to go and work on the fisher's boats.
We see some rebels, quite possibly.
Those who were of the nationalist party, so to speak.
I think they would have been tea party people in this day.
Simon the Canaanite, which did not mean that he was from Canaan.
You'll see in other texts him called Simon the Zealot,
which likely means that he was part of this party.
And there's some evidence, without getting into it,
that Judas Iscariot was actually a mercenary,
a hired gun for this party,
that he would have actually carried out assassination attempts for money.
And we see him later being tempted by money in the betrayal of Christ.
All throughout the Gospel of Mark,
we don't see the apostles presented as very holy men.
He's very clear to point out all of their faults,
and he does that for us here in verse 19 with Judas,
who betrayed him.
Never building up the men themselves,
but the God of the men, rather.
These men are called together,
and they are men who would have been in great opposition to one another.
Remember, fishermen were the ones being extorted by the tax collectors.
And those who were revolutionaries
would have hated the tax collectors for being loyal to Rome.
So, a hodgepodge of men,
all Jewish in descent to be sure,
but calls together a group of individuals
who would have never associated
if it weren't for the calling of Christ.
My mind was particularly drawn to the church in this day,
and that we should look this way.
We should be of different background and affinity,
different ethnicities.
We ought to be called together
with the great commonality
of what God has done for us in Christ.
I get a little bit burned up,
although it's in good motivation,
and I don't fault men for doing it,
but men who want to do things
like start biker churches,
who have a very narrow and specific group of people,
and they're going to tailor everything that they do
for that particular affinity.
And the binding thing for them
begins to be more about loud pipes and chrome
than Jesus Christ.
So, these men,
who would have hated one another,
go up on a mountain with Jesus,
and they become apostles,
and they spend the next three years together
ministering with one another.
And these ordinary men are called to do
absolutely extraordinary things.
We see two primary things that they are called to do.
Firstly,
and it's easy to miss this, I think,
so that they might be with Him.
See that in verse 14.
So that they might be with Him.
Jesus communed perfectly
with the Father
and the Spirit
in His Spirit.
He had great communion with them.
This was not something that was broken
when He came down from heaven
and became a man.
But He also communed
with men in His flesh.
He sets for us
the example
that while we need to commune
with the Trinity in our spirit,
we also need to commune
with the church
in our flesh.
We need one another.
And this seems to be the case
of Jesus Himself.
Not that these men
had particular gifts
to offer to Him,
but that He had a desire
for community
as a man.
Hebrews 10,
verse 23-25
exhorts us to this.
The writer says,
Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering.
For He who promised
is faithful.
And let us consider
how to stir up one another
to love and good works.
So He's giving us
this exhortation
to hold fast to our confession,
to remain true
in the faith
because He who promised
is faithful,
and to stir up one another
to love and good works.
To be operating
from faith
for faith.
Verse 25,
not neglecting
to meet together.
They seem to be
at odds with one another.
If we're to do these things,
we must meet together.
He says,
As is the habit of some,
so it's no new thing
that people don't meet together
with the church,
but encourage one another
and all the more
as you see the day
drawing near.
So as Jesus sets for us
an example,
we can learn from this.
Do we come together
on Sunday mornings
and at various other times
because it's the thing
that Christians do?
You're doing your
proper duty
if you show up
on a Sunday morning.
You've paid your dues
and you can go on
about your week.
Or do you do it
because you long
to be with God's people?
Because you know
that the mission
that God has set us on
requires community.
Because you have recognized
that true Christian ministry
can never happen
apart from the context
of the church.
That you have felt
your own weakness
and seen that you need
to be built up
by the body of believers.
I realize this
more and more
the more I mature
in Christ.
I'm not outgrowing community,
but I'm growing into it.
I need you.
The praises that you guys sing
on Sunday morning
have immeasurable encouragement
to my heart.
You have to know
I love that we do
two songs before.
I usually don't sing.
I'm just quiet
and listen to you guys
just belt it out.
From the back of the room
I can hear you.
I need that kind
of encouragement
to continue
in the faith
to love
and to good works.
So he sets these
men apart
to be with him
but also
to send them out.
In fact,
this little parenthetical
that Mark adds
whom he also named
apostles
means sent out ones.
That's what that word means.
And certainly
these were
specific apostles.
apostles.
These twelve
later,
some were added
to that number.
We know Judas
actually was not.
We added later
Matthias and Paul
get added to that
number of apostles.
But it means
to us
sent out ones.
We all have
an apostolic
calling.
It would be wrong
to call any of us
apostles
for our understanding
to properly give
these men
their specific
time,
their specific
authority that they had
to author
the word of God,
some other things.
But we must recognize
that as these men
were sent out
to preach,
so are we.
Listen to Paul
in 2 Corinthians 5
beginning in verse 17.
If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
If anyone.
So catch that.
That includes all of you
who are found in Christ.
If anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold,
the new has come.
All this is from God
who through Christ
reconciled us to himself
and gave us
the ministry
of reconciliation.
Notice that inclusive language.
He gave it to us.
That is,
verse 19,
in Christ,
God was reconciling
the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses
against them,
and entrusting to us
the message
of reconciliation.
Therefore,
we are ambassadors
for Christ.
God making his appeal
through us.
We've been given
this message
of reconciliation.
And it is therefore
now our responsibility
as ambassadors
for Christ
to make God's appeal
through us.
And to be clear,
he doesn't need us
to accomplish that.
Sit on your hands.
Go right ahead.
God will raise up
new people
to carry that message.
He does this
because he loves us.
The greatest thing
that God could possibly
give to us
is himself.
He has a mission
in this world,
and that is to redeem
his church.
To make all things new.
To restore things
back to the way
they should be.
And because he loves us,
he has decided
to use us
as the means
to that end.
He's given us
this message
of reconciliation.
Which is what?
The last half of verse 20
says,
We implore you
on behalf of Christ
be reconciled to God.
And here it is.
Verse 21.
For our sake
he made him to be sin
who knew no sin
so that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
It's that simple.
He made him
who knew no sin
to be sin
so that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
God owes
sin
eternal punishment.
And he therefore
had to punish it.
He had to pour
his wrath out
on it.
And he had to do
so eternally.
So only an eternally
perfect sacrifice
could die in our stead
for our sin.
This is the gospel message.
And this is the message
that these men
were sent out
to preach
the good news
of the kingdom
of God.
Don't let that be
too complex in your mind.
This is the thing
that they were meant
to go out
and to preach.
At the end of Mark
chapter 16
verse 15
we see Mark's account
of the Great Commission
recorded this way
and he said to them
go into all the world
and proclaim the gospel
to the whole creation.
Whoever believes
and is baptized
will be saved
but whoever does not
believe will be condemned.
And these signs
will accompany
those who believe.
In my name
they will cast out demons.
They will speak
in new tongues.
They will pick up
serpents with their hands
and if they drink
any deadly poison
it will not hurt them.
They will lay their hands
on the sick
and they will recover.
And here you see this
prediction of the things
that will happen
as he has said
he's going to send them
to go do this work.
Right?
For now
they were with him
later
he sends them out
to preach
in this way.
Now we're going to deal with
I believe
next week
the authority
to cast out demons
and everything I just read
at the end of Mark
that seemed fantastical
to you.
I think that's a made up word.
I just made up.
Right?
Well
we'll address these things.
There are whole
sects of our religion
that bank
on some of these
verses
at the end of Mark
chapter 16.
I wonder if any of you
have ever been
in the hills
of Appalachia
and seen people
handle serpents
as a result
of these verses.
But primarily
I want to focus
on the fact
that they were meant
to preach.
Notice it's
ordered in that way.
Right?
And in Greek
things were always
ordered in that function.
Greatest to least.
Right?
So this is the
more important thing.
Right?
We've seen already
that this was the
major thrust
of Jesus'
ministry.
Right?
Was to preach
the kingdom.
The works just
accompanied it
to give validity
to it.
We've got to keep
that straight
in our minds.
Paul said in
Romans chapter 1
verse 16 and 17
the thesis statement
of the book of Romans.
For I am not ashamed
of the gospel
for it is the power
of God for salvation
to everyone who believes
the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness
of God is revealed
from faith for faith.
As it is written
the righteous
shall live
by faith.
Paul says
I'm not ashamed
of the gospel.
And I would ask you
this morning
how many of you
are ashamed
of the gospel.
You're sitting in your seat
you may not say that
but how boldly
do you proclaim it?
Given a situation
to speak
of the good news
of Jesus Christ
do you press into it
or do you shrink back?
The gospel itself
is the power
of God
for salvation.
You see that our religion
is a religion
of words.
Romans 10
17 says
so faith comes from hearing
and hearing
through the word
of Christ.
It was through God's word
that he created the world.
It is through God's word
that he sustained
the world
and it is through
his word
that he regenerates
souls.
This is an amazing
thing.
The power of words
is phenomenal
in this way.
The readers here
of Romans
would have had
their minds drawn back
as Paul talks about
this being
the power of God
for salvation
to all of the things
that God had done
on behalf
of his people.
Think of all the
wonderful things
that God has done.
magnificent things.
Splitting red seas
leading by pillars
of smoke
and fire
defeating armies.
Walls of Jericho
coming crashing down.
And certainly
the hearts of men
have great
stronghold walls
around them
of sin
but it is the power
of God
to break those walls
down and change
men's hearts.
This
is the gospel
that we have been
entrusted with.
the message
of reconciliation.
And it is a
simple message.
A powerful
but simple
message.
Jesus sums it up
here in one verse.
The time is fulfilled
in the kingdom of God
as a hand.
Repent and believe
in the gospel.
Charles Spurgeon
once said,
never lose heart
in the power
of the gospel.
Do not believe
that there exists
any man
much less
any race of men
for whom the gospel
is not fitted.
We have been
entrusted with this
and I know
many of you
don't feel adequate
for that task.
Good.
But the spirit
that dwells within you
is fully adequate.
Completely sufficient
to accomplish
that task.
Many of you
may not feel
smart enough
to take on
the debates
of this day.
You're probably not.
And that's okay.
Just preach
the gospel.
Let God
be powerful
in it.
You can trust
that he will be.
That he will accomplish
his good purchase.
That he will draw
to himself
those whom he
desires
as you go
and you speak
and you preach.
In Paul's first letter
to the Corinthian church
turn here with me
chapter 2
verse 1
of 1 Corinthians.
Paul helps drive
this point for us.
And I am amazed
that numerous times
in Paul's writing
he claims to be
a man of
simple speech
and low understanding
and his writing
is so phenomenally
complex.
Maybe in the
Greek day
it was actually
simple.
To kind of
set the stage
for you
Paul arrived
in Corinth
for the first time
in AD 50.
Corinth was a
highly cultured
town.
Possessed
the best
of Greek culture.
And the Greeks
really valued
high learning.
It was incredibly
important
thing to them.
And in fact
Corinth possessed
a really famous
outdoor theater
that could seat
20,000 people.
One of the things
they possessed
that they
honored
higher than other
things
was lofty speech.
It was an incredibly
important thing
to them.
In fact
here from
I just lost
the spot.
Here we go.
From Stephen J.
Lawson's book
The Kind of Preaching
God Blesses
for the citizens
in Corinth
public rhetoric
was something
lofty and noble.
Something almost
godlike.
It was a refined
form of artistic
expression that
replaced the
savage violence
of gladiatorial
fights and
barbaric sports.
It was worshiped.
Imagine in your
own mind we have
lots of different
things that we
as a culture
worship.
But what is most
highly worshipped
in our culture?
Football players,
baseball players,
celebrity,
things that we
highly, highly
worship those
things.
These men that
were these fine
orders that would
deliver these
rhetorical speeches
to drive somebody
to think a certain
way were the
great men that
were praised
in this day.
And this is
Corinth that he
goes and visits.
He had encountered
many troubles
up to this point.
Both physical
things and
spiritual things.
There were a lot
of closed doors
to him as he
had entered into
Greek cultures
before he gets
to Corinth.
And I would
imagine for him
there would have
been some
temptation to
change the
methodology.
To in some
way think,
okay, I've
entered into
now these
arenas of
these highly
educated people
who really
desire this
high and lofty
speech and
have not gained
any ground.
What could I
do to better
reach people?
Oh, good
motivation in
that.
We see people
all over this
day doing that
very same thing.
Many slick
tongues watering
down the gospel
in the desire to
introduce people
to Christ,
but they
therefore forsake
the gospel
altogether.
Spurgeon also
said, I'm going
to see if I can
get this right
in my own
head, that if
God does not
save people with
the truth, he
will certainly
not save them
with a lie.
Isn't that
true?
Listen to what
Paul says to
the Corinthian
church.
1 Corinthians 2
verse 1,
And I, when I
came to you
brothers, did
not come
proclaiming to
you the
testimony of
God with
lofty speech
or wisdom.
That's the
cultural context
for you to
understand what
he's saying.
For I decided
to know nothing
among you except
Jesus Christ and
him crucified.
And I was with
you in weakness
and in fear and
much trembling.
And my speech
and my message
were not in
plausible words of
wisdom, but in
demonstration of the
spirit and of
power, so that your
faith may not rest in
the wisdom of men,
but in the power
of God.
You hear him
driving that very
point that I've been
making to you,
right?
The message that
Paul brought was
Jesus Christ and
him crucified.
Nothing more and
certainly nothing
less.
This is the power
of God to
salvation.
The gospel of
the coming kingdom
of God.
We live in a
culture that's
really has a
great deal of
aversion to
this.
type of
teaching.
And I think
possibly because
we're the Bible
Belt, I saw a
map yesterday of
all the counties
of the United
States and the
predominant, at
least claimed
religion in each
of those.
I was blown
away that the
entire southeast
was solid red,
which was
Southern Baptist.
Not evangelical
Christian, but
Southern Baptist.
We've seen
people reject
the church for
all kinds of
reasons.
And I think
in that
process,
well-intentioned
people have
begun to
portray the
gospel of
Christ.
In Paul
Washer's book,
The Gospel's
Power and
Message, he
wrote this.
Listen carefully.
Lamentably, in
recent decades, it
seems that salvation
has lost something
of its value.
This is in
people's
perception.
In the opinion
of many, the
promise of salvation
is no longer a
strong enough
motivation to
move the sinner
to repentance
or the saint
to true
devotion.
So we must
add many other
promises to
make the gospel
call appealing.
Health and
wealth, purpose
and power, and
getting the most
out of this
present life are
the real drawing
cards of
contemporary
Christianity.
In fact, the
very things the
pulpit now promises
and people in the
pews seek the
most are often
the very things
that Jesus warned
could be lost in
the course of
true discipleship.
See Matthew
chapter 16 on
that.
According to
him being
Jesus, a man
may have to
lose the
whole world
in order to
be saved.
And yet, in
Jesus' estimation,
it was a
bargain to
get salvation
at such a
small cost.
It seems that
we this day
don't really
understand sin
and the great
atrocity it is
against a
holy God.
So grown up
in this culture
of morality that
just seems a
little thing to
sin, when it
is a vast
thing.
Your one
objection to
the law of
God sets you
up as a
God yourself
and an enemy
of the Most
High.
And it is
through this
gospel message
that we don't
have eternal
punishment.
You can wrap
your mind around
eternal punishment,
misery, forever
and ever and
ever.
Take the most
miserable moment
of your life.
Oh, I've had
some miserable
moments in my
life.
Times when you're
frustrated beyond
belief, when you're
in extreme pain,
when the kids
are driving you
nuts.
And magnify that
and do it for
eternity.
We are saved
from this and we
are saved in the
presence of the
Most High.
The one in whom
we can find joy
and blessing
forever and
ever and
ever.
And this is the
gospel message.
This is it at its
core and this is
what we have been
called to preach.
We must preach
a pure gospel.
And when I say
we, I mean every
single one of us.
We all are
ambassadors of
Christ.
We have all been
given this message
of reconciliation.
Here we speak
specifically of the
apostles, these
ordinary men called
to do these
extraordinary things,
but in the same
way we are sent.
We must preach
a pure gospel.
I pray for us as
individuals in this
church that we
would be like
Ezra.
In Ezra chapter
7 verse 10 we
see the record.
Ezra had set his
heart to study the
law of the Lord
and to do it
and to teach his
statutes and rules
in Israel.
You see that he
had set his heart
to be a disciple,
to study the law
and actually do it,
to actually follow
God in his law
and to teach it,
to make disciples.
And this is how
we are all called
to be disciple-making
disciples.
And understand that
the two cannot exist
apart from one
another.
If you are a
disciple of Christ,
you will necessarily
make disciples of
Christ.
But to clarify for
you, we are all
called to be
disciple-making
disciples.
That is the great
point of Mark's
book.
He's trying to
drive his readers
to that, to see
that those who are
going to follow
Christ will also
bring along others
who will follow
Christ.
And he does that
in his very punchy
way.
He keeps driving
at that point.
And I find here
for us again today,
he does the very
same thing.
We are ordinary
men and women.
And I would say,
in fact, in a lot
of ways, we are
less than ordinary
men and women.
I know that's true
of myself, but we
are called to do
extraordinary things.
That is why
Christ's family
church exists.
To experience,
to proclaim,
and display
the supremacy
of Jesus Christ
in all things,
to all peoples.
And one day,
Christ will
return when
that work is
finished.
Let's pray
together.