Untitled Sermon (23)

Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a large crowd followed from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon.

This is a country wide phenomenon going on.

People from all over are becoming aware of what Jesus is doing.

A large crowd followed him from Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, San Diego, and all of Arizona.

I doubt you could have lived in Israel at this time and not known at least who Jesus was.

And the reason I think this is because people are actually travelling from all over to come hear him.

This is a big deal, you can’t just pick up and go places as easily back then.

Jesus is drawing people in a really gripping way.

But what we’re going to see, is that over time, this group, as they get to know Jesus better and better, will dwindle.

I remember when Pokemon Go first launched.

Everybody knew about it.

I knew 45 year old men who were sneaking away from their desks at work and running out on their lunch breaks to the nearest pokemon gym to try and catch em all.

The thing with Pokemon Go, was that like all viral phenomenons, had a day in the sun when it seemed like literally everyone was playing it.

I remember driving at night past my post office...

By now, a very small percentage of the population play pokemon go everyday.

What initially pulled people out of their homes at all hours of the day was novelty.

And this is what is happening in Israel.

A new thing.

Everybody wants to see it.

But do they want to keep it?

Do they want to be changed by it?

Do they really want to make their whole life about it?

Do they want to submit to it?

Do they want to hitch all their faith and hopes to it?

This is the same choice we are all faced with.

Do we want Jesus to be a conference speaker?

Or do we want him to be Lord?

The large crowd came to Him because they heard everything He was doing.

Then He told His disciples to have a small boat ready for Him, so the crowd would not crush Him.

Here is an example of Jesus’ full humanity. He needs a boat so that he won’t get crowd crushed.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that for many of the people who are coming to see him, they are not interested in hearing him so much as they simply want to touch him and be healed.

And Jesus is showing mercy in these moments and healing them anyway.

Since He had healed many, all who had diseases were pressing toward Him to touch Him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, those possessed fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!” And He would strongly warn them not to make Him known.

Why is Jesus stopping the demons?

Because this is a job that was for people.

Jesus is going to make image bearers be his heralds.

This has to do with the created order of things.

From the beginning it has been mankind which is tasked with dominion. Cultivating the creation and drawing out it’s potential while populating every corner of it with images of God.

Idols?

No.

People.

ANE Temples.

God’s plan for His earth is that His image, (human beings), would fill the earth so that the whole earth would be His temple.

Then He went up the mountain and summoned those He wanted, and they came to Him. He also appointed 12 — He named them apostles — to be with Him, to send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons.

He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, He gave the name Peter, and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, He gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder”) Andrew; Phillip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Aplhaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Zealot, and JudasIscariot, who also betrayed Him.

This is nothing short of Jesus founding the New Israel.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke B. Selection of the Twelve (3:13–19)

There can be little doubt that the number twelve has theological significance. The Twelve represent the new Israel in embryo.

Now hold on...

Does this mean Jesus is just abandoning the old Israel?

Absolutely not.

God never changes, and the commitments he makes in his covenants never change.

Yahweh (the same God who is walking up this mountain with His disciples right now) is the same God who made a covenant with Abraham.

And what did he tell him?

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 12

And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.”

All 12 of these guys are sons of Israel.

All 12 of these guys are as Jewish as you get.

What Jesus is not doing is abandoning His people Israel.

What Jesus IS doing is helping them finally fulfil their charter purpose.

Imagine a boat being christened in Cape Town South Africa.

“This boat will go to New York City!” - Governor

Pulls out of the Harbor and heads east and then wanders for 1800 years.

Governor shows up on this ship, says “I’m the captain now”, and replaces the crew.

The crew is still South Africans, but they’re going to be hand trained by him this time.

Speaking of this crew, who does Jesus select?

Look at the difference and diversity even in Jesus core croup. For starters, it appears that some have a more pronounced role to play than the others. This doesn’t change the value of the others, it just makes Jesus a wise manager.

We can think of the apostles as being like generals in a king’s army. They have massive amounts of authority because of their role and proximity to the King. But even generals have hierarchies amongst themselves.

What is an apostle?

“Sent one” - Authority in the church - Unique time in history

So the question is, are these the guys you should pick if you’re picking the most authoritative roles in the church for all time?

This is the grace of God that any of these men would be chosen.

It is by the grace of God that you are chosen.

These guys were not chosen because they were better than other people.

In fact, the inclusion of Judas in their number proves that point.

Jesus really is making some of the worst draft picks to make his grace even more evident.

John 15:16 “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Yesterday I was watching some baby quail. They are utterly dependent on the one they are following.

These little guys are so small they honestly look like a gust of wind could take them out.

The presence of Judas is a reminder to us today that when men who are in high positions of authority in the church fall, it does not stop the mission of God.

Calvin: “When even the pillars fall, those who appear to be the weakest of believers may remain steady.”

These guys are dorks.

Over the rest of the gospels we see them confused about who Jesus is, arguing about who’s the greatest, trying to start religious wars, losing faith, misunderstanding parables, and at the last, abandoning Jesus as He is dying on the cross.

But you know what else we see?

Gradual growth.

This selection of the disciples that we see in chapter 3 is a good deal before the events we will see in chapter 6 when they are actually sent out to preach and cast out demons.

The three chapters in-between are going to be filled with training.

And what is their training?

Spending time with Jesus.

Think about the implications of this for all of us.

We are ALL called to be workers in Christ’s church.

Priest-Kings

If God chose the foolish and the weak to be the generals in His kingdom, why would He not choose the foolish and the weak to fill the earth?

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 HCSB

26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world —what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

If you want to serve in Christ’s church, you do not need formal training.

You should get your hands on it if you can,

but the most fundamental training you can get is by spending time with Jesus in His word.

If you are preparing to teach the Bible, something like seminary training can be really good.

But a seminarian who has not sat long at Jesus’ feet is not someone who should be teaching others.

The key to any gospel ministry is the grace of God.

We could try and stack the deck here, and hire pastors that look cool, sound cool, and seem powerful.

But that’s not how God grows His kingdom.

He uses ordinary people.

Pastors, apostles, elders, deacons....

These are not the ministers.

The church itself is.

Ephesians 4:11–16 LEB

11 And he himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers 12 for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be infants, tossed about by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of people, by craftiness with reference to the scheming of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow into him with reference to all things, who is the head, Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined together and held together by every supporting ligament, according to the working by measure of each single part, the growth of the body makes for the building up of itself in love.

The symphony of mission.

Jesus as the conductor.

All have a role to play.

Then He went home, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat. When His family heard this, they set out to restrain Him, because they said, “He’s out of His mind.”

Jesus is utterly misunderstood by his family.

If you are going to follow Jesus then you are committing yourself to following a God who died.

And every week you go to church and make faith claims with other people about how he rose from the dead.

The people who are closest to you are the first ones to hurt you.