Crowds and Called Ones

If you have a Bible, tonight we are going to be in Mark 3:6-19 over the next couple of weeks, we are going to be covering a little more ground than what we have been the last few weeks. I expect us to be done with chapter 3 maybe by the end of the month and done with 4 and into 5 by the end of May so at this point and I’m totally down for wherever the Spirit leads this study, we will probably get to chapter 6 by the end of the school year and then when we pick up again in August after Summer break, we will start 7 and see what the timeline is looking like by the time we get to Christmas. I’m excited to dive into these verses with you because we are going to get a great recap on Christ’s ministry while also seeing one of what I would say are the three types of people in the world. I know in the past that I have said that there are only 2 types of people in the world and I still stand by that. There are those that submit to Christ and live for Him and those that do not. That’s every person in the world covered. You are one of two people: a Christian or an unbeliever. I guess what I am saying is that it is possible to have a sub-category and it is the sub-category that we are going to focus on tonight. This is also why we are going to reference back to verse 6 even though we looked at that last week. What I want to do before we dive into these verses is give you the three types of people that we are going to see in these verses and I want you all on the piece of paper that I’m giving you to make notes of where you think you line up with these three groups of people. What we will do tonight is go through these three types of people and give some distinguishing marks on them and I want you to be as honest as possible on where you think you are in this and you are the only one who is going to see this. Use this as a time to be honest, to reflect, to do some soul-searching because each and every one of us will find ourselves somewhere in these groupings. So, what are the three groups? There’s the despisers, the crowd, and the called. There are those that hate Jesus and want nothing to do with Him or want Him to disappear, there are those that want Jesus solely based on what He has to offer, and there are those who have been called by Christ and have chosen to follow the call. So, let’s dive into these three areas by reading Mark 3:6-19

Mark 3:6–19 NASB95

The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was. And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom He gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, “Sons of Thunder”); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

The Despisers

Out of the verses that we just read, who are the people that despise Jesus here? It’s the Pharisees and the Herodians right? Why did they hate Jesus? What was it that Jesus was doing that caused these people to not just despise Jesus but to seek out a way to destroy Him. It’s one thing to want to kill Jesus, it’s another thing to want to destroy Jesus. The Greek word that is used here is apollumi (Uh-pole-ah-me), this means that they don’t just want to kill the body, they want to destroy everything about Jesus. They want to get rid of everything that He is doing and put an end to it. It takes a lot of hate to kill someone but this is such a hate-filled desire to murder that Mark doesn’t even use the Greek word to kill to describe it. The Pharisees see Jesus as a threat to their religious system while the Herodians see Jesus as a threat to their political position. The Herodians were a group that supported the dynasty of King Herod and they were loyal to Rome so they hated Jesus because they saw His popularity with the crowds as this potential threat to Herod and Rome. But these two groups of people are not the only groups of people to hate Jesus, we see perhaps His greatest enemies in verse 11 where the unclean spirits are seen opposing Him. The unclean spirits would come before Jesus and they would identify Him as the Son of God but this wasn’t an acknowledgement of faith. Satan knows exactly who Jesus is so of course his demons know exactly who Jesus is. This is another reminder to us that knowledge about Jesus does nothing for the eternal destinies of anyone. You can know exactly who Jesus is and be completely and utterly lost. What the demons are attempting to do here is discredit the person, work, and authority of Jesus. By shouting out that Jesus is the Son of God, the demons are hoping that Jesus will be forced into a position that He was not willing to go to. There’s two motives perhaps behind the work of the unclean spirits and the first is that by claiming Jesus to be the Son of God, they would force Jesus to reveal elements about Himself that would push Him to a position that He was not called to be in. But perhaps the clearest reason or motive that the demons had was that by naming Jesus, they were hoping that this would in some way give them power and authority over Him. R.C. Sproul points to how Adam was given authority to name the animals in the garden because by naming them, it shows the dominion of the human race over the animals. What the demons are hoping to do is proclaim authority for the kingdom of darkness and attempting to claim authority and rule over Jesus by identifying Him. Of course, this won’t happen because Jesus clearly has all authority over the supernatural world. Now you may be here and you might be wondering how someone in the 21st century could possibly relate to these people. Well if you stopped and thought about it, it is possible that you hate Jesus. You look at the way that He has called you to live and you feel that your life would be significantly better if He and His teachings went away. You might think that He’s a fraud, that He is not God or savior at all and that all of the people that are following Him are just idiots. How can they possibly believe what this man teaches! Who is He to tell me how to live my life? I’m the master of my fate, I’m the captain of my soul, and I will live my life in whatever way I choose! In your mind, you aren’t here because you want to know Jesus! You’re here tonight in spite of Jesus! You are here for every reason but Jesus! You might also be thinking, “Look, I’m not a Christian but I wouldn’t say that I hate Jesus! That’s such a strong word!” But why are you so indifferent towards Him? What accusation do you have against Him? Why reason could you hate our Lord and Savior? John 15:24–25 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” You could not convince me that it was possible for me to hate Jesus, I’ve seen far too much! I have seen far too much of His love for me, I have experienced far more grace than I could possibly deserve, yet in your heart you are convinced that if it were possible that you would damn our spotless, perfect Savior to hell. You might not be able to put into words why, but you would. You have so hated Him that has come to seek and save the lost for no reason other than He has shown you yourself. And He has shown you how you are to live and you refuse to acknowledge that He has authority over you. If you find that you are in this category, I must ask, what possible reason do you have to hate Christ? What good thing has He taken from you? What thing could He not abundantly make up for that you would reject Him so? Why do you hate Him so? Why do you reject Him? Maybe you have never taken the time to really think about it. Maybe you have just instinctively hated Him but you never thought about why you would do so. Maybe on your paper you write down why you think you have to hate Him and what you could do to address that hate. Not with more hate, but maybe with a desire to come and reason together. Remember what Isaiah 1:18 said, ““Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.” Now not everyone may fall into this category. The second category that we see is what we will call the crowd.

The Crowd

Who is it that makes up the crowd? Well we can assume that out of the crowd, there were some that were true followers of Jesus but I want to use the crowd to identify a mindset that is behind many that are interested in Jesus but do not want to commit totally to Jesus. It should not be lost on us that in Mark 3:7-8, we see a great multitude, a great number of people from all over the Middle East coming to see Jesus but if we fast forward to just a few chapters later, how many of those would still be there? I want you to look at Mark 3:8 again. Mark 3:8 “and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him.” Why did so many of these people come? They heard about the things that He was doing. Maybe they just wanted to see Him do a miracle, maybe they themselves were suffering and hoping for a miracle, maybe they had a certain level of curiosity about who Jesus was and what He was doing. I think that for many of these people they saw Jesus as simply a means to get what they wanted. Many wanted physical healing, many wanted a political Savior, maybe they wanted to learn from a great and godly teacher, but it could be argued that they didn’t necessarily care where or who it came from as long as they got it. Many wanted all the gifts of Heaven without any of the commitment to get it. They wanted the gifts of God and maybe the presence of God but they wanted it divorced from the person of God! These people have an interest in Jesus, in fact I think quite a few people in the world would say that they have an interest in Jesus but they have an interest in Him as a person, as a historical figure, maybe as a legend, they don’t have any interest in submission to Him. One could argue that really what they want is just someone that they can turn to when they want or need them. They don’t want to sign up for a long term contract. The crowd mentality is the mentality of, “Jesus, here’s my problem. Fix it.” The crowd mentality is never, “Jesus, here I am, change me!” C.S. Lewis points out that there is a common approach to those that come to Jesus in the Gospels. Lewis wrote: “We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild admiration.” To the crowd, Jesus is no more than a genie in a bottle. He’s no more than the equivalent of a spiritual Santa Claus and people are ok with that. How come? Because a Santa Claus doesn’t make any real demands of you. A Jesus like this can give but not take. Yet we absolutely need Jesus to take things from us! We need Him to take our sin, we need Him to take us from the present domain of darkness, we need Him to take all the garbage of our soul so that He can give newness of life. The reality of Jesus though is that you can’t take what you want and leave the rest. Jesus requires your soul, your life, your all. There is a huge difference between being a part of the crowd and being a disciple. Douglas O’Donnell puts it like this: “Crowds follow after personal benefits, while disciples seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, no matter how popular the ruler and the rules of that kingdom might be, and no matter what it might cost him.” What then might this look like in your life? Well maybe you need to ask this question: Am I a convert or am I a consumer? What is it that you really want out of a connection or relationship with Jesus? Would you even say that it is a relationship that you want? Deep down, what is it that you want out of Jesus?

The Called

Now the last group that we get to is the called. These are found in verses 13-19 but look at what Mark says in Mark 3:13 “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.” Mark says that Jesus summoned or called those whom He Himself wanted. What I want to emphasize here is not so much who the disciples are, we may do that next week, but what is distinctive about them. What’s distinctive about the called is that they are not some lump of individuals that were thrown together but Jesus specifically chose those that He wanted to come to Him and they did. What we need to know is that all true Christians are called. There is not a single Christian that exists that has not been called by Christ to follow Him. What this means is that every called Christian has been chosen. They have been chosen of God for all eternity and all that God calls will come to Him. Jesus says in John 6:37–39 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” Jesus doesn’t say that a select few that the Father gives to Him will come, He says that every single one that has been gifted to the Son by the Father will come. There are two types of calls when it comes to the Gospel: a general call and a specific call. The general call involves us preaching the Gospel to all people, regardless of who may or may not respond. The specific call is the call of God to the heart. This is the call that Jesus speaks of in John 6. Matthew Barrett describes it like this: “The calling of God is both general, the gospel call that goes out indiscriminately to all, and particular, the effectual, spiritual call wherein the Father calls the elect to the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Now it is not our job to decide who has the particular or effectual calling because we are told to simply share the Gospel. In order to be a Christian, there has to be a specific call to the heart by the Holy Spirit because man is powerless on His own to answer the call. Jesus goes on to say in John 6:44–45 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” Keep in mind that before you were saved, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. The question that I want to propose to you is this: What can a dead man do? If we were to go out to the graves right now and open up a coffin, what would that body do? Nothing. Nothing but stink. You need to recognize that your salvation was not you do half and Jesus do the other half. Your salvation is entirely of the Lord. You were not floating in a choppy and stormy sea and Christ just so happened to toss you a life preserver. No, you were dead at the bottom of the ocean, covered in barnacles and all other gross stuff, but Christ who is your life appeared and drew you out of that trench and gave you new life. That is what the Gospel does. It saves to the uttermost those that God has called to Himself. Have you heard the call? You’ve all heard the general call but have you heard the specific, particular call of the Gospel to your heart of hearts? Have you responded? Because all true Christians have responded to the call. Like Peter later on in John 6:68–69 have you responded: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”” Have you come to Christ not just for what He offers but have you come for Himself? Have you come to embrace all that Christ is and what He offers? Now you might be here and you might find yourself in one of the other groups and think, “Oh, how I wish I could go but I am not sure if I can do it. I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” Ask Him! Ask Him! Go to Him now and remember what Christ Himself says in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” What fear do you have to go to Him? It does not matter the baggage that you come with, trust me He has dealt with people far worse than you, and those that have come longing for Him He has never sent away. Who is it that can come to Christ? It is you! James Montgomery Boice said, “Even if you are a great sinner, you may come. The Bible tells us that Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What is your sin? Murder? Adultery? Theft? It does not matter. If you will come to Jesus, you will be received! Children of Christian parents, you who have been running away from the God of your father and mother, you may come! Whoever comes to me I will never drive away. Backslider! Whoever comes to me I will never drive away. You who are indifferent! Whoever comes to me I will never drive away!” All of you stand somewhere within these three groups. Which one do you belong to? And are you going to stay there? To whom do you belong and who is it that you serve? We all want Jesus for something. Some to destroy, some to entertain, some to save and make new. What do you want Jesus for. As we close in prayer and worship, reflect on that and make changes now that need to be made. Let’s pray.