The Gospel of Mark: The Servant, the Crowds, and the Kingdom

Text: Mark 3:13-4:34

Theme: In His ministry, Jesus founded a New Nation, a New Family, and a New Kingdom.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV84)

I. HE FOUNDED A NEW NATION

Mark 3:13-19 "He went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: (he appointed the twelve:) Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him."

1. the number of the apostles is significant because they are representative of the twelve tribes of Israel

a. in Genesis, God started with Jacob’s twelve sons, and in Exodus, He built them into a mighty nation of people

2. God’s purpose in choosing Israel was to bring the Messiah into the world so that through Him all the nations of the earth could be blessed

Genesis 12:1-3 "The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” NIV

a. this was a part of God’s plan for Israel that her leaders never fully understood

b. by the time of our Lord’s incarnation and earthly ministry, Israel was so spiritually decayed that she would not recognize the Promised One of Israel when He arrived

c. after three years of ministry, they would reject and crucify Him

1) Jesus prophesied this in his Parable of the Landowner Matt. 21:33-43

3. from the beginning, God’s heart desire was to establish a holy nation and a peculiar people of His own

a. the twelve apostles became the nucleus of this new spiritual nation

ILLUS. In 2,000 years Christendom has grown from 120 disciples gathered in an room praying to an estimated 2.3 billion adherents.

4. the church has grown from this tiny group of men to become a mighty spiritual nation

Ephesians 2:17-22 "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." NIV

5. in the Apostles, Jesus established a new nation

II. HE FOUNDED A NEW FAMILY

Mark 3:20-21 "Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” NIV

Mark 3:31-35 "Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” NIV

1. our Lord’s own family have reached a fateful conclusion – Jesus is, at the least, confused, and at the worst, deranged

2. Mark’s gospel reports that large crowds are following Jesus

a. His family hears amazing reports concerning what He is doing and what He is saying

b. He is less than a year into His public ministry and He has already so outraged Israel’s spiritual leaders, that they begin to plot His assassination

Mark 3:6 "Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus." NIV

3. in the minds of his brothers and sisters, Jesus is simply not living a normal life, so they travel thirty miles to Capernaum to take Him home

4. history reveals that God’s servants are usually misjudged by their contemporaries, and often misunderstood by their families

ILLUS. We know D.L. Moody as one the great evangelists, preachers and Christian gentlemen of the 19th century. But in his lifetime, he was called Crazy Moody by many people in Chicago.

a. even the Apostle Paul was thought mad (Acts 26:24-25)

5. our Lord is not being rude to His family when He remains in the house and does not come out to them

a. if Jesus had yielded to His family, He would have played right into the hands of the Jewish religious leaders

b. they would have said, “See. We told you he was just another charlatan. This man’s crazy – don’t take Jesus of Nazareth too seriously.”

6. instead of giving in, He used this moment as an opportunity to teach a spiritual lesson: His ‘family’ is made up of all those who do the will of God

a. at this time, Jesus’ earthly half-brothers and sisters are not believers

John 7:5 "His brothers were pushing him like this because they didn’t believe in him either." The Message

b. Jesus felt closer to the believing publicans and sinners than He did to James, Joses, Judah, and Simon

III. HE ANNOUNCED A NEW KINGDOM

Mark 3:22-30; 4:1-34

1. the crowds hoped that Jesus would deliver the nation and defeat Rome

a. we know this, because on several occasions, they were determined to take Jesus and enthrone Him in Jerusalem

John 6:13-15 "So they gathered up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left from the five barley loaves. When the people saw this miracle that Jesus did, they said, “He must truly be the Prophet who is coming into the world.” Jesus knew that the people planned to come and take him by force and make him their king, so he left and went into the hills alone." NCV

b. the crowds expected Jesus to restore the nation to it’s ancient greatness under Kings David and Solomon

2. instead, Jesus called twelve ordinary men and founded a new kingdom – a spiritual kingdom whose citizens had their names written down in heaven

3. to describe this kingdom, Jesus tells four stories – what we’ve come to call, Kingdom Parables – to explain the nature of this new Kingdom

a. the first is the Parable of the Sower

1) in this parable we learn that throughout the life of the church true believers and counterfeit believers will worship side-by-side

2) in the end, when God’s angels gather His church, the tares will be separated from the wheat and burned

b. the second story is the Parable of the Lamp

1) in this parable, Jesus reminds us that the kingdom grows as His disciple share the light of truth

c. the third is the Parable of the Seed

1) growth of the Kingdom is inevitable

2) when the seed of the Gospel is cast into the world like a farmer casts seed to the ground, a harvest will result

d. the forth is the Parable of Mustard Seed

1) this parable reminds us that good things come in small packages

2) the Kingdom of God will start small – just twelve men – but it will grow into a mighty tree

4. God’s Kingdom is not like the kingdoms of this world

IV. LESSONS FROM MARK 3:13-4:34

A. THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS WE BECOME CITIZENS OF THE HEAVENLY NATION

1. as citizens of another nation, we must be ambassadors to this nation

ILLUS. Augustine's City of God

2. we are citizens of a heavenly nation and we need to represent our king to the people of this world

B. THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS WE BECOME CHILDREN IN GOD’S FAMILY

1. God’s will is more important than family influence

2. Jesus was not suggesting that believers ignore or abandon their families in order to serve God

a. He is saying that we must put God’s will above everything else in life

3. our love for God should be should be so great that our love for family could be interpreted by the world as hate

Luke 14:26-27 “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple." The Message

a. certainly it is God’s will that we care for our families and provide for them

1 Timothy 5:8 "Anyone who neglects to care for family members in need repudiates the faith. That’s worse than refusing to believe in the first place." The Message

b. but we must not permit even our dearest loved ones to influence us away from the will of God

1) when you consider the importance of the family in the Jewish culture of that day, you can imagine how radical Christ’s words must have sounded – especially to His family

4. how does one enter into this new family of God?

a. by means of a new birth – a spiritual birth – from above

1 Peter 1:22-25 "Now that you have made your souls pure by obeying the truth, you can have true love for your Christian brothers and sisters. So love each other deeply with all your heart. You have been born again, and this new life did not come from something that dies, but from something that cannot die. You were born again through God’s living message that continues forever. The Scripture says, “All people are like the grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass dies and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord will live forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8

C. THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS WE BECOME SUBJECTS OF THE KING OF KINGS