Who Can Jesus Use? 4-18-2021
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Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 27:24
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· 79 viewsFollowing Jesus ministry journey through the Gospel of Mark
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Intro
Intro
Perhaps David Cassidy story of the girl trampled to death.
Well intending people can hurt others
How far would you walk?
How far would you walk?
I met a missionary once who wasn’t and evangelist.
He wasn’t a teacher in a mission school
He wasn’t an administrator, taking care of the mission finances.
He wasn’t even a mechanic, maintaining the mission vehicles.
He was a dentist.
A retired dentist
gone into full time service with a mission in Central or South America.
On the mission field many people were very excited to come to him for help.
Many of the poor country folks walked long distances, to get his help.
One man had walked a very great distance to see this missionary dentist.
His teeth were so bad that he was using battery acid to numb his tooth pain!
As we begin our scripture lesson today, let’s take note of how far people walked to see Jesus
Jesus wasn’t doing dental work, but he was ministering and teaching those that came.
Jesus advance to the Lake
Jesus advance to the Lake
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed.
So, people from within 25 to 30 miles of the sea of Galilee were coming to see Jesus.
Would you walk that far, to see Jesus?
[pause]
I notice 2 things about this crowd:
It’s a large crowd and
they seem to have left the Pharisees behind.
I am sure Jesus got tired of dealing with the Pharisees,
who were mostly not interested in being his disciples.
They were just their to cause him trouble.
Reading on....
8 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.
Do you know where these places are?
Judea is the area around Jerusalem and
south of there, so our map has to extend out quite a ways
by car today, the trip is about 120 miles
Would you walk that far, in a walking culture
to hear Jesus
to go check Him out?
When you add in Idumea, that starts south of Judea and
includes the territory the Edomites held down to the south of the Dead See.
It’s the territory where Herod the Great came from.
Next in the list is
The territories across the Jordan would include Decapolis and Perea
And Tyre and Sidon are on the coast, in the land of Syria.
Today, there isn’t any place you and I could walk, drive or fly to see Jesus,
but we can meet Him in prayer, and in His word.
How bad do you want a blessing?
How bad do you want a blessing?
In stories, that kind of question,
usually reveals some huge task to be done,
before you get what you want.
In the wizard of Oz,
Dorthy had to get the wicked Witch of the West’s broom
before the Good witch Glinda would get her home
to Kansas.
But this time, I’m thinking about the danger of
a huge crowd shoving and pushing and storming the star they came to see,
that is Jesus Christ.
Does that seem unlikely?
illus
In May of 1974, David Cassidy was a rising Rock Star on a world tour.
He had a concert near London England with 35,000 fans present.
They really loved him. And perhaps they all wanted a scrap of his shirt. Who knows but
Suddenly a stampede started and nearly 800 fans were injured and one 14 year old girl, Bernadette Whelan died of her injuries.
Cassidy cut short his tour and never again performed at such large concerts.
Jesus, knowing the hearts of men, did not want to be swamped by the huge crowd,
Mark records.....
9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him.
If the water was calm, the sound would travel well to the crowd of the water. But you might wounder, why was Jesus so popular
that Jesus was concerned about them swarming him?
It says
10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him.
They were so excited about getting there healing, they were all crowding in.
People could have gotten hurt.
I wonder if we are ever like that?
I wonder if we ever are so focused on our blessings
our needs
our wants that
we miss out on helping other.
When Paul gave advice on how to run a church service in 1 Corinthians 14, he talks about taking turns so ALL can be edified.
But a mob seeking a blessing from touching Jesus,
is selfish,
they are being self focused, not other focused.
Maybe our blessing was finances and we need to help others learn how to save
how to budget
how to maintain a house or a car
Maybe our blessing is wisdom, or knowledge
could others be helped with that?
Maybe our blessing is peace in life's struggles
could sharing our story, help others?
[pause]
The crowd that Jesus was healing had genuine sick people,
with physical illnesses, and mental illnesses, but
some of them were demon possessed.
The demons seemed to always know and announce who Jesus was and
Jesus would order them to be quiet and get out.
11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
People often wonder why he was so quick to stop the demons from announcing who Jesus was.
Perhaps because a demonic endorsement was a tainted endorsement.
Perhaps because the crowds had not heard much of Jesus teaching yet and still expected the Messiah to be a military leaders.
The Demons, if they were allowed to talk, may have gone on to promote taking Jesus by force and making him King right then
John reports a time when that’s exactly what the people wanted to do
15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
All and all, it makes sense to me, that Jesus didn’t let the demons talk about who He was, before it was time for Him to be revealed.
The Calling of Disciples and the 12 Apostles
The Calling of Disciples and the 12 Apostles
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
In the gospels we can find 4 lists of the Apostles
this one we just read in Mark
also Matthew
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
also in Luke
14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
and then in Acts 1:13 listing the surviving 11
13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
As you would suspect, the lists are very similar
Simon or Peter is always first in the lists
Andrew his brother, there was
James and John the sons of Zebedee, together they were called the Sons of Thunder.
Philip
Bartholomew also called Nathanael
Matthew aka Levi the Tax collector
Thomas
James the son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus, aka Judas the son of James
Simon the Zealot.
It’s interesting the King James calls him Simon the Canaanite.
one commentator said that was a mis-spelling for Cananean a group of Zealots.
lastly
Judas Iscariot who if listed was always last, with notation that he betrayed Jesus, except he is not listed as a disciple in Acts, because he wasn’t a disciple then.
What a sad thought that is,
someone could be one of Jesus 12 Apostles and yet betray him.
Who where these men?
Who where these men?
Where they Doctors
lawyers
Politicians
Religious Leaders?
No, they were ordinary men.
like you and me.
Sometimes we are temped to think,
I couldn’t serve
I couldn’t talk
I couldn’t go etc.
I’m Nothing special.
That’s a lie,
a lie from the devil,
In God’s eyes, each one of us is special
and very often God equips the willing
and he does not call the impressive people that we would think
God would use.
Just as Paul said to the Corinthians
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
If you feel like a nobody, then you just might be somebody a somebody that God can use.
In Christ you are actually a somebody,
you are a child of the king.
Let’s talk about 2 more things:
Let’s talk about 2 more things:
Jesus preparation for calling the Disciples
and Jesus preparation for calling the Apostles
Jesus preparation for calling his leaders, his first followers
And the second thing is what
Jesus wanted them to do.
Jesus preparation
Jesus preparation
Here it is
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.
That is pretty cut and dried
Jesus went up, he spent the night
and he called them.
But what did Jesus do that night?
I think Mark is often like me,
often giving too brief of an account of events.
Here is what Luke said about Jesus preparation for calling the disciples
12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
Jesus did something, most of us probably find hard to do.
He spent the whole night praying.
It was a big decision,
Jesus needed the Fathers direction.
We should follow His example.
We should work on the discipline of prayer for guidance and direction.
Father, help us to come to you, when we have big decision to make.
Amen? Amen!
So
Jesus did Jesus want them to do?
Jesus did Jesus want them to do?
Its three things
Here it is in the NIV
14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
and just to make sure you get the point, here it is from the Amplified version
14 And He appointed twelve to continue to be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach [as apostles or special messengers]
15 And to have authority and power to heal the sick and to drive out demons:
So What is the first thing Jesus wants the Apostles to do? Be with Him
What is the second thing Jesus wants the Apostles to do? Be sent out
And What does Jesus want the Apostles to have? Authority
All of us can be more useful to Jesus and our fellow men and women
if we know Jesus more
spend more time with Him.
Not all of us is called to special service.
Not all of us is called to special service.
I note that Jesus did the calling.
Nobody, came to Jesus with a sales pitch why they were going to be His best choice.
However we serve Christ, it should always come from a sense of His calling not
Look at me NOW
wouldn’t I make a great Tel- Evangelist?
It might be easy to minister when times are easy.
But when hard days come, you need the assurance of knowing
God called you, so that you can keep going
so that when your strength runs out you can rely on Jesus calling and not your own.
as it says in
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
Today we saw that Jesus popularity was skyrocketing
people walked long long ways, to find out if Jesus could help them.
Today, getting to church is usually not too big of a hardship to us.
But sometimes it is.
a family in Salem goes to Pedee for church, because, they feel at home with that church.
Many churches have had people shuffle around
finding the place were they feel best to worship god and learn about him.
We have seen that Jesus called
Jesus used ordinary people like you and me.
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
being with Jesus make a difference in our lives, even today, by being with Jesus in His Word and in Prayer time.
Since God used them, we should never say, God could never use me.
Jesus wants all believers to be equipped by spending time with Him in His Word and in prayer.
God will not send us all into foreign missions.
But God does send us into the world, that is our community
to represent him, to a world
that’s lost and destined for hell.
Won’t you choose or choose again to Follow more closely to Jesus,
won’t you choose not be to selfish, but to share your blessing
Perhaps just your story of salvation and surrender,
sharing that with others, so they can find Jesus and
be called into His peace and Joy too?
Or is that asking too much of you?
Oh, and who can Jesus use?
Anyone who starts by spending time with Him.
Let’s Pray.
Let’s Pray.