Jesus Heals Many & Confirms the Twelve

Recap of Mark 1-3:6

In the last few sermons, we have witnessed a rise in the opposition upon which Jesus is facing.

He seems to be a bit frustrated by not only the religious leaders and their hypocrisy, but by the clamoring of the crowds.

Why is that?

They are not there for the message of salvation.

They want physical healing.

The Healing of the Multitude

Have you noticed that we are much the same today?

If we were to take a statistical analysis of our types of prayer requests over the course of a year.

Most would be about the physical healing of ourselves or others.

Again, there is nothing wrong with this.

Christ is concerned about the physical wellbeing of our bodies.

An ill Christian cannot do much for the kingdom and reaching the lost, physically speaking.

Writhing in pain would not be the best way to approach ministry.

The body is important, without it, we wouldn’t have eyes to read the scriptures, ears to hear sound teaching, being the feet and hands of Christ to serve the needy, or a soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells.

We believe in the resurrection of the body, so I’m not asking for it to be despised.

However...

We are more than physical blood and bones.

God made us both body and soul.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What would it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul?”

Put your money where your mouth is. Put your money where your heart is.

“Where our treasure is, that is where our heart is.”

It is amazing to see our society and polls taken:

Who are some of the lowest paid professionals?

The lowest paid profession of people in America are:

The clergy

Teachers

Who are some of the highest paid professional?

The highest paid profession of people in America is:

The medical field

Doctors

Specialists

What does this tell us?

It’s where we put our value.

We value our bodies, and that’s ok (good).

The result, however, is we don’t value is our eternal souls.

And that’s bad

Why is it that God established the principal of the tithe?

To support the ministry of the church:

Preaching

Teaching

Priesthood

That is the care of the mind and souls.

The only concern that was paid for by divine taxation

God did not leave the care of ministry to the free market.

He knew that people would never put a premium on teaching or peaching and the care of the souls.

Jesus is confronting that problem.

We have seen it already; Jesus withdrew from the crowds because people were more concerned about physical healing than they were about the eternal status of their souls.

Which in the long term is far more valuable than any physical healing we could have here in the temporal.

What happens to our souls matters FOREVER.

We need to pay attention to this:

What are our priorities?

Jesus withdrew his disciples to the sea.

Get a small boat ready

He healed many

The unclean spirits fell and cried out, “you are the Son of God.”

They felt that somehow if they could name JC and reveal his identity, that would give them power over Jesus.

The whole concept of naming is significant in the bible.

Adam & Eve name the animals.

Manifested man’s dominion over the beast.

The demon thinks this

But JC says, “Be quiet.”

This is a foreshadow of the final conflict between the forces of Good and Evil—Heaven & Hell.

Whenever hell collides with heaven the inevitable result will be eternal silence.

We see in Revelation, during the last judgment, we will stand before the almighty and initially have our hands where?

Over our mouths.

Because in the presence of God, no sinner has anything to say.

Rather the whole earth is to be silent.

Here is main crux of our reading today

The "Appointment” of the 12

Jesus removing himself from the crowds and going up to a mountain where He calls to them those to whom himself wanted.

A radical departure from custom

Normally people would apply to study with a specific rabbi.

But Christ did it differently.

He chose and recruited them.

Not to a study of the law

But he called them to himself.

Anytime Jesus calls one to discipleship, he is calling them to himself.

To follow him

To learn from him

And to be IN him

Not only from him, but OF him

He called those he himself wanted.

Membership into the discipleship of Jesus was by ELECTION.

sovereign ELECTION.

JESUS called the ones he wanted.

Because everyone we see in scripture who is called by Jesus to the office of disciple, came into the office willingly.

In a sense we get a look at what Jesus does for the whole Kingdom of God

How he calls those whom he wills.

The definition of the church: EKKLESIA

THE GREEK MEANING OF THIS WORD:

EKK—to exit, to go from, out of

KALEO—to call.

Those who are the called (the called out ones)

These are the ones who make up the church.

Body of people whom God has called not only outwardly, but inwardly.

And brought them to himself.

In this country we are preoccupied with individualism.

The only faith by which we are ever going to be justified is by OUR FAITH.

Not our pastor’s faith

Not our mothers and fathers’ faith.

Not our friends’ or childrens’ faith.

But our faith.

Same for our sins

The only sins that have separated us from God are our personal sins, NO ONE ELSES.

Our hearts are what is examined by God.

Individual dimension of redemption, however:

Every single time that Christ saves an individual in the bible, he places them in a group.

There is a corporate dimension to the church and the kingdom of God.

Example: Those who say they attend church at home on the TV

How can you be in church on tv?

To be in church is to be WITH the people of God.

The call to solemn assembly

Rooted back into the history of the OT

The shofar, the ram’s horn was blown and all the people of Israel who could hear it knew it was time to assemble, to gather as the covenant people of God.

Like what we have today sitting outside by the front door.

Every morning around 10 minutes to eleven, one of our members, mostly Wesson or some other child who wants to make a loud noise, pulls joyfully upon the rope of the bell, and makes it ring throughout the community.

Oh, what a glorious day that will be when all who are in the area leave the comfort of their homes and assemble with the BODY of CHRIST.

Church is always a corporate thing, not just an individual thing.

Now notice in verse 14, “then he appointed 12, that they might be with them and send them out to preach and have power...”

APPOINTED—can and sometime mean in English what it reads, “to appoint.” But that isn’t the most common use of the Greek word.

The primary meaning—to make something or to create something.

The same word used in the Greek Septuagint for Genesis 1:1

Septuagint—the Greek translation of the OT. Went from Hebrew to Greek.

He didn’t appoint the heavens nor select the earth. These things weren’t here until the mouth of God opened and spoke it into existence.

And this is what Jesus is doing:

He doesn’t just select people to follow him, he makes them into something.

An intimate group

The church

He chooses 12, calling to mind the OT structure of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Not a common number in Hebrew

Jesus is now building his church on the 12

What does he want to do with them?

He created the 12 that they might be with HIM.

One of the most important doctrines that we find in the writing of Paul’s letters is “The doctrine of the mystical union of the believer in Christ.”

When we have faith for the 1st time

In NT terms we don’t just believe something ABOUT Jesus

Rather we believe in(to) Jesus.

The word EIS

In in the sense of moving INTO something

Outside and moved into the building.

That’s what faith does

We move from outside of Christ, not believing in Him.

To inside in Christ, to believing in Him and all that he has done on the cross for humanity.

Now the mystery, the hope of the Gentiles, is Christ in you.

INSIDE of You

Every Christian that is called by Jesus has now moved into Jesus.

The Mystical Union

You’re in Christ and Christ is in you.

This is what produces the union of Saints

We are in this Spiritual battle together.

Together we have a bond, a spiritual bond that will last for eternity.

When Jesus makes a group that he calls together, the EKKLESIA

The purpose is for them to be with him

Before he left, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled, if you believe in God, you believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions, and I’m going there to prepare a place for you.”

So where I am, you can be also.

Is there any greater blessing than to be in the presence of Christ?

To be with us from this day forward.

He calls his 12

Creates them as a group

Be with him

Send them out to preach.

Come unto me, we come and then we go.

As soon as we come to him, we are on mission, to preach the Gospel, manifest the power of God, and defeat the forces of evil by sharing the message of eternal salvation and securing our place before God the Almighty.

No longer capable of being captured by fiery claws of the Devil.

AMEN!