Inland Empire: Riverside
Calling of the 12 Apostles - Audio
It's good to be with you. Happy hot Sunday. There is no turning back at this point. You think so? That's not what I want to hear. He said it's pretty good right now. All right, well, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this time together. Thank you for giving us the opportunity every week to look at Scripture, to have the bread and the cup, and to come and worship and to stand before you in all of our brokenness, and all of our victories and failures, and be reminded of who you are, and by seeing you, Father, seeing a glimpse of ourselves, seeing your love for us. We pray, God, for the encouragement of the Scriptures, that hope would grow larger and wider within us as a result of our time together this afternoon, and that you would summon us, God, with clarity to your will in our lives, that you would give us imaginations and creativity to begin to think about the week and what it means to live faithfully before you, God. We thank you for that guidance which we get only from you, whether it's through Scriptures or just the probing of our conscience by your spirit, the doors you opened before us that we couldn't open for ourselves. We just thank you, Father. It's a joy and the meaning of our lives to share in your world. We thank you through Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, I'm going to spend just a shorter sermon or talk this afternoon from Mark chapter three, if you have a text, find Mark chapter three, verse 13. In terms of the Sunday sermons, it's probably felt directionless to you, it doesn't feel that way to me because I'm a part of the discussion about what we're doing, so forgive me if it's not been clear what we're doing. We spent the first month or so in the gospel according to Mark. Now you have to think all the way back to six weeks before Easter, the last time we looked at Mark's gospel. And I don't expect you to remember this, but we at that point looked at a passage about Jesus' teaching on fasting and religious hypocrisy. And you might remember the parable or the saying about the wineskins. What we're going to do now is pick up from there. We spent time thinking about suffering in the Lord's death at the cross, the resurrection of course, and 50 days of looking at the resurrection after Easter. Then we had a series of talks on Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now we're returning to Mark. So chapter three, we're not picking up precisely where we left off, but in the general area. I'm going to read the text first. Three verse 13. And he went up on the mountain or the hill country and called to him those whom he wanted. And they came to him and he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Bo and Nerges. That is sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Elphias and Thaddeus and Simon the zealot and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Not a very action-packed passage really, but I think there's a lot here. There's a lot to think through. There's a lot we could talk about, just this grouping of men in itself it would be an interesting discussion. They seem to be coming from different places, at least some of them, but this is the famous appointing or Marx language, the making of the twelve, the apostles as they're called. People is one of these Greek words that we don't translate. It's a Greek word, it's not an English word, it means something like sent one, those who are sent. This group of twelve men have a very specific, play a very specific role in God's world. There's a number of resonances with earlier parts of the story and this is really important for Bible reading that we always keep pace with the story of the Bible. This appointing of the twelve is not an offshoot project that God has and he's doing more, I don't think this is like a leadership move. Maybe there is some strategy, especially if we read this in Matthew's account, there's more of an indication that they're meant to meet needs and to help, I think that's what they do here, but this isn't just a training project, like Jesus chose twelve men that he could train up. He wants to do a lot more than train them up, he wants to transform them, they become this small community that embodies the place that the story has always been moving toward, which is a community of people who show God's will. Not just a religious group of people, but a people who instinctively, they learn to do those things that God wants most, which includes, of course, pew sitting, Bible reading, faith sharing, but it involves more than that. What happens when you're not at church is also the life of faith. In fact, it might make the case that it's the bulk of the life of faith. You're only here about an hour and fifteen minutes, or if I'm giving the sermon two hours, but you're only here for a small window of time, so whatever the life of faith means is more out there than it is in here, and the apostles show us that. So first of all, Jesus, it says, he went up on a mountain, or he went up on a hill. Or this phrase, "ace-to-hor-us" could mean hill country, so it's a pretty normal phrase. So trivia, if you're readers of the story, where else do we find people going up on hills or mountains to meet with God? Yeah, Moses, right, is the big one that comes to mind. Moses goes up Mount Sinai to meet with God in darkness and in fire and in the cloud and to sit with him and receive teaching and instruction for the people of Israel. So it's a normal thing, and in fact, in Exodus 24, Moses goes up the mountain to meet with God, and he is called by God, just like these guys. And Moses himself calls together twelve tribal heads to help in the work of this newly formed people Israel, and Joshua also calls together twelve men. This is a normal thing, when we think of God calling twelve people, what comes to mind? This is like telling the story again further down the road, and it's reaching a place that God has always wanted. When we see Jesus appointing twelve men, don't think, well twelve men should get the job done that's just enough to have the greatest amount of impact. No, this is deeper than that. To choose twelve men is to tell the story again. Israel is formed up of how many tribes, I think it's a little complicated, but the basic point is twelve, twelve tribes of Israel. What's the point here? Jesus calling these twelve men, what's he saying? What's the point he's making? Well, at least he's making the point that this group doesn't get rid of Israel or something like that, but whatever it is they're going to do by being with Jesus will learn to embody the community of God's people. And by the way, for several hundred years, by this point, there hasn't been a twelve tribes of Israel. In 722, what was called the northern tribes, about ten tribes, nine and a half tribes, were wiped out. No more. The tribes which remained two, two and a half tribes that remained weren't necessarily on the top of their game for those years. But there have been these promises throughout Israel's scriptures, throughout their story that God would take a people that had disappeared and raise up his people. In fact, in Isaiah, the prophet is told to become Israel in himself and to go to Israel and raise up the tribes of Israel so that the tribes of Israel, the called people in the Bible would be a light to the nations. He's not just restoring Israel here, but this restored newly embodied Israel will take God's will to the wider world, he's telling the story again. And they are called, it seems to do four things, I don't know if you caught it, there's two clauses here if this really excites you, so that A and B and so that C and D. So that they might, first of all, be with him. He calls them so that they might be with him, and he is with them in ways that don't just include physical proximity. That is to say, he is with them even when he's not with them. Jesus is with these men. What's so special about these men? Are they better than any of us? They're not the only people following Jesus, by the way. Yet he goes up the mountain and he summons 12 of them so that they might be with him and so that he might send them, which is what the word means, apostle, that he might send them out. These guys play a very important role in the world. Not every follower of Jesus is called by Jesus like this. Now we can learn a lot from them by their calling, but I ain't them. And in fact, many who were there following Jesus, and in the previous passage, if we had read it, we will find many people were following Jesus. I think that's part of why he had to call these guys. But these guys are called to be a very specific role to prop up again the people of God that they might be a light to the nations. They have a mission, so to speak. The mission is to be with him and to say that he might send them out. And if so, that they might preach. They're going to go out, be with Jesus, be sent out by him and go away from him. Yet somehow, I think we'll see if we keep reading Mark, he's still with them. And they are sent out not just to go out and do nothing but to preach. That's not an easy task in any time or place. And I want to come back to it, I want to close with some of what that might mean to preach in our world. It doesn't say what they're supposed to preach, but I think we could guess. Because what does Jesus talk about the most? Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus doesn't talk about love more than anything else. What does Jesus talk about the most? The reign and rule of God. The kingdom of God, that's what the good news is. God has come back as king. And they are to go out. That's exactly what Jesus had been saying all along. The kingdom of God is upon you. It makes sense that that's what they would go out and tell the wider world, especially specifically the Israelite world. All the Israelites, not a thing by their day, but people connected to Israel. But they're not only to preach, and this is really helpful when we come back to think about what does it mean to be a Christian and be a church today. They're not called to just go out and do Bible studies with people and save individual souls. They're called to also cast out demons. And they're given authority and obsession in the gospel, in the first three counts of the gospel, especially Mark, Jesus's authority. When Jesus begins to go out and preach, what's the first thing people say when they witness His preaching? Oh, there's power behind this. This ain't like Pastor Alexander. This is different. This ain't like Pastor Sweeney. This guy not only says something about what God's doing, he demonstrates it. And he demonstrates it in a way that floors everyone paying attention. He doesn't just say the kingdom of God is upon you. He forgives people's sins and heals people who can't walk. In case you wondered if the kingdom of God was just in the realm of ideas, just a thought, Jesus intends to show you, no. When I say God has come back as King, I mean it, stand to someone who couldn't, be healed to those who couldn't be healed, even by doctors, see for those who were born blind. This is all the implementation of the things He's saying. He's not just saying things, He's implementing them. That could be helpful for us. But are these apostles meant to do that by having a great strategy, or great training, or good character? No, that won't cut it. They're not called, he doesn't call these men and say, "No, I want you to find the best seminary, Duke, Princeton, Fuller, Wheaton, wherever, find the best seminary, get the best training, and have the best character, get rid of all your ideologies and your idols, and then you'll be able to do God's will." No, what do they need to do God's will? His authority, they need Him, they need to be with Him. Even the great apostles could not do what they do if Jesus didn't share His good power with them to go out and confront lesser forms of power. They go out on His power, which is pretty awesome. But then look at these twelve guys. Think about the collection here. We of them are given new names. I don't think anyone really knows the exact way to talk about these new people. Simon is given the name Peter, either because he's really solid or because he's hard-headed. It's hard to tell. Maybe a little of both. And then James and John are the next, and I think the order is important, these guys who get new names, they're called Boaneurgeis, and then he says that because they were sons of thunder. It's confusing what Mark means here. But sons of thunder doesn't sound great. Maybe it is. Maybe they're like really outstanding guys, thunderous characters. But there's moments even when these two guys, they don't like when other people are doing the work of the king, they're like, "Hey, Jesus, get rid of them. They're on art. They're pretty territorial." Maybe that's what's meant. It's hard to tell. So three guys who are given new names, which is not unusual, throughout the Bible there are stories of God calling people to specific important roles and then they're given new names. I think for example, Jacob, what name is he given by God? Israel, Israel. So these three guys, I think, are kind of the inner circle of Jesus' best friend. He's within the group. Then we get like five normal guys, I guess, and then Matthew. Matthew is a, yeah, he has to do with Roman Empire and collecting money for them, right? Do you like Matthew? Do we like people in the IRS in our church? Sean's in account and he's pretty close. But this is someone who works for the enemy, right? Jesus calls him. This is mind-blowing. I want you to follow me. Why that dude? Like he's an enemy. He works for Rome. What about the, about Israel, not Rome? How is he going to be a true Israelite when he's taking money for the enemy? So he calls Matthew, but then we learn he calls Simon, yeah, the jealous one, the zealot. Who are zealots? Do they like Rome? Not so much. Those who are prepared for a revolution to kick off. This would be like starting your rescue team for all creation with normal dudes, and then Rachel Maddow and Bill O'Reilly, right? Like, it's not that drastic probably, but, but like ideological opposites. These guys do not value the same thing. This is who you start the squad with, it's a tell us about God. What does it tell us about the community that these men embody? It's not a unified group. They never probably become unified on some ideology. What they learn is the cross. So it's frightening enough to find Matthew and Simon, but then we find Judas Iscariot, who were told is a traitor, who will betray the Lord. And so this whole calling of the disciples, which feels like an exciting moment in the history of God's people, is darkened at the end. Jesus selects one whom he knows, will not make it. Not only will he not make it, he will be the reason for the Lord's ending up in Rome's hands. Interesting choices. This is the rescue team. These men have their names written on the foundations of the Holy Heavenly City at the end of the Bible. I want to draw out three things from this passage, and then we'll close. One is, and I've already kind of alluded to this, this passage gives us a really clear indication of what God wants. The fact that he has called these 12 men up the hill gives us a nice, clear picture of what God is like. Does God care? Did you ever wonder if God cares? These men are evidence of that. You know, humans in the book of Genesis are said to be made in the image of God. And these men are an indication that God is not okay to stand by and watch that image deteriorate, be spoiled, be polluted and ruined by a very lost world and the deceptive power of sin. And I could ask, well, why do we need the apostles? Why didn't Jesus just write a book and leave behind the body of teaching? Can that do the trick? Sometimes I think that's what we think, that we have the Bible, so that just know the Bible well. But Jesus summons a community. He wants this stuff to be in action. This notion of being redeemed, being healed, having darkness cast out of your life is not a theory, but something God aims to accomplish in the world. He seeks to transform a group of men as a kind of embodiment of the future. God cares. God's plan involves very human means. It involves people who don't agree with each other, but are summoned to his task. People who otherwise aren't necessarily worthy of much are given authority from God to go to battle for people's lives. And it's a battle to go out and proclaim the news of God's reign and to demonstrate the goodness and power of that proclamation is hard work in any setting, especially in ours. But the people who come close to Jesus are summoned to that work, and not just as a work, like that's their day job, that's their calling, that's their life. What could sound like a burden God heaps on people is a real clear indication that God is not okay with the world going down the drain as it feels like it is all the time. Okay, so we get a clear indication with what God wants. Second thing, there is a warning against false dichotomies, big $10 word here in church today, but false divisions, making a division where there shouldn't be one, okay? We contend to be either or minded. And the gospel and the Christian Bible, the Hebrew scriptures, call us to be both and minded on a regular basis, not either or sometimes even neither nor. But you've heard this quote before, it's wrongly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Turns out he never said this, but people go around quoting it all the time, I'm sure I have at some point as well, but the saying goes like this, preach the gospel at all times, you know the rest of it, anyone? And if necessary use words, St. Francis would never say that, and in fact he turns out he never did. But we create a false dichotomy, it's either the preaching of word, Bible study, sharing our faith, like sharing the words about our faith, or serving and helping people in their lives, confronting broken systems, challenging oppressive systems, gossip, slander, sexual abuse, it's either the evangelism or social justice, right? It's one of the two, none of that garbage following Jesus. The two are one and the call of his sent ones. They are not called to merely go out and do Bible studies with people. That is just to enlarge the group one by one by one. They're called to that. Some of you are like, get this guy off the stage, that's exactly what we stand for. But they're not called to merely do that, to just preach. They are also called to confront, to challenge in prayer and on God's authority to go out and demonstrate the goodness of God's reign. Ever wonder why we have a hard time getting people to come to church? Maybe there's too much talk and not enough embodiment. Sometimes if there's too much embodiment then there's no attachment. There are all kinds of people doing good things. There's something about us declaring the kingdom of God and giving evidence to what that is. There's nothing to talk about if there's nothing to show. And if you just show and there's no speech about God then it just looks like kind things which don't give an indication of God all the time for people. People are the calling of these men and it's really helpful for us as the church. It means that on our jobs, at school, in the places we are, we are not just watering holes to teach the Bible, they're places to embody the Bible, to teach, but to also demonstrate. To not think that all I have to do is get people to come to church, but no, there are things which harm people all around me on a regular day. Sit and think about where you are. Think creatively and in prayer about your day tomorrow and the things you have to look at. What would it look like to go and demonstrate and declare? What needs to be confronted? Who needs to be encouraged? Who needs to hear the message about Jesus? We're always doing both and as the people of God and I find that to be incredibly relieving because it means that we're called to a whole gospel, a life, a way, how are you doing? One more. So we learn what God is like very clearly. I think we learn that we cannot divide and talk about either sharing the gospel and word or doing good deeds. Both people will be held accountable for both by God. No matter what anyone tells you, we see that in the Bible. That's what it looks like. But also, number three, we learn the stakes are pretty high and that this is, as I said earlier, not necessarily easy work. Here's the basic message of the kingdom of God. Think we can boil it down all the way and you can see where this would run people the wrong way. You aren't yours. You do not belong to yourself. Thank God. Now in our society, how do you think that rings? Everybody in a room full of Christians, people are like, wait a second. This is one step on the path to becoming a God in mind control saying, I don't have my own agency. That's not my point here. The humans do not belong to themselves. They are for God. We live in a world where the ultimate value is self-expression. How many of us, I'm 45 and I still feel the crushing pressure of trying to figure out what I'm going to be when I grow up? Many of us battle that crushing pressure. What am I going to be? What's my purpose? Have you all ever seen, and if you haven't, that's your homework, the movie Soul Pixar Disney 2020? Have you seen it, Soul? Okay, you have to watch Soul. It's incredible. I don't want to spoil it for you, but Soul gets into this conversation. Our obsession with finding our spark, our purpose, we spend so much time in our society looking for our purpose and who we are and how we differentiate and express ourselves. I've expressed myself by my cool shoes, "Oh, really expressive, everyone does that." I express myself by my job and my success, "Oh, really creative." Seems like everybody is doing that, right? It turns out our obsession with finding ourself and being unique is a deception. It's a lie, right? It doesn't necessarily achieve the great life, finding your quote-unquote purpose, contrary to the American dream of being somebody and having a great impact. There's a line in the movie Soul where they discover that the real heart is just the ordinary everyday stuff. That's where life is happening. We spend so much time like this in our society looking for purpose, meaning, trying to heal, trying to find course correction or guidance that we miss the everyday of our lives. The gospel interrupts that cycle and says, "You don't belong to you and you're not wired to figure out who you are. God made you so that He could tell you who you are, which is far better than anything you could come up with under all of your pressure. God made you for Him. You can stop looking. You can stop feeling like my life won't be awesome if I don't get X, Y, and Z. Your life will be awesome because you were made for God. If you can't accept that, then you're out there in the world searching. That's a hard message to preach, but even as I share it, my heart breaks because I think of like in the movie, "Soul," they have lost souls who get consumed by the quest for meaning and identity. It's so simple, guys. It's so simple. You're made for God's glory. You don't have to search. As hard as it is to tell people that society's aims for your life aren't great, the compassion that wells up in me and just that thought that you get to set people free with God's authority from that lie by telling truth and by showing God's love. We get a sense of who God is. We understand that there's no false division in the mission of God between preaching and healing, fighting against darkness, right? And we get a sense that the stakes are high, that it means something and it could be difficult. So I want you to think about your day, tomorrow, later today, whatever it is. Think for a moment what it looks like to be on mission from God. I think everyone at this point, most people are familiar. I'm familiar with the Chris Wright, Chris Wright wrote a book in like 2006. It's like 700 pages called "The Mission of God" and he has one line that I think everyone knows by now. It goes something like, I can't quote verbatim, but God does not have a mission for his church. God has a church for his mission. What would it look like to take that seriously this week? What would it look like to take serious that God has a mission to redeem, rescue, love? And you're a part of it right here where you are. You don't have to get any more degrees, find your purpose, or be better-hearted, or better character, or anything to get on what God is doing right there around you right now. Pretty awesome. Let's come back to the bread and the cup. Because the bread and the cup is seen in this passage. Did you see it? Jesus appoints Judas. In this list, it's like a seed in the story which will grow and bear fruit that is both poisonous and wonderful at the same time, right? Jesus' death grows out of this little group. It's amazing, our Lord's compassion, wisdom, and forethought. Whatever these men are going to learn in these days, over the next couple of years, being with Jesus, being sent out by Jesus, fighting against demons in Jesus' name, doing all of these things, whatever, they're going to learn then. They'll learn so much more after witnessing Jesus' death, resurrection, and coming to grips with their own failures and being implicated in his death. We learn so much about what it means to be the people of God from this meal. Jesus gives body and blood for those around him. The meal itself tells the story of God's mission. We partake in it. We participate in that. We take on Christ's body and blood. There's this kind of summons into the same mission these guys have, I think. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this short but potent passage. We thank you for these men. We thank you that you give the gift of real life, people like us. We thank you that you restore, that you are not content to leave Israel in ruins, that you are not content to leave the world in ruins, and that you are not content to leave the church as an orphan, that you, Father, go with us. We thank you for the authority and power we find just in your death and resurrection. We find strength to risk, to trust, and to believe because of this meal and we're grateful God. We pray, Father, that you would wash us clean, fill our hearts with the great news of your kingdom and help us, God, to live as people who eat this meal. It's in Christ Jesus, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Inland Empire Church of Christ