This passage marks a significant transition in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  He has been preaching the gospel of the kingdom for about 2 years now.  He has called twelve disciples to be with Him, to follow Him, to learn from Him.  But up to now, He was the only one to preach, to heal, to perform miracles.  John the Baptist was another preacher sent as a prophet of God, but he has been arrested, and as Mark tells us in this passage, he has been put to death.  So Jesus is the only one preaching and doing the ministry of the gospel, and meanwhle the disciples have been learning.

Now two years into His ministry there is a transition. Jesus commissions the disciples to spread out over Galilee and acting as His representatives, do as He had been doing.  Mark says Jesus calls the twelve to Himself.  There were many disciples, followers of Jesus, but the 12 were called to be His special ambassadors, HIs apostles.  And for the first time in scripture, Mark calls these men apostles in vs 30.  The 12 apostles is a special office for a particular group of men. Other people were able to be apostles in a lesser sense of being sent ones, that’s the literal meaning of the word apostles, as missionaries for instance.   But Jesus’s 12 apostles was a one time office, for a particular time and for a particular ministry.  Some people are misinformed today in thinking that the Lord still appoints apostles in our day.  That office was for a particular time a place.  They were men that had been with the Lord, that were to be witnesses of His resurrection. (Acts 1:22)

So these men had been learning from the Lord as part of His inner circle for about two years.  And now it’s time for them to be sent out as emissaries of Christ, as representatives of Christ, to go through the regions of Galilee and proclaim the gospel of Christ.  It’s a short term mission trip, if you will.  A time when the ministry will be expanded through multiplication of 6 pairs of evangelists. It’s also still a part of their learning phase, of their ministerial education, where they will begin to practice the things that they have learning.

Notice then some things at the outset.  As I said, He summoned the twelve.  This is a special assignment, a special empowerment, for the twelve apostles. This is not a ministry model for the church today, other than in a general sense. We are not given the same commission as the disciples were here.  Neither are we given the same authority and power.  This is the commissioning of the apostles.

Notice next, the method of their ministry.  Jesus sent them out in pairs.  I think this is just a practical thing. I don’t think there is some spiritual dimension to being sent in pairs, other than the law required the testimony of two or three witnesses to confirm a fact.  But it does seem to be a model that continues during the apostolic age, as they took the gospel to the world following Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven.  We see Peter and John work together in the early part of Acts.  Paul and Barnabas.  Paul and Silas, Barnabas and Mark.  But I don’t think it was an absolute necessity as time went on that there must always be two apostles going together on a mission trip. But I think it was just practical.  Two can be a help to one another, they can be a comfort to one another, strength for one another.  Ministry, especially missionary work or evangelistic work can be a lonely business. So there were 6 groups of apostles fanning out over Galilee to preach the gospel.

And then notice in vs 6, He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. In the parallel passage in Matthew 10:1 it says, “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

This is a passage that is often misunderstood.  A lot of charismatics like to appropriate these verses as justification for their ministry and use it as a proof text for their supposed healing ministries.  But it was intended only for these apostles. There was a need for these men to have this power.  Because it validated that they were speaking and acting on behalf of God. 

Whoever can heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead, is from God. Those are the validating signs. Sermons and signs – they were given sermons that Jesus had preached, and they were able to do the signs that Jesus had done. In fact, they could heal the sick; Luke 9 says they were able to heal the sick, in addition to cast out demons, and here, in verse 12 and 13, it tells us they did that. Matthew 10:8 says they were told to raise the dead. So, they were delegated the same power over disease, over demons, and over death, that Jesus had exhibited.

Paul says in 2Cor. 12:12 “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Those were the signs of a true apostle.  It’s not the sign of a pastor of a church. It’s not the signs of a television evangelist.  I wish I had the power to heal. But God has not given me that power. It’s not a matter of faith on my part. Of not having enough faith to do miracles. It’s that I have not been given the authority to do them as Jesus gave the disciples. But so that people would know that these men represented Christ, He gave them the same power to heal and do miracles that He had, in order to validate that their message was from God.

And that’s important because none of these men came from the religious establishment. None of them was a Pharisee, a scribe, a rabbi, or a priest. None of them was a temple attendant. No one was a ruler of a synagogue. They were completely outside the religious establishment.  But these men were to be the nucleus of the new Israel, which is the church,  in contrast to the Israel of the old dispensation which was represented by the 12 patriarchs. The apostles will be the foundation of the church, which is the true chosen people of God.

Eph. 2:19-22 says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner [stone,]  in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,  in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

Now it’s important to understand that the confirming signs were given to them to support their message.  But the message of the gospel was their primary concern.  That’s their primary purpose, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. In Luke 9:2, it says, “And He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

The gospel is the gospel of salvation.  That’s our primary purpose, to proclaim the gospel of salvation.  We don’t preach that too much today in our churches.  We preach about  relationships.  We preach a social gospel. We preach how to be successful and happy.  We preach anything but the gospel of salvation.  But notice in vs 12, the apostles went out and preached that men should repent.

That’s the beginning of the gospel. The good news is predicated upon bad news.  The bad news is that man is a sinner, under the condemnation of death. And you must repent of your sins that you might receive forgiveness. And you must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

So the preaching of the gospel is the primary ministry of the apostles.  The healings and casting out demons and other miracles are attesting signs of an apostle, that they are speaking on behalf of the Lord.  He gives them His authority to cast out demons and heal the sick.

And then notice the means of their ministry. Vs 8 “and He instructed them that they should take nothing for [their] journey, except a mere staff–no bread, no bag, no money in their belt–  but [to] wear sandals; and [He added,] “Do not put on two tunics.”  I think something has been lost in translation here, and though I am not a Greek scholar, I can tell you that there are some minor differences between the various gospel writers on this account.  I don’t think it’s a big deal.  Rather than approaching conflicting texts by saying we must chose this one or that one, I think it’s possible to say that both are correct.  

So we can assume that what Jesus probably said was “do not take along an extra pair of sandals, or staff, or an extra tunic,  nor take a money bag, nor any provisions for your journey.” The Lord wanted them to be totally dependent upon Him for their ministry and totally dependent upon His provision for their physical needs, which would be provided through the people that would receive the gospel.

Now this statement does not literally apply to ministers today.  God isn’t saying that ministers need to take a vow of poverty. That we can’t have but one set of clothes or one pair of shoes.  But the principle does still apply today.  We are to be dependent upon God’s supply through His people.  That the Lord will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.  He supplies the message of the gospel, He supplies the word of God, He supplies the power over demonic forces, and He will supply the physical needs as well for those who are acting as His ministers.

He applies that principle even to their living arrangements. Vs 10, “And He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town.’”  It was the duty of those who believed the gospel to be hospitable, to share, to welcome strangers.  And Jesus wanted the disciples to be grateful for that hospitality, and reward their hospitality, and not be looking for a better house, or more wealthy people to stay with and be jumping from house to house.  There is a danger in patronage which can result in the preacher modifying his message to accommodate the wealthy patron. That happened frequently in the Middle Ages as wealthy nobles patronized the church and built a building and supported the pastor and as a result they were able to adulterate the gospel to their liking. So perhaps that’s the danger that Jesus is attempting to prevent.

But the most important part of the mission was to preach the gospel.  Those who received it, they were to stay with them and minister to them until they  left town.  But not everyone received the gospel.  There would be many who do not believe the gospel.  And among the Jews, Jesus knew that some towns would not be receptive.  For those people Jesus prescribed a judgment to be delivered by the apostles.  

Vs. 11 “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.”  When the Jews traveled through Gentile territory, they had a practice of shaking the dust off their feet before entering their homeland again.  The idea was that they wanted no polluting dust from the pagan lands to be carried into Israel inadvertently. 

Jesus is saying that unbelief of the gospel on the part of the Jews should be treated the same way. You will remember that Paul and Barnabas did the same thing when persecution was organized against them in the Jewish region of Antioch.  It’s as if to say, your blood be upon your own hands.  Your guilt is yours alone, you have heard the gospel and rejected it, and so the consequences are of your own doing.  It’s as John 3:18 says,  “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  So the disciples shaking the dust off their feet were giving testimony as a sign of God’s judgment upon their unbelief.

So after being commissioned, the disciples did what they were told to do. They were obedient to their call and commission.  That’s important for us to see.  There are a lot of people who are commissioned to proclaim the gospel, but very few are obedient to that call. Or, there are a lot of people that alter their commission to suit their tastes, and attempt to pander to the culture.  But the apostles were obedient and faithful to their commission.  

Vs12  “They went out and preached that [men] should repent.  And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.”  You know Paul gave a commission to Timothy and the pastors that he would establish in the churches, and which I feel God used to call me into the ministry.  Paul said in 2Tim. 4:2-5 “preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

The minister’s job is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the word accurately and completely, that’s sound doctrine, and preach it when it’s accepted and when it’s not accepted. The pastor’s responsibility is not to alter the gospel according to the culture.  His responsibility is not whether  it is received or rejected. His job is to faithfully sow the seed.  And God will take care of the increase and of the harvest.

In the case of the apostle’s ministry, they preached that men should repent.  The word there could also be interpreted as converted. Repentance is essential to conversion.  It means a change of heart, a change of direction, a realization of going in the wrong direction, and then going in the right direction. 

I think the problem with the Christian church today is that it is populated by people that are not converted.  They have not been changed.  My wife is in Italy right now taking a well deserved vacation with my daughter.  But before she went over there, we took some US Dollars to the bank and had it converted to Euros.  Because in Italy they don’t use US dollars.  They use Euros. A conversion means a change.  A change of heart, a change of life, a change of direction. And only God can change your heart.  You need to be forgiven, you need  a new life, and that can only happen when Jesus transforms you. You can be religious and not be converted.  You can go to church and not be converted. But let me tell you this, you will not enter into heaven unless you are converted.  Call upon the Lord to save you, to convert you, to change you, to give you new life.

So the apostles were successful in their mission trip.  Mark says many demons were cast out and many people were healed.  In chapter 9:18 it’s evident that the disciples were not always successful at expelling evil spirits. Apart from the power of God they were powerless.  And by the way, there isn’t some magical power in anointing people with oil either.  It was probably good old olive oil that they anointed people with. Olive oil is supposedly really good for you, but it won’t heal you of a leprosy or being paralyzed or lame. There is no magical power in putting a drop of olive oil on someone’s head. In those days oil was often used as a medicine, as you might remember from the story of the good Samaritan. But the best way to understand the use of it here is that it was a symbol of the power of the Spirit of Christ who had commissioned them to heal.

So then let’s skip down to vs 30, which was some time later.  Not sure exactly how long they were on their mission trip, but it could have been as long as a couple of months.  They come back, some weeks or months later, and verse 30 says, “The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.” They were told to do two things – preach the gospel, and demonstrate the power of Christ – so they came back and said, “This is what we preached, and this is what happened through the power that was delegated to us.” 

And the Lord commended them to a time of rest. Ministry is hard work.  And even for Jesus we see Him needing rest, and periodically taking the disciples apart from the crowds and the ministry for rest.  There is a rest that we have continually in ministry if we are doing it as He commissioned us to do it.  And that rest comes from knowing that the power and authority and method of our ministry is from the Lord.  He causes the increase.  He builds His church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.  There is a rest in doing ministry God’s way, knowing that the power and the means to do it come from Him.

A cursory reading of the scripture before us today might lead one to conclude that the point of Jesus ministry was to relieve misery and suffering in the world. And by extension, the ministry of the church should be the same.  Our mission should be one of social justice. I was reading the website of a very  large, old Presbyterian church that I saw in Wilmington the other day.  And on their website they mentioned they were about the transformative power of God’s grace.  That sounds good.  But if you read further, they defined their ministry as dismantling structural racism, eradicating poverty, and furthering the inclusion of LGBTQIA + people.  

But I have to tell you that was not the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost.  He came to save sinners, to provide a way for man to be reconciled to God. He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, how a person might be delivered from the condemnation of death, and born again into new life in Christ.

The gospel then must first cause a person to understand that they are lost. That church I read about is not concerned about sin. It doesn’t believe the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. And that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgement. And so as a result of their distortion of the  gospel, they are condemning people to death by telling people the lie that there is no sin, there is no need for repentance, and God will not judge sinners.  

But Mark is presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is not just telling a biography about Jesus. So Mark has given us in this chapter three illustrations of a lost person who is saved by the power of God.  In the first picture, we saw a demoniac.  A person whose life was given over and controlled by the evil one.  A life destined for destruction.  And Jesus delivered that poor man from thousands of demons that had tormented him and controlled him, so that he was seated at the feet of Jesus in his right mind.

The second example of a lost person is presented as the woman who had the discharge of blood.  Because of her illness, she was under the law considered as unclean.  She is a picture of a person who is unclean before God because of their sin.  She was hopeless, having tried everything to no avail.  Her only hope was Jesus.

The third example of a lost person is the little daughter of Jarius. She was suffering from an illness which actually took her life before Jesus could visit her.  Being under the sentence of death is another picture of a lost person. Being spiritually dead is what is means to be lost. And only Jesus can give life to the dead.

When Jesus was at home in Capernaum earlier He had  performed the miracle for the paralytic that had been lowered down through the ceiling.  And you will remember that at first Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  And the Pharisees in attendance there were indignant that Jesus said that, because they said that only God could forgive sins. They were right.  But what they failed to see was that Jesus was God sitting right in front of them.

So Jesus responded to the Pharisees, “In order that you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”  See, the important thing was the forgiveness of sins.  The miracle of healing was only physical evidence that Jesus could forgive sins.

So as we study this text before us today, let’s not lose sight of the point of Jesus’ ministry. Now I’ve really already given the conclusion of the story before I’ve expounded it, but nevertheless, let’s look at it in more detail and see what else we might learn from this event.

First, we note that there are two miracles which take place, one of which happens as an interruption to the first. Mark says in vs 21 “When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore.  One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet  and implored Him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death; [please] come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.’”

So they have left the former demoniac on the shores of the Gerasenses, and gone back over the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, Jesus’ home town.  It’s important that we recognize that, because we are going to assume that these people must have known who Jesus was.  Capernaum wasn’t large town, and Jesus lived there, and it would seem that Peter lived there. And Jesus had performed so many miracles there that He had to leave town to get some rest and even be able to eat. So everyone in Capernaum must have known who Jesus was and have known someone who had been healed by Jesus, or at least have witnessed Him healing someone.

Mark says Jairus was one of the synagogue officials. Jesus had most likely attended his synagogue on occasion. Maybe Jesus had even preached at his synagogue. So I would be inclined to believe that Jarius was a believer.  He may not have progressed very far in his faith at this point, but I’m going to assume that he is a believer by his actions. First of all, notice he falls at Jesus feet. That’s a posture of worship.  That’s a posture of prayer.  That’s a posture of submission.  And I will say that was not the typical approach of the average Pharisee or Jewish religious official we see depicted in the gospels. So I would think this man shows that he is a believer.  He has saving faith in Jesus as Lord.

And that’s further illustrated by what he says to Jesus. ‘My little daughter is at the point of death; [please] come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.’”  Now he may have said that because he had seen Jesus heal many people of many diseases.  And so he knows by experience that Jesus had the power to heal. But he knows she is going to die if Jesus doesn’t come.  Jesus is the only hope that she has to live.

But this request shows this man’s faith. I believe it indicates that he has faith that Jesus is the Son of God. And at first everything seems fine, because Jesus agrees to go with him to his house.  But there is an unforeseen interruption.  Vs.24 “And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.  A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse–  after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind [Him] and touched His cloak.  For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

I said there was an unforeseen interruption.  I don’t mean Jesus, I mean Jarius did not foresee this interruption. I imagine that he is almost beside himself, knowing that they have to hurry.  Maybe his daughter has been sick for some time already, and when Jesus got off the boat, he had been right there to beg Him to come home with him and hurry, before his child died.  And now this woman interrupted their little journey.

But in the providence of God, this interruption will serve a greater purpose. It will display the glory of God much more brightly than it might have otherwise.  Sometimes God allows circumstances to get beyond all hope, so that the glory of God might be more fully revealed.

Let’s consider this woman for a moment. She had a hemorrhage for 12 years. It’s interesting that Mark will tell us that Jarius’s daughter is 12 years old also. I’m not sure what to make of that.  But it’s obviously a significant correlation between the two. We’re not told what this hemorrhage was.  But the Jewish law considered any hemorrhage to be a matter of uncleanness.  So this woman was an outcast from Jewish religious society. She couldn’t go to the synagogue in that condition. If she touched someone, they would become unclean as well and have to go through a series of ceremonies to become clean again. So as I said earlier, she was a picture of someone who is lost.  They are unclean, cut off from fellowship with God.

Mark says that she had spent all her money on various doctors, and had actually gotten worse instead of better.  I’ve known people like that.  They tried everything, went to every doctor that promised hope, even went to foreign countries to try experimental medicines in order hopefully find a cure.  The other day I met a woman who was selling her home to pay for some experimental medical procedure that was not covered by her insurance. That’s the state of this woman, and she has only gotten worse, not better.  That’s a picture of false religion. It offers hope of salvation but it is not able to provide it, and so the person is in even worse condition.

I think we can safely assume this woman had heard of Jesus.  She believed that if she just touched his garment that she would be healed. She had faith, albeit an imperfect faith.  Jesus said if you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could move mountains.  Saving faith doesn’t have to be perfect faith, all knowing faith.  You don’t have to understand every doctrine of the Bible to be saved.  But you must have a believing heart that continues to believe, continues in faith as God reveals more truth to you.

Her faith was in Jesus, not in HIs clothes, nor the tassel that hung from his cloak. Perhaps she thought that there had to be physical contact with Jesus for her to be healed. Jarius seemed to think that as well.  Jarius had said “if you lay your hands on her she will live.” So maybe this woman knows that she can’t have Jesus lay His hands on her because she is unclean, but if she just touches the fringe of His garment, then she will be healed.  But the point is, that she has faith that Jesus can heal her.

And you know what happened? She was immediately healed.  Jesus never seems to heal people the same way twice.  Those fake healers on television like to use a formula, a method.  I like the kind of faith healer that smacks people on the forehead. If I was a healer, I think I would like to use that method. Maybe if I hit them hard enough on the forehead I could  make them forget about the pain in their back or wherever it was. I offered that to Randy the other day, and I’m surprised he didn’t smack me on the forehead.

But as I said at the beginning, physical healing is not supposed to be a model for Christian ministry. It was to provide evidence that Jesus was the Son of God, that He had the power to forgive sins, and the power to give life.

Vs 29 “Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.  Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power [proceeding] from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”  And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'”  And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.” 

I’ve read some commentators who said that Jesus’ response indicates that He was unaware of who had touched Him, but He knew that some power had proceeded from Him. They attribute that to the human nature of Christ which limited Him in certain areas, at certain times. I’m not sure I buy that explanation.  I think Jesus knew full well who had touched Him.  

Remember the conversation Jesus had with Nathanael in  with John 1:48?  Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”  Jesus wasn’t limited in His spiritual power.  He was in a human body which was limiting, which got tired, which got hungry, which could bleed and die.  But spiritually, He was fully God and so He knew all things at all times. He knew what people were thinking.  And He knew that this woman had touched Him to be healed.

So then why does Jesus ask this question?  One was for the sake of the disciples, so that they would know what had happened.  And secondly for the sake of the woman’s salvation. According to Romans 10:9, you not only need to believe in your heart, but confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord to be saved. And so I think Jesus wanted to progress this woman’s faith.  And He does that by getting her to confess with her mouth what she had believed in her heart.

Vs. 33 “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.  And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

I want to point out that in the Greek language, what Jesus says is not has made you well, but “sozo” which means saved you.  So it should read,  “Daughter, your faith has saved you, go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”  We are saved by faith.  So her faith was the means by which Jesus saved her, forgave her of her sins, gave her new life, so that she was born again.  And He healed her of her affliction. 

By the way, we aren’t told that her illness was the result of some sin on her part.  Illness is not always the result of sin, though at times it could be.  But we should not assume that in this woman’s case, and I stress that you shouldn’t make that assumption in anyone’s case.  If sickness is of the Lord, then I believe that the Lord should reveal that to the person.That’s not our job.  But most illnesses are from natural causes, which are due to the original sin at the fall, but not a particular sin of the person suffering from it.

Remember the disciples asked Jesus about a blind man who was born blind. In John 9:2-3 And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”  Jesus answered, “[It was] neither [that] this man sinned, nor his parents; but [it was] so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

So the woman is saved by faith, and healed of her disease, but poor Jarius is beside himself with worry while all this is going on.  And then as if on cue, his friends come and tell him it’s too late, his daughter has died.  Vs 35 “While He was still speaking, they came from the [house of] the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”  But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid [any longer,] only believe.”  And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.  They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and [people] loudly weeping and wailing.  And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.”

Jarius must have almost died himself when the word came that his daughter had died.  Nothing causes more fear and anguish for a parent than that possibility of a child’s death. And now what he had feared had come upon him. But Jesus is telling him don’t be afraid, only believe.  What does that mean? I suppose it means that fear and faith don’t mix. He had believed that Jesus was able to deliver his daughter from this deadly illness, and now that the worst had happened, don’t give in to fear, but continue believing that what Jesus had begun to do, He was able to still accomplish. Tthe giver of life was still able to save, even from death.

Jesus said the child has not died, but is asleep.  Notice how the mourners turned from grief to ridicule. But one thing that ought to be noticed here, is that in the New Testament, being asleep is always a reference to a believer that has passed away.  It’s never used to refer to the death of an unbeliever.  It means the spirit is alive, but the body is sleeping, awaiting the resurrection of the body. Whereas the unbeliever is spoken of as dead, being both spiritually dead and physically dead.

Now if that is the case here, then it means that this girl was a believer.  Or it means that since her father was a believer, and she was under the age of accountability, then she was sanctified by her parents. I don’t have the time to spend this morning addressing that particular doctrine.  But I want you to pick up on Jesus’s choice of words there, which is very similar to what He said about His friend Lazarus when he died. Jesus isn’t talking nonsense by saying she is asleep, nor is He ignorant of what has happened.  But she has died, albeit died as a believer.

Vs40 “They [began] laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered [the room] where the child was.  Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).  Immediately the girl got up and [began] to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.  And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that [something] should be given her to eat.”

The mourners laughed at Him because they all knew she was dead.  They laughed in derision at Jesus. They scoffed at Him. But Jesus put them all out of the house.  Unbelief will not see the glory of God.  Those who challenge God to reveal Himself, to prove Himself to them according to their standards, their agenda, will not see the evidence that they claim they want.  But only those with eyes of faith shall see God.  Jesus is not interested in offering a spectacle for the viewing pleasure of skeptics.  He wasn’t providing religious entertainment.

So Jesus speaks to the girl in Aramaic, the girl’s native language.  Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” Jesus spoke to a dead girl as if she were alive, because her spirit was alive.  And He was able to do this because He is God. Romans 4:17 says that God gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Jesus spoke to this girl with the power of God and she was raised from the abode of the dead.  Luke says that her spirit returned to her.

And Mark says she got up and walked because she was twelve.  I guess if she was a lot older, she would have sat there for a few minutes and thought, “what just happened?”  But being young, she just hopped up and started walking around again as if nothing unusual had happened. Maybe she hadn’t actually been dead longer than a few minutes or so and didn’t realize what had happened to her.

Then Jesus says for them to give her something to eat. I suppose that was to help her regain her strength after probably not eating during her illness.  And also there is nothing like a healthy appetite to show people that you are in good health.

So as I said, I think I gave away the concluding statement at the beginning of the message. But to remind you, the purpose of  Jesus’ ministry is that He came to seek and to save those that are lost.  He came to save sinners, to give life to the spiritually dead.  Don’t miss the message of the gospel.  God is concerned about human suffering in the world.  But the cure for the world’s ills is not social justice or racial inequity, or acceptance of sinful lifestyles, or eliminating poverty.  The cure for the world’s illness is the forgiveness of sin which is given as a gift of God’s grace.  The pardon for our sins is paid for by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and we receive new life from Him.  I pray that you have received that new life by faith in Him, that you might have an eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God.

Last week we looked at the parable of the sower. And Jesus indicated in explaining that parable it provides the key to understanding all the parables. I think that is because Jesus uses some common symbols or figures in that parable which he interprets privately to his disciples, and so we can use that interpretation in other parables which use the same symbols or figures. That hermeneutic principle is called “expositional constancy.” It means that the meaning of symbols or figures used in one scripture tend to mean the same as similar symbols or figures in another scripture. I think it’s safe to say that this principle is generally true when it does not go against scripture. But it’s always best to interpret scripture by scripture.

So beginning in the fourth chapter of Mark, Jesus gives a series of parables in his teaching to the multitudes. And according to vs 34, it says that “He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”

Now we need to understand that Jesus wasn’t speaking in riddles. And He wasn’t telling morality tales, kind of like the folk tales that we tell our children. But He was speaking the truth about the kingdom of God, or you might even say proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God in such a way that it was veiled to the unbelieving heart.

Jesus speaks in this way to them because they had already rejected the truth. They had rejected the obvious truth that He was the Messiah, even the Son of God. They had attributed His words and His works to Satan. They had blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. And so they are now addressed in parables, so that “WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”

However, for the disciples, those that have ears to hear, He helps them hear the truth of the parable. Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Those whose spiritual ears have been opened let them hear the spiritual truth which Jesus has instilled in the parable.

In the next parable Jesus actually addresses that point of spiritual truth being hidden to those that are spiritually blind. Jesus says in vs 21 And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not [brought] to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has [anything] been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now unfortunately, we do not have the privilege that the disciples had in hearing Jesus explain this parable to them privately. But I think we can determine what Jesus is saying, by remembering what He has taught us thus far in the previous parable. But one advantage we do have is we have the complete scriptures and in particular what the Apostle Paul had to say in 2Co 4:3-4 where he says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Jesus said of Himself that He was the light of the world. John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” And the Apostle John, who introduced Jesus in his gospel as the word, then changes metaphors and says Jesus is the light. John 1:9-12 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name.”

So keeping all that in mind, let’s think about the parable again about hiding a lamp under a basket. If the Word is the lamp, if Jesus is the Word made flesh, the light shining in the darkness, then Jesus is speaking of Himself and His gospel. He was not manifested to be put under a basket or under a bed. In other words, Jesus did not come to be hidden, but to be revealed. He came that the truth of God would be manifested to the world. That the gospel of the kingdom would be proclaimed to the world.

“Nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret, but that it should come to light.” I think Jesus is speaking of His gospel, which on the one hand is being manifested to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, but on the other hand is being hidden to the unbelieving. Those Pharisees that thought that they could see, the truth had been veiled to them. As Paul said in 2Cor. 3:14-16 “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” But there is coming a day when that which is hidden will be fully revealed from heaven in flaming fire. And then everyone in that day will confess that Jesus is Lord, and every knee will bow. But that confession will not be for their salvation, but for their condemnation, because they did not receive it by faith.

That’s why Jesus reiterates again the saying in vs 23 “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” If you are spiritually deaf, you are unable to hear. But if you have been given spiritual illumination then you can understand the gospel and be saved.

Jesus explains that principle further, perhaps alone with the disciples, by saying in vs 24, ”Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him [more] shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

I think a more modern day paraphrase might say, “Listen carefully, because what you hear you will be judged by. You who were given the privilege of hearing the truth, if you do not understand it, but choose to reject it, then you will receive the full condemnation that you deserve because you had the opportunity, but you rejected it.

So what is this “standard of measure” that Jesus refers to by which you will be reciprocated? I think the standard of measure is your faith. Jesus often said to people, “O ye of little faith” or of another “What great faith.” By the standard of your faith you will be given. So whoever has, that is whoever has faith, more shall be given. More spiritual illumination. More spiritual truth by which we can grow and be useful to the kingdom. But to those who are unbelieving, who had not faith, then what they had will be taken away from him. They will lose everything, even lose their life. And especially for the Pharisees who were the main culprit in rejecting Jesus Christ, what they had was their religion, their system of laws and ceremonies and rituals and the temple service and all the trappings of Judaism. And because they rejected Christ, they would lose it all. The temple would be destroyed in 70AD. The sacrifices would be offered no more. The cult of the Pharisees and Sadducees would be destroyed and scattered to the four corners of the world.

The next parable the Lord gives is found starting in vs 26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows–how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Well, let’s start to understand this parable by trying to find similar symbolism with others before it. And we can do so immediately by the picture of a man sowing seed. Jesus said in regards to the parable of the soils that the seed was the word of God. If that is the same here, then it helps us tremendously to understand the parable. I believe it is a simple illustration of a man who sows the word of God, and yet does not have any control over how it’s received, or whether or not someone becomes saved. We are given the mandate to take the gospel to the world, to proclaim the gospel, to preach the word, to sow the seed, but we are not given the responsibility for how it is received. That is the hearer’s responsibility to receive the truth, and the Lord’s responsibility for spiritual growth.

What Jesus seems to be teaching is that the Spirit of God is the active agent in salvation. He causes the seed to germinate, to grow into faith. He is the One who illuminates the spiritual heart of a man so that he can believe and be saved. But as Jesus said elsewhere, “you will know them by their fruits.” When you see the spiritual life that comes as a result of the sowing of the word, then you know that you have gained a harvest of souls. The emphasis is an extension of the previous parable, that what the Holy Spirit does in the heart to receive the word, the Holy Spirit does in the life as it grows in faith. As the King James reads in Eph.2:1, “and you hath He quickened, who were dead in your trespasses and sins.”

The third parable of the kingdom of God is given in vs 30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? “[It is] like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.”

So here Jesus tells us from the outset that this parable is a picture, or illustration of the kingdom of God. Once again, there is a seed involved. The seed we have already learned is a picture of the word of God. But now Jesus gives a more definitive seed. A mustard seed. One other thing we are also told is that the mustard seed is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil.

The only way to understand that is to consider that the proclamation of the gospel started out very small. John the Baptist, one man crying out in the wilderness, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” And then Jesus appears, as John disappears, and He began to preach the gospel of the kingdom, primarily in Galilee. Such humble beginnings. In light of the size and scope of the world, it was surely the smallest of seeds.

And yet, by the power of the Spirit, the tree grows and spreads throughout the earth. The gospel of the kingdom is taken unto the ends of the earth. And that would seem to be in line with most commentator’s interpretation of this parable. But Jesus doesn’t stop the parable at that point. He adds some more details which are not so easily understood.

The details he adds is that this mustard seed produces a large tree, and forms large branches. The problem with that is that normally a mustard seed produces a large bush, not a large tree with large branches. What Jesus seems to be describing here is something abnormal. You might even say monstrous. And that’s further illustrated by another troubling detail. That Jesus says the birds of the air come and nest under it’s shade.

The reason that is troubling is because in the previous parable of the sower, Jesus said that the birds of the air represented the devil and his angels. So if we stick with the principle of expositional constancy, then we have to wonder what the devil is doing in the kingdom of God.

The answer is that the mustard tree represents the church, which grows larger than is normal so that the devil and his angels nest in it’s branches. It’s a picture of the church that has abnormal growth, that is larger than it should be, that has actually become a haven for false teaching and demonic influence.

To substantiate that interpretation, I would ask you to consider Matthews account of the same parable in chapter 13. And what you find there in chapter 13 is that directly before the parable of the mustard seed is the parable of the wheat and the tares. And in that parable Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”'”

Now that parable should be easy to interpret. But to make it even easier, Jesus explained it for the disciples in Matthew 13: 37 And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and [as for] the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil [one;] and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

And then in Matthew 13, directly following the parable of the tares is the parable of the mustard seed, and then following that Jesus gives another parable about the church which is in the same vein as the others, showing that corruption will swell the ranks of the church. He gives the parable of the leaven. Matt. 13:33 He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” Expositional constancy in this case indicates that leaven is always a picture of sin in the Bible. Many commentators interpret this parable as the one instance in the Bible which pictures leaven as a good thing, as a picture of the church in a positive light. But I believe it should be understood to be a warning about corruption and false teaching in the church.

So in Matthew, there are three parables together that I believe Jesus was teaching the same principle, which is that the devil is going to infiltrate the church and cause it to grow larger in appearance than it actually is. But the Lord knows those that are His. These parables are really a warning to the church, to listen carefully, to take care what you listen to.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven [will enter.] Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

Let us pray that God will give us ears to hear, and eyes to see, that we might believe the truth and be born again of the Spirit that we might be the children of God and that we might bear fruit.

Mark 3:7-12 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.

The crowds came to Jesus near the Sea of Galilee from distant places. Yet it seems that the crowds were attracted to Jesus more because of His miraculous works than because of His message about the kingdom of God. They were interested in receiving healing, being miraculously fed food, and seeing Him cast out demons. And so they were coming out to Him, following Him, thronging around him so much that it seemed they would almost trample Him.

It is great that people are attracted to Jesus. But if their focus is on what physical blessings He can do for them instead of His spiritual blessings, they will not follow Him for long. And there are a lot of people today that are attracted to Jesus because of what they think He might do or what they want Him to do for them. If they think He gives them what they want, healing or prosperity or whatever, then they might continue to follow Him as long as the crisis continues. But if in time they find that He doesn’t give them what they want, then they lose interest.

The demons seemed to be giving Jesus honor as well. They cried out when they saw Him, “You are the Son of God.” But Jesus didn’t want them announcing who He was. Jesus didn’t want lip service, especially from demons. And the demons weren’t going to worship Him. They just wanted to expose Him in a way that they hoped would protect themselves.

So Jesus withdrew from the crowds again, this time going to the mountain to be alone in preparation for calling the 12 disciples. Luke tells us in his parallel account that Jesus spent the night in prayer. He was always in communion with the Father. And prior to this choosing of His disciples, Jesus prioritizes that necessity of communion with the Father, and He prays all night until dawn.

Mark relates this event starting in vs 13, saying, “ 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 common tradition of the church, particularly the Catholic Church, has been to portray the disciples as extraordinary men. But in fact, they were the complete opposite. They were what you might call common men, ordinary working class men, without any religious or educational, or social credentials whatsoever. In fact their backgrounds were very diverse. Today the word diverse is a code word for the liberal agenda. And I don’t want to imply any sense of that to these men. I would actually point out that from the standpoint of contemporary diversity, Jesus deliberately seems to choose all men, and all men of one race. So we can dispense with any sense of Jesus trying to be politically correct or fit the social template of diversity that we see in politics and corporate policies and in advertising today.

So we know for sure that four of them were fishermen, possibly as many as seven, but four for sure. But other than that, there was little that they had in common with each other. There really is no reason to assemble these men together, no reason for them to come together, live together, work together, and minister together apart from the purposes of God.

They were very ordinary men in every way. Not one of them is renowned for scholarship; not one of them is renowned for his speaking ability; none of them was a theologian. They were outsiders from the standpoint of the religious establishment of Jesus’ day. They didn’t have any particular natural talents. They don’t appear to have been intellectual giants. They had not studied under a renowned Rabbi. They did not have seminary degrees.

They also came from different political backgrounds. One of them was a Zealot, part of a radical group determined to overthrow the Romans. Another one was a tax collector. He would have been on the opposite end of the spectrum. He was someone who bought a tax franchise from the Romans and then collected taxes from the Jewish people to give to the Roman government. He was considered a traitor to the Jews. So those two would have absolutely nothing in common.

Other than the four fishemen, the rest may have been tradesmen, craftsmen, or farmers of some kind. They were virtually all from Galilee, with the exception of Judas, who was Judean.

They were personally selected out of the many disciples that followed Jesus. And Jesus identified who they were. They didn’t apply for the job; He chose them for the job. He called them – He knew them as only God could know them. He knew all their faults long before He chose them. He knew their weaknesses; He knew their failures; He even knew Judas would betray Him. He chose Judas anyway, gave him all the same privileges and blessings He gave the others.

So you’ve got these 12 nondescript, ordinary, band of eclectic men brought together by Christ. And from a human perspective, the whole program of the kingdom of God to take the gospel to the world depends upon them. There’s no Plan B; there’s no second string in case these guys don’t work out. They’re going to be responsible for relating divine revelation. They and their associates are going to write the New Testament. According to Ephesians 2:20, they’re going to be the foundation of the Church. And it all depends on 12 men whose most notable characteristic is that they were just plain, ordinary men. The most noteworthy thing about them was that they were known to have been with Jesus.

So Mark says, “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.”

Just a reading of the names gives us some inkling about the group; there are a number of nicknames included in the list. Nicknames sometimes indicates a certain characteristic of a person. And by the way this is only one of four lists of names of the disicples/apostles. Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts all have lists. There are a couple of times when the names are changed up a little bit so that sometimes they were called by their given name, and sometimes they were called by their nickname. It was Jesus who nicknamed Simon as Peter. It was Jesus who nicknamed James and John as Boanerges. And then some of them had picked up other nicknames. Thaddaeus isn’t really a name; it is a nickname.

But one important question is why were there 12 of them? Well, the short answer is that it parallels the 12 tribes of Israel. In the old covenant the promises were made to the 12 tribes and they all had an inheritance. But this is the new covenant, and Jesus is showing that there is a new paradigm in the way that the new covenant will operate. The old system of the old covenant will be done away with. In Revelation it tells us that in the New Jerusalem, there are 12 foundation stones, and each stone is engraved with the name of one of the 12 apostles. What that signifies is that the old dispensation to the Jews has been replaced by a new dispensation of grace administered by the apostles to all the nations of the world. And their doctrine and preaching will be the means by which the church is built.

So in a sense, Jesus is repudiating the existing religious system of the Jews and showing that the kingdom of God will be given to all the nations through the administration of the apostles. The choosing and commissioning of the Twelve was a judgment on Israel’s corrupt leaders. If you look at Luke 22:28 for just a moment, I think it confirms that. Jesus says to the disciples, “You stood with Me in my trials; you didn’t forsake Me. And just as My Father granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table, in My kingdom and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

With the coming of the Messiah comes a new covenant. With the coming of a new covenant comes a new leadership. The Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the rabbis, the priests, they were false teachers, all of them. They misrepresented the Old Testament; they misinterpreted the law, they corrupted the people. And Jesus said of them “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” So they are replaced. And they are replaced by an unlikely group of 12 guys, none of whom comes out of the religious world. Not one was a rabbi. Not one was a scribe. Not one was a theologian. Not one was an academic, a priest, a Pharisee, a Sadducee – not one – which is to demonstrate Jesus’s repudiation of the religious leadership of the Jews.

But these were the men that Jesus chose. Verse 13, “He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted.” Choosing who would become His apostles is a sovereign work of God just like salvation. These men would live with Jesus for the three years of His life. They were there for His ministry. They were there for His death, even though they deserted Him when it happened. They were there to see Him risen from the dead. They were firsthand eyewitnesses of His life, death and resurrection. And they were the first generation of preachers who preached the gospel of salvation by grace, through faith in Christ, based on His work on the cross and His resurrection. And so Jesus calls them to be with Him.

And by the way, I have said it before that the problem with the church today is not a lack of ministers, nor a lack of churches, but I believe the problem is that a majority of pastors in the pulpits of churches today are not called by the Lord to be a pastor. They were sent by a denomination, they might have been called by a pastor search committee, but they are not called by Christ. And if you haven’t been called by the Lord to preach the gospel, then you will not be gifted to preach the gospel. Gifted, not in the sense of talented, but in the sense of empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So these men were called by Christ to be His inner circle of disciples who would after His death become His apostles. And the key to understanding what His intentions were comes in verse 14. He appointed 12 for two reasons: so they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach. Now, if they were going to be sent out to preach, first they had to be with Him to learn from Him. So, it’s a simple, two-fold purpose: they had to be with Him so He could send them. They weren’t going to be able to be sent effectively if they hadn’t been with Him and been trained effectively. They started out as learners. “Disciple” is the word in the Greek, mathētēs, which means learner or student. And they will eventually become apostles, in the Greek, apostellō. Apostellō means sent ones, messengers.

So what is it they are called to do? Verse 14, “He appointed twelve so they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach.” Send them out to preach. Jesus was a preacher. John the Baptist before Him was a preacher. The prophets were preachers. And now this is going to be the first generation of gospel preachers, new covenant preachers. What is a preacher? Someone who proclaims. And their message is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God.

1Cor. 1:21 says, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not [come to] know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Preaching the truth of the gospel is God’s plan to bring people to salvation. It looks like foolishness to the world, but it’s the wisdom of God in operation. I was telling someone the other day that 30 years ago you typically had a couple of Christian radio stations in the region of the county you lived in. And the format for those stations was that they had preachers who preached messages all day long. But for the most part those types of Christian radio stations don’t exist anymore. Now you have radio stations that just play music all day long. It’s hard to find preaching on Christian radio anymore. And I’m afraid that has contributed to the lack of sound biblical doctrine of a lot of Christians today.

So if the disciples were to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, then it’s necessary that God gave confirmation that they are speaking the truth of the gospel. So in vs 15 we read, Verse 15, “He gave them authority to cast out the demons.” Irregardless of what you might see on television, normal humans do not have authority over the demonic world.

Matthew 10:1, paralleling this, says that when Jesus sent them out, He gave them authority over disease, to heal all manner of diseases and over demons. They were given divine power to minister in the physical world and the spiritual world.

So, the Lord gave the Twelve power over disease, power over demons, that wherever they went to preach, the new covenant gospel of salvation by faith in Christ, when they spoke, people would know it was the truth of God because of the confirming evidence of supernatural power. 2 Corinthians 12:12 says “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” I believe scripture indicates that this was specific to the apostles, during the apostolic age as they laid the foundation of the church and church doctrine. Once their specific ministry was done, I believe the scriptures indicate that those gifts faded away when they died.

Now I think that’s an important point to emphasize. You have people running around today who claim to be able to heal people. Who claim to be able to cast out demons. You see them all the time on television and youtube. But one thing that always marks these men, the common denominator is they all have bad theology. They all misinterpret the Bible; they all misrepresent the Gospel. So the question is why would God authenticate false teachers? If the Lord were to reinstitute that power for some reason, you can be sure that whoever it is, their theology will be biblical, because God doesn’t authenticate false teachers.

Now finally, I want to look really briefly at each of these men. First Simon. He is always first on every list of the disciples. Jesus gave him a nickname: Peter which means Rock. And the only time Jesus called him Simon was when he was acting like his old self. He was the closest to Christ, the spokesman, the leader, the most notable preacher. He’s the dominant preacher in the first church in Jerusalem.

And then there’s James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James. These brothers we already met in chapter 1. Jesus called them; they were fishermen. Their father Zebedee is mentioned often, some think that he might have been related to the high priest in some way because John is able to enter the courtyard of the high priest during Jesus’ trial. But we don’t know for sure. Their mother is also mentioned as asking Jesus if her boys could sit on His right hand and the left hand when He sits on His throne. She was the original helicopter mom.

But Jesus gave a nickname to these two also. To them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “Sons of Thunder.” We see perhaps the reason for that nickname when they asked if they could call down fire from heaven to burn up their critics. I feel the same way sometimes.

And then there was Andrew and Philip. Philip is the leader of the second group of four. He’s from Bethsaida. So, He probably knew the four before Him. After him we have Bartholomew. Bartholomew is not really a name. “Bar” is son of, and “Tolmai” is a name. So, he’s the son of Tolmai. His actual name was Nathanael – Nathanael. Nathanael means God has given.

Then there’s Matthew also called Levi. We met him in Mark chapter 2. The tax collector hated and despised by everybody, considered a traitor to the Jews. Then there’s Thomas. According to John 11:16, he was a twin called Didymus, meaning the twin. He is often referred to in contemporary Christianity as Doubting Thomas because He doubted whether or not Christ had actually risen from the dead.

Then there’s James the son of Alphaeus. We don’t know anything about Alphaeus and we don’t know anything about James. But he’s always the first name in the final group. His mother is mentioned in Mark 15:40, as someone who follows Christ. There he is called James the Less. Another nickname, maybe it means Little James referring to his stature.

Then there is Thaddeus, but his real name is Judas son of James. “Judas son of James” is his official name in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. He is even referred to in John 14:22 as “Judas not Iscariot.” I’m told Thaddeus means “momma’s boy.” Not exactly what you would want to be named. And then there’s Simon the Zealot. He is called Simon the Cananaean. And some people think that means the Canaanite; it doesn’t. It’s from a Hebrew word which means to be zealous. He was a Zealot, a political activist.

And last but not least, Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him. A Judean, perhaps the one with the most noble heritage. He was the one who was the treasurer of the group, because he loved money. He betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. That would have been the equivalent of about 120 days of wages.

So what an interesting group. Nobody could have predicted that they would turn the world upside down. They became the recipients of divine revelation. They were the true teachers of sound doctrine, the apostles’ doctrine. They were the foundation of the Church, Ephesians 2:20. They were the early edifiers of the believers. He gave to the Church first apostles, prophets for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. They became exemplary of virtue. The New Testament calls them holy apostles.Their message was confirmed by signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

And I suppose that the lesson we can take from the calling of the apostles is that the Lord uses imperfect people to perfect His kingdom, He calls the ordinary to do extraordinary things. He uses people just like you and me, if we are willing to follow Him, to join with Him and learn from Him. 1Cor. 1:25-29 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

Last week we looked at the story of Jesus healing the paralytic man who was let down through the roof. I refer to it that way, because that is the way most people would remember it. But as I said last week, the most important thing about that event was not that the man was healed from his paralysis. But that Jesus forgave him of his sins.

The main purpose for which Jesus came was to preach the gospel of salvation. To bring forgiveness to sinners and give them new life. If you remember, I spoke of Jesus in that situation as being the Great Physician, who saw the heart of the man who was brought to Him, and He diagnosed the man’s condition, his greatest need, and that was his need for salvation. He was under the condemnation of death, and Jesus was able to forgive Him his sins and give him new life.

That is what Jesus came to do. As the angels had proclaimed at HIs birth, “He will save His people from their sins.” His purpose in coming into the world was not to eradicate suffering and sickness. But to provide the means by which men might be forgiven and give them new life.

Today we are going to look at another event in the life of Christ. I titled this message, God’s favor towards sinners. I don’t mean God’s approval of sinners, but His divine favor, or grace towards sinners. We tend to think that God’s favor is gained by our merit. But sinners have no merit, realize that they have no merit, but yet are the recipient of divine favor.

So in this event, we see Jesus doing exactly that, showing God’s favor towards someone who was considered to be the vilest of sinners. He calls Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collector to be His follower. Vs13 And He went out again by the seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them. As He passed by, He saw Levi the [son] of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.

Mark is known for his brief style of writing, of really only telling the highlights of the story. But what must be understood is that there were a lot of things that had to have happened before and during that short exchange. First of all, the text implies that Matthew, or Levi, had heard Jesus teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God. Perhaps Matthew’s tax booth was situated near the shore of he Sea of Galilee where he could tax the trade that went on there from the ships that were plying goods over the sea to their shores. And Jesus was preaching on the beach within earshot of Levi’s tax booth.

Tax collectors were people who had purchased something like a franchise from the Roman government whereby they taxed commerce and merchandise and travel and practically anything that moved, on behalf of the Roman government. The Romans used these tax collectors to collect the taxes for them on various commerce, and allowed them to charge a percentage above the tax which was their fee. The problem was that these tax collectors charged exorbitant fees far above what would be considered appropriate. And so they were particularly despised. Not only were they despised in general, those who were Jews who obtained such a position were considered traitors to their own countrymen. And so they were considered the worst of sinners, even unredeemable. No one wanted to even speak to them. They were looked down upon as as the scum of society.

But I think we can assume that Levi had heard Jesus preaching. He had been convicted of his sin, not only because of his sin, of taking advantage of people, of participating in highway robbery, but also because he knew he was an outcast of Jewish society, and thus felt that there was no hope for him. The Jewish religion as it was practiced by the Pharisees in particular offered only condemnation, no possibility of salvation. And so we can imagine Levi standing on the outskirts of the crowd clustered around Jesus as He preached on the beach, being convicted of his sin, knowing that he needs salvation, but dejectedly going back to his tax booth after Jesus finished preaching because he believed that he was outside of God’s favor.

But wonder of wonders, Jesus passed by his booth, and didn’t just walk past without looking at him as everyone else would normally do, but instead Jesus deliberately fixed His gaze directly upon him and said “Follow me.” Jesus knew Levi’s heart. Jesus knew Levi’s desire for forgiveness.

We can get a read on Levi’s heart by his response to Jesus. He immediately got up and followed Jesus. Luke adds the insightful detail in his gospel which is that “he forsook all” and followed Him. He walked away from his way of life. He showed true repentance by making a complete about face, forsaking everything, all the money, all the revenue that he would make, leaving his tax franchise business which probably had cost him a lot of money. In fact, he showed even more commitment to be a disciple than Peter and Andrew and James and John who could conceivably go back to fishing now and then. But once he walked away from his franchise, he would never be able to go back.

True repentance is forsaking sin and going in the opposite direction. It’s like the verse we talked about in Galatians 5 yesterday morning at the prayer breakfast. Walking in the Spirit is diametrically opposed to walking in the flesh. Walking in the Spirit is walking in righteousness, whereas walking in the flesh is walking in sin. To turn and walk after the Lord was to forsake the past, forsake sin, and follow after righteousness.

The other thing that must be understood as implied in the story is that Levi was forgiven. Inherent in the call of Jesus to be His disciple, is that Jesus forgives Him and cleanses Him from sin. Jesus said to him, “follow Me.” Turn away from your life of sin and follow Me. Then as Jesus speaks to the scribes in vs 17, He says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Again, we look at Luke’s gospel and read the added words, “but sinners to repentance.”

The call of God is to repent, to come to Jesus, to turn from sin and look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. Jesus in John 16:8, speaking of the work of the Spirit, says, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” And so we can be sure that the Spirit of God convicted Levi of his sin during Jesus’ message, and then at the call of Christ to follow Him, Levi repents and believes, forsaking all to follow Jesus.

Now we have further evidence of Levi’s repentance because he invites Jesus to his house that evening for a celebratory feast, and invites all his former associates in the tax industry to join him and meet Jesus. Vs15 “And it happened that He was reclining [at the table] in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him.”

Couple of things to notice there. First, when you surrender your life to Jesus, you invite Him to be the Lord of all your life. You invite Him to be Lord of your home, Lord of your career, Lord of your social life. Jesus changes all of you, not just forgives you of your sins so you can continue to live in your sin. But He now has first place in every area of your life.

Secondly, when Jesus forgives you and cleanses you and gives you new life, that joy of being reconciled to God, of being set free from sin and death, results in you wanting others to know the same Jesus. It’s not some secret between you and God that no one is aware of, that your coworkers never see any evidence of, your family doesn’t see any difference. No, not only are people aware that you’ve been saved, you want to share the good news with everyone.

I remember when I got right with the Lord almost 40 years ago when I was living in California. The next day I drove into work with a friend of mine to pick up my check. On the way there, I was explaining to my friend what had happened to me. He could tell something had happened and it turns out that a few months later he came to Christ at least in part, he said, because he saw the change that occurred in me.

But when we came to the restaurant where we worked, all the waiters were sitting upstairs doing their sidewalk before the restaurant opened, and a couple of them started making comments about me, that they thought I was high. And I remember telling them that I wasn’t high, that I had gotten right with God. I must have had a joy on my face, a peace about my appearance that they thought could only have meant I was stoned. But God had given me a peace and a joy that surpassed anything alcohol or pot could ever do, and it was a testimony to them that I had been changed.

So Matthew has had this conversion through Jesus and He invites all his friends to have dinner with Jesus. And you know what happened? There was a revival in Matthew’s house. Mark says that there were many tax collectors and sinners there dining with Jesus. And of course, Jesus didn’t miss any opportunity to preach the gospel. And Mark says there were many of them and they were following Him. They were forsaking their sin to follow Jesus.

Listen, the hallmark of a revival is repentance. It’s not an emotional outpouring. The hallmark or revival is not some ecstatic experience by the attendees. It’s conviction of sin and repentance. When Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” during the greatest revival this country has ever seen, what’s known as the Great Awakening, the hallmark of that revival was people groaning under the burden of their sin, crying out for forgiveness, repenting and weeping over their sin, and calling out “what must we do to be saved?”

I think in Mark’s understated narrative, it is more than appropriate to believe that the tax collectors and sinners in attendance that night were convicted of their sin, and they believed that Jesus offered forgiveness of their sins, by His authority as the Son of God. And so many of them followed Him, presumably leaving their professions of sin, whether it be as tax collectors or prostitutes, or any other sins that defined the term sinners as understood by the Jews.

But notice the criticism of the scribes, the religious leaders of the Jews. Vs16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”

The Pharisees were kind of like the game “whack a mole.” They were always popping up. They were always hanging around, but not to learn, not to believe, but to find fault with Jesus. I think they had already hardened their hearts against the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah. He wasn’t what they were looking for. In fact, they weren’t looking for a savior at all. They wanted a military conqueror who would restore the political and geographical dominance of Israel and who would sit on the throne of David, and who would elevate them to positions of religious authority in the kingdom. That’s what kind of Messiah they were looking for. Not a Savior from their sin. They were satisfied with their own sense of rightness. They were self righteous. They weren’t sinners like these wretched tax collectors. They were convinced of their own inherent goodness, but in fact they were rotten to the core.

So they are hanging around, watching critically everything Jesus does, and they are perhaps afraid to confront Jesus directly, so they go to his disciples and try to intimidate them. They say “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?”

Eating a meal together, especially in that culture, symbolized fellowship, friendship, acceptance. So they wouldn’t eat with anyone that they considered a sinner. In fact, they would avoid such people at all costs. They would go out of their way to avoid contact with them. And they are indignant because Jesus is eating with sinners. But true to form, they use that self righteous indignation to try to undermine the faith of Jesus’ disciples.

Well, Jesus knows what they are saying, without having to actually hear them say it. He knows the hearts of man, because God sees the heart. And His response is to answer their objections and at the same time render a condemnation upon their self righteousness. He first uses an analogy to answer them. Vs.17 And hearing [this,] Jesus said to them, “[It is] not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.”

It’s a very simple analogy. Doctors minister to sick people. It was that simple. Jesus is the Great Physician, He is the spiritual doctor, and He needs to go to the people who need to be healed. If the Pharisees can see how sick with sin these people are – and they readily admit that, they know they are sinners, they condemn them as sinners – doesn’t it make sense that when the Savior comes, He goes to the sinners?

In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” And Paul says in 1Tim. 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost [of all.]”

So His first answer is from an analogy, His second answer is from authority, end of verse 17. “I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.” And Luke 5:32 adds, “but sinners to repentance.” To call, that is to call into the Kingdom, to call to forgiveness, to call to salvation.

The truth of salvation that must be accepted and believed in order to be saved, is that you are a sinner. That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And when you recognize you are a sinner, and confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But forgiveness doesn’t happen until you recognize you are a sinner. And as Jesus said to the Pharisees earlier in this passage in regards to the paralytic, “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He is able to forgive sins because He is God incarnate, and He would pay the penalty for sin through His death on the cross.

But the condemnation of the scribes of the Pharisees was that they didn’t consider themselves sinners in the least. They thought they were righteous. They kept the law as they had defined it. They earned their self righteousness by their works which they did to be seen of men. But their hearts were corrupt and desperately wicked.

Later on, in Matt. 23 it is recorded that Jesus exposed and condemned them for their sinfulness by saying “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

But back to our story, Jesus said, I didn’t come to call the righteous, those that refuse to confess their sinfulness, that think that their self righteousness will be enough to enter the kingdom of God. They will have to stand before the judgement seat of Christ on the basis of their own merits. But Psalm 14 says there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that does good, there is none that seeks after God. And Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of our righteousness is as filthy rags.” These religious leaders should have known that. They should have been convicted of their sin and desperate for healing. But they would not have this Man rule over them.

So it is today. This church, the believing body of Jesus Christ is not made up of good people, it’s made up of bad people. It’s not made up of people who think they’re righteous, it’s made up of people who know they are sinners. It’s not made up of the people who have worked to attain a certain acceptance with God, it’s made up of people who know they could never attain acceptance before God on the basis of their works.

We are sinners saved by the divine favor of God. Given the righteousness of Jesus Christ in exchange for our sins, which He paid the penalty for by HIs death on the cross that we might be forgiven. Yes, Jesus has the authority to forgive sin, but the only sin He can forgive is the sin of those who know their sinfulness, confess it, and put their trust in Him as their Lord and Savior.

I trust that you have confessed your sin and repented of your sin and believed in Him that He has the authority to forgive your sins and give you new life, and having believed, you will follow Him, walk with Him, and abide in Him.