Today we are looking at two events which I believe are designed to be looked at as a couplet. I’m sure many of you have heard messages on both of these events; the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus walking on the water, and in most cases I think they are presented independently of one another. But as someone observed, my job is to be a preacher, not a commentator. I am looking for Biblical principles which are presented in the text, and I’m trying to extract them and expound them. I’m not interested in giving a commentary on the text, per se. My goal is to preach the principles being taught by the text.

And so I see these two incidents in the Lord’s ministry as connected and the truths taught in them building upon one another. So I think that Mark intended them to be viewed concurrently. And I think that the Holy Spirit also intended for them to be studied together. One clue that this is so is found by the fact that at the beginning of each incident, the disciples get into a boat and travel to another side of the lake. In both accounts, Jesus orders His disciples to cross over to the other side of the sea. And I think that is significant, in that it shows a parallel of sorts that is instructive in helping us understand the spiritual principles being taught through both events.

Now as I said, there are two events; the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus walking on water. And I would like to suggest that we could further classify those events by the title of the tutorial and the test of the gospel. That is how we learn when we go to school, is it not? The teacher teaches, and then there is a test. The purpose of the teaching is to instruct, and the purpose of the test is to gage your knowledge. And I think that is what the Lord is doing here; there is a day of teaching, and a night of testing. And testing by the way is not always so that there might be given a score. Testing in it’s Biblical format is often used to move the information from the head to the heart. From knowledge to faith. To come to trust that which you have believed. To prove that which you have learned. That is the purpose of testing.

When David was about to face Goliath and Saul wanted him to wear his armor, David said “I cannot wear this, for I have not tested it.” The idea was that he had not proven it. He had not exercised it, he had not practiced fighting in it. So it was of no real use to him. That is the purpose of our spiritual testing. God uses it to prove our faith, to strengthen our faith, and to give us confidence in our faith so that we might accomplish more as a result of our trust.

So let’s look first at the tutorial. Note the context; the disciples had just returned from being sent out in pairs throughout Galilee to prepare the way for the Lord. They had been given specific power and authority to preach, to heal and cast out demons. In vs 12 and 13 we see that they did just that. In the meantime Mark gives a side note about the death of John the Baptist which may have happened concurrently as they were afield doing the ministry of the gospel. Now in vs30 the disciples have returned, and they jubilantly report to Jesus all that they had done and taught.

Then Jesus says that they should come away with Him to a secluded place for a while, so that they might be refreshed. Mark says that they did not even have time to eat because of the crush of the multitudes. So they all got in a boat and crossed the lake in an attempt to escape the crowds. But the people saw them, perhaps figured out their course, and ran around the lake to get ahead of them so that the crowds met them on the other side. I can’t help but think that the Lord Jesus knew that would happen. And the reason that He allowed it to happen, or even orchestrated it in this way, was to make an opportunity for a greater ministry occasion. And even more of an opportunity for the disciples to learn, because they are now removed from familiar places, or their homes or friends to whom they could have relied upon to help them in the upcoming situation.

So in vs 34 it says “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” Listen, that is what Jesus came for. In John 9:4 Jesus is recorded as saying, ”We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” Jesus knew His ministry in Galilee was coming to an end. So He has orchestrated a great ministry opportunity here in this secluded place, where not only is He able to spend all day teaching the multitudes, but is able to teach the disciples some important lessons as well.

And notice that is what Mark records; that Jesus taught the crowds many things. Other gospel writers include that He also performed healing. But Mark wants us to see the priority of teaching. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The word of Christ is the basis for faith, and faith is the means of knowing God and the things of God. Faith is the basis for acceptance with God. But faith must come by hearing the word of God. It must be grounded in the word of God. Faith not backed up with the promise of God is just wishful thinking. It has no relevance in spiritual matters. Faith must be grounded in the word. So Jesus spent the day teaching them many things, doctrine, principles of the kingdom of God. Listen, just because you sincerely believe something to be true does not make it true, unless it is the truth of God. Faith, in order to be valid, must be founded on the word of God.

And notice that Jesus seeing the multitude had compassion on them, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd. So His first priority is to feed the sheep. He feeds the sheep with spiritual food. He teaches them the word of God. That is the pastor’s job, is it not? Pastor is a title which comes from the Greek word poimen, which means shepherd. That’s the same word Jesus uses here. And a shepherd’s job is to feed his sheep, to guard his sheep, and to pasture his sheep. The primary way that is done is to teach sound doctrine, and warn the flock of false prophets and false teaching. Everything else is secondary to that. So Jesus shows by example the way a shepherd is to show compassion. To teach the word, to feed the flock with spiritual food. And by the way, it’s a very dangerous thing to be a sheep without a shepherd. There is a great deceit prevailing in Christianity today that we can be independent, outside of a local flock and outside of the authority which God has given to His shepherds. But the fact is that a sheep outside of the flock and without a shepherd is ripe pickings for the ravenous wolves of the devil. (Eph.4:11, 2Tim.3:6)

So we see the preeminence of the spiritual need over the physical as illustrated in the incident which follows. First, Jesus feeds them spiritually. Even the disciple’s physical need for rest is put secondary to the spiritual needs of the crowds. Then, when it is late in the day, the disciples say to Jesus in vs 35, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” There are no WaWa’s out in that part of the country. No supermarkets. So it’s going on towards evening, and the disciples are probably hungry too, so they know the crowd will be hungry and there is no where close by to get food.

But Jesus turns instead to the disciples and says in vs37, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.”

Now I think that the temptation here is to make the same mistake that the disciples make in this incident. I think Jesus is attempting to illustrate a spiritual principle by physical means. It’s kind of like a parable; a parable uses an earthly illustration for spiritual purposes. I have said many times before, that every miracle in the gospels is presented to teach us a spiritual principle. And so I think we have to understand this as such. The point here is not just to teach that Jesus is able to take the gift of a little boy’s lunch and make it feed 5000. (John’s gospel tells us that it was a boy’s lunch). But the principle being taught here is that Jesus Himself is the Bread of Life. He is the manna which comes down out of heaven, which if you eat of it, you will have life everlasting, even spiritual life which is from God. That is the purpose. Jesus could make bread out of stones if He wanted. The point is not feeding the hungry. The point is that the disciples come to see Jesus as the Bread of Life, and that as they offer that food to the crowd then they receive spiritual life. That is the ministry that God has called His disciples to perform. Not just to feed the hungry at Thanksgiving. Or to operate a food pantry. But to offer the bread of life to every person.

Well, this is a very familiar story to all of you and Mark told it quite well. I need not embellish it. But let me hopefully add some spiritual insight into what was happening. As I have already said, Jesus is the Bread of Life. And Jesus wants to teach the disciples to administer that spiritual food. Thus He has the disciples bring to Jesus what they had. It wasn’t much. But it was enough, when coupled by faith in Christ. For those of us that are disciples, the Lord has given us enough knowledge to share with others what we have. I heard someone say the other day that the best witness of a Christian to the lost is just to tell what Jesus has done for you. “I once was blind, but now I see.” That may be all you know, but share that. You have a responsibility in the kingdom of God to share what God has given you so far. Not to wait until one day when you think you have finally got every question answered. Just share Jesus with those you come into contact with. He will take what you have and magnify it by His power.

Notice also, the disciples say we could never afford enough food to feed all these people. The fact is, spiritually speaking, Jesus has already purchased what we could never pay for. Salvation is a gift of God, purchased through the blood of Jesus Christ the Righteous. None of us could buy salvation by money or by good works. Only Jesus is able to purchase our redemption, and God grants it to us by grace on the basis of our faith in Christ.

Then look at the illustration further. The Lord performs this miracle to strengthen their faith. When there was only five loaves and two fish, and 5000 men, (Matthew says not including women and children, maybe 10,000+) He has the disciples make them sit down in rows of fifty. I used to be in the hotel restaurant business. And I used to have nightmares from time to time of a giant banquet hall where all these people kept filing in, and I was the only waiter. It was a real nightmare. I couldn’t keep up. I would wake up like Daniel from his vision; sweating and exhausted. I think that some of that might have been going on with the disciples. But Jesus is teaching them to obey even when there is no evidence. Tell everyone to sit down so that you can serve them dinner. But they know there is no food.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That is what Jesus is illustrating here, the essence of faith. Faith is comprehending the spiritual, when there is little to go on. Faith is obedience to Christ, it is believing in His word, when it doesn’t always make sense.

So they go to Jesus, who first blesses the food. He gives thanks to God. Something we all ought to do. Yes, sometimes it may be a thoughtless ritual, but it’s a good ritual. Jesus then takes the bread and the fish and begins to break it and distribute it to each disciple. Someone has said that it was customary in those days to have a basket that you carried on your back similar to the way people carry a backpack today. So it’s possible that each disciple has his own basket which he brings to Jesus, and Jesus keeps breaking these loaves and fish in His hands until the basket is filled, and the disciple goes to the rows of people and starts passing it out.

And I want to say that is a picture of effective evangelism. Yes, there is a great crowd there. But salvation is an individual thing whereby a disciple of Christ passes on that knowledge which leads to salvation to one individual after another. And notice that Jesus doesn’t set up a buffet and let everyone come up and help themselves. But the gospel is distributed piece by piece until everyone has had enough. There is a progressive nature to the gospel, where you believe and act upon the truth as you have received it, and then more is given.

Notice also Jesus instructs the disciples to take up what was left over. I almost choked on my ice cream the other night when I read a commentary which said this was done to illustrate that littering is a sin. That’s seriously what they said. Jesus was teaching not to be a litterbug. Well, to that I say humbug! No, we shouldn’t litter, but that is hardly the point. The point is that there were 12 disciples and after they fed everyone else, they had 12 baskets left over. In other words, each disciple had more than enough for his daily need, as well as some for the next day. God provides for our needs, as we are obedient to Him and put him first. Don’t take an inventory of your needs and then determine what you have left to give the Lord. But put the Lord’s work first and give liberally, and then you will find that you have more than enough for your own needs left over.

Now notice that immediately following this miracle Jesus sends the disciples away. Jesus sends them off in the boat again, this time to be tested and to prove some important lessons in the process. Jesus stays behind and deals with the crowd. Notice though that in vs45 Jesus sends them ahead of them. That means that He made it clear that He would meet them on the other side. Now that’s important, because the promises of the Lord are the foundation of our faith. The disciples should have remembered that when they were in the middle of the test. Jesus said He would meet them on the other side.

That’s where the church is today, is it not? We are in the boat, rowing for the other shore, and Jesus has promised to meet us there. The wind is contrary, the forces of this world seem to be against us, Jesus seems to be absent, and we are being tested, and our faith is being stretched day by day. I don’t know about you, but I told my wife the other day I sometimes feel like I am alone in a dark room, blindfolded, and trying to find the door. And I’m being tripped and punched, and kicked from all directions. That’s often the experience of my Christian life. Now maybe I shouldn’t confess that. I’m sure you don’t ever feel that way. God probably speaks to some of you face to face. But for me, I can tell you, I sympathize with these disciples. They were rowing for 6 hours or more on a dark night, the wind is fiercely against them so that they make practically no progress, and Jesus is no where around. They are cold, tired and probably never got a chance to eat their bucket lunch which they had to throw out because they needed the buckets to bail water.

Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Jesus sends the disciples away on the boat ahead of Him, and He dismisses the crowd and goes up into the mountain to be alone in prayer. Now why would He dismiss the crowd? Well, John 6:15 tells us that it was because they wanted to take Jesus by force and make Him king. They wanted a king that would feed them, heal them, minister to their earthly needs. They were interested in the carnal but not the spiritual. And that is where so many are today in the church. They want a carnal Jesus. They want Jesus to heal them. They want Jesus to perform for them, to entertain them, to feed them, to prosper them. The church is interested in carnal, material, temporal things. And Jesus dismisses such people. He wants the disciples to learn the spiritual principles that He is teaching. And so He orchestrates a test, not to give them a failing grade, but to enlarge their faith, to enable their carnal eyes to see the spiritual truth and to live the spiritual life.

So the disciples start trying to be obedient, and what happens? A four or five mile journey turns into a night of frustration and fear. They are rowing against a contrary wind. I said a couple of weeks ago that I think that the devil has a certain degree of control of the wind. I would even go so far as to say that the devil has control over much of what happens in the natural realm on this earth. And I back that up with Ephesians 2:2 which says about us who have been saved but once were dead in our sins, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Notice that Paul calls him the prince of the power of the air, and that the world is set on it’s course by him. Satan orchestrates the world, that natural, carnal effects of this world to entrap and ensnare people in sin and rebellion against God. And he is given a lot of authority and dominion in this world. God is the Sovereign of all the Universe, but He has given dominion of this world to Satan for a time, and the human race when it fell into sin became enslaved to this world and it’s master.

Three times, in John 12, John 14 and John 16 Jesus refers to Satan as the ruler of this world. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? And 1John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Well, enough said. I think the contrary wind is of the devil. But I want you to know that God is able to take what is meant towards us as evil, and use it for good. Jesus is going to use the testing that the disciples are going through for God’s purposes, and His purposes are for good. Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

And how is that accomplished? Well, while the disciples are out there in the dark, toiling against the contrary violent wind and seemingly getting nowhere, the Lord Jesus is on the mountain watching them and praying for them. Vs46 “After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.”

Folks, this ought to make you want to shout “Hallelujah!” When you are going through the trials of your life, when it’s dark, when you don’t seem to be making any headway, when you’re trying to be obedient to the Lord but it seems like the devil is winning, take courage, Jesus is on the mountain praying for you and watching you. Notice it is dark, they are miles out in the middle of the lake, it’s a storm out there, and yet Jesus on top of this mountain is watching them. Anyone want to deny the deity of Jesus Christ after reading that needs to go find another religion.

And I’m struck by the similarity here of another time of trial, when Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” That passage illustrates again that Satan does have a little authority. He has a little power for a short time. But Christ is omniscient, omnipotent, and Satan is not. Christ is All Mighty God, the Creator, but Satan is a creature. Christ is the Eternal Righteous King over all, and Satan is merely the prince of the air. And Christ is praying for us that are His, that our faith may not fail even though we are sifted like wheat, even though the winds are contrary and we are not making much headway, even though it’s dark and we feel all alone – we are never alone. Christ is with us, watching us, praying for us, interceding on our behalf. And He is going to see to it that our trials do not sink us, but that they will only serve to strengthen us, so that we might strengthen our brethren. It only makes us stronger and more effective and complete. James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

I’m not a Greek scholar, but commentators tell me that in Matt. 16:24 the word for “battered” by the waves is actually “harassed.” That’s a good illustration of how the devil attacks us. He wants to discourage us, to distract us, to defeat us by harassment, by torturous circumstances, by unceasing toil to no avail. But Christ is watching us, and praying for us, and in His own timing, He will come to help us.

Notice that when Jesus comes walking on the water He looks like He is going to pass them by. First of all they think He is a ghost. They begin screaming in fear, frightened. They let superstition and fear almost deprive them of their deliverance. The point is that we must take care not to let trials so alarm us that we do not recognize the salvation that comes through Christ. Our tendency is to panic in trials, to respond to crisis in fear, in hysteria, forgetting the promises of God to be with us, to watch over us, and to meet us on the other side. God gives us trials to strengthen us, not to defeat us. To make us more useful, not to make us unusable. To complete us, not defeat us. So don’t give in to fear in trials, but remember the promises of God to be with us, to never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus said to the fearful disciples, “Take courage, it is I, don’t be afraid.” And His message to us is “Take courage, I am here, don’t be afraid.”

And when you have Jesus with you in your trial, then you will have peace. Vs 51 “Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished.” Listen, when you have Jesus, it doesn’t mean that you won’t have any storms in your life, you won’t have any contrary circumstances in your life. It simply means that you will have Jesus with you in the storm. You will have Jesus with you in the contrary circumstances. And that is how we have peace. We have peace though the storm is raging around us, though the wind is contrary, though the darkness is fearful. We have peace because the Prince of Peace is in our boat, and He is our captain, and we are sailing where He told us to sail, and going where He told us to go. And He is Lord even of the storms.

We have an advantage that the disciples did not have. They did not have the end of the story. We do. We have the complete revelation, the complete scriptures. We know the end of the story and the story that never ends. But the disciples did not. Mark says that “they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” That means that they were still seeing things from a carnal perspective. They though the food was just food. They thought the miracle was cool, but it was just because they were hungry. They thought that Jesus walked on water because He was looking for a quicker way across the lake than walking around it. I don’t know, but I do know that they failed to understand the spiritual implications of much of the doctrines that Christ was teaching them. And it was because they were too focused on what they could see, as opposed to what they could not see.

And that was the problem with the multitudes that met them again on the shore. They see Him as the One who makes bread and fish, who feeds 10000 people, who heals the lame and the sick. They like the physical benefits of the gospel. They are attracted to the miracles, but they have no insight into the spiritual. They fail to understand the spiritual dimension of the bread of life, that comes down out of heaven.

John 6:33, 35-36 Jesus says, “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” … and Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.”

The question for you this morning is do you believe? Do you only believe in what you can see, what you can taste and feel and experience? Are you still carnal? Or will you believe in what you cannot see, that Jesus Christ is the bread of life which came down out of heaven, which was broken for me and for you on the cross, and if you believe in Him, and in His purchase of our redemption through His death, you will be granted His righteousness, that you might have life in His name? That is why He came, and that is what we are to proclaim. If you do not know Him, then come to Him. He will never cast you out. And if you know Him, then tell of Him, and share Him with the world, that the world may know how to be saved.

Let me start today by posing a hypothetical situation to you. If you were able to live a truly exemplary Christian life, a life of ministry, a life of righteousness, a life that pointed people to Christ – if that was something that not only your friends said about you, but also more importantly something that God said about you, how would you expect your life to turn out? Wouldn’t you think that for such a person, there would be the proverbial “showers of blessings?” Wouldn’t you expect at the very least, a long life, all your financial needs met, your health assured, your family’s well being?

I think if you are honest, deep down in your subconscious heart you would expect all those things on the life of someone who was truly a man or woman after God’s own heart. That’s what the majority Christian view teaches, for the most part. That if you live for the Lord, He will bless your life here on earth, and in fact, those blessings will be pressed down, shaken, and running over.

I must confess that there is a part of me still that holds to that view as well. In spite of having experiences to the contrary many times in my life. I think we want to believe that a blessed life is the norm for the Christian life, and though times of tribulation and even distress like that which befell Job, for instance, are sometimes encountered, they are due to extenuating circumstances, and we should not expect that as the normal situation for the Christian.

Well, as a counter point to that subconscious or conscious mindset, I offer you today the example of John the Baptist. I’m sure that most of you are well familiar with his life and need no review. But some review is necessary, if only to illustrate the kind of man that John the Baptist was. Because the end of his life does not bear testimony to the degree with which he was regarded by God.

In fact, leaving aside a lot of the historical details of John’s life, the ultimate testimony as to what kind of man John was is recorded as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 11:11 where He said, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!” There can be no higher accolade given to men that that statement by none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. No one up to that day had been born who was greater than John the Baptist.

Yet, consider how this man died. Alone, after having spent a year and four months in prison according to some commentators. He wasted away all that time in a dungeon, practically forgotten about, finally to be beheaded at the request of a viciously angry woman. Something doesn’t seem fair about that. The very people that he preached against, managed to have him killed. And if some historians are to be believed, his decapitated head served on a charger was treated with public contempt by this same woman.

So how are we to view this man’s life? There is no evidence of sin that he committed which would have brought on such an ignominious end. And we cannot believe that God was so unjust as to forget about the good works that John did while on the earth. So what are we to think in regards to this story? 

I will confess something to you. I read several sermons in preparing for this message, secretly hoping that I might find a nice, tight little three point outline and a poem that I could borrow which would have answered my own questions regarding this event, as well as solve my dilemma on how to present it. But as I reviewed several messages from my favorite stable of pastors out there whom I like to listen to, I found that they avoided the why, and just expanded on the what. They took the parallel passages in the other gospels and added a lot of historical details and simply retold the story with a lot more in depth material than what Mark gives us. But that approach doesn’t answer my questions. And I think that perhaps it doesn’t answer your questions either.

My purpose then today is not to teach a history lesson, or a geography lesson. If you want that you can find it in most study Bibles. But my purpose is to try to understand the principles of the gospel that Mark is giving us today. Of all people, Mark could easily have embellished the story with a lot of biographical details about the Herods. He could easily have given us more history connected with this event. But Mark, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, gives us this account, in all it’s brevity, for the purpose of teaching us some important lessons – the life principles of the gospel. And so I want to try to examine that aspect today. Though I admit that perhaps I will raise more questions than I will answer.

I would like to build on the questions I started out with concerning our preconceptions about the blessings of God in regards to our lives. There are two men in the Bible that we are told who never died. One was a man named Enoch, who it was said in Genesis 5:24 walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The other was Elijah, who was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, while Elisha was looking on. This is the same Elijah, by the way, that some said had come back to life in the form of Jesus, as we read in vs 15.

So to expand on my earlier question, obviously these two men were special in the sight of God. God enjoyed fellowship with Enoch to such a degree that He took Him to be with Him. How, we do not know. But one minute he was on the earth, and the next God took Him to be with Him. Hebrews 11:5 tells us that ‘By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.”

I remember my Dad attempting to dramatize it by saying that Enoch and the Lord used to walk together, perhaps in the cool of the evening as He had done with Adam and Eve before the fall. And one evening, as they were walking and their conversation was particularly engaging, darkness began to fall. And perhaps Enoch said, “Lord, it’s getting late. Martha probably has dinner on the table. I guess I better get back.” And the Lord said, “Enoch, why don’t you come home to dinner with Me tonight. I’ll send word to Martha so she won’t worry.” And so Enoch and the Lord kept on walking and talking and just kind of faded into the evening dusk. And Enoch was not, for the Lord took him.

Now that would be a nice way to go, wouldn’t it? Just be walking with the Lord, and you go around the bend out of sight, still walking and talking with the Lord. And you walk out of this world into the next.

Or how about Elijah? What a triumphal way to end your life. Elijah lived a life with supernatural power. He performed mighty miracles. He was a mighty man of God, and he left this world in a blaze of glory, with the thunder of horses hooves, and the rattle of chariot’s wheels, and a flaming fire enveloping all of it. I can imagine that there was a special angel driving the chariot, and one minute Elijah is standing there talking to Elisha, and the next there is this whirlwind and fire and the chariot appears in a rush, and the strong arm of the angel reaches out and swoops Elijah off his feet into the chariot and they fly away into the clouds, leaving poor old Elisha standing there dumfounded.

Those are great stories. They are true stories. And we are excited at hearing about such things which happened to mighty men of God. But if the truth be known, and the Lord was to say to me or to you today, “You are highly favored among men. You have walked faithfully with Me during your time here on the earth, and come tomorrow at this time, I will come and take you away from this earth to be with Me.” Well, I hate to say it, but I think a lot of us might tell the Lord, “You know, I am flattered that you think so well of me and the ministry that I have done here on the earth, but the truth is I am not really all that anxious to leave right now. I would rather spend a long life here on earth, and enjoy all the blessings that you can give me here on earth with my family and friends. After all, I still have a lot of things I want to do before I leave. Thanks for the offer though.”

That fits better with our paradigm of the Christian life, doesn’t it? That God’s blessings on good people means that we get to enjoy life more abundantly, right here, for many, many years to come. Well, I would suggest that such an attitude reveals much about our commitment to our Christianity and our walk with the Lord. I would suggest that our commitment to the Lord is based more on what He can do for me in the here and now, rather than what kind of benefit I might receive in the hereafter.

So John the Baptist illustrates for us first and foremost the kind of dedication and commitment that pleases the Lord. John’s whole purpose was to introduce people to Jesus Christ. He went about preaching repentance in order to prepare the way for the Lord’s ministry. He said about Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He had the right perspective about his purpose in life. Jesus was to be lifted up, exalted, and he was to decrease. In other words, he wasn’t interested in Jesus blessing his earthly life, increasing his horizons, building his kingdom. But just the opposite, he was interested in blessing the Lord, increasing the reach of the gospel, building the kingdom of God.

Not only did he have the right perspective, but he gave the right testimony. He was salt and light to the world. Not only did John preach righteousness, but he preached repentance, he preached about sin. In fact, John got pretty personal. In vs.18, John told King Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” That kind of preaching did not go over too well. John called the Pharisees who came to his church service on the beach, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come!” (Matt.3:7) John was salt and light to a dark and corrupt world. He called sin what it was. He called people who sinned sinners. And he called people to repentance.

Furthermore, John eschewed the benefits of this life in favor of the benefits of the kingdom. John didn’t concern himself with the niceties of this life. He dressed badly. He ate badly. He didn’t live in fancy houses, but he lived in the wilderness. Matt. 3:4 “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.” He was one of the giants of faith described in Hebrews 11 as one who lived as an exile on earth, who “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

And ultimately, his life was about showing people Jesus. John 1:29 When he saw Jesus coming to him he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When that part of his ministry was completed, John soon faded off the stage, and found himself arrested and put in Herod’s dungeon for 16 months. Mark tells us that Herod liked to listen to John preach. I imagine that it’s possible Herod would call him up out of the prison to preach a sermon to him, and maybe have some fun at his expense. He considered John a novelty, sort of entertainment. But in the course of doing so, Herod became convinced of John’s righteousness, and holiness. Maybe it was like the way some of you like watching scary movies, you don’t really believe them, but they scare you and entertain you at the same time. And sometimes, late at night, they cause you to worry that there may be some truth to them after all. Herod may have been like that with John. He found his message disconcerting.

But John’s incarceration raises the question, where is God in all of that? John is a faithful servant of the Lord, and yet he finds himself suffering in prison for months on end, forgotten and forlorn. And so we see in Matthew 11:3 that John sent word by his disciples to Jesus to ask Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?” John, though more highly thought of by God than any other man up to this point, has a moment of doubt. He must have been suffering discouragement. He was not having a good day, or week or month, for that matter. Jesus wasn’t doing what John though the Messiah would do. John probably expected Jesus to overthrow the kingdoms of the world and in due time He would set things right with John. He would set him free from the dungeon.

But Jesus doesn’t give him the answer he expects. Jesus just confirms that He is doing the works of God. Jesus said according to Matt. 11:5 “the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.” I can almost imagine what I would have said at that, if I had been in John’s place. “Well that’s great! If you are doing miracles over there, then how about doing one in here? Get me out of here!” How many of us, reading of the miracles that Jesus performed, do not expect that He should do the same for us? It may be a logical conclusion to the human mind, but it does not always fulfill the purposes of God. The purpose of the gospel is not to make our lives here on earth better, to do away with our suffering, do enable us to live a trial free life, but to give us a sure hope of a better life beyond this world.

So John is left there in the prison, left there to suffer the horrors of life in a dungeon with the rats and bad food, and the indignities of being in chains. But while he is there, I believe John comes to terms with God’s purposes, he is convinced that Jesus is the Christ, and he is satisfied to know that he did his job well, and that the gospel is progressing according to the will of God. So John doesn’t send any more messages. His disciples come less often. And John must have turned his thoughts to going home to be with the Lord. The things of earth became strangely dim, in the light of the glory that awaited him.

Well, not long after that, Herod’s birthday approaches. And as Mark has told us in his gospel Herodias’s daughter comes in to dance before the dignitaries that Herod has assembled for his banquet. And she so pleases Herod by her dance that he offers her anything she might want, even up to half of his kingdom. So this girl goes to her mother, Herodias, and asks her what she should ask for. Mark says that her mother has carried a grudge against John because of his rebuke of her marriage to Herod, and so she asked for John’s head to be brought upon a platter. Vs26 “And although the king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison.”

Here is the part that is so hard for us to understand. Given the exemplary life of John the Baptist, why would God let him die like this? Beheaded at the request of a villainous, sinful queen, a woman who lived in incest, a woman who controlled her weak, evil husband. Why did God allow such a good man to die such an ignoble death, and perhaps an untimely death at the hands of such evil people? After all, John was probably only about 33 years of age at this point. He had only preached about a year and a half. What sense does this make?

Well, the only sense is that John the Baptist walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Whether God took him by flight into the heavens by means of a chariot, or by freeing his spirit in one fell swoop of the executioner’s sword, the end result is the same. John finished the purpose here on earth that God had given him, and so the Lord took him home to be with Him. One minute, he was bending his body over the stone and laying his head upon the chopping block, his mouth moving in conversation to God, and the next minute, the angels are ushering him into the presence of the Lord Himself, to hear “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” (Matt.25:21)

I think that this story of John’s execution is put here for a number of reasons. One of which is that it reinforces a principle we have seen twice so far in this chapter, and that is that the gospel will be rejected. The very hometown of Jesus rejected Him in the opening verses of this chapter. And then we see that various towns rejected His disciples as well, so that Jesus told them to expect it, and to shake the dust off their sandals as an indictment of their rejection. Now we see this rejection of the gospel taken to another level, to even that of murder so that Herod and his wife might try to maintain their sinful life style and might eliminate the reproach of the preacher of righteousness. And so I believe that Mark has given us these examples, that he might illustrate the nature of the ministry of the gospel. It is an adversarial gospel. It is an offense to the sinner. It forces people to examine themselves in the light of the truth, and some people are going to reject it, and some will go so far as event to take vengeance upon you for your ministry.

The other reason that this story is given is to illustrate the purpose of the Christian life, to be willing to die to this world and offer up our lives as a living and holy sacrifice to God. And even if we are killed for the sake of the gospel, we see that even a king cannot kill the gospel. In vs 16 we see evidence that the fire that John the Baptist lit was fanned into even greater flames by Jesus Christ, and then in vs30 we foresee that same fire which will become a blazing inferno that would engulf the world through the ministry of the disciples. Satan cannot stop the gospel, though he might even put some of us to death.

But even though some of us might die an inglorious death such as John did at the hands of our detractors, yet even that accomplishes the purposes of God. For the purposes of God in such lives has been accomplished, and in killing us Satan only serves to usher us into the arms of God. He cannot stop the spread of the gospel. And he can only hasten our home going by the permission of the Lord.

It is human to worry about death. After all, none of us have experienced it. Fanciful tales to the contrary no one in our lifetime has died and come back to tell us about it. So death is a mystery that is worrisome to us. But let’s remember what Paul said in 2Cor. 5:6-8 “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord– for we walk by faith, not by sight– we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” The hope of the gospel gives us courage in the face of death, knowing that to be absent from the body means we will be home with the Lord.

I won’t take the time today to expand upon what I believe the Bible says about heaven, or what it means to be at home with the Lord. Other than to say as Paul said in 1Cor. 2:9 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

The point we need to be concerned with is that if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die we go to be with the Lord. In Phil. 1:21-23 Paul says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.”

And I guess that is where we come full circle. To depart and be with Christ is very much better than to stay on in the flesh. That is what Paul was able to confidently say, having seen the Lord, having been caught up into the third heaven and seen inexpressible things he wasn’t allowed to disclose. Paul knew that what the Lord had prepared for us was more than worth all that this world might have to offer. Everything, including life itself, is worth forsaking for the joy of knowing Christ, for the joy of being with the Lord.

Listen, this story of John’s execution reminds us that while it may look like sometimes that evil wins and the life of righteousness fails, the truth is that God’s plan will prevail. His people will prevail. The gates of Hell will not prevail against His church. Whether by Christ’s second coming, or by our death – and all of us will die unless the Lord returns in our lifetime – whether by being taken up in the air or by being laid down in the grave, we go immediately to be with the Lord, and we will not miss this earth, nor the things of this earth, for to be with the Lord is very much better.

I will close by reading 1Thessalonians 5:9-11 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

I’m going to try to tackle two sermons in one this morning. I should perhaps have broken the text into two messages. But somehow I felt that the faster pace of Mark’s gospel lends itself to a faster paced exposition. We can spend a lot of time on historical details, and so forth, and not place the proper emphasis on the principles being taught. And I don’t want to teach you a prolonged history lesson this morning. But I want to present what I think are life changing principles in regards to the gospel of Christ, which I believe are evident in these verses.

So as we have previously noted, Mark is not writing a biographical history here, but a gospel. That is; the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to earth as a man, in order to present the truth of God concerning His plan to redeem mankind from the penalty of death and to give him life. In the passage before us today we see first the example of Jesus presenting the gospel, and then in the following verses we see the application of the disicples taking the gospel to the surrounding region. This good news of God’s plan is meant to be shared, and in these 13 verses, we see that plan practically worked out, first by Jesus returning to His hometown, the place where He grew up and lived, and then His delegation of the ministry of the gospel to His disciples. And as a commentary on how the gospel is carried out, I have called today’s message the denigration and the delegation of the gospel.

Let’s look first at the denigration of the gospel. To denigrate someone means to disparage, to criticize unfairly, to slander or defame someone. And we see that here as Jesus returns to His hometown and the reception of Him there is to denigrate Him and scorn His message. Now you will remember that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He grew up in Nazareth, and He lived during His ministry in Capernaum. Nazareth was about 20 miles from Capernaum. It was an extremely small town, only about 500 people at that time.

This is the second time that Jesus came to His hometown. About a year earlier He had come there, and if you remember that account in Luke chapter 4, when He had finished speaking in the synagogue they tried to kill Him. Luke 4:28-29 “And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.” I’ve had some bad reactions to some of my messages before, but so far no one has tried to kill me. So I guess I shouldn’t feel so bad when people reject my message, because they also rejected Jesus’s message. And perhaps that is the primary reason that we are given this incident, so that we may know to expect opposition to the gospel, even hostility towards the messenger. For if they were offended at Christ, then it stands to reason they will be offended at us. I think it illustrates that rejection of the message and denigration of the messenger is often the first response to the presentation of the gospel.

Well now it’s a year later since that first visit, they have obviously heard of the fame of Jesus during that time. They have heard all the amazing things He had been doing. And so Jesus comes back again, to give them one more opportunity to respond to the gospel. And as was His practice, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and preached.

And notice the response. They don’t necessarily try to kill Him anymore, but they are incredulous at the wisdom of His teaching. They say, ““Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.

They admit that Jesus taught with a special wisdom, they admit that He has performed miracles, and yet their recognition of such things is overshadowed by their disdain for Him. And I think that the reasons for their disdain is evident in their comments. First of all, they call Him the carpenter. I think the purpose in that title is to emphasize that He is not a priest, He is not someone classically trained in the school of the rabbi’s. But He is a mere blue collar worker, a common carpenter. Whether or not Jesus actually spent much time practicing carpentry is a matter of speculation. No where else in the scriptures is this statement made. In Matthew’s version of this event, He says that they said Jesus was the carpenter’s son. Mark has a different emphasis which would be consistent with the practice in those days of a father passing on his trade to his son. But we don’t know if that was necessarily true or not, it was just their accusation. And while there is nothing wrong with being a carpenter, I think the emphasis was on discrediting Him as not being of the right school, not being backed up by the right institutions.

And I can confess that sort of criticism can take you down a notch. I never graduated from seminary. I never even completed university. And from time to time someone will approach me after a message and ask questions about my training or lack of it. So I understand the criticism and how it can be intended to denigrate you.

Secondly, they try to discredit Him by inferring that He was the illegitimate son of Mary. You need to remember that Mary was technically unmarried when she gave birth to Jesus. And the public perception was such that Joseph her husband sought to put her away privately. So this charge of being born out of wedlock was something that was hurled at Jesus from time to time, and now here it is again in His hometown. And this is a small town. Everyone knew everything about everyone. And his own family, His mother and brothers and sisters, were undoubtedly right there in attendance.

There is a possibility that the whole family clan wasn’t thought of all that highly. They seem to disparage Jesus because they not only know Him and had known Him all His life, but they know HIs family. Sometimes some members of our family can give the whole clan a black eye, can’t they? We don’t know much about a couple of members of His family. We know James, who became the leader of the church of Jerusalem a few years after Pentecost, who also wrote the book of James. And we know Jude, who wrote the book of Jude. But the other two brothers, Joses and Simon, are not known. Perhaps they were the black sheep that hurt the family reputation, I don’t know. And of course, they mention that Jesus had sisters. Now there is some controversy about this, because the Catholic Church contends that Mary was a perpetual virgin. So they say that these were either children from another marriage of Joseph, or they were cousins. I don’t find any reason to believe they were not Jesus’s natural born half brothers and sisters. The Bible doesn’t teach that Mary was a perpetual virgin.

By this time, it is believed that Joseph was long dead. And so Jesus as the oldest child would have responsibility for the family as the head of the house over seven or more other siblings. Therefore, it is possible that Jesus worked at carpentry until the other sons were old enough to take responsibility before leaving home. Under those circumstances they probably were very poor. But that is speculation. In fact, the only Biblical record we have of Christ’s activities prior to His public ministry is when He was 12 years old, and then we see Him in the temple, about His Father’s business. And afterwards He returned to Nazareth, where it is said in Luke 2: 52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

But as we see, when Jesus left Nazareth to begin His ministry, He fell out of favor with His hometown. They became offended at Him. And so in response to their criticism, Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” Sometimes your own family, your neighbors, have the hardest time accepting the fact that God decided to use you in some way. They think they know all about you, and certainly God wouldn’t have passed over them to reach you. I guess the modern equivalent of that is the saying we have today, which is familiarity breeds contempt. Having grown up around them, even though His behavior was beyond reproach, they find it offensive that He should now be in the position of teaching them concerning righteousness. They find it impossible that He could be the Messiah. He was too common looking. He wasn’t the type of person that they thought the Messiah would be like.

Whether they realized it or not, they were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 53 which says, “He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

I find such critical attitudes prevalent today in the church. I often hear people begin a sentence with the phrase, “I am looking for a church that….” The idea often expressed is a personal preference based on a perception of what they think constitutes the perfect pastor or the perfect church. It’s a dangerous thing, actually, to look for a church that fits your template. God doesn’t necessarily work that way. He picks the foolish to shame the wise. The weak things, to shame the mighty. (1Cor.1)

These Nazarenes identified the one thing which was the definitive thing about Christ. And that was His teaching was the wisdom of God. It was the truth. And Jesus taught in John chapter 7 that if you believed His word, then you would believe that He had come from the Father. His message was truth, and truth was of God, and so therefore, He was of God. That is the opposite of how we would approach a messenger, isn’t it? If someone came to your door and said I have a message from God, we would probably say we want to see some identification. Some sort of proof that they were from God. And if we could validate their credentials to our satisfaction, then we would be more inclined to believe the message. But Jesus came with the message, and He says the message is the truth and it authenticates Me. Believe the truth and you will believe in Me.

But people don’t look for the truth like that. People look at the presentation, they look at the packaging. They are more interested in presentation than it’s substance. And Jesus didn’t have the right pedigree. He didn’t have the right package for them. So Mark says that Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. Let me tell you what constitutes this great sin called unbelief. Unbelief is prejudiced rejection of the truth. It doesn’t mean that you don’t understand, but that you reject it based on prior prejudice against it. Unbelief is nothing short of hatred. It’s the kind of prejudice which causes things like racism. It’s a refusal to see the truth, because you don’t want to believe it, not because it isn’t so.

And so it says that Jesus could not do no mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Not that Christ had no power in himself to work miracles, because of their unbelief, but it was not fit and proper that he should do any there, since such were their prejudices against him. Faith wasn’t required for the miracle, but belief was the means by which Christ was pleased to exercise miracles. So it was not that He could not do miracles, but that He would not do any mighty works in such a hostile climate.

But if some will not believe, then Jesus leaves those and goes to other villages where He might find a more receptive audience. If those who were first invited will not come in, then we are to go into the highways and byways and seek others. Jesus is the sower, and He sows the seed in fields here and abroad in hopes of finding fertile soil where it will be received and take root. So to that end, Jesus not only goes to preach in other villages, but He sends out His 12 disciples to do as He does, preaching and healing and casting out unclean spirits throughout the farthest regions of Galilee.

Now there are seven characteristics of the disciples ministry that are given to us. And I have to believe that since Jesus sets these standards, they are applicable for us in the church today. After all, we are commissioned to do the same thing they were doing, to go into our neighborhoods, our hometowns, and to the surrounding regions and preach the gospel, to make disciples of all men. So as we look at this last section, I want to identify these seven areas that are fundamental to the ministry which the Lord has delegated to us. And that is what the church is to be about. Proclaiming the gospel to the world. That’s job one.

So the first point I want to make is that there were 12 ordinary men. Even as Jesus was criticized for a lack of pedigree, you can lay the same charge against these men. They are ordinary men. They are mostly blue collar types, fishermen, tax collectors, guys without any formal training other than they had been with the Lord now for about 2 years. Not a priest among them. No rulers of the synagogues. No saved rock stars or ex pro athletes. Just 12 regular guys that were probably the last guys you would have picked to set the world on fire. Now they were not just following Jesus anymore, but they were stepping out on their own, and following the example that He had given them in ministry.

Notice Jesus sent them out two by two. That’s a good model for ministry by the way. You can encourage one another. You can help one another. You gain strength from one another. But I hope that the lack of a companion doesn’t hinder you from proclaiming the gospel. As they become more mature in the days after Pentecost, you will see more of them stepping out alone. So don’t fail in ministry because you don’t have a partner.

Secondly, they were to be in total dependence upon the Lord. Jesus told them not to bring money, or food, or even a change of clothes. I think this principle is probably the least employed today in the church. If you’re looking for an excuse not to minister, then you are probably going to claim the lack of funds, or the lack of resources, or the lack of support as a reason that God is not leading you in it. You’ve heard the quote, “where God guides, He provides.” Well, my suggestion is that is overused. God wants us to step out in faith, without a safety net, so that we might be totally dependent upon Him. It doesn’t mean that we don’t plan, or that we don’t prepare, but that we don’t rely upon favorable circumstances or favorable winds before embarking on ministry. If God says go, we say, how far. We just go, and let God take care of the provision.

I’ve found in 16 years of ministry that more often than not God has let me think I was going to starve, that I was going to run out of gas, or whatever my fear in the circumstances provoked, but in reality God never left me without enough to do what He wanted me to do.

And I can’t help but see another principle hidden in this instruction of vs 8, He added, “Do not put on two tunics.” They weren’t even to have a change of clothes. That’s pretty radical evangelism there folks. But the principle I think is this, that as Christians, we are not to be about collecting wardrobes, collecting cars, or houses – all the financial emblems of success in the world. Not tied down by things, by financial commitments that keep us from being devoted to the business of the kingdom. These things of the world keep us so busy that we are of little use to the kingdom. The point is that the extra weight of this world’s goods will slow you down. Hebrews 12:1 says “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Well, for that principle to be effective, it must be tied to the third principle. Third, they encouraged hospitality. Vs.10 And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town.” Fellowship is essential to the practicality of the gospel. Fellowship or communion was to be the ordinance of the church in a formal congregation, but there is also a need in practical everyday Christian fellowship. It’s the principle of sharing, and providing for one another’s needs. It’s important to spend time with one another and get to know one another. Christian doctrine is not all just theory, but it also needs to be practiced. And the way you do that is to practice hospitality with one another. Invite someone to your home to eat, to hang out, to get to know one another. And I will suggest that you reach out to a broader spectrum of people than you would in a secular setting. Don’t just gravitate towards the kind of people that you like. Deliberately seek out the person that never gets asked out to a meal. Deliberately seek out those who might be alone. Christian love is to be made practical by practicing hospitality and putting the needs of others above your own.

Fourth, they experienced rejection. Jesus told them in 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.” Listen, Jesus was rejected by His own family, by His hometown. So they would experience no less. In John 15:20 Jesus said “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

There are going to be some that reject the truth, or reject the messenger of the truth, and there will be some that will believe. But we are not responsible for their belief or unbelief. Results are not due to our charisma, or to our personality or lack of it. We are responsible to sow the seed. God is responsible for the growth.

But notice that Jesus said to shake off the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them. That was a practice among Jews that they would do when they had to walk across a Gentile area. They had a view of anyone that wasn’t a Jew, that they were dogs, like wild, snarling, dirty dogs, and so when they could they avoided walking through a Gentile area, but when they couldn’t avoid it, they would stop on the other side, in plain view of the Gentiles of course, and ceremoniously take off their sandal and shake the dust off them as if to say “I don’t want to even track your dust back into Israel.” It was a kind of condemning thing to do. And so here Jesus is instructing HIs disciples to use that same method against the Jews who did not accept His gospel.

But in the Lord’s case, it wasn’t meant to be mean, it was meant as a judgment against the unbelieving town. In Matthew’s version of this event we read that He adds, “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.” In other words, Sodom would have repented at the preaching of the gospel and the accompanying signs that were given in Galilee. Jesus would give that same judgment against Capernaum, the other hometown of Christ, in Matt. 11:23-24 where He says “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Listen, not everyone who hears will believe. But God has sent us to preach the gospel to everyone, so that everyone will be without an excuse on the day of judgment. There are many people that have rejected my preaching, but I still fulfill my ministry that they might be judged for their unbelief. A lot of people are not going to have an excuse on the day of judgment because they heard the truth and they rejected it. And it’s not going to matter if they didn’t like the preacher, or they didn’t think he was funny enough, or nice enough or refined enough. They will be held accountable for hearing the truth and walking away from it, just as the people of Nazareth and Capernaum will be judged for looking at Christ and saying, “Nah, He doesn’t look like a Messiah to me.”

Fifth, they preached repentance. Ah! that’s why people rejected them. Vs 12 “They went out and preached that men should repent.” It’s not simply enough to believe, it’s also necessary to repent. That was the message of John the Baptist, he preached a baptism of repentance. That was the message of Christ, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” And that is the message of the disciples. On the day of Pentecost, it was still the message of the Apostles. Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repentance needs no interpretation here. I preach it every week. But once again I say that to repent is not merely to feel sorry that you were caught, or to feel sorry about the consequences of your sin, but a desire to turn from your sin and go in the opposite direction. And perhaps your sin has such a hold on you that you don’t feel that you can turn, then turn to God and confess your sinfulness and that you need Him to change your heart, and change your mind and will and take away your desire for that sin. Call on Him with all your heart and mourn for your sin. That is repentance.

And I got news for you. Repentance is a daily exercise for most of us mortals. Recognizing how we have fallen and asking God to renew us , to purify us, so that we might be useful to His kingdom. David prayed in Psalm 51 a prayer of repentance. It’s a good template if you want to repent. He prayed, “Renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart O God.” That’s the attitude of repentance that makes us useful to the Master.

Sixth, they showed compassion. Vs 13 “And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.” Listen, there is a need for Christian compassion for those that are sick with the sickness of sin. James 2:15-17 “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

There is a danger in Christianity today to look down upon the sinner from our lofty perch in the church of righteousness and see that poor soul in addiction, or adultery, or poverty and say that their sin has brought this consequence upon them and it is not really helping them to try to relieve their circumstances. We see their circumstances as a just judgment of God. But our position is not to be a judge, but a giver of mercy. What mercy you have received, give it to others who need mercy. Jesus healed out of compassion for the souls who were enslaved by Satan to sin and were reaping indirectly or directly the consequences of sin. All suffering ultimately is a consequence of sin. And all of us are sinners. All sin leads to death. And all of us need mercy. There will be a judgment of us all one day. But James says, in chapter 2:13 “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

And then finally number seven, they were obedient. Vs30 “The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught.” That’s kind of what church ought to be like. You come back together every week and report all that you have accomplished as ministers of the church during the previous week. I suggested the other night at Bible study that we all make a commitment that we will ask at least one person a week to come to church. You don’t have to ask just one, but you at least ask one. And I suggested that if we did that every week, then in a month we could expect to see at least one person come to church as a result of our asking. I can’t guarantee what kind of results we might see. But I can guarantee you that if you will believe in the power of the gospel, and you are obedient to the mandate of our Lord, then we will see some people respond to the truth. We will see a lot of rejection as well. But that is part of the plan. We just need to be faithful to do our part, and let God take care of His. I pray that you will be obedient to your ministry this week. Go out and proclaim the gospel and come again next week and give your report of what the Lord has done.

Today we are looking at a tale of two daughters. Two females, both referred to here in the text as daughters. One is older, having been sick with a serious ailment for 12 years, and one who was only 12 years old, being sick unto death. Mark doesn’t give us insight into why these two daughters are connected in this way, but it is evident that they are connected for posterity by the very chronology of the events described. There are two separate events recorded here, but the second plays out in parentheses, so to speak, after the first incident has already begun. And I have to believe that in the providence of God, these two events are meant to be looked at as a couplet. They are not intended to be studied separately, but concurrently, because together they will provide a clearer, more detailed picture of what God intends for us to understand.

I have said on numerous occasions, that every miracle presented in the gospels is intended as a spiritual parable designed to teach us a spiritual lesson. Now that is a very important principle to understand, otherwise you will miss the point of the passage altogether. Do you remember what Jesus said in chapter 4 what a parable was designed to do? It was used to deliver truth to a larger audience, while at the same time veiling it to those who are not spiritually appraised. Real spiritual truth can only be discerned by those with spiritual insight who receive spiritual illumination from God.

So that principle applies here as well in studying this spiritual parable. If you do not have spiritual insight when studying this text, then you are likely to assume that Mark’s purpose is just to record the supernatural miracles that Jesus was able to perform. And that superficial understanding is going to lead to an attempt at a superficial application, which is that you will expect God to do the same miracles today at every occasion of illness or death. And yet nothing can be further from the truth or the point of the text. If that was the goal of these miracles, then why would Jesus drive everyone out of the house, so that no one witnessed Him raising Jarius’s daughter from the dead, except for His three closest disciples? Why would Jesus command them not to make known what He had done? Isn’t that counter productive? I mean, if that power was available today, then we would broadcast it, wouldn’t we? We would go into every hospital, every funeral home, and deliver people from sickness and death. We would use miracles as an evangelization tool to reach the masses. That is the logical extension of that kind of application.

But in fact, Jesus does the exact opposite. He illustrates in the way that He performs these miracles that they are intended to be spiritual parables designed to teach spiritual principles to those who are seeking spiritual truth. Thus, His statement in the previous chapter, (Mark 4:25) Jesus says “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” And in vs11 He said “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything 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.” In other words, the parables are meant to veil truth from the masses, while revealing truth to the believer. Jesus isn’t interested in attracting the masses just for the sake of drawing a crowd.

The purpose then of the truth contained in parables according to 4:12, whether a parable in word or in deed, is to illustrate salvation. And in this illustrative couplet we are looking at today, we see two aspects of salvation illustrated; one, salvation from sin, and two, salvation from death.

Now then let’s take a look at both of these miracles as Mark lays them out for us, and let’s see what principles of salvation Jesus is teaching us through these incidents. The text starts with a man named Jairus, a synagogue official, coming to Jesus about his daughter that was lying at the point of death. And he implores Jesus to come home with him and heal her.
The fact that he is a synagogue official is interesting, because for the most part, such people were part of the same class of religious officials such as priests, scribes, Pharisees, etc, who were hostile towards Jesus. Jesus threatened the livelihood and power of such people, because He exposed the corruption and hypocrisy of the Judiastic system. A synagogue was the primary religious meeting place for religious Jews who were living outside of Jerusalem. A synagogue would be the equivalent of the local church. So this high ranking official, who is probably hostile to what Jesus is teaching, suddenly is confronted with the impending mortality of his daughter. And as many of us that are parents know, perhaps by experience, all prejudice, all reservations go out the window when the life of your child is on the line. You are willing to do anything to get help in that kind of situation. So we see this official suddenly break rank, and having every certainty that Jesus can heal, go and throw himself at the mercy of Jesus.

That attitude on the part of Jairus illustrates an essential prerequisite to salvation. There has to be a humbling of yourself, relinquishing of your authority, of your pride, and bowing down at the feet of the Savior. When times are good, when everyone’s healthy, it’s easy to think you don’t need the Lord. But when you or your loved one is staring at death’s door, then a lot of times that rebellious facade falls away. And that sort of humbling of oneself is a prerequisite. Bowing down at the feet of someone is the posture of a beggar. And that is the attitude which we are to have in regards to salvation. In Matt.5:3, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He is speaking of the need for a person to realize their abject poverty in coming to Christ for salvation.

And note a couple of more things indicated in his approach to Christ. Jairus recognizes that his daughter is dying. No one can receive salvation unless he first recognizes that they are lost and they will die in their sins, eternally estranged from God. Death is the punishment for sin for which all men are destined. Romans teaches us that the wages of sin is death, and death has passed upon all men, because all have sinned. So there needs to be a recognition of that penalty of death.

But that leads to the other thing indicated in Jairus’s approach; a belief that Christ has the power over life and death. Jesus taught that He was the way, the truth and the life. And somehow Jairus has believed this and come to Jesus as the source of life for his daughter. I want to elaborate for a second on that statement though, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. That statement could have equal signs between the three aspects of Christ. The way = the truth = the life. God has established a way for man to live. That way is the truth of God. And following that truth produces life with God; vibrant, meaningful, fulfilled, joyous, abundant and eternal.

Well, at this point in the story, we come to an interruption, what might be considered as a parentheses. In writing, when you add parentheses it is for the purposes of further explanation. And so I think that is what is intended here. This parenthetical interruption provides further explanation of this sinful state that produces death. And that parenthetical explanation comes in the form of a woman who approaches Jesus who has had a hemorrhage for 12 years. And I think that the significance of the 12 years is that it ties her to the daughter of Jairus who Mark tells us in vs42 was 12 years old. So, in that sense, it would seem that this woman, whom Jesus calls “daughter” in vs.34, is to be looked at as a further commentary or exposition of the condition of the first daughter. As the first daughter is dying, the second daughter serves as a more in depth look at that condition.

So notice what Mark tells us about her condition. First of all, we are told she has a hemorrhage for 12 years. What this probably was, according to many people that are a whole lot smarter than I am, is a vaginal hemorrhage, which not only was a serious physical ailment, but in Jewish society, especially according to Jewish law, it would have made her a social outcast. She would have been unable to go to the temple, she would have been excluded from relations with her husband, and she would be considered “unclean.” Now I am not going to comment on all of that beyond what has been said already, except to say that this concept of being unclean is another prerequisite for salvation. The law of God reveals that all of us are sinners, and as such, all of us are considered unclean. Our sins have made us unclean in the sight of God. Our sins have put up a wall between us and God and we are helpless to remove it.

Notice that this woman had used all her money to try to have her condition helped by doctors, and yet it had only gotten worse. What a picture of our sin situation! We spend all our resources trying to get better a better life, trying for self improvement, trying to improve our standing, and yet, if we are honest, we just end up going from bad to worse. Sin is an affliction that curses life. Our situation is hopeless. We hopelessly estranged from God and all our efforts can do nothing to alleviate our affliction.

But, thankfully for this woman, vs27 tells us that she had heard about Christ. Someone told her about the Lord, and in her hopelessness, she suddenly sees a ray of hope. Listen, we all believe that everyone needs to be saved, don’t we? But do we realize that if they are to be saved, then they must hear about the Lord? And if they will hear, then we must tell them? Or are you hoping that someone else will tell them? Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Jesus later in vs34 will say, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.” But before her faith could save her, she had to hear about the Lord.

Imagine if you knew the solution to cancer and didn’t tell anyone about it. That would be almost criminal, wouldn’t it? And yet you know the way of life, but you keep it to yourself. I have a feeling that will one day be considered almost criminal as well. That you hid the truth under a bushel, and did not let the world know that there was a solution to their deadly infirmity.

Well, this woman heard enough about Jesus to desperately want to see Him. And then an even more bold plan took form in her mind; “If I just can touch his garment, then I can get well.” Some of you may have a translation which shows the literal meaning of a word, when it is different than the editors have translated it. And in this case, you might see an asterisk or something which indicates the phrase “get well” has another literal meaning. Well, the Greek word is sōzō, which means to be saved. And I think that is just further justification for my exposition of this miracle as a parable teaching a greater spiritual truth. Our salvation is accomplished by the power of salvation which comes through Jesus Christ.

Notice that when she touches His cloak, in vs30, it says, “Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth.” Her touch of Jesus’s garment is symbolic. It represents first of all that we must apprehend what He has done for us on the cross. Jesus died for the sins of the world upon the cross, but the sins of the world are not expunged, unless one personally looks upon the serpent on the tree. We must apprehend by faith in what Jesus did on the cross, FOR US. We must receive Him. We must believe that His blood avails for me. That Christ died for my sins. I must take Him to be my Savior.

And then I think the fact that she touches His garment is an illustration that we are clothed in His righteousness. Jesus’s righteous robe, you will remember, was not torn, but it was left there at the foot of the cross to be worn by the worst of sinners. And by laying our hand upon Him, our sins are transferred to Christ, and His righteousness is transferred to us. Just as in the Passover lamb, their hands were laid upon the innocent lamb, which signified that their sins were passed on to him, and the lamb would be slain for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, as the story tells us, the woman was healed instantly of her disease, and the blood flow stopped. And Jesus calls out to the crowd pressing around Him, “Who touched Me?” Now the way this is written reveals the way that it looked to those in attendance, but certainly Jesus already knew who touched Him. He knew everything about this woman. He was fully man, but He was also fully God. So He knew, when hundreds of bodies were jostling about Him, when many hands were reaching out to Him, He knew that this one trembling hand had reached out to Him in faith, and power had come from Him to her in response to that faith, and she had been saved from her disease. And so He asks this question not because He does not know who touched Him, but because He wants her to know the full extent of her healing.

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.” Notice, first of all, her confession. Romans 10:9 tells us that confession is necessary for salvation: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” And James speaking in chapter 5 vs16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” Confession of your sins is a necessary component of salvation.

And then notice “Your faith has made you well.” Actually, this is the same word as we looked at before, sozo, “your faith has saved you.” Jesus is indicating much more than just physical healing, but spiritual salvation as a result of faith. Mark, more so I think than all the other gospel authors, makes much of the principle of faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” Faith is the conduit of our salvation. In Hebrews 11, all the heroes of the faith are displayed for us, that we might know that we, even as Abraham and all the rest, are saved on the basis of faith, even as this daughter of Israel.

Well, we can put the other parentheses after vs.34, and we return in vs 35, as they say in television, to the previously scheduled presentation. That is, we return to the dire situation of Jairus’s daughter, who is lying near death. Jesus has been delayed for some time with the woman. That incident was probably summarized for us by Mark, and could well have taken some time to be concluded and all the while the 12 year old girl lay dying. But now there are people who come running up to Jairus to tell him that it’s too late, his daughter had died.

I can only imagine the impact that must have made on poor Jairus. Here he had the cure, he had the Healer, and they were on the way, and yet they were too late. His beloved daughter had died. “Why trouble the Teacher any longer?” What’s the point? It’s too late, everyone go home.

But I think Jesus planned it this way all along. He had a greater purpose, a greater glory in mind. So Jesus, “overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.’” Now that’s a really significant statement there by Jesus. “Do not be afraid any longer.” What had Jairus been afraid of? His daughter dying. There was no longer any reason to be afraid, she was dead. But only believe? What did that mean? 

Well, faith and belief are the two ways of saying the same thing. And belief means not only believing who He is, but what He came to do. I suggest that it meant that through Christ, we who had been under the fear of death are set free from that enslavement, through faith in Christ. Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Listen, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and that life in Christ is far more abundant life than we can imagine. But one thing we can know for sure, that as Jesus said in John 11:26 “everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” God is able to raise the dead. He is able to give life to those things which are dead. And all of us, the Bible says, were dead in our trespasses and sins. But through the blood of Jesus Christ our sins are washed away, and we receive everlasting, eternal, abundant life, even the life of God. So that we no longer need to fear death of the body, because He is the source and sustainer of our life.

Well, Mark tells us that when they came to the house, Jesus allows only Peter, James and John to accompany Him inside. I addressed the reason for this in the introduction. Jesus is not interested in attracting people through a miracle ministry. He is interested in teaching the saving truth of the gospel. And so He chooses these three to impart a deeper spiritual truth to, who will then teach others.

And notice the commotion, the professional wailers, that’s what they were. Whether they were already hired, or these were just neighbors that responded in the typical fashion of the culture, to wail and rip their clothes as a show of mourning and grief. They are in stark contrast to Jesus who is composed, in control, and confident that the girl is not dead, but sleeping.

Listen, I don’t have time to belabor this point too much this morning, but it’s important to understand that the death of a believer is referred to in the New Testament as sleeping, or entering their rest. The death of an unbeliever though is referred to as dying. Now the Bible is not teaching soul sleep as some people have erroneously inferred from such references, but rather it’s teaching that the body sleeps, while the soul and spirit are alive.

So Jesus says that this little girl is not dead, but that she is sleeping. I think that is some indication that the age of accountability is not until sometime after the age of 12. It’s possible that this girl was a believer, that somehow though there is no indication that her father was a believer at this point, yet somehow the girl had been. But I think it’s more likely that she was saved by virtue of her age. The Bible teaches that children under the age of accountability are safe from condemnation. And so this girl is brought back from the abode of the dead, which is Paradise, and is given back to her parents.

But as He approaches the house and says this statement that she is not dead, notice that the mourners start laughing at Jesus. That would indicate that even in their mourning these people were not sincere. A lot of commotion and noise does not necessarily indicate sincerity nor truth.

Jesus gets the people together who are interested in truth, who believe in Him; her parents and His three disciples, and He puts the rest out. The believers are privy to a greater revelation, but for the skeptics, even what they had would be taken away.

So Jesus holds the little girl’s hand and says, “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.” I want to just point out one more essential point of salvation that is taught here. And that is the power of the word. The word of God is powerful unto salvation. It is living, and active, and able to pierce the hardest heart, even a dead heart. Christ is the Word made flesh, the word incarnate. And so the Creator of Life, the Giver of Life speaks to her, and she responds. Her soul and spirit immediately return to her body, and she gets up and starts to walk.

And then Jesus tells her parents to give her something to eat in vs.43. I’m sure she needed to eat after her ordeal. Who knows how long her little body had probably been without food in the days of her illness. But it’s also a sign that she was now completely revived and healthy. You know, there have been reports of people in some countries who sat up in the coffin at their funeral. And there have been incidents where it seemed someone came alive only to find out later that it was some sort of muscle spasm. But when Jesus speaks life into her, she walks, and she eats. She is totally alive and acting normal for a 12 year old kid. She probably had a lot to tell her parents as well. I would have liked to be in on that conversation.

But if there is one other application you can make from that, it’s that when the Lord gives life it’s not just to be propped up in a chair, like there is hardly any spiritual life in you whatsoever. My daughter brought home some old tintypes she found at an antique store yesterday. And there we’re two photographs that were very unusual. They were both photographs of dead people who were all dressed up and propped up on a stand. And the only way you could tell that they were dead and not alive was that you could see the bottom part of the stand on the floor behind their feet. They were all dressed up, their eyes were open, but they were stone cold dead. One of the photographs she found was of a little girl dressed up in a little fancy dress and shoes. It was kind of sad.

But I couldn’t help but think that’s like a lot of people in church today. They are all dressed up, their eyes are open, they look alive, but in reality they are dead. There is no spiritual life there whatsoever. But when God makes someone alive, they walk, they talk, they eat. They exhibit spiritual life, walking after the Lord, working for His kingdom, speaking the word of God to those who are in need.

Well, let’s be sure that we have the life of God living in us. What a tragedy to go through life, spending all your time and resources, filling your life with activity, with work, with even religious activities, and yet be unsaved. These two daughters illustrate all that is necessary for salvation, for real life in Christ. I hope that everyone hearing me today have been saved; that you have entered that life; you have humbled yourself, you recognize the uncleanness of your condition, you know you are a hopeless sinner whose only hope is in Christ. And by faith in what He has done, you have received His righteousness in exchange for your sins. And if that is true in your life, then the evidence will be that you have spiritual life, and you can have confidence that this life extends beyond the grave, even into eternity.

There is no doubt that we live in an age when occult practices and an interest in the occult has skyrocketed. One look at the cable television lineup and popular movies shows an unprecedented resurgence in the popularity of occult themes such as witchcraft and vampires and so forth. A couple of days ago I read an article from the New York Times called the Season of the Witch. I want to read a few excerpts from this article by a woman named Michelle Goldberg, just to illustrate the current popularity and acceptance by the culture of demonic practices today.

She says, “On a Wednesday evening last week, I sat in on a class called “Witchcraft 101: Curses, Hexes and Jinxes,” at Catland, a fashionable occult boutique in Bushwick, Brooklyn. More than a dozen people, most of them young women, sat in folding chairs in the store’s black-walled event space. The instructor was one of Catland’s co-owners, Dakota Bracciale, a charismatic, foul-mouthed 28-year-old former M.A.C. makeup artist dressed in flowing black, with a beard and long, lavender nails.

The author goes on to explain the well-documented resurgence of occultism among millennials. “Some of this vogue is about witch-as-metaphor, an icon that captures the boiling rage and determined independence of legions of nasty women. But some of it is a real, if eclectic, spiritual practice, adopted by people skeptical of organized religion but unfulfilled by atheism.

Bracciale, who uses the gender-neutral pronouns they and them, grew up in an evangelical household — somewhere “between ‘Jesus Camp’ and snake handlers” — and said that the new atheism of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens had a profound effect on their generation. But atheism wasn’t enough, said Bracciale: “It left this huge vacuum, and that vacuum had to be filled with something.” (so atheism produces a vacuum which has to be filled, and rather than filling that with God, they chose the devil).

The author goes on later in the article to give some of the history behind this resurgence of interest in the occult. “Theosophy, the mother of all new age movements, was founded in the 19th century as the discoveries of Charles Darwin undermined faith in Christian creation stories, which led some to abandon religion altogether but others to embrace new forms of mysticism. The rise of occultism among the counterculture of the 1960s and ’70s befuddled scholars who assumed that American society was moving toward ever-greater secularism.”End of quote.

I would agree with the writer that the origins of much of what we see today as an explosion of interest in the occult, and open practice of witchcraft and sorcery, found it’s origin in the 60’s and 70’s, when counter culteralists thought that they had become enlightened through drugs, and had discovered real truth. In fact, they had discovered nothing new, but rather through mind altering drugs rediscovered the occult practices and spiritism disguised as yoga, transcendental meditation, hypnotism, Wicka and other far eastern practices which were repackaged as New Age Spiritism.

But if I might demystify demonology for a moment, it is nothing more than the effect of sin and rebellion against God taken to it’s next level. And with the hippie revolution, sex, drugs and rock and roll became the vehicle of choice by which rebellion reached it’s apex, and demonic influence pervaded the culture en masse. The word in the Greek used in the Bible in places like Rev.9:21 which is translated as sorceries, is from the Greek word pharmakea. Its the root word from which we get our word pharmacy. And so we can understand from the Bible that drugs were used as a means of sorcery, of entering into a state where demons can work on the mind. And I firmly believe that this widespread use of drugs in our society today has opened up our culture to a new level of Satanic control.

While the news media reports that overt demonstrations of occultic influence are becoming ever more frequent in our society, the fact is that demons prefer to work in secrecy. The Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. In fact, the Bible really doesn’t use the term demon possession. The idea expressed is more of someone being demonized. In other words, they are under the influence of Satan. The Bible teaches that to some degree or another, all the world that are unsaved are under the influence of the devil. Paul, speaking to Christians in Ephesus concerning their prior manner of life in Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

So note that Paul is saying that everyone who is unsaved is under the control of the prince of the air, that is Satan, and he is presently working in the sons of disobedience, which is to say all those who are unbelievers. Another reference is found in Colossians 1, and again Paul is speaking to believers, who, he says, were rescued from the domain of darkness. Unbelievers are enslaved in the domain of darkness, evil authorities in the spiritual realm, that’s what that means. And in vs 21 he goes on to say that in that state they “were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.“

So all those who are unsaved are under the domain, or authority of darkness, under the realm of the devil, and they are alienated in their minds from God, and engaged in evil deeds, and are hostile to God. But as I alluded to earlier, the hosts of darkness prefer to work in secret. They prefer to disguise lies as truth, to twist the truth into a lie, and by such practices cause men and women to be duped into captivity, while thinking themselves to be enlightened.

Though the gospel accounts make it seem that demons or evil spirits were acting out all the time, the truth is that a study of the entire Bible shows very little demonic activity in the Old Testament, other than in Genesis 6 and the book of Job and a couple of other minor instances. And even those incidents are very sparsely described, interspersed over hundreds of years. Yet during the time of Christ there was a period when demonic influence was manifest to a great degree. But I would suggest that was because these evil spirits recognized the Spirit of Christ. Spirits recognize spirits. And so they became manifest when Jesus came around because they knew that He knew them and could not only reveal them, but disarm them because He had authority over them. And by extension, Jesus gave His apostles authority over demons, and I believe that had to include the ability to recognize demonic influence, and as such we see the activity of Satan manifested in the times of the apostles. But after that age passed, we see very little of that kind of activity.

Now speaking of that ability of Christ to recognize demons and have authority over them, we look at this passage before us as an extreme example of demonic control over a person. Jesus and the disciples have just landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee after weathering an extremely violent, intense storm that may have served as a prologue to this event, going from a violent wind to a violent manifestation of evil in human form. But as I indicated, the demons recognize Jesus and the man in whom they reside runs down to Jesus and falls down before Him imploring Him not to send them out into the abyss.

Now this poor man who is presented here is really to be pitied more than anything else. It says the townspeople feared him, and I’m sure that they should have. He had superhuman strength, he was a wild person living in the tombs, screaming night and day, cutting himself with stones and running around naked according to Luke’s gospel. He was certainly a scary person. But I want you to notice that while the townspeople were scared of him, Jesus has compassion on him and goes to him, calling out the demons.

I want to emphasize that for a moment. I have seen people that I thought were very scary looking. I’ve seen people in San Diego or Los Angeles that were walking down the street screaming, smashing things, cursing people out. People that looked like they had been living in the tombs. People that were pierced and tatted who had altered their bodies in such a way as to be as hideous as possible. And it’s natural to be intimidated by such people and head the other way. And I’m not suggesting that we be ignorant or flippant of the supernatural powers that might be at work in such people. They can be dangerous. But at the same time, we need to be compassionate, and realize that we know the One who has authority over the demonic realm, and that He came to set the captives free. Jesus has compassion on this man. Others would have fled from him, but Jesus goes to him. Alienated, alone, hurting, out of control. And as I said, I have seen people such as this man. He is a tragic, caricature, an extreme illustration of a man apart from God and left to Satan’s destructive power.

I toyed with the idea of trying to introduce a 500 year old hymn by Martin Luther to you this morning, with the hope that we might be able to sing it. However, I didn’t think I could do it justice with the guitar at this point, so instead I will read the first few stanzas from “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” written hundreds of years ago by the great reformer who certainly had experience in dealing with demonic forces and which I think gives great insight into the way we should deal with them.

“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe, does seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth his name, from age to age the same; and he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”

Now while this demoniac in our text is an example of an extreme case of demonic control, I believe we can find several characteristics exhibited in this man that parallel a perhaps more subtle, if not hidden, demonic influence in people today. I hope that maybe a look at these characteristics may reveal that even some of us may have similar areas of our life that Satan has exerted his control over, in his continuing efforts to render us unfruitful for the kingdom. So I am going to give you six characteristics that we see in this demoniac, there are probably more, but let’s look at them in hopes of identifying common areas in which Satan operates in varying degrees in people today, albeit covertly.

The first word we see in reference to this poor man is “unclean” in vs.2. This demoniac was considered unclean because he lived among the dead. Such was against the law of God, and a person that touched a dead person was considered unclean. But remember the verse from Ephesians 2 which we referenced earlier which said, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…” Touching a dead person is not a sin, but having sin in your life is equated with being dead. And thus someone who harbors sin, who lives in sin, who doesn’t renounce their sin, is dead spiritually and they are unclean in the sight of God. Let me make something very, very clear. The person that harbors sin, that lives in sin in an unrepentant state, is opening up their mind and body to demons. And the devil will come in like a lion through the gate which you have opened up and take over completely. It’s a very dangerous thing for a person to live in defiant, open sin in rebellion against what the Bible has identified as sin. I can’t emphasize that enough. 1Samuel 15:23 says, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” Even as a Christian, if you deliberately turn back to sin and don’t repent of it, you just took off your armor and invited Satan to come in an make himself at home. And it will have tragic consequences.

Secondly, notice he was living in isolation. He was living away from his community. He lived in the tombs, in the mountains. Listen, I don’t want to over stretch a metaphor here, but there is a tremendous danger to isolation. God designed us to live in fellowship with one another. And as Christians, that fellowship takes on even more importance. When a Christian lives in isolation from the rest of the body, that is the church, then they set themselves up for demonic attack and control. I was watching this cable show the other night with Susie about animals in the wild, and especially these wolves which were filmed while they were hunting. And their technique which is instinctive with them, is to separate one animal from the herd. They get them isolated from the herd and then they can conquer them. The same is true of the devil, who 1Peter 2:8 tells us goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And those in isolation are prime targets for the devil.

Third, he had supernatural strength. Let us be wary of seeking the supernatural, folks. There is a danger in seeking the supernatural. Many people have been led astray in the devil’s schemes by seeing some supernatural thing and finding it exciting, thrilling. They will even go so far as to attribute such things to God or the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether or not it agrees with scripture. God IS a God of supernatural power. But not everything supernatural is from God. Satan is able to counterfeit, just as Pharoah’s magicians counterfeited Moses’ miracles. Satan also has supernatural power. Beware of the supernatural. 1John 4:1 says, Test the spirits, because many spirits have gone out into the world, and not all are of God.

Fourth, he was in torment. Notice he is described as screaming day and night, and cutting himself with stones. There are obviously degrees of torment. At the one end there is a lack of peace, and a searching for peace using anything that they can to try to find it. Often today it involves alcohol or drugs, searching for that peace that can only come from the Lord. At the other end of the spectrum, instead of finding that peace through drugs or alcohol, they end up tormented by the demons of those drugs which rob them of their sanity. I can’t even begin to tell you about all the people that I know of who have lost their mind because of drugs. This demoniac had obviously ended up tormented to the point of losing his mind. He was out of control. And that is where sin always leads; to tormented souls who search for more and more and yet can find no peace. And a lot of times that leads to suicidal tendencies, as we see here with this man hurting himself. Satan is a destroyer, and that is his end game strategy for those he can control through sin.

Fifthly, there is the immediate recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ. This man comes to Jesus and bows down to Him as the Son of God, even as he is resisting and crying out. It’s amazing to me how so many people that manifest demonic influence in their lives come from some sort of so called Christian background. And their rejection of Christ as Lord spurs their further enslavement to the devil. Though these demons recognize Jesus as God, they do not recognize Him as their Lord. Notice the distinction in this passage. The demoniac under the influence of demons call Jesus the Son of the Most High God. Yet that recognition doesn’t save him. But at the end of the passage in vs19, Jesus says to tell your family what the Lord has done for you. James says that the demons believe and tremble, but they do not accept Jesus as Lord. That recognition of God yet rejection of Jesus as Lord of their life is a key component of demonic control. Refusing to surrender your will to the Lord.

Sixth, note that there is a duplicity or multiplicity of personalities exhibited by this man. And while his case may be extreme, there is often a sense of a Jekyll and Hyde personality in someone who is being influenced by the devil. One way I think that is common is a tendency to project one persona at church, or around other Christians, and yet live a different sort of life in secret, or out of sight of the church. I’m not talking about schizophrenia necessarily, but living a double life. And I think that is a lot more common than what it may appear. The scripture says as a man thinks in his heart so is he. It’s possible to put on a front in public, but live a completely different life in private. And furthermore, I have seen a number of instances where someone seemed sort of normal, and then one day this other side of them just erupts in a way that is nothing short of demonic. And when that happens it reveals that Satan has a foothold in that person that has reached a point where it is becoming manifest. Luke 12:2-3 “The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!” That’s a warning that surely your sins will find you out. They will become manifest.

The good news is that Jesus has compassion on such people, as illustrated towards that demoniac, obviously tormented by his sin and under the control of the devil. Jesus came to seek and to save those that are lost. And I would suggest that the text indicates that the only reason Jesus came to this region was to save this poor man. He went through a fierce storm, exhausted and robbed of his sleep, to come to this pagan region and deliver this man from Satan’s captivity. What a wonderful illustration of the compassion and mercy of God for lost sinners.

Jesus fulfills the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 of the promised One who will crush the serpent’s head, and He was demonstrating His power over the kingdom of darkness. You remember 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

Now let’s look briefly how Jesus accomplished this deliverance. Note first of all that Jesus asked “what is your name?” Many people mistakenly take this as an indication that we should go around asking demons for their name as a means of binding them. It is silly if not downright dangerous for people to think they can tell demons what to do -binding demons here, or binding Satan here. You don’t have that authority, they’re laughing at you like they laughed at the sons of Sceva and say, “Jesus we know, and Paul, we know, but who are you?” And if you remember those sons of Sceva ran out wounded and naked because they had no authority. Such people are as those described in Jude vs10 “But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”
I think that Jesus asks him “what is your name?” for our sake, not for HIs sake. Jesus knew their name, just as He knows your name. He asked him so that we might know that there were thousands of demons in this poor soul, so that we might know the extent of Christ’s power and authority over the demonic realm. So they answered “Legion, for we are many.” A legion was up to 6000 soldiers in the Roman army. Some think that since the number of pigs were two thousand, then there were 2000 demons. Or perhaps there were three demons per pig. I don’t know. All I know is there were thousands of demons. And yet Christ Jesus is victorious over thousands of evil spirits.

Next, notice that they ask not to be cast out of the country. Luke 8:31 tells us that the demons begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. I am not a Greek expert, but I found it interesting that the word translated as country is a derivative of a word that means an empty expanse. And Strong’s concordance defines it as the space lying between two places or limits. So there is really no conflict between the two terms. I think they are speaking of the pit, or the abyss where 2 Peter 2:4 says the angels who were disobedient during the days of Noah were put under chains until the judgment.

Now these evil spirits know what God did to those disobedient fallen angels, and so they do not want that fate for themselves, they want to be free to roam the earth, particularly in this pagan country. And for these demons to have their greatest expression, they need to have a body to live in. So lacking anywhere else to go, they ask to be cast into a herd of swine. I want to point out something here. They ask Jesus for permission to enter the swine. Just as Satan asked permission to sift Peter like wheat. Or Satan asked permission of God to afflict Job. Satan has no authority, no power that God does not first give him.

So Jesus gave permission to the demons to enter the pigs. Now I don’t look for animals to be possessed by demons. I don’t think you have to worry that one day your little pooch could turn into Cujo or something. I think this passage indicates that the demons needed special permission to go into the pigs. And I think that is born out by the result, which undoubtedly came as a surprise to the demons, which was that the pigs committed suicide. If they had any experience with animals before, they would not have asked to be cast into the pigs.

Well, the herdsmen run away and report it to the townspeople. And the result is that the entire town comes out to see the former demoniac sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And this is the really crazy part. You would think that they would have bowed themselves down and worshipped the Lord as a result of seeing this man delivered from the power of darkness. But instead, it says that they were frightened.

It’s interesting to note that the disciples were afraid during the storm, but they became even more afraid when Jesus stilled the storm. And in this incident, the townspeople were afraid of the demoniac, but they became even more afraid of Jesus who cast out the demons.

Most of us would like to believe that that kind of miracle would cause a revival. But instead they tell Jesus to go away. They’re more comfortable with living in darkness than they are living in the light. They love their sin more than holiness. Such is the nature of depravity, that’s the nature of sin. It is more comfortable to be in the presence of evil than to be in the presence of righteousness. That’s one of the reasons that the world hates Christians. The forces of evil are more welcome than the mighty power of God. How often do we find it pleasant to talk about things of the world, but uncomfortable when the conversation turns to things of God?

Well, as we see in this passage, sometimes the judgment of God is to give people what they want. And so Jesus gets in the boat to leave, and as far as we know, He never came back to that region. The people get to continue in their sin and reject Jesus. And God’s judgment is that they get what they want. And I think that carnal interest on the part of the townspeople is indicated by the request of the demons. They say don’t cast us out of the country. They knew that this pagan country of the Gerasenes was a ripe area for their controlling influence because they had no interest in righteousness.

But the man who had been delivered comes to Jesus in the boat and is begging to go with them. But Jesus tells him to stay there and be a witness. Prior to his deliverance, he bore witness to the destructive power of Satan. After his deliverance, he bore witness to the transforming power of God. And so Jesus does not leave the area without a witness. You know, that is what we are called to be; witnesses. Some people misunderstand what a witness is. They think that it’s a well contrived plan of evangelism. Maybe some of that can be incorporated into being a witness. But really it was pretty simple mission for this guy. He had been a Christian just a few hours. He didn’t know all the do’s and don’ts of evangelism. He didn’t have all the answers. He certainly hadn’t taken any classes in evangelizing. But he could be a powerful witness to the saving power of the gospel of Christ. He could tell all his friends and neighbors who knew what he had been, what he had now become by the power of Christ. His life was a witness to the transforming power of salvation. He was forgiven, he was a new creation in Christ. He could tell them that.

Listen, Jesus wants you to be a witness today as well. I am going to leave you with the same commandment that Jesus left with the demoniac; “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.”

As we come to this passage before us in our ongoing study of Mark, we find that the Lord Jesus and His disciples are at the end of a very long, tiring day. Jesus has been teaching and healing all day long, and the crowds were pressing against Him, and thronging Him to the point that He could not teach, so He had entered into a boat by the shore and taught them in parables.

Now we spent the last couple of weeks talking about these parables that Mark records for us. And I don’t want to go back over them in detail. However, it’s noteworthy that these parables in this chapter are the only ones that Mark records for us. Yet we know from the other gospels that Jesus taught more parables than these. Mark, however, only includes these five, yet he indicates in verse 33 that there were many such parables that He taught.

And it’s important that we remember the purpose of parables. Why did Jesus use them as a means of teaching? Well, contrary to normal intuition, He used parables not so much to illustrate the truth, as to veil spiritual truth in a natural illustration. As we have pointed out repeatedly, there is a necessity for spiritual illumination in order to understand the spiritual truth of a parable. So that the principle is that to him who has, more shall be given. In other words, he who has spiritual illumination, spiritual life, receives more spiritual illumination. But to him who does not have, they hear, but they don’t understand.

So Jesus said to them 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.” Now that sounds as if Jesus is speaking in riddles. And perhaps He is to some degree. But here is what He is saying; By your hearing of the word, you come to believe. And when you believe what you have heard, then more truth will be given to you. But if you hear the word and do not believe in the truth, but reject the truth, then what you have will be taken away from you. What insight you have been given, will be taken away. God will take the spiritual illumination which was given to you away because you did not believe it.

So take care what you listen to. He isn’t necessarily saying, “be careful not to listen to false teaching.” Though that may definitely play a part in rejecting the truth. But be careful to listen carefully. That’s why twice Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” If you have spiritual ears to hear, be careful to listen to it. Take care of what you hear. Don’t let it go in one ear and out the other. But think on these things. Ponder the truth of God in your heart. And then of course, act upon that truth. That obedience to the truth is an essential part of believing.

Be careful what you listen to because as Romans10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Your faith is dependent upon what you hear, and how carefully you hear. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, ie, the truth of the gospel.

Now in that context we come now to the final section in this chapter, and though it seems rather biographical than doctrinal as the other sections were, yet it is tied to the previous passages by this principle of faith. Faith is really the lynchpin of our salvation, is it not? The word faith has only been used by Mark one other time up to this point in his gospel. And interestingly enough, it is found in reference to the forgiveness of sins. Back in chapter 2, we have the account of the four friends who brought in the paralytic and it says that Jesus, seeing their faith, said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” There is a principle in Biblical interpretation, what is called hermeneutics, which is known as the principle of first mention. If you want to understand how to view a term that’s used in the Bible look at how it’s first used. And the word faith’s first mention in the gospel of Mark is in reference to the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is called justification in theological terms. Faith is essential then to salvation. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Faith and belief then are synonymous. As in Romans 4:9, speaking of Abraham’s saving faith says, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Faith produced Abraham’s justification.

So be careful what you listen to because faith comes by hearing, and salvation comes through faith. And through salvation comes spiritual life. And spiritual life is the way of life that Jesus promises to those who believe in Him. That spiritual life, where we are made spiritually alive and receive the Spirit of Truth in us, is the more that will be given to those who believe.

Now the disciples had by this time received spiritual illumination. And they were following Jesus as the source of life and truth. They were trying to understand the things which He was teaching them privately, that is the spiritual truth of the parables. But here in this last section, Jesus is going to give them a personal illustration, a physical experience to help them to understand this spiritual principle or doctrine of faith. Sometimes that is a great way to learn. We can learn things theoretically, but when we learn by experience then we really learn. However, experience can be a hard teacher. I will say to you young people especially, life isn’t long enough to learn everything by experience. If you are wise, you won’t learn things the hard way, you will learn through teaching. But in this case, Jesus is going to teach them by experience and though it’s a tough lesson, it is an essential one which I hope we can learn as well through their experience.

So as the day turns to evening and night falls, according to Matthews gospel in chapter 8:16, Jesus without even getting out of the boat tells the disciples to push off and take them to the other side of the lake. This is the Sea of Galilee. It’s really a lake and not a sea, but it was called both in those days. So it’s evening, it’s getting dark, and they set sail for the other side, and a few other boats, presumably filled with disciples as well, follow them.

The point must be made here that Jesus knows what’s going to happen before it happens. So Jesus knows that a storm is going to occur. And yet He deliberately sends them out into an impending storm. The storms and trials of a Christian are not meant to tempt us, but to teach us. As the hymn writer says in “How Firm A Foundation”, “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” The trials of the Christian are intentionally produced by God to refine us and teach us.

Many commentators have given testimony to the violent nature of the storms that can come suddenly down from the mountains upon this lake. And though it’s a lake and we don’t normally associate huge waves with lakes, yet in this particular lake the storms are well documented as being particularly vicious, especially due to the fact that it is over 600 feet below sea level encircled by mountains and hills. I am not going to try to explain it further, but I will just say that it is a verifiable phenomenon that happens even today.

So Mark says that Jesus and the disciples leave the crowds. Once again we see a pattern here of the crowds following in a sort of superficial manner, and thus not receiving the deeper spiritual truth that was given to His close disciples privately. The crowds were interested in seeing some sort of miracle, were interested in the entertainment aspects of Jesus’s ministry, but they are not interested in learning deeper spiritual truth. And so the light which they had, which was Jesus, was taken away from them. He leaves them on the seashore and puts out into the lake in the dark of the evening with the disciples, with whom He will teach a greater lesson.

Another important lesson in this event is that though we will certainly see the divinity of Christ displayed at the end of this event, we also see the humanity of Christ displayed at the beginning. Jesus is so tired, humanly speaking in His body, that He falls fast asleep in the bow of the boat and sleeps soundly through what must have seemed like hurricane force winds to the disciples. I don’t think He is faking sleep in order to make a point. I think He is completely exhausted. It’s important to remember that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was not half God and half man. But fully human and fully divine. As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus got tired. I would suspect that Jesus got sick. Jesus knew grief. He had by this time lost His step father Joseph. Jesus grew hungry. He was thirsty. He got dirty and had to take a bath, just like all men. Yet though He suffered in the flesh as a man, He was without sin. He was righteous in all that He did. This composition of divinity and humanity is what theologians call the hypostatic union of Christ. He was fully God and fully man. And we see that illustrated here in this chapter. Thus He is able to save us completely, not only as our substitute who died in our place, but in His role as our Great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father.

So sometime soon after the disciples set sail, a severe storm arose on the lake. It reminds me of that old hymn, “The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost.” Whoops, I think that’s the wrong song.

No, actually the fearless crew were not that courageous in the midst of this storm. These were seasoned commercial fishermen who were piloting this boat, and they are in fear of losing their lives. I suppose that this storm was worse than anything they had ever encountered before. There is some speculation among some commentators that this was a demonically induced storm. I don’t know if that’s true or not. The Bible doesn’t seem to say explicitly whether or not the devil can manipulate the weather. I am inclined to think that he can. I’ve endured far too many instances of adverse weather when I was trying to conduct a church service or a church outreach when the weather just got crazy. So I’m inclined to think that he can, but I cannot be dogmatic about it. But even if he can influence the weather, that doesn’t mean that every time we get bad weather it’s of the devil. However, I will say that the Bible says that the devil is the Prince of the power of the air. And you can infer from that whatever you may like.

And I will also say that considering where Jesus and the disciples were headed, the other shore being the country of the Gerasenes where the demoniac lived among the tombs, it is entirely plausible that Satan knew that his dominion was under siege by the Lord, and as a result threw everything he could at them in order to try to discourage Jesus and His disciples.

You know, there are a lot of times that we go through trials, and we don’t know if they are of God or they are of the devil. Consider Job. His trials were definitely through the agency of Satan, but they were ultimately under the authority of God. And so I think that is something we need to learn. Not necessarily trying to go about binding Satan so that we don’t have trials, but rather learning, as Shadrach, Meshak and Abednago did, that God may allow an evil prince to put you in the fiery furnace, but the Son of God will be with you in the flames.

Well, I don’t need to embellish the story. I think Mark makes it clear what happened. So we see Jesus awakened by His panicking disciples. And notice what they say to Him. “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Notice they don’t cry out “Help us!” But rather accuse Him of indifference. I think that right there Satan accomplished his goal. That was the point of Satan’s temptation of Eve. That God didn’t really care about their needs or desires. That God was uncaring. And I can tell you from experience that is where my failures of faith often lie. When God doesn’t do what I want Him to do in the time frame that I want Him to act, then I find myself accusing Him of not caring. Of indifference. Not that He doesn’t know about my problems. But that He doesn’t care. In fact, knowing that He knows about my problems and doesn’t seem to act immediately to rectify them seems to me the height of indifference.

But of course, Jesus does care. He does sympathize with our weaknesses, with our trials, and with our heartaches. He not only is aware of our pain, but He shares our pain. The Bible says in Romans 8:26 “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Some people think that is referring to speaking in tongues. No, far from it. It’s talking about the Spirit of Christ who is in us, groaning in us as He emphasizes with our heartaches. Jesus knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts. His thoughts toward us outnumber the sand on the sea shore. Nothing can separate us from His love towards us. He is faithful, even when we are faithless.

So Mark says that Jesus wakes up, and rebukes the wind. Notice how Mark says in in vs39, And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” The fact that Jesus rebuked the wind gives credence to the idea that it was a demonically produced wind. The words he used here are exactly the same words he used when he rebuked the demon that interrupted his discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum, as recorded in the first chapter of this book.

And it’s interesting to notice the order. First He rebuked the wind. Did you know that waves are caused by wind? Those of us that are surfers we know that we get waves from storms many hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of miles away. We can have great waves here in Delaware with beautiful weather from a storm a thousand miles away. The key component is what they call fetch. It’s the tract of water over which the wind blows. And if it blows in our direction long enough, over a broad enough fetch, then we will get waves that will travel many miles to reach our shores. It causes what’s called a groundswell. Well, this lake is only about 18 miles long, so it’s not got a lot of room for a prolonged fetch, but the waves are still caused by the wind.

The thing is that though the wind stops, the waves won’t immediately stop. The waves will continue to move because the wind imparts energy into the water. But Jesus rebukes the cause of the wind, and then He tells the waves to be still. And Mark says that the lake became perfectly calm. That’s not natural, but rather a supernatural occurrence which is not lost on the disciples.

So Jesus rebuked the wind, but He mildly chides the disciples. I don’t think that the text indicates He rebuked the disciples. I think He rebukes the devil. But He chides the disciples for their lack of faith. Notice what He says, ““Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” In Matthew’s gospel He says that they have little faith. I think the thought is the same. He is accusing them of an immature faith. They have had faith in what they can see. But they don’t yet have faith in what they can’t see, or they can’t explain.

And I think this is the whole point of the exercise. It is to get them to see by faith what they cannot see by sight. Faith is believing. And though they have believed what they could see, Jesus’s humanity, His power, His teaching, His ability to do miracles, to speak divine truth, they now need to be given a greater measure of belief. Belief in what they cannot see. What they cannot understand. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And by faith, the men of old gained approval from God.

Faith then is not what you can touch or see, or hold in your hand and examine. But faith is believing in what you cannot see, even what is hoped for, that which cannot be seen. Faith is the means of spiritual illumination. It is the means by which we see that which cannot be seen, that which is spiritual truth. And that faith is the essential component of our salvation. By faith, Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was justified by faith. He was saved by faith in the Old Testament, and we are saved by faith in the New Testament. And that faith is comprehended in Jesus Christ. Believing in who He is, who He claimed to be, and what He did for us. That constitutes saving faith.

Now the disciples see the result of this miracle, and their response is to move from one fear to another fear. Notice, vs 41 “They became very much afraid and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’” Well, Mark doesn’t answer their question, because the answer should be obvious. The wind and the sea obey Jesus because He is the Maker of the wind and the sea. John 1 says, He was the Word, and all things were made by Him and without Him nothing came into being that has come into being. And Hebrews 1 says “in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”

So the disciples become fearful not because of the storm any longer, but because God was in their boat. And when that realization dawned on them, then their spiritual enlightenment, their spiritual walk took a quantum leap forward. They will still have doubts from time to time, they will still have weaknesses, but when you know the God of the Universe is with you, then there is a comfort and assurance and power that comes with that that supersedes the trivial trials of this world.

Listen, it’s natural to feel fear in certain times of trial. The Psalmists cry out to God in the fear and anxiety again and again. Psalm 10:1, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in the midst of trouble?” Or Psalm 44, “Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord, why do You hide Your face.” And lest we think that such despair is sinful, remember Jesus Himself quoted the Psalm when He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” Fear is a natural occurrence. And I don’t think that it is necessary sinful.

I remember hearing of a battle hardened soldier who said something to the effect, that everyone in battle feels fear. Courage is not a lack of fear. Courage is doing what is necessary even though you feel fear. When we find ourselves in a spiritual battle we may feel fear as we encounter things that seem beyond normal. They may even seem demonic. But though we may feel fear, we need not react in fear, but take courage that Jesus has promised to be with us in the trials and storms of life. And He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have been given life through His death, because of God’s immense love for us. So nothing can hurt us without going through the hand of God.

Romans 8:28 is a verse everyone here has probably memorized. But nevertheless it bears repeating. This verse comes right after the one we quoted earlier about the Spirit groaning in us through our weaknesses. Vs. 28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

I trust that you have been called according to God’s purpose. I pray that you have not rejected the light that God has given you. But that you have believed in that light, and have followed in that light, so that you may continue to fulfill His calling upon your life. Be careful to consider all that God has taught us today concerning His Son. He was fully man and fully God, that He might become our Savior and our Substitute, that we might receive the righteousness of Christ by faith in Him. And having received Him, we love Him. And having loved Him, we obey Him. And as we walk in the light of His truth, He will one day glorify us so that we might be like Him and be with Him forever. Amen.

In this chapter, Mark has given us a small collection of parables which Jesus taught during His ministry. Last time, we looked at the first one, which is the parable of the soils. Today we will look at four more. Parables are physical illustrations of spiritual truth. Pastor’s and teachers today often make use of illustrations as an attempt to help people understand a biblical principle or doctrine. However, that is not really the purpose of a parable.

Notice in vs.11,12 that Jesus indicates a different purpose in using parables. He is not necessarily trying to illustrate truth more clearly, but rather to teach truth while at the same time keeping the unbelieving from understanding it. Listen to what He says to the disciples in vs.11, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, 12 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.”

Now that sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? That Jesus in a sense would use a parable to camouflage the truth. But the fact is, that spiritual truth is disclosed as a matter of progressive revelation. It requires belief, and acceptance, but also it requires one to act upon it before God discloses more truth. There is a verse in Psalms 119:105 which speaks to this principle of progressive revelation; “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” In other words, as truth is disclosed to you, you must take the step of obedience in regards to that truth, and then God will shine the light on the next step, which again must be acted upon to proceed down the path to spiritual enlightenment. Notice how the psalmist compares truth to light, which only lights the next step along the path. You must walk in it to continue in the light.

So it is in a parable – spiritual illumination is necessary. Without the guidance of the Spirit, you cannot understand the teaching of the parable. It may seem to make sense on a physical level, because it is couched in a physical metaphor, but you cannot glean the spiritual sense without spiritual illumination from God, either in the person of Jesus Christ, or by the Holy Spirit. The disciples had Jesus to explain the spiritual meaning of the parables to them. The multitudes that were not interested in spiritual truth, but were only there for the entertainment value of the miracles did not have that benefit. Notice vs34, “and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.” So there came a point in Jesus’s ministry when the crowds were massing around Him to see the miracles, in which He uses parables to teach them, while at the same time veiling the deeper spiritual meaning from those who would not believe in Him.

Now that is a principle of faith that we might have a hard time with because it seems unfair or discriminatory. Why are unbelievers blind to the truth of the gospel? And yet this is what the Bible teaches. The Bible says the just shall live by faith and not by sight. 2Cor. 4:3-4 says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

So before someone can believe, there must be a divine awakening by the Spirit of God whereby they are given spiritual eyes to see. And we are going to see this principle of spiritual illumination taught again and again in these parables we are looking at today. The necessity of spiritual illumination. And in that regard, we are going to see that only when that spiritual illumination is in place will there be the manifestation of spiritual life.

Let’s jump into the first one then and see how Jesus presents this. Vs. 21 And [Jesus] 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 remember that our pattern for understanding this parable is found in the first parable of the soils. Jesus said in vs.13 if you don’t understand that first one, you won’t understand any of the parables. And the key to understanding the first one is that Jesus identifies the seed as the word of God. If He had not told us that key, we could easily go off in a hundred different directions in interpretation. We might think the first parable was about being a good steward of our resources and not being wasteful. But when we know that the seed planted is the word of God, then we can begin to understand the spiritual principle being taught.

In like manner, we have to look at this parable with the same kind of discernment. In fact, notice that Jesus uses the same closing statement in this parable as He did in the parable of the soils. He says in vs. 23, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” That’s almost identical as the phrase in vs.9. In other words, listen carefully with spiritual discernment. If you have spiritual ears, listen carefully that you might understand fully.

So what then is the lamp which is depicted in this next parable? We have already seen in Psalms 119 that the lamp is the word of God just as the seed was the word of God in the first parable. Another important text that supports this is found in John 1:1-5, 9 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. … There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

So there you have it, the Word is the Light, which enlightens every man. I would suggest then that the lamp is the Incarnate Word of God which man accepts into His heart by believing in Jesus Christ as His Savior and Lord. This word then is given to us that we might live in that light and walk in that light, and reflect that light of God to the world. Jesus is saying that this light was not given to us that we might hide it, but that we would shine it out to the world.

Now that is not just talking about evangelism. I think we can consider it in light of the parable of the soils, in that the fruit which the seed produces is in the likeness of the same. In other words, Jesus who is the Word is planted in us and this seed brings forth fruit which looks like Jesus. So the fruit of the Spirit is to look like Jesus. Just as the seed of an apple produces an apple, so does the light of the Word produce the image of Jesus Christ in us. We exhibit His character and His nature as a result of receiving the word implanted. Psalm 36:9, “In thy light we see light.”

That same principle is taught here; that as Jesus is the Light, shining the truth of God to the world, the very reflection of God, so we are to reflect Jesus Christ to the world. The Spirit of God was given to us that we might look like and act like and speak like Jesus. Not that we might feign lip service to God on Sunday, but put Him under a bushel basket the rest of the week. Not simply that we might only hand out a couple of tracks and think that we have fulfilled our purpose, but that we might do the works of God and speak and act like Christ as the light of truth leads us to walk in the light. 1John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” That is the testimony that God desires from us. To be holy even as He is holy.

And then in vs 22, “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.” That means then that if you have the Light of God in you, then He cannot stay hidden. He will produce light. There will be a corresponding reflection of Jesus Christ by your life. Your salvation will not, cannot stay hidden.

That segue’s into the next parable, or simile in vs24, And He was saying to them, “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.” 

Here is the same principle further explained. If you do not believe the Light that has been revealed to you, then what light you have will be taken away from you. According to Romans 1 God will give you over to a reprobate mind. Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The light is taken away. On the other hand, if you have believed the Light of the Word, then more light will be given. That light produces life. You will not only have life, but you will have it more abundantly. You will have eternal life.

So then, Jesus said, take care what you listen to. What does He mean by that? Well, it’s easy to understand if you remember He is talking about the word of God. If you receive the word of God, and act upon it, and follow it’s light, then you will be given more light, you will be given more life. But if you listen to the lies of the devil, to the lies of the world, then you will remain in darkness. That darkness leads to depravity and depravity to destruction.

Be careful then what you listen to. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Conversely, false teaching comes by hearing, and it produces apostasy.

So then, by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. How you receive the truth of God will determine to what degree you are given truth. A good way of understanding that is how you are obedient to the truth. As you are obedient, to that measure, more will be given to you in the same measure. The more you follow the truth, in the same measure God will reveal to you truth. There is a progressive nature to biblical revelation that is contingent upon your obedience. In other words, you cannot walk a yard in your faith and expect a mile in your sanctification. No, but as you walk a yard in your faith, God will grant you a yard’s worth of sanctification. The walk in the Spirit is a walk of progressive sanctification. But it is a walk, none the less. Our salvation was never intended to be stagnant. One leap of faith and then still for the rest of your life. The Bible says we are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Far too many people claim to have received the truth of salvation, but they have never continued in that light. They haven’t grown an inch since supposedly they were converted. That is not what the Bible teaches constitutes spiritual life. As James 2 declares, we are to show our faith by our works.

Now we must move on to the next parable quickly. Vs26 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.”

Here again, Jesus is teaching the same principle while at the same time elaborating on it even more. Once again we see the man sowing seed into the soil. And in this case, there is only one soil presented. It’s obviously the good soil, because it produces a crop. So we know already from the parable of the soils that the seed is the word of God, and the soil is the human soul or heart.

What Jesus is teaching here is that this spiritual illumination that comes through the word of God activated by the Spirit of God causes a spiritual growth which cannot be seen physically, or even understood from a natural point of view, but which is happening nonetheless because of divine germination in the heart of man. In this parable again, we see the kingdom of God is manifested. First, the word is planted. And in the process of maturity spiritual life is revealed. It is a mystery. It is something accomplished through the Spirit of God in the human soul. Without this divine insemination of spiritual life, there can be no growth. But because of the spiritual seed implanted, it bears forth spiritual things.

I want to make sure that you all understand what the kingdom of God is. It is a spiritual kingdom, whereby God rules in the hearts of man. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, and He did so by planting the word of God in our hearts, by which they were transformed spiritually, so that we might be the family of God; spiritual sons and daughters of God. Thus nations and empires and races and nationalities have no means of restricting this spiritual kingdom. God reigns in the hearts of His people throughout the world.

We need to be careful then in interpreting this parable that we do not try to make it say more than what it is intended. It’s not talking about the rapture, it’s not talking about the second coming, it’s not talking about producing salvation in yourself. But what it is picturing is again a planting and a growth. The harvest simply represents the culmination of spiritual growth and maturity that will come if in fact there has been a true planting of the gospel in the heart of the believer. It’s talking about sanctification, as Hebrews 12:14 tells us, without which no one will see the Lord

Now let’s turn our attention to the last parable. And this particular one is the subject of much disagreement among commentators and Bible teachers. But I think the earlier statement by Christ in vs24 alludes to how we should approach this parable. Notice His statement back 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.”

In that statement, I believe Christ alludes to both a positive and negative consequences of what you listen to. If you receive the truth of the gospel, there will be a positive growth and manifestation of the truth in your life. But if you listen to false teaching, there will be a subsequent aberrant growth that is not spiritual, but physical.

Now I think that is illustrated in this next parable, and you can almost sense that this one is different in the way Jesus introduces it. He says, “How shall we picture or literally, how shall we compare the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?” So Jesus is indicating there is a contrasting nature to this parable of the kingdom of God. And so I think that it illustrates what I call a duality of manifestation.

And what I mean by that is that there are two kinds of growth represented in this parable. Notice that the first one seems to follow the normal pattern established so far in the others. Once again, there is a seed which is sown. We have seen that in two others in this passage. The seed is the word of God. But in this case, Jesus describes the seed as a mustard seed which is smaller, He said, than the other seeds sown in the garden, yet when it is grown in is larger than all the other plants in the garden.

Now in a natural environment a mustard seed produces a mustard bush, usually just a few feet tall. But in Matthew and Luke’s parallel account in their gospels, the mustard seed becomes a tree. Mark just says it grows up larger than all the other plants and has large branches. So we can assume that what Jesus is saying is that this mustard seed produces an abnormally large plant, actually it becomes a tree which is large enough for the birds of the air to nest in it’s branches.

Now as I said, there is some controversy about this. A superficial reading might conclude that Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God starts out small and then grows very large which sounds desireable. But a more careful interpretation in keeping with the metaphors taught in the previous parables would indicate that in fact, Jesus is saying that there is an abnormality to the growth of the kingdom. It has become much larger than what would naturally occur. And furthermore, in the parable of the soils, which remember Jesus said we must learn in order to interpret the other parables, in that parable the birds of the air were identified as the devil and his angels who ate up the seed which fell beside the road.

Now if we were to keep our metaphors consistent, then in this case, would not the birds nesting in the branches be a picture of the devil and his angels finding refuge in the branches of the church universal? I would argue that it is in keeping with the principles set forth. Furthermore, though Jesus said that the gospel would be proclaimed throughout the earth, yet He also said in Matthew 7:14 that “the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” So from a spiritual perspective, large, abnormal growth is not the kind of growth that is consistent with the Biblical paradigm of the church.

So it would seem that Jesus is saying that the church will grow into an organization that exceeds the design of God, and in fact harbors and gives shelter to false doctrines and doctrines of devils. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, has vessels for honor and some for dishonor. Every knee will bow and every knee will confess that Jesus is Lord. But not all will be saved. Jesus said after My departure, many false prophets will arise in the church. Many antichrists, John said, are already at work in the world. And again in Matthew 7 Jesus says that in that day “many will say to Me, “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.’”

So then, we can picture the church which is the kingdom of God, exhibiting abnormal growth, and certainly we have seen that in the 2000 years since this parable was spoken. Yes, the gospel has spread it’s branches throughout the world, but as the seven churches of Revelation illustrate, there are many that have lost their first love, that no longer do the works that they did at first. And to those apostate churches, or soon to be apostate churches, Jesus says “Repent” or He will remove their lamp stand from their place in the kingdom of God.

So then let us remember what Jesus said in vs24, ”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.”

If you have not believed in Jesus Christ unto salvation, if you do not have the Spirit of Truth residing in you, then you cannot walk in the light of truth, nor manifest the light of God. You will not produce the fruit of righteousness that God requires. There must first be a planting of the truth of God in your heart, and if that is truly there, then there will be appropriate fruit that follows. I implore you to examine your hearts today in the light of God’s word that you have heard. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, “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.”

And if you are indeed made a good tree today by faith in Jesus’s righteousness by the grace of God, then I trust that you are producing good fruit through obedience to the light shown to you in the word of God. As God has shown you the truth through His word, act upon it. Be obedient to it. And to him who has shall more be given. God will add to you grace upon grace, that you might grow more and more, until we all are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. May it be so. Amen.

Today we come to what many commentators believe is the first of the parables that Jesus taught. And as we see in the story, the crowds have become so large, and there was such a desire for healing and to see miracles that people were being crushed, and so Jesus got into a boat just off shore so that He could teach the people. The point is, that He wanted to teach them the truth of the gospel of the kingdom. Healing had it’s place, and miracles had their place, but that was not the primary purpose of His ministry. It was to present the saving news of the gospel. And so we see that the large, pressing crowds actually interfered with that by their desire to see some miracle, or receive some miracle, yet they were really uninterested in learning the truth.

So Jesus employs a method of teaching called a parable. Parable’s teach a spiritual truth through a physical illustration. You must have spiritual insight to understand. You must have spiritual illumination. Without such divine illumination, we would be in darkness. He speaks in parables because the people that are in attendance are only interested in physical things; healing, miracles, being fed, being entertained. Jesus’s ministry must have sometimes seemed like a spectacle; it was entertaining, dynamic, exciting. Demons acting out. Paralytics being raised up and jumping for joy. The crowds were attracted to that. But that is not the kind of attraction that Jesus wants, so He uses parables to teach them, which are a method of teaching which present a deeper spiritual truth to those who are spiritually attuned, while at the same time obscuring the truth to those who are not ready to listen spiritually. Now we will say more about that in a moment. But let’s look at this parable, which Jesus says in vs.13 is important to understand if we are to understand all the parables.

The good news concerning this parable is that Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of it in the latter half of the passage. Not every parable is given with an explanation. But once we learn the principles involved in this one, it should be easier to understand the later ones.

In many other parables, Jesus starts off by saying something like “the kingdom of God is like…” and then the gives the analogy through a similitude. But in this case we see that Jesus does not say this is “Like the kingdom of God.” But He just starts off by saying, “The sower went out to sow.” However, in vs 11, Jesus says, “to you has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.” So we know that this parable teaches what He calls the mystery of the kingdom of God. A mystery is a spiritual principle that is revealed through spiritual revelation. It is veiled to those who are not spiritual. Look at vs 11, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything 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.” That was a partial quote of Isaiah 55.

In other words, those multitudes that were seeking a spectacle, that were seeking some excitement, who were there for the miracles but were not interested in spiritual truth, they were not spiritual, therefore they could not glean the spiritual truth of the parable. But for those like the disciples who had a heart for spiritual things, they were given the understanding of the mystery. Now that is an important principle which underlines the message of the parable as we shall see. You must have spiritual insight to understand. You must have spiritual illumination. Without such divine illumination, we would be in darkness.

So Jesus gives the parable. It’s a simple story of a sower who sowed seed, and some fell on the hard packed path alongside the field, and it was immediately eaten up by the birds. Other seed fell on rocky ground with a little soil on top. It sprang up immediately, but when the hot sun came out it withered and died. Other seed fell on soil and sprung up, but so did thorns and weeds and they choked out the life of the plant so that it was unfruitful. And then some seed fell on good soil, and produced a crop which yielded 30, 60, and hundred fold.

Now if that was all that Mark had recorded about that parable, then I think most of us would be in the dark about what was meant by it. We might surmise that Jesus was teaching that we needed to be more careful with our resources. If we don’t use our resources carefully, then we will waste much of it, and we will not get as big of a return for our investments, whatever they may be. That makes sense to me. And it makes sense in a natural world that is focused on physical things. I would bet that was the general consensus of the crowd as they heard this parable. How to increase your investments. How to be a good steward of your resources. How to live your best life now. Sounds like familiar sermon fodder, doesn’t it?

Well, Jesus concluded the parable with an important statement, which indicated that there was much more to the story. In vs.9 He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” What He is saying is “He who has spiritually attuned to hear, hear! listen! Listen carefully, intently. There is more here than meets the eye.”

Well, thankfully, the disciples recognized that there had to be more to the story than what was on the surface. So while most of the crowd went away satisfied with the superficial aspects of the story and the supernatural events that they had witnessed, the disciples asked Jesus privately for the meaning of the parable. And that teaches the principle of spiritual illumination. Jesus who is the truth, or the Spirit of Truth, must illuminate our hearts if we are to understand spiritual things. The secret to being of the kingdom of God is that such life must be of the Spirit and not of the natural. And that is born out even in the method of the message of the gospel. So Jesus gives us the meaning of the parable in vs.14-20. Remember now, in His explanation starting in vs 11, Jesus has already said that this is a mystery of the kingdom of God. These are spiritual metaphors of the kingdom of God that are presented in this parable.

Lets look at the first one; the sower. Who is the sower? The sower could have been Jesus. In fact, Jesus was certainly sowing. But the sower can be anyone who is of the kingdom of God. Seeds produce fruit after their kind. So in the kingdom of God one must be a part of the kingdom to be a sower. So anyone can be a sower of the kingdom of God providing he himself is first a citizen of the kingdom of God. The sower could be a preacher of the gospel. Preaching would certainly constitute sowing. God has ordained the gospel to be preached. Romans 10:14 says, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” Though we may not all be pastors, yet we can all proclaim the gospel if we are citizens of the kingdom of God.

But it’s important to note that the main thrust of the parable is not about the sower. From a natural interpretation of the parable, you might focus on the sower. If he learned how to sow better, more efficiently, then he might not have wasted so much seed. But Jesus doesn’t seem focused on the sower, nor on his methods, or on his expertise. Simply that he sows wherever he goes. Our job is to sow the seed. Just do it. If you seem ineffective, it doesn’t matter as much as that you just do it. Sow the seed. God has His purposes even when the seed lands on poor soil. Our purpose is to sow.

The second thing which we need to notice is the seed. What is it? Jesus said it is the word of God. We sow the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a mystery to the world, but it is divinely powerful for the overthrowing of fortresses. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” There is power in the word of God. The gospel is the power of God. As ambassadors of the kingdom of God we need to use the power of the gospel to achieve God’s purposes. The power or effectiveness of the gospel is not found in programs, or in methods, or in attracting crowds, but in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God. The word of God has power inherent in it, even as a seed has in a tiny shell the germ of a mighty oak tree. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The next thing we need to see is the soils. Jesus gives four types of soil. In farming, soil is an important aspect of how successful your farm will be. Farmers spend a lot of time and money on the soil. My wife is an avid gardener. And she is always complaining because we have poor soil. She used to be really jealous of our neighbor’s garden, because he had all this money that he would spend enriching the soil. We don’t even have a tiller. A lot of times Susie would just chop the soil with a hoe and try to break it up. The only time I ever saw Susie act a little bit larcenous, was when our neighbor had a great big pile of manure delivered to his garden. She really wanted to go over there and “borrow” a couple of shovel full’s of manure. I told her that coveting your neighbors manure was a sin. A stinky sin at that.

Soil though in this parable is a picture of the human heart. The heart is a euphemism for the soul of man. It encompasses your emotions, your intellect and your will. So Jesus is talking about the heart. It is not a parable of the sower. It is a parable of the soils. The variety of conditions of the heart.

The first heart is that which can be described as a hard heart. 2Cor. 4:4 says “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.” There is no spiritual illumination whatsoever. These people are just blind to the gospel. They turn a deaf ear. The word of God just bounces right off their hardened heart.

Jesus said these are the ones who are beside the road where the seed was sown. In other words, the soil has not been prepared there at all. It hasn’t been plowed, or watered, or fertilized. It is not broken up to receive the seed. It is still packed down hard. And so the seed lays there and the birds of the air come and eat it. Now this is another important principle for future parables. Birds of the air, Jesus says, are the devil and his angels. And they take away the word which was sown. Don’t discount the work of the devil in the presentation of the gospel. He is there to snatch away the word of God through distractions, through deceit, through every way possible, to keep you from hearing the word, lest it pierce your heart.

The second type of heart is the rocky heart. Notice vs.16, it says, “in a similar way…” I think that indicates that these two hearts are closely aligned. Now that makes sense doesn’t it? Because hard packed ground is similar to rocky ground. If you fall down on hard packed ground and it can feel like you fell on cement. And I suggest that they are similar in results. In either case, there is no real growth of the seed.

In this case, Jesus says that “the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, [are those] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

When a plant has no depth of soil, it has to grow up rather than down. But because it has no root, when the sun comes up they wither and die. This speaks to those people who hear the word, and they have a superficial, emotional response to the word. It’s quick, but it’s temporary. Because as affliction comes, or persecution comes, they quickly die off. I don’t think Jesus is necessarily talking about religious persecution in an organized fashion. I think it just means affliction in a general way. Your girlfriend doesn’t want to go to church with you. Your job doesn’t want to give you Sundays off anymore. Your friends want you to go out with them on Saturday night and you will get back late. It’s sort of rainy on Sunday morning. And so these superficial “Christians” who have no real spiritual life, quickly fizzle out.

I think there is a danger in evangelicalism today when we emphasize emotional, impulsive responses to the gospel, and then we declare them saved for eternity. You’re good to go. I think that Jesus is teaching here that sort of emotional response does not always constitute true salvation. And so we do those folks a grave disseverance if we tell them that that is all there is to salvation. No, the Bible teaches that we must count the cost. There is a cost to following the Lord. And when you are faced with that cost, whether or not you continue or desert the faith is indicative of the measure of your commitment to the Lord.

The third characterization of the heart is that of the thorny heart. Vs 18 “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

Notice that this seems to be a plant that grows and survives, but it is unfruitful. Jesus gives three reasons for unfruitfulness in this person. First is the worries of the world. Man, which of us does not have to contend with the worries of the world? Notice, He doesn’t say the sins of the world. Just the worries of the world. Perhaps it’s your job. Maybe you’re facing a slowdown, a layoff, bankruptcy. Or perhaps it’s going the other way. It’s going great. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. You can’t get any good help. You’ve got more business than you can handle. Whatever it is, it has you so occupied, that you can’t spend any time on the business of the kingdom. 

Or perhaps it’s your children. You’re so busy with your kids, your grandkids, your wife’s got you going, your husband has all this stuff going on and so you have to take up the slack with your kids. Maybe your family concerns are those thorny weeds that are springing up faster than you can take care of them. It’s like the verse in Hebrews 12:1 which says, “let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The point is that it may not be sin that is hindering you. It may not be something inherently bad. In fact, it may be something good. He who finds a wife finds a good thing, the Bible says. Children are a gift from the Lord. But good things can be hindrances to running the race. They can become thorny weeds that hinder fruitfulness.

God didn’t design a fig tree to be a shade tree. He made it to bear fruit. And God designed us to bear fruit. John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” We were designed to bear fruit.

Notice the other thorny thing, vs 19, the deceitfulness of riches. You don’t have to be a millionaire to have this one. It’s not money that is the source of all evil, but the love of money. And show me someone who doesn’t love money? Money is deceitful however, because it never satisfies. There is never enough. No matter how much you make, you always manage to have a lifestyle that is just beyond your budget. And so we are always looking for more, thinking that will be the answer to our problems.

Listen, I learned this lesson the hard way a number of years ago. Not that I am there yet, but I have learned something along the way so far. When I finally gave God control of my finances, He didn’t give me more, He gave me less. He showed me how to be satisfied with less. How little I really needed to be able to live. And I think that lesson is not just for me, it’s for all of us. If you think that you don’t have a problem with money, then you have fallen prey to the deceitfulness of riches. And in our culture today, we are rich beyond the wildest dreams of most of the other people in the world. God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t have different weights and measures for Christians in America but a different scale for those in North Korea. I doubt that the average Christian in N. Korea has much of a problem with the deceitfulness of riches holding back his fruitfulness.

And finally we come to the good soil; the good heart, the receptive, ready, obedient heart. “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” Notice that all of the various hearts heard the word, according to the parable. But only this one does Jesus say accepted it. Now what does that mean? It means to apply it. To let it sink down into your soul and change your actions and attitudes. It’s like a seed that germinates and breaks open and starts to grow. It produces something. It isn’t just a passive hearing, but an active obedience to the word. The seed which is the word of God has to germinate, it has to grow, it has to grow roots, to be activated by the Spirit of God. That is what it means to walk in the Spirit. To obey the word, to act upon it. That’s how the seed is activated. You act upon it. Faith is not just hearing the word, but acting upon it.

And notice the results; it bears fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Now what is fruit? Well, Jesus doesn’t say. I have heard a lot of sermons about this parable. And practically none of them say what the fruit is. Perhaps because Jesus doesn’t say it, they don’t dare venture a guess. A couple of preachers, good preachers, by the way, say that parable is about winning souls. It’s a parable about evangelism and good hearted Christians will win souls, some 30, some 60 some 100. Well, I don’t think we can use those numbers to make that association. However, I will admit there are some elements of evangelism in the parable. Winning souls may certainly be a part of bearing fruit. But I think that is making a natural assumption. And as we said at the beginning, we can really go off track making natural assumptions as to the meaning of a parable. It’s the spiritual meaning that we need to be seeking and that comes from spiritual sources.

In the disciples case, their spiritual source for understanding was Jesus. He was able to tell them what the parable meant. If we wish to go beyond what Jesus said, then we have to use the only spiritual resource that we have; the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the author of the Holy Scriptures.

So what is the fruit? Is it souls saved? Is it the number of notches on your spiritual gun stock? Souls saved may be a part of it, but it can’t be just souls. I suggest that fruit is spiritual fruit; and spiritual fruit is by definition fruit of the Spirit. Now the Bible tells us what is the fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it? Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

So, at least according to Galatians, souls saved are not mentioned as fruit. But rather it gives characteristics and attributes of the Christian. Are these attributes the fruit that we are to be exhibiting? Well, that would seem to be what it says in Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Notice that we are called according to His purpose, which is what? Paul tells us in the next verse, 29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”

So then, can we say that the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians is the same character and attributes of Jesus Christ? Did He exhibit love? Agape love, sacrificial love, even to the point of laying down His life? Did He exhibit joy? Did He exhibit peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control? Of course He did. So it would seem that being conformed to the image of Christ is to bear fruit. Some will manifest these fruits more so than others. But good hearts, receptive hearts, bear the image of Christ to some measure.

Now lest we make a case of one verse, let’s look at just a couple of more examples in scripture. In Eph 5:8 we read, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Well, there we have Light used instead of Spirit. But if you remember my earlier application, this spiritual truth is derived from spiritual illumination. And the fruit of such spiritual light in our hearts produces the character and attributes of Christ; goodness, righteousness and truth.

Another is found in Phil. 1:10 “so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” What is this fruit of righteousness? I would say it is righteousness; sincere, blameless, approving that which is excellent. An apple seed produces an apple. So righteousness imputed produces righteous acts.

And that is born out in a final verse; Col 1:10 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” So good works, or works of righteousness is the fruit that we bear, which pleases the Lord. And increasing in the knowledge of God. I would suggest that is a fruit as well. If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of God, then we have to know about Him. And the more we learn of Him, the more we come to know Him, and the more we know Him the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we want to please Him. And that fruit pleases God. That is the fruit of maturity. It is the fruit of sanctification. Where we cast off more and more of the world, and put on more and more of Jesus Christ. When we live out our faith in obedience, we will be a living testimony to the power of the gospel. And by that means we will be much more effective in our preaching.

I hope that today you will examine your hearts. Everyone of us here today is represented by one of those four soil scenarios. Which heart do you have? A hard heart? A stony heart? A thorny heart, or a good heart?

What if you say, pastor, I am afraid I have a thorny heart, or a rocky heart. What is the remedy? What must I do to make my heart good soil that produces fruit which is pleasing to God? Well, I can tell you where to start. It starts with a broken and contrite heart. It starts with repentance. Simply call out to God to give you a new heart.

The Psalmist David found himself in a place where His heart had grown cold and sin had found it’s way into his soul. He prayed in Psalm 51, and this is where we all need to start, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Call upon the Lord today, and He will take that broken heart and make it fruitful, being conformed to the image of Christ.

Today we are picking up where we left off in Mark’s gospel last time. As you will recall, Jesus called certain of the disciples away with Him to a mountain, and there He commissioned 12 of them to be His disciples. These were to be the men who would be closest to Him, to whom He would have intimate fellowship. He called them apart from the crowds, from the multitudes, from the world to Himself. They would become closer to Him than even His family. They would in fact be His family, even the foundation of His body, which is the church.

So keeping that in context, we come now to a couple of events in which this idea of the family of Christ is called into question. And Jesus responds to those questions with a principle, or the truth of His gospel, which has direct implications for all of those who would be Christ’s disciples, even to us here today. So to that end, I have entitled today’s message the priority of the gospel. And we will be examining three principles related to this priority. First the priority of the spiritual above the physical. Next the priority of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. And third, the priority of the church over the family.

Now let’s start with the priority of the spiritual over the physical and we will begin by looking at the description Mark gives in vs 20. Jesus and His disciples have come home, that is to Capernaum once again, from the mountain where Jesus had commissioned the twelve. And immediately, it seems, the crowds learn of His arrival and come to where He is. In fact, Mark tells us that the enthusiasm to see Jesus is so great on the part of the multitudes, that Jesus and the disciples don’t even have time to eat. And I believe the text indicates that Jesus willingly engaged with the multitudes, by addressing their needs, having compassion on the lost sheep of Israel. He was about the Father’s business, even to the exclusion of taking care of His normal daily needs.

You will recall a similar event, when Jesus visited with the woman of Samaria, when the disciples had gone into town to get food, and finding Jesus talking with the woman when they returned, they were trying to get Him to eat, and were surprised to hear His response; “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And they said, “did someone give Him something to eat while we were gone?” And He replied, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

So in Jesus’s mind, to do the will of God was spiritual food which was more essential than physical food. And in this situation in Capernaum, it seems He is employing the same principle. There is no time even to eat for Jesus, because He is spiritually feeding and being fed in the business of establishing the Kingdom of God. 

Now I think you can understand the principle there, which applies to us as well. For we are to have the mind of Christ, to follow in His footsteps as He gave us an example. The business of the Kingdom of God takes priority over earthly desires and even bodily needs. And that principle was illustrated earlier in the discourse we looked at last week concerning fasting, which Jesus talked about in chapter 2, around vs20 or so. Fasting illustrates the priority of the spiritual over the needs of the physical. I won’t belabor that point, but I hope you will meditate on the truth of it for yourselves.

Vs.21 says though that when His own people heard of this, the fact of His unceasing work, not even eating a meal, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He has lost His senses.” Now I don’t know if they were using a colloquialism such as we might use today by saying, “you are out of your mind!” or if they were seriously thinking that He was going crazy. I’m leaning towards the latter, because Mark says they didn’t just say it, but they went to get Him and take custody of Him. In other words, they were going to do an intervention. And I’m sure that they were sincere in their concern for Him. But they were sincerely in error.

Furthermore, let’s elaborate on the phrase; “His own people.” This could have been friends from the past, perhaps relatives from the old neighborhood, that heard the things being reported about Jesus and thought this is crazy. We knew Him when He was a little boy. He always seemed a little different, but this has gone too far. He’s out of His mind!” So well intended, but misplaced concern on the part of somewhat condescending neighbors and friends.

But I think that the context of this chapter indicates that it was more than simply concerned friends from the old neighborhood. I think vs.31 indicates that it was probably His mother and His brothers. Now that raises some serious questions. First of all, it raises the question as to what the status of their spirituality was at that point. Mary, of course, is revered to the point of practically being worshipped in certain religions today. But Mary had to come to salvation, and she had to come to sanctification, just as everyone does. Mary was a person with weaknesses and sins just as every man and woman on the face of the earth. The Bible tells us that there is none righteous, no not even one. Not even Mary.

Furthermore, it means that she had other sons and daughters. In Matt. 13:55-56 we read the people of Caperanum asking, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” So not only do we that Jesus had brothers and sisters, but in John 7:5 we see that they did not believe that He was the Christ, the Son of God. John 7:5 “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” As Mark indicates here in our text, they thought He was delusional. They thought He was acting irrationally. And somehow or another, it seems that they prevailed upon HIs mother to join with them in rescuing Jesus from this self destructive illusion He was suffering under. Now we will see Jesus’s answer to that in a moment.

But in the interim, Mark shows us another scene, presumably going on at that time, in which the scribes sent down from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus and His claims, come to the conclusion and even start broadcasting their claim that Jesus is possessed by the devil himself. Mark 3:22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

They see the marvelous things that He was doing, and moved to jealousy, they spew hateful lies, trying to undermine His ministry. In fact, their hatred moves them to do something blasphemous, to impugn the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and say that instead it is something demonic. In fact, they use a name for Satan which is Beelzebul, which is a variation of the “Lord of the Flies”, or “Lord of the dung heap.” They want to associate Christ with the lowest, vilest name for Satan that they know of, as if to vilify Christ even more.

Now this passage illustrates the second principle; that is the priority, or superiority, of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. Let’s start by considering Jesus’s response. First He asks the question, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” And He answers His own question with an illustration, or a simple parable. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” So the parable is a house divided against itself, or a kingdom divided against itself. In both cases He is talking about the ruler of the house, or the ruler of the kingdom. We see that illustrated in the case of a husband and wife becoming divisive and argumentative, and then finally ending in divorce, don’t we? A house divided cannot stand. It is ruined.

So it is in the spiritual realm, or kingdom or house. If in Satan’s house is one who casts out Satan’s demons, then the ruin of that house is imminent. And so Jesus says in vs.26, “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!” So in other words, what you are accusing Me of is not reasonable.

Then He gives another illustration which shows the superiority of His gospel. They attributed a lie to His ministry, saying He had a demon. Now He shows them the truth of His ministry. And that is that He is vastly superior than Satan, and that is why He is able to cast out demons. Vs.27, “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.”

What He is saying is that Satan is the prince of this world, the prince of darkness. He has held captive in his realm the souls of men. They are held captive by sin and the whole world is in darkness because of it. So Jesus says that He could not free people from Satan’s dominion unless He first binds the strong man, that is Satan. He cannot take away Satan’s property unless He is stronger and overpowers Satan. So He frees men from demonic possession not by the power of Satan, but because His own power is superior. As Col 1:13 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

And in the next chapter of Colossians this transfer is explained further. Col 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” That’s speaking of His ascension and taking of His throne at the right hand of the Father. Christ broke Satan’s powerful hold on us by taking away our penalty of sin. At this point, Christ has not died for sins, but He is still able to free men from the dominion of Satan because of His sovereignty as the Son of God. And the lesser angels know that, and that is why they are submissive to Him.

But the Lord isn’t done with these scribes yet. He has refuted their accusation, He has explained His power, but now He will rebuke their blasphemy. He says in vs.28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”– because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Now this verse has given rise to a lot of questions concerning the unpardonable sin. And some have perhaps taught things which are not taught in this passage, with the result that it causes naive Christians undue concern. Note first of all the phrase, “all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemes they utter.” Now that statement stands alone as truth. We see no evidence in scripture of a sin so vile that it cannot be forgiven. Peter denied Christ three times with cursing. David was guilty of adultery, lying and murder. Paul was guilty of persecuting Christians to death. And yet all were forgiven. Because the grace of God is greater than all our sins. If a man or woman repents, there is forgiveness. 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So let no one convince you that there is a sin too great for God to forgive, because that would limit the righteousness of Jesus Christ as insufficient. And that cannot be true. How then can you never find forgiveness for your sins? If you never turn to Him in repentance who has the power of forgiveness. If you continually harden your heart against the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and you die in your sins, then you will die unforgiven. So when you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit it is to deny His sanctifying work, and to trample it under foot and consider it worthless. Though the Spirit’s job is to convict you of sin, you deny you have sin. Though He convicts you of the need for salvation, you tell yourself that you do not need saving. And as such you die in your sins, unforgiven. That is the unpardonable sin. You deny the Lord as your Savior of whom the Spirit bears witness.

Mark adds that Jesus said this because they were saying that He had an unclean spirit. In other words, they were casting aspersions upon His family ties. He was not the Son of God, they said, but the son of the devil. And as such they denied themselves the possibility of salvation, because as the son of the devil He could not ever save. But as the Son of God He ever lives to give salvation to those who believe. Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Well, speaking of family, Mark turns our attention once again to His mother and brothers who have finally come to take Jesus home with them. And in this passage we see the final priority, that of the church over the family. As Jesus is in the home of presumably Simon Peter, His mother and His brothers arrive outside and send Him a message to come home with them. And as the crowd is sitting around Him, listening to His teaching, someone said, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”

And Jesus’s answer is quite shocking. Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

There is a natural assumption, is there not, that family comes first? I have seen very powerful men, whom you could not get an appointment with if you tried, drop everything, put an important business meeting on hold because they got a phone call from one of their children. This is natural. It is normal. But though it is a natural condition, it does not necessarily make it spiritual principle. In fact, in the case of the Jews we find that this family association worked against them in spiritual matters. You will remember that they relied upon their being descendants of their father Abraham for their salvation. They relied upon their material, physical inheritance as Israelites to supply their spiritual salvation. But as I argued at the beginning, the physical does not supply the spiritual, but the spiritual supplies the physical. It was the faith like that of Abraham that is able to save, not the physical relation to Abraham.

Jesus actually makes several references in His gospel to the physical relationship of family versus the spiritual relationship to God. For example, In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

Let me break that down for you very simply. This is not just some sort of hyperbole on the part of Jesus. This is a vital principle of the gospel. And this is it really simply; the family of God takes priority over the family of man. The church takes priority over the family. If you can explain Luke 14:26 any other way, then I would be glad to hear it. But I think it is clear what Jesus is saying. He says it another way in Matt. 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” 

Listen folks, if we are not careful, we can make our family into an idol that comes before God. God demands that He be first. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ That’s the priority. Jesus has to have preeminence above every family tie, above every earthly relation, above every human responsibility.

That goes against our grain, doesn’t it? It goes against our nature. Against our wisdom. But the Bible speaks of a heavenly wisdom that supercedes that of the natural wisdom of man. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

I think we are all guilty of putting natural affections above spiritual affections. I could really dig into this, but I think we are all intelligent people here. I think we should be able to make the application where necessary.

But I would ask you to consider something important to this principle. Why do we go to church? Is it to just hear a preacher preach a message? You can do that online or on television. Is it just to fellowship with like minded people? You can do that in a bar or at a soccer game. Is it just to sing songs? You can do that by listening to the radio. I think that this question underscores one of the most misunderstood principles in the gospel. And that is the priority of church.

Let me try to explain it this way. Church is the submission of the physical to the spiritual. It is illustrated by the Sabbath rest, in which the physical acts of supplying your food, or work or physical needs ceased in order to establish the preeminence of your spiritual needs. So church is physically submitting your body to the spiritual body. It is an act of physical sacrifice and offering of yourself to God. And I think it is articulated in Romans 12:1,2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When we physically present our bodies to the Lord’s body, to His church, then we give Him our spiritual service of worship. We are confessing when we come to church our spiritual dependency upon Him to supply every need. We are establishing the spiritual priority over the needs or desires of the physical. We are putting action to our faith, in which the demands of this life are subjected to the priority of the life of God. And if we love God, then as we learned in 1 John, we will keep His commandments, to love His body, to love one another, and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Notice that is what Jesus concludes this principle about family with; a lesson on the necessity of obedience. It was not the physical relationships that constituted family, but the spiritual relationship to God. And if you are a member of His family, then you will obey Him. “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Listen, Jesus said there will be many people, let me repeat that, many people, that will say unto Him “Lord, Lord!” And yet He will say to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” If we call Him Lord, then we must do the things which He says.

Though we are not saved on the basis of our works, we are known as belonging to His family by our works. We do as He did. We do the Father’s will. And so the sons of God look like, and act like the Father.

You will remember that when Jesus was a young boy, about 12, and His family went to Jerusalem, later on when they had started to return home they discovered that He was not with the caravan. And so His mother and father looked all over Jerusalem for Him and finally found Him in the temple. And His parents asked Him why did you do this to us? Why did you cause us this concern? And remember His answer? “Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?” Jesus showed by His actions the priority of HIs spiritual family through His attendance to the things of God.

And I’ll give you one more example of that as we draw this to a close. Jesus on the cross was attended to by His mother and the disciple John. And you will remember that Jesus before He died looked at His mother and said, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He *said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Now we have already seen that Mary had other sons and daughters. What was the point of this exchange then? The point was to show the priority of the spiritual relationship over the physical relationship. Mary and John were related by faith, which was a greater relationship than what she had with her sons, who were as yet unbelieving. And so it is with our faith. Our faith has resulted in becoming a new creation; old things are passed away, and all things become new. And so there are no priorities in our lives. The priority of the spiritual above the physical. The priority of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. And the priority of the church over human familial relationships.

God wants all of you, and He wants to make all things subjected to Jesus Christ. There can be no idols competing with the Lord in your life. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Let us examine our priorities today. And put the Lord in first place not only in word, but in deed.

When US presidents leave office, it is very common today to hear news commentators remark about what that president’s legacy will be. And the presidents themselves seem to be very concerned about it. So they go out of their way to enact certain legislation or reforms or do certain things in order to establish a legacy that will be viewed favorably by future generations. Before the engines have cooled on Air Force One, they usually have written a book or two, a biography and spent millions preparing their library.

In contrast to the self aggrandizing actions by the most powerful people in our country, it might seem strange to us today to consider that Jesus Christ, the greatest figure in human history, had nothing tangible to leave to the world as His monument. He wrote no books, He never built a church building, never founded a university nor did he build a hospital. What He left was simply a band of twelve ordinary men, called apostles, in whom He had invested the greater part of his time, and a few hundred followers called disciples. His legacy was His ministry to others and the transforming effect that He had upon their lives.

We live in an age when it seems, as Andy Warhol prophesied, that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. Most people perceive being popular as the greatest achievement. And popular opinion pursues one new trend after another, discarding each fad or personality as easily as they are attracted to the next. People today become millionaires based on their popularity. But popularity is fickle and fleeting at best. Public opinion changes horses in the middle of the race as a matter of course. It’s a transitory thing to pursue popularity, whether in the realm of human endeavor, or in the realm of the church.

Though at times Jesus was immensely popular, yet He never sought popularity. In the three short years of Jesus’s ministry, we see Him rise out of obscurity to the very height of popularity, so that it was impossible for Him to be seen in public without creating a disturbance. But Jesus did not seek such popularity, nor did He exploit it or try to use it for His advantage. In fact, when the crowds got too large, too clamoring, Jesus often disappeared into the wilderness or to a mountain to be alone. Usually in those situations, He chose a few faithful followers to be with Him, and that is where He taught them more intimately of His truth.

That seems to be the case in this next section we are looking at. After the healing in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus withdrew to the seashore. And while at the seashore, word gets out that He is there, and so the crowds come from all the regions not only around Galilee, but also Judea, Idumea, even Tyre and Sidon. And remember, this was long before modern methods of news reporting, or social media. The fame of Christ had to be great for news to travel so far and so fast.

Of course, one of the main reasons for this popularity was that people were being healed of every kind of disease. In contrast to the so called faith healers of today, these healings were verified by so many witnesses that the news of them spread like wildfire to the thousands of people who were sick or suffering who were living in a time before modern medicine, when even most common illnesses could be deadly. It was obviously great news. And so thousands of people were flocking to where ever the last place they heard Jesus was.

Mark says that so many were coming to Him that they were in danger of crushing one another. They were like the mob scenes at perhaps some big venue, where people start pushing and struggling trying to touch someone, who in this case is Christ. They wanted to touch Him so that they might be healed. So Jesus asked for a boat to be ready, so that they could avoid being crushed, and perhaps help others not to get hurt by the thousands who were trying to reach Him.

It’s obvious that most of these people were attracted to Christ because of His miraculous works. Not necessarily because they appreciated His message. And there is a lesson in that for us today. The idea that we need to create a spectacle at church in order to attract a crowd is not consistent with the example Jesus and the Apostles gave us in ministry. Jesus never orchestrated events in order to get a huge crowd. In fact, we see that crowds often hindered the ministry. And we also see that those who came for the bread and fish, or to see some miracle, were not usually the ones to stay with Him in the long run.

Though Jesus preached to crowds, and though He worked miracles in some of those situations because of His compassion, yet the most effective method He employed in ministry was to make disciples by intimate, daily fellowship with a small band of followers.. And that was usually accomplished most efficiently when He drew them apart from the crowds and spent time with them.

There is one other aspect to His public ministry though that bears consideration. And that we see in vs. 11, 12. “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.” Now that bears some explanation. First of all, it seems that there were a lot more cases of unclean spirits, or demon possession or influence in Jesus’s day than there appears to be in ours. I would say though it may appear that way, that may not actually be the case. I think the difference is that spirits recognize spirits. You and I can not always recognize an unclean spirit. But Jesus could recognize it immediately. And of course, the unclean spirit could recognize Jesus immediately. So once they knew that He recognized them, they called out in some sort of defense, hoping that they would not be cast out of their human host. Jesus though always had more compassion on the person than upon the demon. In chapter 5 we will be looking at the demoniac who lived in the tombs. And you may remember that the demons in this man did not want to be cast out without a host body and so they asked to be cast into the pigs. And Jesus accommodated them, and the pigs ran into the sea and committed suicide. Demons don’t want to be recognized, and they don’t want to be without a host. They actually prefer to work in secret rather than in the open.

But Jesus recognized them, and they recognized Jesus. So Jesus told them not to announce who He was. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t want the testimony of demons. Jesus didn’t want demon testimony to be the proclamation of who He was. And neither did He need their testimony. Jesus wants His representatives to be the apostles and HIs disciples to bear witness of Him. it is our job, not the job of demons, to proclaim the truth of Christ.

But let me be quick to add that though we may not recognize them, there are still demons working in the world today. There number and activity is not diminished. In fact, the Bible tells us that at the end of the age, the devil knowing that he has but a little time left, will redouble his efforts and activities. And so we can expect more demonic activity as time goes on, not less. In fact, Ephesians 6:12 tells us [that] “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” It’s hard for us to comprehend, but our struggle is not with your wife, or your husband, or your mother in law or neighbor, but it’s demonic forces that are working in the sons and daughters of disobedience. Those that are still held in the dominion of darkness are unwitting pawns in the devil’s schemes. And we need to remember that it’s not the person that we see that is the enemy, but the demonic force working through that person. The problem is that we don’t recognize it as demonic. We just see someone in the flesh acting like a jerk, or being nasty towards us, and so we want to retaliate in the flesh. And that’s exactly what the devil wants us to do. So we need to be wise to his schemes and learn to recognize the enemy.

I’ll tell you something else. The greatest evidence of sin’s dominion in Jesus day was the number of people controlled by unclean spirits. When we read the gospels we can’t help but be struck by the vast number of people under the influence of unclean spirits. And I would say that the greatest evidence of sin’s dominion in our day is rampant sexual immorality and drug use. We don’t see the unclean spirits exposing themselves usually in those cases. But the Bible teaches us that such sins are evidence of demonic control. In the final days prophesied in Revelation 19, the scripture talks about people who worship demons and the sins which characterize them, and how though God uses plagues to try to get them to repent, they will not repent of their sins because they love them so much. Rev. 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” So two of the defining sins are sorceries and immoralities. The Greek word for sorceries is pharmakeia, which means the use or administering of drugs. Sex and drugs are two of the most endemic sins we have in our culture today. And yet the way the culture is trying to deal with them is to say that they aren’t sin. Legalize them. But from our perspective, we know that only the truth will set you free. We know the truth, but we need to tell it to them. And perhaps if we understand the true nature of their sin we might approach them a little differently.

Well, as I said, Jesus retired from the seaside to the mountains to get away from the crowds, and to spend time alone with His disciples. Jesus often did this. And Luke 6:12 tells us that He spent the night in prayer. Jesus often did that as well. You know, Jesus, probably more so than any other person that’s ever lived, didn’t need to spend time in prayer. I think He was in perpetual communication with the Father. But yet He spends the entire night in prayer on many occasions. In spite of how busy He was, how tired He was, in spite of the fact He only had 3 years to get the job done that He came to do, He spends much time alone in prayer to God. Makes you think doesn’t it? It should make you consider how many nights have you spent in prayer? Are we more spiritual than Jesus, that we don’t need to spend time in prayer?

I was reading Daniel the other night, and I was struck by Daniel saying that he spent 3 weeks fasting and in prayer. Three weeks fasting? I don’t think he was talking about not having ice cream for three weeks either. Daniel 10:2-3 “In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.” There you go, try that fast. Especially the ointment part. Try no deodorant for three weeks. That will get you noticed.

Look, I don’t want to make light of Daniel’s prayer. By the way, have you heard of the Daniel Plan? It’s a meal program popular in Christian bookstores today which is marketed for Christians who want to lose weight. I’m not so sure about it’s validity though. However, this is the real Daniel Plan. Fast for 21 days, pray in sackcloth and ashes for 3 weeks. It will do wonders for your spiritual fitness. And Daniel got results, didn’t he? He heard from God in a spectacular way.

Well, let’s get back to our text. Notice that first Jesus called those that He wanted. And then that they came to Him when He called. (vs.13) Listen, I believe in the election of God. I believe in the foreknowledge of God. But I confess I do not understand how they work to my satisfaction. Nevertheless I believe in them. I don’t have to understand it to believe it. I don’t understand how my cell phone can receive video and pictures through the airwaves either. But I don’t have to understand it to use it. But I do know that God calls people to Himself. Jesus said in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” So there is an effectual call of God which is the origin of our salvation. Nevertheless, though we don’t understand how God calls, we know that we have been given the responsibility to come to Him when He calls. And so the disciples came to Him. Jesus issues the call to come away from the world unto Him. I pray that you come.

So Jesus called them away because He wanted them to be with Him, to walk with Him, to live with Him. It’s clear from this that communion with Christ was the primary reason for the call of the disciples. Communion means fellowship. Personal intimacy or spiritual communion with Christ is the best of teachers. And it’s by this fellowship that Christ leaves the stamp of His own image upon us. That is the goal of our fellowship; that we begin to take on the characteristics of our teacher.

Have you ever noticed how older married couples start to look alike the longer they are married? They certainly begin to think alike. They begin to take on one another’s characteristics. That’s the goal of our salvation, that we have fellowship with God, and start to take on His character and nature. That’s important to understand. Because if we are going to have an effective spiritual ministry, then it has to be patterned after the way God does ministry. And we see that in the way Jesus did ministry. When Jesus taught that we are to turn the other cheek when attacked, that is the characteristic of God. When He said if someone asks for you to go a mile with them, you should go two miles; that’s a characteristic of God. That’s the way we are supposed to treat those who are in opposition to the gospel. When Jesus told Peter to forgive someone 70 times 7 times, that’s the character of God, the way God forgives us. But we say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” But that’s not God’s way. He says the kindness of God brings you to repentance. He says God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust (rain being considered a blessing). So we need to have fellowship with God; talk with God, listen to God through His word, and walk with Him in obedience that we might have fellowship with Him and become like Him. Then we can have an effective ministry.

Secondly, He called them to preach the gospel. To preach means to proclaim His word. For three years He gave them His word, the truth, the gospel of God. And they in turn were to preach it to the world. I started off by saying that Jesus did not write a book. But what He did was write His word upon these men’s hearts. They became living testaments to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they in turn wrote down His words so that they are still preaching to us today through the scriptures. They did not follow cleverly devised tales, Peter said, but they were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Listen, not all of us are called to be pastors. But all of us are called to be proclaimers. Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples. That’s everyone’s commission. To proclaim God’s truth to the world.

Thirdly, He gave them authority to cast out demons. Once again we see the enemy of the faith identified and exposed by the ambassadors of the gospel. As Christ had authority over demons, so He gave them authority as well. 1John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And I think He must have given them the ability to identify such evil spirits, if they had the authority to cast them out.

I think today we need to approach the aspect of casting out demons very carefully and prayerfully. I don’t think it’s something we should approach cavalierly. Jude says in vs 8-10 “Yet in the same way these men(certain ungodly persons in the church), also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.” Though Jude’s warning may be difficult to understand, we can be sure he is emphasizing caution in the matter of reviling angelic, or demonic forces which are greater in might and power than we can comprehend.

But though I may not have the authority to cast out demons by my word, I do believe we can participate in destroying the works of the devil. And we do so by preaching the truth. The truth trumps a lie every time. Satan goes about deceiving the world and holds it captive through his lie. We preach the truth and the gospel of salvation sets men and women free from the trap of the devil. Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. When we free people from death through salvation, we defeat the works of the devil, by freeing them from the fear of death to which they were enslaved.

Well, let’s look finally and briefly at the men that Jesus called to be His apostles. First of all, they were men. Jesus had 12 chances to pick a woman to be an apostle. I’m sure there were a lot of good women that were His followers. In fact the scriptures tell us that many women supported His ministry. But Jesus chose all men.

The late S. Louis Johnson said, and I quote; “To say that He did so for cultural reasons, namely that women apostles would have had no acceptance by that culture, is a gratuitous assumption. Our Lord does not accommodate truth to human culture that rests under sin. God has committed the responsibility of the ministry of the word of God to Spirit appointed men.”

Now we find that principle enumerated in the gospel’s repeatedly. But I think one passage will suffice for today. 1Timothy 2:11-14 “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”

So regardless of what the culture may say, regardless of what the law of the land might say, this is what God had to say. It’s not what Roy Harrell had to say. It’s what the Bible says. If you don’t like it, tear it out that page and throw it away. But don’t stop there. There is a lot of other offensive stuff in there as well. No, I think we obey God even when we don’t understand it. Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger boy.

But I will try to explain something. The reason Paul inserts that bit about Eve being deceived is not just to further denigrate women. What he is alluding to, was Eve was deceived, but Adam fell with both eyes wide open. And the reason Adam fell was because He loved Eve more than God. So for the protection of the human race, God has not given authority to women in the church because man would more likely prefer to please them rather than God. So God gave the responsibility of authority in the church to man. It’s a matter of divine appointed roles, rather than a matter of equality or intellect.

You know, it’s God’s gospel, it’s God’s church. He has the right to choose HIs methods for building His church. We don’t get to vote on it. We don’t have to understand it, just believe He is good, and that He is just, and that He knows what He is doing.

Then as you look specifically at these 12 men, there are a lot of things that can be noted. John McArthur wrote an entire book about the 12. I have about five minutes left. There is much more that I could say than what I will say. But let me say first why there is 12. Twelve patriarchs were the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. And in Christ’s new covenant there are twelve apostles as the foundation of the church, according to Ephesians 2:20.

Four of the apostles were fishermen that we know of. They were business partners in fishing; Peter, Andrew, James and John. Peter and Andrew were brothers, and James and John were brothers. James was the first martyr among the apostles, John was the only one of the 12 who did not die a martyr’s death.

All were Galileans except for Judas who was from Judea. That means all were uneducated, more like working class men except for Judas who was from a wealthier, more educated area. One was a former tax collector, one was a former Zealot who hated tax collectors. There were none of royal blood. None of them were priests or scribes or professional religionists of any sort. There were no rock stars, no former football players. They were just a diverse group of average sort of ordinary guys without any sort of professional experience in becoming world changers. Yet they would turn the world upside down. And one other side note; they were probably all in their 20’s. John might even have been a teenager. Jesus Himself was only 31 years old. It was a youth movement. And as I said, all of them would die a martyr’s death except for John.

I am reminded of 1Cor. 1:26-29 which says, “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.”

I could say a lot more about the disciples, but perhaps we will hit on a few more things in upcoming messages. But what I would like to leave with you is that Christ took these ordinary, average young men, without any seminary training, without pedigree, without any special abilities, and He transformed them in three years into champions of the faith. Hero’s of the faith in every sense of the word. We talked last week about the need for heroes in the church today. God wants to make you into a champion of the gospel. In fact, I know that He wants to do just that. It starts with the call of God upon your life to come to Him and have fellowship with Him. To walk with Him in obedience on a daily basis. To leave behind the agenda of this world for the sake of knowing Him better. If you will do that, if you are willing to do that, then God will do the rest. As you spend time with Him, as you draw close to Him, He will draw close to you and teach you and lead you in the way that you should go. And in the process you will begin to take on the characteristics of Jesus Christ. So that as you are sent by Him to proclaim His gospel, you will bear testimony to Him. May He write His word upon your heart that you might bear the image of Jesus Christ to the world.