If you'd open your Bibles, please, to the book of Mark, and we'll go to chapter 3 this morning, Mark chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses 7 to 21 as we continue on in our journey through this hard-hitting, fast-paced gospel. Now you'll recall last time we were together, Jesus has upset the apple cart of the Pharisees because he did some things on the Sabbath they didn't like. And so they're plotting to kill him. So here's what happens in the aftermath of this, starting at verse 7, Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Edomia, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. A great number of people heard of all that he was doing, and he came to him. And he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him because of the crowds so that they would not crowd him. For he had healed many with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around him in order to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirit 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. And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve so that they would be with him, and that he could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons. And he appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means sons of thunder, and Andrew and Philip, and Bartholomew and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. And he came home and the crowd gathered again to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When his own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of him, for they were saying, he has lost his senses. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of the word of God and the exposition to follow a little later. Will you join with me please in prayer? Our Father, on this special Lord's Day, we bow before you to tell you that we love you, to tell you that we love your precious word. It is a privilege to gather together for corporate worship in this great country. and in this beautiful sanctuary. We thank you for the way that you have blessed this church. We thank you that over one quarter of a million people have listened to the word of God that has come from this church. We pray that you would continue to bless this ministry, enhance this ministry, prosper this ministry. Lord, we know from having heard from many, many people over these years that you've saved people through your word, you've given growth to your word, and we want to thank you today for every person who's part of this church, who's involved in supporting this ministry. We pray that they would have the sense that they are involved in something major that you are doing in the eternal work of God. We pray for those who have needs today. We don't know what all the needs are, but you do. We pray that you would meet them. We pray that you would provide for your people. We pray you bless your people. In Jesus' name, amen. If you'd open your Bibles, please, to Mark chapter 3. Many years ago, there was a man I know who was in a church that was not carefully expounding the scriptures. It was not a church that was feeding him or his family. And he went to the minister and confronted him and told him, it does not appear that you're studying to feed us. And he said, if that does not change, I'm leaving. Well, the leadership of the church came and said, well, you don't have any right to leave. They said, you need to hang in there because eventually things will get better. Well, they didn't get better. And ultimately, the man left the church and went to another church where his family could be carefully taught the word of God. That idea that you have to hang in there is not a philosophy patterned after Jesus Christ. In fact, he would teach his own disciples at times, you just have to shake the dust off your feet and move along. Jesus Christ had a philosophy of ministry that demonstrated a truth that if my ministry isn't wanted, then I'm going to take it elsewhere. If my ministry isn't accepted, then I'll change my tactics. And never is that more evident than when you come to this part of the Gospel of Mark and the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. There are three problems that really are behind this. First of all, you've got a major plot to destroy Christ brewing among the Pharisees and Herodians. Secondly, the popularity of the Lord Jesus Christ was increasing in the vast majority of people. And thirdly, he has a lot of preaching to do before he goes to Calvary. The problem is you have this espionage plot that's taking place in Capernaum to kill him. And so the way he resolves the problem is by changing direction. What we see here is when this plot formed to destroy Christ in Capernaum, he withdrew himself from the synagogue, and he changed his ministry strategy, and he moved out to the sea, then he went up on a mountain to choose 12 disciples. Now Jesus still has a lot of ministry to accomplish before he goes to that cross. And he is traveling with his team that to this point includes Simon, Andrew, James, John, and Levi, better known as Matthew. But now we come to a kind of a turning point in the gospel of Mark where, as A.B. Bruce said, the disciples take front and center stage. After Jesus had shown he's the Lord of the Sabbath in the synagogue, his ministry now moves out. And there are three different locations that we can track that ministry as we track it today. First of all, Jesus withdraws to the sea with his disciples. That's what we read in verses 7 to 12. Jesus withdrew to the sea. Now you'll remember that when this chapter opened, he entered again into the synagogue and he healed a man on the Sabbath day. He had a habit of going to the synagogue, and he will still go on occasion to the synagogue, but the Pharisees and Herodians were plotting how to kill Christ, so Christ decides, I'm going to move my ministry out from that Capernaum synagogue, and I'm going to take it now out to the sea. He decided to take his disciples to the Sea of Galilee, and the text says, I mean, those crowds followed him. In fact, verse 7 says there was a great Great multitude the fame of Christ is spreading Some have estimated and I think it's very legitimate to assume this that there were tens of thousands of people following Jesus Christ Traveling great distances just to see him. In fact, it specifically stated that they were coming from all directions at all distances on February 9 1964 four guys from Liverpool named the Beatles, appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the program was watched by over 73 million people. How many here watched it? I'll bet this is the only place in any church service in the history where you've been asked to raise a hand for watching Ed Sullivan. But two years later, in 1966, one of the members of the band, John Lennon, claimed that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. Well, I ran the numbers of that. Let's see if Mr. Lennon is telling the truth. Of course, you couldn't watch the Lord on television because it hadn't been invented yet, but the largest crowd to ever show up to see a Beatles concert was a crowd that occurred at Shea Stadium in New York of 55,000 people. The largest crowd that ever showed up at an airport to see them in the United States was a crowd of 3,000 people. Christ here is surrounded by more than that, based on pure numbers, Lenin's lying. The fact of the matter is Jesus drew larger crowds than the Beatles ever drew. And most people were walking, walking, think about this, walking many distances just to get a glimpse of him. In fact, there's a different list of places that show up in verses seven to eight from where the people were coming. Some were coming from Galilee. That means they're traveling at least 30 miles. Some were coming from Judea, they're traveling at least 100 miles from the south. Some are coming from Jerusalem, that's more than 80 miles from the south. Some were coming from Edomia, traveling more than 120 miles from the south. There were people beyond the Jordan, traveling 60 miles from the east and then they have to get across the Jordan. And then there were people traveling from Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. They're traveling lots of miles. Verse 8 says this was a great number of people. They heard what he was doing. They wanted to get in on this. They wanted to see it. It was a massive response. As one commentator said, these were hordes followed by hordes of people. Now you notice the thing that's drawing these people, verse 8, all he's doing. That's what it says. The people heard of all that he was doing. That's what drew them. They're not necessarily being drawn to him for his preaching or teaching. You see, that is the problem. Christ had been out there preaching and teaching that he could forgive sins and that he was the one who could give them a righteousness that could get them into the kingdom, but they weren't interested in his preaching or teaching. They were more interested in what he was doing. That is the big problem. The problem is what he was doing was only being done to validate his preaching, teaching ministry. But these people were more interested in what he was doing, not what he's preaching. And we still have the same problem today. Most people are not interested in true preaching and teaching of the word of God. Most people don't care if they're accurately taught the scriptures. They're more interested in religious action. And what's even more sad for many ministers is that they got seduced by the popularity of the big crowds and they lose their focus on preaching and teaching the word of God. I mean, they cancel Sunday night services because preaching isn't popular. Well, it never has been, but it has always been the way of God. And according to verse nine, Jesus told his disciples that they should get a boat and stand ready because these crowds are crowding him. I mean, he's in danger here of being crushed. Because of the numbers of people in fact the word crowd that shows up there in verse 9 means these This crowd is compressing him very narrowly very tightly. He's as I understand the language of greek here He's literally in danger of being crushed. So he asked four fishermen disciples to get a boat Get a boat so we can at least get out in the water a little bit away from the crowd Now the boat had to be big enough for him and his men But it had to be small enough to be kept on the shoreline And it must have been a relatively small boat, because if you look over at Mark chapter 4 and verse 1, he uses the same noun for boat there. In Mark 4, verse 1, it says, when he got into the boat in the sea, he sat down. I don't think this is the kind of boat you typically would want to stand up in. I mean, this is a boat that is pretty close to shore, that you get in and you sit down. This boat is not initially a pulpit boat, it's a refuge boat. So Jesus basically says to these guys who had come from a fishing business background Certainly they would have had access to this kind of boat He basically says you need to get your hands on a boat because these crowds are getting huge It's interesting to think about things Jesus borrowed When he was here on earth, he borrowed a boat He borrowed a donkey He borrowed an upper room he actually borrowed some wood for a cross, and he borrowed a tomb. He didn't really have any place here he could call home, and he didn't have much he could call his own. So he says to these guys, you need to get a boat. And that tells us something, doesn't it? I mean, we have a responsibility to be wise and take precautions for our own protection. We know there are some people that get this glazed eye view. We don't have any responsibility to protect ourselves. God will just protect us. Well, look at the Lord Jesus here. I mean, he's about to be crushed by a crowd. And he basically says, I have a responsibility to get something here to back off a little bit from this crowd. So get me a boat so I can get out in the water. And the reason that he says he wants to do that shows up in verse 10 because there were people who were pressing around him That's that's what's described as the as the reason why he needed this boat and that word press around means Literally, they're falling on him. They're they're knocking against him. They're caving in on him one writer said this is a rude collision and again a wise church must take precautions and to protect themselves, especially in the day and age in which you and I live. We're living in a time where we live under threat, and we have a responsibility to do what we humanly can to protect ourselves, which, I'll have you know, this church does. Whether you know it or not, it does. And the reason they were falling on him is stated there in verse 10, all who had afflictions pressed around him. They were falling on him, all who had afflictions. And that is a very unique Greek word, afflictions. Because that word would indicate this was suffering or some disease that was due to a divine chastisement or punishment of God. The word that Mark chooses to use here is the word that would imply these people were actually suffering some providential scourge. In other words, this was God's hand of chastisement that was on him. And apparently they knew that. They were suffering this because of the hand of God. And it's significant because people are admitting that in order to escape this scourge, in order to escape this divine punishment that we have as some physical issue, we must reach out to touch Jesus Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, there is beautiful theology here. Jesus could have Just pronounced everybody healed all in one moment, but he doesn't do that. What this illustrates is this. If you are to have your sins forgiven so that you will escape the divine wrath of God, you have to personally reach out and touch Jesus Christ by faith. In other words, God is not gonna pronounce some generic blanket of forgiveness on society. If a person is going to experience the cleansing of God by faith, that person as an individual must reach out and touch Jesus Christ. So this is going on, and then we see in verse 11 that whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they would fall down before him and shout, you are the son of God. According to verse 11, this massive crowd, a lot of these people were obviously indwelt by demons. And by the way, as we brought out before, these are people who regularly went to their worship services, but they're demon-possessed. See, demon-possessed people regularly go to churches. They're not threatened by most churches until they hear the truth. And the truth is what causes the explosion. And whenever these demons would see Christ, or these demon-possessed people would see Christ, the demon would cause the person to actually fall down before Christ and start shouting, you are the Son of God. These demons know who He is. I mean, they acknowledge the supremacy of Jesus Christ over everything. And Jesus had to warn them, don't you tell anybody who I am, which shows you the power he has over the demonic world. I mean, he can tell them what to do. He can tell them where to go. He can have them leave people. He can have them, he can cast them out of people. He can tell them, you don't say this and they don't say it. And he warns, you don't tell people who I am. Demons were vile, unclean, fallen angels. In fact, this will give it some perspective of it. You realize that every immoral, filthy thing that you see in this world, every immoral, filthy thing, every curse word, every obscenity, every form of evil that's in existence is due to that demonic world. You're not about to have Jesus Christ say, I'm gonna use these guys as my agents to communicate truth about me. But the fact of the matter is, these demons know when they are in the presence of the power of God. And what is so sad, what is so sad, is that demons know who Jesus Christ is and bow down before Him, but there are tens of thousands of people who literally were near Christ at this hour, they had no idea. They knew Him as a miracle worker, but they did not know Him as the God, Son, Messiah, Savior Now I've tried to somewhat track this theme through mark You've got demons crying out. He's the Son of God He's the Holy One of God you have demons crying out when you get over to mark chapter 8 if you'd go over there mark chapter 8 we have the first record of a disciple figuring it out and Because in Mark chapter 8 and verse 27, we read, Jesus went out along with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he questioned his disciples, saying to them, who do people say that I am? Now these disciples have been with him all throughout what's happened previously to this point. And the demons have been saying, you're the Son of God, you're the Holy One of God. Now you come here and Jesus said to his own disciples, who do people say I am? And they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist, others say you're Elijah, others say you're one of the prophets, and he continued by questioning them, but who do you say I am? And Peter answered and said, you're the Christ. It's taken that long for even the disciples to have the little bulb go on in their heart and mind to realize this is the Son of God, this is the Christ. And then, when you go over to chapter 15, You get one guy in chapter 15 and verse 39 at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ who says, when the centurion who was standing right in front of him saw the way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the son of God. There are your testimonies, the demons no more than the people. The demons knew more about the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ than his own disciples did. The demons knew more about the identity of Christ than the majority of people did. I'll tell you this, all heaven, all heaven, anything heavenly realizes Jesus Christ is the God, Son, Messiah, Savior, and all hell knows it, and most people don't. There are religions in this country that are still quibbling about who is Jesus Christ. So that brings us to the next movement. He goes up on the mountain and appoints 12 disciples, verses 13 to 19. Now as all this is happening, Jesus decides to ascend up a mountain. There's a tradition that says he went up to a place that was on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. And according to verse 13, the text says he took those only whom he wanted. Whom he himself wanted. And the emphasis is that he called this group to go up on the mountain that he wished to call. He's not taking everybody that's from this crowd up on the side of this mountain. This is a very select calling, a very select election. He's not taking everybody with him. You did not go up on the mountain with him at this point unless you received specific invitation. And you cannot help but see election here. And you cannot help but see if God wanted them, that's who he chose, that's what he does here. And we're not sure how many initially went up on the mountain. he invited him up he selected people he wanted to go up on the mountain with them what we do know according to verse fourteen is when he got up there he selected twelve These 12 would become his apostles. Matthew would tell us he selected one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. But when the text says, and he appointed 12, that word appoint means he's the one who's causing this. He's the one who's actually bringing this into existence. This is his work. This is his choice. This is his call. And this group becomes a critical group. And you need to get a handle on this. This will help you with a lot of things that you'll see in the scriptures. The group mentioned, the 12, is mentioned by Mark 10 times in this gospel. And he will refer to this group as the 11 one time in mark chapter 16 mark uses this phrase the 12 and the 11 To refer to a very specific and elite group of apostles. This would be like the the navy seals You have the navy and all wonderful military men and women in the in the military in the navy But the navy seals are an elite group and that's exactly what this title is the 12. This is a very elite group This is not a reference to every believer And if you get that point, then when we get to Mark 16, that text will just open up for you. Verse 14 says He appointed them. This is His choice. These 12 have nothing to do with the choice. These 12 don't originate this choice, they don't manipulate this, they don't maneuver their way into this. This is not about man choosing man. This is not about man's ordination in any way. This was His choice. And in verses 14 and 15, there are three reasons stated why he chose them. Number one, they could be with him. That means that they could be constantly with him. He's going to teach them. He's going to train them. And certainly, the more you know of the Word of God, the closer you walk with Christ, the greater your potential of usability. We'll certainly admit that. The second reason why he chose them is so he could send them out to preach. Verse 14, that he could send them out to preach. This will be the primary focal point of their lives. The primary focal point of their lives will be, you go preach. And while he was on earth, he gave him one other ability, and that was the authority to cast out demons. He gave it to the Twelve. But the primary ministry that they would have would be, you go preach and teach. And this appointment, this assignment, is given specifically to the Twelve, not given to us. And in verses 16 to 19, we get a list of the Twelve that he appointed, This is his team, it's mind-boggling. From this list, we can observe you have four fishermen that we know of, maybe more. You have one tax collector. You have one radical religious zealot. And then you have six guys we don't know much about. We can make some interesting observations from the list. From the list of the 12, we can observe that they're all sinners. They all have weaknesses. They all have failures. They all have personality flaws, some of which will be brought out in just a second. We also can observe there's not a biblical scholar in this group. There's not a professional preacher here. There's no Bible college or seminary graduate in this group of guys. The 12 he appointed are, first of all, in the list, he appointed Simon, who he gives the name Peter. The name means rock or stone. When you think of Peter, give him a nickname, Rocky. And it describes his life pretty much. Rocky and shaky in the beginning, but man rocks solid by the time it ends. By the time his life is over, this guy is rock solid in his doctrine and theology. He's an outspoken, opinionated leader who becomes a leader of the group. He wrote two New Testament books. God was patient and gracious and would transform him from being rocky and unstable and erratic to becoming a solid man of God. Secondly, he appointed James the son of Zebedee. James was a fisherman who became part of that inner circle of Jesus, John's brother. He became a great leader of the church, first to be put to death for his faith. And it's interesting because James is the first to go to heaven of this group, and John would be the last to go to heaven of this group. Which brings us to the third choice. He chose John, that's James' brother. John's a fisherman. He became known as the beloved disciple. Only one of the apostles that history says was not put to death for his faith. He wrote five New Testament books. Now Jesus gave these two guys, James and John, a nickname, Boanerges, which means sons of thunder. It describes their explosive personality. Apparently they had explosive tempers. The fourth appointment is Andrew. Andrew was the brother of Peter. He was a fisherman. He's known for bringing people to Christ. He influenced Peter to coming to Christ. Then he appointed Philip. Not a lot is known about him except he was from Bethsaida. He appointed Nathanael to Christ. Then he appointed Bartholomew. Known as Nathaniel, this was a guy of truth. I mean, this guy would look you in the eyes and tell you the truth. Jesus said about him, there's no deceit, no guile in that guy. The seventh appointment was Matthew, known as Levi, the tax collector. He was a businessman, totally dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he appointed Thomas. Thomas had some struggles. He was a doubting type of guy. He became loyal to Christ. He was actually willing to die with Christ, but he was the guy who always had to have proof. You always had to take time to show him things, and once he got it, I mean, he held on to it. But that was Thomas, kind of a doubting guy. Then he appointed James the son of Alphaeus. We don't know nothing about him. This is James the lesser He's referred to as that we know that his mother Was at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ watching the crucifixion. We learned that in Mark chapter 15 and verse 40 and Then he appointed Thaddeus. Thaddeus we don't know anything about. He's referred to as the Judas who's not Iscariot. He was the son of James. He appointed Simon the Zealot. We don't know much about him. He was some sort of political zealot. He was out to overthrow the Roman government. Very outspoken guy. Very fearless type of man. He was a warrior, kind of an assassin type. I mean this guy had kind of a military flair to him, Simon the Zealot. And then of course he appointed Judas Iscariot. the one who was focused on money, the thief and the traitor, the one who would actually be the traitor to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the one who ended up in hell. You know, Judas teaches us a scary lesson. Judas teaches us it's possible to look saved, it's possible to act saved, and not be saved. The choice of Judas shows us that you can be religious and you can have real finesse You can look impressive, but you can be a phony impersonator. You could be a person who actually fools other people into having them believe you know the Lord, when in fact you don't know the Lord. But this is his group. I was interested in a story I read about one theologian who was once asked, why in the world would Jesus choose Judas to be his disciple? He said, I don't know, but I have a harder question than that. Why would he choose me? Why would he choose me? These are his 12. These are his choices. Not an impressive group, but what they would do would be eternally impressive. Now, if you're hearing your believer in Jesus Christ out of this text, I want to share with you some wonderful truth here. Christ called you because he wanted you. I mean he summoned that whole crowd, verse 13, up on the mountain because he himself wanted them. He has called you into his family because he wanted you. He knew your flaws, he knew your failures, he knew of your own inabilities, he knew of your weaknesses, he knew of your struggles, and yet he still wanted you. And He wants us to accomplish things for Him. And one of the things, obviously, that He wants us to accomplish is He wants us to go out and become a witness for Him by our life and by our lips. That's why he called these twelve which brings us to the third movement He goes home to Capernaum versus 20 to 21 and he came home and the crowd gathered again now Jesus after making these Selections goes back down the mountain He sneaks back into the headquarters of Capernaum and when he gets back to Capernaum the crowds are just drawing They're so large that he and his disciples can't even eat a meal. There's no room and And to further complicate things, we learn that his own people, his own people heard of what was going on. They actually go out there, probably including his mother and brothers. His own mother and brothers. They go out there to take him into custody because they say, you know, he's lost his mind. People were alleging Jesus had had some mental breakdown bordering on the verge of insanity. Now why are they saying that? because he's out there preaching the truth. He's preaching the truth about himself. He's preaching the truth about God. He's preaching the truth about their sin and of their need to believe in him. And this is one of the great tactics of Satan. When you're committed to Jesus Christ and you're committed to the word of God, sometimes your own family members will try to stop you and say, man, you must have lost your mind. Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 10 and verse 36 that sometimes a man's enemies will be members of his own household. Don't miss this. It has never been popular to love Jesus Christ and love the scriptures. It's never been the popular thing. It's popular to love religion. It's popular to love action. It's popular to love movement. It's never been popular to love Christ and the Word of God. And if you preach the Word and you stand for the Word about Jesus Christ and the grace of God, some people will think you're out of your mind. They said that about the Apostle Paul. They said those same kinds of things about Martin Luther, John Bunyan, John Wycliffe, John Hus, William Tyndale. They said it all. We're dedicated in this church to, as you know, serious reverent worship and careful teaching of the scriptures. I mean, you see that from being here today. We're not given to frills, bands, or gimmicks. And some say, in today's world, you must have lost your mind. Do you realize what the rest of the religious world is doing? Yes, we do. We clearly see what the rest of the religious world is doing, and we're not about to budge. I leave us with three parting thoughts from this. First of all, God calls unlikely people to salvation, sanctification, and service. These are His choices. I recently heard a man from a theological institution say that churches need professionals. We're here to train professionals. And that's what we need. What they need is those who love the Lord and have been called and gifted by God. Just like these guys. Secondly, sometimes it is God-honoring to move. If a church is drifting from reverent worship and careful study of the scriptures, it's time to move. Jesus didn't stay put in a synagogue where he was hated. He didn't stay put in a synagogue where they demeaned him, where they didn't reverence him. He got out of there. And thirdly, there's only one way to escape the wrath of God, and that is to personally reach out by faith and believe in Jesus Christ. And if you will do that, you will be saved. May we pray. If you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as Savior, You can settle that right where you sit. Look, don't make the mistake Judas made of just being around church without a real relationship with Christ. Don't make that mistake. That'll put you in hell. Right where you sit, you just pray something like this, God, I know I'm a sinner. I admit it. And I invite Christ into my life to be my Savior. Our Father, we bow in thy presence. today thanking you for the marvelous work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're so grateful that you work in people's lives who just you would never expect because that really gives the rest of us a whole lot of hope. We thank you for what you've done in us. We thank you for what you are doing in the church. And we pray that we would always live our lives to the glory of God. In Jesus' name, amen.