The One Who Called You also Sent You

The One Who Called You Has also Sent You
Mark 3: 14 – 15 and Mark 6: 7 – 13

I. Introduction

Read Mark 1: 1.

This one verse captures the entire theme of the Gospel of Mark. Mark tells his reader in this one verse what the characters throughout the rest of the story have to experience and discover for themselves. Some New Testament scholars think this verse is a kind of title or introduction to the rest of the book. Like Mark is saying to his readers, “This is the one thing I want to show you if you stick with it and read my entire book.” And I think this is a good understanding.

The Gospel.
Common expression to announce that a new emperor had been selected…But Mark’s “good news” is really “good news.”

Mark is probably the first Gospel written…So, beginning with this book, there is a new genre of Christian literature…

Jesus Is the Christ.
The people of Israel were waiting for the Messiah. Christ is the Greek word that means the same as the Hebrew word Messiah. Jesus is the Anointed One…The Chosen One of Israel to complete God’s plan of salvation for Israel and the world.

But Jesus redefined the meaning of Christ with the way he intentionally lived his life. The disciples expected someone to reestablish the Temple in Jerusalem and to set up a Davidic kingdom with the seat of government and religion located in Jerusalem. Jesus shattered that notion by establishing Jerusalem as the place of suffering and death.

Jesus Is the Son of God.
Mark’s readers know from the very beginning that Jesus is the Son of God. The disciples have at least two opportunities to figure this out. As Jesus stepped out of the Jordan River following his baptism, a voice from heaven said, “This is my son, whom I love. In him I am well pleased.” When Peter, James and John accompanied Jesus to the mountain of transfiguration, a voice from a cloud said, “This is my son whom I love. Listen to him.” But they didn’t understand.
There were demons who saw Jesus and started proclaiming, “I know who you are. You are the Son of the Most High God.” But Jesus quieted the demons. Why? There was no conspiracy! This is something that people have to discover for themselves. No one can convince you that Jesus is the Son of God.

There is only one human character in the Gospel of Mark who makes the connection that Jesus is the Son of God. Do you want to guess?

It was the Roman Centurion at the cross! When Jesus had taken his last breath, the Roman guard said, “Surely, this man was the Son of God.”

Mark makes an important point by putting these words on this man’s lips at this very moment. Just as this is a decision we can only make for ourselves…There is only one way we can figure out who Jesus really is. Humans can only recognize that Jesus is the Son of God by acknowledging his suffering and death on the cross. Jesus cannot be the Son of God without the cross. And no human can acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God without acknowledging the cross.

Mark tells us this is Gospel…Or Good News. Mark tells us that Jesus is the Christ…The promised Messiah that all Israel had been looking for. Mark tells us that Jesus is the Son of God…This Jesus was not like any other human being who had ever lived…Jesus is special…Jesus is the One and Only, Unique Son of God. But Mark also told us that his Gospel is only the beginning. In other words, this Gospel is something that began with Jesus in the first century, but the Gospel did not end when we are finished reading the 16 chapters of this book.

If this introductory verse tells us everything we need to know about the Gospel of Mark before we start reading, then I think it is safe to say that this book is a book about Jesus. “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.” But, if we read this story about Jesus we are going to discover something unusual. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is rarely alone.
There are only a couple of places in Mark where Jesus woke up earlier than his disciples and went to a remote place to pray. In the rest of the book, Jesus is surrounded by people. Sometimes, it is just Jesus and John the Baptist. Sometimes, it is Jesus and the twelve disciples. And sometimes, it is Jesus and the disciples with a crowd of believers and nonbelievers watching Jesus’ every move. It is a story about Jesus…But a story in which Jesus is almost never alone.

I think we can gain some insight into this by reading the story when Jesus commissioned the first twelve Apostles.

Read Mark 3: 13 – 17.

Mark 3 is very early in the story of the Good News about Jesus, but a lot has already happened.
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist…
Jesus called his first five disciples…
Jesus has preached about repentance and the Kingdom of God…
Jesus has cast out demons and healed people of leprosy and pronounced the forgiveness of sins as he healed a paralyzed man…

Three Things Followers of Jesus Do.
In Mark 3, Jesus expanded his circle of followers from five to twelve. AND, Jesus gave his followers a purpose. The twelve men who followed Jesus became Apostles.
Do you know the difference between the two Greek words “Disciple” and “Apostle?”

Disciple = A student, learner, apprentice…In every use of the word “disciple” outside the New Testament, the disciple was a man or woman who was closely associated with one teacher. The disciple did everything in his or her power to learn from their teacher by imitating the teacher’s methods. Some disciples learned philosophy and therefore imitated the teachings and arguments of their master. Some disciples learned music by imitating the musical style of their master. Other disciples learned a craft—such as carpentry—and practiced building things that looked like the things their master had built. Disciple is a good word for Jesus’ followers as long as we don’t think Jesus was trying to teach us a religious system or a new way of thinking about the world. NO! Jesus wants us to imitate the way he lived his life.

Apostle = A noun form of the Greek word apostelw, which means “to send.” Typically, an apostle was an emissary who was sent by someone with greater authority to perform acts in the same authority. A modern-day example might be when President Bush sends Secretary of State, Condelessa Rice to represent the United States on matters of foreign relations. She is not there on her own authority. She has the authority of the President of the United States and whatever authority our nation might have in other parts of the world.

And that is what Jesus did in Mark 3. Jesus took twelve men who had been following him as disciples and gave them the authority to do the same kinds of work Jesus had been demonstrating for them.

So, let’s look at the three things Jesus told his Apostles they would do with Jesus’ authority…

v. 15…Sent with authority to drive out demons…Don’t let this scare you, we are not about to start a new ministry of casting out demons. This is an important characteristic of Jesus’ ministry in the world. When sin entered into creation through Adam and Eve, the world lost its original order. The proper order of creation is that it would exist and function under God’s dominion and the dominion God assigned to the first human beings, created in God’s image. By the time Jesus was born and lived his life on earth, things were out of their proper order. Sin and evil had free reign over all creation, and as a result humanity was suffering under the control of sin and evil. The same is true today. The only way things can be arranged in their proper order is through the Kingdom of God. One person at a time, we enter into God’s sovereign reign. And through our faith and God’s rule in our lives, the world will one day be redeemed.

Jesus demonstrated this same kind of work by casting demons out of people throughout the Gospel of Mark. Most notably, we remember the man who was possessed by a whole legion of demons in Mark 5.

v. 14…Sent to preach…We don’t have very many of Jesus’ sermons in the Gospel of Mark. For the most part, Mark showed Jesus in action, not in word or teaching. But this is the very first thing Jesus did after his baptism. Jesus preached the same message John the Baptist preached…Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near. Repent, and become a part of what God is doing in the world around you.

Our message should be the same as Jesus’ message. We should confront sin face-to-face and call men and women to enter into God’s Kingdom…To be a part of what God is doing to redeem the created order…

v. 14…Appointed to be with Jesus…This is the first thing Jesus called his Apostles to do. It is impossible to go out in the name of Jesus, unless we have first spent time with Jesus. It is wrong for us to go out into the world preaching without first being in relationship with Jesus. It is wrong for us to think we have the same kind of authority over the evil order if we have not been with Jesus.

It is significant that this is the first thing Jesus told his disciples to do! How do we know it is significant? Because, even though the disciples were first known as Apostles in Mark 3, Jesus did not SEND them out until Mark 6.

Read Mark 6: 7 – 13.
In other words, Jesus demonstrated the importance of relationship over “calling” by making the disciples wait! They had to spend time with Jesus BEFORE they could be effective Apostles.

People Who Encounter Jesus Want to Be with Jesus.
Now for some of us, it is rather difficult to wait before Jesus sends us out on a mission to the world. I know I am rather impatient, and I want to get started as soon as possible. But Jesus made the disciples wait.

There is an interesting thing in Mark that I believe speaks to our impatience. It is found in most of the healing stories in Mark. Every person that Jesus healed had an intense desire to spend more time with Jesus.

Read Mark 16: 1 – 8.

Notice that Jesus did not tell the women and disciples to “get to work.” He didn’t say, “Now ya’ll know what you need to be doing, so go do it.” NO! Jesus said, “Meet me in Galilee, the place where we spent the most time together.”

Jerusalem was the place where Jesus and the disciples were separated. Galilee was the place where they were together. So, by sending the disciples to Galilee and by promising that Jesus would go before them, Jesus was calling his followers to relationship and THEN to mission.

II. Conclusion
I recently came across a modern-day parable by Leonard Sweet that I believe states this best…Forgive me as I read this parable…

"One day after dinner, while finishing dessert, a father sent his boy out to cut the lawn. Smiling broadly, the son said, “No, Father, I just want to stay here experiencing your presence, expressing my love for you, my dear Father.”
The father frowned and said, more firmly this time, “Actually, Son, I would rather you go out and cut the lawn.” But the boy acted as if he didn’t even hear his father, and he replied, “Dad! Guess what? I just wrote a song expressing my love for you!”
The son began to sing, his eyes closed in sincerity and intense emotion, and the father left the table to go watch TV. The boy didn’t notice, but kept singing, with tears streaming down his face.
At that point the father wanted the boy to experience obedience (which may entail heat, sweat, thirst, sunburn, strained muscles, hunger, endurance and fatigue) even more than the warmth of his presence.[1]"

[1] Leonard I Sweet, Brian D. McLaren and Jerry Haselmayer, A Is for Abductive: The Language of the Emerging Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 122.