Life can be overwhelming. Even if you are the Son of God. So following a few stressful days when people pressed on Jesus with their many needs, He chose 12 men to assist Him in His great work. If Jesus needed people to share His great work, so we in our imperfections need others to share the load. Here’s the list:
Simon he surnamed Peter; And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, (Mark 3:16-18)
This group of ‘special’ disciples whose list of names begins with one who denied Jesus and ends with one who betrayed him, makes it clear these were not a collection of the immediately perfect. Jesus risked the future of His message and His ministry on these men. Carl Henry puts it this way: “God is the greatest gambler in human history. He bet the future of our redemption on a carpenter and His small band of fishermen.”
So, what happened? They changed the world. What did Jesus do to transform these men to from ordinary to extraordinary? The same thing He wants to do with us to change our world…
1. The world will be changed by people who accept the call of Jesus.
And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. (Mark 3:13)
God invites. People accept. The world will be changed when the power of God intersects with the surrender of people. It takes two! There is no conflict between the sovereignty of God and freewill of man. But there is a crisscross. Are you surrendered to Jesus?
2. The world will be changed by people who stay with Jesus.
And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him… (Mark 3:14)
Jesus teaches by companionship. The essence of the training of these disciples was very simple – just hang out with Jesus. Jesus had no formal school, no books, no outlined course of study, no homework. All Jesus did to teach them was to draw them close to Himself. He was His own school and curriculum.
3. The world will be changed by people who are sent by Jesus.
And he ordained twelve, that … he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: (Mark 3:14-15)
Jesus sent these disciples out to preach. Healing was secondary. Healing of bodies must take second place to saving of souls. Keeping people out of hospitals is not nearly as important as keeping them out of Hell.
As Jesus sent them out He equipped them with two things: a message and power. According to Romans 1:16, the message is the power – and the message is Jesus. Go and tell the message.
This passage in Mark leaves us with a question. Are we a part of the crowd which is crushing our Lord for the extraction of power for our needs or have we been called up into the hills to be one of His disciples to communicate His power to others?