The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (11)

1. getting caught in a pushing-shoving crowd of people can be scary. A few summers ago we took a family vacation to Europe. We flew into the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Our plan was to catch the Metro into Paris to our motel located a few blocks from the Louvre.

Only we discovered that the Metro was on strike. Just a few trains were running. When the next train arrived there was a mad dash for the open doors to an already full train.

Somehow the 4 of us with our backpacks just barely made it on the train in this sea of pushing, shoving, bumping & squeezing humanity. It was frightening. A rough beginning to a wonderful vacation.

crowding (7-12) – chaos & busyness
1. Jesus knew crowds – he is at the peak of his popularity. Large crowds of people followed him everywhere – Tyre & Sidon are 100 miles to the north of Jerusalem. That would be like people walking from Portland to Eugene to see Jesus.

2. this swarm of people are pushing forward to touch Jesus. He’s healing people. Evil spirits are manifesting themselves & confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. This is more like a mob scene than a friendly lake-side crowd.

3. what does Jesus do in response the crowds? He begins to multiply himself through other people. He flies into a leadership development mode. He calls the 12 disciples & gives them a job to do.

praying (13 & Luke 6:12) – God
1. Luke gives us the complete picture – Jesus spent the night praying before he called the 12 disciples. Of all the gospels, Luke gives us the most complete picture of Jesus’ prayer life:
§ 3:21 – baptism
§ 5:16 – pattern of seeking lonely places to pray
§ 6:12 – before choosing disciples
§ 9:18 – in private
§ 9:28 – Peter James John
§ 11:1 – praying
§ 22:32 – for Peter
§ 22:41 – Gethsemane
§ 23:34 – forgiveness on cross
§ 23:46 – as he died

2. praying has to do with God. Jesus lived his life in prayer. There is no more human picture of Jesus than Jesus at prayer. To be like Jesus is to pray to live!

3. little personal confession time – for the past several months I have felt called of God to increase the amount of time & effort I spend praying for our church – for you. This has turned out to be harder than I ever dreamed it would.

4. sometimes the hardest thing to do is to shut down my computer, turn off my cell phone, put away my weekly appointment schedule, shove aside my to-do list & pray. The chaos & busyness of the crowds in my life call with a LOUD voice. They often drown out the still small voice of the Spirit.

5. are you praying? Am I praying? Perhaps that should be one of the 1st questions we ask each other in this community of faith!

12-ing (14, 16-19) – community
1. a night of prayer led Jesus to appoint 12 men to be his disciples/apostles. The number 12 is no accident. These 12 will form the new people of God who will take the place of the 12 tribes of Israel.

2. 12-ing speaks of community. The DNA of our universe is shot through with community, starting with God himself:
§ God is a community of 3 persons – Father Son Spirit – who have lived together in perfect unity & harmony of all eternity in a mysterious relationship
§ God formed the people of Israel to be the Old Testament community though which he would reveal himself & send the Messiah
§ Now we see the new community of the Kingdom that is being formed via these 12 disciples – leads to the church of which we are a part today

3. who are these 12? Who did Jesus choose as the 1st community of Christ-followers?
§ Simon Peter – fisherman, big talker-small doer in the gospels, tried to talk Jesus out of going to the cross & was rebuked as Satan, denied him 3xs – lied 3xs, went back to fishing, restored in John 21, rebuked by Paul in Galatians for his racism

Jesus gives Simon a new name – Cephas/Peter – which means ‘rock.’ Peter is about as ‘un-rocky’ of a guy as you can find in the gospels. It takes him a long time to develop & mature. I guess there’s hope for the rest of us!

§ James & John – fishermen, brothers, secretly asked Jesus to give them the best seats in the kingdom, wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans, rebuked an unknown healer
§ Andrew – fisherman, Simon Peter’s brother
§ Philip –
§ Bartholomew – the Nathanial of John 1
§ Matthew – this is Levi the tax collector we met last week, trader to his own people
§ Thomas – doubting
§ James - ??
§ Thaddaeus - ??
§ Simon the zealot - member of conservative Jewish political party, defeat Roman domination, patriotic = opposite to Matthew the tax collector
§ Judas – stole money from the disciples bank account & betrayed Jesus with a kiss

4. are these the kind of people you would choose to start a church with? Or a new company? Or put on the school board? Invite to join your small group? These are not men of education, wealth, rank or refinement. They are very young, most likely in their 20s, a decade or so short of full adulthood.

5. the beauty & wonder & frustration & craziness of the church is found in these 12 men. What brings us all together is Christ. For some of us the only thing we have in common is Christ.

6. and he calls us to love serve follow obey him together – in community. As we learn to love accept & forgive each other something called sanctification happens – the Spirit of God sands off our rough edges & conforms us into the image & likeness of Christ.

7. I kid you not. There are days where I look at all of us with all of our differences – personalities, background, education, profession, economic status, political convictions, tastes, values & personal agendas for what the church should be about – and I say it’s a miracle the church hasn’t imploded. The fact we continue to exist year after year is one of the greatest proofs I know for the existence of the living Christ!

8. we need each other, we really, really do….

with-ing (14) – intimacy
1. prayer led to 12-ing which leads to with-ing. He appointed twelve that they might be with him. Being with always precedes doing for.

2. in an old book James Stewart, who taught New Testament at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, writes this about with-ing –

It was his purpose to train these men by
fellowship with himself. Living with him every day,
watching him in all kinds of situations, listening to his private talk, being admitted to his dreams & aspirations & hopes, they would end by sharing his very spirit, would gradually come to see things with his eyes & understand with his wonderfully understanding heart & be fired with his own authentic fire. Intimacy with Jesus is the best of all teachers.

3. sounds nice, only we can’t be with him like the disciples could. They lived in his physical, literal presence. Ours is to live with his spiritual, actual presence. What they experienced in a body we experience in the realm of the Spirit, Prayer, Word & Community.

Spirit
1. Jesus lived on this earth. Then he died for our sins. He arose from the dead. He returned to his Father’s side in heaven. And he poured out his Spirit to take his place on earth (Acts 2).

2. everything we experience of Jesus comes by his Spirit. His Spirit takes us beyond the realm of our 5 senses to the dimension of the unseen world. The Holy Spirit brokers Jesus to us today.

3. we are, must be, people of the Spirit if we are going to follow Jesus.

Prayer
1. the 12 listened to Jesus talk & they talked to Jesus. The took time to think about his words & deeds. This is prayer.

2. prayer is communion. Spending time with Jesus, enjoying his presence, thinking about him, delighting in him, straining to connect to him, spirit to Spirit.

3. prayer is thanksgiving. Expressing our thanks to Jesus for ….. you name it. Saturdays are a prayer day for me where all I do is thank Jesus. Its my thanksgiving. No asking, no pleading, no knocking on heaven’s door. Simply thank-you Jesus for….

4. prayer is intercession. Praying for others. This week my prayers have been filled with Tim Hartle (burn), Ginny Hartle (China), Ed Grautski (surgery), Emily Brooks (baby), church staff, new building….

5. prayer is petition. I’ve been talking to Jesus about my own needs. The power of God’s Spirit to lead, guide, strengthen me. Wisdom, always always wisdom. Guarding my own heart from an unforgiving spirit, hardness, pride, lust.

6. in the realm of the Spirit we can spend time with Jesus in prayer – communion, thanksgiving, intercession, petition.

Word
1. the bible is the written Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. There is no other book like this one on the face of the earth.

2. the same Spirit who inspired it to be written is the same Spirit who enlightens our minds to understand it & moves our wills to obey it.

3. we meet Jesus in this book. He’s the central character. The plot revolves around him. He speaks to us in this book. He reveals himself to us in this book. He shows us our true selves in this book. He shows us the world in this book. He reveals to us a new way of living in this book.

4. Jesus, the Living Word of God, reveals himself to us in the written Word of God.

Community
1. another way to spend time with Jesus is to spend time with his church. For the church is the body of Christ. The church is the visible manifestation of Christ to the world today. Jesus is found in community. We find Jesus in each other as we love follow obey & serve him.

2. all of the sin, ugliness, weakness, failure of the church is our doing or Satan’s. But the beauty, glory, strength, love, transformation, healing, deliverance is of Jesus.

3. I saw Jesus in some of you this week. When 1 of you took aside someone who was discouraged & spoke encouragement & hope into their life – I saw Jesus.

When 1 of you spoke a word of encouragement into my life in a moment of pressured, strategic leadership – I saw Jesus.

When one of you wrote me an email telling me how God has enabled you to give generously & sacrificially to Rising from the Ashes. Even while you have 2 large financial demands upon your income – I saw the giving Spirit of Jesus.

When one of you forgave someone who had deeply hurt & angered you – I saw Jesus.

When I stood at Tim Hartle’s bedside in the Emanuel Hospital burn unit, his face blistered with burns, his arms hands stomach & chest wrapped in gauze like a mummy. When I heard him say that his faith in God has grown stronger since he caught on fire – I saw Jesus.

4. when end up spending time with Jesus as we spend time with each other in the community/church he birthed through the Spirit.

sending (14) – ministry
1. I’m saving this for later…..