God can use anybody!

Introduction

Good morning. I don’t know what your experiences on a team look like. I’ve said this before, I’m not a huge sporting person. I know that’s surprising in an athletic field, and you’re all thinking, “What?” I’ve said this before, if there was ever a sport that I was interested in in school, apart from motorbike riding, it was basketball. That was the sport I tried out for. That was the sport I played in my last few years of high school.

There are five on the court, but there are about 12 on a team, including subs, and there were about 25 guys that tried out. Our school decided to have two teams. The first 12 went to the A team. Probably not a huge surprise, I wasn’t in that group. The second 12 reserved for the B team, and then there was one remaining person. I’m convinced the only reason I got on the team was they just thought it was too mean to just cut one person out, and so I was the lead bench former. That was my job.

We had these two teams. We were the lower team, but significantly, we were a kind of ragtag group that was put together. I was significantly at the bottom end, but there were a few of us that weren’t particularly great. What was great is our coach. We had a coach who, when I was on the mission field in Papa New Guinea, our coach was a guy that had been drafted for the NBA, but because he had a knee injury, he wasn’t able to play. To God’s glory and kingdom, he instead went and was a Bible translator in Papa New Guinea, and as a hobby, he trained the school basketball team. Our B team had this incredible coach. He trained us in a particular form of defense that was illegal in the NBA at the time but legal in school basketball. That was our strategy.

He was such an effective coach for a group of guys that weren’t particularly great. We did exceedingly well. Our basketball comp happened all in one day. The whole season, we just went and played all day, and we just dominated all day, right to the point where we were in the finals against our own A team. That was going to be the ultimate glory to beat our own A team, but they just got ahead of us. I’m convinced significantly because of the coach. As we look at this story, we’re working our way through Mark. As we look at this story, the key component here is that message that this group of disciples that Jesus is pulling together, it’s going to be the coach. It’s going to be Jesus that is the significant game changer for these guys. That’s the part of the story we’re up to. We’ve been following this story in Mark and asking the question, “Who is this man?” Momentum is starting to build, and he is pulling together his team.

This passage really tells us just what sort of momentum is building. There is a huge crowd forming. If you look at that passage there in Mark 3, first of all, we’re told that people are traveling from far away. We’re told people are coming. They’re up around Capernaum at the moment, which is in the northern part of Israel, and we’re told people are coming from as far south as Jerusalem. Jerusalem, depending on the route, depends on how quickly you travel, but it’s multiple days travel, probably closer to a week’s travel, at least four days, maybe closer to seven days travel from Jerusalem to Capernaum. People are not only has the message got as far south as Jerusalem, but people that have heard these whispers, these rumors about this guy, are bothering to make that journey back that way to find out more about him.

We’re told it’s maybe even more surprising that people are coming from the north, from as far north as Sidon. That’s significant because the trip to Jerusalem is probably a more common trip for people in Israel, but to go up north to Sidon is a significant step. That would have been about four days walking as well. The word is spreading purely word of mouth. People have to travel by foot to get the word out, and people are hearing about it and bothering to travel by foot to get in. That’s how much the momentum is building.

Not only are people traveling from a long distance, they’re coming in huge numbers. You hear that in the classics. This is what it said. Jesus says, in verse 9, “He instructed his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him.” That’s a significant crowd. I know for many of us here, the mosh pit days are only a few months ago, I’m sure. Most of us are at the stage of life where you will pay for the seat rather than be down in the crowd, but if you’ve ever experienced that kind of mosh pit moment at a concert and the crowd surging forward, you understand the power of the crowd. That moment where you know you are sharing with those around you the joy of the concert and also each other’s sweat, breathe my last breath of fresh air that I would ever breathe again. There is a power in a crowd like that, and that’s the picture we’re getting here, that there’s so many people coming, so keen to hear him, that they’re concerned about being crushed by them. You can imagine how this momentum feels for the disciples. They literally must feel like they are rock stars at the mosh pit. They’re there on the stage. They’re with the guy. At very least, if they’re not rock stars, they’re the bouncers to the rock star. That’s the momentum we’re getting here that’s happening.

We’re also told, on top of that, the crowd’s coming from a long way. There’s huge crowds, and miraculous things are happening. People are being healed. Not only is it this huge crowd, but it’s a huge show. It’s worth traveling to see. It’s incredible what’s happening. As this huge crowd, but at this point in the story, as we hear about momentum, we start to hear a distinction between the crowd and those who are closest to Jesus. We start hearing a difference there. There’s a difference there. We’re told that Jesus calls out some people from that crowd. Verse 13, “Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain, and he called out the ones he wanted to go with him, and they came to him.” There’s a difference here, a distinction between the crowd and, using the words from this passage, we could call the called, or maybe using the series that’s out at the moment, the chosen. There’s this distinction between these two, and it becomes really clear in this story. There is a difference between those who are following Jesus and Jesus followers. There’s something different that’s happening here. Those that are following Jesus is different to the ones who are actually Jesus followers, and that’s critical as we start to understand what’s happening here, that just following Jesus around is not enough to be called one of his. Just being curious about who Jesus is, Mark wants to help us understand who Jesus is, but he also wants to tell us just being curious about who Jesus is, it’s not enough, but there needs to be a discovery of who he is. There needs to be a recognition.

Called and Coming

What we see in this passage is there’s two things going on here. There is people who are being called to him, and there’s people who are coming as a response to that calling. What’s clear here is there’s a group of 12 that are going to be named in just a moment in the passage, but that’s not the only ones that are being called in this moment. It says, “He appointed 12 of them.” Twelve out of this group that has been called out. At points in the story, we hear numbers thrown around as to who the crowd of followers, not following, but followers were. At one point, we hear about 72 of them that he sends out. There seems to be close to a hundred people that are what we would class as his followers. There’s a smaller group, there’s the 12 disciples, but then there’s a crowd that is following around as well. Those are the distinction. Two things are happening in this moment. One of them is he’s calling them, and the other is they’re coming to him. Those two things are happening together.

This has become a real tension in Christianity about what is happening there. It’s the question around what happens when we connect with Jesus. Are we called by Jesus, or do we choose to go to Jesus? I think the answer is both happen. It’s caused such a tension amongst people because if we’re to understand the theology of what being called and chosen by Jesus means, we would understand that our salvation is purely the work of Jesus. He breaks us from the bondage of darkness. He breaks us from the bondage of darkness and allows us to live in the light. That’s the work of Jesus, and that’s a really critical part of the good news of Jesus to say God has done this incredible work in people.

The difficulty becomes when we ask the question, “How does our choices fit inside that?” Some would emphasize the calling, the chosen, so strongly that I think we are in danger of diminishing the coming to Jesus. One of the phrases that often is tied to this is Calvinism is the focus on the calling or the chosen. I would argue it’s kind of extreme Calvinism that fits that category. I think a better word for us to think about is the word compatibility, that there is two things that are happening here that seem opposite but are actually compatible with each other. It is compatible that God both calls and people both come to him. That’s what is happening in this moment. Both those things are happening, and he pulls together out of that we get these names of 12 of them, this ragtag team that Jesus pulls together.

The Ragtag Team

It’s quite helpful for us to think about who these 12 are as we reflect on what it means to be a disciple to be called by Jesus. Years ago, when I was ordained, I was ordained a number of years ago. Back then, in those days when I was a little boy, we used to go. One of the things ordination is you have a meal with the archbishop. Back then, they owned a place called Bishop’s Court, but the dasis sold it basically as they thought it wasn’t great use of kingdom funds to basically have a small castle in the middle of Sydney. That’s literally what it is. Fanciest house I ever went to. They had converted the horse stables and servant quarters into accommodation. It was an amazing house, and in the dining room, there were the carved heads of the 12 disciples. Quite morbid, looking down on you while you ate is these heads of these guys carved out of timber up there. The legend was that we were told was the archbishop is going to randomly pick someone to name the 12 disciples, just as a test of your ordination. Can you name the 12 disciples?

One of the roles when you went to dinner with the archbishop was to memorize the names of the 12 disciples. I banked on the odds of being chosen low, and I just went with it, but he didn’t ask. Maybe the myth had got around, and he thought it wasn’t any fun anymore. The reason that’s a hard question is most of us can’t name the 12 disciples. We get around the four, three, maybe four, five mark, and we start to run out of names, but to be fair, if you’re in that category, I’m also in that category. I have to have the Bible open as we go through these. If you’re in that category, to be fair, most of them have multiple names, and most of the New Testament writers use different names to talk about these guys. What we do get is a picture of 12 guys who, as you look at them, you are surprised they’re the guys that we get pulled together, starting with Simon Peter. Simon Peter always listed first. He’s a significant leader in Christian history. He becomes one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, preaches great sermons, but when Jesus calls him, none of those categories fit Simon Peter.

He’s known not just for those great moments, but he’s known for the worst moments as well. He’s the guy that in the Garden of Gethsemane whips out a sword and lays the smackdown on some poor servant Old Testament style when he cuts off a guy’s ear, and Jesus rebukes him, and he has to heal the ear. He’s the guy who is impatient, always seems to be the first one to jump into things, quite literally when they’re on the boat, and he sees Jesus walking on water, and he jumps overboard to join him and immediately terrified by the storm and sinks, and Jesus has to rescue him. He’s the guy most infamously before Jesus dies that totally says to everyone, “I don’t even know this guy three times.” This is Peter. He’s the guy that’s listed first. I think it gives us real encouragement as we think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus when we look at some of these guys even right from the top of the list and think, “Ah, these are the kind of guys that God uses.”

Sons of Thunder

Next on our list, we get James and John. We’re told this is the passage that tells us they’re called the sons of thunder. It’s pretty great. I like to assume I’ve said this before. I like to assume it’s flatulence stuff where they got their name from, which is a little joke amongst the disciples, or it’s a really bad dig at their dad. The sons of thunder, maybe more likely, we don’t exactly know where they got the name from. Maybe more likely there is a story we’re told in the Bible where they go to a Samaritan village, and they’re rejected from the Samaritan village, and they can’t go in, and they got to Jesus with this great plan. They say, “Let’s get them call fire down and just nuke those guys.” Just wipe. Maybe that’s why they’re the sons of thunder, because they’re the guys that are saying to Jesus, “Just scorch to earth them, be done with those guys.” Maybe they’re rebuked for that. They’re the two guys that come up to Jesus and say, “Can we sit at your right and at your left hand?” They’re keen, they’re bold, or one of the gospel writers tell us that their mom actually asked that question on their behalf, which is a lot more awkward for them, maybe less bold, a little bit of mommy’s voice. These are the guys that are listed second in that list. They don’t seem that great either.

We get another duo after that. We get Andrew and Peter, Philip, sorry, Andrew and Phillip. Andrew and Philip, we’re starting to get to the guys that we start to know very little about. These guys, they’re the inviters of the group. They’re the guys. Philip, a group of Greek guys come up to Philip and say, “I’d like to see Jesus.” He goes, “I don’t know what to do with that request.” He goes to Andrew and says, “They say they’d like to see Jesus.” Andrew goes, “Maybe they could go see Jesus, how about that?” They bring these guys to see Jesus. They’re just the bringers. Most significantly, Philip brings Nathaniel to see Jesus, and he becomes a follower of Jesus, and Andrew brings his brother Peter. One of the most significant things Andrew does is just bring his brother to Jesus. One of the most changing things in the early church history, that this great leader of the church in Jerusalem, quite simply, his brother just brought him to meet Jesus. Such a simple task and such a revolutionary outcome, but that’s really all we know about those guys.

Doubting Thomas

Philip brings Nathaniel. Of course, he’s not called Nathaniel here. He’s called Bartholomew. We know very little about him. What we do know about him is he was the first one to doubt Jesus when Philip said, “Come see this guy from Nazareth.” Bart says, “Nazareth, can anything good come from there?” He’s the first guy that says, “I don’t think so, you’ve got the wrong Messiah here.” He’s one of the followers we get. Matthew, also called Levi. Matthew, who wrote the Gospel of Matthew, he’s the one who calls himself Matthew, but Matthew is a tax collector. We’ve talked about this pretty recently, how tax collectors were quite literally enemies of their own people, where they were loyal to Rome, loyal to the Romans, taxed their own people, cheated their own people. They were the bad guys amongst the Jews, and he’s one of Jesus followers. We get Thomas, often called doubting Thomas. He’s the guy that when they heard Jesus had resurrected, he said, “I won’t believe it until I seek him myself, touch him myself.”

We get another James. We have James and John. We have another James. His nickname amongst the group is James the Lesser, which I like to think just means he’s a really big guy. He’s that kind of little James phrase, but he’s actually the biggest guy of the group. More likely, he was just younger than James. I don’t know if you call him James the Greater. He did try to get himself called James the Greater when, or at least his mom did. He’s James the Greater, and this is James the Lesser. We get another guy. We’re getting right to the bottom of the list now. If we’re starting to struggle on knowing who these guys are, we get Thaddius. People know so little about Thaddius that even the writers don’t seem to know his name here. He’s called Thaddius. Matthew calls him Lebus. Luke calls him Judas, but to clarify, he says Judas, son of James. John just defines him as not the Escariat Judas. Just not the infamous one, not that guy. Thaddius has four different names that people are using about him. You’re forgiven if you don’t remember who Thaddius is.

We get Simon the Zealot, not Simon Peter. This guy is called Simon the Zealot, which is quite ironic when you hear the things that Simon Peter is up to. Simon Peter’s the guy jumping out of the boat. He’s the guy that’s whipping off ears with a sword, but this guy is the one who’s called the zealot. That’s the significance of how much of a zealot he was. The Zealots, they were an extremist group and often assassins and often to assassinate anyone who was against Judaism. Classically, they would seek to assassinate Romans if they could get away with it or tax collectors. It’s quite interesting here that Jesus put together this ragtag group, and he has a tax collector in there, the enemy of his own people, and a zealot in there, the enemy of the tax collectors. This is the group that Jesus calls his family. This is the group that Jesus calls his followers. This is the group that Jesus calls out of a crowd of however many and then a smaller crowd of nearly a hundred and then names these guys to call them out to be his followers.

Lies About Being a Follower

It’s a real encouragement for us as we think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus because often we believe lies about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. For example, we often believe the lie, “I have done too much wrong for God to ever forgive me.” I’ve done too much that God could never forgive. The things I’ve done, I’ve got too much baggage that I can’t be rid of in order to be apologist. That is a lie. Not only do we see it in these guys, we see other stories like Paul the Apostle, who was actually under his own authority, had Christians killed, and yet God redeems him and calls him to be one of his apostles. There is no one too far from God. There is no one outside of God’s reach. God has the power to redeem anyone, and that includes you. If you in a space that says, “I don’t fit, I don’t fit the mold, I don’t fit the build, I don’t fit the lifestyle, I don’t fit with God’s people,” the answer is there is no one too far outside God’s reach that they can’t be brought in to be one of his followers.

The other lie we sometimes believe is not just the lie that he can’t redeem us, but the lie that he won’t use us. The classic thought goes in say in a time of prayer thinking, “I have no right to pray to God.” Maybe think particularly about people that are struggling with sin that they feel like is reoccurring. They’re wrestling with temptation that’s ongoing. At its extremes, we might think about addiction, but even in living day-to-day life, those people that feel like there’s just things in my life that don’t align with what God wants, so I have no right to come to him. I have no right to pray to him. That is a lie, not because you have a right, but because it’s all about the coach who invites you, who calls you, who empowers you. Don’t believe those lies, but there’s no point praying to God because of the things you wrestle with. He invites us into relationship with him, and just like we see these group of guys that don’t fit the mold, God calls them, and he uses them, and he does the same with followers today.

Judas

There is one extra one. I mentioned him before, but I didn’t specifically list him. It is Judas the Scariot. He’s always listed at the end of the list, and it is in some ways just awkward that he’s even in the list at all. It’s awkward knowing what he’s going to do, knowing that Jesus knows more about him than we do, and it’s awkward that he’s listed in this group that is called out. I think even that is an encouragement. We think about someone who he is treated as a follower of Jesus, but it’s clear when push comes to shove, he isn’t actually a follower. He is just following. Judas, I think it is an encouragement for us when we have those moments where we see someone who we thought was a follower of Jesus, who we respected and followed ourselves, and they turn away. Someone in our lives that turn away. I mean, there’s lots of examples. I’m sure you have them in your life, particularly we think about church leaders, mentors. I know when I was in youth ministry, youth leaders that it caused significant damage to young Christians when they saw a youth leader that they had that turned away from the faith, and those sorts of things lead us to question the whole thing. What’s clear here is that there can be those that look like a follower but really are just following, and Judas fits that category.

I think it’s a reminder to us once again that it’s not about the followers, it’s about the one we’re following. It’s about Jesus. It’s about the coach. It’s about the one who has pulled the team together. In those moments where someone in the team lets us down, it’s a reminder to not throw the whole thing out, not let go of the whole gospel, but turn our eyes back to the one who will never let us down, the one who we put our trust in, in Jesus.

Called and Sent

Jesus doesn’t just call these people out, he also sends them out. There is no calling without also ascending, and that’s what we see here, that he has named these 12 in particular for a particular role. We’re given the word here, apostle. That is just a transliteration of the Greek. Rather than trying to figure out an English equivalent, we just use the Greek word. The word is apostto. We just say apostle. It quite literally means scent one. That’s what these guys are. They are the scent ones. It’s tricky when we think about that word today. Some churches will use that word to talk about it. We want to be careful to separate a little bit when the Bible talks about the 12 apostles or Paul was included in that as well. When the Bible talks about that, there’s a group of guys that the Bible that God particularly gave a guardian role of the good news, people that were empowered in a particular way to spread the word at its ground level, but there is a sense where anyone who is a follower of Jesus fits that category of being a sent one. If there’s no calling without sending, then in a sense, we could say we are all apostles. Because of the connotations of that word, we often use words like missionaries. Something we often use in this church is being a family on mission together. That’s the picture that there is no calling without also ascending, and so we are all the sent ones. We are all called to go, and that word has gone out across the globe.

There’s a preacher, great theologian Sinclair Ferguson, talking about this. He says this. He says, “When we read Mark’s words, we should have a sense of thrill in recognizing that here Jesus was beginning an evangelistic campaign that would lead to ourselves in this moment as we read this passage.” Jesus is sending his this group out, and we are part of that story because as they go out, that is the very catalyst that created the momentum that brings the gospel to us. In reflecting on that, another pastor, Matt Sim Smith, says this, who says, “Someone loved you enough to summon the courage to open their mouths and tell you about Jesus.” We only hear the good news about Jesus because God’s people are sent, and that message has gone out, and it’s something we do as we church on mission. Next term, we’re going to run our Alpha course, and we’re going to start gearing up over the next few weeks to start talking about that more. We’re going to run it on a Sunday. While we don’t have an evening service, we’ll use that latter part of the day to run an Alpha course. Alpha is one of the best resources in the world to talk about Jesus, and I think one of the great things about it is it is an invitation to conversation.

Often our experience of talking to people about Jesus is many things that happen. One is, like uni ministry, people will go up and try to talk to people around the campus. We’ve done over the years church ministry where we’ve gone to people’s houses, knocked on doors, and given people opportunity to talk about Jesus. The other time you might talk about Jesus is in passing at work or something like that. It feels like those moments are either so quick and hard to get your thoughts together, or you’re on the back foot and defending and in a place of defense. One of the things Alpha does is it’s an invitation to conversation that is to not sit there and try to defend and defeat every opposition to the gospel, but just around a table to talk about what it is we believe, give people a chance to air their thoughts freely and openly and not be attacked for it. I want to encourage you next term, we’re kicking that off. We want to start thinking about and praying about people that might be in our lives that might receive that invitation that we might have the courage to open our mouths and invite them along.

It’s why today it’s so great to hear the story of Dave’s work with GRN and hear how the good news of Jesus is going around the whole world and how technology is being used to empower the gospel to go into every tongue, every language all over the globe because we are the scent ones. We are called, and we are sent. There’s one more thing in there I want to finish with this, but there’s one little hidden gem as we think about being sent. It’s there in verse 14. It says, “He appointed 12 that they might be with him and he might send them.” You hear what’s happening there. Jesus calls them, and he sends them, but there’s another component to what’s going on there. He is with them. As we think about what it looks like to be followers, not just following, as we look at what it means to be called and sent, there is a promise in there that Jesus is with us, that there is a relationship in that. In many ways, he’s with us even more than he is with these guys because while he’s physically present with these disciples, he at times sends them out without him. We hear stories of him sending the 72 out, and he doesn’t go with them, but we live in a different time in history where Jesus has poured his Holy Spirit out on anyone who is a follower of Jesus, and so he is never not with us. The promise is in some ways even greater for us that he might be with us and send us is the promise that we receive that as we think about what it looks like to be a family on mission, as we think about what it looks like to be the scent ones, we are reminded that we’re not doing it on our own.

The encouragement is that while we may all the time feel like we don’t add up to everything that we think God might want from us, and we make mistakes, and we don’t always say the right thing, and it doesn’t always work out the way we want, there is a promise that we are not on our own in that. There is a promise that God’s spirit is in us and working through us. As we seek in our brokenness and in our failures to serve him, we need to also rest in him and remember that he is the one. It is all about the coach, not about the team, and we rest on his promises. We rest on his work. He is the one that calls people to himself as we proclaim the good news about him. It isn’t just good enough to be curious about Jesus. There is a difference between following and hanging out around and doing Jesus type things and actually being one of Jesus followers. That is what we’re called to be, and there is both a calling and a responding to that call, but there is also a sending, and the promise is that Jesus is with us as we seek to be a family on mission together.