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Jesus Calls and Delegates

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

 

Mark 3:13-19

 

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

16 And Simon he surnamed Peter;

17 And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,

19 And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house.

 

As we have been reading and studying down through the book of Mark, we have learned different things about Jesus, what He has been doing on the Sabbath day in healing, and teaching. 

 

I know some of these things in these first three chapters may have been boring.  I hope that they haven’t to you, but they may be.  In the next few weeks, we are going to get into some things that I think are going to be very instructive for us.  I think that we are going to be able to learn from many of the parables that Jesus is teaching.  Just hang in there for another week or two.  We are going to get into some things that may be just a little more exciting for you.  I hope this is exciting for you, but if it is not, hang in there.

 

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

 

Now if you read the other accounts of this, if you will read in the book of Luke, you will find out that Jesus goes into a mountain and prays all night.  What He is about to do is He is about to call these men that was going to be His apostles.  It was a very serious time. 

 

I would to God today that when we lay our hands on people that say that they have been called to preach or a church wants to set aside a deacon, that a church or conference would spend some times seeking the face of God before we do some of these things.  If we would spend some more time praying and spend more time seeking the face of God, then we would have less people that are bringing reproach upon the church because of how that they are living.  We have many preachers around or say they are preachers that live horrible lives.  They lie, cheat and do everything in the world but they still yet call themselves preachers.

 

What I am saying is, Jesus goes out and spends all night praying.  Any major decision that we are going to make in life, we should spend a whole lot of time praying and seeking the face of God and listening for His voice.  When He directs us, then that is what we need to do.

 

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

 

I want to talk about a few things about these fellows.  Jesus called these men, not only did He call these men, but also He appointed these men.  Also, He changed these men, all except one. 

 

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

 

If you look at what’s happening here, if you read the story, if you remember what we taught a couple of weeks ago the multitudes were thronging Him.  There were multitudes everywhere.  He is teaching, preaching, healing, and people are being saved and delivered as we read.  When the unclean spirits would even see Jesus, they would just come out of whomever they possessed.  He goes into a mountain, and as He goes into a mountain, He calls people unto Him.  Now He calls a whole lot more than 12.  As He goes on the mountain, as He calls people [I don’t know how many people went up there] but no doubt there are multitudes of people that went on the mountain, this particular time.

 

The Bible says here that He goes on a mountain and that He calls unto Him whom He would and they came unto Him.  Remember that God calls people.  We didn’t choose God, He chose us.  The book is full of that.  That does not mean that we did not have the opportunity to say yes or no.  It does not mean that.  God come along through the…of the Holy Spirit of God, used the Word of God when it was preached, He spoke unto our hearts and let us know that He was calling us unto repentance.  Didn’t He?  We had the choice then of choosing whether to follow Him or not follow Him.  He called these people upon a mountain.  A whole multitude, upon the mountain. 

 

The Bible says, “…whom He would…”  He makes the call, there are multitudes that came up there, but He is not going to ordain them all.  He is not going to appoint them all.  He is going to call or He is going to ordain 12 of those among that multitude that is up there.  What is the Lord looking at?  What does the Lord see in these men that would make them people that Jesus would want to call?  As you look at these fellows, they were people worked hard.  They were people that were not lazy.  They were people that were just common, everyday, ordinary people.  He calls them.  He calls the whole multitude upon the hill and they came unto Him.

 

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

 

Now the whole multitude is up there, but He ordains 12.  The word apostle is one that has been sent forth.  Even today, we have people that say they are apostles.  All you have to do is turn your TV on and some of these stations around and there are guys on there that say they are apostles.  If you read the Bible, if they would read the Bible; the qualifications for an apostle is found in Acts 1:1-22 or 23, somewhere down through there.  The qualification for an apostle is someone that had to see the Lord Jesus Christ.  People that are living today are not 2000 years old.  Therefore, I know that they didn’t see Him.  When people see or make the statement that they are apostles then they are just confused about some things. 

 

He calls 12 of them.  Twelve is significant for many different reasons.  If you look at the 12 tribes and different things and we could talk about that number 12 for a while but there is some significance in that.

 

He ordained 12.  The word “ordained” that comes from a Greek word, which means to be made or to be appointed.  Not only did God call these men, but also God appointed them.  God is going to do some things for them, through them, and with them.  God is going to do that.  Someone who is ordained is someone who has been made or appointed.  As these men were appointed, then they were appointed for specific reason.  He ordains 12 that they should be with Him.

 

He is going to teach these guys.  These guys are fishermen.  The majority of them are fishermen.  As far as them knowing anything about being apostles, being ambassadors, as these fellows were going to be, they knew nothing about that.  He says that He has ordained them or appointed them that they should be with Him. 

 

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

 

Before Jesus Christ is ever going to send these guys out, they are going to have to spend some time with Him.  There are some things that they are going to have to learn.  One great thing about the Lord is this.  Do you know what the Lord wants for us?  He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him.  He wants us to be able to have times of fellowship.  He wants us to be able to have times of devotion.  He wants us to have times that we are just all alone with Him.  God wants us to have that.  If we will have those times with the Lord then our understanding of Him will increase.  The more time I spend with Jesus the more I will understand Him.  The more I understand about Him, the more I understand about what He wants me to do and what is not right for me to do.

 

He appoints them, and He calls them.  He does that.  However, one thing He wants is that they may be with Him.  Have a personal one on one relationship with Him.  Friendship, fellowship, devotion, and time alone with Him is what He wants.  That is what He is wanting.  It is in those times that I am having a personal relationship with Him, when we are having fellowship together, when we are participating together with the Lord, and then it is in those times that I can really learn some things about Him.  You can have the greatest preacher in the world, you can have the greatest teacher in the world but if you don’t spend any time alone with God, you will not learn anything.  You can blame it on anything that you want to or anybody that you want to, but it takes spending time alone with God.  That is the first thing that He knew that He had to do with these guys because of the responsibility that  He was going to give them, He knew that He had to spend time alone with them. 

 

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

 

He appointed them.  He says I want to spend time with them.  Now the next thing is that He going to send them forth to preach.  Do you think that God is going to send someone to be an ambassador for Him that doesn’t know anything about Him?  God is not going to do that.  Even in our governmental system today, if we are going to send an ambassador some place, not only is that person going to wherever he is going to go, but also he will have to know something about what is going on over there.  Moreover, He is going to have to know where He is coming from, what he is representing, and what He has to offer to the place that he is going to go. 

 

God is not sending us, God is not going to allow us, or God is not going to ask us to do great things for Him if we won’t take time to learn something about Him.  God is not going to do that.  God is not going to use us to be a great witness on our jobs or wherever we may be at if, we are not going to take time to learn something about Him.  God is not going to open up doors for us to witness to our family to our co-workers, to our children, to our spouses, whoever it may be.  God is not going to do that if we will not take some time to learn about Him. 

 

He is going to send these guys forth.  He has ordained them.  He says I want you to be with me.  I want you to know about me.  I want you to believe in me.  I want you to understand more about me.  I want you to learn more about me.  Then He says I am going to send you forth. 

 

The word in the Greek means this:  it means to send off from oneself.  What that means is that Jesus was going to send these guys out from Him.  It means this also:  it means furnished with credentials with a commission to act as one’s representative and to accomplish a certain mission.

 

That is what Jesus was going to do for these guys.  He wasn’t just going to send them out and say well, you are on your own.  He wasn’t going to send them out and say just do the best you can.  He wasn’t going to do that.  He didn’t do that because He knew that the responsibilities that these guys were going to have were going to be great.  He gives them some credentials.  In other words, He approves them.  His approval is upon them.  Not only that but He furnishes the credentials, but He gives them a commission to act as His representative.  Now I want you to think about that.

 

We are blessed that you and I today; we are His ambassadors in this world.  We are not apostles.  No, but we are saved today and we do have a responsibility of telling this world and representing to this world who Jesus Christ is.  We have that responsibility.  If we don’t know anything about Him, if our understanding of Him is not much and then someone walks up the street while you are trying to get someone to come to church.  They say you need to get saved.  You need to come to Jesus Christ.  If they would ask you who Jesus is what would you say?  Could you tell them; or take the Bible and say this is who Jesus Christ is.  This is why you need to get saved.  This is what he did for you when you were lost.  Could you do that?  That is something to think about.  What kind of a representative are we.  What kind of an ambassador are we.  He was going to send these guys forth, they were ambassadors, and they were representatives.  He had given them the credentials that they needed.  He had commissioned them for specific jobs and that what they were going to do. 

 

As I said earlier, these are apostles.  One here that is an envoy, one that is an ambassador, that is what these guys were.  He is going to send them forth to preach. 

What do you think about preaching? 

Define the word “preaching?” 

There is teaching in preaching.  Most people if you were sitting as we are tonight, if you sit around thinking about preaching you probably would think preaching must be someone that hollers loud, spits, claps his hands and that is probably what many think. 

Or you would think on the flip side of that preaching is someone that knows how to write out their sermons and put all the right adjectives, nouns, pronouns and say all the words in the right order.  Some may say that. 

The thing I want us to remember today is this:  this says Jesus Christ sent these 12 forward to preach. 

It is still yet Him today that is sending men forward to preach.  When you look at the first verse that we read, when it says that He called them unto Himself and they came unto Him.  When you look at that in the Greek, it will tells us that He did not allow anyone to volunteer to be an apostle.  He didn’t do that.  I’m not making that up.  When you look at this in the Greek, it tells us that.  When Jesus calls these 12 men from this great big multitude that was there, He did not allow any of them to volunteer.  He knew a whole lot more about them than they did himself.  We have folks today that are entering into the ministry today for a vocation because think you have plenty of money.  They must not be Baptist.  We have many folks that are doing that today.  they choose this as a profession, as an easy way to make a living; they think. 

 

The call has not changed any.  Still yet, God does the calling.  I don’t care who you are and I don’t care how smart you are, if God has not called you or whoever your pastor is or the man is who you have a confidence, if God has not called him into the ministry then he needs to get out. Because all he is doing is leading people astray.  That is all he is doing.

 

God calls men to preach.  God calls men to pastor.  When we go outside of that and put people who have volunteered into these positions we can weaken the whole thing because we put a weak link in the chain.

 

A fellow that is going to preach and He is sending him forth to preach.  The word “preach” means to make a public proclamation.  It means to make a public proclamation with gravity.  The word “gravity” means "with sincerity", being sincerely important or what they were preaching was very, very serious.  Not only that, but it was to have some formality about it. 

 

Sometimes we want to get up and talk 30 minutes.  We want to get up, holler and scream then talk about Genesis 3:15, then jump over to Luke 12, we want to jump back over to the book of Job and talk about Job for a minute, then we want to go to Revelation and jump back again.  If God is in all that and it all ties together it is fine, but sometimes it is just like spaghetti in a pan.  It is just all twisted up and don’t mean anything.

 

He says I am going to send you forth with a commission, with credentials, and I want you to preach, and make a public proclamation; it must be important, and it must have some formality about it.  If we are going to preach to a lost and dying world, and we come in or they come in and everything we do just goes in circles all the time.  Have you ever been to church and leave more confused than you came?  I have been there, haven’t you?  You go to church and you leave more confused than when you got there.  We forget sometimes what preaching really is.  I get loud, and I do spit and slobber sometimes.  That’s Biblical, I’m not sure spitting is Biblical, but I can read about it in there. 

 

We forget what preaching is sometimes.  We think that it is all these things and we tie it all in with emotions; sometimes that is true but sometimes it is not true.

 

This is the point that I really want to make today.

 

15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

Do you think that’s true? 

Do you think these guys really had that? 

Explain that to me then. 

Do you really think that God actually gave these men power in themselves to heal and to cast out devils? 

 He didn’t do that.

 Here is what happens.  If you read Romans 1:16…

 

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

 

The word power there is the word that we get our word dynamite from.  It is an inherent power.  When you and I get saved, we know that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.  Just because I’m indwelled by the Spirit of God does not mean that I can reach over there and heal Ryan.  I’m saved, I’m indwelled by the Spirit of God, I’m indwelt with His power, but that does not give me the authority to reach over and touch somebody and heal them. 

 

Don’t forget this!

 

Jesus said He is going to send them forth to have power to heal sickness and to cast out devils.  These guys were going to receive something and what they received the word in the Greek for power is a different word than back in Romans 1:16.  It is a completely different word for power.  This word for power in the Greek means a delegated authority.  God did not place within these men the power, His power that only God can do, God did not take that power and place that within these 12 men to give them the ability to heal.  God did not do that.

 

However, what God did do for them; He did delegate some authority for them. 

Many here have been on jobs before, I have been on many jobs before, but I was thinking of a crane today.  We might be building a building here that is two hundred feet tall.  We may have a crane that is two hundred feet in the air.  We may have all kinds of men that are working down here on the ground under this crane.  We may have three or four down here that are hooking cables to pieces of metal.  They may be three to five men down here, but ever job that I have been on there has been one fellow that delegates to tell the guy on the crane; when to raise, boom up, boom down, swing left, swing right, cable in, cable out.  There has always been one guy delegated with authority that has been delegated/given to Him to do that.  There are all kinds of other guys working down here but there is only one guy that can tell, the guy that is operating the crane when to move.  It is not so hard to understand is it? 

 

The authority that this guy has, it has been delegated to him.  When he gives the command to boom up, boom down or swing left or right, he does not swing it.  He does not have the power to make the crane swing left or to swing right, but the operator does.  The operator up there is in control of the power.  The guy that has been delegated the authority, the only he can do is say swing left, swing right.  That is all he can do.  That authority has been delegated to Him.  He says boom up and the crane operator booms up and it moves.

 

What Jesus did here to these 12, He delegated some authority unto them.  These guys could speak…

 

Remember in Acts 3…

 

1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour .

2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

 

Peter and John goes up to the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour and as they get ready to go into the temple they see a guy laying there who is lame from his mother’s womb.  He is expecting to get something from Peter and John.  As they go to walk into the temple Peter and John fasten their eyes upon this man.  He asked for an alms and they said, silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

 

Peter is the guy that the authority has been delegated to.  He tells this guy to get up and walk but it is the operator up here that makes him get up and walk.  Peter didn’t heal him.  Peter went ahead and said…

 

11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.

12 And when Peter saw it , he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

 

These guys were delegated this authority.

 

Matthew 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

 

He gave these fellows some authority so that they could speak and He would heal.  They could lay hands on people and He would heal.  That’s the Bible.  That’s the truth.

 

If Peter walked up and said you be healed, the power of God healed him.  All the other multitude that was on the hill, they could have walked up and seen this guy that was walking in the temple; they could have said, be healed; but nothing would have happened.  God had not delegated that authority to them. 

 

The crane operator that is sitting in the crane, if some of these other guys over there running around tries to go over there and start motioning to them, and then he is not going to pay any attention to them.  He knows that he has to listen to one guy and Jesus is the same way.  He heals everybody that has ever been healed has been healed by the power of Almighty God.  Delegated authority.  Peter says heal, and God heals.

 

We are not apostles.  I can’t heal anybody.  Peter couldn’t heal anybody.  The authority that was given to Peter, he could say in the name of Jesus be healed and they were healed.  We know that and we understand that.  I want you to notice something that when we read the epistles and when we read on over in the book of James; the delegated authority that was given to these 12 has been put into the local church.

 

James 5

 

14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

 

The authority that was given unto the other apostles to be able to speak the Word and God would heal has been delegated unto the church today.

 

It takes the power of Almighty God to heal.  That is one of the gifts that is within the church today. 

 

I have seen people who had cancer that we prayed for that don’t have cancer anymore.  I’ve see people who have had serious illnesses that didn’t have them anymore.  Also, I have seen those whom I have prayed for and prayed for; also die. 

 

When it is God’s will to heal, the authority for the healing is in the church. 

 

These guys that He called, if you get some time look at their names.  Their names meant a lot when you look up their names in Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek; it means a lot and even Judas Iscariot means something that we don’t ever think about.  It’s a good study.

 

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