The Book Of Mark # 15

These twelve men had opportunities that no other men who ever lived on this earth have had.

Each disciple that Jesus called into the ministry had special skills. Many of them were fishermen, and He took their skill as fishermen and made them “fishers of men.”

Let’s look at two things:

I. THE CALLING OF THE TWELVE

Look at verse 13, we read, “And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.”

A question that we can’t help but ask ourselves is, “WHY DID HE CHOOSE TWELVE?” Why not six, or twenty-four; why twelve?

Twelve was a number that represented governmental perfection. It coincided with the twelve sons of Jacob. There are other theories as to why He chose twelve, but no one can really be sure why He chose twelve.

Many times folks think BIGGER IS BETTER. Those who think this way may think that Jesus would be considered a failure by today's standards.

After all, the Lord spent most of His time with only twelve disciples, one of whom betrayed Him. However, Jesus knew that by concentrating on twelve disciples, He could train them and they could train others.

The idea that “Bigger is Better” is not always true, and that is a valuable lesson for a church to learn.

Illus: For example:

• If a Sunday school teacher will concentrate on ONE CLASS, she is much more effective than trying to concentrate on everyone in the church.

• If a deacon will concentrate on a particular group that has been assigned to him, he will be more effective than trying to concentrate on the entire congregation.

The Lord chose just twelve men and concentrated on teaching them so they could teach others.

By putting QUALITY ahead of QUANTITY, the Lord set a pattern for how godly leaders are to develop. There can be no shortcuts to developing leaders for the church.

Mark writes, "And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." (Mark 3:14)

Jesus focused on these twelve disciples, and immediately the time He spent with them began to pay off.

During this time, many people were amazed at the transformation in the lives of twelve ordinary men.

Look at Acts 4:13, Luke says this about them, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

We become a lot like the people we spend most of our time with. And notice, the scripture tells us people could tell that, “…they had been with Jesus.”

We can learn many things from the calling of these twelve disciples. For example, WE LEARN IMMEDIATELY FROM THEIR CALLING THAT DISCIPLESHIP MUST BE A WILLING SUBMISSION OF OUR WILL TO THE CALL OF GOD.

God is not going to MAKE YOU DO ANYTHING! Every one of us is created as a FREE MORAL BEING!

Sometimes you hear folks say, “The devil made me do it!” No! Not even the devil can make you do something you do not want to do! He can tempt you, but he can’t make you do anything.

Illus: Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said,

• "We can't keep Christians from going to church."

• "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."

• "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior."

• "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken, so let them go to their churches; let them have their covered Dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do", said the devil. "Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

• "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

• "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."

• "Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive...to keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."