Following Jesus

A couple of weeks ago, Ben, my son, who's on staff, said that he has decided to become a follower of the NBA.

So to become a follower of the NBA, you have to pick a team, so he went through that.

That's the National Basketball Association of the United States.

And you need to give your allegiance, don't you?

You start a decision to follow a new sports team, and they're asking for you to be committed.

So if he has kids with Courtney, they're going to have to buy some Chicago Bulls outfits.

Sports teams invite and expect devotion.

They might even call their fans family.

Well, this morning, we, after last week's pretty full on weekend, looking at the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, we go back in the story, something that I've never done in my years of preaching.

Normally, you don't go back in the same book, the Gospel of Mark, and see where it all began.

But that's what we're doing, because we're working through the Gospel of Mark throughout the year.

And this is a very special passage, as you've heard read, the calling of the 12 disciples.

When Jesus invited them to come and follow him as his close group of apprentices.

This was not just a statement that he was asking them to say, to declare with their words.

It wasn't simply a prayer that they might pray in the quietness of their rooms.

Following Jesus was moving your body and physically tracking him, being with him.

This morning, we'll see from our portion of scripture that following Jesus means to go, to know, to show.

To firstly go to Jesus.

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.

From the previous chapters in Mark's Gospel, we know that some, if not all, of these disciples have already been tagging along with Jesus.

Verse 7 just before says that Jesus withdrew to the lake with his disciples.

So he has more than the 12, but it seems that this is the time that he formalizes the team.

There's a sense of specific calling to the disciples who would become his apprentices.

Jesus was called a rabbi.

Rabbi literally means master.

John Mark Comer, in his excellent book, Practicing the Way, says that not only were rabbis expert teachers of the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, they were also magnetic examples of life with God.

Every rabbi had their own yoke, which is a Hebrew idiom for their way, their way of following the commands of the Old Testament and enjoying a thriving human existence in God's good world.

Rabbis could have been farmers or blacksmiths or carpenters.

Most trained under another rabbi, though we're not told that about Jesus, and then they began to teach and call their own disciples.

At what age would you guess?

About the age of 30.

Rabbis were itinerant and mostly were unpaid.

Some worked their farms or ran businesses for some seasons of the year so that they could travel in the off season.

They walked from town to town, teaching in whichever synagogue would take them, relying on the hospitality of people of peace.

And they often spoke in parables and riddles.

Normally, they traveled with a small band of disciples, teaching not in a classroom, but out in the open air along the road, and not from a textbook or curriculum, but from the Hebrew scriptures and the school of life.

You might find it interesting that Jesus didn't invent discipleship just a few years before Jesus.

Rabbi Hillel had called 80 disciples.

Rabbi Akiva, a famous rabbi, had come after Jesus, and he had five special disciples, but about 1,000 who followed him.

John the Baptist obviously had disciples, as did the Pharisees.

The Apostle Paul was a former disciple of the nationally renowned rabbi named Gamaliel.

Discipleship, or as we might call it, apprenticeship, was the pinnacle of first century Jewish education.

Did you know that kids started learning the Old Testament at the age of five in the Jewish educational system, and in an oral culture by the age of 12 or 13, they had memorized the first five books of the Bible?

So we've got one verse.

Let's do it.

We can do that.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy memorized by the time they were about 12 or 13.

Some kids finished there and went off to work with the family business or wherever else they would find work.

But the best and brightest would go on to the next level of education called the house of learning, where they would continue their studies and many would achieve the goal of memorizing the whole Old Testament.

Is that insane?

Even when I've read it many times before, I still find it hard to believe.

But it's apparently the truth.

And then around 17, many would finish.

But the best of the best of the best would continue on and be chosen to apprentice under a rabbi.

Doesn't this change what we've just read?

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.

Jesus is formally shaping his team of apprentices.

And rather than what seems often like a random invitation, this is a rare privilege being offered to these young men.

Following Jesus in the first century obviously means to go, to mentally apply the rigor of learning and memorization, to spiritually submit yourself to a moral code, and to physically, literally follow your Rabbi with your body.

Do you know that following Jesus Christ today requires your body?

Amen?

It's more than just a decision.

Now, you may be making a confession of faith right on your deathbed, and you won't get to use your body too much.

But certainly for most of us, Christianity is far more than a statement of belief, a spiritual experience.

It is to offer our whole bodies, our minds, emotions, everything that makes up us as a soul, a living soul, to be an apprentice and learn how to live the way that Jesus said we could live.

So for the disciples, it meant leaving their jobs and their homes and communities.

In today's passage, it meant walking up the mountainside.

There is effort involved to go to Jesus.

There is a no to be said so that there could be a yes said.

Jesus called to him those he wanted.

I find it's interesting that many people get caught on this.

Jesus only wants some people, a large swathe of the Christian world would believe.

I tend to not go with that myself, that he only wants a few ultimately.

I think when John 3.16 says God loved the world, I think it really means that, that he loves the world.

And I think 2 Peter 3.9 means what it says, where it says that the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise.

He is willing that none should perish, but everyone come to repentance.

For certain, no one will ever come to Christ without God the Father leading and drawing them first.

But I want to say today his heart is for the lost.

Is there an amen?

He loves the lost.

And he is inviting you, if you're sitting here today and you don't know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour, he wants you to.

He's still calling people to join his team.

I have had many times in my life the opportunity, the privilege of being in a pool like that and baptising someone who has just made a confession of faith that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour, often there's a little bit more of a testimony involved.

But we have this year seen 20 people, as Nikita said, testify and most of them have been quite a simple testimony.

And to be honest, I love it.

I love the fact that it's unifying.

It brings everyone back to the same point.

No one has the fancy, amazing testimony.

Not that we don't want to hear them, we do.

But I love this idea of just testifying, Jesus Christ died and rose again, and He's my Lord and Saviour, and I'm going to go through the waters of baptism.

It's a mime of the Gospel.

Now, every time people get baptised, especially you might be one that wants to do it today spontaneously to go along with Mandy, who will be baptised, you can't just make it happen.

I think this is the perfect example of the followership of discipleship requiring your body.

No one gets baptised today without their heart pounding a little bit.

You are special if it doesn't pound.

You will think, wow, are you speaking to me, Lord?

And then you've got to decide, I'm gonna probably stand up.

And then you've got to find your way to that back corner.

And if you go out the back there, you might think I'm gonna get lost, I don't know where I am.

And you've got to get over these issues and then go around and go to the pool of clothing and hope that it's something that fits you.

And then you've got to come up this laneway and meet me and you've never maybe met me before and then we've got to work out how we're gonna baptise you so that you don't get stuck underwater or how.

I hope you hear where I'm going with this.

It just takes a little bit of effort.

The go of followership doesn't stop after the start.

The go of followership of Jesus does not stop after the start.

Each day, an apprentice to Jesus has a decision to make.

Am I following today?

Is Jesus my Rabbi today?

And I'm not suggesting we lose our salvation daily, but Jesus is the one who said you have to carry your cross daily.

So there's a decision we make daily to be followers of Jesus.

Am I attending God's School of Life again today?

Following means go to Jesus in obedience to his promptings.

It also means be with Jesus, to know Jesus.

He appointed 12 that they might be with him.

The Christian life is often called the with God life.

Is that how you would describe it?

The with God life.

It's a way of life lived in relationship with your creator, with the Spirit of God.

It's a life of conversational intimacy with God.

The disciples spent their days literally with Jesus, but through the Holy Spirit, because Pentecost happened, Jesus ascended to heaven and he sent his Holy Spirit to fill those who would believe in him.

Because of Pentecost, we can actually be with God through his Spirit, really even in a more intimate way than the disciples were with Jesus in the first century before the cross and the resurrection.

This is in fact the secret Jesus says to a fruit for life.

Let me read from John 15, verse 4.

Jesus says, remain in me, live with me, as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.

Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given fit, done for you.

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.

And so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.

This is my command.

Love each other.

Now these words were spoken to the disciples of Jesus, but if you read John 17, Jesus prays specifically for us.

My prayer is not for them alone, that is his current disciples.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one.

Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

Jesus prays that we might be with him, that he might be with us.

To be sure that you are hearing the voice, the promptings of Jesus, and not maybe last night's dinner or maybe whatever fad is the latest thing on social media.

We have to be in God's word, amen?

So the with God life is a life that works when we are marinated, saturated in the words of God from the Old and New Testaments.

Jesus called his disciples to be with him, to know him because he wants to guide his disciples.

Last week, so we had six people that were spontaneously baptized, they decided spontaneously.

And it was interesting talking to someone last week after the service, they said, as it was all happening, I was looking around and I saw two women and I felt like just a sense that they were going to walk out.

And this person said, and then they did.

They got up and they walked out and this person said to me, what do you think that is?

Is that the Lord?

And I said, yeah, I reckon it is.

I reckon that's the with God life.

I reckon that's the Lord Jesus sharing his heart with his disciples that we might know him as we learn to walk in conversational intimacy with him.

Our worship team, I think, are really good.

Now this puts the pressure on this particular iteration of the worship team because I wrote this before you played, but I still believe it.

Our worship team are great.

I think as musicians, I think they've learned to play how we might call tightly.

Anyone heard of that before?

Musicians that play tightly.

It means they listen to one another.

It means they are playing in sync.

It means the drummer is keeping time, not getting faster or slower and everyone's locking in.

It means they're watching the leader and they're sort of being led in the swell of emotion and volume that happens in a song.

I think the reason that they are able to sing, if you listen to a group of singers who have been singing together for a while, do you notice that the words finish at the same time?

They start at the same time.

If there's a bit of vibrato, they'll even be the same level of vibrato together because they've learned over hundreds of hours of being with one another to play together.

I think that's a beautiful picture of the with God life.

That we're meant to know the music of the kingdom and to listen to the Spirit guiding us and to walk with Jesus.

It's his heart.

He called his disciples to come up to him and to be with him that they might know him and also show his authority to the powers of this world.

He called his disciples that he might send them out to preach verse 14 and to have authority to drive out demons.

Following Jesus means to go to Jesus.

It means to be with Jesus, know him, and it means to show Jesus' authority and power.

Jesus sent his disciples out to preach and to confront the powers of darkness in this world.

Matthew chapter 6, a little bit later on, says that Jesus went around teaching from village to village.

Calling the twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

They went out and preached that people should repent.

They drove out many demons and appointed, sorry, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Isn't it interesting that in this specific calling of the disciples, the giving of the mandate to become apprentices, I find it fascinating that the capacity to deal with the demonic was preeminent for Jesus.

Isn't that interesting?

This is the very beginning.

Come to me here, points the 12, and he says, now I want you to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

In my reflections on life and in discussing aspects of evil with lots of people, both Christians and non-Christians, I found that it's very common for someone to say, I have experienced what felt like evil in my life.

It felt evil.

It's less frequent to find someone who gives a testimony of, I have been used by God to minister in His name to set captives free by commanding the demonic to go to the feet of Jesus.

And I'm not talking about some black clothed, cloaked exorcist with a big cross.

I'm just referring to the very normal authority that Jesus gave His first disciples.

And I think through the giving of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the Church, He's given that power to everyone who names Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

Matthew's great commission has Jesus saying, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Now go and make disciples of all nations.

Baptise them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And teach them how to live the way that I said you could live.

When we step out in our go to follow Jesus, and we experience His loving presence with us in the going of followship, we should fully expect, shouldn't we, that God through the Spirit would give us the power and authority of the name of Jesus to enable us in His name to break chains of oppression.

Amen.

Power and authority to drive out demons.

In the 21st century, I think we can see this as it refers to spiritual oppression that is found in families for generations.

Sometimes there's opportunity to minister into that and use the power of the name of Jesus to change that situation.

It can be personal.

People can be really quite affected by spiritual powers.

It can certainly be manifest in communities, the demonic.

Have you thought about that?

Evil lives in ideas.

Yes?

Until you hear that spoken, you don't think about it.

But the main vehicle that evil finds itself travelling in is ideas.

It's manifesting evil in community.

Evil can live in the midst of culture.

Of course, culture comes from the word cult.

Religious cults can be evil, but not just religious cults.

Romans 1 says that aspects of all culture can embody and carry evil, or in other words, the dark powers of this world.

Personally, I've seen the manifestation of the demonic personally in other people's lives many times overseas, but also just as many times here.

It's not that common, but it's not completely uncommon.

And I have found personally that the main issue is that as a Christian, we understand Philippians 2.

Philippians 2 talks about Jesus and his complete and absolute authority.

Because he lived the perfect life, died a perfect death, and rose from the grave, he conquered the powers of evil, sin and death.

And he has been given the name that cosmically, certainly involves this planet, but cosmically across the universe, is the greatest name in existence.

Every knee must bow to his name.

Every tongue confess that he is Lord.

And so this might sound strange, and I certainly don't mean it in a way of being, what's the word, glib to celestial beings because we're told not to do that.

But I have found that if you think about the authority we've been given as followers of Jesus, as deputies with the sheriff's badge of the name of Jesus, it's very much like seeing a dog that's out of control and seeing someone just with words.

And probably the height of their posture tell that dog in no uncertain terms, stop it now.

And the dog stops.

But if someone doesn't know their authority, that dog will not respond to that person's authority.

And this is not an authority that I hold or you hold in yourself.

It's the authority of the deputies' badge, amen?

And so, we don't go chasing demons here at all.

But you just can't deny the fact that this is right there at the start of the calling and sending out of the disciples that there's a requirement that they deal with the powers.

And we can do that.

And it can be very normal and it can be very controlled.

And it's in the power of the name of Jesus.

And there are a couple of truths to remember if you're praying in it.

I mean, you may be never heard of this.

That our power is in the power of the name and the power of the empty tomb and the blood of Christ.

Amen?

If there's a power to be named in a prayer of authority, it is we ask you to go, demon, to the feet of Jesus, and we speak it in His name in the power of the blood of Christ and the power of the empty tomb.

That is where the power is found.

This is what following Jesus is all about.

And then we're given a list of the names of the disciples.

These are the 12 he appointed.

Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, the Rock, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

To them he gave the name Boanages, which means sons of thunder.

Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, son of Alpheus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

It's an interesting bunch of guys, isn't it, with nicknames.

Sons of Thunder is the sons of the brothers with the tempers, and the others are quite ordinary men.

Fisherman, tax collector, a zealot, and others with unknown backgrounds.

A canvas of colour, if you will.

Ben in the video talked about this idea of God is painting his story on the canvas of generations in the colours of the nations.

That came from about nine years ago, when our family were at another church, and we'd been there.

I was the pastor for 19 years, and I felt like, Leanne and I both felt on the same day that God said it's time to finish.

And so we finished soon after that.

And I found it hard to leave because we had sewn in blood, sweat and tears.

Literally, it felt like there was a thing coming out for 19 years.

We grew up there, had most of our kids there.

So much of our life was in that place, but it was clear God was saying, move on.

And I was sort of dragging my feet in a way, and after we'd left, I was like, I feel a bit ripped off, Lord.

And I clearly heard in my bedroom the Spirit of God, because we're living the with God life in conversational intimacy with him, I felt like the Spirit said, John, I'm painting my story on the canvas of generations in the colours of the nations, and you won't live long enough to be part of what I want to do at that church.

And isn't it wonderful that we happen to be in a church that started in either 1903 or 1904, I think it was 1903, but no one is still here who was there at the start.

No one could say, Lord, I want to do it all.

This church had to work out what Ben was talking about, how to join the seams up of the canvas between generation to generation.

We have to work out how to have one generation commend his works to another, amen?

That's the strong church because God is bigger than us.

He lives longer than us.

And so when we talk about canvas of color, we are celebrating each generation as a core value.

And we're also celebrating the diversity that comes with a mixture of racial backgrounds and educational backgrounds and thought life.

We come together to make this mixed bag, just like the disciples.

Last week we saw how Jesus wins.

He wins the battle against sin and death.

He died and he rose again.

And he calls people, everyday people, to come and follow him, to be his apprentices, to go to him, be with him, and show his good news to the world.

And Mandy today is going to be our 21st person who goes through the waters of baptism to testify that she believes Jesus Christ is that winner, that he solved the problem of sin and death.

Romans 10 9 says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Confession of belief is so important, and that's why it's wonderful to have people stand up here and do it publicly before God and these people in this room and to declare to the powers of darkness, Jesus Christ has died for me and I belong to him.

So can I invite you to join us if you are considering following Jesus?

I don't think there's a better way to make that first stand than to come forward.

Going forward at a Billy Graham Crusade would have been a good one.

That would have been, you can't do that anymore.

But this is a close second in a way.

Come forward and meet me there now in the Baptistery and decide I'm going to follow Jesus.

And the first thing I do is to remind myself this is going to involve all of me.

All of me is washed clean.

There's no more guilt, no more shame, because I am free in Christ.

There is no more condemnation.

There's no need for a lengthy testimony, but if you'd like to, you can do that later on.

What we need to do is just walk around and join us, following Jesus.

There's nothing like it.

Amen?

Can I pray?

And then after that, we're going to stand and sing a song.

Mandy and I are going to head out, get changed, and I really do invite you, if you'd like to come.

We won't have that much time to wait.

So if you'd like to just through those doors around the back of the hall, there is a whole stack of clothing and towels, everything you need, and make your confession of faith through baptism today.

Lord God, we thank you for your word, and I thank you that you answer prayer, and we asked you at the start to speak, and I know you have.

Whatever I've said doesn't matter so much, but I know, Lord, you've used your word, and you've spoken, and Jesus will be glorified.

And Lord, I pray for those that are considering baptism now, would you strengthen them?

Lord, for those of us who are wandering from the path, who are starting to get caught up in following other gods, by your grace, would you bring us back?

Lord, those of us who have disordered desires, those of us who are now struggling with spiritual attack, Lord, we know that you encourage us to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So Lord Jesus, I state in the power of your name that there is no power greater than the Gospel.

The Gospel is the power under salvation for all who would believe, and that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God.

May you set captives free here in this room who are reaching out to you now.

Because you said Jesus, if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We look to you to set us free in your name.

Amen.

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