Day 7: Discipleship Bootcamp

Welcome to Day 7 of our study of the Gospel of Mark, and the thesis is very clear. Who is Jesus? Where is He going? And He's called us as ordinary people to follow Him. And the first half of the book is we follow Him in service as He loves and heals and cares for people. And the second half is we join Him in His suffering. In order that we can die to ourselves and give life to others. And then of course, we're going to end, Easter. Resurrection, power, new life.

I remember many, many years ago, and it maybe it gives a picture of the Christianity that sort of infiltrates our world over time. And early on I talked about authentic versus synthetic or artificial Christianity and faith. I was playing pick-up basketball. I lived in Dallas at the time, and SMU had some really great courts, and I was always looking for a great pick-up game, and, you know, in between games, you sit next to a guy here or there, and there was a younger guy, and, um

I shared the Gospel with him, and I asked him, are you ready to put your faith in Christ? He said, yes, absolutely. I said, right now? You know, right here? He said, yes, absolutely. So, I led him in a prayer, and he prayed to receive Christ, very sincere. And he looked up, and I remember this question, he goes, well, is that it? Is that all there is? And I said, well, no, really, uh, you have now crossed from death to life, from darkness to light. God has a plan for your life. You're now born again, and now following Him is becoming His disciple or His apprentice.

And I share that story because I think if we were just looking at behavior, I think a lot of Christians, Hey, I got it. I prayed to receive Christ. I know Jesus loves me. I go to church now and then. I even kind of read the Bible, maybe now and then. Mostly then. And He wants to help me. I know He loves me. I'm going to heaven.

That is not at all why Jesus came. Of course, did He come to save. Yes. But He didn't say, would you guys like to pray a prayer? And then you do your thing and I'll do My thing. The whole message of the book of Mark is a message of discipleship. It's: join Me on this road, join Me on this path, follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men. And so, we're going to hit a real dramatic shift in the book. We're in chapter 6.

We're gonna see that Jesus is gonna go back to His hometown and get rejected. And we'll look at that. Then He's going to send the twelve out. They actually are going to do their real first ministry on their own. And then, um, there's a little parenthesis. We're gonna, we're gonna hear about something that will break Jesus’ heart. It'll be about John the Baptist's death and how he dies. And then He'll have the twelve come back and He's gonna do, you know, um, a time of reflection, evaluation, how did it go. His real mission, yes, He teaches, preaches, heals, casts out demons. His real mission is to prepare these twelve to change the world as they will make disciples just like Him. And then the second half from verse 34 on, He'll teach them and lead them in feeding the sheep and then in leading the sheep. So, that's where we're going.

So, let's pick it up. Chapter 6, verse 1. Uh, what we know is they've been completely astonished after He did all those miraculous things. He raises a little girl from the dead. When Jesus left there, Jairus house, He went to His hometown, accompanied by His disciples. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed. Where did this man get these things, they ask? What's the wisdom that He has been given Him, that even He does miracles? Isn't this the carpenter, isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, aren't His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him.

Jesus said to them, only in His hometown and among His relatives and in His own household is a prophet without honor. He could not do any miracles there. Except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Boy, it's really interesting here. We know from the other Gospel writers, they give a little bit fuller story. Mark wants to be very clear. He keeps the action moving. The other Gospel writers let us know that He taught in the synagogue, and then they gave Him a scroll, and He rolled out to Isaiah that talks about the coming Messiah, and then He sat down, which was a position of authority, and He said, in your hearing, this has been fulfilled. In other words, I am the Messiah. And that’s blasphemy. So, they, they get up and they take Him out to the edge of a cliff and they were going to push Him off. I mean, this is rejection.

This isn't like, we don't really like Your teaching and why don't You go somewhere else? This is, You've made claims about Yourself, we're going to kill You. And it's interesting, the text says He just walked through them for His time has not yet come.

So, Jesus has now been completely rejected by those He came to save, the religious leaders. They rejected their King. And now He's rejected by His family and now the plan is how will the Kingdom of God come into existence? How will people find life and love? How does this God who cares so deeply and has longed for His people, how does He build a bridge to them? And the answer is discipleship.

Now we pick up the story in verse 7. Then Jesus went around, teaching from village to village. Calling the twelve to Him, He sent them out, two by two, and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were His instructions. Take nothing for the journey except a staff. No bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals, but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them.

Now what I want you to get is, um, He's giving them very, very clear instructions. And He's building into their life.

Notice the first one is what to take. Actually, it's what not to take. Why? He wants them to be dependent. He wants them to realize God's going to have to show up here. What do you mean? I'm going to go preaching to places and I don't have any money. What about my food? And what about this? And what about that?

Second, where to stay? He said stay in one place. If you're received, don't move around. In other words, they start doing this kind of stuff. People go, oh, come to my house, or come to my house, come to my house. Don't let that stuff, you go to one place, make that your headquarters, don't let people distract you.

And then third, if they respond negatively, if you get rejected, guess what? Don't be surprised. Just shake the dust off. And say, okay, you can have your own way and just move on.

And then in verses 12 through 13, we're going to see that they had tremendous success. They went out and they preached that people should repent. And they drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

And all I can say is, can you imagine what that was like? Now, there's part of our journey here, I don't want to just, Oh, that was Jesus. That was then. This is sort of a, you are there, let's go on this journey together. What would [it] be like to see our Teacher rejected by His own family?

I wonder what it was like when the townspeople, wanted to kill Him and people that He grew up with, no respect, no honor. And you've seen Him do these miracles. You know, this is all a context for, following Him isn't easy. Jesus understands. You know, sometimes we ask God, like, why did You let this happen or why did You let that happen?
Anything that you are going through, anything that I go through, do we just feel such hurt and difficulty and pain? It's not like He theoretically understands. Part of Jesus taking on human flesh is so that you could know, and I could know, anything that you're going through, He really understands. And compassion with Jesus isn't theoretical. It's not some feeling, someday, some way of some invisible force. This is the Son of God, fully man, fully God, who's walked this earth, and whatever you go through, He understands, and He cares, and there was a cost to it.

And now He's given the disciples this opportunity to go out and to experience the grace of God working through them in supernatural ways. And I have to tell you, I don't know how many of you have had that experience where you shared the gospel and someone prayed to receive Christ and it's sort of like, Well, I'm just an ordinary person. How did that happen?

Or, or maybe you sat down with a couple that they said, We're getting divorced. There's no way. We're out of here. And you sat down and you listened and you walk them through a process and you talked to them about God's promises and forgiveness and got them on a path. And you look back now and that was five years ago and you realize. Their marriage, their kids, everything changed and God used you. There's something so powerful about that. And this is what they experienced.

I'll never forget, it was probably one of those experiences of a handful in my life that God used. That allowed me to kind of go into vocational ministry because it was the last thing on my mind. I want to be a basketball coach. Coaches helped me. I love God. I'm gonna make disciples as a basketball coach but I had a couple summers where I played basketball on a Christian team in all the countries of South America save Uruguay. And then later with an Australian team throughout all of Southeast Asia.

And, um, this was, uh, one of those early times, and we're in, um, Argentina. And it's an outdoor stadium. There, there's absolutely no, no evangelical, no Protestant church. There were a few Catholic churches. There were some missionaries. It was an outdoor stadium, maybe 10,000 people. And this missionary, he was a really, really good guy.

And, um, I don't know the whole reason or what he saw, but I gave my testimony at halftime and then we would invite people to sign up for a Gospel of John gospel, and they could check it out for themselves, and then we would invite them if you wanted to talk, you could come down.

And so, a few people would come down, you know, and we'd all talk to some people, and on this particular time, I'll never forget it, he took one of those plastic milk cartons, turned it upside down, grabbed my arm, took a microphone, put me on top of it, and said, preach to all these people.

And I just thought, what are you doing, man? I'm a, I'm a basketball coach. And, uh, I think he had a prompting from the Lord. I hope he did. And I didn't, you know, he was an authority figure, so what am I supposed to do? And so, what am I supposed to say? He said, I see, you read your Bible every morning. What did you read this morning?

And I happened to have read Psalm 19. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God, that the, the nature and the expanse pours forth speech. And so, I start quoting Psalm 19, and then I said, you know the God that made all these stars? It was a real starry night, and it was an outdoor court. I said, that God knows you. If you'll come down, I'll introduce you to Him.

And I mean, people started streaming down, and I thought, what do I do now? Long story short, he says, share the gospel. Kind of showed me how, back and forth. And, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 people came to know Christ, and it was one of those where, wait a second, I'm playing basketball in the summer, but I am a basketball coach. I'm ordinary. I'm not holy enough. I'm not smart enough.

And God showed me what He uses is the message. If you're available, God will use you. And these ordinary fishermen were casting out demons, people were repenting, lives were being changed, and they were beginning to taste the joy and some of the reward of being a follower of Jesus.

Well Mark wants us to now know that there's a cost to that, and so he prefigures this with sort of as the flow of the chapter. This is like a parenthesis, and we're now going to hear a story. Follow along as I pick it up in verse 14.

King Herod heard about all of this. Like, Men, what's going on? who is this guy? Who are His followers? All these miracles. For Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in Him.

Others said He is Elijah, and still others claimed He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago. But when Herod heard this, he said, John, the man I beheaded has been raised from the dead.

For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and then he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Phillip's wife whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So, Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she wasn't able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and a holy man.

When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled. He liked listening to him. Finally, the opportune time came. On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his officials and military commanders and leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you. Any promise with an oath. Whatever you ask, I will give you up to half my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother, Well, what should I ask for? The head of John the Baptist, she answered.

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request, I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oath and his dinner guests, he didn't want to refuse her. So, he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and then brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Now, this is Jesus’ cousin. They're roughly within six months the same age. He prepared the way. The disciples have just come off of, this is awesome! We preached and people responded. We cast out demons and the demons left. They- They had to obey because of Jesus’ authority, and in the midst of the height of momentum and wonder and, wow, He is the Messiah, and He's kind of deputized and baptized to do His work, they get this terrible news.

And Mark has placed this, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at this part in the story to sort of temper all the excitement and all the power, with a picture of there will be a cost. John the Baptist was faithful. He's wanting us to understand, and wanting the readers in Rome to understand, when you follow Jesus, listen very, very carefully, your life is not your own. We do work at Living on the Edge in lots of different countries.

And one of the privileges I have, and our team has, is meeting with people who get training to take God's Word into their countries and they understand that if they are caught doing what they're doing, they'll be killed. And I'll never forget, just a few years ago, not long ago, I was, uh, in a safe country, Jordan, happened to be Jordan, and a, a young doctor, from Yemen at the time and there's a huge war and little Bible studies were starting and God was working and there was a contract out on her and some other leaders and they were killed and she got out of Yemen and we were having breakfast with a missionary that I won't name and she couldn't be 32 just a young woman, loved God, we were trying to help her along with the missionary to you know, find a place where there were refugees so she could share Christ and continue her medical practice.

And she just knew that there are people all over the Middle East that want her dead. And she goes, Would you please help me? And just, just like, I mean like a waiter saying, could I get another cup of coffee? It was almost that casual. Would you please help me? I want to do as much as I can. Because I know I won't live very long.

And she had an assurance. And when I have conversations like that, it reminds me that the Jesus that we follow is not the feel-good Jesus. He's not the I'm fulfilled Jesus. He's not the everything's going to be great Jesus. He's not the pray a prayer and everything's going to be wonderful and He's the God of the universe that calls us to follow Him.

And part of that will be reward beyond what we could ever dream. People's lives change forever and ever and ever, and part of that will be some people that are very, very faithful, like John the Baptist, will suffer great pain. And Jesus is letting those disciples know then, and us now, this is a part of the journey.

Now, after that, He realizes the apostles are worn out, and we pick it up in verse 30. The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all that they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going, they didn't have a chance to eat. Seems like that's a regular problem. He said to them, Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Really, really important.

So, they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place, but many who saw them leaving, recognized them, and ran on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So, He began teaching them many things.

But this time it was late in the day, so His disciples came to Him. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But He answered them - get this - you give them something to eat. Now let's pause just for a second. He sent them out. They were dependent, God provided. He gave them power. They saw the power. They rejoiced.

They come back and realize there's a cost. They hear the news about John the Baptist. They wisely are going to get a break. By the time they get to where they're, come to the retreat center, there's thousands of people and Jesus sees them and - this same word.

He's filled with compassion and His response is to teach. He knows that the Word of God is life, and so He teaches them. And as He teaches them, it keeps getting later and later, and the disciples say, Hey, you know, this is, man, we're out in the middle of nowhere. And now He's going to teach them something very important. He goes, You feed them.

They said to Him, That would take eight months of a man's wage. Are we going to go spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat? Response, How many loaves do you have, He asked. Go and see. When they had found out, they said, five and two fish. Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.

So, they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke the bread. Then He gave it to his disciples and set it before the people. He divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. And the number of men, men only, who had eaten were five thousand. So, you add some kids and wives, I mean it was a huge crowd. Ten, fifteen, maybe twenty thousand people. And they all ate. And how many baskets did they pick up? Twelve. How many apostles were there? Twelve.

We don't have enough even for us. You feed them. Well, what do you have? Bring what you have to Me. And then let's organize in advance, by faith, that God's going to show up. So, they do. And they got to be a part of that miracle. And those twelve baskets not only would be something for them, but how many tribes are there in Israel? Twelve.

Where's this happening? In a Jewish area. Jesus is saying, I'm the Bread of Life, not only for this group, but there's provision. There's an abundance. There's provision for whosoever would come. In fact, He now knows that they have been experiencing a miracle. They did some miracles. They've gone through some heartache. They've done some reflection.

Now they've experienced giving out this bread and Jesus sends everyone away and He goes up on the mountain to pray and He sends them on ahead and the text is going to develop and many of you know the story, they go out on a boat and there's this strong wind and they're, about a couple miles out and as they're out, Jesus, after praying, sees them and it says He walks upon the water and He purposed to go by them, but they saw Him, and they were terrified.

And he says, Peace! It's Me. Don't be afraid. And then He gives them a miracle, where He enters the boat, and He says, Take courage. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened. And then He sums it up in verse 53.

When they had crossed over the land to the other side of [Gennesaret], and anchored there, as soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus, and they ran throughout the whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was, and everywhere He went, in villages and towns and countryside, they packed the sick into the marketplaces. They begged Him to let them touch even the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed.

His popularity is off the charts. The disciples have had yet another experience, and the experience in the discipleship process was I'm sending you out with power, they experienced it, I'm sending you out and once you understand there's a cost, there's sorrow, there's challenges, there's hurts, let's go and get some rest, that's a good plan, but sometimes your plans get interrupted, and in the midst of that, you bring what you have and you trust God and He will work.

And then finally, they go out on the boat and they're straining and He was going to pass by and He meets them where they are and it says things were calmed and they were immediately where they needed to be. God will meet us where we are and He's going to show up.
But what I want you to understand is in every part of this passage, they're learning to serve. They're in the training process. He helps them, but He gives them responsibility. Parents, you must pour responsibility into your kids. You have to disciple your kids.

Those of you that are in church leadership, those of you that are in pastoral ministry, those of you that are on staffs, those of you that are lay people that are in God's Word and know you need to make disciples, you need to go through this process. You do it. You let them watch. Then, they do it and you watch. And then you turn them loose and you trust that God will work. That's God's plan, making disciples. And it doesn't happen when people simply sit around and learn more and more about the Bible, more and more about Jesus. They have to act, they have to engage. And this entire series is built around this one hope, that you would engage like never before. See you next time.