So You Want a Fruitful Ministry Like Jesus?
- Focus on MISSION . (Mk 3:7-12)
- Invest in PEOPLE . (Mk 3:13-19)
Eight People You Will Work With In Ministry:
- GUNG-HO Guy (Simon Peter)
- EMOTIONAL Powder Keg (James and John)
- BEHIND the scenes Worker Bees (Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, James Son of Alphaeus)
- The CONTROVERSIAL Convert (Matthew)
- Constant SKEPTIC (Thomas)
- MAMA'S Boy (Thaddaeus)
- POLITICAL Campaigner (Simon the Zealot)
- The BACKSTABBERS (Judas Iscariot)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:00-00:44
Mark chapter 3, is everybody there? We're going to be starting in verse 7 and you know in the church sometimes we throw around some phrases that sound really good but we don't really stop and think about them, right? Things like, "I want to be a New Testament church. I just want to be a New Testament church." Which New Testament church would you like to be? The one at Corinth, the one at Thessalonica, and you're like, "Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean by that." But somehow Somehow we've taken some of these churches and have idealized them, but when you really study your Scriptures, you'll find that the church in the New Testament was a lot like the church in our day.
00:47-00:51
God gloriously at work, people still with problems.
00:52-01:10
And here's another thing, another thing that we say, those of us in ministry, and there are many, many, many people here in ministry at different capacities serving Jesus Christ in this church, but people say things like, "I want a ministry like Jesus.
01:12-01:24
I want a ministry like Jesus." And you know, when I graduated Bible college, that's what I said, "I want a ministry like Jesus, but I sort of idealized some things without having a full understanding of the Bible.
01:27-01:40
But a ministry like Jesus in my mind was this, everyone gets along, everyone's on the same page, everyone shares my opinions and my preferences, and you just got to get some systems down and ministry can be pretty easy, right?
01:41-01:44
I mean, that's why I went to Bible college, because I thought you only had to buy one textbook.
01:45-01:47
I was really surprised by that.
01:49-01:54
Well, ministry turns out a lot differently than I expected, and there's nothing that can really prepare you.
01:55-02:03
The title of today's message is "Discipling, Equipping for Work," and the question that we're going to look at in this text is just simply this.
02:03-02:04
So you want a fruitful ministry like Jesus.
02:06-02:10
How can we have a fruitful ministry like Jesus Christ?
02:12-02:13
First of all, write this down on your outline.
02:15-02:16
Focus on mission.
02:18-02:19
Focus on mission.
02:22-02:24
Do you want to have a fruitful ministry like Jesus Christ?
02:24-02:26
You have to focus on the mission.
02:27-02:27
Look at verse 7.
02:27-02:45
It says, "Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judah and Jerusalem and Edomia and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon.
02:46-02:56
When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd lest they crush him.
02:59-03:25
For he had healed many so that all who had diseases pressed around to touch him and whenever the unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, 'You are the Son of God!'" And he strictly ordered them not to make him known." So verses 7 through 12, just simply write this in the margin of your Bible.
03:26-03:26
This is a recap.
03:28-03:36
If you've been going through the Gospel of Mark with us at Harvest Bible Chapel, I'm I'm sure you noticed a lot of this stuff sounds very familiar, doesn't it?
03:37-03:37
You're like, "Yeah, we've heard this.
03:38-03:49
Yeah, yeah, great crowds and healing and, you know, evicting demons." And you're like, "A lot of this sounds familiar," and that's because Mark is sort of giving us a recap.
03:51-03:58
Actually, the last several messages have focused on four confrontations that Jesus had with the Pharisees.
03:58-04:09
Remember, we went through, you know, "Why do your disciples… Why don't your disciples fast, and why do you eat with sinners, and why do you break the Sabbath?" And all these confrontations.
04:11-04:24
Well, Mark sort of took us through that portion and is sort of giving us a recap here in chapter three, but that doesn't mean the confrontation is going to end because we're going to have more even next week.
04:26-04:28
So verses 7 through 12 is a recap.
04:31-04:33
of Jesus, the demand for His time and attention.
04:34-04:36
It's continuing and it's increasing.
04:36-04:40
And verse 7 says that Jesus withdrew with His disciples.
04:41-04:49
If you recall last week, the last thing that we studied was that the Pharisees and Herodians, because of the whole Sabbath issue, got together.
04:49-04:54
And Pharisees and Herodians, like friends are enemies typically.
04:55-04:56
Enemies, right?
04:56-05:08
But they're like, "Well, we hate Jesus and you hate Jesus, so let's talk." And they got together to plot how they could, my Bible says, how they could destroy Jesus.
05:08-05:17
They hated Jesus Christ so much, "Let's get together and figure out how we can destroy Him." And then it says that Jesus withdrew.
05:19-05:20
Now why did Jesus withdraw?
05:20-05:21
Was He scared?
05:21-05:22
Absolutely not.
05:23-05:25
He withdrew because it wasn't His time.
05:25-05:36
I understand Jesus was on a very specific schedule of ministry, and Jesus knew that there was going to be a time for him to suffer and die.
05:36-05:37
This wasn't the time.
05:37-05:44
So Jesus withdrew from the presence of these enemies in this season.
05:46-06:06
And you're like, "Okay, what are all these places here?" It says, first of all, it says, "From Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Edomia, from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon." And I look these places up, we're talking about places south and west of Judah, east of Galilee, northwest of Galilee.
06:07-06:10
Really, what Mark is saying here is people came from everywhere.
06:12-06:31
So to put it in Pittsburghese, we would say things like, "Well, people were coming from Saxenburg and the South Hills and Aspen Wall and McKee's Rocks and somebody's like, "Correction, like if Jesus is in the North Hills, nobody's coming from the South Hills to see Him." Right?
06:34-06:36
I actually got an amen on that.
06:38-06:39
That's a funny thing about Pittsburgh.
06:40-06:46
If you live like in the North Hills and you're talking to somebody from the South Hills, They make it sound like you live in Portugal.
06:48-06:49
Like where's this party at?
06:49-06:50
Well, it's up in the North Hills.
06:50-06:51
Like, "Oh, forget it.
06:51-06:56
I'm not going to make it." Like, "Dude, it's like a 30-minute drive." Yeah, but they're going to go through a tunnel.
06:59-07:03
Yeah, that's like 25 seconds of your life you won't get back.
07:04-07:08
But anyways, the point is people were coming from everywhere.
07:08-07:09
That's the point.
07:10-07:13
And then verses 9 through 12, again, it's more of the same.
07:13-07:18
Ministry, faithfulness, crowds, healing, demon evictions.
07:18-07:24
Recall, when we studied this previously, it says that the demons cried out.
07:25-07:30
And the original language means literally terrified.
07:31-07:32
Terrified.
07:34-07:43
Like, imagine, you know, waking up and there's like a tarantula on your bedsheets crawling towards you.
07:43-07:47
Like, imagine that like times a thousand.
07:47-07:49
And that's how these demons felt about Jesus.
07:50-07:52
They were scared to death of Jesus Christ.
07:55-08:00
And they thought that God's incarnation on the earth meant their immediate judgment.
08:04-08:06
We'll be talking more about that down the road.
08:07-08:13
And it says, "And Jesus strictly ordered them not to make him known." Jesus didn't want affirmation from hell.
08:13-08:19
Jesus didn't want demons affirming him because He didn't want the message confused in people's minds.
08:22-08:24
affirmation comes from God's people.
08:25-08:26
So it's more of the same.
08:26-08:27
It's the recap.
08:27-08:30
And why does Mark put this in here?
08:30-08:43
Well, at this point in the gospel of Mark, we've seen these things over and over, and you might be saying to yourself, "Okay, well, we've done all this, like, healing and demons and crowds and all these things, so like, what's the new thing, Jesus?
08:43-08:46
What now?" And the answer is nothing.
08:46-08:47
This is the thing.
08:49-08:53
Seeing God at work is the thing.
08:55-08:59
I'd like to remind you, church, that faithfulness is gauged in staying steady.
09:01-09:09
And I think in our culture we especially need to remind ourselves of that because we live in a culture that's always looking for something new, true or false.
09:10-09:10
Right?
09:12-09:16
What was the Xbox thing that just came out a couple weeks ago?
09:19-09:24
There were people standing in line for this thing for days.
09:25-09:26
Like, I got to get an Xbox One.
09:27-09:29
And the PlayStation 4 came out.
09:29-09:34
And I guarantee you somewhere, somebody's standing in line for a PlayStation 5.
09:34-09:37
And we're so used to this new thing coming out.
09:37-09:38
When's the iPhone 6 come out?
09:39-09:46
And I'm not going to get an iPad 3, because I'm going to wait till the 4 comes out, because it does everything for you.
09:46-09:58
And we're so used to, like, oh, I all of the new stuff coming out, and I think sometimes, sometimes we carry that thinking over to the church.
10:01-10:02
We're like a baby church, right?
10:02-10:03
We're only a couple years old.
10:03-10:04
What have you been doing at Harvest?
10:05-10:23
Passionately worshiping Jesus Christ, expository, application of preaching of God's Word, baptizing people, having the Lord's Supper, getting involved in some outreach things, small groups each other's homes and praying, and at this point you're like, "Well, okay, yeah, been there, done that.
10:23-10:27
What are we going to do now?" We're going to keep doing the same thing.
10:28-10:28
But like, what's the new thing?
10:29-10:29
I got an idea.
10:29-10:35
Let's put a dunk tank on the stage, and we'll like have fun and baptize people at the same time.
10:35-10:38
No, we are not going to do that.
10:42-10:43
But like, what's the new thing?
10:47-10:50
faithfulness is staying steady, staying on mission.
10:50-10:52
And that's what you see with Jesus, right?
10:52-10:54
Jesus had the power to do anything.
10:55-11:00
So if it was a matter of coming up with something new just to keep people entertained, Jesus would have been the pioneer for that.
11:00-11:13
But what we see here, Mark's saying Jesus kept continually, faithfully doing what God called Him to do, what God the Father, excuse me, called Him to do, and it was people seeing God at work.
11:15-11:16
get off mission.
11:18-11:21
That's why I've heard stories like this, you have to.
11:22-11:32
You hear stories about churches like internally arguing about things like carpeting and bulletin boards and like, how did that become an issue at your church?
11:34-11:40
I've heard stories of people telling me, "Yeah, you know, our church needed to pick a new color of carpet.
11:40-11:43
We about had a church split over that." Like, really?
11:44-11:52
You guys are so fired up about the color of the carpet that you're like ready to split over that?
11:53-12:00
Well the problem is they've gotten off mission and we're just going after simple faithfulness.
12:00-12:02
Our mission is to make disciples.
12:02-12:14
We believe at Harvest Bible Chapel that a disciple is somebody who worships Jesus Christ, walks with Jesus Christ, and works for Jesus Christ, and we want to marvel at God at work in our presence.
12:15-12:25
We want to be people that come together to passionately worship, get involved in small group ministry where real relationships are being made and real fellowship is happening and genuine prayer is happening.
12:27-12:31
And we want to see everyone get involved in some aspect of ministry.
12:32-12:33
Like, well, what are we going to do next year?
12:33-12:34
The same thing.
12:35-12:40
And marvel at God at work as He has been and as He will continue to be.
12:41-12:44
We don't need new, we just need Jesus.
12:47-12:51
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow as well, if we have it.
12:52-12:54
So you want a fruitful ministry like Jesus, well, number one, focus on mission.
12:55-12:58
Number two, invest in people.
13:02-13:04
Invest in people.
13:07-13:17
Look at verse 13, "And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.
13:18-13:32
And he appointed twelve whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
13:34-14:09
He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, the sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus and Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
14:11-14:15
So if you want a ministry like Jesus Christ, focus on the mission.
14:16-14:18
That's what Jesus did, that's what we want to do as a church.
14:19-14:22
But secondly, invest in people.
14:24-14:34
Now, go back to verse 13, it says, "Jesus went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him." And somebody's like, "Okay, question, Pastor Jeff.
14:35-14:41
I was here when you were going through Mark chapter 1, and do you remember the whole Jesus called the fishermen thing, right?
14:42-14:48
There was Peter and Andrew, and remember they dropped their nets and followed him, and then James and John, they left their father in the middle.
14:48-15:03
Like, Pastor Jeff, I was here for that sermon, and I remember you already talked about Jesus calling them, so like, "What's going on here?" Did they like wander back home and Jesus had to like call them back, or what happened here?
15:03-15:10
Well, actually, there are actually five phases to the calling of the apostles.
15:12-15:28
The first one, like we talked about in chapter one, they would have started by following Jesus part-time, and that "drop the nets, leave your father in the boat" was a call to follow them full-time, to follow Jesus Christ full-time.
15:29-15:30
So those are the first two phases.
15:30-15:39
At first, they were kind of like, "Okay, here's Jesus." They were kind of like listening to Him and kind of investigating, listening to His teaching, and that was part-time.
15:39-15:41
Well, in chapter one, He called them full-time.
15:44-15:50
In this passage, he called them to be apostles in order to train them.
15:50-15:51
We'll talk more about that in a second.
15:52-15:54
That's number three, called them to be apostles.
15:55-15:58
So part-time one, full-time two, called to be apostles three.
16:00-16:05
The fourth calling was calling them to do some preaching, and we'll talk about that down the road.
16:06-16:08
And the fifth calling is to the Great Commission.
16:08-16:12
That's Matthew 28, that's Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
16:13-16:21
So understand that Jesus called these same group of people in different phases of the ministry that he was calling them to.
16:22-16:23
Does that make sense?
16:24-16:25
Alright.
16:27-16:28
So here's a question.
16:28-16:30
I learned something new this week.
16:31-16:34
Maybe you already knew this, but did you ever wonder like why there were twelve?
16:35-16:37
Why didn't Jesus call like ten of them?
16:37-16:41
I thought ten was a good number, but he didn't call ten.
16:43-16:44
Why was it 12?
16:45-16:46
Why wasn't it 15?
16:49-16:54
And you're like, "Well, maybe he just like picked the 12 best.
16:54-17:05
Maybe there were only like 12 best." Actually, when you study your Bible, you see there was a very specific reason that he picked 12.
17:06-17:16
And the disciples all knew that because you remember, do you remember after Jesus' death and his resurrection, and remember Judas went out and hung himself because he betrayed Jesus.
17:16-17:17
Do you remember that?
17:17-17:25
Do you remember you get to the book of Acts and, okay, so Jesus ascends, and one of the first things that the apostles do is what?
17:26-17:30
Like, "We've got to replace Judas." Why?
17:32-17:38
Like, 11's still pretty good, but they knew that there had to be 12, and why is that?
17:38-17:40
Well, here's what I learned this week.
17:40-17:44
Jot this reference down, Luke chapter 22 and verse 30.
17:46-17:50
Jesus told them that they would judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
17:51-17:57
So Jesus was appointing spiritual leaders for Israel.
17:59-18:11
I believe that these twelve, you remember Judas was replaced by Matthias, I believe that these twelve are going to rule over the tribes of Israel during the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ.
18:12-18:16
But there was a very specific reason there had to be twelve, and I believe that's what it is.
18:18-18:19
Read Luke 22, 30.
18:20-18:22
Not now, like, you know, later.
18:25-18:26
So Jesus called them what?
18:26-18:27
Really to two things.
18:27-18:31
First of all, the Bible says He called them to be with Him.
18:32-18:32
Did you see that?
18:34-18:37
He appointed twelve so that they might be with Him.
18:38-18:43
First requirement for somebody that's getting involved in ministry, you've got to hang out with Jesus.
18:48-18:52
That says He sent them out to preach and to cast out demons.
18:57-19:05
Now casting out demons, these sign gifts, whether it's casting out demons, the healing, You know, you read about the apostles actually resurrecting people from the dead.
19:05-19:08
Those signed gifts authenticated their apostleship.
19:09-19:16
You remember back in the transition between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, your New Testament was being written.
19:18-19:21
So here you have people that are claiming to speak for God.
19:21-19:22
What authenticated their message?
19:23-19:28
Because people didn't have a Bible to say, "Well, let me line up what you're saying with what the Scriptures say." The Scriptures were being written.
19:29-19:35
So one of the things that Jesus did was He gave them authority with these sign gifts to authenticate the message.
19:39-19:46
And then you get down to verse 16 through verse 19, and we have a list.
19:48-19:49
Permission to speak freely?
19:51-19:52
Thank you.
19:54-19:55
This is just like a preacher thing.
19:55-19:57
I know you've got challenges where you work.
19:57-19:58
Here's one of my challenges.
19:58-20:04
Like, if we're preaching through a passage where the Bible's like, "Be patient," we're like, "Oh, that's easy.
20:05-20:07
I just stand up and tell people to be patient," right?
20:07-20:12
Or you're preaching in a passage about, you know, flee from sexual immorality, like, "Well, that's easy.
20:12-20:18
You just get up and tell people you're going to flee from sexual immorality." And this passage, you just have like a list.
20:20-22:17
And you sit down at the beginning of the week and you're like, "What am I going to do with this?" this week, this has become a really, really, really encouraging passage to me, and I believe it will be to you when we go through and look at this list of people that Jesus called to ministry. Actually, Luke chapter 6 verse 12 says that Jesus prayed all night about whom he was going to call to be the twelve apostles. He prayed all night about this. Like you prayed all night and this is what you came up with, this group of people? Because nothing was special about these people except their calling. And that's how God prefers it. But we're gonna look through this list and you have to understand something. Sometimes we come to church and we have this idea, like when we go through this list, that these disciples, these apostles, were all like priests, and they were probably like six feet tall and handsome and meticulously dressed, and they always just spoke so eloquently, and they were so holy, and they were so perfect in every way, and they really weren't, guys. Do you know what the twelve apostles were like? They were like us. They were just like regular, like blue-collar Joes just kind of doing their thing when Jesus called them. They weren't scholars, you know, they weren't educated. It wasn't like Jesus was, you know, sending recruiters out to local synagogues like, "Hey, send me your like most Bible-smart person because I want to interview them for apostleship." It wasn't about that.
22:17-22:19
They weren't famous people.
22:21-22:25
Can we get on some red carpet in Hollywood and get somebody?
22:26-22:35
Jesus is like, "I need cool people to follow me, otherwise people won't take me seriously." They weren't famous people, nor were they popular people.
22:36-22:38
I have done in my notes, they weren't stained glass people.
22:43-22:48
They were just a bunch of ragtag Joes that really had nothing in common.
22:50-22:51
We're going to look through this list.
22:54-22:57
This list is actually a potential for conflict when you think about it.
22:57-22:59
Remember we talked about when Jesus called Matthew?
23:00-23:08
Matthew was a Jewish guy working for the Roman government to take taxes and legally rip off his own Jewish people.
23:11-23:20
And you have a guy also on this list who was a political revolutionary that under different circumstances would have killed Matthew.
23:22-23:23
That would be Simon the Zealot.
23:25-23:27
Like really Jesus, you didn't do a background check on these people?
23:29-23:31
Jesus knew what He was doing.
23:32-23:53
In fact, Jesus knew what He was doing so well that notice that Jesus didn't have a plan B. He takes this ragtag group of people and He says, "Okay, you're going to be the guys who write the New Testament, and you're going to be the guys that are the foundation of the church." Okay, so the church thing, successful or unsuccessful over the last 2,000 years?
23:54-23:56
Like very successful.
23:57-24:06
God has glorified His name through the church, represented quite well to this day.
24:08-24:09
Something else you have to know about this list though.
24:11-24:16
This list that we're going to look at, this list we just read, they're not formal names, okay?
24:17-24:19
They weren't formal names.
24:20-24:29
Here are the lists of the people that, you know, Mr. Darren James Miller, you know, Mr.
24:29-24:32
Jeffrey Sean… It wasn't like this official list.
24:33-24:38
Actually, what you see here are a bunch of nicknames and labels on this list.
24:39-24:40
And do you know what that reminds me of?
24:43-24:44
I might get in trouble for saying this.
24:46-24:50
This reminds me of my wife's family, specifically my wife's dad.
24:55-24:58
He's a bit, what's the word, Aaron?
25:01-25:02
Am I allowed to use that word?
25:02-25:03
Okay.
25:05-25:06
My father-in-law's a redneck.
25:09-25:10
And that's okay.
25:12-25:13
I love him.
25:14-25:15
He's a bit of a redneck.
25:16-25:19
And if you've been around a redneck, you know what kind of friends rednecks have?
25:21-25:22
Other rednecks, right, Dana?
25:23-25:23
Other rednecks.
25:25-25:28
But here's the funny thing about Aaron's dad's friends.
25:29-25:30
They all have nicknames.
25:31-25:34
Every one of them's got a redneck nickname.
25:36-25:49
I got to tell you this quick story because honestly, I was a little offended by this Because Erin and I have known each other like, what, 23 years.
25:50-25:54
I've known Erin and her family, and I have yet to get my own nickname.
25:56-26:06
We were out at their house visiting the one night where we found a frog, and Owen played too hard with the frog and killed it.
26:07-26:09
And Erin's dad said, "Oh, what's the matter?
26:09-26:12
You killed Toady O'Grady." And I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
26:14-26:19
I've known you guys for 20-some years and you haven't given me a nickname?
26:21-26:28
You've known this frog for three and a half minutes and it's dead now and you gave the frog a nickname?" And I was fired up.
26:28-26:29
I said, "No.
26:30-26:32
I'm Todeo Grady from now on.
26:33-26:39
That nickname is mine." I'm serious.
26:39-26:48
We went to West Virginia to a hunting camp where we rode four wheelers and did all kinds of fun things.
26:48-26:52
I introduced myself to all of Joe's friends as Todeo Grady.
26:54-27:02
They were all like, "It's very nice to meet you, Jeff." I'm like, "I didn't even tell you my right name." It didn't stick.
27:03-27:04
I'm never going to get my red nickname.
27:05-27:06
Never going to get it.
27:07-27:16
Dad has friends like Snuffy and Grizz and Yogi and Woody, and I could go on and on and on.
27:17-27:23
I'm like, "Why are you telling us this?" That's sort of how this list is compiled here, actually.
27:23-27:24
It's a bunch of nicknames.
27:26-27:29
This is a bunch of like Grizzes and Woodies and Yogis.
27:30-27:37
And I'm not by any means trying to make caricatures of the apostles, but Scripture certainly shows shows us the dominant points.
27:41-27:42
Okay, so write this down.
27:43-27:45
Eight people you will work with in ministry.
27:48-27:49
Levi, these are eight people.
27:49-27:51
You've met some of these guys already, Levi, I'm sure.
27:52-28:02
I feel that it's my job for you, I'm just a little bit further down the road from you in ministry-wise, I feel it's my job to share with you these are eight people that you're going to do ministry with.
28:04-28:17
So keep this handy because someday, someday Levi, you're going to look back and say, "Jeff was right." These are eight people you're going to work with in ministry.
28:17-28:19
Number one, gung-ho guy.
28:21-28:22
Gung-ho guy, that's Simon Peter.
28:23-28:25
Jesus renamed Peter, right?
28:25-28:28
Like he was Simon, like everybody called him Simon.
28:28-28:33
Well, unlike the Toadio Grady thing, like Peter stuck, right?
28:33-28:46
Jesus renamed him, and Peter literally means "rock." Interesting note, when you study through the Gospels, when Simon starts acting like his old self, Jesus calls him Simon.
28:47-28:48
Just make a note of that.
28:50-28:56
You know, when Peter does something kind of boneheaded or kind of like, "That's your old way of thinking," Jesus actually calls him Simon.
28:57-30:08
Like you're not acting like Peter, you're not acting like this firm rock, you're acting old guy, Simon. Don't think that Peter didn't notice that either, by the way. I jotted some notes down in my outline. I encourage you to do the same. What's required to disciple people like this, right? So Jesus calls this group of people, and again Peter was like this this fisherman, this blue-collar guy, and he's always listed first in the list of the disciples, the apostles. What's like Peter. I wrote this down. You need to have patience, obviously, but secondly, you can't be afraid to have hard conversations with people like this. If you're one of those kinds of people like me that might shy away from having hard conversations, you're gonna have a hard time working with somebody like Peter. He was very much like a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. Bull in the a shop, barreling through, sometimes three steps ahead of himself.
30:11-30:13
Did Jesus have hard conversations with Peter?
30:14-30:16
He called him Satan once.
30:18-30:19
That was a hard conversation.
30:21-30:21
Remember that?
30:22-30:24
Jesus is like, "I'm going to die," and Peter's like, "Oh, no, no, no, no.
30:25-30:27
Let me set you straight, Jesus.
30:27-30:38
That's not going to happen." And Jesus is like, "Get behind me, Satan." Okay, don't be afraid to have the hard conversations with people like that.
30:40-30:41
Okay, gung-ho guy.
30:41-30:45
You're going to work with some people in ministry that are gung-ho.
30:47-30:49
Not always appropriately either.
30:50-30:51
Number two, the emotional powder keg.
30:52-30:54
The emotional powder keg.
30:54-30:55
James and John.
30:57-31:02
I always thought these guys had the coolest nickname, right?
31:02-31:03
Like the Sons of Thunder.
31:04-31:06
Like how cool is that?
31:06-31:11
I did a little study this week and Sons of Thunder probably wasn't a compliment.
31:14-31:20
It actually would be like a hothead, like a short-tempered person.
31:22-31:26
It probably wasn't like you two guys remind me of Thor.
31:31-31:34
Actually Luke chapter 9 verse 54, jot that reference down.
31:35-31:40
This is one of my favorite accounts, just because it's just like one of those what the heck moments in the Bible.
31:41-31:43
But in Luke chapter 9, there was...
31:43-31:50
Okay, so Jesus was traveling through and the Bible says there was a certain Samaritan village that just didn't want Jesus to stay.
31:51-31:53
If Jesus is traveling through any Samaritans, we're like, "Uh-uh.
31:54-31:55
No, uh-uh.
31:57-32:00
We're not having you people stay in our town." Okay?
32:02-32:05
So James and John, like they were with Jesus for a little while at this point, right?
32:05-32:13
You think they would have been picking up on some of the ways that Jesus interacts with people and like the whole grace and mercy and patience thing?
32:13-32:15
Do you remember what James and John asked Jesus?
32:16-32:25
So this Samaritan village was like, "You're not staying here." And James and John pulled Jesus aside and they're like, "Do you want us to call fire from heaven on that village?
32:26-32:27
Because we will totally do it.
32:29-32:38
Jesus, you just say the word, we will turn on the hellfire faucet from heaven and burn that place to the ground.
32:38-32:42
You want us to, Jesus?" I read that, I'm like, "What are you guys thinking?
32:44-32:45
Like that was your plan?
32:49-32:51
And spoiler alert, that's not what happened to the village.
32:53-32:54
You can read it for yourself.
32:55-32:56
But they were hotheads.
32:56-32:57
And you know what?
32:57-33:01
Sometimes in ministry, you deal with the emotional powder kegs.
33:03-33:06
You deal with people that are just...
33:07-33:11
Look, I'm not trying to insult anybody, because we're all in this list somewhere, right?
33:11-33:13
But some people are just ruled by their emotions.
33:14-33:16
They're just ruled by their emotions.
33:17-33:33
And one day, you know, something good happens at church, "This is the greatest church in the world!" And then the next day, like, some things happen that maybe aren't optimal, and all of a sudden they're just like, "This church stinks!" And they're just like ruled by emotions.
33:33-33:37
And James and John, the sons of thunder, seem to be those kinds of people.
33:41-33:42
What's required to disciple them?
33:44-33:47
I put down two things, you've got to keep people like that tempered.
33:50-33:54
Look, not everything is as great as you think it is, and not everything is as horrible as you think it is, okay?
33:56-34:01
We're going for God at work, let's glorify the Lord, let's let Him work, okay?
34:01-34:06
But don't let your emotions be the thermometer here.
34:09-34:10
Let the Holy Spirit take care of that.
34:12-34:18
But I also wrote this down, people that are very emotional, I think often, you just need to make sure that they're pointed in the right direction.
34:19-34:19
Right?
34:19-34:21
You need to make sure they're pointed in the right direction.
34:22-34:24
You're fired up about that, fantastic.
34:24-34:29
Well, let's take all of that emotional energy, right direction.
34:31-34:36
The emotional powder keg, you're going to be working with those people if you haven't already.
34:38-34:40
Like, Pastor Jeff, have you worked with people like this?
34:41-34:53
I've worked with, I could give you a list of names under every category, and that is by no means a criticism because these are the very people that Jesus called, right?
34:55-34:56
And I'm on this list too.
34:57-35:12
So number three I just wrote down, "Behind the Scenes, Worker Bees." Now a very good book for you to read, John MacArthur, "Twelve Ordinary Men." He goes into whole Bible studies on each of the apostles.
35:12-35:19
Fantastic book, I read it many years ago and just really, really gives you good insight to their character.
35:20-35:27
But for our sermon today, I just sort of lumped these guys together because honestly there's not very much said about these guys.
35:27-35:33
Andrew led his brother, Simon, Peter, to Jesus initially.
35:36-35:38
Bartholomew is actually Nathanael.
35:40-35:42
Bartholomew is actually a title.
35:43-35:44
Nathanael was his name.
35:45-35:53
Bartholomew literally means the son of Tholomeis, the son of Tholomeis.
35:53-35:58
Okay, so again, that's sort of this nickname approach to the list.
35:59-36:03
You know, like Mark's like, "Here's a list of people that Jesus appointed to apostles.
36:04-36:04
Tholomeis' boy.
36:05-36:07
You know Tholomeis?" Yeah, Jesus called his boy.
36:08-36:10
That's literally what Bartholomew means.
36:14-36:16
So they're behind the scenes worker bees.
36:16-36:25
These are people that you don't read a lot of stuff about them in the Bible, but you know that they were very faithful.
36:25-36:28
The scriptures would teach that and the history would teach.
36:29-36:32
These were very faithful people, foundations of the church.
36:36-36:44
But with the disciples and with Harvest Bible Chapel and really with any church, you know, there's a group of people that work so hard behind the scenes that you would never know.
36:44-36:45
You would never know.
36:47-37:12
These are the people that show up, drive the truck, unpack the truck, you know, preparing things throughout the week, whether it's financial things or music things or… There are people that work so hard throughout the week, and you show up on Sunday and there are just a couple of people up front, and you think, "Well, those are the people that kind of work for the church and are kind of carrying the lion's share." That's not true.
37:12-37:24
There are all these people so faithfully, small group leaders and small group hosts and what's required to disciple them.
37:26-37:29
I think a big thing with behind-the-scenes worker bees is not neglecting them.
37:30-37:38
It's easy to neglect people that are just very faithful, very quiet, very behind-the-scenes, don't put me in the spotlight, Pastor Jeff.
37:38-37:43
It's easy to neglect people like that, and I would caution, don't neglect people like that.
37:43-37:46
Make sure you take time to personally affirm people like that.
37:46-37:48
"Hey, I appreciate the work that you're doing for the Lord.
37:49-37:56
You serve Jesus Christ so faithfully, and I appreciate that." But don't neglect them, appreciate them.
37:59-38:03
Number four is the controversial convert.
38:04-38:04
That's Matthew.
38:07-38:08
That's Matthew.
38:08-38:09
We spent a whole sermon on him.
38:09-38:16
I'm not going to talk a lot about Matthew, but you know, he was the tax collector ripping off his own people for the enemy nation.
38:18-38:20
What's required the disciple Matthew?
38:20-38:21
I just heard Grace.
38:21-38:24
Look, they don't need their past brought up to them.
38:25-38:26
Right?
38:26-38:28
They don't need their past brought up to them.
38:32-38:33
Like, who's gonna count the money?
38:33-38:35
Well, don't let Matthew, you know what he used to do.
38:37-38:39
Hey, Matthew, you still have any of your shyster friends?
38:39-38:40
Maybe you could do us a favor?
38:41-38:45
And like, they don't need their past brought up to them in every conversation.
38:46-38:46
Right?
38:46-38:47
They don't need that.
38:48-38:49
They don't need that.
38:52-38:59
You know, how would you feel every time you were introduced to somebody, it was made known what your sin was?
39:04-39:05
We'll just leave it at that.
39:06-39:25
The controversial convert, you're going to deal with people in ministry that, you know, didn't grow up in a Christian home, had a shady background, did some evil things, but sincerely and genuinely gave their lives to Christ like Matthew, like Levi, grace.
39:28-39:33
God forgot about their sin, according to the gospel, so should we.
39:35-39:36
Number five is the constant skeptic.
39:37-39:37
That's Thomas.
39:41-39:42
Thomas is typically called what?
39:43-39:43
What's his nickname?
39:45-39:46
Doubting Thomas, right?
39:47-39:49
I think that's kind of a bum rap.
39:49-39:53
Thomas was just like, he was like, "Show me some evidence," kind of guy.
39:53-39:54
That's Thomas.
39:55-39:59
You remember he was like, "I'm not going to believe until I actually physically touch Jesus.
39:59-40:03
I'm not going to believe that he rose from the dead." He just wanted some evidence.
40:03-40:05
Lay off with that doubting stuff, alright?
40:05-40:06
You need to calm that down.
40:06-40:08
That's not in the Bible, alright?
40:09-40:13
Thomas doesn't appreciate everybody on earth calling him "doubting Thomas," I imagine.
40:15-40:47
required to disciple somebody like that. Patience in teaching. Patience in teaching. For somebody like Thomas, I believe that Thomas' questions were always sincere. I do. You can tell, by the way, when somebody's asking a question and they're not sincerely looking for an answer, here's how you can tell. You answer their question and they immediately ask you another one. And then you answer that question, they immediately ask you another one. I've actually stopped in conversations and been like, "You really don't care what the answers to these questions are, do you?
40:47-40:48
You don't care.
40:49-40:56
You're not really looking for answers, you're looking for arguments, aren't you?" Well, Thomas wasn't that kind of person.
40:56-41:02
Some people, they're like, "Hey, I've got a question about this." And you're like, "Well, here's the answer." And they're like, "Fantastic." That was Thomas.
41:03-41:10
So patience in teaching, number six, people you're going to work with in ministry.
41:12-41:18
I tried and I talked to Aaron about this, I tried to word this in a nicer way and I just couldn't think of any nicer way to put it.
41:18-41:32
Just write down "Mama's boy." "Mama's boy." You're like, "Why did you say that?" Because did you know literally that's what Thaddeus means?
41:32-41:33
Did you know that?
41:34-41:35
Thaddeus' name wasn't Thaddeus.
41:36-41:37
His name was Judas.
41:40-41:42
Can anybody guess why he didn't want to go by Judas?
41:43-41:44
I'm going to throw that out.
41:46-41:48
Anybody want to take a guess why he didn't go by Judas?
41:49-41:56
Actually, one of the other gospels calls him Judas, parentheses, not Iscariot.
41:57-42:00
And I'm like, I am positive that's what this guy's business card said.
42:02-42:03
"Oh, you're one of Jesus' disciples.
42:04-42:07
Which one are you?" Yeah, I'm Judas, not Iscariot.
42:09-42:12
Just get that off the table immediately.
42:13-42:19
Thaddeus was a nickname, and Thaddeus literally means "mama's boy." Not a compliment.
42:21-42:21
Mama's boy.
42:23-42:27
And sometimes you're going to work with people in ministry that are mama's boys.
42:31-42:33
Like dude, grow a backbone.
42:33-42:36
You've got the backbone of a banana, okay?
42:38-42:41
The problem is if you say that to a mama's boy, they start crying.
42:43-42:48
So required to disciple, I wrote down, "Encouragement to growth." Encouragement to growth.
42:54-42:55
And it's a balance.
42:56-42:59
Look, look, some people need a little coddling.
42:59-43:01
Can we just, can we confess that openly?
43:02-43:03
Some people need a little coddling.
43:04-43:10
Am I saying that there are certain people that you should always coddle every moment of every day until Jesus returns?
43:11-43:12
There might be a problem there.
43:12-43:14
Sometimes some people need a little coddling.
43:14-43:16
They need a little encouragement.
43:16-43:18
"Come on, we're going to get through this together.
43:18-43:19
It's okay.
43:19-43:20
We're going to get through this together.
43:22-43:34
Mama's boy." We don't want you to stay a mama's boy, but we don't want to strike you down because you You are one now." One of Jesus' apostles was known as a mama's boy.
43:35-43:37
Number seven, the political campaigner.
43:40-43:42
The political campaigner, that was Simon the Zealot.
43:44-43:47
Mark says he was Simon the Canaanian.
43:51-43:53
The other Gospels refer to him as Simon the Zealot.
43:54-43:57
He was actually like a political revolutionary.
44:02-44:04
How would that translate to our day?
44:04-44:12
In our day, Simon the Zealot would be the kind of guy that could quote Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity.
44:13-44:14
He'd be that guy.
44:15-45:15
He'd be the constantly sending out the emails about, you know, what's happening spiritually Washington and why we should vote for this and why we need to write to our congressman about that. He'd be the guy that if you were Facebook friends with him, it'd be like Obama this, President Bush that, vote this, pictures of eagles and flags and those kinds of things. That would be Simon the Zealot. Like he was a political guy. What's required to disciple someone like that? I just wrote done, remind them the true mission. There's nothing wrong with being involved in politics. There's not. There's nothing wrong with being involved in politics. I'm not making fun of Rush Limbaugh or listening to anything like that. I listen to those people sometimes myself. But the encouragement here is this. Remind the true mission. Our mission as a church is not to reform Washington. Our mission as as a church is to make disciples.
45:19-45:26
That doesn't have anything to do with Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Vegetarian, whatever.
45:27-45:45
We're here to make disciples, and people like Simon need to be reminded, "Hey, you know what, I appreciate your political views, but this is the mission of the church. We're here to make disciples." And then number eight, finally, the backstabbers.
45:47-45:47
Judas.
45:49-45:54
Judas, the betrayer, always listed last, always with the comments.
45:55-45:56
You'll see that every list.
45:58-46:06
Almost every single time Judas Iscariot is mentioned, there's a comment about who betrayed Jesus Christ, who later betrayed him.
46:12-46:14
required to disciple somebody like Judas.
46:17-46:20
Well, the truth is people like this won't be discipled.
46:22-46:41
The people that aren't sincerely after the things of the Lord, the people that… the people that… not only do they not know the Lord, but they'd be content to see the church go down.
46:45-46:53
The people that at first you thought got it, but then proved that they never had it.
46:57-46:59
I wrote this down in my notes.
46:59-47:06
People like this are put in our lives to teach us grace and to give us the opportunity to imitate God.
47:13-47:15
It's easy to love your friends.
47:20-47:23
It's not easy to love your enemies.
47:28-47:36
And I've wondered often, "What was it like for Jesus knowing that Judas was going to betray Him?" Remember, Jesus washed Judas' feet.
47:40-47:44
Judas was there, right in the middle of everything.
47:50-47:52
And Jesus knew full well what he was going to do.
47:59-48:01
He loved them just the way he loved the other apostles.
48:05-48:09
So as I close, this is a crazy mix of people.
48:13-48:15
And I'd rather not deal with people in ministry.
48:19-48:19
Right?
48:19-48:23
Is there some kind of ministry I get involved in where I don't have to deal with people?
48:23-48:26
Because people have personalities and people have baggage.
48:27-48:31
Newsflash, ministry is about dealing with people. That's what discipleship is.
48:32-48:40
And looking through this list, the thing that you have to put over every single one of these categories, over every single one of these names, is this truth.
48:41-48:55
God called them. Despite who they were, He saw who they could be and who He could make them.
48:58-49:03
You might look at this list and be like, "Oh man, we have to work with people like this." True.
49:04-49:11
Discipleship is pouring into the people that God calls, and every single one of these people require patience and grace.
49:12-49:17
You're like, "Man, we have to work with people like this?" I'd like to remind you that we are people like this.
49:19-49:21
Did you find yourself somewhere in this list?
49:24-49:24
I did.
49:26-49:33
If you're not sure where you are, just turn to your spouse or turn to your friend, turn to somebody that knows you and say, "Which of these am I?
49:33-49:34
Tell me the truth.
49:34-49:41
I promise I won't hit you." We are people like this.
49:43-50:00
And the reason this was so encouraging for me this week is, you know, when I look through this list of people that Jesus called and that Jesus poured into and that Jesus equipped and that Jesus used to be the foundation of the church, I look at that and I think, "You know what?
50:00-50:09
Maybe there's hope for me." Because no one feels more unqualified for ministry than I do.
50:11-50:23
When I look at my past mistakes, my past sins, my past failures, when I look at my sense of inadequacy, it does me good to look through a list like this.
50:25-50:27
And I say, "Church, rejoice.
50:28-50:29
Rejoice you weak.
50:31-50:32
Rejoice you bullheaded.
50:34-50:36
Rejoice you with the checkered past.
50:38-50:46
Rejoice you overly emotional and inconsistent believers, because we're in good company."
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 3:7-19
Which of the 12 apostles do you think you identify with the most closely? Why?
Which of the 12 apostles’ personality types do you find you have the hardest time working with? Why?
In what way does your personality require grace and patience?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.