JESUS CALLS THE TWELVE APOSTLES

Mark 3:13-35 (Key Verse: 3:13,14a)

1. Read verse 13. Where did Jesus go? (What had he been doing in the previous paragraph). Who did he call? How did they respond?

2. Read verses 14-15. How many did he appoint? What was his purpose in calling and appointing them? Why did he talk about mission from the very beginning?

3. Read verses 14-15 again. How would he train them? What was their classroom? What does “to be with him” mean? What must they learn from being with him? What does it mean that he designated them “apostles”?

4. Read verses 16-19. Who were the 12? What do you know about them? Why these men?

5. Read verses 20-30. Who opposed Jesus? Why did those who loved him oppose him? Of what did some accuse him? What did they know about his ministry? How did he answer? What warning did he give? How difficult is it to fight the devil? Why is blaspheming the Holy Spirit so serious?

6. Read verses 31-35. Why had Jesus’ mother and brothers come? (21) What did Jesus say when he learned that they were outside? What is the mark of one who is in the family of Jesus? (34) How did Jesus regard his disciples? What can we learn here?

JESUS CALLS THE TWELVE APOSTLES

Mark 3:13-35, (Key Verse: 3:13,14a)

“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him …”

Thank God for Mark’s gospel study where we can fast-track learn discipleship! For two weeks, we have learned Jesus’ power to forgive sins in two different aspects in the lives of a paralyzed man and Levi. We also learned how the gospel is like new wine that gives us true joy but needs the new wineskin, that is, our heart. Jesus clearly noted that the Pharisees were like the old wineskin who had no will or capacity to accept the gospel but were just fixated at the letters of Sabbath law and the ways to kill him. Meanwhile, a man with a shriveled hand and many others were perishing without a shepherd’s touch. That was a double whammy of a dire crowd situation and a lack of leadership. What did our Lord Jesus decide to do at that critical moment? In today’s passage, he called the twelve and designated them as apostles so that they might be true leaders who would take care of the flocks. What are the unique backgrounds of those apostles? What about Jesus’ training program that changed them all? May God bless us to be with Jesus and be sent out as apostles of this day!

1. To be Called and To be with Him (13-19)

Look at verse 13. Where did Jesus go after a hectic day with the crowds? Remember the last week’s passage where Jesus healed many diseased people and drove out many impure spirits from those tormented by them? He must have been dog-tired and just wanted to have a day of rest. However, Jesus did not just take a rest. Instead, he went up on a mountainside. Considering what he used to do or what other great men of God did on a mountain, he probably went there to pray. What did he pray for? He prayed for the needy people, like a man with a shriveled hand. He also prayed for the Pharisees who blindly hated him but forgot about their flocks. In short, he prayed for the direction of his ministry. After his hours-long prayer, he called those he wanted and all of them came to him. Note the phrase, “those he wanted.” We can see it was his sovereign call and it happened to be the same twelve who responded to his call. 

What can we learn from this calling of the twelve? We learn that Jesus prayed before his major decision. I was told that late Dr. Lee also did the same type of prayer before he made a decision to teach his student leaders how to give instead of receiving. And because of that, our UBF ministry could grow into a world-mission-oriented entity that could entertain the idea of having ISBCs for the young people. We also learn that when we pray, God always gives us the best guidance and direction. Surely, Jesus received the best guidance, that is, raising up the spiritual leaders into a different level. 

Look at verse 14a. Here, we only see “twelve,” but according to the footnote, we see the term, “apostles,” or “designating apostles,” for the first time in Mark. Why “this designating apostles” and what does it mean? According to 1Co 12:28, we see that apostles are very unique, positioned as the top of the church’s hierarchical roles. We also see several times in his epistles, Apostle Paul defended his apostleship a lot but humbly called himself as the least of the apostles. Jesus was once called as an apostle in the Hebrews (Heb 3:1). It is certain that being an apostle is a great privilege. In Greek, the literal meaning of “an apostle” is “a messenger.” So, we can grasp that an apostle is a very special messenger that brings the message to others on behalf of the one who sends them. We can compare this apostle to an ambassador. An ambassador, designated by the head of a state, like the president of the US, represents his/her country to a foreign nation he/she goes to. He is an official envoy, with a special diplomatic privilege, even immunity. Likewise, an apostle represents the kingdom of God whose head figure is Jesus and has great authority and privilege. 

Look at verses 14b and 15. Here, Jesus’ purpose in calling and appointing them is well shown. It is that they might be with him and that they might be sent out later to preach and have authority to drive out demons. In every company or institution or any other organization, one should know what he/she is signed for in that entity from the very beginning. Look at what the NFL does. Even an NFL player who constantly encounters risks on the turf knows what he is signed for and willfully signs his contract. The twelve probably already knew what it means to be with Jesus. Sometimes, it brought joy and excitement like Andrew’s and Philip’s case. They were so excited with being with Jesus that they had to share their experience with their brother or best friend. Obviously, being with Jesus was not always that much exciting. We saw what kind of life Jesus was living: being surrounded by a flock of needy people within and opposing religious leaders without. In fact, wherever they were to be with Jesus, there would be stresses and tensions. They would be constantly hungry and tired. Their life together with Jesus would be their training facility and a classroom for them to learn everything about their teacher. Long ago, one of the best pedagogies for the students to learn was to live with their master like Socrates’ and Confucius’ disciples. Even today, medical students and interns learn their surgical skills and diagnostic knacks by closely observing their senior training doctors. I remember when I was a buddying shepherd and an intern, I followed my shepherd wherever he went and learned everything from him, including his message style. I heard many women coworkers wanted to be like their shepherdess and had a similar hair-do. 

Look at verses 16-19. Who are those twelve and what do we know about them? The first one to remember is Simon whose name was changed to Peter. He was considered chief among the twelve, often nicknamed as bigmouth because of his overachieving, action-first tendency. Regardless of his unorthodox and unreliable character, Jesus had faith in him and eventually changed him as Rock on whom he would build his church. As such, he went on to become the leader of the early church and was considered as the first pope in the Catholics. What about James and John? They were brothers and sons of Zebedee whose name means “Gift of God.” Surely, Zebedee brought out the gift of God to the world as both James and John greatly contributed to spreading the gospel and change the course of history. This does not mean they were perfect. They were often too ambitious, emotional, and impatient. They brought their mother to force their way to seat at the highest position and were uncontrollably mad at the Samaritans. Still Jesus nicknamed them as Boanerges, meaning “sons of thunder,” and preciously used them to awaken the world like a thunder. Perhaps, they were full of energies, something like, tur-bo-energies. Andrew was famous for his bringing five loaves and two fish to Jesus so that five thousand could be fed and be satisfied. What about Philip and Bartholomew? They were a scholarly duo who had full potentials with Philip being a man of good math and Bartholomew, a man of good dreams. Matthew was an ex-tax-collector, soon-to-be a gospel writer, and Thomas was famously known as a man of doubt. He claimed that unless he put his fingers on the palms and side of Jesus, he would not believe in the risen Lord. We do not know much about James son of Alphaeus, or James the Less, but some biblical scholars point out that Alphaeus was the same person as Clopas whose wife, Mary, stood near the cross of Jesus in John’s gospel (Jn 19:25). Perhaps, James was deeply influenced by his godly parents even though he himself was a very quiet person. We know even less about Thaddaeus and apparently, Simon the Zealot was a patriotic and a politically active apostle. Finally, Judas Iscariot whose epithet meant possibly “a man from Kerioth” was to betray his own master, Jesus. 

What can we learn from these Twelve? Each of them was very unique and had different characteristics and talents. They represent all types of people in the world. It means Jesus did not think about their human credentials. At the same time, the Twelve loved Jesus and were ready to learn new things from him. They were like new wineskins. In about six weeks, we are to meet all types of people like the Twelve who genuinely love Jesus and want to see new things in it such as God’s glory. God may move our hearts and stir up our desire so that all the attendants may respond to God’s call. We pray to expect great things and we all become apostles in that ISBC. 

2. To be Sided with Him (20-35)

Look at verses 20-21. Again, Jesus and the Twelve were crazily busy, taking care of a crowd. Then, Jesus’ own family came to take charge of him, saying that he was out of his mind. That might be an acceptable statement since everyone is one way or another crazy at something whether that is an art or a computer programming or a car. Yet the accusation Jesus received the next paragraph was unacceptable. What did the teachers of the law accuse him of? They claimed that Jesus could drive out demons because he was possessed by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. This Beelzebul was originally quoted as the god of Ekron from 2Ki 1:2 where an ungodly king, Ahaziah, tried to consult it regarding his illness. This kind of accusation, Jesus did not even have to bother because it was absurd. However, to help better understand their absurdity and to protect his ministry, Jesus kindly spoke to them in parables. 

Look at verses 24, 25. A kingdom or a house that is divided against itself cannot stand. Even Abraham Lincoln quoted this famous parable, in his so-called “House Divided Speech,” saying the government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. In our Friday meeting, one woman of God aptly shared with other members that Satan is smarter than we are, knowing what to do and how to do their work instead of division. Surely, Satan works very hard and its followers, demons, effectively collaborate with each other for their common goal, that is, destroying our souls. As such, this parable clearly shows what Jesus was doing was not the work of the devil. 

In verse 27, Jesus illustrated how difficult it would be to fight the devil. In fact, the devil is the strongest man whose house no one could plunder. It is full of his possessions, that is, captives of sins under his guard by his mighty power. Yet, Jesus is stronger than he is, so he could tie him up and plunder his possessions, freeing us from the devil’s bondage. We experience that in firsthand.

Verses 28, 29 are Jesus’ stern warning against whoever would be opposed to him. In actuality, it would not be against him but against the work of the Holy Spirit that he/she would not be forgiven. We are all sinners, and are prone to sinning this way or that way. However, blaspheming the Holy Spirit is so serious that it would not be forgiven. Calling the work of God as the work of the devil is such an example because it would put doubt on the people regarding the genuine work and would block people to come to the kingdom of God. 

In verses 31-35, we see Jesus defining the new concept of a family. Jesus’ mother and brothers came to pick him up, still thinking that he was out of his mind. What did Jesus say when he learned that they were outside? He asked who his mother and his brothers would be. It sounded harsh when he asked around who would be his family. Yet, it would give us back true families in the kingdom of God. We see this concept in Jn 1:12b, 13a, which says, “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, … , but born of God.” Those who do God’s will would be true family members of God. We are all brothers and sisters with our Big Brother Jesus. At present, we may be misunderstood or even persecuted by our own family members, and still, when we put God first and seek his kingdom first, God would bless us along with the rest of family members. I heard many stories like Dr. Paul Hong of Toledo UBF being dragged out during the worship service time by his own mother or Msn. Paul Jin of GMU UBF being kicked out of his house just because they began their Christian life. That was not the end. I also heard their family members converted to Christianity and they became a big happy family. That is a happy ending.

In conclusion, we learned how Jesus prayed before his major decisions. He called and designated the twelve as apostles so that they might be with him, be trained and be sent out as the representative of the heavenly kingdom. They were unique in their backgrounds and characteristics, which shows we all could be apostles. Those who oppose the Holy Spirit are seriously in danger of not being forgiven. When we love Jesus and do God’s will, regardless of possible misunderstanding or persecution, we all become His children, the siblings of our Big Brother, Jesus. God bless the ISBC where we all our true family members!