Aduit Search The Scripture Lesson: 75
CHRIST ORDAINS
TWELVE DISCIPLES
MEMORY VERSE: “And he ordained twelve, that they
should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach” (Mark 3: 14).
TEXT: Mark 3:1-35
Christ spent His lifetime ministering to the physical and
spiritual needs of people. He taught all who came to Him liberating truths that
gave both temporal comforts and spiritual hope. These good deeds of Christ met
with opposition from leaders of the established religion of His day. In the
text, the Pharisees and the Herodians were piqued by His command to heal a man
with a withered hand on a Sabbath day. His antagonists saw nothing wrong in
their own conspiracy to kill the great Benefactor on a Sabbath. Such
contradiction and unjustified fury of men, however, did not deter the Lord from
His divinely-appointed mission. While taking steps for His own protection, He
continued to preach the saving gospel and minister healing and deliverance to
the oppressed. As effective as He was, He could not minister to people in
different communities at the same time. For His redemptive work to reach more
people in other communities, He ordained twelve disciples “that they should be
with him, and that he might send them forth to preach”.
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CRUEL INSENSITIVITY OF HARDENED HEARTS (Mark
3:1-12; Psalm 7:11: Ephesians 4:26; Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 11:28).
The censorious and faultfinding attitude of the Pharisees
manifested again in the text as Christ entered the synagogue and met a man with
a withered hand. Rather than appreciate Him, “they watched him, whether he
would heal him on the sabbath day; that they night accuse him” (Mark 3:2). They
did not consider the physical, emotional
and social plight of the paralysed fellow human. They were religious but
pitiless. The Lord asked them a question that was designed to awaken their
conscience to the unreasonableness of their legalistic rigidity and ignorance
at the expense of human compassion and mercy. “Is it lawful to do good on the
sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill? But they held their
peace” (Mark 3:4). We must not, on account of sinners’ angry disposition and
distracting argument, abandon them to their ultimate fate. The Lord here shows
the example. His question to the Pharisees was so pointed and pertinent that
they could give no answer, vis-à-vis their opposition to the healing of the man
with a withered hand. Christ demonstrated the practical application of the
scriptural injunction to “Be ye angry, and sin not. (Ephesians 4:26). Though
angered by their pitiless disposition and grieved in His spirit by their
hardness of heart, He went ahead to heal the man, saying: “Stretch forth thine
hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other”.
Love is the reason for Sabbath, that is, physical, emotional and spiritual
recuperation and vigour. Christians should be discerning to recognise similar
traits of hardness of heart and address them while carrying out the great
commission. Hardness of heart among the people we seek to evangelise should
drive us to our knees and make us even more resourceful and passionate witnesses
for Christ. After restoring the withered hand, the Pharisees “went Forth…took
counsel with the Herodians against him,
how they might destroy him” (Mark 3:6). Christ was proactive by withdrawing
with His disciples to the
Seaside. The hostility of the Pharisees to Christ
contrasted sharply with the enthusiastic reception accorded Him by ordinary
people who had no reason to feel threatened by His doctrines. A large crowd
followed him to the sea shore from His home city of Galilee and other places:
Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, beyond Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. All who
came to Christ with cases of ill-health, affliction and demonic oppression
received their needed relief. Today, Christ is still calling out to the teeming
population of spiritually dead and suffering humanity to: “Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 1l:28).
Everyone who responds will experience
His compassion and power to save, heal and deliver. It is important also
to learn crowd control techniques from the Lord’s instruction to His
disciples.“And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship wait on him because
of the multitude, lest they should throng him.. For he had healed many;
insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues”
(Mark 3:9,10). He ministered to the people from the ship and it was amazing
that unclean spirits saw Him and “fell down before him” in acknowledgment of
His deity as “the Son of God. If demons know He is the Son of God, any mortal
who rejects this truth is worthy of the severest divine judgment.
CALLING AND ORDINATION OF TWELVE DISCIPLES (Mark
3:13-21; Matthew 28:20; 1 John 3:8; John 14:12)
“And he goeth up into a mountain, and called unto him
whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should
be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to
have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devlls”
(Mark 3:13-15). Christ preceded the selection of His disciples with intense
prayer for which He always retired to the seclusion of a mountain. He chose
them to disciple, mentor, train and empower them to preach and do all he could.
Discipleship is a process. The first aim after selection is for them to be with
Him as keen and constant learners of His doctrine and lifestyle. His design is
to train them so they may train others. Also, He ordained them to be sent forth
to preach. Furthermore, He empowers those He ordains with authority to heal the
sick and cast out devils. For Christ, the sum total of the disciples’
commission was the continuation of “all things whatsoever I have commanded
you”. This commission must necessarily include preaching, teaching and healing
(Matthew 4:23; 9:35). When Christ commissioned the already-trained disciples,
He added the promise: “and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the
world’. Christ knew His immediate disciples who received this commission would
not live unto the end of the world or reach the entire world in their lifetime.
Thus, the commission transcends those pioneer disciples – Peter, James, John,
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot – to all believers today.
Becoming a disciple of Christ begins with answering Christ’s call to salvation
through faith in Him. A disciple, after being born again by faith in, the
vicarious death of Christ, must learn to be like the Master by being acquainted
with His teachings. He or she must also possess Christlike compassion for the
salvation of souls. A disciple’s goal must be like the Lord in everything. As
Christ said, “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the
servant as his lord…” (Matthew 10:25). In order to do this, believers must
always abide in Christ through much praying, constant meditation and reflection
on His word. We must accept the commission and seek the Lord to be empowered
for fruitfulness in service. Interestingly, Christ has promised that: “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he
do also… And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name Shall they
cast out devils..” (John 14:12; Mark 16:17). Conterment of this power of
attorney on obedient, witnessing believers confirms the divinity of our Lord.
Returning from the mountain where He had gone to pray and ordain the disciples,
Christ was met by a large crowd of needy people. Attending to them was so
tasking that Christ and His disciples could not as much eat their necessary
food. The level of zeal exerted in putting the needs of the suffering people
above the basic need for food is considered insanity by some people who were
watching Him closely. Today, such conclusions are often watching Him closely.
Today, such drawn when some devoted believers place service to the Lord above
personal interests. But such discouraging comments did not affect the Lord’s
commitment to the great commission and should not affect ours as well.
CONTRADICTION AND BLASPHEMY OF HARDENED SCEPTICS
(Mark 3:22-30; Ephesians 4:18; Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:37)
While the Galileans took Christ’s selfless and
compassion-driven concern for the people for insanity, the scribes from
Jerusalem attributed His healing power to Beelzebub, the prince of devils. “And
he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out
Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark
3:23-25). To insinuate that Christ had the prince of devils on His side in
casting out every spirit was utterly ridiculous. God is not pleased when people
disregard the truth in defence of their sin and unbelief. “And for this cause
(deliberate refusal to embrace the truth), God shall send them a strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Christ’s
response to this blasphemous allegation of the scribes is instructive. He was
calm in His effort to show them the error of their assertion. He did not hide
His opposition to Satan and his cohorts. He came to save and deliver humanity
from the bondage of sin and Satan. Many of these antagonists on His trail have
also heard the confession of demons inhabiting humans that Christ was “the Holy
One of God’ (Mark 1:24). The Lord’s response shows that internal division in a
kingdom or house will make it to collapse. He affirms that Satan cannot cast
himself out or willingly self- destruct. He affirms His superior authority and
power by which He binds the strong man (Satan) and spoils his house. He,
however, gives a serious warning against ascribing the power of the Holy Spirit
to Satan. Who make such ascriptions cannot be saved because they stand against
the remedy to their perdition – the new birth experience that is engineered by
the same Holy Spirit. Christ taught Nicodemus “…Except a man be born of water
[the word of God] and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”
(John 3.5).
CHRIST REDEFINES RELATIONSHIP (Mark 3:31-35;
Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; John 7:3,6,10; Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 9:5; Galatians
l:19; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 8:19,20)
“There came then his brethren and his mother, and,
standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And he answered them, saying, Who
is my mother, or my brethren?” (Mark 3:31,33). Christ’s response to the attempt
by His siblings to interrupt His preaching is highly instructive. First, He
elevated doing God above deference to natural relationship. Presented with the
option to either continue His preaching or regard the presence of His mother
and brethren, He preferred the former. This is in consonance with His teaching.
“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple” (Luke 14:26). He did not suggest that we should have bitter hatred
in our hearts against any relative but we should prefer God in our expression
of love. Consideration of family ties must never be allowed to sway us from the
path of total obedience to the Lord. Second, it is clear from the text that
Mary, the mother of our Lord, had other sons after the birth of Christ contrary
to the error concerning her perpetual virginity (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3; 1:14;
1 Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19). Third, the 7:3,6,10; Acts 1:14; 1
Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19). Third, the passage shows that the cords that
bind us to fellow Christians are stronger than those that bind us to our blood
relations who are not born again. Fourth, the Lord placed the highest premium
on doing the will of God always, and so should we as His disciples.
Questions for review:
1. What can we learn from Christ’s persistence in
preaching, teaching and healing in spite of opposition? 2. What does Christ’s patient reasoning
With the Pharisees teach us?
3. What should be a believer’s response to a hardened
heart?
4. How can a sinner become a disciple of Christ?
5. What can
believers learn from Christ’s approach to the commissioning of His disciples?
6. Mention some reasons
people give for not receiving the gospel and explain’ how a believer can handle
them.
7. Mention some
important lessons from Christ’s response to the attempt by His brethren in the
flesh to interrupt His preaching
