I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, verses 7 to 19. This is the twelfth time that we're opening up to the Gospel of Mark together this year as a church, and we are here to talk about the twelve. Jesus calls his twelve disciples. And so, we are going to see who these guys are. Why did he call them? And yes, if you're wondering, is there significance in the number twelve? Yes, there is. Because Jesus is going to take some fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, what seems like a ragtag group of men, and he is going to make them the men who initiate his kingdom. And he says in Matthew, chapter 19, verse 28 that they will “sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” He also says it in Luke 22:30, he says that “you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So, he specifically called twelve disciples, because they're going to lead the twelve tribes of Israel in the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus. And so, he is going to make these men his disciples, and I want to read it to you here in Mark 3:7-19. Out of respect for God's Word, let's all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. Let's give this our full and undivided attention. This is the Word of God. Please follow along as I read starting in Mark 3, verse 7.
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. 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, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits 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. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 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. 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, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. In your bulletin, there is a handout if you do want to take some notes, and if you get the handout out, you'll see that we've broken that passage of scripture into two sections. There is a section about the crowd, and then there is a section about the twelve disciples. And this is a summary statement of the ministry of Jesus. Mark's trying to give us a picture of the scope of what is happening with Jesus, even only three chapters into Mark. So much has already happened that this has gone to be a great crowd. And so, if you are taking notes, could you circle the word “great” there in verse 7, in front of “crowd,” and then it's there again in verse 8, that word “great” is this Greek adjective, polus. It means “much” or “many”. And it's kind of the theme word of this first paragraph about the crowd. There are much people. There are many people. In fact, the word is used again in verse 10, where it says, “for he had healed many.” He's healed so many people now. It's even used again in verse 12, where it says, “strictly,” if you could circle “strictly,” it's that same word, like he ordered so many demons to be quiet, so many demons he had to cast out, so many unclean spirits want to shout, “You're the Son of God,” and he has to say to them, “Be silent.” It's happening many times. It's happening with much demons. That's the idea here. Like this is all escalating very quickly. In fact, the word here for the great crowd is not even the normal word for crowd. It's really a word for a multitude of people.
And so, one thing we need to know about Jesus is when he was healing people and casting out demons and giving his teachings, so many people came to him. In fact, it's trying to give us a picture of how far. And why the impact of Jesus is that people are now coming. And it gives us locations on the map to see there in verses 7 and 8, they're coming from here. They're coming from here. So, let's throw the map up on the screen. This is the map of Israel. Galilee is the area in the north by the Sea of Galilee. Judea is down in the south, where Jerusalem, the capital city, is down there by the Dead Sea, but you can see it mentions places like Idumea. Maybe you don't know it. Idumea is very similar to Edom, if you can see that down there towards the bottom. And so, Israel, they are the descendants of who? Does anybody know? Where did Israel get its name from? This man named Jacob, right? Well, Jacob had a twin brother named Esau, and Esau’s descendants, they become the nation of Edom, which you could also say as Idumea, just like there's Judea, where we think of the capital city of Israel, Jerusalem, well, Idumea is down in this area of Edom, and it's interesting that it mentions Idumea in our text in Mark because if you're reading through the twelve prophets with us right now, Obadiah is our Prophet. Yeah, everybody here, you're invited to read Obadiah with us. It's one chapter, shortest book in the Old Testament. We're reading it tomorrow. And guess what? Obadiah is a prophet to what group of people? Edom. They actually get their own chapter of Scripture. And so, the thing we're supposed to know is Edom Idumea, that's the area to the south of Israel. And then in our text, it says, beyond the Jordan. Well, the Jordan’s that river there, connecting the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. And if you're beyond the Jordan, that means you're to the east of Israel. And then if you're up by Tyre inside and well, that means you're to the north of Israel. So, not only are people coming from the north of Israel or the south of Israel, they're coming from the south beyond Israel and the east, beyond Israel and the north, they're coming from other nations now, this massive crowd of people coming to Jesus. And so, Mark's trying to help us realize, like the scope of this now is huge. It's really hard to even believe how many people and from how far away they're coming to see Jesus.
And so, these kind of summary statements are regular in the gospels, and even in the book of Acts, they give us these paragraphs to try to summarize how much is actually happening. In fact, turn with me back to Matthew chapter 4. Let me show you a couple of examples of these summary statements in the Gospel of Matthew. If you go with me to Matthew, chapter 4, verse 23 you'll see a very similar paragraph trying to summarize for us how much ministry Jesus is actually accomplishing. As we go through Mark, we've gotten some of the healings. We saw how a paralyzed man could rise up, take up his bed and walk, and that was to prove that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. We saw, if you were here last week, a man with a withered hand, well, Jesus healed his hand. But that was to prove that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. So, Mark isn't even trying to give us all the healings that are happening. No, there are so many happening. Mark can't describe all of them. He's just choosing some of them to show us who Jesus is, but Jesus is doing more.
And so, they give us these summary statements. Look at Matthew 4:23, it says “He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues.” And what is he proclaiming? The gospel of the kingdom, and he's healing every disease. He's healing every affliction among the people. So, his fame spread throughout all Syria, even in the other nation of Syria, they're talking about Jesus, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them, and great crowds followed him from Galilee, from the Decapolis, that's the Gentile cities, from Jerusalem, Judea, from beyond the Jordan, from out of the country. Wow. Look at all the great crowds. Now Matthew, he gives these summary statements, usually before he gives us the teaching. And so, in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, we get the sermon on the mount from Jesus. So, the way Matthew writes is he'll kind of give us the summary, and then he'll give us and here's what Jesus was teaching.
Go over to chapter nine, and you'll see another example of this. Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35 is very similar to our passage in Mark 3, where you get a summary statement right before the calling of the twelve. And then Jesus is going to send those twelve out two by two. And so, Jesus teaches the twelve what he wants them to do. That's Matthew 10. But right before you get that in Matthew 10, it says this. This is Matthew 9:35-38, “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds,” and they're great crowds, multitudes, at this point, when he saw the crowds, “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” So, you can see, look at the massive crowds. How are we going to reach all these people? Well, Jesus' method is he's going to invest in these twelve men, and he's going to train them up to be laborers, and then he's going to give them the mission of going and making more disciples. And so, Jesus, he says, how are we going to reach the great crowd? Well, we're going to invest into these disciples, and they will get equipped to go and reach the crowd. And so that's what we can see.
Let's get this down for point number one: We want to “Look how Jesus cared for the crowd.” Look how Jesus cared for the crowd. That's what we can see in these summary statements. Okay, that that when Jesus was doing his ministry. And then you can go and see the same thing happens in the book of Acts. In fact, anywhere in the book of Acts where they're preaching the gospel for more than a year, there's going to end up being a crowd of people. This is actually, I think, what we should all expect to see, especially when you live in a populated area like we do, where there are so many souls of people. If we're really preaching the good news of the kingdom, that Jesus is coming, and you can be a part of his kingdom, repent and believe in the gospel. We've got good news. Jesus, he is the Anointed One of God. He really did die on the cross for your sins, and Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. And everyone who believes in Jesus, you can learn a whole new way to live. If we're really preaching that message, guess what's going to happen? A crowd of people is going to want to hear that message, and so we need to see how Jesus cared for the crowd, even though the crowd was often inconvenient for him. In fact, go back to Mark 3. Did he just say they might crush him, and that's why he needs a boat by the water, right? Because they all might try to reach out and touch him to be healed, like this mob could get out of control. So, let's have a boat on the standby so I can get off the shore and stand out there on the boat and in the water a little bit, so I can teach everybody from a safe place out there on this boat. Like there are a lot of challenges that come with the crowd, but Jesus, he doesn't shun away the crowd. He embraces the crowd.
And so, I want to just point out three things about Jesus with the crowd. Go with me to Mark, chapter 4, verse 1, where it continues this idea, usually when we see Jesus by the sea in the Gospel of Mark it's because he's teaching the crowd, or he's calling the disciples. And here you can see, in Mark 4:1, “Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables.” And like I said earlier, I'm so excited. We will do this passage from Mark for the weekend after Fourth of July. Would be the ideal time to bring a neighbor, a family member, a friend, that they could hear about the soil of their soul and how there's good soil and rocky soil and thorny soil. It'll be a great time to share the gospel. But see Jesus, what does he do for the crowd? Well, he preached.
Let's get that down for our first dash: “He preached.” He's preaching to them. He's proclaiming to them that there's a kingdom and they could be a part of it. And we see in Mark 1:15 an example of what Jesus preached that now is the time the kingdom is at hand. You could reach out and grab it and be a part of the kingdom. And so repent and believe in the good news of the Messiah. That's what Jesus wanted everyone to hear. And he was intentional to go around to all the cities, bringing his message and teaching them. Go over to Mark, chapter 6, verse 34 where the crowd now is so big they're waiting for Jesus. When he comes ashore, he's going from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other side. And even when he just lands in the boat, there's already a massive crowd waiting for him there. In Mark 6:34, it says, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.” Now, I just want to take a moment here to highlight that it says he began to teach them how many things? Well, many things. And then notice what it says in verse 35, “And when it grew late.” So, I just want to point out that Jesus was preaching very long sermons. Can we all take note of that? Can we all write that down? It's a very Jesus like way to preach. In fact, he's preaching so late, the disciples are like, hey, Jesus. I don't know if you're paying attention to the time and space that we live in, Jesus, when you're preaching about eternal life, but it's getting late. These people need supper. They need dinner. And so maybe we should send these people to In-n-Out in Bethsaida, because we don't have food for all these people. And Jesus is like, well, why don't you guys give them something to eat? And they're like, do you realize what it would cost to pay for the food of all these people? And so, Jesus is like, well, how many loaves of bread do we have? Well, we've got five loaves of bread and two fish. And Jesus is like, okay, have everybody sit down. And they sit down in groups of hundreds and groups of fifties on the green grass there. And Jesus blesses the food, and he multiplies the food, and he hands it out. And from five loaves of bread and two fish, they feed five thousand men, not counting the women and children. What a miracle, because Jesus actually cares for these people. Not only is he preaching to them, he cares about their physical needs, that they need something to eat. Because when he sees the crowd, he's not against the crowd. He has compassion. He cares for the crowd.
Let's get that down for our second dash: “He had compassion.” He even cared about their physical needs. That's why he healed so many of them. That's why they're reaching out to touch him, because they get the sense that he actually cares about them. Yeah, they might crush him. That's why he's got a boat standing by. Yeah, they might come and try to take advantage of them. They might take their healing and run, get their free meal and run. Yeah, they might be coming for the wrong motives, but Jesus, he cares. He sees them as people who need a shepherd. They need a good shepherd. Is willing to lay down his life for the sheep. He sees that these people, they're lost, they're scattered, they're helpless, they're harassed. And he cares. He wants them to hear his message. So, I think we have a crowd here at our church. We have three services every weekend. We have over a thousand people who gather to hear the word in these sermons. I mean, this is way more than what we thought was going to happen when we moved to Huntington Beach. We've had to move out of one auditorium into this bigger auditorium. In fact, who took a trolley in here today? Because he had to park so far away because we're running out of parking spaces. And so, you can have an attitude about that, where it's like, why are all these people coming to my church? Now that sounds messed up when you say it out loud. But I've been a church person long enough to know that's how church people think. Why are all these people in line for coffee in front of me? Why are they here? I just need my coffee. What's going on? How dare that person sit in my seat? Don't they know I come here every Sunday at 11? Don't they know that's my seat? How this new person sat in my seat at church today. That's the kind of stuff. Real people say that stuff, right? Like, who are all these people? Let me ask you, when you can't find a place to park and you can't find a seat, is that an inconvenience to you, or are you grateful that people are hearing the word of the kingdom, the gospel of the message? See, I grew up going to church, and most of the churches I went to, they're kind of smaller churches, and it was the same group of people sitting in the same seats at the same time every Sunday. That's how I grew up. And we weren't really expecting somebody to come in and get saved, and we weren't really getting to know each other so close that we were really making disciples. We were just kind of sitting around talking about the Bible every Sunday. And see the ministry of Jesus. It wasn't the same people talking about the same things at the same time. It was an ever-increasing massive crowd of people who needed to hear the message, and then it was this intense, intimate discipleship of just a few. And I think most of us, we don't really care about the crowd, and we don't really get intimate with a few; we just kind of hang out at church. And the ministry of Jesus was not like that. The ministry of Jesus was welcoming people from far away, and then the ministry was very specific. I'm going to call these men, and I'm going to invest into them to make them to become my disciples.
So, we need to learn how to think about the Church of Jesus and how he did ministry, not based on all of our experiences, but based on the example of Jesus Christ. And he expected that there would be more and more people, and he thought, why don't you guys feed them? Why don't we meet their needs? Yeah, if they're here, I will heal them. Jesus understood better than us the motives of people and how they might have been coming for their own selfish interest. He didn't shoo them away. He welcomed them in. He cared for people like they need to hear this like, where else are they going to find the words of eternal life? Yes, I want them to come. And yes, if I have to park farther away, or I have to wait in line, or I have to go meet people, I don't know, bring it on, because I want everybody to hear the good news of Jesus. Jesus cared for them.
Now go back to Mark 3, because I also just want to highlight once again, that “He cast out demons.” That's our third dash here, and it emphasizes that in verses 11 and 12, and it uses the word polus. They translated it like he “strictly” ordered them not to make him known. I wonder if the meaning could be there was many times he had to say to demons not to make them known, because there were many people who had these unclean spirits, and they needed them cast out of them. So, one of the things that Mark does when he's writing his gospel is he brings us into the spiritual realm. He lets us know that it's not just people and Jesus having interactions. No, Jesus went out into the wilderness to be tempted by who? Satan. And Mark doesn't explain Satan. Mark expects you to know Satan. Mark expects you to know this idea of unclean spirits or demons. Mark, he's not afraid of spoiling that Judas Iscariot is going to betray him. He assumes you already know about that. See, Mark wants to take us back to the beginning of the gospel. That's what he said in Mark 1, verse 1. So, I think Mark's writing from the position that you've heard the gospel preached. You've heard that Jesus is the Christ who died for sins and rose again. Maybe you heard Peter preach it. Maybe you heard Paul preach it. You've heard the good news. Well, Mark wants to take you back to the beginning. Let me give you the story of how it all went down. So, that's why Mark doesn't emphasize the teaching or the content. He was thinking, maybe you've already heard the content, but he wants to tell you how it all happened, so you can see it as an example, so you can learn from it. And Mark says there were spiritual things that were happening. It wasn't just people coming to Jesus with their physical needs and their practical needs that he cared about. No, people were coming, and there was something going on where there are demons there trying to, like, say who Jesus is, and Jesus is shutting down these demons. There's going to be a lot more demons in Mark. In chapter 5, we're going to meet the man who has a legion of demons. In chapter 9, we're going to meet the father who has a son who is demon possessed, and the demon throws him into the fire, throws him into the water, throws him down to the ground. And the disciples do not have the faith to cast out that demon, and so there's a spiritual battle going on. It's when you invite somebody to church, it's not just can they physically get there? Do they know what time and space it's in? There's something going on that's taking place. There are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And when people are going to hear about the kingdom, well that there starts to be some kind of battle that happens. And how precious a soul must be if both God and the devil are after, that's what Charles Spurgeon said. And so, it's not just wow, look at all these people. They need to hear the message, or look at all these people, how can we care for them? It's like, whoa. There's something even going on in the spiritual realm. And Jesus, he had to silence many demons.
So, I want us to see that a crowd, in fact, you could write down Acts 2:42-47 where we get a summary statement about the early church in Jerusalem. And I just want to make this clear that the early church in Jerusalem would be considered today as a mega church, and it was that way from day one. How many people got saved after Peter preached the first sermon of the church? Three thousand souls, and day by day, the Lord added. And if you pay attention to the summary statements in Acts, they talk about the massive scope of how many people are getting saved. But then they also highlight how people are meeting one another's needs, how people are going to each other's houses to share meals they talk about. Look how crowded it's getting, but also look how intimate it is, and look how small the people gather in each other's homes as they share meals together. So, you're always going to see this when you study ministry in the Scripture. If there are going to be big crowds and there's going to be intimate discipleship and people really caring about each other, and so that takes us from the crowd in verses 7 to 12.
Now let's learn how Jesus selects his disciples in verse 13 to 19. Let's get that down for point number two: We want to “Learn how Jesus selected his disciples.” Mark is really interested in telling us how Jesus called these specific twelve men. And he wants, I think, for us to see how this happened, so we could see it as an example for ourselves. Okay, so let's learn how Jesus did this. And the first thing it says in verse 13 is how he went up on the mountain, and he called to him those whom he desired. Okay, so grab your Bible and turn with me to Luke 6:12, what does it mean that he went up on the mountain? Luke gives us more detail about this. Okay, so if everybody could turn with me one book over to Luke, chapter 6, verse 12. I just want you to see that Luke 6, starting in verse 12, it gives us the names of the twelve, and then it gives us a summary statement of the great crowd, and then it gives us the teaching of Jesus. So, let's just see where we're at in Matthew; we looked at chapter 9, the end of chapter 9, and then at the beginning of chapter 10, is where Jesus called the twelve in Luke. It happens here in chapter 6, but in Mark, we're already calling the twelve in Mark, chapter 3.
So, this is where we get the idea that Mark moves at a faster pace than the other gospels. Mark doesn't celebrate Christmas, he doesn't talk about the birth of Jesus. He just gets right into it, and then, bam, he's just going, he's given you in chapter 3, what it took Luke six chapters to get to, what it takes Matthew ten chapters to get to. But look what it says here in Luke 6:12 “In these days, he went out to the mountain, to” what, everybody? “to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.” So, when it says he went up on the mountain, well, he went up on the mountain one day, and then he came down the next day, and he called the twelve disciples. He spent all night praying to God about the selection of these twelve men. Now earlier in the Gospel of Mark, we already learned how Jesus got up very early in the morning to go and pray. Do you remember that from Mark 1 when he was in Capernaum? It was a sermon we did, A Day in the Life of Jesus, and he was up late healing the whole city, everybody who had a disease, he healed them, people who had demons, he cast them out. We don't know how late he went into the night, but when everybody woke up, they looked around, Jesus was already gone. And when it was still dark, before the sun came up, he went out into the wilderness to pray. And if you remember that sermon, we talked about how Jesus says later on to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Could you not watch and pray with me one hour?” And I said, are you ready to go pray for one hour? Well, many of you did go and pray for one hour, and you were pumped up after praying, and you came back and told me, I prayed for one hour. It was awesome. Okay, well, that's great. I'm encouraged that you prayed for one hour. I just want to point out to you, Jesus didn't do that one time. It seems like maybe he did that many times, almost on a daily basis. So, keep at your prayers. And then here new challenge, everybody. How about an all-night prayer time? Who's up for that? Right? Because that's what he does here. He goes up on the mountain. He's there all night, praying. Now he's ready to select his twelve in Jesus's mind, he's going to make these twelve men into the guys who initiate his kingdom. They're going to sit with him on thrones, ruling in his Kingdom. Jesus is taking the selecting of these twelve disciples very seriously, and we can see by how he does this all-nighter of prayer. So, the first thing Jesus did in selecting the twelve is he prayed.
Let's get that down for our first dash here: “He prayed.” And this is the first thing I want to ask everybody here to do, is to pray a lot of times. These days in the church, people are like, well, what's the program for that? Well, the program for that is, let's go pray. Okay, let's go pray about being a disciple of Jesus. And we have different kinds of folks here. Maybe you're a new Christian. I talked to somebody after the last service. He's been here six times. He's so fired up, he's learning so much. Well, if you're a new Christian, and we're really blessed that we have people that Jesus has saved here at the church. In fact, some of them have just gotten saved since we started the gospel of Mark twelve sermons ago. And it's exciting to see how Jesus is saving people. Well, then if you are new, you just need to be taught as a disciple. You need someone to disciple you. Okay, that's how it begins. A disciple is basically a learner. A disciple is someone who is willing to be taught by a master teacher. And so, if you're new to Christianity, well, you just need to learn. So, you need someone to teach you, and you should pray for that person to teach you. Now, if you have been made a disciple and you have been taught, if you would consider yourself a mature Christian, then you should be praying, God, who do you want me to take all that I've learned and then I could go and teach someone else? That's what we're supposed to be, faithful men and women, who then go and teach others also. So, if I've learned the Word, well, then God, I want to pray that you will guide me to a disciple that I could take what I've known and I could pass it on to them. There are so many people who go to church and they sit in the same place at the same time every week, and they say, I'm a mature Christian, but they don't act like a mature Christian, because they don't take what they know and pass it on to other people. There are some even here at this service, by this time, you ought to be teachers. The goal of being a Christian is not endless information for yourself. The goal of being a Christian is to experience the transformation of the power of the gospel of Jesus, and then as you come to know the power of Jesus to pass it on to other people. And if you're not passing it on, you're doing it wrong.
So, we should be praying about this. Well, I don't know who I would disciple. Okay, well, the first step is God, I want to make a disciple. I want to take what I've learned and I want to teach it to someone else. Ask God to make that person clear to you, ask God to give you wisdom. So, everybody here at our church, we should either be saying, I need to learn more as a disciple, or if we've learned it, then we should be willing to pass it on to others. But so many people find themselves somewhere in the middle of that, I don't really need you to teach me anything. I'm fine. I'm doing good. I don't need to be taught. But, okay, great. Well, then you're ready to teach others. No, I'm not really, no, not so much, right? Okay, so you don't need to be taught, but you're not willing to teach. That's no man's land, right? There in the making of disciples, that's where a lot of church people sit these days, and so I want to ask you to pray about that. I want to ask you to pray. Do I need to be taught and learn more, or do I need to be used to teach someone else so they can learn? Here am I? Lord send me. And I don't even want to assume that everybody in this room is a disciple right now, because to be a disciple, what we've learned going through the Gospel of Mark is, if you're going to be called as a disciple of Jesus, like these twelve men, well, what we've seen so far, let me just review what we've learned so far. To be a disciple is to admit you are a sinner who is willing to learn a new way.
Let's get that down for our definition: “To be a disciple is to admit you are a sinner who is willing to learn a new way.” That's what we found. Because Jesus has already had two scenes where he's called disciples, some of the men that are now going to be named as the twelve disciples. So, we already have some idea from Mark. Go back to chapter 1, verse 16 in Mark. That's where he met the fishermen with Simon and Andrew and James and John, and they were casting their nets in the sea. And Jesus said to them, this is Mark 1:17, “Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” This is the glorious truth of Jesus calling his disciples. Jesus is going to make these men to become more than who they are. That's the beginning. You need to understand that. You need to learn more than you know you need. You're a sinner who needs to leave behind the way you have been living, and you need to be taught by Jesus a new way to live. And so, what did Simon and Andrew do when he said, “Follow me?” Well, they left their nets. They left their being fishermen behind to go be learners of Jesus. And then he called James and John. They're the sons of Zebedee. Their dad's right there in the boat. They leave their father right there behind, and they go to follow Jesus. So, we see that he calls these guys to follow, and they're willing to leave things behind to go learn a new way. Then we go to chapter 2, verse 13, where he called this man Levi, who we also think is known as Matthew. He called him from the tax booth. And if you remember that sermon, if you were a tax collector, you made a bunch of money is what happened. That was a very lucrative profession. I mean, if you were a tax collector, you're set for life. And he says, “Follow me,” and he leaves behind the tax booth. So, he's leaving behind a set paycheck. He leaves that behind to follow Jesus. In fact, he invites many other tax collectors over to his house to come learn the way of Jesus. And many others want to follow Jesus too. And everybody else is like, oh, those tax collectors. They are what kind of people? Sinners, people who have missed the mark, people who are not right, people who have fallen short of the glory of God. Like tax collectors, those guys are in it for themselves. They're greedy. They take from others for themselves. They take from the Jews to give to the Romans. Like everybody, he knew the tax collectors. That's messed up, that's wrong exactly. That's the kind of person Jesus is looking for, the person who knows that they need to learn a new way, the person who knows they're a sinner. And Levi knew that that's part of why he wanted to follow. He knew he needed to learn a new way. In fact, we went to Luke 5, if you remember, and Peter had been fishing all night, and Jesus is like, let's go catch some fish. And Peter's like, look, Jesus, I'm the fisherman. There's nothing out there. But since you're Jesus, I'll take you out there. Right? Very kind of way that he talks to Jesus there. And then they go out. And do you remember what happens in Luke 5? They catch so many fish their nets are breaking. They catch so many fish they have to bring over the other boat. And Peter, who is a fisherman and knows how the Sea of Galilee works, he knows that Jesus is literally summoning the fish. Jesus is literally drawing the fish. This is not natural, this is supernatural. And so, what does Peter say? He says, “Lord, depart from me, for I am a” what? I'm “a sinner.” I don't belong with you. You are God. I am not. And Jesus, instead of looking at Peter and thinking he doesn't belong because he's a sinner, Jesus now sees that Peter is ready to be his disciple, because he's willing to admit he's a sinner who needs to learn a new way.
And so, Jesus has already tested some of these guys, and we don't get the story with all twelve. We're going to go through all twelve names here, but we don't get to really know the details of all twelve, but the glimpses we get shows us that Jesus has already observed from Simon and Andrew, from James and John, and from Levi, five of them, we've already observed that they are willing to leave things behind, and they are willing to follow Jesus when he commands them, They obey.
So, let's get that down for our second dash: “He observed how they obeyed.” He saw their willingness. He saw their desire to follow him, their willingness to turn from their sin. So, he saw this sincere desire coming from these disciples. That's why he calls them to be his twelve. So, Mark's already given us some glimpses of these guys. But now let's get to the actual list of twelve. And look what it says here in verse 14. This is so important. It says, “He appointed twelve whom he also named apostles.” And then here are the two things that Jesus called these disciples to one, that they might be with him, two, that he might send them out to preach and to cast out demons. So, there's a two-step kind of idea to be the disciple. One is you get to be with Jesus. Okay, you come and sit at his feet. You come and learn from his example. You come and watch his ways. And you get mentored personally, intimately by him. Two, the whole point of coming and learning is you know you're going to be sent out. And it happens quick. In Mark by chapter 6, he's already sending them out two by two. So, it's not like they get the full three year program with Jesus before they get sent out. No, they come with Jesus, and then he sends them out soon. Matthew, who gets called in Chapter 9 of Matthew, he gets sent out in chapter 10 of Matthew, which gives me the impression that Matthew felt like he got sent out right after he got called. And so, this is you guys are going to be my twelve. You're going to be with me, and then I'm going to send you out. And notice the word “appointed”. If you could write down the word “made” next to “appointed,” because it says it there in verse 14, he made twelve. Verse 16, he made the twelve. It's this Greek word poieo. It's a common verb “to make” or “do”. This is what Jesus said back in chapter 1, verse 17, “I will make you to become fishers of men.” Well, that's what it's saying here. He's making them the twelve. And then he gives us their names. And he gives us Simon, to whom he gave the name, Peter, number one, James, the son of Zebedee, number two, John, the brother of James, number three, to whom he gave the name, Boanerges, that is Sons of Thunder. Andrew, four, Philip, five, Bartholomew, the Muse, six, Matthew, we think is Levi, seven, Thomas, eight, James the son of Alphaeus, nine, Thaddeus, ten, Simon the Zealot, eleven, and Judas Iscariot, the infamous number twelve. And after he betrays Jesus and hangs himself out of his worldly grief, they then bring in Matthias, if you know about that, from Acts chapter 1, so that there would be twelve, because the twelve are going to sit on the thrones in the kingdom of Jesus and reign over the twelve tribes of Israel. And so, Jesus calls them the twelve. He made them the twelve.
So, this is what we're learning about discipleship. This is what's so inspiring, is when you decide to follow Jesus, when you leave things behind and you commit to following Jesus, Jesus makes you to become someone more than who you were. He's not calling them because they're already ready. He's not calling them because they come equipped. He's calling them to make them who they need to become. Wow. And that's really highlighted here in the way Mark says it. So, we don't have enough information to kind of give you all the questions you might want to know about all twelve of them. But what the gospel does, the Gospel of Mark is it highlights – specifically notice when it said Simon, it told us he gave him the name Peter, and then when it said John, it told us he gave him the name Sons of Thunder. So out of the twelve, there are two specific ones that we get told, yeah, and Jesus gave them a name. And if you ever read in the Bible about Jesus giving somebody a name, you should immediately assume that's a very big deal. The fact that this guy, Simon, is forever known as Peter, and Jesus is the one who decided to call him Peter. That could be something we haven't paid close enough attention to. We just kind of refer to him as Peter. That's not how Mark wrote the Gospel.
Go back to chapter one, and you'll see that up until this point, Mark is not using the name Peter. In fact, back in verse 16, this was very difficult for me to preach some of these passages, because who we're all thinking of as Peter here is referred to as Simon. So, it's Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, that's who he meets. In fact, after he teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum, go down to verse 29 where it says, “immediately he left the synagogue and he entered the house of Simon.” And then Simon's mother-in-law. And so, I remember preaching that sermon, and every time it says Simon, I'm always trying to clarify. That's who we know as Peter, but Mark, intentionally, has only referred to him as Simon until this moment when he gets called one of the twelve, when he gets made into Peter. And Mark is someone who knew Peter well. The impression he's trying to give us is, if you knew Simon, wow, where do you see how Jesus made him to be Peter. Simon was not Peter, but Jesus made him his disciple. Disciples are not born. Disciples are made. They are made by Jesus. Jesus makes us to become someone we are not, and that's so important for everybody to hear. Because all the time I hear people say, well, I'm an introvert. I don't have that kind of personality. I'm not very quick with my words. I just don't have that love and care for other people, I just wouldn't know what to say. I just get afraid of public speaking. Yes, all of those things were true about Simon. That's why Jesus made him to be Peter, and that's why, when Jesus makes you a disciple, he makes you to become someone more than you are. Can we all agree together that this guy, Simon said some of the dumbest things we've ever heard. Can we all agree about that? I mean, this guy, Simon, there are times where that whole idea of like, put your foot in your mouth. Have you ever heard that phrase that applies to this guy, Simon? I mean this guy, he says some of the great things that have ever been said where you're just like, yeah, bro, I'm with you. And then he says some of the stuff, have you ever felt embarrassed for someone else, because they should be embarrassed, but they're not, so you're embarrassed for them. Have you ever felt that? We call that the cringe, right? Have you ever felt that for someone right? Man, I felt that for this guy, Simon.
Jesus is like, guys, here's the plan. I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer there. I'm going to be handed over to them. They're going to kill me, but on the third day, I will rise. Simon, he's like, Jesus, let's go on a little walk over here. That is not the story, Jesus, you're healing people, you're casting out demons. You're feeding people by the thousands. I don't think you're suffering and dying in Jerusalem. And what does he say to Simon? “Get behind me,” who? “Satan”. Simon is the kind of guy who, when the big moment comes, the moment that Simon has been hyping up for a long time, when the big moment comes and Jesus is in there on trial in front of the religious leaders, and Simon is not in there standing by Jesus. Simon is out with the servants in the outer court, warming his hands by the fire. And then a lady says, hey, aren't you from Galilee? Aren't you with Jesus? Simon's the kind of guy that says, I don't know what you're talking about, lady.
That's who Simon was, a man who was prone to saying foolish things and then when he really needed to stand up and say something, a man who withdrew and back down and denied the Lord Jesus three times on the critical night, even though he said he wouldn't, he still did it. This is Simon, and Jesus says, I'm going to make you to become Peter. So, this idea that Peter was always this way is not what Mark is teaching. No, he was away, and then he became Peter. Go over with me to John, chapter 1, and let's look at this moment where, perhaps Simon meets Jesus for the first time. Here in John, chapter 1, verse 35 John the Baptist is introducing people to Jesus. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And one of the guys who hears John say that, and begins following Jesus, is Andrew. And so, look what it says in John 1:41 of the two who heard John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew. Notice how it says, Simon Peter’s brother, “He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah,’” which means the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the one that all the prophecies are about, the one who's coming in the line of King David, we have found the Messiah. And he brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John,” or sometimes it's “Simon the son of Jonah.” Like John and Jonah were interchangeable, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).” Here comes Simon, running up to meet Jesus. Jesus knows right away I'm going to make you Peter. And maybe you know Petros. Cephas here, Aramaic; Petros in the Greek, it means rock or stone.
Go with me to Matthew 16, because this is why Jesus called him Peter is because of what happens here in Matthew 16. Simon, now known as Peter, he becomes kind of a spokesperson of the twelve. We hear more from him than anybody else. In fact, though there are twelve really over the course of the gospel, we see three that become the innermost circle of disciples with Jesus. And who are the three that are the closest disciples of Jesus? What are their names, everybody? Peter, James, and John. They are the three closest disciples of Jesus. If you've read the Bible, you know that they go up on the mountain and see Jesus glorified. They go to pray, or not really pray with Jesus right before he's going to die. Out of the twelve, three emerge, and out of those three, there are two that we hear about the names that Jesus gave them. And so here in Matthew 16, they go to Caesarea Philippi, and he asked them a question in verse 15. This is Matthew 16:15, “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” He asked them, who are other people saying? Well, they're saying you're this prophet or that prophet, but who do you say that I am? And notice how it says it Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ. You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” That's how Andrew, his brother, introduced him. But now here's Simon Peter saying it like I know who you are. I believe who you are. You're the Son of God who put on flesh. You're the Messiah, the anointed one that God sent to save his people. I believe. And look what Jesus said to him. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell[b] shall not prevail against it.”
So, he this is why he gave him the name Peter, because of this word play about the stone or the rock. Now many people misinterpret this passage, and they say that Peter is the rock that the church gets built on, and this is where the idea of Peter becoming the first pope comes from is what I believe is a really bad misinterpretation of this passage. Because if you go into the Greek, the rock, yes, the name Petros means rock or stone, but when it says rock here, it's not even the same gender in the language of Greek as Peter. No, the rock is what Simon got revealed to him by the Father. The rock is the right answer that Peter gives. You are the Christ. Jesus is the cornerstone that the church is built on, and Peter is the one who's saying the right answer. It's you. You're the Christ. You're the Son of the living God. That is the rock that the church is built on, is the revelation of Jesus as the Christ. And Peter was just the first spokesperson who was ready to say that on the streets of Jerusalem, who said it here in the company of the twelve. And so, yes, Peter is speaking it. But Peter is not the rock himself. No, the rock is the revelation of who Jesus is, and on who I am, I will build my church, Jesus says, and nobody can stop me from building my church. Here's Jesus making an announcement all set up by this name he gave Simon. No, you're going to be Peter, because God's going to reveal to you, and you're going to give the message of who I am. Now if you think that meant Peter is the Pope, well, not only does it not work in the Greek language of this text, but you might also want to write down Ephesians 2:20, which talks about Jesus being the cornerstone, but the foundation of the apostles in the plural. So, Peter is never singled out. No, it's apostles and prophets in the plural. They're the foundation that God uses. In fact, in 1 Peter, chapter 5, Peter says in the letter that he writes as one of the under-shepherds, Jesus, being the good shepherd, well, the rest of the pastors, they're just under-shepherds. And he says, let me say to my fellow elders like he's just one of the elders, one of the pastors. He doesn't act like he's some elite guy above everybody. He acts like, let me tell you how to care for God's people as one of the people caring for God's people. So, the point is not on Peter being the rock in his own person. The point is that we're going to take a guy who would deny Jesus three times on the critical moment of Jesus life, and we're going to make that guy, someone who will boldly go and tell everybody who Jesus actually is. That's what it means to be made a disciple. You find yourself saying things and doing things you would have never seen yourself doing, because this is who Jesus is making you to be. And I guarantee you that when you meet Jesus, he's got a new name for every one of us.
Now, some of us have already known this, that Saul the Pharisee became Paul the missionary. We should see that same exact thing with Simon got made Peter. And I cannot wait for the day that is promised to me in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. When it gives the seven letters to the seven churches, it says, someday for those of us who overcome, for those of us who have faith, for those of us who endure to the end, when we meet Jesus, he will hand us a stone, and on that stone will be a name, a name that Jesus has for you, because Jesus is going to make you to become more than Simon. He's going to make you into Peter. That's what's happening here. Jesus isn't looking for guys who already come fully assembled, fully equipped, oh no. All they need is to know they're sinners. All they need is a willingness to learn a new way, and then Jesus can make them into the men who will bring the kingdom. Jesus makes the disciples. The glory doesn't go to the disciples. The glory goes to him. And if you are really sincere about following Jesus, Jesus will take you places you could have never imagined. He will do things in your life you could never possibly do in your own strength. He makes the twelve.
So, let's get that down for our third dash: “He made” Simon into Peter. I want you to really think about that. He made Simon to become someone Simon was not, and he knew what he was doing the whole time. You Peter, you're going to end up the guy who would deny Jesus three times is going to be the guy who feeds his sheep and preaches the gospel, and three thousand people fill the streets of Jerusalem, repenting and getting baptized in the name of Jesus. That's how Jesus works. And so, I hear it. You're afraid of public speaking. You have a hard time reaching out to people you don't know. You don't really feel the passionate love for lost people. You're not sure what you would say. I hear all of it. Jesus can make you to become someone who overcomes all of that. That's what he's doing with this guy, Simon. He's meant to be an example. Yeah, remember the guy who said all those cringe things? Remember the guy who denied Jesus three times? Look what Jesus used him to do. Wow. That's supposed to inspire us.
Now, there's one more though. Go back to Mark, chapter 3, and you'll see there how specifically it's James and John who are the Sons of Thunder. But do you notice how it's after he says James, the son of Zebedee and John, the brother of James, that he specifically says after John, “He gave them the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder.” Okay, now that means James and John, this works a little bit differently. This name, this is not the name of how they become. This is the name of how they came in, okay, James and John, whoever Zebedee was, whoever their mom was, they were somebody, all right, because these guys come in, like entitled, spoiled men, all right? They're entitled, and they're also mama's boys, which is a very unique combination, I guess, here, right? So go with me to Mark 10:35, let me just give you the ultimate James and John moment in the Gospel of Mark. And I can't wait till we go through the Gospel of Mark together and you guys get to all see what failures these disciples actually are in the Gospel of Mark and how Jesus makes these men to become so much more than what they naturally were. And James and John, by the time we get to Mark, I can't wait for Mark 8, 9, and 10. I'm so pumped about it. By the time we get to Mark 10:35, you can see the paragraph right before that, Jesus foretells his death a third time. Look what he says in Mark 10:33, see we are going up to Jerusalem and the “Son of Man,” which is how Jesus referred to himself, “the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. They'll deliver him over to the Gentiles.” That means, hand him over to the Romans, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise.
It's the third time Jesus has tried to teach the twelve guys, when we go to Jerusalem, this is what's going to happen. The Pharisees, the bad guys, they're going to get me, they're going to hand me over to the Romans. They're going to mock me, beat me, flog me, kill me. And then I'm going to rise on the third day. That's what's going to happen. It's the third time. It's like you could probably feel the urgency in Jesus' voice. Guys, you got to listen to me. This is the plan. This is the gospel. This is what's going to happen. We go right from that to this verse 35 and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the Sons of Thunder, “they came up to him and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’” Does that sound entitled to anybody else? Jesus, we have a favor to ask. Hey, Jesus. We heard about that death stuff. That's nice, but we have a request. And Jesus says, what do you want me to do for you? “And they said to him, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory,” Jesus. Jesus, we love this idea of the twelve thrones, but we thought we could improve it a little bit. How about two thrones? You don't need twelve; we've looked at the rest of these guys. They're lacking. How about just two thrones, one on the right, one on the left. Can you imagine the audacity in the other gospels, it actually says they brought their mom to ask Jesus about this. These are grown men bringing their mom to ask Jesus about this. Have you ever met someone who's overzealous? Have you ever you know what I'm talking about? Like, there are people they'll deny Jesus, they don't want to say anything. Then there are people it's like, whoa, brother, you're coming in way too hot, way too strong. Have you ever met one of these people before? Well, that's James and John. This is one of my favorite stories of the Sons of Thunder. This is Luke, chapter 9, verse 54 when a town in Samaria says, no, you're not welcome here, Jesus, we're not going to feed you. You can't stay with us. We know you're going to Jerusalem. We don't like Jerusalem. You can't stay with us. Here's what it says. “When his disciples, James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’” They won't invite us over for lunch. Shall we call fire from the sky? Lord, tell us, we're ready. I mean, this is James and John. These guys are scorched earth evangelists right here. These guys are like, repent or burned right now kind of evangelists right here? You won't let us stay with you. Lord, shall we call it down? Lord, what am I going to do with the Sons of Thunder? I'm sure Jesus was thinking this. Now we don't really get to know James, even though James is one of the closest three, James ends up dying in the book of Acts pretty quick. Maybe you remember that when they say, can we sit on the thrones? Jesus is like, do you guys know what you're asking for, to sit on those thrones? Are you going to drink the cup that I drink? Are you going to get baptized with my baptism? And they're like, yeah, sign us up. Well, what that actually means are, is you willing to die like me and James did die just like Jesus. But see John, we get to know John pretty well. John actually wrote the best book I've ever read in my life. His first person eyewitness account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. John was there for the whole story, and he wrote it down so that we could believe it in him. And when John describes himself in the book, he doesn't call himself John. He doesn't even call himself the son of Zebedee or one of the Sons of Thunder. He just uses one title to refer to himself the entire book that is, “Disciple who Jesus” what? “loved”. How does the thunder become a big softy, right? How does he become the guy who's like, hey, I want to tell you a new commandment, because the way that Jesus loved us, that's the way we should go learn how to love one another. And when John was there with Jesus on the night before Jesus died, and John's there leaning up next to Jesus. He says he loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to thee and the Son of Thunder who's ready to call fire. From this guy, he becomes a guy who's known for his love. He becomes a guy who writes about how we should receive people and welcome them, and we have no greater joy than to hear our children walking in the truth. And so yeah, he was fired up and ready, but Jesus made him to become a disciple, known for his love for Jesus, how he really knew Jesus loved him, and that made him ready to love the brothers in Christ. That's when he became known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Jesus made John that way.
And when John saw Jesus revealed in all of his glory, in Revelation chapter one, John fell at his face before the glory of the Lord Jesus, and then he picked him up, the disciple whom Jesus loved. So I don't know if you're the kind of person who would deny Jesus, or I don't know if you're the kind of person who'd be way too ready to blast the world with Jesus, but I can promise you that Jesus can make you to become more than who you are, and I just want to tell you, I never really had somebody when I was growing up going to church. There wasn't really anybody who discipled me. I was blessed to go to good churches where they taught the Bible. I was blessed to go and have many godly examples of men in my life, but nobody really sat down with me one-on-one and wanted to invest in me. You realize it wasn't till I started working at church that I ever really got into one-on-one discipleship. So, I just want to say that if you have somebody who's willing to invest in you one-on-one, and you can tell they're a mature believer in Jesus and they want to meet with you, do you realize that there are Christians all over the world who are praying for an opportunity like that? And if you get that opportunity, I would strongly encourage you, don't act like you don't need it. Receive it and admit I need to learn a new way. I need to be discipled. And then if you have been discipled, what an amazing thing that you could pour into someone else, and you could see Jesus make them to become more than who they were.
Go with me to Acts, chapter 4, where we really get to see the full effect of the discipleship of Jesus. That Jesus took Son of Thunder, and he took this guy who denied him, Simon, and he made them his disciples, and in Acts 4, after two chapters of preaching the gospel, Peter's preaching in the streets of Jerusalem; thousands are getting saved. Well now they end up on trial. Guess where? In front of the same religious leaders that killed Jesus. So now Peter is not out with the servants denying Jesus in the court. Now Simon, no. Now he's Peter, and now he's standing there. And guess who's standing right next to him, Peter and John, the two disciples that we get more detail about their names about. And here's what happens in Acts, chapter 4, verse 8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed?” If you want to talk about how we just healed this guy, and that's why we're on trial, well, “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.” In fact, this Jesus, he's the stone. He's the rock that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And when the same group of men who killed Jesus, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
They saw Peter and John had been made. To become more than who they were by being with Jesus, they saw Jesus, yes, he laid down his life. And these religious leaders maybe thought that they had won a victory over Jesus, but the whole time Jesus was training up his disciples who would actually win the victory by spreading the message of who Jesus is, the Christ, the one who died for our sins and rose again. See, that's not just Simon standing there. That's not just the Son of Thunder standing there. Those are the disciples who have been with Jesus. Jesus made these men, and he can make you to be one of his disciples too. Let me pray for us right now.
Father, we just thank you for the calling of the twelve. We thank you that we could study this together, and we could see that Jesus called Simon Peter, that Jesus called John one of the Sons of Thunder, and he will forever be known as the disciple whom Jesus loved. God, thank you for showing us that Jesus made these men, and I pray that it would inspire our faith that Jesus can make us to become disciples. He can teach us a new way to live, and as we learn to follow Jesus, we can then become disciples who are ready to make disciples ourselves. We can take all that you have taught us through your Son Jesus, and we can pass it on and teach others also. And so, God, I pray that that would be true about everybody here, that we would all admit that we're sinners and we need to learn a new way, and that we would either be actively praying about getting taught more how to follow Jesus, or we would be actively praying, who do you want me to teach about following Jesus? I pray that this would not be a church where people come to the same place at the same time and sit in the same seats and just learn about the Bible. No, I pray that this would be a place where disciples get made and we come in thinking, who this is, who I am, and then Jesus makes us to become someone more than who we were. And I pray that we will see many disciples get made in Huntington Beach and all the cities here in North Orange County. I pray that the greatest days in our harvest field are yet to come. I pray that we will see a great crowd of people come and hear the good news of Jesus, and then we will intentionally seek them out and disciple them one by one, and that you will raise up many laborers to send out into the harvest field. Let us learn from the example of Jesus today. Let us see how he cared for the crowd. Let us see how he made the disciples. Let us see today, what a joy it is to follow Jesus Christ, to come in as Simon and to forever be known as Peter, to come in as a Son of Thunder and to be known as someone who Jesus loved. God, thank you for the work that you do in your Son, Jesus to make us his disciples. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.