He Appointed Twelve

Today we return to our series in Mark and see something amazing.  As we have been studying this gospel, we have already been seeing plenty of amazing things.  We’ve seen Jesus perform a number of miracles, which he does more of today in our passage.  In verses 7-12 Jesus heals more people and casts out more demons.  And yet what I think is even more amazing is what follows in verses 13-20.  In those verses Jesus appoints twelve men to be in his inner circle, to be discipled by Christ, with the ultimate goal of evangelism – to use these men in bringing the good news of the kingdom to the world.  Jesus hand picks twelve men, a diverse group full of unlikely candidates, eleven of whom will ultimately become his apostles.  And it will be through these apostles that Jesus builds his church, and brings his gospel to the ends of the earth.

Passage: Mark 3:7-20
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 03/30/2008 in Novato, CA.
Other Scripture Readings: Isaiah 55:1-7; Genesis 12:1-4; Revelation 7

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Follow Me

Passage: Mark 1:16-20
Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/03/2008 in Novato, CA.

Today we begin a series on the gospel of Mark.  Now, we in a sense began this series last month, on my first Sunday here, when I preached from Mark 1:1-15.  That was the Sunday before Christmas so I preached a Christmas sermon and also a sermon about the start of ministry.  Today, as we resume and start afresh in Mark, we’ll be focusing on verses 16-20 where Jesus calls his first disciples.  Of course, seeing Jesus call his first disciples is another great sort of introduction to this book.  Because as we look at this calling of the first disciples, we cannot help but think about our own call to be disciples of Christ, and we cannot help but look forward to what the book of Mark will teach us about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Click here for the manuscript.

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