Mark 3:7-34
What is the greatest supernatural miracle you have ever witnessed? For me I would go back to a time when I was four years old . . .
Former Senate Chaplain and Presbyterian Pastor Lloyd Ogilvie: “Recently I was interviewed by a television station about the power of God in contemporary life. The news analysts wanted to know if I believed in miracles today. I told him I did and that the same power displayed vividly on the pages of the New Testament was available today. He then wanted to know the greatest miracle I had ever experienced. I am sure he wanted to know some account of a great healing or some account of an exception to the laws of the natural world and though I have experienced both that is not what I had in mind. The greatest miracle he said is the calling, conditioning and commissioning of a disciple. That drew a puzzled look from my interviewer. I went on to explain that the transformation that takes place from observation into actual participation is one of the greatest gifts God ever gives a causal follower of Christ. He went on to ask, “Why do you call that a miracle?” I responded that the pressures of conformity in our society and of safety and un-involvement are so great and push upon people to be causal followers instead of committed that it is almost humanly impossible to become a real disciple of Jesus Christ. Most people come to church for what they need and what they want. It is a special gift from Christ when a miraculous transformation occurs and they begin to urgently feel a passion and purpose to give away to others what they have experienced through Christ. He went on to say, the interviewer would not let this drop. His last question was rather cutting edge. He asked, “If Christ is still calling disciples out of mass followers why are there so few disciples in most churches?” We had a fascinating conversation about why so many churches do so much for uncommitted church members to inspire and entertain them and so little to call and train disciples.”
He says one of the greatest miracles he’s every seen is how God takes people from being a causal follower of Christ to being totally transformed. Here’s why he is right. It takes so much power to pull people like you and me out of years and years of conditioning and family life and view an values to so transform us to where we see who God is that our values and thoughts and perspectives and decisions began to really revolve around our relationship with God instead of just giving Him a little corner of our life.
George Gallup conducted a recent survey among evangelical Christians in North America. We’re talking those Christians who claim to be Christians that believe in the Bible, that Jesus is God and that men and women can truly be saved etc.
He found out that in only one out of ten evangelical Christians in America did it make a significant difference in how they made their decisions, spent their money, spent their time, what they watched and viewed and how they raised their children.
Today we are going to see Jesus explain how this great miracle works in our live. How He takes us and transforms us from the crowd to the inner circle.
How He takes people to the next level in their spiritual journey. Remember the five snapshots from last week? All the people were getting real excited about this Jesus but the religious leaders had enough and they were plotting to kill Him.
In chapter 3 we get four paragraphs, the first one is the setting where He is immersed in a crowd of people and then in the second paragraph we will learn His strategy for taking people from the crowd and turning them into the core. He is taking them into intimate fellowship with Him. He wants them to have an impact far beyond what they could see or imagine. And then we are going to look at the disciples doing ministry for the first time and we will come to understand the cost of what it means to follow Christ. Finally we will see the key to staying power is the great rewards when we move from causal Christian to someone in the inner circle with God. 
1. The Crowd
7Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11Whenever the evil[a] spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." 12But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
Here is what was happening. Jesus withdrew from the religious leaders who were trying to kill Him. All the people from Galilee had come to see this religious teacher. They had heard about his ability to heal the sick and even cast out demons. I am sure that some of them came just because He was taking on the religious leaders of the day. They came from the east, west, north and south. Thousands of people came to hear him.
Two words: There are two variations of the word crowd. The first one is the word we use to describe crushing grapes. The other is the same word with an intensive prefix. It was like a mob scene so Jesus requested a boat so that He wouldn’t be trampled.
Notice He is drawing a crowd. He is becoming well known. Crowds are flocking to hear Him. Why are they coming? Are they coming to hear Him preach and teach? Check out verse eight. Mark says they were coming because of what He was doing.
Here is a principle: Meeting the felt needs of people is the key to drawing a crowd.
There are two groups of people who need to hear this message.
When you and I or this church meet the felt needs of people we will have no problem drawing a crowd. If someone is going through a marital problem or a wayward child or some need like that, using the four spiritual laws or the Roman road gospel presentation is probably not the right thing to do. If people are going through a financial crisis then focus on that and meet the need. You have to meet people at the place of their need. Jesus did it without apology.
This is one of the things that we are trying desperately to get engrained into the DNA of our church. When we do anything it should be with the crowd in mind. We are trying to fulfill the great commission that Christ left for the church to do and that means that we do things that are meaningful to people outside these walls that will give us the chance to have a relationship with them and the credibility to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is never impressed with the crowd. If what happened to Jesus happened today we would start a TV show. Crowds are what people are into. If Jesus were a typical religious leader of today he would find a way to charge people to check their camels. It’s the way corruption is. The focus becomes perverted. We would find a way to keep assembling a bigger and bigger crowd because too many times as Americans we buy into the idea that bigger is always better. We like everything super-sized. We name our sandwiches with names like whopper and Big Mac’s. We even drink big gulps. The whole idea is to move people from dabblers to disciples. To make them impact players on the team.
We are very thankful for the people that come here but the crowd is not what you should be excited about, in fact you shouldn’t be excited you should be motivated to want to make the crowd into fully devoted followers of Christ. Let’s see how Christ did it. How did Jesus move people from the crowd to disciples? 
2. The Call
13Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14He appointed twelve—designating them apostles[b]—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15and to have authority to drive out demons. 16These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter 17James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder 18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Basic principles: Jesus looks at His own life and realizes He is not going to be on the earth forever and understands the need to reproduce Himself in other. If the message of the coming of the bridegroom, the coming of the Savior is ever going to stay alive and live in hearts and lives of those in need it will be done because Jesus followers learn how to reproduce disciples. Do you see the danger of the whole crowd thing? Crowds are not wrong but when we become driven by our egos and the focus becomes how many people are in the seats instead of how many people are being transformed into authentic believers or disciples we are in trouble.
Jesus decides to develop 12 other people
He is developing disciples.
Selection: You select the right people.
Designation: He appointed 12 with a clear cut job description. He called them to be apostles. Apostle means simply, sent out ones. It’s like an ambassador. He designated them to be His mouth in sharing the message.
I am slowly coming to the conclusion that mentoring, small groups and teaching relationships in the church should have ending points. We should have a targeted time to end the discipleship or mentoring relationship process so that people will go out and reproduce that relationship in someone else who will in turn reproduce it.
There is this mentality around the church world that we just need to keep taking in and taking in and we will grow more spiritual. You what taking in and taking in produces? It produces oversized, non functional, underachievers. That’s a politically correct way of saying, fat, lazy and making no disciples.
Every time some one comes to me and wants to start something for mature believers I always wonder in my mind what would happen if they would be that excited about just doing what Jesus asks us to do and that is make and develop Christ followers. The goal of every bible study is to make disciples and send them out to do the work Christ called them to do. Work on turning the crowd into the called. (Small groups: Impact groups)
Association: He called them to be with Him. Jesus invited them to do life with Him. They saw Him at His worst and at His best. More is truly caught then taught. Parent’s have the most influence on their children becoming disciples. Your children are not going to turn out by what you are saying but they will turn out by what you are modeling. Jesus is calling them to be with Him. You and I will impact people the most by letting them get close to us. Let them see you at your worst and best.
Commission: He sent them out with authority and power. Real joy comes from empowering other people. You want to be wealthy or rich? Let me tell you who the richest people in the world are spiritually. They are people who can look over their shoulder and see people who have followed them and are now out influencing and making disciples of others. They are making an impact. There is nothing you can give yourself to that will bring that kind of joy.
You can impress people from a distance but you can only impact them up close. 
3. The Cost
20Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
22And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub[c]! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
There are three price tags. You do realize that there is always a price tag to anything you want to do? You want to be good in business or have a good marriage there is always going to be a price tag.
The price tags are:
a. Physical: Time demands
b. Emotional: Relational demands
c. Spiritual: Opposition from the enemy
Jesus uses logic with these religious critics.
23So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. 28I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. 29But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal (or unpardonable) sin."
30He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."
Jesus is exposing these religious leader for their eternal mistake. Whatever you have heard about an unpardonable sin you need to know that in the context of this scripture it is nothing more than unbelief. These religious leaders didn’t believe. They didn’t believe in the One who could have changed their lives forever. Unbelief is the only thing that can keep Christ from saving you. He came that you might have eternal life. Stress and pressure goes with the territory of following Christ at this level. In fact, stress and pressure is going to come from anything you do at an intense level. It’s part of the territory. It’s part of the price. 
4. The Reward
Listen to these words.
31Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
33"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
34Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."
There is nothing more rewarding then following Christ at the level He intended. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ should change everything about your life. Transformation should will be normal as you follow Him.
Maybe you’ve been coming year for a while and you know you need to move forward in your spiritual journey or you are a leader who is responsible for leading other into a growing relationship with Christ and you want to move toward the center which is Christ. I am inviting you to spend some time with Jesus today as this song is sung why don’t you move forward and let that be symbolic of your desire to live and lead like Him.