Well, the verses that we're going to consider this morning as continuation of our series in the Gospel of Mark are verses 13 to 19 from Mark chapter 3. I'll read them quickly again. Mark 3, 13 to 19. And he, Jesus, goeth up into a mountain, and calleth 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 devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James. And he surnamed them Boanerges, which is the sons of thunder. And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus. and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him, and they went into a house. So I really want to talk this morning about how Jesus, the Lord Jesus, brings transformation or can bring transformation into human lives, into the lives of men and women. Last time we considered Mark's summary of the first part of Jesus' Galilean ministry, and we're now beginning to look at the second phase of our Lord's ministry in Galilee, which takes us from chapter 3.13 to chapter 6. And the reading that we have just read begins this section with the appointment of 12 of the disciples as apostles. The Lord Jesus appointed 12 apostles from many followers, many disciples, in order to expand his preaching and healing ministry throughout Israel. And their role is explained in verses 14 and 15, that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach and to have the power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. And we read the names of the 12 in verses 16 to 19. Do you know, I was thinking how astonishing it is to think of the importance of being an apostle and the great sacrifice it required. And compare that to the ordinariness of these men, these men's humble, unremarkable origins, that the men don't seem to fit with the role. But when you compare what they were to what they became in the end, It's a testimony, I think, to the transforming work of Christ in the human heart. And that's really the theme that I want to concentrate on this morning. How Jesus can take an ordinary human being like me, like you, and call us to himself and transform us into useful servants in his kingdom. You see, the Lord Jesus can do that with ordinary people like you and me. When the Apostle Paul was considering the makeup of the Christian church, he said in 1 Corinthians 1, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. The church was made up on the whole, not exclusively, but on the whole, of very ordinary people. In fact, many of them were female slaves. You can't get more ordinary than that in that culture. And yet, these apostles, despite their humble origins, in the end, in the future, the apostles would stand before great men. They'd stand before the Jewish rulers, the elders, and the scribes, Anna, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and the relatives of the high priests to defend the gospel. And Luke tells us that these rulers and elders perceived that these guys that were before them were unlearned and ignorant men. It was obvious to these very highfalutin people that the apostles were unlearned and ordinary. Ignorant, in fact, the word is used. And Luke adds that they marveled. They marveled at the fact that these men were so ordinary. They were not from the religious elite as one would have expected. Jesus could have called people from the scribes and the Pharisees, even the Sadducees. He could have changed their views on theology, made them evangelicals. But he didn't choose them, he chose ordinary people. They were total outsiders from the religious establishment. Some were fishermen, there was a tax collector, and there was a political zealot. They were primarily ordinary working men, none of whom had influence or power. John MacArthur writes, what we know to be true about Jesus is that he chose those who were ordinary and unrefined. They were the commonest of the common. They were farmers and fishermen from rural areas Christ purposely passed over the elite, aristocratic and influential, and chose mainly from the dregs of society. That's how it has always been in God's economy. He exalts the humble and lays low those who are proud. And yet, Jesus could take these men, and transform them into people who, according to Acts 17.6, had turned the world upside down. What an amazing thing. And you know, what I really want to say to you this morning is that when the Lord Jesus gets hold, really gets hold of your life, it doesn't matter who you are, Doesn't matter about your education or background or class, colour. He can transform you. He can absolutely transform your life. And that's really the way we should look, or partly the way we should look at becoming and being a Christian. We are people who are being transformed. Paul refers to this transformation process in 2 Corinthians 3.18, where he says, but we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And so I'll repeat, when you think of the importance of the apostolic role, You would expect Jesus to handpick the best candidates from the elite, from the most educated classes of society, but he chose 12 ordinary men. The apostles' role was similar to that of the classical apostolos, or the king's emissary. These were men who were sent out to represent the interests of the king. They had the authority and the credentials of the one who sent them, similar to a modern day ambassador who's stationed in a foreign country to represent their state or their country. And when Jesus called these 12 men to apostleship, he assigned his authority to them. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 10.40, he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. the Apostle carried the authority of Jesus himself. That's why it's so ridiculous when people say, when reading the New Testament, well, I'll take what Jesus says in the Gospels, but I'll reject what the Apostle Paul writes. as if the Gospels have some greater authority than the epistles. There's equal authority because the apostles carried the authority of Jesus Christ because it was given to them. The apostle Paul wrote that the whole foundation of the Christian church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. And the apostles' writings are the very words of God because they carry the authority of Christ, which the Father had given to Jesus. The Father gave Jesus authority. Jesus passed on that authority to the apostles. Ordinary men, I say, were transformed into apostles The apostle Paul became an apostle much later, of course. He said that he was as one born out of due time. But he describes the daily experience of being an apostle. He says, these words, this is what it was like to be an apostle. He says, being made a spectacle unto the world. And to angels and men, even unto this present hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place. That's what the life of an apostle was. It wasn't in a nice church office with a nice oak desk and just preparing sermons with the heater on. It was a life of suffering. And for all the apostles, it entailed a life of suffering. Ten of the 12 apostles were martyred for the faith. One of them, Judas, committed suicide after betraying Christ. The only one who died a natural death was John. According to Christian tradition, I only say according to Christian tradition, leave it up to you as to what weight you put upon these traditions. I'm simply saying there are these traditions. According to Christian tradition, he came close to martyrdom on more than one occasion. On one occasion, he was due to be boiled in oil, apparently, but somehow managed to escape the fate. Another tradition refers to John being made to drink hemlock. and apparently he drank the poison and became very ill, but did not die. According to Christian tradition, Peter was martyred under Nero and was crucified in the Circus Maximus, upside down on a cross. This was the same man that denied his Lord three times. At the very moment when Jesus needed him most, he denied his Lord. And yet, look what he became in the end. What a transformation in Peter. His younger brother, Andrew, was crucified, according to tradition, on an X-shaped cross. That's why you see these St. Andrew crosses. He was tied to it rather than being nailed to it. and took several days to die. He died a horrible death. We can have more confidence about the data in relation to James, the brother of John, because it's recorded in Acts 12, 1 to 3. He was the first apostolic martyr in AD 44, and he was beheaded by King Herod I. And if you say, well, no, what about Stephen? He was before. Well, Stephen was the first martyr, but he was not an apostle. James was the first apostolic martyr. And there are other traditions which I won't go into about the martyrdoms of the rest of the 10. Tradition has it that the apostle Paul was martyred or beheaded, actually, in Rome under Nero at a similar time to the Apostle Peter. And all these men, except Judas, gave their lives and died so that we could all hear the good news of the Kingdom of God. And even though John escaped a martyr's death, he certainly lived a martyr's life. He had to live a long time. He was old and all that life was a life of suffering. You could argue it was harder for John in some ways. He lived a martyr's life and suffered and he's buried, of course, in Ephesus. And what an extraordinary work of grace Jesus did in these men's lives. Some aspects of their lives and ministries are unique and can never be repeated. But the process of transformation, Jesus taking these humble men and turning them from that to what they became, I think we can learn from and is applicable to all of us. What did Jesus do to turn them from ordinary men to faithful, solid, zealous Christians? There are many parallels that we can consider. Many parallels in connection with what the Lord can do by the Holy Spirit in your life, even today. if you follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever your life is, as a Christian, and if you're not a Christian, it's even more the case, you can be changed. You don't have to stay the way you are. You can be transformed. If you feel or if you know that your Christian life is unsatisfactory, it's disobedient, it's unfaithful, you do not have to stay in that place. You can change. You can be transformed. If you're lost, if you have no connection with God, if God is a stranger to you, you do not have to stay that way. We can be transformed. If any man or woman, boy or girl, connects with Jesus Christ, their lives can radically change. If you were to go up to an electric plug and put your finger in it, something's going to happen to you. And sometimes we talk about being a Christian as if it's just all some kind of cultural shift in our lives and a change in the pattern of our routine. To really connect with Jesus is going to make a radical change in your life. You won't be the same. Of course, the transformation doesn't happen all in one go. It's an ongoing process. But I believe it's possible in the scripture to detect a general pattern in relation to this process of being transformed by Jesus Christ. It's possible to detect in the Gospels this general process and it's possible in the confines of our specific text this morning to detect the process of transformation in people's lives. So then, firstly then, just thinking about the Gospels generally. The Apostles, as I say, except Judas They all had a devotion and a love for Christ far beyond anything any of us have yet attained. Yet this took time to happen. It didn't happen overnight. And that's something that we need to remember both for ourselves and with other people. We have to be patient sometimes with other people. They may not be growing as a Christian at quite the rate that you are, but they will grow, because they'll get there, because the Lord is leading them. For most of the apostles, there were three, you could say, three stages in the growth of their relationship with Christ, which we see in the Gospels. The first stage, really, we only see in the Gospel of John. The first four chapters of John's Gospel record this initial stage when the first disciples were simple believers in Jesus, and they accompanied Jesus from time to time at specific events like the marriage in Cana, the Passover in Jerusalem, on a visit to the scene of John the Baptist's ministry, and on the return journey through Samaria from the south of Galilee. So when we get to Mark, and we see the Lord Jesus calling them to become fishers of men. That wasn't the first time that they met Jesus. You'd be forgiven for thinking that if it wasn't for John's Gospel. But the core of the disciples already knew Jesus. They were already following him to some extent. But in the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Their relationship with Jesus deepened, didn't it? And they followed and they lived with Jesus Christ without interruption. And we've already considered in Mark how they obeyed the master's call. To come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. That they either fully or habitually, I think it's more habitually, left their ordinary occupations and attended fully upon Christ as disciples. And then in our text today, the apostles entered the third and highest level of discipleship when the Lord chose them. Out of the mass of all the disciples, out of the 70 disciples sent out to preach and others, they were formed into this select band of brothers to be trained for the work of apostleship. And as I say, there are some aspects of this which are unique to them. that is important to emphasize. But I want to consider now, specifically within our text, the critical elements of this transformation that took place in the lives of these apostles that I believe Jesus is able to do in your life if you're willing to come to him. And so looking then more closely at these verses, 13 to 19, the first thing that we see in our text in verse 13 is Jesus calling unto him whom he would, and they came to him. See the critical point here. is that Jesus is making a selection out of a group of people who were already disciples. There were a large band of disciples and it was getting to the point where everyone who began to believe in Jesus started following him and it was getting to the point where there were so many. And of course we know about the 70 apostles that were sent out which Luke mentions, but even Luke's account implies that there were many more disciples than the 70. Luke 10, 1 says, and after these things the Lord appointed other 70 also, which implies that there were more. And out of all these, probably hundreds of disciples, Jesus, in our verse 13, calleth whom he would, and they came to him. And the point I want to make is that the 12 that he called out of that larger group were already disciples. The call to discipleship preceded the call to apostleship. Very, very few people received the call to apostleship. But Jesus called many to follow him and be his disciples. And this is just another way of saying that the first and most crucial element in being transformed by Jesus is that you have to be converted. You have to become a Christian. You have to be saved. You have to submit to Jesus Christ as your King and become a follower of Christ. In the Christian gospel, of course, there is a general call to everyone. The gospel is not meant to be just preached to the right type of person. It's an open proclamation to the whole world. Revelation 22, 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. But you know, we know that you could go into the town now, as we do sometimes, and do this general call of the gospel, and normally very few or no one at all will respond. You see, there's a general call, but there has to be also an inward call. Simultaneous with the new birth, and through this inward call of God into a sinner's heart, the heart is regenerated, born again, and that the human will is liberated, made free from its enslavement to the ways of Satan and of sin. And so the first step in being transformed as a human being, as a man or a woman, or a boy and a girl, is to respond to the call of the gospel. And so the question, first question, most basic question is, have you this morning heard and responded to the gospel call? Because if you don't do that, you'll never be transformed. Christian salvation has to precede Christian service. And that sounds obvious, but it's not always understood. You get tragic cases of even Christian ministers preaching whilst they are unconverted. It always amazes me that sometimes God even uses them, but it's not good. It can't be good for them, can it? You see, Christian conversion has to precede Christian service. That's basic and obvious point, but one that has to be made first. But our text also goes on to show how Christians, how we grow and deepen our discipleship and devotion to Jesus Christ. Notice in verse 13, The words that Jesus calleth unto him whom he would. You see the words unto him are not in the Textus Receptus but the following words imply them. And they came unto him. And then in verse 14 we read that he ordained twelve that they should be with him. So the call that Jesus made to these men was for these men to live life with Jesus. It was a call to be with him. Before they could be of any use as apostles, preachers, healers, and exorcists, they needed a deep and an intimate relationship with their savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Christian service, Christian responsibility and service has to flow from our fellowship with Christ, otherwise it's pointless. There's no point in great Christian activity unless we first learn to sit at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, unless we learn in our lives to be with Him. He calls us When the Lord Jesus calls you internally or externally through the gospel and internally, what's he doing? He's not calling you in the first place to do anything. He's calling you to be with him, to live life with him. Service will come, but the first thing is that you have to be with him. This is the lesson from the incident recorded in Luke 10 when Jesus visited the home of Martha. And Martha ended up doing all the cooking and the washing up and the serving. And she was so annoyed with her sister who was in the lounge, as it were, soaking up the teaching of Jesus and spending time talking to Jesus and leaving Martha to do all the work. She was so annoyed that she even raised it with Jesus, said, Jesus, don't you care that I'm being left to do all the work? Make her come and help. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful. and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. You see, Mary had chosen something more important than the washing up. It was to sit at the feet of Jesus, to be with Jesus. And that's something that it takes a long time to learn sometimes as a new Christian, is that before activity, there has to be that fellowship with Jesus Christ, that relationship with him. And I wonder this morning, even as Christians, can your life be described as a life with Jesus? And I don't mean just popping in and out of Christian things just on a Sunday, or maybe on a Tuesday, or maybe just a sort of quiet time. Is your life with Jesus? Do you spend time with him? You see, if you're a Christian, he's called you specifically to himself. And it's in that connection with Jesus that the transformation comes. If you're not connected to Jesus, there's not going to be the transformation. It's the time and the connection, the fellowship that we have with Christ that produces the transformation. And you say, maybe you say, I don't seem to be growing as a Christian. I seem to be stuck. I seem to be in a rut. These sins never seem to go away. I can never seem to overcome them. This is important. Sanctification, that process of becoming holy, is not an automatic process. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. But unlike salvation, it requires your active cooperation. If you don't cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work in your life, you're not going to grow. If you don't spend time with Jesus, you will not grow. In fact, eventually you'll return to the ways of the flesh and of sin. Those of us who are older in the faith know if you neglect prayer and reading of the word, going to church, it doesn't take long before you start going back into the flesh. I asked you this morning, as Christians, people who know the Lord Jesus, do you pray? Do you read the Word of God? Do you meet with God's people? Do you improve your baptism through the means of grace, communion and these other things? These are so important because these are the means that God has given us to grow in the Christian life. So that's the first thing I detect here in this text. But there's another thing too, I think, that is part of this process of being transformed. Notice here that Jesus ordained 12. He ordained 12. Now, the fact that it was 12 has an important redemptive historical meaning, which I'm not going to go into today. But the point is that these chosen apostles, were to grow and be transformed and deepen their faith and learn to be apostles in a community of 12 of like-minded and called-out believers. The Lord Jesus didn't do one-to-ones with them. They were to grow together in this band of 12. We'll see in a moment that the Lord transforms us as individuals, but he also transforms us in the context of being in his people or with his people. We are transformed and changed by being a member of Jesus's church, which is his body. And if you desire to be a Christian and grow in your relationship with Jesus, you must be in a local church. I wouldn't go so far as to say that you're unsaved if you don't go to church. But it's certainly a very strange and unusual thing from a Christian point of view. There are examples that A.W. Pink was a Christian and was greatly used through his writings. But he had a very extreme separatist theology that led him in later life to believe that there was no church that he could attend which would not compromise his beliefs. But despite the odd examples such as that, the New Testament really doesn't know anything about a Christian that doesn't go to church. And this is a vital aspect of how Jesus Christ can transform your life. You have to be part of the body of Christ. These disciples who became apostles, they were 12. They were called out into a group, into a body of believers, like-minded believers. Well, although there are things that we have to do to be transformed in this Christian life, and we've mentioned a couple, this work of transformation is essentially God's work in us. I say that because we wouldn't even have the desire to go to church, for example, if the Holy Spirit hadn't placed that desire within us. And we see the role, the predominant role, Jesus plays in the transformation of these disciples. What does he do in our text? He takes them up to a mountain and he ordains them, it says. The Greek word there is poieo, which has a number of meanings, but it's often used, it's a verb that's often used for to make. or to produce, to fashion, to make ready, to make a thing out of something. So Jesus takes these ordinary disciples and he takes them up a mountain to make something out of them. Our English word poem comes from the noun poiema, which means a thing made. So when Jesus ordains these disciples in a way, he's creating them. He's making them. He's transforming them. We could even say he's making a poem out of them. He's shaping them into something. He's ordaining them. And you see, when you become a Christian, Jesus doesn't just patch you up. It isn't just sort of fill in the gaps and soften the edges of your faults. When you become a Christian, Jesus begins a great construction project, really. And like all projects, it takes time. The final building takes a long time, many years and a lifetime. And in the meantime, there's a lot of noise and dust and difficulty and sometimes missed deadlines. But the great transformation project has begun. And you know, Jesus promises that it will be completed in your life. Why? Because the change that's happening in your life as a Christian is God's work. It's God who's doing it. is essentially God's work of transformation in your life. We read of this in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that we should walk in them. You see, God's the craftsman shaping you, creating you. As Jesus created these 12 apostles on that mountain, How does Jesus, well, secondly, I meant to say, not only does Jesus start this work, the scriptures promise that this work will be completed. Many great projects are not completed in this life. Whether HS2 will ever be finished, one wonders, but there's a great construction project that the Bible promises will be complete. And that's the work that Jesus Christ is doing in you. Paul writing to the Philippian churches said, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. He will complete it. And we see in our text how the Lord Jesus goes about ordaining or creating, making something of these men. He does this through naming and renaming them. He ordains them with the title of Apostle. And Simon, he surnames Peter. He becomes the Rock. In fact, Peter wasn't very rock-like, was he? For a long time. But he eventually got there, didn't he? And he became the lead apostle. Verse 17, he surnamed James and John Boanerges, the sons of thunder. They were full of fiery zeal and passion for the Lord. And you know, when you think of it in the Bible, God naming and God creating are often synonymous terms. When God created man, he gave him the name Adam. As he named him, he created him. As he created him, he named him. God creates through naming. Moses writes that God called the light day, and darkness he called night. And as he gave the name, it appeared it was created. And God is the names he creates. And the great prophet Isaiah, speaking of the people of God, prophesied in Isaiah 62 too, and the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness. and all kings thy glory, and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. It's the great promise of Isaiah. Not that I know what this verse means, perhaps you'll tell me afterwards, but in Revelation 2.17, the Lord promises, to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. And I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it." I don't understand that verse, but it sounds very personal, doesn't it? It's a new name that is known only to the one receiving it. And I suspect, that's a complete guess, but I suspect it relates somehow to the unique naming and creating that God has done in your life and mine. What Christ has written into your life and mine throughout all the years of our pilgrimage, what he's made of us, what he's created. He's given us a new name. He's created us as he ordained these apostles. And do you know what Christ has created in you? What he has named you can never be taken from you. It's a wonderful thing. If Christ has called you his, you're his forever. If he's named you a son, you're his son forever. If he's named you his daughter, you're his daughter forever. If he's named you beautiful and beloved, you're beautiful and beloved in him forever, no matter what anyone else in this world says about you. If he's named you, if he's created you through naming you, then you're that forever, no matter what anyone else in the world may say. The result of and closing the result of this work of transformation with these ordinary men was that they became apostles and servants of the Christian church. They were sent forth to preach, heal, cast out devils, to do the work of Christ. None of us here are called to do the work of Christ in this specific apostolic way. But we're all called and all transformed, if we're Christians, to serve the Lord Jesus and to share the Christian gospel with others. Very, very few are called to public ministry, and it's not something yet that you should seek after unless you're absolutely compelled to do so, because Judgment Day will be much harder for the ministers of God's Word than anyone else. But everyone is called to share their faith. So are you sharing your faith? Are you sharing your faith with others who need to know the gospel to be saved? What a wonderful change Jesus can make in your life today. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the first step is to become a disciple, to repent and believe and begin the lifelong journey of being a disciple. For those of us who are already Christians, be encouraged today by the work that Jesus is doing in you and will do in your life until the end when you see him face to face. I never think that just being an ordinary person is a barrier, because Jesus, as I say, he did amazing things with 12 very ordinary men, and he can do something wonderful with you and with me. Amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.