What a pleasure it is to be with the congregation of First Presbyterian Church Jackson again. Those of us in Memphis feel very close to you for many, many reasons, but of course the main reason is that we’re all family together. And I have to say that when I come to be with you on these rare occasions, too rare for me, but wonderful, I always do feel the ethos of family, and it does feel as though I am coming back to be with my closest people. And it is true we are going to spend eternity together. And when we get into eternity, I want to be in Dr. Bill Wymond’s choir, but I won’t be able to do that until the Lord gives me a voice that qualifies me for such, but I certainly have enjoyed being serenaded this morning. Haven’t you? To hear them sing of the love of God that excels every other love just washed over us. And that is His love – it excels every love in this life. And we are going to see something of that in our text this morning.
These past forty-two years I have been a pastor have been wonderful years. I’ve seen so many developments in this nation and in the world. I’ve seen the reformed evangelical faith grow very strong in The States. I’ve seen the conditions of poverty and hunger around the world being dealt with, slowly but progressively. We’ve seen some nations grow the church of Jesus Christ in some phenomenal ways. We’ve seen many good things happen over these years that I have been leading as a pastor, and I’m grateful for that. But we’ve also seen some real trials, and of course are very aware in our own country. We see the sexual morality, for example, declining to a degree we could hardly believe. Our grandparents would not have tolerated it – to have a whole month in the year set aside to celebrate sexual perversity is just beyond what my grandmother would even have been able to conceive of. And of course, the political divisions that we face. But also, in the church we see divisions that are a result of the divisions in the culture. It deeply concerns me. In fact, I don’t think I have, in those forty-two years, seen anything quite like these last three to five years. And it concerns me greatly.
Well, we needn’t be overly discouraged because our Lord Jesus faced difficult times as well. You will remember – as we turn to the gospel of Mark, we’re going to be looking at a section in chapter 3 – you remember that Jesus’ ministry begins in a wonderful way. He’s healing and casting out demons and is very popular among the people, but then on one occasion He heals the paralytic. And you will remember that, before He heals the man of his paralysis, He heals him of his sin and tells the man that, “Your sins are forgiven.” And of course, it insults and outrages the scribes and Pharisees who knew that the only person who could forgive sins is God alone. “Who is this man claiming to be?” And then shortly after that, they were all watching Him on the Sabbath Day to see if He would actually do work on the Sabbath by healing a man with a withered hand. And certainly, He did heal that man with great mercy, and they were outraged. And so, by the time you get to chapter 3 verse 6, you see that they are plotting to kill the Messiah. He has outraged the surrounding culture to such a degree, He has created such hostility, that the leaders believe He is the source of all toxicity and they must eliminate Him. Well, we see some things in our own culture that remind us of this in this text. And it’s very important to see what Jesus did in the midst of this great difficulty, all this opposition. What did He then do? That’s our text for today.
Would you please stand with me and we’ll read together Matthew chapter 3, verses 13 through 19. As we see what Jesus did, as Luke tells us, He went up on the mountain and He prayed all night what to do. And after praying all night, this is what He did. Let’s pray together.
Father, in the days in which we live, we pray that we may live and serve with Christlike wisdom and courage and gentleness and patience. We would be Your students. We would be Your disciples. Speak, O Lord, for Your servants listen, through Jesus Christ our Savior, amen.
Mark chapter 3, verse 13. Hear the Word of God:
“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.”
All flesh is like grass and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. Amen. Please be seated.
So, what did Jesus do? He called His disciples and He named these twelve, “apostles.” Calling is an interesting concept, especially in Mark’s gospel. You may remember that Mark’s gospel is sort of divided in half. In the first half of the book, you get the presentation of who Jesus is. In the second half of the book, beginning right around chapter 10, you begin to see what Jesus did for us. So, who is He? And what did He do? In showing us who He is, we find that He not only casts out demons and heals paralytics – things that were never done, had no precedent – He heals the blind, He stills the storm, showing Himself to be Lord over all – Lord over the underworld, Lord over nature. But the elements over which He is Lord that demonstrate His greatness to the highest degree seems to be His Lordship over the crown of God’s creation, and that would be human beings. These people, made in the image of God, are to bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, what you have in the first half of Mark’s gospel showing us who Jesus is, are three callings. The most famous one perhaps in chapter 1 where He calls Peter and Andrew, James and John, from their fishing nets to come and follow Him and He will make them fishers of men. Maybe the least famous would be the one in chapter 6 when He once again calls His disciples to send them out to minister two by two. And then this passage in chapter 3 that shows us that He calls them to Himself for particular purposes and into a particular community we know to be the church.
Now I’d like for us to examine this passage then because I believe it is fundamental to the work of Jesus Christ here and around the world and fundamental to the stresses and distresses and challenges that we face in our own generation. If you’ll look with me in verses 13 and 14, we’re going to see that Christians, all Christians, have a calling from Jesus Christ. And we’re going to look at the very nature of that calling. If you’ll look at verses 14 and 15, you’ll see that Jesus calls us for particular purposes, His purposes; and He has purposes for us in calling us. And then as you look at verses 16 through 19, you’ll see that we are called into a community. We are called into His church. So, we have a calling from Christ, that calling has purposes, and that calling is into a community.
Calling from Christ
Now the word “calling” today is used in a number of ways. You can call someone on the telephone. Someone calls you to dinner. The umpire calls balls and strikes. We call people names. We use the word “calling” in a number of ways. But in the New Testament, it is really sort of a technical word. There is an external calling from God, and that is what I am doing today. I am calling you from the Scriptures to love Him and to adore Him and to serve Him, to believe in Him and to repent. So, there’s an external call of the Gospel that goes out, and it’s to go out to every human being in every tribe and nation in the world.
But what the Bible describes technically is what we call an “internal calling,” that is, God gets inside our hearts and fundamentally changes us. In the New Testament, when you look at calling, you won’t find a calling to be a banker, you won’t find a calling to be a pastor or a calling to be a farmer. No, there are callings for two positions. One is apostles, and here we have a calling for apostles. The other is calling for Christians. So those are the only two callings, and therefore we would say, using the Latin word “vocare” which means “to call,” there are only two vocations that are mentioned in the Scriptures. One is to be an apostle and the other is to be a Christian. All other occupations – pastor, banker, lawyer, farmer – those are occupations that are discerned in the context of our vocation, which is to be a Christian, to follow Jesus. That’s the calling upon your life. Some people say, “I was called to be a pastor. I was called to be a missionary. I was called to be a school teacher.” Well in a certain sense, yes, that’s what we call secondary calling, but it’s not the Biblical calling. The Biblical calling consistently is to follow Jesus Christ.
Let me give you an example. Look in Romans chapter 1 and you’ll see multiple examples of it in this famous letter. In chapter 1, Paul begins by speaking of himself as being called. Look at verse 1. He is “called to be an apostle.” Now what that means is he was immediately, personally called by the Lord Jesus Christ. When I became a pastor, I wasn’t immediately, personally called by Jesus Christ to be a pastor. No, that was a process by prayer and deliberation and consultation and advice. And I made my best judgment how to spend my life occupationally to advance the kingdom of God. And it seemed to me at the time, forty-two years ago, that I should be a pastor. Now some of you may disagree and say, “I think you missed it, Wilson!” but that was the best I could do to figure out how I should spend my life occupationally. And that’s what everyone should do occupationally. But it’s done by inference. It’s done with advice from human beings. It’s done through deliberation and prayer. Now it’s a sanctified process and God the Holy Spirit does prompt us, but we don’t have absolute revelation.
But brothers and sisters, when I became a Christian, I had an immediate, intuitive, infallible calling to be a Christian. My calling to be a Christian is as infallible as your Bible because it comes straight from God. Those are the callings in the Scriptures. You have a calling if you are a believer. If you’re not a believer this morning, please listen up because you need to know what you don’t have. You need to know what to ask for because this comes from the Lord. Now in Romans 1, Paul says, “I am called to be an apostle,” but look down at verse 6 – “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” So, you see, you are called to belong to Him; you are called to be saints.
Turn over one more book in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and here you see a similar phenomenon. Verse 2 of chapter 1, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” And then look down at verse 9. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Well, those are just two chapters with examples. You find this throughout the New Testament. It’s a word for Christians. We are the called. We have an infallible, personal calling.
Now I want you to notice then three things about this calling in verses 13 and 14. First of all, it’s personal. He goes up on the mountain and He prays and then what does He do? He calls “those whom He desired.” He was very particular. You may look at the list and say, “I think He missed it on a few of those men,” but this was His list. He personally called each one of them and you have a calling too. Sometimes we think, “Well, I’m a Christian because my parents were Christians and my grandmother was a Christian and I grew up in the church and I was taught in Sunday School.” Or, “I went to a Christian school.” Or, “I live in a nation whose dominant religion is Christianity.” But you know, other people live in other parts of the world and they are Hindu or Muslim because their parents were Hindu or Muslims. Sometimes we have this sort of sociological phenomenon that explains our religious affections and religious identity. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Yes, indeed, God uses family and churches and surrounding people who have influenced us, but what makes a Christian is that he or she has a personal calling from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me just read for a moment from the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 10, on effectual calling. Here’s what the divines said about it. “All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good.” Do you see that? The effectual calling of God determines us to that which is good. It’s not just an invitation. It’s not just a calling that hits your hearts and invites you to receive Jesus Christ. No, it’s a determination of God Almighty removing your heart of stone, taking it out and putting in a heart of flesh so that you believe, and then moving you ineluctably to put your trust in Jesus Christ. It’s personal. It must be personal.
Secondly, notice in the text it is sovereign. Jesus says to His apostles in the upper room, ultimately, “You didn’t choose Me but I chose you to go and bear fruit.” Now that doesn’t mean that they didn’t choose Him. They did. When He gave them the outward call, they responded with their own will. But the reason they responded was God had changed their will and He had drawn them inevitably to Himself. At the same time, they chose Him. But what Jesus is saying to them, ultimately, if you compare the two, “You didn’t choose Me at all. I chose you.” If you look, for example, He went up on the mountain. The mountain is significant. It always is, in the Old Testament and in the New. You know where the Ten Commandments came from – a mountain! You know where the temple was built – on a mount! You know where transfiguration took place – on a mountain! You know where the first sermon in Matthew took place – on a mount! And here again He goes up on the mount. This is something important. It is an act of revelation. It is His sovereign will that is being effective.
Then notice the ones He called are the ones He desired. He chose. He preferred. And if you are a believer this morning, you have to understand He made you a Christian because He sought you out. I don’t know why. I’ve never been able to figure that out. It has nothing to do with anything in you. It’s obvious, but it has everything to do with the love that excels all loves.
And then notice that He appointed twelve. The word “appointed” in a word, it’s a Greek word that’s used in Genesis 1 in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, for “creation.” He created the twelve. And what about the word “twelve”? You know, that’s a very important number in the Bible and it is not by accident that Jesus chooses twelve disciples, twelve apostles. We think, “Well, you know, a good small group has about twelve in it, 8 to 12. Jesus was using small group principles!” No, He wasn’t! Jesus was making a revelation that what He is doing is created the new Israel. These are the Gentiles that shall be grafted into the olive tree stump, Romans 11, and will become the new Israel of God. He created the new Israel. He created the twelve. And then He named them apostles. You know from the first pages of your Bible that Adam showed he was the crown of creation because he named the animals. He had dominion over them. And Jesus names them apostles. Everything here speaks of His sovereignty.
Now this is important for two reasons. First of all, we see here the unparalleled, exalted glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything trembles at His presence. Everything bows at His majesty. He is the living God incarnate. He is sovereign over all, including human beings, and He disposes of us as He will and does it all rightly as well as lovingly. But secondly, dear friends, this is how we know that we belong to Him and that He will never let us go, because we are Christians not fundamentally by our decision. And we are fickle. We change our minds. We are unpredictable. And if I depended upon myself for a nanosecond I would be lost! But I am not depending upon myself, my moral character, my behavior, my Christian history or anything else. I am depending solely upon Him. And He has made a decision. And what He begins, Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 1, He will bring to full completion. So having called me, He will keep me. Having sovereignly decided to include me in His family, I will always be in His family. It is the very foundation of our assurance that this sovereign Lord has chosen His disciples.
You know, we read in our confession of faith – I’m sorry, in our confession of sin just a moment ago – that lovely prayer, lovely, but hard to pray sometimes a prayer of confession. When you look at those words in your bulletin and see a description of ourselves by nature that we deserve condemnation, that’s what we deserve; we don’t deserve anything else. But the Lord Jesus Christ, with love divine, excelling all other loves, He comes into this world and lays down His life to pay for their sins. And then by His Spirit, He comes and gives us a new heart and draws us to Himself sovereignly. That’s the work of Jesus Christ. All praise be to His name.
Now notice, thirdly, when you look at the end of verse 13, it is not only a personal calling and a sovereign calling, it is an effectual calling. Mark says, “And they came to Him.” He called and they came. With the effectual calling, this internal calling, we always come. There are no exceptions. The calling of God is effectual and there is no way you would come unless you were effectually called by Him because His effectual calling includes the new birth. And without the new birth, you will not desire Him. You do not find Him lovely. You do not find Him endearing. You don’t want anything to do with Him up close. But when He calls you, He changes you completely. If you don’t have that this morning, this is what you desperately need. And I just invite you, even when I am speaking to you this morning, that you would call out to Him and ask that He would give you this new birth.
Our Calling has a Purpose
Now secondly, look at the tail end of verse 14 and verse 15 and we’ll see here that Jesus not only calls His disciples personally, sovereignly, and effectually, but He calls His disciples for His purposes. His purposes. Now the first thought that might come to our mind is, “Yes, I’m assuming He called us to go to work. In fact, He said, ‘Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men,’ so He wants to send us out. That’s what He wants to do with us.” And I want to say, “Hold on just a moment. You’re missing something very important if you think that.” In the latter part of verse 14, He calls them “so that they might be with Him;” “so that they might be with Him.” Do you realize the first purpose of His calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light is simply that He might be with you? We have a hard time with that. Just about everybody suffers with one degree or another of low self-esteem and we think we must earn our spurs, we must earn His favor, we must make ourselves likable for Him to want to spend time with us. If you’re thinking that, you’ve missed it. He loves you. He loves you just like you are and He actually wants to spend time with you.
Some of you older-timers will remember the name Dr. Dick Halverson. He had been the pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, which of course is a suburb of Washington, D.C. and later became a Senate chaplain during the 80s and the first half of the 90s. Dr. Halverson was Senate chaplain, a wonderful, evangelical and Presbyterian pastor. Dick’s hallmark of his ministry through the years was discipleship. He particularly loved to disciple men. And when he served in the church, that was one of the first things he did. He would find out who the men are and he would seek to disciple them. He believed that was the main discipleship he should undertake. So, when he went to Fourth Presbyterian Bethesda in the 70s, that’s exactly the way he began.
And he started to go through the list of men in the church and he came to the name of a man who was a well-known politician in Washington who was a member of that church and he invited him to lunch at the club just across the street from Fourth Pres. If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. And so, they went to lunch. And at lunch, before the salad was served, the politico asked Dick, “Dick, so glad to have you here as our new pastor. Tell me, what can I do for you?” And Dick said, “Nothing. Let’s just have lunch together.” So, by the time the main course comes out, the political man was getting a little restless. He knew there was no such thing as a free lunch, even with pastors, and so he said, “Dick, as I mentioned, we’re really glad to have you here and I’m glad to have this time with you at lunch and I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know what I can do for you.” And Dick said, “Oh nothing. Let’s just have lunch.” And he kept talking. By the time the dessert comes out, the man was visibly irritated and upset. He said, “Dick, look, don’t beat around the bush. You’ll find with me I like direct talk, even though I am a politician, and I’d appreciate you telling me honestly why are we having lunch? What do you want with me?” And Dick looked at him and said, “I just want to be with you.” The man broke down and sobbed at lunch uncontrollably. And when he finally gathered himself, he looked at Dick and said, “No one has ever said that to me.”
Maybe you’ve not had anyone say that to you except Jesus. Can He convince you this morning? “I just want to be with you.” You say, “How do I do this?” We’re doing it when we gather here. We’re just being with Jesus. When I hear this lovely anthem and sing these songs, I’m being with Jesus. When I read the Bible yesterday, and doing my daily devotions, I’m just enjoying being with Jesus. Are you enjoying it? Are you spending time with Him? Are you becoming a good friend? Do you feel like you know him better now? Are you asking him questions and getting answers? Are you letting Him, by His Spirit, ask you a few questions? As I lay in bed last night, I’m just saying, “Lord, what do You want me to do this next week?” And I just paused and tried to listen. And of course, He works through conscience – it’s not perfect – but are we just even asking the question, “How would You have me live this week? What would You have me do? How can I honor You? How can I love You this week?” That is the first purpose of your being called. Don’t ask me to explain it. It’s a mystery beyond all mysteries as to why the Lord would call a sinner and ask her and him to be His best friends. But He does.
Now notice secondly, being His best friends, He does say, “I want you to be about My Father’s business. I want you to be about My business.” As He said in Mark 1, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you into something, fishers of men.” And here He says it in a different way – “so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach,” there at the end of verse 14. “He might send them out to preach.” The word “preach” is used about twenty times in the New Testament. At least nineteen of them have to do with communicating the kingdom of God to the outside world. There’s only one usage, I believe it’s 2 Timothy chapter 4, where Paul says, “Timothy, preach the Word, in season and out of season,” which may be preaching inside the church. We normally think of preaching as doing what I am doing – teaching the Bible and exhorting the people of God in congregational worship. That’s the way we use the word “preach.” The way the New Testament uses the word, it’s for all of us to go out there and proclaim the kingdom of God.
Let me ask, “Do you have anybody you are praying for who is lost? Do you have anybody for whom you have asked the Lord to give you a strategic plan to share Christ with them? Do you look at your neighborhood, do you students look at your school, do you in the professions look at your office and your customers and your clients, your patients, your fellow professionals, and do you survey with a mind and heart of Jesus Christ and say, ‘Lord, what would You have me to do here because this is my vocation? Being a physician, a doctor, is my occupation, but my vocation is to be a fisher of men.’”
Some years ago, I got on an airplane and because of the international travel I had done, I got bumped up to first class, which I’ve never turned down before in my life, and it wasn’t the first-class seat that I remember, but who I sat next to – none other than Dr. J. – one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And so of course it wasn’t long until we were talking about basketball, but then, of course, I wanted to know about his spiritual life and he told me how he became a Christian. He said, “Reverend, do you know the name Bobby Jones?” And I said, “Sure, I know the name Bobby Jones. He played at UNC. He was about my age. He played for the Denver Nuggets and then he got traded to Philadelphia, Dr. J, where you played.” He said, “That’s right. He got traded there, I think it was in 1981, and his locker was next to mine. It was Bobby Jones who led me to faith in Jesus Christ.”
Well, this story is not about Dr. J. It’s about Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones was one of the greatest defensive ball players that ever walked on the court in the NBA, but he knew that that was his occupation. He knew what his vocation was. And when he got a locker right next to Dr. J, he was on mission. And let me just ask you, “Are you on your mission?” This is your mission. This is why you are here. It is to make disciples, and we make disciples by proclaiming the kingdom of God and the resolution that He has provided in the sacrifice of His own Son for sinners like ourselves. So, he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom, to witness to those around Him. You remember the words of Corrie ten Boom who, before she died, she said, “When I enter that beautiful city and the saved all around me appear, I pray that someone will tell me, ‘It was you who invited me here.’” That’s our purpose in life.
But then notice, not only proclaiming but also healing and caring and resisting all evil. This, verse 15, you could make this your life verse – “and have authority to cast our demons.” There you go. That’s a good Presbyterian verse! You know, wherever I go as a Presbyterian, it’s not too long before I make friends with the local Assembly of God pastor, because if I have demons that need to be cast out, I want to send people to someone who knows what they’re doing! We Presbyterians don’t know much about this, but it’s real. Demons are real. And in our culture, they make themselves very subtle because that’s the best way to do their work here. They’re not stupid. They are foolish but they are not stupid. And they know that in a more sophisticated culture, they need to play under the radar screen. They need to be much more subtle in how they destroy people. In less developed, less sophisticated countries, they are much more explicit, but the demons are at work. And here, Jesus says, “I want you to go out and proclaim the kingdom and then I want you to actually make a difference in the world that you are in. And people who are oppressed by the evil one, I want you to resist the devil at every point. I want you to keep your face turned toward him with all the armor of God and I want you to fight the battle and hold out the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. I want you to be in prayer. I want you to resist and seek to tear down every evil impulse that is in the world around you. That’s your calling.” That’s our vocation – it’s that we proclaim, we share verbally, the Word of God and the kingdom of God and we resist evil wherever it is. And it is all because of our compassion for those around us.
Sometimes doctors and lawyers and business people will ask me, “You know, you’re a minister. You know what to do in a city like Memphis or a city like Jackson. But what about me? I’m a doctor.” And what I say to all the professionals – teachers, doctors, lawyers, business people – is that there are a lot of people in Jackson who desperately need your services, and they are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. And you say, “Yeah, but I don’t know where they are.” I know you don’t know where they are, but you need to find them. “But we don’t have people who are in those ministries who help me get connected.” I know, I understand, so why don’t you start the ministry because that’s why you’re here. In God’s providence, He has given you certain skills, not just to put food on your family’s table, but how about putting food on someone else’s table. How about helping people who desperately need the skill sets that you have that are in this city? Jesus calls us to Himself, and the reason that He sends us out to preach and to care for the poor and the lost is because that’s what He did. And when we are in intimate fellowship with Him, we want to be like Him and begin to imitate Him and do what He was doing.
We are Called into a Community
Now thirdly, if you look at verses 16 through 19 you might think, “Well those are real throw away passages. We already knew who the disciples were. Why should I read or even think about that?” Well, here’s why – because Jesus calls us for His purposes, but He calls us into His community. And here it is. The community; it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. And here it is – the church, the apostolic church. And all the calling that goes to all God’s people is to bring them into the church. And I want you to notice several things about it.
First of all, when you look at this list, you’ll notice there are no PhDs here. There are no rocket scientists. There are no NFL quarterbacks. There’s really nothing here that distinguishes these people in any way. As a matter of fact, they are very common. You know the personality of doubting Thomas. You know the personality of blustering Peter. You know the jealous ambitions of James and John, the Sons of Thunder. These are no extraordinary examples of morality or of professional expertise. These are very common people. This is the reason that the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, “For consider your calling brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what was foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.” That’s the great work of God – to use very common people to do uncommon things; to use ordinary human beings to do extraordinary works empowered by His Spirit.
But notice also their diverse personalities. There are reasons here why this group should never get along with each other. You know the name, Matthew. He was a tax collector. What did tax collectors do? They extorted as much money as they could from their fellow Jews in order to get it to the oppressive Roman Empire that their fellow Jews might be under their thumb. They were despised. That’s Matthew. You see the name Simon the Canaanite, or it’s translated Simon the Zealot. This doesn’t mean he is a Canaanite. Canaanite means Zealot. What were the Zealots? They were the ones that wanted to overthrow the Romans. So here you have red and blue in the same church! And what we’ve seen over the past years is that red and blue are having a hard time getting along in church. You know why? Because they put their red and their blueness above their calling from the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why. And because they are learning, they are called into intimacy with Tucker Carlson and a few other people on the left, they’re called into union with them, and they act like them and they speak like them and they’ve forgotten their calling, which is, “We belong to Jesus and we belong to everybody else who belongs to Jesus and we will be family and we will get along.”
Notice lastly that these names are in the Book. They’re in the Book. It’s that simple. They’re in God’s Book and every one of those names is important. Now if I asked you this morning, “Close your Bibles and give me the names, the twelve names of the apostles that were in that text,” well, most of you folks, this is a mature church, most of you would get almost everybody; you might leave one or two out. And I would guess the one you might leave out would be Thaddaeus! I don’t know why, but when I think of the name Thaddaeus, he’s not mentioned anywhere else really, except he’s one of the disciples. Most of the other ones we know a little something about; we know nothing about Thaddaeus! If your middle name is Thaddaeus, don’t take this personally, but when I think of Thaddaeus, I think of a guy with thick, wire-rimmed glasses who’s overweight, sitting in the back of the boat. That’s Thaddaeus! Well Thaddaeus is listening to this and saying, “Wilson, I don’t care what you think. My name’s in the Book! Where’s yours?” My name is in the Book. It’s in God’s Book. The Book of Life. And it can never be taken out and it will never be forgotten.
So often, we try to do things in this life so we won’t be forgotten. You know, if we have enough money, we’d like to give a building for Millsaps College or Belhaven or something and have our name or maybe our wife’s name on the building so that people, maybe our grandchildren, will remember us when they go in that building. Maybe some monument somewhere. Maybe a street will be named after us or something. Folks, it’s a waste of your time.
Some years ago, I was in London with my wife who went to Westminster Cathedral and we wanted to just see it. And it takes me a while to go through a cathedral and so we started this way and went down the left-hand side, got back to the apse of the church. We were running out of time. And one thing for sure I wanted to see was where David Livingstone was buried. David Livingstone, one of the great missionaries of all time, mid-19th century. So, I didn’t know where it was and we had to leave and I saw a guide, an assistant tour guide at Westminster Abbey. And I asked her, I said, “Could you tell me where David Livingstone’s tomb is?” And she said, “Name again?” I thought maybe it was my southern accent. I said, “David Livingstone.” “Livingstone,” she said. “Livingstone. Let me look that up.” She pulled a little book out of her pocket and she turned to the “L” s. “Oh yes, here it is. David Livingstone. Well sir, he’s right in the middle of the nave.” Get this, ladies and gentlemen, the greatest missionary, one of the greatest for sure, whoever spoke the English language, probably the greatest missionary who ever left the United Kingdom to go to Africa, she didn’t know his name! Let me tell you where his grave site is. If you saw the inauguration of King Charles or if you saw the wedding of William and Kate, you’ll notice that before they come down the aisle, they have to turn this way and turn this way, turn this way – they just go around David Livingstone’s tomb! It’s right in the middle of the narthex before you come down the aisle. And this tour guide didn’t even know his name!
If she couldn’t remember David Livingstone’s name, what chance is there for you? Why waste your time? We are remembered and cherished by Him. Brothers and sisters, here is Christ’s answer. It’s the call of God in the Gospel that is personal and sovereign and effectual, that sends us out with intimacy with Him, proclaiming the kingdom, and resisting all evil and finding ourselves in this great apostolic church. That’s the answer for all the distress and chaos of our day. Glory be to His name. And the question that remains for any of us as we’ll sing in just a moment, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Who will answer that call? Who will give them his life? May it be every person in every pew in First Presbyterian Church on June 4, 2023.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You for this great Gospel. We thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the remission of sins. We thank You for His resurrection, which brings us eternal life. We thank You for His ascension into heaven for which He rules and reigns over the heavens and the earth. We thank You for this effectual calling that He extends to His people even today. May we accept all that is given us in this calling with intimacy with You and purposeful life in our vocation to make disciples of all nations, praying in His precious name, the name of Jesus, amen.