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So several years back, uh five years ago, six years ago, I read Stephen King's It and I I loved it. And it's really nothing like the movie. Uh it's a little like the movie, but like, you know, a book is just you can get inside somebody's head and you can see what makes people tick and you can see the inner motivations. And if you if you haven't seen any of the movies, if you're not familiar with it, aside from this whole scary clown thing, you've got a bunch of misfits in the 1950s in Maine, and they don't fit in with anybody. Uh you so maybe they're too overweight or too nerdy or too weak, too black, too too whatever. They're the outcasts of their sort of friend group or out of their social setting, and they come together through a series of events, they find themselves united in this little community where they belong. And not only do they find that they belong, they find themselves united in a common cause, and they're able to accomplish far more together than anyone would have thought of them. It's sort of like the Sandlot, or, I mean, if you've seen The Breakfast Club, it's the same sort of idea. People from disparate backgrounds who otherwise have no reason to be together, who end up finding a common purpose and a cause. And I think that we're attracted to the idea, aren't we, that there could be such a thing as true unity in diversity. We're attracted to this idea that people who have nothing in common can be on the same page about a common vision or a common goal, and yet I think that we're also deeply skeptical of it. I think at the end of the day, while we might long for unity in diversity, when given the opportunity, what we're looking for is people who think like us, who look like us, who dress like us, who vote like us. We long for this idea where we could be unified and yet we're a little jaded by that, and we instead look for people who were just like us. You know, the maker of heaven and earth is triune. He is Father, Son, and Spirit. That means that there is diversity within the Godhead. So the difference that we see and feel around us, that in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is that sin has entered this world, has entered us, has entered into systems, it has fractured what was once a harmony. That God has created a diverse world to be united under him, and sin is actively working against that. And so Jesus has come, the Son of God has come, and Mark tells us he's the Son of God and He is the King. He's come to unite all things under his rule and reign to bring about redemption that he will bring to completion when he returns. And what we see in this passage is that he's actively doing this. He's actively working towards pursuing his kingdom when he starts gathering disciples to himself out of the crowds. And he's still doing this today. He's still gathering a people to himself. So let me read this passage from Mark chapter 3, and then we're going to ask God to help us. 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. And 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 spirit 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, and 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 Boenerges, that is, sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, He's out of his mind. The word of the Lord. Father, we thank you for your word. And we just we just sang, Blessed are those who see you, blessed are those who hear you, and we ask that you would make this true of us. And so as we often pray, we ask that you would dig out for us ears to hear, that you would give us eyes to see Jesus, your son, the King. And we ask that you would help us to trust in Him by your Spirit. Amen. So my outline this morning is threefold. I want us to look at the different kinds of followers in this passage, and then I want us to see the different kinds of families, and then I want us to think for a few moments on the different kinds of sins. The different kinds of followers, the different kinds of families, and the different kinds of sins. The first thing we see in this passage, as we've been seeing in Mark, the crowds are continuing to swell and gather around Jesus. And we've got this, the crowds and the disciples, these two descriptions we're going to see throughout Mark. As people gather, there are crowds and there are disciples, and they look the same. Okay, so it makes us wonder, what is the difference between the crowds and the disciples? And the crowds are those who are interested in Jesus, who are curious about him, who want to hear him, they've heard something about him. This is the kind of crowd today that might want to catch a selfie with him. But the disciples are those who are being called out of the crowds, who are learning to follow this Jesus, not just around town, but in the way they see life. They see that Jesus is the king to some degree or another, though these disciples, their understanding of that is tenuous at best. He's calling a people out of the crowds to be his disciples. And people are taking notice of Jesus because he set the bar very low. Just follow me. For those who will follow me, all you have to do is come, and yet the one requirement is that you see that you need him, that you're sick, that Jesus is the great physician, that Jesus is the healer of souls. And so, on the one hand, you've got curious crowds on some level. On the other, you've got disciples, and they are beginning to let Jesus speak into their life. They're beginning to let Jesus tell them what to do. You see this in little ways in verses 9 and 10. He tells the disciples, have a boat ready for me, so that I'm not crushed by the crowds. And so again, like if you're going to wrap your head around this scene, if you're going to envision this, Jesus is so popular. He's so, everyone is so enamored with being around him that he has to get in a boat to teach others because otherwise people will be crushing him. So many people are trying to get close to him. So he is getting crushed, crowds are getting crushed, and he tells the disciples, get a boat ready for me so that I might teach. And they do this. They may not know exactly who he is, the crowds. And yet we just read he's healing people. He's still showing that he is the king of physical ailments. He's delivering people from demon oppression. He's showing that he's the king of the spiritual realm as well. And the crowds might be enamored with him. They might not fully understand who he is, but the demons here, they recognize him. But it's interesting. We saw this messianic secret last week. We're going to see it again this week. This idea that when Jesus does something that proclaims who he is, he tells people, don't tell anyone about this. He doesn't want the crowds to be so overwhelming that he can't go about his business. They say, You are the Son of God, and he strictly ordered them not to make him known. It's so curious every time we see this. Why would you not want everyone to know who you are? But he continues to do this. We know who you are, and he says, Why don't you be quiet about it? He strictly orders them. In verse 13, we read, He went up on the mountain and he called to him those whom he desired and they came to him. He calls those he desires to be with him and they come to him. One of the themes in Mark is that Jesus' words are powerful. That when he speaks, the things that he says, they are accomplished. His words are unlike ours. His words accomplish everything they set forth to do. He can call you out of the crowd and make you a disciple. And I wonder if you've had this experience with your families or your peer groups, whether it be now or at another season in your life, where you felt like Jesus was calling you, where you felt like Jesus was real, that he was pursuing you, and you looked around to say, do you guys feel it too? And sometimes you were met with a blank stare. Jesus sometimes calls your name in a way that those around you at the time don't feel to the same degree. And if you ever had this experience, you're normal. We see this playing out even now. The crowds are around, but he's calling disciples to himself. Don't listen to the crowds. Listen to Jesus. Well, why does he call them? I've mentioned one of the reasons that they might be with him. But the other reason, he says, he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and to have authority and to cast out demons. He's calling a people to be with him, but he's also empowering them for ministry in his name. Now, right now we have to acknowledge, he's calling apostles to himself right now. And so there's a distinction between any disciple and an apostle. There were only a dozen or so apostles for a season. Okay? And he gave them specific tasks. He enabled them to proclaim the gospel, and he gave them a touch of his spirit that they might even cast out demons. But we don't have apostles anymore. Those died out with the apostle John. And yet, the principle is Jesus still calls people to himself and he enables them to do ministry in his name. That is still true. How does he do this? He calls a people to himself that they might be with him, and he calls that people to minister in his name. How do we experience the presence of Jesus? And how does that presence change us? The reality is, when Jesus gives you himself, that in and of itself is a formative experience. And he does this. He gives himself to us and he changes us by his presence in at least three ways. Historically, Christians have acknowledged that Jesus gives himself to us in his word, when we pray, and at the table. I'll read you a few passages just to kind of give you a second to wrap your head around this. All three of these come from the Apostle Paul. In Colossians 3, 15 and 16, Paul says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. What Paul is saying, God is still calling a people to himself by the power of his word. Let the peace of Christ rule in you. How does the peace of Christ rule in us wherever his word dwells? He says, Let it dwell in you. That when we sing together, that when we sh when we pray together, like we're not just singing to God, we're singing to one another, we're reminding each other what is true. Let the word of God dwell in you. It is active, which is a reminder and a call to hear it, to meditate on it, to carve out some time, to read it. What we're doing right now. You see this corporate aspect. The word of God is powerful, and the peace of Christ rules. Jesus rules in our hearts when his word dwells within us. Paul tells us that you see similar themes when we pray, even together. In Philippians 4, he says, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That when we hear the word of God and let it dwell in us, Jesus reigns in his peace. And when we approach him with our prayers and our supplication and our adoration, Jesus, the peace of God, guards our hearts. That Jesus is present to us by his Spirit, where his word is believed, and where we approach him in prayer. And again, you see a corporate aspect. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that we see his presence also at the table. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? And what he's saying is, don't we commune with Jesus when we share this meal together? Isn't he present? The peace of Christ guards us and rules in us by his word and in prayer and at the table. All of the places where Jesus promises to meet us when we receive him in faith. What Jesus is doing in Mark, as he's walking around and the crowds are following him, he's teaching. He's offering himself. But he intends to be received in faith by those who would be shaped by him. Those who would let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts are those who know Jesus. Here's the thing: when Jesus rules in our hearts, if he's ruling, he also gets to direct us. He also gets to, if he is the king who rules in our hearts, who gives us peace, he also gets to direct us because he's the king. He's the one who rules and reigns. He changes us and enables us to live for him. So if he rules, he gets to tell us where to go. So we should expect, as he sends us in his name, to minister to others in his name, as he's always directing his disciples to do so, we should expect that his presence will go with us as well, that he will meet us as we do this. We know this passage, Matthew 28. Jesus says, Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you to the end of the age. Again and again and again in Scripture, what we find is that Jesus gives himself to us and he promises to remain with us. I am with you. Could there be anything more precious, more powerful, than the thought that God promises to be with us even as we go out and endeavor to minister in his name? In Matthew 25, he says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me. That as we serve in his name, we recognize him in others. Jesus is, you know, he calls us to seek first the kingdom of heaven, but you realize what he came to do is to seek the kingdom of heaven. And we say here that we want to seek the kingdom by receiving the good news of Jesus. Jesus was seeking the kingdom by promising to be with his people, the giver of good news. That as he rules in our hearts by faith, as he gives us peace, as he as he tells us where to go, he also says, I will be with you. That the presence of Jesus is a gift. And it's what we were made for. You know, every human being has a religious consciousness within them. And what Jesus is saying is, you were created to hear my voice. That when I speak to you, when I offer myself to you, when you believe me, what you find is everything that that longing deep within you, a touch of satisfaction. You were made for me. I gather disciples to myself. I'm doing what you were created for, enabling you to respond to my word. When Jesus calls us to be his disciple, what he's doing is he's not just giving us directives. He's giving us himself. He's giving us not just a purpose, he is, but he's giving us himself. He empowers us to receive him and he empowers us to go out and to obey him. Behold, I am with you always. So you've got two kinds of followers of Jesus: the crowds and the disciples. Well, now we've got two kinds of families. Jesus is calling disciples to himself. And in verses 16 through 19, I'm not going to read this, but we have this list of the twelve apostles. But there's something we should notice here. When he calls us, when he calls disciples to himself, he doesn't just give you marching orders. He doesn't just say, now you understand, I'm the king, do what I say. He does. He's giving us a new family. He's calling us not just to be his disciple, he's calling us into the family of God. We skip down to verses 20 through 21. Then Jesus went home, and the crowd gathered again so that he could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying he's out of his mind. That the family of Jesus, that those who shared his DNA, When they watched him do ministry, they said, he's out of his mind. He's crazy. I wouldn't do it that way if I were him. You know, he says he doesn't want the crowds to follow him. If that's true, then he should stop doing all the things he's doing. Does he want the crowds to go away, or does he want the crowds to come to him? It sure seems like he wants the crowds to come to him. Because if he didn't, he'd just stay at home and be quiet. He's out of his mind. The bottom line is that Jesus was misunderstood by his own family. And if you have ever been misunderstood by your family, especially as it pertains to what it looks like or what you think it looks like to follow Jesus, you were in good company. That the Son of God, the king himself, was misunderstood by his family. I don't know that we can really wrap our head around what that must have looked like. If you're a follower of Jesus, what he's telling us is that our closest relationships will never be outside of the family of God. We can have all kinds of meaningful, good, close relationships, but I think what he's saying is our closest relationships will never be outside the family of God. And how could this not be so? If Jesus calls us to himself and we become convinced that he is the great physician, the healer of souls, the forgiver of sinners, if that becomes what defines us most, not just that we're made in the image of God, but that Jesus Christ has redeemed that image in us, is redeeming that image in us, making us more like him, how could our closest relationships not be with those who are experiencing and pursuing the same thing? Because now, not only has Jesus forgiven us, he is empowering us, he is enabling us, he is calling us to go and do ministry in his name to others. He's encouraging us on the way. So Jesus is saying, this community that he is cultivating, it's a family. It's a pretty radical statement. And you might think, I can kind of see it, Job. Let me read a little bit past our passage. In verses 31 and 35 of this passage, we read, And Jesus' mother and his brothers came. So again, his family is coming to him. And they were standing outside, and they sent to Jesus and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they're seeking you. And Jesus answered them, Who are my mother and my brothers? And looking around at those who sat around him, he said, Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. And there's a legalistic way to read that. Do the will of God to become the family of God. That's not what Jesus is saying. I call you into my family, and I forgive you, and I give you myself. I begin to remake you from the inside out, and that changes not just how you see yourself, but how you go about your life. Because you have a new purpose and a new calling with the family of God. Who are the kinds of people that you and I naturally like to spend time with? Or who do we want to be seen with? There's they can go in convicting directions. The good news is Jesus is looking for people like us. That Jesus wants to be with us. Can you believe it? That Jesus wants to be with you. Do you know what he knows what your life looked like last night, this past week, this past month? It doesn't bother him. He moves towards us where we are the weakest and the most sinful, that he might not just forgive us but begin to change us. When I was in college, I rushed for a fraternity, and in your own mind, you sort of rank the ones that are the top ones and the bottom ones. And in my mind, the one that was the top fraternity, I was really chasing down. And I got home one day and I checked my, not my voicemail, but my answering machine, and I had a message, and I remember, gosh, it sounds I cringe to say this out loud, but I remember they said, Joe, we really think that you're pie cap material. And I listened to that message three or four times, and I remember very clearly going and laying on the couch and just watching some sitcoms, basking in the glory that I was pie cap material. I'm gonna get a bid. So often in this world, when somebody extends an invitation to you, whether it's for a Greek life or an honor society or graduate school or even a birthday party, that invitation means you've made it. You've arrived. You made the cut. An invitation from Jesus is the exact opposite. It doesn't say you've made it. What it says is Jesus is gracious. That when Jesus extends an invitation, it's not because he sees something in you that's not in somebody else. It's that Jesus is gracious, and Jesus loves sinners, and Jesus is promising to do something with you that's even better than you can imagine for your own life. Last week we saw that he's the great physician. It's another way of him saying, I am the way and the truth and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through me. And yet when you are drawn to the Father through me, I will send you out in my name with a new purpose. Not because now you're perfect, but because now you go with my presence. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and you will have peace. Approach the Lord with prayer, and he will guard your heart. You will participate in the body of Christ when you celebrate this supper together. So you've got different kinds of crowds, different kinds of families, and I want to talk lastly about different kinds of sins. You know, we're all sinful. The Bible says that we easily and readily sort of sign off on that sort of as an abstract idea. Yes, we're all sinful. Nobody's perfect. That's not a hard sell. But one of the things that Jesus is doing is he's calling together this group of people who wrestle with different sins. And when you spend time with people who were not like you, and with people who wrestle with sins that aren't necessarily the ones that you struggle with, what happens is we start to see sin for what it really is. Oh, wow, that sin is ugly. But you know what? When you think that about somebody else, they're seeing another sin in you, and they're like, ah, that's ugly. It's one of the reasons that when we get married to people who are different from us, it's like that difference is sanctifying. Jesus is calling people to himself who wrestle with a whole host of different kinds of sins. Gluttony is despised by those who are super fit. But taking pride in a super fit body is sort of silly to those of us who don't want to take pride in our body. You see how we wrestle with, like we all have different experiences and we look down on people with sins that are different from our own. And Jesus puts us in a body together, a family together, that we might be able to share our strengths for sure, but also that we might be able to share our weaknesses. He puts us in community together that we might be able to highlight the various sins within us. I mean, we like people who are like us, think like us, dress like us. When we do that, we sort of sign up to be with people who sin like us, and then it's not as in our face. I mean, even in the classroom setting, right, those who sit on the front row sort of look down on those in the back row, but those in the back row are looking down on those in the front row. I've been in both in different seasons of my life. This is what happens when God brings us together. We see this specifically in this passage. It might not leap off the page, but I think it would have leapt off the page to the first readers of this book. He calls Matthew the tax collector, and he calls Simon the zealot. And we talked about tax collectors a little bit last week, briefly. They were Jewish people who were employed by the Roman oppressors to take taxes, tax money, from their own people. And they would take too much. They were despised. They weren't allowed to testify in court, they weren't allowed in the temple, but they got along okay with the big government Romans. Zealots were kind of the opposite. They were like, let's take up our arms and start a revolution. Let's take our country back. And so you have Matthew, the tax collector, who says, you know, this big government thing isn't so bad. And Simon saying, What are you talking about? You're part of the problem. Let's kick these guys out. Jesus says, I'm calling both of you into my closest group of disciples. I am going to call people who are very different to work on the same page. And I don't think that means that all of your opinions about how this world should go are erased. But I do think what he's saying is your allegiance, you now have a new top allegiance, and there is something of repentance that both of you have to learn in the way that you are going about life. Matthew and Simon come from opposite ends of the spectrum, and Jesus is calling them both to change what they're living for. And I don't want to romanticize this. I imagine they probably argued. Surely there was a fight or two late at night. A few drinks of wine, and they're like, you think, you think? We know they argued amongst themselves. Who is going to be the greatest when Jesus ascends to his glory? They argued. They had their self-serving interests and their self-serving opinions. And Jesus says, I'm not looking for the right self-serving opinion. I'm calling people from all backgrounds to myself that they might learn repentance in a family together. And surely, after a while, Matthew and Simon were thankful for each other because they saw how much of the grace of God they had received and needed by looking at how different they were from each other. You know, one of the things that's interesting, Jesus gives at least three of his disciples nicknames. There's something about a nickname. In Stephen King's It, there's these three characters. There's Richie, who is this sort of nerd who thinks he's a comedian. And then you've got Eddie, who is a wimp, and Ben is the overweight kid. And Stephen King writes this little couple of sentences here. Richie says out loud, and he comes up to Eddie and he says, Had any good chucks lately, Eds? And he laughs again. Man, Eddie had hated it when Richie called him Eds. But he had sort of liked it too. The way he thought Ben Hanscomb got to like Richie calling him Haystack. It was something like a secret name, a secret identity, a way to be people that had nothing to do with their parents' fears, hopes, and constant demands. Richie's jokes weren't as good as he had thought they were, but maybe he did know how important it was for creeps like them to sometimes be different people. When you find your people, even the things that they do that bother you sometimes become endearing because it gives you a new identity. How much more when Jesus calls you into his family? How much more does it help you to see yourself in a new way in light of each other and our common purpose and our common identity in Jesus? When Jesus calls us into his family, he's not just giving us the name Christian. He is giving us a new way of seeing ourselves and a new way of seeing each other. He's giving us a new way of seeing our purpose in the world. You and I can be known in this family, warts and all. And we can be honest about our shortcomings, and we can be honest with others about their shortcomings because we're not trusting in ourselves, but resting in the grace of Jesus. I ran across a video this week. It's at a Redeemer in New York City, and it's a website called New Birth Portraits, which is clever because it's not a birth portrait, it's a new birth portrait, and they're short videos about those experiencing and sharing how they came to know the grace of Jesus. And I only watched one video, and it was by a woman named Beatrice Key. She's a Chinese American who was born in Manhattan in 1931. And she was not born into a Christian family, and yet in high school, right, in the 40s, in the early 50s, her friends pursued her with the gospel of Jesus. And she became a Christian. And she never got married. She said, I always wanted to get married. But she's like, I had to marry a Chinese man for my parents, and I had to marry a Christian for me, and there just weren't many Chinese Christians back then. She says, But what I found when I joined Redeemer in 1995, and he gave me this neighborhood group, is that he gave me a family. And she begins to recount the weddings and the funerals and the ups and the downs. And she said, I have spiritual brothers and sisters, and I have spiritual children, and God has blessed me. What Jesus is doing when he calls people to himself and he directs their lives is first and foremost, he is blessing them with a family. And so there is a reminder here for all of us. Jesus is gracious. And whether or not you've ever followed him or ever considered him, he is always calling people out of the crowds to be in his family. But here's the other thing: He uses us to go out and to love our coworker and the guy down the street. And he uses us to invite people into this family. And as terrifying as that can be, what Jesus says is lo, I am with you to the end of the age. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have made us in your image. And we thank you that though you made us in your image, you did not give up on us when we marred that image, when we committed cosmic treason. And your grace is such that you don't just bring us back into your kingdom. To be brought into your kingdom is to be brought into your family. And we ask that you would let us sit on that, dwell on that, experience that, and that you would even use us to pursue others and bring them into this kingdom, this family as well. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.