Sermon: Sunday, 24th May, 2026
Speaker: Charlie Ross
Scripture: Mark 2:23-28 and Mark 3:1-12
Do you know the Son of Man? Jesus is the most known name in history, the most recognised name in history. I assume if you are sat here today, you have heard the name Jesus. For many of us, we have sat listening to Jesus’ name for decades. But do you know the Son of Man, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Godhead?
We today meet two groups in Mark chapter 3 and they both know Jesus. Some are incredibly excited about him. Some see the commotion Jesus can cause, and are worried about it. But they do not know the Son of Man. The others know the Son of Man, who calls his people; he is known to his people and he changes his people.
1. The chaos of the crowd
In chapter 3 of Mark, we pick up with the Pharisees looking for a way to catch Jesus out. They have been following him with a plot to watch him heal on the Sabbath, which he does. ‘Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.’ (Mark 3:6)
The Pharisees have been trying to trap him for a while now and they have seen him heal on the Sabbath. This is out of order for them. After they see this they begin to plot out with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. The NIV says they begin to plot. The ESV says immediately they held counsel. They instantly go to the Herodians.
Now, why is that a shock? The Pharisees and the Herodians tend to hate each other. The Pharisees are, as most of us will know, these religious fundamentalists, they are ultra-strict, very legalistic, they add on to God’s law, they have traditions on top of the law. The Herodians are a political movement. They are opportunists. They are secular nationalists and are, in many ways, the oppressor to the Pharisees. So the fact that these two groups have come together in council to kill Jesus is a spectacular thing.
Jesus is, this moment, the sovereign master of time, knows it is for him a time to withdraw from this tense situation. He does not run from these people, but he knows the time and the place is to get away from the synagogue and down to the wild open shore of the Sea of Galilee.
With that, we move from the oppressors against Christ and his life to this chaotic crowd who love Jesus. This is a diverse crowd that come from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, Jordan, and Tyre and Sidon. This is an enormous mass migration from all around the region. People are traveling over 100 miles on foot to come and hear and see this man. They’ve come from Jewish strongholds, from different Roman political centres, and from Gentile territories as well. And the gospel call is spilling past these boundaries. This is not just a Jewish crowd, it’s a foreshadowing of the inclusion of the Gentiles.
This crowd are causing somewhat of a stampede. Jesus has to have a boat ready from the mob to avoid him being pushed likely into the sea as the people comes closer and closer and to keep him ready from being physically trampled. These people are obviously excited about Jesus. These people are desperate to see Jesus.
We read in verse 10 that they’re coming with diseases. They know of his healing power. They want to touch him. They want to get close. They are seeing Jesus, this utility, this miracle man. They are so close to Jesus, even touching him. But this crowd appears not to have any curiosity to what he says. Instead, the curiosity seems to be entirely with what he may be able to perform or do. They look at the Son of Man, but see a 30-year-old man.
Today could be like this crowd. We’re sitting here to get a touch of Jesus. We want to be physically close to the things of God – to being in church, to hearing sermons, to singing hymns, liking our Christian culture, the routine. But being spiritually dead, treating Jesus as a commodity, as a tick box in our week – yep I was in church on Sunday morning – being spiritually blind. Are we following Jesus the nice stories, the useful life coach while missing a sovereign saviour?
There’s a crowd, there’s the Pharisees and the Herodians all seeing Jesus. And there’s a terrifying irony with these three groups all laying their eyes on Jesus. In verse 11, it’s the impure spirits that see him and know who he is. ‘Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’ (Mark 6:11) They know who he is.
The religious leaders see a threat, the crowds see a product, but the demons look at a 30-year-old Nazarine and instantly recognise the eternal second person of the triune God. They fall in terror. The demons have a flawless confessional theology. They know exactly who he is. Yet they have no transformation in their heart. Their intelligence is useless. They believe, but they shudder. They know God is in front of them, but they do not want him.
The demons, calling out Jesus’ name, are trying to perform ancient exorcism on him. This is the mechanics of what they are trying to do. Naming something is an act of dominance. God creates the world and names day, night and sky and he gives Adam the authority to name the animals, giving the control of the animals to Adam. Your parents named you as they had power and control over you.
And it’s the belief in the first century that if you have a demon in front of you naming it by its secret name, you might gain control over it. This naming is a defensive strike against the Son of God, hence why Jesus snaps back with authority and says not to tell others about him. What they’re doing is trying to start a war and name Jesus before he is to be known. Their attempt and their attack is shut down and we see Christ’s calm and powerful sovereignty. One command, no trial, no debate, it is over.
So we have been in this chaos. A place where the Son of Man is exploited by consumers or attacked by rebels. And the human agenda of the time has turned this scene into absolute chaos. Christ withdraws from the chaos. He heads up to the mountainside.
2. The call
We are led up to the mountain, a sharp shift. And to a Jewish reader, this sharp shift is a parallel to Moses on Sinai, going up to receive the law and constitute the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus isn’t going to receive the law, he is ascending to issue a sovereign decree by his own authority. He is the God of Sinai in human flesh, creating a new Israel.
We read in Luke’s account (chapter 6), that on the mountain before anything is decreed from Christ, he spent the night in prayer. He does not pray because Hh lacks wisdom, nor because he is dependent on human counsel. This is an insight into the inner life of the Trinity – the eternal Son acting in perfect, voluntary harmony with the Father through the Holy Spirit.
This is not an impulse act by a human teacher. It is the Father and Son in perfect communication and alignment through the Spirit. It could be easy when we’re looking at the story from Mark here to pass over that, but Luke makes a point that he spent the night up praying, and we in that see the Trinity in action.
And from that, we can see that Christ is clearly not just a man. This is the counsel of the Godhead working out salvation before the foundation of the world. Christ has pulled his followers up the hill out of the chaos of the crowd in the same way that Christ pulls a modern believer out of the chaos of the world and into his kingdom. We don’t slide into our faith, into union with God; we are sovereignly pulled out by the caller.
Let’s look at the sovereign invitation here to those whom he desired. Christ’s calling of these twelve men is on his own authority. There’s no ask for a resume or applications. There’s no call for volunteers. He calls by his own will and pleasure. He calls us out of the mass of mankind, not for any foreseen good in them, but out of his mere free grace. The apostles weren’t chosen because they were anything special. You did not put yourself forward to Christ. You cannot put yourself forward to Christ because you think you are a useful man or woman to God. God desires you and calls you to himself, not for any foreseen good, but out of his own mere free grace.
The Westminster Confession : And because of this, our call is not rooted in our own character, not rooted in our own performance or our own security, but instead on the anchor that is God’s unchangeable character, on his perfect love.
The apostles have an instantaneous, irresistible response. The reality is plain. He called and they came to him. No debate, no negotiation. When a king speaks, a dead human heart wakes up and obeys. And the coming to him meant they have left the crowd behind, their jobs, their nets, the institutional religious authorities down discussing at the water to join a new perfect family on that mountain.
And the twelve. He chooses twelve, not as a coincidence, but as a mirroring of the twelve tribes of Israel. This is a new era and a new order and it’s a group of mismatches.
Matthew is a tax collector, he’s been working for the Roman occupiers.
Simon the Zealot is an anti-Roman nationalist, someone who in any other context would be considered a terrorist, who probably would have wanted to put a knife in Matthew.
In the presence of the Son of God, human politics are completely extinguished. There is no longer hatreds or political spectrums. As the church should be today, the apostles were then. Our human politics are real, and we will disagree. But with Christ at the centre, there is no room for our political divisions.
There’s an array of temperaments in the disciples. There’s the hotheads and the unstable : James and John, sons of thunder, rash men who would have had explosive tempers. I don’t know anyone who has a temper so intense that they have a nickname for it, but these men do.
And then Simon Peter, a weak, impulsive, constantly failing man in human eyes, but the man whom Christ will name his rock.
And then the bookending of a warning there, Judas Iscariot; the list ends with a betrayer. You can be physically right beside Christ, called into his own circle, and still betray him. We must guard ourselves on our own salvation. If we think Judas to be an anomaly, or some distant fool, remember that Judas stood beside Christ. Judas was one of his close friends for the years of his ministry and betrayed him for money. There is a stark reality that if one of the twelve who were physically with Jesus betrayed him. In a room of 50 of us here, surely the maths suggests four or five of us who claim to be in Christ can betray him here today. So we must guard ourselves and pray that we would never be a Judas.
If you were starting a business or maybe a political organisation, if you wanted a new team put together, you would never choose these twelve characters. It’s a mismatch of hotheads, traitors, and political enemies. It’s too risky and guaranteed to fail by worldly standards.
But Jesus built his eternal church on these men. The Son of Man worked in his divine sovereign command and chose these people. And it worked, not because of their talent, but because of his power. Their preaching and the words they wrote under divine inspiration are responsible for the
salvation of billions today. God deliberately chose the foolish, the weak, and the low.
‘Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Corinthians 1:26-27)
The triune God calls the weak to serve and love him. That demands an irresistible response to anyone who hears it with open ears and an open heart.
3. The Commission (Marks of an Apostle)
These twelve then have been called and appointed as apostles. In verse 13 we were told why they were called and appointed so they might be with him and then he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons. The order is absolutely non-negotiable. God first calls, then sends. Before they are ever sent, they first must be disciples, learners. Activity for God must never replace intimacy with God. As we saw, Christ spend a night in prayer before this. So the apostles must also live intimately.
I’m sure most of us know the story of Martha and Mary, both overwhelmed and excited at Jesus arriving in their town, in their house. Martha runs around crazy trying to feed and to show hospitality to Christ. Mary at his feet listening to his teaching. And then Jesus rebukes Martha and tells her to be like her sister. And that’s the same for us and for the disciples. First, we must be like Mary and listen, have an intimate relationship with Jesus, with the Son of Man, before we serve.
Our service will, of course, be different to the service of the Apostles. The Apostles were set out, they were ambassadors, set out with the authority of Christ. When they spoke they weren’t offering advice or opinions; they were delivering royal decree from their own king. They were to preach and to cast out demons. The authority of the apostles, they were able to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the demons. They were given infallible divine inspiration. They were able to write scripture. They saw the resurrected Christ. They were sent out by God and they had authority over all churches. They did not have a local charge.
And we must draw a line between that service and the service we are called to. The office of apostle has ceased. There is no longer divine inspiration. There is no longer that power to be had. It’s finished with the apostles.
Conclusion
It is a blessing to us to live where the apostolic age is over. We have the completed, infallible Word of God left behind by the very apostles. We can maybe be like the crowd craving the touch, craving the spectacular. We wish to see an apostle heal someone or look for a modern miracle.
So many Christians and churches can get pulled looking for the spectacular. There are so many people are stuck saying, if only I could find a sign I would follow. And that would be the irony of this story. You’d be stuck on the crowd looking at the physical man, Jesus. They saw all his power but were blind to it. They wanted to touch a temporary fix. They wanted a sign, totally missing God standing on the beach in front of them on the shores. Seeing the signs didn’t save them.
We don’t have the physical man or physical men in front of us today. We do not have apostles giving letters to our churches. We have something far greater than that. Stop chasing the spectacular. Stop treating Jesus like a commodity to be managed. God has spoken finally, fully and sufficiently in all the pages of scripture. True discipleship is not running after a sign or an experience.
It is sitting at the feet of the Son of Man.
Don’t follow the man; know the God who calls His people.
