Mark, chapter 3, verses 13 to 21, comments; the unique calling of the twelve Apostles

 

Mark 3:13 ¶  And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14  And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15  And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils: 16  And Simon he surnamed Peter; 17  And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder: 18  And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite, 19  And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house. 20  And the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21  And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

13 ¶ And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. 14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

God calls people to Himself. Some preachers aren’t called to preach, however, they are just good speakers. God hasn’t necessarily called someone just because that person wants to do something. God often calls people who don’t speak well such as Moses to show His power.

What preceded the calling of the twelve apostles?

Luke 6:12 ¶ And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;

Third world Christians have a thing called a “tarry” where they spend all night in prayer and hymn singing. You have to wonder how many men who claimed to be called to preach spent an entire night in prayer, alone, waiting for God’s calling on their lives and how many just chose it because they liked the idea.

In the 1700’s and early 1800’s in America, there were young Baptist and Methodist preachers called “young gifts” who were itinerants who rode and walked the back country of the South and West preaching to congregations who lacked a preacher, settling disputes, and enforcing church rules. These young men were put to the test and paid a great price, sometimes with their lives, for their calling. Sleeping on the ground, going hungry, violence by whites, Native Americans, and wild animals, were part of their plot. What does it cost a young man to go to an air-conditioned school and sit in a nice classroom while living in a comfortable dormitory to learn his calling?

The young man who thinks he is called to preach today will not likely have an arrow sticking out of his saddlebag or have to share his sleeping quarters with a horse or a mule. When he needs a doctor he’ll have one to go to and comfort and support are just a cellphone call away. But, the ones who laid out the path before him didn’t have it so well.

Samuel Howe, a former cobbler, and a great but uneducated Baptist preacher of England, who the famous Roger Williams said had the greatest knowledge of the Bible of anyone he ever met, spent his last months in prison for preaching without a license and an Oxford education. He was buried along the side of a road because his kind were forbidden to be buried in a church yard. No one knows where this men of God’s favorite man of God was laid to rest. No one but the Holy Spirit was there to comfort him as he lay dying in a vermin infested, stinking English prison. What has your calling cost you?

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

An ordaining is an appointment. An ordination in the Bible is a formality with regard to someone who has already been called. God has ordained many things that won’t happen, though, because of free will and sin, so the Calvinists are as wrong as the evolutionists.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Have you been walking in good works every day since our salvation? I doubt it.

Remember, also, that God has said through Paul;

1Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Have they? Remember, that even Judas, a devil (John 6:70), and the “son of perdition” (John 17:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3), was ordained to preach. How many Judas’s are there in pulpits today?

15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

Modern versions take out “to heal sicknesses” based on, guess what; two corrupted texts from Egypt. The twelve apostles could heal disease as it shows in other places (Acts 3:6; Acts 19:12). If you are using the KJV you have the sword of the Spirit. If you are reading a modern version of the Bible you have a butter knife. “Good luck with that.”

These are signs for the Jews. The nation was born in signs.

1Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom (Greeks = Gentiles)

Deuteronomy 4:34 Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

The signs are for the apostles, who are now gone from us.

2Corinthians 12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

Mark 16:14 ¶ Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 19 ¶ So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. 20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

Satan’s own can and will duplicate signs so they can’t be trusted as proof of anything.

2Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

Signs were part of the way that God began the Jewish nation and proved Himself to them. The deluded morons who claim to be Apostles now don’t have any signs or power and are nothing more than hucksters and conmen.

People who deny the power of the Bible as a sanctifying agent of God will often turn to fakers like this and waste emotional energy and money on their false works. People who think a faith healer is a legitimate preacher are the same idiots who will not permit the Bible to change them in any way. They deny God’s word and prefer Satan’s lying wonders.