Three Divine Strategies of Jesus to Expand the Kingdom and Meet Needs
1. The CALLING

A. The Lord begins with a sovereign DESIRE, proceeds with a spiritual CALL, but it must conclude with a seriousRESPONSE.

B. There must be a serious response to the CALL of Jesus if we would be His disciples.

A. In our text we can see three important reasons why Jesus calls us to Himself like He did these disciples: That we might share His LIFE, His WORK and His POWER.

B. Jesus knew that the only way they would be His true disciples was to impart His life to these men by SPENDING TIME with them.

C. If we make any real PROGRESS in our Christian lives, we must be with Jesus. Without fellowship in God’s Word and prayer, we’ll NOT grow.

D. Jesus calls us to share His POWER so we can function in His delegated authority as His ambassador.

E. The VICTORY we possess in Christ gives us authority over Satan.

A. Three words which characterize those who Jesus calls. They are PLURAL, diverse and individual.

1) Notice first the PLURALITY of His calling. Jesus called a group of men. There’s the symbolism of the 12, corresponding to the 12 tribes of Israel, indicating that there was a new order of the Kingdom being inaugurated, yet still a community.

i. God has DESIGNED us to function and grow in grace in relationship with other believers in the Church which He founded.

2) God not only calls us to live out our faith in plurality. But He calls us to live it out in DIVERSITY.

i. In this group there were men of diverse BACKGROUND fused together by Jesus, and that is what He has in mind for the Church.

ii. Jesus created diversity, and it’s only as diversity comes together in HARMONY that we get the beautiful music of the symphony.

3) The diverse plurality of God’s people is a group that must live out its ministry as INDIVIDUALS. Each member has an important part to play. Like a symphony, each one Jesus calls must play His individual part in harmony with the whole.

i. The encouragement is that if we GIVE ourselves to Jesus, He’ll provide the training, the wisdom and the power for us to become what He desires us to be.

ii. The wisdom is that there was a JUDAS in the group. We’re under no obligation to obey. We may choose to obey in word only as Judas did, but His heart was not with Jesus.

Conclusion: Along with the call comes the power to be obedient. And as we respond in faith, commune with Jesus, give our lives to knowing Him, we find His life reproduced in us. His character becomes our character. His love becomes our love. His life becomes our life. Our defects are swallowed up in His grace, and He begins to make us a new creation.

Weekly Review Read through Mark 3:7-19 and consider these questions: Since the Lord has called you to be with Him and to be with other believers, what is something you could be more committed to in your daily life with Jesus? When will you begin? What will you do if you mess up?

What’s Next? Our next Re-Charge lesson will be from Mark 3:20-30 entitled: The Madness of Jesus. Feel free to read and study the text and consider this question before attending: “Have you ever encountered something about Jesus that you would say is offensive? If so, how did you respond to that?”