FBC Daily Devotional – April 9, 2021

Well, good Friday to you. Here we are, end of another work week, I'm assuming, for most of us anyway, and looking forward to the weekend, hopefully get some things done tomorrow, maybe projects around your house or whatever.

Maybe get out and get some fresh air, weather permitting, and then comes the

Lord's Day. I hope that you look at the Lord's Day as being like the pinnacle of your weekend and a time of great blessing and getting together with God's people, worshiping the

Lord together, and just a time of great refreshing, spiritual refreshment.

So anyway, here we are on Friday, and in our Bible reading plan, we're reading in Mark chapter 3 today, and chapter 3, in the section we read and then continuing on a little bit, we're not going to say much about what's passed, but I just want to point out, highlight a word that keeps showing up in this section of Scripture.

So in chapter 3, verse 7, we read that a great multitude followed Jesus. In verse 8, a great multitude, when they heard how many things they're doing, came to him.

In verse 9, Jesus told that a boat should be kept ready because of the multitude.

And then in verse 20, it says the multitude came together again. And in fact, the multitude was so great that his mother and his brothers were trying to get to Jesus, and they couldn't get to him because of the press of the crowd.

The multitude was so great. And then in chapter 4, verse 1, it says, he began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude was gathered to him.

All right, so here's what I'm getting at. Here's this great multitude of people. How many?

How many? We don't know. But chapter 3, verses 7 and 8 tell us that there were people who came from all over the place, all over the region.

A multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, so that's the northern and southern parts of Israel, from Jerusalem, from Edumea, that's another region, beyond the

Jordan. Those from Tyre and Sidon, again, up to the north. A great multitude, hundreds of people, most likely.

And perhaps even a couple thousand. We don't know exactly how many, but a multitude.

So here's these hundreds of hundreds of people who are gathered all around Jesus. And out of those hundreds of perhaps even thousands of people, there are some who would be classified as disciples.

That is, they were individuals who were more fully committed to being with him all the time.

And this could have been men and women. So we read in verse 9, he told his disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for him.

Now, this isn't to 12, verse 9. It's not to 12. They haven't been selected yet. That's where we're going with all this.

So you've got this great multitude of people, thousands of people, and then you have some of that multitude who are disciples, and they're given some clear directions here, and they're a much smaller group, to be sure.

But then, out of all of these people, hundreds and perhaps thousands of people, on what basis did

Jesus do what he did in verses 13 and following? Verses 13 and 14 says, and he went up onto the mountain and called to him those that he himself wanted, and they came to him.

It says, then he appointed 12, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.

Okay, so as Jesus is standing in this boat, a little offshore, to address this multitude of people, at the end of the day, he's going to select some of them to go with him on the mountain, and then appoint 12 to be with him all the time.

On what basis did he choose those 12? Was it some particularly great quality within those individuals?

Because they had superior intellect, perhaps? These were common people. These were common men, fishermen and the like, you had a tax collector in there, in the mix, but they were just common people.

They didn't have any great education. They weren't educated in the scriptures like a scribe would have been or one of the priests.

They didn't have any particularly great religious credentials to go along with their name.

Was it because they were men of such great character and had no flaws or few, if any, noticeable flaws?

Now, remember who the chief of them all was, Peter. He have any flaws? The guy who kept putting his foot in his mouth, the guy that was impetuous, the one who eventually denied

Jesus. And we have to remember that one of those 12 was

Judas, who betrayed him. And then there were the sons of thunder, James and John, these guys who are ready to call down fire on anybody who didn't go along with them and didn't do things exactly the way they thought they should be done.

What basis did Jesus have for choosing these 12? The answer is given to us in verse 7, or verse 13,

I mean. He went up on the mountain and he called to him those who he himself wanted.

That's it. That's it. He called to himself those who he himself wanted.

And you know, the thousands of people, the hundreds of other disciples, I suppose they could have complained and griped and said, hey, how come you didn't choose me to be with you?

I mean, what's with this Peter guy? He's a big mouth. I'm not a big mouth like him.

Why would you choose him and not me? And on and on they could go. All kinds of people could have complained about it and it would have been irrelevant and they would have no leg to stand on.

They'd have no argument. Why? Because Jesus chose to bring to himself those who he himself wanted.

That's a consistent theme throughout the scriptures, isn't it? You go all the way back into the book of Genesis.

He chose Abraham. Why did he choose Abraham? Because he wanted to. He chose Jacob. Why Jacob and not

Esau? Because he wanted to. Why Isaac and not Ishmael? Because he wanted to.

And on and on throughout the history. In fact, remember when there's a point at which

Moses is speaking to the nation of Israel and he asks them, he says, do you think God chose you because you're so special?

Is there something about you that makes you unique and special? Do you think that's why God loved you? No. God loved you because he loved you.

That's it. He chose you because he chose you, is what Moses was saying. And you see that same thing here.

Jesus is God, who is sovereign, and he has the right and the authority to choose whom he will.

And so he has, in Mark chapter 3, in the choosing of the twelve, and it carries out throughout all of those who are his people.

God in his grace, Jesus in his sovereign grace, chooses to be with him those who he himself wants.

So if you're a child of God, if you're a follower of Jesus, be grateful today for that wonderful grace of the

Lord Jesus Christ. That wonderful, marvelous, matchless grace.

And realize there's nothing in yourself that made you so suitable that Christ would want you.

It's just Christ, in his grace, has called you and brought you to himself. Oh, thank the

Lord for his wonderful, marvelous, amazing grace. And so Father, we do.

We don't understand it. We don't comprehend it. In our finite, limited mind, we can't put it all together.

But what we can see is that you, for your purposes, and in your plan, and in your sovereign grace, you call those to yourself whom you yourself want to call and bring.

And we thank you for that. And Father, we pray that we would be humbled by this glorious truth.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, I hope you have a good rest of your

Friday and a wonderful weekend. If you can join us on the Lord's Day, remember, Sunday school is at 9 .30,

you have adult Bible study during that time, and then the morning worship service at 10 .30.

Have lunch together, bring your own lunch for after the service. And then 1 o 'clock, we gather again to have an afternoon service.

So if you can make it, I trust you will, and look forward to the Lord's Day. If you can't attend in person, we do broadcast and live stream those, at least the

Sunday school and the morning service. So I hope you can join us for that. All right, have a good day. God bless.