Jesus' Disciples

If you're new with us, we have been walking through the Gospel of Mark, and we are now in Mark chapter 3. If you're using a pew Bible, that will be page 838. As you just heard, we're going to be wrestling with a fairly difficult text this morning. Jesus speaking of an eternal sin, an unforgivable sin. And so we're going to have to think about this hard. These are difficult passages. We praise God that we know His Word is clear. What God desires for us to believe is clear, that He's spoken, He has sent His Son, His Son has died for our sin, He's risen again. And here we're going to think about something that's difficult. I'm going to approach this text somewhat differently than most texts. I normally just kind of try to walk through with an outline. This morning, the main theme here is discipleship. You see people gathering to Jesus. You see people following Jesus. You see Jesus actually defining who his disciples are, those who do the will of God. So discipleship is kind of our big theme, and the two main parts are Jesus' call and the response. You see Jesus calling in different ways, and you see people responding in different ways. But before I go through that outline, I wanna just give it a simple overview of the text itself, because there's some interesting things Mark's doing here. First, if you look at chapter 3, verses 7 to 12, really that is a summary statement of Jesus' ministry up to this point. It looks like Mark is simply taking a moment to pause and reflect and give a summary of where we are in Jesus' ministry. We've seen him go from being baptized, tempted, preaching the the Word of God, healing, casting out demons. Then he heals a paralytic. And then we saw that the confrontation and the conflict with the crowds and the Pharisees and the scribes. And so Mark takes a moment to simply say, here's what's going on. People are oppressing in. Demons are being cast out. And then you see how Jesus is setting apart specifically twelve men. There's a crowd who's pressing in and with Jesus, but then there's 12 that he has called specifically to himself. They have a unique role. They have a unique relationship. That's verses 13 to 19. Verses 20 to 35, where it gets a little complicated. Mark employs a certain writing technique that's unique to Mark. It's called sandwiching. And it is exactly what it sounds like. How do you make a sandwich? You get two pieces of bread, and you put something between it. That's what Mark's doing here. And if you look at this technique, if you look what he's doing, verses 20 and 21 speaks of how his biological family says he's out of his mind. That's the top piece of bread. The bottom piece of bread is verses 31 to 35. He calls his disciples his own family. You can see the connection. Family is what connects those two, beginning and end of this piece. And then you have the middle. And the middle is connected. The middle is important to understand what Mark's doing because the middle part of the sandwich, well, it isn't just the best part as we make a sandwich. The middle part of the sandwich gives you the key to understand what he's doing. The middle part of the sandwich gives you the clue and the key to understand what he's doing is scribes are coming and saying he has a demon, not the Holy Spirit. That's why he's able to do these great works. And Jesus gives a great confrontation. So we'll look at this more later, but I want you to see there's a real art and there's a real technique he's using here that shows Mark's a pretty brilliant storyteller with the sandwiching technique, and he does the same thing next week. So we'll see this often. I want us to see Jesus' call from the text. Jesus' call. As we look to Mark, we want to be thinking, who is Jesus, and how do we respond? Because that's what Mark is focused upon. And we see here Jesus calling first disciples to himself. Jesus calls disciples to himself. Look at chapter three, verse 13. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed, he chose 12. That number's significant, we believe, because there's 12 tribes of Israel. Now we have 12 apostles to, to, to, to, to, to be the, the beginning point of this new covenant, so that they might be with Him. The first thing I want us to really meditate upon and think about this morning is, Jesus calls us to Himself. Jesus is calling His people to a new relationship. He's not just a teacher who wants to give us information. He's not just a king who wants to implement a rule. He is God Himself who created us for Himself. It's a relationship. It's a call to know God and to be known by God. To be loved by God and to love God. That there's no greater calling and invitation in the world. Jesus calls us to Himself. Not a better house, not better things, not a better job, that those things we long for that we think are made won't make us more happy. No, Jesus says, come to me and I'll give you rest. Jesus' call to his disciples is simply a call to be with him. And that is a satisfying call. Notice, and this is just an observation, He goes up on the mountain. Typically in the Gospels, when Jesus goes up on the mountain, something unique happens. Now the application isn't to go hiking today. Well, that might be fun. And there is something restful about going up on the mountain. We pray for our pastor family visiting with us that the mountain retreat will be refreshing. But it's more just an observation as you read the text. Usually when Jesus is going up on the mountain, something significant is happening. Just an observation. What is significant for us here, he calls us to be with him. Look back at verse 13. He called those whom he desired. Now, if you look at the list of the people he's going to call, it begins with Peter. who's so afraid at the end of Jesus' ministry, when Jesus is at his finest moment there and being accused by the priest, Peter denies Jesus to a little girl. If you look at the list, you see men who won't stay awake to pray with Jesus. If you look at the list, you even go down to the bottom, Judas Iscariot, the men who betrayed Jesus. send him to his death, according to God's will. What's amazing here is that Jesus knows who these men are. He knows that they're going to be a bumbling group of failures for the first three years of their ministry following him. They don't get it. They continue to stumble, and even when they get something right, they still mess up somehow. What's amazing about Jesus, his desire isn't one of these, he falls in love with us. His desire isn't because He sees so much good in us that He has to have us. No, His desire, the source of it comes from Himself. He loves us because He loves us. His desire has nothing to do with how good we are or what we're going to contribute. He loves us and wants what's best for us, and so He gives us Himself. A call to be with Jesus is the best call Jesus can give anyone. He gives us His life. His righteousness, His death, His resurrected life, His Holy Spirit, so that we might know Him. If you're not a Christian this morning, what is it you're looking for? If you came here maybe to figure out, all right, maybe there's some kind of wisdom in Scripture, a law, or a teaching that would help me make more sense of my life. That actually is true, but that's going to leave you fully unsatisfied. Unless you come to God on His terms to follow Him and believe in Him and trust Him fully, not, not for some little nugget he might say, but the fullness of who He is, you're not going to be satisfied. He calls you to Himself because you were created by Him and for Him. How is your walk with Jesus? He's called you to Himself. Do you feel like you're in step or out of step with Jesus? There's something that's clear and true. Jesus never gets out of step. If we feel out of step, it's probably us. It's definitely us. Are we in step with Jesus? Are we following Him in the way where we're doing the will of God? So that we're connected. We're enjoying that personal call to Himself. The second thing we see in this text, not only does Jesus call us to Himself, He calls us to His work. And the specific work here is in verses 14 and 15. It's amazing, he doesn't just give us this new relationship, he gives us new work. He invites us in to participate in his work of salvation to the nations. He called them, he appointed the 12 so they might be with him, and then he sent them out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons. Mark is separating these twelve from all the hundreds, maybe thousands, of other people who are coming to get healed, to have demons cast out, to hear the teaching. These twelve have a unique relationship, and now they're going to have a unique job description. They're to preach. They're to cast out demons. Now, what do they preach? Well Jesus' message was, time has come. Time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe. These 12 men, they don't get to make up their own message. They only say what they've heard. They're going to preach the same good news. It's about reverberation, not innovation. They're going to go out and declare to all people that are wanting to hear, repent and believe. They're gonna cast out demons. It appears that in the Gospels at this time when Jesus, the Son of God, is coming to fulfill Genesis 3.15, there seems to be a heightened action of Satan. We see young boys and old men possessed, taken control of by a demon, being thrown about, tormented. We hear audible demonic voices in the text. It's interesting that the other religious leaders, the Pharisees, the scribes, the priests, the Sadducees, they're powerless. That they can't do anything with these demons and the way they're afflicting other people. But here Jesus, who is able to beat the strong man, He gives the authority to cast out demons. He shares His authority with His disciples. Now, let's take a moment and just ask, what is preaching? All right, so they're preaching the good news. They're heralding victory. The King has come. These 12 are given the unique opportunity to spread the good news. The King has come. And let me be very clear that, all right, we call this, what I'm doing right now, preaching. But we're all called to spread the good news of Jesus. Every disciple is called to share the good news. This isn't just unique to these 12. We're going to see in Matthew 28, He's going to call all disciples to make disciples. In order to make disciples, it requires the words of the Gospel. God saw us in our sin. There was no way we could heal ourselves or forgive ourselves. He sent His only Son to become like us. so that He would pay the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross. He rose again to show He had conquered sin. He had given us forgiveness. He's given us new life. He's coming again to put an end to all enemies. That is the gospel we're all called to share. It requires the words and it requires the time and prayer. There's a call to Himself. There's a call to His work. Now I do want to take a moment here and just simply point out there's a few interesting things about these disciples. There are 12. It begins with Peter, John, James, and Andrew. Just a clear observation from the Gospels, this is what you call the inner circle. These four seem to be invited into a unique opportunity to see things the other disciples did not get to see. Peter appears to be the first among equals. Not because he's going to become the vicar of Christ, but because he seems to be the one who's willing to speak first. In case you know someone like that. He's one who will answer the questions. He is the one who preaches the first Christian sermon. Interesting, verse 17. James is the first to be martyred. We know from Acts 12, Herod beheaded him. Most of them are going to go to other nations as far as Britain, India, Persia. We see them spread as their Lord commanded to share the good news. The next call we see from Jesus, he calls his disciples his family. Read with me in verses 31 to 35. And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. And he answered them, who are my brother and who are my brothers? And looking about 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. As I mentioned before, this is part of the sandwich, but this is the end. This is the end emphasis. Jesus is redefining something here, and it's something very important, the family. Don't misunderstand. He's making it very clear that to be part of the forgiven people, to be part of his disciples, to be part of his family, it means you believe in him. Verse 34, he calls his disciples his own family. Now in this day, this is bold. We live in a day where you can self-identify whoever you want. That's the new trend. We're gonna self-identify this way or that way. I mean, what's the big deal? Just, I don't like this family. I'm gonna take this family. You don't do this in this day and age. Family is core. Don't know how God designed us. But, but it's, it's part of your identity. That this is a radical statement. He is declaring a new kind of people of God, a new nation, a new family. What's stronger than the biological tie of blood, Jesus's own brothers whom he shares blood with, is the blood of Christ that's going to wash those who believe in him. There's a tie closer for those who believe in Jesus, the blood of Christ, the blood of God poured out for us, that unites us, that is tighter and closer than the biological blood that we share as family. Let me try to create a picture of this. Our biological families mostly just celebrated the most sacred meal that our nation has for families this week. Right? We had a large bird, most likely. dressing, potatoes of some sort, and pie. That's the required meal for the biological family this past week. And the rule at that meal is to be as peaceful as possible, which means you don't talk about anything serious. You don't talk about God. You don't talk about politics. The goal is to be as quiet as possible while things are important so that everyone leaves very full and not mad. Right? We're a Christian family. Those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ here, we also share a meal. And the goal of that meal is to not have your stomach full, but your heart full. Next week we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper. And we'll take that little piece of bread, and we'll remember that Christ's body was crushed for us. We'll take that small cup of juice, and we'll remember His blood was poured out for us. And it's not just us thinking about our own sin, it's us thinking of one another, and how Christ has caught us together. Our hearts are full. The whole point there is to think about and talk about the most serious things we can think about. It's God. His love for us, His salvation for us, His calling us to Himself, and what it required, it required the death of God to save us. So as you think about us as a family, we need to always remember, the way we view each other most importantly, brothers and sisters washed by the same blood of Christ. That's how we should be thinking of one another. That's how Christ declares us. That's Jesus' call. He calls us to Himself. He calls us to work. And He calls us to be a, a family. And now let's walk through, and there's five different responses to His call. There's five different responses to Jesus. Verses 7 to 10, we simply see that there's a great crowd who follow him. There's a great crowd who are so pressing in on him that there's a fear they might crush him, verse 9. They want to be near him because he's doing amazing things. They're amazed. They're astonished. There's miracles. There's great teaching. They're pressing in. And we have to remember, we know from the Gospels that many of these who are pressing in are going to fall away. Second, another response to Jesus. Verses 11 and 12. And whenever the unclean spirits, that is the demon, whenever they saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, you are the son of God. Second thing we see is the demon shudder. The demons know who he is and they're afraid. They know He's the one who's been promised who's going to destroy them. He's the one who's going to come down and crush their heads. And they're afraid. They fall down. They're not trying to just get closer. They recognize who He is. And they recognize they're powerless. And they cry out a true, theologically rich confession of God. You are The Son of God. Jesus always calls himself the Son of Man, or usually calls himself the Son of Man throughout Mark, but you regularly see this title on someone else's lips throughout Mark. You are the Son of God. And then he tells him strictly, stop saying that. Why does Jesus want the demons to not declare who he really is? It's because the time has to be fulfilled in the way the Father wants it to be fulfilled. He doesn't need the demons' help declaring who He is. The Father is going to reveal who He is in His time. This is the secret Messiah. He wants to keep His identity a secret, especially the demons aren't supposed to be in charge of how He reveals this. It's the Father. So the crowds press Him. The demons shudder. Look at verses 20 and 21. His own family rejects Him. And he went home. We believe he's been staying at Peter's house in Capernaum, and he appears to go home. The crowd gathered again, so they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they're saying he is out of his mind. This may be difficult for the family because of the social pressure they're getting. thinks he's special. Your, your brother's, your brother is really special. Your, your, your brother, he's going out and, and saying he's the Messiah. Your brother is, is casting out demons. Maybe there's some kind of awkwardness with the other family members that, that they have a difficulty understanding who Jesus is. And that the kind of pressure he's bringing on the family. One question I have is, is Mary in mind here? I have a difficult time understanding how that could be. As Luke declares, after Mary has this revelation from the angel, she treasured that thing up in her heart. But the family here seems to be connected to mother and brothers later. Jesus is left alone. His relatives, his closest relatives have abandoned him, and they're declaring he is out of his mind. And then fourthly, one of the key issues, the hard part of our text, the scribes blaspheme, verses 22 to 30. The crowds gather, the press in, the demons shudder, the family rejects him, but the scribes, they blaspheme. Let me read our text here, verses 22 to 30. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, he is possessed by Beelzebub. And by the prince of demons, he cast out the demons. And he called them to him and said to them in parables, notice there's a number of different ways he's confronting this teaching about him. How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but it's coming to an end. Those are all connected. Then he makes a different kind of statement. But no one can enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods. Unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed he may plunder his house. Notice how Jesus begins, verse 28. It's the word amen. Truly I say to you, he's drawing attention here. He's given them a parable that confronts their false misunderstanding, but now he's going to declare a very clear, hard judgment. Truly, I say to you, All sins will be forgiven, the children of man. And whatever blasphemy they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin. For they were saying, Jesus has an unclean spirit. We go from his own family saying a very hard, harsh declaration. He's out of his mind. We then see the scribes, and these are the religious leaders, they're the ones who are responsible for understanding, knowing, and interpreting the Old Testament. If anyone's going to understand Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, it's these men. And not to be outdone by the family who's saying it out of his mind, they're going to come and say, he's possessed by a demon. He's going to be, he's controlled by a demon, that's why he has this authority over demons. These scribes, we can go all the way back to the synagogue, where they heard him teach with a unique authority. We can go to the house where the paralytic was lowered down to the roof, and the scribes are there, and they heard Jesus say, your sins are forgiven. And they said, that's blasphemy. And Jesus said, I understand what you're thinking, But I'm God, so it's not blasphemy. Get up and walk. They then saw him inviting tax collectors into his own house and reclining and teaching them. I'm here to help the sick. I'm here to forgive sinners. And all these trues are racking up against him. They're having a difficult time understanding how he's gathering this kind of crowd. They're seeing their popularity go down. And so if you're a scribe, you have two options. One is to turn toward Jesus because you see He has authority to teach the Word of God that you don't have. You see He has authority over demons you don't have. You see He has the power to forgive sins that you don't have and that you need to be forgiven. There's the one option, turn towards Jesus. Or the second option, turn inward into your own hard heart. It appears here that these scribes from Jerusalem have chosen the latter. Instead of seeing Jesus for who he is as God's own son, who has great authority in teaching and healing over demons and to forgive, they haven't turned towards Jesus, they've turned inward. And they've done so together, and they've done so in a way that they want everyone else to understand. He can't be who He says He is. Blasphemy loves company. You kind of picture what's going on here. So the scribes, they've got to be frustrated. Remember those Pharisees and they plotted with the Herodians to destroy Jesus. Here we see the scribes proactively trying to ruin His reputation by false teaching. You can kind of picture, they get together, All right, let's walk through and think about everything he said, and let's try to figure out how we can make him look like a false teacher with the very word of God that we have. Okay, that doesn't work. He has more authority than us. Okay, let's go through and try to figure out is there a way he's pretending to heal people, but he's faking it. Well, no, there's no evidence there. What do we do? And then little junior scribe Bill raises his hand. I've got an idea. Let's say he's a demon. Right? That's the one thing we can't deny. Somehow he has authority over demons. We can't explain it unless he's God or he has a demon. Yeah, that's it. Let's go with that one. And it is that ridiculous. Jesus points out that's how ridiculous it is. He called them to himself. Guys, listen to what you're saying. Satan cast out Satan. Really? That, that, that's your, that's your logic? Don't you know that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand? A house divided against itself cannot, is not able to stand? You're, you're, you're saying that me, the son of man who has come to crush Satan, to put an end to his work, I'm, I'm doing Satan's work? And then verse 27. It gets very specific. But no one, can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. We need to understand here, the strong man is Satan. And we are his goods. The strong man is Satan. And we need to recognize he is stronger than us. Satan is greater than us. He is more powerful than us. He has been able to control us and lead us with deception and temptation. He is the father of lies. He's the murderer. And we are his goods, controlled by him unto our death. Unless somebody comes and destroys him. Praise be to God. He made the promise back in Genesis 3 that he would send someone to destroy him for us, and Jesus is the king who's come to do it. How can you say, I'm working on behalf of Satan, I'm destroying him? I've come to plunder. I've come to undo what Satan has done. Then verse 28. Truly I say to you, All sins will be forgiven the children of men, whatever blasphemies they utter. Matthew and Luke's account, they actually add in, you can blaspheme the Son of Man, but you cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit. It's hard as we think about what is the unforgivable sin, what is this unpardonable eternal sin Jesus is referring to? It's interesting, some people have actually said it's lying. Lying is such a significant, serious sin. If you're in the ministry, we heard a great talk on lying that was extremely challenging. You can see how it's a serious sin because Satan is the father of lies, and he's in view here. It is a lie that led us into death. There is a lie here that they're saying he's possessed by a demon. It fits. We see the significance. Liars go to hell. But I don't think that's exactly what's in view because I really believe Jesus saves liars. Jesus' blood is powerful to forgive liars. I at least hope so because I am one. So I don't think it's just lying. I think there's something more specific. People wrestle with, what is the unforgivable sin? There's a feeling of, what if my unforgivable sin is this constantly going back to pornography and lust or anger with a temper? I want to encourage you. As Jesus teaches us, we're supposed to forgive 70 times seven. That is how God forgives us. He is rich in mercy. What's even amazing here is blaspheming the Son is forgiven. Peter rejects Jesus, he denies him. When on the cross, Jesus himself declares, forgive them, those who actually put the nails in his hand, forgive them, Father. But we see the richness and the power of the forgiveness of the Father and the Son. So what is this that's not forgivable? Specifically, it's called blaspheming the Spirit. Verse 29. But whoever blasphemes against the Spirit. To blaspheme is to say something against. To give a false testimony of. To speak out against the Holy Spirit. So what is it here specifically that is blaspheming the Spirit that is unforgivable? I do wanna make a few observations to make sure we understand the context. I do believe it is significant that the religious leaders are in view here. Secondly, it is significant that they're giving credit to Satan, the evil spirit, for the work of the Holy Spirit. If you look at verse 30, there's a connection there. For, they were saying. That is the very specific action taking place by these scribes in this context. They are speaking against the spirit that is moving Jesus and leading Jesus and empowering Jesus. They're giving credit to Satan. But I believe the unforgivable sin is something a little more heart level as well. They're holding on through their hardened heart. They're insisting on their lie. They're actually so deceived, they're self-deceived. They've got it all figured out, and they've convinced themselves Jesus can't be who he says he is, and they're rejecting and they're resisting the very Holy Spirit that would lead them to be forgiven by giving Satan credit for what the Spirit is doing. If you want to be concerned, if you are under this sin, I believe the main focus here is continuing to resist Jesus. as the Son of God who came to save sinners by not listening, not responding to the Holy Spirit's convicting work. By coming up with some reason, coming up with some way of saying, I'm going to keep rejecting Jesus. That's the eternal sin. It's refusing the Spirit who is at work to convict us, to lead us to Jesus. Now this is a judgment against the scribes, and I want us to hear a warning. Do not remain in a hard heart. Do not resist the only one who can actually give you satisfaction, give you true life, give you real forgiveness. Do not hear the voice of Christ say today, come to me. I will give you rest. I will give you forgiveness. I will love you and lead you into true life. Do not reject Him. Because if you do reject Him, you will suffer in eternity in your sin under the judgment of God. Christ is the only one who can forgive you. Do not reject Him. Do not hold fast to your sin, thinking, I've got this figured out, I've got this under control. No, confess your sin to Jesus Christ and you will be forgiven. Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you today, rejoice. Because if the Father has called you, the Son has died for you and risen for you, they sent the Holy Spirit to seal you. By God's grace, you will not commit this sin. By God's grace, by the Holy Spirit's work inside of you, you cannot commit this sin. Rejoice. God's grace has sealed you. But there's also something we need to think about in that we may not be able to commit the unpardonable sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, but Paul does warn us of quenching the Spirit. If you feel out of step with Jesus, it's probably because the Holy Spirit has convicted you and seeking to convince you this is the sin that's keeping you from enjoying Jesus, then we decide to love that sin. That's quenching the spirit, not blaspheming the spirit. It's a call to repent. It's a call to rejoice. I had a wonderful conversation with a brother I dearly love recently. He asked me, how do you forgive yourself? A lot of folks who wrestle with guilt go to this text and they worry, what if I've done this? And in this conversation, I love the brother, he's asked this great question, how do you forgive yourself? And after wrestling with it for a second, I said, I don't think you do. I think you just look up to the cross and you rejoice that Christ has forgiven you and you trust that as sufficient. We have to work through the kinds of sins we've done. But there's no other forgiveness to be given or to receive other than that great forgiveness Jesus has given us. It's really applying and taking what Jesus has done for us. And not trying to figure out how do I make amends for myself. No, it's how has Jesus forgiven me perfectly? The final response. The final call. The response to a call. Verses 31 to 35. Again, we come back here to where our passage makes this turn. We've had the family say he's out of his mind. We have this interpretive key. The one thing you cannot do is reject Jesus, and the Holy Spirit's leading, blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It is interesting that the, many of the brothers we know in verse 20, who said he's out of his mind, they actually became pastors later. They were converted. and turn to Jesus. But here we see the mother and brothers, they come. They're looking for Jesus. Jesus says, no, this is my family. He's redefined family. It's not being connected to the blood of family. It's connected to the blood of Christ. The scribes have given the key issue here. What makes you a disciple is that you have believed in Jesus, you have committed to Jesus, and look what he specifically defines it as. A disciple, one of my family members, one of the people I'm going to join into my heavenly family, it's whoever does the will of God. The will of God is to believe in Jesus. to deny yourself, take up your cross, and to follow. It is to simply say, whatever Jesus commands me to put away, I'm going to put off. Whatever Jesus calls me to do, I will do. There's a young man who was killed on an island this past week. His name was John Chow, I think. I, when first reading it, saw the headline, Adventurous Christian Gets Killed by a Troubled People. My first thought, another fool making Christians look bad. That was my first thought. I then read more about John and his writings and what he was doing and why he was doing it. I was overcome with guilt. I just called this man a fool who actually believes what Jesus says. He was willing to give His life so that those people who have never heard the words of life of the gospel could be saved. I am the fool. My sin, it was me. It reminds me of John Eliot, so many ways, John Eliot. He is our fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. A disciple. someone who is committed to the will of God. The will of God is to trust Jesus, obey Jesus, and proclaim His life-giving good news at all costs. Will you pray with me?