Mark 9:38-40 reads,<\/p>\n
\u201cTeacher,\u201d said John, \u201cwe saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDo not stop him,\u201d Jesus said. \u201cFor no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n John McArthur writes in Twelve Ordinary Men,<\/p>\n \u201c[The Apostles] were perfectly ordinary men in every way. Not one of them was renown for scholarship or great erudition. They had no track record as orators or theologians. In fact, they were outsiders as far as the religious establishment of Jesus\u2019 day was concerned. They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual abilities. On the contrary, they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith and bitter failure\u2026Yet with all their faults and character flaws \u2013 as remarkably ordinary as they were \u2013 these men carried on a ministry after Jesus\u2019 ascension that left an indelible impact on the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n And yet, there is much to glean from their recorded interactions, successes and failures, as they related to Christ during his earthly ministry.<\/p>\n Ministry, both the highs and lows, must drive us to our knees and the pages of Scripture. This past week drove me to the passage above and to glean from the faithful expositors below.<\/p>\n Warren Wiersbe<\/strong> Albert Barnes<\/strong> John Calvin<\/strong> \u201cIf the disciples had not been more devoted to their own glory than anxious and desirous to promote the glory of their Master, they would not have been offended when they saw that glory heightened and enlarged in another direction.\u201d<\/p>\n 16th century theologian Richard Hooker is created with saying,<\/p>\n \u201cWise men are men, and truth is truth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This should be of comfort to all Christ-followers: our faith lies not in imperfect messengers, historical or contemporary, but in our perfect Savior and His perfect message of Salvation found in Scripture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark 9:38-40 reads, \u201cTeacher,\u201d said John, \u201cwe saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.\u201d \u201cDo not stop him,\u201d Jesus said. \u201cFor no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heroes-of-the-faith"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/blog-12-disciples-600x300.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/blog-12-disciples-600x300.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cJesus did not treat John\u2019s statement lightly; in fact, He went on to explain the danger of causing others to stumble and therefore stop serving the Lord (Mark 9:42\u201350). \u2018These little ones\u2019 refers to all God\u2019s children who follow Christ and seek to serve Him. The way believers treat others in the family of God is a serious thing, and God wants us to \u2018have peace one with another\u2019 (Mark 9:50). The disciples did not get along with each other, nor did they get along with other believers!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cTrue likeness to the Savior would lead us to rejoice in all the good accomplished, by whomsoever it may be done; and to rejoice that the kingdom of Christ is advanced.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere is reason to suspect the disciples of Christ of ambition, because they are anxious to maintain their privilege and honor. For why is it that they all at once forbid a man who is unknown to them to work miracles, but because they wish to be the sole possessors of this right?\u201d<\/p>\n