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Jesus’ Ministry
What part of the crowd are you?

November 14, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

Mark 3:1-12

 

1 And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.

3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.

4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.

5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea,

8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.

9 And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.

10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.

11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

12 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

 

 

Remember Jesus is probably 14 or 15 months into His public ministry.  We know that the opposition against Him is really starting to pick up.  The reason that it is doing that is because He is doing some things here that is completely contrary to the religious leaders.  What He is doing with the man that had the withered hand; we talked about last week or week before last about the things He did on the Sabbath day when He healed the man that had the problems for 38 years in John 5.  That was the first thing that He did on the Sabbath day.  As He did these things, they started watching Him.  They started following Him around and the started dogging Him, not that they might learn something about Him, but that they might trap Him and get Him to where they might accuse Him or destroy Him.  We talked about Him going through the cornfields and the disciples picking some grain and rubbing it in their hands and that they were saying that He was breaking the Law and that they were working on the Sabbath day.  Keep in mind, Jesus was not breaking the Mosaic Law, but He was breaking their interpretation of the Mosaic Law.   That is totally different.  That had written and rewritten things.  As we go through this study, we are going to see how far these folks had gone and the things that they had done and how far they had departed from the Word of God.  They had gone a long way from it.   There were all kinds of things; I think there were 39 different things that they the Jewish leaders said could not be done on the Sabbath day.  We know when you go back and look at what God gave Moses there were a few things that you couldn’t do but there wasn’t 39 things you could not do.  They had added all these things to it and instead of the Word of God being a blessing to these folks; it had become a tremendous burden to them.  We have that in our churches a lot today.

 

We have people that they want you to wear long sleeved shirts.  They don’t want to do this. They don’t want you to eat pork n beans in a can.  They have all kinds of stupid stuff that they do not want you to do that have nothing to do with the Bible but it has to do with they think about the Bible.  If you don’t want to eat pork, n beans in a can that’s great.  If you don’t want to wear long sleeved shirts that’s great.  If you want to wear long sleeved shirts that’s great.  If you want to wear black all the time, I don’t care.  That does not mean that everybody needs to do that. 

 

This is where these people had got.  They departed so far away from God.  Their tradition and their teaching had got so strict that it was a tremendous burden on people.  As we talked about, it was another Sabbath day.  He goes into the synagogue.  He goes here to worship.  He goes here, there is a guy that has a withered hand, and as he is here, we know that the Pharisees are here.  He looks at the guy and He knows what is going on.  He looks at this fellow and He tells him to stand forth.  Come forth in the crowd.  I didn’t think about that a lot until I was studying this.  That took a lot of faith on this guy’s part just to be able to do that.  All the religious crowd was here.  All those that were trying to kill Jesus and to condemn Him and this guy no doubt knew that, but when Jesus told him to stand forth, he stood forth.  We know that He asked him a question about whether it was right or wrong to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath or to save life and kill life.  We know that He asked them that question, they didn’t answer him.  We know that He went ahead and healed the guy.  That is about where we left off at last week.

 

He is healed now and when you go down here to verse 6; He has healed the guy.  This guy, when you read this in the original he was not born with this problem but had got hurt on the job, something had happened and he had some kind of disease that withered his hand.  Jesus heals this guy’s hand.  This guy was going to get to go back to work and make a living for himself.  Jesus wants a better quality of life for us.  We talk about abundant life, we talk about going to heaven, and we talk about eternal life.  That is all wonderful.  I’m looking forward to going to heaven.  I know today that I have eternal life.  I know that I am saved; I know that beyond any shadow of a doubt that if I die this night that I am saved.  I know that.  Because of that, I know that I am going to be able to live forever.  That’s all great.  Along with knowing that we have eternal life, God wants us to enjoy living here on planet earth.  He wants us to be happy here.  He wants us to be able to enjoy the things that He has for us here and He wants a better quality of life for us. 

 

This guy from this day forward was going to be able to have better quality of life because he had two whole hands instead of one.  This guy’s life was going to change for the better because of what Jesus Christ has done for him. 

 

When this happened the Pharisees or the religious crowd…

 

6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

 

The Pharisees were Jewish people but they were very strict on obeying their interpretation of the Law.  It mentions here the Herodians.  Herodians were Jewish people.  The Pharisees hated the Romans, and they hated Herod.  They hated everything that Herod stood for.  However, when you look about who the Herodians were here.  They were Jewish people, but they were Jewish people that were sympathetic with Herod and what Herod was doing.  They followed Herod and these two groups were as far apart as night and day, in what they believe.  You might say, “How do two groups go together for one common cause?”  The reason is that shows the hate and animosity towards Jesus that they would join their forces together to get rid of him.  They did not like one another.  The Pharisees did not like the Herodians because of what they believed and taught and vise versa.  Yet when it come down to destroying Jesus they put those differences aside and they are going to do everything they can to destroy Jesus Christ. 

 

It is amazing what people will do, it is amazing that people may hate one another but if there can be something to draw them together for one common cause they will put their differences aside and come together to try to destroy whatever it is that they are trying to destroy.  I have seen that in churches all my life.  I have seen people do that.  I have seen groups do that.  They hated one another but their hate for Jesus was greater than their hatred for one another.  Here is a guy that did nothing wrong except do things that was totally against what they were teaching.  Not that they broke the Law, no, they did not break the ten-commandment law.  He was stepping on what they were saying that people should do or should not do. 

 

When we get our own opinion on how everybody should live.  When people don’t live like that, we want to criticize them.  We want to talk about them.  We want to run them down.  It is not my job to run anybody down.  I have enough problems to keep this guy straight.  I don’t have time to go around picking in your life.  You don’t have time either.  You may do it, but you don’t have time to do it because your own personal life will take you 24/7 just to keep you in line.  You don’t have to worry about keeping somebody else in line.  You need to keep the moat out of your own eye.  You need to take care of these eyes, then when you get them all cleaned up, then you might be able to see how to get the beam out of someone else’s eye.

 

6 And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

 

They were not going to give Him a party.  They did not want to pat Him on the back and tell Him how great He was.  They are joining together here to kill Him.

 

7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea,

8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.

 

You might say, “Why would Mark mention that?”  When you look at a map of the Holy Land, of Israel, you will find Idumaea is way down here towards the bottom.  Tyre and Sidon are way up here towards the top.  We know that Jerusalem is down here.  We know that Judaea is down in here.  What Mark is telling us here is that there were folks now that is starting to come from all over the land of Israel to hear what Jesus Christ was saying and teaching.

 

Many folks were coming from all of these different areas all over the whole country to hear Him but many were coming to hear Him for reasons that were not necessarily good reasons.  He was healing people.  He was healing everyone that would come to Him.  He was healing them.  We know that He was feeding multitudes.  We know that He was doing a many great things.  Many folks were coming, not to learn about spiritual things, but they were coming just because of the crowd. 

 

If someone is popular…When they were making the Marshall movie up here in Huntington, famous people were there.  Do you know what they always had to have?  They always had to have people there to guard them, to keep the crowd away from them, because everywhere they went there was somebody wanting to see them.  They were just people.  However, there were people that would run over you just to get where these famous people were.

 

7 But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea: and a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea,

 

The crowd here that was following Jesus probably would have been into the tens of thousands of people here.  It would not have been just a little crowd or little group as if we see sometimes or think sometimes.  The multitudes that were following Him were a very large multitude.  The Bible says that He goes to the Sea…Do you know what He knew?  He knew that He could get to the Sea.  If He got to the Sea, He could get in the boat, and He would get away from the crowd.  He knew that. 

 

What about the crowd?   There were probably tens of thousands of people here where He was at listening to Him and watching Him.  They were probably pushing one another back.  They were probably climbing upon buildings.

 

When we were up here shooting the movie, I saw people climbing the gutters.  They climbed up a gutter on the side of a building to get up here and stand on a little awning. 

 

There is no doubt in my mind people here were doing the same thing.  They were getting to high places.  They were doing all kinds of things trying to see Him.  I want to ask you a question tonight.  What do you think about the multitudes that were there?  Do you think that they were actually there to promote Him and His gospel and what He was doings, His teachings?  Or, were they there for selfish reasons? 

 

We have a lot great preachers in America today.  I mean that.  We have some people that need to be in Barnum and Bailey instead of carrying a Bible.  That’s where they need to be because they are clowns.  In some of the movements that we have…they may be under the heading of a church…but in some of these movements, it is about emotion.  It is about being just where this popular guy is.  They are not necessarily there to learn anything, anything spiritual, or anything to do with the gospel but it is just about being there and saying that I was here in this meeting with this well-known guy.  I go to this church.  I was there when he was in Columbus, or I was there when she was here or there or whatever.  Many folks, even today, want to be around people that are popular.  They want to attach themselves to people that are popular.  I know that is true. 

 

When Jesus was here that was not any different.  Thousands and thousands of people were here and they were here [the majority of them were here for motives other than something good.]  We know that He heals all kinds of people.  We know that He did many great things.  We know that He fed people.  We know that people got saved.  We know that.  The Bible tells us that.  When you look at the multitudes that were there the lives that He touched compared to the multitudes that were there probably were very small. 

 

Do you know why?  Many folks did not like the message.  They did not like the fact that they were going to have to come and follow Him.  They didn’t like the fact that they were going to have to give up and leave some thing behind. 

 

Do you remember the guy that came to Him and said, “I’ll follow you anywhere you want to go.  Wherever you are going to go, Lord, I’ll follow you.  But let me go home and bury my dad first then I’ll come and follow you.  The Bible does not say anything about his dad being sick.  It does not say anything about his dad being ill, but you know what this guy was saying.  This guy was saying, Lord, when I get everything in my life under control, when dad and mom are in the grave and they are all dead and gone then I’ll come and follow you.  That is what this guy was really saying.  We have many folks today that are saying the same thing.  Not today, Lord, I don’t want to follow you today Lord.  I have too much going on.  I am just too busy.  I have too many activities.  I have too many things that I want to do and when I get all that done, when I get all those desires and lusts that I have satisfied then I will come and follow you.  It is not going to happen because they die between point A and point B.  They leave here…Most people that go to church that are lost have good intentions.  They don’t sit around and think well I’m going to die and go to hell.  They think, I am going to follow Jesus one day but I just don’t want to do it today.  I don’t want to quit what I am doing today.   I want to one day.  I don’t want to die and be lost.  But I don’t want to do it today.  The reason that I say the multitudes came for all the wrong reasons.  When the opposition really got hot and when it comes time to persecute Him and nail Him to a cross, the multitudes were not there.  All the folks that He had healed, they were not there.  The lives that He changed, they weren’t there.  He was on the cross and we will talk about that later.  He was there all along.  The Bible says that they came from all these regions.  We know that is a great big region probably 70 or 80 miles from north to south and probably 40 to 50 miles from east to west.  That is a pretty good-sized area.  People were coming from all these areas to hear Jesus.  This teacher, this healer that was doing things that had never been done before; they were coming to see him.  If a miracle, like that would take place, if someone would be dead and someone would come along and lay their hands upon someone that may be dead and they would get up out of that casket.  When that word got around you would not be able to get within 50 miles of this place.  They want to see things.  Herod even wanted to see.  He had been waiting to see Jesus here do some miracles.  Do remember that?

 

9 And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.

 

Here they are the multitudes that were here…the reason I said that a while ago, we think sometimes if we don’t have 500 people then we are not doing anything for God.  I would rather be able to preach to 500 as I would 50 if it is people that are not disrupting things, if it is people that are actually listening and wanting to hear the Word of God preached.    I would rather do that.  This crowd had become a problem and here is why.

 

9 And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him.

10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.

 

Do you know what was happening?  Everywhere He went, it would make you think of one of these movie stars that has bodyguards on every side of them that has to push their way through the crowd.  The word throng means to suffocate or it means to crush.  This crowd was getting so great that everywhere he went they were about to crush Him.  In other words, there were just people all around Him that were just about to crush the life out of him.   Instead of some thing that could have been blessing, it actually began to be a problem.  That happens in many places because people come with the wrong motives. 

 

Here they are multitudes everywhere.

 

10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.

 

Now here Jesus is healing people, doing all kinds of great things; touching people, healing people of the plagues and doing all kinds of things.  Here the crowd is pressing together.  No only that, but if you look at the crowd and some of things that crowd was bringing.  Tens of thousands of people are following this one fellow.  Do you know what the Romans would have thought and probably did think?  This guy has this great gathering here and He might be planning on doing some other things.

 

He made an accusation against Jesus on down through here about an insurrection and so forth.  We know that He was here doing great things. 

 

10 For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as had plagues.

11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

 

Not only was He touching people, not only was He speaking to people but the Bible says here that the unclean spirits when they saw Him…When we started this study we a little bit about the unclean spirits or the demons that will occupy, possess or indwell people.  If we are not very careful, we want to dismiss some of these things sometimes as being an issue that was here just when Jesus was here.  We have many folks possessed by unclean spirits.  I deal with a lot of them and you probably do too.   I am not trying to be critical when I am saying that.  If we take a stand against that which is right or truth then that is evident fact that we are not being controlled by the spirit of God.  When we take stands against things that God said we should live by, and when we take stands against those things then we know that that kind of a spirit or the spirit that is directing us or controlling us; we know that spirit cannot be from God. 

 

In the day and time that we are living in today and I know that we a lot of folks that people follow and we have a lot of religious organizations that people follow.  I was watching the news this week and I saw where the government was investigating six of some of the major folks that a lot of you sit and watch on TV everyday.  The reason they were investigating them was they were begging people for money like you and me but they were living in a six, eight, ten, or twelve million dollar house.  They were begging for money to send orphans and different places and to build this building and do all that yet this one individual had between three and five houses that were worth several million dollars each, but they could not account for this money.  They did not have a money trial where all this money came from.  They were fleecing people.  In other words, they were asking you for money and you were sending it in supposedly for a project and wherever it was at, but they were taking your money that should have been going to feed people that they said they were going to feed and they were building themselves lavish lifestyles.  I don’t care how you figure that; that is not right.

 

I know some of you are not going to like this, but I don’t care.  Some of you folks that are sitting right here tonight, I have been in your homes.  I have been around you all.  You have literature in your house from some of these folks.  You are supporting them and that is your own business.  However, when I throw my hat in the ring with somebody then I am saying that I am going to support them with my financial money then I am saying God-speed to you.  I am saying God Bless you.  We need to be very careful about that. 

 

One of the major fellows in America today, this week, came out in support of one of the major candidates for President.  He came out and said I am going to support this guy.  I don’t how a Christian, someone who says that they love the Lord, Jesus Christ, can get on National television, or anywhere for that matter whether it be in the outhouse or in the white house, and say I am going to support somebody that absolutely stands against everything that God stands for.  I don’t understand that.  I don’t care what side of the fence you are, it does not matter anymore, because when we say those things and when we do those things then we are opposing what Jesus is doing.  Just as the Pharisees and the Herodians were taking a stand against Jesus and they were trying to kill Him physically.  What we are doing in America today, our politicians are doing in America today, our church people are doing in America today, no, they are not trying to kill Jesus but they are trying to kill His influence.  They are trying to take what He said in this book and throw it away.  We cannot do that.  God help us that we will wake up and understand that there is a price to pay when I support things that God says are wrong.

 

Here the Herodians and the Pharisees are, they are taking a stand.  Jesus because of the multitudes has to go to the sea. 

 

11 And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

 

Do you know what we should be able to do today?  We should be able to look at Jesus Christ and to know that He is the Son of God.  If the devils, the demons, the unclean spirits that were possessing these folks could say that He is the Son of God, then why can’t we? 

 

We can scream and holler.  I like to scream and holler at times like, when the truth is preached.  That excites me.  When people are singing in the Spirit of God and the Spirit begins to bear witness with my Spirit that what they are singing and they are singing to the glory of God; that excites me.  When I see people that are doing things that are right and when I see people that doing things that is glorifying God, that excites me and I get excited.  I don’t get excited about people opposing the truth.  People that are trying to stop the influence of the Bible, people that are trying to stop what Jesus Christ started a long time ago; that does not excite me, but it does make me mad.

 

12 And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

 

Demons listen to the Lord.  He can speak to birds.  He can speak to mules.  He can speak to the elements, the wind, and the seas obey Him.  God can do all kinds of things.  He can speak and all these things obey Him.  I wonder why the thing that God, His jewel, mankind, if He can speak to a mule and a mule obeys Him; why won’t a man that is supposed to be intelligent, why won’t we obey Him?  If the seas obey Him, then why can’t we obey Him?  We can obey Him, but we don’t want to.  The problem is that we don’t want to obey Him.

 

He straightly charged the demons here, the unclean spirits that they should not make Him known.  The reason is because of all the multitude and crowd that was coming.  They were coming for many different reasons.  Some were coming for the right reasons, absolutely.  He touched some and He healed many folks but there were some coming just to be spectators.  There were some coming to see who was there.  Some were coming just to see what was going on.  That has not really changed much today either.

 

When we come to the House of God, we should come here to worship.  We should come here and worship.  If we come for any other reason except to worship Jesus Christ then we are coming for the wrong reason.  We come here to worship Him, to adore Him, to exalt Him, to praise Him; that is why we are here and He is worthy of all our praise.

 

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