Mark 3:7-19 "Called Out of the Crowd"

James Reed's FORGE

Jesus had two sources of pressure coming at Him. First, as we have seen thus far in our journey through Mark, Jesus has had several collisions or as I like to call them conflicts with the religious leaders of the day. A second source of pressure would be His growing popularity with the people. It seems that everywhere Jesus went, a crowd followed. The conflicts which we have seen so far ultimately come down to Jesus standing against the traditions of men. Interestingly, in their attempts to make the Law of God easier, they only made it more difficult. Perhaps at the beginning some had good intentions, but at this point in history, the intent and spirit of the Law was lost on the minds of the people. Remember the first conflict was a question of Christ’s authority. Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins and they accused Jesus of blasphemy. Next, Jesus called Levi to Himself. Levi- the despicable tax collector was now a disciple of the Lord. There was a question as to the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Following Levi’s calling and transformation, Jesus was seen breaking bread and fellowshipping with sinners. This was so shocking to the Pharisees because a teacher of the Law would have never kept such company. This Jesus must be a dangerous fraud. The third question was about feasting vs. fasting. Remember that the Pharisees did not recognize Jesus as the Savior. This was a question concerning the heart of Jesus, as I like to say because it so clearly had to do with His mission and atonement. And, then over the last two Sundays we talked about the conflict over the Sabbath. There were two examples dealing with the Sabbath bringing our total to 5 conflicts so far. Jesus and His disciples picked and ate the grain which constituted reaping a harvest and winnowing the chaff according to tradition. The last conflict was when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day. This broke their traditions because this was not a life-threatening situation. Two weeks ago, I brought out that there is no amount of so-called Sabbath keeping which will ever save your soul. I gave you encouragement from the Scriptures that we are not wrong for meeting on Sunday. Our Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and in Him all working and striving has ceased. And, We brought out last week that the Pharisees were so maddened with their hatred for Jesus that they begin to conspire with the Herodians. Their hypocrisy is on display for all to see. This is the reason for their anger at and hatred of Jesus. Can you imagine the pressure? How would you handle it if every single move you made was under the examination of hostile observers. They are always watching and listening to you. Waiting for you to make some kind of mistake—not so they could help, but so they could accuse and keep everything status quo. Now, Jesus was truly God, but He was also truly man. As a man, you know He felt their hatred for Him. He felt the emotional strain, the tension in the air, and the general discomfort of this kind of scrutiny. At the same time, being fully God He knew what was in the future, and He knew the pain He would suffer at their hands. But today was not that day. Today, we pick up our narrative along the seashore. He had withdrawn Himself, but the crowds keep coming. His popularity continues to grow. This growth is a stark contrast to the conspiracy of the Pharisees. There is an excitement around Jesus. People are starting to talk of making Him king. Could this actually be the Messiah? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/james-reed877/support