Great Crowds Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

I. CHILDHOOD

a. Raised in a tough neighborhood. Parents taught us well but it didn’t prevent me from being picked on. Thankfully never really got into trouble. I don’t like bullies. In 1986 we moved to a much better neighborhood, but it was my job to walk my little brother places. We had an awesome corner store in our neighborhood. We would go and buy candy and comic books. They had a Super Mario Arcade game that all the neighborhood kids were constantly playing and would go watch someone trying to beat that game and get the high score.

b. Previous Christmas – my brother got a "Joe Cool" Snoopy skateboard. Along with it, knee pads, hand protectors, and a helmet. He looked goofy. But he wasn’t going to get hurt.

c. Kid lived on the way to the school. Eric.

d. Leave him alone. What are you going to do about it?

e. And a crowd started to gather around us.

II. DRAW A CROWD

a. There are so many things that can easily draw a crowd.

i. Events like concerts, a boxing match, celebrities, civil rights marches, protests, anything that is a spectacle of unusual circumstances, the miraculous (every few years someone will claim that their statue of Jesus or Mary is weeping real tears or tears of blood and it draws crowds to witness the spectacle and hope for physical healing)

b. Today I want to bring us to the beginning of Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount to witness crowds of people drawn for just such similar situations.

III. READ MATTHEW 4:23-5:1

a. 23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. 5:1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

IV. BACKGROUND

a. Jesus began his ministry calling his first disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew and then James and John the sons of Zebedee. He calls them to follow and that he would make them fishers of men. We spoke about this call to discipleship last week. What he calls these fishermen and later Matthew to do is a simple call to follow him. Whether they choose to do so or not is their decision.

b. Next, we read that Jesus goes throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues. He is proclaiming the gospel. And, he is healing people of diseases, pain, suffering. He is driving demons out of others. Telling paralyzed people to get up and walk. And forgiving sins. We read about these in parallel gospel accounts. And because of these miracles, these great crowds gather around Jesus.

c. Drawing a crowd can be easy if you have the right draw. Usually, people do not gather in large crowds unless it is something they want to see; something they have a desire to be there for. We are going to see in a few places in the gospels what these crowds were really gathering for. What was at the heart of their gathering.

d. In John 6 we can read that these crowds gathered because they saw the signs Jesus was performing on the sick. They wanted to see more. Jesus knew they would be there with him for a lengthy time and wanted to feed them. He turns to his disciples and gets them to gather the lunch that a boy brought with him: 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. In their doubt, Jesus multiplied that food. Can you picture the look on each of the disciples faces when they were each holding their own basket of leftovers?

V. BUILDING CROWDS CANNOT BE OUR MAIN GOAL

a. Numbers in the building are great and we should strive to grow. Building a crowd isn’t bad. Growth is the natural outcome to striving to biblical truth and doing everything with excellence. But crowds don’t always form for good reasons so they cannot be our first goal. These crowds ask for things they shouldn’t. For example:

i. Matt. 12: 1-3 (picking grain on Sabbath),

ii. Matt. 12:38 (Pharisees demanding signs);

iii. Matt. 15:1 (Pharisees and scribes asking questions about tradition);

iv. Matt. 16:1 (again demanding signs);

v. Matt. 21:12 (Triumphal entry…cleansing the temple);

vi. Matt. 27:15-23 (the crowds choose Barabbas)

vii. So how do we grow with integrity and for the right purpose?

b. THREE POINTS TO REMEMBER IN OUR OUTREACH TO THE CROWDS