GOING PUBLIC WITH OUR FAITH
“Risky Business”
Mark 3:1-12
So the popularity of Jesus is beginning to grow and once that happens, the haters begin to show up. You know who the haters are, right? Once things start going well in your life there are those individuals who will show up and speak up. And it leads to a chain of emotions that will take place. The first one that seems to surface is …. Jealousy. But Jealousy is only the beginning. Because jealousy is born out of insecurity. Here is …
(1) Jealousy. You have something they don’t and they don’t like that. Someone wants what you have.
(2) Jealousy can turn to bitterness. The Bible says see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.
(3) Bitterness turns to anger. And that appears to be occurring in this passage because once someone becomes jealous—then bitter---then angry---- then a 4th element arises.
(4) Accusations begin. And that is what happens here. Vs. 1-2.
So here is a crowd and Jesus has gone public once again. When you approach a crowd; what is the first thing you notice? Usually we will see a variety of things; you notice certain people. You may notice the furnishings in the room and if you are really perceptive you will notice a variety of needs that are present. And one or two may really stand out. In fact, it’s not that difficult if you are really paying attention. So when Jesus walks into the synagogue, we don’t know how many people are there---his focus turns immediately to a man with a withered hand. A deformity. Now, at this point Jesus is already building a reputation of performing miracles on the Sabbath.
• He healed Simon’s mother in law
• He healed man who had been born blind
• He healed a woman who was crippled
• He healed a man who had been crippled
• He healed a man who had been lame for 38 years
• And others….all of these happened on the Sabbath.
This is one of those times… 7 times Jesus healed on the Sabbath. As a result, the text tells us that Jesus’ enemies watched him very closely. And here’s why---Jesus was beginning to be seen as a threat to shoe in power and so it all starts up; here is what we have seen.
• Those in power become jealous
• Jealousy turns to bitterness
• Bitterness to anger
• Anger to accusations
All of these accusations are now pushing Jesus to go even more public with his ministry. Listen, Satan will fight you when you attempt to go public with your faith. He will place people in your path who will accuse you and perhaps even abuse you. It is simply the nature of spiritual warfare.
Satan is described in a variety of ways in the Bible. Listen to some of these names given to Him and you will understand what we are up against. These words describe his personality. The enemy, the evil one, liar, father of lies, deceiver, accuser. Sound familiar? This is what we are up against. When you are doing the work of Jesus you will have a target on your back. He will lie to you, deceive you, accuse you but hear this…. that is not the time to step back. It is the time to press forward. You see, in Christ, we have been given everything necessary to overcome Satan and what He has to offer. And this is why? Satan is not the only one who has a lot of different names in the Bible to describe Him. I carry a laminated list of names of Jesus in my Bible… it has 122 different names used in scripture. And each one tells us why He is able to overcome Satan. He is our …
• Advocate. Like a lawyer He is constantly fighting on our behalf.
• He is the Author and finisher of our faith. He gets us started and helps us to finish strong.
• Chief Cornerstone. The cornerstone is usually the most solid stone in the entire structure…. Often the first to be put into place and it determines every measurement that follows. Everything about the building relies on the cornerstone.
• Counselor. He is the best listener we will ever meet and also He speaks words into our lives that we need to give us strength.
• Prince of Peace. We all know what peace is. Even if we can’t define it we certainly know when we have it. So knowing what that peace feels like; you can know this…He is the one who is in charge of it. A prince is a ruler.
Now, here was the problem. The Jews had laws that said you could not work on the Sabbath and of course the 10 commandments said not to work on the Sabbath… they state that you have 6 days to do your ordinary work but understand what Jesus was about to do was not ordinary work. The Jews, in addition to the 10 commandments, had a list of 613 laws/commandments they were instructed not to break. If someone worked on the Sabbath and was caught they were taken to the Pharisees to be punished. So you may wonder, what was the punishment for working on the Sabbath? Was it a big deal? According to the law: “whoever does any work on the Sabbath is to be put to death.”
Verse 4. So Jesus knew where this was headed but it didn’t stop him from saying to the man “come and stand in front of everyone.” Could Jesus have healed him privately? Absolutely. But He chose to go public. Now, the law allowed for healing on the Sabbath for life and death matters but this man with a withered hand didn’t fit that category. So Jesus asks them a question… “Is this day for good or for doing evil?”--- as He had said before … man was not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for man.” Jesus knew the consequences but was still willing to risk his life to help this man. When Jesus asked them this question; their choice was to just be silent. Just don’t answer Him.
At this point the Bible says there were two emotions Jesus expressed. (1) anger and (2) sadness. Why? Because their hearts were hard. In scripture the heart is center of the personality; it still is so we say phrases like “I love you with all of my heart.” Further, the scripture tells us that … grief, joy, understanding, thoughts, reasoning, faith and belief are all produced by the heart so if you are having difficulty in any of those areas and who doesn’t’? If you are having trouble in any of those areas, when grief comes into your life, when trials threaten your joy, one of two things will happen (1) We will become bitter and we already know what happens at that point … We become angry, at God, at friends … OR, (2) our faith can actually be strengthened. This doesn’t happen overnight and what I have found is that we must go through the 1st one (the bitterness) before we grow into the 2nd one. (The healing). Most of us go through the bitterness first.
So, here’s the deal… none of us are immune to trials and troubles here on earth. All of us will experience setbacks and disappointments --- you may have this week. This is why the scripture tells us to be careful and make sure we guard our hearts. So it’s good to notice here what Jesus does with his emotions—sadness and anger---He takes them and turns them around and does something good. Now our response is often just the opposite. We allow our sadness and our anger to turn us into a different person. We want revenge; payback; Jesus says instead of paying it back, pay it forward by doing something good. Jesus tells the man to hold out his hand and when he does his hand is restored to health. Now I don’t know what you might expect to read/hear next in this passage but a miracle has just occurred. I’m expecting to hear shouts of joy, praise for Jesus, to see happiness, but this is what we get….. v. 6. “At once the Pharisees went away and met with those who supported Herod (these are the power players) to plot to kill Jesus.
Verse 7. Now the crowd, already large just continues to grow. They are coming from all over---Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from the east and as far north as Tyre and Sidon. (PPT slide—map). V.8. The Bible then says that vast numbers of people came to see him. Now press the pause button for a moment because there is something important here we should notice.
When we go public with our faith; it is not our purpose to create a following for us; although that will often happen; but we are creating followers for Jesus. That is the purpose of going public: to create followers of Christ.
Jesus is worth any risk we will ever take.
People are worth the risk.
Verse 9. Jesus tells the disciples to get ready so He can escape the crowd. By now they are in a frenzy, it appears, because Jesus is actually concerned that the crowd might crush him because it has become so large. This is understandable because verse 10 tells us that He has healed so many people on that day that everyone is pushing toward Him. Now, you may be asking, ”what does all of this have to do with me?” I remember a friend; his name was Benny; I met him in a church we served in after seminary, In Arkansas. Benny was a prison chaplain serving our area. Our town was surrounded by 5 prisons. Benny is still in the ministry but you should also know that he is nearly blind. Serious vision problems. When Benny would pray, there was a phrase he would use to close his prayer and it was this: “help me to be Jesus to someone today.” Help me to be Jesus to someone today. You see, that is what going public is actually about; being Jesus to someone. Tell me, what is the first thing people think of when they see you coming? Are you full of grace, positive, kind, do you consider the feelings of others or are you just plain inconsiderate, judgmental and negative. What do people see when they see you?
(1) While passing through this world of sin, And others your life shall view, Be clean and pure without, within,
Let others see Jesus in you.
Let others see Jesus in you, Let others see Jesus in you;
Keep telling the story, be faithful and true,
Let others see Jesus in you.
(2) Your life's a book before their eyes, They're reading it through and through; Say, does it point them to the skies, Do others see Jesus in you?
(3) What joy it will be at set of sun, In mansions beyond the blue, To find some souls that you have won;
Let others see Jesus in you.
(4) Then live for Christ both day and night,
Be faithful, be brave, and true,
And lead the lost to life and light;
Let others see Jesus in you.
