"risky Business" Series

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.”