The Crowds Series

I.Read Passage

II.Jesus withdrew with his disciples

A.The Pharisees and the Herodians started plotting how to kill Jesus

1.Pharisees ¡V those who thought they could be God¡¦s people by obeying every part of the law

2.Herodians ¡V Jews who favored Herod ¡V they were ok with him as their king

3.These two groups were in agreement? Why?

B.Jesus had just healed a man of leprosy on the Sabbath

1.Broke the law

2.Had a lot of followers ¡V Herodians did not want change

C.So Jesus withdraws ¡V but the crowds come!

IV.The third chapter of Mark is devoted to Jesus¡¦ growing popularity

A.His popularity with the religious leaders resulted in plans to kill him.

B.His popularity with the common people resulted in ¡§great¡¨ or ¡§large crowds¡¨

1.From all over the place

a)(South) Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea

b)(East) across the Jordan

c)(North) Tyre and Sidon

V.Jesus has a get-away plan (boat)

A.To keep the people from ¡§crowding¡¨ him

B.New Century Version says ¡§to keep the people from crowding against him¡¨

C.Carries the meaning ¡§to fall against¡¨ or ¡§cause trouble¡¨ or ¡§suffer hardship¡¨

D.Have you been in a crowd?

1.Been pressed against?

2.Christmas Shopping?

3.Maybe that¡¦s why I usually wait until Christmas eve ƒº

E.So Jesus has a boat ready ¡V the idea here is that the boat would be available at any time Jesus wanted to use it

1.I¡¦m sure there a message in there for us, but today, the focus is on the crowd

VI.The Crowd

A.So many had been healed

1.The man with leprosy earlier in this chapter

2.A paralytic in chapter two

3.Matthew wrote about epileptics being healed

4.All kinds of diseases

B.Not only were there a lot of people, but they were ¡§sick¡¨

1.I¡¦m not sure we¡¦d want to have them pressing in on us

2.Even though I¡¦m pretty sure Jesus was immune ¡K ƒº

C.Some may have been physically well, but possessed by evil spirits or demons

1.We don¡¦t read much about demons or evil spirits in the Old Testament or even in Acts or the Epistle Letters.

2.Seems like demonic activity was especially associated with Jesus¡¦ earthly ministry

a)Opposition to Jesus

b)Always acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God or the greater power

c)Jesus won the victory over Satan and demons or evil spirits

d)In Luke 9 and again in Luke 10 ¡V Jesus gave his disciples power over demons

e)His disciples today have that same power through the Holy Spirit

D.But back to the crowds

VII.¡§followed¡¨

A.Not in the sense when we say we are followers of Christ

B.Go along with ¡V like you follow someone on the interstate..

1.Have fun with this

2.You have no idea where they are going

3.If they turn different than where you want to go, you stop following ļ

4.I hope that¡¦s not the way we¡¦re following Jesus

VIII.How are you following Jesus?

IX.Prayer