Mark 3 - I have decided to follow Jesus
There are right reasons and wrong reasons to follow Jesus.
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Mark 3 (ESV)
1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.
2 And they watched Jesus,
to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath,
so that they might accuse him.
3 And he said
to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”
4 And he said to them,
“Is it lawful on the Sabbath
to do good or to do harm,
to save life or to kill?”
But they were silent.
5 And he
looked around at them with anger,
grieved at their hardness of heart,
and said to the man,
“Stretch out your hand.”
He stretched it out,
and his hand was restored.
6 The Pharisees went out
and immediately held counsel with the Herodians
against him, how to destroy him.
7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea,
and a great crowd followed,
from Galilee and Judea
8 and Jerusalem and Idumea
and from beyond the Jordan
and from around Tyre and Sidon.
When the great crowd
heard all that he was doing,
they came to him.
9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him
because of the crowd,
lest they crush him,
10 for he had healed many,
so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.
11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him,
they fell down before him
and cried out,
“You are the Son of God.”
12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
13 And he went up on the mountain
and called to him those whom he desired,
and they came to him.
14 And he appointed twelve
(whom he also named apostles)
so that they
might be with him
and he might send them out
to preach
15 and have authority to cast out demons.
16 He appointed the twelve:
Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
17 James
the son of Zebedee
and John the brother of James
(to whom he gave the name Boanerges,
that is, Sons of Thunder);
18 Andrew,
and Philip,
and Bartholomew,
and Matthew,
and Thomas,
and James the son of Alphaeus,
and Thaddaeus,
and Simon the Zealot,
19 and Judas Iscariot,
who betrayed him.
20 Then he went home,
and the crowd
gathered again,
so that they could not even eat.
21 And when his family heard it,
they went out to seize him,
for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying,
“He is possessed by Beelzebul,”
and
“by the prince of demons
he casts out the demons.”
23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables,
“How can Satan cast out Satan?
24 If a kingdom
is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
25 And if a house
is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
26 And if Satan
has risen up against himself and is divided,
he
cannot stand,
but is coming to an end.
27 But no one
can enter a strong man’s house
and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strong man.
Then indeed he may plunder his house.
28 “Truly, I say to you,
all sins will be forgiven the children of man,
and whatever blasphemies they utter,
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
never has forgiveness,
but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
30 for they were saying,
“He has an unclean spirit.”
31 And his mother and his brothers came,
and standing outside they sent to him and called him.
32 And a crowd was sitting around him,
and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.”
33 And he answered them,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
34 And looking about at those who sat around him, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers!
35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Watch / Listen to the DIG DEEPER video:
Mark 3 Summary
v1-6 - The establishment is watching Jesus and hanging on His every word, but not to learn from Him, rather they're trying to accuse Him.
v7-12 - Jesus has attracted crowds from every direction, and each individual person presses against Him, wanting Jesus to fix something for them.
v13-19 - Jesus is not impressed by the crowd. He escapes for a moment up on the mountain,
"and called to him those whom he desired."
The twelve disciples Jesus appoints are named.
v20-35 - Jesus heads back home to the chaos, surrounded by the crowd, harassed by the establishment, and considered nuts by His own family.
Dig Deeper
And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him - v13
It may very well seem that we live in a world that's moving farther away from the idea of following Jesus, but I have no doubt that if He were to suddenly visit even the most obscure place on the planet and heal some people and perform a miracle or two, within days there would be a massive crowd of people pushing up against Him, lists in hand, 'following' Jesus wherever He went, hoping their predicaments miraculously go away, just like the crowd in today's chapter.
Christians are often described as people who follow Jesus, and although that's not a bad description, it needs to be nuanced.
Christians are people who follow Jesus because they've been called by Him, not because they have a bunch of problems they need Him to solve.
Jesus said as much in John 10:27 - My sheep know my voice; I know them and they follow me.
Make sure that you're following Jesus for the right reason - because you hear His voice calling you, not because you want a miracle. Reading His Word every day as you have been is a great way for you to hear His voice.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: God almighty, whose presence causes even the demons to fall down in worship (v11)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will hear the Good Shepherd's voice clearly and follow Him
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
