The Book of Mark
Mark’s Summary of Jesus’ Ministry
Mark 3:7-12
As you know, we are studying the Gospel of Mark, Mark begins His gospel by telling us what we are about to read is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Then starting in verse 2, he begins to pile up the evidence that this claim is true.
It is immediately seen by His power over disease and demons and sin. And you would think we would seem people coming by the droves to accept Him as Savior and Lord. But in Mark's gospel, no one says, “You are the Son of God until the fifteenth chapter and the thirty-ninth verse and of all things, it's a Roman soldier.
There is testimony in the early part of this gospel that Jesus is the Son of God, but it comes from God the Father at His baptism. Then there is testimony in the section before us, in chapter 3, from a demon that this is the Son of God. It’s almost like Heaven knows He's the Son of God and hell knows He's the Son of God but there is doubt in between on the earth. So Mark is presenting the evidence to convince his hearers of this claim of Jesus Christ.
Tonight we come to chapter 3, verses 7 to 12 and what we have is primarily a summary of what has been presented so far from chapter 1 verse 1 through chapter 3 verse 6.
Now I like summaries. Summaries look back and sort of gather up the truth. It is kind of like we've been watching a video, or watching a play unfold and it's just constant action up to now. And all of a sudden, Mark hits the pause button in chapter 3 verses 7 to 12 and says, “Let me give you a still photo or snapshot of what we’ve seen so far. Let's stop the action and freeze the frame and sum up what we've learned.”
Let's look at verses 7-12.
Notice first of all,
1. The Popularity of Jesus
“He withdrew to the sea with His disciples.”
Backing up to the previous paragraph, tell us why, chapter 3 verse 1, He was in a synagogue in Capernaum. He heals a man which irritates the Pharisees because they think it's a violation of Sabbath law. So in verse 6 the Pharisees went out and immediately began planning His death.
So with that in mind, verse 7 makes sense. “Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples.”
It's really an act of protection. He’s already had four confrontations with the religious leaders. Three of them occurred in chapter 2 and then the one I just pointed out in chapter 3 which is the most hostile one. Obviously this is not going to go away. It’s going to continue through His ministry.
So, Jesus knows that He needs to get away from the immediate anger. It's not God's time yet for Him to be arrested. He doesn't want to expose His disciples to any danger either and so it says that He withdrew to the sea.
But He is unable to escape.
Verses 7-8
The crowd is so intense that Jesus is concerned for His life.
Verse 9
What we have here is a mob scene. In one sense, it was a desperate mob. And if things got too unruly, He could get in the little boat and be pushed out into the lake and escape from the crowd.
So the popularity of Jesus was unmistakable. The second thing that we see in the snapshot that Mark gives us here is
2. The Power of Jesus
verse 10
This is what is fueling the crowd. Now “affliction” is an unusual word. It's the Greek word for a scourge or a whip. It's an odd way to refer to an illness. Why would they refer to their illnesses and disabilities as if someone is whipping or scourging them? It was because in their system of theology, anybody who had such an infirmity was under the judgment of God.
That's why they asked about the man’s blindness being the result of his sin or the sin of his parents.
People who were being punished by God were being afflicted and sickness was seen as a result of that.
And it’s rather insightful that those who are rushing to Jesus and creating a mob are those who understood the consequences of sin.
Obviously they didn’t understand the full spiritual impact of that, but they wanted relief from the judgment of God. He could heal, and because He had healed people with a touch, they just wanted to get close enough to come in contact with Him.
The second category of power displayed is in verse 11.
This is important and Mark continues to underline His power over demons because if He is the Son of God, He must have power over Satan and demons. And He did. And the demons were terrified in His presence.
And what did they do to respond? Whenever He appeared and they saw Him, it says they literally would fall down. The person they were living in would go to the ground. They would literally throw the person down. They knew who their Lord was.
So Mark gives us a picture here of the popularity of Jesus and the power of Jesus. And then, thirdly, there's a testimony here of
3. The Person of Jesus
Verse 11b
It comes from this most unlikely source. The unclean spirits not only bowed down before Him, but screamed, “You are the Son of God.”
That tells me the demons know the truth. They believe the truth and they are terrified. This is testimony added to the testimony of God the Father, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” chapter 1 verse 11.
This is testimony added to the testimony of the demon in chapter 1 verse 24, “You are the Son of God.”
And the demons will go on saying this, chapter 5 verse 7, you have that really bizarre man with an unclean spirit living in the tombs who breaks the chains that are bound upon him, screams in the tombs, the mountains, gashes himself with stones.
He sees Jesus, verse 6 chapter 5, from a distance, ran up and what does he do? He falls down before Him, knowing He's his Lord, his sovereign. Screams, “What business do we have with You or with each other, Jesus Son of the Most High God?” Don't torment me.
Who is this? Who is this Jesus? None other than the Son of God. The Father states it, the demons know it. And yet the disciples struggled with it.
They wonder in chapter 4, who is this man? Eventually they come to believe He's the Son of God but the nation never does, never confesses Him and therefore never believes and therefore never receives eternal life.
verse 12
Jesus earnestly warned them not to tell who He was. He had authority over the demons, and He exercised it. He told them never to say who He was. He didn't want that. Not all the demons were there that day.
Some didn't get the memo as we’ll see in chapter 5. But He didn't want them affirming who He was because that's very confusing. Jesus didn't want people to think demons were His allies or press agents. He wants or needs no promotion from the evil realm of Satan.
So Mark has established his purpose, to tell the story of Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, the title of deity that no Jew would ever mistake and He has proven it. The only thing left is for you to respond to it. If you've received the evidence, embrace the truth concerning Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Him as God's Son and your Redeemer? If you do, you have eternal life.
Let’s pray.
