Mark in March – 3:7-12

Mark 3:7-12

Crowds Follow Jesus

⁷ Jesus went out to the lake with his disciples, and a large crowd followed him. They came from all over Galilee, Judea, ⁸ Jerusalem, Idumea, from east of the Jordan River, and even from as far north as Tyre and Sidon. The news about his miracles had spread far and wide, and vast numbers of people came to see him.

⁹ Jesus instructed his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him. ¹⁰ He had healed many people that day, so all the sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him. ¹¹ And whenever those possessed by evil spirits caught sight of him, the spirits would throw them to the ground in front of him shrieking, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But Jesus sternly commanded the spirits not to reveal who he was.

I looked at a map depicting the time when Jesus was on the earth – people came from a long way, especially considering their modes of transportation.  They came from “far and wide.”

Jesus was always prepared and He expected a large crowd.  He planned for a large crowd and He was not disappointed.  We should do as Jesus did:

1. Plan for a big crowd.
2. Expect amazing things to happen. 

“But,” you say, “that was Jesus.”  That’s correct and we have Jesus right in us in the form of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus told His disciples that after He was ascended into Heaven that the Holy Spirit would come to them and they would do even greater things than He had done.  And they did!  But it was only by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Christians today still possess that same Holy Spirit and we don’t even realize what we have!

Verse 11 really spoke to me in regard to the free will of man.  Even though these were possessed by evil spirits, who certainly did not want to be in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, these persons had control over where they went and they still had a free will to come see Jesus.  To be possessed by an evil spirit does not necessarily mean being controlled totally by that spirit unless the person possessed allows that spirit to have control.  The persons with the evil spirits wanted to be free from from the evil spirits and they knew that was only possible by the power of God.

In Verse 12, why did Jesus strictly warn them (the evil spirits) not to say who He was?  Look back at verse 9 where Jesus instructed His disciples to have a boat ready in case the crowd rushed Him.  Shrieking demons would cause the crowd to want to see what was making that noise and thousands of people trying to see what Jesus was doing would cause pandemonium.  Jesus wanted to stay as long as people were calm and needed Him to stay, so this warning to the evil spirits was His method of “crowd control.”  He also knew that the evil spirits would shriek and cause a scene for the express purpose of causing a riot which might cause Jesus to leave.  But the bottom line is that Jesus had authority over the evil spirits and they had to obey Him.

What does Mark 3:7-12 say to you?