JESUS PLANS FOR KINGDOM GROWTH By Mark E. Hardgrove, PhD Mark 3:7-21, NKJV 7 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things...
We all want to be liked, and it is especially hurtful when we are doing our very best but people still find fault with and criticize us. Consider how Jesus must have felt: Everywhere He went He was doing good, yet the scribes, Sadducees, Pharisees, Priests, Herodians, and even His own brothers and sisters criticized Him. However, despite His critics, Jesus remained focused on His mission and He would not let the reproach or the rebuff of the haters distract Him from doing what His Father sent Him to do.
Jesus answered the critical question of the scribes and Pharisees with three parables: the parable of the bridegroom, the parable of the patch on the cloth, and the parable of the wine and the wineskins. The first parable introduces the concept of Jesus as the bridegroom, and the second two parables illustrate the idea of something old and something new.
The holy Rabbi of Nazareth invited the unholy and ungodly tax collector to be His disciple. The disciples who were already with Jesus must have gasped, and the people in the crowd probably began to whisper in disbelief, but the most surprised person at that moment would have been Levi.
And with that, sometime between 3 and 4 p.m. on a Friday, Jesus won the victory over sin. He was the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God without spot or blemish who takes away the sins of the world. But Jesus did not come only to defeat sin, He also came to defeat death. To do this, Jesus had to fully experience death, so the spirit of Jesus descended into Hades, and into the realm of the righteous dead to lead captivity captive.
But by the end of the week the multitudes would turn on Christ and cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Lk. 23:21). He came into Jerusalem hailed as a king, but a week later He was taken outside of Jerusalem and hung on a cross like a common criminal. This would be a dramatic and decisive turn of events in the span of only seven days, but each point in the process was fulfilling prophesy concerning the coming Messiah.
Once people realized how special Jesus was, everywhere Jesus went the people crowded around Him. Eventually some of the religious elites began to worry that Jesus might challenge their positions or their authority, so they also began to show up in order to critique and criticize Jesus. They were constantly watching with a critical eye and listening for something with which to accuse Jesus of, such as, fraud or blasphemy. Sadly, in process of their criticism, they likely deprived themselves of the ministry that could have been for them. People who come to church only to pick apart the sermon and criticize the preacher are rarely blessed.
JESUS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING Mark 1:29-45 29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He came and took her by the hand and...
At the age of 30, Jesus emerged from the small village of Nazareth in the region of Galilee; He was baptized by John; tempted in the wilderness; and then came to Galilee preaching that the coming kingdom of God is near. Jesus was one man from the obscure town of Nazareth, walking along the banks of the Sea of Galilee, calling only twelve men to follow Him, yet His message would change the world.
However, in the middle of the wilderness, fasting for forty days, with the dangers of wild beasts ever present and Satan (the adversary), tempting Him, Jesus overcame and “the angels ministered to Him.” The first Adam fell and the angel stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam and Eve out of the Garden and away from Tree of Life, but Jesus prevailed and has become the way, the gate, and the door to eternal life.
