Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“And he entered into the synagogue again, and a man who had a withered hand was there. And they were watching him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they could accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come into the middle.”” (Mark 3:1-3)

Chapter three opens with Jesus again entering a synagogue (we are being shown that it WAS His habit). The religious leaders watched to see whether or not Jesus would heal the man there who had a withered hand. They didn’t care about the man or the healing, but instead were concerned about the technical definition of the word ‘work’ in relation to the Sabbath. Jesus escaped their trap, but the Pharisees immediately started plotting with the Herodians to kill Jesus.

Jesus next taught by the seaside, preaching from a boat because if He stayed near the crowds they all pressed in on Him trying to touch Him and be healed. Jesus took his disciples from there up a mountain and He selected twelve of them to be His closest disciples (Jesus had over seventy male disciples and uncounted females and children). His enemies started saying that Jesus was casting out evil spirits by the power of the devil, the chief evil spirit. But Jesus was stern with them. If you chose to declare that Holy Spirit was the devil, then you would naturally distance yourself from Him. Which means you have NO WAY to be convicted of your sins, and therefore no way to honesty cry out to be forgiven. That is a sure-fire way to make sure you are NOT delivered. Also, it is decrying both Jesus AND Holy Spirit, rejecting two of the godhead face to face. This is NOT the way to salvation, rather the opposite and Jesus warned them about it.

Chapter four is when Jesus started to teach with parables. Up to this point people were listening to His preaching/teaching AND wanting miracles. But we can see from chapter three that they were ever increasing in their desire for MIRACLES and less for the teaching. Jesus didn’t want to waste His time on people who didn’t want to hear, but He also wanted to make true seekers able to hear the truth. So He began using parables. Stories with real truth at their core. You could hear them as stories, but you could also meditate on them and study them and get real truths out of them – if you were an honest seeker. He told the parable of the sower sowing the Word and the four types of people who receive it. He talked about being a godly example as being a light in darkness – which you did not hide under a basket if you wanted it to be effective. He spoke about how things grow in the Spirit. How they need to be sown, then nurtured, and it takes TIME to have a harvest. Time that should not be spent in worry, but in trusting that the harvest WILL come. He also told the parable of the mustard seed, showing that even a small amount of trust in God can produce a MIGHTY harvest. One that is a blessing to MANY people.

Finally, at evening that same day (long day), Jesus gave the disciples a command to cross the lake. They went, but along the way a storm came up. Instead of standing on the word they received from Jesus and trusting in God so that they could do something, they panicked. They gave into fear. They came to Jesus and claimed He didn’t care about their lives (how often have we prayed something like that to God?). Jesus got up, stood on the Word HE had received about where they were to go, and calmed the storm in complete trust that God would do it. They could have done the same, even with a small amount of real trust in God, but they had given into fear. They looked at each other and started to truly wonder about His FULL identity because even the elements of this world had to obey when He was in alignment with the Father.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Disciples, Pharisees, Jews

Key Verse(s): Mark 3:20-30; 4:10-20