The Gospel of Mark 3:7-12
“7 And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His
disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and from Judea,8 and
from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of
Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and
came to Him.9 And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him
because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him;10 for He had healed
many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in
order to touch Him.11 And whenever the unclean spirits were seeing Him, they
would fall down before Him and cry out, saying, “You are the Son of God!”12 And
He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.”
After confronting the Pharisees about healing on the
Sabbath, Jesus went out toward the sea again. He went there for some respite as
He has done before but a multitude followed Him from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem,
Idumea, from beyond the Jordan River, and from the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. For
they had all heard of all that He was doing and came to Him.
The enmity that the Jewish leadership toward Jesus did not
hinder those who sought Him for they have seen and heard Jesus’ teachings and
works. Many also came to see what He was all about because of the testimony of
those who witnessed His great deeds. They pressed upon him, each
striving to get nearest to Him and to be served first. They fell
before him as petitioners for his favor; they desired to touch
him, having faith to be healed, not only by His touching them but
by their touching him.
Many had diseases are here called plagues, mastigas meaning in
Greek corrections, chastisements; so they are designed to be, to
make us smart for our sins, that thereby we may be made sorry for
them, and may be warned not to return to them. And so Many came to Christ as
the great Physician.
And how we have fallen from the truth of what ails us in our
maladies to dismiss them as mere scientific scourges. Yet time in again Yahweh
has used diseases to humble people to seek Him and His Christ. Does sin cause
us to become sick? Paul said that when with the Lord’s supper concerning
unconfessed sin “29 For he who eats
and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body
rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number
sleep.”
Or when Miriam is cursed with leprosy for Speaking against
Moses because of his Cushite wife, saying “Has Yahweh indeed spoken only
through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” Which angered Yahweh
greatly for being partial is a sin, and assuming leadership of one who has been
appointed by God is a sin. For it is not right to claim to be something that
God has not made you to be. So, He called the three to Him and scolded Aaron
and Miriam in His anger and when the cloud of Yahweh was lifted Miriam was
leprous.
Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not
place this sin on us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we
have sinned.12 Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten
away when he comes from his mother’s womb!”13 And Moses cried out to Yahweh,
saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!”
Is this not the reason for the plagues that are set upon us?
To drive us to repentance and seek Jesus for restoration and healing. No longer
bound by the rituals and sacrifices we who sin have an advocate and His name is
Jesus. He restores the soul and brings us to the Father so that we can be
reconciled. For though Miriam had to face the trial of repentance through the
ritual deed. Christ had suffered that deed for us on the cross.
And even the unclean spirits were rebuked. Those enslaved by
demons were freed from their oppressors. Demonic spirits indwell with people,
and they rule them through the desires of your heart. I have encountered the
demonic in the time of this ministry and I would suspect that there are even
some here today in our midst for even Jesus encountered them in the Synagogues.
They fell down before Jesus and cried out saying, “You are
the Son of God.” For Demons are fallen angels who are eternally damned. They
rebelled against their Holy God, and a third of them followed Lucifer when he
fell for his treachery. They know who
Jesus of Nazareth is, He is the Son of God, and they know they are subject to
Him for He is God.
Have you not read in Job how Satan was subject to the words
of God, that he was allowed to do many things to Job, but he couldn’t take his
life? So even now the unclean spirits must obey Jesus as He warned them not to
tell who He was. Do you not see by the testimony of Mark that Jesus is God? How
much more must be said?
But oh, the heart is wicked and seeks to suppress the truth
for its own lie. Can’t you see Jesus is the great physician and can heal the
wound inside of you? Oh, that I had the love of my own father, for years I
sought the pleasure of the flesh by many ways, and yet it was Jesus who called
me out of my filthy, vile darkness and brought me into His wonderful life. He
restored my relations first with my Father in heaven, then through obedience to
Him, restored my relationship with my earthly father. The greatest sickness is
sin, it is the evil that dwells within us all and we need Jesus to be saved
from them.
Do you consider
yourself a good person? Understand this, Jesus came to save the lost, to save
sinners. Sinners repress the truth and hide in their darkness, but sinners who
know God, are people who know in their hearts that they are vile, rebellious,
haters of God who are lost and they stand in condemnation and will be judged
and sent to hell where they will burn for eternity in the lake of fire.
But God so loved His creation, Mankind, that He sent His Son
Christ Jesus who seeks you this day. He can forgive you of your sins and
restore you whole again, for He has the authority and the power of redemption. You
who are lost in the ideologies of this world, imprisoned by the doctrines of
men, slaves to your sexual desires and perversions, and pursuits of the flesh
and mind, who rebel at the created order of God and stand condemned to death
and destruction and are destined for eternal punishment in the lake of fire.
Jesus seeks you right now and brings life to all who repent
and believe. Jesus the Messiah has risen from the dead, conquering it, and
lives. He is in your midst with us, but you cannot see. You are blind and your
heart is darkened thus we bring the light that we proclaim.
For death will soon take you and when you die you will face
judgment for your sins. God is just and cannot by His nature abide by sin nor
dismiss it. Every act of rebellion and transgression against God is wrapped up
in sin, yet you have foolishly chosen to do it because you love your sin, rather
than follow Christ and His righteousness that would truly enrich you.
From the Ten Commandments, we have false worship,
idolatry, misusing God’s name and living vain lives, violating the Sabbath,
dishonoring parents, murder, adultery, stealing, lying/false witness, and
coveting.
In Galatians
5:19-21, we are told, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred,
discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and
envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that
those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Jesus bore all our sins; He bore all the sins of all who
believe in Him. He suffered the totality
of God’s Wrath upon Himself that every sinner willingly deserves so that those
who believe in Jesus may have peace with God. Turn away from your unrighteous
sinful ways which lead to death and turn toward and follow Jesus which leads to
life.
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