Give Me Jesus - Mark 3:7-12

Why are you a Christian?

Now, this is assuming that you are a Christian. Are you? Why do you call yourself one?

You might say “because its true” to which I reply. What is true? What do you hope to get out of your faith? What do you hope to get out of obeying what the Scriptures teach

One of, if not THE, fastest growing version of what many *uninformed people* call Christianity, isn’t actually true Christianity at all.

It’s called the prosperity gospel, or the health and wealth gospel. In reality it shouldn’t be called the prosperity gospel because it isn’t actually the gospel but a perversion of it.

According to those that teach this so-called gospel, you should come to Jesus because if you do, then you Jesus will fix your life! You marriage will be perfect, your cancer will be cured!

You should give money to the church, because if you do, Jesus is going to bless you with more money!

All you have to do is name what you want, and claim that it’s yours, and Jesus is obligated to give it you, if you have enough faith. Jesus wants you healthy and wealthy, and if you have enough faith, God will heal you of every disease, and grant you all the money in the world!

Those that teach this system often will appeal to their own lavish lifestyles as proof that what they say is true. Just look at me! I’m driving my dream car, wearing my rolex watch and my thousand dollar jordans and flying the world in my private jet. God gave it because I claimed it in faith.

There are many problems with this teaching, not the least of which is that only people getting rich by following this teaching are the teachers themselves. They have hoodwinked so many people into giving to their so-called “ministries” so that Jesus will in turn bless the givers, but the financial blessings never come for the givers, only for those taking the money. I mean, the Jet fuel for that private plane won’t pay for itself, right?

But the biggest issue is that this is a false gospel.

Jesus didn’t die so that you could be wealthy! Jesus didn’t die so that you could be 100% physically healthy! At least not in the earthly sense.

Yet that is what these false teachers proclaim. People like Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Todd Bentley, T.D. Jakes and others, are very explicit in what they teach. There is no shame.

Others are more subtle, but it’s there. Names like Stephen Furtick of Elevation Church, Judah Smith and Brian Houston of Hillsong church, Bill Johnson of Bethel church in Redding CA. etc. They all engage in the teaching the prosperity gospel, though they couch it in more subtle terms.

Some of us here are more or less familiar with some of the names I’ve mentioned. Maybe you’ve heard of all of them, or maybe none of them.

But what if I told you that there might be a version of a prosperity teacher in this room? What if I told you that they might be sitting in your seat?

Let me ask the question again. Why are you a Christian?

What do you hope to get out of your faith?

If the answer is anything more than Jesus Christ, then we have some serious thinking to do.

While it can be easy for us to point to the prosperity teachers on TV or YouTube and decry them as false teachers, so many times churches just like this one are filled with people who practically live out prosperity teaching without ever realizing it!

And I know because I’ve done it!

Have you ever tried to make deals with God? I am guilty of this. Soooo many times I would pray “Lord, if you would just make xyz happen, I will do this or that” In that moment I was tying my actions to God’s blessing. That’s prosperity teaching.

Or have you ever done this. There is something you want, or even genuinely need. You know that you need to bring this before your heavenly Father. But then you start to feel guilty for asking. Because you remember that you haven’t been reading your Bible regularly lately. You haven’t prayed much. You’ve been letting certain things past your lips, or looking at something you shouldn’t be, or have been engaging in some other habitual sin.

So you are hesitant to ask God for what you need, because you haven’t been faithful in your personal life. So maybe you wait to pray for it until you’ve had four or five days in a row of solid devotions or something like that. I want God to hear my prayer, so I work extra hard to get my life into shape before I go him with my petition.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that. That’s prosperity thinking. I’m connecting God’s earthly and physical blessings directly to my faithfulness or lack thereof.

Now I address all this because there are many people who claim to be Christians who do so only so that they can receive the blessings, without regard to who Jesus Christ actually is, and I don’t want to be us.

Many will try to sell Christianity to others by saying “Jesus will save your relationships, Jesus will help you out of your financial hole, Jesus will heal your physical disease and ailment, Jesus will help you break a bad habit” and many profess faith in Christ on the promise that Jesus will bless them! Can Jesus do those things? Yes! Does He promise to fix those things? No. He promises that he will progressively make you holy, and that often has a positive effect on other aspects of your life, but he doesn’t promise that you will have a magically fixed life.

In fact, Jesus said that if you aren’t willing to abandon your marriage, your family, or your livelihood, you aren’t worthy of being his disciple.

If everything in your life fell apart, if your children die, if your spouse cheats on you, if you lose you job, your house, if you get hit by a bus and never walk again, would you still embrace Jesus Christ? Would you still regard him as worthy to be embraced regardless of our earthly and physical circumstances? Or would you abandon Him like so many others have in history?

The spiritual thing to say “oh I would still believe” but seriously think about that.

I hope we all would still remain in our faith. But those kinds of events have driven people away from the faith that previously said that would die for Jesus. What happened? How does someone get to that point of walking away for Jesus when things get difficult?

It stems from not having come to Jesus for the right reasons to begin with.

In our text today, we are at a bit of a transition point in the book of Mark. Mark has been laying down the ground work, painting a picture of Who Jesus is and what he has come to do. The next several chapters still unpack those themes, but we begin to see a slight shift in the focus. This chapter contains the responses of several people to works and message of Jesus. Many are coming to him! His ministry has far reaching effects!

But are the people responding correctly?

Jesus has declared who he is and why he has come! But are the people interested in that?

Today we will see the importance of wanting Jesus for the right reasons, b

Today’s text reveals contrasting responses to Christ, leading us to consider our own.

Contrasting responses to Christ, leading us to consider our own.

Just as a reminder of what we have seen leading up to last week.

The Religious Leaders: Outright Rejection

As we moved through chapter two and into chapter three we come through a series of incidents where Jesus has confrontational interactions with the Pharisees, who are the religious leaders of the day, and Jesus has sought to establish Himself as one having authority. Authority to teach, heal, cast out demons, forgive sins, and change the understood religious code of the day. The Pharisees, the religious leaders are having none of it, and they tragically choose to reject the Messiah. Jesus offers the Kingdom, and the religious leaders say “not if you’re the king”

In fact they are so dead set in their rejection, that they are willing to go so far as to begin plotting how to kill Jesus. Remember how Jesus asked the pointed question “which is better to do on the Sabbath: good or evil? Save a life or to kill?” This question was aimed at the Pharisees. They thought Jesus shouldn’t be healing (a good activity) on the Sabbath, and yet they were willing to plot murder on the very same Sabbath. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy and they did not appreciate it.

This represents outright rejection of the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. Tragic. The religious leaders outright rejected Jesus.

This is going to contrast with the response of the people in our text today.

The Crowd: Surface Level Acceptance

Mark 3:7–12 ESV

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

This is a summary passage, that talks of the great fame that Jesus was generating and the response of the people as a group

Notice that this is a great crowd. Verse 7 great crowd followed him, verse 8 the great crowd heard all that he was doing, and verse nine because of the crowd.

Jesus is a very popular man!

Notice where the the people came from

Galilee

Judea

Jerusalem

Idumea

beyond the Jordan

Tyre

Sidon

This is amazing. People came from so far away. I have a map for you so you can get the sense of things. See how far they had to come. We’re talking hours and hours of walking. Most people didn’t have transportation animals, so if you wanted to get from one place to another you walked.

Not only are these places so far away, but they represent a wide range of people. Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem would have been predominately Jewish. Idumea and beyond the Jordan would have had a mix of Jews, Gentiles, and mixed families. Tyre an Sidon were predominately gentile.

So this large crowd made up of a very diverse group of people has gathered to Jesus, to hail Him as King, to recognize Him as the Messiah, and to rejoice that the long awaited one has come! the Anointed one is here!

That’s not why there were there, though is it?

Verse 8. They came to him, when, or because they heard about everything he was doing.

Jesus is preaching the good news of the Kingdom, teaching with authority, changing the fundamental understanding of the meaning and practice of the Sabbath day, but the people are just interested in their physical health. Jesus, can you fix my legs? Jesus, can you cure my leprosy? Jesus, can help my arm? Jesus....

But look at what they were doing: Mark 3:9-10.

Jesus had to be careful of the crowd. They were pressing so hard to get to him that in order to avoid being literally crushed by the crowd, he had to have a boat ready so he could go out to sea a little ways for His own safety.

The words in verse 10 that say they were “pressing toward him” to touch him. This has the idea of literally falling upon Jesus. These people were so seemingly desperate, so anxious to be get their physical needs addressed that they were falling over themselves, and literally falling upon Jesus in order to touch Him.

This is not a crowd that recognizes who Jesus really is.

If they did, they would have behaved much differently. They stand in contrast to the religious leaders because the Pharisees outright rejected Jesus, and this crowd seems like they accept Him, right?

But it seems they only want the physical blessings of Jesus, rather than wanting Jesus Himself for who He is.

Today this crowd pressing in on Jesus looking for physical blessing. By the end of the book, the crowds are going to asking for his crucifixion.

Here’s what I want us to consider from the crowd:

Surface level acceptance is rejection.

Surface level acceptance is rejection. These people haven’t truly embraced Jesus for who He is, merely for what He can do. What happens when the things He can do goes away? Jesus has already indicated that he isn’t going to physically be on earth forever. What then?

When the possibility of healing is gone, will the faith prevail?

You know, when Lizzy and I first met, I had significantly more hair than I have now. I’m only 31, but with how far my hairline has receeded, I’m already at he point where it’s just better to shave it all off.

If Lizzy had married me because of my hair, we’d be in trouble. Hair tends to fall out. Outward youthful beauty tends to fade. If our relationship was not built on a mutual embrace of each other based on who we are, then its not a relationship that will endure. We see this all the time right? How often do middle aged men and women abandon their spouses because they found someone they thought was more attractive.

Surface level acceptance is rejection.

It’s no different with Christ. We can so easily come to Christ in search of some physical blessings that Christ never promises anyone, not in this life.

Surface level acceptance is rejection!

I think it is possible that this is where majority of the evangelical church in America is. There is a surface level acceptance because there is the belief that God can fix whatever things they think are wrong.

And before you go in your mind “yeah, those people. They haven’t truly embraced Jesus like I have” Why are you here today? We all have to reckon with that.

Now, Are there blessings to being united to Christ by faith? Absolutely! Forgiveness of sins! Spiritual cleansing! Entrance into the eternal kingdom! An invitation to the wedding feast! Progressive sanctification were we learn how to live like new wine in new wineskins! And most importantly, you get Christ himself! To be with your creator, the one who made you, loved you, called you, saved you, and will one day glorify you! Praise God there are tremendous blessings in Christ! And Jesus has spent his time preaching and teaching about all those things, proclaiming a message about the Kingdom of God....

But The crowd....They’re just interested in the miracles. It’s a surface level acceptance. And surface level acceptance is ultimately rejection.

If you lost everything in this world, would Christ still be enough for you today?

There is an old simple negro spiritual that communicates the attitude we should have.

In the morning, when I rise 3x

give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus 2x

You can have all this world

but give me Jesus.

If you lost everything in this world, could you still say “Give me Jesus for He is infinitely valuable to me”?

It seems the crowd could not. They embraced Jesus for what He could do, but failed to recognize who He was.

There were others present, however, who did see Jesus for who he was. Ironically, they were the demons.

The Evil Spirits: Believe…and Tremble

Read verses 11-12 with me.

It’s so strange to see that these are the only characters so far who really seem to understand who Jesus is. The crowd stands in stark contrast to the Pharisees, but now the demons stand in sharp contrast with the crowd.

The people are literally falling over Jesus, but the demons are falling before Him. They know who He is. They know they must submit to Him because of who He is.

They cry out “You are the Son of God!” which is an accurate statement. But Jesus once again silences them. This will mark the third time that Jesus is silencing the true witness of demons. What’s going on? Here are a few things to remember:

First, Jesus is careful about how He reveals Himself to the people. He does so progressively and does so intentionally. He sets the agenda, and not demons for him.

Second, there is the issue of source. I mentioned this before, but the demons are not a credible source for information.

Third, though the demons are speaking truth here when they say “You are the Son of God” this is not a act of worship on the part of the demons. Mark 1:24.

Mark 1:24 ESV

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

The demons aren’t there to worship Him. They know His power, they know His might, they know what they deserve. They know who Jesus is and they fear Him.

The demons know who Jesus is and they fear Him!

If you are familiar with the history of the demons, you know that at one point they were angels in heaven with God, just like Satan was. When Satan rebelled, many angels rebelled with him. Now instead of holy beings that do the Lord’s will, they are evil spirits, demons, that do the bidding of Satan, the devil.

Though they are falling before Jesus, it is not because they embrace Him.

James 2:19 ESV

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

You see, they already rejected Jesus long ago when they rebelled.

And the fact of the matter is that one day Jesus is going to judge not only the demons, but the whole world. All those who have rejected him will be like the demons. Not because Jesus is a cruel tyrant, but because He is a good judge that gives everyone what is justly deserved. Only a wicked judge allows the guilty to go free.

Three responses from this text. If can foreshaddow to future weeks, are going to see a few more negative responses from others before the chapter is done.

The religious leaders. They outright rejected Jesus.

The crowds. They had a surface level acceptance, but its clear it was only skin deep. Surface level acceptance is rejection.

The demons, they have already rejected Christ and they cower in fear, not because He is abusive, but because He is a righteous judge.

May that never describe you. May you look unto Christ and embrace him fully for everything that he came to do. Do you know the wretchedness of your own sin today? Do you know how wretched a being you are because of the blackness of your own heart?

But you do know that Jesus came to make black hearts white as snow? He came to call sinners to repentance. He came to forgive. He came offering entrance into the Kingdom. He came bringing joy for the forgiven as he transformed lives for kingdom living.

This is my challenge for you today:

Embrace Jesus Christ and all he came to do. Not for the surface level stuff, but for the issues of the heart.

If you are already a believer in Christ, this means delighting in Him as our inheritance. We may have financial struggles our whole lives, we may have health issues our whole lives, we may have relational difficulties our wholes lives,

but we get Jesus!

So while we may labor and pray and work to resolve those issues--and rightfully so, I’m not saying we ignore them--but our joy is bound up in knowing that we get to spend an eternity with Jesus Christ! Eternal life isn’t about going to heaven, its about being with Christ!

To embrace Him fully is to follow His teachings and commands. New wine doesn’t go in old wineskins. The old and new don’t mix. To embrace him means we embrace all that he wants from us, but not in a way that burdens us. Because he is our guide. He is our master, and we learn from him.

For those who are not yet Christians, or maybe you are realizing that you haven’t embraced Christ as you once thought you did.

Jesus has been demonstrating who He is. He is the King offering the Kingdom to all who will believe. He is the one who has authority over all things in this world. In the last few chapters of the book, He will be put to death. Bearing the punishment we deserve so we don’t have to face Him as our judge, but as our advocacy lawyer, fighting our care for us.

To embrace Him means embracing Him for who He is. Accept by faith that He is the Son of God, that He is God in human flesh. Repent, and believe that Jesus’ death covers your sin. Not so you can be healthy and wealthy, not so you can avoid troubles in this life. Jesus promised we would still have those. But we get Jesus! If we embrace the gospel of the Christ and His work on the cross, we get Jesus!

You can have this whole world! Give me Jesus.

Let’s pray.