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The Compassionate Authority of Christ

1. Priorities, Priorities, Priorities

Mark 2:23 ESV

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

Mark 2:24 ESV

And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

2. The Precedence of Need

Mark 2:25 ESV

And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:

Mark 2:26 ESV

how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

3. The Forgotten Purpose of Sabbath

Mark 2:27 ESV

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Mark 2:28 ESV

So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

4. Another Round of Compassion

Mark 3:1 ESV

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.

Mark 3:2 ESV

And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

5. Shift to Mercy, Hard Hearts Choose Conflict Over Compassion

Mark 3:3 ESV

And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”

Mark 3:4 ESV

And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Mark 3:5 ESV

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Mark 3:6 ESV

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

6. Crowds Captivated by Compassion

Mark 3:7 ESV

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea

Mark 3:8 ESV

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.

Mark 3:9 ESV

And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him,

7. Confronting Chaos with Authority

Mark 3:10 ESV

for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

Mark 3:11 ESV

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

Mark 3:12 ESV

And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

8. Chosen by the Christ to be Ambassadors

Mark 3:13 ESV

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.

Mark 3:14 ESV

And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach

Mark 3:15 ESV

and have authority to cast out demons.

9. 12 Ordinary Men, Commissioned to be Companions in Compassion

Mark 3:16 ESV

He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);

Mark 3:17 ESV

James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);

Mark 3:18 ESV

Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,

Mark 3:19 ESV

and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.