Mark 3:20-35

Mark 3:1-19

As we open up chapter 3 I need to remind you of what we learned in the last section of chapter 2 mainly that Jesus is lord of the Sabbath. I give you that reminder because what takes place in the first section of chapter 3 takes place on the Sabbath.

Verses 1-2

Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Chapter Three

Withered. Perfect participle, speaking of an action completed in past time, having present finished results. The withering of the hand was due to accident or disease. The man was not born with the deformity. Luke tells us it was his right hand. Just a touch of the Greek physician’s accurateness of detail in reporting a case.

Isn’t it interesting that they (the Pharisees) watched Jesus to see what He would do?

They watched - In the Greek tense it means that they continued watching Jesus. They were spying on Him.

This tells us that Jesus had become so well known for His love and care for people that everyone including the religious leaders expected Jesus to do something about the sick, lame, blind, and demon possessed.

Now some watched because they were genuinely excited to see God moving, the religious leaders watched because they were hoping to catch Jesus doing something that violated their standards so that they could accuse Him before the high priest and find Him guilty so that they could put Him to death.

Verses 3-4

Since they were watching Jesus, He went ahead and gave them something to stare at when He called the man to Himself in front of everyone else.

Verses 5-6

Anger is not a bad thing. It can turn into something bad when it goes unchecked, but anger in and of itself is simply one of many emotions that God has given us as those created in His image. Righteous anger is a good and necessary thing and it can be proven easily. Let’s say you see a grown man inappropriately touching a 3 year old girl. What would your emotional response be? Hopefully it would be anger. The problem with anger is that we often misdirect it or allow it to rule over us.

What was the reason fo Jesus righteous anger?

The hardness (lit callused) of the heart of the religious leaders. Notice is says the heart singular instead of hearts? The idea literally is that all of the Pharisees had a singleness of heart, and that they all together were callused in their heart against Christ.

Now an interesting thing occurs when the Pharisees abruptly leave. It says they held council with the Herodians.

The Herodians were a group who were connected to Herod and as a result were not of pure Jewish decent even though they could show that they were of the priestly line. The Pharisees considered them to be half breeds and traitors because the Herodians were loyal to Rome.

So all of a sudden the Pharisees who don’t like or respect the Herodians are taking or really in the Greek it seems giving council to the Herodians about how they could kill Jesus. You see the Pharisees realized they would need to team up with the Herodians because the Herodians had influence with the Roman court officials so that they could get rid of Jesus for His constant pushing back against their man made laws that came as a result of adding to or taking away from the word of God.

So while picking grain and healing people were illegal on the Sabbath, killing the Messiah was apparently not.

Verses 7-12

The Greek text places emphasis on both the disciples and the great crowd in verse 7. The emphasis is placed on the disciples in the sense of anticipation of learning more about them. The emphasis on the great crowd is to point out the massive size of the crowd. Some scholars believe the size of the crowd that followed Jesus could be as high as 50,000 people at certain times. Imagine 50,000 people following Jesus without the need for megaphones, microphones, telephones, or social media. Just word of mouth.

I want you to realize that the way this is all written in the Greek is to show that this was an intense, overwhelming scene. You have a crowd so large that Jesus is aware that He may be crushed by them so he has some of the disciples following along the shore line in a boat just incase the crowd gets out of hand as they try so hard to get to Him for the various types of healing they need.

The sick were so desperate to be healed by this Jesus they had heard so much about that they were willing to crush Him just to be touched by Him or brush up against Him, and all the while the demon possessed keep falling prostrate before Him with the demons crying out “You are the Son of God” as the demon possessed are being set free from the demons who possess them.

It would be a chaotic scene to behold!

Now, a little side note here - Did you notice what the demons cried out and what they were acknowledging?

They cried “You are the Son of God” and really they said You are the only begotten unique Son of God.

Do you realize what the demons were saying, or what they were acknowledging?

If they acknowledged that God had a unique (only begotten) Son and that unique Son as we know was operating under the power of the Holy Spirit… Then even the demons understood and acknowledged the triunity of God that we often call the Trinity.

Verses 13-15

Luke tells us that Jesus first went away by Himself to pray all night before choosing the 12, so it is even more interesting that His choosing was after much deliberation and prayer.

called to Him - The idea in the Greek is that they were called to to Him that they might constantly be with Him. Jesus wasn’t calling them for a brief moment or even just for marching orders, but rather with the calling to be Apostles was an invitation for more intimacy with Him, and a deeper reliance upon Him for all that He would send them out to do.

Apostles - Sent out ones, ambassadors

to preach - not merely to communicate something, but weightier than that, the word means - to make a public proclamation with such gravity, formality, and authority as must be heeded.”

He also gave them authority to cast out demons and as some translations have to heal the sick. I like what Wuest says about this...

“ God did not put His supernatural power into the hands of the Twelve to be exercised by them. He delegated to them the authority to cast out demons in the sense that they would speak the word declaring the casting out, and God’s power (dunamis (δυναμις)) would cast out the demon” (Kenneth S. Wuest)

Verses 16-19

Simon whom He named Peter. Jesus gave him the name Peter back in John 1 when He met him...

John 1:42 ESV

42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

Peter - Rock

The idea here is that Peter was the man that he was to become as the Holy Spirit had gotten control of him. That would be a work 50 years in the making.

Peter was… Foot in mouth, ready fire aim, hacking people’s ears off, the one who pridefully told Jesus that while everyone else would forsake Him, he would follow Him even to death, only to deny that he knew Jesus 3 times on the night of Jesus betrayal and arrest. Even after the day of Pentecost he had to be rebuked by Paul in Antioch because he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles. The same guy that Jesus placed the sheet with unclean animals in front of and said rise Peter kill and eat and Peter said “not so Lord”.

Sons of Thunder - These were the guys that in Luke 9 after trying to find a place to stay while traveling through Samaria said to Jesus essentially they refuse to give us any rooms because they know You are just passing through on the way to Jerusalem so let us call down fire from heaven and teach em a lesson! These same 2 brothers will not only argue about sitting at Jesus right hand and at His left, but will even get their mom to come and ask Jesus to let them sit at His right hand and left hand in His kingdom.

James was… The first to be martyred back in Acts 12

John was… The Apostle of love the one who was given the revelation known as Brontophonos still today in the orthodox church meaning “thunder voice”. History says that when John was brought back from Patmos as an old man after living far past all the other Apostles after a failed attempt to martyr him, after receiving the Revelation, they would bring John before the church to address them and he would simply say “children love one another” and begin to weep and they would have to carry him back out.

Andrew was… The guy who brought his brother Simon Peter to meet Jesus back in John 1:41

John 1:41 ESV

41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

Phillip was… The guy who found Nathanael and said “we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph” Phillip was the guys who seems to always be found bringing people to meet Jesus

Bartholomew (Nathanael) was… the guy who said about Jesus “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Matthew was… The tax collector - traitor to his people

Thomas was… the doubter

James the son of Alpheus was...

Thaddeus (aka Judas the son of James) was… the one who asked the question in John 14:22 after Jesus had just made the promise of going to prepare a place for those who believed on Him...

John 14:22 ESV

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Simon the Zealot was… Zealot - Josephus called the Zealots the dagger men. They would carry daggers with them and studied the Roman soldiers to know exactly the right spot where there was a gap in their armor so that when there was a a large crowd they would sneak up and stab them then quickly escape.

Judas Iscariot (the man of Kerioth) was… The one who would betray Jesus

We often think of the Apostles as being holy men, and the certainly became that way eventually, with the exception of Judas Iscariot. But, Jesus did not choose them because of what they were in the moment, but because of what He would make them. You see these were just regular guys with interesting and perhaps questionable pasts. They weren’t holy to begin with, however they were dedicated and committed to Christ and that is what is necessary for becoming holy.

I point that out because sometimes we have this assumption that we need to be more holy to be used by God. Certainly we should desire to be and do our best to follow Jesus as He makes us more holy, but the reality is that God is looking for those who would be dedicated and committed to Christ and the ongoing process of sanctification that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us day by day.

So if you truly want to grow closer to Christ and be used mightily for His kingdom then determine in your heart to dedicate your life to Him and to live a life of surrender and commitment to Him.

Now the 12 were so important to the kingdom that Jesus literally entrusted the work to them after His departure. So faithful to Christ were these men (minus Simon Iscariot) that there names are written on the 12 foundations of the heavenly city the new Jerusalem...

Revelation 21:14 ESV

14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.