Mark 3:7-12

WONDERFUL FAME OF JESUS

He has again reached the sea of Galilee, so exceedingly conspicuous in His ministry. I spent two bright autumnal days sailing over this sea, so delighted to traverse, drink, and bathe in those waters where my Lord moved hither and thither, drinking and washing in the same. We sail completely around that sea, stopping at many of the noted historic places.

Mark 3:7-12 : “And Jesus departed, with His disciples, to the sea, and a great multitude followed Him from Galilee, from Judea, from Jerusalem, from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and those about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing how many things He was doing, came unto Him.” We see here that not only Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem, all the Jewish countries, are pell-mell on His track, but the tawny sons of Esau are here from Idumea, away out toward sunrise; the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the tribes of Arabia are also on His track; while from the west, reaching out to the great sea, the multitudes of old Tyre and Sidon are thronging around Him. He made no appointments, they had no mail facilities, locomotives, or telegraphs; yet his fame has gone to the ends of the earth.

“And He said to His disciples that a small ship may wait on Him, on account of the crowd, in order that they may not throng Him. For He healed many, so that they are falling on Him, that He may touch them, so many as had diseases.” He avails Himself of this opportunity to preach the gospel to this vast multitude. The sea of Galilee is seven hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and, as a natural consequence, surrounded by highlands. You see how a man in a boat near the shore, with the people on elevated ground in front, would enjoy a good opportunity to address them.

“And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried out, saying, Thou art the Son of God. He rebuked them much, that they may not make Him known.” These lecherous, impure, and brutal demons, rendering their poor victims debauchees and harlots, had once been spotless and bright, shining among the unfallen angels; as God never created an unclean spirit, they were victims of their own apostasy (Isaiah 14:12, and Jude 1:6); having in bygone ages gazed upon the ineffable glory of Jesus, now recognizing Him, they spontaneously confess Him before the multitude. Why did He forbid them? You must remember He did not openly avow His Christhood among the Jews until about one year subsequently to this date, as such an avowal would have precipitated His regal coronation, plunged the country into a bloody war, and expedited His own death prematurely. During the first two years of His ministry, He turns on the people a floodtide of truth appertaining to His Messiahship, gloriously corroborated by His incontestable miracles, preferring that the truth He preached and the mighty works He wrought should proclaim His Christhood; at the same time, in Gentile countries, such as Samaria and Gadara, He unequivocally proclaimed His Christhood, as there was no liability of their Crowning Him King.