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When God Started Drawing Crowds
Brian Mashburn
February 15, 2015
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When God Started Drawing Crowds
As we continue our walk with God when he was the man Jesus, we literally must now begin to walk. Having begun his public preaching in the synagogues, he becomes unwelcome there by the teachers of the law, even while he was attracting crowds out on the highways and byways.
Jesus leaves the synagogues and goes for the people.
The narrative shows that a battle-line has been drawn: Kingdom vs. Religion; "grace and truth" vs. law; forgiveness vs. judgment; humility vs. position; fulfillment of scripture vs. the letter of scripture; the power of goodness vs. the power of tradition; love vs. lineage. In short, it was now Jesus vs. the Pharisees.
Section 60 in your Harmony of the Gospels establishes that Jesus was on tour with his Twelve men and a cohort of women. Section 61-62 shows the Pharisees explaining Jesus' obvious power by accusing him of being sent by Satan, to which Jesus responds, "Let us judge a tree by the fruit it produces to judge what is good and what is evil between you and I." (My summary).
In section 63, when Jesus' blood relatives are scared for him and try to stop him, Jesus declares that "spirit" is thicker than "blood" by declaring his real family are those who "hear God's word and put it into practice."
As Jesus tours, section 64 shows that he speaks in parables, declaring the power of the word, and explaining what the Kingdom is like.
Then after a few more sections of miraculous demonstrations of God's power followed by more accusations of the Pharisees, the crowds grow to a breaking point. Jesus needs more workers.
He tells his followers, and you, to pray for more workers, and to become the answer to those prayers.