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Daily Devotions

Mark

Mark 
Day 
Day 72

1 Peter 2:20a "For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?"

Day 72 – Mark 3

“For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?”
1 Peter 2:20a

STRAIGHT INTO A CHALLENGING MINISTRY

Jesus took a brief respite when He went up to a mountain to commune with His Father in prayer. Soon after He has chosen the Twelve to be with Him and to minister alongside, He entered again into His busy public ministry.

“Then the multitude came together again,
so that they could not so much as eat bread.”
MARK 3:20

How should we understand this text?

1. Confirmation of the wisdom of appointing apostles

The sheer size of the multitude brought overwhelming pressure.

a) There were just too many people for one person to handle.
b) Jesus refused to do “mass healing”.

2. Contact with the multitude essential

a) Jesus wanted to minister to the multitudes deeply and personally.
b) The Twelve Apostles needed to learn the ropes of ministering to the multitudes the way Jesus did.

3. Constrained by ministry

a) The constraints of ministry were obvious.
b) The streams of people coming to Jesus and the Twelve seemed unending.
i) Let us imagine that Jesus set up another 12 stations.
ii) The Twelve would then be able to minister to the multitudes individually.
iii) The challenges of the ministry must have been daunting, to say the least.
c) No time for a lunch break
i) We can imagine how real this situation was.
ii) There were so many people to minister to, that all the time and energy were directed to meeting the needs of the multitude.