Sermon Notes: Mark 3:7-12

Published April 15, 2026

Mark 3:7-12

Mark’s Big Idea: Jesus is the divine Son of God and the Suffering Servant Messiah who inaugurates the kingdom of God, who atones for sin through his death, burial, and resurrection, and calls his people to a costly discipleship of self-denial and suffering with purpose and joy.

Mark wrote this for non-Christians to be introduced to Jesus so they could have the opportunity to follow Jesus in repentance and faith. Mark’s primary audience is NOT Christians initially. Mark’s first audience is a mix of pagan idolatrous Gentiles, members of the Roman Emperor cult, and Jewish skeptics.

John Mark’s work is styled, ordered, and explicitly put together as a portable and authoritative extension of the apostle’s preaching for the mission field so that non-Christians could hear the good news and respond in faith so that they can find their soul’s satisfaction in Jesus.

Yet, we and nearly two thousand years of Christians in church history have studied Mark for our own discipleship and growth in the faith.

Why? We will never outgrow our need for the foundational reality of Jesus, who he is, and what he came to do. Jesus will always draw people to himself whether in salvation or in the need to get back to home base.

If you have not believed, believe.

If you have strayed, come home.

When the Son of Man is lifted up, he draws people to himself. He draws the non-Christian to bring them to life. Jesus keeps drawing his people to himself to keep all those the Father has given to him as his bride, the church.

All of our growth in the faith and our understanding of his word, connects back to the rock-solid foundation of Jesus, the Son of God.

Remember, one of our key themes is discipleship: Discipleship begins with knowing who I am a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus so we know who we follow. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so disciples are to be with Jesus.

The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father.

Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples. Jesus’ disciples, in the gospels, struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus the Son.

Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness his disciples know him, hear him, and obey him.

So, let’s work on our proximity to Jesus this morning. If you have not believed, consider coming to him. If you have believed the good news, let’s come near to him and see what we can see so that we can grow in our maturity in Christ.

As Paul told the disciples at Colossae: Colossians 1:28-29 (ESV) 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Let’s look at Jesus. Let’s read Mark 3:7-12.

1. Jesus’ fame multiplies because Jesus is the fragrance of life among those who are perishing. V. 7-10

NOTE: If you choose to look at some commentaries, you’ll see a ton of discussion on the literary structures of the author’s accounts. Like, how they structure their historical accounts. It’s valid as the gospel writers each have a unique purpose that shapes the order of their recollections. I see some of it and it is helpful. Frankly, most of what they write about literarily, I don’t see and it confuses me what Jesus is actually doing. So, I’m not going to point out much of that stuff because I don’t find it helpful. If you see cool literary structure things I miss, good. I trust the Holy Spirit to work in your reading and study. Enjoy! It’s all good.

Having said that, some New Testament scholar like folks see a little bit of a parallel between Mark 1:12-13 and Mark 3:7. Jesus is baptized, then is driven to the wilderness to be hit with the temptation of the Serpent Dragon. Now, Jesus journeys back to the sea to take a moment to reset and rest, and he’s met with a crush of people who have healing needs and unclean spirits. It’s like of like Mark gives us a reminder of Jesus identity. He doesn’t want the reader to forget who we are seeing: Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesus is the Son of God who has the Father’s approval. Jesus is in fellowship with and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus has overcome the Accuser (Satan).

Jesus demonstrates that he has overcome Satan, the Serpent Dragon, by his powerful preaching of the word of the kingdom that carries the authority of the Father. Jesus heals those in need of healing. Jesus casts out unclean spirits that demonstrates that he has inaugurated the kingdom of God.

It is clear that Jesus is different.

Jesus is the Son of God, people see it and taste it, and word is traveling far and wide.

John Mark notes the areas that Jesus’ ministry as spread to: Galilee (home base), Judea (south), Jerusalem (religious center and the capital), Idumea (Edom, the outskirts), beyond the Jordan (east), Tyre and Sidon (Gentiles and the dark places of the north).

Jesus’ work has gone viral by word of mouth. Jesus’ work has reached the compass of directions and some spiritual stronghold places.

This crowd has heard about Jesus have tracked him down. They are coming to him with some level of passionate force because Mark uses the word “crush” to describe how they are approaching him.

Verse 9 tells us that Jesus has to have the disciples have a boat ready for him to get in to have some distance from the crowd because they are in danger of crushing him.

When I read how Mark says this, it sounds like this crowd is traveling together in some way, and with one effort, they have found Jesus and all are forcing their way to him.

Why?

Verse 10 tells us that Jesus has healed many people, and he has healed more than John Mark has told us about. Mark simply has not taken the time to tell us about them all. But Jesus has been getting after preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing folks of sickness and demons.

John said, John 21:25 (ESV) 25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Mark has only given us a sample. Jesus has done much more than Mark has recorded, and word has spread, and his image-bearers who are dead in their sins and crushed by the curse of death, are so eager to get to him they are in danger of crushing him.

Jesus, the Son of God is full of life, he is preaching the good news of the kingdom, he is casting out demons, he is healing sickness, he is setting right what the curse of sin has made crooked, and in that glorious display of the glory of God he is drawing people to himself.

2. Jesus is supernaturally opposed. V. 11

According to Kent Hughes, “These filthy spirits would cast the bodies of their victims before Jesus, crying out with unearthly voices, ‘You are the Son of God” in futile attempts to render him powerless. This was in accordance with the ancient belief “that knowledge of the precise name or quality of a person confers mastery over him.’”[1]

It would seem that these evil beings are attempting to keep Jesus from preaching and healing by manipulating their victims to participate in some ugly dark effort to shut the mouth of the Son of God from proclaiming his word and setting people free.

What Mark shares here is hard to look at. These precious image-bearers have somehow been taken over by unclean spirits, and these demons manipulate them to oppose Jesus in some of their low-brow manipulative attempt to render Jesus powerless.

The text reads: “...whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him...” Meaning, the unclean spirit manipulated the body they were inhabiting and made that person fall down, and, I’m sure not gently, and cry out their exclamation.

This is not a pleasant sight. Yet, in their devilish thing, the words they are saying even/ if said in an effort to manipulate Jesus, are factual.

Jesus’ work was opposed. Jesus’ work is still opposed. Until Jesus returns and fully establishes his kingdom, his work in and by his body the church will be opposed.

3. Jesus overcomes opposition. V. 10-12

How?

He prevents the unclean spirits from impeding his work (Mark’s theme of the Messianic secret).

There is no indication here that Jesus releases these folks from the unclean spirits in this instance. We don’t know if he did and Mark does not record what happens to the person or the unclean spirit. Jesus simply orders the unclean spirits to suppress his identity.

Remember, the “messianic secret” is one of John Mark’s themes.

Why would Jesus want these unclean spirits to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?

Paul said it in Ephesians 3.

There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about WHO the seed of the woman is and how the seed of the woman would crush the head of the Serpent Dragon. Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.

In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the Serpent into his trap by his humble ministry and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low. These demons and their over lord don’t know that by his death he tramples over death and the curse, and he also crushes the Serpent’s head.

Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand has been revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation that Jesus preaches: the good news of his kingdom.

This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show us the teams, and the Serpent’s children have been trying to destroy the woman’s descendants (children of the Lion) since God’s declaration of that good news in Genesis 3.

Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection when it will be too late for these minions of the Serpent to do anything about it.

It’s a little bothersome that Mark doesn’t record for us if or how Jesus dealt with these demons in possibly releasing the person from their grip.

We are left to wrestle with that missing detail, and with that missing detail, Mark invites us to follow Jesus and trust him that he will do what is good and right, and be believe that by faith, and by faith become an insider called “to a costly discipleship of self-denial and suffering with purpose and joy.”[2] And we will learn that Jesus gives hope from that faith because of his resurrection.

If I’m a follower of Jesus, will I trust him with the missing details?

Application

1. Follow Jesus but not merely for what he can do for you but because he has compelled you in a call to follow him by faith.

John 2 tells us that many followed Jesus because he turned water into wine and his other signs, but that he did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in their heart (John 2:24-25). Jesus knew they would leave him when the bread, fish, and wine stopped coming (see John 6).

If you have been compelled by Jesus today, don’t come to him because of the potential of any miracle he might do for you or might not do for you. Come to him because if he does nothing but gives you himself and takes your sin, that’s enough. Follow him because he is who he said he is, the eternal Creator Son of God.

Follow him because if he lets me pass on like he lets John the Baptist pass on without rescuing him, it is worth it because I got Jesus.

If you have not believed in Jesus, would you come to him for that good and glorious reason alone?

I invite you to come.

2. If you have followed Jesus, expect opposition from the enemy and those the enemy will employ to hinder God’s work in your own soul and in the work of the kingdom.

If you sign up to follow Jesus, we are going to see that the enemy will no longer just let us slide by. When we sign up with Jesus, we are signing up to take on his enemies both non-human, and human who are agents of the non-human alike in all their various forms whether they are inhabited, harassed by, or ideological parrots of the evil.

Among a multitude of reasons doing the kingdom work of the church is hard is because it is opposed by seen people as instruments of unseen forces.

One of the ways we can persevere and keep our emotional well-being intact is by setting the expectation that it’s going to be hard due to almost continual opposition.

1. Expect opposition.

2. Don’t give in to opposition by refusing to play the opposition’s game. Ignore foolishness (not all opposition has to be responded to), rebuke sin (some things such as sin should be corrected), stay on the highway of holiness (don’t give in to sin).

3. Preach the good news of the kingdom.

4. Heal the chaos with God’s order.

5. Rebuke evil and don’t let demonic spirits have their way. You have authority over them. Just follow the instructions Jesus gave in the Manual. If you don’t believe what Jesus said, go back to application 1, and believe the good news and let’s start at the beginning.

6. Don’t play into the chaos of drama created out of the chaos of the fall. There are some whose poor central nervous systems can’t handle peace and rest because they were raised in chaos and chaos makes them comfortable, so drama follows them like pigpen’s cloud of dust. They delight in drama.

Appendix

1. Discipleship

Discipleship begins with knowing who one is a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus and identify him for us. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so the disciples are to be with Jesus.

The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father.

Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples. Jesus’ disciples struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father also sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus.

Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness knowing him, hearing him, and obeying him.

2. Faith

“For Mark, faith and discipleship have no meaning apart from following the Son of God. Faith is thus not a magical formula but depends on repeated hearing of his word and participation in his mission.”[3]

There are two groups: Those with great faith and those who are faithless.

There are those who show great faith who have no reason to show faith in Jesus. They are on the outside of Jesus’ circle and seem to have no advantage, yet they display great faith. These folks have an assurance of things hoped for and conviction about unseen things hoped for. They display their faith in their deep desire and effort to get to Jesus for help.

The faithless and those struggling with faith should have the advantage: his hometown, the religious insiders who are supposed to be the theological experts, and even his own disciples.

These folks struggle to take Jesus at his word. This group is full skeptics, blasphemers, and those who are slow to believe.

3. Insiders and outsiders

The theme of insiders and outsiders distinguishes those who are enemies of God and those who are not.

Jesus will tell us that he teaches in parables because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are for the insiders and the parables keep the outsiders from understanding. That’s a little hard to swallow, but it is what Jesus says.

This theme will uncover the bias of those who think they are insiders based on their status and are not. This theme puts the last first and first last.

The insiders are those who live by faith and begin to understand Jesus’ teaching.

The outsiders are the faithless.

The problem is that the faithless and outsiders of the kingdom of God are in power and are the ones who are believed to have the answers and should be insiders.

The outsiders are enemies of God. The insiders are those who have been cast out due to the deceived nature of the faithless who think they are faithful.

That feels confusing, but it becomes clear as you walk through Mark’s gospel, and it should cause each one of us to take account of ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure we are not self-deceived and perceived insider who is actually an outsider because we are an elite and faithless hack.

4. Gentiles

The emphasis on Jesus working in the North parts of Israel among the Gentiles and close to Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy portions shows us the Lord’s intent on reclaiming the nations and conquering the land and people taken captive by the forces of darkness.

The emphasis you will find in the prophets on the north is important, and it’s a theme for a whole Bible exposition not for a study through Mark alone. But Mark picks up on it because it is geographically significant in the prophets, and Jesus actually works from the north of Israel.

The point is that it is Gentile, unbeliever territory.

Jesus’ work in Israel was not for them to have him to themselves, but to redeem and invite them to mission with him to rescue the Gentiles taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.

5. Messianic secret

Mark is full of Jesus telling folks he heals to keep it quiet, and they usually don’t do it.

Why would Jesus want folks to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?

Paul said it in Ephesians 3, and we read it last week.

There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the seed of the woman is and how the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent dragon. Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.

In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into his trap by his humble ministry and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low not realizing that by his death he tramples over death, the curse, and crushes the Serpent’s noggin.

We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation.

This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show usthe teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s declaration.

Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection.

6. Focused journey

After Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah (8:27ff), Jesus sets out with focus to the cross, and Mark captures Jesus’ journey very starkly. Jesus’ focused journey to the cross becomes his invitation to us to join in the focused journey of being with him on mission as the way of the cross.

7. Immediately

Mark uses the Greek word “euthus”, translated as “immediately”, in his account of Jesus’s work. I believe that the entire New Testament uses this word about 51 times. John Mark uses “immediately” 41 of the 51 times, thus making John Mark the predominant user.

What is Mark communicating?

“Euthus” means “to make straight” regarding physical things. “Euthus” is also used regarding immaterial things like the heart of a matter, and when applied to things like that it means “right” and “true”. Its synonyms are firm, unwavering, and ready.

The Greek word as Mark uses it is not so much about time. We hear “immediately” and think

being in a hurry. Jesus was not in a hurry.

Mark is telling us that Jesus was walking in the unwavering and always straight way of truth. Jesus was deliberate about the mission.

Jesus’ way is deliberate not hurried.

[1] R. Kent Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, vol. 1, Preaching the Word (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), 83.

[2] Quoted from our “big idea” on page 1.

[3] 1 James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 17.