Many Follow, But Not Many Followers

.Mark 3:7-But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea

8-and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him.

There was two groups of people.

1-His disciples

2-The crowd, or multitude.

The disciples was following Him to learn from Him, to be like Him, to make a difference in the world.

The crowd on the other hand is following Him for what they can get out of Him, to use Him to meet their physical needs.

John 2:23-Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

24-But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,

25-and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. (NKJV)

John 2:23-Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.

24-But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature.

25-No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like. (NLT)

Big crowds can be deceiving, big crowd at restaurant doesn't mean it has good food, a new church starts, or a church gets a new pastor, big crowd for awile but then dwindles down.

Most of us have heard of Babe Ruth, but have you ever heard of Babe Pinelli? Pinelli was an umpire in Major League Baseball who once called The Great Bambino (Ruth) out on strikes. When the crowd began booing in disapproval of the call, Babe turned to the umpire and said “There’s 40,000 people here who know that the last pitch was a ball.”

The coaches and players braced for a swift ejection, but instead, Pinelli responded coolly, “Maybe so, Babe, but mine is the only opinion that counts.” In life it’s easy to get caught up in the opinions of others, but in the end, it’s not our scoffers or critics by whom we will be judged, only God.

Big crowds are finicky, one minute someone is the best thing since blue bell and in the next minute they are devil in the flesh.

(Crowd worshipping Jesus as enters Jerusalem and a short time later, a crowd crying crucify him.)

So which Is Jesus more interested in a big crowd or a hand full disciple?

Both groups have flaws, both groups have sins, but one one group is following Jesus with their heart!

You notice that people are coming from every direction to see Him, with every kind of problem, which lets us know that people may be from different areas, and have different backgounds, with different needs, but they all have one thing in common they needed the Lord.

9-So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him.

10-For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.

As important as meeting the needs of physical needs of people, more important was to preach the gospel, to share God's word with people.

How to have a relationship with God, how to life your life, and how to treat your neighbor.

11-And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God.”

12-But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.

While everone else is trying to figure out who Jesus is. (Remember Jesus asking the question, "Who do men say that I am?")

Jesus doesn't need the validation of the demons.

He doesn’t need the validation of us either, it is a privilege and honor to praise Him, to worship Him!

The demons was told to be quite about proclaiming who He is, and yet the sad part is we are too quite about telling people who He is!!