The Power of Jesus

DEVOTION

 THE GOSPEL OF MARK

THE POWER OF JESUS

Mark 2:1-5

2:1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 

NIV

Jesus really knows how to gather a crowd. Could it be that the truth will always gather a crowd? Wouldn’t be a blast if all the churches had that kind of attendance? So what is the difference? Why were there so many people following after Jesus and we have so many empty seats in our churches? Of course there are some exceptions to the empty seat syndrome. There are a few extremely dynamic individuals who do gather large crowds in person as well as by the use of various forms of media. But the norm is the empty seat syndrome which gives thought to question the reason. Once again though we have to understand this was Jesus in the flesh, up close and in person. This was Jesus who could be seen and touched. This was Jesus who healed people, drove our demons and taught the truth with authority. Of course he would gather a large, a very large crowd, so large there was no room for more. These four guys had to carry their friend up on the roof to get to Jesus. There is a story right there about how far these four guys were willing to go to bring their friend, for it is doubtful they did that for a stranger, but that is possible too. How far would we be willing to go, or do in order to bring someone to Jesus? Would we be willing to tear a roof apart? Would we be willing to completely change the style of our church in order to bring someone to Jesus? Would we be willing to transform the whole way we do church in order to bring people to Jesus? Maybe if we healed people, drove out a few demons and taught the truth with authority people would come to Jesus in crowds so big there would be no room at the door. Well actually if people were healed by the power of Jesus, and demons were driven out by the power of Jesus, and we taught with authority by the power of Jesus then people would come and fill all those empty seats. So why isn’t that happening? Are there that many churches out there running on human effort instead of the power of Jesus? Have those few extremely dynamic individuals actually found the power of Jesus, and if so why haven’t others, why haven’t we? Jesus is real and alive today able to empower his people to do even greater things than he did, he said so himself. So where is the power of Jesus?