How Jesus Attracted People

Author: Michael Gott

Mark 1:33-38

The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." (NIV)

Just four verses in the first chapter of Mark convince us and illustrate to us how Jesus effectively attracted people.

Look at verse 28, "News about him spread quickly over the whole region..."

Look at verse 33, "The whole town gathered at the door ..."

In verse 37 Peter informed Him, "Everyone is looking for you!"

And, finally, as the chapter ends, in verse 45 "Jesus could no longer enter a town openly ... Yet the people still came to him from everywhere."

So there is no doubt Jesus attracted people by the hundreds and the thousands and to this day still does.

So consider the latter then consider this; Jesus Christ continues to attract people. At no time in human history have more people claimed to be His followers - how do you explain that? Two thousand years have passed, but Jesus continues to attract people by the millions. In fact, some 1.5 billion people who live today call Jesus their Savior.

I know this, that Jesus was magnetic, and like a magnet attracting metal particles He attracted people of all walks of life, and when we don’t - something is wrong with our approach! I know this; people might have been offended by Him (and many were), but no one called Him boring, and everyone had to admit, "There is something unique about Him." I believe the greatest miracle of Jesus was His ability to attract all kinds of people to Himself.

I know this, who He was and what He said was so startling that it stopped people in their tracks and challenged them to make up their minds about Him. What was it about Jesus that attracted people to come to Him? We need to answer that question.

So with all these verses in mind - imagine for a moment what would happen if we were that effective in our evangelism. Just think - if we had the same magnetism and the ability to attract people to hear His gospel - what would happen for the kingdom of God as a result?

So the burning question before us is this - how did He do it? And here I am convinced it’s not a matter of some novel methods but rather powerful principles that we can also employ. What was His secret, and what is there we can learn?

Let’s take a step back before we go on.

I. HE DID IT BY DOING SOMETHING PERSONAL

That is, He really loved the people. The common people sensed His love for them. He reached out to them and ate with them and became their friend and built a relationship of friendship into their lives. He loved them!

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)

Love for the unlovely, he showed that love at every turn:

• be it for the rich nobleman who was trapped by his wealth.
• be it for the beggar by the roadside crying out for His help.
• be it for the tax collecting thief or the swindlers or the prostitutes.

He really loved the outsider like the hated Samaritans.

He really loved the helpless, the blind, the forgotten children, and the weeping mother. - They all sensed it!

He loved His enemies and cried out,

"Father, forgive them," as they drove nails into His hands and feet on the cross. (Luke 23:34)

Everybody sensed love from Jesus, and Jesus said,

"This is how everyone will be able to tell that you are my followers ..." (John 13:35).

So, love is the mark of being His true follower.

He was always the approachable and loving friend to sinners. In fact, that’s what they said about Him.

When the teachers of the law ... saw him eating with the ‘sinners’ ... they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with 'sinners'?’... (Mark 2:16, NIV)

and

... This man welcomes sinners ... (Luke 15:2, NIV)

So let it be said again for emphasis - He especially reached out to the lost and the lonely and to those considered hopeless. He is the perfect example of how to love people without loving what they do. People really knew in their hearts that Jesus loved them.

He never compromised His standard of purity and holiness - but He came into contact with people sometimes described as having "seven devils," and that may be symbolic language, for the number seven is the number of completion, so was that a way of saying there was nothing they had not done? Yet He loved those kinds of people and reached out to them!

In the book of Acts there was a testimony about Jesus. It says,

You know the ... good news ... how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good ... (Acts 10:36-38, NIV)

Now, it was not just that Jesus did acts of service - one can do that for dubious reasons. The Jews have an old proverb, "He who gives the appearance of humility is half proud." So even good works done for questionable reasons .. are not authentic.

So Jesus had this pure heart of love. He had the spirit of servanthood, which He expressed when He claimed, "I am among you as he that serves." Jesus expressed compassion, sympathy, and understanding with the weak and erring. Failing men and women are often crushed under their own self-condemnation. Jesus was touched by human frailty - He fully identified Himself with the weakness of our humanity. So look at Him in verse 41, "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man [a leper] ..."

And in Peter’s house He went to Peter’s mother-in-law. "So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her ..." (verse 31) That’s Jesus! He "went," He "took," and He "helped" - and the bad "left her ..."

We find Him thirsty but not too thirsty to talk with a fallen woman about the water of life. We find Him weeping at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, in sympathy with his sisters. We find Him touching the eyes of a blind man and giving him sight. We find Him reaching out to touch a leper and turning his flesh to that of a newborn. He did something personal - for them.

People feel the impersonal in our culture. We get so much in our in-box or postal box that shows us "They don’t know me personally." So a TV personality said, "I would rather get an old used refrigerator dropped off in my driveway by someone saying, ‘Do you need this?’ than another cold e-mail with no feeling in the message."

Today, do people sense that from us? Spurgeon, the great preacher, is an example. He preached on Sunday to crowds of more than six to seven thousand, yet a little girl said to her mother, after hearing him preach several times, "Mommy, why does Mr. Spurgeon always speak just to me?" People need to feel that.

Compassion, mercy, and loving the unlovely. Just for me! People can sense if we really care. It’s one thing to want a crowd; it’s another thing to love people with the heart of Jesus. It’s one thing to love people because they benefit us; it’s another thing to benefit people because we love them! People could always say about Jesus, "He touched me! Me!"

So He expressed something personal, and then He exhibited something practical.

II. HE DID IT BY SHOWING SOMETHING PRACTICAL

That is, He met their needs. If their bodies were sick, He healed them! If their stomachs were empty, He fed them! If their hopes were shattered, He inspired them! If their lives were full of dark demons, He drove the demons out and freed them.

Mark 1:34 illustrates it - "and Jesus healed many who had ... diseases. He also drove out many demons ..."

Jesus met people at the point of their need. He saw them, and the Bible says He understood their heart-cry and He addressed it. His attitude was "What can I do for you? How can I help you? How can I meet your need?" The people sensed that from Him - they knew He cared and proved it by doing something practical. He took the fever from the body of Peter’s mother-in-law, and He took paralysis from the body of the man who lay before Him.

He did more than speak of heaven by and by - He addressed the real world with hunger and hurts, paralysis and pain here and now!

He set people free! He stilled storms! He fed thousands! - He was concerned about the world people lived in then and there - He met their real needs. And we must do that too!

Practical acts of mercy was the door He entered to reach their souls. So we say often, "They don’t care what we believe until they believe we care!" - People don’t need just to hear good news - they also need to see good works! Good works opens the door for good news!

A living faith and loving works are like the light and heat of a fire; they simply cannot be separated. True faith will produce from our lives practical acts of mercy. We see that constantly in Jesus. There is a vertical dimension which is our relationship with God, but it can never be divorced from the horizontal dimension which is our relationship with others.

Our example is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who was concerned and then did something practical. When we are indifferent to that, we are out of step with God.

He forgave sin, He fed the hungry, and He healed the sick. We must be concerned with human suffering, wherever it is found, because God is concerned about it. We must be concerned for those whose lives are scarred by the heartbreaks of life: divorce, betrayals, and abandonment.

Paul Tournier was a Baptist who lived in Geneva. He was a world renown psychiatrist, and he wrote a book called A Place for You based on Jesus’ words "I go to prepare a place for you." Dr. Tournier said those were the most comforting and compelling words of Jesus - for everyone longs for "a place." He said, "At the bottom, we all are always seeking a place." He said until the church effectively says that to people, we will never reach them! Let’s tell people - we have a place for you!

And we must ask, what practical acts can we do to demonstrate the God we serve?

III. HE DID IT BY PROCLAIMING SOMETHING POWERFUL

Jesus then plainly and powerfully explained to people that what they really needed was an encounter with God. He didn’t stop with this world. He explained that there was a world eternal. He said, "Lay up treasures in heaven ..."

Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

So the kingdom of God lies at the very heart of what Jesus had to say. The kingdom of God begins in the human heart, but it lasts for all eternity, and He insists that we must not miss it at any price. Nothing was more powerful to these forgotten people than saying, "God has not forgotten you. And He has special plans for your life. And for that reason I go to prepare a place for you." He powerfully proved that this was the dressing room for eternity.

In verse 38 Jesus said, "Let’s go to the nearby villages." Why? "so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." Jesus knew they needed to hear the good news.

So He called people to make a response here and now. And it’s important to see that when He spoke of "entering the kingdom of God," He then called them to Himself. The one condition was always "Come, follow me." He made it clear - He equated entering the kingdom of God with becoming His follower.

Jesus attracted people by telling the gospel, the good news of God.

...Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God ... he said. " ... Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:14-15, NIV)

Jesus said to Peter, "Let us go somewhere else ... to the nearby villages ... so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching ... (Mark 1:38-39, NIV)

Paul said, "... I am so eager to preach the gospel - I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes ..." (Romans 1:15-16, NIV)

Now I cannot explain it - but I know when the good news of God is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, lives are changed.

Paul said, "When I came to you ... My message and my preaching were not with ... persuasive words [of wisdom], but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power" (I Corinthians 2:1, 4; NIV)

Jesus made it clear beyond question that our eternal destinies hang on our decision. He said we could be safe with God or in eternal danger without Him. He said you must choose. Decision is urgent, says Jesus, and the time is now. Plainly and powerfully, He said that to everyone.

So His secret was:

• He loved personally,
• He acted practically, and then
• He preached powerfully.

Let’s do the same!