Colossal Crowds!

For Tuesday, March 10, 2026:

Matthew 4:25 NLT: “Large crowds followed Jesus wherever he went—people from Galilee, Decapolis (10 towns), Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.”

"Hear ye, hear ye! The Great Healer is coming to your town! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! You don’t want to miss this. Jesus Christ, in the flesh! Be there, or be left behind! Tickets available at OneNation.com.”

OK, I wrote a radio commercial for the next Jesus event. Of course they didn’t have radio back then, so this is all the result of my fertile imagination! Word-of-mouth got the job done as well as any radio station might have.

"Large crowds followed Jesus.” Imagine large crowds, much larger than you think. The Apostles were present, but also disciples, hundreds of loyal believers who showed up every time. They just weren’t part of the original 12. They were 100% convinced that Jesus was the heaven-sent Messiah. They didn’t want to miss a single word. Soon, they’d start inviting family and friends to come with them. And before you knew it, the crowd of hundreds had become thousands.

All four Gospels report the miracle of Jesus feeding 5K men, not counting women or children. But most of the men were married, so the number becomes 10K. Let’s assume families had at least two children, so now our number is 20K, quite a significant number of people traveling with Jesus. I’m glad I wasn’t in charge of logistics!

When Jesus heard that John the Baptist was dead, he wanted to be alone, so he got on a boat and headed across the lake. There was no GPS, so nautical navigation was to remain close enough to visualize the shoreline while staying far enough away to be in deep water. The disadvantage was that not only could those on board follow the coastline, but those still on the shore could easily follow the boat. So as Jesus sailed up the coast, the crowd could simply follow on land. There was no escape from the throng, at least not for very long!

Eventually, Jesus fed the 20K with five fish and two barley loaves, but that’s a different message. Today’s lesson speaks of the colossal crowd following Jesus. The key was that core believers shared the Good News with their families and friends. They invited others to join.

A friend of mine was recently voted in as pastor of a hundred-year-old church. They attract only about 60 people each week. I hope he can positively alter their trajectory. Only 60 people in 100 years? Jesus had 20K in attendance, and he preached for only three years!

See you at church! Bring your friends!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

The Father’s House

Truth and Freedom Church

Walk On Water!

For Saturday, January 20, 2024:

Mark 6:48b NLT “About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.”

The Sea of Galilee, 64 sq. miles of Jordan river water between the Golan Heights and Galilee, is the lowest freshwater lake on earth. It sits in the valley where the African continent touches the Arabian countries. Therefore the lake is known for earthquakes, volcanic activity and generally bad weather. So it’s not surprising that a storm would come up as the disciples were returning to Bethsaida.

From the shore, Jesus could see that they were in trouble. So he walked out to take a look – walking ON the water! Those in the boat were frightened, thinking they had seen a ghost! But Jesus comforted them. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!”

As Jesus stepped into the boat, the storm subsided and the travelers continued safely to the other shore. Everything that had happened in the last couple of days was a lot for the disciples to take in. Much of it they didn’t yet understand: the huge crowd assembling to hear Jesus; the feeding of thousands from five little barley loaves and a couple of fish; Jesus apparently being able to control the weather – and now walking on water! How does he do that? When time allowed, the disciples would have a lot of questions for the Master!

Each of us should have a lot of questions for the Master! Some answers we can get from the Bible, or from a good Bible teacher. We need to know the answers so that as we’re leading others to Jesus, we can answer their questions!

We accept a few things simply through faith. Perhaps all will be explained when we reach heaven – or maybe not! That’s OK. When all of our travelers reached the opposite shore and disembarked, word of Jesus’ arrival spread like wildfire! If the sick could just touch the hem of his garment, they were fully healed. We don’t really need to know HOW he did it; just that it happened – predictably and repeatedly!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship