Mark 2:1,2 - Preaching the word to them

2:1,2

Jesus eventually returned to Capernaum, and people quickly heard about this. The house would have room for at most fifty people. The house itself and the immediate area was full of people. “And He preached the word to them.” Note again the stress that is laid upon Jesus preaching the word. All the gospel writers do this, and Acts and the letters all place emphasis on the word of God. It is especially noteworthy that Mark does. His gospel could be called the action gospel, with space being devoted to the actions of Jesus, with limited reporting of Jesus’ actual teaching. Yet again and again we see that Jesus (and Mark) considered the preaching and teaching to be central to Jesus’ ministry. It is so important that we appreciate this, for there are so many attacks on preaching of the word. Sometimes this is direct in terms of direct persecution in some countries. Even in the west there are threats to freedom of speech. But there are also subtle attacks on preaching from within the church itself. There can be attempts to downgrade the sermon, either in terms of the time devoted to it, or its content. We should remember that God created the whole universe by His word (God said ... and there was ...). So if we imagine that the kingdom is going to grow by any means other than through the word of God we are fools.