Mark 4:1 (NKJV): 4 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
The genius of our Lord's perseverance to preach the gospel despite the disobedience of some that created problems and obstacles (the leper who was healed in chapter one), should not be overlooked. Jesus here takes advantage of the amphitheatre created by the hills of the shoreline by making Himself a pulpit out of a boat. In this place He maximizes His effectiveness in delivering the message. For those that study the methodology of Jesus' ministry, many miss something I believe is essential and timeless: the teaching and preaching ministry of His time was conducted primarily in the synagogues of the towns surrounding Galilee, and the temple in Jerusalem. But this is not where Jesus is found. Yes people flocked to where they knew He would be, but He made sure that He was where they would be looking. In other words, these people would not readily be accepted in the synagogues, so Jesus met them where they lived. How different this is, still in this day and age, where we have had two thousand plus years to study and figure out what Jesus was doing. It's as though we have learned nothing. We build our synagogues (church buildings), and taylor out services for a certain crowd, and expect them to come in and be saved. We never consider that there are people who will never be accepted or who don't feel accepted in our "synagogues". Even the churches that target certain groups leave others out. Jesus gave us an example to follow, by going out to where the people are. We must take the message to the people, whether they are in homes, at work, by the sea, etc.