Message preached Sunday, September 28, 2014 from Mark 1:29-39
Theme: When we know the Father’s good purpose for us, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from it—even by other good things.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning’s passage from the Gospel of Mark is an unusual one. It could easily be made into two sermons. In fact, at first glance, that would seem like the natural way to go. But I believe it is best to bring the two messages together into one.
Now; let me tell you what it would have been like if I had preached two sermons instead of the one hope to preach today. The first Sunday, I would have given you a message that would have to do with the power of our Lord Jesus. The first half of this morning’s passage tells the story of the marvelous way He cared for people and met their needs. In fact, it tells us of how He became overwhelmingly busy in His care for the people around Him, but He met the needs of everyone who came to Him. By the end of that first message, we would have found that His fame was spreading, and that everyone was seeking Him. And on the next Sunday, I would preach a second message from the second half of this morning’s passage. That one would have to do with the priority that our Lord gave to the call of the Father for Him. At the end of that second message, we would have found the Lord declaring that He must do what it was that the Father had sent Him into the world to do.
I think they both would be good messages on their own. But in spending time with this passage, I have come to believe that the display of His power in caring for the needs of people is what led to the decision He made regarding the Father’s priority for Him. And when we put these two potentially distinct messages together, we discover that something wonderful is being revealed to us about our Lord Jesus; and also that an important spiritual principle is being taught to us by His example.
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So; let me begin by telling you about the first half of this passage—the part that would have made up the first message. It’s found in Mark 1:29-34. In it, Mark tells us;
Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them. At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him (Mark 1:29-34).
I love that portion of this passage. It tells us about the greatness of the power of our Lord to heal the sickness of people, and of how He met their needs as He walked upon this earth. And what’s more, it tells us about how willing He was do to so. Our Lord is a very compassionate and merciful and sacrificial Servant to people—and was demonstrated to be so at the very beginning of His earthly ministry.
This story begins where the previous one left off. Do you notice how Mark begins in verse 29 by saying, “Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue”? The “they” that is being spoken of is Jesus, along with His newly-appointed disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John. And the synagogue they had just left was the one that is told about in verses 21-28—the synagogue in the city of Capernaum, where the Lord Jesus had just cast an unclean spirit out of a man right in the middle of the synagogue service. That event had created quite a stir; and the word about Him began to spread immediately throughout the regions of Galilee. “This is a man,” everyone was saying, “who is able to command unclean spirits; and they shriek in fear of Him and do what He tells them to do! What new kind of teaching do you suppose this is that He is bringing to us?”
Well; while the news about Him was already beginning to spread, we’re told that Jesus and His small band of followers went together right from out of the synagogue, and into the home of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. Way back in the early part of the Gospel of John, we’re told that Peter and Andrew were living in in the city of Bethsaida when they first met Jesus—up on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. But it must be that, after Jesus called them and after they had left their fishing business behind and became His followers, that they moved to a home in Capernaum—where much of Jesus’ earthly ministry would be based. Perhaps it was a home that had belonged to Peter’s mother-in-law; and they all went there in order to enjoy a nice, relaxing after-synagogue meal together. We know from elsewhere in the Bible that Peter had a wife; and so, I’m also supposing that she and here mother were probably very gracious hosts. And I’m willing to bet that they ate a lot of seafood!
But there was a problem. When they got there, they found that the mother of Peter’s wife was sick. The word that is used to describe her illness is one that comes from the Greek word for ‘burning’. She was running a bad fever. And it must have been something serious; because we’re told that the dear woman was laying in bed because of it—unable to come and greet the guests; and unable even to come and meet Jesus.
I like what we’re told in verse 30; that “they told Him about her at once”. As soon as they arrived, it may be that Peter’s wife told Peter about her serious condition; and she and Peter told Jesus. If I was laying in a bed as sick as that, and Jesus came to visit, I’d sure want some dear friends to love me enough to tell Jesus about me ‘at once’! And look at what Jesus does! In verse 31, we’re told, “So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.” I think it’s interesting how Mark describes this. He doesn’t say that Jesus first healed her and then lifted her up; but rather that He clasped her by the hand (in what the original language describes as a strong manner), and raised her up, and that then the fever left her! As she was on her way up, the fever was on its way out! There was apparently no ‘recovery time’ required—no need for her to lay on the bed for a while and regain her strength. She was immediately up and immediately well! How powerful our Lord is to heal!
And look at how remarkably well she ‘immediately’ was! We’re told, “And she served them”! She got right up with great joy, and was very soon in the kitchen preparing the meal! I’ll bet it was a good meal, too! There’s a lesson in all that. When the Lord Jesus does something for us—and we have a clear sense of how good He has been to us—we want to serve Him, and also serve those who also love Him. I think that demonstrates the greatest reason of all to be in the Lord’s service; and that is, because we are thankful and grateful for what He has done for us.
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And then look at what happened. In verse 32, we’re told “At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.” Word had apparently spread—not only about Jesus’ authority over evil spirits, but also about His power to heal; and all were coming to Him. Mark is careful to tell us that this happened “at evening”. It had been the Sabbath day, after all—when everyone was to rest from their work. The tremendous amount of work that our Lord did for all these people would have been against the law of Moses to have been done on the Sabbath. But as soon as the Sabbath day had ended—at around 6 pm in the evening—they came; and He gave Himself entirely to the service of all these needy people. That’s how our Lord worked. Even in doing good to people, He honored and obeyed the Father’s commandments.
Mark tells us in verse 33 that “the whole city was gathered at the door”. Peter and Andrew would probably never have forgot the sight of it all for as long as they lived!–the whole city of Capernaum gathered at their doorstep! And just think of the character of the crowd that they saw gathering! There might have been people carrying their friends on pallets to be healed. There might have been a little girl leading her blind grandfather by the hand to Jesus. There might have been people staggering to Him on staffs and crutches. There might have been fathers carrying their sick child tenderly in their arms. Perhaps there were even some that could do no more than crawl to Him.
And Mark says that “He healed many who were sick with various diseases . . .” (v. 34). That doesn’t mean, of course, that He could only heal “many” but not all; because in Luke’s account of this story, we’re told that He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them. Rather, I take it to mean that there was a great variety of different sicknesses and illnesses that the many people brought to Him; and there wasn’t any of all the different kinds that He could not heal. There were diseases of the body, and He certainly healed them; but there may also have been diseases of the mind and of the emotions, and He healed them as well. No one was turned away—no matter what the need. He didn’t tell anyone that He couldn’t help them. Everyone who came to Jesus was made well by Him.
Mark also tells us that He also “cast out many demons”; just as He had done for the man in the synagogue. In telling us this, Mark is making a difference between demonic possession and physical illness. Some people today try to dismiss the realities of the spiritual realms by saying that people were just mentally sick in some way—and that the ignorant and unsophisticated people of that day only thought that it was because of demons. But Mark makes a clear distinction between Jesus healing of people’s illnesses on the one hand, and setting of them free from unclean spirits on the other.
This is made even clearer by the fact that we’re told, “He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him” (v. 34). Just as Jesus had prohibited the demon in the man in the synagogue from crying out that Jesus was the Son of God, so He wouldn’t let any of these other demonic spirits speak either. Some have suggested that those demons were trying to so draw people’s attention to Jesus’ divine identity in order to persuade them to impede Him from dying on the cross. Others have suggest that He would not permit demons to speak of Him because He didn’t want them to be in any way associated with the proclamation of Him to the world. In any case, He didn’t permit these unclean spirits to speak, but cast them out of each person that was oppressed by them. Jesus healed all who came to Him—those who were sick, and those who were demon-possessed.
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And wouldn’t that make a wonderful sermon all it’s own? I believe we could talk all day today about the wonders of our Lord as a merciful and compassionate Healer, who graciously and willingly met the needs of all the people that came to Him.
And in fact, let’s be sure to at least talk about it and think about it a little. Isn’t it wonderful, dear brothers and sisters, that He has given us this promise?
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
Why is it that He doesn’t take every illness away from us today? Why does He allow some of us to suffer—even when we come to Him and ask? I know, of course, that He can; but I’m afraid I don’t know why He doesn’t. Perhaps He did so in Capernaum on that particular evening in order to show us who He is and what He can do. And now, knowing who He is and what He can do, we need to trust Him to do what is right with respect to our needs and trust Him in our times of suffering. Perhaps He healed the sick and the demon oppressed in a very visible way, only in order to show us that He is able to meet our greatest need of all—the need that isn’t so visible to the human eye—the need for the complete forgiveness of our sins. He definitely washes clean everyone who comes to Him.
I don’t know why He doesn’t heal everyone who asks today—just as He did on that day long ago. But I do believe that—whatever our need may be—we will always find relief in Him every time we go to Him. He will never turn anyone away who sincerely comes to Him for help. He will even give strength for the times of suffering.
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But that’s just the first half of this morning’s passage. That’s only the first sermon that could be preached—a sermon about how Jesus is a compassionate Savior who gladly meets the needs of everyone who comes to Him. There’s another half; and I think it becomes even more meaningful when we see it in the light of the first one.
Mark goes on to tell us in verses 35-39—after all His work of welcoming the multitudes of people who came to Him, and of meeting their needs;
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.” And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons (vv. 35-39).
Look at this passage with me in greater detail. It had been a remarkably busy day. But we’re told that very, very early in the morning—when it was still dark; perhaps three or four in the morning, at a time when everyone else was asleep—Jesus had risen up from His resting place in Peter’s and Andrew’s house, and had departed to a solitary place, and talked with His Father for a while.
And what a lesson that much alone is! Jesus—who had just demonstrated that He is the Son of God with great authority and power—felt the need to get away and pray. I don’t mean to sound harsh; but there are an awful lot of us who are Christians that don’t think we need to take much time out to pray at all—let alone in a way that might cost us time, or effort, or discomfort! If you feel convicted by that, just know that I do to. But if the Son of God needed to do so as He ministered on this earth, then don’t you think that we need to do so even more? Notice that we’re told that He went away to a “solitary” or “desolate” place. Since they were staying in the city of Capernaum, this might have taken some effort! And He went to a solitary place in order to be completely alone with the Father—without distractions, and without the needs of other people pressing in on Him. When was the last time you or I went far away—far from anyone else; far from the demands of everyday life; and for no other reason than to pray to the Father and just pour our hearts out to Him for a while? It’s about time, isn’t it?
Now; what do you suppose that Jesus was praying about? I am doing a little speculating here; but I suspect that He might have been praying to the Father about the busy day He had just had—the amazing encounter with the demon-possessed man in the synagogue, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and the long evening of healing the many needs of the people that came to Him. I believe that the Lord Jesus didn’t just do things—that He was never simply busy for the sake of being busy. He did all that He did with great intentionality, and always sought the Father’s will in His work. In John 5:30, Jesus made it clear that He did not seek to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. So; I believe that Jesus went away to pray about the busy day He had just had, and ask what the Father’s will was in it all. I think He has left us a great example in doing that. I’m trying to learn to do that more. I want to pray before I act—seeking the Father’s will; and then praying after—that the Father would bless what was done and lead me to the next task.
I believe I am right in my speculation—that Jesus was praying about the Father’s will with respect to the tasks of the day—because of what happened next. We’re told that the time of solitude didn’t last for long because, in verse 36, Peter and the others with him went out to look for Jesus. Perhaps there were still great crowds of people coming to the door wanting to see Jesus. Perhaps Peter even thought that this whole series of events was the greatest thing he’d ever seen! The popularity of Jesus had skyrocketed in just one day—and everyone was literally beating a path to His door! Perhaps, then, he and the others were surprised to find that Jesus had gone away at a time when they thought He ought to be establishing Himself even further. “When they found Him,” Mark tells us, “they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You’” (v. 37). Perhaps he even said it with the excited attitude of, “And isn’t that fantastic—?!!”
But what a shock it must have been to those disciples when Jesus said, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth” (v. 38). The Lord had just spent time with the Father; and it seems that He had a renewed sense of the Father’s call on His life. The Father’s purpose for Him was not that He simply stay in one place and heal all that came to Him. He certainly could have done that. He could have had His disciples build a building for Him at Capernaum—a magnificent ‘healing’ center by the sea—and for the rest of His time on earth, He could have just stayed there and welcomed the sick and the needy from around the world and heal them all. He could have brought physical healing to multiple millions of people in His lifetime. And in and of itself, that would have been a tremendously good, and wonderfully relevant thing to do.
But it would not have been good at all if that was not what the Father had sent Him to do. As Jesus Himself once said that “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That was what the Father had given Him—for that time—to be doing; and that’s what He needed to go and do. He needed to take the message that He had begun to preach—“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel”—to the other towns of Galilee; to the smaller towns of Chorazin, and Magdala, and Gennesaret. And so, we’re told in verse 39 that “He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons”—demonstrating to all that the kingdom of darkness was being overthrown by Him.
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And that’s another sermon altogether; isn’t it?–one about how Jesus had set Himself to do the Father’s will; and to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel?
But I really think these two messages ought to go together. They show us something very important about our Lord. Even at a time when His popularity was on the rise in a staggering way; and even when people were coming to Him from the whole city; and even at a time when He could have remained and set up a wonderful ministry of healing perhaps millions of people; He didn’t do so. That was not the Father’s will for Him. Instead, He needed to go on and preach the message of the kingdom that the Father had given Him to preach; and then, at a certain time in His earthly ministry, go up the long road to Jerusalem and yield Himself to the hands of wicked men to be crucified for our sins. He needed to be about the work the Father had given Him. He needed to fulfill the Father’s purpose for Him. How grateful we are today that He did!
And the lesson He teaches us in it all is this: When we know the Father’s good purpose for us, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from it—even by other ‘good’ things. We can consider this from the standpoint of our church. We live in a time when people everywhere have their own ideas of what the church ought to do and the good things that it ought to be doing for people. And let’s make it clear—we ought to be doing good for people! But we must never be doing the things that people think we ought to be doing—even good things—at the expense of the thing that God has called us to do. We are called to proclaim the same message that Jesus gave to this world—“Repent, and believe the gospel.” We are commissioned to make disciples. And if we as a church are doing all kinds of other ‘good’ things, but not fulfilling the very purpose for which the Father has left us on this earth, then we are not doing His will.
And we could also consider this from the standpoint of our own individual lives as Jesus’ followers. We are all called to be about the work of proclaiming the message of Jesus to this world. But we each have a particular calling with respect to how we are to do that. I am called to be a preacher and a teacher. If I fill my time doing other things—even good things, but do not do what God has called me to do, then I am not doing His will. You may be called to be a part of proclaiming the message of Jesus in another way—perhaps as an evangelist, or perhaps as a Sunday school teacher, or perhaps as a prayer warrior, or perhaps in a way that provides material help for the work of the gospel. If you do other things than the thing that the Father has called you to do—even good things, but do them to the neglect of your calling—then you have not fulfilled God’s purpose for you.
Perhaps a good way for us to apply this morning’s ‘two-sermoned’ message is by taking some time to break away from all our busy-work for a little while, get alone with the Father, and spend some time with Him. Let’s ask Him—as a church, and as individual believers—whether or not we have been doing the things that He has wanted done. Let’s ask Him to make His purpose clear to us—and to recommit ourselves to not be distracted from it.
May the Father make clear to us the priority of His purpose!