Please turn with me to Mark, chapter 1.
Recap
If you’re just tuning in this morning, we’re on week four of studying this book together. This study will take us through till next Spring on Easter. A quick recap to help us all remember what we’ve seen so far:
Week one: Mark starts by diving right in showing us three things. First, the coming of Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament writings (Mark 1:1-7). Second, Mark shows us that Jesus really was the one promised by God by recording the events of Jesus’s baptism, where God literally spoke from heaven and told us so (Mark 1:9-11)!Andfinally Mark shows that Jesus was proven to be the worthy, chosen, rescuer of God’s people by briefly reminding us of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness, where he did what Adam failed to do in the garden, resist the temptation of the devil (Mark 1:12-13).
Week 2: Mark continues with a powerful introduction statement, summarizing Jesus’s message, “The Good News of God” - that Jesus is the promised king and rescuer.. Jesus calls us to follow him, just like he called their first followers, who dropped everything to reorient their life around Jesus.
Week 3: Starts in with the narrative of Jesus’s life and ministry, and we saw that Jesus had unusual authority. He taught the truth about God with an authority that surprised the religious leaders of the day, and he showed that he had authority over demons. He commanded them, and they had no choice but to follow his commands.
Verses 27 and 28 sum it up nicely:
Mark 1:27–28 (CSB)
27 They were all amazed, and so they began to ask each other, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 At once the news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.
And that’s where we pick up today.
Today we’re going to see more of Jesus’s power and authority over disease and demons, but more importantly we’re going to see Jesus declare his true mission: To Preach the good news that the long awaited king of the universe. God’s chosen rescuer and savior of his people, has finally arrived.
Before we dive in to today’s text, I wanted to pause a minute and just mention that when we’re reading the Bible, we can go into sort of “once upon a time” mode, and forget that what we’re reading about is history. Things that actually happened to actual people, in actual places. So I wanted to take the opportunity while we’re looking at a verse that mentions “the vicinity of Galilee” to show you where that is.
[See map in video: So here is a map of the modern political boundaries of the region around Israel, with modern Galilee marked in orange. If we zoom in on the area between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, and turn the clock back to Jesus’s time, about 2000 years ago to the year 30 AD, here are the regions and cities mentioned in our passages.]
Our passage today starts in the town of Capernaum, and then spreads out into the whole region of Galilee.
Let’s read.
Jesus came with power to heal
Mark 1:29–34 (CSB)
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 When evening came, after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town was assembled at the door, 34 and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
The whole town came out. Jesus healed diseases and drove out demons. Jesus is demonstrating, proving, that he has authority and power over death and the devil. He is proving that his message: that the king is here, the savior is here, is not mere talk.
Jesus healed and drove out demons. This is not because he had a magic power. He is able to do these things because he is the creator! The good news is that the creator has shown up! He has power over creation. Everything that is broken and corrupted about God’s creation, Jesus is able to fix, because he made it in the first place.
I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that Jesus came to live among us as a carpenter. A builder. Someone who is able to create beautiful things, and mend broken things. Or maybe combine that idea: Jesus the carpenter and creator takes broken things and make them beautiful.
Notice here the simplicity of his miracles. He took Simon-Peter’s mother in law by the hand and raised her up. No magical words. No yelling and hand waving.
Notice here the selflessness of his miracles. I think if I were going to try and demonstrate power and authority, I’d do something bigger and flashier. Fire from heaven. Changing the course of the river. Parting the Sea of Galilee. But Jesus wasn’t just showing off with these miracles. Every single one of his miracles is intentionally crafted to prove that he is who he is proclaiming to be: The Creator. The Healer. The one with power over sin, death, and the devil.
A little confusingly, Jesus didn’t stick around to heal every single individual in the town.
Jesus came to preach the good news
Mark 1:35–38 (CSB)
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying. 36 Simon and his companions searched for him, 37 and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.”
Mark tells us something astonishing here: Jesus’s primary reason for coming was not to heal the sick and to cast out the demons. His reason for coming was to preach!
This answers several popular distortions of Christianity that are very popular in our day. One is the so called “Prosperity Gospel”, the “name it claim it health and wealth” teaching that is so popular on TV. Faith in Jesus is not primarily about having all your life troubles taken care of.
If you are wrestling with some sort of physical distress and are asking the question, why doesn’t Jesus heal me? It’s not because he can’t, or doesn’t want to. It’s that he has something bigger and better in mind, and sometimes that goal means healing, and sometimes it means waiting in faith for the day when he returns, as promised, to finally bring wholeness and healing to everything.
That Jesus came primarily to preach answers another problematic and popular distortion of the Christian message. The idea is something like Jesus came to help and love people (which is true!), but don’t worry about all that preaching stuff, focus on the helping, the good deeds, don’t try and convert people. Well, not according to Jesus himself!
Jesus knows that the healing we need most is spiritual. More on that later. Let’s keep reading.
Jesus came with compassion for the sick and needy
Mark 1:39–44 (CSB)
39 He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 40 Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he told him. “Be made clean.” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 Then he sternly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 telling him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
Oh how I love these verses. How I need to remember this passage. Jesus was “moved with compassion.” The word here means something like “felt them in the pit of his stomach” or not to be too crude, but “in his bowels”.
When I was a kid, I had a garbage can with Garfield the cat on it. It said: “I love you from the pit of my stomach.” On one side.On the other it said. “That’s even deeper than the bottom of my heart.”
That’s what’s going on here. Jesus was moved deeply with pity and empathy and intense desire to help this man.
Jesus was willing and able to help this man. But what about us? If Jesus has not delivered on something you’ve been asking him for, some healing you feel you need, does that mean he’s not willing?The bible is crystal clear that he’s able. But does he want to?This is a hard question.
This is where the rubber hits the road with faith in Jesus. Another word for faith is trust. Do you trust that he knows what you need better than you do? And he is able to give you exactly what you need when you need it?Let the pain of unanswered prayer draw you closer to him in trust. Get curious about what he might be doing in your life by holding off on your request.
It is dangerous to try to answer the question of why God allows pain and sickness to persist among his people. But one of the clearest answers I’ve heard, about one possible reason, is that it may be that he is trying to get your attention.
C.S. Lewis put it this way:
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. it removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.”
Jesus’s healings impressed the people, causing them to pay attention to him, but we also see that ultimately they all missed the point.
The people were impressed
Mark 1:45 (CSB)
45 Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. But he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere.
The first half of Mark’s gospel that the crowds grow and grow and grow.
Mark 3:8b (CSB)
…The large crowd came to him because they heard about everything he was doing.
They were impressed by his ability to heal and by his teaching. But that wasn’t what Jesus was primarily after. His call to them, and to us, was “repent and believe the good news.” What good news? That Jesus was able to heal? That was the good news that the people were spreading, but what was the good news Jesus came to preach?That the Kingdom of God is here. That Jesus is the king and the savior. Trust him for the deepest healing you need.
This morning, are you here because you are impressed by Jesus? Are you intrigued by the idea of Jesus? Have you heard that Jesus can help you in your pain, and are you, like the crowds that Mark describes, curious to see if maybe that’s true? Or maybe you’re impressed by Jesus’s body, his church, the people in it. Gosh these are nice people, and being around them makes me feel a lot better.
Well and good. Being around Jesus is a pretty fantastic thing! Being near to the creator means being near to the source of true life. Of course its going to feel good. But are you close with Jesus? Do you trust him even when you don’t get what you want? Do you trust him when you don’t get healed in this life. Do you trust him enough to surrender your whole way of life, and your whole way of thinking to him?
Next week: The thing we really need.
Jesus’s power over disease, and demons, over death and the devil, proves that he is the Creator. He is God. He is the source of life. He loves you, and has compassion when you are in need because he created you and he cares for his creations. You are so important to him! But he knows that what you need is deeper than deliverance from your immediate and physical problems. On the scale of eternity, all of those problems are going to be over in a flash.
The real question is what comes after that. Your physical condition may be bugging you now, but what about your soul’s condition? Where are you at with God? When you stand before him in eternity, what will he say to you?
There are only two options: “Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven, you faith in Jesus has made you clean.” Or “depart from me, I never knew you.”There is no, “You did good enough. Come on in.”Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to God the Father except by Him.
Where are you at with Jesus? Do you believe him? Do you believe him when he says “The kingdom has come.” Do you trust him as your creator, king, and master? Or are you just after the stuff he could do for you?
Yes there is healing to be had here.I’ve seen miraculous healing happen in answer to prayer with my own eyes, but not every time. The Lord Jesus takes care of his sheep and gives them exactly what they truly need. Sometimes that is help with your physical situation, but it is always help with your spiritual situation. Forgiveness is the healing you truly need, a fresh start in life, a clear conscience, deep, soul peace. Joy that doesn’t make any sense to the rest of the world.It is guaranteed every time when you come to Jesus in faith.
And this is what we’re going to see in our passage next week. A paralytic man comes to Jesus for healing, and Jesus does something really strange. Jesus forgives that man’s sin. And it starts a world of trouble. I hope you can come back next week and join us as things start to heat up in the book.
Let’s pray.
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