Two Journeys

Peter’s sermon is rich with both Old Testament prophecies and historical facts which serve proof that Jesus of Nazareth is unquestionably Christ the Lord.

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In this passage, we learn that Jesus has the power to forgive our sins and also to heal all our diseases. In Heaven we will realize Jesus’ great power and amazing love!

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 2, we continue our study in Mark's Gospel with verses 1 through 12. During the Civil War, on the night of August 31, 1861, Private William Scott of Vermont was found sleeping on sentry duty, a very, very serious crime during wartime. The Union Army was determined to make an example of him, and they court martialed him, he was found guilty and he was sentenced to be executed by firing squad on September 9. One man had the power to overturn that ruling, that verdict from the court martial, and that was President Abraham Lincoln.

He found out about Private Scott, looked into his case, and intervened. He pardoned him and spared his life and returned him to his unit at the last minute.  He had the authority to do that because the Constitution in Article II, Section 2 confers staggering powers to the president of the United States. It designates the president commander in chief of all the armed services. Also in that same paragraph, it gives the president the power to grant pardons for offenses against the United States. That's an amazing power, isn't it? The power to pardon, the power to grant forgiveness. Now, the Constitution somewhat limits the president in that power. For example, he cannot pardon crimes that haven't been committed yet. That makes sense because then that would overturn the laws of our country. As a matter of fact, there's lots of interesting constitutional questions about this separation of powers and the executive and legislative and judicial, and giving the president this kind of power makes some of those things murky.

But in our text today, we're going to see someone who has infinitely greater power to forgive than the president of the United States, for in it Jesus Christ looks at a sinner and declares him instantly and completely forgiven of all of his sins, past, present, and future. He has the authority to do that. He has the right, the power to do that.  Jesus arises the question of his authority, and He does a mighty miracle to prove that He has the authority on earth to forgive sins. That's what we're going to study in the text today. For all eternity, heaven and hell will be populated by human beings, a vast multitude of people in each, in heaven and in hell. One thing will be common to all those people, every one of them, both in heaven and in hell. Both the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of hell will have been sinners on earth, for Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The infinite difference between the sinners in heaven and those in hell is this one thing: the forgiveness of sins. The sinners in heaven will be forgiven sinners, and the sinners in hell will be unforgiven sinners.

Now, in this amazing account that we're looking at, we learn that Jesus, the savior of the world, has the authority, the power to forgive sins. He also has the power to heal all of our diseases. When He is done saving us and when we are in our eternally glorious home in heaven, only then will we realize how great is Jesus's power, how amazing his love. I believe this is one of the most important miracle accounts in the Bible, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because it directly links the miracle Jesus does to our greatest need; it directly links it right in the text to the forgiveness of sins because the central need that we have is not healthy bodies, but forgiven souls.

We begin this account with the population of the sick. Look at verses 1 and 2. "A few days later, when Jesus had again entered Capernaum, the people heard that He had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and He preached the word to them." So the context, Jesus has begun his ministry in earnest. His healing ministry has begun. Many people have heard about it. Jesus healed a leper at the very end of Mark 1 and commanded him not to tell anyone, because already this thing is ramping up and everybody's hearing about his healing ministry. However, the man disobeyed, went out and told everyone everywhere, and Mark 1:45 says, "As a result, Jesus could no longer enter town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere." Jesus then subsequently returned to his home base for his ministry, Capernaum. Huge crowds came to Him, it says. The desperation brought on by disease and death pressed people to come from everywhere to Jesus for these healings. People put absolute top priority on their health.  You hear that slogan sometimes, “If you have your health, you have everything.” I think what they probably mean is something opposite. If you don't have your health, you really have nothing. It makes sense. What good is a delicious meal to a man who's in agony and will vomit up everything he eats because he can't keep it down? What good is a skillful musician playing a beautiful piece of music to a woman that's suffering from internal almost unspeakable pain day after day? What good is a mansion or a box of gold coins to parents whose son is dying? People knew this, and  they came in huge numbers for these healings.

Because Jesus preferred, it seems, normally to heal one at a time and maybe even through personal touch, there's a massive bottleneck at the door. It’s hard to get in. Jesus immediately in his ministry, as He always does, resets their priorities by proclaiming the word to them in verse 2. This is the centerpiece of his ministry, the proclamation of the gospel. Physical health is of little value if you are an unforgiven sinner. You are under the wrath of God. That's the greatest problem you have, not your health. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Jesus knew that. He knew the true needs of the people. So He's not there to heal every disease and sickness among the people all the time so that people would never get sick again. He's not there to raise every dead person so that they would never die again, not at that point. Jesus has come into the world to address our sin problem, to save us from our sins, and his top priority therefore every day was the preaching of the word.

We see now the persistence of faith in the next part of the account. Look at verses 3 and 4. "Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus, and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on." This is a remarkable story. This is a picture of genuine friendship. We're introduced to five men here, four of them in good health, but one of them is paralyzed. The paralysis may be caused by a disease or by an injury. Perhaps the paralyzed man had a spinal cord injury, maybe fell from a tree or cliff or was thrown by a horse. Maybe he had a disease, some kind of viral or bacterial infection or neurological disorder. Maybe he had a brain trauma. We have no idea.

The four healthy friends are giving a clear display of true friendship. Though they are able to walk, their friend is not, and they care about that. It matters to them that though they're healthy, their friend is not, and they want to help him. They want to do whatever it takes to get him healed. The five of them, it seems, have heard the reports of what this man Jesus can do, and they believe them. Their faith is activated by these testimonies, by these reports. They came, no doubt about it, believing that Jesus could heal their friend. So they carry this man on a pallet, maybe a wooden frame with some leather straps, something like that, and they bring him to Jesus. But when they arrive, they have some massive obstacles to their faith. They are immediately met with that bottleneck I talked about. The crowd is jammed up in the house, they cannot get to Him.  They can't see Jesus, they can't hear his teachings. They cannot get their friend near to Him. In Luke's Gospel account of this story, the friends tried to get in through the crowd, but other sick people are just as determined that they would see Jesus and they're not letting this guy through. But their faith will not be deterred. They're not going to give up.

The essence of faith is being a spiritual beggar, of knowing you don't have inside yourself the resources to solve this problem and that God does. God has everything that you could ever need or want. That God can do anything, that's the essence of faith. These friends have true faith. If they turn and walk away, their friend will never be healed. They know that.  This is it, so they don't give up. True faith overcomes obstacles, as we see so beautifully in Romans 8:37, "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." A world conquering faith. They're going to overcome obstacles, so they take extraordinary steps. One of them has an idea. “I’ve got a thought here. I know what we could do. We could climb up on the roof.” The roofs back then were flat and you could go out on them, maybe eat a meal or pray or something like that, that kind of a roof. So they're going to climb up and they're going to, as the Greek says, literally, “unroof the roof.” They're going to unroof the roof. They climb up the stairs and they kind of triangulate and calculate where Jesus probably is, and they start unroofing the roof. They start digging through it. 

Now, this is remarkable. I'm thinking about it from Jesus's point of view. I've led a lot of Bible studies, I've had some distractions I've had to deal with before, but I've never had pieces of the roof falling down.  They're digging through and pieces are coming down. Now, I've thought about this and I'm thinking, it's a big opening. I mean, think about it. They don't want to lower him down feet first, that will not work. So they got to open this up big, and this process must have taken a while.  I'm thinking, Jesus probably put a hold on much of what was going on while this whole thing is happening. I find it interesting that Jesus takes their faith where it's at. He doesn't stop them. Well, why would He stop him? Their digging wasn't necessary. Jesus could heal from a great distance.  The Roman centurion has a paralyzed servant lying at home, and he said, "You don't need to come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed." Jesus heals him from a distance. He healed the royal official's son from a distance. So why didn't He stop them? He accepted what they were doing and let them do it. So they finished their digging project and they lower the man down on ropes, right in front of Jesus. Now we see the power of Jesus the judge. "When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'"

So the text says Jesus sees their faith. There are two possibilities. Either He saw the fruit of their faith, because James says faith without works is dead, so you can tell the faith by the works, “by the fruit you'll know them,” and he can see the fruit. It's just so obvious. There's clear evidence the friends believe Jesus can heal, no doubt about it. But also, the text gives clear indication that Jesus can read people's minds and hearts. Look at verse 8, "Jesus read the minds and hearts of his enemies."  I don't think it's either/or, it's both/and. He knew their hearts, that their hearts believed, and He could see the evidence, the fruit of their faith. But more importantly, I think, theologically more importantly, Jesus saw his faith, and by that I mean the paralyzed man's faith. The text doesn't overtly say that. It just makes it collective, He saw their faith, but Jesus declares to the paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven." Jesus speaks to this man the greatest single blessing any of us sinners could ever receive, the forgiveness of sins, full forgiveness, past, present, and future.

We know from other texts, from other books of the Bible, that forgiveness of sins equals justification. It's the same thing, and it comes by faith in Christ alone, and no one can believe on behalf of another person. Jesus's friends' faith cannot save his soul from sin. Now, our faith can position unforgiven sinners to a place where they can hear the gospel and trust in Christ. We can do many things, missionaries can, by faith,  go to certain places and bring the gospel and proclaim and do many things by faith. But we can't do the final, most important step, giving someone spiritual life that they be born again. We can't do that. That's beyond our power. But our faith can position an unforgiven sinner to the place where they can hear and believe. This man had faith for himself. He had faith for himself, and this is essential. Parents can't believe for their unbelieving children. Wives can't believe for their unbelieving husbands. Friends cannot believe for their unbelieving friends. We have a role to play, but it's limited. We need to play that role, but ultimately the individual has to believe. And he did, because Jesus said,  in Matthew's account, so beautifully, “Jesus looks at him and says, ‘Take heart, son. Your sins are forgiven.’” Now, I find this amazing. Just freeze frame right there. Jesus has done nothing for him physically, nothing, but He's done everything for him. If He didn't heal him physically, He still would've given him a gift of infinite value. He's given him a ticket to heaven, and we know in the fullness of time, that will mean full physical healing too. We also know this: this man was a sinner. He had violated the laws of God, for we all have done that. Jesus was saying, "Take heart, son. I will pay your debt for you with my own blood. I'll pay your price for you, so take heart." That's what He was saying.

Next in the text, we see the poison of unbelief. "Some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And Jesus's enemies are constantly there from that point on.  The teachers of law, some translations say scribes, they're responsible for copying the scriptures physically. They didn't have printing presses back then, all the things we have today to copy books, et cetera, so they just had to do it by hand. They also had the responsibility of teaching the word of God to the people. They, as Jesus would say, sat in Moses's seat, and so they taught the word of God. Beyond this, they made religious rulings for the people on religious matters. So they're going to be with Jesus constantly, keeping an eye on Him, a suspicious eye, because they already are finding reasons to condemn Him. They are opposed to Him, and now they feel they have one. They're so poisoned by their unbelief, they're so blinded by their unbelief, they're unable to act. Much as the paralyzed man is physically unable to act, so their unbelief poisons them, and so they accuse Jesus of blasphemy.

Now, to blaspheme is to speak words against God. It's a speaking sin, blasphemy. It would be to take the name of the Lord in vain, or to say false doctrine about the Lord, something like that. It's one of the most serious sins that a Jewish person could commit. Even higher than those everyday forms of blasphemy, however, would be to arrogate to yourself deity, to claim things for yourself that only God could do. That's the blasphemy of which  Jesus will be accused. That's what the high priest and the Sanhedrin are going to hang around Jesus's neck at his trial, blasphemy. That's their charge. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Now, obviously, any human being has a right, even the responsibility, to forgive sins committed by others against us, right? If someone strikes you on the right cheek, but then later comes back and says heartily, "Please forgive me," we're under obligations to say, "I forgive you." But this paralyzed man had, as far as we know, no prior connection with Jesus at all. He didn't sin directly against Jesus in that sense at all. Jesus is effectively going up to a complete stranger and saying, "All your sins of your life are forgiven." Now, at that point, what these teachers of law, these scribes were saying actually is true. Only God has the power to do that. But they never thought that Jesus actually was God in the flesh. That didn't enter their minds that it actually could be true. They were just right in that limited sense. We see the proof of Jesus' authority in verse 8, "Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things?'" So he reads their minds. These scribes did not speak out their opposition, but Jesus could read their minds immediately. He knew what they were thinking, and He challenged their assumption. "Why are you thinking these things? Shouldn't you consider the evidence that's already overwhelming that I actually am who John the Baptist said I was, the Son of God, who God himself said I was at my baptism?"

They don't consider it, so Jesus puts a test before them. It's an interesting test. Verse 9, "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat, and walk'?" So I took it, I'm a literalist. So I'm like, “All right, well, which is easier? How many syllables? Your sins are forgiven, rise and walk.” Look, the point is, it is really easy to say the words. The question is, is there any power behind the words? If I went into Duke Hospital where paralyzed people were being treated, and I went from room to room and said, "Rise and walk," and I'm who I am, and the outcome is what I expect. You all know what would happen, I would be arrested shortly, because nothing would be happening and I don't have that power. Only God could heal a paralyzed man like that. In the same way, if I were to go up to a total stranger, somebody I've never met, and just looked at them, read their mind and their heart, and said, "Your sins, all of them past, present and future, are forgiven," it's the same thing. I have no power. I have no authority to make that statement. Only God has that power. The issue is authority, it's power. Jesus then proves his authority, his power by the miracle. Verses 10 through 12, "But you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.' He got up, took up his mat, and walked out in full view of them all."

How beautiful is this? This stunning miracle, the greatest gift that the human race has ever received, that Jesus came from heaven to earth with this power to look on sinners like you and me and tell us our sins are forgiven. The miracle is enacted. It happens, as we've always said, effortlessly, completely, instantly. These are Jesus's healings. It's the way it always is. So the man gets up. There's no convalescence, there's no atrophied muscles that need to be built up over time, none of that. He's just healed. He picks up the mat that his four friends used to carry him in there and carries it out. This time the crowd got out of the way, I guess. It's easy to get out, hard to get in. 

This miracle, it says, was done in full view of them all. Look at the reaction, verse 12, "This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'"  Well, that's the account. What are some lessons, spiritual lessons we can draw from this? First of all, our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. When I was in college in campus ministry, we had a booklet that we read called, “The Tyranny of the Urgent.” It was written by Charles Hummel, and it gives us a sense of the priority structure. It says that most of the urgent things that we're after all the time really are not truly eternally significant.  The things that scream and clamor for our attention are temporal. That includes the pain signals different parts of our body give to our brain. They may seem urgent and eternally significant, but they really aren't, not when compared to this issue of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus understands the true priority structure, that the health of our souls through the forgiveness of sins is infinitely more important than the health of our bodies right now, the temporal health of our bodies. Satan came after Job on this issue. You remember the second phase of Job's sufferings was sickness, and Satan said, "Now we're really going to get serious. Now, I acknowledge that he handled very well the loss of all of his property and even his children, but if You take away his health, he will curse You to your face." That's Job 2, 4, and 5. We tend to think kind of like that.

In Jesus's days also, we see this kind of urgency. Nothing was more vital than the healing of the body, so people thought. You look at the attitude, the demeanor of sick people, like parents that are bringing their sick children to Jesus. They're desperate for the healing. Jairus, for example, threw himself down before Jesus and begged Him to come down before his daughter dies. The Syrophoenician woman's going to be the same way. She is absolutely focused on one thing, the healing of her daughter. The royal official in John 4 is the same way. Jesus wants to talk about, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you'll never believe." The royal official's answer is, "Sir, come down before my child dies," absolute focused on one thing, healing, “Heal my son.”

So are we. But in Jesus's priority structure, the soul's need is infinitely more significant than the body, and He's going to make this plain later in Mark 8: 36- 37. He says, "What good would it be for a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what could a man give in exchange for his soul?" The needs of the body are secondary to this one central issue, the salvation of our souls through the forgiveness of sins. If our bodies are perfectly healthy, but if our souls are saturated in unforgiven sin, what good is it? What would it profit us?

At some point, our bodies are going to get old and we're going to die.  Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed to each one of us to die and after that to face judgment." What good would it be for you to be in the gym day after day, exercising, watching what you eat, you got an excellent BMI, you got all of these things going on for you, and then you die and go to hell? What good would that be?

Conversely, if your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ, the present circumstances of your body are what Paul would call light and momentary issues, no matter how dire. Listen to what Paul says, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away." You may think you’re looking pretty good today. No you're not, you're wasting away. You just don't know it yet. But outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day, "for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal."

Now, this doesn't mean that sick people shouldn't seek to get well, shouldn't seek to get healthy. Jesus did many physical healings. If He didn't care about the health of the body, why would He do that? He did care. It's just a priority structure. There's an infinite gap between the one and the other. There's actually much provision for concern for the body. Jesus is going to say on judgment day, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I needed clothes and you clothed me." Jesus is going to talk about actual physical ministry done to people's bodies. Or James 2:15-16, it says, "Suppose a brother, a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing for his physical needs, what good is it?" Clearly, James wants those physical needs met by faith. Faith needs to move out in that direction. Later in James 5, he says, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to anoint him with oil and pray over him in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up." So no, no, it's not like we don't care about sickness, that we don't seek and pray and yearn for it. The clear priority structure is this: the needs of the soul are infinitely greater than the needs of the body. When Jesus forgave the sins of that paralyzed man, He gave him the keys to heaven itself.

I think it's important for us as Christians to personalize this moment, find yourself as that paralyzed man, feel Jesus looking at you with a look of love on his face and saying to you, "Take heart, son, daughter, your sins are forgiven." Galatians 2:20, Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Not "us." "Us" is true, but Paul didn't say that in Galatians 2:20, he said "me." We have the right to look in and see Jesus looking at us in the midst of all of our sins, and because of our faith in Him, saying, "Take heart. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven." Now, if that's true, whatever else is going on in your life, you have reason for joy today. You have reasons for joy and for delight today. You have reasons to take heart and to be encouraged today. "Take heart" means be encouraged. This is grounds for permanent contentment, that your sins are forgiven, all of them past, present, and future. So if you're a Christian, that's true. If you're not a Christian, I just beg you to flee to Christ today while you can, because no matter how well things are going in your life, no matter how prosperous or how healthy you feel, you don't know how long you have, and the greatest issue that there could ever be is still hanging over your head. You're still under the wrath of God. So flee to Christ while you can. It's not hard. The thief on the cross, all he had to do is say, "Remember me when you come in your kingdom." To know that Jesus is a coming king and that He died for sins, that's all it takes. Find forgiveness. Find forgiveness in Christ, and that forgiveness of sins is by faith in Christ alone, that's all.

The paralyzed man, what could he do? What could he do? I mean, he is not saved by works. Just like the thief on the cross, he couldn't do anything. It's just simple faith. Unlike the president with his presidential pardon, Jesus actually can forgive future sins, all of your sin, because Jesus knows better than any of us, partial forgiveness or forgiveness of 90% of your sins will not do you any good on Judgment Day. In that beautiful hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul,” it speaks of a comprehensive forgiveness. "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Not the part, but the whole." And so take heart, rejoice.

The fundamental concept here is that Jesus has the authority to do this. In John 5, He talks about that. John 5:22-23 says, "The father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the son, that all may honor the son, even as they honor the father." All authority in heaven and earth comes from almighty God, the creator of all things. All authority in heaven and earth emanates from Him, that the right to do this comes from God. And Jesus says in John 5, "The father has given to me the authority to judge." John 5:27, "The father has given Him authority to judge because He is the son of man." If He has the authority to judge, He has the authority to look at you and tell you, "Your sins are forgiven." He has that authority because He said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me." In the future, Matthew 25 says, "When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him. And he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." That's the power and authority Jesus has. He is the judge of all the earth. When He says your sins are forgiven, they are. So take heart. Take heart, rejoice. Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice.” Even if you're sick, even if your body's hurting, even if you're wracked with pain, you're dying even, none of that ultimately matters if your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ.

However, isn't it good news to know that part of your salvation package is the total comprehensive healing of the body? Aren't you looking forward to that? The resurrection body will be glorious. There'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. Revelation 22:1-3 says, "The angels showed me the river of the water of life flowing clear as crystal from the throne of God and of the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. And on each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse." 100% health. What about your body? Well, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 says, "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sewn is perishable. It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body." So your present body that you brought to church today, or that brought you, I don't know, whatever, that body, when it becomes a corpse, it will be sown in the ground. It is described perishable, dishonored, weak and natural, but the resurrection body will be imperishable. That means unable to die. It will be glorious, it will be powerful, and it will be spiritual. And in that glorious body, you'll spend all eternity. So take heart, son and daughter, your sins are forgiven.

One final word before I pray. This is a phenomenal story to memorize for evangelism. It's 12 verses long. If you were to memorize this story, I have used this literally dozens of times on airplanes and other places. First of all, it's interesting. The unroofing of the roof is interesting. People are interested in the story, and it gets you quickly to what? The key issue, forgiveness of sins. You'll be able to look someone in the eye and say, "Do you know that your sins are forgiven? Do you know that Jesus actually has the power to forgive sins?" Memorize the story, or just give the gist of it. Just get it right, please, though. If you're going to go gist and not memorization, get it right. But then ask somebody, "Do you know that your sins are forgiven? Jesus has the power to do it."

Close with me in prayer. Lord, thank You for this incredible account and thank You for the power of this story. We thank You for how it's true and how Jesus did this actual miracle and He actually did forgive that man's sins, and that man actually is with Jesus in paradise now. We thank You, O Lord, for the power of the gospel. I thank You for each of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are here, who have already received the gift of full forgiveness through faith in Christ. I pray for any that have been here today, who came in as yet unbelievers, who would hear and believe while there's still time, so that they might receive the gift of the forgiveness of sins. In Jesus's name, amen.

As He heals the paralytic, Jesus proves that He has the authority to forgive sins and heal all our diseases.

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Peter begins his Pentecost sermon by defending the brothers against the charge of drunkenness by appealing to the prophecy from Joel of the pouring out of the Spirit.

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Jesus is moved by compassion and tenderly touches a leper who has been untouchable as a powerful picture of our own salvation.

The post Jesus Compassionately Cures a Leper (Mark Sermon 7) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Jesus is moved by compassion and tenderly touches a leper who has been untouchable perhaps for years as a powerful picture of our own salvation.

I'd like to ask you to turn in your Bibles as we continue in our study in the Gospel of Mark. You just heard Ben read Mark chapter 1:40-45. Essential to our salvation is to face the reality of our true condition. All of Jesus' healings were not merely awesome displays of his supernatural power, but also living parables, metaphors, really, depictions of our true spiritual condition in the eyes of our holy God. Jesus' healings operated in the realm of human weakness, human defects, human frailty, human repulsiveness, human inability, powerlessness. Jesus himself linked his physical healing ministry to our spiritual condition with a statement in Luke chapter 5:31-32. He said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

To be righteous in the sight of God is the same, then, as being spiritually healthy. Just as physically healthy people don't need a doctor, so also spiritually healthy people don't need a savior. But Jesus knows our condition better than we do. And all of his healings, in some way, portrayed our true spiritual condition. One of the clearest of these, to me, is his healing of the leper in today's accounts. Lepers were utterly repulsive in every regard. They looked disgusting, often with their flesh half eaten away; they smelled disgusting because of the rot of their flesh.

They were utterly desperate since there was no cure. They were universally dreaded because it was a contagious disease. People fled from them, sometimes screaming in terror. They were also economically destitute because they could not earn money. Anything they touched would've been considered defiled. They were spiritually outcasts, no better than the lowest uncircumcised Gentiles, unable to go to the temple, unable to worship God with their fellow Israelites. In all of these ways, they are a grim picture of our spiritual condition, naturally apart from Christ before God.

Think of this general depiction of an unredeemed sinner in the sight of God from Romans chapter 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

What do you think a person in that spiritual condition looks like to a holy God? Of whom it is said in Habakkuk 1:13, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong." So when Jesus cures a leper at the end of Mark chapter 1, it's beneficial, I think for all of us, in some way, to insert ourselves into the story as spiritually defiled, corrupted, repulsive in the eyes of God, apart from the saving work of Christ. And when Jesus is moved by compassion, and when he tenderly touches the man who had, up till that point, been untouchable, perhaps for years, it's a powerful picture of our own salvation. And even more amazing is what this brief account teaches us about Jesus. As with all of his healings, this shows the infinite majesty of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as we've been learning.

The healing is effortless. The healing is perfect. It is instantly effective. And his desire to touch this defiled outcast shows, again, his yearning for a close relationship with sinners. At the end of this sermon, I'm going to seek to show how this account is written to give us a sense of an amazing reversal. Jesus took the outcast's place as an outcast himself. Therefore, this is a beautiful picture of the gospel of Christ's compassionate work for sinners like you and me. But it's only available for those who know that that is their true spiritual condition apart from Christ. How we really are the spiritual lepers and we need him to touch us and we need him to save us.

 So we begin with the leper's plea. Look at verse 40, "A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.'" So we come to the terrors of this disease, leprosy. I've already described somewhat how awful this disease was seen to be in Jesus' day. The word leprosy comes from the Greek word lepros meaning scale, like the scales that fell from Saul's eyes after his conversion. It gives us a sense of the scaly nature of a leper's skin because of the ravages of the disease.

Now there are actually a wide range of skin diseases that fell under this category and not all of them were equally serious. The book of Leviticus describes a wide range of skin conditions that were addressed in the Law of Moses. Some just had to do with eczema or some other forms of dry, scaly skin that really were no threat, or maybe running sores or scabs. Others were far more serious.

Biblical scholars believe that the most serious form of leprosy, the one that brought terror to the population and devastated the lives of all who had it was Hansen's disease, which is a communicable bacterial infection that could be spread through the air by physical touch. Even today, there is no cure for Hansen's disease, though its symptoms can be greatly mitigated by modern medical science. Leprosy of that sort usually begins with pain, but then is followed by numbness as the disease attacks the nervous system.

The leper's skin loses its color and hair begins to fall out. The skin swells and bunches. The leprosy often causes the body to emit a foul odor, making the leper even more repulsive. But perhaps most devastating of all is, as I mentioned, the numbness that results in a loss of the sensation of pain. Thus lepers frequently destroy their own bodies unknowingly. They injure themselves because they don't feel anything while the injury is going on.

Philip Yancey wrote a book about pain entitled Where Are You God When It Hurts? and speaking about how essential pain is to protect us from greater damage. He described how awful it is for people who are suffering from Hansen's disease to feel no pain at all. "For thousands of years, people thought that Hansen's disease caused the ulcers on hands and feet and face, which eventually led to rotting flesh and the loss of limbs. But modern research has shown that in 99% of the cases, Hansen's disease only numbs the extremities. The destruction follows solely because the warning system of pain is gone. How does the decay happen? Well, in villages of Africa and Asia, a person with Hansen's disease has been known to reach directly into a charcoal fire to retrieve a dropped potato. Nothing in his body told him not to. Patients at a leper's hospital in India would work all day, gripping a shovel with a protruding nail, or extinguish a burning wick with their bare hands, or walk on splintered glass. The daily routines of life ground away at the patient's hands and feet but no warning system alerted him. If an ankle turned, tearing tendon and muscle, he would just adjust and walk crooked."

So that's what's going on in the bodies of the lepers. But beyond this is the religious or spiritual defilement, the religious defilement of leprosy. In order to protect his chosen people from infectious diseases, the Lord made certain laws causing sick people to be quarantined from the rest of the community. Leviticus 13:45-46 says, "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone. He must live outside the camp."

Imagine what this was like. Socially, people need to be together. Scripture says it's not good for man to be alone. People need to be touched. They need to be hugged. They need to be patted on the back. They need a good firm handshake from time to time. We're all like this. They need to be able to greet family members with a kiss. They need to be able to sit across the table with friends and eat a meal together, see their faces, listen to their voices, to be together. But all of that is over for the leper. All of it. Even worse, they're effectively cut off from corporate worship, as if they were cast out of the sight of God. Since the temple was the center of Jewish religious life, the spiritual exile was a devastating condition for lepers. It was like a living hell for them.

Psalm 31:22, "In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!'" Psalm 88 says, "I'm set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest pit in the darkest depths." That's what it felt like, cut off, out in the darkness, excluded. So that's the condition of this poor man who came to beg healing from Jesus that day.

And so look at his plea. He casts off all concern. He approaches the Lord. He would not stand far off as he was ordinarily required to do. He had heard of Jesus' healing ministry and hope rose in him that he could be healed, and he wanted to be healed. So he broke all of the societal and religious norms. He came close to Jesus. He fell on his knees in reverence before Jesus. He called him Lord.

In Luke's Gospel, he goes even farther. He falls on his face before Jesus. And he's moved by faith. He's heard the accounts of Jesus' healing, and faith is rising up in him. Hope is rising up in him that Jesus can do anything. And so he's beyond, "Can you do it?" He knows he can. It just comes down to Jesus' willingness. "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean," he says. Now this humble plea, I think, shows great faith. There's no doubt whatsoever that Jesus can do this. The only question is, will he? This is a pattern of prayer that I think we could all follow. Convinced, constantly convinced of God's omnipotence.

We know that God can do anything. As Job said in Job 42:2, "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted." That's the basis of a healthy prayer life. A sense of God's omnipotence. But if God has made no specific promise to us in any area, we don't know for certain what his will is. We cannot presume on him for healing. John Calvin said, "This man ought not to expect more than God promises." The leper had not learned by any inspired communication or any promise of God what Christ would do. It would've been improper of him, therefore, to go beyond these limits. We cannot make demands. God does not owe us healing. The leper knew it was well within Jesus' power. It's just a matter of Christ's willingness.

Now the leper's desire is clearly stated: If you are willing, you can make me clean. It's a beautiful word, a Greek word, the cleaning or the cleansing of his body from this defilement, this pollution of leprosy. Now I wonder what the crowd must have been thinking as this leper comes and falls right in front of Jesus. John MacArthur in commenting on it said this, "One can only imagine the people's reaction as they watch this dramatic scene unfold. Horror mixed with indignation must have swept through the crowd of onlookers. Some probably shrank back in startled fear covering their mouths as they quickly retreated. Perhaps others glanced around for stones or sticks to drive away this unwanted outcast. Others surely stood watching in stunned silence, wondering how Jesus would respond."

 So that's the scene. That's what's going on. Now let's look at the Lord's compassionate power, verses 41-42. "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing, he said. 'Be clean!' And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured."  So we come to this great topic of the compassion of Jesus. The text actually says that Jesus was filled with compassion or moved by compassion. The Greek words for compassion root his feelings in his bowels, like in his intestines. KJV frequently uses that word. He feels it within his gut what it must have been like to be this leper. That's his compassion. Jesus in general displayed a very healthy, perfectly healthy and robust emotional life. He was an emotional man. Unlike the gods of the Greeks, the Stoics who thought of their gods as thinking machines, untouched whatsoever by the deplorable human condition.

Jesus was nothing like that. Jesus perfectly displayed the emotions of our Heavenly Father. A God who says again and again that he is gracious and compassionate. And so he pities and seeks to relieve the miseries of his creatures. By far, the most common emotional state ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels is compassion. He feels it again and again. We're going to see it as the reason for his teaching ministry in chapter 6, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He has compassion on them, and they need the word of God. And so he teaches them. He's going to openly declare his compassion for the crowd in Mark chapter 8. He says, "I have compassion for these people. They've been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they'll collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." He just is able to immerse himself in the condition of other people. He's moved deeply, and so it is with this leper. Jesus is moved with compassion for his plight.

That's why I said, as I was preaching through the Book of Job, I felt that the worst thing that Job ever said about God is in Job 9:23. This is what Job said about God. "When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent." That was probably Job's lowest moment, I think. As though God gets some kind of twisted pleasure out of enjoying just watching his creature suffer. He doesn't. He's moved with compassion for the suffering of the human race. And Jesus lived that out. Consistently moved with compassion for people. He would weep before raising Lazarus from the dead. Not, I think, just because of the obvious abject sorrow of Martha and Mary. But he knew all that death would cost his people in grief and sorrow over the centuries to come, and so he wept. He would also weep over Jerusalem because of the destruction that was going to be coming on them because of their rebellion, their failure to recognize the time of the Lord coming, and he wept over them.

So I just want to pause and just apply it to us. What about us? The parable of the Good Samaritan—the priest and the Levite, these religious people, see the guy bleeding by the side of the road and then just walk right on by. They're not moved with compassion. They're not able to immerse themselves in that other person's situation. Though I usually reserve applications for the end of the sermon, I just want to do it right now. Just look in the mirror and say, "Lord, Spirit in me, the Spirit of Christ, move me with compassion for lost people. Help me to see what it feels like to be without hope and without God in the world." What is it like to be that person in that situation? If I were in that family, what would I feel? If that were happening to me, what would I feel? Jesus is compassionate, and it's part of his healing work in us to make us so. To make us so.

But with Jesus, it's not just a feeling only. He has power to do something about it. Amen? The power to do something about it. And so moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. "I am willing," he told him. "Be made clean." He doesn't just have feelings. He physically extends his own hand to touch this man.

Now, what must that have been like for this leper? Who knows how long it has been since the last time a human being touched him? He was used to people running and screaming from him, even his own family, even his own friends. This was in some ways exactly where the law of Moses took this man. In order to protect the community from the communicable disease, this man had to be made an outcast. Anyone who touched him would become unclean himself and liable to contract the same disease himself. Holiness does not move to defilement. It's the other way around. Defilement moves and defiles holy people. That's how it works. That's the normal pattern. Leviticus 5:3, "If anyone touches anything that would make him unclean, whether he is aware of it or not, when he learns of it, he's guilty." Just touch, you're unclean.

Haggai chapter 2, "This is what the Lord Almighty says: Ask the priests what the law says: 'If a person carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, he's carrying that meat, and that fold touches some bread or stew or some wine or oil, some other food, does that become consecrated?' The priests answered, 'No.' Then Haggai said, 'If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of those things, does that become defiled?' The priests answered, 'Yes, it becomes defiled.' Then Haggai said, 'So it is with this people and this nation in my sight. Whatever they do and whatever they offer has become defiled.'"

But not Jesus. Hallelujah, not Jesus. He is the exception. His touch produces cleanness in this man, in this defiled man. We've noted before that Jesus deeply desires a personal relationship with each of the people he healed and sees this a lot in touching people. He loves to touch people to heal them. We already saw that with Peter's mother-in-law. He touched her, and the fever left her. He loves to touch people. Now keep in mind, he doesn't have to do this.

Do you remember the story in Matthew 8 of the Roman centurion whose servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering? Jesus says, "I'll go and heal him." And the Centurion says, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; I tell that one 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,', and he does it." "The Roman emperor doesn't need to come from Rome when he wants the legions to go do something in Palestine, he just gives the order and it's done. You don't need to come." Jesus said, "I've not found anyone in Israel with such great faith," and he was healed just like that.

He actually does this a number of times. The royal official's son in John 4, Jesus doesn't go, he just heals him. The guy goes and travels, the next day finds out, oh, he's healed. When did it happen? Lines it up, that's when Jesus said it. Or Syrophoenician woman, her daughter's lying at home in bed, demon possessed. Jesus never saw the girl. He actually never said anything to the demon, just thought it and the demon left. He didn't have to go anywhere or be anywhere. He didn't have to touch somebody. But he wanted to touch this leper. You would think of any cases that you're going to heal, healing from a distance would be good here, right? Now, this would be a prime example to heal from a distance, but not Jesus. He just reaches out and touches him. Maybe grabs his hand. "I am willing. Be clean." And why is this? Because perfect health is going to flow from Jesus, the source of all life.

I picture it like the river of the water of life flowing clear as crystal from the throne of God. It goes from God out. It goes from Jesus out. So picture two rooms, side by side, one of them in deep darkness, the other one brilliantly lit, and a door between. You throw open that door, which wins—the darkness or the light? Friends, the light wins. And that's what it was like with Jesus. When he touches his hand, health flows from the Savior into this man's body.

But more than that, I think just at the personal level, he wanted this lonely, sad outcast to feel human touch for the first time in years. And he also uses this word, "I am willing. Be clean." You see the word of power, the word of power coming from Jesus. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth," Psalm 33:6. That's how God made everything. Let there be, and it is. And Jesus we’re told in the Gospel of John is the Word of God. He is the energetic power of God moving out, and so he just speaks and it is. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. Immediately.

I just continually marvel over the instant healings, physical healings that Jesus did. No convalescence needed, no walker for a while, no week of getting better. Don't you wish that our sanctification were that quick? Just like that. Oh yes, we're going to see what a journey it's going to be for these disciples to become stronger in faith. It's a hard journey for them. But physically, instantaneous, the healing comes and he's clean. I love that word clean. Think about the story of Naaman, the Syrian general, who is a leper and he washed in the river, as Elijah told him to do, and it says, 2 Kings 5:14, "His flesh was restored," and listen to this, "became clean like that of a young boy." Oh, isn't that awesome? A little glimpse maybe into your resurrection body future. It's like, "I don't want to be like a young boy anyway." Just think it through. You'll understand what I mean. Completely healed. The flesh is restored.

And he would command him to go from Jerusalem to show himself to the priest. That's about a 100-mile hike. No need to convalesce. He's healthy, he's energetic, he's strong, he's ready to go. I wonder what happened at the cellular level. That's the geeky pastor you guys have. Like what happened to the cells? But you remember how Peter cut off Malchus' ear and Jesus touched him and gave him a new ear. New cells, new structure, just done. That's God. That's Christ.

But again, all of our healings, I believe, are a picture of our future resurrection body. That's where the real healing is coming. We should pray for each other when we're sick. We should ask God to heal. But you understand all those healings are temporary, they're localized. You're going to have some other sickness later. It's right for us to pray. It's right for us to seek God for healing, but the real healing, you know, is the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, we are going to get our resurrection bodies. "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." At the resurrection, Jesus will instantly give all the redeemed imperishable, glorious, powerful spiritual bodies. That's where we're heading.

All right, well, unfortunately, now I have to tell you about the leper's disobedience. The leper's disobedience. Jesus commanded the leper, former leper now, very sternly, 43-44. "Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. 'See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.'" So the Greek word here, a strong warning implies a certain strictness, like a sharp command from a superior officer or a king. He does not say it gently. He says it clearly. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He has every right to expect to be obeyed. Notice again, the word "at once" or "immediately." He wanted immediate obedience from this man. And don't tell anyone. More on that in a moment, but we're going to talk about, "go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice Moses commanded for your cleansing."

Jesus is the most law-abiding Jew in history, perfectly obeyed the law of Moses. And this is what was required to do for the cleansing of a leper. The law in Leviticus 14 required the priest to evaluate this man and prove his right to reenter society. The priest would take two birds. They would kill one of them in an earthenware vessel with running water. The live bird, along with cedarwood, scarlet cord, and hyssop were dipped into the blood of the slain bird. The leper was sprinkled seven times with the blood. And then the priests were to examine his skin and pronounce him clean.

And the live bird was to be set free in an open field. Then the former leper was to wash all his clothes, shave off all his hair, go into a seven-day quarantine. On the eighth day, the priest would offer a final round of sacrifices for him, and he would be clean officially. He would be able to rejoin Jewish society, would be able to worship at the temple. So that was what's supposed to be done for him. But notice Jesus says, "Go offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded to the priest as a testimony to them." Some of those priests, I believe, were going to get converted. Some of those priests, it says in Acts 6, "A large number of priests became obedient to the faith."

And so Jesus wanted to witness to these priests and testify concerning his healing power. That's what he wanted this leper to do. And he gives him this command to tell no one. Now this is the first of many such commands we're going to see in Mark's gospel. It's in all the Gospels, this command. Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. This happens a lot actually. Some scholars call it the Messianic Secret. Keep in mind, it's not a secret anymore, friends. Okay, see right here on the page. This was a temporary injunction. The Holy Spirit inspired Mark to write this. We all know about the healing now, so the reasons are temporary.

But right at that moment, there's a practical issue. And it comes as a result of the man's disobedience. Look at verse 45, "Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere." So this is in part, I believe, about crowd control. Crowd control. The people were hugely motivated to throng around Jesus and get physical healings. Jesus did not primarily come into the world as a physical healer. As we've said, death is the final enemy. Physical healings were all temporary signs. They're real healings, but then there'll be other diseases, other injuries that would come later.

The most important aspect of Jesus' public ministry would always be the proclamation of the Word, the message of the kingdom of heaven, the preaching of the Word. That was it. The people all greatly overestimated the importance of their physical healing and greatly underestimated how much they needed spiritual healing. Because of this man's disobedience, huge crowds flocked to Jesus for healing. Immediately in the next chapter, God willing next week, chapter two, we're going to see such a huge crowd in his hometown that four friends can't get a paralyzed man to Jesus. They have to dig through the roof. And the frenzy got so high, these people thronging around Jesus did not really believe in him. As John chapter 2 says, "Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man for he knew what was in a man."

The frenzy got so high that at one point in John chapter 6, the crowd wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king. You could picture a triumphant team at the end of the Super Bowl, picking up the coach, putting him on their shoulders and carrying him off in triumph. Jesus did not want to be made king that way. It wasn't time. He had a different vision. And so, he's got to turn down the heat under the pot. He's got to control the crowds. He tells him, "Don't tell anyone," but he disobeyed. Isn't it interesting how, at least at one level, superficially, the demons are more obedient to Jesus than people are? I mean, this happens a lot. I mean, we should do better than demons, don't you think? Amen. We should do better than demons, but this guy didn't. He just disobeyed, told everyone. Isn't it sad too that the ministry of reconciliation is now committed to us? And we are called on to tell everyone and we don't? We don't.

You are free to tell this story to everyone in your workplace this week. You're free to do it. The injunction's off now. Tell everyone that Jesus healed a leper. "Oh, what'd you do this weekend?" Start there at the workplace. Say, "How was your weekend?" Ask them. "Oh, it was good. It was good. What'd you do?" All right, hoping they'll say, "What about your weekend? How was yours?" They probably will. And say, "I heard the best sermon on Jesus healing a leper." And you are free to tell the story, so tell it. Jesus has power, not just to heal physical leprosy but to heal spiritual leprosy. And our sins are like that.

Now, the final insight, something I hadn't thought of until I read it from another guy. I thought this was interesting, how there's a sense of reversal, how in this regard then Jesus becomes somewhat of an outcast. Jesus can no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Jesus intended to go throughout Galilee preaching the message everywhere. Mark 1:38, he said, "Let's go somewhere else in the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I've come." "And he went around," Mark 6:6, "teaching from village to village." Josephus tells us, first century historian, there were 240 towns and villages in Galilee, 240 of them, but he can't go there like he'd like to. And he stays outside in lonely places, in a desert.

So, Jesus had become to some degree a practical outcast. So a commentator put it this way. I thought this was fascinating. "Mark began the story with Jesus on the inside, the leper on the outside. But at the end of the story, Jesus is outside in lonely places. Jesus and the leper have traded places. Early in his ministry, Jesus is already an outsider in human society. Mark cast him in the role of the servant of the Lord who bears the iniquities of others and whose bearing of them causes him to be numbered with the transgressors."

It's a beautiful insight. I can't help but think about 2 Corinthians 5:21 speaking of Jesus, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God." You see that exchange. Our filthy defilement, our corruption laid on Jesus, and he dies. And as it says in Hebrews 13:12-13, he died outside the city gate, outside the camp as a reject. And he died outside of intimacy with God in a mysterious way, crying out, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And so, Jesus became sin for us and died on the cross in our place that we might be forgiven. And now we come full circle to how I began. You've got to see the truth about yourself and recognize the defilement of sin and find in Jesus the only healing that there is. Through simple faith in Christ, you can be clean. Like Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise."

So we're about to go into a time of the Lord's Supper. I'm going to close this sermon time in prayer. But in order to partake in this, church, in the Lord's Supper, you have to have trusted in Christ, testified to that by water baptism that you are a Christian. You can partake. If you haven't believed in Christ yet, the issue is not the Lord's Supper. The issue is your own heart. Call on the name of the Lord. Say, "Would you please heal me of my sin? Would you please forgive me?" And you can just sit there where you are in the pew and you can receive 100% full forgiveness and cleansing for all your sins. But for all of you who have already done that, testified by water baptism, you're free to partake. Let's close this sermon time in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we've had in the ministry of the Word in the Gospel of Mark. And now Lord, as we turn to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would strengthen each of us. Lord, help us to be able to look to Jesus, the healer, the powerful savior, who cleanses us from the filth of sin. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Luke gives the account of the momentous gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift Jesus had predicted .

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Andy Davis preaches an expositional sermon on Mark 1:29-39. The sermon focuses on the nature of Jesus’ healing ministry and the importance of prayer and preaching in his ministry.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark's Gospel, Chapter One. We're looking at verses 29 through 39 as we move through this incredible gospel message. We live in a world groaning in the pain and agony of physical disease. The worldwide ravages of disease are so devastating. The way that diseases destroy the body, the way that they change the pallor of the skin. They make people look gaunt or look like living skeletons. It's simply devastating to see. God hears the cry of the afflicted who cry out from their beds of pain and suffering begging God for relief. "How long, oh Lord, must I lie in this bed and suffer?" Some of you I know are dealing with chronic pain day after day with little or no relief. Others are in the middle of a serious battle with disease. You're undergoing heavy treatments and procedures and the hope of healing by the skills and insights of the medical community.

More than that, however, you are crying to God directly for help, for healing. My desire is that this sermon will feed your faith as you cry out to God. That your faith will be fed. But your suffering is just a fraction of the overall worldwide groaning of a world swimming in a sea of disease and pain and death. When Adam sinned, he led the entire human race into the death penalty that God had imposed. God had warned Adam, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it, you will surely die." From the moment that Adam ate, he died spiritually, and he be began to die physically though it would not come for nine centuries. The Bible also teaches that in Adam, all of his descendants sinned and through Adam, all of us die as well.

Disease is one of the main executioners of the human race. The mortality of the human body was exposed as part of Adam's death penalty. So even down to the cellular level, our bodies are dying. God and his judgment on our human race allowed, or maybe fashioned, various diseases to torment and to kill people all over the world. Medical science constantly records the nature and the symptoms and the effects of a staggering number of different diseases. In the year 2016, a study published by the University of Michigan Medical School asserted that there are roughly 10,000 diseases afflicting human beings with only about 500 known cures and treatments. Among the top 10 diseases causing the most deaths worldwide are coronary artery disease, number one, responsible for almost nine million deaths. Stroke, which killed 6.2 million in the year studied. Lower respiratory infection such as flu, pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, 3.2 million. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, 3.1 million. Respiratory cancers, 1.7 million, and diabetes, 1.6 million people a year.

Since COVID-19 ran amok worldwide, people have been daily aware of the devastating effect of diseases as never before. As the consciousness of the whole world has, in some degree, been held in its iron grip since the first quarter of the year 2020. And there's no ultimate remedy for all these diseases. Suffering, the death that can come from the brilliance of human intellects, from the laboratories of pharmaceutical companies, from the blinding insights of physicians and microbiologists and epidemiologists. Certainly individual diseases can and have been eradicated. Clear example of this is smallpox, the greatest single killer of human beings in history, half a billion people. But old diseases still hang over us all like the sword of Damocles, twisting, suspended by a thread ready to fall at any moment.

 But for a brief moment in human history, a man appeared who had absolute, complete power over every disease and sickness known to man. And that man is Jesus Christ, and we're studying Him today. We're studying the power of Jesus Christ, the great physician, who entered the world to give us life and give it to us abundantly. And for a brief, perhaps maybe a three-year span, Jesus effectively banished disease and sickness from Palestine. Huge crowds thronged around Jesus. And the New Testament tells us he healed them all. He healed them all. Matthew 4:24, "News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them." Matthew 9:35, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness." Mark 6:56, "And wherever he went-- into villages, towns or countryside-- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed."

There had never been a healing ministry like Jesus's before Him, nor has there been anything to that same degree since. Though Jesus did entrust a measure of his healing power to his apostles, it was nowhere near the staggering scope and dimensions of his own healing ministry. The annals of church history do not record any such healing ministry since the end of the age of the apostles. Though, certainly individual healings have come in answer to prayer in every generation, and some prayer warriors may have seen many such healings in their time. Yet, no one moved around from place to place with throngs of people around them, healing every disease and sickness they encountered. There's no record of that in 20 centuries of church history. Jesus alone, Jesus alone.

And it was in direct fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. As Matthew records in Matthew 8:17, "This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." So today we're going to look at the beginning of the healing ministry of Jesus and draw out some lessons from it. These themes we're going to see repeated again and again in Mark's gospel, but today it begins. And it begins, I believe, in the home of Simon Peter, with one woman, Simon's mother-in-law. So it's the beginning of Jesus' healing ministry.

 Look again at verses 29 through 31. “As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.”

Now, the Apostle John in his Gospel tells us that Jesus' first miracle was performed at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Well, that means if that's true, literally true, that was his first miracle. It means that in all of his growing up years, his childhood, teen years on into the 20s, as he began his public ministry, supposedly around the age of 30, approximately age of 30, all that first 30 years, he never did a single miracle. His miracle work and career had to start somewhere, and it started at a wedding. And so John 2:11 says, "This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee." Changed a huge amount of water into wine. That's how it started. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples put their faith in Him. But the healings, it seemed, waited for this occasion, around this time. And they would make up the overwhelming bulk of his miracles. Overwhelming bulk of his signs or healings. 

 So what is the context? Well, he's leaving the synagogue of Capernaum after Sabbath worship. So they're moving out. They've had Sabbath worship. They're in the synagogue of Capernaum. We studied this last week. Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue with amazing authority. No one had ever heard anyone teach with that kind of authority. And they were astonished.

And then suddenly a man, demon possessed, stands up and cries out to Him. "What do you want with us? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, swear to God that you won't torture us." “And Jesus says, "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.” Saw this last week. And the people's reaction was overwhelmed. Verse 27, 28. "The people were so amazed that they asked each other, 'What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey Him.' And news about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." So that's what happened. Saw it last week. Now, the Sabbath worship at the synagogue was over. Generally, we're told it ended around noon. And so they were going out and they went to Simon and Andrew's house.

Look at verse 29. "As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew." So Simon, who we best know as Peter, lived with his brother, Andrew, and his family in a house there in Capernaum. So they were successful enough as a fisherman to own their own house. Archeologists believe that they have found a house that may well have been Peter's house. It was dated at that same time, whether it was Peter's or not gives a sense of what the house might have looked like.

One commentator described it this way, "The house has doors and windows that open to an interior courtyard rather than outward to the street. The courtyard accessed by a gateway from the street was the center of the lives of the dwellings around it, containing hearths, millstones for grain, hand presses, and stairways to the roofs of dwellings. The dwellings were constructed of heavy walls of black basalt over which a flat roof of wood and fat was placed." So that's what it might have looked like.

So, after the amazing events in the synagogue in Capernaum, Peter, Andrew, James, and John and others connected with the family would've been talking with great excitement as they made their way to Simon and Andrew's house. So presumably Simon and Andrew had invited Jesus to join them for a Sabbath noontime meal. But as they're going there, a cloud hangs over that family. A cloud hangs over it because Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever.

 Look at verse 30. "Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her." Now, if we could just stop and say, this is just significant, we have to note things along the way. It's not the main point of the text, but we find out in this way that Simon Peter was married. Friends, I don't know any other way to get a mother-in-law. I don't think that's possible. All right? The only way you get a mother-in-law is to have a wife. And so he was married.

Paul mentions in first Corinthians 9:5 that Peter took his wife along with him on some of his missionary journeys. So he had said, "Don't we have the right to take along a wife, as Peter does?" Peter being married is significant in church history because the Roman Catholic church identifies Peter as the first Pope and also mandates clerical celibacy for all of its clerics, all of its priests, no marriage. So there's something jarring there from the very beginning, who they consider to be the first Pope, clearly married. So that's just something to note.

At any rate, at that point, the deep concern was for her health. She was sick with a fever. Luke 4:38 tells us that she had a very high fever. She's burning up. This is a very serious medical condition. There was not much that rudimentary medical science at that point could do for her. So she was in trouble, and the scripture says that they told Jesus about her. That's such a picture of prayer for me. Just like I began in my pastoral prayer. Sir, we would like to see Jesus. There's just so many moments. They told Jesus about her. So just stop right there. Here's application. Tell Jesus about it. Just bring the sick people you know to the Lord in prayer. As the hymn says, what a friend we have in Jesus. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Just tell Jesus about it still.

 So then we have the healing, verse 31, “He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.”  So Jesus lived the life of a servant. We'll see this again. Any need that's brought to Jesus, he just goes and deals with it. He hardly ever says no. There's really no actually clear example of Him ever refusing. So he just immediately goes. We also will see again and again, how often Jesus used physical touch in his healing. He loved to touch people to heal them. And more on that in a moment. Now, as soon as he touches this woman, the fever left her immediately, immediately healed. There's no need for convalescence, no need to recover her strength. No one brought her chicken soup with noodles. She's not resting at all. She's immediately ready to go. She felt strength and energy in her body and got up and served the guests that were there for the afternoon meal.

So what is fever? I had to look it up. I'm not a doctor, but I'm interested in fevers. What causes the body to raise its temperature? Medical science can explain these things. Fever is the body's response to a bacterial or viral infection. It mobilizes the body's immune system to kill the infectious agents, the bacteria or the virus. The body can handle the higher temperatures better than the infectious agents can. The hypothalamus, which sits at the base of the brain, regulates body temperature. It is triggered to raise the body temperature when the immune system identifies a pathogen, the cause of the infection in the body. So the immune system sends a signal to the hypothalamus by things called pyrogenes, related to the word for fire, something that creates a fire, heat, in the bloodstream. When the hypothalamus registers these pyrogenes, it raises the body's temperature, and you get a fever. So what did Jesus do when he took her by the hand? Well, there's no medical explanation for this other than a miracle. Whatever infectious agent was in this woman's body is instantly destroyed. It's gone.

Furthermore, the pyrogenes are instantly removed from the bloodstream. The hypothalamus instantly reset to normal. Fever abated instantly. Like the stilling of a storm, it quieted down immediately. Her forehead got cool. Her clothes would've been still wet from her fever sweat, just like the boat in the storm would've still been filled with water. There were still effects of it, but she was a 100% healthy. She felt strength in her body and stood up. So medical science is getting more and more brilliant down to the cellular level, like tailor made cures that study your particular genetic tendencies, and it's incredible the things that they're doing. Let me tell you something. When science travels the end of an amazingly complex road, they're going to find Jesus was already there. I mean, down to the cellular level, just done. We're going to see that with the leper as well. Whatever cellular destruction was happening through leprosy was cured. Clean. We'll get to that, God willing. At any rate, she's cured. She stands up to serve.

Well, this just opens the floodgate. A river of healing starts. Coupled with the demon-possessed man and news about Him had spread. And now this, so verse 32 to 34, “That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.” So the Sabbath began at sunset the day before Friday evening, and then would continue to sunset Saturday evening. The Jewish community was waiting breathlessly for the Sabbath to end, so that the healing could just really start, like a river of healings.

So they want to get to Peter's house. They're going to flood to Peter's house. As soon as the sun goes down, they want to bring Jesus all these sick people to heal. This began a river of miracles that would characterize his ministry for the rest of the time. So Jesus went out to the doorway, perhaps a gateway into which one could go into the central courtyard at Peter's house. And Jesus began addressing them one at a time, if we understand his usual pattern. They brought demon-possessed people, especially, showing that demon possession was of various types. And there's the demoniac of the gatherings who can't be restrained by chains. He's out of his mind. But then there are others that could be led even with a demonic affliction, led to a certain place to be cured. So it's all different levels. So Jesus drove out the demons. The powerful, forceful action, like a military blow in the spiritual dimension, like the rolling on of the kingdom of light and rolling back the kingdom of darkness. It can't be stopped. Demons have no power against Jesus.

Jesus also forbade the demons from speaking. As we saw last time and also in the book of James, the demons have accurate theological knowledge. They get it right theologically, but they hate God. The text openly says so. They knew who he was. They knew who Jesus was, but Jesus forbade them from saying anything about Him at all. He wanted his messengers, his ambassadors to be us. That's our role. It is committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation. Do you see what a privilege that is? That we get to speak these stories and tell lost people about Jesus. Demons do not have that right.

 All right, so let's just stop and look at elements of Jesus' healing ministry. We're going to see it throughout the gospel and in all the gospels. So I'm going to give you seven words that describe Jesus' healing ministry.

First of all, successful. That's a good place to start, don't you think? Successful. Jesus never failed. Every case was addressed successfully. He never lost a patient.

Secondly, universal. There was no disease or sickness he could not heal. He was not a specialist, but he addressed every possible disease and sickness that was ever brought to him. Especially organic, deep, chronic conditions. These were easily healed by Jesus. Universal.

Thirdly, effortless, effortless. There was no struggle. There was nothing that Jesus found particularly difficult. I've thought of this before. If you asked Jesus at the end of a long day of healing, of all the cases you faced today, which was the hardest, what would he say? If he had a sense of humor, he'd laugh. None of them, none of them are hard. Effortless.

Fourth, instantaneous. We've already talked about that with the mother-in-law. She's instantaneously healed. There's no process. There's no convalescence period, no need to regain strength.

Fifth, personal, personal. Jesus often preferred to touch people. He tended to seek out a relationship with someone. Like the woman, with the issue of blood, all that. He wanted to talk to her. He wants a relationship with her. He's looking for a relationship. It's personal. He loved to heal people one-on-one, one at a time by touch. Loved to touch people. Seeking a relationship. There is no record of group healings. There is a record of group feeding, but there's no end of the day, there's 500 more people to heal, and he just heals them all and goes home. It doesn't go like that. It may have, but there's no overt record of it. Personal.

Six, free. I mean, financially. I'm not in any way disparaging people who make their money by medical things. A lot of my best friends are doctors and they do that. A lot of you. So it's like, ah, you're treading on some toes now. But Jesus did send out his disciples saying, "Freely you have received, freely give." They didn't charge anything either. So he did it financially for free. Now Americans spend on average $12,500 per person per year on medical things, on average. 4.1 trillion a year spent on health. This is nothing new. The woman with the bleeding problem, Mark 5:26, "She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and had spent all she had yet. Instead of getting better, she only grew worse." By the way, it doesn't surprise me that Luke, the doctor, didn't include that in his gospel. Moving on.

Seventh. Varied, Jesus used a lot of different approaches. He wasn't always the same. Take his healing of blind people. Sometimes he spit and made mud and put it on a man's eyes. He did that once. Another time, he spit directly on a man's eyes and touched him. Another time he just spoke. Just different approaches every time. So these are seven elements or characteristics of Jesus' healing ministry: successful, universal, effortless, instantaneous, personal, free and varied.

 All right, well, what do the healings signify? They're called signs. What are they pointing to? What do they teach us? Well, first of all, most importantly for us personally, they signify spiritual healing. The real healing we need is not primarily physical. It is spiritual. We're going to talk about this as the time comes with the paralyzed man who's let down by his friends and Jesus does not heal him physically at first, but just says, "Your sins are forgiven." That's the priority structure.

And then Jesus will liken his physical healing ministry to the real spiritual healing ministry that's necessary. Luke 5:31-32. "Jesus answered them, 'It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'" The sickness is sin. The healing is repentance and the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus alone can do that, the atoning work.

Secondly, Jesus' healing ministry signified human weakness and inability, powerlessness. It says in Romans Chapter 5, “when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”. We're powerless. Jesus' healing ministry pictures human powerlessness, inability. Can't see. Jesus heals, you can see. Can't walk. Jesus heals, you can walk. Can't hear. Jesus heals, now you can hear. Human inability. We can't fix ourselves. We need a savior. That's what it's teaching.

And then thirdly, it signifies a world to come in which there'll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. Amen. Hallelujah. It's a sign of a world to come. The real healing is yet to come. It's called resurrection. And at the resurrection, we're going to get resurrection bodies that will never have disease or injury ever again and will not die. And I believe in a dynamic ongoing healthiness of the resurrection body. I don't see anything severed from God. Everything comes from the throne of God. The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God. And on each side of the river of the water of life is the tree of life. And it's got leaves and crops 12 months a year. And the leaves of the tree, it says, are for the healing of the nations.

You're like, "Well, I thought you already told this last chapter, there's no more death, mourning, crying, or pain." Yes, because of a river of health flowing from the throne of God. That's why. It's not independent health. It's not like God says, "All right, you're set. Off you go." No, in Him we will forever live and move and have our being. So those are the three significant aspects of Jesus' healing ministry.

None of his healings was a permanent solution to the problem of disease. None of them. All of the people he healed later died. All of them. Some of them, I would imagine, got sick or injured within days or weeks or months after that. We have no record of anyone coming back for healing, but why wouldn't they? I'm sure he did, but we just don't have anybody doing that. Death is the final enemy, the last enemy that's going to be with us to the end. It's not permanent.

All right, what do these healings prove about Jesus? First, they show his compassion. He's a compassionate God. He cares about our suffering. It's the number one emotional state ascribed to Jesus, is compassion. Secondly, they show his power. There's nothing he cannot do. This is the omnipotent Son of God. There's nothing he cannot do. And thirdly, ultimately, they show his identity as Son of God. What kind of person can do all this? Only God, that's what they teach.

Now, what is the link between healing and faith? How do we connect healing and faith? Frequently, Jesus linked them. "According to your faith, it will be done to you." So Bartimaeus, he says that to him. "According to your faith, it will be done to you." But not always. As a matter of fact, some of the people Jesus healed didn't believe at all. The guy in John 5 turned Him into the temple police. Jesus came later and said, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." he didn't look on him as converted. Just because he healed him didn't mean he converted him.

But these miracles, the whole accumulated evidence of Jesus, were a valid basis for the saving faith of people who were being saved. Jesus said so in John 14:11. He said, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father's in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." Believe on the evidence of the miracles. It's a valid basis for our faith. John said openly in John 20:31, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written, these miracle accounts are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and believing you may have life in his name." It's a totally valid thing to say, "I believe in Jesus, the Healer, I believe in Jesus the Wonder Worker, the Miracle Worker, I believe he's the Son of God." It's totally valid. That's why the scriptures were written.

 All right, let's move on now. And in the account, we see the undergirding power of Jesus' healing ministry was his prayer life. Look at verse 35, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." This is one of the great verses in the Bible on a daily quiet time. Just basic principles of a daily quiet time. A time with the Lord. All right? It's a striking glimpse into Jesus' private, spiritual life. Jesus absolutely relied on prayer. He wanted, he yearned for time with his Father. He loved to be with his Father, and that time guided Him and it gave Him power.

 Jesus is our role model. Our prayer lives are generally weak. I've never met anyone that has expressed complete, perfect satisfaction with their prayer lives. Would you say that to me? "Pastor, I got to tell you, I am a 100% satisfied with my prayer life. It's exactly how it should be." I've never met anyone like that. We all know we have a way to grow, and Jesus is our role model. He definitely came to shed his blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so that through faith and that blood, all of our sins may be forgiven. That was the center ministry he came to do, but he also came to be our role model, to give us a pattern of life we could follow. Jesus is our role model. As 1 Peter 2:21 says, "Christ left you an example. You should follow in his steps."

So look at the details. I'm like, "Pastor, I'd really rather not look at the details because it says very early in the morning while it was still dark. I mean, you don't mean me, do you?" Yes, I do mean you. Very early in the morning while it's still dark. Morning is the best time for a quiet time. It's not the only time. You can have a quiet time at the end of the day, but a long time ago I learned, I don't think it's in the Bible anywhere, but I read somewhere an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now that's not in the Bible. That was Ben Franklin, I think. What does that mean? It's better that the bad thing not happen than that you can pick up the pieces after the bad thing. So I just took that and applied it to a morning quiet time. Would it be better to not have the bad day and pick it up at the end of the day and feel better about it?

I'd rather get my brain, my mind, my heart, my body, ready for the day at the beginning of the day, and then go off into the plan that God has for me. At least that was Jesus's pattern. So he got up very early in the morning, still dark. Before the world gets cranking, before the world can clamor for your attention. I might recommend you do something with this nasty little thing. Set it aside. Turn it off, put it on airplane mode. Put it in a box and latch the box, and just focus your mind. Don't let the world steal from you that time that you can have with the Lord. It's sacrifice. And the world can't clamor for your attention.

Mothers of little ones, the babies aren't sleeping yet. It's like, "But they got to bed really late last night, I need a few extra hours." It's fine. I'm not being legalistic. I'm just saying the kids aren't up and crying yet. You have a chance to meet with the Lord, a chance to pray. And it says he got up. He got up. I'll never forget my missions professor, Christie Wilson, told this story. And it was about a man that used to get up regularly at four of the morning for prayer time, for several hours of prayer. I'm not advocating or saying, but a young man came to him and said, "How do you do it?" he said, "I'm going to tell you my secret. Young man, I get up." There it is. That's the secret. Young man, I get up. Well, that's what the text says. He got up. So he just gets up. He got tired just like any of us. He got tired before. He was tired from his journey before he talked to the woman at the well. He fell asleep right before the stilling of the storm. Jesus got tired like any of us.

Imagine the day he just had that Sabbath day. Sun goes down, and he heals tons of people. The next day, he gets up very early, and it says he went off to a solitary place. He got away from people so he could focus. I think that it is wonderful and it is good to learn to pray without ceasing. That's what 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says. That's the continual prayer that you offer up. That's a good thing, but it's not the same thing as having a focused time of prayer in which you're free from all distractions. You're away from people if you can be, and you're able to focus on the Father and pray. There's a deeper level of intimacy. And God sometimes speaks to us like he did with Elijah on Mount Horeb, in a still, small voice. You just need to get away and focus and be able to have God speak to you. And he prayed.

And in this way, I believe that the Father communicated love to the Son. Remember at his baptism, the Father said, "You are my Son. You are my Son. With you, I am well pleased." I think the Father continued to say that kind of thing to the Son, to reassure Him of his love for Him. And Jesus said of his own ministry, his own life, John 8:29. "The One who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him." How did he know that? Well, he's God, truly, but also because God told Him, "What you have done today pleases me." Wouldn't you love a time like that with Almighty God? To have God tell you again, "I love you. You're my son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven. You're going to heaven when you die. I'm with you. And the things you're doing are pleasing to me." Just to hear that from Him. How sweet is that?

And then, also, Jesus, I believe, every day got his marching orders from the Father. He found out what the Father wanted Him to do. It says in Isaiah, "The Lord has given me awakened ear to listen like one being taught." Says that in Isaiah. And so he would listen, and you know how it says in Ephesians 2:10 that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do what? Good works, which God prepared in advance, that we should walk in them. Don't you think he’d do that with Jesus too? Prepared some good works in advance that he should walk in them. And so Jesus just walked perfectly in the good works the Father had prepared in advance for Him.

This explains a great mystery to me. Jesus was a great man. How can you have those kinds of great responsibilities? To be a great man and be apparently infinitely interruptible? Didn't matter who interrupted Him. A woman, children, a group of people, Jesus immediately is available and yet incredibly effective in three years. Perfect ministry, atone for sin, dies and goes to heaven. Eternal. A perfect ministry, three years. How do you do both? Both efficient and effective? Interrupted and all that? Well, the way he did is everything had been worked out ahead of time. And the interruptions that happened were part of God's plan, and he never despised them. And the way he did it is, he knew that he didn't do anything apart from the Father. John 5:29, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He can only do what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. I do nothing apart from what the Father told me to do."

Again, John 8:28, "I don't say anything. I do nothing my own, but I speak just what the Father has taught me." So the Father told Him what to speak. He says the same thing again in John 12:49-50. "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." Now, I don't in any way minimize a moment-by-moment sense of the presence of the Father between the Father and the Son and all that. But I think there's nothing wrong with saying, so what do you think Jesus prayed about? And what do you think happened early in the morning? he's getting ready for his day of ministry, getting ready for his teaching ministry, hearing from the Father what to say and do.

And then not only apart from the Father, Jesus did nothing, but apart from the Spirit, Jesus did nothing that he would be empowered by the Spirit for his day of ministry. Peter said in Acts 10:38 that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. And he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with Him." God was with Him through the Holy Spirit.

So this was an insight I had within the last year or two. It occurred to me, just as Jesus did nothing apart from the will of the Father, he also did nothing, no miracles or no teachings apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit perfectly work together at all times. And so Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, went into the desert for his temptation, Luke 4:1. And then Jesus returned out of the time of temptation, Luke 4:14, full of the Holy Spirit. He entered the desert and left the desert full of the Holy Spirit. He did everything by the power of the Spirit.

 So what about us, brothers and sisters? What about us? If a sinless Jesus needed a good quiet time every day with the Father, how much more do we? Are you daily meeting with the Lord for Bible intake and prayer? That's what I want to ask you.

 Next, the priority of preaching in Jesus' healing ministry. Look at verse 36 and 37. Simon and his companions went to look for Him. When they found Him, they exclaimed, "Everyone is looking for you." What's going on there? There's a hidden request. What are you doing here? Bunch of people waiting for you back in Capernaum, right? It's almost like they had a vision that Jesus was going to be the house chaplain, and he was going to stay in that one house and people would come for healing and he would just be there and do those awesome teaching things and just be here.

 So Jesus didn't do that. He didn't come to be a localized chaplain. All right? And he didn't come to meet their physical needs and heal them day after day after day. He came to preach the Word. Look at verses 38-39. "Jesus replied, 'Let us go somewhere else, to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come. ' So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons." All of the healings were temporary, as I've said. The preaching was the key to everything. The preaching was the priority. Why is that? Because our souls need salvation, and salvation comes from hearing and believing the Word of God. Hearing and believing the Word of God.

And Jesus could not stay in just one locality. He had to travel around. So you remember Isaiah 49:6, the Father said to the Son, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the Earth." So if it's too small a thing for him just to be Israel's Savior, how much more is it too small a thing for Him to stay in Capernaum at that one house and heal whoever came to the doorstep? No, no. He had a ministry to move out and preach the gospel.

 All right. Applications. Well, the first application I've already hit hard, and that is your daily quiet time. How is your prayer life? And if the Lord is speaking conviction to you, don't feel negative. It's not a matter of what you to do. It's a matter of what you get to do. I mean, if you had a chance to meet tomorrow morning with Almighty God in a time of prayer, in which he assures you of his love and then tells you what good works he has for you to do that day, how could you miss it? And so just begin some new patterns. Also look at the core elements of Jesus' ministry. His healings, his prayer, and his preaching. Understand all of it led to one thing and that is the salvation of souls. Especially the preaching of the Word.

And so I beg you, each of you that are hearing me today, be certain that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ. That was the key to everything. That's the message that's being preached. That's why the Son of God became incarnate. That's why he died on the cross and shed his blood is so that sinners like you and me who are such mess-ups, who are so sick in our sin. Yes, we're physically sick, and we're physically injured. I get it. But we are spiritually sick, spiritually injured. Jesus came to save us. And that happens through repentance and faith in the gospel. Are you a Christian? Have you received the gospel? Have you received forgiveness of sins?

And then look what all of this is teaching, what the whole gospel is teaching. That Jesus is the son of God, his deity. I'm beginning to realize more and more, the more I meditate on this, I will not get to one millionth of a percent of understanding of what that means. Do you realize that Simon Peter said under the inspiration of the Father, the Father revealed, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." He said that. "You're the Christ, the Son of God." Do you know what he did a minute later? He took to Jesus aside and rebuked him. Can I just stop and just say something simple? Never rebuke the Son of God. Let's just keep it simple. He's never doing anything wrong. He doesn't need your input. He doesn't need your advice. All of that flows from unbelief. What did it tell me? Peter didn't really understand what Son of God meant.

And then the next thing, in the next chapter, he's up on the mount of transfiguration and thinks that Jesus needs a booth along with Moses and Elijah. Oh, the three of them, side by side. And a bright cloud has to appear and say, "This is my son whom I love. Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? Do you know who Jesus is?" That's the thing. And we can have a phrase. I know he is the Son of God, but we don't have one millionth percent of understanding of that. So saturate your mind in these accounts. Expand your sense of the greatness of Christ and trust in Him.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned today in the gospel of Mark. It's really amazing. There's so many things to learn. We thank you for Jesus' healing ministry, how powerful and universal and unique and effortless it was. But you know that the real healing that he needs to do in all of us is healing from sin. And so, Lord, work in us an ongoing deep work of repentance. Turn us away from wickedness and sin. Turn us to purity and holiness, that we might live a life worthy of the Lord and might bring glory to your name while we live in this world. In Jesus' name, amen.

Christ fueled His healing ministry with prayer and preaching as His healing was not only for physical illness, but soul sickness.

The post The Healing Ministry of Christ Begins in Earnest (Mark Sermon 6) appeared first on Two Journeys.

Luke gives us a glimpse into the life of the church after the Ascension of Christ and before the coming of the Holy Spirit. The church is assembled constantly for prayer, and they are all of one heart and mind.

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