I want to ask of you, this evening, a moment of heart examination. I would ask you to try to be honest with yourself. If you could ask one thing of Jesus, what would you ask? If you could ask one thing, what would you ask? The passage we're going to look at this evening, from Mark 1:29 through 39, does a wonderful job of revealing the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, what's important to Him, what His zeal is. And there's a way in which your growth as a believer is all about your desires matching God's desires, that the zeal of your heart would match the zeal of your Lord's heart; that what He wants for you, you would want for yourself; that what's important to Him would be important to you.
A Window Into the Heart of Christ
And so it's important for us to have this wonderful window into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's given to us in four vignettes: a fisherman's house, the gathering of a huge and growing crowd, an isolated place of prayer, and a conversation with the disciples. Look, if you would, in your 'Order of Worship' there to verses 29 through 31. Let me read them: And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with fever, and immediately they told him about her.
And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. (ESV) What a remarkable contrast between this moment that's now recorded and the moment that was previous. The previous moment was this amazing and public demonstration of the power of the Messiah over evil, as He publicly, in the synagogue, casts out this demon. And His fame grows; the word gets out that there's something about this person; there's something about His authority; there's something about His power that has not ever been seen before.
And you would think that Jesus would bask in the fame. This is an amazing moment; the people are recognizing His power. You think, "This is Jesus's moment; this is a time to be public." And that's not what happens. Instead, you find Jesus in the most intimate and the most private of moments. I think I would've basked in the fame. Remarkably, we find Jesus quickly moving to Simon's house, the house of a fisherman, and we immediately find Jesus engaging Himself in what, in the scheme of things, seems like a very little matter.
When you think that this Jesus has come to be the Savior of the world, the fact that one of His disciples has a mother-in-law who happens to be sick with a fever doesn't seem like the most significant thing. And yet this moment tells us something about Christ. You would argue that many of His miracles are particularly crafted to be public demonstrations of His Messiah-ship. Jesus is declaring that He is the Lord! He's Lord over evil; He's Lord over the body; He's Lord over physical creation, and He's walking onto earth and saying, "I am the King, and I am Savior, and there is none like Me.
No one who has come before is like Me. No one who comes after is like Me. I'm the Lord." But there's something different about this. This isn't a public demonstration of His power and His glory. This is Jesus in humble, sweet, compassionate love. He really does care about all the effects of the fall. He really does care about how the brokenness of the fall greets us in all kinds of ways in our lives. This is Jesus invading the mundane moment because of His love. There is really nothing too small for Him.
Now why is that important to you? Because you happen to live in this kind of little moment; you live in unremarkable little moments where, in those little moments, you are hit with the brokenness of the world. As I was reading this passage again, I thought of how the last couple weeks, we have prayed for little Eliana, Jonathan and Rachel Olson's little baby; and we prayed because we really did believe that, although this is one little girl, in one little room, in one little hospital, in one little moment in time, that God really does care, and He will not turn a deaf ear to the cries of His people.
That's love of a magnificence I don't think we can wrap our brain around it. And you don't have to stand back and say, "Well, for the King of kings and Lord of lords, my needs are way too small for Him to care about." What an amazing demonstration here; He cares! And immediately when Jesus is told about this woman's fever, He takes her by the hand and He lifts her up, and immediately the fever is gone. Now it says here, you notice in verse 31, that "...she began to serve them." Why that little note?
A Complete Miracle
Well, it demonstrates that this was a complete miracle. This woman's vitality came back. Do you know what you're like after you've had a fever for a long time? You feel pretty washed out; you want to sleep for days. Not this woman; she was immediately given back her full strength and the response of her heart was, "I want to serve this One who has done this for me." You are loved by a Redeemer who cares about the details of your life, cares about what you're facing, who will not turn a deaf ear to your cry.
Could I ask you this evening, "Where did the brokenness of a fallen world push in on you this week? Where did you face the pain, and the trial, and the suffering, and the confusion, and the weakness, and the disillusionment of the fall? Did you say to yourself, 'My Savior cares?'" And we know that He will not relent until every final effect of the fall is finally conquered, and we will live forever in a place where there is no more sadness, and there is no more sickness, and there is no more suffering.
That's the love of our Savior! And then there's a next moment. Look at verses 32 through 34: That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick and oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. (ESV) Well, it doesn't take long for the crowd to find Christ. And it's an amazing scene. Picture, in your mind's eye, this small fishermen's house and this crowd leaving the city and beginning to gather all around this house; picture it getting deeper and deeper and deeper, and these people are bringing all these broken bodies and oppressed people.
It must've been a wild scene. Imagine the crowd pushing at one another, trying to get close to the door, trying to get close to the Messiah. Imagine the suffering that was pictured there. And Jesus begins to respond to the needs that are there. Now, I've got to say something about this moment that will help us to understand something that's going to happen later. It's very, very important that you understand the motivation of the crowd because it will help you to understand what Jesus does next. There's no evidence that this crowd is rushing to Jesus because they want Jesus to be their Messiah.
There's no evidence that they're rushing to Simon's house because they've understood His requirements; they begin to understand what He alone is able to do in them. The evidence is that what the crowd is actually excited about is not Jesus as Savior, not the Good News of the Kingdom that says, "Repent and believe," but what the crowd is actually excited about is the miracle-working ability of Jesus. Now, obviously, it's not wrong to bring your need to Him; we've just talked about that. But something's wrong if that's all you want.
Jesus will not be satisfied with being a delivery system to you. He wants to be the thing that you love the most. He wants to be the thing that you desire most. He doesn't want to be the vehicle of what you want. He wants to be what you want. Amazing moment in John 6, you remember it well. Jesus feeds 5,000 people from a little boy's lunch with plenty of leftovers. And the crowd immediately begins to pursue Jesus to make Him their King. You would think, "This is the moment; the crowd gets it; they want Jesus to be their King; yea!
It's happened." And Jesus does this sort of weird thing. He withdraws, hides. And when the crowd catches up with Him, they essentially say, "Jesus we're confused. Why would you hide?" And Jesus says, "You ate the bread, but you didn't see the sign." Now, what He means is, "This miracle that I've done is meant to point you to a deeper need in your life." And then He says this, "Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." I think there's been a horrible distortion of the Gospel message in our culture.
Jesus as Divine Vending Machine
You want to be happy? You want to be satisfied with all the good things that life can offer? You want to be healthy? Want to be wealthy? Just come to Jesus. And in that way, Jesus is more a divine vending machine than a Savior. Again, what is it that you want from Jesus? Do you really love Him as a Savior? And do you recognize the depth of your need for Him in that way? Well, look what happens next, verse 35, "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."
Jesus withdraws to a place of prayer. We're confronted again with the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was capable of thirst; He was capable of hunger; He was capable of exhaustion; He was a man and alone; He prays to His Father. We don't exactly know what He prays here because Mark doesn't tell us. We have other prayers of Christ in the New Testament; and again and again, when Christ prays, He commits Himself to the will of the Father, and He prays for those whom He's ministering to that they would receive His message.
In this way, Jesus is really standing in our place, again, taking the mission and those who would be the object of the mission to the Father. Interesting word used here; if you look there in verse 35, it says, "And (He) went out to a desolate place," same word used earlier in the passage when Mark talks about Jesus's temptation, the word 'wilderness.' It's an interesting choice of words; because around Capernaum, there wasn't really much wilderness; it was actually pretty cultivated land. It's as if Mark is trying to make this contrast: Jesus, driven by the Spirit, to face temptation in our place.
This is Christ, in our place, in this moment of temptation; and here again, we have Christ in our place going to the Father. There's a contrast there that Mark is surely trying to make. Now, look at what happens next: And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, "Everyone is looking for you." And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
(ESV) The disciples are a bit confused. Where in the world is Jesus? The crowd has gathered. This is an amazing moment! They're ready to receive what He is able to do. Where is He? And you know there's a bit of irritation here, "Everyone is looking for you. Why would you be out here?" What is going on?" Notice what Jesus said, "Let's go out to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." In this moment when Jesus answers the question of these confused and quasi-irritated disciples, He is really revealing to us what's important in His heart.
He is saying, "Yes, I am willing to demonstrate My power; yes, I'm willing to touch people in a way that heals them; yes, I'm willing to cast out demons, but this is not what I came for. I didn't come to be a shaman; I didn't come to be a miracle worker. I came to be a Savior, and what drives My heart is not to stand in the middle of a crowd and touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch till everyone is healed. I want to be part of a deeper healing, and what tears at me is the brokenness of sin, and what I want to do is I want to go to town, to town, to town, to town to preach the Gospel."
Now there's something very, very important for us here, and I want to strike this balance for you. It is very, very important that we are a loving, compassionate community in our city. We're called by God to be advocates of justice and mercy. We should care about the brokenness out there. We should want to minister to the needs of the poor. We should care about people who are not receiving justice. We should be an example of mercy in our community like no other group. But we will not transform the city of Philadelphia by acts of kindness and mercy.
This city will only be transformed by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be committed to the centrality of that Gospel, and we must commit ourselves to looking for every opportunity we can to share the sad news and the Good News. The sad news, that I must confess my sin and my utter inability to live in a way, in any way shape or form that pleases God, and celebrate the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, how His sacrifice accomplishes my acceptance with God, my forgiveness of sin, and the ultimate hope that I will be fully delivered from it.
Do You Love the Gospel?
Maybe this sounds like a silly question; you are here on a Sunday night. Do you love the Gospel? Do you love the Gospel? Do you love the Gospel in such a way that it motivates you to share that message of hope and forgiveness in the places where God gives you opportunity? Do you love the Gospel in ways that you want to be part of the ministry of Tenth Church in any way you can? Do you love the Gospel in ways that you want to incarnate the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ where you are with the hope that that will give you opportunities for ministry?
Do you care about the people that are around you? Do you see them with Gospel eyes? It's very easy to quit noticing. It's very easy not to care. It's very easy to have a cold heart as you live in the place where God has put you. It's very easy to forget the need that is everywhere around you. Do you love the Gospel? Do you love, once again, to tell the old, old story? Jesus said, "This is my zeal! My zeal is to preach the Good News, to preach the Good News, to preach the Good News, to preach the Good News, to preach the Good News!
This is why I came out." And then Mark says that Jesus went about Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. His ministry, this early time in His ministry, was marching toward the cross. That Good News would not be good news without the cross; because in order for the Good News to be good news; there had to be a sacrifice; there had to be a perfect Lamb of God who would satisfy the wrath of the Father; there had to be the final demonstration of authority over evil. Colossians says, "On the cross, Jesus made a public spectacle of the enemy, triumphing over them by the cross."
That final phrase in verse 39 has the cross in view. Jesus was going to preach the Good News; that Good News required a cross, and Jesus would be the Good News; as on that cross, He conquered sin; and in that empty tomb, He conquered death. This is a loving Redeemer but who has the zeal of a Savior, and He will not relent till sin is forever defeated. It is really important, when you look at this passage, to ask another question. This one's not so much a ministry question; it's a personal question.
Do you love the Gospel for you? Are you broken in the face of your own sin? Or, have you gotten used to things that you should not grow used to--maybe acts of selfishness or pride, maybe unforgiveness and bitterness, maybe lust or gossip? Is your zeal for salvation? Does it match the zeal of your Lord, and do you bask in the fact that there is grace for every struggle, that you can stand before God in your brokenness because you stand in the righteousness of Christ? Or, do you deny; do you avoid; do you explain away; do you shift the blame?
Have you grown comfortable with things for which you should be convicted? May the zeal of our hearts match the heart of the Savior whose zeal was for the progress of the Gospel, that Gospel that led to the cross and that promises us forgiveness and freedom and deliverance? Let's pray: Lord, we are astounded at Your love that You would care about the mundane moments of our lives--things that seem small and insignificant. How magnificent Your love and we are encouraged by that love. And, Lord, we are heartened by Your zeal that You will not be content with just being a delivery system for us.
You want the deepest longing of our hearts to be for You and be for the salvation that only You can offer. And You want us to care about Your work on earth and that we would care about the brokenness of sin that's everywhere around us. And You call us to love the Gospel for ourselves, and to love its continuing work, and to want in our own lives, everything that You died to give us, that growingly, the deepest desires and thoughts of our hearts would be conformed to You. Thank you for this passage that so clearly reveals Your heart. We love You, and we thank you for Your redemptive love for us. In Jesus's name, Amen.
