A Day In The Life: Jesus Edition (2)

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[0:39] You may recall from our last study in Mark 1, it would have been two Sundays ago, that we started just a few verses prior to this. And what Mark is covering here in the narrative is a single 24-hour period in the life of Jesus Christ.

[0:55] And it's somewhat of a summary of what we might expect Jesus' regular routine in life to have been like in his ministry, especially as at this point, this is probably year two of his ministry, and he's really starting to grow in popularity.

[1:11] More people are beginning to hear about him. And we start to see this is probably what Jesus' life was like day by day. And Mark kind of gives us a summary of that by pointing out three events in this particular day.

[1:24] His emphasis is on Jesus' supernatural power and authority. And his point in writing it, again, is to serve that same purpose from verse one, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

[1:39] And at this point in his writing, Mark is primarily concerned with the identity of Christ. And when we get to the second half of the Gospel of Mark, we're going to see his focus shift to where he's going to emphasize the work of Christ in salvation.

[1:54] But for now, at least in these first eight chapters, he's really zeroing in on who Jesus is, his identity. And he's doing that by writing these various scenes and telling these various proofs that really happened in his life that give proof to who he was.

[2:11] We have to understand his identity before we can really understand his purpose and his work in salvation. And it's important for us to remember that Mark's goal here is not to entertain us about Jesus' life.

[2:25] His goal is to provide objective proof that would draw us to believe and follow Jesus. So it would be easy for us to read these verses and think, wow, that's pretty amazing.

[2:39] Look at the way that he healed. Look at how he had compassion. Look at all of these things that he did and the power. It would be one thing for us to be entertained by the life of Christ, but that's not what Mark's trying to do. He's not writing that for us to be fascinated.

[2:52] He's writing it that we may fall in love with this Jesus, that we may fall before this Jesus, that we may believe him and follow him as Lord, not simply be entertained or amazed at his life.

[3:06] So the question for the reader inevitably becomes, who else could do these things but God? When we read these individual scenes of Christ's life, who is this person?

[3:21] Who could possibly do this? Well, there's only one who could, and that is God himself. And so they end up giving proof to what ultimately becomes Jesus' own claim as being one with the Father.

[3:37] Well, in these few verses, Mark presents three different locations for the events of this particular day. We studied the first one last time. We looked at this episode in the synagogue of Capernaum, the synagogue.

[3:52] And what was Mark writing about in the synagogue? His authoritative word. That was the emphasis. You remember, he went into the synagogue at Capernaum. He was invited to speak as a visiting rabbi that day.

[4:04] And the people were amazed by his teaching. And then the man who was possessed with a demon causes a bit of a stir in the middle of the service. And Jesus, through his word, cast out the demon.

[4:17] He simply tells it to leave, commands it to be quiet, and the demon has no other choice but to obey. And so the people are astonished in this moment. Not only are they amazed in and of themselves that the authority with which he taught, it was very different from the scribes and the religion that they were used to in Judaism.

[4:34] But they were amazed that only by his word, even the devils had to listen. What kind of person is this? What kind of individual is this? They were amazed. Today, we'll examine the other two scenes, the other two locations in this 24-hour period.

[4:51] One is Simon's house, and the other is a solitary place. Let's look first at Simon's house and the events there. Look with me at verse number 29.

[5:03] When we come to Simon's house, what we really see Mark emphasizing now is Christ's compassionate heart, his compassionate heart.

[5:14] It tells us in verse 29, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon. The scene is set in Peter's house. Jesus went there along with him.

[5:26] Andrew was there. James and John, these four disciples that he had just called in Capernaum on the seashore. Now, Jesus had already given Simon the name Peter.

[5:37] That's how we often refer to him. But Mark hasn't revealed that yet in his gospel book. We're not gonna see that until chapter three. So until we get to chapter three, we're gonna keep seeing this name Simon pop up.

[5:48] And who is that? Well, it's Peter, it's Simon Peter, who eventually became the leader of the disciple group, the 12 men that followed Jesus closely. Now, interestingly, archaeologists believe that they have actually found Simon Peter's house in Capernaum, the very house that we read about here.

[6:09] And I'll leave it to you to study their findings, but you will discover that there is quite compelling evidence to suggest that what they have found in ancient Capernaum is indeed the house of Simon Peter, the place that this miracle, these miracles, actually took place that we just read about.

[6:33] It's interesting. James Edwards says that his house would have been an insula complex, insula being a Latin word for island, and it would have been different than our homes.

[6:44] You would have walked in from the street, not into the house, but into a courtyard. And surrounding this courtyard is a single house. It would have been referred to as one house, but various residences within it.

[6:58] And they all kind of surrounded this courtyard area. The courtyard was the center of life for the family. That's where they had their hearths. That's where they would have done their cooking. That's where they would have done various things.

[7:08] That's where they would have gathered as a family. And then their residences were kind of on the outskirts of this little courtyard. Now, when you walk in, all of the windows and the doors would have faced the inside courtyard, and all of the walls that faced the street would have been the back of the house.

[7:24] They didn't have windows on those walls. They didn't have doors on those walls. So the only way to get to the residence is to go through a single gate from the road that would have led to a courtyard, and then there were these houses or these residences.

[7:36] This is one house with multiple residences, which is important for us to understand, because how else could Peter have housed, not only he and his wife, and Christian tradition tells us he had children as well, and so he's got his own family.

[7:50] His mother-in-law is there as well. Andrew, this says that it's Andrew's house as well. So it's Peter's house, but there's multiple people living there, this residence.

[8:00] And it's another reminder that although Peter and Andrew were not educated people in the sense that the scribes would have been, they weren't these kind of strange, ignorant men either.

[8:15] He was a successful businessman. That is the only explanation for him having a residence such as this in a place like Capernaum. It's just a few steps away from the Sea of Galilee.

[8:27] I would encourage you to look it up and see the pictures of it yourself online. They've also discovered the synagogue, the ancient synagogue that Jesus taught in that morning and cast out the demon in Capernaum.

[8:42] It's a stone's throw away from Peter's house. So it would have been incredibly convenient for Jesus and these three men to walk out of the synagogue after the service is over around lunchtime is when it would have typically ended.

[8:56] And they would have walked out, they would have taken a right out of the synagogue and just a few steps down, there's Peter's house. It was convenient for them to retreat to. It would have been easy for them to get there and it would have been easy for everyone else in the town to know where they went and where they were when it came time for them to pursue Jesus.

[9:15] And so we see this as the place where this next scene is taking place. And what we see revealed here is the compassionate heart of our Lord, the compassionate heart of Jesus.

[9:26] Two observations about this. The first one, if you're keeping notes, is his healing touch. His healing touch. Look with me at verse 30. It says, but Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever.

[9:42] Apparently when the men came home, they discovered that Peter's mother-in-law had developed some type of debilitating infection. The gospel records of this moment always refer to the illness as a fever or a high fever as Luke places it.

[10:00] But they all suggest that whatever the illness was, it was physically debilitating. She could not function as normal. It was potentially life-threatening.

[10:13] Now you can imagine in this particular timeframe, there was no technological advancement and medical advancement like we have today. As I understand, and some of you that are in the medical field can correct me on this, but as I understand, there was really no true cure medicinally for diseases until something like 1885.

[10:35] So we're thinking most of history really didn't have anywhere near the advancement of medical knowledge and understanding to treat various illnesses. In this primitive time, a fever was a serious thing.

[10:47] You just couldn't go to the doctor and just get whatever medicines. You couldn't just go get a vaccine once it was developed. You couldn't get these other things. Once you were sick, you just prayed that the Lord would provide some kind of healing and that it would pass.

[11:00] Whatever this infection was that she got had affected her physically to the point that she couldn't serve in the way that she normally would. Perhaps Peter and Andrew and James and John and the others were used to coming home on the Sabbath after their time in the synagogue to his mother-in-law having prepared the Sabbath meal or the Shabbat meal on that day.

[11:22] But on this morning when they were afternoon, when they come home, she's nowhere to be found. There's no meal ready. And they find out quickly that she has fallen perhaps deathly ill and could not physically function as she normally would.

[11:38] So Peter does what all of us would have done in that case. He went to Jesus and he told him immediately, Jesus, my mother-in-law, she's sick. Knowing that Jesus would do something about it.

[11:50] Now we've talked about this curse this morning. Peter's mother-in-law was subjected to this curse in the same way that we are. But Jesus had both the desire and the power to overcome this curse on her life.

[12:06] That's the theme of these verses. The power of Jesus, but also his desire to help. Look at verse 31. And he came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up.

[12:18] Now in the scene at the synagogue when Jesus cast out the demon out of the possessed man, Mark was presenting the power of Jesus's word. Jesus literally said a word and the demon had to flee.

[12:31] But here he puts the focus on the power of Jesus's touch. He didn't only rebuke the fever. Luke tells us that he did do that verbally.

[12:42] But as he was doing that, he took the woman by the hand and helped her up. And what is that all about? There's compassion in this action. Compassion that was so often demonstrated in Jesus's willingness to touch and approach and even embrace those who were sick and diseased.

[13:02] There was no social distancing in Jesus's mind. There was no need for him to be concerned about flattening the curve. He could with one word destroy every illness and every ailment and he immediately with compassion approaches her and takes her by the hand and lifts her up.

[13:21] It's showing his compassionate heart. Hard. Jesus wasn't just performing a favor for his friend Peter. It wasn't as if he was kind of indifferent to what was going on with his mother-in-law.

[13:37] It wasn't that at all. He cared passionately about her condition. Why? We see this all over the scriptures with Jesus. In fact, the Pharisees tried to use it to their advantage sometimes.

[13:48] Jesus couldn't be around someone who was affected physically by the curse of sin and not do something about it. Why? Because of his compassionate heart.

[14:02] He came to set things right. So when he saw someone who was sick, when he saw the diseased, when he saw the demon possessed, he acted compassionately in every circumstance.

[14:13] The Pharisees would one day try to expose this. They invited a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day to Jesus. Knowing that Jesus couldn't help himself but to heal the man. And they were hoping to entrap him in some type of Sabbath violation.

[14:27] Everywhere Jesus went, he had this compassionate heart for those who were bound beneath the curse of sin. And he always acted compassionately for them. This was not just a demonstration of his power.

[14:39] It was an overflow of his compassionate heart. Dane Ortlund in that little book that I gave you on Anniversary Sunday wrote this. Jesus did not simply operate in deeds of compassion, but actually felt the inner turmoils and roiling emotions of pity toward the unfortunate.

[14:59] What a savior that is. He's not just demonstrating power. He's showing his love for this woman. Look at the next part of the verse. And immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto them.

[15:15] Now here's where his power is demonstrated once again. After Jesus takes her by the hand, we're told she was immediately and completely healed from the infection. And we're reminded there are no half measures with Jesus.

[15:30] Jesus didn't set her on the road to recovery. It wasn't as if she went to him for some kind of prescription and he gave her a particular plan to follow and that set her on the road to recovery. No, her recovery was instantaneous.

[15:44] Immediately she was completely healed. She was completely free from this fever. We see this all the time with Jesus. Remember when Jesus was on the boat with his disciples?

[15:58] It was the middle of the night and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat, remember? And the storm was so heavy and harsh that the boat began to break apart and the disciples who many of them had lived their lives on the water were fearful of their life.

[16:13] And remember they ran and they woke Jesus up and said, master, do you not care that we perish? And remember what Jesus did? He gets up from where he was sleeping and he said three words, remember? Peace, be still.

[16:25] And what does it say happened with the storm? With his word, he completely harnessed creation. The waves became as glass. The wind immediately ceased.

[16:37] An eerie silence overcome so much that the men immediately are fearful now, not of the storm, but of Jesus. With his words, he had just harnessed creation.

[16:49] But when Jesus said, peace, be still, it's not like the wind just kind of slowly came to a stop and the storm just kind of settled itself. There was no way for that to be pointed back to by those disciples as some type of coincidence.

[17:02] No, it was immediate. It was instantaneous and it was complete. The same thing with Jesus' healing of Peter's mother-in-law. It wasn't that it took her half an hour or so to kind of get her thoughts about her and get her legs underneath her.

[17:14] No, it was immediate as if she'd never had the fever to begin with and how do we know that? The last phrase, look with me again. She ministered unto them. Why would Mark make this note?

[17:26] Why would he care to mention what the lady did after the fact? Because there was no way that the people present could deny her healing was the direct result of the power of Jesus because the change was so instantaneous in her life.

[17:42] When Jesus showed up at the house, she was physically debilitated. She couldn't move. But now that Jesus has taken her by the hand and rebuked the fever, now she is doing everything as she normally would have done.

[17:53] And she's doing it immediately. What power is this? What power is this? What compassion is this? We see his healing touch.

[18:04] Secondly, we see his willing spirit. His willing spirit. Look with me now at verse 32. The men went about their afternoon, their typical Sabbath.

[18:14] They enjoyed their Shabbat meal, no doubt. And then it says in verse 32, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased and them that were possessed with devils.

[18:28] Interesting, isn't it? We wouldn't have expected anything different than this, right? This guy shows up in Capernaum on this day. He speaks with such authority in the synagogue.

[18:40] He cast out a demon in dramatic fashion. And by this time, word had begun to spread through Capernaum of what happened that morning at the synagogue. And people were interested to see what he could do for them as well.

[18:52] Now it notes here that it was after the sunset at the end of the Sabbath. That's important for us to acknowledge. Why did they wait so long? Did it take that long for word to spread?

[19:03] No, not really. It was a fairly well populated. It was a fairly small town. Word would have spread quickly. Remember, this is the Sabbath day. It was actually against the law for them to do what they were gonna do this evening.

[19:16] It was against the law for them to do that before the sun went down. When the sun went down, and at least the Jewish tradition was when two stars were clearly visible in the sky, that was the signal that Sabbath was finally over.

[19:29] And they could leave their homes, and they could go, and they could carry the sick and the ill to Jesus. And that's exactly what they did. Once the sun went down, it was considered the first day of the week. It would have been Sunday at that point in Jewish recounting of time.

[19:43] And they begin to bring all of these sick people to Peter's house. All of these demon-possessed people that they knew. Whether they understood them to be demon-possessed or not, we don't know.

[19:53] But they brought them to Jesus because something wasn't right. And one by one, they started to come so that a great crowd had gathered. Once they were able, they couldn't wait to get people to Jesus.

[20:08] But can you imagine what this was actually like for Jesus and Peter and his family? This would have been somewhat apocalyptic as far as their minds are concerned, like what we would see on some kind of movie, right?

[20:22] Can you imagine this? Jesus had every reason in the world to turn these people away. Think about it. Who are they bringing to Jesus this night? They're not bringing healthy people to Jesus.

[20:36] They're bringing diseased people to Jesus. But this is in a primitive time where there's no medicine to just kind of patch things up. And they probably hadn't bathed. People were probably typically afraid to even be around them because they're afraid that they might catch whatever it is that they've got.

[20:51] So they probably are alone most of the time. They're debilitated. Whatever infections they have probably stink. Can you imagine the sights as these crowds of people begin to gather at night outside of your house, clamoring out the door to get in?

[21:07] Except when you look out the window, the people that's there are people that are just absolutely rotten as far as their physical ability is concerned. Jesus could have easily thought, you know what?

[21:22] It's probably not a great thing for me to subject Peter's kids to this. You know, their immune systems are vulnerable. You know, this might be a little scary for them to see all of these people that are literally out of their minds because they've been possessed by demons.

[21:36] It might be unusual for us to bring them around. Maybe we should turn these people away. But Jesus didn't do that at all. It's late in the day. They're tired. The implication here is that they just kept coming that once the sun was down, it was just, it wasn't like an immediate mob.

[21:51] It was a progressive mob that continued to grow and grow and grow. And over time, it got larger and larger. It went later and later into life. There was every human reason imaginable for Jesus to turn these people away.

[22:04] But despite the chaos and inconvenience, he turned no one away. No one. He healed them all. It's amazing.

[22:17] No one was left out that came to Jesus that night. You know where I'm going with this, don't you? No one was left out. Everyone that was brought to Jesus received the healing that they needed.

[22:30] His compassionate heart endured every possible inconvenience in order to do for the people what they could not do for themselves. And this is truly the heart of Christ for all of us.

[22:42] And it's much greater than just our physical condition. No possible inconvenience or hardship would prevent him from taking our place on the cross and doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

[22:55] He was not only able to provide healing through his power, but he was willing to do it. For the lowest of the lows, the sickest of the sick, those that no one else wanted, he wanted.

[23:09] They brought them to him and he couldn't help but exercise his compassionate action and his willing spirit to provide healing for them. We're immediately reminded.

[23:21] Anyone who comes to Jesus, truly, he doesn't turn any of them away. He doesn't turn any of them away. Any of your friends and family members that will truly come to Christ, he will not turn them away.

[23:36] So tell them that. Why were these people bringing him to Jesus? Because at this point, they knew no one would be turned away.

[23:49] And then we see in verse 33 or verse 34, excuse me, he healed many and cast out many devils. That's not to say that there were some that he didn't heal and some devils that he didn't cast out.

[24:01] It's just a note that there was a lot of people that came. There were a lot of sick people healed and there were a lot of demon-possessed people that were free. Mark mentions this authority over demonic powers three different times in these verses.

[24:15] Between verses 21 to 39, three times, Mark mentions this, Jesus casting out demons. And he seems to link the sickness and disease of these healings with this same satanic darkness.

[24:30] He doesn't say that every illness is a direct result of demonic influence, nor does he say that satanic possession is itself a sickness. But both disease and satanic power are linked as representative of the fallen world that Jesus came to save and to restore.

[24:50] remember that curse we talked about. What's Jesus doing here? He's setting it right. He's showing that he does actually have power over evil, spiritual evil, and what we would consider to be physical evil.

[25:10] His miracles confirmed his ability to rescue souls and to give believers new bodies that are free from sickness and death. How can we come to Jesus with hope because of the foreshadowing that he showed in this power, this healing power?

[25:27] Juergen Moltmann said this, when Jesus expels demons and heals the sick, he's driving out of creation the powers of destruction and is healing and restoring created beings who are hurt and sick.

[25:41] The lordship of God to which the healings witness restores creation to health, restores it to health to its original purpose.

[25:52] Jesus' healings are not supernatural miracles in a natural world. They are the only true natural thing in a world that is unnatural, demonized, and wounded.

[26:05] It's amazing. Everywhere Jesus goes, most people ran from the sick and the demon possessed. Jesus embraced them. Why? Because he came to set things right and he shows his power in these miracles to do just that.

[26:19] And so we see Simon's house, his compassionate heart. The third place, and we'll wrap it up. The third place, third location in this passage is a solitary place.

[26:30] A solitary place. So in the synagogue, we see Jesus' authoritative word. In Simon's house, we see his compassionate heart. In a solitary place, it all builds to where we see his priority of purpose.

[26:47] His priority of purpose. Look with me at verse 35. In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.

[27:03] We're again learning about the unique communion here that exists between the three persons of the Trinity. You know, it would be easy for us to kind of read through this verse and miss what's happening.

[27:19] Mark is shifting his attention now. Apparently, sometime in the middle of the night, enough people were healed and enough demons were cast out that the crowd had subsided and gone away. Perhaps Jesus had got maybe a couple of hours of sleep.

[27:32] But then he gets up a great while before day before everybody else gets out of bed. And what does he do? He goes to a secluded place somewhere, probably outside of the town where people couldn't easily find him and he prays.

[27:45] Why? Why does he pray? He understood the necessity of prayer to the Father. Communion with the Father in this moment.

[27:58] And there's a little bit of a mystery in this for us, isn't there? It's a mystery for us in that we do our best to hold in tension the truths that Jesus is both God and man at the same time.

[28:10] We've referenced Philippians 2 in our service already and I would encourage you to read it again if you're confused on this. But Jesus is not just a man that has divine qualities and he wasn't God who just had a few things that resembled humanity.

[28:25] No, he was entirely God and entirely man and human at the same time. when he was in his deity or in his deity he could never have gone against the will of the Father but in his humanity he was driven to prayer and we see the role of prayer in Jesus knowing the will of the Father to follow.

[28:50] It's interesting as we see it here. There's a tremendous example in it for us to follow, isn't there? If the Son of God felt it so necessary to make time for prayer how much more should it be a priority to our daily routine?

[29:06] He'd been up all night. He was tired. He was busy. He could have slept in to get some rest that morning but he didn't do that.

[29:16] What did he do? A great while before day he made prayer a priority. He got out of bed before everybody else got out of bed. He went and found a place where the people wouldn't easily find him and he spent time doing what he knew he needed to do that day and if Jesus the very Son of God felt that this was a necessary action in his life to know the will of the Father and to please and glorify the Father with what he was going to do next how much more important is it for us sinful beings who are constantly inundated with our own flesh and our own selfishness and our own will how much more important is it for us even when we are busy?

[29:53] Even when we are tired to do whatever it is that is possible to get alone with God day by day and to spend time in communion with him in prayer.

[30:06] This time of prayer is what gives way to the shocking scene that comes next. Look with me at verse 35 or 36 excuse me. Simon and they that were with him followed after him and when they had found him they said unto him all men seek for thee and then he said let us go into the next town that I may preach there also for that is why I came.

[30:35] That's not exactly what you would expect if you hadn't read this passage before it's not exactly what you would have expected to have been Jesus' response right? It wasn't long before he was found Mark reveals here that there were competing agendas taking place.

[30:55] Peter probably gets up that morning notices that Jesus is gone and he's immediately on a frantic search to find Jesus and he gets Andrew and he gets James and John and maybe someone else that might have been with him it doesn't say exactly who and he goes out on this desperate search to find Jesus why?

[31:09] Because the town's looking for Jesus too. Everybody's trying to find him. They don't know where he is and finally Simon finds him and what is it that he wants Jesus to do? In this pursuit he's begging for Jesus to come back to Capernaum excited about the events of the previous day no doubt Peter and the other disciples demonstrate here somewhat of a skewed perspective of Jesus' purpose.

[31:35] They weren't blind to the amazing popularity that Jesus was gaining and they felt it necessary to compel him to capitalize on this growing fame and in this sense they weren't acting as submissive followers to Jesus but they were rather determining to control the Lord's movements and ministry in this moment but it wasn't just the disciples remember what they would have been thinking in this moment Jesus has been talking a lot about the kingdom remember that's the message he's been preaching repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and they keep thinking about the kingdom as if Jesus has come to finally run Rome out of town and finally set up this physical kingdom that the prophets of old had foretold for hundreds of years that's what they're expecting right now in their mind they haven't understood exactly what Jesus meant by his kingdom and so they're trying to get Jesus to come back to Capernaum because he's going to need a following right and now he's getting famous now he's getting popular they want him to come back so that this following can continue to grow and it can accomplish the purpose that they were hoping that Jesus would accomplish so there's the disciples on that end pulling him back to Capernaum and then there's the people words continuing to spread no doubt early in the morning they're all trying to get to Jesus again they want to see what

[32:47] Jesus can do for them come back to Capernaum come and help me with my fever no doubt they were thinking at this point there's probably some other beneficial ways that Jesus and we could use this power that Jesus possesses for our own good and in Mark's gospel we start to see the formation of the first prosperity seekers in his gospel and in his letter Kent Hughes wrote this they cared little about the spiritual implications of Jesus's miracles and teachings but much about the material and temporal that's the way it was in Capernaum he wrote how nice it would be to have a Jesus to heal us when we have a fever to make us wealthy and to give us prestige it's natural to want a magic Jesus can't use rights but we must always remember that God is not someone to be used he is to be loved and worshipped and served regardless of what comes in this world we have this same tendency today don't we we all do how many people do we witness to that at least on the surface and in the beginning are attracted to

[34:00] Jesus in hopes that Jesus might do something for them in this life this temporal life he'll make their life more convenient or he'll make their life better he'll give them a better job or he'll provide them with some type of prosperity or wealth or fame or whatever it is that they're searching for and so they come to Jesus not hoping that Jesus will actually change their heart but hoping that he'll make their life just more convenient and more comfortable at the time this is why the prosperity gospel preachers of the day are so successful they're getting rich off of our insatiable desire for health and wealth they're con men that manipulate people into thinking that if they will just send them some money then their greatest desires will be met people flock to these so-called churches only wanting Jesus if he will make them rich and heal their sickness but very few of them are actually concerned about his message Jesus understood that the disciples were somewhat falling into that trap here the people certainly were but then Jesus does something that they weren't expecting look at verse 37 or verse 38

[35:06] Jesus said unto them let's go to the next town that I may preach there also for that is why I came you gotta think that Peter and these other men were taken aback by this here they are thinking Jesus all these people are following you what you did yesterday was amazing let's go do it some more the people are thinking stay around a little longer we need somebody like you in Capernaum Jesus says you know what fellas why don't we go to the next town over the people that don't really know about me yet word hasn't gotten to them about these miracles and he said I don't want to go to those towns in order that I might heal there also he says I want to go to those towns in order that I might preach there also for that is why

[36:07] I came do you see his priority of purpose taking shape here no he was clear his primary purpose was to preach the gospel and while he continually healed the sick and there was never a demon possessed person that came across his path that he didn't cast out the demon that was a part of his compassionate art he poured out of compassion for these people everywhere he went but those were not the reasons he came those miracles were only temporary reprieves for those people they're only temporary Peter's mother-in-law was healed of this fever but another fever is going to come she's still going to die one day those people that were healed throughout the night they might get sick again those people who were possessed with demons at the moment they might be possessed again these were just temporary reprieves Jesus came to do something far greater for them and that purpose made it necessary for him to leave

[37:07] Capernaum and preach the gospel in other places doesn't mean that he wasn't concerned about them he healed everywhere he went so what was his purpose if it wasn't to do this his purpose was the gospel Matthew chapter one as we understand the incarnation of Jesus as we'll study the next few weeks she will bear a son you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sickness no he will save his people from their sin Luke 19 10 the son of man came to seek and to save that which was sick no he came to seek and to save that which was lost 1st Timothy 1 15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save those who were possessed with devils no he came to save sinners his emphasis was the gospel that was his primary purpose it looked beyond their ailments to the condition of their souls

[38:14] Jesus came to do a much greater work than heal our fevers and multiply our successes he's compassionately concerned for the effects of sin on our physical lives but he is infinitely more concerned about the effects of sin on our hearts and our souls and our eternity so it wasn't for Jesus to stay around in Capernaum and just heal every person that fell sick no that's not why he came it was time to leave how did he know it was time to leave because he got up early in the morning and he went to a solitary place and he communed with the father this truth and example of Jesus should radically change the way that we think about ministry as believers because that's the purpose of being a Christian right it means little

[39:17] Christ is what it means it means to be like Christ we are being fashioned into his image that means when we study the gospels we gaze at Christ we look at how he responds how he acts and we pattern our lives after his he is our Lord what was he doing here yeah he had compassion hey we should have compassion for people we should have compassion for our fellow man we should care about those who are hungry we should care about those who are sick we should care about those who are struggling against various injustices in their lives we should come to their defense that is a very Christian thing to do the Bible tells us to do that to defend the fatherless and the widow those who society has rejected who no one is caring for it is in us as believers to follow the pattern of Christ to show compassion on those people but that is not our purpose while we care and while we help and while we show concern what good is it if we come to their defense what good is it if we feed their bodies what good is it if we comfort their illness but we never give them the gospel that's the purpose that's our purpose and these actions they're not at war with one another they're not competing elements but everybody in our society right now is trying to tell the church what it needs!

[40:51] to be! it's the crowd in Capernaum that's seeking for Jesus it's the disciples who are the ones that have spent a lot of time with them they're trying to dictate what the purpose of the church is and they're missing the mark our banner and battle cry is not social justice our banner and our battle cry is not the comfort of those who feel bad our banner and our battle cry is the gospel of Jesus Christ that must be our priority mark 8 what does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his soul there's a balance here for us I know but Jesus made it clear that not only for his ministry but also for ours there is a priority of purpose and that purpose is first the gospel and it is the overflow of that gospel care that we should bear compassionate hearts that we should seek to help and to love and to defend and concern but not at the sacrifice of the message of the gospel itself when we look back on these verses we have been amazed by

[42:12] Jesus authoritative word I hope you have I hope you have been encouraged by his compassionate heart he turns no person away you realize most of those people that came for healing that he healed did not follow him faith was not a prerequisite!

[42:30] for Jesus' miracles sometimes it was most of the time it wasn't he healed a lot of people that never followed him most of these people would abandon him in fact later on he's going to pronounce a curse on Capernaum he's going to say woe unto you Capernaum because if I had come in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah they would have repented but you haven't repented all you want is more from me we're going to see in the feeding of the 5,000 they didn't really care about what he was teaching they just wanted a new meal they were using him but even despite that and despite knowing that what was his compassion he fed them anyways amazing some of these people would be responsible for crying out crucify him yet he did not turn them away amazing it tells us something about our own hearts doesn't it because when somebody offends me or if I am suspect of somebody's motives the last thing I want to do usually is help them not

[43:33] Jesus and then we get to the end and we see his purpose and how fantastic is that and what's Mark's point who could possibly possess such amazing power and compassionate love and singularity of purpose in the father's will only one person only the Messiah only the son of God the question then becomes what will you do with the Savior there's really only two choices on the table you can either believe him follow him and receive eternal life and forgiveness of sin or you can be indifferent or rejected and receive instead eternal judgment thank you for listening to this sermon made available by Lakeside Bible Church feel free to share it wherever you like please do not charge for it or alter it in any way without express written consent from

[44:35] Lakeside Bible Church don't forget to visit us online at lakesidebible.church or find us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Lakeside Bible NC if you live in the Charlotte or Lake Norman area we'd love for you to attend one of our worship services we meet every Sunday morning at 10 a.m we'd love to meet you