Lord, we ask that you would bless us, bless our minds, bless our ears, bless our hearts,
so that we may hear you and understand, and that our hearts will be turned towards you.
Lord, we thank you for this gospel reading.
And Lord, we ask that you would meet us this morning,
that we would encounter the living God through your word.
In Jesus' mighty name, amen.
So I've been listening to the Revolutions podcast for some time now.
I don't know if anybody's listened to this podcast. It's excellent.
It's this guy named Mike Duncan who started out with a podcast on the history of Rome,
and somehow it just snowballed into a career.
And he is actually just wrapping up season 10 of 10 seasons on various revolutions.
So he started with the English Revolution.
He's finishing on the Russian Revolution.
So I've listened to like four seasons.
I'm tracking with him for this Russian Revolution.
And it seems like the most common thread in all of this,
I mean, apart from there actually being a revolution in each season,
because that's what the podcast is about,
is that leaders are really bad at leading.
They are.
And they lead in such a way that never seems to put their people first,
but it seems to lead in such a way to make their coffers shine a bit more brightly with more gold,
or expand their land,
to tax people in such a way that leaves them destitute,
to have this big ego trip,
to conquer the world,
and it's at the expense of just regular people
who are just trying to live a regular life.
Appreciate that, guys.
And you know, these leaders,
they don't show compassion to their people.
They seem to show contempt.
Let's keep that in the back of our mind
as we continue to explore the ministry of Jesus
as we wrap up Mark chapter 1 this week.
So a bit of a recap,
if you weren't here,
if you forget,
no problem.
Jesus returns from the wilderness.
After Jesus gets baptized,
he goes to the wilderness.
He returns from the wilderness to the Galilee region,
which is kind of like in the north part of what is today Israel.
And he begins his ministry by proclaiming the gospel of God.
And we learned last week that the gospel
isn't just this kind of interesting good news
that kind of gets us out of hell and gets us to heaven,
but it's actually Jesus himself.
And the implications of the gospel
are that the kingdom is at hand,
and that the kingdom of God
comes against the kingdom of this world,
the kingdom of evil.
And we start to see goodness
and humanity flourish in the way that God intended,
at the core of which
is that we get to have this relationship with God
once again that was lost in the garden.
So that is a bit of the recap.
In our scripture portion this week,
after Jesus calls his first disciples,
we start to see a number of miracles that happen.
And they're done in rapid fire succession.
In fact, from this section all the way to the beginning of chapter 3,
it is a rapid fire of Jesus
either healing somebody or doing some kind of miracle
or commanding nature in this supernatural way.
So in this section,
in this section,
Jesus casts out a demon,
he heals a sick woman,
he heals a whole group of people,
and then he heals another demon-possessed man
before he cures somebody of leprosy.
So it's a very, very quick,
intense portion of scripture.
And one of the things that helps us to read this portion better
is to see what Jesus does
and see how people are reacting to him.
So it's really important that we understand what Jesus says,
but really Mark is drawing our attention
more so to what Jesus does.
So the first thing we'll get into this section,
starting in verse 21,
is we're going to see that Jesus enters a synagogue
and he begins to teach.
He is proclaiming the gospel message.
So we remember the gospel message
that Jesus is proclaiming in verse 14 and 15 in chapter 1.
And here Jesus is proclaiming,
it's implied that he's proclaiming that gospel message once again.
So, verse 21, it says this,
And they, Jesus and his disciples, went into Capernaum,
and immediately on the Sabbath,
he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
And it's really important that we understand that
before all these miracles go down,
before all of this incredible supernatural things begin to happen,
Jesus, he teaches.
And he is proclaiming the gospel.
It's never lost on Jesus.
Even though the miracles come,
he is there to proclaim the gospel.
And he teaches it.
He proclaims it.
He preaches it.
And we see this again,
because in verse 38,
Jesus goes away in the early morning to pray.
And this is after a bit of time healing people.
And his disciples come to get him.
And it seems like his disciples are just wanting to ride this excitement.
Like, Jesus is getting notoriety.
People are pretty excited about him.
He's doing miracles.
His fame is spreading.
And they are going to get him,
like, let's keep this up.
And what does Jesus say in verse 38?
Jesus says to his disciples,
let us go on to the next town,
that I may preach there also.
And then a very key bit here.
He says,
for that is why I came out.
Jesus is proclaiming the good news of Christ.
The gospel.
And that is what he is doing.
And his preaching,
interestingly,
is connected to his divine authority.
That Jesus isn't some Messiah figure
that's a bit of a poser.
He's not this faith healer, so to speak,
that just shows up and does a little abracadabra.
He has authority.
And how do we know this?
Well, let's go back to verse 21 to 28.
Jesus enters the synagogue with his disciples
and was teaching.
Verse 22.
And they, the people in the synagogue,
were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one with authority
and not as the scribes.
And that's not some kind of hit against the scribes.
It is just saying that
this is something they haven't seen.
Even the authority and prestige
of the top of the religious establishment,
Jesus' authority is well above that.
And it's interesting that this authority
is a divine authority.
And Jesus preaches.
How do we know that it's some kind of divine authority?
Because it's,
the people react and they recognize
there's some kind of authority,
but something else happens.
If you look down in verse 23,
And immediately,
there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out,
What have you to do with us,
Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are,
the Holy One of God.
Jesus' divine authority,
his divine proclaiming of the gospel,
that God himself has come
to make all wrongs right,
it doesn't sit well with somebody
with an unclean spirit.
That this unclean spirit
that is possessing this person
has power,
has some kind of authority.
But it's very clear
that the authority pales
in comparison to Jesus.
This person who has the demon,
the demons cry out,
recognizing who Jesus is.
Jesus, he shuts them up
really quickly.
And how does he cast out this demon?
Is it this conjuring?
Is this kind of reverse hex
or some kind of weird magic trick?
It's simply speaking.
In verse 25,
but Jesus rebukes him,
saying,
be silent and come out of him.
There's no back and forth,
there's no kind of swords being drawn.
Jesus speaks and it is done.
And the unclean spirit,
verse 26,
convulsing him
and crying out with a loud voice,
came out of him.
And they,
everybody at the synagogue,
were all amazed
so that they questioned
among themselves,
saying,
what is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits,
and they obey him.
And at once,
his fame spread everywhere
throughout all the surrounding region
of the Galilee.
Jesus has this divine authority.
He has this spiritual authority,
this supernatural authority.
The good news of God,
of God,
who really is God himself,
right?
The good news is Jesus.
Jesus,
it establishes the,
the byproduct,
so to speak,
the implications of it,
is the establishing of God's kingdom
on earth
that just comes up against
the kingdom of Satan,
the kingdom of this world.
And it's a no contest affair.
It is a,
this isn't some kind of cosmic battle
between angels and demons
like we'd see in some kind of
sci-fi or superhero movie.
It's a done deal.
It's a no contest at all.
It is Jesus speaking,
and it is done.
So,
Jesus is the king
who has come to establish his kingdom,
and he has divine authority.
And how does he use his divine authority?
Again,
think back about
any kind of history.
I mean,
I'm thinking of these revolutions
that I've been learning about.
how do earthly kings,
even the best ones,
use their authority?
I mean,
at best,
like,
kind of good,
like,
for the flourishing of people,
but really,
in some ways,
like,
they're making sure
that they're taken care of.
Jesus,
in his divine authority,
he shows compassion
on a troubled soul,
a truly troubled soul.
he shows compassion
to rid this person
of an unclean spirit.
He doesn't show contempt
to the person.
He doesn't say
to the person,
at least,
it's not in Mark's account here,
but he doesn't say to the person,
what kind of stuff
did you get into?
What kind of things
were you dabbling in?
What kind of issues,
you know,
do you really have?
What's your past?
He doesn't say that.
He sees the troubled person,
and what does he do?
He has compassion.
He doesn't put the person
through some kind of purgatory
or anything like that.
He has compassion.
He doesn't show contempt.
Mark wants us to see
and know
the authority of Jesus
and that it is
a deeply spiritual one.
And here's where I'll pause
in the narrative
of our section here.
And just to talk about something,
if you're sitting here
and there's a bit of like
a question in your brain,
a little maybe self-talk going on
that's saying like,
I don't even believe in some kind of,
like it sounds fanciful.
Like this spiritual type of situation,
a supernatural type of world.
I mean,
I'm sure you're not alone.
I struggle with some of this stuff as well.
For many of us
in this post-modern
time in Canada,
this spiritual world,
anybody that's talking about
spirituality,
it's cool if it's relegated
to just,
like that's your thing.
Enjoy it.
If that kind of helps you
to deal with life
or it kind of,
it reduces anxiety,
it gets good.
Like engage in that kind of stuff.
It's a very subjective attitude
that we have towards spirituality.
We recognize that really,
in a sense,
spirituality,
it's kind of,
it's kind of reduced
to like a therapeutic
type of hobby.
Maybe I'm not being too kind,
but,
and to somehow downplay therapy
or some therapeutic thing,
I'm not at all.
But,
we're cool with the spirituality
if it's your thing,
if it's subjective.
But if all of a sudden
I start talking about
some kind of spirituality
that's completely objective
and that it is a real reality now,
it's a bit of a problem
for some folks,
for our culture at large.
Like we celebrate,
we enjoy Halloween
and we put out ghosts
and stuff like that
if you're,
if you celebrate Halloween.
But nobody's trying to say,
hey listen,
like that's a real ghost.
Like there's some kind of
real spirituality going on.
As a culture,
we're not doing that.
But I find it very interesting
that easily
the biggest franchises
when it comes to entertainment
aren't historical dramas
or even rom-coms.
But it is science fiction.
It is superhero genres.
These larger than life,
supernatural characters
that go on.
I mean,
billions of dollars are spent,
I guess were spent
before the pandemic
at movie theaters.
Now they're spent,
you know,
with subscriptions
to various kind of like
Netflix and whatnot.
but nevertheless,
billions of dollars
are spent
to enjoy a world
that is not this world.
And to say,
well yeah,
I like entertainment.
I think as a culture,
there is this desire to,
like it,
we kind of want it
to be real.
We kind of want
something to,
to be real
about some kind of
fantasy world
or sci-fi world.
And I'm not somehow
trying to say that
like Spider-Man
or the Hobbits
really exist somewhere.
Like,
good luck.
Not,
not saying any of that,
but that,
it's,
it's as if we
have this desire
for something
greater than
the physical realm.
that there is
some kind of
spiritual realm.
But that's not
all of Canada.
There's some people
that it's like,
they're,
they're super into
some kind of
spirituality
where they see
everything as,
as,
there's a boogeyman
or a spirit.
And maybe it's not
so much folks here.
I know that
in the Middle East,
there's this,
there's this thing
that,
it really flavors
almost everything
for a huge portion
of the population.
It's called the Evil Eye.
I don't know if you guys
have ever heard of
the Evil Eye.
But the Evil Eye,
it's in Judaism,
it's in Islam,
it's all over North Africa
and the Middle East.
And all of a sudden
everything is interpreted
through a bit of
a cosmic battle,
some kind of
spiritual back and forth.
I have family
in the Middle East
and they'll wear,
at least one of them,
wears a medallion
to ward off
the Evil Eye.
Because if the Evil Eye
hits you,
game over.
Like you're going to have
to do some hardcore
spiritual stuff.
And again,
I'm not trying to downplay it,
but this is a reality
for a lot of people.
The Bible here
doesn't somehow
negate a spiritual realm,
nor does it talk about
it's the Wild West
spiritual realm.
That there is most certainly
a spiritual realm
in the scriptures
that's talked about
in Mark
and the rest of the Bible.
But make no mistake,
God and God alone
has authority
over everything.
There isn't a 1A
and a 1B
in the spiritual realm.
There is God
and there's everything else.
And this is a case in point
where God,
excuse me,
there's an unclean spirit
that opposes God's will
and it's simply
Jesus with the authority
to say,
be gone.
Be gone.
And it's done.
And this is good news
because for us,
some of the things
that plague us
are physical conditions.
They are emotional problems.
But a lot of it is spiritual.
There is spiritual realities
where we are struggling
and it feels like
there is something
that is weighing down
our life.
That it feels like
I am walking through this life
through thigh-high mud
and I can't figure it out.
And the good news is that
God is above it all.
Jesus is above it all.
And we can come to Him
just as we are.
And He's not going to have
contempt on us.
He's going to have
compassion on us.
And the past is the past.
It is.
We can't undo the past.
But we go to God,
we go to Jesus,
trusting that the same Jesus
we see here
is the same one
we're going to encounter.
The first week we talked about this,
or last week actually,
that Jesus,
a part of the gospel message
is to repent and believe,
this ongoing repenting
and believing.
And that's all we need to do.
We come to God,
I am sorry for what I have done,
I repent of it,
and I'm throwing myself
at your mercy.
He will not turn you away.
The king with authority
has compassion,
not contempt,
on his people.
So Jesus has authority.
It's very, very clear
in Mark
over the spiritual realm.
But also,
this king,
Jesus,
is humble.
What do I mean?
Three times in this section,
and we'll see it in other times
in Mark's gospel.
Jesus shuts down
any kind of good publicity.
He shuts it down.
Verse 25,
Jesus rebukes
the demons,
says,
be silent
and come out.
In verse 34,
he's healing
those who are sick
and with various diseases,
and he casts out many demons,
and he would not permit
the demons to speak
because they knew him.
And then in verse 43,
after Jesus cleanses the leper,
he says,
it says,
and Jesus sternly charged him.
And this,
sternly charge him,
is a very clean way
of saying,
like,
getting in his face.
I think the literal word
is like he snorts at him.
Like,
there's this
kind of,
like,
aggressive streak in Jesus.
And he sternly charges
this young man,
or this man
who is cleansed
of leprosy,
and he said to him,
see that you say nothing
to anybody,
to anyone.
There's a lot of commentators
that,
they're in fits
over why.
And there are some
that look to undermine
the authority of the Bible
by saying,
see,
this is proof
that Jesus never considered
himself divine.
He never considered himself
some kind of Messiah figure.
I would push back
against that.
A number of different reasons.
But one of the reasons
that I'll bring to your attention
I think is absolutely stunning.
Jesus here says,
be silent in verse 25.
He doesn't permit
the demons to speak
in verse 34.
See that you say nothing
to anyone,
anyone,
anybody,
in verse 43.
And here,
we have in view,
Mark has in view,
that Jesus is fulfilling
the suffering servant
person
that the prophet Isaiah
talks about.
There's four,
in Isaiah,
there's four sections
that talk of
this prophecy
of this suffering servant
that will come.
And it's this progressively
revealed person,
and it kind of culminates
in Isaiah 53.
It's a very famous chapter
in Isaiah chapter 53.
But one thing about
this suffering servant
who is understood
to be the Messiah,
who is God himself,
is that he is humble.
He is very humble.
That he is lowly
and he is gentle.
So,
one suffering servant
passage,
Isaiah chapter 42,
verses 2 and 3,
says this,
speaking of the servant,
he will not cry aloud
or lift up his voice
or make it heard
in the streets.
Very famous verse here,
a bruised reed
he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick
he will not quench.
He will faithfully
bring forth justice.
That his suffering servant
is gentle
and he's humble
and he's compassionate.
But don't mistake it
for weakness.
It's not weak.
This is a very beautiful picture
of a compassionate king.
Some of you
who have been at church
for a while
might know that there's
a bit of a reckoning
happening
for some
specifically evangelical
pastors
that have been bullies.
that have pushed people around.
That have not been gentle
or compassionate.
Who have not been humble.
This is not the way of God.
It is not.
And for whatever reason,
we have equated humility
and gentleness
with weakness.
But that's not the case at all.
I mean, in each case,
Jesus,
it's on,
when he is telling,
be silent,
permits him not to speak,
say nothing to anybody.
He's doing anything
but being weak.
He's doing anything
complete authority
over anything
that opposes him.
But he is humble
and he is weak.
What does he do
when all of a sudden
his popularity grows?
He takes off early
in the morning
and he prays.
We see this
in verse 35 and on.
And rising very early
in the morning
while it was still dark,
Jesus departed
and went out
to a desolate place
and there he prayed.
and then his disciples
try to get him.
Like, listen,
we've got to capitalize
on this kind of stuff.
He is humble.
He's compassionate.
This is who the king is.
He doesn't have contempt
for his people.
He has compassion.
Jesus becomes a servant
of all,
ultimately humbling himself
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Isn't it interesting
that the king
who is above all kings
doesn't squeeze
his subjects
for every last penny
they have?
Doesn't exploit them
for all of their talents
and treasures.
What does he do?
He lays down his life
for them.
He thinks of their benefit
at the expense
of his well-being.
The humble,
compassionate king.
And this brings us
to the last bit.
Jesus cleanses a leper
and it's remarkable
how little subtleties
in the text
have just a ton of meaning.
Jesus heals people
that are sick,
but for lepers,
he cleanses them.
What do I mean?
Take a look with me
in verse 40.
And a leper came to him,
and it's not necessarily
leprosy,
it might be.
There's like something
like by this time
when Jesus is on the scene,
there's something like dozens,
maybe even more than that.
Different skin conditions
that are like
under the header leprosy.
And anyways,
we'll get into that
in a second.
Verse 40,
And a leper came to him,
imploring him,
and kneeling,
said to him,
If you will,
you can make me clean.
How does Jesus respond?
Move with pity.
He stretched out his hand
and touched him
and said to him,
I will be clean.
leprosy meant
you're done.
You are done.
You're outside
of the community.
You can't be
a part of normal society.
There are,
I mean,
we call them
leper colonies today.
They don't exist
in North America.
They still exist
in parts of the world.
They existed
in Jesus' day.
And to be a leper
meant to say goodbye
to your family,
meant to say goodbye
to a life of work
and the dignity
that comes with it.
And if you were to come
into a town,
you had to declare it,
shouting it,
and people would flee.
So this leper
comes up to Jesus.
He risks soiling Jesus.
How does Jesus respond?
He turns to him,
it says,
and he is moved
with pity.
He stretched out his hand
and he touched him.
He touched him.
The untouchable
gets touched.
And it doesn't say
that he had pity,
but he was like,
all right,
he girded up his loins,
so to speak,
and kind of took
a big, deep,
courageous breath
and touched him.
He had pity.
The king had compassion
and not contempt.
Compassion
and not contempt.
Four times
in this section
verses 40
to 45,
it says,
it talks about cleansing.
Mark wants us
to make no mistake
that Jesus
didn't just do,
again,
some abracadabra.
He cleansed
somebody who couldn't
be cleansed.
this picture of uncleanliness
and Jesus
touching it
and restoring it.
It is such a big picture
for this poor man,
but it's a fantastic picture
for us.
I said earlier,
the past is the past,
but the past
might not be the past
for some of you folks.
And some of the past,
I shouldn't say
some of you folks
as if it's not me too,
it fully is me.
The past isn't just the past.
The past is,
it's a hundred pound weighted vest
that I'm trying to walk around
with day after day.
Maybe it's heavier for you,
maybe it's lighter.
You've done things
that you're not
too proud of.
You're ashamed
of certain things.
You feel unclean.
You do different things
to make yourself feel clean
and it works
for maybe a bit,
I don't know.
I don't know what it is you do
that makes you feel alright
and good about yourself
and I don't mean that flippantly.
I genuinely mean it.
But in the end,
that uncleanliness comes.
Jesus touches the leper
and he wants to do the same to us.
To restore us.
The past can't be dealt with.
This leper couldn't do
a thing about it.
Jesus again doesn't say,
listen,
what did you do
to become a leper?
Like,
why would you ever
hang out with other lepers
or I don't know
what it would be.
It just says that he's moved with pity
and he touches him.
He restores him.
The leprosy leaves him.
There's great hope
for the soul
that feels unclean.
There's great hope.
And that hope
isn't for tomorrow
or the next day.
It's for now.
Jesus doesn't say
to the leper,
listen,
go through the whole
ritual cleansing thing.
He heals him on the spot.
And the man
isn't partially restored.
He's fully restored.
And for us,
maybe that full restoration
is a bit of a process.
Because unlike leprosy
that just falls off miraculously,
some of the inside leprosy
just takes time.
Again,
why in verse 14
when Jesus says,
he proclaims the gospel
and he says to repent
and believe,
it's this ongoing belief
because we forget.
So sometimes it is a process.
Oftentimes it's a process.
But we, again,
can be sure
that the Jesus we see here
is the Jesus
that we interact with now.
He hasn't changed.
The story wraps up
in verse 45
and this is where
I'll wrap it up.
It says,
but the now-cleansed leper
went out
and began to talk freely
about his cleansing
and to spread the news
so that Jesus
could no longer
openly enter a town
but was out
in desolate places
and people were coming to him
from every quarter.
So the reason why
Jesus had to go out,
his popularity was,
it was,
it was just growing
and for whatever reason
he had to go out
and people were coming
to see him.
That's,
like,
that's,
that's the simple reading,
the literal reading
of what's happening.
But the way Mark
positions that
is that right on the heels
of Jesus cleansing this leper,
the leper goes into the town
and Jesus goes outside
of the town.
It's as if Jesus
switches places
with the leper.
He goes to the desolate places,
he goes to the wilderness,
the place where he can't
engage with the community
and again,
Jesus does eventually
go into the town
so I'm not trying to make
a huge thing out of this
but the way Mark
has positioned it,
he is putting breadcrumbs
out for us
because we're starting
to see who this Messiah is.
That he doesn't just
work miracles,
he takes on
our fate
and gives us
his.
He cleans us
and he becomes
unclean.
He takes our sin
away from us
and,
and so we are made
righteous
and,
and that sin
rests on him
and we're starting to see,
Mark is painting this picture
and we're starting to see
of just little bits
of who this Messiah
is and what he's come to do.
And ultimately,
we will understand
who the Son of God is
at the cross
where Jesus dies
not for his own sins
but for your sin,
for my sin.
And we start to see
this beautiful picture
of who this incredible King is.
Jesus has all authority
and yet he is humble
and lowly.
He's compassionate
and does not show contempt
and he will cleanse you.
He will.
It's a promise,
not my promise.
It's his.
He will cleanse you
if you only cry out to him.
Have mercy upon me.
You can cleanse me
if you will.
Why don't we stand
and pray,
stretch out
and then we'll get into
a time of intercession.
Lord God,
we thank you
that your word is rich.
It is very rich
and we thank you
for your Son
who has all authority
over everything
and that the battle
is already won.
It's evil,
can't hold a candle
to your Son.
And yet,
your Son,
he doesn't flex
his authority
at our expense
but instead
he is compassionate,
that he is lowly
and humble
and yet almighty.
Lord,
we ask that you would help us
to not try to perfume
the leprosy,
so to speak,
to hide the stench
but instead
we will go to your blessed Son
and ask for his wonderful
healing touch.
Lord,
for us,
Lord,
help us to grow in our faith.
If anybody here,
Lord,
has not quite put their faith
and hope and trust in you,
Lord,
will you please
draw them to yourself
and that they will simply
repent and believe,
throw themselves
at your feet.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.