Mark chapter 6, it's almost a hill up and then back down as you look at the gospel of Mark.
The height of the popularity of the ministry of Jesus comes toward the midst of the book in the gospel of Mark.
And then after you get to about the middle of the book, it begins to focus upon the cross.
And Mark spends a lot of his time talking about the last days of Christ in Jerusalem.
So when you get to Mark chapter 6, we are at the height of the popularity of the ministry of Christ primarily in Galilee.
He's been on that boat with those disciples.
And when it moors into the dock, it is central to most of his ministry, that area.
It is not far from his adopted hometown of Capernaum where he did so much ministry.
It's not far from where he taught the Sermon on the Mount.
And much of his healing had taken place among those very people.
The whole region is alive with anticipation because the word is spreading what Christ has done.
Perhaps they see the boat approaching the shore.
I say the boat because Mark always refers to it as the boat.
As if it was a boat that was for just Christ and the disciples.
They were using somebody's boat to get around.
And crowds were moving toward him.
There was a great sense of urgency and desperation.
And I want us to look this morning at how they responded to Christ as he came to shore in Mark chapter 6, verse 53.
Because I believe that it's a proper response that we should have for Christ's work.
It's in Mark chapter 6, verse 53.
It says this.
When they crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.
And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him.
And ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.
And wherever he came, villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.
And as many as touched him were made.
Gennesaret is a beautiful area.
It is often called the paradise of Galilee.
The word itself means a garden of riches.
It is so prominent in that area that Luke chapter 5, verse 1, even says the Sea of Galilee is called the lake at Gennesaret.
It's got very rich soil.
Soil that allows almost everything to grow there.
Josephus is a first century Jewish historian that said this.
There is not a plant with its fertile soil refuses to produce.
And its cultivators, in fact, grow every species in that area.
I've been to that area.
We spent the night in Tiberias and headed toward Galilee and rode the bus through the area as we went toward Galilee and Capernaum.
It's about a three-mile section.
And it is filled with date palms, banana groves, and irrigated fields.
It stood out.
It was obviously a fertile area.
And where food can grow, people live.
The area was also known for its mineral springs.
And it was thought that they would bring medical benefit to people.
If it didn't bring medical benefit, it still felt good on hurting bones and muscles.
And people came.
And now in this populated area, Jesus has arrived.
What I want to hone in on this morning for just a few moments is how they responded to Jesus and what we can learn about their response.
I believe that how they responded is how we should respond as we saw.
How do we respond to Jesus?
First thing is we recognize him.
Verse 54 says the people immediately recognized him.
Now, Jesus is from this area.
After leaving Nazareth, he made his home in Capernaum.
And that is in this area.
And he had ministered in that area in a powerful way.
They knew who he was.
They knew he was the best preacher in all the land they had ever heard.
They knew that he taught like no one ever taught.
He was, in fact, the master teacher.
They knew he had power over evil.
They had seen that.
He cast out demons by speaking authority over them.
Death could not defeat him.
He healed the sick.
Unless, of course, they died first.
And then if they died, he raised them from the dead.
Don't you dare think that he did that because he was late.
He was always on time.
He fed them.
He fed them the word of God and then miraculously fed them a meal.
And word got out.
Word gets out about all of that.
Any of that would get the word out.
But all of that together really got the word out.
More than anything else, word got out about his healing.
People saw that he had power in his touch.
And they heard the strength of his voice.
And they felt a connection even with his garments.
And therefore, they came.
They show us how to come as well.
They ran to him.
The way we ought to recognize and respond to Jesus is to run to him.
Verse 55 says,
They ran about the whole region.
Now, we're not just talking about a group standing by the shore that happened to recognize Jesus as they walked up.
No, we're talking about people from throughout that region.
They dropped what they were doing and they went immediately.
I spent most of my life being separated from some family by miles.
My dad was in the Air Force.
And the only place that I remember him serving before he retired was in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
We had a grandmother in Grand Rapids, Michigan, outside that area.
But we also had a grandmother in South Carolina.
So anytime we got a vacation, we typically came to South Carolina to see Grandma.
When my dad retired, we moved to Greenville.
And then we had a grandmother in Michigan.
So anytime we got a time to go, we'd ride up to see her.
Ohio is bigger than any country in the world.
You can't get through the end of it.
But anyway, we'd ride up that way to see her.
And then I went to New Orleans Seminary.
Moved 600 miles away from my parents and went back to see them anytime I got a chance.
Dawn and I met when I pastored in South Mississippi as a seminary student.
We married shortly after my graduation.
And we moved to South Carolina.
Her people are all in Mississippi.
And so oftentimes, we'd go during the year down to Mississippi.
We moved back to Mississippi.
We had folks in South Carolina.
Anytime we got a week, we'd go back to South Carolina.
I've spent my life going from place to place.
Now, there's very few of us in Mississippi are folks.
We've got a brother down there.
And I got all my folks right here amongst us right now.
So we don't have to do that as much now.
But when my children were young, we always spent Thanksgiving away from home.
And we always spent it in one of our parents' homes, regardless of where we live.
And therefore, we had to reach out here.
This is great.
And so Black Friday came.
Now, some of y'all too young to know what Black Friday is.
I mean, I know they do it, but they don't do it.
Not like they did before the Internet.
It was serious before the Internet.
And we always went on Black Friday.
We'd get up about 4 a.m. and go stand in line somewhere.
We may not need anything.
It may not be anything we're looking for, but I'd just like to see the friends.
I like to grab the last thing before somebody else can get it when they really want it and watch.
There's been a lot of grandmas elbowed in the mouth over the years because of Black Friday.
One time we were standing in a Torres or Us line, standing outside.
We didn't know what toy we was going to buy.
I don't think we came there for anything particular.
But there was some little battery-powered rodent that was popular that year.
And people, they only had so many, and they were giving out tickets.
They got a ticket.
They didn't have a ticket.
And they were giving out tickets.
They only had like 200.
There's 400 in line.
And so people said, I don't want my test on.
I said, I'll tell you what I'm going to buy all the things I'm going to sell.
Well, I didn't get that many of them.
But I did get some, and I took them home to my children because it was the prize possession.
It was what you had to have that year.
They had never heard of it, didn't care nothing about it.
I think they wound it up, and it ran under something, and we never found it again.
You know, it's under the refrigerator somewhere.
But we loved going, and there was this frenzy to watch these people get so, the first GPS I ever bought, I bought it in a circuit city in some big bin.
And grabbed it, smacked somebody in the head, and grabbed another one, you know, and put it down somewhere else and hit it just so that person couldn't have it, you know.
I confessed all that to the Lord.
When I read about these folks running about the whole region, I thought about it like that.
Before there were Internet sales and before you could get it all shipped to the house and all that kind of stuff,
when you had to show up and get the limited supply, it was something to say.
And I feel sure in that fertile region, this was something to say.
They let nothing come away coming to Jesus.
And I want you to notice something that I believe is remarkable.
When responding to Jesus, bring others with us.
Bring others with us.
Look at verse 55.
It says, they began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard He was.
They ran with all that they could to get to Jesus.
But they did not come to Jesus alone.
They brought someone to Jesus with them.
So did we.
They found folks with needs.
They found folks who were hurting.
I want you to hear me today.
They found folks that would not.
They found folks that could not come on their own.
And they brought them to Jesus.
They didn't ignore Him.
They didn't look out for just themselves.
They didn't send them away.
They didn't try to get something of Jesus and not worry about somebody else.
They made a point.
Wherever they heard He was to bring all that they could to Him.
It is crucial.
Bring people with you to Jesus.
Verse 56 says, wherever He came.
In villages, cities, or countryside.
Folks, that means that there were small town people there.
There were big city slickers there.
That means there were country people there.
They had one common bond.
They all mean Jesus.
And they brought all people to Jesus.
I'll tell you another way they responded to Jesus.
That I think we can learn from.
Reach for them.
Verse 56 said, they laid the sick in the marketplace and implored Him that they might touch even the fringe of His garment.
It's interesting.
Implored Him.
That means they were begging Him.
And the verb there in the original language says that they were continually begging Him.
Continually to implore Him.
Asking again and again.
They had to get a touch of His garment.
Why a touch of His garment?
Well, let's look back at Mark chapter 5 that we covered a few weeks ago.
Mark chapter 5 verse 24 says,
And He went with them.
And a great crowd followed Him and thronged about Him.
And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.
And who had suffered much under many physicians.
And had spent all that she had.
And was no better but rather grew worse.
And she heard the reports about Jesus.
And came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.
For she said, if I touch even His garment, I will be made well.
And immediately, the flow of blood dried up.
And she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
I wonder why those folks wanted to touch His garment.
They had heard reports.
The Lord had changed her life.
And now those reports had got out.
And people were running all over the region.
To bring as many people to Jesus as possible.
To find healing by grasping.
Matthew tells us.
They brought people from all over the region.
May all Pippins County.
No.
Of the hope of Christ.
Folks, we reach beyond Pippins County.
May all Oconee County.
No.
They can reach Christ.
May all Greenville County.
No.
May all Anderson County.
No.
May all Transylvania County.
Yeah, we got some coming over the mountain to get here.
Transylvania County.
No.
May all know.
In all the surrounding regions.
Power.
And touch.
On Jesus.
You need a touch of Jesus.
Just reach for Him.
Peter was sinking in that water.
In the midst of his storm, he cried out to Jesus.
Jesus.
And when he cried out to Jesus.
Jesus took him.
Jesus took him out of hand.
I thank you.
He'll always meet you where you are.
He'll always break you to where you need to be.
He'll make you what you need to be.
He'll clean up the coming crows.
If you can't clean up one time.
He'll meet you where you are.
One more response I want you to see.
It's powerful to me.
A proper response to Christ is to be changed by him.
They could not heal themselves.
None of us can.
They had to surrender themselves to Him.
Reach out to Him.
They implored Him to change their lives.
And He did.
Verse 56 said,
And as many as touched it were made well.
I want to dig into that for just a moment.
Just leave it up for just a moment.
That word touched there,
in the Greek it's an heirs verb.
Which means it's a punctiliar verb from the past.
It means that it happened at one time.
It was a one time movement.
Done in one action.
In the past.
They touched Him.
But it's not only that.
The text emphasizes that when they touched Him,
at the point that they touched Him,
He made them well.
I don't like to dig among the weeds a whole lot.
I like to do my homework and study,
and then try to put it in English.
But I don't want us to go into a language.
When it says that as soon as they touched Him,
excuse me,
as many as touched Him were made well.
The word there for well is sozo.
Sozo.
I want you to understand what it's saying.
That word is used several times.
It's used when the woman of the issue of blood touches you.
That's found in Mark 5, verse 34.
It says,
And He said,
Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Sozo.
Go in peace
and be healed
of your deceit.
However,
it's also the same word that's used in Luke chapter 19, verse 10.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to sozo the lost.
He came to seek and to save the lost.
Let me give you another one.
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.
For by grace you have been sozo.
You have been saved through faith.
One more.
Romans 10, 9.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be sozo.
You will be saved.
Actually,
the most accurate translation of our passage for today
is that as many as touched him were saved.
Now,
they changed that
because the context is
they were looking for physical healing
and they got it.
But in reality,
they got a whole lot more than physical healing.
And when you reach for Jesus today,
He'll change your life.
Reach for Him.
He's reaching for you.
He'll change your life.
Do you know what I find so ironic?
That in the midst of the storm,
the disciples didn't recognize Him
even though they were with Him
day after day.
Day after day,
they were with Him,
but yet they thought He was a ghost.
But Mark tells us
this crowd recognized Him immediately.
It's quite amazing
that sometimes it's the people
that are most familiar with the church.
Sometimes it's the people
that are most familiar with the things of God.
Sometimes it's the people
who are the people of God
that are the ones
that do not recognize Him
and they miss out
on the very best that He has.
I want you to notice,
we learned last week,
that recognizing the things of God
gets tough when we're hard-hearted.
Even though the disciples
had walked with Him,
they were hard-hearted.
That's what the Scripture says.
And they had a hard time recognizing it
because they were hard-hearted.
And I've preached long enough
and experienced enough
movements of God
in congregations
to realize that some
of the most faithful in attendance,
some of the longest standing in membership,
some of the most experienced in worship,
sometimes can be the most skeptical,
most hardened about experiences
in the church.
Some,
and I want you to hear me today,
clearly,
some can't help
that they go to sleep here in worship.
They can't help it.
Medication's rough, okay?
This past Friday,
I celebrated a one-year anniversary.
Many of you,
if you were here,
you remember,
I had a massive heart attack
a year ago, okay?
Had cardiac arrest three times,
and every cardiologist
I saw in hospitals
was a miracle that I made.
And I tried to come back to church
just as soon as I could.
This church took care of me
and had the pulpit filled
for five weeks for me,
immediately.
But after a couple of weeks,
I wanted to come back to worship.
I'd do the welcome
and I'd go over and sit down.
I'd stay for the second service,
I'd do the welcome
and I'd go over there and sit down.
I'm going to be honest.
Because of the medication I was on,
because of the state of the healing
that I was going through
and all that stuff.
And that second worship hour,
it got rough over there,
just like it does for you
every Sunday Friday.
It got rough over there for me, okay?
And I got more sympathetic
about those.
Now, my wife has told me
a long time
that God called me
in the ministry
so I'm going to have to sit in the queue
because I don't do a good job.
But I got sympathetic to those
that have to take so much medication
they can't hardly hold their head up.
And so I know
that some people can help.
I get that.
But I'll tell you another thing too, folks.
Some set out to go to sleep in church.
I mean, I've seen people
that sit on the end
that kind of nuzzle up
to get positioned right.
Hoping I'll preach long enough
and soft enough
for them to get a good nap in,
but not so long
they got to wake up and hear me.
I've witnessed that.
Never here, of course.
I'm talking about churches
a long way from here.
But my point is this.
It's not just the young
and the spry
that need a touch from God.
We all need a touch from God.
Instead, it is often the one
that has been in the boat
of the Lord a long time
that needs it the most
and does not recognize
when Jesus walks
in the midst of the congregation
or walks in the midst
of our lives.
It is a blessing
yet often shame
who seeks out
and recognizes
the movement of the Lord.
People who are hungry
for the Lord,
they don't sit back
and worship and say,
I dare you to bless you.
They don't do it.
They pursue the things of God.
They strive to tell others
of the movement of God.
They put themselves second
so that God and His work
can be first.
They seek Him.
Do you know where they find Him?
I love the book of Revelation.
There's a lot of misunderstanding
about it
and I had a lot of misunderstanding
about it.
And I wanted to understand it more
and I set out several years ago
to really study it
to get an understanding
for myself.
Okay?
I look at it a little differently
than a lot of times
with soul and people.
But I enjoy the book of Revelation.
I appreciate the fact that
the context in which it's written,
it is written,
Revelation 2,
chapters 2 and 3
tells us
that it is written
that seven churches
in Asia Minor,
I know because of the setting,
that they were all under
the persecution
of the Roman Empire.
It was illegal
for them to be in church
in the area
in which they are on.
And John is exiled
to the island of Patmos
because he will not
stop preaching to God.
And as he's on
the island of Patmos,
God gives him
a vision.
A vision that takes him
into heaven
to see what's going on
in heaven.
A vision that takes him
back to earth
and then back to heaven
and then back to earth
and then back to heaven
several times.
And he comes out
writing and sharing
what he saw in heaven
and what he saw on earth.
And he's writing
to give hope to those
in those seven churches
who are struggling
under the persecution
of the Roman Empire.
He writes to them
a coded letter.
A letter using
a lot of Old Testament
imagery.
But he writes to them
an imagery
that they will understand
and they will get.
A lot of it he repeats
in different ways too.
But he writes to them
an imagery
that they will understand
so that he can give
that letter
to a Roman courier
and that Roman courier
cannot read it
and understand what it says.
And then that Roman courier
takes it.
If you look at the order
of the churches
that's listed
in Revelation 2 and 3
and you pull up a map
and you connect the dots
from city to city to city
you'll notice that it is
an egg-shaped route.
That's exactly what it is.
It is a Roman postal route.
He was giving him
a vision
for a letter
to be written
to be brought
to the first church
that would
handscribe
what that letter says
and then pass it on
to a courier
to the next church
without the courier
never knowing
what he was saying.
You know what he was saying?
A lot of what he said
wasn't about
what's going to happen
in our future.
You know what?
The book of Revelation
wasn't written
first to us
in our generation.
It was written
first to us.
And if everything
in that book
has to do with something
that's still going to happen
it didn't give them
a lick of hope
that day.
So the reality is
what he was telling them
is not only
what had happened
to them
what was happening
to them
but then praise God
what will happen
not only to them
but to all of us
is what he was telling them.
But of all those things
in Revelation
I love chapter 1
the most.
You know why I love
chapter 1 the most?
It's because chapter 1
tells me
where Jesus is.
John sees the imagery
of each one of those churches
as capital students
with a light burning
burning in the darkness
of their sin
shedding the light
of the Lord
and he said
I want you to know
that Jesus
and he gives a great
image of Jesus
and we just spent days
on the night
and he's walking
in the morning.
The most reassuring thing
in the book
of Revelation
is Jesus.
He's walking
in our lives.
He knows
our circumstances.
He knows
the valleys
that we go through.
He knows
the mountaintops
that we go through.
He knows
all of that
and he's walking
with us
through that.
Friends,
it don't only happen
when we come
into this building.
He walked in.
If you're a child
of God today
he walked in with you.
He's leaving
with you.
He's always
with you.
He's walking
in the midst.
The Lord
is here.
We just need
to reach out
and claim
what he has
for us.
Or as
Deuteronomy
chapter 4
verse 29
says,
Seek the
Lord your God
and you will
find him
even if you
search out
with all your
heart
and all your
soul.
Sometimes
it is the
people
that have
heard it
again
and again
and are
used to it
that have
never really
recognized
Christ,
have never
really ran
to Christ,
have never
really surrendered
to Christ.
you're here
this morning
and there's
never been
a time
in your
life
that you've
surrendered
your life
to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Don't you dare
believe church
attendance,
church
membership,
church
leadership,
don't think
any of that
will save you.
The only thing
that will save
you is when
the Lord
Jesus calls
upon you
to surrender
your life
and you
respond
to the
weakness.
You've
never given
your heart
and life
to the Lord
Jesus today.
I encourage
you to
confess that
you need
you're a
sinner and
you need
to forgive
you and
to cleanse
you and
to commit
to you
from this
day of
Lord.
I'm going
to live
for you
I want
you to
take a
life.
I want
to live
it.
If you've
done that
but you've
done that
privately
we need
to do
it
publicly.
As I
read last
week
Jesus said
if you're
ashamed of
me before
men I'll
be ashamed
of you.
The reality
is if you're
ashamed of
him you've
never acknowledged
him publicly
it's not
really happened
privately.
There's evidence
of that anyway.
So if you've
never acknowledged
him and Jesus
by his example
and by his
commission
tells us to do
that for the
baptism.
We're going to
baptize next
week.
If you've
never been
baptized as a
believer I
encourage you
to come
and say
pastor I
know I'm
saved.
I need
to be
baptized.
Maybe you're
here and
God's leading
you to pick
this first
better.
God's doing
a wonderful
work in our
church.
I'm
thankful.
God's
leading you
to be a
part of
the
God.
If you
need more
Lord Jesus
this morning
if you need
to publicly
acknowledge
him this
morning
if you need
to join
this church
this morning
maybe there's
something on
your heart.
Maybe there's
something in
your life
that you need
to lay down
this altar
and just give
it to him.
You can do
that in the
pew where you
stand in just
a moment.
Just a quiet
prayer.
You can do
it in this
altar.
You can do
it with a
pastor praying.
There's no
reason for any
of us to leave
this room with
unfinished business
with God.
He spoke to
us.
We need to
respond to
the people.
Respond
correctly.
Respond the
way they did
in the last
morning.
without
reluctance
after we
pray
we'll stand
and sing.
You come.
Any questions
about what
do you
come?
Let's
talk.
Let's pray
together.
Lord Jesus I
love you and I
thank you dear
God for the
love that you
have for us
and I ask
today that
you'll help
us to respond
to you as
your spirit
leads us
right now.
Jesus precious
name.
Amen.