WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.360 All right, we are working our way through the Gospel of Mark, and you'll have to bear 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:08.000 with my nasally sound today. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Sorry about that. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.839 Here we are, end of Mark 1, our fourth week in this Gospel. 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:19.120 And we said on week one that when you look at the very beginning of Mark, it says the 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:24.879 beginning of the Gospel, and that that can mean chronological order, but it also means 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:25.879 something more than that. 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:31.399 In the Greek word that's there, it means the most important things to know about the Gospel. 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:35.439 And every week, Mark has given us something that's very important to know about Jesus 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.359 and about the Gospel that he came to bring. 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:42.679 Last week, we saw that it was that Jesus is attractive, and he's compelling because 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:47.920 he has the authority to cast evil and death away. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:51.399 And that's why people wanted to follow him. 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:57.119 And this week, we carry on from that logic, and today, Mark is really putting a question 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:04.959 before all of us in saying, followers of Jesus, if you're a Christian today, Christian friends, 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:11.920 how do you approach Jesus, and how do you, and how should you? 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:15.239 How do you search for him, and how do you approach him? 00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:19.460 And no matter really what you believe in today, the question underneath that question that 00:01:19.459 --> 00:01:24.039 Mark's presenting is something like, what are you looking for in life? 00:01:24.039 --> 00:01:25.039 What are you searching for? 00:01:25.039 --> 00:01:27.319 What do you want? 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:30.199 What is your greatest desire directed towards? 00:01:30.199 --> 00:01:34.759 And Mark is trying to say that even though you probably most of the time don't feel this 00:01:34.759 --> 00:01:37.119 way, it really is God. 00:01:37.119 --> 00:01:41.560 That God really is the object of the search, even if most of the time you don't feel like 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:42.560 it. 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:46.119 All right, so we're going to see Mark tell us three things this morning. 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:52.359 One is first the wrong way to seek after Jesus, and then what he actually came to give, and 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.040 then finally the right way to approach him. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.880 All right, so let's look at that together. 00:01:57.880 --> 00:02:02.880 You can look down in verse 35 and see the beginning of the wrong way to approach Jesus. 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:09.280 Jesus is still in Capernaum like last week, and it's very early in the morning, and it's 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:16.199 dark, and he wakes up before anybody else, and he goes out into a quote, desolate place 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:17.199 to pray. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:18.680 Literally the word is the wilderness. 00:02:18.680 --> 00:02:21.560 He goes back to the wilderness to pray. 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:27.960 And we'll come back to that at the end, but Peter wakes up next and it says Simon here, 00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:30.479 Simon Peter, and he goes to seek Jesus. 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:35.560 He doesn't know where he is, and so he goes and roams around with the other disciples 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:36.560 and tries to find him. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:41.159 Now when he does, he tells him why, why is it that you're going to disturb Jesus while 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:43.360 he's out in the wilderness praying? 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:49.240 And Peter says, I was searching for you because everyone else is searching for you. 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:53.719 So in other words, he's saying everybody in Capernaum is early in the morning lined up 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:57.240 waiting for you to come out, but you weren't there. 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:59.400 You had left. 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:05.800 Now the question that Mark I think is implicitly opposing to us is why do you search for him? 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:06.800 Why do you seek him? 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.000 How do you seek him? 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:14.640 And here it is, Jesus says we're leaving. 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:15.640 We're not going back. 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:20.320 You know, Peter comes out and says everybody's lined up at Capernaum to see you, and Jesus 00:03:20.320 --> 00:03:21.960 says we're moving on. 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:24.880 We're not even going back to get our stuff. 00:03:24.880 --> 00:03:27.920 And so when everybody wants to come see him, he says I'm leaving. 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:28.920 I'm going somewhere else. 00:03:28.920 --> 00:03:32.720 And he tells us, he says it's because I came to preach. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:36.599 Now when he says that, it gives us just a slight hint at what he's trying to suggest. 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:38.479 And I think it's this. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:44.719 He's trying to say that the people who are lining up to see him came to him because they 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:49.360 wanted his power, not his person. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:52.919 You see, everybody in Capernaum had heard the previous day what he had done, how he 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:54.560 had healed a lot of sick people. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:58.280 And so the next morning they are lining up at his door because they want to get in on 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:00.199 those goods. 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:04.159 They want his benefits, but they don't want him. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:09.039 And so he says, we're leaving because I actually came to preach. 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.199 I came to do something different than just distribute power. 00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:14.039 That's not my first purpose. 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:17.399 That's not the primary thing that I came to do. 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:23.919 Now I think Mark, Mark is setting before every reader today, 2023, us modern readers, the 00:04:23.919 --> 00:04:25.800 same exact question. 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:37.280 And that's, do you want what Jesus offers more than you want him, more than you want 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:39.480 his person? 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:41.800 And one way, how can you know? 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:42.800 Well here's how you can know. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:50.560 One way, if you find yourself going very quiet in your relationship with God in really good 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:55.199 seasons of your life, and then all of a sudden in the hard times and the bad seasons and 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:58.920 the suffering, you run right back. 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:05.120 It may be the case that you want something that you've lost in that season of suffering 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:09.000 rather than the Savior himself. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.279 That you chase the benefits, not the person. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:19.000 And we can say, if that's you, if that's me, is it you? 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.959 And you can say, you know, I want all these little things in life and when I don't get 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:24.959 them, that's when I find I'm willing to pray. 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:28.159 And then you know that you're chasing benefits, not God himself. 00:05:28.159 --> 00:05:34.120 And Mark is saying, well here's what Mark's saying, imagine you're a young man here today, 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:38.680 there's a few of you here, young men, and you've got, you know, that woman across the 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.439 room has caught your eye. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:46.159 And you know, you asked her out and it developed and then eventually it's come to the time. 00:05:46.159 --> 00:05:47.679 Some of you need to listen to this by the way. 00:05:47.679 --> 00:05:53.919 It comes to the time where it's time to ask her to marry you. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:58.600 And your friend says, you say, you lay out the plan, I've got the ring, this is how I'm 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:00.040 going to do it. 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.560 And he says, but why do you want to marry her? 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:09.560 And you say, you know what, married people get incredible tax breaks. 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:12.840 You know, it's so much better to be married because your taxes are lower, you know, you 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:14.160 had to split the rent. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:18.480 I mean, I'm paying for a flat by myself, but if I get married, you've got two incomes, 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:20.840 one rent. 00:06:20.839 --> 00:06:24.759 Mark is saying that the right answer to the young man is what? 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:28.519 I want to marry her because I want her, right? 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:34.759 And in the same way, it's do you come to the living God because you want God? 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:40.399 He's actually what's on offer, not first the benefits, the power. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:45.799 Now secondly, that leads us to see what Jesus came to give. 00:06:45.799 --> 00:06:50.279 He says here, he differentiates the difference in his primary task and his secondary task 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:52.719 by saying, I came to preach. 00:06:52.719 --> 00:06:57.039 The word, word preach there is literally the word herald. 00:06:57.039 --> 00:07:02.079 And it's a word that is adopted by Jesus in this very Greco-Roman context that was really 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:06.959 used normally to proclaim a new message like victory in a battle or something like that. 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:11.000 And he's saying, I came to herald to make an announcement is what he's saying. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.759 Now the question is, what is it that he came to say? 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:15.879 What is it that he came to say? 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:21.480 And I think you get that in the story of the leper, even though it's subtle and you have 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:27.839 to really look, but verse 40, all of a sudden he's left Capernaum and at some point as they're 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:31.680 traveling through the desolate places, a leper approaches. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:35.199 This leper in verse 40 is kneeling before Jesus. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:37.879 He's begging him. 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:43.279 And it's important to know that this man would be completely isolated from any town or city. 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:48.599 He was intentionally left by himself as part of the law and he would have likely been covered 00:07:48.599 --> 00:07:52.719 in rags to cover up the sores on his body. 00:07:52.719 --> 00:07:57.599 And he's never supposed to approach another person. 00:07:57.599 --> 00:08:02.479 And yet he approaches Jesus and he kneels before him and he begs him and he says, if 00:08:02.479 --> 00:08:05.159 you will, you can make me clean. 00:08:05.159 --> 00:08:06.159 Now what's going on here? 00:08:06.159 --> 00:08:09.879 Is this another instance where the people are lining up at the door again just wanting 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:15.240 his power, just wanting to get out of bad circumstance free card. 00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:18.360 And that's not what's happening with the leper. 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:19.360 And how do we know? 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:20.360 It's because of what the leper says. 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:25.199 The leper says, if you will, you can make me clean. 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:28.680 He doesn't say if you want to, you can heal me. 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:29.680 He says, make me clean. 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:35.159 And when he says the word clean, there's an immense amount of context and theological 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:40.519 tradition buried, located in the depths of that word clean to be clean. 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:42.959 And it all comes from the Old Testament. 00:08:42.959 --> 00:08:50.159 Leviticus 14 lays out the laws about a leper being an unclean person unfit for God's presence 00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:51.879 and God's temple. 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:54.759 The fact that they had to be cast out, that they had to be outside the camp, that they 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.360 had to live away from all people. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:01.199 And it wasn't primarily about the medical condition. 00:09:01.199 --> 00:09:02.959 There was something more going on. 00:09:02.959 --> 00:09:04.519 They were unclean in a different way. 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:08.600 Now what's going on with this strange idea? 00:09:08.600 --> 00:09:14.199 Leviticus 12 to 15 is where we have the laws of the uncleanliness code laid out. 00:09:14.199 --> 00:09:16.199 But this is the place every year. 00:09:16.199 --> 00:09:18.519 It's the end of January, beginning of February. 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:23.399 And if you're doing a Bible in a year plan, you're getting closer to Leviticus. 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:28.639 And when you get to the uncleanliness laws, this is where you stop and you move to the 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:30.600 Gospels or something like that. 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:32.319 Because you say, this is so strange. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:37.000 It's so strange for a modern person to read about these laws. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.400 That if you're a leper, you have to live outside the city and be unclean. 00:09:39.400 --> 00:09:46.440 That if you give birth to a child, women have to leave the city and be part of the unclean. 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:52.120 That if you eat a certain type of animal, if you touch a dead carcass, all sorts of 00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:53.120 laws. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:57.520 And as modern people, we come to that and say, what in the world is happening here? 00:09:57.520 --> 00:10:02.280 Now let me give you a couple proposals and then what I think is the right one. 00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:07.679 Sometimes people come and say, why is a leper unclean, unfit to be part of the city where 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:09.519 God's people dwell? 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.000 And sometimes people will say, well, it's because of hygiene. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:14.120 It's a skin condition. 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:15.360 It's contagious. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.319 But that doesn't actually work. 00:10:17.319 --> 00:10:18.919 Yes, that's true. 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:19.919 There's a benefit there. 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:23.559 But that's not the reason because, well, a woman who gives birth to a child becomes 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:24.559 unclean. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.799 And that's not contagious. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:34.240 Instead, actually, leprosy in the rabbinic law has 72 different definitions in the inter-testamental 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:35.479 laws that had developed. 00:10:35.479 --> 00:10:38.639 And you can be a leper very temporarily. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.319 It's not always a lifelong condition. 00:10:40.319 --> 00:10:41.799 It actually usually isn't. 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:47.199 So we think of leprosy today as Hanson's disease, a lifelong skin condition that's contagious, 00:10:47.199 --> 00:10:50.279 very dangerous, very painful, and you can't get rid of it. 00:10:50.279 --> 00:10:51.919 And so you've got to be away from everybody. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:55.959 But actually, the way that the Bible describes it is something more like just having a fever 00:10:55.960 --> 00:11:02.840 blister, having an infected cut, having any skin condition that is infected and visibly 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.080 damaged makes you unfit. 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:06.080 It makes you unclean. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:07.080 It makes you a leper. 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:08.440 And so it can't be merely hygiene. 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:13.680 But some people say, well, what it is is that you're unclean and you're punished by God 00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:15.879 when you commit a certain sin. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:20.080 So a leper becomes a leper because he's sinned in a particular way in his life. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:24.320 And, oh, boy, the book of Job says otherwise, that that couldn't be farther from the case, 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.040 that has nothing to do with it. 00:11:27.040 --> 00:11:29.360 Of course, it's not a sin to give birth to a baby. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:31.840 It's not a sin to be a leper. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:36.080 It's not a sin to eat even certain types of animals that that's not the point. 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.720 It's not about personal sin that makes you clean or unclean. 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:40.720 That's not the point at all. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:42.920 Instead, it's something else. 00:11:42.920 --> 00:11:43.920 It's something else. 00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:49.280 And let me suggest that what God is doing here is he's taking things that we expect 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:55.759 and things we don't expect, things that are simply taboo in the ancient Near Eastern culture 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:59.759 and elevating them to make a point. 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.759 Let me give you an example. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:04.319 We say, man, this cleanliness thing is so strange. 00:12:04.319 --> 00:12:06.679 But we actually have this, too. 00:12:06.679 --> 00:12:11.439 We have cleanliness and unclean codes in the modern world as well and in all sorts of cultures. 00:12:11.439 --> 00:12:17.439 Now, one of those that became very acute recently in 2020 was that when you are in the toilet 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:25.920 and you come out, you better have washed your hands, not for 10 seconds, not for 12, not 00:12:25.920 --> 00:12:29.920 for 15, not for 17, but for 20 seconds. 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:36.000 The COVID rules that worldwide that the standard for washing your hands is 20 seconds minimum. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.680 Now, many of us might not have known that before COVID, but we learned in COVID that 00:12:39.680 --> 00:12:41.280 you got to do it for 20 seconds. 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:43.320 And if you don't, you're unclean. 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:45.840 I even heard a story recently of someone at school. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:49.759 I won't name who happened to be in my family that was sent back to the toilet because 20 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:51.680 seconds was not reached. 00:12:51.680 --> 00:12:52.680 Too short. 00:12:52.680 --> 00:12:56.360 Have to go back, try again. 00:12:56.360 --> 00:12:57.560 These are cleanliness codes. 00:12:57.560 --> 00:12:58.560 They're there for good reason. 00:12:58.560 --> 00:13:05.840 It is about hygiene, but it is a regularly established fact that computer keyboards are 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.639 much filthier than toilet seats. 00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:13.000 But nobody washes their hands after using the computer. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:18.360 In other words, cleanliness, what's clean and unclean changes in different cultures. 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.120 Different cultures have different standards of what's taboo, of what's unclean. 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.399 It can be about hygiene and that's important, but it also sometimes is about more than that. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:27.679 It's about culture. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:32.120 And what God does in the ancient areas is he takes something that's about culture, what 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:36.799 was taboo, eating certain types of food, eating certain types of animals that was already present 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:39.000 and he elevated it. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:42.039 And what he did was said, this is actually going to be a symbol. 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:44.399 And here's the symbol, here's the meaning. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:50.199 The uncleanliness laws, the clean laws are about making something visible that reminds 00:13:50.199 --> 00:13:53.480 us that we are unfit for the presence of God. 00:13:53.480 --> 00:13:59.079 He chose things and said, don't do that because that's going to be a visible sign to remind 00:13:59.079 --> 00:14:05.240 you you are unfit to stand in the holy presence of God, amongst the people of God, in the 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:06.839 city of God. 00:14:06.839 --> 00:14:11.519 So if there was a visible skin condition, one of the things that a lot of the scholars 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:18.519 will say is one of the things is any visible loss of life expressed in the loss of fluid. 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:23.000 Okay, so if you go through Leviticus, you're going to see a lot of cleanliness laws about 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:27.559 fluids, human body stuff. 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:29.919 And that's what's going to make you unclean. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:32.600 Men and women, all types of situations. 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:38.799 Well, the point was that these are visible losses of life, symbols. 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:42.559 If blood comes out of you, you've lost part of what makes you alive. 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:46.079 And that was not because you've done something wrong, it was to be a sign. 00:14:46.079 --> 00:14:51.120 And so you had to go outside the camp and wait until the time was up where you could 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:52.120 come back. 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:55.679 And it was simply to say to you, you're not what you're supposed to be. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.599 Everybody look and understand you're not what you're supposed to be. 00:14:58.599 --> 00:14:59.599 This wasn't just for lepers. 00:14:59.599 --> 00:15:00.959 This was for everybody. 00:15:00.959 --> 00:15:04.399 Everybody at some point in their life becomes unclean. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:05.959 And so why in the world? 00:15:05.959 --> 00:15:06.959 Childbirth? 00:15:06.959 --> 00:15:07.959 Childbirth makes you unclean? 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.040 Well, it's not about giving birth to a baby. 00:15:10.040 --> 00:15:12.280 God loves babies. 00:15:12.280 --> 00:15:15.600 It was the visible sign of a loss of something. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:18.639 And even more, what's the other reason? 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.519 It's that there were certain cleanliness laws that were directly tied to the curse of Genesis 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:23.519 3 itself. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.639 See, what did God say? 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:29.240 That childbearing would be cursed very specifically. 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:32.120 Pain, difficulty, labor. 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:36.080 That intimacy has an uncleanliness about it in the Levitical Law. 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:41.600 Not because it's bad, but because God said men and women, marriage is cursed. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:42.800 It's not what it should be. 00:15:42.800 --> 00:15:48.280 And so all these things exist as signs and symbols to say to every single person that 00:15:48.280 --> 00:15:53.879 experienced it, you are not fit to stand in the presence of God. 00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:57.560 That means that when this man comes and says, will you make me clean? 00:15:57.560 --> 00:16:00.759 You know what he's really asking? 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:06.679 I want to be able to go and stand in the holy presence of God, and I can't. 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:11.919 I want to be able to go to the temple and offer my sacrifice and seek forgiveness before 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:15.879 the Lord, where God dwells, but I cannot go. 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:17.919 I want to be in his presence. 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:23.240 And that means when Jesus says, I can, I can make you clean, it's all about the primary 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:24.799 thing he came to do. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.039 You see what he came to do? 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:28.879 He didn't primarily come first to heal. 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:30.559 That's not the real issue. 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:36.719 The real issue is he came to make people fit, to enter into the holy presence of the living 00:16:36.719 --> 00:16:37.719 God. 00:16:37.719 --> 00:16:41.599 He came to bring the presence of God to the people and to bring the people into the presence 00:16:41.599 --> 00:16:42.599 of God. 00:16:42.599 --> 00:16:45.719 That's the primary thing that he's saying that he meant here. 00:16:45.719 --> 00:16:50.119 Now, it says in the text that Jesus felt compassion for this man. 00:16:50.119 --> 00:16:53.959 Actually, the manuscripts are split. 00:16:53.959 --> 00:16:57.279 This is an instance where we have a little bit of a debate, and it's important that you 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:00.879 know it because some of the translations have a different word here. 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:02.839 It says Jesus had compassion. 00:17:02.839 --> 00:17:08.960 Some translations are going to say Jesus was indignant or extremely angry. 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:11.480 Now, which is it? 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:13.599 We don't know for sure, but the point doesn't change. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:21.960 You see, he's compassionate with the man, but he's indignant at the situation. 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:25.279 He hates what sin has caused. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:30.000 He hates the effects that sin has brought into the world to make people cast out from 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.839 the presence of God, to put people in a position like this where they have to live in the wilderness 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.599 and wrap themselves in cloth and can't be approached or approach anyone. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:39.480 He hates it. 00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:45.079 He has compassion on the man, but he hates the object of what sin has created. 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:50.480 Here in the end, we've got a very clear point from Mark, and it's this. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:57.039 One said it, Augustine made Mark's point, Mark makes Augustine's point 400 years prior, 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:04.319 and this is that the human heart is restless until you find rest in God himself. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:09.559 Every single human heart is searching and desiring and wanting, and you find yourself 00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:15.640 over and over again empty in the things that you chase until you find rest in God himself. 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:19.319 You see, Jesus is saying, I came to give you God. 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:26.639 I came to give you the presence of God above all, not the benefits first, not the healings, 00:18:26.639 --> 00:18:30.599 not the community, although they're great and we love it. 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:35.000 But it's saying I actually came to give you the living God himself, that your heart is 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.439 restless until you have him, because you were created for him and he's the one you were 00:18:39.439 --> 00:18:40.439 meant for. 00:18:40.439 --> 00:18:48.079 Now, Christian friends today, if you're a believer today, let me ask you, if you're like me, you 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:55.199 hear that message and maybe you find yourself thinking right now, most of my Christian life 00:18:55.199 --> 00:18:59.359 has been coming for the benefits. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.119 I don't know that I actually do want God. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:08.519 I don't know that the desire of my heart is to see the beauty of his face, as David 00:19:08.519 --> 00:19:12.359 prays in Psalm 27. 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:17.319 Maybe right now, and while we're all here together, that desire is a little elevated, 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:23.679 and it is there right now, but we know what's going to happen to all of us probably 20 minutes 00:19:23.679 --> 00:19:28.639 after we leave, and we're going to want Candy Crush and Netflix and our dinner way more 00:19:28.639 --> 00:19:31.079 than we want God. 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:36.359 And look, the Bible, this is the story of Scripture. 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:37.359 You remember it? 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:38.960 You remember the story of the Bible? 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.279 We won't go through all of it. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:42.279 But here's what happens. 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:47.639 God shows up and he rescues people who didn't want to be rescued. 00:19:47.639 --> 00:19:52.000 He rescues people who did not want him, and then when he rescues them and he saves them 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.519 and he even shows up face to face, they go out into the wilderness and said, boy, do 00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:00.839 I miss the wine and cheese that we had back in Egypt. 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:05.440 And then God comes himself into the middle of history in the world, and he stands over 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:09.279 his people, Jesus Christ, and he says, oh, how I love these people. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:10.440 I want them. 00:20:10.440 --> 00:20:11.440 I've come for them. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:12.440 I've come for them. 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:13.440 I want compassion on them. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:18.120 I want to gather them together, and they shouted, crucify him. 00:20:18.120 --> 00:20:23.720 And understand that if today you feel like, boy, I don't know if I really desire God, 00:20:23.720 --> 00:20:28.559 and I don't know what that means for me, then understand that that's the entire story of 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:33.920 the Bible is the God who comes for people who don't want him, and then after he comes 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:37.960 for them and rescues them, they still don't. 00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:40.360 And he saves them anyway. 00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:46.519 And here at the end of the passage, Jesus, right here at the middle of the story, Jesus 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:48.279 does something as we close this point. 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:50.559 He, well, you can imagine it. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:54.559 If you're Peter, if you're the disciples standing there, if you're a Jewish person standing 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.919 there and the man comes up and he's grabbing Jesus' robe and he's touching Jesus and he's 00:20:59.919 --> 00:21:04.159 begging and saying, please, will you make me clean? 00:21:04.159 --> 00:21:08.479 Simon Peter and everyone else there is going to say the same thing. 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:10.599 It's not stated, but it's implicit. 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:14.160 They're going to say, Jesus, do not touch him. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:15.160 Get away from him. 00:21:15.160 --> 00:21:16.400 He's unclean. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:17.400 He's got leprosy. 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:24.799 You could get it, but even more, even more, if you touch him, you will be unfit to enter 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:26.160 the city of God, Jerusalem. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:28.279 You'll be unfit to go into the temple. 00:21:28.279 --> 00:21:31.160 You'll be unfit to stand in the presence of your Father. 00:21:31.160 --> 00:21:32.160 You won't be allowed. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:33.160 You'll be unclean. 00:21:33.160 --> 00:21:34.319 You'll be cast out. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:35.839 You'll become the one in the wilderness. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:37.319 You'll become the leper. 00:21:37.319 --> 00:21:43.119 Jesus says, I will touch him, be clean. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:50.240 You see, it's not simply that Jesus has the power to make people clean. 00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.720 It's that the leprosy doesn't just disappear. 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:54.720 Where does it go? 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:55.919 It goes into him. 00:21:55.919 --> 00:21:56.919 He absorbs it. 00:21:56.919 --> 00:21:58.559 You see what he's saying when he touches him? 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:03.919 He says, when he says, I will be clean, he's saying, I've come actually to become the 00:22:03.919 --> 00:22:04.919 leper. 00:22:04.919 --> 00:22:07.119 I've come to be the one who would be cast out. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.159 I've come to be the one who would be isolated in the wilderness. 00:22:10.159 --> 00:22:15.279 I've come for a people, a humanity that when I show up and rescue them, they don't even 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:16.279 want me. 00:22:16.279 --> 00:22:22.159 And you see what he's saying, the extent of his love is that at the cross of Jesus Christ, 00:22:22.159 --> 00:22:26.039 Jesus says, I will do more than give you what you want. 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:28.439 You don't know what you want. 00:22:28.439 --> 00:22:31.559 You're chasing after all sorts of things in this life, all sorts of little desires that 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:34.039 can never fulfill you. 00:22:34.039 --> 00:22:36.559 And so I'll become the leper for you. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:39.879 I'll go, you know, the leper had to be exiled. 00:22:39.879 --> 00:22:44.440 He had to stand outside the camp in the condition of symbolic death. 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:48.279 Jesus Christ carried his cross out of the camp, out of the city of Jerusalem, away from 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:49.279 the temple. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.159 And he was murdered by his own people. 00:22:52.159 --> 00:22:53.799 They didn't want him, but he said, I want you. 00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:54.799 I want you. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:58.839 I'm coming for you, even when you don't want me. 00:22:58.839 --> 00:23:00.559 And that's the extent of Jesus' love. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:05.399 Jesus is saying to every one of us today, for all the times you've not really wanted that 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:11.759 what you were created to desire, he's saying, I will go and become the leper for you so 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:14.960 that you might be clean, forgiven. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:19.160 Now thirdly and finally, that means we have to just close by saying, would then is the 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:21.519 right way to approach him. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.720 And this is just to say, we've got to respond. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:25.920 We've got to respond. 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:28.480 And two things here, and we'll close. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:31.640 Two ways to respond that are right here in the passage. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:32.759 The first is very obvious. 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:33.759 It's very simple. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:35.040 You've already put it together. 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:36.200 It is this. 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.359 We have to know. 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:43.200 We have to believe in and know the one that we were really made for. 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:49.879 And we have to set before ourselves regularly the true object of our greatest desires, which 00:23:49.879 --> 00:23:51.599 is God himself. 00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:53.159 We have to do that. 00:23:53.159 --> 00:24:00.480 Now here at the very end of the passage, verses 44 to 45, Jesus says to the leper, who's 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:09.120 now clean, go tell the priest, go to Jerusalem, tell the priests. 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:12.480 And that's because the priest is the public health official. 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:17.039 The priest is the one who can say, officially, this person is clean. 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:18.480 They don't have to be outside the camp. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:19.640 They can be part of the people of God. 00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:20.960 They can come to the pilgrimage. 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:22.279 They can come to the feast days. 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:24.920 They can come to the temple. 00:24:24.920 --> 00:24:26.279 And what does the guy do? 00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:29.440 It says that he went out instead. 00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.519 He never went to the priest and he goes and spreads the word. 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:36.320 He goes and says, let me tell you about a man who just did this to me. 00:24:36.320 --> 00:24:41.000 Now a lot of people will come to this, a lot of preachers, a lot of commentators and say, 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.200 this is exactly how you should never respond to God. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:47.440 He comes and saves you. 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:49.440 He comes and makes you clean. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:54.600 And then he says, now go live like this and you go and immediately disobey. 00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:57.320 Now I don't think that that's what this is about. 00:24:57.320 --> 00:24:58.519 I am a minority. 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:00.639 But I don't think that that's what this is about at all. 00:25:00.639 --> 00:25:04.319 I think Mark is saying that he didn't obey. 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:05.319 Did he not obey? 00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:07.680 Of course, well, sure, in the most technical sense. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:11.440 But maybe something else is happening here. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:14.359 And I think it could be this. 00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:17.079 He realizes, you know, he goes on his way. 00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:23.839 He thinks about going to see the priest, but he realizes, I don't need to go to the temple. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:25.440 I don't need to go to the priest. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:32.360 I don't need to pronounce publicly I'm clean because the priest and the temple came to me. 00:25:32.360 --> 00:25:38.640 You see, he's saying, if this is all about me being fit for the presence of God, he realizes, 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:41.120 I don't have to go find God at the temple. 00:25:41.120 --> 00:25:43.880 The living God has come to me. 00:25:43.880 --> 00:25:46.279 He stood before me. 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:50.120 And so I can't do anything else but say, guys, the temple days are over. 00:25:50.120 --> 00:25:52.360 I think that's what he went and said. 00:25:52.360 --> 00:25:55.160 He said, you know, he wanted to keep it quiet, but I can't keep it quiet. 00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:56.960 The temple days are over. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:04.960 God has come to me, which means Jesus Christ is the presence of God come to us. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:12.519 Now that's to say, we've got to set before ourselves Jesus Christ every day as the true 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:14.440 object of our desires. 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:16.360 I think that's what we're being told here. 00:26:16.360 --> 00:26:21.600 Thomas Chalmers, the great father of the free church, the first moderator and really 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:25.919 in some sense a founder of our denomination in the 19th century, he preached a very famous 00:26:25.919 --> 00:26:26.919 sermon. 00:26:26.919 --> 00:26:27.919 Actually, we don't know if it was a sermon. 00:26:27.919 --> 00:26:32.079 It could have been a lecture called the explosive power of a new affection. 00:26:32.079 --> 00:26:33.759 Many of you know this one. 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:39.719 But in it, he says, he was a scientist, a mathematician really, before a preacher. 00:26:39.719 --> 00:26:45.399 And Chalmers says, he asked the question, what is the fastest way to get air out of a beaker? 00:26:45.399 --> 00:26:46.399 You know, in a laboratory? 00:26:46.399 --> 00:26:48.559 You got a beaker, it's full of air. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:50.599 What's the fastest way to get the air out of it? 00:26:50.599 --> 00:26:54.839 And he said, if you have every instrument available to you, every scientific instrument 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:59.240 to create a vacuum, to get the air out, how would you do it? 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:03.759 And Chalmers says, the fastest way is to pour water in it. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:08.159 You know, and he says, in other words, the air in our heart. 00:27:08.159 --> 00:27:12.399 The air in our heart is that our desires are always bent the wrong direction. 00:27:12.399 --> 00:27:16.839 Christian, your desires continually are bent in the wrong directions. 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:21.119 You chase after little things and you make them your God, you make them the true things 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:24.039 that you think you want in life above all else. 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:26.119 And it's like air in the midst of the beaker. 00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:30.759 And Chalmers is saying, the fastest way to get it out is not to try to discipline yourself, 00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:33.559 not to try to do all sorts of fancy things. 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:35.480 Instead, what is it? 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:42.079 It's that you need the explosive power of a new affection, water, not air. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:44.000 You need a different substance. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:49.000 You need something else in your heart rather than that which was there. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:51.279 And that something else is the living God. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:55.160 You've got to put God in your heart every day. 00:27:55.160 --> 00:28:00.119 Now, secondly and finally, let me say more specifically how. 00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:03.599 And we get a quick example from Jesus here. 00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:05.599 Remember what he did, it does at the beginning. 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:08.279 He goes out early in the morning when it's still dark. 00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:11.920 He gets into solitude and he prays. 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:17.440 And it's a simple practice, but I do think that his example is set before us here to 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:24.640 say that we are called, we do need to get by ourselves every day and pray. 00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:30.480 And pray specifically that Jesus would be our greatest affection. 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:36.560 To ask the Lord and say, will you make yourself better to me today than the little desires 00:28:36.560 --> 00:28:39.720 of my heart that I keep chasing after? 00:28:39.720 --> 00:28:43.039 It is striking how often Jesus did this all across the gospels. 00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:47.079 He woke up early in the morning, he went to a desolate place and he prayed. 00:28:47.079 --> 00:28:53.519 And I think it's because as a human being, Jesus who was facing death, who was facing 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:59.160 being cast outside the camp on the cross, I think he realized in the midst of all sorts 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:04.519 of temptations that were coming at him, I need to be alone with the living God with my 00:29:04.519 --> 00:29:11.960 father and to hear the father say to me, his love is better than life itself. 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:16.359 If anybody needed to hear that, Jesus needed to know that the love of the father is better 00:29:16.359 --> 00:29:19.599 than even living than life itself. 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:23.519 And as his face was set towards Jerusalem, that's what he needed from prayer. 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:27.200 And if he needed it, we need it. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.839 We need it, just like he needed it. 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:37.079 And so every day, his example, we need to pray and ask that God would change our affections. 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:41.480 We need to pray and say something like, you know, Lord, I need you today more than my 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:50.399 phone and I need you today more than my Netflix tonight and I need you today more than money 00:29:50.399 --> 00:29:55.639 and I need you today more than success and I need you today even more than a boyfriend 00:29:55.640 --> 00:30:02.200 or a girlfriend or a relationship, I need you today more than everything and say, give 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:07.280 me what I cannot desire on my own, you. 00:30:07.280 --> 00:30:09.840 And you can use the words of Psalm 27. 00:30:09.840 --> 00:30:16.960 David says, Lord, I long to desire the beauty of your face in the land of the living and 00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:19.440 make that your prayer every day. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:23.080 I'll close with Hebrews 928. 00:30:23.079 --> 00:30:30.519 Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not 00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:32.240 to deal with sin. 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:35.359 He already became the leper for us. 00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:41.240 Not to deal with sin, but the second time he will come to save those who are eagerly 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:44.559 awaiting him. 00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:46.639 Seek, go and seek God in your life. 00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:54.320 Go and seek him so that you can eagerly await him so that when he comes, he will gather 00:30:54.320 --> 00:30:55.920 you. 00:30:55.920 --> 00:30:56.920 Let's pray together. 00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:02.759 Lord, we ask now as we approach the Lord's table that you would give us affection for 00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:04.440 you above all. 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:09.960 That's what the table's about, that one day we will get to eat in front of you, with you, 00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:12.840 at the table with you in the land of the living, in the land of the resurrected. 00:31:12.839 --> 00:31:20.639 And so we do ask this morning to cast away our little hopes and dreams and not to get 00:31:20.639 --> 00:31:24.919 rid of the things that are good in this life, but to know that when we want you more than 00:31:24.919 --> 00:31:27.519 everything else, we get the world. 00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:31.919 We get you, we get resurrection, we get the land of the living. 00:31:31.919 --> 00:31:39.519 And so expel our wrong desires, our little gods, and give us deep affection for the one 00:31:39.519 --> 00:31:43.359 who became the leper for us, but did not stay dead. 00:31:43.359 --> 00:31:44.799 And we ask that in Jesus' name. 00:31:44.799 --> 00:32:12.799 Amen.