The Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (8)

“Getting to Jesus”
Mark 2:1-12

1. in the Bible I use for my personal study I have a pencil notation in the margins of this story – June ’05 before the fire; my need of others. I remember feeling like the paralytic who needed friends to take him to Jesus.

2. this is a wonderful story about need, friendship, creative leadership, forgiveness, healing, conflict, amazement & Jesus.

3. I want to look at the story from 5 different perspectives – that of the people, the 4 friends, the paralyzed man, the teachers of the law & Jesus.

4. this is early in Jesus’ ministry. He’s living & working within a rhythm of city & wilderness:
* 1:21 – city
* 1:35 – wilderness
* 1:38 – city
* 1:45 – wilderness
* 2:1 – city
He expends himself in service – he retreats to solitude & silence & prayer

the people (2, 12)
1. the people – the facts:
* heard that Jesus had come home – probably Peter’s house
* they gathered in & outside the house. There was no room left inside
* Jesus preached the word to them – most likely, the time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news (1:15)
* following Jesus’ ministry they were amazed – praised God – said, we have never seen anything like this.

2. this story of Jesus will teach us that crowds/numbers are not always to be trusted. When Jesus started teaching commitment, the crowds diminished. When he was dying, the crowds vanished, including his disciples.

3. where would you place yourself? In the crowd? Or committed no matter what?

the 4 friends (3-4)
1. the 1st thing that hits me about this story is the paralytic’s friends.

2. commitment & compassion. This paralyzed man had 4 friends who loved him so much that they took him to Jesus. They did for him what he couldn’t do for himself.

3. faith. They believed that Jesus could heal him. They exercised faith on behalf of their friend. All of us go through times where our faith wanes & our hope disappears. We need friends to stand in the gap & take us to Jesus.

4. creative leadership. These 4 friends were inventive. Problem – the way to Jesus is blocked by the crowds. Solution – use the roof. The roof was built with wood beams. A thick covering of clay and/or branches lay on top of the beams.

5. this 4 man demolition crew removed the clay/branches & let the man down between the beams. Right in front of Jesus.

6. what a wonderful picture of love & friendship? We take each other to Jesus when we:
* pray for each other
* visit, encourage, support, listen, love each other
* give Scripture to each other

7. do you see yourself in the story? Sometimes we need friends to get us to Jesus. Sometimes we need to get our friends to Jesus!

the paralytic (3-4)
1. this man was paralyzed. He couldn’t walk so his 4 amazing friends became his legs. He wanted to be healed. He allowed his friends to take him to Jesus.

2. I think the paralytic is a universal figure. He was literally, physically paralyzed. Same as some today.

3. but in another vein, paralysis is anything that is hurting us or killing us:
* failures that haunt us
* deadly rush of our lives
* inability to move, decide
* poison of our possessions
* crushing poverty swamping our world
* fear of taking a risk

4. when we are brought to Jesus we are given the choice to take up our mats & walk. And even if our legs still will not work, we can discover how agile a healed spirit can be.

5. few of us can choose our circumstances but we can choose how we will respond to them (Barbara Brown Taylor).

6. the paralytic, in one sense, is all of us. He represents our need for healing – not just physical but emotional, spiritual & relational.

7. how bad do you want healing & release this morning?

the teachers of the law (6-7)
1. these are “the good guys.” They are the guardians of the faith. They are the defenders of orthodoxy.

2. Jesus comes along & shatters their theological categories. He didn’t fit inside their religious studies curriculum. He claimed to forgive sins. In Jewish theology only God could forgive sin (not even the Messiah). He was claiming to be God by claiming to forgive the paralytic’s sin.

3. what would you have done? It’s easy for us to be hard on these guys but we shouldn’t. They were simply doing their job as the keepers of the faith.

4. warning. I think there will always be teachers of the law – people who in their zeal to guard the faith or uphold the truth might miss the sometimes surprising, unexpected ways of God.

Jesus
1. what do we find of Jesus in this story? Son, your sins are forgiven + I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Forgiveness followed by healing. Healing to validate forgiveness.

2. I have 2 comments I want to make about Jesus.

3. 1st, our sin problem is our biggest problem. This is the point Jesus makes by forgiving the sins of the paralytic before he even asked or made a confession of faith in Jesus. Paralysis was NOT his biggest problem; sin WAS.

4. same with us. Sin is a spiritual infection that comes to us by virtue of our being born into the human race. This infection taints all of our relationships – with God, with his world, with each other & with ourselves.

5. the words we all long to hear are your sins are forgiven. Can you imagine what it would be like to have Jesus look you in the eyes & say with love & tenderness & conviction, your sins are forgiven? I believe this is one of the greatest hungers of our lives.

6. 2nd Jesus is our greatest need. He & he alone can forgive our sin. He & he alone can heal our paralysis.

7. Jesus is both our stopping place & our starting place. By stopping I mean he’s the place we stop at when we come to church. We stop our week to worship him, pray to him, listen to him, give to him & respond to him.

8. then he becomes our starting place. Once the last prayer is said we start a new week as we leave this stopping place.

9. we go home to our neighborhoods. We spread out to the places we call work. We stand on the sidelines of baseball fields. We stand in line at the bank. We sit all day at a computer terminal. We sit all day at the steering wheel of a truck. We become citizens of our world.

10. and there we encounter the burden & the glory of life:
* joy & sorrow
* family & friends
* conflict & challenges
* work & play
* intimacy & estrangement
* certainty & confusion
* vision & blindness
* destitution & plenty
* pain & gladness
* life & death
* suffering & good fortune
* sickness & health
* riches & poverty
* war & peace

11. we meet up with sin – our own & others. We will need to forgive & be forgiven. As we cling to Jesus who saves us all from our sins.

12. we meet up with paralysis – literal & figurative, our own & others. We will need to be healed & be healers. As we cling to Jesus our Healer.

13. take someone to Jesus this week in their paralyzed state. Let someone take you to Jesus this week in your paralyzed state. For forgiveness. For healing. For the life of the world. Amen.

the Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (7)

“Living from the Inside Out”

Mark 1:35-45

1. this week 2 articles caught my attention in the Tuesday edition of USA today. In the 1st article – “If approved, planes could become Wi-Fi hot spots as early as next year” – airlines are working on making the following services available on domestic flights if you carry a laptop – email, tapping into corporate networks, surfing the Web, playing games and possibly even watching movies. Cell phone service might not be far behind.

2. the 2nd article – “Airports open services to keep fliers plugged in” – reported on airport services for business travelers, things like – wireless internet access, available outlets for recharging equipment, private workstations for rent & meeting rooms for rent.

3. you see, LAX & that Boeing aircraft flying us south are becoming our “office away from the office.” What this all means is that we are quickly becoming a culture that is “plugged in” from home to coffee shop to the office to the hotel to the airport to the rental car & to our seat in row 15C.

4. the question begging to be asked - when do we ever get “unplugged?”

Jesus
1. we need the Jesus we read about in today’s text. He’s just launched his public ministry & boy what a start! The crowds have discovered him. His popularity is skyrocketing.

2. today this would mean – he’s been offered his own show on TBN. A publisher is after him to write a book. Agents are knocking on his door, one with an offer of being the main speaker on a Christian cruise to the Bahamas. Another asking him to write the study notes for a Jesus of Nazareth Study Bible for Carpenters.

3. and what does he do? He goes into hiding. Let’s pick up the story at 1:32.

there is Pressure put on Jesus (32-34, 36-37)
1. the setting is the home of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. Mark writes the whole town gathered at the door. And Jesus met their needs – he healed & delivered them.

2. in v. 37 Jesus is told the following morning that everyone is looking for you. Add this up: whole town the night before + everyone this morning = a ton of people & pressure. What does Jesus do?

Jesus retreats to Pray & rePlenish himself (35)
1. very early in the morning while it was still dark means in the middle of the night. The needy crowds are breaking down the doors & Jesus sneaks away.

2. early - more like 3am than 6am, and that, after a full & exhausting day of service.

3. solitary place - literally, the desert (same word as 1:3,4 & 12). Jesus didn’t seek out a quiet bench in the city park. He hiked out into the wild to get completely away. He hid himself.

4. 1st, notice the discipline of Jesus. Jesus disciplined himself to find a time & place for solitude & prayer. Jesus models something very important for us – he not only leads from the inside out, he lives from the inside out.

5. Jesus needed a break from the crowds & their demands. He needed time with his Father in solitude, silence & prayer. He needed to replenish his empty ministry tank.

6. leaders need time alone with God. Apart from the crowds & their demands. Time away from the phones, email, faxes & pagers. Time to shut out all the outer distractions & pay attention to one’s soul.

7. 2nd, Jesus was recharged & energized by his time of prayer & solitude. Prayer is where the battles of life are often times won or lost. Again & again Jesus gets alone with his Father to pray. Everything that happens in his ministry – the miracles, the healing, the teaching, the deliverance, the compassion, the love – flows directly from his time alone with God.

8. this kind of prayer discipline is not just for leaders. It’s for everyone. The goal of discipleship is to be conformed into the likeness of Christ – Romans 8:29. Part of which means to life a life of prayer like Jesus did.

9. this will mean 2 things – a place & a time. Discipline. Place. I was reading this week where excavations of homes from the Roman Empire often included little chapels or prayer rooms. Some pagan, some Christian. The point is prayer & sacrifices were such an important priority in the lives of the people that they created a “space” in their living quarters for meeting God.

10. do we have a “sacred space” in our homes? Bedrooms + bathrooms + kitchen + dining room + family room + office + studio. But no designated space for God. Find your place.

11. Time. Can be anytime. But I believe it needs to be the time where you are most alive & can be fully present to God. For me that’s early in the morning – what about for you?

12. without a place & a time our prayer discipline, if we have one, will be sloppy & shallow.

Jesus declares his Purpose (38)
1. let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come. We need to jump on these words – they were birthed in prayer. It’s time to hit the road. He leaves behind a city full of needs in Capernaum.

2. a couple of things here. 1st, Jesus left behind people in need of healing & deliverance. In this time of the in-breaking kingdom of God – the already but not yet time – some are healed & delivered but not all.

3. the pages of Matthew Mark Luke & John are filled with stories of Jesus making people whole. But he only touched a fraction of those with needs.

4. we still live in this tension. Jesus heals today but not everyone is healed. I’ll deal with this more as we go through Mark.

5. 2nd, Jesus kept moving before others were ready for him to move. There is a driven-restlessness to kingdom work. Jesus wanted to move on before he finished what he started in Capernaum

6. the work of God’s kingdom is never static but fluid & flowing. We see this in the book of Acts. The Holy Spirit keeps pushing the church forward.

7. case-in-point: the church in Antioch Acts 13. This was a great church, a celebrated center for the vitality of the gospel. The Holy Spirit moved in & said, Set apart for me Barnabas & Saul for the work to which I have called them (13:2). Suddenly 2 of their best leaders are taken from them. Why? God has other places he wanted the gospel preached, just like here with Jesus.

8. right now we are in the midst of a huge financial challenge – raising $800,000 or more in the next year for rebuilding. It would be very easy to pull back & gather all of our resources to meet this challenge.

9. but we are not going to do that. The Center. Our church leadership overwhelmingly voted to step out & become a founding church of The Center. We want to join with other churches in Canby – the First Church of Canby – to show our community that Christ really cares about them. Here’s some food, clothing, counseling, a place to hang out. We want to share our finances & our people to advance the kingdom of God in Canby, Not only build the Canby Alliance Church.

10. let’s go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also.

11. Susu Partnership. This October we will be sending a team of people to Guinea, West Africa to renew our partnership with the Susu people. In 1999 we made a decision to assist missionaries in Guinea in to reach the Susu people for Christ – a group of 1,000,000 Muslims untouched by the gospel.

12. we’ve sent money to buy church property, pay for travel, dig wells & provide ½ of the yearly support for Sam & Josephine Sesay (national Southern Baptist missionaries working with the Susu people). We’ve sent short-term mission teams to serve the missionaries at their yearly conference, assist them in their home-schooling, provide medical services & do repair & maintenance on their facilities.

13. the last several years our partnership has been on hold due to a change in missionary personnel in Guinea. A team of us will go to Guinea in October to jump-start our partnership. We want to remain faithful to what we’ve promised to do in Guinea.

14. let’s go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also.

Jesus responds with comPassion (40-45)
1. filled with compassion. This is what got Jesus back on the road again – this is what will move us a long. Compassion for hurting people.

2. compassion is the word for bowels or intestines. It means to feel something deep, deep inside us.

3. Jesus’ insides were torn up for this leprosy-struck man. The man asked to be made clean – healed – and Jesus cleaned him up. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

4. lepers were the worst of the worst in Jesus’ day. They were quarantined. If you touched one you were declared unclean. If you simply went near one, you were unclean.

5. this leper broke the rules. He came up to Jesus, making Jesus & everyone nearby unclean. Jesus broke the rules. He touched the leper. True compassion will thrust us outside of our comfort zones.

6. how are we doing with compassion? Do we feel anything toward the people around us?
7. The Center – do we really care about people in our community? Enough to write checks, serve in its leadership, volunteer our time & contribute our abilities?

8. the Susu people – do we care about these 1,000,000 mostly poor, mostly fisherman, almost totally unreached people who are made in God’s image? Enough to send a team of people this fall to discover ways that we can help missionaries share God’s love for them?

9. Jesus wants to disrupt our lives by prayer, by kingdom priorities, by compassion. We can let him & join him for what will be a wild & exciting ride. Or we can resist him & use our energies to maintain the status quo. What’s it going to be for you?

the Gospel of Mark: On the Road With Jesus (6)

“The Kingdom Begins to Come”
Mark 1:21-34

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news! (1:14-15).

1. the kingdom of God is near. 1st, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the rule of God over all of life – God’s will being done on earth, in history, in our lives, our church, our families, our jobs, our community.

2. what does it mean that the kingdom is near? The kingdom of God starts to come in Jesus – but – does not fully arrive. For us today – the kingdom of God has come in Jesus – and continues to come – but will not fully arrive until the return of Christ. Everything that we experience of the kingdom of God now is but a shadow, a glimpse, a whiff of what is to come.

3. we live in the “already but not yet.” God’s kingdom has already started to come but it is not yet fully here. So, we live in a time of tension. God’s power is already unleashed but not yet fully operative. Sin, death, Satan have already been defeated but not yet fully destroyed.

4. it’s like going to Costco around lunch time. You get 1 bite of a chicken enchilada but not the whole enchilada. You receive 1 small swallow of peach nectar but not a big glass. You enjoy a tantalizing taste of chocolate cake but not a whole cake. So the kingdom.

5. as the kingdom of God begins to seep into our world, what “signs” do we find of its coming? Notice the sequence of events that follow the announcement:
* Jesus calls people to follow him (16-20)
* Jesus teaches with authority (21-22)
* Jesus is confronted by/confronts an evil spirit (23-28)
* People are amazed at Jesus (27)
* Jesus heals people (29-34)

6. these are “signs” of the in-breaking Kingdom of God. True of Jesus & his day – true for Jesus & our day.

Signs of the in-breaking kingdom of God
1st followers (16-20):
1. Jesus enlists the help of others. He calls for their participation. This is a sign of the kingdom – people called to become followers of Jesus. Jesus begins to create a company of the committed – a movement of people – a body of believers.

2. wherever you find Christ in our world you will find him forming a group of people in his name to worship, follow & serve him. His vision is to unite the people he has created under his Lordship.

2nd teaching (21-22):
1. Mark records fewer of Jesus’ teachings than the other gospel writers. But he emphasizes Jesus as a teacher. The words “teacher” or “teach” or “teaching” or “Rabbi” are applied to Jesus 39 times in 16 chapters. Teaching is big in Jesus’ kingdom ministry.

2. Jesus taught with authority. His teaching was much more than just conveying information. His teaching compelled (people) to decision (Bill Lane). They sensed that his authority came directly from God.

3. we need to ask ourselves a question here – when we sit under the teaching of Jesus, do we sense the God-directed authority to obey? A sure sign of the in-breaking kingdom of God – rule of God over our lives – is our quick response to obey the words of Jesus.

3rd evil (23-28):
1. as Jesus was teaching in the Jewish synagogue a man possessed by an evil spirit confronted him. Notice:
* the evil spirit knows who Jesus is – Jesus of Nazareth & the Holy One of God – this is amazing – this evil spirit confesses that he believes in the incarnation, 1 of the core elements of our Christian faith – Jesus is man & Jesus is God!
* this man appears to be possessed by multiple spirits but only 1 speaks up – us used 2xs in v. 24
* this evil spirit is under the authority of Jesus – Jesus cast the spirit/s out of this man

2. the question of evil is raised for us at the beginning of Jesus’ gospel story. We don’t have to live in this world for very long before we realize that something has gone terribly wrong with it.

3. New Years 1977 I was living in the Philippines & a Filipino friend of mine took me to the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines to show me where his father had been murdered by Muslims. George’s dad was a doctor. What got him murdered was his building of the 1st hospital in Marawi for the Muslim people. They killed him because he was a Christian & an outsider. As I stood with George & looked at his father’s half-built hospital, I was confronted with evil.

4. one day years ago my phone rang & I was asked to perform the funeral of a 6 month old baby who had been shot with her mother outside of Molalla by 2 teenage boys. That was my 2nd funeral. I was confronted with evil.

5. almost 3 years ago I stood in the crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany where Jews, gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses & homosexuals were disposed of during World War II. I saw pictures of dead emancipated prisoners piled high waiting to be thrown into the ovens. I was confronted with evil.

6. we are confronted with “lesser” forms of evil everyday – being lied to or telling a lie. Yelling at our spouse or being yelled at by our spouse. Cheating on a test at school or being taken advantage of by a friend. Having a racist comment directed at us or making one ourselves.

7. its hard to dismiss evil in our world. Sometimes this evil takes the shape of evil spirits, demons, who invade people’s lives and take control. Evil spirits seek to torment & destroy God’s precious people who are created in his image.

8. Jesus & his kingdom confront evil & evil spirits. All authority is found in Jesus. Even the demons must obey him. We have nothing to fear. King Jesus is our King.

9. this from C.S. Lewis in his introduction to The Screwtape Letters – there are two equal & opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

10. back to Mark, some paradox – this evil spirit knows who Jesus is, confesses him to be both man & God. Yet, as we’ll see, Jesus’ disciples who follow him do not fully understand who he is despite his clear teaching & powerful deeds.

11. some of you have questions about Jesus. You are wrestling with who he really is & what authority he has over your life. Learn from this evil spirit. Follow him in confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Holy One of God!

4th amazement (22,27):
1. this is a reoccurring theme in Mark (11x). Jesus’ teaching & his actions produced amazement in people. They experienced something they had never experienced before. And what they experienced was coming face-to-face with the rule of God in Jesus of Nazareth.

2. I’ll say more on this as we go through Mark but for now – as we surrender our lives more & more to Jesus & as his kingdom comes in our lives & church, we will be amazed at what God does in our midst!

5th healing (29-34):
1. since our fall into sin in Genesis 3, we have struggled with sickness & disease. There was none before the fall, there will be none in heaven, but there is now. Healing Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever is the 1st of Jesus’ 35 miracles in Mark’s gospel.

2. she had a fever. I like that. Not cancer, not crippled, not blind, not dead, not demon-possessed. She just had a fever. And Jesus healed her. He cares about the small stuff of our lives as well as the big stuff.

3. they told Jesus about her. This is what we need to do. When we’re sick, when our health fails us, before we reach for the Advil or the phone to call our doctor, let’s take our stuff to Jesus. Let’s 1st ask him to heal us.

4. I’m afraid that in our medically-rich culture we are prone to shut Jesus out of our health issues. Instead of making him a last resort, I encourage you to make him your first resort.

What will you do with Jesus?
1. Jesus came to call a company of people to himself, to teach the truths of the kingdom, to deliver people from evil & to heal them of their sickness = resulting in amazement!

2. as we prepare ourselves for communion – what will you do with Jesus? Let him call you to follow him – receive his authoritative teaching – seek his deliverance from evil – ask for his healing touch upon your life.