Untitled Sermon (4)

Title: A Church of the Secret Place

Series: A Church of TOV

Date: 1/30/2023

Place: Evanston

Sermon Content/Info:

Mark 1:35–39 (NIV)

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

INTRODUCTION:

So when all of you hopefully get the chance to come to our home at some point, one of the things you might notice is that we like to have plants growing throughout our home.

Now I’m not one of those crazy plant people like Tirza, but we love the vibes that some plants can bring to your living space. To me it feels peaceful and cozy to have some greenery in your space.

Now to that point, I’m not great at remembering to take care of our plants though. That usually falls on Hailey, because she’s the one with the green thumb. But in our home, there was one plant that we were really proud of. It was this dieffenbachia plant that you can kind of see in this picture.

I love this picture for a lot of reasons….

This plant was thriving and growing full and tall… and then Oliver happened. Once he learned to walk he would just periodically attack this plant, but it happened overtime so we didn’t really notice the quality of the plant until we stumbled across this picture last week. You guys want to see the plant today? (Picture.)

I would not describe this plant as flourishing. But once we finally saw the difference and the toll that had been taken on from just being present in our living room, we decided that it was time to move it into our room to give it a break in order to revive it in the hopes that it might grow back to what it once was.

Anytime you see life flourishing, it is because it’s receiving nourishment from outside of itself. - John Ortberg, author/pastor

In the case of our plant, it required that we move it out of Ollie’s reach so that it can rest and recover from the daily life of a two year old.

But what about you this morning? Where are you receiving your nourishment?

All of us long for a life in which we are flourishing on the outside:

A life where we are crushing it as a parent

A home life that’s put together

A career that is building and successful

A church that is growing and thriving

But in order for those external qualities to actually flourish and last, it is directly connected to our inner life. And our inner life - our heart and soul - are something that requires nourishment that comes from outside of ourselves.

…But if we’re honest this morning, I think there are a lot of us that feel, on the inside, like what that plant looks like on the outside, am I right?

It’s not that life has been cruel to you, but it’s just that life takes a toll. The pace of life, the demands of life, the responsibilities that you bear, all weigh on you and make your inner life feel a lot like what that plant looks like.

SEAM: So when the weight of our outer life begins to impact the quality of our inner life, what do we do? Well, I would suggest that we look to Jesus.

MOVEMENT 1: Mark chapter one survey

This morning we read from Mark 1:35, so if you would open your Bibles up to that first chapter again. The passage we read this morning takes place at the very beginning of Mark’s Gospel.

In the Gospel of Mark, the first chapter is this sweeping, fast-paced overview of beginnings of Jesus ministry. John Mark, the author covers a ton of ground right off the bat.

Just look at this first chapter for a second - how many headings do you see? In the NIV, I’ve got 8 separate headings. 8 separate movements of Jesus’ early ministry that happened one after the other.

Jesus goes from his baptism in the Jordan River

straight into the wilderness to fast for 40 days

then right after he comes out of the wilderness he begins to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God

Then he begins to assemble his team of disciples

Then he begins to cast out demons

Then he heals Peter’s mother-in-law

And then people hear about these things and so they bring him the sick to heal and the demon-oppressed to release.

SO much happened to Jesus in order to get his ministry off the ground and John Mark covers all of it in one chapter.

But another thing to count through this first chapter are the words or phrases like “immediately” “at once” “as soon as” or “without delay”. In the ESV, the word immediately is used 9 separate times just in this one chapter. These things didn’t just happen over time, it seems as if they happened all at once.

V. 28 says, “28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”

The life and ministry of Jesus was fast, propulsive, and weighty; and Jesus was in demand!

HINGE: But what I find interesting is that the passage we read this morning seems to exist in contrast to these pivotal movements of Jesus ministry.

I mean we’ve got some serious and significant movements of Jesus’ life listed here: Jesus’ Baptism, his temptation in the wilderness, healing the sick, casting out demons. That’s the kind of stuff we expect from the Messiah right? Preaching, kingdom building, exercising his authority, ACTION!

And so to the reader paying attention, I think vv. 35-39 feel slightly out of place.

Because falling right in line with all of these monumental moments in Jesus' ministry, we hear that the next thing Jesus does is leave it all behind for a little while to go to what John Mark calls “the solitary place.”

Read the passage again with me:

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

And so as the reader, if we’re paying attention, you might be struck by this odd choice from Jesus. But to his disciples, it was shocking that this was Jesus’ move.

To the disciples, they are thinking: How could you miss out on this opportunity?! Everyone knows who you are! People are depending on you! There’s a line out the door for you to keep healing the sick! If we stop now, you won’t accomplish everything that you are saying you want to do!

HINGE: But in the face of responsibility, ministry, and the expectations of others, Jesus’ response is to retreat to the secret place.

THE PARALLELS OF JESUS’ PRAYER/WORK: What's interesting about this interjection of the secret place into Jesus’ ministry movements is the way the author writes about it…

In the styling of this passage there is a suggestive parallel in the wording between Jesus went out to preach, he went out to cast out demons, and he went out to pray.

And I think what Mark is trying to convey here by using the parallel wording is that this interjection of the Secret Place is equally as important to Jesus as those other things were. The significance of Jesus’ ministry was not just about what he did for humanity, but also what he did in this Solitary Place.

EREMOS: And so let’s talk about this solitary place. What John Mark introduces here in v. 35 as “the solitary place” is a pattern in the life of Jesus that you can follow through the rest of Mark as well as the other synoptic Gospels. This place goes by many names depending on the Gospel or the translation you use:

The solitary place

The secret place

The quiet place

The desolate place (a personal favorite because it feels kind of moody)

The lonely place

The mountainside

The Greek word that is being translated these ways is “erēmos” and it’s actually the same word used for the wilderness where John preached (1:4) and the wilderness that Jesus was tempted in (1:12).

But the implication here is not that Jesus was seeking out a desert wasteland for prayer, but that these were the kinds of places where God’s people had always experienced restoration and fellowship with God. And so everytime that Mark records Jesus going to the eremos, What he’s really doing is finding time and place to be alone with God.

And so the frequency of the eremos - the secret place - in the narrative and the relationship that Jesus has to it throughout the Gospels goes to show that this was not just a one-off move by Jesus done to escape the early stages of a fast paced ministry life…

SEAM: Rather the Secret Place was an intentionally developed pattern in his life to be with God. Because Jesus knew that without The Secret Place, the demands of your outer life will dictate the quality of your inner life.

MOVEMENT 2: Without the Secret Place

Look with me at vv. 36-37 again:

36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

COMMENTARY:

It was funny to me, in some of my study of this passage, one commentary said of this verse that the NIV rendering (“Simon and his companions went to look for [Jesus]”) is anemic compared to Mark’s actual vigorous wording which would have been better translated as “Simon and his company ‘pursued’ Jesus or ‘hunted him down.’”

So here Peter and the disciples are literally hunting Jesus down in the wilderness because - as they see it, their ministry of the Gospel is going to crumble unless Jesus is available right now! Jesus is too important, his work is too valuable, and what they perceived as the possibility of success, growth, and impact was all on the line!

This is why it had to be the wilderness for Jesus. He knew that he had to get away in order to experience nourishment from the Father for the quality of his earthly ministry, but also to receive life and encouragement from the Father.

It’s funny this immediately reminded me of my boys and the difference between me watching them and Hailey watching them.

By her very presence they experience needs that my presence does not produce and so they will hunt Hailey down in our house if they know she’s there, but don’t see her.

PRACTICALITY:

And isn’t that kind of how life feels sometimes? Don’t you feel like the demands of life are hunting you down? And it is so easy to give in to those demands.

Because often the demands that we experience are for good things:

It’s the demands of our family

The important work required by our careers

The roles we bear to love and serve the people at this church

There is nothing inherently wrong with these obligations, in fact they are deeply good things. Just like Jesus’ work of teaching, healing, and building his ministry, these things that create demands of us in life are things that we should be striving hard to fulfill.

BUT. When the demands of these things begin to shape and form our lives, they will actually deform us, de-energize us, leaving us confused about our calling and purpose.

And when we work from this inner disposition - our inner life looking like the plant in our living room after Ollie - the good that we want to do is often severely limited.

We feel the calling to disciple our kids, but in moments of discipline we yell rather than instruct.

We long to produce a healthy work environment around us, and yet we find ourselves complaining or criticizing others behind their backs.

We want to cultivate a church culture of humility and compassion, and yet we fail to embody those things because it’s just really stinkin’ hard!

These are just a few examples that come from my own life my own struggles, and maybe you can relate to those, but I think that most of us can come up with our own examples for what we look like when our outer life is dictating our inner life…

HINGE: What people like us need more than anything is the Secret Place.

This place isn’t about the location. As we mentioned earlier, this place went by many names and it happened in many places… it was the wilderness, the mountainside, sometimes a garden.

You see the Secret Place was never about where, it was always about who.

V. 35 says, “Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

This wasn’t escapism, it wasn’t him clearing his head, this was about doing life with the Father.

I think sometimes we see that word prayer and we have a limited understanding of what that means. For Jesus - prayer wasn’t about requests - it was about relationship. So when we see that Jesus went to the secret place to pray, we should think about Jesus being filled - being nourished - by spending time with God.

So where do you go to be nourished?

Some of us think that nourishment and rest will come after we answer all of life’s demands. If we can just get to the bottom of that list, then we’ll be fulfilled. spoiler alert - the list never ends.

Others try to escape life’s demands, but then we turn to sources of nourishment that actually just leave us empty. Things like our phones, netflix, trick us into thinking that we’ll feel nourished when really they just numb us.

SEAM: But as we look to the example of Jesus from this passage, he shows us a better way - a way of health and hope. What we learn from Jesus is that if we live life out of The Secret Place, God will dictate the quality of your inner life.

MOVEMENT 3: With the secret place, God will dictate the quality of your inner life.

Go with me again to vv. 36–39:

36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

COMMENTARY:

Again, Simon and the others seemed to think that Jesus was making a big mistake and missing out on a great opportunity to build the platform for their ministry by leaning into their recent attention.

But something happened to Jesus in the Secret Place. Fresh off his encounter with God he was reminded and affirmed in his purpose. He was not just a miracle-worker, but the Messiah. He was not just here to heal people’s physical sickness, but to heal their spiritual sickness.

And so in response to Simon’s urgent calling to go back to the crowds for some more healings and facetime with the people, Jesus instead redirects their energy and efforts by responding simply and clearly, reaffirming his baptismal commission and his message from vv. 14-15:

That he was to spread the Good News that “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

stating, “This is why I have come.”

And so off they went to the local synagogue’s spreading the Gospel and meeting people at their deepest need, which was restoration with God.

And this sense of clarity and shift in trajectory happened simply because Jesus woke up early one morning because he knew that he needed to be with the Father.

He could feel life pulling him off mission,

He knew that there would be the demands of his disciples and the crowds,

He knew what happened to your inner health when those things dictate your life.

So he escaped to the Secret place to be with God. Because he knew that the nourishment of the Father would give clarity, purpose, and direction.

A couple of years ago, I did an escape room with some people. Has anyone done one of those? I honestly thought that I’d be really good at it, but that was not the case. As soon as that timer started and everyone started running around the room looking for clues, I just got entirely lost. I was working on puzzles that were already done by someone else, I suddenly couldn't do math, it was rough. But what was happening to my brain was the pressure of the timer, the competition, trying to impress the others in the room all got to my head and I was crippled by it.

What I needed was to just be able to slow down with like one or two people that I trust in order to think clearly and know how to move forward.

This is the value of the Secret Place that Jesus is showing us through this passage.

Some of us are longing for clarity on an important life decision

Others of us need a refresher on what our purpose is right now in life.

Some of us just need to be affirmed in our value and worth to God; to know that we are deeply loved.

Others of us just need some rest for our souls.

And what Jesus is showing you is that you can find all of those things when you meet with God in the Secret Place.

Consider the invitation from Jesus in Matthew 11:28–30:

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus is calling to each one of you saying that the life of rest, clarity, and goodness that you desire is found when you meet with him.

So I want to ask you this question today:

Are you answering the demands of your outer life or are you answering the invitation of the Secret Place?

The flourishing life that you long for is not going to be found at the end of the lists of demands life has for you, but rather it is found in regularly accepting Jesus' invitation into the Secret Place - into moments of quiet where we can be with God.

SEAM: So honestly, I hope that most of us right now feel a longing for this Secret Place. And if there’s not a longing yet, I would hope that you at least are able to acknowledge that if Jesus needed this so do you! So if that is true, what does it look like to pattern our lives after Jesus in this way?

MOVEMENT 4: The Invitation of the Secret Place

If we go back to the text, regardless if it’s here in Mark 1 or in any other passage that tells of Jesus’ experiences in the Secret Place, the pattern of the Secret Place is always the same: in the face of the demands of life, Jesus invites us to stop, withdraw, and meet with Him.

The Pattern of the Secret Place:

STOP:

So step number one is to STOP!

Again as we look back on Mark 1:35, it is a verse that interrupts the propulsive description of Jesus’ ministry. The act of escaping into the “eremos” was an act of STOPPING on Jesus’ behalf.

So as Jesus chose to STOP, the invitation into the Secret Place begins with Stopping. It’s the idea of interrupting the flow of life in order that we might look up once in a while to take stock of where we are. To evaluate:

How am I doing? Where is life taking me right now? Am I happy with that direction? Who am I becoming? What’s my proximity to God like these days?

Life has a way of keeping our head just above water enough to where we wouldn’t exactly say that we’re drowning, but we’re also not comfortably treading water either.

We’ll never be able to acknowledge our need for the Secret Place if we don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to stop and take stock of our lives.

WITHDRAW:

The next step is to withdraw. V. 35 says:

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up.

The Secret Place didn’t just happen to Jesus, he didn’t wait for a convenient time to pop up in his day, he didn’t just assume there would be time later - No. He woke up really really early. You can hear that in the redundant start to this verse: “very early, like really dark early.”

Jesus knew that there was not going to be space in his day, so he created space by withdrawing.

He knew that he needed time alone with his Father, so he intentionally created time in his life to regularly encounter God. And for him that meant withdrawing to the Father in the fatigue of the early morning was his best option and would be worth it.

Now listen, I’m not up here telling you that withdrawing means you need to wake up super early in order to meet with God. I’m not a morning person at all and so when life affords it to me, I am much more inclined to have by God time in the full light of day. But for me, the full light of day right now means family, work, and parenting responsibilities are in full swing, so my best time to get away with God truly is in the early dark hours…

But again, this isn’t saying when you have to encounter God, but it is an invitation to intentionality. An invitation to curate your life in such a way that you have space and time to be with God.

MEET WITH HIM:

The last step in the pattern of the Secret Place is to simply meet with God.

Again, looking to Jesus, it wasn’t about escaping responsibility, it wasn’t about spending less time with his disciples, it wasn’t about a little RnR. It was entirely about time spent with the Father.

As compelling as other things may be in our life or as enjoyable as other outlets are, there is nothing that will fill us and nourish us the same way as time spent with the Father in prayer and in meditation on his word.

Here’s what the Psalmist of Psalm 73 says:

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;

(SLOW DOWN HARD STOP)

I will tell of all your deeds.

SEAM: Anytime you see life flourishing, it is because it’s receiving nourishment from outside of itself. The best source of nourishment is the love of the Father. And when we find ourselves escaping into that love, we will flourish. And it's available to each and every one of us today because of Jesus.

CLOSE: The Solitary Place and a Church of TOV and wrapping up the series.

Now just as a reminder, we’re in the last message in a series called a Church of TOV - and everything we’ve talked about has been in conversation with this idea that we want to be a church of Goodness. So what does the Secret Place have to do with our series?

One thing that we’ve talked about over and over again is how deeply the means matter. It’s not just about what we do, it’s about HOW we do it. In the last two messages we’ve talked about the means of compassion and humility.

Compassion as entering into the brokenness of others to resolve it

And Humility as willing the good of others before our own.

These things are key to establishing a culture of goodness.

The problem is that those are hard things to do and be! We will fail over and over again if we are trying to do the right things and be the right people in our own strength.

And that’s where the Secret Place comes into play in a Church of TOV.

To be a church of goodness, we must individually be people of the Secret Place. People who derive their energy, value, purpose, and character from our own time spent with God - just as Jesus did.

And as we spend time in relationship with a deeply Good God, we will learn how to be good people, who can then cultivate goodness around us - in our families, communities, and in our church.

And whatever we do, as a Church of the Secret Place, we can be sure that TOV will follow.

Let’s pray.

BENEDICTION:

As we close out this series, I’m excited to begin a brand new series next week called a Kingdom of Priests. Together we’ll be studying the book of 1 Peter, looking at how to be faithful to Jesus in the midst of the tension of this World.

But until then, a blessing for us all from 2 Corinthians: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Grace and Peace Church.