Mark 1:29-39 | Sin, Silence & Solitude

2020. What a year. I think it’s safe to say as my favorite TV character of all time would say.... 2020 was the WOOOOORRRRSST!!!!!

For real though, 2020 was the weirdest strangest year I’ve ever lived through. We all remember it.

It was the year of the global pandemic and COVID19. Can you believe it was 4 years ago! How crazy is that!

Remember the lock downs. For many, the first part of the lock down was kind of nice. I mean as adults most of us don’t get snow days or fogs days from work, but with COVID, we did and at first for many the forced isolation and the slowing of our pace of life was nice, but then as it drug on, it turned into something that was not so fun. We all remember what it was like. The shelter-in-place orders. The family arguments and shouting matches online over wearing masks and not wearing masks and the social distancing. Good times! Yeah, not so much! To all of that I say good riddance!

Anyway, as rough as that season was, I think for many it was an eye opener. Social distancing and isolation, as it turns out, is not so good for us in extended doses as people. And online, virtual reality and zoom calls are not as good as being in the same room with other people! It’s not the same! Online is no substitute for in person!

I’ve shared this before, but I just saw this commercial again recently in every time I see it I’m reminded of 2020 and how bad all that social isolation was for us as a people.

Have you seen the one whiskey commercial where there’s what looks like a bunch of sad and lonely people sitting in a bar and then one gentleman starts to sing the beginning of that song Sweet Caroline? Bah… Bah.... Bah… right and eventually the whole pub is belting out the chorus as a younger millennial enters the pub in her hoodie with a sad look on her face. But as she enters to the singing and the sense of community and joy that is being shared you can kind of see the anxiety and tension melt from her shoulders and then the geniuses behind this ad campaign flash this line across the screen: People are good for!

Hmmm… such a great commercial! People are good for us. And do know why that is, because, as the Bible teaches, we are all a bunch of sheep! Which means, we were made to travel in flocks!

That’s why we talk often around here about how we want everyone at Crossroads to find themselves some fridge friends! A fridge friend is a person with whom you are close to enough in friendship and fellowship in the gospel that it’s not weird for you to open their fridge with out asking and take what you’d like from it!

If you’re new to Crossroads, you may not be familiar with our vision and mission, but it’s this: Crossroads exists to help the spiritually lost get found and to equip the found to live free in Jesus Christ! And a large part of getting people found spiritually and equipping them to live free can only be done within the confines of a loving and grace-filled community!

I know a lot of us still think that if we could just get people better information, if we could just get people more education, then they would learn to behave more like Jesus and act better. If we could just get people to know the Bible better and know the truth more then their lives would be transformed, but that’s actually not the case.

Truth is important, and remember form last week, Jesus came teaching a whole lot of truth, but that was not what He centered His ministry on. Hear me out....

As it turns out, before we begin to act like Christians or followers of Jesus we first need to feel like we are part of His community! We need to belong to Him and His people! His people need to become our people! And once we have a sense of group identity, we will begin to act more and more like how our people act!

We can see this dynamic playing itself out in the calling of the first disciples in Mark. Right, remember 2 weeks ago in Mark 1:14-20 when was calling his first disciples. They are clueless about the finer points of theology. Like really clueless. They are still very much stuck on political revolution and if Jesus were like us, he would have preached a really detailed sermon to them about the King and His Kingdom, but that’s not what Jesus did! Remember what He did. He invited these clueless, flunky fisherman to “come follow me.” Join me. Come be apart of me and my group! He invites them to belong!

And then as these guys and gals started to belong, he taught them along the way about truth and He corrected them lovingly all in and effort to help them live up and into the kind of people He wanted them to be as His followers!

Church this is what we’re trying to do here at Crossroads. We are praying and working to make this a safe and welcoming place for you to belong. We don’t want you to just attend a service here, listen to some preaching and then go about your week.

Please don’t settle for that! We want you to get found, by Jesus and by His people! We want you to find friends here, people with whom you can be open and honest about the deepest and yes even the darkest areas of your life. Why? Why do we want this? Because true freedom only comes for us when we learn to share our weakness and sin within the context of gospel community!

Now I’m gonna quote a good friend of mine, named Cal who’s gonna come preach here for a bit next September. Cal often says that God can’t heal what we conceal! God can’t heal what we conceal.

James tells us as much in James 5:16 but from the positive angle. He writes, “16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Healing comes from bringing dark things out into the light before your trusted community!

If you were here with us last week, you will remember that I shared some personal sin from my own life and how confessing it and receiving some spiritual warfare prayer from a close and godly friend of mine over it has brought a tremendous amount of freedom to my life and my marriage. Do you know why I sometimes share my sin with you? It’s not to unburden myself! I’ve already done that in my trusted fridge friend group! No I share it from up front because I’m trying to model for you all what it looks like to live your lives in authentic, heart-focused Christian community. I share my junk and my weakness because I want to encourage you that this is a safe place to share yours!

As I we discussed 2 weeks ago, do you remember who we are as a people at Crossroads? WE ARE A PEOPLE WHO TREAT WEAKNESS WITH GRACE, GENTLENESS AND LOVE! I want you all to say that with me. Look to your neighbor and remind the what kind of people we are. Let’s say it together.... We are a people who treat weakness with grace, gentleness and love!

Here’s the deal. If you come here with masks on and hide your sin and pretend like you’re not weak or pretend like you don’t have sin going on in your life, you will never be able to receive the healing of our King or walk in His Freedom! God can’t heal what we don’t reveal!

After last weeks message, some people started bringing their junk out from the darkness into the light and I know that Jesus is going to bring some amazing healing and freedom because of it. If you’re someone who’d like to start that process, I’d encourage you to get on our website and under the Freedom tab at the top, click on the freedom form. Fill it out and when you submit it, it will go to me and some of our people on our freedom team. We’ll be in touch with you and begin the process of setting up a pray time to work through some of your stuff to bring about the healing of Jesus to any wounds in your heart as well as deal with anything demonic influence that you may or may not be dealing with.

Now, I realize that bringing dark things out into the light and before others is a scary and shame filled thing. I know how scary and how difficult it is to do this! And Satan does too!

I believe this is one of the biggest reasons Satan tempts believers into sin. He’s a wolf and we’re sheep and so he hunts like a wolf! His desire is to isolate us from our flock and our community!

Now, we’re going continue reading in Mark 1:29-39 in just a minute and as we do, you’re going to notice 2 things. The first thing is that Jesus was super powerful! We’ll see Him healing more people and casting out more demons which is just the best! But he’s also still playing His cards close to his vest. Right, He still needs there to be some mystery left about His identity. I think that’s because He is trying to live in accordance with the Father’s timeline and things can’t get carried away too quickly. So He’s ministering but still trying to keep a lid on stuff. Jesus knows what’s eventually going to happen when people truly discover who He is and who He is claiming to be. Some will love and follow him, but the people in power are going to want to kill him.

So you’ll see Jesus working in power and authority and you’ll also see him being secretive and a little cryptic about it, and as we’ll read together, you’ll see people who were normally isolated and outcast in society coming out from the dark and hidden corners of society to Jesus! And He heals them and by healing them and setting them free, He restores them to His people!

We’ll see what is my big idea for today’s sermon: Sin isolates, Jesus unites; yet, moments of rest and solitude with God remain essential!

So let’s hit the text and talk about it briefly together.

Mark 1:29–39 (NIV)

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

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.

As has already mentioned, God can’t heal what we conceal.

Don’t you find it interesting that as Jesus insists that His identity be kept a secret, people who probably lived their lives in the secret and hidden fringes of society come to Him for healing and freedom! People who were sick and demonized were most often ostracized from their community and their people, forced to live secret lives in hiding! But rather than stay hidden, they leave the dark corners and come to the light to find Jesus and He heals them. He sets these captives free and not only makes them whole again but reintroduces them and restores them back into community! With their new lease on life and freedom from their deepest secrets any power sin once had over them is vanquished and they are free to fully discover the ways they are called to follow Jesus!

It’s a beautiful thing! Simon’s mother-in-law is instantly restored to here family upon Jesus’ healing! And the demonized and ill, we know less of their stories but we can’t help but wonder, what does this new lease on life afforded to them by Jesus do for them personally and communally! What joy did they find by living freely and openly rather than in secretive shadows on the fridges of society!

What traumas is Jesus turn into testimonies through these encounters? One can only imagine! Here’s some truth worth writing down: Your Greatest Trauma Can become Your Greatest Testimony if you Allow the Lord to Heal you and Set you Free

And here’s what I really want you to see see folks! Sin isolates.

Sin isolates us from people and from God! It fills us with shame. It drives a wedge into relationships. It makes us feel as if no one would love us if they knew what we’ve done. It makes us doubt the goodness of God. Surely He’s frowning at us. Surely, He’s disappointed with us! Because of this, we feel in our hearts that we must atone, we must clean ourselves and our messes up before we can ever be accepted back in community with God or His people!

Sin isolates us and when we are alone and isolated we, as little sheep, are easy prey for the enemy! But look at what Jesus does here!

Does He condemn these people! Does he rebuke them or bring the hammer down on them! Does he treat their weakness with contempt?

No, He treats their weakness with love and grace. He welcomes them into His presence, not to celebrate their sin but rather to set them free from it and reunite them to Himself and to His community!

Sin isolates but Jesus unites and reunites!

And since we love Jesus here and we want to live like Jesus here, this is precisely what we are trying to do!

If you have hidden sin in your life. If you have weakness that’s keeping you in the darkness, hiding in the fringes somewhere, I want you to know that your sin need not isolate you! You are welcome here! Jesus loves you. We love you and your weakness will be treated gently with grace! We want to help you live free from that sin and enjoy the joy of being glad to be with us and with your Heavenly Father! Because of Jesus, God is always glad to be with you and so are we, in spite of the sin that might be lurking in that dark corner of your life! And friend know this, if you would confess your sin in the safety of this community, Jesus promises to bring healing and restoration into you life!

Now that would be a natural enough place to end things this morning, but it’s not where Mark, the gospel written ends things and I for one am glad he doesn’t.

Freedom and healing are amazing things. Living life together in community and all the joy that is shared in that context is also and amazing thing, but it’s also an exhausting thing!

And I just love Jesus for what He does next and I need you see how counter-cultural this is!

Think with me for a minute how we would respond to what’s going on in Jesus’ ministry! It’s how his closest followers respond.

Healing is happening. Break through is happening. Transformation is happening. Demons are being cast out and captives are getting set free. LET’S GO!!!!!

Revival has just taken place. Jesus and His ministry is on fire. It’s taking off like a rocket ship. And if you were like me or like the disciples of Jesus’ day you’ve got your spread sheets out and your calendars out, you’re setting up a website and trying to strategize and schedule think of ways you can scale this thing. You are ready to burn yourself out for this man and for this cause! There are 100,000 of thousands of people who need this message, millions who need healing and freedom. Let’s scale this thing and multicast Jesus on big screens. Let’s gather the crowds and take over the world. Let’s go!!!! Right, a sense of hurry would take us over as we strive to build upon what we have seen God do!

That’s what we would do with this new found success and these amazing testimonies or growth and transformation, but what does Jesus do?

Look at v. 35, Mark 1:35-39 lets read it again.

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.

I love this! His closest followers are hurrying around frantically, ready to take over the world and they can’t find Jesus! And even as we read it you can almost hear the exasperation in their voice! Jesus, what are you doing! Where have you been! Everyone is looking for you! There’s work, good healing, freedom work that needs doing! And yet where do we find Jesus. He’s alone spending time in prayer with His Father! And look at how productive that time is for Jesus. He comes out of His time of rest and solitude with God with s renewed direction and vision for His ministry.

I know there’s still a lot of people here, but it’s time to move on. I’ve got a message that more people need to here. I came to preach. Come on, let’s go to the next town and expand our reach!

Church, I cannot over emphasize this in our crazy busy age. For the follower of Jesus, God has a mission for you in your life. It’s important that you find it. But in doing so, I want encourage you that once you find it, not to just get your marching orders and run off full steam ahead into it. God has a mission for us but it’s not to be done at a hurried pace and as you experience success in whatever it is He’s calling you into, don’t forget that times of rest and silence and solitude with God are vital to not only your direction in the mission but also to your heart and energy along they way!

I don’t know about you, but when I get busy and busy with important tasks and things, the first thing to go is my time alone with God and it never takes me very long to feel that!

When I fail to come up for air with God and pull back from the hurried frenetic thing that is our lives in our culture, I live with stress and worry and a whole lot of tension. I get short with the people I love and I’m just not a great person to be around. Not to mention loose my connection with God and stop listening to His still small voice to guide me throughout my day!

Even though many of us can do a lot on our own strength, let me remind you that living life in your own strength not only will eventually burn you out, but along with that, a part from Christ, all of it will have been in vain!

So don’t miss this! Sin isolate, Jesus unites and as we see success preaching this message in our lives and in the lives of those the Lord has called us to minister too, don’t let the urgency of the mission prevent you from resting in Jesus and making space to get alone with Him often! You need it! I need it! And everyone around us we’ll be better for it!

Jesus was prepared to disappoint those closest to Him to get time with God, you and I have that same freedom!

God is doing incredible ministry here and I am thankful for it. We are winning sheep out from the shadows helping the spiritually lost get found and equipping those who have been found with the what they need to live free in Jesus. It’s amazing to me what God has done here in the last year! Praise God, but lets not forget to keep following in the footsteps of Jesus. Moments of rest and solitude with God remain essential!

Let me pray for us and then we’ll stand and sing together.

Find people. Help them find fridge friends here within your people! Help those of us who are strong and mature in our faith continue to deal graciously and kindly with those of us who are still immature and weak in our faith. And Lord Jesus help us with our pace of life. I’m reminded often that your speed was and is 3 miles an hour. We think in terms of milliseconds and supersonic, but when you came you walked everywhere you went. You were never in a hurry and you always had time for people and time to be alone with your Father. Help us learn your pace of life. Keep us from hurry! Help us learn your unforced rhythms of grace even as we storm the gates of hell to help the lost get found and the found live free.

For your glory and our glad to be with you joy we pray, Amen!