The Heart of Christ
Notes
Transcript
29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.
31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him,
37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Pray
My mother worked at the hospital for a very long time. She worked in the cardio-pulmonary department where she spent years and years and years looking at people’s hearts. Now I am not expert on the workings of a heart but I know a little bit. I know plenty of people who have had bad hearts and maybe needed some kind of procedure done. Like I said, I don’t know a ton about our physical hearts, but I do know a little bit about our spiritual hearts. I know that our hearts are naturally inclined to the things that are not of God. This is why scripture tells us that we need to be born again, we need new hearts.
In our passage today, I have the theme of Christ’s heart. Heart in the sense of his passions. When we are born again, when we come to a saving faith, our passions change. We get new hearts and our desires should change. We see several of the passions that Jesus has in our passage today. What we need to see is that our passions, our heart should line up with the heart of Christ.
Christ’s Heart for Healing
Christ’s Heart for Healing
29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
This would have likely been the same day that he was in the synagogue teaching. He got done, and they go to Simon and Andrews house. Growing up, we had a tradition. Our entire family went to the same church. So after church, we would always go to my grandmas house to eat lunch as a family. I can see this being the equivalent of that. They went to Simon and Andrews house, because the church service was over. They were going to have a big family gathering it seems.
30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.
We don’t have great details about what was going on with his mother-in-law. We just know that she had a fever. Just like the man that was possessed with the demon in the passage before, Mark does not make the one who is afflicted the focus. He makes Jesus the focus. And they told Jesus about her and her fever. Now, with any sickness, there are other ailments that come along. Fever almost always have other things that happen with them. You have headaches, body-aches, vomiting, and lots of fatigue. We need to keep this in mind as we see Jesus heal her.
31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Jesus took her hand and lifted her up. He was not a distant God. But he was personal. He could have sat on a throne in a palace somewhere and had people come to him and he could have healed people from a distance. But that is how Jesus was, that is not how God is. He is a personal God who comes and takes the hand of the one who is sick. He lifts us up in our time of need. And we see her response. It says that when she got up, she began to serve them. This same woman who moments before was laying in bed, very sick. She was immediately healed and felt good enough to serve the people in her house. Wow.
And in context of when and where they are at when this happens, we need to know how this is viewed. This is considered a great miracle. This would have been viewed as a greater miracle that the 3 men walking out of the fiery furnace, because the fire was man-made but the fever could only come from God. So this miracle would have been viewed as something tremendous. And Jesus healed her.
And let’s think about her response to this. She didn’t just say thank you and move on. She stayed. She served her savior. She experienced the biggest miracle that had ever happened to her, and she stayed by her savior and served him. I have been in church most of my life. I have seen many people profess salvation. But what I don’t always see is them staying close to Jesus and serving Jesus.
As professing believers, we must have this mentality of staying close to Jesus. Yes, I understand that there are ebbs and flows of life and we may have times where we don’t feel like we are growing as much as other times. But in those times of lessened growth, or maybe it is seasons where we don’t feel as close to Christ as we have before, I want to ask, are we staying or are we fleeing? When things aren’t good, we tend to flee, this is the natural reaction that we want to have. This is why Christians have just as high of a divorce rate as the rest of the population. This is why the American church has this culture of “church hopping”. This is why we never really let our walls down and set roots in relationships. Because we need an out when things aren’t going great.
Church, as professing believers, we need to not have a fear of staying. Especially when we have the example of Jesus. God tells us in Hebrews 13 that he will never leave us or forsake us. This is a truth that we have in scripture, a promise that is made to us. God will not leave us. I can tell you personally that if God is going to leave you because of some sin that you commit or because you weren’t obedient to him, then he would have left a long time ago. For us, be like this woman that Jesus heals. Stay and serve. But this isn’t the only miracle that Jesus preforms.
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.
Two of the miracles that Jesus has preformed so far in the book of Mark is removing demons from people and healing them from sickness. We read in verse 28 of this chapter that the fame of Jesus was spreading. People were hearing of the man who was possessed by the demon who Jesus healed. By now, word had probably gotten out that Simon’s mother in law had been healed from her fever. So at sundown, they brought others to Jesus. In fact Mark makes sure that we know that it was “all” who were sick or oppressed by demons. But they waited till sundown. We know that this was the Sabbath day. This was the same day that he was preaching in the synagogue, then he went to Simon’s mother in laws house, now we are in the evening. The sabbath day was observed from sundown to sundown. There was a restriction on the sabbath to carry anyone. So they had to wait until the restriction was up to be able to bring the to Jesus to be healed. And who shows up. The whole city.
33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.
34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And Jesus healed many who were sick. And Jesus casted out many demons. These people didn’t have a realization of who Jesus was and the power that he has. Yes he healed them, but he wouldn’t even let the demons speak because they knew who he was. The people who were doing the bringing didn’t know exactly who Jesus was. Yes, he was gaining some fame and yes he was preforming miracles. But they had no idea that they were in the manifest presence of God. And Jesus wasn’t going to let the demons speak and declare who he was again.
As a church, we have had many deaths that were very close to us over the last few weeks. Many of these people were sick. And we come together and we bring up names each week of who we feel like we should pray for. And 90% of the people that are mentioned need some sort of physical healing. And it is good that we pray for those people. But what good is it to be physically healed without a spiritual healing. These people sought Jesus out for what he could do for them and not who he was. What if we came in here one Sunday and our prayers started consisting of “I talked to my neighbor the other day and he told me that he did not believe in Jesus, could we pray for his salvation” or “my dad has never made a profession of faith and his health is failing him, could we pray for his salvation” or “there is a lady that I work with that just has this hatred towards Christians and Jesus, could we pray for her salvation”.
I think it is very clear that Jesus has a heart for healing others. This is very evident in the text that we are in. We live in a time where we are seeking after these signs and wonders of miraculous healing, and I believe that God does still heal like that sometimes. But maybe our hearts should begin to shift from desiring the physical healing of others to the spiritual healing. These people just wanted to be healed. They didn’t want to know Jesus. Let us point people to Jesus so that they can experience the greatest healing ever that is found in eternal salvation.
Christ’s Heart for Spiritual Health
Christ’s Heart for Spiritual Health
35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
A while back, I had a problem with my phone charging. The cord wouldn’t plug in very good and it was really hit or miss if it would charge. I could have done what a lot of people do and go to the phone store and buy a new phone. But if you know me well enough, I am not one to do something like that. The problem was not that my phone was going bad. The issue was my cord was not connecting good enough. So I bought a kit to clean out my charging port and after that, it was like I had a brand new phone.
Just like batteries, we need charging. A pattern I have noticed in many churches over my lifetime is that they rely very heavily on the corporate time together to get charged up, or as we like to call it, get fed. Every pastor can tell you stories of people leaving the church because the person “just wasn’t getting fed”.
Jesus had spent the night before healing and casting out demons. He, naturally, was likely up extremely late doing this since the whole town came to him. But notice this detail that Mark puts in here for us. He says that Jesus got up very early, not just early but very early. While it was still dark. Now I know that many of us get up at what others may consider an early time. In my younger years, I would stay up late hanging out with friends to the “wee hours” of the morning, and then get up early and go to work the next day. People would always say that you are young and can handle it. Think about the physical stress that Jesus had to have went through the night before. He wasn’t just hanging out with his buddies around a camp fire. He was healing people and casting out demons. He was God but he also had a human body. It got tired. I can only try to imagine how tiring a task like this would have been.
But he got up very early still. And what did he do, he went and prayed. Now, he didn’t just get out of the bed and go into the living room, cut on the tv, fix him a cup of coffee. No, it says that he departed (he left), and went to a desolate place. He went to where no one would see him. He knew that he had to have privacy. Now, we don’t know what he prayed. There are other times in scripture where we know what the prayer of Jesus was. But this time, we just know that he went to a place where he would not be bothered so that he could spend time with his father in prayer. This was likely a routine for Jesus.
I am going to be very open with you right now. I am very convicted when I read this in scripture. Christ is our example. We need to be striving to be like him in every aspect of our life, especially our prayer life. I fail quite often in my prayer life. It seems that many of my prayers are regulated to other peoples needs. So here is what I am going to do, and it is something that we could all probably do. I am going to pray that God gives me a heart for prayer. I know that sounds redundant, but we need to pray for God to help us in our prayers. So here is a layout for us to try over the next few weeks in our personal prayer time.
Pray for someones 1) physical needs, 2) emotional needs, 3) spiritual needs. We all know someone who is sick. We all know someone who is going through a hard time and needs emotional help. And we all know someone who is not saved.
But most importantly, we need to carve out this time. Jesus is our example. We need to find the time, in the early morning if we can, to get alone and spend time in prayer.
I want to put it like this. We care about our physical health. We have doctors we go to and get checked up. They tell us what is wrong and we are supposed to make adjustments to get better. What we shouldn’t do is ignore what the doctor is telling us. Same for our spiritual health. Jesus has a heart for his own spiritual health, we should have a heart for our own spiritual health. We need to always be assessing ourselves to see where we need to make adjustments. If we aren’t spending time in God’s word, we need to carve out time to be in God’s word. If we aren’t having a regular time in prayer, we need to make time to be in prayer. So this week, find some time each day to get alone in a quiet spot and spend 5, 10, 15 minutes in prayer.
Christ’s Heart for Evangelism
Christ’s Heart for Evangelism
36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him,
37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
They sent out a search party for Jesus. I can imagine Peter having a fit when they find him. Like when a kid runs away from home and the parents find them. Just a sense of relief too. He was not where they wanted him to be. He was alone. They didn’t think he should be alone, they thought he needed to be with the people. They had started to build this following. They had a lot of people there last night and they thought that is where he needed to be. But Jesus had other plans.
38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
The apostles wanted to go back to the crowd that had came to the house, but Jesus said it was time to move on. Yes, he had preformed these miracles, but he had preaching that he needed to do. He had other places to go so that they could hear the gospel. Because what is more important, physical healing or the gospel that leads to eternal life. People’s souls were the priority. So they needed to go to the next towns to preach this same gospel. Why?
Jesus said that this was the reason he came out. When he says that he came out, he isn’t referring to himself leaving the house to be alone that morning. He is talking about his incarnation. The fact that he came, to be a human being. It was to preach the gospel. To proclaim the truth to people.
Exalting Jesus in Mark The Kingdom Advances through Preaching (Mark 1:38–39)
Luther would add, “Let us consider it certain and conclusively established that the soul can do without all things except the Word of God, and that where this is not there is no help for the soul in anything else whatever”
Preaching is the priority. Preaching is where lives are changed. Romans 10:17 “17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The word must be proclaimed. So that is what Jesus did.
39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
What I want us to see in this last verse is that Jesus went preaching. We see his heart for evangelism. He understood that people needed the hope that is found in the gospel. So that is what he gave them. And yes, he did more than just preach as we see today. And do I believe that there are demons out there and that there are people that need to be healed from sickness? 100% I do. But my job is to preach the gospel. Your job is to preach the gospel. And I know this is intimidating. This is why I try my best to break it down into steps each week. And make us see the next step in our obedience to the mandate that we have in Matthew 28. Maybe it is getting up the courage to talk to someone just about church. Maybe it is asking someone what they believe about Jesus. And then that opens up the door to you being able to share your story and what you believe. Maybe it is sharing a gospel truth. And maybe you are at the point where you are sharing a complete gospel to others.
(gospel presentation)
The point is that our hearts need to be tuned to evangelism. I was just talking to someone this week and he was telling me of some of his past church experiences. He was a member of a local church here and he was the person that was leading the youth group. He had some issues in the past of the church not wanting to pay for the youth to do anything. But there was an instance where all of the local churches were getting together to feed the high school football team before their games. It was his church’s turn to feed them so he had them come to the church and he fed them, with his own money, and did a devotional for them. Afterwards, the church informed him that they didn’t want people from the outside coming into their church like that. This is sad folks. This is not having a heart for evangelism. This is having a heart of selfishness. I am thankful that our church is not like that and our heart for evangelism is growing.
Conclusion
Our hearts should line up with the heart of Christ. That is the statement I made at the beginning of the sermon. So my question for everyone is, does your heart line up with the heart of Christ. Specifically with our text today, do you have a heart for seeing others healed, do you have a heart for growing in spiritual maturity, and do you have a heart for evangelism? These are all very important for us to examine in ourselves.
Maybe you are here and you have not had a strong faith or maybe have not had faith at all. Don’t feel like you are in a bad place. If you have not made a true profession of faith, I want to give you that opportunity right now to respond to the call to salvation that we have. You have heard the gospel this morning (say gospel again). Now here is how you respond to the gospel if God is drawing you in. Jesus tells us that we need to repent and believe. To repent means to turn. So you are going in one direction and you make a 180 degree turn around. In this case, you are on a path of a life of sin, so you turn and not just turn from sin, but turn to Jesus who died for your sins. And then believe. You believe that Jesus really is the one who can save you because he is God. You believe that Jesus had you on his mind when he was on the cross bearing our sins. But with repentance and belief comes a changed life. You won’t be perfect. But you will have a heart that is changed like we have talked about today.
Maybe this is you. Or maybe you have recently came to a saving faith. The next step to take is baptism. We want to help you show the world that you have been changed by Jesus and this is how we make a public profession of our faith. Or maybe you need to join the church. The church is a family that comes together to be there for each other. If you never join the church, then you are isolating yourself from the family. Yes, you can still come and worship, but there is just this sense of belonging to the family that is still missing. So if you are interested in joining the church or in being baptized, please come and talk to me.
But for everyone who is a follower of Christ here today. You have heard challenges throughout the sermon. Take those with you. Set aside a dedicated time each day to spend in prayer. Be in prayer for one person who has a physical need, emotional need, and spiritual need each day. Pray for healing for others. Pray for salvation for others. And look for those opportunities to share the gospel with people around you.