"Preaching the Kingdom" Mark 1:35-39

Introduction:

Jesus Christ had come into the world as the Messiah of God. As the Messiah of God He fulfills the Davidic covenant and His presence in the world is initiating the coming of the Kingdom of God.

John the Baptist had declared Him as Messiah and Jesus had begun to work miracles. And these displays of His power were increasing His fame and news of Him was spreading in the regions of Galilee.

Jesus had gone to Simon Peter’s house in Capernaum and while there He healed Peter’s mother in law. That same evening people were being brought to Him for healing and deliverance from evil spirits.

Needless to say He had been bombarded with people desiring to be delivered and healed. It would seem that our text this morning takes place in sequence in Mark’s gospel. It is likely that Jesus slept at Peter’s house that evening.

And it is in verse 35 we are told that Jesus got up early the next morning, while it was still dark.

Now this text is not telling us that we should rise early too just like Jesus did. But the sequence of events are leading us up to something that is coming. You see Jesus rose early in order to make preparation. Look back at your text to verse 35:

I. The Preparation (35).

You see Jesus did not just rise early to establish the principle of being an early riser. No, He rose early to be alone with God and to pray regarding His coming ministry.

Jesus needed His Father’s direction and the assurance that goes with it in knowing He was following the Father’s will. And this was best done in a desolate place apart from the needs of the people.

Christian if there is a principle to be formulated from verse 35, I would say that the ministry of the Kingdom needs prayerful preparation because Kingdom ministry is dependent on God for everything.

Imagine that, the eternal Son of God the second person of the Godhead needed to pray to be prepared for ministry in His Kingdom. I think it goes without saying that it is true of all of us as well.

There is relational dependency that we have as Christians upon the Lord. Prayer reminds us and it conditions us to live out out lives with this sense of dependency and reliance upon Him.

This is one of the ways in which our pride and the allusion of being autonomous is confronted in being disciplined in our prayer life before the Lord.

Christian, ministry in the Kingdom without reliance on the Lord is nothing more than an expression of human vanity because they demonstrate our confidence in self reliance, which is nothing more than human pride.

Our Lord knew that He needed to be seeking the direction of His Father. But it didn’t take long for the people to pursue Jesus. Look at the Pursuit in verses 36-37:

II. The Pursuit (36-37).

Simon Peter and everyone else began looking for Jesus. They all woke up from their night sleep and Jesus is nowhere to be found. So they go on the hunt to track Jesus down.

When Simon Peter and the others find Him they say, “Everyone is looking for you.”

This would indicate that Jesus was in high demand and everyone wants to know His whereabouts.

And in response to their pursuit Jesus gets at the heart of His purpose for coming out to pray in the first place. Look back at your text to verses 38-39:

III. The Purpose (38-39).

Jesus came out to pray to get direction from the Father and He was directed to go on from Capernaum to the next towns so that He could preach in those towns too.

Imagine, all the people of Capernaum are looking for you and what does Jesus want to do? Jesus is ready to move on to the next town and preach there.

The term “preach” in the original language means to make public declarations, to proclaim aloud (BAGD)

Remember that Jesus was not just a miracle worker, He came to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. All you have to do is go back up to Mark 1:14–15 to see the content of what He was preaching: 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

That was the message but it could be that Jesus left Capernaum for a time because His real purpose was being eclipsed by the miracles themselves instead of those miracles pointing to Him as their Messiah and the Messiah’s Kingdom has come.

We all know what an eclipse is by now. I saw it, Mark and Susan came over to the church and shared their glasses so I could look at it. The moon was actually passing in front of the Sun and blocking its radiance.

The radiance of the Sun was still there but the moon was keeping it from shining forth in it’s true radiance. I noticed how everything grew dim at 2 pm in the afternoon.

Theologian Walter Wessell in his work on Mark’s gospel says it this way: “His coming into the world was more to proclaim God’s Good News and all that was involved in discipleship and suffering than to be a popular miracle-worker. Healings and exorcisms had their place (v. 39), but they were not to usurp the primary purpose for which Jesus had come.”

It would appear that the people of Capernaum were allowing the miracles eclipse the true radiance of the glory of the Son of God and what He had come into the world to do.

Jesus did displays of His power in the other towns throughout Galilee but preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons in their synagogues just as He had done in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Christian, the relevancy of Jesus Christ for our lives is not something that is self-determined. When people do this they often measure the validity of Christianity from their perceived need and their perceived benefit of how well the benefit meats the need.

At the heart of it there is a personal agenda that is in competition with the God driven agenda of the Kingdom of God.

The only way to measure the relevancy of Christianity is to measure it from the divine intent of the one who created and designed it to do what He designed it to do in the first place.

The Christianity of the personal agenda can never be allowed to eclipse the radiance of God’s Kingdom Messiah. Miracles and deliverance are the fruit of the Kingdom but they are not the essence of the Kingdom nor can they replace Christ as the focal point of the Kingdom.

That is what preaching does it exalts Christ and His work. There may be needs met in the process but they are the fruit of the Kingdom not the focus of it.

Conclusion:

Jesus came to preach the good news of the Kingdom that Messiah has come to be a suffering Messiah who died on a Cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Unbeliever Christ died to destroy the hostility between God and man due to man’s sin. Believe the gospel for your salvation

Christian this table is set before us today not to take the place of Christ but to point us to Him. We don’t each get our own loaf of bread nor to we get our own bottle of wine or grape juice. This table is not here to eclipse Christ but it is here to remind us of Him and to point us to Him.

And we come to this table in faith in full reliance on God and His provision to us.

Examine ourselves in preparation; Confess your sin and know that He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us; Let’s Pray!

No closed, everyone together.