Power Encounters: A day in the life of Jesus

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In September, we will likely go as a group

As part of our evangelism initiative, we will launch Alpha as something to invite people to, which will mean we will need some help with that, and it also means that we will have material and some marketing so that when we go out and talk to people about Jesus and the Kingdom, we have something to invite them to that is designed for those who are searching.

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Introduction

Often times networks want to do a “day in the life” show, or what we may know as reality TV. It is one of the most popular forms of television and for a good reason. It lets us peel the curtain back and see into people’s lives.

We see the whole picture, we see how people react under different circumstances, and if we are being honest…we judge ‘em.

Mark in a similar way does that with today’s passage, He presents a day in the life of what John Wimber would call, doing the stuff. Doing the activity of the Kingdom.

As we talked last week, we know the message that Jesus preached and now we see what it looked like when He preached it.

So, today we are going to be in Mark Chapter 1 verses 21-45.

Main Body

Mark 1:21–45 LEB

21 And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. 22 And they were amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like the scribes. 23 And so then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, 24 saying, “Leave us alone, Jesus the Nazarene! Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And after convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, the unclean spirit came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they began to discuss with one another, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits and they obey him.” 28 And the report about him then went out everywhere in the whole surrounding region of Galilee. 29 And so then he departed from the synagogue and came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying down, suffering with a fever, and at once they told him about her. 31 And he came and raised her up by taking hold of her hand, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 Now when it was evening, when the sun had set, they began bringing to him all those who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole town was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases and expelled many demons. And he did not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 And getting up early in the morning while it was very dark, he departed and went to a deserted place, and there he was praying. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched diligently 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 elsewhere, into the neighboring rural towns, so that I can preach there also, because I have come out for this very reason.” 39 And he went into all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and expelling demons. 40 And a leper came to him, entreating him and kneeling down, saying to him, “If you are willing, you are able to make me clean.” 41 And becoming angry, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be made clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy went away from him and he was made clean. 43 And warning him sternly, he sent him away at once. 44 And he said to him, “See to it that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and bring for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them. 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread abroad the account, so that he was no longer able to enter publicly into a town. But he was staying outside in deserted places, and they were coming to him from all directions.

Something that I need to point out is that Gospels as a piece of literature do not always work the way our literature does. Mark has arranged some things thematically, He has organised them in what looks like a day, and He includes them here because He just got done showing us what the message of the Kingdom is.

Now He is showing us what a day in the Kingdom looks like.

What I want us to do is see what Mark reveals as 3 Kingdom priorities- Prayer, Proclamation and Peace that we as disciples need to adopt.

Story Explained

So we need to look at this whole passage section as one unit.

Remember that back then, the day started in the evening.

So this story opens up the morning of the Sabbath.

Usually, the night time would be used for home based liturgy and a sabbath meal. They would sing, pray and eat. Many of these traditions are still practiced today.

So Jesus and His newly called disciples would have spent a night and meal together, Friday night, praying, singing and eating together all focused on God.

They woke up, this would be Saturday morning now and they went into Synagogue.

Now back then, the synagogue leader, was more like a librarian and caretaker of the place, they did not necessarily do all the preaching, that would ordinarily done by members of the community, so it is not uncommon in any way that Jesus would have been able to get up and preach.

*Remember He has come from a whole night of seeking God already

Starts preaching and amazes everyone, the Greek word emphasizes that people were straight up stunned.

Back in the day you could only preach/teach what your teacher taught, in that way the Jews of the time thought they would preserve orthodoxy, but the way Jesus preaches is as if His authority comes straight from God.

He then proves it because a man with a Demon, just interrupts the whole thing only to be cast out.

Now these were not necessarily large places and this man was part of the community, He would have been known by everyone.

We shouldn’t be surprised by the timing of the interruption,

John 10:10 LEB

10 The thief comes only so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

When we start proclaiming the good news, which is an invasion of the enemy territory, do not be surprised if the enemy will try to be a distraction to steal away what good could be done.

We also have to recognise that Jesus and by extension we, have the authority straight from God to deal with these situations.

Matthew 28:18–20 LEB

18 And Jesus approached and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

With this commissioning we have Authority by the Holy Spirit, who is in us. Which is why Partnering with the Holy Spirit is essential for us.

So back to the story, They literally got the hell out of the synagogue, it should not surprise us that we would have enemy activity in the place of worship, remember steal, kill and destroy.

They leave and come to Peter’s house, you can already feel the fellowship, this group is starting to do everything together, and immediately because of what just happened, Jesus is told about mum.

Jesus wastes no time, and immediately raised her up. The Greek here has the same expression of raising someone from death. Now that is not to say she was dead, but to understand that that it was the power of death that was over her. This is what Jesus confronted.

If you are keeping score, that is powers of satan, sin and death 0, Jesus 2

Now what we see though is that immediately mum, joins in the activity, by serving them, the healing leads to reconciliation, she is now part of the group engaging in the groups activities.

We have to understand that when we heal, what we are doing is bringing shaloam, Hebrew word for peace and it means wholeness, there is reconciliation, in this case with mum and later what we will see with the leper. Healing is holistic, physical, social, financial all of it.

Important to know, Capernaum was a bustling trade town, it was not necessarily a po dunk town, it was busy, had a lot of people groups in it…and word would travel fast in the environment, remember when Jesus cast that demon out in the middle of synagogue?!

Yeah, so did everyone else, so the sabbath ended at sundown this is now Saturday evening and there would no longer be any moving restrictions in place…So everybody wants to get in on that healing action. And Jesus gets to work.

I would like to review the scorecard at this point: powers of satan, sin and death…still 0, and Jesus has scored so many points they stopped counting. Normally in sports games, there is a mercy rule, that if you are winning by so much, you either have to put in your non starters, or you stop playing altogether. In this regard Jesus’ mercy and compassion is for those who are being afflicted.

What I see Mark showing us here is the care for the 1 and the many. Jesus cares for mum and the crowds.

Needless to say, that would have been a massive day, so how does Jesus spend His time, sleeps for a couple of hours and immediately goes away to pray.

If this were us, we would want to take time to rest and recover, maybe veg out. Jesus, on the other hand, prioritizes prayer, time with the Father alone. A time of intimacy, a time of guidance and time of true resting and abiding. For Jesus, rest was in the presence of the Father.

So, here comes the disciples to destroy that rest. Remember what I talked about interrupting, the Greek here is actually a negative tone, This is not a good thing, the disciples are more about pleasing people, they want Jesus to go with them and start building on the popularity of the previous days events.

Jesus does not have a bar of it.

Jesus has a mission in mind, Jesus is prioritizing the Gospel, He says, we have other places to be, I didn’t come here to be popular and be like the other teachers and scribes of the time. No, Jesus is focused, He is bringing the Kingdom.

We, like Jesus, should bring the fight to the enemy, Jesus prioritizes prayer and proclamation of the Gospel.

So they go and do just that, but then…a leper.

So now some background is needed here,

Lepers were outcasts, honestly, leprosy covered a whole range of skin issues, from dandruff, to sores, to what we actually know as leprosy, back in Leviticus there were many rules for how to deal with a leper and to be honest it was a lot like Covid.

Stay away, back then lepers had to intentionally wear raggedy clothing, had to cover the face and had to exclaim UNCLEAN UNCLEAN, they would form leper colonies, because they would be driven from their homes, their families, from everyone. Other than other lepers. They could not go to temple, they could not do anything, in the popular imagination they were accursed and you can see why. Their lives would have been pure misery and isolation.

I have an extended quote that I could not say better myself:

This is not simply the description of an illness. It is a sentence, the purpose of which was to protect the health of the community from a dreaded contagion. Elaborating Leviticus 13–14, Mishnah tractate Negaim (“Plagues”) discusses the spread of leprosy not only among people but also among garments (m. Neg. 3:7; 11:1–12) and houses (m. Neg. 3:8; 12–13). Lepers were victims of far more than the disease itself. The disease robbed them of their health, and the sentence imposed on them as a consequence robbed them of their name, occupation, habits, family and fellowship, and worshiping community. To ensure against contact with society, lepers were required to make their appearance as repugnant as possible. Josephus speaks of the banishment of lepers as those “in no way differing from a corpse” (Ant. 3.264). The reference to Miriam’s leprosy in Num 12:12 prompted various rabbis to speak of lepers as “the living dead,” whose cure was as difficult as raising the dead.45 The diagnosis of leprosy thus encompassed both medical and social dimensions. Leprosy contaminated Israel’s status as a holy people (although it did not contaminate Gentiles since they were already considered unclean, m. Neg. 3:1; 11:1). Other illnesses had to be healed, but leprosy had to be cleansed (e.g., Matt 11:5). Mark’s account of Jesus and the leper is a mirror image of these tragic realities, for there is no reference to “healing,” but there are four references to “cleansing” in six verses.

The offense of the leper’s action is immediately apparent. Lepers were required to “stand at a distance” (Luke 17:12) of fifty paces. If a leper’s entrance into a house contaminated it (m. Negaim 12–13), or his standing under a tree polluted anyone who passed under it (m. Neg. 13:7), then this leper’s approach compromises Jesus’ ritual cleanliness. Nevertheless, the leper risks everything, breaking both law and custom, on the chance of being healed and restored by Jesus. No obstacle, not even the decrees of the Torah itself, prevents him from coming to Jesus. His obsequious approach and posture, “beg[ing] him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean,’ ” betrays the long humiliation of his affliction.46 But contained within the leper’s plea are the beginnings of faith that Jesus can save him. His faith is revealed by the fact that he does not question Jesus’ ability to save him, only his willingness to save him. The leper’s longing is profoundly human, for it is not God’s ability that we doubt, but only his willingness—if he will do what we ask.

You know what we learn about the willingness of God. That God loves people more than the rules.

Jesus actually gets angry, but not at the leper, no He is angry at what the enemy has done to His child.

Sometimes we have an issue, with the idea of an angry God, but we need to look at see what God does in His anger and who that anger is directed at, remember that God has perfect emotions and emotional control. His love and His anger go hand in hand, His love drives Him to heal and restore, His anger drives the mission of reconciliation. He sees His children and is here to set things right.

This is the heart that we need, we need to be peacemakers, people who are focused on healing and reconciliation.

Jesus did the unthinkable by engaging the very person who had been counted as dead by everyone.

So it doesn’t matter if it is mum or a leper, Jesus is for you. It doesn’t matter if it is a little thing or a big thing, a fever or leprosy. Nothing is too big or too small for God.

Points

So what did we see Jesus do.

Jesus Prioritized Prayer - Time with the Father was more precious than sleep to Jesus. Jesus always partnered with the Holy Spirit, always spent time, precious time abiding in the presence of the Father. This is where the strength of Jesus came from, not from ability, but from relationship.

This is true of us today, it is vital we spend the time with the LORD.

Jesus Prioritized Proclamation- Jesus did not lose the Kingdom focus, although many distractions came up, the enemy tried to derail Him at every turn, but Jesus was not swayed by peer pressure or popularity. He wanted to do the Fathers will.

This is important for us today because we will be distracted by all of these things as well, if ti happened to Jesus and we are not greater than our Master, it will happen to us. Stay the course, keep the first thing the first thing.

Jesus Prioritized Peacemaking - All throughout when we hear about Jesus proclaiming the message of the Kingdom, we see Him demonstrating it to all who need it because of His great love, compassion and anger. We should exalt God because of His anger, He passionately pursues us and fights on our behalf.

In the Vineyard we call these events power encounters, we should not shy away from them.

We have been given the authority to engage the powers of satan, sin and death and to have victory just as Jesus did. Remember the score card…it was not even a contest, that same power that Holy Spirit gave to Jesus is in you as well.

Conclusion

So, seeing what Jesus prioritised, where are we with that?

Where are we at with spending time with the Father? and if we do, is it Kingdom driven?

Are we proclaiming the message to anyone? Is there someone who you believe God is putting on your heart to share with?

How do you make use of the Authority you have been given?

Is there someone you know who needs to be made whole?

Is it you?

Is there something in your life, that you would like God to heal?

What about someone close to you? Have you brought Jesus to them?

If anyone would like prayer for themselves or for someone else, we will now have time for that.

Ministry Time