Proof of the King

Mark 1:29-39

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the Gospel of Mark chapter one, the Gospel of Mark chapter one and in a moment we are going to read Verses 29-39 of the gospel of Mark chapter one.

We are continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark this morning and I want to show you from this passage three ways Jesus proves to us He is the King.

I believe actions speak louder than words. In other words, we show people who we are by the way we conduct our lives. We are a living example of what we believe.

For example, when a person’s health is important to them, you can tell by the role diet and exercise play in their life. You can tell because they will go to the doctors regularly for checkups, to make sure everything is alright.

  When family matters to someone they prove it by their actions. They surround themselves with the people they love. Their hobbies in life include those people. Everything they do is based on being with their family.

  A Christian is no different, a person is not a Christian because they call themselves a believer, but because you can see it in their life.  Their time, their talent and their resources are devoted to God.

They go to church, they fellowship with believers, they spend time in prayer and in God’s Word. The way we conduct our lives, the things we do, speak to the fact of who we belong too, and what we believe.

The same thing was true about Jesus. The things that Jesus did testify that He is the Son of God. That is the point that Mark is making in this passage.

Jesus proves to us who He is by His actions. The miracles He performs, the place He turns to for strength and power, and the way He prioritizes His mission, all testify that this is the Messiah. The fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and the expectation of the nation of Israel.

That’s what we are going to talk about today, as we look at the proof of the King.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

Mark 1:29–39 KJV 1900

And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

(Pray)

Background and context

When Mark began his gospel, In Vs. 1 He told us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, everything Mark says from that point on is intended to prove that fact; that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God.

First, we saw the testimony of John the Baptist as prophesied by Isaiah, hundreds of years earlier. That there would be one to come and prepare the way for the King.

John would say in Vs. 8, “One is coming after me, who is mightier than I am, I am not worthy to stoop down and untie His shoes. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

 Then we saw the inauguration of the King, Vs. 9-13, and the testimony from heaven at His baptism. The heavens opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, God the Father spoke and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

 Then we witnessed the call of the King, when Jesus called His very first disciples. He said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Last week we talked about the authority of the King and the demon possessed man in the synagogue who shouted out,, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

 In today’s passage, we see Jesus performing miracles of healing and focusing on prayer and ministry, and by the way He conducts His life, we are given proof of the King.

That is the point Mark wants to make. He is testifying to us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

I want to show you three ways from this passage Jesus proves to us He is the King.

I. The Proof of His Divinity Vs. 29-34

Jesus begins by healing the sick proving He has authority over the physical world.

But notice right away in this passage, we see a role we play in the healing ministry of Jesus, because what we see here is an example of intercession.

Peter and Andrew took Jesus home with them from the synagogue. Why? because Peter’s mother-in-law was sick.

She had a fever. A fever is an infection in our body, and as serious as that is today, imagine what that was like two thousand years ago, it was deadly.

There were no doctors to turn to. There were no antibiotics to treat this, and Vs. 30 gives us the impression she had been this way for a while. It says, “She was lying sick with a fever.”

 But, Peter believed she could be healed. Why? because He had seen the water changed to wine in Cana. He saw the demon cast out of the man in the synagogue.

He believed in the authority of Jesus, but could Jesus heal the sick. No one had seen that yet.

Notice Vs. 30 says, “they spoke to Jesus about her.” They being Peter, Andrew, James and John. This is an example of intercession.

  The lesson in this for us is; that if we want to see our loved ones healed. If we want to see people in our lives changed and saved by the grace of God, we have to intercede on their behalf. Just like the disciples in this story.

We have to take Jesus into our homes, and we have to speak to Him about the ones we love.

  There are times in our life when something goes wrong and our first reaction is to blame God for it. We ask God, why me?

But let me ask you this, have you prayed about it? have you interceded? Have you spoken to God about that situation or about that person in your life that you care about?

Now, It is important that we understand that intercession doesn’t mean that God is always going to heal someone, or that God is always going to fix a situation.

 Sometimes the greatest healing in our lives takes place when we leave this world and go home to glory. And sometimes the greatest lessons we learn are when God allows us to go through some things.

 But if we are not interceding on behalf of the people in our lives, then we are not even trying.

This passage is a great example for us of intercession. They take Jesus home with them, and speak to Him about Peter’s mother-in-law.

 This is also, a picture for us of salvation. Jesus does for Peter’s mother-in-law what she couldn’t do for herself. In fact, He does for her what no one else could do for her.

She was sick. She was dying, and He comes to her and takes her by the hand, and He raises her up and He heals her. Luke 4:39 tells us He rebuked the fever, and it went away.

Mark 1:31 tells us, she was not only healed but that she gets up and begins to serve Him. That is amazing to me!!

I don’t know about you but when I am sick, even when I feel better I don’t want to do anything.  But, she was healed instantly, and completely and she gets up and serves Him.

That is a picture of salvation. First Jesus serves us, and then we serve Him. First, He goes to a cross and gives His life for us and then we carry our cross and give our life for Him.

 Jesus proves His divinity by healing Peter’s mother-in-law but then, We see the healing ministry expand.

Somehow everyone in the town found out about what happened. Notice vs. 33, were told the whole city comes to Peter’s house.

Remember this is all taking place on the same day Jesus was in the synagogue teaching and casting out demons. It was on the Sabbath.

That’s why Mark repeats himself in Vs. 32, he says, “When evening came, after the sun had set.”

He repeats himself because he wants us to know, the people waited until after the sabbath was over, but then they began to come.

Notice Mark 1:34 “And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”

Now, don’t misunderstand the use of the word “many” here. Mark is not implying that some people went away without being healing.

Luke tells us, in chapter 4:40 everyone Jesus touched was healed. There was an explosion of healing taking place here. Sickness, disease and demons were being completely obliterated.

It is important at this point to take a moment to talk about the truth of healing.

As long as there have been people who were sick in this world, there have been people who prey on them claiming to have the power to heal.

A hundred years ago we called them snake oil salesmen. Today, we call them faith healers. I call them heretics, liars and the enemy of the true Christian faith.

 I want you to know I firmly believe in God’s power to heal. I believe that God can heal and God will heal. When that is what God determines to do. I believe that God does that through our prayers when we intercede on behalf of others. The Bible says the prayers of a righteous man availeth  much.

     I do not believe God has given that power to any one man. One thing that has always bothered me is that faith healers are always doing it in a studio or at some kind of revival.

If you had the power to heal why wouldn’t you go to a hospital where people are sick? Why wouldn’t you heal children with cancer?

Why is it when someone is not healed it is always because of their lack of faith?

 I want you to notice something about the people Jesus healed in this story. They did not know who He was. So, their healing was not based on their faith.

They were healed because Jesus was there and He is the healer. Throughout His ministry he healed the sick, He raised the dead, He opened the eyes of the blind.  Sickness and disease could not exist in His presence, and that’s what you see in the gospels.

   It wasn’t that way in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there are only a handful of times that God intervenes and miraculously heals someone.

In the book of Acts you see the power of the Holy Spirit working through the disciples and some people are healed, but nothing like in the gospels.

     And then when we get into the epistles of the church. In 2 Cor. 12:7 we see Paul is sick with a thorn in his flesh.

In 1 Tim. 5:23 we see Timothy is sick and Paul tells him to take a little wine for his stomach.

In the book of Philippians 2:26-27. We see Epaphroditus sick to the point of death, and Paul asks the church to pray for him.

And the same thing is true today, Christ is the healer and our job is to go to Him in prayer and intercede for each other.

 Jesus has the power to heal and the miracles He performed are proof of His divinity. They testify that this is the Son of God. The second way Jesus proves His divinity is by;

II. The Source of His Power

 Look at Vs. 35 says, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

 Jesus knew He had to connect with the Father. He knew that the Father was His source of power.

And this passage shows us how important prayer was to Him. We are told, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day.”

You see, a late night didn’t prevent Jesus from an early morning meeting with the Father.

He was diligent to pray. The question is, how important is prayer in your life? Do you wake up early in the morning and look for a place to get away and pray?

Jesus knew He had to be connected to the Father and just because He was busy that just meant that He needed prayer that much more.

This is not the only time in scripture we find Jesus spending time connecting with the Father.

In fact, His entire ministry is marked with hours of prayer. There are no less than 25 times we read in the gospels of Jesus searching out a place to pray.

If Jesus needed to connect with God through prayer how much more do we need to pray?

 Prayer is the essence of faith, because it teaches us what we really believe about God.

Prayer teaches us our ethical theology. Ethics is who we are and what we do when know one else is watching. It is our moral behavior and the way we conduct our lives.

So, if we are not connecting with God in prayer, what does that say about what we believe about God?

 Jesus knew this. He knew His source of power came from the Father and so does ours.

We live in a world that is so busy, so stressed out, so overcome with anxiety. Because we live in a world that doesn’t see the benefit of prayer, and the church is no different.  

I honestly believe that half of the problems we face could be overcome if we would just pray.

Prayer is an absolute necessity to our life. The bible has a lot to say about prayer.

For example, we are commanded to pray. Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;”

Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”

In Luke 11:1-4 We are given instructions for how to pray. Jesus gives us “the Lord’s prayer.”

In the bible we are given examples of great people who prayed; Abraham, Moses, Hannah, Samuel, Elijah, and Paul are just some of the prayer warriors we see in scripture.

In Matthew 6:5 we are given instructions how not to pray. Were told not to pray like the hypocrites who want to be noticed for their long public prayers.

The bible gives us promises in prayer. Jeremiah 33:3 “‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”

Prayer is critical to the life of a Christian. It is like dialing 911 to God.

When you call 911 it is a state- of -the -art system. All you need to do is dial the numbers, and you are immediately connected to a dispatcher.

In front of the dispatcher there is a read out that lists your name, phone number, and address.

Also, listening to that phone call are the police, the fire department, and the paramedics.

 A person who calls 911 might not even be able to tell them what the problem is. Maybe a woman is calling who’s husband has just had a heart attack and all she can do is scream into the phone.

But, what’s great, is that dispatcher doesn’t even need her to speak. They know where she is calling from and help is already on the way.

  There are times in our lives when we need to dial 911 in prayer. And we might be so hysterical that we can’t even speak and we don’t know what to say.

But God hears us. He already knows who we are and what the problem is and He is already working on the solution.

That’s what the Apostle Paul teaches us in Philippians 4:6-7 when he says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The problem for us is instead of praying about the circumstances we face in life, most times we choose our anxiety over our God. But, the Bible tells us, the way to peace is through prayer, and Jesus knew that.

Jesus shows us that the source of His power was prayer, and that testifies to who He is. The third way He proves His divinity.

III. The Priority of His Mission Vs. 36-39

   You see In the morning when Simon Peter and his companions wake up, Jesus was gone!! He was no where to be found!!

So, they go looking for Him, because the people have come back. 

Look at Mark 1:37 “they found Him, and said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.””

The question is; what are they looking for? What do they want? They want more. There not satisfied. They want the circus to continue.

    And notice how Jesus responds in Vs. 38, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came to do.” 

And really, that is an amazing statement when you consider all Jesus had been doing. The sick were being healed the demons were being cast out. The people were recognizing there was something special about Him. But He says, I came to preach.

That means everything He had been doing was designed, so that people would listen to what He had to say. His mission was to preach the Kingdom of God.

Notice, He doesn’t become distracted and He doesn’t seek their glory. He could have stayed in Capernaum and been very popular, but that is not what He came to do. He came to call all men to repent and believe.

 Sometimes the call of God on our lives is to do the unpopular thing. The thing that we don’t want to do. The thing we would never choose to do!

Years ago, Billy Graham was invited to be the commencement speaker at Seattle Pacific University. It was a great honor at a grand celebration held at the exquisite Seattle Opera house to a capacity crowd. 

And the university pulled out all the stops with a glamorous invitation to get him to come.

 He listened patiently, and he thought about it for a moment. But in the end, He said, I appreciate the offer, but I have to say no.

You see God has called me to be an evangelist preaching the gospel to sinners. And if I say yes to you, then I have to turn down another opportunity to do what God has called me to do.

   Billy Graham was a man that didn’t care about the limelight. He shared the motives of Jesus. He understood what His priority was.

The question is, Do we? Do we even realize that Jesus has given us a priority in the great commission?

And while we seek to build bigger churches and create better programs, God has given us the priority of making disciples. But we have to start by making Christ the priority of our lives first.

Conclusion

We see three ways from this passage Jesus proves He is the King.

 1. We saw the proof of His divinity. We can have faith in Jesus as the Son of God because of the way He conducted His life. The miracles He performed and the explosion of healing that took place testify, He is God.

It doesn’t matter how Satan tries to rob that testimony today he can never duplicate what Jesus has done.

2. We saw the source of His Power. Jesus knew He needed to stay connected to the Father, so He prayed and if it was important for Christ to pray, how much more important should prayer be in our life?

We have this great opportunity to talk to the Creator of the world, and we have this promise, that as the children of God our prayers will be heard.

3. We saw the priority of His mission. The purpose Jesus came into the world was to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God, and He wasn’t going to be distracted from His mission.

Popularity was not His purpose. He healed people because of His compassion but, the ultimate healing takes place when we leave this world and spend eternity with God in heaven.