Mark 1:29-39

As many of you know, Mark writes with the goal of portraying Christ as a servant or a minister.

In fact, Mark describes Jesus using the Greek word from which we get our English word, deacon. Deacon, of course, means servant.

So, as you have probably guessed much of what we have dealt with has been on the topic of being a successful or an effective servant/minister for God.

If I asked you, tonight, how many of you want to be a failure in your ministry or service to God, I don’t think any hands would go up.

I believe that we all would agree that we want to be effective and successful in our service to God.

So how do we do that? Well I believe if we are going to be good servants we ought to follow the example of the best Servant and that was, of course, Jesus Christ.

Verse 35 begins with Jesus spending the early morning hours of a Sunday morning communing with God in prayer.

Jesus is in the midst of a determined time of prayer and solitude when his disciples find Him.

When it says in verse 36 that they followed after Him, it literally means they hunted Him down.

The disciples of Jesus woke up Sunday morning and immediately went out looking to meet with Him.

I don’t normally make comments like this, but isn’t it nice to know that not much has changed in 2,000 years for those who truly are His disciples.

Simon, Andrew, James, and John finally find Jesus and share with Him.

They let Him know that, “all men seek for thee.”

This is quite a statement.

Why would all men seek Him?

Something great must have happened in that town to cause all the people to want to meet with Jesus.

I can imagine the disciples were thinking we better get ready for a big meeting.

This is exciting.

Jesus, however, tells His disciples to prepare to leave town.

I can only imagine the look of surprise on the disciples faces.

If I was one of them I know what my thoughts would have been.

All these people means eventually we’re gonna get paid.

All these people means a nice big building.

All these people means fame and notoriety.

Leave town? Sounds to me like we’ve found our niche, let’s put down some roots.

These are all the natural thoughts that any men would have.

The word Jesus uses to describe these other towns was a word referring to village-towns.

Why would Jesus want to leave town with so many people wanting to see Him?

[Again, what did He do to cause so many to seek Him out?]

The reason Jesus wants to go to the other cities is so that he can preach there also.

Jesus is cluing His disciples in on His desire to replicate what He has done in this town in other towns.

What the disciples have just witnessed over the past 24 hours is a sampling of what Jesus knew to be His mission.

If He is to be successful, He must duplicate what has been done for this city in the surrounding cities.

What did He do in that city?

In order to answer the questions bought up on Sunday, we must go back and take a look at Saturday.

In verse 21, Jesus had entered the city of Capernaum, most likely this was where he now lived.

On the Sabbath day He had attended the morning and evening service at the local synagogue.

At some point, most likely in the evening, Jesus had the opportunity to preach to the people. v.22

While hearing Jesus preach would have been enough to give people plenty to talk about, He also cast out a demon from one of the men in the synagogue. v23-26

Verse 27 tells us that his fame spread throughout Galilee.

This leads us to verse 29, which takes place immediately after the evening service, Jesus and His four disciples left the synagogue and made their way to Simon’s (Peter) house.

As soon as they walked in the door (anon) the family told Jesus about Simon’s mother-in-law.

They had just witnessed the incredible power that Jesus had displayed both in His preaching and in casting out the demon.

Now, I don’t know what they were expecting Jesus to do.

Did they expect Him to heal her?

Did they just want Him to pray for her?

If it was today, they would have met Him at the door and warned him about coming into a house with a sick person.

[The Bible doesn’t tell us what their expectations were, but I can tell you this, they sure picked the right person to share their needs with.]

Jesus responded by going to where she was laid and taking her by the hand.

As we read in verse 31, Jesus lifted her off her bed and the fever left her.

Peter and his family must have been thrilled.

A miracle had just taken place in their home.

Jesus’ presence in one single house, among that individual family had made a difference.

There were no crowds, there was no multitude to witness this miracle.

Jesus still took this moment to serve and to demonstrate His love for the family of just one of His disciples.

That evening when the Sabbath ended, at the setting of the sun, they opened the door to find the whole city on the front yard.

It would not have been uncommon to have people knock on your door a few moments after sundown.

On the Sabbath day they were not allowed to work or conduct any business.

After a whole day of not being able to conduct any business, I can imagine that most folks were out the door the moment the sun went down.

Simon could not have imagined what awaited him on the other side of the door.

As I rehearsed for you earlier, Jesus had caused quite a stir that day at the synagogue.

Verse 28 lets us know that because of what happened in the synagogue, Jesus’ fame spread throughout the region.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone went home that afternoon and spent the evening talking about what an amazing thing had happened.

In verse 33, with the Sabbath over, and after having plenty of time to meditate on what had happened, the city of Capernaum collectively gathered at the door of Simon’s house.

What did they expect to happen?

Did they really think that Jesus would be able to help all of them?

It was late, they must have been tired, surely Jesus was tired.

Couldn’t some of them have waited until the morning?

These people were in dire need of help.

Verse 34 tells us that they had many different physical ailments and many were afflicted with demons.

To them, it didn’t matter that it was the end of a long day.

They needed help and at that moment there was a man in Simon’s house who may be able to help them.

In verse 34, the Bible tells us that Jesus took the time that night to heal many people in that city.

Which leads us back to Sunday morning where Jesus, after a long night of ministry, got up early to get alone and pray.

Jesus and His disciples did leave Capernaum (although, He would return).

Verse 39 tells us that Jesus went throughout Galilee preaching and casting out devils.

But, why? Why would Jesus

So, what can we talk from this example?

First, I think we may need to be reminded that we all have a responsibility to minister.

That is we have a responsibility to draw other people closer to the Lord.

Jesus did this through two different aspects of service.

He ministered through His preaching.

He ministered through showing compassion.

This is the same ministry model that we must follow today.

It’s not complicated, it may be counter-cultural, but it’s not complicated.

What get’s complicated is when we start to try and do things apart from this model.

This is the purpose for our lives, to serve God by working to bring others to Him.

Second, I believe that we must examine our lives to be sure that we don’t put prerequisites on our ministry to God.

Jesus ministered in a wide variety circumstances.

He ministered in the Synagogue.

He ministered in an individual’s home

He ministered among the community.

He even ministered in the neighboring communities.

Yet He never allowed the size, location, or status of the people to have a negative impact on His ministry.

We are called to minister in a variety of circumstances as well.

Sometimes it’s to a lot of people, sometimes to just a few.

Sometimes everything is going great, sometimes it’s not.

Sometimes you’re full of energy, and sometimes you are tired.

Jesus experienced all of this and yet His example for us is that our ministry, our service to God must go on.

If we only minister when there’s a bunch of people…

If we only minister when things are going great…

If we only minister when we have the energy…

Then we are not following the example that our Savior set.

Can I just point out one side item?

Nowhere, in any of these verses, did Mark record that anyone got saved.

Jesus knew this would be the result, yet He ministered anyways.

Listen, we have a purpose tonight. We have been given the responsibility to minister to others.

We may, at times, have to minister in situations that are not as glamorous, productive, or easy as we would like.

None of these circumstances give us an excuse to stop ministering to stop serving.

Tonight, maybe you’ve pulled back a bit from your service to God (I’m not condoning staying busy just to say your busy) but maybe you’re not as faithful to serve Him as you once were.

May I remind you that He set the standard for our service? You won’t have to answer to Gary Boyd some day for how you served, but you will have to answer to Him.

And, I don’t know about you but I can’t read about Jesus’ life without trying to do more for Him.