Tertullian, who lived as a Christian preacher and theologian in the second century, is credited with the expression, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” He wrote this phrase in a treatise which he sent to the governors of the Roman Empire, in to hope to quell the persecution of the early Christians. What he was basically saying is that the blood of Christians is a seed which multiplies the converts to Christianity, so rather than their persecution stopping Christianity, it causes the church to flourish.

That’s a counterintuitive thing to consider, that persecution makes the church stronger, not weaker. But a study of the history of the church makes that clear. Jesus said that the Jews had from ancient times murdered the prophets in His denouncement of the Pharisees and scribes and that such persecution would continue. He said in Matthew 23:29, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been [living] in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in [shedding] the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure [of the guilt] of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall [the guilt of] all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”

Today we are looking at the account of yet another prophet of God that was martyred for the sake of the gospel. John the Baptist was considered the greatest prophet that ever lived up to Jesus Christ. And yet in the wisdom and providence of God, He allowed one of His greatest servants to be decapitated at the whim of a hateful, spiteful woman. And of course, we know that not long after this event, they crucified Jesus, the greatest prophet, the Lord God Incarnate. We also know that of His twelve apostles, eleven of them were martyred for their faith. And yet the church of Jesus Christ continued to multiply, to grow and spread so that it was said that from this tiny seed of the apostles, the gospel had spread throughout the entire world.

Now Mark’s account of the death of John the Baptist does not lend itself very well to a three point outline, but our purpose is to preach the word and let God take care of the application of it. But I think there are some instructive points that we can take from it as we work through it.

Let’s pick it up in vs 14, “And King Herod heard [of it,] for His name had become well known; and [people] were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” The context demands that we must connect this verse to the preceding verses which describe the ministry that the apostles were doing as the emissaries of Christ.

In the preceding passage which we looked at last week, Jesus had sent His disciples throughout Galilee two by two, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and had given them authority to cast out demons and perform miracles. The gospel of the kingdom is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One from God, the King of the Kingdom of God, and that by believing in Him, and believing His word, you would be saved from the wrath to come.

And the apostles were so successful in their ministry, that King Herod heard of it. He heard of the mighty works that were being done in the power of Jesus’ name. Perhaps Herod perceives this as threat to his own power and position as king. However, Herod was not really a king. He wants to be a king, and the people under him refer to him as king, but in actuality he is the tetrarch, which is more like a governor of Galilee.

This Herod is actually one of four sons of Herod the Great, the same Herod that was king when Jesus was born. You will remember that bloodthirsty tyrant had all the Jewish baby boys murdered who were under the age of two, in an attempt to put Jesus to death, because he was worried that Jesus might be a threat to his throne.

That same bloodthirsty, demented type of personality seems to have been passed on to his sons as well. Herod the Great had many sons with many wives, but upon his death his domain was split into four sections, with each section being ruled by one of his sons. The King Herod we are looking at today was one of his sons, whose name was actually Herod Antipas. He was the ruler over Galilee, but each of these four sons answered to the emperor of Rome. They had very little power and authority other than what was extended to them by the emperor. So even though Mark calls him king, which was the popular title, Herod was not really a true sovereign in the full sense of the word.

But when he hears about Jesus’ ministry and mighty works, his guilty imagination wonders if it’s possible that John the Baptist, whom he had put to death, had come back from the dead and now possessed supernatural powers. Vs.15 But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “[He is] a prophet, like one of the prophets [of old.]” But when Herod heard [of it,] he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

So everyone was speculating about Jesus, some saying He was Elijah, who was prophesied in Malachi to come before the coming of the Messiah to turn the people’s hearts toward the Lord. Others thought that some great prophet of old had come back to life. But Herod thinks it’s John the Baptist, whom he had beheaded.

Then in vs 17 Mark recounts how it came about that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist. Vs17 “For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not [do so;] for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.”

A little background on Herod’s marital situation might help us understand what was going on here. Herod had a brother named Philip, actually he had two brothers named Philip. But one was in Rome who had taken a wife who was the daughter of another mother but was technically his sister. So Herod Antipas came to visit, he has an affair with his brother’s wife and the two agree to divorce their spouses so they can get married. And that’s what they do.

But everyone knows about it, and everyone knows that it was wrong. John the Baptist somehow has an opportunity to preach to Herod, presumably with his new wife Herodius there with him, and he denounces Herod for taking his brother’s wife in an adulterous and incestuous relationship. John doesn’t refer to Herodius as Herod’s wife but as Philips wife. He said, “”It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

You know, it’s entirely appropriate for a preacher to call out sin, and to call sin, sin. It’s not popular, and people might get offended by it, but that is what God has commissioned us to do. If people don’t come to understand that they are lost, that they are sinners, then they will have no need for salvation.

But for the most part, people are not sorry for their sin when you confront them with it, but they end up hating you for telling them they are sinners. That’s the response you see so often in our culture today. They don’t want to think that what they want to do is sinful, and so they hate those who say that it is sin. Herodius has that same response towards John the Baptist. Mark says she had it in for him, and wanted to kill him. That’s the same response that the Pharisees had towards Jesus. They plotted to kill Him. And Herodius wants to kill John the Baptist but she lacks opportunity. But finally she convinced her husband to arrest John and put him in prison.

Mark says Herod her husband was afraid of John the Baptist. I actually wonder who he was most afraid of. I believe he was more afraid of his wife. But he is afraid of John because he knows that John is a prophet of God, that he is a righteous and holy man. And so he kept him safe in his prison. And by some accounts, he was probably kept in prison for about a year.

That was probably longer or just as long as John had been in ministry. That’s one of the hardest things for me to understand about the wisdom of God. That God allows His prophets and preachers to often undergo incarceration or something like that for a long time, when it would seem to us that it would serve the kingdom purposes much better if that man of God were able to continue in ministry. I think of Joseph, who spent 13 years in prison. Or Moses, who lived in exile in the wilderness for 40 years. Or the Apostle Paul, who spent most of his final years of ministry in prison. Or the Apostle John who was exiled on the isle of Patmos. It doesn’t make sense to us, but in the wisdom of God, it must somehow serve His purposes.

A couple of interesting things though happened while John was in prison. One was his disciples were able to visit him. And the other interesting thing was that he regularly preached to Herod. Of course, Herod’s court, his government officials, would have also been that audience. God doesn’t just want the gospel preached to those who will repent, but also to those who won’t repent. And that is so that they will have no excuse. Contrary to what those who hold an extreme view of the doctrine of election might teach, God desires everyone to be saved.

1Tim. 2:3-4 says, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And another passage in 2Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

So God wants the gospel preached to everyone, but of course, not everyone will come to repentance. In fact, not many will come to repentance. And one of the reasons is that they don’t see their sin as sinful. We might read between the lines and assume that perhaps Herod had some remorse about his sin. His conscience bothered him about it. Mark says he enjoyed listening to John but greatly disturbed. But not so with Herodius. She just became more prideful and more hateful and wanted to add to her sin by killing John the Baptist.

Well her desire to kill John gave birth to a plot to kill John, and then one day came a strategic opportunity to bring her plan to pass. Vs.21 “A strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee; and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you; up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And although the king was very sorry, [yet] because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he was unwilling to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded [him] to bring [back] his head. And he went and had him beheaded in the prison.”

Herod threw a birthday party for himself. That shows some of the extent of his vanity. He invites all the dignitaries of Galilee, all the military commanders and all the lords in his realm. it’s the equivalent of a state dinner which he throws in his honor. And when they had eaten their fill and were drunk with wine, the daughter of Herodius came out and dance for them. This was really a depraved situation. I think Herodius was complicit in sending out her daughter to dance for these men. It would have been a men only dinner. And she was probably only a teenager, who danced provacatively and was more than likely at least partially undressed. She’s not Herod’s true daughter, but his niece. However such a family relationship was not ever a hindrance for the Herod’s. They seemed to have no problem with incest.

Herod and his guests are obviously pleased with the girl’s dance. And perhaps because of his illicit desire or intoxication or both, he makes a foolish offer to the girl. He says whatever you want I will give you, even up to half the kingdom. It was foolish because he really didn’t have a kingdom to give. But perhaps he meant it monetarily.

But the girl begs leave of the king, in order to speak to her mother. And that’s another reason why I think Herodius was behind it all along. Herodius is watching and waiting in the wings. Salome goes to her mother what shall I ask for? And her mother said, “the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” She wants John’s decapitated head served to her on a plate. This was not only a hateful woman, but a barbaric one. No wonder Herod was afraid of her.

And Herod, weak, fearful man that he was, immediately did what she demanded. He was afraid of what she might do, and what his dinner guests might think if he didn’t fulfill her demand. I guess in some respects that’s what we would call peer pressure today. I can’t help but wonder how many people ended up in hell because they were afraid of peer pressure.

You know, it’s not cool today to be a Christian. The culture thinks eastern religions are cool. If you’re into transcendental meditation or Zen or some sort of spiritism, then that’s cool. You can talk about it all you want. You can openly try to convert people to your philosophy and that’s acceptable. But if you believe in the God of the Bible, if you believe in the gospel of salvation, then you’re a kook or worse, you’re a fascist. At the very least you will be ostracized from society. And I think the day is coming soon when you will be imprisoned for believing in and speaking about the gospel. It’s already happening in Canada and Western Europe and it’s starting to happen in America.

Well, Herod sent an executioner to the prison cell of John the Baptist and he had him decapitated and his head brought to to Herodius on a platter. He went against his conscience and against God in order to save face in front of his wife and peers, but in so doing he condemned his soul to eternal hell.

What about John though? What must have he been thinking as he went through this ordeal? How unjust must he have thought this whole thing was working out. I wonder if he expected God to deliver him at the last moment as God had done with Daniel or other prophets. I wonder if he was disappointed in God that after all he had done for the Lord, the Lord would let him die in such miserable circumstances. After all, the bad people seemed to win. Evil seemed to win over good. Doesn’t God care?

Well the Bible teaches us that in heaven we will receive rewards commensurate with our works here on earth. Jesus gave a parable explaining that principle in which he said in Matt. 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’”

John the Baptist was faithful unto death. And he will receive a martyr’s reward, which I think will be the highest reward given in heaven. I’m reminded of Jesus’s last message to the 7 churches in Revelation. And he said to the church of Smyrna, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

John was faithful unto death and he entered into his eternal reward. I hope that we do not count the temporary pleasures of this world as worth holding onto, or the acclaim of friends as more important, and thus end up rejecting Jesus Christ. I hope that we are willing to follow the example of the prophets and the apostles, that we might declare as Paul did, saying in Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9\ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

I don’t believe that John the Baptist was doubting the goodness or fairness or justice of God when he knelt to receive the axe upon his neck. But I think he was rejoicing that he had been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. John had said to his disciples earlier, that “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

God has purposed in HIs divine wisdom that as the children of God, we should share in the sufferings of Christ, that we might be exalted in heaven. Rom 8:16-18 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him] so that we may also be glorified with [Him.] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

The Bible teaches us that to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the basis for our salvation, the means by which we become a child of God, for receiving eternal life. In John 1:12-13 we read, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the means by which we are born again of the Spirit.

Jesus was continually preaching that one must believe in Him for salvation. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” He said in John 6:35 “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” Jesus said in John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” In John 11:25-26 He said, ”I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” And in John 12:44 and 46 Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me…” 46 “I have come [as] Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”

So to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the means by which we are born again. Paul said in Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

So what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? It means to believe Jesus is the Christ, that is the Messiah, that He is the Lord, the Sovereign King of the Kingdom of God, that He is the Son of God, who became flesh and blood and who died on the cross for our sins, and who was raised from the dead and now stands at the Father’s right hand, and who is coming again for those who believed in Him.

Then what constitutes unbelief? Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a man who lived in 30AD. Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus was a great prophet. Unbelief may actually believe that Jesus was the perfect man. But ultimately unbelief means that you reject the idea that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is the Messiah, God incarnate and that He died on the cross as our substitute and the perfect sacrifice for the atonement of our sin, and that He was raised from the dead and reigns forever.

Now the passage before us tells us that the townspeople of Nazareth where Jesus grew up did not believe in Him. They had been witnesses to Jesus as a child. We are not told what they thought of Him when He was young, but they would have naturally believed in what their senses told them – that He was the son of Mary, that they knew Him and His brothers and sisters as the kids living down the street. But, having been witnesses to Him growing up, they couldn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. You might think that they would have been thrilled to realize that Jesus, who had lived among them and grown up in their town, was actually the Son of God. But having known His family, His father and mother and brothers and sisters, having seen Him growing up in their village, made it almost impossible for them to imagine that He was who He claimed to be. And so because it went against what their experience had taught them, they rejected Jesus as the Son of God, and consequently, brought condemnation upon themselves.

As the apostle John says in John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Now let’s look at the text and see how Mark describes this unbelief of Jesus’s hometown and it’s consequences. He says in vs 1, “Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him.” So this is His second visit to Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. The previous time that He came to Nazareth was at the beginning of His ministry.

In His previous visit recorded in Luke’s gospel He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the scriptures. He read to them Isaiah 61, ““THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

He then sat down and declared, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And as He began to teach them they were so filled with rage that they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff, but Jesus escaped from their midst.

Now Jesus has come back again to Nazareth, and in the mean time He had been doing what Isaiah had prophesied – He had been preaching the gospel to the spiritually destitute. He had been preaching deliverance to the captives and had healed the blind and all manner of sicknesses. He had even raised the daughter of Jarius from the dead.

So what is their reaction this time to Jesus? Did they believe in Him? Let’s look at vs 2, “When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man [get] these things, and what is [this] wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.”

Their question is kind of odd isn’t it? Where did this man get this wisdom? Where did He get this power? You can almost hear the indignant tone to their voice. Because they knew Him as just Jesus the carpenter’s son. They knew Him as the son of Mary. By the way, the fact that they don’t say Jesus the son of Joseph one of the reasons a lot of commentators think that Joseph had died by this point. Once Jesus began His ministry Joseph isn’t mentioned in a living sense. And so as the eldest son, Jesus would have taken on the responsibility for the well being of His family, in the place of His father. We see that in His first miracle, the turning of the water to wine. We see that at the cross when Jesus gave to John the responsibility for the care of His mother Mary.

But that aside, the answer to their question is obviously that His power and His wisdom came from God. But they don’t want to believe that. After all, they probably believed that He was born under dubious circumstances. Mary had not yet been married when she had been pregnant with Jesus. And so they would rather believe that, than believe that somehow He was begotten of God. They don’t want to believe that this young man who had grown up among them was actually the Son of God. The only obvious answer to where His teaching and His power came from was God. As Jesus said in John 10:37, “If I do not do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me. But if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.” The only explanation, again, is that God is present in Him.

And notice that the townspeople said his brothers and sister were there with them. We know from John 7:5 that not even His brothers were believing in Him. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs when one’s own family doesn’t believe in you. Remember when His brothers and His mother came to do an intervention on Jesus because they thought He was losing His mind? And so Jesus looking about at those who were sitting around Him who were believing in Him said, ”Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

And of course I must point out that the fact that the scripture tells us that Jesus had brothers and sisters indicates that Mary did not stay a virgin forever as the Catholic Church teaches. The try to explain away the obvious for the sake of maintaining their worship of Mary as some sort of divine by saying that Jesus’s brothers and sisters must have come from a previous marriage of Joseph before He married Mary. But there is no basis for that claim, other than their desire to venerate Mary as a perpetual virgin, who was sinless, and who was assumed into heaven, never having died. I’m here to tell you that if you hold to those beliefs about Mary, and you pray to Mary, and worship Mary, then you are guilty of worshipping another god.

So Mark says that the townspeople took offense at Jesus. Did you know that the gospel is offensive? I think the majority of preachers in the contemporary church try as hard as they can to make the gospel unoffensive. To make it as innocuous as possible. I think that’s why they dare not talk about sin. They dare not mention the judgement of God. They dare not mention hell. They only want to talk about love. That God loves you just the way you are. Period. And so every offense, every objection is taken out of the contemporary message of the gospel.

But Jesus said in Matthew 11:6 “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” Why is the gospel offensive? Because Jesus came to save sinners. People are offended at the idea that they are sinners, condemned to death. They are offended that there is something about them that needs to be made right. And I believe people are offended today if you tell them that they are sinners and need to be forgiven, they need to be converted. We want to think that we are ok, that we are basically good people. That God loves us just the way we are. It’s offensive to think that you need a Savior, that you need to be saved from your sins. And I think that is the root of their offense taken towards Jesus. “This guy? This man who we saw grow up here, who does He think He is? This guy is not going to be our Savior. He will not rule over us.”

So what is Jesus’s response to their unbelief? Vs4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his [own] relatives and in his [own] household.” What that means is Jesus was accepted in other areas on the basis of His word and His works. But the exception is the people from his own town, and those from his own household who could not seem to accept Him. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. Those who had grown up with Him found it impossible to reconcile what their natural perception told them from what they might see spiritually.

What then is the result of their unbelief? The result of their unbelief is found in vs 5, “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Because the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus, and were in that respect even worse than the Gerasenes, for they had received more light, and greater privileges, they did not flock to Him to be healed or to bring their sick. So these rebellious unbelievers were not delivered from their illnesses. Of course, the most deadly illness is that of sin. And so being unbelieving not only prevented them from being healed physically, but it also prevented them from being healed spiritually.

It was not that their lack of faith rendered Him unable to heal, but their lack of faith prevented them from coming to be healed. Jesus had just healed a dead girl, the daughter of Jarius. She had no faith herself being dead. But still Jesus healed her. The demoniac of the Gerasenes had no faith, being demonically possessed, but he was healed from demonic oppression. So Jesus could have healed, but their unbelief hindered them from coming to Him. That’s why I quoted the verse earlier that said, as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become sons of God.” There is a responsibility on our part to believe, to receive Him as Lord and Savior. And the people of Nazareth would not do that and so were not delivered.

And that reaction on their part, caused Jesus to be amazed at their unbelief. Vs 6, “And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.” That’s a poor translation. The way that sounds it seems as though Jesus wondered why they didn’t believe. No, Jesus didn’t wonder why. Jesus knew full well why they refused to believe. What it means is that Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. Or even better, He marveled at their unbelief. It’s like when you see a tremendous car accident. You might marvel at it. You might say, how could someone be that stupid? How could someone be that blind? I think that’s the thought here.

In another instance, the scripture says that Jesus marveled at the centurions faith who asked that Jesus speak and his servant would be healed. And He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” So here is the opposite to great faith, which is great unbelief, and Jesus marvels that they could have been given so much light, so much privilege, and yet be so unbelieving.

And so Jesus left Nazareth and preached the gospel to other villages in that region where His gospel would be received and believed.

We come today to the end of chapter four, but the story of Jesus’s ministry does not stop there.  He is simply traveling from one place to another.  And He does so in this story by means of a ship on the sea.  It’s a simple story, but one which provided a teachable lesson for the disciples, and which should be a lesson for us as well.

It’s been a very long day of preaching and teaching and working miracles.  At one point the crowds were so large that Jesus and His disciples were not able to eat.  So  at the seashore of Galilee He asked that a boat be brought near the beach so that He could preach without being crushed by the multitude.  It’s interesting to picture Jesus sitting in a boat right off the shoreline and using it as a pulpit to speak from. Perhaps it was John and James’ fishing boat, or maybe Peter and Andrew’s boat.  It was probably not a rowboat though. It was a fishing boat that was large enough for a crew, perhaps all 12 of the disciples plus Jesus, and a large catch of fish as well, which would be a pretty good sized boat.

At any point, Mark says “On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” First notice that it was evening.  It was getting dark. I’m sure you have all heard this story before and we know there is a storm coming.  To be at sea in the dark in an open boat, in the midst of a violent storm, would be especially terrifying.  A storm always seems worse at night.

But the other thing to consider is that Jesus knows what is going to happen before it happens. He knows it is night time. He knows that a fierce storm is coming.  And yet He is the one who orders the disciples to head out in their boat.  What’s coming was going to be a terrifying surprise for the disciples, but it was no surprise to Jesus. In fact, you might say that He would seem to be orchestrating it. Jesus could have said, “Fellows, I want to go over to the other side, but I know there is going to be a fierce storm tonight, so we will find shelter here and leave in the morning.”  But Jesus, in His divine omnipotence, does nothing like that. Instead, He says let’s go to the other side, knowing full well what is in store for them.

It’s hard for us to understand sometimes, but God often sends us tests in our lives.  It’s like a  good teacher that gives the students a test periodically.  Contrary to what the students might think, the teacher doesn’t give them a test hoping  to make the students fail.  But to make the students learn. James  1:2-8 says “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.  For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,  [being] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Notice James says testing produces faith that endures through trials, and enduring faith makes you complete in your faith, and in wisdom.  But a lack of faith is likened to being in a boat in a storm tossed sea that drives you this way and that way, so that you are unstable, and double minded. It’s interesting that Jesus uses a stormy sea and a driving wind to test the disciple’s faith.

Vs 36 “Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.”  So they left the crowd on the beach.  Again and again we see Jesus escaping the crowds just when you would think that from a ministry point of view He should be capitalizing on the momentum. Instead, He leaves to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  But I want you to notice something else here.  This storm that is coming is not the disciples fault.  This isn’t a Jonah situation here, where God sends a storm to punish someone who has made wrong choices.  The disciples are doing what Jesus told them to do. I think we are often surprised to find that when we are trying to follow the Lord, things seem to not always go the way we think they should.  Instead of smooth sailing, fair winds and following seas, suddenly the winds seem to turn against us.

So Mark says the disciples took Him just as He was.  I find that an odd statement. I can’t really be sure what to make of it.  But in light of the context, I would have to assume it means that as He finished preaching, sitting in the boat, they just pushed off shore and set sail for the other side.  They didn’t come to land and then make preparations for the journey.  They left without any food, without packing a bag, just took off with Jesus sitting in the boat having just finished an exhausting day.  You know, passages like this remind us that Jesus wasn’t some sort of superman in a physical sense.  He got tired, He got hungry, His body was just like our bodies, and subject to the same physical limitations.  He was fully man, and yet fully God.

And because of that physical body that was subject to being tired, Jesus was exhausted.  We read in verse 38 that Jesus had gone to sleep in the stern, with His head on a cushion.  That shows us a couple of things. One is He is supremely confident and at peace about what was about to transpire.  And second, as I said previously, He was subject to exhaustion just like any person would be who had been doing what He did that day.

Vs37 “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.” In the original language Mark uses a word that is best translated as a whirlwind.  A whirlwind is like a tornado, or a hurricane, with the wind going in a circular motion. From what I have read, the Sea of Galilee was ringed with mountains and the sea was 680 feet below sea level.  So due to geography there is some weird atmospheric thing that happens there occasionally due to the cold air in the mountains dropping down to the heated sea below which can cause very violent storms to occur. 

So the wind has come rushing down from the mountains and into this sea, kicking up tremendous waves, and the boat was being swamped.  Waves were breaking over the sides and it was filling up with water.  it’s ironic that this test for the disciples comes in the form of something that I’m sure they thought they were well qualified to handle.  After all, they were professional fishermen who had made their livelihoods plying this sea.  They had years of experience with boats and dealing with bad weather.  And yet to their strength comes this extreme trial that shows them just how weak and insignificant they are.  I don’t know if you have ever been in severe weather before, like a hurricane or a tornado, but when you experience that you are keenly aware of just how massively powerful nature can be, and how powerless and insignificant man is.

But these were sea faring men with years of experience dealing with storms and waves. It’s funny how God tests us in our strong areas, and not our weak ones.  Satan on the other hand tempts us in our weak areas.  But God tests us in our strong areas.  The areas of our life we take the most pride in.  The areas we think we don’t really need God’s help in.  For some of us, it’s our business acumen or ability to make money.  For others it’s our body, maybe our physical strength or our good looks.  It can be a lot of different things.

I remember a time when I was around 40 years old. I was in the prime of my life. I was doing very well in my antique business.  I had learned more about my particular antique specialty than most of my competitors which enabled me to be very successful.  I remember one day answering my mother’s criticism who was comparing me to my brother who was working a job and getting a salary of about $50,000 at the time, and I said that I could make $50,000 standing on my head.

About a year later, a whirlwind came out of nowhere and completely overwhelmed my life in every respect.  In that storm that seemed unrelenting and which lasted about three years, I lost my health and my business, went completely broke, and almost lost my mind in the process.  But as I was just telling someone the other day, if God had not put me through that trial, then I probably would not have been where I am today in my walk with the Lord, and I doubt very much that I would be a pastor.

Well, the disciples were overwhelmed in the storm as well.  They were justifiably terrified and realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the storm or keep the boat from capsizing and sinking.  Amazingly though, Jesus was still asleep in the stern. Vs38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Luke’s account makes it clear that the men were very frightened.  Fear causes men to do and sometimes say terrible things.  Panic causes men to do even worse. Sometimes when a trlal causes fear in a married couple, it makes them turn on one another.  I think the tendency is you don’t think your spouse is hurting as much as you are and so you want to hurt them yourself.  Your spouse seems too comfortable with the situation. I think the disciples were both terrified and panicking.  And in their fear, they turn on Jesus who is at such peace that He could sleep through this terrible situation.

The different gospel accounts include more things that were said, but I think Mark focuses on something here which is very important.  When trials come, when things don’t turn out like you planned, when all around your soul gives way, the temptation of Satan in that moment is to say that God doesn’t care.  God is uncaring, unloving, impersonal.  He doesn’t care about you.  He could help you if He wanted to, but the fact that He doesn’t seem to be doing anything, is evidence that He doesn’t care.  You’re on your own. And so you get angry at God, you turn away from the Lord at the moment when you need Him most.

But the purpose of the trial from God’s perspective is to get you to turn to the Lord. To trust Him more. To love Him more.  To commit your life to Him completely.  God uses trials a lot of times to get us to move away from our independence, our self reliance, our pride, and trust completely in His sufficiency and in His plan.

So in vs39 we read, “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.”  Jesus is the One who created the wind and the sea.  He created the weather.  He created the elements.  In John 1 it says of Jesus, “and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

It’s interesting that Jesus spoke the world into existence, and He speaks now to rebuke the wind. The wind stopped immediately, and then He speaks to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the sea instantly became dead calm.  You know as someone who is a surfer, I’ve learned that the wind produces waves.  Many times the storms can be hundreds of miles away and yet we are getting waves sent from that storm to our beaches.  Yet Jesus immediately causes the sea to become dead calm after just stopping the wind.  From a natural point of view, the waves should have continued for quite a long time afterward.  But Jesus stills the wind and the waves simultaneously.

And then after speaking to the wind and the waves, Jesus speaks to the quaking hearts of the disciples. Vs. 40, “And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ One thing I want to point out is that Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples for their accusation that He didn’t care about them.  I think His compassion for them overrides any desire to rebuke them.

But He does want to teach them. And so He asks them two questions.  The first is “why are you afraid?”  Luke makes it clear in his account that the disciples were afraid during the storm, and even more afraid after Jesus stilled the storm.    So Jesus says, “Why are you afraid”, not “why were you afraid.”   As if to say, doesn’t this teach you that your Master is not only very powerful, but also that He cares for you and loves you?  Perfect love casts out fear.  Therefore shouldn’t you respond not in fear but in childlike faith?

One thing that I ended up having to deal with as a result of my trial by fire that I mentioned a moment ago was severe anxiety.  I developed crippling anxiety attacks that I could not control and which took control of my life and greatly contributed to the loss of my business and so forth. I often claim that I started the whole anxiety attack thing years before it became  well known.  Back then no one knew what it was.  But at it’s root was just fear. And to some extent I still deal with it even today.  I think many of us deal with fear.  The psalmist David dealt with fear.  That’s one reason I am so drawn to the psalms. But fear comes when you realize something’s happening beyond your control.  The answer to fear comes when you realize that God is in control and your life is in God’s hands.  And you can trust Him with your life.

And then Jesus’s second question speaks to their lack of faith.  “Do you still have no faith?” He says “You still have no faith” even though they had seen Him perform hundreds of miracles.  Even though they had followed Him for some time now and heard His message of the gospel, had heard His claim to be the Son of God.  Yet their faith had not endured in the midst of  the storm.  

You know, when everything works out the way we want, when God seems to answer our prayers just as we desired, when our finances and health are good, when our families are safe and sound, then we think our faith is good, don’t we? But when trouble comes, when God doesn’t seem to care, when God doesn’t split open the clouds and immediately come rushing to our help, when our prayers don’t seem to be answered, then does our faith endure? Do we lose faith when God seems to be asleep and our boat is sinking? I think Jesus orchestrated this trial to teach the disciples and to teach us, that God is in control and He is not surprised by any circumstance or situation in our life.  He is not surprised or scared of any storm.  He is the Master of life’s storms, and He will use them for His purposes and bring us through them to a greater knowledge of Him, and to a deeper, enduring faith, that we might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But Mark finishes this account with the perspective of the disciples, in vs 41 “They became very much afraid and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”  They were still learning who Jesus was.  It’s one thing to hear about God, but another to have a personal experience with Him.  I think this storm helped them to see through the veil of flesh that covered Jesus of Nazareth so that they saw a glimpse of the glory of the Son of God.  Only God can command the weather.

So the disciples ask a question that we should be asking as well, “What kind of a person is this, that even the weather obeys Him?  Only God causes storms and only God stills storms.  And so the answer must be that Jesus is the Son of God. That is the faith that we must have, the faith that saves us.  Trust in who He is, and what He has done, and what He has promised.  That is saving faith. 

Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”   And without faith it is impossible to be saved.  [Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

But even when we are justified by faith, it is necessary that we continue in faith, and endure in faith, that we may be perfected in faith as we walk by faith and not by sight.

I’m going to try to cover three events today in the ministry of Jesus which spans two chapters in Mark. That’s maybe an optimistic goal for me to accomplish in the time I have. But I think all three of these events have a common theme as I hope to show you. And what they have in common is Jesus’ dismissal of ritualistic, ceremonial laws which purport to have their basis in scripture, that purport to be the proper exercise of religion, but in fact are man’s additions to the law of God.

The first event is found starting in chapter 2 vs 18; “John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’

It’s not clear from Mark’s gospel who is asking the question here. Matthew’s gospel though indicates that it is the disciples of John who come to ask Him. Whoever asked it is not really the point though, rather the question is why are they fasting? The law of God only prescribed one fast per year, and that is found in Leviticus 16, which is a fast on the Day of Atonement. So the law didn’t require fasting other than that day. But over time, fasting began to be practiced on other occasions and for other purposes. By the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees boasted of the fact that they fasted twice a week.

In regards to the disciples of John fasting, we are not really sure why they are doing so. It may be that they had adopted the fasting practices of the Pharisees, or they might have been fasting in conjunction with their prayers about John the Baptist, who was imprisoned. But the bottom line is that we are not told why. One thing we do know, the Pharisees fasted to be seen of men. They put dust on their faces and clothes to draw attention to the fact that they were fasting, because they wanted to be seen as holy and righteous people.

It just so happens that we are in the middle of the season of Lent. And it is customary for some churches to practice that. One of the things they traditionally do is mark their forehead with ashes in the sign of a cross so that people will know that they are fasting. Of course the Bible speaks nothing about Lent or 40 days of fasting. They somehow associate Lent with the period of testing that Jesus went through in the wilderness where He fasted for 40 days. But the scripture never tells us that we are to do that.

However, what Jesus does teach about fasting in the Sermon on the Mount is in direct opposition to the way most churches are practicing it. Jesus said in Matt. 6:16-18 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites [do,] for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”

So I am not opposed to fasting if it is done as Jesus spoke of it. But I am not interested in practicing Lent which I think has as it’s only basis the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. And I for one do not want to follow their lead in regards to fasting or practically any of their religious traditions.

But notice Jesus’ answer to their question. Vs 19 And Jesus said to them, “While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”

Jesus compares His presence with His followers as being like a wedding feast. Again and again the scriptures compare the relationship between Jehovah and His people, or Christ and His church with that of the relationship between a bridegroom and bride. The idea that the friends of the bridegroom would be fasting while the the wedding feast was in progress is simply incongruous. In the same way, would it not be ill-fitting if the disciples of the Lord were to be mourning while He is with them, performing miracles of deliverance and granting salvation? This is a time for joy, for celebration, not for mourning.

But, Jesus says, the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. When Jesus died on the cross, when He was taken away from them, then in those days fasting would be appropriate. But as Jesus said in John 16:16, that would be but a little while.

The comfort that we can find in this saying is that for those who are saved, there is not a sense of sadness, of sorrow that we are to embrace, but a sense of joy. There should be no greater joy than knowing that your sins have been forgiven, that you have been betrothed to Christ, and that you are going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. And furthermore, the greatest joy should be in knowing that the Spirit of Christ is in you, dwelling with you, and He will never leave you. So joy and not sorrow should be the hallmark of our faith.

Now to further illustrate His point, Jesus uses two metaphors. In the first, He says in vs 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.” Pretty clear picture, but what does it mean? Well, the second metaphor means the same thing. Vs 22 “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins [as well;] but [one puts] new wine into fresh wineskins.”

The meaning is this; that the new life of salvation which Jesus was bringing was out of line with joyless fasts. Old wineskins cannot contain the new still fermenting wine without bursting. It must be put into a new wineskin. The old covenant of rigid ceremonial laws and rituals cannot contain the new wine of salvation. This new wine must be in new wineskins, or not trying to patch over the old with a new piece of cloth, but a whole new cloth. So all things have become new, as we are told in Heb 10:19-20 “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh; let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”

Now let’s look at the second event, in which Christ deals with another ritual, another law that had been added by the Pharisees. Vs 23 “And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads [of grain.] The Pharisees were saying to Him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’”

Mark’s not necessarily following the historical events as they happened in chronological order here, but he is showing a connection in subject matter. And as I said, this is another case of the Pharisees adding to the law, and observing and practicing something that seemed religious, but was in fact in opposition to the truth. Commentators tell us that the Pharisees had taken the law of the Sabbath and broken it down into 39 principle works, and then subdivided them into six minor categories under each of the 39. All of that to determine what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. And they had extrapolated it out to ridiculous extremes.

And what they were saying about the disciples is that they were reaping, by pulling off a head of grain as they walked through the grain fields. And they were accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath because He was allowing or condoning what His disciples were doing. Of course the original law said nothing against plucking the grain with your hands. That was permissible. But the law did prohibit putting in a sickle to harvest grain on the Sabbath.

But Jesus wants to address the root of the question concerning the Sabbath, not just argue about some branch off the main trunk. So in vs25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar [the] high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for [anyone] to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?”

At first glance that seems that what Jesus said has nothing to do with the Sabbath, does it? But the application of the law is what Jesus is addressing. What Jesus is saying is that the law regarding the shewbread was able to be put aside in case of need. David and his men had nothing to eat. They were starving and suffering from the effects of a long, forced fast. But the shewbread was supposed to be eaten only by the priests. But Jesus indicates that the need of David and his men was more important than the restrictions upon the shewbread.

So in the same way, was not Christ, who is the antitype of King David, able to set aside a regulation due to the hunger of His disciples and which was actually a totally man made regulation misapplied to the Sabbath law?

And to that point of Jesus being the fulfillment of the promise that the Messiah would be the Son of David, He says in vs 27 “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Not the Sabbath was made first but man was created first. The Sabbath was instituted to be a blessing for man, to keep him healthy both physically and spiritually. So the Sabbath wasn’t made to be a curse, but a blessing.

Of course, Jesus is the One who ordered the Sabbath. He was the Creator of all things, according to John 1, and without Him was not anything made that was made. The Creator of the Sabbath is without question the Lord of the Sabbath. The sovereign ruler of the world, is rule of the day that He designated as a time of rest.

But in that response, we are reminded of Hebrews 4:9-10 which says, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” The Lord of the Sabbath came to give us a rest that is greater than the rest that was portrayed in the Sabbath. He came to give us a rest from our works, a salvation that is by grace through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. That is the rest from our labors, the rest from the condemnation of the law, that Hebrews is speaking of. And I believe Jesus is speaking of that same Sabbath rest that comes through Him. Thus He is Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Son of David, the Messiah, who ushers in a new way into the holy place.

One more event which is related to the law is found in chapter 3. Once again, it has to do with the Sabbath. Ch. 3:1-2 “He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him [to see] if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.” The reference to “they” which Mark speaks of is the Pharisees. They are always hanging around, looking for something that they could criticize Jesus for, something to condemn Him for.

And it’s the Sabbath day, and Jesus and His disciples follow the practice of the Jews and worship God in a local synagogue. The practice was that when a visiting Rabbi was in attendance, He was given the opportunity to teach. We can assume that Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees were watching and listening to see what they could find to accuse Him over.

And Mark says there was a man there with a withered hand. That might be an indication that something had happened to the man’s hand, maybe mangled in some accident. I think the cynical side of me can’t help but suspect that the Pharisees had brought the man themselves to see if they could get Jesus to break their Sabbath restrictions. But that’s supposition on my part.

In Matthew’s account, he says that the Pharisees asked Jesus, “is it right to heal on the Sabbath?” They had actually taken the Sabbath laws so far as to say that you could not even heal a person on the Sabbath unless they were in immediate danger of losing their life. I remember reading some time ago about the Orthodox Jews in Israel debating whether or not it was lawful to call 911 if someone’s house was burning. I think I remember the story correctly. I’m not sure what they decided. But how ludicrous is that kind of reasoning? And Mark indicates that it got Jesus angry as well.

So in vs 3 He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

When Jesus asks them is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill, He is saying that because He knows their hearts. Their heart is not compassionate towards this man. And they are actually planning harm against Christ, even to the point of killing Him, as we will see in the next verse.

I don’t like to always jump back and forth between Matthew or Luke’s accounts in order to fill in the blanks, but I really like something that Jesus said in Matthew’s account that Mark did not mention. Matt 12:11-12 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Jesus is saying that the Pharisee whose sheep had fallen into a pit would be more concerned about his profit in the sheep than a restriction of the Sabbath. Sheep were their income, and so they were going to make sure that nothing interfered in that. But Jesus says that a man is much more valuable than a sheep. He uses the word valuable because that is the metric of their concern. A sheep is valuable to them, it’s the source of their income. But a man who is disabled, he means nothing to them.

Jesus could have told the man to come back tomorrow and skirted the whole issue. But He knows that they will not be satisfied until they find something to accuse Him of. Furthermore, He is not going to acquiesce to their false doctrine. And so it says that He looks at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart. I think their hypocrisy is what angers him. That they care for a sheep because they see it as valuable. But they don’t value a human life. And He is grieved because their heart is hardened. As I have said before, I think they already had enough evidence to know that Jesus was the Messiah. But they would not have this man rule over them, not even if He was the Son of God. They wanted a Messiah of their own making, and Jesus was not what they wanted.

Well, the cure was instantaneous and complete. The man’s hand was as good as new. I’m sure the man was overcome with joy that he had been healed. But the effect it had on the Pharisees was not one of joy, but only served to make them hate Him even more. Vs 6 “The Pharisees went out and immediately [began] conspiring with the Herodians against Him, [as to] how they might destroy Him.”

The fact that a handicapped man was cured of his infirmity did not affect them at all. They cared not for this man, and cared even less for the Healer. Jesus had not only healed the man in opposition to their law, but He had also discredited them in public. He had exposed their hypocrisy and their hatred.

And so Mark says they immediately went out and started scheming how they might destroy Him, and in that scheming they chose to partner with the Herodians who were known for their worldliness and sacrilege. What an odd coalition. It reminds me of the adage, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The Herodians were lovers of the political status quo, of the political party of Herod, and they saw a threat in Jesus and His followers and His talk of the kingdom of God. They wanted to perpetuate the kingdom of the Herods. And the Pharisees were the party of the religious status quo, and they saw a threat in Jesus as overthrowing their authority and privilege and religious power. And so they conspire together as to how they might catch Jesus in something that they can use to put Him to death.

Isn’t that ironic? Jesus came to usher in a new way to be reconciled to God, to be forgiven of your sins, to be set free from the captivity of sin, given a new life, a life of joy and freedom. And the Pharisees and Herodians wanted to keep the people under a system of bondage and despair, a system that could never give them rest, but only condemnation.

Thanks be to God that though it seemed in the short run that the enemies of Christ won when they crucified Jesus and put Him to open shame, yet on the third day He arose from the dead, testifying that God was satisfied with His sacrifice, and because He lives, we can also live by faith in Him, and receive everlasting life, fullness of joy, and an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. I trust that by faith in what He accomplished, you know the joy of your salvation, the freedom of new life in Christ, and have committed to follow Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath.

The Diagnosis of the Great Physician, Mark 2:1-12 Psalm 130

As most of you know, I’ve been sick for the last couple of weeks. It became pretty obvious to everyone who heard me and saw me, that I had some sort of a virus or something. Just to be careful, I took a Covid test which came back negative. But after about 8 days or so though I decided maybe I should see the doctor and see if there was something they could do for me to help me get better.

I think we tend to give too much credit sometimes to doctors. The problem is that they are limited in what they can see. They look in your mouth, maybe they can see a couple of inches down your throat, look up your nose, in your ears, but basically they have to try to figure out from the outside what’s going on inside. From their observance of you externally, they try to make a diagnosis of what’s going on inside, and then make a prescription to hopefully help you.

My Doctor determined after all the looking, and prodding, and taking deep breaths, she said I was sick and I would have to let it run it’s course. She did give me an anitbiotic, but said it might not help because it may be viral and not biological. What we all really want though is a doctor who can somehow look past the external, and look inside and make the correct diagnosis, find the root of the problem and address that, cure that.

We sometimes hear Jesus referred to as the Great Physician. While it was evident that He was able to heal from any kind of illness or disease, that was not really the purpose for why He came to earth. Back in the last chapter, we read that He had been healing the whole town until late at night. And early in the morning, the disciples look for Him and He’s no where to be found. That’s not logical from a ministry point of view. Everybody is coming to hear you, to see you, and you disappear. You want to keep it going, build on the momentum. Bigger is better, you know.

When they finally found Him and told Him that everyone was looking for Him, He said something very strange; ““Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” Jesus didn’t come to heal the world of disease, but to preach the gospel of salvation. That was His purpose. Healing, in fact, was sometimes an impediment to His mission. Mark goes on to say that the news about His healing spread so much that He could no longer go into a city, but He had to stay out in the wilderness.

Well, eventually He comes back home to Capernaum. He has a house there, which we don’t know if He owned it or borrowed it, or rented it. But for a time He lived there and He had come back home from perhaps many days of preaching in the wilderness. Vs 1,” When He had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door; and He was speaking the word to them.”

Once people heard that Jesus was home, they started flocking to His house. The crowd might have been as many as a couple of hundred people or more either in the house, or trying to get in, standing in front of windows, and doors. It’s interesting to think that there were not only HIs disciples in the crowd, but some that were His critics. Luke tells us that the scribes and Pharisees made up some of the crowd. So the religious men of the city came in to try to find fault with what He was doing and saying.

But Jesus is preaching the word to them. That’s what He came to do, and He is doing it right in His own house to whoever came to Him, for whatever reason they had come. His priority is to preach the word, the gospel of salvation. It’s important that we as a church keep our priorities right. We don’t let our ministry receive it’s priorities from the world. I’m often asked if we could participate in this cause or that cause, or join this ministry or that. And sometimes it’s not that these causes don’t have merit, but that is not what we are called to do. We are called to preach the gospel of salvation. That’s our priority. And I don’t want to get sidetracked by other peoples political or social agendas that they try to use the church to advance. Jesus was doing what He came to do, preach the word, the gospel of the kingdom.

But while that is going on, there is a small group of men who are determined, or you might even say, desperate, to get their friend to Jesus. But the crowd is so thick outside the house they can’t even get close. Vs3 “And they came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four men. Being unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying.”

I said these men were desperate. And it’s obvious that they were. They weren’t going to let anyone stop them from getting their friend to Jesus. There is no indication in the scripture of what had caused this man’s paralysis. But if I had to guess it was due to an accident. Most paralytics were resigned to being beggars on the street for the rest of their lives. They lived in the worst sort of squalor and poverty. This man still had friends willing to do this for him, which to me indicates that it was something that happened fairly recently, like an accident had caused it.

It really doesn’t matter how it happened. But to the Jews, such a calamity was an indication of God’s judgement against some great sin of that person. And maybe it’s possible that this man did have some sin that he thought was the reason that he had contracted this disease, or had this accident. Who knows, really? And we are not told.

But for him and for his friends, there is a desperation born out of the knowledge that there is no other hope for this man. He has a life sentence, really a death sentence upon him that can never be changed unless they can get Jesus to see him. This may be this man’s only chance to ever see Jesus, and they are going to do everything possible to get to Him. So unable to enter through a door, they climb onto the roof of the house, and right in the middle of Jesus’s sermon, they start tearing up the shingles to make a hole big enough to let down their friend.

It would be good to have friends like that, wouldn’t it? Friends willing to risk their lives for you, friends who want what’s best for you, even if it means that they have to do something crazy. Jesus told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourself. That’s what it means to be a friend of someone. I wonder how good of a friend are we to others? How much do we love our neighbor? How willing are we to do whatever is necessary to see their greatest need met? How desperate are we to take our friends to Jesus? Or do we really care as much as we would like people to think. Do you recognize that Jesus is the only hope for your friends? That they have the sentence of death upon themselves and they are without hope, unless you can get them to Jesus?

Well, they practically destroy Jesus’ house, and completely interrupt His message, but they get their friend lowered down in front of Jesus. They aren’t recorded as asking for anything. The paralytic isn’t recorded as saying anything either. I guess everyone figures this is self explanatory. It’s pretty obvious what the problem is, and Jesus is the healer. Nothing really needs to be said.

But Jesus is the Great Physician. And He is able to look past the outward appearance of things and see the root of the problem. And the greatest need this man has is he needs to be forgiven. He needs salvation. So it says in vs5 “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’”

It’s unclear from the text whether Jesus is seeing the faith of the friends, or the faith of the paralytic and his friends. I have to assume it is the faith of the paralytic and his friends. What was their faith? I suppose it has to be that Jesus is the Son of God, that He is able to save, to heal, to do miracles because He is the Son of God.

But it’s a mistake to think that faith is required for God to heal. When God raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus did not have faith that Jesus could give him life. Lazarus was dead. When Jesus healed many people, they weren’t always even in His presence. He was acting on someone else’s bequest. The demon possessed man didn’t have faith, and yet Jesus healed him.

But to be saved requires faith. Jesus saved this man. His biggest problem was that he was a sinner, with the condemnation of death upon him. All disease, all illness, death, is all ultimately the result of sin. Whether this man lived as a paralytic or not for a few more years was nothing in comparison to the eternal destiny of his soul. And Jesus looked into his soul and saw this man’s greatest need, and He forgave him of his sins. He gave him the greatest blessing, that of being made right with God. And that took away the curse of sin, so that he received eternal life.

This man’s faith was incomplete, perhaps. He had not enough information to believe everything that there was to know about Christ. But there is another component of salvation in addition to faith, and that is the sovereign grace of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” I think the argument can be made that it is by the grace of God that you are given saving faith. All of salvation is of God. And Jesus sovereignly bestowed the grace of God upon this man, giving him faith, forgiving him of his sin, and giving him eternal life. This was the purpose given by the angels to Jesus being born into this world, who said in Matthew 1:21, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Well, this great miracle of salvation which Jesus does here doesn’t exactly bring the house down, no pun intended. I can almost see people in attendance scratching their heads, wondering how could Jesus have missed the obviously most important need right in front of Him? But among the crowd are His critics. And they seize upon what Jesus said in some sort of self righteous indignation.

Vs. 6 “But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?’” Well, they were actually correct in their theology. They are absolutely right. Only God can forgive sins. Because sin is against God, He is the one offended, and only He can expunge it, forgive it, do away with it.

What they are incorrect in is their reasoning. They reason that Jesus cannot be God. He doesn’t come with the right education, the right pedigree. He’s not part of their clique. He actually interferes with their agenda. And so since they have already discounted any possibility that Jesus is God, they assume then that what Jesus says is blasphemous. He is claiming to be able to forgive sins, which is the provenance of God only, and that, in their minds is impossible. In fact, to take it a step further, they won’t let Jesus be God.

Vs8 “Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?” Notice something here. They had not said anything. He is able to know their thoughts without them saying anything. If they had been willing to consider it, this is yet another indication that He is God. God knows the secrets of the heart. The Lord said to Samuel in 1 Sam. 16:7, “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

But unfortunately, the scribes had their eyes blinded to that as well. Jesus continues in vs9 “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

Notice first of all the strange question Jesus asks of them. Having read their thoughts, that they were accusing Him of blasphemy because He claimed to do what only God could do, He asks, “”Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

Well, to our minds, it’s easier to say “your sins are forgiven” because no one can see whether or not that is true. To say “get up and walk” is something that they could see the result of. And so that is harder.

But I think Jesus is saying that it’s actually harder to forgive sins than it is to heal a body. For in God’s justice system, sin is not merely winked away. In order for God to forgive us of our sin, He had to exact justice upon someone who would bear the penalty for our sin. The penalty for sin had to be paid, in order that the sin might be forgiven.

So which was easier for Jesus? To accomplish atonement for the sins of the world so that man might be forgiven, or to simply restore the man’s nervous and muscle system back to working order. I would suggest the task of redemption was tremendously more difficult. It literally broke the world when Jesus died on the cross. Heaven and earth ground to a stop, the lights went out, heaven went dark, hell broke open, graves were opened, the curse under which the whole world was bound was broken. The world was turned upside down. Oh yeah, redemption was much harder. But the Pharisees could hardly have known that. They couldn’t see the spiritual realm. They only could see the external, the temporal, the physical realm.

So because they were too blind to see, Jesus said, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–He said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

This is all the evidence you need? Fine. I’ll give it to you. “So that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Do you think that convinced them? No, I doubt it. The scripture shows that every evidence Jesus gave as to who He was only served to harden their hearts, to make them hate Him more. They began soon after this to plan to put Him to death. That was their answer to His evidence.

So the paralytic got up and rolled up his pallet and walked out in the midst of everyone. And everyone was amazed. But some at least must have believed in who He was because Mark say that they were glorifying God. Unfortunately, I have to imagine most were glorifying God because the paralytic was able to walk, not because the paralytics’s sins were forgiven. I hate to sound cynical, but I think that was the way it was for the most part, and it is born out in scripture. Most people only seem to appreciate what God can do for them in the physical realm. They don’t care that much about the spiritual.

I’m reminded of a pastor’s conference I was invited to attend years ago that was held by a large denomination. They are a little more charismatic than what I prefer and so I no longer attend that conference anymore. But one time we were listening to a missionary give a report of taking the gospel to a part of Africa, I believe, that had not heard the gospel before. At every village, he said, they would preach the gospel and then the whole village would get saved and be baptized. And this happened at one village after another. They were just very receptive to the gospel. But at one village as they were baptizing the new converts, he said a woman began to wail and cry and they discovered that her baby had just died at that moment. She brought the baby to the missionary, and as she handed the baby to him while I believe he was still in the water, the child came back to life. And immediately the men in attendance at the conference jumped to their feet and gave a standing ovation for this baby being brought back to life.

I was really struck by that. A thousand pastors are there listening to accounts of one village after another coming to salvation in Jesus Christ, and there is hardly the grunt of an amen from the crowd. But when a baby is supposedly brought back to life, then there is a standing ovation. I think its human nature to be more concerned about the physical than the spiritual. I suppose that is why the Lord sometimes lets us experience sickness and death and heartache in the physical so that we might be brought to think about the spiritual.

Because the greatest problem of our lives is not our financial situation, it’s not our health, it’s not how soon we will die, or whether we have a loving wife or husband in this life. The greatest problem is the problem of sin. The disease of sin. There is a cure for sin. And you need that cure. All sickness and death and all the world’s problems are the result ultimately of the curse of sin. But Jesus became cursed for us, He paid the penalty, He paid the price, that we might be forgiven of our sins and receive new life. The Great Physician has examined you today and diagnosed your greatest problem. He has the prescription to save you. I hope that you are not blinded today to the reality that Jesus is the Son of God, who came to save the world from their sins. If you trust in Him as your Lord and Savior, He will forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, that you might have new life in Him. That is your greatest need, and Jesus is the answer. Turn to Him and receive forgiveness of your sins, and new life through Him.