As we come to this passage before us in our ongoing study of Mark, we find that the Lord Jesus and His disciples are at the end of a very long, tiring day. Jesus has been teaching and healing all day long, and the crowds were pressing against Him, and thronging Him to the point that He could not teach, so He had entered into a boat by the shore and taught them in parables.

Now we spent the last couple of weeks talking about these parables that Mark records for us. And I don’t want to go back over them in detail. However, it’s noteworthy that these parables in this chapter are the only ones that Mark records for us. Yet we know from the other gospels that Jesus taught more parables than these. Mark, however, only includes these five, yet he indicates in verse 33 that there were many such parables that He taught.

And it’s important that we remember the purpose of parables. Why did Jesus use them as a means of teaching? Well, contrary to normal intuition, He used parables not so much to illustrate the truth, as to veil spiritual truth in a natural illustration. As we have pointed out repeatedly, there is a necessity for spiritual illumination in order to understand the spiritual truth of a parable. So that the principle is that to him who has, more shall be given. In other words, he who has spiritual illumination, spiritual life, receives more spiritual illumination. But to him who does not have, they hear, but they don’t understand.

So Jesus said to them in vs.24, ““Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” Now that sounds as if Jesus is speaking in riddles. And perhaps He is to some degree. But here is what He is saying; By your hearing of the word, you come to believe. And when you believe what you have heard, then more truth will be given to you. But if you hear the word and do not believe in the truth, but reject the truth, then what you have will be taken away from you. What insight you have been given, will be taken away. God will take the spiritual illumination which was given to you away because you did not believe it.

So take care what you listen to. He isn’t necessarily saying, “be careful not to listen to false teaching.” Though that may definitely play a part in rejecting the truth. But be careful to listen carefully. That’s why twice Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” If you have spiritual ears to hear, be careful to listen to it. Take care of what you hear. Don’t let it go in one ear and out the other. But think on these things. Ponder the truth of God in your heart. And then of course, act upon that truth. That obedience to the truth is an essential part of believing.

Be careful what you listen to because as Romans10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Your faith is dependent upon what you hear, and how carefully you hear. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, ie, the truth of the gospel.

Now in that context we come now to the final section in this chapter, and though it seems rather biographical than doctrinal as the other sections were, yet it is tied to the previous passages by this principle of faith. Faith is really the lynchpin of our salvation, is it not? The word faith has only been used by Mark one other time up to this point in his gospel. And interestingly enough, it is found in reference to the forgiveness of sins. Back in chapter 2, we have the account of the four friends who brought in the paralytic and it says that Jesus, seeing their faith, said, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” There is a principle in Biblical interpretation, what is called hermeneutics, which is known as the principle of first mention. If you want to understand how to view a term that’s used in the Bible look at how it’s first used. And the word faith’s first mention in the gospel of Mark is in reference to the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is called justification in theological terms. Faith is essential then to salvation. 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.” Faith and belief then are synonymous. As in Romans 4:9, speaking of Abraham’s saving faith says, “FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Faith produced Abraham’s justification.

So be careful what you listen to because faith comes by hearing, and salvation comes through faith. And through salvation comes spiritual life. And spiritual life is the way of life that Jesus promises to those who believe in Him. That spiritual life, where we are made spiritually alive and receive the Spirit of Truth in us, is the more that will be given to those who believe.

Now the disciples had by this time received spiritual illumination. And they were following Jesus as the source of life and truth. They were trying to understand the things which He was teaching them privately, that is the spiritual truth of the parables. But here in this last section, Jesus is going to give them a personal illustration, a physical experience to help them to understand this spiritual principle or doctrine of faith. Sometimes that is a great way to learn. We can learn things theoretically, but when we learn by experience then we really learn. However, experience can be a hard teacher. I will say to you young people especially, life isn’t long enough to learn everything by experience. If you are wise, you won’t learn things the hard way, you will learn through teaching. But in this case, Jesus is going to teach them by experience and though it’s a tough lesson, it is an essential one which I hope we can learn as well through their experience.

So as the day turns to evening and night falls, according to Matthews gospel in chapter 8:16, Jesus without even getting out of the boat tells the disciples to push off and take them to the other side of the lake. This is the Sea of Galilee. It’s really a lake and not a sea, but it was called both in those days. So it’s evening, it’s getting dark, and they set sail for the other side, and a few other boats, presumably filled with disciples as well, follow them.

The point must be made here that Jesus knows what’s going to happen before it happens. So Jesus knows that a storm is going to occur. And yet He deliberately sends them out into an impending storm. The storms and trials of a Christian are not meant to tempt us, but to teach us. As the hymn writer says in “How Firm A Foundation”, “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” The trials of the Christian are intentionally produced by God to refine us and teach us.

Many commentators have given testimony to the violent nature of the storms that can come suddenly down from the mountains upon this lake. And though it’s a lake and we don’t normally associate huge waves with lakes, yet in this particular lake the storms are well documented as being particularly vicious, especially due to the fact that it is over 600 feet below sea level encircled by mountains and hills. I am not going to try to explain it further, but I will just say that it is a verifiable phenomenon that happens even today.

So Mark says that Jesus and the disciples leave the crowds. Once again we see a pattern here of the crowds following in a sort of superficial manner, and thus not receiving the deeper spiritual truth that was given to His close disciples privately. The crowds were interested in seeing some sort of miracle, were interested in the entertainment aspects of Jesus’s ministry, but they are not interested in learning deeper spiritual truth. And so the light which they had, which was Jesus, was taken away from them. He leaves them on the seashore and puts out into the lake in the dark of the evening with the disciples, with whom He will teach a greater lesson.

Another important lesson in this event is that though we will certainly see the divinity of Christ displayed at the end of this event, we also see the humanity of Christ displayed at the beginning. Jesus is so tired, humanly speaking in His body, that He falls fast asleep in the bow of the boat and sleeps soundly through what must have seemed like hurricane force winds to the disciples. I don’t think He is faking sleep in order to make a point. I think He is completely exhausted. It’s important to remember that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was not half God and half man. But fully human and fully divine. As Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus got tired. I would suspect that Jesus got sick. Jesus knew grief. He had by this time lost His step father Joseph. Jesus grew hungry. He was thirsty. He got dirty and had to take a bath, just like all men. Yet though He suffered in the flesh as a man, He was without sin. He was righteous in all that He did. This composition of divinity and humanity is what theologians call the hypostatic union of Christ. He was fully God and fully man. And we see that illustrated here in this chapter. Thus He is able to save us completely, not only as our substitute who died in our place, but in His role as our Great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father.

So sometime soon after the disciples set sail, a severe storm arose on the lake. It reminds me of that old hymn, “The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost.” Whoops, I think that’s the wrong song.

No, actually the fearless crew were not that courageous in the midst of this storm. These were seasoned commercial fishermen who were piloting this boat, and they are in fear of losing their lives. I suppose that this storm was worse than anything they had ever encountered before. There is some speculation among some commentators that this was a demonically induced storm. I don’t know if that’s true or not. The Bible doesn’t seem to say explicitly whether or not the devil can manipulate the weather. I am inclined to think that he can. I’ve endured far too many instances of adverse weather when I was trying to conduct a church service or a church outreach when the weather just got crazy. So I’m inclined to think that he can, but I cannot be dogmatic about it. But even if he can influence the weather, that doesn’t mean that every time we get bad weather it’s of the devil. However, I will say that the Bible says that the devil is the Prince of the power of the air. And you can infer from that whatever you may like.

And I will also say that considering where Jesus and the disciples were headed, the other shore being the country of the Gerasenes where the demoniac lived among the tombs, it is entirely plausible that Satan knew that his dominion was under siege by the Lord, and as a result threw everything he could at them in order to try to discourage Jesus and His disciples.

You know, there are a lot of times that we go through trials, and we don’t know if they are of God or they are of the devil. Consider Job. His trials were definitely through the agency of Satan, but they were ultimately under the authority of God. And so I think that is something we need to learn. Not necessarily trying to go about binding Satan so that we don’t have trials, but rather learning, as Shadrach, Meshak and Abednago did, that God may allow an evil prince to put you in the fiery furnace, but the Son of God will be with you in the flames.

Well, I don’t need to embellish the story. I think Mark makes it clear what happened. So we see Jesus awakened by His panicking disciples. And notice what they say to Him. “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Notice they don’t cry out “Help us!” But rather accuse Him of indifference. I think that right there Satan accomplished his goal. That was the point of Satan’s temptation of Eve. That God didn’t really care about their needs or desires. That God was uncaring. And I can tell you from experience that is where my failures of faith often lie. When God doesn’t do what I want Him to do in the time frame that I want Him to act, then I find myself accusing Him of not caring. Of indifference. Not that He doesn’t know about my problems. But that He doesn’t care. In fact, knowing that He knows about my problems and doesn’t seem to act immediately to rectify them seems to me the height of indifference.

But of course, Jesus does care. He does sympathize with our weaknesses, with our trials, and with our heartaches. He not only is aware of our pain, but He shares our pain. The Bible says in Romans 8:26 “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Some people think that is referring to speaking in tongues. No, far from it. It’s talking about the Spirit of Christ who is in us, groaning in us as He emphasizes with our heartaches. Jesus knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts. His thoughts toward us outnumber the sand on the sea shore. Nothing can separate us from His love towards us. He is faithful, even when we are faithless.

So Mark says that Jesus wakes up, and rebukes the wind. Notice how Mark says in in vs39, 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. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” The fact that Jesus rebuked the wind gives credence to the idea that it was a demonically produced wind. The words he used here are exactly the same words he used when he rebuked the demon that interrupted his discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum, as recorded in the first chapter of this book.

And it’s interesting to notice the order. First He rebuked the wind. Did you know that waves are caused by wind? Those of us that are surfers we know that we get waves from storms many hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of miles away. We can have great waves here in Delaware with beautiful weather from a storm a thousand miles away. The key component is what they call fetch. It’s the tract of water over which the wind blows. And if it blows in our direction long enough, over a broad enough fetch, then we will get waves that will travel many miles to reach our shores. It causes what’s called a groundswell. Well, this lake is only about 18 miles long, so it’s not got a lot of room for a prolonged fetch, but the waves are still caused by the wind.

The thing is that though the wind stops, the waves won’t immediately stop. The waves will continue to move because the wind imparts energy into the water. But Jesus rebukes the cause of the wind, and then He tells the waves to be still. And Mark says that the lake became perfectly calm. That’s not natural, but rather a supernatural occurrence which is not lost on the disciples.

So Jesus rebuked the wind, but He mildly chides the disciples. I don’t think that the text indicates He rebuked the disciples. I think He rebukes the devil. But He chides the disciples for their lack of faith. Notice what He says, ““Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” In Matthew’s gospel He says that they have little faith. I think the thought is the same. He is accusing them of an immature faith. They have had faith in what they can see. But they don’t yet have faith in what they can’t see, or they can’t explain.

And I think this is the whole point of the exercise. It is to get them to see by faith what they cannot see by sight. Faith is believing. And though they have believed what they could see, Jesus’s humanity, His power, His teaching, His ability to do miracles, to speak divine truth, they now need to be given a greater measure of belief. Belief in what they cannot see. What they cannot understand. Faith, according to Hebrews 11:1, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And by faith, the men of old gained approval from God.

Faith then is not what you can touch or see, or hold in your hand and examine. But faith is believing in what you cannot see, even what is hoped for, that which cannot be seen. Faith is the means of spiritual illumination. It is the means by which we see that which cannot be seen, that which is spiritual truth. And that faith is the essential component of our salvation. By faith, Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was justified by faith. He was saved by faith in the Old Testament, and we are saved by faith in the New Testament. And that faith is comprehended in Jesus Christ. Believing in who He is, who He claimed to be, and what He did for us. That constitutes saving faith.

Now the disciples see the result of this miracle, and their response is to move from one fear to another fear. Notice, 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?’” Well, Mark doesn’t answer their question, because the answer should be obvious. The wind and the sea obey Jesus because He is the Maker of the wind and the sea. John 1 says, He was the Word, and all things were made by Him and without Him nothing came into being that has come into being. And Hebrews 1 says “in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”

So the disciples become fearful not because of the storm any longer, but because God was in their boat. And when that realization dawned on them, then their spiritual enlightenment, their spiritual walk took a quantum leap forward. They will still have doubts from time to time, they will still have weaknesses, but when you know the God of the Universe is with you, then there is a comfort and assurance and power that comes with that that supersedes the trivial trials of this world.

Listen, it’s natural to feel fear in certain times of trial. The Psalmists cry out to God in the fear and anxiety again and again. Psalm 10:1, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in the midst of trouble?” Or Psalm 44, “Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord, why do You hide Your face.” And lest we think that such despair is sinful, remember Jesus Himself quoted the Psalm when He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” Fear is a natural occurrence. And I don’t think that it is necessary sinful.

I remember hearing of a battle hardened soldier who said something to the effect, that everyone in battle feels fear. Courage is not a lack of fear. Courage is doing what is necessary even though you feel fear. When we find ourselves in a spiritual battle we may feel fear as we encounter things that seem beyond normal. They may even seem demonic. But though we may feel fear, we need not react in fear, but take courage that Jesus has promised to be with us in the trials and storms of life. And He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have been given life through His death, because of God’s immense love for us. So nothing can hurt us without going through the hand of God.

Romans 8:28 is a verse everyone here has probably memorized. But nevertheless it bears repeating. This verse comes right after the one we quoted earlier about the Spirit groaning in us through our weaknesses. Vs. 28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

I trust that you have been called according to God’s purpose. I pray that you have not rejected the light that God has given you. But that you have believed in that light, and have followed in that light, so that you may continue to fulfill His calling upon your life. Be careful to consider all that God has taught us today concerning His Son. He was fully man and fully God, that He might become our Savior and our Substitute, that we might receive the righteousness of Christ by faith in Him. And having received Him, we love Him. And having loved Him, we obey Him. And as we walk in the light of His truth, He will one day glorify us so that we might be like Him and be with Him forever. Amen.

In this chapter, Mark has given us a small collection of parables which Jesus taught during His ministry. Last time, we looked at the first one, which is the parable of the soils. Today we will look at four more. Parables are physical illustrations of spiritual truth. Pastor’s and teachers today often make use of illustrations as an attempt to help people understand a biblical principle or doctrine. However, that is not really the purpose of a parable.

Notice in vs.11,12 that Jesus indicates a different purpose in using parables. He is not necessarily trying to illustrate truth more clearly, but rather to teach truth while at the same time keeping the unbelieving from understanding it. Listen to what He says to the disciples in vs.11, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, 12 so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”

Now that sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? That Jesus in a sense would use a parable to camouflage the truth. But the fact is, that spiritual truth is disclosed as a matter of progressive revelation. It requires belief, and acceptance, but also it requires one to act upon it before God discloses more truth. There is a verse in Psalms 119:105 which speaks to this principle of progressive revelation; “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” In other words, as truth is disclosed to you, you must take the step of obedience in regards to that truth, and then God will shine the light on the next step, which again must be acted upon to proceed down the path to spiritual enlightenment. Notice how the psalmist compares truth to light, which only lights the next step along the path. You must walk in it to continue in the light.

So it is in a parable – spiritual illumination is necessary. Without the guidance of the Spirit, you cannot understand the teaching of the parable. It may seem to make sense on a physical level, because it is couched in a physical metaphor, but you cannot glean the spiritual sense without spiritual illumination from God, either in the person of Jesus Christ, or by the Holy Spirit. The disciples had Jesus to explain the spiritual meaning of the parables to them. The multitudes that were not interested in spiritual truth, but were only there for the entertainment value of the miracles did not have that benefit. Notice vs34, “and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.” So there came a point in Jesus’s ministry when the crowds were massing around Him to see the miracles, in which He uses parables to teach them, while at the same time veiling the deeper spiritual meaning from those who would not believe in Him.

Now that is a principle of faith that we might have a hard time with because it seems unfair or discriminatory. Why are unbelievers blind to the truth of the gospel? And yet this is what the Bible teaches. The Bible says the just shall live by faith and not by sight. 2Cor. 4:3-4 says, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

So before someone can believe, there must be a divine awakening by the Spirit of God whereby they are given spiritual eyes to see. And we are going to see this principle of spiritual illumination taught again and again in these parables we are looking at today. The necessity of spiritual illumination. And in that regard, we are going to see that only when that spiritual illumination is in place will there be the manifestation of spiritual life.

Let’s jump into the first one then and see how Jesus presents this. Vs. 21 And [Jesus] was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now remember that our pattern for understanding this parable is found in the first parable of the soils. Jesus said in vs.13 if you don’t understand that first one, you won’t understand any of the parables. And the key to understanding the first one is that Jesus identifies the seed as the word of God. If He had not told us that key, we could easily go off in a hundred different directions in interpretation. We might think the first parable was about being a good steward of our resources and not being wasteful. But when we know that the seed planted is the word of God, then we can begin to understand the spiritual principle being taught.

In like manner, we have to look at this parable with the same kind of discernment. In fact, notice that Jesus uses the same closing statement in this parable as He did in the parable of the soils. He says in vs. 23, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” That’s almost identical as the phrase in vs.9. In other words, listen carefully with spiritual discernment. If you have spiritual ears, listen carefully that you might understand fully.

So what then is the lamp which is depicted in this next parable? We have already seen in Psalms 119 that the lamp is the word of God just as the seed was the word of God in the first parable. Another important text that supports this is found in John 1:1-5, 9 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. … There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

So there you have it, the Word is the Light, which enlightens every man. I would suggest then that the lamp is the Incarnate Word of God which man accepts into His heart by believing in Jesus Christ as His Savior and Lord. This word then is given to us that we might live in that light and walk in that light, and reflect that light of God to the world. Jesus is saying that this light was not given to us that we might hide it, but that we would shine it out to the world.

Now that is not just talking about evangelism. I think we can consider it in light of the parable of the soils, in that the fruit which the seed produces is in the likeness of the same. In other words, Jesus who is the Word is planted in us and this seed brings forth fruit which looks like Jesus. So the fruit of the Spirit is to look like Jesus. Just as the seed of an apple produces an apple, so does the light of the Word produce the image of Jesus Christ in us. We exhibit His character and His nature as a result of receiving the word implanted. Psalm 36:9, “In thy light we see light.”

That same principle is taught here; that as Jesus is the Light, shining the truth of God to the world, the very reflection of God, so we are to reflect Jesus Christ to the world. The Spirit of God was given to us that we might look like and act like and speak like Jesus. Not that we might feign lip service to God on Sunday, but put Him under a bushel basket the rest of the week. Not simply that we might only hand out a couple of tracks and think that we have fulfilled our purpose, but that we might do the works of God and speak and act like Christ as the light of truth leads us to walk in the light. 1John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” That is the testimony that God desires from us. To be holy even as He is holy.

And then in vs 22, “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.” That means then that if you have the Light of God in you, then He cannot stay hidden. He will produce light. There will be a corresponding reflection of Jesus Christ by your life. Your salvation will not, cannot stay hidden.

That segue’s into the next parable, or simile in vs24, And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” 

Here is the same principle further explained. If you do not believe the Light that has been revealed to you, then what light you have will be taken away from you. According to Romans 1 God will give you over to a reprobate mind. Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The light is taken away. On the other hand, if you have believed the Light of the Word, then more light will be given. That light produces life. You will not only have life, but you will have it more abundantly. You will have eternal life.

So then, Jesus said, take care what you listen to. What does He mean by that? Well, it’s easy to understand if you remember He is talking about the word of God. If you receive the word of God, and act upon it, and follow it’s light, then you will be given more light, you will be given more life. But if you listen to the lies of the devil, to the lies of the world, then you will remain in darkness. That darkness leads to depravity and depravity to destruction.

Be careful then what you listen to. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Conversely, false teaching comes by hearing, and it produces apostasy.

So then, by your standard of measure it will be measured to you. How you receive the truth of God will determine to what degree you are given truth. A good way of understanding that is how you are obedient to the truth. As you are obedient, to that measure, more will be given to you in the same measure. The more you follow the truth, in the same measure God will reveal to you truth. There is a progressive nature to biblical revelation that is contingent upon your obedience. In other words, you cannot walk a yard in your faith and expect a mile in your sanctification. No, but as you walk a yard in your faith, God will grant you a yard’s worth of sanctification. The walk in the Spirit is a walk of progressive sanctification. But it is a walk, none the less. Our salvation was never intended to be stagnant. One leap of faith and then still for the rest of your life. The Bible says we are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Far too many people claim to have received the truth of salvation, but they have never continued in that light. They haven’t grown an inch since supposedly they were converted. That is not what the Bible teaches constitutes spiritual life. As James 2 declares, we are to show our faith by our works.

Now we must move on to the next parable quickly. Vs26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows–how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Here again, Jesus is teaching the same principle while at the same time elaborating on it even more. Once again we see the man sowing seed into the soil. And in this case, there is only one soil presented. It’s obviously the good soil, because it produces a crop. So we know already from the parable of the soils that the seed is the word of God, and the soil is the human soul or heart.

What Jesus is teaching here is that this spiritual illumination that comes through the word of God activated by the Spirit of God causes a spiritual growth which cannot be seen physically, or even understood from a natural point of view, but which is happening nonetheless because of divine germination in the heart of man. In this parable again, we see the kingdom of God is manifested. First, the word is planted. And in the process of maturity spiritual life is revealed. It is a mystery. It is something accomplished through the Spirit of God in the human soul. Without this divine insemination of spiritual life, there can be no growth. But because of the spiritual seed implanted, it bears forth spiritual things.

I want to make sure that you all understand what the kingdom of God is. It is a spiritual kingdom, whereby God rules in the hearts of man. Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, and He did so by planting the word of God in our hearts, by which they were transformed spiritually, so that we might be the family of God; spiritual sons and daughters of God. Thus nations and empires and races and nationalities have no means of restricting this spiritual kingdom. God reigns in the hearts of His people throughout the world.

We need to be careful then in interpreting this parable that we do not try to make it say more than what it is intended. It’s not talking about the rapture, it’s not talking about the second coming, it’s not talking about producing salvation in yourself. But what it is picturing is again a planting and a growth. The harvest simply represents the culmination of spiritual growth and maturity that will come if in fact there has been a true planting of the gospel in the heart of the believer. It’s talking about sanctification, as Hebrews 12:14 tells us, without which no one will see the Lord

Now let’s turn our attention to the last parable. And this particular one is the subject of much disagreement among commentators and Bible teachers. But I think the earlier statement by Christ in vs24 alludes to how we should approach this parable. Notice His statement back in vs.24, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

In that statement, I believe Christ alludes to both a positive and negative consequences of what you listen to. If you receive the truth of the gospel, there will be a positive growth and manifestation of the truth in your life. But if you listen to false teaching, there will be a subsequent aberrant growth that is not spiritual, but physical.

Now I think that is illustrated in this next parable, and you can almost sense that this one is different in the way Jesus introduces it. He says, “How shall we picture or literally, how shall we compare the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?” So Jesus is indicating there is a contrasting nature to this parable of the kingdom of God. And so I think that it illustrates what I call a duality of manifestation.

And what I mean by that is that there are two kinds of growth represented in this parable. Notice that the first one seems to follow the normal pattern established so far in the others. Once again, there is a seed which is sown. We have seen that in two others in this passage. The seed is the word of God. But in this case, Jesus describes the seed as a mustard seed which is smaller, He said, than the other seeds sown in the garden, yet when it is grown in is larger than all the other plants in the garden.

Now in a natural environment a mustard seed produces a mustard bush, usually just a few feet tall. But in Matthew and Luke’s parallel account in their gospels, the mustard seed becomes a tree. Mark just says it grows up larger than all the other plants and has large branches. So we can assume that what Jesus is saying is that this mustard seed produces an abnormally large plant, actually it becomes a tree which is large enough for the birds of the air to nest in it’s branches.

Now as I said, there is some controversy about this. A superficial reading might conclude that Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God starts out small and then grows very large which sounds desireable. But a more careful interpretation in keeping with the metaphors taught in the previous parables would indicate that in fact, Jesus is saying that there is an abnormality to the growth of the kingdom. It has become much larger than what would naturally occur. And furthermore, in the parable of the soils, which remember Jesus said we must learn in order to interpret the other parables, in that parable the birds of the air were identified as the devil and his angels who ate up the seed which fell beside the road.

Now if we were to keep our metaphors consistent, then in this case, would not the birds nesting in the branches be a picture of the devil and his angels finding refuge in the branches of the church universal? I would argue that it is in keeping with the principles set forth. Furthermore, though Jesus said that the gospel would be proclaimed throughout the earth, yet He also said in Matthew 7:14 that “the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” So from a spiritual perspective, large, abnormal growth is not the kind of growth that is consistent with the Biblical paradigm of the church.

So it would seem that Jesus is saying that the church will grow into an organization that exceeds the design of God, and in fact harbors and gives shelter to false doctrines and doctrines of devils. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, has vessels for honor and some for dishonor. Every knee will bow and every knee will confess that Jesus is Lord. But not all will be saved. Jesus said after My departure, many false prophets will arise in the church. Many antichrists, John said, are already at work in the world. And again in Matthew 7 Jesus says that in that day “many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

So then, we can picture the church which is the kingdom of God, exhibiting abnormal growth, and certainly we have seen that in the 2000 years since this parable was spoken. Yes, the gospel has spread it’s branches throughout the world, but as the seven churches of Revelation illustrate, there are many that have lost their first love, that no longer do the works that they did at first. And to those apostate churches, or soon to be apostate churches, Jesus says “Repent” or He will remove their lamp stand from their place in the kingdom of God.

So then let us remember what Jesus said in vs24, ”Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

If you have not believed in Jesus Christ unto salvation, if you do not have the Spirit of Truth residing in you, then you cannot walk in the light of truth, nor manifest the light of God. You will not produce the fruit of righteousness that God requires. There must first be a planting of the truth of God in your heart, and if that is truly there, then there will be appropriate fruit that follows. I implore you to examine your hearts today in the light of God’s word that you have heard. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.”

And if you are indeed made a good tree today by faith in Jesus’s righteousness by the grace of God, then I trust that you are producing good fruit through obedience to the light shown to you in the word of God. As God has shown you the truth through His word, act upon it. Be obedient to it. And to him who has shall more be given. God will add to you grace upon grace, that you might grow more and more, until we all are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. May it be so. Amen.

Today we come to what many commentators believe is the first of the parables that Jesus taught. And as we see in the story, the crowds have become so large, and there was such a desire for healing and to see miracles that people were being crushed, and so Jesus got into a boat just off shore so that He could teach the people. The point is, that He wanted to teach them the truth of the gospel of the kingdom. Healing had it’s place, and miracles had their place, but that was not the primary purpose of His ministry. It was to present the saving news of the gospel. And so we see that the large, pressing crowds actually interfered with that by their desire to see some miracle, or receive some miracle, yet they were really uninterested in learning the truth.

So Jesus employs a method of teaching called a parable. Parable’s teach a spiritual truth through a physical illustration. You must have spiritual insight to understand. You must have spiritual illumination. Without such divine illumination, we would be in darkness. He speaks in parables because the people that are in attendance are only interested in physical things; healing, miracles, being fed, being entertained. Jesus’s ministry must have sometimes seemed like a spectacle; it was entertaining, dynamic, exciting. Demons acting out. Paralytics being raised up and jumping for joy. The crowds were attracted to that. But that is not the kind of attraction that Jesus wants, so He uses parables to teach them, which are a method of teaching which present a deeper spiritual truth to those who are spiritually attuned, while at the same time obscuring the truth to those who are not ready to listen spiritually. Now we will say more about that in a moment. But let’s look at this parable, which Jesus says in vs.13 is important to understand if we are to understand all the parables.

The good news concerning this parable is that Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of it in the latter half of the passage. Not every parable is given with an explanation. But once we learn the principles involved in this one, it should be easier to understand the later ones.

In many other parables, Jesus starts off by saying something like “the kingdom of God is like…” and then the gives the analogy through a similitude. But in this case we see that Jesus does not say this is “Like the kingdom of God.” But He just starts off by saying, “The sower went out to sow.” However, in vs 11, Jesus says, “to you has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.” So we know that this parable teaches what He calls the mystery of the kingdom of God. A mystery is a spiritual principle that is revealed through spiritual revelation. It is veiled to those who are not spiritual. Look at vs 11, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.” That was a partial quote of Isaiah 55.

In other words, those multitudes that were seeking a spectacle, that were seeking some excitement, who were there for the miracles but were not interested in spiritual truth, they were not spiritual, therefore they could not glean the spiritual truth of the parable. But for those like the disciples who had a heart for spiritual things, they were given the understanding of the mystery. Now that is an important principle which underlines the message of the parable as we shall see. You must have spiritual insight to understand. You must have spiritual illumination. Without such divine illumination, we would be in darkness.

So Jesus gives the parable. It’s a simple story of a sower who sowed seed, and some fell on the hard packed path alongside the field, and it was immediately eaten up by the birds. Other seed fell on rocky ground with a little soil on top. It sprang up immediately, but when the hot sun came out it withered and died. Other seed fell on soil and sprung up, but so did thorns and weeds and they choked out the life of the plant so that it was unfruitful. And then some seed fell on good soil, and produced a crop which yielded 30, 60, and hundred fold.

Now if that was all that Mark had recorded about that parable, then I think most of us would be in the dark about what was meant by it. We might surmise that Jesus was teaching that we needed to be more careful with our resources. If we don’t use our resources carefully, then we will waste much of it, and we will not get as big of a return for our investments, whatever they may be. That makes sense to me. And it makes sense in a natural world that is focused on physical things. I would bet that was the general consensus of the crowd as they heard this parable. How to increase your investments. How to be a good steward of your resources. How to live your best life now. Sounds like familiar sermon fodder, doesn’t it?

Well, Jesus concluded the parable with an important statement, which indicated that there was much more to the story. In vs.9 He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” What He is saying is “He who has spiritually attuned to hear, hear! listen! Listen carefully, intently. There is more here than meets the eye.”

Well, thankfully, the disciples recognized that there had to be more to the story than what was on the surface. So while most of the crowd went away satisfied with the superficial aspects of the story and the supernatural events that they had witnessed, the disciples asked Jesus privately for the meaning of the parable. And that teaches the principle of spiritual illumination. Jesus who is the truth, or the Spirit of Truth, must illuminate our hearts if we are to understand spiritual things. The secret to being of the kingdom of God is that such life must be of the Spirit and not of the natural. And that is born out even in the method of the message of the gospel. So Jesus gives us the meaning of the parable in vs.14-20. Remember now, in His explanation starting in vs 11, Jesus has already said that this is a mystery of the kingdom of God. These are spiritual metaphors of the kingdom of God that are presented in this parable.

Lets look at the first one; the sower. Who is the sower? The sower could have been Jesus. In fact, Jesus was certainly sowing. But the sower can be anyone who is of the kingdom of God. Seeds produce fruit after their kind. So in the kingdom of God one must be a part of the kingdom to be a sower. So anyone can be a sower of the kingdom of God providing he himself is first a citizen of the kingdom of God. The sower could be a preacher of the gospel. Preaching would certainly constitute sowing. God has ordained the gospel to be preached. Romans 10:14 says, “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” Though we may not all be pastors, yet we can all proclaim the gospel if we are citizens of the kingdom of God.

But it’s important to note that the main thrust of the parable is not about the sower. From a natural interpretation of the parable, you might focus on the sower. If he learned how to sow better, more efficiently, then he might not have wasted so much seed. But Jesus doesn’t seem focused on the sower, nor on his methods, or on his expertise. Simply that he sows wherever he goes. Our job is to sow the seed. Just do it. If you seem ineffective, it doesn’t matter as much as that you just do it. Sow the seed. God has His purposes even when the seed lands on poor soil. Our purpose is to sow.

The second thing which we need to notice is the seed. What is it? Jesus said it is the word of God. We sow the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a mystery to the world, but it is divinely powerful for the overthrowing of fortresses. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” There is power in the word of God. The gospel is the power of God. As ambassadors of the kingdom of God we need to use the power of the gospel to achieve God’s purposes. The power or effectiveness of the gospel is not found in programs, or in methods, or in attracting crowds, but in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God. The word of God has power inherent in it, even as a seed has in a tiny shell the germ of a mighty oak tree. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The next thing we need to see is the soils. Jesus gives four types of soil. In farming, soil is an important aspect of how successful your farm will be. Farmers spend a lot of time and money on the soil. My wife is an avid gardener. And she is always complaining because we have poor soil. She used to be really jealous of our neighbor’s garden, because he had all this money that he would spend enriching the soil. We don’t even have a tiller. A lot of times Susie would just chop the soil with a hoe and try to break it up. The only time I ever saw Susie act a little bit larcenous, was when our neighbor had a great big pile of manure delivered to his garden. She really wanted to go over there and “borrow” a couple of shovel full’s of manure. I told her that coveting your neighbors manure was a sin. A stinky sin at that.

Soil though in this parable is a picture of the human heart. The heart is a euphemism for the soul of man. It encompasses your emotions, your intellect and your will. So Jesus is talking about the heart. It is not a parable of the sower. It is a parable of the soils. The variety of conditions of the heart.

The first heart is that which can be described as a hard heart. 2Cor. 4:4 says “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” There is no spiritual illumination whatsoever. These people are just blind to the gospel. They turn a deaf ear. The word of God just bounces right off their hardened heart.

Jesus said these are the ones who are beside the road where the seed was sown. In other words, the soil has not been prepared there at all. It hasn’t been plowed, or watered, or fertilized. It is not broken up to receive the seed. It is still packed down hard. And so the seed lays there and the birds of the air come and eat it. Now this is another important principle for future parables. Birds of the air, Jesus says, are the devil and his angels. And they take away the word which was sown. Don’t discount the work of the devil in the presentation of the gospel. He is there to snatch away the word of God through distractions, through deceit, through every way possible, to keep you from hearing the word, lest it pierce your heart.

The second type of heart is the rocky heart. Notice vs.16, it says, “in a similar way…” I think that indicates that these two hearts are closely aligned. Now that makes sense doesn’t it? Because hard packed ground is similar to rocky ground. If you fall down on hard packed ground and it can feel like you fell on cement. And I suggest that they are similar in results. In either case, there is no real growth of the seed.

In this case, Jesus says that “the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, [are those] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

When a plant has no depth of soil, it has to grow up rather than down. But because it has no root, when the sun comes up they wither and die. This speaks to those people who hear the word, and they have a superficial, emotional response to the word. It’s quick, but it’s temporary. Because as affliction comes, or persecution comes, they quickly die off. I don’t think Jesus is necessarily talking about religious persecution in an organized fashion. I think it just means affliction in a general way. Your girlfriend doesn’t want to go to church with you. Your job doesn’t want to give you Sundays off anymore. Your friends want you to go out with them on Saturday night and you will get back late. It’s sort of rainy on Sunday morning. And so these superficial “Christians” who have no real spiritual life, quickly fizzle out.

I think there is a danger in evangelicalism today when we emphasize emotional, impulsive responses to the gospel, and then we declare them saved for eternity. You’re good to go. I think that Jesus is teaching here that sort of emotional response does not always constitute true salvation. And so we do those folks a grave disseverance if we tell them that that is all there is to salvation. No, the Bible teaches that we must count the cost. There is a cost to following the Lord. And when you are faced with that cost, whether or not you continue or desert the faith is indicative of the measure of your commitment to the Lord.

The third characterization of the heart is that of the thorny heart. Vs 18 “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”

Notice that this seems to be a plant that grows and survives, but it is unfruitful. Jesus gives three reasons for unfruitfulness in this person. First is the worries of the world. Man, which of us does not have to contend with the worries of the world? Notice, He doesn’t say the sins of the world. Just the worries of the world. Perhaps it’s your job. Maybe you’re facing a slowdown, a layoff, bankruptcy. Or perhaps it’s going the other way. It’s going great. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. You can’t get any good help. You’ve got more business than you can handle. Whatever it is, it has you so occupied, that you can’t spend any time on the business of the kingdom. 

Or perhaps it’s your children. You’re so busy with your kids, your grandkids, your wife’s got you going, your husband has all this stuff going on and so you have to take up the slack with your kids. Maybe your family concerns are those thorny weeds that are springing up faster than you can take care of them. It’s like the verse in Hebrews 12:1 which says, “let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The point is that it may not be sin that is hindering you. It may not be something inherently bad. In fact, it may be something good. He who finds a wife finds a good thing, the Bible says. Children are a gift from the Lord. But good things can be hindrances to running the race. They can become thorny weeds that hinder fruitfulness.

God didn’t design a fig tree to be a shade tree. He made it to bear fruit. And God designed us to bear fruit. John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” We were designed to bear fruit.

Notice the other thorny thing, vs 19, the deceitfulness of riches. You don’t have to be a millionaire to have this one. It’s not money that is the source of all evil, but the love of money. And show me someone who doesn’t love money? Money is deceitful however, because it never satisfies. There is never enough. No matter how much you make, you always manage to have a lifestyle that is just beyond your budget. And so we are always looking for more, thinking that will be the answer to our problems.

Listen, I learned this lesson the hard way a number of years ago. Not that I am there yet, but I have learned something along the way so far. When I finally gave God control of my finances, He didn’t give me more, He gave me less. He showed me how to be satisfied with less. How little I really needed to be able to live. And I think that lesson is not just for me, it’s for all of us. If you think that you don’t have a problem with money, then you have fallen prey to the deceitfulness of riches. And in our culture today, we are rich beyond the wildest dreams of most of the other people in the world. God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t have different weights and measures for Christians in America but a different scale for those in North Korea. I doubt that the average Christian in N. Korea has much of a problem with the deceitfulness of riches holding back his fruitfulness.

And finally we come to the good soil; the good heart, the receptive, ready, obedient heart. “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” Notice that all of the various hearts heard the word, according to the parable. But only this one does Jesus say accepted it. Now what does that mean? It means to apply it. To let it sink down into your soul and change your actions and attitudes. It’s like a seed that germinates and breaks open and starts to grow. It produces something. It isn’t just a passive hearing, but an active obedience to the word. The seed which is the word of God has to germinate, it has to grow, it has to grow roots, to be activated by the Spirit of God. That is what it means to walk in the Spirit. To obey the word, to act upon it. That’s how the seed is activated. You act upon it. Faith is not just hearing the word, but acting upon it.

And notice the results; it bears fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Now what is fruit? Well, Jesus doesn’t say. I have heard a lot of sermons about this parable. And practically none of them say what the fruit is. Perhaps because Jesus doesn’t say it, they don’t dare venture a guess. A couple of preachers, good preachers, by the way, say that parable is about winning souls. It’s a parable about evangelism and good hearted Christians will win souls, some 30, some 60 some 100. Well, I don’t think we can use those numbers to make that association. However, I will admit there are some elements of evangelism in the parable. Winning souls may certainly be a part of bearing fruit. But I think that is making a natural assumption. And as we said at the beginning, we can really go off track making natural assumptions as to the meaning of a parable. It’s the spiritual meaning that we need to be seeking and that comes from spiritual sources.

In the disciples case, their spiritual source for understanding was Jesus. He was able to tell them what the parable meant. If we wish to go beyond what Jesus said, then we have to use the only spiritual resource that we have; the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the author of the Holy Scriptures.

So what is the fruit? Is it souls saved? Is it the number of notches on your spiritual gun stock? Souls saved may be a part of it, but it can’t be just souls. I suggest that fruit is spiritual fruit; and spiritual fruit is by definition fruit of the Spirit. Now the Bible tells us what is the fruit of the Spirit, doesn’t it? Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

So, at least according to Galatians, souls saved are not mentioned as fruit. But rather it gives characteristics and attributes of the Christian. Are these attributes the fruit that we are to be exhibiting? Well, that would seem to be what it says in Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Notice that we are called according to His purpose, which is what? Paul tells us in the next verse, 29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”

So then, can we say that the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians is the same character and attributes of Jesus Christ? Did He exhibit love? Agape love, sacrificial love, even to the point of laying down His life? Did He exhibit joy? Did He exhibit peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control? Of course He did. So it would seem that being conformed to the image of Christ is to bear fruit. Some will manifest these fruits more so than others. But good hearts, receptive hearts, bear the image of Christ to some measure.

Now lest we make a case of one verse, let’s look at just a couple of more examples in scripture. In Eph 5:8 we read, “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Well, there we have Light used instead of Spirit. But if you remember my earlier application, this spiritual truth is derived from spiritual illumination. And the fruit of such spiritual light in our hearts produces the character and attributes of Christ; goodness, righteousness and truth.

Another is found in Phil. 1:10 “so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” What is this fruit of righteousness? I would say it is righteousness; sincere, blameless, approving that which is excellent. An apple seed produces an apple. So righteousness imputed produces righteous acts.

And that is born out in a final verse; Col 1:10 “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” So good works, or works of righteousness is the fruit that we bear, which pleases the Lord. And increasing in the knowledge of God. I would suggest that is a fruit as well. If we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, who is the image of God, then we have to know about Him. And the more we learn of Him, the more we come to know Him, and the more we know Him the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we want to please Him. And that fruit pleases God. That is the fruit of maturity. It is the fruit of sanctification. Where we cast off more and more of the world, and put on more and more of Jesus Christ. When we live out our faith in obedience, we will be a living testimony to the power of the gospel. And by that means we will be much more effective in our preaching.

I hope that today you will examine your hearts. Everyone of us here today is represented by one of those four soil scenarios. Which heart do you have? A hard heart? A stony heart? A thorny heart, or a good heart?

What if you say, pastor, I am afraid I have a thorny heart, or a rocky heart. What is the remedy? What must I do to make my heart good soil that produces fruit which is pleasing to God? Well, I can tell you where to start. It starts with a broken and contrite heart. It starts with repentance. Simply call out to God to give you a new heart.

The Psalmist David found himself in a place where His heart had grown cold and sin had found it’s way into his soul. He prayed in Psalm 51, and this is where we all need to start, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” Call upon the Lord today, and He will take that broken heart and make it fruitful, being conformed to the image of Christ.

Today we are picking up where we left off in Mark’s gospel last time. As you will recall, Jesus called certain of the disciples away with Him to a mountain, and there He commissioned 12 of them to be His disciples. These were to be the men who would be closest to Him, to whom He would have intimate fellowship. He called them apart from the crowds, from the multitudes, from the world to Himself. They would become closer to Him than even His family. They would in fact be His family, even the foundation of His body, which is the church.

So keeping that in context, we come now to a couple of events in which this idea of the family of Christ is called into question. And Jesus responds to those questions with a principle, or the truth of His gospel, which has direct implications for all of those who would be Christ’s disciples, even to us here today. So to that end, I have entitled today’s message the priority of the gospel. And we will be examining three principles related to this priority. First the priority of the spiritual above the physical. Next the priority of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. And third, the priority of the church over the family.

Now let’s start with the priority of the spiritual over the physical and we will begin by looking at the description Mark gives in vs 20. Jesus and His disciples have come home, that is to Capernaum once again, from the mountain where Jesus had commissioned the twelve. And immediately, it seems, the crowds learn of His arrival and come to where He is. In fact, Mark tells us that the enthusiasm to see Jesus is so great on the part of the multitudes, that Jesus and the disciples don’t even have time to eat. And I believe the text indicates that Jesus willingly engaged with the multitudes, by addressing their needs, having compassion on the lost sheep of Israel. He was about the Father’s business, even to the exclusion of taking care of His normal daily needs.

You will recall a similar event, when Jesus visited with the woman of Samaria, when the disciples had gone into town to get food, and finding Jesus talking with the woman when they returned, they were trying to get Him to eat, and were surprised to hear His response; “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And they said, “did someone give Him something to eat while we were gone?” And He replied, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

So in Jesus’s mind, to do the will of God was spiritual food which was more essential than physical food. And in this situation in Capernaum, it seems He is employing the same principle. There is no time even to eat for Jesus, because He is spiritually feeding and being fed in the business of establishing the Kingdom of God. 

Now I think you can understand the principle there, which applies to us as well. For we are to have the mind of Christ, to follow in His footsteps as He gave us an example. The business of the Kingdom of God takes priority over earthly desires and even bodily needs. And that principle was illustrated earlier in the discourse we looked at last week concerning fasting, which Jesus talked about in chapter 2, around vs20 or so. Fasting illustrates the priority of the spiritual over the needs of the physical. I won’t belabor that point, but I hope you will meditate on the truth of it for yourselves.

Vs.21 says though that when His own people heard of this, the fact of His unceasing work, not even eating a meal, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He has lost His senses.” Now I don’t know if they were using a colloquialism such as we might use today by saying, “you are out of your mind!” or if they were seriously thinking that He was going crazy. I’m leaning towards the latter, because Mark says they didn’t just say it, but they went to get Him and take custody of Him. In other words, they were going to do an intervention. And I’m sure that they were sincere in their concern for Him. But they were sincerely in error.

Furthermore, let’s elaborate on the phrase; “His own people.” This could have been friends from the past, perhaps relatives from the old neighborhood, that heard the things being reported about Jesus and thought this is crazy. We knew Him when He was a little boy. He always seemed a little different, but this has gone too far. He’s out of His mind!” So well intended, but misplaced concern on the part of somewhat condescending neighbors and friends.

But I think that the context of this chapter indicates that it was more than simply concerned friends from the old neighborhood. I think vs.31 indicates that it was probably His mother and His brothers. Now that raises some serious questions. First of all, it raises the question as to what the status of their spirituality was at that point. Mary, of course, is revered to the point of practically being worshipped in certain religions today. But Mary had to come to salvation, and she had to come to sanctification, just as everyone does. Mary was a person with weaknesses and sins just as every man and woman on the face of the earth. The Bible tells us that there is none righteous, no not even one. Not even Mary.

Furthermore, it means that she had other sons and daughters. In Matt. 13:55-56 we read the people of Caperanum asking, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” So not only do we that Jesus had brothers and sisters, but in John 7:5 we see that they did not believe that He was the Christ, the Son of God. John 7:5 “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.” As Mark indicates here in our text, they thought He was delusional. They thought He was acting irrationally. And somehow or another, it seems that they prevailed upon HIs mother to join with them in rescuing Jesus from this self destructive illusion He was suffering under. Now we will see Jesus’s answer to that in a moment.

But in the interim, Mark shows us another scene, presumably going on at that time, in which the scribes sent down from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus and His claims, come to the conclusion and even start broadcasting their claim that Jesus is possessed by the devil himself. Mark 3:22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

They see the marvelous things that He was doing, and moved to jealousy, they spew hateful lies, trying to undermine His ministry. In fact, their hatred moves them to do something blasphemous, to impugn the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and say that instead it is something demonic. In fact, they use a name for Satan which is Beelzebul, which is a variation of the “Lord of the Flies”, or “Lord of the dung heap.” They want to associate Christ with the lowest, vilest name for Satan that they know of, as if to vilify Christ even more.

Now this passage illustrates the second principle; that is the priority, or superiority, of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. Let’s start by considering Jesus’s response. First He asks the question, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” And He answers His own question with an illustration, or a simple parable. “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” So the parable is a house divided against itself, or a kingdom divided against itself. In both cases He is talking about the ruler of the house, or the ruler of the kingdom. We see that illustrated in the case of a husband and wife becoming divisive and argumentative, and then finally ending in divorce, don’t we? A house divided cannot stand. It is ruined.

So it is in the spiritual realm, or kingdom or house. If in Satan’s house is one who casts out Satan’s demons, then the ruin of that house is imminent. And so Jesus says in vs.26, “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!” So in other words, what you are accusing Me of is not reasonable.

Then He gives another illustration which shows the superiority of His gospel. They attributed a lie to His ministry, saying He had a demon. Now He shows them the truth of His ministry. And that is that He is vastly superior than Satan, and that is why He is able to cast out demons. Vs.27, “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.”

What He is saying is that Satan is the prince of this world, the prince of darkness. He has held captive in his realm the souls of men. They are held captive by sin and the whole world is in darkness because of it. So Jesus says that He could not free people from Satan’s dominion unless He first binds the strong man, that is Satan. He cannot take away Satan’s property unless He is stronger and overpowers Satan. So He frees men from demonic possession not by the power of Satan, but because His own power is superior. As Col 1:13 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

And in the next chapter of Colossians this transfer is explained further. Col 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” That’s speaking of His ascension and taking of His throne at the right hand of the Father. Christ broke Satan’s powerful hold on us by taking away our penalty of sin. At this point, Christ has not died for sins, but He is still able to free men from the dominion of Satan because of His sovereignty as the Son of God. And the lesser angels know that, and that is why they are submissive to Him.

But the Lord isn’t done with these scribes yet. He has refuted their accusation, He has explained His power, but now He will rebuke their blasphemy. He says in vs.28 “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”– because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Now this verse has given rise to a lot of questions concerning the unpardonable sin. And some have perhaps taught things which are not taught in this passage, with the result that it causes naive Christians undue concern. Note first of all the phrase, “all sins will be forgiven the sons of men and whatever blasphemes they utter.” Now that statement stands alone as truth. We see no evidence in scripture of a sin so vile that it cannot be forgiven. Peter denied Christ three times with cursing. David was guilty of adultery, lying and murder. Paul was guilty of persecuting Christians to death. And yet all were forgiven. Because the grace of God is greater than all our sins. If a man or woman repents, there is forgiveness. 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So let no one convince you that there is a sin too great for God to forgive, because that would limit the righteousness of Jesus Christ as insufficient. And that cannot be true. How then can you never find forgiveness for your sins? If you never turn to Him in repentance who has the power of forgiveness. If you continually harden your heart against the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and you die in your sins, then you will die unforgiven. So when you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit it is to deny His sanctifying work, and to trample it under foot and consider it worthless. Though the Spirit’s job is to convict you of sin, you deny you have sin. Though He convicts you of the need for salvation, you tell yourself that you do not need saving. And as such you die in your sins, unforgiven. That is the unpardonable sin. You deny the Lord as your Savior of whom the Spirit bears witness.

Mark adds that Jesus said this because they were saying that He had an unclean spirit. In other words, they were casting aspersions upon His family ties. He was not the Son of God, they said, but the son of the devil. And as such they denied themselves the possibility of salvation, because as the son of the devil He could not ever save. But as the Son of God He ever lives to give salvation to those who believe. Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Well, speaking of family, Mark turns our attention once again to His mother and brothers who have finally come to take Jesus home with them. And in this passage we see the final priority, that of the church over the family. As Jesus is in the home of presumably Simon Peter, His mother and His brothers arrive outside and send Him a message to come home with them. And as the crowd is sitting around Him, listening to His teaching, someone said, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.”

And Jesus’s answer is quite shocking. Answering them, He *said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He *said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

There is a natural assumption, is there not, that family comes first? I have seen very powerful men, whom you could not get an appointment with if you tried, drop everything, put an important business meeting on hold because they got a phone call from one of their children. This is natural. It is normal. But though it is a natural condition, it does not necessarily make it spiritual principle. In fact, in the case of the Jews we find that this family association worked against them in spiritual matters. You will remember that they relied upon their being descendants of their father Abraham for their salvation. They relied upon their material, physical inheritance as Israelites to supply their spiritual salvation. But as I argued at the beginning, the physical does not supply the spiritual, but the spiritual supplies the physical. It was the faith like that of Abraham that is able to save, not the physical relation to Abraham.

Jesus actually makes several references in His gospel to the physical relationship of family versus the spiritual relationship to God. For example, In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

Let me break that down for you very simply. This is not just some sort of hyperbole on the part of Jesus. This is a vital principle of the gospel. And this is it really simply; the family of God takes priority over the family of man. The church takes priority over the family. If you can explain Luke 14:26 any other way, then I would be glad to hear it. But I think it is clear what Jesus is saying. He says it another way in Matt. 10:37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” 

Listen folks, if we are not careful, we can make our family into an idol that comes before God. God demands that He be first. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ That’s the priority. Jesus has to have preeminence above every family tie, above every earthly relation, above every human responsibility.

That goes against our grain, doesn’t it? It goes against our nature. Against our wisdom. But the Bible speaks of a heavenly wisdom that supercedes that of the natural wisdom of man. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

I think we are all guilty of putting natural affections above spiritual affections. I could really dig into this, but I think we are all intelligent people here. I think we should be able to make the application where necessary.

But I would ask you to consider something important to this principle. Why do we go to church? Is it to just hear a preacher preach a message? You can do that online or on television. Is it just to fellowship with like minded people? You can do that in a bar or at a soccer game. Is it just to sing songs? You can do that by listening to the radio. I think that this question underscores one of the most misunderstood principles in the gospel. And that is the priority of church.

Let me try to explain it this way. Church is the submission of the physical to the spiritual. It is illustrated by the Sabbath rest, in which the physical acts of supplying your food, or work or physical needs ceased in order to establish the preeminence of your spiritual needs. So church is physically submitting your body to the spiritual body. It is an act of physical sacrifice and offering of yourself to God. And I think it is articulated in Romans 12:1,2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

When we physically present our bodies to the Lord’s body, to His church, then we give Him our spiritual service of worship. We are confessing when we come to church our spiritual dependency upon Him to supply every need. We are establishing the spiritual priority over the needs or desires of the physical. We are putting action to our faith, in which the demands of this life are subjected to the priority of the life of God. And if we love God, then as we learned in 1 John, we will keep His commandments, to love His body, to love one another, and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Notice that is what Jesus concludes this principle about family with; a lesson on the necessity of obedience. It was not the physical relationships that constituted family, but the spiritual relationship to God. And if you are a member of His family, then you will obey Him. “For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Listen, Jesus said there will be many people, let me repeat that, many people, that will say unto Him “Lord, Lord!” And yet He will say to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” If we call Him Lord, then we must do the things which He says.

Though we are not saved on the basis of our works, we are known as belonging to His family by our works. We do as He did. We do the Father’s will. And so the sons of God look like, and act like the Father.

You will remember that when Jesus was a young boy, about 12, and His family went to Jerusalem, later on when they had started to return home they discovered that He was not with the caravan. And so His mother and father looked all over Jerusalem for Him and finally found Him in the temple. And His parents asked Him why did you do this to us? Why did you cause us this concern? And remember His answer? “Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?” Jesus showed by His actions the priority of HIs spiritual family through His attendance to the things of God.

And I’ll give you one more example of that as we draw this to a close. Jesus on the cross was attended to by His mother and the disciple John. And you will remember that Jesus before He died looked at His mother and said, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He *said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Now we have already seen that Mary had other sons and daughters. What was the point of this exchange then? The point was to show the priority of the spiritual relationship over the physical relationship. Mary and John were related by faith, which was a greater relationship than what she had with her sons, who were as yet unbelieving. And so it is with our faith. Our faith has resulted in becoming a new creation; old things are passed away, and all things become new. And so there are no priorities in our lives. The priority of the spiritual above the physical. The priority of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness. And the priority of the church over human familial relationships.

God wants all of you, and He wants to make all things subjected to Jesus Christ. There can be no idols competing with the Lord in your life. “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Let us examine our priorities today. And put the Lord in first place not only in word, but in deed.

When US presidents leave office, it is very common today to hear news commentators remark about what that president’s legacy will be. And the presidents themselves seem to be very concerned about it. So they go out of their way to enact certain legislation or reforms or do certain things in order to establish a legacy that will be viewed favorably by future generations. Before the engines have cooled on Air Force One, they usually have written a book or two, a biography and spent millions preparing their library.

In contrast to the self aggrandizing actions by the most powerful people in our country, it might seem strange to us today to consider that Jesus Christ, the greatest figure in human history, had nothing tangible to leave to the world as His monument. He wrote no books, He never built a church building, never founded a university nor did he build a hospital. What He left was simply a band of twelve ordinary men, called apostles, in whom He had invested the greater part of his time, and a few hundred followers called disciples. His legacy was His ministry to others and the transforming effect that He had upon their lives.

We live in an age when it seems, as Andy Warhol prophesied, that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame. Most people perceive being popular as the greatest achievement. And popular opinion pursues one new trend after another, discarding each fad or personality as easily as they are attracted to the next. People today become millionaires based on their popularity. But popularity is fickle and fleeting at best. Public opinion changes horses in the middle of the race as a matter of course. It’s a transitory thing to pursue popularity, whether in the realm of human endeavor, or in the realm of the church.

Though at times Jesus was immensely popular, yet He never sought popularity. In the three short years of Jesus’s ministry, we see Him rise out of obscurity to the very height of popularity, so that it was impossible for Him to be seen in public without creating a disturbance. But Jesus did not seek such popularity, nor did He exploit it or try to use it for His advantage. In fact, when the crowds got too large, too clamoring, Jesus often disappeared into the wilderness or to a mountain to be alone. Usually in those situations, He chose a few faithful followers to be with Him, and that is where He taught them more intimately of His truth.

That seems to be the case in this next section we are looking at. After the healing in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus withdrew to the seashore. And while at the seashore, word gets out that He is there, and so the crowds come from all the regions not only around Galilee, but also Judea, Idumea, even Tyre and Sidon. And remember, this was long before modern methods of news reporting, or social media. The fame of Christ had to be great for news to travel so far and so fast.

Of course, one of the main reasons for this popularity was that people were being healed of every kind of disease. In contrast to the so called faith healers of today, these healings were verified by so many witnesses that the news of them spread like wildfire to the thousands of people who were sick or suffering who were living in a time before modern medicine, when even most common illnesses could be deadly. It was obviously great news. And so thousands of people were flocking to where ever the last place they heard Jesus was.

Mark says that so many were coming to Him that they were in danger of crushing one another. They were like the mob scenes at perhaps some big venue, where people start pushing and struggling trying to touch someone, who in this case is Christ. They wanted to touch Him so that they might be healed. So Jesus asked for a boat to be ready, so that they could avoid being crushed, and perhaps help others not to get hurt by the thousands who were trying to reach Him.

It’s obvious that most of these people were attracted to Christ because of His miraculous works. Not necessarily because they appreciated His message. And there is a lesson in that for us today. The idea that we need to create a spectacle at church in order to attract a crowd is not consistent with the example Jesus and the Apostles gave us in ministry. Jesus never orchestrated events in order to get a huge crowd. In fact, we see that crowds often hindered the ministry. And we also see that those who came for the bread and fish, or to see some miracle, were not usually the ones to stay with Him in the long run.

Though Jesus preached to crowds, and though He worked miracles in some of those situations because of His compassion, yet the most effective method He employed in ministry was to make disciples by intimate, daily fellowship with a small band of followers.. And that was usually accomplished most efficiently when He drew them apart from the crowds and spent time with them.

There is one other aspect to His public ministry though that bears consideration. And that we see in vs. 11, 12. “Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.” Now that bears some explanation. First of all, it seems that there were a lot more cases of unclean spirits, or demon possession or influence in Jesus’s day than there appears to be in ours. I would say though it may appear that way, that may not actually be the case. I think the difference is that spirits recognize spirits. You and I can not always recognize an unclean spirit. But Jesus could recognize it immediately. And of course, the unclean spirit could recognize Jesus immediately. So once they knew that He recognized them, they called out in some sort of defense, hoping that they would not be cast out of their human host. Jesus though always had more compassion on the person than upon the demon. In chapter 5 we will be looking at the demoniac who lived in the tombs. And you may remember that the demons in this man did not want to be cast out without a host body and so they asked to be cast into the pigs. And Jesus accommodated them, and the pigs ran into the sea and committed suicide. Demons don’t want to be recognized, and they don’t want to be without a host. They actually prefer to work in secret rather than in the open.

But Jesus recognized them, and they recognized Jesus. So Jesus told them not to announce who He was. Why? Because Jesus doesn’t want the testimony of demons. Jesus didn’t want demon testimony to be the proclamation of who He was. And neither did He need their testimony. Jesus wants His representatives to be the apostles and HIs disciples to bear witness of Him. it is our job, not the job of demons, to proclaim the truth of Christ.

But let me be quick to add that though we may not recognize them, there are still demons working in the world today. There number and activity is not diminished. In fact, the Bible tells us that at the end of the age, the devil knowing that he has but a little time left, will redouble his efforts and activities. And so we can expect more demonic activity as time goes on, not less. In fact, Ephesians 6:12 tells us [that] “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” It’s hard for us to comprehend, but our struggle is not with your wife, or your husband, or your mother in law or neighbor, but it’s demonic forces that are working in the sons and daughters of disobedience. Those that are still held in the dominion of darkness are unwitting pawns in the devil’s schemes. And we need to remember that it’s not the person that we see that is the enemy, but the demonic force working through that person. The problem is that we don’t recognize it as demonic. We just see someone in the flesh acting like a jerk, or being nasty towards us, and so we want to retaliate in the flesh. And that’s exactly what the devil wants us to do. So we need to be wise to his schemes and learn to recognize the enemy.

I’ll tell you something else. The greatest evidence of sin’s dominion in Jesus day was the number of people controlled by unclean spirits. When we read the gospels we can’t help but be struck by the vast number of people under the influence of unclean spirits. And I would say that the greatest evidence of sin’s dominion in our day is rampant sexual immorality and drug use. We don’t see the unclean spirits exposing themselves usually in those cases. But the Bible teaches us that such sins are evidence of demonic control. In the final days prophesied in Revelation 19, the scripture talks about people who worship demons and the sins which characterize them, and how though God uses plagues to try to get them to repent, they will not repent of their sins because they love them so much. Rev. 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” So two of the defining sins are sorceries and immoralities. The Greek word for sorceries is pharmakeia, which means the use or administering of drugs. Sex and drugs are two of the most endemic sins we have in our culture today. And yet the way the culture is trying to deal with them is to say that they aren’t sin. Legalize them. But from our perspective, we know that only the truth will set you free. We know the truth, but we need to tell it to them. And perhaps if we understand the true nature of their sin we might approach them a little differently.

Well, as I said, Jesus retired from the seaside to the mountains to get away from the crowds, and to spend time alone with His disciples. Jesus often did this. And Luke 6:12 tells us that He spent the night in prayer. Jesus often did that as well. You know, Jesus, probably more so than any other person that’s ever lived, didn’t need to spend time in prayer. I think He was in perpetual communication with the Father. But yet He spends the entire night in prayer on many occasions. In spite of how busy He was, how tired He was, in spite of the fact He only had 3 years to get the job done that He came to do, He spends much time alone in prayer to God. Makes you think doesn’t it? It should make you consider how many nights have you spent in prayer? Are we more spiritual than Jesus, that we don’t need to spend time in prayer?

I was reading Daniel the other night, and I was struck by Daniel saying that he spent 3 weeks fasting and in prayer. Three weeks fasting? I don’t think he was talking about not having ice cream for three weeks either. Daniel 10:2-3 “In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.” There you go, try that fast. Especially the ointment part. Try no deodorant for three weeks. That will get you noticed.

Look, I don’t want to make light of Daniel’s prayer. By the way, have you heard of the Daniel Plan? It’s a meal program popular in Christian bookstores today which is marketed for Christians who want to lose weight. I’m not so sure about it’s validity though. However, this is the real Daniel Plan. Fast for 21 days, pray in sackcloth and ashes for 3 weeks. It will do wonders for your spiritual fitness. And Daniel got results, didn’t he? He heard from God in a spectacular way.

Well, let’s get back to our text. Notice that first Jesus called those that He wanted. And then that they came to Him when He called. (vs.13) Listen, I believe in the election of God. I believe in the foreknowledge of God. But I confess I do not understand how they work to my satisfaction. Nevertheless I believe in them. I don’t have to understand it to believe it. I don’t understand how my cell phone can receive video and pictures through the airwaves either. But I don’t have to understand it to use it. But I do know that God calls people to Himself. Jesus said in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” So there is an effectual call of God which is the origin of our salvation. Nevertheless, though we don’t understand how God calls, we know that we have been given the responsibility to come to Him when He calls. And so the disciples came to Him. Jesus issues the call to come away from the world unto Him. I pray that you come.

So Jesus called them away because He wanted them to be with Him, to walk with Him, to live with Him. It’s clear from this that communion with Christ was the primary reason for the call of the disciples. Communion means fellowship. Personal intimacy or spiritual communion with Christ is the best of teachers. And it’s by this fellowship that Christ leaves the stamp of His own image upon us. That is the goal of our fellowship; that we begin to take on the characteristics of our teacher.

Have you ever noticed how older married couples start to look alike the longer they are married? They certainly begin to think alike. They begin to take on one another’s characteristics. That’s the goal of our salvation, that we have fellowship with God, and start to take on His character and nature. That’s important to understand. Because if we are going to have an effective spiritual ministry, then it has to be patterned after the way God does ministry. And we see that in the way Jesus did ministry. When Jesus taught that we are to turn the other cheek when attacked, that is the characteristic of God. When He said if someone asks for you to go a mile with them, you should go two miles; that’s a characteristic of God. That’s the way we are supposed to treat those who are in opposition to the gospel. When Jesus told Peter to forgive someone 70 times 7 times, that’s the character of God, the way God forgives us. But we say, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” But that’s not God’s way. He says the kindness of God brings you to repentance. He says God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust (rain being considered a blessing). So we need to have fellowship with God; talk with God, listen to God through His word, and walk with Him in obedience that we might have fellowship with Him and become like Him. Then we can have an effective ministry.

Secondly, He called them to preach the gospel. To preach means to proclaim His word. For three years He gave them His word, the truth, the gospel of God. And they in turn were to preach it to the world. I started off by saying that Jesus did not write a book. But what He did was write His word upon these men’s hearts. They became living testaments to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And they in turn wrote down His words so that they are still preaching to us today through the scriptures. They did not follow cleverly devised tales, Peter said, but they were eyewitnesses of His majesty. Listen, not all of us are called to be pastors. But all of us are called to be proclaimers. Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples. That’s everyone’s commission. To proclaim God’s truth to the world.

Thirdly, He gave them authority to cast out demons. Once again we see the enemy of the faith identified and exposed by the ambassadors of the gospel. As Christ had authority over demons, so He gave them authority as well. 1John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And I think He must have given them the ability to identify such evil spirits, if they had the authority to cast them out.

I think today we need to approach the aspect of casting out demons very carefully and prayerfully. I don’t think it’s something we should approach cavalierly. Jude says in vs 8-10 “Yet in the same way these men(certain ungodly persons in the church), also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.” Though Jude’s warning may be difficult to understand, we can be sure he is emphasizing caution in the matter of reviling angelic, or demonic forces which are greater in might and power than we can comprehend.

But though I may not have the authority to cast out demons by my word, I do believe we can participate in destroying the works of the devil. And we do so by preaching the truth. The truth trumps a lie every time. Satan goes about deceiving the world and holds it captive through his lie. We preach the truth and the gospel of salvation sets men and women free from the trap of the devil. Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. When we free people from death through salvation, we defeat the works of the devil, by freeing them from the fear of death to which they were enslaved.

Well, let’s look finally and briefly at the men that Jesus called to be His apostles. First of all, they were men. Jesus had 12 chances to pick a woman to be an apostle. I’m sure there were a lot of good women that were His followers. In fact the scriptures tell us that many women supported His ministry. But Jesus chose all men.

The late S. Louis Johnson said, and I quote; “To say that He did so for cultural reasons, namely that women apostles would have had no acceptance by that culture, is a gratuitous assumption. Our Lord does not accommodate truth to human culture that rests under sin. God has committed the responsibility of the ministry of the word of God to Spirit appointed men.”

Now we find that principle enumerated in the gospel’s repeatedly. But I think one passage will suffice for today. 1Timothy 2:11-14 “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”

So regardless of what the culture may say, regardless of what the law of the land might say, this is what God had to say. It’s not what Roy Harrell had to say. It’s what the Bible says. If you don’t like it, tear it out that page and throw it away. But don’t stop there. There is a lot of other offensive stuff in there as well. No, I think we obey God even when we don’t understand it. Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger boy.

But I will try to explain something. The reason Paul inserts that bit about Eve being deceived is not just to further denigrate women. What he is alluding to, was Eve was deceived, but Adam fell with both eyes wide open. And the reason Adam fell was because He loved Eve more than God. So for the protection of the human race, God has not given authority to women in the church because man would more likely prefer to please them rather than God. So God gave the responsibility of authority in the church to man. It’s a matter of divine appointed roles, rather than a matter of equality or intellect.

You know, it’s God’s gospel, it’s God’s church. He has the right to choose HIs methods for building His church. We don’t get to vote on it. We don’t have to understand it, just believe He is good, and that He is just, and that He knows what He is doing.

Then as you look specifically at these 12 men, there are a lot of things that can be noted. John McArthur wrote an entire book about the 12. I have about five minutes left. There is much more that I could say than what I will say. But let me say first why there is 12. Twelve patriarchs were the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. And in Christ’s new covenant there are twelve apostles as the foundation of the church, according to Ephesians 2:20.

Four of the apostles were fishermen that we know of. They were business partners in fishing; Peter, Andrew, James and John. Peter and Andrew were brothers, and James and John were brothers. James was the first martyr among the apostles, John was the only one of the 12 who did not die a martyr’s death.

All were Galileans except for Judas who was from Judea. That means all were uneducated, more like working class men except for Judas who was from a wealthier, more educated area. One was a former tax collector, one was a former Zealot who hated tax collectors. There were none of royal blood. None of them were priests or scribes or professional religionists of any sort. There were no rock stars, no former football players. They were just a diverse group of average sort of ordinary guys without any sort of professional experience in becoming world changers. Yet they would turn the world upside down. And one other side note; they were probably all in their 20’s. John might even have been a teenager. Jesus Himself was only 31 years old. It was a youth movement. And as I said, all of them would die a martyr’s death except for John.

I am reminded of 1Cor. 1:26-29 which says, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

I could say a lot more about the disciples, but perhaps we will hit on a few more things in upcoming messages. But what I would like to leave with you is that Christ took these ordinary, average young men, without any seminary training, without pedigree, without any special abilities, and He transformed them in three years into champions of the faith. Hero’s of the faith in every sense of the word. We talked last week about the need for heroes in the church today. God wants to make you into a champion of the gospel. In fact, I know that He wants to do just that. It starts with the call of God upon your life to come to Him and have fellowship with Him. To walk with Him in obedience on a daily basis. To leave behind the agenda of this world for the sake of knowing Him better. If you will do that, if you are willing to do that, then God will do the rest. As you spend time with Him, as you draw close to Him, He will draw close to you and teach you and lead you in the way that you should go. And in the process you will begin to take on the characteristics of Jesus Christ. So that as you are sent by Him to proclaim His gospel, you will bear testimony to Him. May He write His word upon your heart that you might bear the image of Jesus Christ to the world.

The nature of the gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the character and nature of Jesus. Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature. Hebrews 1:3 says, “[Jesus] is the radiance of His glory (speaking of God) and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”

The good news then, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that He has manifested God’s nature to us, and being God in the flesh, has become our propitiation through His sacrifice, in order to reconcile us to God.

Now we could spend a month of Sunday’s talking about the nature of God and showing from scripture all the various aspects of His character. But what I would like to do today is just use this passage before us to examine certain aspects of God’s nature which Jesus manifests through this event. It is probably a more traditional approach of theologians and preachers to expound on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees or to show the various aspects of the law of the Sabbath. But I think that most of you are familiar enough with those themes. We all know that the scribes and Pharisees were scoundrels of the worst sort. Most of us know we are no longer under the ceremonial law but under grace. And perhaps it’s helpful from time to time to review those things. But I think today instead I would like to focus on Jesus. And we can never get enough review of considering Jesus. We should never get enough of Christ. We can never spend enough time contemplating God’s nature.

It’s important though that in this pursuit of learning about God, we go to the right source. There was a hit song I used to hear occasionally a few years ago which had the phrase that has stuck with me over the years. It said “tell me all your thoughts on God cause I’d really like to meet her.” Well, the songwriter’s going to get his chance someday. And the first thing that he’s going to learn is that God is not a she. But beyond that, it is important that our theology is not framed by our prejudices. As if God is a compendium of our thoughts and ideas derived from man’s intelligence or a figment of his imagination. No, God must be, and is self declaring. Otherwise, we could not know God. And He has declared Himself in His word, and in the manifestation of Christ Jesus.

So let’s look at this passage in it’s context, and notice not only the historical events recorded here, and learn the spiritual significance of these events, but let’s also learn about God by examining the nature of Jesus Christ.

In context, it’s important to notice that the opening scene of chapter 3 is tied back to the closing scene of chapter 2. In that scene, the disciples are walking through the grainfields and eating the grain off the stalks as they walk. it was a practice called gleaning, which the law provided for in order to feed the hungry and impoverished. A farmer was to leave a certain remnant of his crop in the field so that poor people could eat. There were no government charity programs in those days to help people in need. So God, as the Sovereign of Israel, provided for the poor through gleaning.

But if you will recall, the Pharisees questioned Jesus why the disciples were breaking the law of the Sabbath. And Jesus gives them an illustration of David eating the showbread, which was reserved for the priests only, in order to sustain him and his men in their extreme hunger. But the illustration was explained when He gave this doctrine, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Now that is a tremendous principle that teaches us a lot about the law, but also a lot about the nature of the Lord God.

And then Jesus added another even more explosive statement, saying, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In other words, He is saying, someone greater than David is here. “I made the Sabbath, and so I have authority over the Sabbath to use it for My purposes or even to change it as I see fit.”

Now as chapter 3 opens, we come to another Sabbath, and another incident involving the Pharisees, and yet another illustration of Christ’s sovereignty over the Sabbath. But even more significantly, we see the Lord put an even greater emphasis on the purpose of the Sabbath.

So the first thing we notice is that though Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and has the authority over it to do as He wills, yet on the morning of the Sabbath He is doing what all good Jews were doing; He is at church. There was no law that said you had to go to synagogue on the Sabbath. The law was that you were not to work. Sabbath in Hebrew means to cease, to desist. It was to be a day of rest. And furthermore, Exodus 20 says that it should be kept as holy. Holy means set apart, consecrated to the Lord. So in that respect, there is no better place to make that day holy than to be in the midst of His congregation worshipping God and learning of God.

And Jesus, though He is Lord of the Sabbath does not excuse Himself from keeping that requirement because as God He rested on the Sabbath and established it as a day of rest. Though He was God the Son, He loved God the Father and wanted to fellowship with Him and with His people. And I believe He wanted to bring them into that rest that the Sabbath promised was to come.

Now in the new covenant, we are free from the law of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was on Saturday, and we observe Sunday as a celebration of the Lord’s Day, or the resurrection. But Hebrews 4: 9 says “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Though it is not the Saturday Sabbath under the Law, there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God in the new covenant.

That rest is found in Jesus Christ. Listen to Hebrews 4 again, in vs.3, “For we who have believed enter that rest.” Then in vs 6 the author says those Israelites failed to enter into that rest because of disobedience. But in vs 7, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” And in vs 10, “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” So we enter into the Sabbath rest of God through faith in Christ, and not through our works.

So what can we learn about the nature of God from Jesus attending church on the Sabbath? First, God has not made His law to be a burden to us, or to give Him some sort of pleasure at our fawning over Him. Rather, God has made the Sabbath for man. When you honor God on the Sabbath, who got the benefit? Man got the benefit. Man was blessed. Man was rested. Man had fellowship with the Lord. And that benefit to man is woven throughout the law, throughout the scripture. God wants what is best for us, and His laws are not burdensome. Someone said that the law is not a fence to restrict us, but guardrails to keep us safe.

I read a quote by the atheist Richard Dawkins the other day, who said, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.” He then proceeded to back up that assertion by calling God all kinds of unpleasant names. But for all of Dawkins purported intelligence, he is ignorant about God. God is not vindictive. God does not want to make life difficult or unbearable. But rather God loves us and wants to bless us. However that love of God must be without compromising the other aspects of His nature. And He does that through Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die in our place, so that whosoever believes in Him should have eternal life. Jesus was punished for our iniquity, that we might go free, and might even become the sons of God and share in His glory.

The problem with Dawkins and others like him, is the same the problem of the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus day, which is that they don’t want what they want called sin. They want to be like god and declare what is good and what isn’t. But they do so out of ignorance, unable to discern what is ultimately good or evil.

So true to God’s nature, on a Sabbath morning Jesus is at church. Luke indicates that He was teaching at the synagogue. But Mark tells us that the scene is set for the Pharisees to try to trap Jesus and find something with which to accuse Him. Now this is purely conjecture on my part, but I think there is a possibility that this man with the withered hand was set up by the Pharisees, knowing that Jesus would be there, in order to get Him to heal on the Sabbath and be able to find fault with Him. We know the Pharisees were not above such things, as another time they brought a woman caught in adultery before Christ to try to entrap Him. Furthermore, the way the texts say that the Pharisees were watching closely to see if He would heal him, indicates a prior scheme on their part to set up an incident whereby they might trap Him.

But regardless how or why the man with the withered hand is there, the fact is that he was there, and Jesus knew he was there. I find in this another principle about God’s nature. He knows our needs. Jesus said God knows our needs before we even ask Him. He knows the numbers of the hairs on our head. Jesus said He knows when the birds of the air fall, so how much more does the Father concern Himself with us?

Psalms 139:17-18 says “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” God is concerned with our needs. And so we see that Jesus knew this man with the withered hand was there. He knew his need to be healed. He knew that this man would have been unable to work, to provide for his family. So Jesus speaks to the man and says “Get up and come forward.”

You know, Jesus could have put off this man’s healing until the next day. Actually, He could have told him to come back after sundown and healed him then without fear of reprisal by the Pharisees. But Jesus doesn’t back down from conflict. He wants to use this incident to teach a life giving principle, even if it means that He has to take the heat for it.

And I like that attribute of God’s nature as well. That He is willing to sacrifice Himself for our sakes. That’s our definition of a hero, isn’t it? Someone on a battlefield, or responding to an emergency, that risks his life to save another. That’s the kind of nature of our God. Jesus is willing to put Himself at risk so that this man might be made free from his sickness, and by that we might know the love of God for us.

In vs.4, after the man came forward, Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. This question is so simple that even a child could answer it. Of course it is always lawful to do good, and never lawful to do evil. Regardless of what day it is. Much more if the Sabbath is to bring rest, to be holy, then you should do good. But anyone could have known that is always wrong to do evil. But the Pharisees don’t care about distinguishing between good or evil. They already have planned evil in their hearts. So they keep silent, hoping that He does something so that they can accuse Him of sin. They have purposed to do evil, but Jesus has purposed to do good.

We see much here of the nature of God, who desires to benefit man, who desires to heal, who desires restoration of man, but now we see the nature of the Pharisees. They have hardened their heart so much towards God that they hate Jesus and all He stands for. They don’t want to see one of their sacred cows done away with. And not only do they hate Jesus, but by their silence and their scheming to trap Jesus they show their lack of sympathy for the handicapped man.

There is a principle found in Romans 12:21 which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This principle is founded on the nature of God. His response to evil is to overcome it with good. Man’s wisdom says to retaliate, to take vengeance. But that is not God’s approach. He causes it to rain on the just and the unjust. We are to follow Christ’s example, of overcoming evil with good. Leave vengeance and retribution to the provenance of God.

We see another attribute of God’s nature in Jesus’s response. In vs. 5, “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.” The word Mark uses for angry there literally means wrath. There are a lot of people that don’t find the Old Testament God appealing, because they seem Him as a God of wrath. But they think Jesus is not wrathful, but rather loving. Here though we see the wrath of God displayed in Jesus. There are other times we see this anger or wrath displayed. For instance, when Jesus cleansed the temple, kicking over the tables of the money changers, and driving out the merchants with a whip. That was the wrath of God displayed.

But I want to point out the focus of that anger. It was at sin. It was at the hateful sin on the part of the Pharisees that hated Him so much they were willing to do anything, even use a person’s handicap for their advantage. Their utter disregard for the pain and suffering of someone else was a just cause for God’s anger. God is justifiably angry at those that mistreat, those that take advantage, those that hurt the weak and helpless. 

Listen, we want a just God when He deals with others, don’t we? We just don’t like His justice when it is directed at us. But when catastrophes or natural disasters happen, don’t we hear people cry out “Why did God allow this to happen?” When it suits our sense of rightness we want God to be just. But when His justice demands something from us, then we call foul.

The fact is though, that James 2:13 says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” God may have wrath towards sin, but He has mercy towards the sinner. Psalm 30:5, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” The wrath of God towards sin is mitigated by His mercy towards man.

And we see a sense of that in Mark’s report here in vs 5, “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…” Though He had wrath at their hardness of heart, yet He was grieved by their sin. Seeing the hardness of their hearts, the intractability of their sin caused Him grief. It caused Him pain. Here is the nature of God, though their sins be as horrible and cruel as man can imagine, yet God is willing to forgive them if they would only repent. 2Peter 3:9 says “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” When their hardness of hearts nailed Him to the cross, Jesus prayed for their forgiveness, saying that they know not what they do. Jesus grieves at the hardness of their heart.

You know, one of the most dangerous things you can do is misinterpret the patience of God for the permissiveness of God. God is long suffering, He is patient. Romans 2:4 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” But there came a day when God’s patience ran out on the Pharisees. In one generation, 35 years, their entire way of life, the Judaic system, the temple, the ceremonies, Jerusalem, everything Jewish was destroyed. God was patient, yet they hardened their heart. God is grieved today with the hardness of our hearts, that persist in rebellion, that stiffens the resolve to continue in sin in the face of God’s conviction, knowing that you are heaping coals of fire upon your head. God wants to forgive you, if you will only turn to Him in repentance.

Well, the Pharisees showed their rebellion against God, but the withered man showed his obedience. It was impossible for a withered hand to be stretched out. This man had a withered hand. We don’t know why. But we know that it means his muscles had atrophied, perhaps due to paralysis or an accident, and his hand had shriveled up and drawn up. But Jesus demands that he stretch it out. And by the strength of God, he obeys and he is able to do it.

This illustrates another attribute of God’s nature, and that is His provision. There is a little saying that you see from time to time that says, “where God guides He provides.” It’s not in the Bible, by the way. But it is an attempt to say that if God asks us to do something, He will provide the resources to do it. We see that illustrated here in a command of Christ to stretch forth his hand. It was impossible for this man to do that. His weakness prohibited him from stretching it out. But by his willingness to obey, God gave him the ability to stretch it out and he was healed. We saw the same illustration in the paralyzed man in the last chapter. He is paralyzed, and yet Jesus says to stand up and walk. Impossible for him, and yet by believing in Christ and being willing to obey, God gives Him the strength to obey.

God provides all that we need for salvation and a life of sanctification when we believe in Him. He gives us new desires, a new heart, and then a willing spirit. In Ezekiel 36: 26 we read the about this purpose and provision of God; “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” This passage teaches the great doctrine of God’s provision for our salvation, by changing our hearts so that we have new desires, and then giving us His Spirit to be our strength, so that we might do His commandments. So many people have the wrong view of the Holy Spirit’s purpose. He is the source of our strength to do the things that God has called us to do. The provision of God gives us the desire and capability to be what God wants us to be.

Well, the Lord gave this man the ability to obey, the ability to stretch out this withered, atrophied hand. Let me add something else about that. Our nature is to be a reflection of God’s nature, is it not? If we have the Spirit of God in us, then we are to mirror Christ, so that we are a reflection of Jesus to the world. But we need to understand that when we see someone caught up in the snare of the world, their lives destroyed or atrophied because of sin, their spirit is withered from despair, it is heartless on our part to ask them to do something that they are incapable of doing. We need to realize that they need a spiritual rebirth, they need to have their eyes opened, for the lame to be made able to walk, for the withered to be able to stretch out, and that has to be a supernatural act of God to heal them. It does no good to tell a sinner caught up in some destructive sin to get right, or get sober, or go straight, if they have not had the infilling of the Holy Spirit to give them the strength to do so.

So as the ambassadors of the gospel, as representatives of Christ, when we call someone to obedience in Christ, we should also do what we can to provide what is necessary for them to respond with the same sense of provision that God has for us. As James 2:15-16 says, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” God uses His people to provide His provision.
And let me add that it is the prerogative of God to judge, not us. Now when the Bible says do not judge, it doesn’t mean we are not to judge between right and wrong, or deduce that a person is being destroyed by sin, or that a person needs to get right with God. There are plenty of places that tell us to judge with a righteous judgment in scripture, to rebuke, reprove, exhort with all long suffering and patience those that are caught up in sin. We judge such things according to righteous judgment. But when the Bible tells us not to judge it’s saying not to cast judgment as in a penalty. I see Christians routinely call for some sort of judgment upon a person as if to wish that they endure some punishment in order for them to “hit rock bottom” or something like that. Their motives may be that they want to see the person get right, but our job is not to condemn. Our job is never to be vindictive. We are never to cast the first stone.

God is the one who condemns and judges and punishes. Our job is to forgive, to implore, to compel them to come back to the Lord. To execute the verse we quoted earlier, “the kindness of God leads us to repentance.” As David said, if the Lord counted our iniquities against us, then who could stand? If God shut off our oxygen supply every time we lost our temper, some of us would have suffocated a long time ago. If God shut down our heart every time we lusted after something or someone, most of us would be in cardiac arrest. God gives us life and breath and health and money and mercy again and again, knowing that as soon as He does, we will forget about Him again and run off to serve ourselves. He is long suffering towards us, He is patient towards us, how much then should we be patient and long suffering towards those that are down and out.

Well we need to draw this curtain to a close. We see that Jesus exhibited wrath, but it was a righteous wrath, the wrath of God towards sin that leads to destruction. But now we see the Pharisees in wrath that is sinful. Ephesians 4:26-27 says “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” We see here the Pharisees going against that doctrine. Their anger is sinful because it is out of jealousy and hate for Jesus. It is doubly sinful because it continues for days as they plot how to destroy Jesus. You better watch out for hate, folks. Hate is a cancer that matastacises in you. It will lead to death. In fact, in the sermon on the mount Jesus equated hate with murder and said it’s the same thing. Hate will destroy you first and foremost. God forgives our most heinous crimes against Him. So must we forgive others for their trespasses against us.

So the Pharisees and the Herodians begin to plot together how to destroy Jesus. They have given the devil an opportunity, and that hatred towards God’s Son will end up destroying all that these people held dear. Both of these groups were political in nature, in that they had power and prestige from their party. And that is kind of what they were; one a religious party, the Pharisees, and the Herodians a political party. But like the old adage which says “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” these two former enemies make an alliance against Christ.

But they offer us a contrast to the character and nature of God that we can learn from. Where the Pharisees and Herodians were conniving for the Lord’s destruction, Christ is planning on HIs atonement for their sins. Whereas the Pharisees were willing to burden men with laws in order to further their own benefit, Christ came to free men from the law in order to benefit us. Whereas the Pharisees were hateful towards Christ, the Lord was loving and gracious to those in need. Whereas the Pharisees were enslaved to the Sabbath, the Lord made the Sabbath that we might have rest.

Today in closing, I hope that if anyone here has not entered that rest, they would simply believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He has paid the penalty for your sin, and for those who believe in Him He has provided new life and a new spirit that we might be able to walk in that newness of life. That we might have abundant life. Listen, the Pharisees thought they weren’t sick and so they weren’t healed. But the man with the withered hand knew that he was sick, and so Jesus healed him. If you know that you are a sinner today, then that’s a good place to be. Jesus came to save sinners. Simply believe on Him today and receive forgiveness and a new life in Christ. And for those that have believed in Him, and have received the new life in Christ, let us also put on the mind of Christ, reflecting the same nature and attributes as He reflected of the Father.

Phil. 2:3-5, 15 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, … so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”

The Bible has a lot to say about food and eating. Some of you are very appreciative of that fact. My wife thinks that food is next to godliness. You’ve heard the phrase, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?” Well, my wife thinks it should be “the way to God is through a man’s stomach.” She loves food and loves to cook. Her solution to all of life’s problems is to make a cake. When we were first married, she hadn’t been a Christian long. And so she was very disappointed to learn that in heaven there is no marriage. But the longer we have been married, the more she has come to appreciate that fact. However, she cheered up considerably when she discovered that the marriage supper of the Lamb is going to last 1000 years.

I’m just kidding, of course. But my wife does think that food plays an integral part in Christian fellowship. And I have to admit that she might be on to something. Jesus seemed to place a great deal of emphasis on food as well. His first miracle was done at a wedding feast, turning the water into wine. You will remember He fed the 5000 and then another time 3000 some bread and fish. He conducted the last supper. After His resurrection, He prepared fish and bread for his disciples for breakfast. He declared that His words were the manna or bread which had come down out of heaven. And there are many more examples of Jesus’s use of food or meals as an opportunity to minister or teach.

Today as well we are looking at three incidents concerning food that Jesus used to teach gospel doctrines. So in keeping with that theme, I have titled today’s message “The gospel in three courses.” I hope to use, as Jesus did, these three incidences concerning food to teach some important biblical principles.

The first incident is that of a dinner party held at a new disciple’s house. Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, was also called Levi before he was converted. Levi was a tax collector, or as some of your versions might read, a publican. These guys were some of the most hated people in Israel. In the case of a guy like Levi, who was obviously a Jew, he was considered a traitor to his country. And the reason was that tax collectors worked as agents for Rome, who bid for a territory, promising Rome a certain degree of taxes, and then adding their generous commissions on top of that by Rome’s permission. So they were generally very wealthy people, but hated by the Jewish population.

It’s interesting that in the previous study last week, we see Jesus healing, even touching the untouchable. A leper was considered so unclean that you would walk across the street to avoid them. And now in this passage, once again Jesus reaches out to someone that in Jewish culture was considered abhorrent.

Now the scene starts with Jesus teaching by the seashore. Today of course, we are teaching by the seashore. And we do it for the same reasons that Jesus did it. Not to be cool, or novel, but first of all out of necessity. We have no other place, no other building that we can use. And secondly, we do it because we want to reach people where they are with the gospel. I would love to have a building someday here in Bethany Beach that we can hold services in, but I am sure that we reach people on the beach that we will never reach inside.

And that’s the case with Jesus’s ministry. Matthew had his tax office near the seashore in Capernaum. Matthew must have heard enough of Jesus’s message that he became under conviction. And as Jesus passed by after the message, He said to Matthew, “Follow Me.” And the scripture says simply that Matthew got up and followed Him. In Luke’s gospel account of the same incident, Luke says that Matthew left all, and followed Him. He walked away from his lucrative business and followed Jesus.

I can imagine Matthew’s surprise not only when Jesus acknowledged him, a despised tax collector, but when Jesus invited Him to follow Him. Jesus obviously knew his heart, He knew that Matthew was convicted by His message and was desiring to become a disciple. But society would have prevented Matthew from even approaching a proper Jew, much less an esteemed Rabbi. But Jesus knew Matthew’s heart, knew that he was willing to leave everything in exchange for Christ, and so Jesus simply said to him, “Follow Me.” And Matthew left a thriving, successful business and never went back.

That’s what is required for salvation, folks. Not just a tacit acceptance of truth, or intellectual acknowledgment of Christ, but a willingness to forsake everything and follow Him, wherever He leads. To walk with the Lord, relinquishing your self control to His control.

Well, later that evening, Matthew’s gratitude was so great, that he decided to use whatever resources and opportunities that his job had provided to further the kingdom of God. Prior to that, his resources and opportunities had always been used for his own advantage. But in one final grand gesture, he invites all his friends and coworkers who were also outcasts from Jewish society, to come to his dinner party. And the guest of honor is Jesus. He wants to use what he had to introduce people to Jesus.

There is a good principle to be learned in that, as Jesus taught in a parable found in Luke 16:9, ”And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.” The principle being that your resources even of unrighteous things like money and wealth, should be used to bring people into the kingdom of God, and in so doing, you will store up treasure in heaven. Matthew might have taken the approach that he no longer had a job and so he needed to conserve whatever money he had left. But he willingly spent it on a lavish dinner so that he might bring others into the kingdom of God.

So Jesus attends this dinner party in His honor, at the house of a former despised tax collector, and all of Matthew’s friends from the wrong side of town are in attendance. Such events were commonly held in the courtyard and open spaces of wealthy homeowners. So it was evident to everyone in the community that there was a big event going on, and the Pharisees were standing nearby offering criticisms. And so they approached his disciples and asked, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” Let me explain the word sinners. It referred to people that openly lived in defiance of Judaic law. They were people who had received a scarlet letter so to speak, but unable or unwilling to make themselves acceptable in polite Jewish society, they had become outcasts and lived openly in rebellion to Judaism. So we can imagine the type of crowd that were in attendance. And of course, the self righteous Pharisees found the whole thing scandalous.

So they ask the disciples what is Jesus doing? They want to establish a rift between Jesus and His disciples. That’s why they don’t go to Him directly. But once again, Jesus hears their question, whether supernaturally or because the disciples ask Him, and He responds to the Pharisees, ““It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Some commentators think that the first part of Jesus’s answer might have been a familiar proverb: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” But whether that’s the case or not, it aptly describes Jesus’s purpose in attending the party.

The Pharisees had a point in that as people of God, we are called to separate ourselves from the world and not participate in the deeds of darkness. A lot of Christians today want to label every attempt at that sort of holiness as legalism. And yet I’m afraid that often in their rush to prove they have a right to do certain things as Christians, they are merely using it as a covering to serve lusts of the flesh. I can tell you that as a person who was saved out of the nightclubbing, partying lifestyle, it would be a mistake for me to start hanging out at the local clubs. 1Corinthians 10:23 says “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.” Jude speaks of our attitude being towards such people that walk with the ungodly that we should snatch them out of the fire, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. There are places where Christians should not go lest we be enticed by the world and drawn into destructive practices.

But Jesus establishes by His answer that is not what He is doing. He isn’t just hanging out with some of the locals after a hard day of ministry, knocking back a few cold ones. Far from it. Rather, Jesus said “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” He is like a physician that is ministering to the sick. A doctor may need to visit the sick, but he does so to make them well, and he takes great care not to get contaminated himself.

So also Jesus teaches that it is not the self righteous that He had come to save, but the sick, the sinner, the one who knows that He is lost. Luke’s version adds that Jesus said, “ but to call sinners to repentance.” For that repentant person, that sees his sin as a deadly sickness, Jesus stands ready to forgive you and give you righteousness resulting in life as a gift from God.

Now let’s move on to the second course. And in this incident we don’t explicitly see anyone eating, but it is understood that the disciples were eating. We know that because it was evident that the disciples were not fasting. The only way you can know that is if someone sees you eating. So the disciples were eating, when the Pharisees were fasting. And they wanted to know why the disciples weren’t fasting like they were. They knew also that John the Baptist’s disciples fasted on occasion, and so again they wanted to know why Jesus’s disciples did not fast. There was a certain self righteous indignation on their part in asking the question, as if to question the legitimacy of Jesus’s ministry.

This was a serious question as far as Jesus was concerned, as is obvious from the extent of His answer. Jesus uses no less than three analogies to answer this question of fasting. The first one Jesus gives is the analogy of a bridegroom and his attendants at a wedding feast. Jesus says when the bridegroom is with the attendants, they cannot fast. A wedding is a celebration, a festival, a cause for rejoicing. It would be inconceivable to expect the attendants of the bridegroom to fast while the wedding festivities are going on.

The analogy is showing the parallel of Jesus’s ministry of the gospel, the good news, to that of a bridegroom taking his bride, which is the church. God has become man, and made it possible for man to be reconciled to God. He has chosen to shed abroad His love for man, to offer forgiveness of sins, and give eternal life. So Jesus is saying, in light of the fact that His ministry is a ministry of good news, it is to be celebrated, not mourned. But there will come a day, He says, when He is taken away, and in that day there will be cause for fasting.

The problem with fasting as it was practiced by the Pharisees, was that it was done to be seen of men. It wasn’t to be right with God. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, and rubbed ashes on their faces so that everyone knew that they were fasting. They fasted to be seen of men, and in Matthew 6, Jesus said that such received their reward; the applause of men. But not of God. God sees the heart. And God knows which fast is of repentance, and which is not. In the case of John’s disciples, they may have been fasting because their leader had been arrested. And so they paralleled Jesus’s statement concerning HImself, that when He was taken away there would be cause for fasting in that day. Such was the case for John’s disciples when he was taken away. So fasting is associated with mourning, but the gospel of Christ is a reason for rejoicing; that the Savior of the world had come and made it possible to become reconciled to God.

The other two analogies are very similar to one another. One is that of an unshrunk patch of new cloth put in an old garment. When it is washed, or gets wet and it shrinks, it will tear away from the garment making it worse. The other analogy is of new wine in old wineskins. An old, dried out wineskin would not expand with the fermentation of wine and so new wine would burst it, resulting in losing the wine. In both accounts, Jesus is saying His gospel is something new that cannot fit into the old paradigm. The old paradigm was the ceremonial aspects of worship, the rituals that were intended to be a picture of Jesus Christ. But now that the picture is fulfilled in Christ, the symbols are no longer necessary because the real is manifested. So Christ has enacted a new covenant, enacted on better promises, and the old symbols are no longer necessary. The gospel is such good news, that to try to put it in the old wineskin of the ceremonial law and rituals would be to constrain it so as to even ruin it. It would not be a covenant of grace, but of law. Christ came to establish a new covenant, a better covenant, through His sacrifice, and not on the basis of the blood of bulls and goats.

This principle of a new covenant of grace is spoken of to a great extent in Hebrews, but we will read just a few verses fro chapter 10:11-17 just to get a sense of it. Speaking of the old covenant based on the law it says, “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,” He then says, “AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

And in Romans 8:2-4 we read that these two covenants are contrasted as flesh and Spirit. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” So the old fleshly requirements of the law such as fasting and washing and rituals that could never make us righteous have been replaced by a new law of the Spirit, who is given to us that we might have new life in Christ. This is certainly good news worth celebrating.

Now let’s look at the final course. Again we see the disciples eating. This time however, they are eating on the run. This is the first century equivalent of a drive through fast food restaurant. They are walking through a grain field on a Sabbath day and pulling the grain off of the stalks and eating it. This was called gleaning and it was provided for under the law. It was legal, and it was a way that God provided for the poor or destitute so that they might have enough to eat.

But the Pharisees were also tagging along, trying to find something to criticize, some reason to find fault with Jesus’s teaching. And since it also happened to be the Sabbath, they thought they had found it. Because the Pharisees and their lawyers had so embellished the law that they had made a bunch of little laws to keep from breaking the big law. If God said to do no work on the Sabbath in the 10 commandments, then they established 39 other laws defining how to keep the Sabbath, or what constitutes work. The problem was, as Jesus said later on, they tied burdens impossible to bear on other men’s heads, but they refused to bear them themselves. They defined the law to the nth degree not because of a zealousness to keep the law, but so they might know how to manipulate it to their advantage.

For instance, they said that you could not bear a burden on your back, or carry it in your hand on the Sabbath, because that would be work. But you could carry it on your foot, or your elbow, or tie it to your hair. And so they had all these crazy ways worked out to get around the law. But for the uninformed, they gave the appearance of being strict and zealous for righteousness, when in fact they used it to restrict others but not themselves.

So now they tried to turn Jesus against His disciples. They said to Him, ““Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” They made the case that the disciples were harvesting grain, thus they were working and breaking the Sabbath. Jesus answers them by taking them back to the Old Testament, the source of the law, and says 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?”

Now in using this example, Jesus is showing that the high priest had no problem giving David what was considered unlawful for him to eat. The showbread on the altar was for the priests to eat, and it was unlawful for anyone else. It was holy to the Lord. But the high priest recognized that David and his men were starving, and in need of food, and so there was another law which took precedence over the ceremonial law. It was a law of mercy which triumphs over judgment. Jesus would say later on another occasion in Luke 14:5, if your ox fell into a well on the Sabbath, which of you would not take it out? There was a principle inherent in the scriptures, that the preservation of life takes precedence over ceremony.

So Jesus says in vs.27, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” By that statement Jesus shows the order of creation establishes the precedence of life over ceremony. Man was made before the Sabbath. Thus the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given that man might have rest from his labors.

In the new covenant that Jesus came to establish, Jesus fulfilled the symbolism of the Sabbath. He provides the Sabbath rest in that He did the work that we can rest in. In Hebrews 4:9-10 it 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.” Thus in the new covenant the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday, as Christ rose from the dead, so that we walk in newness of life and not labor in our dead works. We rest in HIs righteousness, and not ours. He is the Sabbath rest that we have entered into.

And Jesus confirms that in vs.28 saying, “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In other words, Jesus made the Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath. He was not subject to the Sabbath. And as Lord of the Sabbath, He can use the Sabbath anyway He wants. And He has chosen to give us rest from our works, so that we might have rest in Him. Because He finished His work, we can rest from ours.

So in closing, I would just say that these three courses in the gospel represent salvation. First, Jesus came to save sinners. If you recognize you are a sinner, if you are sick of your sin, then Jesus is the Physician that has come to save you. Secondly, the good news is that it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to God’s mercy He saves us. God has come to man in Christ Jesus to reconcile us to God, so that we might have forgiveness and be invited to become the bride, or church, of God. The gospel is the good news, it is the source of joy, peace and life. And then thirdly, when you receive Jesus, when you follow Him as your Savior and Lord, then He will give you rest. You can rest in His righteousness and find rest for your souls.

Jesus said in Matthew11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Not only does the Lord want to give you forgiveness and rest, but He wants to have fellowship with you, to be with you as His bride forever. And there is verse in Revelation that speaks to that desire of Christ for His bride. And actually it’s in another reference to food. It’s an invitation to dinner. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” I hope you will answer the door.

I’ve said it many times before, that every miracle of the gospels is a spiritual parable, meant to teach spiritual principles. And we are looking at such a miracle today and the spiritual principles that we can learn from it.

Last time we talked about the gospel’s authority over the spiritual realm and the physical realm; the spiritual realm was illustrated by Jesus casting out the demon of the man in Capernaum, and then the physical realm was illustrated by the healing of the leper. Today, Mark is showing us the priority of the spiritual over the physical. The purpose of Christ coming to the earth, the purpose of the gospel, is to free men from sin. 1 John 3:8 says “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” He came to set the captives free from the dominion of darkness, to proclaim liberty to the captives. Christ’s authority over sin is the spiritual emancipation that delivers the physical from bondage. Sin is the root cause of all of life’s ills. The biggest problem in society is not lack of money or education, or resources. The biggest problem in life is the need for forgiveness of one’s sins.

So as I said the purpose then of the miracle is to teach spiritual principles. It is not to give us the idea that God intends for all people to be healed physically. There are a lot of fake healers out there who purport that God doesn’t want anyone to remain in illness or any sort of malady. And that it is a matter of faith to claim your healing. They say if you aren’t healed, it is due to a lack of faith. I am here to tell you today that is not what the Bible teaches. Paul had faith more than anyone, and he asked God three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed from him, and yet God told him that His power is made perfect in weakness, and His grace was sufficient for Him to endure his illness. As I said a moment ago, God’s purpose in the gospel is to deliver men from sin, so that they might have spiritual life, that they might escape the second death, and that they might have fellowship with God. Everyone is going to die sooner or later. You may be healed from cancer, or some other sort of illness, but you will still die. The million dollar question is whether you will die in your sins, or be forgiven and receive eternal life.

Now there are several principles that we can establish that are being taught through this miracle. Let’s take them in order of appearance. We left off last time with the leper being cleansed, and contrary to Jesus’s command, he broadcast it far and wide, so that Jesus could hardly preach or teach due to the crowds that came looking for a miracle. We can determine from the gospel accounts, that the crowds were drawn to the miracles, but Jesus did not want them to come for that reason. Thus he told the leper not to tell of his healing, except to the priests. Jesus wanted him to follow the law’s requirements for healing of leprosy and present himself to the priests so that he would be declared clean and could return to society. Jesus wasn’t interested in building a ministry based on sensationalism. He wasn’t interested in drawing a crowd who were just interested in miracles. But Jesus’s main ministry was preaching the gospel. His main ministry was preaching the word. And so that is what we find Him doing in vs 1. He’s come back to Capernaum after a long time away, and He is in His home or possibly Peter’s home, and He is preaching the word. Jesus would say later, that the truth would make you free. That is the purpose of preaching the gospel. Only the truth will make you free from the captivity and dominion of sin.

There are a lot of people out there teaching a mixture of man’s philosophy or psychology with a little bit of the gospel mixed in. It has the appearance of godliness, but it is man’s wisdom. It is presented as self improvement. I heard a Christian counseling program on the radio the other day, and they gave 5 points to some poor guy who was struggling. The first step they recommended was to go to a psychiatrist and get some anti-depressant medicine, 2, see a counselor weekly, and so on. Around #4 they said go to a men’s Bible study, and the last one was another secular program. It sounded like wise counsel according to man’s wisdom. But that is not the truth of the gospel. Paul said in 1Cor. 2:3-7, 13 “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; … 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

So we need to be aware that the wisdom of God, the power of the gospel, is the the only thing that really has the power to save. A lot of man’s wisdom sounds good, because it focuses on the physical. But the root of all man’s troubles are spiritual, and the sin that causes death. Jesus was teaching the word in Capernaum. That reveals the priority of the gospel.

The second principle I want to point out is the necessity for personal evangelism. I don’t like to use the word evangelism though. It sounds as if it’s some sort of revival crusade. How about we substitute the phrase personal intervention. If we can agree that sin is the source of all problems, and that the gospel is the only cure for it, then it stands to reason that men and women must help those caught in sin to come to the One who can help them. The problem with sin is that it is a trap. Again and again in the gospels we see sin likened to death, to leprosy, to lameness, to blindness, and here in this text, to being paralyzed. The point being that such people are in many cases helpless to help themselves. And as such they are a perfect picture of those who are trapped in sin. Sin is a condition that blinds people to the truth, that traps people in addiction, that causes people to be so handicapped that they are unable to extricate themselves on their own. And so their salvation many times is dependent upon a divine intervention. And God uses people to intervene on their behalf. That is what the Bible calls love. To intervene on behalf of others is loving one another.

This principle is such an integral part of the gospel. Jesus came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. So as His ambassadors, we too must be about saving the world. In Zechariah 3 there is a vision of Joshua the High Priest, and he is standing in front of God in filthy garments. And it says that Satan was standing next to him to accuse him. But the Lord rebuked Satan saying, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” And the Lord removed Joshua’s filthy garments and clothed him in righteous garments. And as Christians, our mission is not to accuse the world as Satan does, but to tell the world of the forgiveness that is made possible through Christ, to pluck them as a brand from the fire.

As people who have the mind of Christ (let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus) our reactions towards those caught in sin should be one of forgiveness, love, encouragement, esteeming their needs for salvation as worth any cost. The devil stands at our side to accuse us and discourage us, to tell us to give up and give in. But we are not of the devil, so we do not stand accusing, but rather forgiving, loving, helping and encouraging the weak. That is what I mean by intervention. And God has commissioned you to be that intervener. It’s not the job of angels, it’s not the job of psychiatrists or professional counselors, but God has chosen you to go to the lost in love, by personal sacrifice, and help them to come to him.

So it’s the mission of all Christians, to go into the world and proclaim the good news to all people. God wants to use us to spread the gospel, so that all may be saved. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So there is a great urgency in the gospel; people are perishing and the gospel is the antidote to sin and the death that is it’s consequence. Not only is there an urgency, but there is a blessing. James says in James 5:19-20 “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” So there is a great blessing to those who answer that call of God to go to the lost and turn them to God.

Jesus illustrated this need for intervention by telling a parable about leaving the 99 who need no repentance and seeking out the one who is lost. In another place He gave a parable about the Good Samaritan, which not only teaches us to love our neighbor, but shows us that real love reaches down even to the stranger with the saving news of the gospel, no matter the cost or inconvenience to ourselves. No matter how much we may think the poor sinner brought it upon themselves. Realizing but for the grace of God so goes us all.

Now let’s look at this example in our text. Note that this paralyzed man had four friends that were determined to bring him to Christ. Four interveners. Oh that every sinner had four such friends that were determined to bring them to Christ. So determined were these friends that nothing would stop them. Here we see that the great crowds were actually a deterrent to the saving power of the gospel. God is not always in great crowds. Man seems to equate a large crowd with effective evangelism. But that is not so with God.

Nevertheless, they would not let the obstacles stop them. They climbed on the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, and tore off the roof. These houses were built usually one story, with flat tiled roofs, and an exterior staircase. But can you imagine the consternation of the crowd inside and crowded around the doorway, when the roof starts being torn apart during the service, and they lower a man down on a stretcher at the feet of Jesus.

I would to God that we would all have such determination to see the lost saved. In this politically correct climate we live in today we are so afraid anymore of embarrassing anyone, of inconveniencing someone, least of all inconveniencing ourselves, that we dare not bother anyone with the gospel. Eric Clapton wrote a song a few years ago called “Tears in Heaven.” And he repeats the oft quoted adage that there are no tears in heaven. But my friends, I think many of us are going to be in tears in heaven. The Bible says that Jesus will wipe away all tears. But that is after we are in heaven. And if I can make the suggestion without being too dogmatic, I think there are going to be tears in heaven for us when we see our loved ones, our friends, cast into outer darkness for eternity, knowing that we did not do all that we could have done to bring them to the Lord. I think the problem is that most Christians don’t really believe the Bible. Somehow, they think that though their loved one was not saved, yet somehow Hell does not really exist, and God will not actually keep His word. Because if we truly believed the Bible, we would move heaven and earth to bring our loved ones to the Lord.

Well, moving on, Mark says in vs.5, “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now I want to point out something here that is going to surprise you perhaps. But notice that Mark said, Jesus “seeing their faith….” Now most commentators say that includes all five people. But I tend to think that it is specifically speaking of the faith of the four friends. I think there is a principle here that your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation. Let me say that again. Your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation. Now you can’t be saved for them. But you can contend for them. You can intercede for them. You can intervene for them. You can compel them to come to the Lord using every means at your disposal.

I’ll give you an Old Testament example of this principle. The Lord visited Abraham in human form one evening. And as He was ready to leave, the Lord told Abraham what He was about to do. He said the news of Sodom and Gomorrah’s debauchery had reached heaven, and He was going to see just how bad it was, and if it was as He had heard, He was going to destroy it. (Gen.18) But Abraham said, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” He then began to negotiate with God for the deliverance of his nephew, Lot. Abraham started by saying, what if there are 50 righteous, will you destroy the city? And God said “No, I won’t destroy it for the sake of 50.” But as you are familiar with the story, Abraham negotiated with God down to 10 people. Turns out there were not 10 righteous people either, but for the sake of righteous Lot, God did send two angels to take him out of the city before the destruction came.

Now that’s not a perfect illustration perhaps, but it is evidence of our ability to intervene with God on another’s behalf. James says in James 5:14-15 “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” Everyone likes to quote those verses to suggest the power of healing, but I would point to the last part, which says if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him based on the prayers of others. I think it clearly teaches that we can pray for one another for spiritual healing, for sins to be forgiven, for their soul to be saved. And I think we can be effective in that at least to some degree.

You know if I were to ask a rhetorical question this morning, of how many of you have unsaved loved ones, I’m sure that 3/4 of you would raise your hands. But I wonder if I said how many of you spent even an hour, 60 actual minutes, praying for that loved one this week, how many would still raise their hands? There are 168 hours in a week. Is their soul not worth one hour to you?

John says something similar in 1John 5:1616 “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.” Again, the principle is that someone sees his brother sinning, and petitions God on his behalf. God uses people to reach people, to bring them to God. We have a mission, and a responsibility to reach the lost for Christ.

The next principle I want us to look at is the priority of the spiritual over the physical. Now I have already alluded to this principle’s importance in my opening statements. But let’s unpack this a bit more as I believe God has a lot to say on this subject. First of all, we need to understand that in the Hebrew mind, the paralytic was obviously a terrible sinner whom God was judging in the flesh for everyone to witness. That was their understanding of sickness; that God brought it about as judgment. You will remember the disciples in John 9 asking Jesus about a blind man, saying, ““Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” That was the common perception. Well, in that case, Jesus had answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

But that teaching comes later. At this point, I think Jesus plays into their misconceptions in order to teach a couple of important lessons. So Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now there are a couple of things going on here. I don’t think that it was that surprising that He would say that as far as the Pharisees were concerned, because they thought that sin was the reason this man was paralyzed. However, from our perspective, we automatically think that it’s a strange thing to say, because we think that the obvious problem was the man’s paralysis.

Jesus though answers all those problems with these words. His insightfulness cuts right to the quick of the real problem. First He shows the Pharisees that He is God. And He does that because of the principle that one cannot forgive someone of a sin against another. One forgives a sin against himself. I heard it illustrated this way. Tom, Dick and Harry were hanging out together, and Tom punched Dick in the nose. Harry went over and told Tom, I forgive you for punching Dick. But Dick objected, and said you can’t forgive him, he didn’t punch you, he punched me. The point being, the one injured is the one who has the power to forgive. In forgiving the paralytic, Jesus was teaching that all sins were against God, and He was God. He alone had the power to forgive sin.

Secondly, He was teaching us, that the physical problem is not the primary problem. It’s a symptom of a deeper problem. Jesus, seeing the heart, goes to the root of the problem. All sickness finds it’s root in sin. Now I know that is not a popular thing to say in this day and age. I might get stoned, or pelted with sand in this case, for saying such a thing. I’m not saying that every illness is the result of an individual’s particular sin. I am saying that sin is the result of living in a fallen world. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Sin is the cause of death, and death is the result of illness. The wages of sin is death. It is appointed unto man once to die. It is part of the curse that came upon the human race at the fall.

But in this modern world of healthcare and hospitals and luxury lifestyles, we suffer under the misconception that God wants everyone to be healthy, wealthy and happy. So from our perspective, the most important thing is health. But from God’s perspective, the most important thing is eternal life, undoing the curse of the fall. Unfortunately, oftentimes today even church leadership has the same short sided perspective. I was at a pastor’s conference a few years ago, and about a 1000 pastors were there from all over the country. A missionary was speaking about reaching one village after another with the gospel. They had never heard it before. And so entire villages were being saved and they had baptisms immediately afterwards before moving on the next village. The missionary spoke of how dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of natives were saved in village after village. And as he spoke, I heard a few Amens grunted here and there from the crowd. But then he spoke of a baptism in which one woman’s baby died. And she brought the baby to the pastor, and he said when it touched the water it came back to life, and he gave it back to the mother. And the whole crowd of pastors gave him a standing ovation. I found it incongruous that when 100’s of people were saved from the second death there were a few grunts of Amen. But when one baby is saved from the first death, it results in a standing ovation. That tells you where our theology is focused, ladies and gentlemen. We are not focused on men’s souls, but on men’s health and prosperity.

The most important principle taught here though is that of Christ’s authority to forgive sin. When Jesus said “your sins are forgiven,” the Pharisees started thinking “blasphemy!” They thought that they had found something to pin on Jesus in order to condemn Him. But Mark says that Jesus knew their hearts. He knew what they were thinking in their minds. I wish that we really believed that. That God could read our minds. If we truly believed that we would be down on our knees this morning asking for forgiveness for ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Well, God knows your heart.

Mark 2:6-9 “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?” 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? “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

So we see that the Lord is willing to illustrate His authority over sin through physical healing. But the question He asks bears some scrutiny. The question of which is easier to say? Well it is certainly easier to say your sins be forgiven you if you are a charlatan. Because it is virtually impossible in this life to know if they are forgiven or not. So on the surface it would seem that Jesus is saying that it is harder to say “Get up and walk” because that requires results in real time. Not in eternity out there some where, but right here, right now.

But in actuality, Jesus may have been saying that it is harder to say “your sins are forgiven.” Because Jesus was the truth personified. He could not lie. And so for Him to be able to say that your sins are forgiven, then He had to be willing to die on the cross for sins. In that respect, it is immeasurably harder to forgive sins than to heal a physical handicap. A doctor can in some cases heal, but only God can forgive sins.

It’s interesting that the word used for “forgiven” means literally to be sent away. I spoke a couple of weeks ago in chapter one about how after Jesus’s baptism the Holy Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And I said then that was a picture of the Day of Atonement ceremony, when the scapegoat was laid upon symbolically with the sins of the people and then driven out into the wilderness to bear away their sins. And how Christ, the sinless Lamb of God bore our sins away. Here again we see that illustrated. Jesus does not merely say “I will forget about your sins, they are not important,” but He illustrates the need to bear them away. God’s justice requires that sin be paid for. And Christ came to take away our sins upon Himself so that we might be made free. So it was more difficult to say “your sins are forgiven.”

But again, Jesus knows their hearts, knows their misconceptions, and so He answers them in their ignorance. He says in vs10, “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.”

Please understand this. It is not that Jesus had the power to heal, therefore He has the power to forgive. But He has the power to forgive, therefore He has the power to heal. According to Hebrews 7:25, “He is able to save to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever lives to make intercession for them.” He is able to save not only physically, but eternally, because He is able to deal with the root cause of all infirmity, of all death.

It’s interesting that the word that Jesus uses to say get up, or rise up, is the same word that is used by Mark to speak of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. So there is a sense in which as Jesus is healing him physically, He is also healing him spiritually, in raising him from his deadness, to walk in new life in Christ.

And that teaches us the final principle. That the Christian life is not just believing in some sort of detached, theological or intellectual way. But that in our sinful state we are incapacitated, unable to walk in the Spirit. Unable to walk in fellowship with God. Sin has paralyzed us spiritually, so that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. But when the love of God appeared, we are saved not on the basis of our works, which was impossible being dead and in our sins. But we were saved on the basis of Christ’s righteousness through the grace of God which is ` credited towards us. Then being forgiven and clothed in His righteousness, we are made able to walk in new life through the power of the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us. Faith is always tied to action in the Bible. Rise up and walk. Come and follow Me.

Notice in vs.12 the result; “And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Let me say it this way, a life that is transformed, that walks out their faith by their actions in the community, will result in not only the amazement of your community, but it will also glorify God. Our testimony is not necessarily our words, but our actions. When we live a life that is radically different than before, when we take on the nature of the life of Christ, then we bring glory to God. And that is our purpose. That is why God leaves us on this earth, to be useful in service to Him. But for the grace of God we should all be in the death grip of infirmity. God has granted us life and health so that we might serve Him and bring glory to God. And when we have fulfilled that purpose according to His will, He will take us home to be with Him. Until that day, let us use wisely the stewardship of life that He has given us, and be about the business of our Father, building up the kingdom of God.

Mark writes in the opening verse of this book, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Gospel comes from the Greek word euaggelion, which means good news. And so thus far in this book, Mark has been showing us various aspects of the gospel. Last time we looked at the message of the gospel, which is repentance of your sins and faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Then we looked at the ministry of the gospel, which is to make disciples. Today, we are looking another aspect of the gospel, which is the authority of the gospel. Authority speaks of power, or control, or supremacy. Mark shows us in some very vivid ways that the gospel of Christ was one of authority. And to start with we are going to see that it has authority in two realms, both the physical and the spiritual. And that’s important to understand, because the gospel must have power in both realms in order to be what it claims to be. It cannot be merely physical, for then it would fall short of the spiritual, eternal realm, and it would have no lasting power to save. And it must not be merely spiritual, without any immediate benefit, because if it is ineffective on the temporal, then we should believe no claim of it’s benefit in the spiritual. So Mark shows that it is powerful in both realms. Thus we can agree with Paul in Romans 1:16; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

This principle of the authority of the gospel in the physical and spiritual realm is going to be emphasized again and again in Mark’s book, especially in our passage for next week in chapter 2 when we look at the healing of the paralytic. In that example, you will remember that Jesus was criticized for saying to the sick man, “your sins are forgiven.” The scribes said, “Who can forgive sins but God?” And so Jesus said to them, “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.” Thus it is clear that Christ’s power over the physical realm which can be seen is evidence of His authority in the spiritual realm which is unseen.

Now that principle is illustrated in this passage by a series of events stretching over a 24 hour period of Jesus’s life. And in the process of studying these events, I hope to show you not only the authority of the gospel in the physical and spiritual realm, but the source of it’s authority, and an illustration of the power of the gospel to cleanse from sin, the power to save both now and forever.

First let’s start then in vs 21, as Jesus and His disciples go to Capernaum. There we see that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. And it says that He taught with authority, and the people were amazed at His teaching, because it was not as the scribes were used to doing, but He taught with authority. Twice in retelling this story, Mark uses the word authority to describe the teaching of Jesus. The gospel has authority because it is the truth of God. It has power because it is the truth of God. Jesus said in John 8:32, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

If the gospel is to be authoritative, if it is to have power, it must be the truth of God. And we cannot cherry pick truth. We can’t emphasize one aspect of God’s truth, and neglect others which we don’t necessarily favor, or which are not politically correct. Truth is composed of the whole counsel of God, and when certain parts are left out, then you end up with a half truth. And no one is saved with a half truth. They might like the way it tastes, but it has no power to save unless it is the undiluted, full truth of the gospel.

And what was He teaching? Well, we don’t know the particulars of His message, but we know the principles. There were two principles of His preaching as stated in vs 14, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” So the two basic tenets of the gospel are repentance and faith. That was the message of Jesus, and we can assume that is what He was teaching in Capernaum.

Now notice that as He was teaching, a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit cried out, saying, ““What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” Now I don’t want to focus our attention completely on demons this morning. Our focus is on the authority and power of the gospel. But there are some things which we can learn from this regarding the authority of the gospel over the spiritual realm.

First though, I would point out that this man was in the synagogue on a Sabbath morning, presumably to worship God. I want you to know something folks, Paul said in 2 Cor.11:14 that Satan loves to disguise himself as an angel of light. Satan and his demons are fallen angels. They are called the dominion of darkness. In Ephesians 6:12 it says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” That’s the demonic realm, the spiritual realm, which is the dominion of darkness. And I want you to know that these fallen angels often hide out in the church, they operate under the cover of religion, they disguise themselves as angels of light.

I think Satan has deceived the world by the popular depictions of demons as portrayed by movies and media. And as a consequence we fail to recognize them. I would bet that prior to this outburst, no one in the church would have thought that this man was under demonic control. I’m sure he seemed perfectly normal, even religious. And I would also assure you that this is not just a first century phenomenon. Satan is alive and well in the church today. His unclean spirits are among us this morning. Contrary to popular doctrine, our singing of Jesus, our mention of Jesus or God, does not drive him away. He love to hide in the church.

In fact, Jesus gave a parable elsewhere in which He says that the Kingdom God (which is the church universal) is like a mustard seed, which grew into a very large tree, so that the birds nested in it’s branches. And I would suggest that many people have misinterpreted that parable. The fact that this mustard seed has not produced a normal mustard bush, but a very large tree, shows an abnormality that is not good. And furthermore, in the parable of the soils, Jesus made it clear that the birds of the air were the demons who plucked the gospel from the soil by the road, so that those who heard it were not given the opportunity for it to take root. In other words, the birds are demons who are working in the church, taking refuge in the church, to pluck up the seed, which is the word of God and prevent it from taking root. So we know that Satan and his angels are at work in the church. Not everything that happens in a church is sanctioned by God. In fact, Paul warns Timothy that the Spirit explicitly says in the last days some will fall away from the faith by listening to doctrines of demons. He isn’t talking about witchcraft there, but he is talking about false teachers in the church perverting or subverting the gospel.

Well, it’s unlikely that anyone would have suspected this man of being under the dominion of an unclean spirit. But as we see, he recognized Jesus, and he yells out at Him, “what have we to do with you Jesus of Nazareth?” You know at first glance, what the demon says doesn’t seem to bad. He says Jesus is the Holy One of God. But James tells us that the demons believe in God and shudder. They do not doubt God’s existence. They recognize Jesus, because they being a spirit recognize the Spirit of God in Christ. But they are terrified of Him because they know He has the authority to cast them into the pit of hell. And they know that He is going to do it. But I believe the unclean spirit cried out, because he knew that Christ recognized him, and knew that He had come to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

Now let me expand upon this for a moment. Because I only quoted part of 1John 3:8. The whole verse tells us what the works of the devil are; “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” So from that we can understand that demonic influence or control stems from sin, especially harboring unrepentant sin. I believe everyone who gives himself to sin, to some degree or another, perhaps unknowingly, opens himself up to demonic influence. The degree to which that influence is pervasive depends upon how much the person submits himself to that sin. And whether or not it is noticeable to himself or to others, he is under the influence of an unclean spirit, because he is bound by sin.

In the case of this man in Capernaum, as I said, I doubt that it was evident how much he was under the influence or control of a demon. But when he met Christ, it became apparent. I know I have encounter similar experiences on a number of occasions. A person seemed normal, even expressing perhaps a degree of spiritual knowledge, and then for some unexplained reason they seem to explode. They start yelling, cursing, and sometimes blaspheming God. And it can be a bizarre experience to see someone start acting like that. A lot of the time it’s not that apparent, maybe it’s just an outburst of anger and you don’t know where it comes from. I would suggest that it comes from a resentment towards the gospel, especially when you call out sin. But that’s when we have to realize that we are not fighting a person, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but we need to see the unclean spirit which is behind that person, pulling their strings.

Well, Jesus shows His authority over the spiritual realm, defeating it with His word. He commands the unclean spirit to be quiet, and to come out of him, and it throws the man in convulsions, and with a loud scream comes out of him. And Mark tells us the people are amazed, and declare that His teaching is with such authority, that even the unclean spirits obey Him.

Next we see Jesus’s authority over the physical realm. Mark says after visiting the synagogue, Jesus goes to Peter’s house, and his mother in law is sick. This indicates by the way that Peter was married, or at least had been married. One cannot have a mother in law unless you have been married. So those that teach that Peter was the first pope, (of which doctrine I disagree) need to reevaluate their policy of celibacy for priests based on the precedence of Peter.

Peter’s mother in law had a fever. Not much is known about the severity of her illness, but it was a hindrance to her hospitality at the very least. Jesus shows His compassion on her and upon Simon Peter and takes her by the hand and raises her up. And the scripture says her fever left her and she began to wait on them.

I would just point out the simplicity of this miracle of healing as a contrast to what we often see today portrayed as a healing ministry. Jesus in all of the healings that He performs, and in all the demons that He casts out, makes a point to tell the beneficiaries not to broadcast what He has done. But of course they can’t help it. And so as we see in the healing mentioned in vs45, the news about Him becomes spread throughout the region and great crowds start coming to Him so that He cannot even come into a city.

Now most modern day, so called faith healers would not see that kind of popularity as a bad thing. In fact they seek to take advantage of the sensational claims of healing to attract a crowd. But Jesus was not interested in drawing crowds to be healed, or drawing great crowds to witness miracles. He wasn’t interested in sensationalism. But He was interested in teaching and preaching the word of God.

I don’t believe the Bible teaches us, nor does this passage teach us, that God decrees that all physical ills will be healed. I believe that God does heal, and that Jesus healed many people, but He did not heal everyone. At the Pool of Bethesda, for instance. The porch area was filled with sick people, and yet Jesus healed just one. At the tomb of Lazarus, there were undoubtedly many dead people in the cemetery, but Jesus only raised Lazarus. I am not sure why God choses to heal some and not all. But I do know that the Bible teaches in Hebrews 9:27 that it is appointed unto all men once to die. Everyone is going to die once. And usually death comes through sickness of some sort. But what Christ came to save us from is the second death. The second death is eternal separation from God and torment for eternity.

But as Paul said, whether I live or die is not important to me, but if the Lord let’s me live, then that will mean fruitful labor for me, but if I die so much the better, I will be with the Lord. So perhaps that’s God’s motivation for healing physically. So that it might result in fruitful labor for the kingdom of God. Peter’s mother in law was healed of her illness, and as a result, she began to serve the Lord and His disciples. And that is a good picture of how we should respond to the grace of God in our lives. Our health, our physical blessings should make our hearts grateful to God so that we would serve God and not just ourselves. God’s gifts of health are not just for our own benefit. I know from experience, and I am sure some of you do as well, how fragile human health is, and how fleeting it is. Our life and health is a stewardship from God that we might use it in service of the Kingdom in the time that is allotted to us.

Now in vs32-34, Mark tells us that as the Sabbath ended, and travel was again enabled, people began to come to Capernaum where Jesus was to be healed and delivered from unclean spirits. And while that illustrates even further the two realms that Jesus had authority over, the spiritual and the physical, I would also point out that there is made a distinction between being afflicted by illness and being afflicted by demons. They are not necessarily the same. Sometimes we are going to see in scripture that someone suffered a physical infirmity because of a demon. But that in no way means that all illnesses are a result of demons. All illness is the result of the curse upon creation as a result of sin entering the world. But those that suffer illness do not necessarily suffer as a result of their individual sin. If that were the case, then none of us would escape. But ultimately, sin does cause all to die. The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23. And all have sinned. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well, we have to hurry if we want to finish this section. There is much more I could say, but not enough time this morning. Let’s look at the third aspect of authority, and that is the source of authority. Or the source of power. As we fight the spiritual battle and deal with the physical realm in which we live, the source of Jesus’s power and authority is the same source that we have, which is fellowship and communion with the Father. And we see that explained in vs.35: “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” I’ve said it before in defense of our early meeting times, that good things happen early in the morning. Jesus got up to pray while it was still dark.

You know, I love to surf. And yet I hate crowds. I like surfing with one or two guys max, but around here that just doesn’t happen. So I look forward to low tide when it comes early in the morning. I love paddling out while it is still dark. And when the light is just starting to glow on the horizon, I manage to get some good waves all to myself. But I also love to pray early in the morning. And I’ve found if I don’t pray in the morning, then the quality of my prayer life goes downhill. Surfers call those early morning sessions a dawn patrol. And perhaps that is a good name for our early prayer time. Get up early in the morning and walk and talk with the Lord and I assure you that it will provide power and authority in your spiritual walk.

Jesus of all people didn’t need to get up early and pray. And yet Jesus did it the most. Many times He prayed spent the night in prayer. I would suggest that the reason most of us do not have authority or power in our walk, or authority over sin, or see results in our evangelism, is because we do not avail ourselves of planned, purposeful, strategic prayer. If Jesus needed to pray all night or all morning, then how much more do we?

I would encourage you, pray purposefully. Jesus talked in the Sermon on the Mount about praying in your closet. Have a special place of prayer. Daniel prayed three times a day in his upper room facing Jerusalem. Pray strategically. There are a lot of things I could say about prayer. But just notice what Jesus illustrates in this example. He got up early, and He went to a secluded place. Get alone with God where you can really open up and talk to Him. I suggest praying out loud. That’s why it’s good to go to a secluded place. That way people don’t think you are crazy when they hear you talking out loud. I like those early surf sessions alone because I pray out loud. And sometimes I catch myself doing it when others come out. I was in California last week and I surfed Malibu Friday before I left. And I was having a great time, catching a lot of waves, and I was praying sporadically out loud. I thought no one was near by. But I happened to turn around and saw this guy had paddled up behind me and I didn’t know he was there. But California is full of crazy people. I saw more people talking to themselves out there than I’ve seen in my entire life. So I probably just fit in with everyone else. They figured I was as crazy as they were. But around here you might draw attention to yourself if you’re praying out loud.

However, I will say, that it is a benefit not only to you to pray out loud, I think it’s a benefit to God, and I think praying out loud defeats the devil as well. When he hears your prayers, when he hears your faith, then I think the devil knows that the source of your power is God. The source of Jesus’s authority was the communion and fellowship He had with the Father. And that is the source of our power as well. When we commune with God, when we fellowship with God, when we pray and read His word, then we have power with God, because we are united with God.

Mark ends this section with the story of the leper who was cleansed. I’ve said it before many times, that every miracle that Jesus did is a spiritual parable meant to teach us a spiritual principle. And I think that this miracle illustrates the power of the gospel over sin which is the root of all illness and all affliction. And I would point out that among the Jews during those days the rabbis taught that leprosy was the direct result of God’s visible judgment of sin in a person’s life. As a result, they taught that you were to avoid such people, not even to speak to them. They were outcasts from society. They were looked upon as the worst of sinners upon whom God had judged in the flesh for all to see. And so the leper had to announce his presence as he walked through the community by calling out “Unclean! Unclean!”

This leper that comes to Jesus is a picture of a repentant sinner who comes to Jesus for salvation. Notice first of all that he knows he is a leper. He knows he is unclean. He comes before Jesus and bows down on his knees. He has a repentant attitude. He doesn’t have any hope of healing outside of Jesus. There was no cure for leprosy. It was a horrible illness that rotted your fingers and then all your extremities away and totally destroyed you little by little. What a picture of the nature of sin. Satan loves to tell you that a little sin won’t hurt you. A little peccadillo won’t really matter. But he knows that sin is like leprosy. It starts with a little spot on your skin, and then it spreads to your hair, and then starts to rot your fingers and toes, your ears and your nose until it one day totally destroys you. Listen, there is no sanctified sin. Sin is death and sin brings death. Sin is an invitation to demonic affliction. Sin results in separation from the source of life, the Creator God.

But this leper illustrates how to be cleansed from sin. He comes on his knees. He comes as a beggar. He comes confessing his need to be clean. And then we see salvation. Jesus moved with compassion. Did you know that Jesus came to save the lost? He came to save those that were like this leper. Jesus says in chapter 2 vs 17, “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Listen, don’t be deceived. You cannot be saved unless you first realize that you are lost, that you are diseased, that you are hopeless and helpless. Come to Jesus like that, and He will have compassion on you. And I want you to note something. Jesus touched the untouchable. You were not supposed to touch the leper. Jesus could have healed him with a word. But he touched him.

Folks, compassion for the lost means sometimes that you have to get your hands dirty. It’s not enough to just say you will pray for someone. Jesus gave a parable about the good shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep and goes to look for the one who is lost. He gives another parable about the good Samaritan, who gets off his horse and gets down in the dirt to tend to a stranger’s wounds. Let me tell you that ministry is a messy business. We are not called to sit in ivory towers and condemn sinners, but to go into all the world and compel them to come in. To go into the highways and the byways and tell them the good news. And sometimes in order to do that you have to help them to become well enough that they might hear it.

I tell you, California has a lot of problems. But the worst problem that it has is it’s homeless situation. I’ve never seen a greater homeless population in my life. I went to a church last Wednesday night and across the street from the entrance to their church was a empty lot that was a homeless camp. Santa Barbara is where all the movie stars have homes. You can sit in a upscale coffee shop with Maseratis and Lambourghinis parked out front, beautiful homes and all the beautiful people sipping coffee, and on the sidewalk homeless people are lying there covered in filth. Many of them are drug addicts who are helpless to get out of their situation. I don’t know how to reach them. It’s not as simple as giving them money because it just goes to fuel their addiction. But I can tell you that it’s a problem that is not going away on it’s own. It’s growing and it’s an epidemic. I do know the answer; it’s the gospel. Its the truth of God. But how to tell them when the devil has them so firmly under his control, I don’t have the answer for. But I do believe that Jesus is the only hope. So we have to do what we can, even if it means we get dirty doing it, to tell the lost that Jesus can deliver them. I believe that.

Jesus told the leper, a hopeless case if there ever was one; ““I am willing; be cleansed.” Jesus was willing to die in our place that we might have life. Jesus was willing to become our servant, so that we might become a child of God. Jesus was willing to die, so that we might be given eternal life.

Listen, that kind of humility and willingness to suffer and serve that was illustrated by Jesus is yet another source to power and authority in the gospel. Satan may tempt us with pride, he will attempt to control and oppress people through sin, but Romans 12:21 tells us that we overcome evil with good. We overcome pride with humility. We overcome sin with compassion. We overcome selfishness with service. Jesus said we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We overcome evil with good. The gospel is good news. It is powerful. It is authoritative. And that power is available for those who abide in Christ, who are in fellowship with God and trust in God to provide all that is needful for service to Him. I pray that you will not be ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe.

When Mark introduced this book, he said simply in vs1, that it was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Gospel means good news, and was from the Greek word euangellion which was in use throughout the Roman Empire to announce festivals associated with emperor worship. When a new ruler took power, there was a herald that went through the kingdom announcing his coming, proclaiming the good news and calling the people to get ready for his appearing. So in like manner, Mark uses this word to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God. Mark said John the Baptist was the herald of Christ, calling people to a baptism of repentance, that their hearts might be ready to receive Him when He appeared.

So in this first chapter we see that Jesus did appear, and He was baptized in the Jordan. Not because He needed to repent of His sins, but so that He might identify with sinful man, and show that He had come to take away their sins. So as John declared “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” the Holy Spirit after His baptism drove Jesus out in to the wilderness, much like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement bearing the sins of Israel was driven into the wilderness, as an illustration that Jesus would bear away the sins of the world. The scapegoat was an illustration of the essential doctrine of the gospel, that the innocent would die for the guilty. So as He was 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus emerges sinless. He overcomes all temptations of the devil.

Now when we get to vs14, we find that Mark skips about a year in the chronology of Jesus’s ministry, and picks it back up with John the Baptist having been delivered over to Herod, where he was put to death. And at that time, Mark says that Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the same gospel message that John had been preaching. Jesus was preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

So in this passage we are looking at today, we are going to see two characteristics of this gospel of Jesus Christ. First we are going to look at the message of the gospel, and then the ministry of the gospel. Let’s examine first the message of the gospel.

I don’t want to gloss over the mention Mark makes that John the Baptist had been delivered up. I think this is an important principle. John had said concerning Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And so, in this briefest of Mark’s mentions, John gives up his life in service to the Kingdom of God. That fact, that martyrdom, establishes at the outset the priority of the gospel’s message. It is a message that is worth dying for. And one way or another, the gospel demands that we all surrender our lives for the sake of the Kingdom of God. If we are to receive the life of Christ, we must be willing to give up our lives so that we might have new life. Jesus said later in Mark 8:35 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” To receive the life of Christ, one must be willing to lose his life. And John the Baptist illustrated that principle when he gave his life for the sake of the gospel.

Next, we see that Jesus came preaching the gospel of God; saying, Notice first that Jesus came preaching. Preaching has fallen out of favor today. It’s unfashionable. Now that we are more sophisticated we can think of a lot better ways to present Christianity than by preaching. But Jesus came preaching. Preaching has been God’s preferred method of presenting the gospel since the days preceding the flood. Peter said Noah was a preacher of righteousness. As Paul said in 1Cor. 1:21, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Preaching may be foolishness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God by which men might believe.

So what did Jesus preach exactly? He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Let’s consider the phrase “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand…” Greek scholars tell us that the word used here for time is not speaking of chronology so much as it refers to opportunity. The way we might understand this is He is saying, the opportunity has presented itself, the Kingdom of God is near, it’s at hand, it’s right now. Now is the acceptable day of salvation. Let me give you a warning, ladies and gentlemen. The longer you resist the gospel, the less likely you are to receive it. When you resist the urging of the Holy Spirit, then you quench the Spirit, and you harden your heart until one day, you no longer can hear the Spirit of God’s call. Do not harden your heart. The golden opportunity is now, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Now let’s consider that phrase “kingdom of God.” Matthew uses a similar phrase, “kingdom of Heaven.” They basically mean the same thing. Jesus Christ came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. It refers to a spiritual kingdom, in which God rules the hearts and minds of His people. The Jews were looking for a physical kingdom. They were looking for Jesus to be a military conqueror, like David had been, and for the Messiah to take back his throne. But during the period between the first and second coming of Christ, the kingdom of God is spiritual. Christ rules in the hearts of His people. Jesus said in Luke 17:20. “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” So for now it’s a spiritual kingdom, then at His second coming, the heavens and earth will be remade, and we will rule and reign in the new heaven and earth with Christ as HIs bride.

So for now it is spiritual, but there is a physical component of the Kingdom of God; and that is it is His church. We that are saved are the physical manifestation of the spiritual kingdom. We are the hands and feet of Christ. We are His body, His people, His community, even His sons and daughters. And so we represent the Kingdom to the world. Col. 1:13 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” The whole world is captive to the prince of darkness, and ensnared in the web of this world to do his will. But through Christ, we who have believed have been transferred to the Kingdom of God, and now we live for Him, and live through Him as aliens in this present world until that day when He comes back to claim His own.

Then notice next that there are two pillars of the gospel which Jesus is preaching. I mentioned these last Sunday, but it bears going over again. For the gospel is based on these two essential pillars. And when you remove one or the other, the whole gospel cannot stand. The two pillars are repentance and faith. Jesus said, ““The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” We can imagine that the gospel could be reduced to one word, truth. The truth about God, about Christ, and how we might know God. So if the truth is the gospel canopy, the pillars which hold it aloft are repentance and faith.

Last time we talked a while about repentance, particularly the aspect of confession and how it is necessary for repentance. But today I wish to bring out another aspect of repentance. The word is translated repent in some of your Bible translations is “be converted.” And that phrase graphically describes the nature of repentance. Repentance is not merely feeling sorry. But it is being converted. Being changed. Turning completely around and going in the opposite direction. It means a change of heart. And at it’s root is the realization that all that you believed and lived by until Christ is a lie and is condemning you to death. It’s an appeal to God to be remade, to be transformed, to be made anew. Repentance means to be converted, to be changed. Listen, when you go to another country, the first thing you need to do is convert your currency to the currency of the country you are in. You cannot spend your money there. You need their money. And when you come to the Kingdom of God, you cannot spend the money from the dominion of darkness there. You must convert your currency. And your currency is your very life. It must be converted by the grace of God.

And that conversion requires faith, the other pillar of the gospel. The Bible tells us that “Abraham believed God, and He counted it to Him as righteousness.” That is the new currency of the new life in the Kingdom of God; righteousness. And God gives us righteousness in exchange for our sins. That’s pretty crazy isn’t it? We give God our sins, and He gives us in exchange righteousness. Our sins are transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness is transferred to us. 2Cor.5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made righteous in Him.” That is the gospel. That is how we are transferred to the Kingdom of God. Not by works, not by baptism, not even by confession, but by faith in what Jesus did on the cross for us. He was the innocent Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who took upon Himself our sins on the cross so that we who believe on Him would be granted His righteousness. Now that is the message of the gospel that Jesus was preaching.

Next, let’s look at the ministry of the gospel. Ministry means work or service. Jesus after His resurrection left those of us in HIs church with a work to do. It is a ministry of service that all of us are supposed to be doing until He comes. Do you remember what this work is? It’s found in Matt. 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So the key word there is disciples; the ministry of the gospel is to make disciples. We that have been taught, are to teach others. We that have been brought to Christ, are to bring others. And Jesus illustrates this very thing Himself. He has already met these four fishermen several months before. Mark does not elaborate on that, but John’s gospel tells us how these men initially met the Lord. But now Christ comes to them and calls them to follow Him. He says to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

This principle of becoming followers of Christ is so important. Peter talks about following Jesus’s example. 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” Being a disciple is not a position you rest upon, but a person you imitate. To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ, or a follower of another exemplary Christian. Paul said, “be imitators of me.” Folks, if we could say that to our children, if we could say that to our families, if we could say that to our neighbors, then the church would be a radically different place.

Well, Jesus called these men to be His disciples; to walk where He walked, to say what He said, to do as He did. In other words, it means being conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8:29-30 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” We have been called to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We are to look like Him, talk like Him, act like Him. That is how the spiritual Kingdom of God is manifested to the world.

Now how does this work itself out in the real world? Let’s look at Peter, Andrew, James and John and find out. I want you to notice though first of all, that these are just working class guys. Jesus could have called high ranking government officials to be His followers. He could have recruited a few movie stars or maybe a rock and roll band or two. He could have gone to a few major league ball teams and got some famous players to help Him spread the gospel. That’s how we would probably do it, wouldn’t we? Those kind of people would attract a crowd. But instead, He goes to Galilee and picks four regular guys, uneducated, a little rough around the edges. They might even have had a particular fishy odor about them. But that was who Jesus chose to be His closest companions and ambassadors to the world. And I believe He did so that we might know that He came to seek and to save those that were lost. Jesus said in Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

And that is because there is none righteous, no not one. That is why repentance is necessary for conversion. But also Christ chose the worthless things of the world so that salvation may be of God and not of man. 1Cor. 1:26-29 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

So Christ calls these men, these common, everyday, working class guys, to leave everything and follow Him, and in return He will make them fishers of men. Now that’s a test of our value system isn’t it? Which do you think is more valuable? Your career, your business? Or being a fisherman for the Kingdom of God?

Well, Peter and Andrew, his brother, were using a casting net to catch fish when Jesus came by. And when He called them, they left their nets and followed Him. There is nothing inherently sinful about fishing, of course. That’s not why they left their nets. But there was something a lot better. Jesus said on another occasion in Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Peter and Andrew decided it was better to serve God rather than the world, to lay up eternal treasure in heaven than to store up temporal treasure on earth.

James and John were working down the beach, mending nets. And when Jesus came by them, He called them to follow Him as well. And immediately, Mark said, they left their nets, they left their father with the boat and hired hands and followed Jesus. Jesus said at another occasion in Matt. 10:37-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” James and John were willing to leave everything, even family, for the sake of knowing Jesus. Being a disciple then means that he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it.

Now it’s interesting that Mark records two aspects of fishing as illustrated by these four disciples. And perhaps we might learn something from this in regards to being fishers of men. First note that Peter and Andrew were using a casting net, which they would cast out in a large circle, and the weights around the outer edge would then drop down and capture the fish.

Jesus at another time gave a parable about using a net like that in relation to the Kingdom of God. He said in Matt.13:47-50, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Now that’s a picture of the preaching of the gospel. It is cast into the world, and many types of people are caught up in it. Many come under the sound of the gospel, they hear the truth. But some repent and believe and are saved into the Kingdom of God, and some reject it, and are lost. And at the judgment, those that have rejected the truth of the gospel will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. But those who are found written in the book of life, will reign forever with the Lord.

Then notice that James and John are mending their nets when Jesus passes by. This picture illustrates the other aspect of ministry. Mark’s term for mending their nets means to put in order, or to make ready, and so includes cleansing, mending and preparing the nets for the next day’s fishing. Interestingly enough, a derivative of this same word is used in Ephesians 4:12 in which Paul describes the work of the pastor as equipping the saints. Strong’s Bible dictionary says that to equip means to complete thoroughly, to repair or adjust, to fit, to mend, to make perfect, to perfectly join together, to prepare, or restore.

So there is the other aspect of ministry; to prepare others, to equip others, to restore others, to complete others in the church. In other words, to disciple other disciples. That’s the two fold ministry of the gospel. One to preach the gospel, casting a wide net over the world to all who will hear. We are responsible to cast forth the word, and God will give the increase or the harvest. We just preach or proclaim the good news to all who will listen. The second aspect of ministry is to disciple those who believe in the gospel. To help them, correct them, complete in them what is necessary so that they may be furnished for every good work. That they might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And when we are faithfully preaching the message of the gospel, and doing the ministry of the gospel, then we are truly disciples; following Jesus’s example, and we too are being confirmed to the image of Christ. May we be about the business of the Kingdom of God, until Christ comes back to take us home with Him. May we be found faithful when He comes.

If you have not yet become a disciple of Jesus Christ, then today I urge you to make the most of this opportunity. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. It is the opportune time. Please don’t harden your heart against the Holy Spirit. Repent and believe the gospel that you might be saved. When you confess your sins to God, He will exchange your sins for Christ’s righteousness and give you life in Him. Take advantage of this offer today. Come to Jesus today.