Sermon 1

A Busy Restful Couple of Days
Mark 1.21 -37

What was the daily life of the Lord Jesus Christ like? What did he do? What didn’t he do? All of have our routines that we follow in our days. We usually get up at a certain time. It might change if we go to work or have a day off, but we generally do things in a specific pattern. Did Jesus have any kind of pattern he followed on a typical day? Let us look at a couple of days in the life of Jesus to see some of the things he did, maybe on a typical day.
Read Mark 1.21 – 22. The days we are going to look at start on a Friday afternoon. We know it is a Friday afternoon because that is when the Sabbath starts in the Jewish tradition. We think of going to church on Sunday morning, when the Jews went to the synagogue service it was on Friday evening – after sunset on Friday. Jesus taught in the synagogue on that day. He was traveling through the area and he was invited to teach the Jews on that day. The people were in for a real surprise – this Rabbi – teacher – taught with authority not like everyone else. And they listened. I can imagine the normal Sabbath service – when the speaker stood up, their minds turned off and maybe they went to sleep, like people here. But this preacher really challenged them with what he said.
The passage does not tell us what he talked about, but in his teaching he said, “Do to others as you would have them to do you.” Do you not want people to cheat you in a transaction? Then you better not cheat them. Do you want them not to gossip about you, then don’t gossip about them. Jesus said seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all of this will be other things will be given to you. The people who were listening were good church people but they were as materialistic as the rest of the culture. I will seek the money and job first, and then maybe give a little to God. Jesus said – I must be first in your life – absolutely first. The listeners were awake and listening because this was very different.
Move with me to the next four verses – Read 1.23-28. Then during the service on of the Jews in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit, stood up right there and shouted. It does not often happen that you talk back to me during the service when I am preaching, and I do not think any of you are demon possessed. This man knew who Jesus was even more than the disciple of Jesus knew. Jesus was indeed the “Holy One of God” as this man said. Then right during the service, Jesus did an exorcism – he ordered the evil spirit out of this man. The man was cleansed of this evil spirit.
That was not the end of the day for Jesus. Jesus went to the home of Simon Peter and Andrew. Peter was married and his mother-in-law who lived with Peter and his wife was sick. Jesus healed her – just another miracle. That was the close of that day. Everyone had some supper and when to bed.
Between verse 31 and 32, was most of a day. This was the Sabbath day – the day of rest. We are not told what Jesus and his disciples did on that day, but it could not have been much. They could not do anything but just the minimal amount of work. They pretty much did nothing from the time they got up until sunset that afternoon. We should learn from them – we have to be busy all the time – running here and there – being busy. Not so with our Lord on the Sabbath day.
As soon as they could move around after the Sabbath, the people of the area brought all the sick to Jesus to be healed. Read 1.32-34. This was tremendously exciting for the people. We take our sick to the hospital, but they had extremely primitive medicine if they had any at all. All of a sudden here was Jesus who could heal any disease including demon possession. The people came so Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, those with broken arms or legs – some which had healed wrong. He healed heart conditions, cancers, goiter, and other diseases. He also drove out demons which had invaded men and women. These were people who could no longer control themselves, but were tortured by evil all the time. With the power of God, Jesus spoke and these demons were driven out. This must have been totally exhausting for him. Because of his love for these suffering men and women, he healed them. Maybe hundreds walked home that night relieved of their sicknesses and spiritual torture.
I can imagine the disciples went to sleep that night excited about the day. Their Rabbi was certainly something different – he was a teacher better than anyone could even imagine. Besides that he could heal sicknesses. It must have been hard for them to sleep thinking about the day. But they did go to sleep.
Read 1.35-37. When the disciples got probably at sunrise, Jesus was gone. They looked all around the house and he was not anywhere. Early in the morning or late at night Jesus got up and left house. He went to be by himself to pray. This for him was the most important thing that he did in the last couple of days. People have wondered why God the Son would pray to God the Father – God to God? What would he pray about? For me the answer is very clear. Pray is not just asking for things, but pray at its best is coming into the presence of God – just being there. For eternity, Jesus and the Father had been in constant intimate fellowship. When Jesus was on earth there was a separation that Jesus had never experienced. This time of prayer was a time of filling for him, and he needed that.
What do we learn from this passage? This is what I think – all of this was to build the faith of the disciples. As they watched all of what went on that day, their faith was built up. They must have asked each other – who is this? In the same way we as his modern day disciples have our faith built up as we see what Jesus did. Who is this? The greatest teacher ever. Who is this? The powerful healer from God. Who is this? Jesus Christ the very son of God

New Year

One of my New Years resolutions is to do a blog every week in 2009. I will try.
This has been a busy and great couple of months.
The last part of November I flew to Germany and spent time with Hans and his family. We had a great time driving very fast around Germany looking a Dachau and many other places. I got to spend some time with two on my wonderful grandkids there.

In December I flew to Seattle to see Marshall Dean for the first time. They had the worst snow storm in 40 years that weekend so I spent a lot of time holding Marshall. Heidi and I flew back - Marshall was perfect on the flight.

We had a good Christmas topped off with watching the Vikings get beat in the playoff game. I went to Peder and Sarah's and I picked up Heidi and Marshall on the way. How great was that being with two of my kids and two grandkids. I watch Relia interact with Heidi and Marshall - she is so demonstrative in her actions and facial expressions. Wow. The only thing that could have made it better would have been Hans and Rachel and their kids bing there - someday.

Mary and I went to the Strange Case of Benjamin Button - it was an unusual but very good long movie.

Hope you have a good 2009.
Love to all,
Steve/Dad