Mark 2022

And 1 of the main ways of adoring him is to listen to his word, the word of God. And that's what we're gonna do right now. We're starting a new series in Mark's Gospel. Really to build up to the Mark drama and we're in Mark chapter 1.

We started off last week and we're in Mark chapter 1 starting at verse 21. So we've talked about the beginning of this good news, and it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to repent and to come to him because he is the great king. So when when you have a king. You do things differently, not your way, but under the king's way.

And when the when the country has a new king, we've suddenly got to get used to saying different different things. We've got to sing God save the king instead of god save the queen, and it's People go to prison that His Majesty delight or whatever it is and not hers anymore. We have to change things and the king has come to town and we were hearing about repentance. And now we're on verse 21. And I'm just gonna ask the law to help us.

This is your word. We wanna worship you. We want to behold our king. And so help us in this word, and then Thomas, he opens it up and explains to us, may your spirit be on him but also on us. Bore holes in our ears that we may hear truth and by your spirit help us to repent and to adjust in line with serving the king we pray.

Help us in these things. We have so many words, so many ideas, so many temptations around us. So many supposed wise people and philosophies and new ideologies. We wanna hear what the king of the universe says to us today. So help us now as we read in Jesus' name.

Oh, man. So Mark chapter 1 verse 21. They went to Capernium, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as 1 who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out.

What do you want with us? Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy 1 of God. Be quiet.

Said Jesus Sternly. Come out of him. The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, what is this? A new teaching with authority.

He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him. News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galile. As soon as they left the synagogue, they went to James and John to the home with went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her took her hand, helped her up.

The fever left her, and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset, people brought to Jesus, all who were ill and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons. But he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Very early in the morning while it was still dark. Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him. And when they found him, they exclaimed, everyone's looking for you. Jesus replied, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages, so that I can preach there also.

That is why I've come. So, he traveled throughout galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees. If you're willing, you can make me clean. Jesus was indignant.

He reached out his hand and touched the man. I'm willing, he said, be clean. Immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning Seeing that you don't tell this to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for the cleansing. As a testimony to them.

Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet, the people still came to him. From everywhere. Thanks for reading that to us.

My name is Tom Sweetman. We haven't met already and I'm 1 of the pastors here at the church and it's great to have you with us this morning. Welcome. I know there are a number of guests amongst us this morning who are here for the very first time. So, if that's you, it's lovely to have you and I guess we still got a few folk joining online so, if that's you, it's good to have you tuning in as well this morning.

Now, as we've already thought about with the death of any king or queen or any ruler, the thoughts and the reflections begin to turn to what they were like as rulers and some of the things that they stood for and what it was actually like to be a member of their kingdom and to live under their reign. And since Thursday, as you've been watching the news and digesting what other people are saying about the queen, you no doubt will have heard words like duty and humility and dedication and service and a lifetime of service. All of those words have been used to describe not only the queen herself but the kind of structure that she gave. To an always changing world. She was just there, a dependable always there kind of kind of person.

And 1 of the most interesting words that I think was used of her and made an impact on me at least was this word Fidelity. This idea of a person who is not just faithful in general but she's faithful to someone who is faithful to a particular person or to a cause or in this case to a nation and and a people. And that is quite an impressive thing, isn't it? In a world that is just littered with broken and breaking promises to have an example of a promise keeper, someone who has been faithful to promises for for so long. And it's interesting because before before Thursday when the queen died, I'd already kind of thought about and prepared this introduction.

And, 1 of the things I was gonna say in this introduction and try and illustrate was the nature of the true king and what it's like to live in his kingdom. And so, when the queen died on Thursday, I thought, well, that's that's, you know, so helpful. You know, you've got a perfect illustration there, the nature of a true royal, and what it's like to live under their kingdom, under their reign. Because that's exactly what Mark is giving us in chapter 1. We saw last week, didn't we?

That he has introduced the Lord Jesus Christ as none other than God himself who has come to well on this earth. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, you remember we read that last week and you have the father making this announcement, the heavens are torn open and the father says, this is my son. I love him. I'm pleased with him. I want you to listen to him.

And then we see the holy spirit coming down to descend upon him to set him apart for his ministry to equip him for all that he had come to do and to say to the world, this is the father's son, the spirit king. This is the 1 that should listen to. That was what we saw of him last week. And now, this week we're seeing something of what life is like under his reign. What does this king come for?

What words could we use to describe him? Who does he wanna be with? What does he wanna do? All of those questions Mark is answering Chorus in the second half of chapter 1. And I think 1 of the verses which just summarizes All that he is about and the nature of his kingdom is verse 41.

In verse 41, we're told that Jesus, as he looks upon this suffering world and the people caught within it, is both indignant and we'll explore that a bit later on. But as your footnote would say, he was moved with pity. The Lord Jesus Christ, as he looks upon the brokenness of this world, is moved with pity and he is moved with compassion for the lost. There is so much brokenness in this passage that we've just read. There is so much brokenness and yet the outstanding claim of this passage is that every problem, every conceivable problem that you can think of.

Can find its help, its healing, and its redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Mark wants us to see. And I think that's just such hopeful news, isn't it? Because it might be that you've come here this morning, and as you just look even at your own life, you kind of feel and see brokenness in lots of different areas. Maybe the relationships that you're in or the work that you've got to do or or whatever it is you might just sort of see and sense brokenness in lots of areas.

And this passage shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a sense in which He is moved to He's moved towards those who are broken and those who are suffering and those who are trapped in sin. Those things don't drive him away as they might do with other people. They actually compel him to come towards us. They sort of provoke his pity. And draw and draw him in.

That's what he is like. That's what it's like to live under his reign. And so we're gonna look at just 2 things this morning we're gonna look at the state of the world. That's gonna be our first heading. The state of the world and then we're gonna look at the heart of the king.

State of the world heart of the king and then we'll try and draw it all together at the end. And when we come to the state of the world, as you can see in this past The question is, where do where do you even begin? Because everywhere you look here in these verses, there is there is some kind of brokenness, some kind of experience in this cursed world, some person who is who is hurting, and the speed at which Mark takes us through these needs is breathless. I mean, the n I v kind of drops the word in certain places, but the ESV, which is another translation translates this word immediately all the same way. Just have a look with me at verse 10 and I'll read it from the e s v.

But you you'll kinda see what it's getting at. Verse 10, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open. Verse 12, the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. Verse 18, immediately, they left their nets. Verse 20, and immediately, he called them.

Verse 21, and immediately, on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue. Verse 23. Immediately, a man with an unclean spirit cried out. Verse 29. And immediately, he left the synagogue and entered the house.

Verse 30. And immediately, they told him about the fever, verse 42. And immediately, the leprosy left him and he was clean. It's a breathless pace, isn't it? This word immediately, there there is stuff for the Lord Jesus to do.

There is broken people that he seeing. There are things coming to him all the time. And I think Mark is wanting to stress that to show us the urgency and the overwhelming need that we find. Over there, there is someone who is trapped and enslaved by evil. Look over there, there is someone suffering with sickness and fever.

Back over there, there's someone unclean who's in the physical agony of leprosy and is also unclean and separated. And in between all of those things, there are whole towns worth of people coming out to Jesus, gathering at the door, presenting their needs to him. Everywhere you look. It's breathless, it's urgent, and there's need. But the big picture here when you stand back and say, what is what is really Mark showing us.

He's showing us that the that these are these are the effects of the fall. These are the effects of living in a cursed world. And for thousands of years, these things, evil sickness, death, un cleanness have been working out and wrecking lives all all over the world. That's the sort of big picture. But have a look with me at verse 23.

This is kinda seen 1 under state of the world. Just then, a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out. What do you want with us? Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are. The holy 1 of God. Now, last week, if you were here, you remember we finished with this this kind of postcard scene. You've got the Lord Jesus and he's walking around the lake of Galile, the fishermen are there, they're tending to their nets, they're gonna leave their nets to follow him, and there's something very romantic about that scene, isn't there? It's the sort of thing you might find on a watercolor or in a poem or on a postcard.

It's a romantic scene. You can imagine it. The Nets being left to follow Jesus. And yet here, we now see the romance of that scene giving way to a different reality. Here they are these new disciples following the Lord Jesus and now they are face to face with this unspeakable evil, which is destroying and which is taking over people like this people like this man.

And you can picture it, can't you? Jesus is there in the synagogue. He's gone on a Sabbath Day. If he wants to kind of have a point of contact, then this is the best place to be on a on a sort of holy day. And then suddenly, this man screams out, cries out.

And we're left wondering, what, you know, what was that like to be there? I mean, had he come in for that very purpose? Had he been following Jesus at a distance ready to spring him? Did he just happen to be there? And when the holy 1 stepped in, it kind of drew him out.

And how did that screaming go? Was he at the back of the crowd? Did he worm his way to the front in order say it in front of everyone. Here is this man taken over by evil, crying out. To Jesus.

In the new living translation, it it translates it this way. The impure spirit cried out why are you interfering with us? Why are you interfering with us? And I just I think I should just I love that. It's as if this evil spirit is saying, this is our world.

You know, we control this area. These are our people. This is our kingdom. Why are you interfering with us? Why are you What gives you the right to come into our world and to start and to start teaching?

It's interesting as well how the demon says things about Jesus, isn't it? We know who you are, holy 1, and you wonder why is he speaking like that. Is he trying to disarm Jesus? We know you. Is he trying to exercise control over him?

We can name you We know who you are. You must submit to us. And so you see what's going on here. The Lord Jesus is beginning his public ministry and the forces of darkness are breaking cover all around him. It might be that they were kinda hidden beforehand.

Sneakily working out their purposes. But when the holy 1 of God comes in among them, it draw it draws out what is there. And we see that evil in this first scene. And it's interesting, isn't it? To compare this demon with John The Baptist.

You think about what we saw John the Baptist last week. He knows a lot of stuff about the king. He knows that this is the 1 who was greater than him in status and in power, the 1 sent from God who would back ties with the Holy Spirit, and what he knows about Jesus, he loves. He delights in that, but this demon is different. He knows stuff about Jesus, but what he knows he hates.

He doesn't like it, and he fears it. And rightly so. I mean, look what Jesus does in verse 25. Be quiet. Jesus said sternly, come out of him.

The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. Remember all those years ago in Genesis chapter 3, when Satan comes into the garden with just 1 purpose to deceive to torment, to destroy the people that God had made. And as you can see, his mission is the same is the same plan But here is the holy 1 of God who has stepped into this world in order to defeat evil to show that 1 day he will destroy evil and to liberate this man who was suffering in his prison. And it's interesting the response, isn't it? People are just stunned by what Jesus does here.

In verse 22, the word is literally they were struck with panic. In verse 27, the word is different, and it literally means they were emotionally stalled. Know what it's like when you stall a car and you just come to a shuddering halt. Everything stops. Everything turns off.

You no longer know. Everything stops working. In verse 27, they were emotionally stalled when they saw what Jesus that they didn't know how to process it. They had seen a demonstration of power for which they had no analogy. They had never seen anything like this before, never heard anyone speak in this way or do these things, they were emotionally stalled.

And you imagine what the disciples must have been thinking. Come with me says the Lord Jesus, and I will make you fishers of men. That sounds great, isn't it? There's a sort of romance about that. I can get on board with that.

I'm gonna be a fisher of men. Fisher of fish fish of men. I get it. Oh, this is what he means. It's it's gonna be like this.

We're gonna be facing this kind of thing. People who are this broken. That's that what our lives are gonna be. They are stunned. They are emotionally stalled.

They have never seen anything like that. But Jesus is showing his command over evil. Seeing 2, have a look at verse 29. As soon, so immediately, barely time to catch a breath. As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever and they immediately told Jesus about her. And so, now, we move into this slightly warmer scene. We've moved away from what you could describe as the the sterile environment of synagogue, and now we're by the fireside in a fisherman's cottage. You know, it's much more homely, it's a bit more intimate. And yet you see here that the same brokenness that they've seen in the synagogue has also made its way into this home.

Here is Simon Peter. He was a fisherman. We're told here that he was a family man. This is his mother-in-law, so he had a wife. He may well have had children as well.

This is his family, he's a fisherman, a family man, and he's now a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. But does that mean that he will be shielded from the brokenness of this world? Does that mean that he's gonna be protected from sickness and death? Does that mean that the effects of the fall aren't gonna find and touch his life? Well, no.

As we can see, it's come right into his and yet look at the king. Look at what he does. Look at the world that he's 1 day gonna bring. First 31, so he went to her took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Now, normally, if you've had a fever or you've been battling a sickness of some kind, even when the fever has left you, it takes a few days for you to recover. Doesn't it? You know, you're not yourself, you're not back to full strength for a good 2, 3 days. And yet here, there's no sense of that. Because Jesus is far more than just the paracetamol, isn't he?

He he has all the power, the restoring power of the son of God. And so, what he does is he goes to her, he looks at her, he gathers around her, and he takes her hand, and he helps her up and fever, the fever leaves her behind. And she can immediately serve them such is the power of the son of God. And it's amazing because here we have got Christ. And, yes, he has come for the big picture stuff.

He has come to cast out the demon to defeat evil, but he has also come to do a gracious work on the flesh and blood of the disciples he loves. He's not just into the big picture stuff. He will go to the fisherman's cottage and he will take the hand of the mother-in-law and he will show his power and his love. For his own disciples as well. And then verse 33, we're told that evening the whole town gathered all who were sick.

I mean, you just you just imagine this. I mean, just just if you if you at the moment work in kind of front line medical care, So if you're a radiographer, if you're a midwife, if you're a nurse, if you're a doctor, if you're a dentist, just put your hand up, just if you work in that in that field. Yeah. No, confidently. No.

Yeah. You're not embarrassed of your job, are you? Yeah. So, there's a good number of you. Now, you just think about those of you in that situation.

The patients that you've seen this week, all the different needs that you have faced, the complexity of the care that you've got to give, and imagine that all of your patients, not only the ones dealt with, but in the whole hospital, make their way out with the rest of the town to this 1 house. Jesus is standing there just in front of so much need, so much hurt and pain and sickness and problem and possession. And yet with a word or a touch, he is able to heal, help, and redeem, all who come to him. It's amazing isn't it? That's what he's like, and that's the kind of kingdom he's come to bring.

Seeing 3, last 1. Verse 40, a man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees. If you are willing, you can make me clean. Now, the word clean is used 4 times in that little section, and it has both a physical and a spiritual sense. So again, the new living translation takes this verse 40.

If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean. I think it's quite helpful to divide them up like that. Because that's really what he's saying. If you are willing, you can heal me. You can take away the physical torment that I'm in and in so doing make me clean.

You can restore me, you can bring me back to culture and society. And this, in some ways, this last scene is the most tragic of all. It really is. Just listen to what a leper or someone with this kind of skin disease would have to do in the old testament. This is from leviticus 13 verse 45.

It says, anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out unclean, unclean. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone. They must live outside the camp. That is a sorry picture, isn't it?

You've got to tear your clothes, your hair has got to be attempt. You've got to live outside the town away from other people shouting that you are unclean. You've got to remind yourself of what you are all the time, unclean, unclean. I mean, at least the demon possessed man in the first bit. At least he was able to kind of live in synagogue life a bit.

At least, you know, the woman, Simon's mother-in-law. At least was able to be nursed in the comfort of our own home. This is a tragic last scene. He's banished in physical torment, separated from culture, and from the world that he lives. And that is a picture of what sin does.

It's not that this leper was super sinful, and therefore, he was given leprosy, but rather it illustrates what sin actually does. It brings about this separation between us and God. You might remember Genesis 3 again. After Adam and Eve have rebelled against the Lord, that sense of separation is felt by them. The perfect relationship that they enjoyed now begins to break and there's a sense in which they're separated from each other.

They have to physically go outside of the garden. They are separated from the garden and the place and the tree of life. They gotta go and live outside. There's that picture of uncleanness separating them. And yet, here is the king.

And he is able to bring that restoration. Ever since Genesis 3, the world has needed this cleansing so that we can come back to God and the Lord Jesus Christ has come to bring exactly that. There's that song that we've started singing recently here and it's become a bit of a a favorite. Is is he worthy? And we've been singing that together in the morning and in the evening as well.

And in the first verses, what that song is trying to get us to do through question and response is to feel the brokenness of this world, to see the state of the world in which we live. Do you feel the world is broken? Do you feel the shadows deepen? Do you feel creation groaning? We do.

And that's just what you see here in Mark 1, isn't it? Do you feel the shadows deepen as evil takes over and wrecks people's lives? Do you feel the world is broken as sickness and death make their way into the family home? Do you feel creation groaning? The very fabric of the world aching longing to be restored and made clean and made new.

We do. We do. We see it here and all of us to 1 degree or to another will have tasted something of that in our own lives. We feel the world is broken. And yet secondly, we also see here the heart of Christ.

There's the state of the world firstly and secondly the heart of the king or the heart of Christ. And what you see here in Mark 1 is that Jesus has a heart for 3 things. He has a heart for people, for prayer, and for preaching. He has a heart for people, for prayer and for preaching. That's what you see here.

You may have you may have seen today as you looked at your clocks or as you looked at your calendars. It's 9 11 today and, you know, historic date 21 years to 20 first anniversary. Of the day when those 2 planes came crashing into the the twin towers. And, I was reading I was reading a story this week by a written by a guy called Clarence Gleton, who was a firefighter. He actually retired in the year 2000.

He'd been a firefighter for many years in New York and still happened to live in New York when the towers came down and when those attacks happened. And, he decided even though he'd been retired 10 months, that he was gonna go back to his station and don his old uniform on his t shirt and his boots and against the advice of his family, he was gonna go down to what is now ground 0 and to see what he could do. And that he talks about when he got there, the place which is normally so busy had just become a ghost town. There was clouds of dust everywhere and all kinds of debris which you can imagine that that that he could that he could see around the towers and various fires that he had to put out. And as he was there helping, 1 of the towers actually collapsed down upon him.

And that he was in the kind of the crash zone and his arm was completely broken while he was trying to serve, and he was taken to A and E His arm was popped back into place, and then he discharged himself and went back down to ground 0 in order to see what see what he could do and see what e t could help. And it's just an extraordinary story because when you see these planes going in, most people, as we all would think, right, now of time to get out of here and they're running and they're trying to get as far away as they can. But here is a person who saw that and thought the opposite. He felt compelled to go in towards the suffering in order to see what he could do. And in that, he is just a little picture of how the Lord Jesus thinks about people.

You know, when when the the debris of sin and the collapse of our life is taking place, and others might want to run. He is compelled. He comes in. He's drawn in to see what he can do. Because he has a heart.

He has a heart. For people. And as I said at the beginning, verse 41, I think is just is just such a great summary. Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man.

I am willing, he said. Be clean. So there we've got those 2 words indignant, which can also be moved with pity. And I think that isn't that just such a great summary of how Jesus looks upon this this broken world, that there is a sense in which he's indignant you know, that as he looks at the world, and he sees the effects of sin, and he sees the effects of death, and the pain, he is dignant, not that he kind of flies off the handle in uncontrollable rage, but he has this settled opposition. This is not how things were supposed to be.

I hate what this is doing to the people I created. He looks about these angry at what Satan is doing and what death is doing, that's how he looks at it. But he's also moved with pity, and he's moved with compassion. So he is somehow perfectly able to hold these emotions together, both indignant at what he sees and yet full of love for the people who are suffering. And then in verse 41 as well, we're told that he is both willing and able to help.

He is both willing and able. And isn't that wonderful? Because you just think about if 1 of those were not true. Think about the Lord Jesus being able to help and yet unwilling. In other words, he has the power to do it, He is able to do it, but he wills not to help you.

Or imagine it the other way. He's willing to He looks upon your needs and he wants to help you but he's not able. He doesn't have the power to do it. That'd be tragic either way, wouldn't it? Well, here is Jesus, he is both willing to make us clean, and he is able.

He has both the heart and the power. He can do it and he loves to do it. What a summary of his heart for people, indignant full of compassion, able and willing. And you just notice how personal his approach is to people here. You don't have to book a remote appointment with him.

He's not gonna give you 5 minutes video call and then leave you to yourself. He is full of the personal touch. You see, if Jesus came into this earth, came to this world just in order to build a campaign, to build a movement just to gather the crowds and have a stage. If that was all that he was about, chapter 1 makes no sense. He spends too much time with people.

He's too easily distracted by people's needs. If that was really what he's about, we just can't match it up here. I mean, you look at Simon. Simon Peter, he's following Jesus Christ, and later on, Jesus is going to say to him and the disciples, you must love me so much and with such intensity that all other loves in your life will pale into comparison. That that is the sort of passion that you must have for me if you're gonna follow me.

And yet, does he ignore the family home? Does he ignore the loved ones in Peter's life? No, he he goes. He goes. And he wants to do a a gracious miracle and do something loving for his disciples, and he goes and he takes her by the hand.

Did he have to do that? Did he have to take her by the hand? Couldn't he have just thought it done? He wants to show his personal involvement, his willingness, his ableness to bring restoration. This leper at the end of the chapter, how long do you think it was since he'd been touched?

How long do you think it was since he'd felt? The contact of another human upon him. Even to be near him, risked becoming uncle you risk becoming unclean. Even if you were near him And yet here, we see a man whose life is completely wrecked. This is literally his last chance.

He may have heard something about Jesus and he chooses to break through protocol and come to him and throw himself at Jesus' feet as a last chance. If you're willing, you can make me clear. And yet, what does Christ do? He reaches out his hand. He does what?

He does what? Really? He reaches out his hand and touches him. That too was forbidden in the law. You couldn't do that.

And yet, the Lord God also says, I desire mercy not sacrifice. I desire the heart of the law, not the written letter, and he moves through it in love and in so doing fulfills it and shows what it was always about. He touches this man amazing, isn't it? The heart of Jesus for people. Some years ago, a couple years ago myself and Pete and Anne, we went over to Poland to to visit Taras.

Taras and his family want a missionaries that we support used to be in Belarus, moved to Poland in the recent troubles. And on 1 evening, we left our accommodation and we're just having a look around the old town. We were staying in Warsaw in the old town and there was a there was a kind of Catholic church just around the corner from us and it was late at night, it was the last service of the day, and we thought that we would go in just to see what it was see what it was like and we came in about the last 5 10 minutes of the service, just as the just as things were were wrapping up. And then there's just this extraordinary moment when the priest up the front finished dispensing the grace or doing the service, and it was done. The final amen was said, and within a matter of seconds, all the lights in the building were turned off.

And, the congregation that was sat there, presumably they were used to that, then just had to file out in silence and in darkness, and it was just it was just amazing to sort of witness that. And, there are times of course, as no. After a prayer meeting at the hub when the staff will stand and flick the lights off. And the message is obvious, isn't it? You know, we wanna go home, so take your stations outside, but that's not straight away.

You know, we do like a bit of personal flavor in our meetings. And yet, here is this this amazing job where really you're in a position where you're dispensing grace and running a service, but you don't really have to concern yourself with the good or the bad of the people in front of you. You don't really have to know if somebody's just got a new job, or they're pregnant, or you don't really need to know, or share in the joys of the congregation, neither do you need to know when things are broken and going bad. So, if there's a marriage situation where a partner is being abused, in the context of the marriage, if somebody's got an addiction that is wrecking them, if they're going through a sad illness, you you sort of don't have to You don't really have to know The lights are off, everyone files out in silence, the job is done. And I have to say, you know, even in my sinful heart, you look at that and you think, Yeah.

There's something attractive there about just doing the service and not having to deal with the the sort of the mess of life. But then you turn to this passage and you see, no, there is nothing more foreign to New Testament Ministry or to the life of Jesus than that. He was absolutely a people person, wanting to get involved with the mess and the sin and the brokenness of life. And, I think that's a good application, isn't it, to all of us in Christian in Christian ministry. Not just those who are elders in the church, but home group leaders, Sunday school teachers, anyone who is involved, even in a 1 to 1, ministry relationship.

That we are first and foremost about we it is a people centered faith. We are not just here to build numbers, to build a platform, to get behind the latest fad. It is all about people, the joys and the mess and the brokenness of people. That's what the Lord Jesus models for us. He had a heart for that.

He had a heart for people. Secondly, he also had a heart for prayer under this point. A look at verse 35. Very early in the morning. While it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place.

Where he prayed. Now, 3 times in Mark, we're told that Jesus does that. 3 times in Mark. He goes to a solitary place to pray. Once he's here, the second time is after the feeding of the 5000 and before he walks on water and the third time you could probably guess is in gethsemane.

Those are the 3 times that he withdraws to a solitary place to pray. And it's quite interesting because the word solitary place here is translated wilderness in verse 12. So when the Lord Jesus is driven out into the wilderness to be tempted and tried by Satan, it's that same word here. He goes into the solitary place, into the wilderness. Now, what does that tell us about Jesus' prayer life?

Well, it tells us 2 things. Firstly, We know that he loved the father and he needed the father and he wanted to seek the father's face and spend time with him. But secondly, Jesus also needed to pray. Because he was in a time of tempting and trial and difficulty. If he was gonna survive this spiritual battle, If he was gonna keep up with the personal cost of ministry, he needed to go to pray.

He needed that. And for us, although the Lord Jesus Christ is much more than just an example, he is the savior who dies for our prayerlessness to make us new. He is also an example to us in this way. To remain people centered and to survive the spiritual war that we're in and to deal with the brokenness we face, we have to pray. We have to seek the face of God.

And some of you, that that might be exactly what is needed in your life at the moment. You know, maybe you're going through a particular difficult season. There's a relationship that is under a lot of pressure. You feel like you're under attack from Satan in a certain way. And the best thing to do would be to try to book a day or an afternoon off work, get by yourself alone with a bible and seek the face of God.

And pray and bring it to him and seek him. That's what the Lord Jesus does. It's a costly difficult life. He needs to book a day off so he can go into the solitary place and meet with his father. He had a heart for people.

He had a heart for prayer. Lastly, he had a heart for preaching. And look at verse 36. Simon and his companions went to look for him. And when they found him, they exclaimed.

Everyone is looking for you. Jesus replied, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come. And this is the difference between Jesus and those firefighters on 9 11. Both of them were compelled to help and do what they could.

But the firefighters don't come to bring a kind of moral instruction with that. They're there to sort of help the needs, but Jesus has come both to do that. But, primarily, to bring forth a message of repentance and life. The King James version translates this. It's brilliant.

Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. For therefore, k my fourth. For therefore, k my fourth. I love that. It's like riding a wave, isn't it?

4 therefore came my fourth. What he's saying there is that this is the very reason I've come forth. This is the reason that I've come into the world. Yes to help people, but make my main driver is verse 15. I've come to teach repentance and faith because the kingdom of God has come near.

And when you look back through the passage, and you ask yourself this question, what is it that makes the big splash? What is it that people are really impressed and amazed by It is time and time again the teaching. Here is somebody who teaches with authority. Now, does that mean people weren't amazed by the miracles? They thought, oh, well, you never see that all the time.

That's, you know, par for the course. But the teaching is absolutely amazing. Now, I think I think the point of that is to say that the miracles and the teaching are not separate things. They're actually not separate. They happen whilst Jesus is teaching.

He's proclaiming the authoritative word of God, and as he does, miraculous stuff happens. See, in our minds, we tend to divide the 2, don't we? We've got the teaching and the miracles, but here, they seem to be 1. They're amazed at the teaching. Here is 1 who doesn't teach like our scribes.

You know, when our scribes stand up here, they just talk about the oral traditions of fathers. They refer to their extra biblical texts. They give us a whole load of laws about how to drink and how to wash our dishes and all kinds of stuff. But here is someone altogether different. He doesn't use that as his authority.

He speaks as if he was the voice of God himself. He speaks as if he was literally God speaking. And when he does this stuff, you know, there's no spell, there's no incantation, there's no sleight of hand, there's no trickery here. He speaks as God and God stuff happens. People get forgiven and they get healed and evil gets vanished.

This teaching is unlike anything that we have ever heard before. They are amazed by it, stunned, emotionally stalled. And this is 1 of the reasons that Jesus doesn't want people to mob him. Doesn't want him to doesn't wanna be sort of taken up because he has come to heal, help, and redeem all. But he needs to do so within the context of verse 15.

He needs to preach because he knows that this holistic redemption is only gonna come when people understand and enter the kingdom of God. His priority was preaching, and I think there's a lesson for us there as well, isn't there? There's many, there are many noble things that Christians can do and want to do and should do. But the priority Jesus models here is also the commission he gives his disciples. The priority he models is the commission he gives.

Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, teaching them, teaching them. And so as his priority was verse 15, so should ours. So, the heart of Christ, for people, for prayer, for preaching. Just lastly in the last few minutes, let's try to bring some of this together. What did we learn here about the king?

And the kingdom of God. Well, we learn 1 of the big things here is that the kingdom of God is not just a vague spiritual idea. That is for some distant spiritual world, the truth and the kingdom that God brings is for the mess of our lives. It really is for the brokenness that we experience. That's who he's come for.

The Lord Jesus has come to forgive sinners and to roll back the curse and to restore the broken. That's what he's all about. Forgive sinners, roll back the curse restore the broken. And of course, what we see here in Mark 1 is just a shadow of that which he would accomplish at the cross. This is what this is what we see here him doing, which he would later purchase for all who believe in him at the cross.

You take the impure spirit in the first story of this passage. Jesus showing that he has authority over evil, Where do we see that ultimately? Well, it's at the cross, isn't it? When the Lord Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins, he defeated the evil 1. See, here is Satan, the great accuser, and he's got a list of all the things that you've done wrong, and he holds it all God and says, look at all that he or she has done, they deserve death according to your law.

I'm gonna accuse them before you. And the Lord Jesus says, Yeah, but I'm gonna take it all upon myself. Everything that you've got there and the penalty that it deserves, I'm gonna pay for myself, I'm gonna take it and so you are gonna be left toothless. There is nothing you can say, nothing you can dangle over their heads. Everything that you know, I know, and I've dealt with it.

There's nothing you can do. He is defeated. He is disarmed at the cross. We see a shadow of that in Mark 1. Sicknesses.

Have a look at Matthew 8 verse 16 or just listen to be reading it. Just listen to how you talks about this particular story with the mother-in-law. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him. And he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, He took up our infirmities, and he bore our diseases, and he quotes that from Isaiah 53.

Which is all about the cross. And so here, he's saying that on the on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ bears our sins. But there's a sense in which he takes all our diseases and all of our sicknesses and all of our infirmities upon himself to purchase a world without them. That 1 day a world will come where all of those things are gone, never to be seen again, and that is 1 for all believers at the cross. He takes up our infirmities to buy us for a world without them.

And therefore, we can pray. Therefore, we should pray to those ends. Listen to how Charles spurgeon describes this scene with the mother-in-law here. We may not make sure that the Lord will at once remove all disease from those we love, but we may know that believing prayer for the sick is far more likely to be followed by restoration than anything else in the world. And where this avails not, we must meekly bow to his will.

By whom life and death are determined. The tender heart of Jesus waits to hear our griefs, let us pour them into his patient ear. Wonderful, isn't it? He's saying, look, it may not be the case that all of our loved ones get healed of everything that plagues them in this life. But if this is true and that Jesus died to take him at the cross, and if he's gonna make a world without them 1 day, then surely believing prayer is about the best thing that we can do.

If it doesn't happen, we must meekly bow to his will. He determines life and death. But we can come to him and bring these things to him, knowing that he died for them to make a world without them. The cross. Is fulfilled, is seen here in Mark 1.

And then lastly, what about uncleanness and separation? Well, it's in 1 sense, it's the most beautiful of of all. It's it. This man who is unclean in every way, and yet the Lord Jesus reaches out his hand and touches him. And in doing so, Jesus manages to remain the perfect pure son of God, and yet at the same time, takes the uncleanness of sin upon himself and what a wonderful picture of substitution that is.

The perfect 1 taking the uncleanness of the sinner so that we might become clean. If there was a greater picture of the cross in this chapter, I have I haven't seen it. The Lord Jesus Christ when he dies. He takes our uncleanness. He becomes sin for us, so that in him, we might become the righteousness and the purity of God.

What a wonderful swap. All of these things. Point to the cross. And so the question of that song, do you feel the world is broken? Do you feel the shadows deepen?

But then it says, do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through? All the dark won't stop the light from getting through. And so let this passage encourage you to seek the Lord Jesus. Whatever the messes in your life, whatever the sin it is you're battling against, let this encourage you to press through to the Savior to say to him, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Because if you say that in faith, you can be sure of the answer.

I am willing. Be clean. This is the king and this is what it's like to live in his kingdom. Let's pray together. I'll just give you a moment of quiet and you can reflect on all that we've seen here and pray that prayer if you are willing.

You can make me clean. And I'll hand over to Pete.