Mark 1:29-39
And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Jesus ministry, stained glass is our theme today, and we'll be working with the text of Mark chapter one. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus, they were written down when the first generations of eyewitnesses were dying off so that we could have forever access to the real Jesus. The first of these books is Mark. Is the first biography about Jesus that we have in Mark is very to the point, very straightforward and focused on showing Jesus unfiltered and in action. In Mark, we see Jesus on the move from one place to the other. Here in the first chapter, we have what someone called a typical day in the ministry of Jesus, what his calendar looked like, if you will. And as we examine these things that Jesus did in a regular basis, we learn a few things, beautiful things that Jesus was engaged for us every day. First of all, take a look verse 35 where we learn about the richness of Jesus, Imperial life with God. It says 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 is looking for You. When people learn that Jesus had miraculous power. The response was overwhelming. Everybody wanted an appointment. Peter says, Everyone is looking for you, Jesus. Response to a time of extreme business, a time of tremendous opportunity. Jesus response to that time is very different than what most do, because when you and I come into a time of incredible popularity, opportunity to get so much done, to do so many things we always wanted to do, the first things that go are quiet, solitude and prayer squeezed
out. Am I right?
Jesus? See, the busier he gets, the more he prays. That's a lesson on prayer, right off the bat, the priority of prayer in Jesus ministry. Early in the morning was still dark. Jesus got up, went to a solitary place, to a desert place, and from the time that he went out there to the time that the disciples woke up, realized that he wasn't there, and went on a search and found him. We're talking at least a couple of hours. That's something. What does that mean to begin with? If you and I are full, weak people, and he's the son of God, and he taught he needed prayer, the busier it got, how much more we would need it. Or put it another way, when you and I when, when we come into those seasons where we have all of these opportunities in front of us, maybe families coming to visit, maybe it's a business opportunity, maybe it's a church event, and it's so busy and everybody want a piece of us. What are we accomplishing in those seasons. Maybe, maybe we are building more relationships, maybe we are making some money, and that's great. Maybe we're helping people, and that's all great. Jesus was standing in the middle of the opportunity that was going to change the world. So his opportunities were literally going to change the world, the course of history, and he still taught that prayer was too important to let
be squeezed out to
one degree or another. We all need to pay attention of this beautiful interior life of Jesus with God, the beautiful prayer life of Jesus. Why pastor? Because our fast paced world demands it. We now have computers in our pockets and purses, and they're always there close to us with a new sports score to note, a new status update to be read, a picture to be taken, an urgent text or email to address our culture has long venerated business and freneticism, we even humble brag about how busy we are, don't we, sometimes. And here's Jesus, the busier he gets, the more he pray the supreme priority of prayer in his ministry, it seems to him that nothing else is more important to This encounters that he has daily with God in prayer. Not only Jesus had this beautiful and rich interior life with God, His prayer ministry where he prioritizes spending time with God, not only for his own sake, but especially praying for us on our behalf. There is also on Jesus, a beautiful external life. There's beauty in his external ministry. And as you can see in the text, he ministers in both word and deed, Jesus had been doing miracles in Capernaum. He's healing the sick. He's driving out demons. He's doing incredible things. The people of the area were asking, stay here, don't leave us. Meet my needs through your miraculous beads. Just get up after prayer and says, No. First, I have to keep moving. I have to go to other places, to everybody else too. And secondly, what he says is, I am not here just to meet your needs or to meet the needs that you know you have in your body through my deeds. I'm also here to meet the deeds that you don't know you have through preaching of the Word, and that's why we have a Bible in the Jesus ministry stained glass right there, I am going to preach the gospel, says Jesus, I am going to call people to repent. I am not go. I am not just going to feed the hungry and heal the sick. I'm also going to minister and preach God's word. We recognize easily our physical needs in Jesus cares about them, but we don't always realize our spiritual need, how much we need God, how much we need grace, how much of a sinners we are. We don't like to hear that, but Jesus was like I came to help with that too. I want to you will not be loving for me not to try to I have to go after your soul, not just your body, but then again. Look at the text after he says, Let us go somewhere else so I can preach for that's why I've come next thing you see him doing? He heals a man with leprosy. What does that mean? No words without deeds. No deeds without. The word, look at the richness, look at the fullness of the salvation. The work of Jesus. He insists on calling people to personal repent and to believe in the gospel. Yet he also pour out himself and call his disciples to pour themselves out sacrificial love through deeds to meet and heal all other needs someone has. That's what Jesus did. There was ministry to him. He preached the gospel, and he helped people too. It does not have to be one or the other. It can be both, and that's what Jesus have done all the way to the cross. Your physical needs, but also, and most importantly, your spiritual needs. Do you know what's that? It's absolute beauty, absolute commitment, absolute sacrifice. That's the ministry of Jesus to these people, but also to us. You know, when Peter says in verse 37 Jesus, everyone is looking for you, he spoke more truth than he knew, because in the end of the day, everyone in the world is looking for Jesus, whether they know it or not, because the world is craving for this type of ministry, for this type of character, for this type of beauty and richness of a life of someone like Jesus, for a kingdom of God that comes this way. And if the world miss Jesus, they will not find it this beauty
anywhere else.
Pastor, okay, now us. What do we do with that? And I will leave you with these two things. How do we respond to that stained glass, to Jesus ministry. What we do with that first, my brothers and sisters, we keep receiving daily from his ministry, from his love, grace and mercy, everything that Jesus did back then. He did it for us, and he continued to do so prayer. He continued to pray for us. His prayer was not only back then, if you continue reading your Bible, you see that one of the ministries that Jesus do for us right now is that he's at the right hand of the Father, real close to God, the Father doing what, speaking on your behalf, interceding on your behalf, you can count on that, that you when you pray, you are not praying alone, and when you forget to pray, Someone, the Son of God, is praying for you. Word. He didn't only preach the gospel back then. He continues to preach the gospel today, every time our Bibles are open, every time you are listening to a message on radio, on on your computer, on YouTube here at the church. Why? Now, through my voices in weird, thick accent, Jesus is ministering to you. He is talking to you, preaching that love and grace and calling you to examine your life and keep walking with him, so keep receiving that, and know that he also ministers to us, indeed by blessing us with the Father and the Trinity. He's our Prophet teaches us. He is our priest. He intercedes to us, and he feed us with His Body and Blood. Work for us, and He is our king. He continue to rule and govern and lead us to. Eternal life. The second so first thing we do, we respond. We appreciate this. We say, Thank you, God. We sing in the choir for him. We embrace that, and we keep feeding ourselves again and again to everything that Jesus did and does for us. The second thing, we grow in it. We grow in Jesus. Ministry in Jesus work for us. Paul has the audacity to say that we can be formed in Christ, that He can be formed in you and me. Mark has the audacity to say, follow him, learn from him, imitate him. And you say, How in the world can I do that? I believe that we have a hint right in this chapter of Mark, right after we finish the reading today, we see Jesus healing Peter's mother in law. You know the story. We don't have many details. We have only two verses to tell us what happened. But it was. It must have been very important, because not only mark, but Matthew and Luke also give us that account, and maybe that's why the series The chosen made a big deal of that story, you know, and what happened to Peter's mother in Law after being healed by Jesus, being saved by Jesus, the fever left, and she began immediately to serve them. She began to wait on them, the serious the chosen. Imagine her waking up after the fever is gone, and immediately asking everyone around if they would like something to eat or something to drink. Peter, mothers in law responds to Jesus. Ministry is our model. How can we grow in Jesus ministry? We embrace it, we give thanks and we respond. We wake up every morning a fever or not fever. We wake up to serve, to bless others, to ask, What can I do to serve you? We respond to the healing that Jesus brought into our life, to his sacrifice on the cross, we were also sick. Actually, we're more than sick. We were dead in our sins. And Jesus did not only stretch his hand to lift us from a fever, he stretches his arms to be nailed so we could have been forgiven. And because of that, we respond as Peter mother in law, did we respond serving whoever shows up in front of us, in our workplace, in our family, in our circle of friends, we will not do it perfectly. We still live with sin and sickness. As followers of Jesus, we have to grow that day by day. But here we have it. Jesus ministry to us, beautiful, and we respond, and we go with him to serve others. Easy, not always, but God's people, these are the instructions. I'll
finish with that. Amen. Let.
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