LOC 035: Life of Christ:
Early
the Next Morning
We have been noting the timeline of events throughout this
series. These past three weeks of
sermons have captured a small amount of actual time. The calling of the four disciples: Peter and
Andrew--James and John, was very likely on a Friday. The next day Jesus was in the synagogue of
Capernaum astonishing the congregation with his manner of authoritative
teaching. At some point, a man with an
unclean spirit spoke up, only to be rebuked as Jesus cast out the Spirit. Immediately after that meeting, Jesus with
his four disciples went to Peter’s house for Sabbath-day hospitality. They could not be served because Peter’s
mother-in-law was in bed with a fever.
Jesus went to her and healed her.
In the evening of that day, right at sundown, the crowds pressed in on
Jesus at Peter’s house. Jesus healed
many of them and cast out many demons.
All those events occurred in a little over 24 hours. A full day.
Jesus as a man had needs. One of
those was to seek solitude away from the crowd.
He knew what was coming. So, on the next day, the first day of the week,
the next thing in his life and ministry, is still in rapid succession. It is the narrative under consideration
today. I would like to read two versions
of the narrative: first from Luke 4:42-44 and then from Mark 1:35-39. Our exposition of the text will come from
Mark Chapter One.
Turn to Luke 4:42-44:
Luke 4:42 ¶ Now when it was day, He [Jesus] departed and went into
a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep
Him from leaving them; 43 but He said to them,
“I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for
this purpose I have been sent.” 44 And
He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Let me draw your attention to a few matters:
1. Time--daylight was approaching. Jesus was up early to go out to
a....
2. Deserted place--solitude sought. Even Jesus needed a few minutes peace.
3. Sought by the crowd--this word conveys a sense of the crowd’s
collective purpose: to desire to have or experience something, with the
probable implication of making an attempt to realize one’s desire — they were
hunting Jesus to satisfy their own wants and desires.
4. The Purpose of Jesus--to preach the Gospel. Jesus purpose in
coming was to communicate good news concerning something that was already
present among them Jesus was not preaching about future grace, but present
realities. It means ‘to tell the good
news, to announce the gospel.’ From this
word we get the English word evangelist--one who tells others of the good news
already present among men.
With that in your minds, let’s go to Mark 1:35-39 where strangely
enough, Mark gives us the fullest account of that particular morning.
Mark 1:35-39 under four headings:
1. Time, Place and Work
2. The Twofold Reaction of the
Disciples
3. Jesus Greatest Purpose
4. Summary of Jesus Work
1. Time, Place and Work
Mark 1:35 ¶ Now in the morning, having risen a long while before
daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.
2. The Twofold Reaction of the
Disciples
36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When
they found Him, they said to Him,
“Everyone is looking for You.”
3. Jesus Greatest Purpose
Mark 1:38 But He said to them,
“Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because
for this purpose I have come forth.”
4. Summary of Jesus Work
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all
Galilee, and casting out demons.
Let’s look a bit closer at the
text:
1. Time, Place and Work
TIME:
Mark 1:35 ¶ Now in the morning, having risen a long while before
daylight,
This expression in the original language has no direct English
counterpart. To translate it with a
rigid literal meaning into English would make it incomprehensible. Weeks ago we noted the difficulties with
translation: we know how to pronounce the words, and we know what they mean,
but putting them together to discover the syntax or use in communication is
often hard work between Greek and English.
This is one of those passages.
The English translation in our Bibles convey the meaning accurately, but
not with the intensity of the original.
Let me try to shine some light on what I mean.
This statement in the original has three adverbs, that is three
words to modify or explain the action involved.
In English, most adverbs are words that end in “ly”. When we want to make a point about the
intensity of a thing, we heap up words.
Around here we might say, John rose early. That would be a vague way to
express an important point about John’s rising habits. Early to me, might be later than early to
you. It lacks specificity to show its
true importance. If I said, “John rose
very early.” The statement has greater intensity. Of all men who rise, John was in the very
early category. To further intensify the
rising habits of John we may change the very to extremely or ridiculously to
further intensify John’s habits and to give a sense of what he did. In Greek, words are heaped up in a way that
makes them impossible to convey in proper English as a rigid word for word
translation. In this text, in Greek, it
intensifies Jesus action to the nth degree by stating the action with three
adverbs.
It would say, “Morningly nightly exceedingly arose” or something
like this “In the morning in the night exceedingly he arose.”
What does this mean? Well, it is
really simple, this is the way to convey that Jesus woke up ridiculously
early. While it was still night, through
exceedingly early in the morning, Jesus woke up. In the time when most would utterly blur the
distinction between night and day, Jesus arose.
We do the same thing. When
does night end and the next day begin?
It is not always so cut and dried.
Sundown gives us a sense of ending a literal period of light, but the
reckoning of days can be somewhat more confusing. Here Jesus rises at a point so early that it
is still literally the night, the time of darkness, but approaching the rise of
the sun. He was up earlier than the
crows, he was up exceedingly early in the morning while it was still night. Why
was he up so early? It was the best time
to do what he needed to do.
PLACE:
He went out and departed to a solitary place;
He got up and left to a place of desolation or wilderness. He went to a place where you would not
normally find people. And, in Jesus
case, where he would not find people pressing in on him as they did the evening
before. He sought a solitary place away
from the crowds he knew would be after him.
And he sought this place for one purpose.
You see, there is a balance in the Lord Jesus Christ between being
busy doing good and important spiritual means of grace. Busyness does not equal spirituality. In many cases families can get so busy doing
so many things in the context of Church programs that the family irreparably
suffers. What was this singular thing
that Jesus sought a solitary place to do?
WORK:
and there He prayed.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the messiah sent from God, the eternal
second member of the Trinity, needed to find a time to pray. To do this as it needed to be done, he rose
ridiculously early to go out to the wilderness to pray.
Pray in the life of our Lord Jesus was so important to him that he
lost some sleep in order to rise and go to a place without distraction, that he
might pray.
When do you pray? Do you pray?
Do you rush, going through the motions, at some point during the
day? Do you try to overlap your prayer
with something else like your shower, or your drive to work? Or do you try to set aside time when you can
give your undivided attention to pray to God the Father.
In a very subtle sort of way we act as though we are better than
Jesus and have a lesser need to pray if we think we can pray within the
distractions of the world. If the
perfect and sinless eternal Son of God needed to pray to maintain his
well-being and communion with the Father in order to accomplish all he had to
do, we had better pray more with less
distractions. If He needed prayer, we
need it more.
Prayer is one of those indicating graces. It is a barometer. Pray will keep short accounts with God.
Prayer will compel us into God’s presence regularly to receive from him all we
need to persevere and to see any spiritual grace at all. Pray is indispensable to the true
Christian. Prayerlessness in the life is
a sure barometer of carelessness in the soul.
Do you want to be kept from temptation? Pray often in accord with your
need. Do you want godly perspective in
trials? Pray and meditate upon God’s Word.
Do you want wisdom? Ask of God
through prayer. Prayer is an important
grace wherein we have access to God in an exceedingly humbling direct
manner. He hears our prayers and is
pleased to do that which is in accord with his will.
Prayer is a means God uses to carry out his eternal purpose and
his holy will. How? I don't know. But I
know he does. The Christian slogan says,
“Prayer changes things.” And the thing
that is most changed through a thorough life of pray is the one praying. It is the best way to maintain comfortable
fellowship with God. Seek his face,
confess your sins, thank him for his grace and mercy, ask him for those things
that are needful like your daily bread, pray that the Kingdom will increase,
pray to kept from temptation, ask for your heart to be subdued by God’s
grace. Those graces can only be sought
through prayer.
If Jesus needed to pray, we need to pray even more.
2. The Twofold Reaction of the
Disciples
A. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.
Did they have so little trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that they
had to go out to hunt him down? Or, were
they being faithful followers wanting to be with Jesus. We don't really know. In Luke we saw this was what the crowds had
done.
The crowds sought Jesus.
Perhaps it was to complete the work he had begun to do the night
before. Perhaps since he had only healed
many, the rest were coming for their part of Jesus. In Luke it tells us the crowd found him and
tried to keep Jesus from leaving them.
Was it adoration or covetousness?
Look at the second reaction of the Disciples to Jesus.
B. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
Evidently, the disciples found Jesus before the crowd. Did the disciples really think that Jesus did
not know what he told them? This is the
one who knows men’s hearts. Did Jesus
need the disciples to give him this insight into the actions of the Capernaum
Jews? I think not.
Jesus graciously sets them straight about matters of eternal
importance. He tells them what he would
tell the crowd, perhaps in a very short while, He tells them of.......
3. Jesus’ Greatest Purpose
Mark 1:38 But He said to them,
“Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because
for this purpose I have come forth.”
Jesus did not come primarily to heal and cast out demons, he came
to preach the Gospel. Jesus’s primary
earthly purpose was to proclaim the good tidings of salvation to all regardless
of what they did with the message. His
charge from God the Father was to come into the world to preach as he lived a
righteous life. It was his preaching,
his authoritative preaching, that put him at odds with the religious
establishment of his day. It was his
healing that endeared him to the crowds,
But all along, what he sought were people of faith to believe in him and
to follow in his ways. All was secondary
to his primary task or work of preaching the Gospel.
How important was prayer to Jesus?
Well, I hope you can answer that yourself, now. How important was preaching? How important is it to you? Is it of primary importance, or a secondary
or even lesser matter. Preaching in the
ministry of the prophets of old, in the life of our Lord, in the work of the
Apostles and in the witness of the Church was of utmost importance. There is nothing to take its place. It is the primary means God has established
to save sinners and to build up his people.
When we pursue other things, we get out of balance.
In your pursuit of God the two most important things you can do
are Pray and put yourself under a sound preaching ministry. Pray will keep you in God’s comfortable
presence while good preaching will be accompanied by a work of the Spirit on
your soul that will drive you to pray.
Jesus purpose in coming was to preach. It will do us well, if we have a similar
purpose: to hear his preachers who herald the good tidings of his Holy
Book.
Jesus elevates the office of preaching far above a mere human
exercise. It is my comfort when I step
into this pulpit. I can only do so much
as a man. But, if God by his Spirit
accompanies the message preached, a great deal can be done in saints and in
sinners. Preaching without the power of
God behind it is nothing but hot air.
And a secret to good preaching is good preparation--in the prayer
closet.
Preaching and prayer go hand in glove.
4. Summary of Jesus Work
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all
Galilee, and casting out demons.
Mark reverts back to his brief method of stating the facts and
just the facts. But, I am glad that he gave us more insight under the
inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit.
We noted two weeks ago how his fame echoed out to all the land
from the experiences in Capernaum’s Synagogue.
Here again the Fame of the Lord Jesus Christ is spread abroad. It is Matthew’s summary about this part of
Jesus Galilean ministry that gives us further insight into what Jesus did. Turn
over to Matthew 4:23-25.
This is Matthew’s inspired summary if Jesus Galilean ministry to
this point.
Matt. 4:23 ¶ And
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching
in their synagogues, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing
all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. (to fulfill
the Scriptures) 24 Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to
Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and
those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. 25 Great multitudes followed Him — from
Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.
What a magnificent ministry for a wonderful Lord. Do you stand in awe and wonder when you read
these things? Do you see the humanity of
Christ and are you touched by who he was and what he did? Do you wonder at the awesome displays of
divinity through the Lord Jesus Christ seeing that no human body could contain
the infinite grace come from heaven?
Are you bowled over that this one of grace and truth seeks out men
to follow him? Does it amaze you that he
has called the likes of some of us here to hear his message and are then called
to follow him? He did that through two
important means: People prayed for the success of the Gospel in the New World
prayer is being answered in us, and, people sent preachers that we might hear
the wonderful words of life. We should
never tire of hearing the blessed truths of the Gospel wherever they are found. And, be assured they are found on each and
every page of God’s Special revelation of himself and his will, the
B-I-B-L-E.
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