I invite you to turn in the scriptures tonight to Mark's Gospel, chapter 1. Mark's Gospel, chapter 1. And I had anticipated going all the way to the end of the chapter, but then I thought, well, what is my hurry? So we're going to just go through verse 39. There's so much here and so helpful as we're really beginning Mark's Gospel and understanding its whole flow and what's going on here. So we'll consider verses 29-39 tonight of Mark chapter 1. This is the word of the Lord. 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 and 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. I want us to remember that the purpose of Mark's gospel is to impress upon us the urgency of repentance and faith that is how the gospel began that is was the emphasis right out of the gates by john the baptist and when jesus came out and began his gospel ministry we have for some time now noticed and again you'll notice tonight in the reading that word immediately it just keeps popping up everywhere immediately immediately immediately Mark is pushing us to see that urgency by that use of that word immediately. And last time, that was somewhat built upon as the Lord had entered into synagogue and began his teaching ministry in the synagogue. And it was emphasized there that his teaching ministry came with authority. Mark wanted to pull back the veil and show us that even the demons understood that authority. Even the demons understood the time was at hand. Even the demons understood who it was and the day of visitation, thinking that it was the end. Remember, as he was teaching in the synagogue, a demon heard him teaching with such authority and with such power and looking over the responses of the people, he immediately cried out, I know who you are. have you come to torment us before the time they had understood that just by his presence the kingdom had come and that meant that their day of doom was at hand it was over for them all of the weight of that was to say even the demons knew him even the demons recognized his authority and they couldn't help but screech out knowing that that kingdom had come so the first section was was a demonstration of his authority over the kingdom of darkness the first section was a demonstration of his authority over the demons and satan himself as he defeated him in the wilderness but now we transition and a different kind of display of his power and his authority is being shown to us in his authority over sickness his authority over sickness we have a great focus in the gospels on his power and his ability to heal. To heal diseases. To heal sickness. It's a big emphasis. Mark is showing us that power over the darkness of the evil realm. And now he's showing us the power of an authority over the sicknesses and ultimately death that has confronted us all. But here's the problem as we open this and the problem that we're going to play out in Jesus' day is that many of them were all confused about His coming. Many of them were confused about this. They didn't understand the purpose for which He came. I am about to preach tonight on Jesus' ability and power to heal all of your diseases. I am going to preach tonight on His authority to command and bring to an end all sickness in your life. And a lot of people are going to say, but wait a minute, Pastor. A lot of people will get incredibly confused about this because we all know that at times, and in many loved ones, sickness has been a prolonged problem in their life. Sickness has never seemed to go away in many of the dear, trusting saints. Some get healed. Some don't. What are we to do with that? Last Sunday night we heard about Lazarus and I'm always amazed that when Jesus heard he was sick, he remained behind to let him die. That caused great pain and that caused great consternation in the life of Mary and Martha. And in the end, remember, he said in the end the glory of the Lord would be revealed in the raising of Lazarus and he gave them a sort of preview of coming attractions when He raised Him right in front of their eyes. But that was just the point. They were not there yet. The end had not come yet. The demons thought His presence marked the end. But not yet. And that's the tension with which this passage comes to us tonight. Jesus comes into history and He has come to bear all of our sicknesses and all of our griefs. But Mark is showing us the priority that he was committed to first so that all of our sicknesses and all of our diseases could be forever dealt with eternally. In our passage, Jesus shows his great determination to first deal with the greatest problem, the forgiveness of our sins, which in turn would secure the future resurrection glory. And with that, this passage teaches us tonight to be patient, knowing that the Lord has answered us, knowing that He will answer us and all sorrow and all sickness and all disease ultimately will be banished forever. That's the security of this passage. That's the clear teaching of this passage. But tonight we're looking specifically at the demonstration of His power to heal and the priority that He gives in His purpose to accomplish that. The power to heal and the priority of His purpose to accomplish that. In verse 26, everyone has just witnessed Jesus cast out a demon out of a man in a regular worship Sabbath day in the synagogue. It has caused a frenzy, of course. They say, what new doctrine is this? We've never seen anything like this. He even has authority over the demons and commands them, and they obey him. We've never seen that in all of our lives. That launched Jesus' instantaneous popularity. In fact, you know at the end there, at verse 28, it said at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region. It was instantaneous popularity. You can imagine the discussion in the synagogue that day after worship service. I can't believe what just happened. we've never seen this we were in the temple they went out into the streets we were just in the temple and we saw this man jesus of nazareth and and he cast out of a man a demon and and commands them to come out and you should have heard the teaching you should have heard the teaching there was never anything like it there was never anyone who commanded with that kind of authority there's never anyone who spoke the way that he spoke. It's from that scene and the drama of that scene that we seem to enter into something sort of less dramatic. Another scene, immediately, as soon as he leaves the synagogue, we read that he entered the house of Simon. There have been recent excavations in Capernaum, and they say that the synagogue there was this beautiful limestone edifice and they have been looking at that but they have uncovered a building that was really close to the synagogue with early religious markings from that period and they are almost certain it was Peter's house it was one of the first home churches for Christians and as soon as Jesus leaves the synagogue we read that he enters Peter's and Andrew's you'll notice house james and john are there and the immediate emphasis being that peter's mother-in-law is sick i have to say this is totally a side point and not really that important to the to the whole main point of the passage but rome claims that peter was the first pope then that means he was married so i just had to get that off my chest he was married she was sick with a fever it says and they all told jesus about her and we come to this beautiful verse in verse 31 and he came and he took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them he is casting out demons and now immediately Mark focuses on his power over sickness. But what everyone should feel here is that authority, is that power. That's what Mark is wanting to emphasize. There's a lot of details we could get into about this. Mark doesn't give them. Mark simply wants us to say, wow, it was immediate. She was sick, she got up, and she served. That's how you should feel it. It's immensely encouraging. How much sickness is here? How much sickness has gone on in the Escondido United Reformed Church? It's one of the things that I absolutely hate in the ministry. I would love to just minister the Word. And I'm ministering comfort by the Word. But sometimes it's really hard when you have sickness to correlate that comfort when people are suffering. It's really hard. It's the kind of thing where I dread I have a wonderful, glorious, upbeat gospel message and then I'm going to get a call in the course of the week of something terrible or something tragic that's happened and now you've got to bear that news to the congregation. How does that message work in light of that? It's really hard. Cancer, disease, physical breakdowns of the body. It's all just a matter of time for all of us to get hit with something. the call you just read now here's the problem in looking at all these suffering people and being who he is his authority and his power is being put on display mark wants us to see and have some understanding of what he came to do it's as if his presence has to bring healing. And that is what He wants to do. I want to emphasize this tension here for a moment. This is what Jesus wants to do. Think of Psalm 103. Psalm 103 is not just something that we throw to the side when it says He heals all of our sicknesses. We experience that. How many times have we prayed? Our prayers are dominated by that. And he hears and he cares to do that. How many times have I prayed for people and we mentioned it in the prayer to him tonight and we've witnessed his power in their life, we've witnessed his healing mercy? You would be overwhelmed if we could put down a sheet of how many people in the history of the Escondido United Reformed Church have been prayed for from this pulpit and how many people have been healed. He heals all the time. He uses means to do that today, but we understand who the sovereign is and that's the marvel of this it's a wonderful thing with peter's mother-in-law he gives us a glimpse in something that he loves to do but he also gives us a glimpse into future glory he sees her sick he walks up to her without a word and he grabs her hand and he lifts her right up and she's immediately healed the immediate power of the lord is put on display and she gets up and she serves him i would imagine she got right up she went to make him a meal this is in the evening it's a really beautiful scene if you think about it it's not the kind of scene we ever go to but it really is a beautiful scene isn't it uh that the lord grants us healing mercies and you see a purpose in that. To get up and start serving. Immediately about His service. One pastor said, we've been so overcome with feminism in our culture. Today we have lost the beauty of domestic service. Amen. I totally believe that. Of this kind of service in the name of Christ. A woman preparing a meal is scorned at today. and yet in the beginning of Mark's gospel, it's put right there. This is what his power and what he did. This is what he encouraged us with. This is what he came to show us, that kind of power, and that he constantly releases us to be about his service, and don't ever underestimate it. Don't ever underestimate taking a meal to someone. Don't ever underestimate taking a glass of cold water in his name. I love that. It really is a kind of foretaste of the fullness of his kingdom coming when we will get out of the grave and serve him and worship him forever, isn't it? But Jesus is showing us his command over sickness and death and his ability to break us free. It's just wonderful. But look at what's happened. This healing, which he desires to do, and I want to emphasize that, he desires to do, has made matters worse for him. He entered the house at evening. It's probably around 4 o'clock. And by the time the sun had set, it had spread throughout the entire city. I'm always amazed with the Dutch grapevine, you know. You could have something set in Escondido and it's known in Michigan an hour later. The Capernaum grapevine was better. The whole city had packed out at the house. i'm amazed by that if you look at verse 32 news had traveled so fast that all who were sick and all who were demon possessed and and and the sense is is that with the coming of jesus on the scene it had so thrown the kingdom of the devil into such chaos and and despair that demon possession was taking place. And that's why I do believe it was something very peculiar to the presence of Christ on the earth. That's another discussion. But whatever the case, they're all gathered at the door now. You have got multitudes of sick people and multitudes of demon-possessed people at the door of Peter's house. Imagine if there were a man in Escondido who could heal all diseases. Imagine. How many sick people do you think are in Escondido tonight? Well, you can just drive down to Palomar Hospital. Place is packed out hard. You cannot get a parking spot in that place in the daytime. I've got to drive way out there. How many people would pile at the doors of the house if Jesus or some man was out healing? Do you see what's being emphasized here? This is God incarnate. this is the king it's remarkable because we looked at last time the kingdom of darkness is in a frenzy and lo and behold demonic influences everywhere but so is sickness and mark wants to make very clear these are two separate things uh but what everyone should feel here is his authority over all of it everyone's coming to him the imagery we get is that he spent all night healing and Casting out. Do you have any idea of the weight of that? No, neither do I. But we can try to get there. He's carrying it. Listen to how Matthew characterizes this event. This is Matthew. And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. Here it is. This was to fulfill what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Direct fulfillment of Isaiah 53. I'd love to think about that for a moment. He came here. It was his desire to heal and bear all of our sicknesses, to carry all of our diseases. What does that mean? One of my most frustrating aspects of being a pastor is to see human sickness, to see disease. And I'm merely a human pastor. I wish I could fix it. I wish I could fix it now. I look at what many of you go through, And there are times I really, I look over my 12 years now being a pastor, there are times I just can't handle it. I get weary of the pressure of every call. This is not a complaint. The expectation to be at every surgery. You have no clue. I seriously can't manage it. And again, this is not a complaint time. This is not pastor unloading here, I promise. It's a weight I can't bear. my point is. It's a weight I can't bear. And we're so driven in all of our prayers over every ache and pain. I mean, just look at the proportion of our prayers and our petitions that go to just sickness of one another. What percentage? 80, 90? Did he heal every single sick person in his time? No. How did he do it? How did he manage this? I think of Isaiah. He came to carry and to bear all of your sicknesses. That's what it says. It kind of becomes a little more weighty when you think that whoever he healed got sick again. It's kind of more weighty to think Lazarus had to die twice? Any of you who get sick, God heals you for service in his kingdom. What a wonderful opportunity to serve him, but that does not and has not eliminated the fact that you will still get sick again and die. Do you see the problem? Do you see it? We live for this now. We don't don't understand the reason Jesus came, and they didn't. Now, you have some sense of this. You know Joel Osteen just put out a new book, right? The book title is The Power of I Am. What a great title, if only that was about God. He's talking about himself. He has taken the divine name and has used that now to be able to declare health and prosperity and sickness. You can declare that in your life which is an assault on God because it says I don't really like how the I am is really doing it so I'll take that prerogative and I'll do it myself you can do that yourself think positive be the I am speak your health you know how much that's dominated our culture in the Christian church we sit astonished at Joel Osteen but it's our problem this is what we want from Jesus we want a man subservient to our health and wealth now and the church itself has completely refashioned and redesigned its ministry and message to be that health and wealth today it's not wrong to want healing and i emphasize again jesus wants to give it to you desires to give it to you in its right time but what has happened here cities have come out a city has come out is jesus just a free health care provider i mean he would solve obamacare problems really quickly wouldn't he you would have him out as a free health care provider and man that would be your greatest king ever if he could provide free health care right as a matter of fact that's why they wanted to make him king in john 6 this is why they wanted his kingdom to come he could feed them and now he could give free health care. Here's his tension. He has complete compassion and sympathy. He knows all the agonies of your hearts. He wants you to know that he carries them, that he loves you. And if you don't see it, look at him weeping over Lazarus' death. He was carrying that sorrow. I can't carry that sorrow. He carried that sorrow. It grieved His Spirit to see the physical consequences of sin play out in people's lives and in their bodies. Death working its way out. Witnessed in those whom He loves. Sickness and death working in them. And He's carrying all that sadness the whole time He's here. He is carrying all that sadness. you have no idea what went on in his soul. You know what Mark shows you? Though he loves to heal you, though he often heals you now when you cry out to him, and he did for many that day, though he would be glad to give you all health and strength and vigor today, the reality still remains that death is working in us all. You're not going to achieve it in your present form, in your present state. You can't speak your health into existence. You can't do all these things to maintain. I mean, people live today like they're never going to die. And in God's providence, many of you have found yourselves with very prolonged, protracted sufferings and trials to which it may seem like they will never end. Again and again, and it hurts, and you suffer. You may even sound a little bit like Israel this morning. Is the Lord with us? In the very next scene, what do you have? After Mark presents Jesus up all night almost, healing, casting out demons, in the very next scene, he's up early in the morning doing what? Praying. And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed. Notice this. While it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed. I love that. What do you say about that? I know what I've heard. I've always felt guilty about that passage because I've been told that I should be out early in the morning praying like Jesus I should. But that's not the point. I asked my family the other night as I read this passage, I said, what strikes you about this passage? We looked at everything he's been doing here in just one chapter, how a marvel this ministry is. And you know what they all said at the table? There was no one like this man. There was no one like this man. And that's exactly the point. He's the paradigm man. He's praying. And I've tried to explain to you how a weak pastor carries the burdens of his people. I have no idea how to explain to you how the only true good shepherd and pastor carries all your sicknesses. But I think something is captured of that right here. What was his prayer like? All I know is after all night doing that, all he could do is be in prayer. Full of praise, expressing devotion to his Father. What's he doing? It must sound something like John 6. My food is to do Your will, O Father, to accomplish the work that You've given me to do. What sustains me is the fulfilling of the work that my Father gave me to do. He's communing with this Father. His prayer is displaying an essential part of His obedience and submission to the divine assignment to save so that He should lose none. So what's He praying for? He just came from all night healing and the next thing we see him doing early in the morning hours is praying. Praying for you. Praying for your sicknesses. Praying for obedience, right? To what the Father had given him to do. He has to maintain pure obedience to this divine calendar and this perfect, established calendar of what he needs to go fulfill. The disciples come back and they find Him. They've been searching for Him and they found Him and they said, everyone's looking for you. The mission is going fantastic, Jesus. We've got to get back there. There are loads of sick people. There are loads of demon-possessed people. Your fame is just building and building and building. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. After hours of prayer, what's on jesus's mind and he said to them no let's go into the next town that i may preach there also for that's why i came oh jesus there's still so much more to do there's so much healing to do there's so much work to be done for these people you got to get back to galilee no let's get out of here why I've got a divine schedule to keep see how focused he is I've got a schedule if you want to see that schedule look at him in John 4 meeting the woman at the well perfect time he's there you say well how is he carrying sickness and how is he carrying our sorrows what is his trot priority I need to preach remember how mark's gospel began he came preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of god is at hand repent believe you've got to believe in me this good news has come i have come to fulfill all righteousness here i've come in perfect complete submission to the father he is intent on doing what? Heading straightway, immediately, immediately, immediately, immediately to Jerusalem. You see, it's good news that doesn't just deal with symptoms. To be just a present healer would only be dealing with symptoms. He appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. When He does away with sin, He does away with death and secures for us the final and complete resurrection of our bodies. So what did He come to do? He says, I came to deal with the heart of the problem. I came to carry all of your sicknesses and I came to bear all of your woes and all of your sorrows and all of your pains right to the cross. And there I will conquer this tragic mess. He was eliminating, he was after eliminating it altogether, once and for all. What does it mean that he bore our sicknesses and he carried our diseases? He bore the weight of them. He carried all your sorrows, all your pains, all your afflictions and your death to the cross and he dealt with them when he said it's finished and rose again. And that's why preaching had the priority of his ministry. Preaching makes known the reason for that, that he came. Preaching makes known the seriousness of the call to come today, believe today, repent and turn to him today. And in that message preached, that's how God opens up and deals with the true heart problem. Wherever you found Jesus in his earthly ministry, You found him preaching because that's what he wanted to do. And this should help you in all of your sicknesses and all of your weaknesses. If it was the heart of your Savior to be about preaching in the midst of this kind of turmoil in the kingdom, it should be your greatest desire facing death to sit under that voice as much as you can. This is His abiding testimony to you that remains to this day that He's dealt with the greatest issue of our lives. This is why Paul said, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. I put myself under the curse if I don't do that. His resurrection secures our glorious resurrection so that one day we will get up and serve Him forever in glory with no more sickness, with no more sorrow, with no more tears, with no more frustrations, and we will be whole and complete. So if in the present He gives you some respite, if He gives you some relief from the struggle before the final resurrection, well, then you should be about His service, shouldn't you? As a matter of fact, I had an elder come up to me and say, Pastor, you should think about preaching on the parable of the talents. I'm going to do that next Sunday morning. We should be about His service as He's given you healing today. You should be about serving one another and loving His people. Taking a cup of cold water in His name if He has granted you strength in this time. If not, and you're confined to a bed, or if you become sick and you're confined and you wonder why Jesus hasn't healed you or why your plight is so bad and you struggle with whether he's against you or whether you are outside of his favor, I want you to hear his gospel to you tonight. He has carried those sorrows for you and your loved ones so that in the midst of your sorrow, you can have joy. Think of it. That's why Paul said in the heart of his afflictions, he can rejoice. He's not carrying those sorrows. The Lord has. He no longer, and you no longer have to bear them because Jesus came to remedy the problem forever so that your resurrection is secure and you will never know these things again. If in His providence you are to suffer things in the present, then He has told you He has a good intention for you so that you would learn more about Him and yourself. But remember what He has said in your light momentary affliction, it is working in you something far more exceeding way of eternal glory. Something glorious is held out for you because He came. He prayed for you. He bore your sicknesses. And He went all the way to the cross dying, and dying Himself so that you could hear the words that whosoever believes in Him. It's the urgency of Mark. Whosoever believes in Him, even though He dies, He shall live. And that is His promise to you. Let's thank Him together tonight in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, You have encouraged us greatly this day and been so faithful. We're overwhelmed, Lord, by Your goodness. Take the dimness of our souls and hearts away and let us value what is most important, having priorities as our Lord had priorities when He walked on this earth? Would we be in prayer? Would we be valuing what's most important? Would we be praying a lot more from now on that the Gospel would be advanced in the preaching? Would we be praying a lot more that people would understand You and the reason for which Jesus came? As we pray for our sick loved ones, We know your purposes are good and right if you grant healing. But we all know that what is ultimately held out for us in the resurrection, you have secured in Christ. So let our hopes not be dashed by having false expectations in the present of what is held out for us in future glory. Encourage your people tonight and strengthen them in your promises. As we go out into another week, may we be servants of the King, loving one another and loving you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.