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Mark 1:35-45 Bearing · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Our text this morning is Mark 1, verses 35 to 45. Allow me to read it, and we'll begin. Beginning in verse 35, speaking of Jesus, it says, 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.
• 0:33
  And he went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. And a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, if you will, you can make me clean. Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer your cleansing.
• 1:02
  what Moses commanded for a proof to them. But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places and people were coming to him from every quarter. And Lord, I pray a blessing over the preaching of your word. And I pray, Lord, that your spirit would be amongst us to teach us according to it, open our minds and our hearts to see the truth revealed there. God, I pray that we would be a people.
• 1:30
  who have purpose in this life, that the mission of Christ would be reflected in the mission of our own lives, God, that we would follow in his footsteps. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I believe it is the goal of every believer to hear when they die, well done, good and faithful servant. In fact, I've rarely met a believer who has ever not desired those words to be said.
• 1:58
  When they pass through the thin veil that separates this life from the next. But have you ever asked yourself what it will take to hear those words? It's shocking to me and I think even a little sad how many people, even Christians, are still searching for purpose and meaning to their lives. Confused about what God wants from their lives. Confused about what God's expectations on them may be. I have heard people saying, Lord, what do you want from me?
• 2:30
  And the truth is that because many don't understand their purpose, their lives have lost their bearing. They become directionless. Their spiritual journey is set adrift. They seem to be at the whim of whatever Christian current happens to be the strongest at the time. And rather than being the effective tool in the hand of the Lord they were meant to be, some Christians just exist. They bear little fruit along the way.
• 3:00
  Now, there are a lot of prayers recorded in Scripture, many of which have become favorites. They get used frequently. They resonate in our hearts and minds. They even get quoted very often. Prayers that we admire or that inspire us or that stir our souls. Certainly, Matthew chapter 6 and the Lord's Prayer would be one. Hallowed be your name. John chapter 17, Jesus' high priestly prayer. I don't ask that you take them out of the world, but that you would spare them from the evil one. Peter sinking into the sea.
• 3:29
  saying that short but effective prayer, Lord, save me. Maybe my favorite prayer of all time, however, was not recorded in the words of Scripture, but instead uttered by my second son, Zach, when he was a mere six years old. He said one night before we went to bed, and I wrote it down word for word because I didn't want to forget. He said, Lord, thank you for my friends, and thank you for dying on the cross for my sins, and thank you for loving us.
• 4:01
  And I pray that you would use me for lots of stuff. Amen. I pray that you would use me for lots of stuff. Use me is a great prayer. And if you think about it, although it's simple, it's extremely effective because for us to pray and ask God to use us is never outside of his will. You can never ask the Lord to use you outside of his will. If you say those words, Lord, use me in this life.
• 4:33
  he will do it. That is a prayer that he will grant. The simple answer to the question, why am I here, is this. It's to be used by God. That's why you were designed. He wants to use you. And you may say, well, yes, Pastor Danny, but does he give any more clarity than that? And the answer is also yes. One of the things I love about the gospel of Mark is its clarity.
• 4:58
  You'll notice that many of the verses in the Gospel of Mark, and you can look now at chapters 1, 2, and beyond, many of the verses begin with the same word. It's the word and. It's a conjunction of continual progress, right? It never stops moving. Every verse in the Gospel of Mark calls you to continue reading. Very different than the conjunction or. Or provides options.
• 5:27
  or allows for choices to be made. You can imagine how differently the message of the gospel would have been if Jesus, instead of saying, I am the son of man and the son of God, instead said, I am the son of man or the son of God. That changes, right? And you'll notice in the gospel of Mark that a path is determined for its reader. No speculation is allowed.
• 5:57
  And our lives are the same way. The Lord has filled our lives with ands rather than ors. He has determined a path for you. And the joy of this morning's message is you need not speculate what the Lord's will for your life is. The words of Christ in our passage this morning are clear. He says at the very end of verse 38.
• 6:26
  For that is why I came out. A declaration of clarity, a statement of purpose. Christ knew exactly why he was here. No confusion at all. No fog in his life. He knew exactly what he was to accomplish. And I believe that our purposes in this life are reflected in these purposes of Jesus. If you guys are taking notes this morning, I have three.
• 6:54
  The first one comes from verse 35. Notice first, verse 35, Jesus' solitary supplication. Solitary supplication. In other words, he prayed alone. Look at verse 35. And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark. How often do you rise very early in the morning for spiritual things? You know, our freeways are flooded with early risers on their way to serve their employers.
• 7:28
  But do we afford our spiritual employer the same honor? Joseph Alain was an English pastor in the mid 1600s, 400 years ago. His wife wrote this about his prayer life. She said, my husband rose constantly at or before 4 a.m. You can almost hear the complaint in there.
• 7:49
  My husband used to rise constantly at or before 4 a.m., and he would be much troubled if he heard blacksmiths or other craftsmen at their trades before he was in communion with God. Imagine this man waking up at 4 a.m., hearing down the dirtway a blacksmith banging away, bing, bing, bing, on whatever it is he was working on, making horseshoes or whatever it was. And she continued, he would say to me often how this noise shames me.
• 8:21
  Does not my master deserve more than theirs? John Knox, founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, used to say, I wonder how a Christian could lie in his bed all night and not rise to pray. His wife one night, fearing that he would get sick from the cold, followed him into the room in which he prayed, and she could overhear him through the door pleading with God, saying, Lord, give me Scotland.
• 8:48
  Lord, give me Scotland. Give me my hearer's souls. And here you see in verse 35, Jesus doing the same thing. If we could listen in to the words of Christ very early in the morning, hours before the sun would even come up. Lord, give me my hearer's souls. Notice he continues in verse 35. While it was still dark, says he departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed. He went out to a desolate place.
• 9:19
  And there he prayed. You'll notice twice in this passage, once in verse 35 and once in verse 45, he uses the same phrase, desolate place. In verse 35, he's alone. In verse 45, there's a whole crowd around him, but always in a desolate place. We avoid desolation like it's a sickness. I think the worst thing that we think we can endure is silence.
• 9:48
  And you may say, well, Pastor Danny, that's not me. I love going to the mountains. I love being alone. I love quiet. I love solitude. But if that's true, then why do we check our iPhones on an average every four minutes? Every four minutes. That's how often they say we look at our iPhone. Do you guys ever go through, you know, you have that screen time little thing. You ever go and check how much screen time? Man, it's shameful for me.
• 10:16
  I just feel guilty. I swipe one time to the right, right? And it says screen time. You hit it. It will tell you how many times you pick up your phone every day. It'll tell you number of pickups today, 78. I picked that thing up 78 times. It tells you how many text messages you sent, 278. Oh my word. How am I still married, right? How, what am I doing with my life? How many hours of shows I watch? How many emails I send? How much it even gives you the amount of,
• 10:47
  what it considers to be productive things, productivity. Here's how much of that time was wasted. Here's how much maybe was productive. It's incredible. It's astonishing. Go to the dentist office, wait there in the lobby. Everybody's on their phone. Stop at any red light, any red light and look around. Everybody's on their phones. We don't like quiet. If we're honest, we don't like silence. We don't like solitude. However, scripture says that those things can be a blessing.
• 11:19
  Charles Spurgeon said it this way, quietude, it's the same thing, quiet, silence, which some men cannot abide because it reveals their inward poverty is as a palace of cedar to the wise. For along its hallowed courts, the king and his beauty designs to walk. Priceless as the gift of utterance may be, the practice of silence in some aspects far excels it. In other words, when you walk around in the quiet halls of the kingdom,
• 11:50
  you are blessed because that's where you find the king. The king resides in the quiet, not in the noise of the world that we live in. The king resides in quiet, desolate places. And here the example of Christ is to rise not only early in the morning, but to remove himself to a place where he could commune with his father. There are times when I have said I'm alone, that no one is with me, but I was wrong.
• 12:21
  When I'm alone, the Lord is with me, if only him. Praise God for the times where he's the only one I have to talk to. No television, no cell phone, no music, no distractions, no help but him. That's first, Jesus' solitary supplication. Notice second, verses 36 to 39, Jesus' purposeful preaching. His purposeful preaching. Look at verse 36.
• 12:49
  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. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
• 13:08
  Nowhere and no one excluded, all of Galilee, every town, every village, from house to house, anybody who would listen, Jesus was willing to preach to. Now, we talked about this a few weeks ago, but why was it that Jesus was willing to preach everywhere he went? And the answer is because that's why he came. Christ preached wherever he was. Now, it's funny to me that I feel like I have to go on a missions trip in order to share the gospel. I got to leave town, right?
• 13:37
  Pray and raise support and do all of that stuff and get out of town to go and share with complete strangers. And I don't want to diminish that at all. We have mission strips here at this church. We want to participate in those things. Praise God for those things. In fact, our youth group yesterday went and did that very thing. Here is our picture of a group of our youth kids. About a dozen of them went down to downtown Denver yesterday.
• 14:05
  met up with one of our partner ministries. We partner with a ministry there, a church there called Open Door Church. They do a whole bunch of different ministries in downtown, right near the Capitol building. But that day, yesterday, our kids were handing out clean socks, new socks to anybody on the street who needed them, right? With the hope that they would build a bridge for the gospel and strike up good gospel-centered conversations. And I praise God for them, honestly.
• 14:32
  What an example those kids are setting for us. If I had to guess, based on how I normally spend my Saturday afternoons, if I had to guess, and I apologize if I'm wrong, but if I had to guess, they might be the only 12 people in our church who were sharing the gospel yesterday. If I had to guess, if I'm honest, I don't know, maybe you had a great conversation, we praise God for it, maybe you were bold in your proclamation, but yesterday afternoon I didn't, and they did.
• 15:03
  We praise God. They come home. My encouragement to them would be, good job doing it down there. Tomorrow, do it here. Here, next door, at school, with your classmates, the kids on your baseball team. Do it here. That's the purpose for why we are here.
• 15:22
  the absolute joy. It was a privilege for me to chaplain a professional baseball team, the Houston Astros organization. In fact, many of the boys, they were boys then. Many of the boys who were on that team are now Houston Astros, among some others. One place for the Rockies, one place for the Brewers. They're kind of scattered all over the place now with trades and other things. But a whole big group of them still plays for the Astros, the current guys. When they were just boys five, six years ago, before they were making millions and doing whatever, and before they beat the LA Dodgers in the World Series.
• 15:52
  which I was a little bit disappointed about and did send out some text messages. I used to tell those guys, you know, they come to our house, they come to church, they come to our house for Sunday afternoon lunch. A whole bunch of them used to do that. In fact, a whole bunch of them came one year on an Easter Sunday. They are the ones that hid the eggs for our boys as they went out and, you know, were finding eggs and all that. And I used to tell those boys, don't make any mistake. You weren't drafted to play baseball. You're not playing baseball to play baseball.
• 16:21
  The Lord has you where you are to make disciples. That's why you're there. That is your purpose. It has nothing to do with, by all means, play baseball along the way and be successful at it because the more successful you are, the greater stage and audience you'll have for your proclamation of the gospel. I love Jesus's response. He preached wherever he was, right? He allowed the spirit to guide him and wherever the spirit led him, that's where he was faithful.
• 16:50
  to preach the good news. Now bounce down a little bit to chapter two and verse two. I want you guys to notice what it is that Jesus preached. What did Jesus preach? Look at chapter two, verse two says many were gathered together one day so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching. What does it say? The word to them. He was preaching the word. Did you even the son of God preached the word of God?
• 17:17
  The Son of God preached the Word of God. This is what we have. This is the message to the nations. The Apostle Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. It was in reference to this. Even the Son of God preached the Word of God. That's second, his purposeful preaching. Notice last, Jesus' compassionate cleansing. His compassionate cleansing. And I love...
• 17:44
  This in our text, Jesus begins to preach the gospel, but then in verse 40, he applies the gospel. He begins to live the gospel. The compassion and grace of God and kindness of God that is expressed in the good news of Jesus Christ is lived out when he comes across a leper. Look at verse 40. It says, and a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, if you will, you can make me clean.
• 18:13
  Notice the leper came imploring, begging him and kneeling, kneeling. And that's a key. This man recognized Jesus as king. That is what you do when you kneel. This leper came with a penitent and worshipful heart. And I'm ashamed at how comfortable I am at times in the presence of God. You know, the Lord calls us to come with confidence. That is true.
• 18:42
  Hebrews chapter 4 says that because of the blood of Jesus, we can come confidently before the throne of grace and ask for help. Ask for help. He wants us to come confidently, but never are we invited to come arrogantly. Confidence, yes. Arrogance, no. My youngest son, Chase, came to his mom a while back and said, Mommy, what's for dinner? To which Hallie replied, pasta. And Chase said, hmm, I'll take a burrito.
• 19:16
  Like, wait, what? Ah, not interested. Burrito for me. You know, and I loved Hallie's response was, well, tonight is pasta. You want to roll it up in a tortilla? You know, go ahead. Knock yourself out. But tonight is pasta. I'm amazed at how often those are the types of prayer requests I have to the Lord. Lord, have your way, but not that way. Lord, your will be done as long as it coincides with my will, right?
• 19:46
  Lord, I want what you want, except when I don't. And then I want you to want what I want. And if we're honest, that's much of the time, I think, how we express our feelings and opinions to God. Not often with this posture of kneeling. Lord, you're the king. Who am I? Who am I to make demands? I'm nobody. Can you imagine this leper coming to Jesus and begin making demands? I don't think he'd have walked away healed that day.
• 20:16
  But instead he says it comes imploring and kneeling. And notice Jesus' response in verse 41. Moved with pity. Now that word pity often translated in the New Testament compassion. Same Greek word. One of my favorite Greek words. It's one I've preached probably a dozen times at this church. I think it is the greatest Greek word. It's the word splachna. It's disgusting to say. And that's on purpose. It's meant to make it sound like you're sick.
• 20:44
  Like your stomach is turning. Jesus's heart is broken. He's sick to his stomach. He is moved with compassion. It's more than just looking at somebody and saying, I just feel awful about it, but I'm not going to do anything about it. This type of pity that Jesus had toward this man actually moved him to action. And this says in verse 41, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. Now him touching him is a big deal because for Jesus to touch.
• 21:14
  An unclean man would have made him unclean. It would have removed him from society until he could be cleansed. It would have meant he could not participate in festivals or feasts. He could not participate in the Sabbath. He couldn't go into the synagogue because he had come into contact with an unclean man. Unless Jesus had the power to cleanse him.
• 21:37
  And so he reaches out and the very touch of Jesus cleanses the man. It says, I will be clean. And look at verse 42. So there's Jesus's response. What is the leprosy's response? Verse 42 says, immediately, immediately, the leprosy left him and he was made clean. The leprosy obeys. There is an immediate obedience from the leprosy.
• 22:11
  Our God is an all-powerful God. He tells disease to leave and it leaves. And he tells storms to be quiet and they are quiet. And he tells waves to stop and they stop. And he tells seas to part and they part. And he tells frogs and gnats and flies to invade and they invade. Everything in all of creation says, yes, Lord, with the exception of one being. And that's us. He tells us to obey and we say.
• 22:44
  I'll think about it, right? I mean, maybe. Lord, you're awful demanding. Maybe we hesitate. Lord, give us the immediate obedience of leprosy. There's a phrase I have never said in my life, right? I want leprosy obedience. You tell it to leave and it leaves. You lost your bearing in life. Are you confused about why you're here?
• 23:24
  about why God made you, about what he wants from you, or what he expects from you in order to hear, well done, good and faithful servant? The answer is simple. It's found in 1 John 2, verse 5. It says, by this we know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in Jesus ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Jesus came for three reasons. Prayer, to preach, and to pity those who could do nothing about their sorry estate.
• 23:54
  We are called to the same three things, to pray, to preach, and to pity. If you'll allow me, I'll close in prayer. I'm going to recite my son's six-year-old prayer as we close. Pray with me. Lord, we do thank you for our friends. And Lord, we do thank you for dying on the cross for our sins. And we thank you for loving us. And Lord, we pray today that you would use us for lots of stuff. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.