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Following to Serve
25 Plays1 month ago
Series: Discernment of Jesus' Person
Mark 1:21-45
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Deirdrin's 1985 Article
00:00:01
Speaker
A few weeks ago, I was able to look through some old articles that I tend to collect over the years, and I found one from 1985. It's by the author named Douglas Deirdrin, and it was an article about just how far the American church has veered away from the Bible.
00:00:22
Speaker
And it was quite interesting to read back in 1985 exactly what was going on and compared it to what's happening now in 2024. What caught my eye was the name of this article. He simply wrote, God is not a cosmic ATM machine.
00:00:43
Speaker
right You simply cannot approach him in your time of need and insert a little good works sprinkled with a little bit of faith and expect Out comes your blessing, out comes your deliverance. It's silly when you hear somebody say God is an ATM machine, right? You know that's not true, you know that's not the way it works, and I know you know that. But friends, there are millions of professing Christians around the world that believe just that, that with the right formula,
00:01:21
Speaker
with just the right prayer, with just the right amount of faith, God will deliver blessings, both in health and in wealth.
Misconceptions about God's Role
00:01:31
Speaker
It's a gross misunderstanding of Jesus and his mission, and it's caused them to follow Jesus for all the wrong reasons. They believe that because God is good and God is loving, and he is indeed both good and loving, but they believe because that is the case, that he doesn't want them to suffer.
00:01:52
Speaker
He doesn't want them to be poor. Matter of fact, he wants them to be really rich. That's false theology. That's the theology that says God is an ATM machine. It's a false theology. I've also heard something very similar from a pulpit here in Texas. During the invitation, the person there said something to this effect. Come see what our church can offer you.
00:02:23
Speaker
As if that's the goal of the church, is to somehow offer something to you. Friends, different wording, same concept. It's this attitude of, what can I get from Jesus? What can I get from the church? It's a gross misunderstanding of who he is and his mission. And it can cause us to follow him for all the wrong reasons.
Exploring Mark 1: Following Jesus
00:02:50
Speaker
Friends, this is what we're gonna look at today in the Gospel of Mark as we continue here in chapter one. We're gonna ask ourselves this question, what is indeed the proper attitude in following Jesus? What is the attitude of a disciple? And to discover that answer, we're gonna look first at a negative example. If you have your outline, you'll see that. These are two groups of people that are displaying self-serving attitudes. That'll be the first example, a negative example. Second, we'll look at Jesus' program or what was his actual mission.
00:03:22
Speaker
Third, we'll look at a positive example in Simon's mother-in-law. And then third we're gonna but fourth, we're going to end with just our application. How can we demonstrate the proper attitude of a Christ follower? We're going to read today Mark 21 through 45. You may remain seated. It's quite a length, but it'll be on your screen there. Or some of you who actually still carry these paper Bibles, they're they're right there in front of you, too. Please, Mark chapter 1.
Jesus' Authority and Miracles
00:03:52
Speaker
Verse 21 and following from the New Living Translation says, Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike the teachers of the religious law.
00:04:13
Speaker
Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus reprimanded him, be quiet. Come out of that man, he ordered. And at that, the evil spirit screamed and threw the man into convulsions. And then he came out of him. Amazement gripped the audience.
00:04:41
Speaker
And they began to discuss what had happened. What sort of new teaching is this? they They asked excitingly. It has such authority, even the evil spirits obey his orders. And the news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee. And after Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew's house.
00:05:05
Speaker
Now, Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever and they told Jesus about her right away. So he went to her bedside. He took her by the hand and he helped her sit up. Then the fever left her and she prepared a meal for them. That evening, after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. The whole town gathered the door to watch. So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases and he cast out many demons.
00:05:34
Speaker
But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak. Before daybreak, the next morning, Jesus got up and he went out to an isolated place to pray. Later, Simon and the others went out to find him. And when they found him, they said, everyone is looking for you. But Jesus replied, we must go to another towns as well. I will preach to them too, for that is the reason I have come.
00:06:01
Speaker
So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. Verse 40, and following says, a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you were willing, you could heal me and make me clean, he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing, he said, be healed.
00:06:25
Speaker
Instantly the leprosy disappeared and the man was healed. Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning, don't tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. However, the man went and he spread the word proclaiming to everyone what had happened.
00:06:50
Speaker
As a result, large crowds surrounded Jesus and he couldn't publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere came, ah kept coming to see him. This is the word of the Lord. It's interesting to me as we open up this, if you just flip back here to the very first part of chapter one, verse 21,
00:07:17
Speaker
The heading here on my Bible says, Jesus casts out an evil spirit. If you simply look back one section in your Bible, is yours probably says, Jesus selects the first disciples. Remember, this is where we were last week. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, and then he immediately went out and he selected his disciples. And now, as Jesus is on the scene with the disciples, the kingdom of God is being established. It's being extended through Jesus' exercising of these demons, through His healing, and through His preaching. Understand, evil is being pushed back right now, and God's kingdom is being pressed forward. Now, you and I have the benefit because we know the story. We can sit here and read just
00:08:06
Speaker
little bit further in the chapters, but understand right now in Jesus' time, casting out demons and healing people like this was a dangerous thing for him to do. It was going to Gardner some opposition, some antagonism, some hostility from people, and that hostility would lead ultimately to his death on the cross. But what's interesting to me, while all this is going on, while all this healing, while all this exorcism is going on,
00:08:34
Speaker
All we have are these crowds and these disciples who are oblivious to what's happening. All they're doing is focusing on their own needs and what Jesus can do to meet those needs. Friends, I think sometimes we too can get easily caught up in this attitude of what Jesus can do for us. What can I get from following Jesus? What's in it for me?
00:09:03
Speaker
as if Jesus is some type of ATM machine.
00:09:08
Speaker
Friends, this is the attitude that the crowds have, and sadly the attitude we'll see, even that the disciples themselves have. They simply didn't understand Jesus's mission and his purpose. And so look with me here in the crowds. It says here, verse 27 and 28, look with me here. It says, amazement gripped the audience right after this guy's been exercised as a demon. And you think to yourself, really?
00:09:33
Speaker
You bet they're amazed. And it says that they all begun to discuss among themselves what sort of new teaching is this? It has such authority, even that the evil spirits obey it, and it says the news about Jesus spread quickly.
00:09:52
Speaker
I don't think we fully recognize how small that area is, you know, unless you visited Jerusalem before, right? The Word has got out. There's somebody new on the scene, this guy Jesus is teaching and healing and exercising in a different way with different authority. It's almost gossip to the speed that happens here in Cameron sometimes when the Word gets out about something new. I read that and I thought, wow, look at the crowds, they're just, they're so excited about this new guy that's on the scene. It's interesting to me, if you have your outline, you'll see this whole section is a chiasm, right? we You'll see that we've talked about what a chiasm is. We see this chiastic structure.
00:10:36
Speaker
It's this outer parts that lead to a center part. It's the way the author is structuring the text so that we know exactly what's really important. he's He's saying here on the very outset of this exorcism, here's obviously, Jesus has a special kind of authority. He's casting out and because he's doing that, his fame has spread and all of these people are clamoring to be around Jesus. They're all seeking some type of fix, if we can say that. They're looking to be healed in some way. And I thought to myself, if I'm quite honest this week, what would I have done in that scenario? Can you imagine being around somebody like Jesus at that time? This is the guy that comes out and just heals. Cures leprosy. Cures fever. Exercise demons.
00:11:32
Speaker
And I thought to myself, what would it be like this week if I had met somebody like that? Think about that for a second. What would you ask Jesus for? Is it that pain in your back? Is it that sick relative that you would love to have healed?
00:11:54
Speaker
I think it's placed in this story in just such a way that it draws us almost on the side of the crowds and the sides of the disciples. Yeah, we all want to be around Jesus who's healing and doing these miraculous things, but friends, this is not the reason why Jesus came.
Understanding Jesus' True Mission
00:12:17
Speaker
Temporary relief from the ills of life is not the reason Jesus came.
00:12:24
Speaker
It's this attitude of what can Jesus do for me now? And I think when we're suffering, sometimes we go to this mentality. Lord, deliver me. Lord, deliver me from the suffering. And I wish in the story that the disciples would have responded better than just the crowds that are around Jesus. But friends, look look with me here, verse 29.
00:12:53
Speaker
It says after this miraculous exercising of the spirits, it says 29, Jesus left that synagogue with James and John and they went to Simon and Andrew's house. And it almost in a footnote, it kind of says, yeah, by the way, Simon's mother-in-law was sick. She had eye fever. So what do they do? Hey, Jesus, you gotta come heal Simon's mother-in-law. Right, you would think that's a pretty reasonable request, wouldn't you?
00:13:22
Speaker
But are they treating Jesus like an ATM machine? Hey, I have an immediate need. Jesus, will you heal the mother-in-law? They're no wiser than the crowds. First, they they intervene here in verse 29. Hey, come save a family member. And then look with me, just jump down to the verse 35. It says, before daybreak, the next morning Jesus got up and he went out to an isolated place to pray. I would dare say he went to an isolated place because he wanted to get away from the crowds. But it says, later Simon and the others went and they found him.
00:13:59
Speaker
And you almost have to read this next verse in the proper way. Hey, when they found them, they probably said something like this. Hey, Jesus, where have you been? Everybody's looking for you. Don't you realize all the people that need healing? Why are you out here by yourself? Come back. Jesus replied, what? We must go on to another town.
00:14:27
Speaker
You notice he didn't say, hey, yeah, let's go heal all those people right now. Thanks for finding me. I was out here in prayer all by myself. Hey, thanks for reminding me as if Jesus needed reminding. He says, no, we're gonna leave this place because I wanna go somewhere else and preach the kingdom of God for that is the reason I have come. I thought to myself this week, sometimes do we have a misunderstanding of Jesus and his mission because friends if we think that Jesus has come to make us healthy and wealthy and happy and joyful all the time I don't think you really understand who Jesus was and what his mission was and when we don't understand who he was or what his mission is we can have a skewed theology and then we can be quite disappointed when we suffer
00:15:21
Speaker
So what do we what do we do here? Jesus' program, his actual purpose here in verse 38 is not merely to heal, to exercise, to meet the physical needs of his disciples and this crowd.
00:15:36
Speaker
He says, here's what I came to do. I came to preach the kingdom of God. Now, the kingdom of God here is this grandiose idea of what, the totality of his work. He came, Bart, we'll see later here, Bart 1045, the lovely Miss Kim read today. He came to do what? To give his life as a ransom. I love that verse, by the way. All right, this self-sacrificial love.
00:16:06
Speaker
is the reason he came. But he came to preach, hey, the kingdom of God is at hand, and I want to just keep going around preaching that news. The healing and the exercising and the fixing of the temporary needs, did Jesus do that? You bet he did, but that was not his primary purpose. His primary purpose was to come and to save.
00:16:32
Speaker
When we can get off guard sometimes or off kilter when we don't understand who he is or what his mission is and it can affect why we want to follow him. I would think to myself if I'm part of this disciple group, man, Jesus' popularity is skyrocketing. He's healing people and everywhere he goes the crowds just keep getting bigger and bigger. Man, maybe if I follow this guy long enough, maybe they'll start coming after me too. Maybe I'll start getting some crowds.
00:17:04
Speaker
right that's That's the attitude that the disciples would have if they didn't understand Jesus' true mission was to come and save. It's not about the crowds. It's not about the healing. It's not about the exorcism. It's not about the fame. It's about Jesus coming as the suffering servant that we said last week. Remember we said the overarching theme of the Gospel of Mark is Jesus as the suffering servant.
00:17:32
Speaker
So I wonder this last week what misunderstandings you and I may have of what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Maybe you were raised in a denomination that didn't accentuate the suffering aspect of what it means to be a disciple. Maybe you were raised thinking all you have to have is a certain formula of prayers and works and then Jesus will somehow miraculously give you what you want and what you need and that life would be easy and that you would be blessed.
00:18:01
Speaker
Friends, this is a misunderstanding of Jesus and his purpose. Thankfully, we have a negative example.
A Call to Selfless Service
00:18:09
Speaker
We have Jesus' program, and now we have this positive example. And I love this because, it friends, it's easy to miss. It's just a couple of verses. Look at me, verse 30. This is right in the midst of when they're at Simon and Andrew's home it says his mother-in-law was sick in bed and she had a high fever and they told Jesus about her right away and so he went to the bedside, he took her by the hand, he helped her sit up, the fever left and then what happened? Your Bible says what? She went and served.
00:18:43
Speaker
She got up and prepared a meal. She was touched by the hand of God, healed, and in response to that, she wanted to serve. I don't think it's any coincidence here that this story is placed exactly where it is in the in the scripture. We have this beautiful picture of on either side of this story, the popularity of Jesus increasing and these crowds and these disciples all asking Jesus, what can I get from you?
00:19:15
Speaker
But here is sweet, sweet mother-in-law, right in the middle of the story, saying, what can I give you? What can I do for you? What can I serve you? How can I serve you? It's this picture, friends, of selfless service. It's this word diaconello in the Greek, which is to come alongside and serve alongside. It's interesting when you look at the scriptures There's only two times this verb is used when it's in reference to somebody else. Both times it's a woman who's the one serving, by the way. And all the men go ouch.
00:20:00
Speaker
Friends, it's a picture of what a true disciple of Jesus is. It's not somebody who's in it for what they can get, it's somebody who's in it for what they can give. He came not to so to be served, but to serve.
00:20:17
Speaker
The very definition of sacrificial service. And if you and I are to be his disciple, that means you and I are going to do the same thing. We're going to imitate him. We're going to serve others. And I and think it's no no small feat here.
00:20:38
Speaker
that as she's healed this mother-in-law that she gets up and she and she serves right away. It's almost as if that's the natural outpouring of what happens when we're when we're touched by God. It's almost like we can't help but getting up and serving somebody else because we too were first served.
00:20:59
Speaker
She gets up and she serves. And let us put as a side note, It's no accident that when we do the same thing, when we go out and serve somebody, when we go out and do something sacrificially for somebody else, indeed that person feels blessed. But who gets the bigger blessing in that?
00:21:18
Speaker
You and I do, right? As we give, I think we're built that way. God has built us that way. That the more that we serve, the better we feel, the closer we feel to Him. We feel His presence, we feel His goodness, we feel His peace, we feel His love. But friends, it's when we extend that selfless, unconditional act of service, is that's when we experience that. So what do we do with this today? How do we demonstrate this attitude of selfless service?
00:21:48
Speaker
And I thought to myself, ah boy, there are a lot of ways I could really direct us today. But as I as i prayed often this last two weeks for the disasters that have been going on,
00:22:04
Speaker
um and i and i And you know me, guys, I do not watch the news very often, right? I've made a purpose of—Kim and I have kind of unplugged from the news. But when things like this happen, it's hard not to watch. And there was a gentleman that was on the news, and we were watching him, and and he said, oh, my gosh, the devastation here in North Carolina is catastrophic.
00:22:29
Speaker
And they were showing pictures, and you know I don't think the pictures really do it justice. But he said, hey, I'm from Texas. And then I'm really listening. I'm like, oh. He said, matter of fact, I'm from Houston. And I was like, oh, pay a little closer attention. He said, I made it through Hurricane Harvey, which Kim and I were there in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. And I thought that was horrendous.
00:22:53
Speaker
He said, this is nothing like that. He says it's tenfold as bad here in North Carolina. Tenfold, and it hit me as I was praying this week and I heard, I thought, how can we do something as a community, a selfless act of service, other than packing up water and packing up food and packing up supplies on Monty's trailer and driving it to North Carolina?
00:23:20
Speaker
because that should be the desire that we all have. We should see a suffering community and that should be our response. I wanna do something now because Jesus has reached out and He's touched us. We too want to return that in like fashion.
00:23:38
Speaker
I landed on just a couple of verses here. Matthew 5.41 says this. He says, if anyone forces you to go a mile, go with them two miles. right Meaning go above and beyond.
00:23:55
Speaker
And I was taken back to Matthew 25, it says, this is in response, the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and we gave you something to drink. When did we see a stranger invite you in or somebody needing clothes and clothed you?
00:24:15
Speaker
When did we see you sick or in prison or go visit you? To which the king replies, truly, truly, I say to you, say it, the least of these brothers. When you've done it for them, you've done it for me. How can we provide a selfless, active service, unconditional love to this community suffering in North Carolina and Florida? Well, I think it is about Six things, feeding, providing drinks, helping out strangers, providing clothes, attending to the sick. Right here, how do we physically do that this week? And I would suggest, and I and i brought this to Cindy earlier in the week, and I thought, how do we give? That was my, you know, poor Cindy, she's gotta field all these questions. How do we give as a church if we wanna give to this effort right now, and I don't wanna go to the Red Cross who gobbles up 65% of the money?
00:25:16
Speaker
I'm not afraid to say that. Do not contribute to the Red Cross. That money, your money, will not go where it needs to go in its totality. Sendrelief.org does. 100% goes there. The Texas men, Texas Baptists on mission right now are going, like I said last week, they've already packed up trucks. They've already have semis heading that way, ah people who are cutting trees down and providing water, providing clothes.
00:25:42
Speaker
I'm suggesting what we can do in a real, tangible, sacrificial way is that we give for the next four weeks, specifically for this effort. This goes above and beyond your tie. This goes above and beyond any other money you contribute. This doesn't go to the Christmas fund at the boxes. It doesn't do any of that. This is specifically for these folks in North Carolina and Florida. Can we make a four-week giving effort and I just frankly I just told Andy today I said we never ever talk about money at the church and then of course what I do today I talk a little bit about money friends I really think it's that important that we show up in a real tangible way and I just assume load up cars with water and food and clothes and go that way and deliver it myself but I think logistically it makes a lot more sense if we simply give towards that effort so
00:26:37
Speaker
If you're willing to do that, yeah I challenge you in the next four weeks. As you give, give and say I want a certain amount to go or I want this amount to go and then we're going to collect it and then the church is going to try to match a portion of that and we're going to give to this effort.
00:26:55
Speaker
And then we're going to sit back and we're going to watch Jesus bless and work in these communities because it is a rebuilding effort. I think quite often, you know, since Kim and I had walked through Hurricane Harvey, there's an initial need for money to help people kind of get over the initial hump. But there was a long road ahead of these folks of rebuilding their lives and all that entails. I think we really need to be on this for the long haul. But we're going to start with a four-week commitment. So that's my challenge to you. May we be a people who follow Christ and His example, who give sacrificially because He gave to us. Amen.