Jesus Came to Preach
Truth Taught-Jesus did not enter this sinful world in order to improve our health and comfort but He came to preach the Gospel.
In our fallen condition very often, our thinking is skewed. Like the disciples as we will see today, did not understand Jesus’ mission. Because of our sin, we too can misunderstand Jesus.
Sometimes we think that we are in control and that if we just do things a certain way then we can get the outcome we desire. Raise your kids a certain way and they will all turn out exactly like we want. Jesus did not come so you will have good moral kids.
Do things a certain way and your marriage will be great. Put Jesus in the center of your marriage and everything will be great…Jesus did not come to earth and die on the cross so you will have a good marriage.
These are wrong answers to the question why did Jesus come to Earth. Why did He die on the cross?
Do you know Jesus did not come to make you healthy, give you cookie cutter children, or a wonderful marriage.
Our Lord is going to straighten out our sinful thinking here in the text for today.
Please Stand…
Mark 1:29–39 (ESV)
29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 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.
35 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. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 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.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
1. A Sabbath Day Healing (1:29-31)
29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
We see here in this wonderful account that after teaching and casting out demons in the synagogue at Capernaum, He and the four apostles leave and go straight to Simon and Andrew’s house. It sounds like their house was close to the synagogue.
We also see something very amazing about Jesus, our Savior…we see He heart. In a day when women were viewed as second class. He goes to her and shows her kindness and compassion. Jesus loved her with a godly love.
One important point here is that this event takes place on the Sabbath Day. Jesus heals on the Sabbath and that is not allowed in Judaism.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath in order to reveal the hypocrisy of the Pharisees’ religion. In three passages where Jesus’ healing led to a confrontation, Jesus references how the Jews “worked” on the Sabbath by taking care of their animals, and that work was sanctioned by the Pharisees. In an agrarian society, animal care was a major part of a normal day. Jesus points out their willingness to work on the Sabbath to help an animal: “Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?” (Luke 13:15), and He rightly calls out their hypocrisy for denying aid to “a daughter of Abraham” (verse 16). If your religious rules allow for helping animals on the Sabbath, then it should definitely allow for helping people.
When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, He was also challenging the religious leaders with the question of doing good or evil on the Sabbath: “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4). The leaders remained silent and refused to answer. His healing gave them the answer. Doing good and saving life is lawful, even on the Sabbath. Using the Sabbath rule to do evil or to kill is an ungodly perversion of the law.
Let’s take a look at the law in question. The Torah is the law proper. But the Pharisees also added their traditions to the law God had given. The religious leaders’ traditions that they combined with the biblical law became as important to them as God’s actual Word. Jesus stood against such additions to the law, rebuking the teachers of the law for “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7, ESV).
Jesus was going to come to the aid of anyone in need no matter what the traditions said. God’s Word and tradition are not the same. The Word takes priority over all human tradition, human documents…everything else.
Another thing Jesus did here that was against Pharisee tradition was that He reached out His hand and touched her. The text says that He took her hand and lifted her up.
31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up
Do you see the manner in which Jesus healed her. He simply took her by the hand and lifted her up and she was made well.
Here’s another tradition Jesus is breaking. According the Jewish law, you can’t touch sick people because you will become unclean. Here, our Lord is so pure and sinless that the sickness and fever does not come to Him, His power goes to her.
Have you ever needed Jesus to take you by the hand and lift you up? He can and we see here He is willing.
We see the heart of Jesus for His own. He comes to her. He breaks religious protocol. He reaches out and grabs her hand and lifts her up. This shows us the heart of Jesus. He loves His people.
and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
This verse shows us something about this healing. Immediately the fever left her and she regained her strength in an instant. She began to serve Jesus.
Not only was this a physical healing but it was symbolic of the spiritual healing that would also be seen within that house. Jesus came to save.
2. The After Sabbath Healings (1:32-34)
32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 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.
The time now is after the Sabbath is over. That evening, Sabbath ended at sundown Saturday Night. What’s amazing and also sad at the same time was that people were so conditioned by tradition of the Pharisees that they thought they had to wait until the Sabbath was over before they could bring their sick family members to see Jesus for healing.
Father, forgive us if we ever allow tradition to hinder our love for others and our love for Christ.
The language Mark uses, Simon Peter’s account is that the people brought all the sick and demon possessed people to Simon’s front door. According to Simon Peter here, the whole city showed up.
We see in verse 34 that Jesus would not allow the demons to speak. He silenced their shrieks as they came out of their hosts. We will see later on that by His great authority He muzzled them and they remained silent. Demons had overpowered the people but before Jesus, they were powerless.
We truly see the heart of our Lord here. When according to Mark, the entire city flocked to Peter’s front door and Jesus healed many, our Lord knew that most that came that evening were just there for the healings. There would not be many followers arise from these miracles.
That is strange to us because we would naturally think that if a family member was healed then everyone would believe. Here, that is not the case. In fact, miracles and saving faith have nothing to do with each other.
In the Gospel of John 6 we have the account of the great miracle of the feeding of the five thousand all are following Jesus. Then, He begins preaching and everyone it seems leaves Him.
John 6:41–44 (ESV)
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
John 6:60–69 (ESV)
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
3. Jesus Came to Preach (1:35-39)
35 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. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 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.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
We must see here that Jesus’ priority was not to heal people as great as that was. He did not come to heal but to save people from their sin, an eternal healing.
35 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.
I want to bring to your attention the place of prayer. It was a desolate place. Do you remember the wilderness theology of Mark’s prologue that led Jesus out further and further until He battled Satan. We saw the temptation of Jesus and we saw that He would be victorious as the 2nd Adam when the 1st Adam fell when he faced Satan. Remember the place Adam fell was the Garden of Eden with everything he could want. Jesus was starving in a wilderness or desert region where there was no food. Our Lord remained faithful to His Father’s will.
Why does Mark report that Jesus went back to the wilderness to pray? Was the clamor of the crowds seeking to get Jesus to lose sight of His mission? Did He need to go back again to a wilderness location to be reminded of His mission? He prayed to the Father.
Jesus did not want the fame and status. He had a mission to accomplish and while healing was part of it. It showed that He is the Messiah, healing was not the main point…Jesus came to preach the Gospel.
It is in this solitude at night that our Lord is strengthened to fulfill His mission.
The four disciples did not grasp Jesus’ mission. They search for Him and when they find Him,
37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
Jesus, what are You doing all the way out here? People are looking for You. Jesus did not want to create an illusion that the Kingdom of God is here and now or that He was simply a Healer to be sought after when you’re sick.
Our Lord’s answer shows just how mistaken they were about His ministry. What does He say?
38 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.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Do we see here that preaching, proclaiming the truth…people are sinners and in great need of repentance and salvation far exceed physical healing. It is better to be sick and saved than it is to be healthy and lost.
Let’s go to the other places and preach so that people can be brought into the Kingdom of God and forever healed.
So, Jesus preaches and brings people out of their sin into God’s Kingdom. He also casts out demons showing that Satan’s kingdom is falling and falling quickly.
My prayer is that you know Jesus Christ today, not as Healer or Miracle Worker but as Savior. He is willing to lift us up out of our sin and save us. That’s why He came…
Resources Used:
Mark by Lane
Mark by Kent Hughes
Words of Blessing
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