He Came to Go and Preach
Mark 1:32-39
Mark 1:32-39
Let's pray...
Last week we went through a majority of this passage, if you weren’t here you can pick up the sermon Notes online or see me after the service and I’ll give you a review.
Tonight we started reading at verse 32 again, because without the background information, you’ll miss out on what’s going on in verses 36-39.
On to the Big Idea, let’s read the passage again, starting in verse 36.
The Big Idea is this, Jesus came to “Go” and “Preach”…
Now, some of you might push back like I did and say, I thought Jesus came to die on our behalf.
I thought that Jesus came to save us from the wrath of God.
I thought Jesus came to live the sinless life that I –WE – couldn’t live.
That’s all true. But He came to Go and Preach FIRST, so that once He had died, been buried resurrected, ascended to Heaven – then everything that He had taught them would come to their memory and they would finally BELIEVE with saving faith in a way that they wouldn’t have been able to without His teaching.
If He would have just lived and died without explaining all of this to His disciples, then it wouldn’t have made any since to them when He went to the cross.
And not only would the Gospel that He preached bring some to saving faith once they saw the work of the cross and the resurrection - but the preached word of the Gospel – and Jesus’ works would leave those who refuse to believe without an excuse.
Keep you finger in Mark 1, and turn with me to John 15:22-27
UNPACK: The Holy Spirit was sent not only to bring us to faith, but also to help those who were with Jesus in His earthly ministry to remember the important attributes about Him.
That’s one of the reasons for the Epistles. Since most of the writers of the New Testament were witnesses to Jesus life and teaching, death and resurrection, they were able to write to us, to the world and to the church, and in their writings, they were able to flesh out the qualities of Jesus.
So now, because of the Holy Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, when we say we are Christians, and we say that we believe in Jesus Christ, we can KNOW what that really means.
Without Jesus’ preaching and teaching ministry, and the records that we have in the New Testament, we could redefine Jesus to be anything we want Him to be.
But since we have the Scriptures, God is able to tell us who He is without shape shifting and changing with each new change in culture, national power or political movement.
If you look around though, we have countless groups in the world today who try to change who the Triune God is. Sadly we have it in what are called Christian churches today.
And, the first step that people take in redefining Jesus to suit themselves is to deny the Bible. But, it isn’t new. There is nothing new under the sun, not even this kind of sin. Turn back to Mark 1 and we’ll see the earliest followers trying the same thing.
Start back at verse 36.
If you don’t take anything else home from this part of Mark, then please at least take this lesson: Above all else God’s purposes trump ours. Every time.
Jesus was out there, making time to pray on purpose, in secret and in quietness and here comes the crowd. Mark reports it simply as Simon and “his companions”, and one great thing about having the four Gospels is that you get a fuller picture with all of them together than from one alone.
Luke’s gospel tells us that Simon’s companions included the people from the town and that when they were looking for Jesus it wasn’t some “easy going” way of looking for Him.
In Luke 4:42, the word for look or search is epizétéo (Epi-zay-tayo) in Greek, which means to wish for or to crave, to clamor for and demand. They were searching for Him and wanted Him – They wanted Jesus – for their purposes.
Verse 42 in Luke goes onto say that the crowd, which included Simon, tried to keep Jesus from leaving the area.
And what’s Jesus tell Simon?
Jesus doesn’t mince words and He doesn’t waste time, He knows His time is limited before He faces God’s wrath on the cross.
He’s not interested in staying in a place and being a local celebrity and building a mini-empire by being some one trick pony in Capernaum.
No, He was on a mission to plant the seeds for a Kingdom Movement that has continued to grow over the course of two millennium, and will continue until He returns.
And the way that movement began was the same way the earth and the heavens began. With a Word of God.
We talked about this before. It was with a word that God created all of this (heavens and earth) and it was against His word that Adam and Eve rebelled. It is against His word that we have been kicking back against ever since. And it is by His word – the Gospel – The Good News – the Good Words – by which God, the Holy Spirit is working salvation and sanctification into our hearts.
Jesus said let’s go somewhere else so I can preach (proclaim the Words of LIFE) to others also. And He said THAT is why I’ve come.
You see the crowd was only interested in what Jesus could do for them - healing, teaching and casting out demons. Their shortsighted desires kept them from seeing God the Son - Jesus’ long-sighted plan.
Here’s what I mean, here’s what they didn’t see: When they were healed, they eventually got sick again and died. But Jesus was on earth to do more than take away their sickness that destroys their bodies, He was there to take away the sin that led to spiritual death and eternity in Hell apart from God.
And Simon and the disciples weren’t in the clear either. They were just starting to follow Jesus. They didn’t quite know what to expect. And here they saw a quick rise in popularity, people were coming to them, the town was buzzing about them, they were the people to know. It was awesome.
So, they probably thought, why mess with a good thing? Who knows how the people in the next city will react? We’ve got something good here, we’d be stupid to let go of this.
And listen, at the root of the disciples and at the root of the crowd is not just shortsightedness, it is also selfishness. Their actions spoke louder than any words. Their selfishness screamed out, “Who cares about those people across the border, those strangers. Let them fend for themselves.
Meanwhile Jesus’ message is a message of reconciliation. It is a message of reconciling the world (In Capernaum and beyond) to Himself by the proclamation of the Gospel. That is why He came and that is why He did not – Could Not – stay in one place.
And that’s why we as a church body and as individual Christians need to see the importance here of pursuing God’s purpose, and not trying to box Him into our purposes, which are usually shortsighted and oftentimes selfish.
Let me give a couple of examples of where we are sometimes shortsighted and where we threaten to deter the movement.
We are shortsighted when we seek the good of our city with a million good things while allowing those good things to stop us from speaking – SPEAKING - the Gospel. The good things get in the way of the GOOD NEWS.
Don’t get me wrong, As Christians,
• We should be supporters of the animal shelter.
• We should keep our city clean and river looking good by picking up litter and cutting down on what we throw out when we could easily recycle.
• We should be adamant about feeding the hungry and providing shelter for the homeless and clothing those in need.
• We should be active in local, and national government.
• We should fight for the rights of people from the womb to the grave.
• We should be lovers and supporters of the arts.
• We should promote Health and wellness.
• We should fight slavery, the sex trade, and other atrocities that are still rampant today.
But, too many churches lose sight of THE REASON that Jesus came and THE REASON that we are supposed to be doing any of those things.
THE REASON He came was to preach the Gospel. And, THE REASON we should be doing any and all of those things that I just listed are as natural responses to the Gospel AND as avenues by which we can spread the Gospel.
If we don’t make Christ the central point of all of those endeavors then we are epic failures in our supposed goodness. The Social Gospel is only what we’ve been called to when we are bringing the Gospel to the society.
What’s the good of helping a city and our neighbors in the city with a million temporary helps if we don’t do our part to help them find Christ and escape God’s wrath?
If you are a non-Christian and you are here tonight, make no mistake, that’s why we are here. That’s why we do what we do. Because we believe that the message that we are called to share is the message that truly has the power to save.
In another portion of the New Testament, one of the early church leaders said,
I was talking to a guy in town during one of the recent festivals and he was talking about how he was going to a particular church, because they were interested in helping the city but they didn’t feel the need to push all of the “Jesus stuff” all the time. Those were his words.
You will not get that here. We believe that a Christ-less Christianity is no Christianity at all.
Now, onto selfishness, this will be brief, we will cover it again next week and most weeks really.
When we look at the reaction of Simon and his companions who wanted to make Jesus stay put we see a common human reaction. We are all quick to run from any struggle and pain and any trial. At times we will even quietly push it off onto someone else if we can get by with it without hurting our reputations.
But, when things get good for us, when things get easier, when we start feeling better, what do we do?
We cling. We cling to money, to power, to health and fitness, In church we cling to the people and the traditions that made us feel better. And we do whatever we can to keep a hold of the good feeling and the ease.
And we may share, if it doesn’t mean letting go. And if it doesn’t mean that we have to lose a noticeable amount of the good stuff or the great people.
The crowd says, No, no stay here. What if we get sick again, Jesus?
The disciples say, No, no, let’s all stay here, Jesus. What if they don’t like us in the next city?
We say, No, no, they don’t deserve the message if it means I’m going to have to go out of my comfort zone, or if our church releases some of the best people to leave and start a new work in an unreached part of the world (locally or across the globe).
We say, No, no, we can’t afford to be generous to them what if our money runs out?
Or, on point with our shortsightedness, we say, No, no, we can’t evangelize to them, they might not like us anymore.
But with all that said, Jesus, Son of God, did not banish Simon and His companions. He didn’t tell them they should be ashamed of themselves for their demands on Him. He said the most important thing, The REASON He came was to Go and to preach. To preach what? To preach the Gospel.
What they needed to hear is what we still need to hear today. We all need to hear for the first time or to be reminded again, that God created everything in the heavens and on the earth. Then in love He created us to rule over the creation and to enjoy it all to the praise and glory of God.
All things were created by Him and are sustained by him and as we enjoy the creation we are to give thanks to Him.
But we didn’t, from the first sin of Eve and “the fruit” to the sins that you and I have committed this week, we have all rebelled against the Holy God of the universe. And our sin demands justice.
Without someone taking on the punishment due to us, we are in line for the growing wrath of God.
BUT! God in His infinite mercy and grace sent His son, Jesus Christ to take the punishment for us on the cross and to conquer the sin and death that awaited us.
Now, the Bible says, if we repent and believe in Jesus and what He has done for us, we will be saved.
That’s the Good News. That is what Jesus came for. That is what draws us to Him and that is what we are sent to GO as missionaries to share with people with our words.
Let’s pray…
