-Do you remember when you used to get excited about things?

-Christmas was a magical time, I’ll be honest, one of my favorite parts of moving back to MN was the Menards Wonderland experience (but I’m pretty sure it used to be bigger, in my mind when I was growing up they converted the whole store). Counted down the days to open presents, hoping your parents had been listening for the hints you’d been dropping all year. 

-Birthdays were celebrated instead of dreaded. Anyone else remember having “themed” birthday parties? Best one I had was a backwards birthday party. Wore clothes backwards, everyone got thank you gifts when they arrived, I opened presents at the beginning (which is why I wanted to do a backwards party to begin with) AND we all ate the cake before the food! 

-Or remember when you had this thing called “summer” that wasn’t just referring to the season, where you had no responsibilities for 3 months straight! Now summer just means you sweat when you walk outside instead of freeze (Assuming you can get outside to see the weather around work!)

-Then you had dreams about what your first job was going to look like, and be (and then after about 3 days working at McDonalds you realize you learned what you DON’T want to do for the rest of your life!)

-Or maybe it was getting your driver’s license, but then as soon as you got it you become all your friend’s means of getting around.

-College! But then you graduate and realize you actually do have to pay back all those loans you took out that didn’t seem like such a big deal when you were 19, and here we are STILL paying for that education that you finished a decade ago!

-The world trains us to become cynics, to not hope too much in an attempt to preserve what little happiness we have left in our lives.

-We look at children and smile at their youthful excitement, but think to ourselves “someday they’ll grow out of it.” Even this week, you would have thought my kids were getting to meet Dude Perfect in person by the way they were excited about donuts! And me, well I’ve had donuts many times now! (FYI – they’re from Hy-Vee, talk about breaking all my expectations!)

-One of the craziest things about the resurrection is it breaks every expectation we’re trained to believe in. It’s a story that literally seems too good to be true! But the craziest thing about it all is that it is!

-Tolkien summarized this feeling incredibly well at the end ROTK. (gotta spoil the movie, but it’s been out for 20 years, and the book has been out for 68 years, so it’s on you at this point). After the ring has been destroyed, Sam and Frodo are saved by some Eagles. When Sam finally wakes up, the first person he sees is Gandalf, and exclaims: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

-We’re going to focus on that idea today: the reality that everything sad is going to come untrue, and that’s only true because of the resurrection. Peace, paradox, proclaim

READ/PRAY

1. Peace (36-39)

-“Talking about these things” What were they talking about?

-Friday we took a look at the previous chapter where we saw the mock trial of Jesus, culminating in His death and burial. Luke 23 ends by saying the women prepared spices and ointment to anoint Jesus’ body (a way of giving honor) Did nothing on the Sabbath (this was a day of rest for the Jewish people every week, no work was allowed), Luke 24 picks it up on Sunday morning

-Women go to the tomb to place the spices, but the body’s gone! They weren’t confused (it was a well-known tomb), they were grieving, but they weren’t crazy. They knew exactly where the body was supposed to be, but it wasn’t there. 

-Thankfully, there are 2 angels nearby to tell them what’s happened, asking these women (one of my favorite questions) “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” That’s ironic isn’t it? They’d seen Jesus just days earlier beaten to a bloody pulp, then hung up on a cross and watched Him breathe His last. Luke also mentions who these women are: Mary Magdalene, Joanna (wife of Herod’s household manager, the same Herod who interrogated Jesus on Friday), and his mother. At least 2 of those women had a vested interest in knowing where the body was! They run back to the rest of the disciples to tell them and:

-No one else believed them. Would you? What happens to someone who’s dead? They stay dead! 

-Women in the 1^st cent. weren’t viewed as reliable witnesses, yet that’s who Jesus chose to first reveal Himself to (which remember included His mom). If this was a fairy tale, Luke would have had men being the first people to find Jesus.

-Luke goes on from there (same day) to tell another account of Cleopas and another disciple who left Jerusalem to head to Emmaus, when along came Jesus.

-Jesus asks them “what’s the latest news”? And they look at Him like He’s crazy “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there?” 

-Do you think Jesus told them “You know, I’ve been a little busy this weekend” or “Haven’t been around here for a little while”

-Then takes them on what would probably be the greatest Bible study ever. Taught them how to interpret the whole OT in light of Jesus.

-After their journey, they invite Him to have dinner with them, and suddenly He disappears and they realize who it was! So they sprint back to Jerusalem to tell everyone else. And after they arrived, they began talking with everyone else about what was going on. 

-At this point, 5 people had seen Jesus (Matthew 28 tells us that Jesus appeared at the tomb), the 2 disciples on the road, these eyewitness accounts are starting to grow!

-Suddenly, just as they were talking about Him, Jesus Himself appears. John’s Gospel tells us the doors were locked.

-First thing He says to His disciples is: peace. Think of the significance of that word. They had been anticipating peace, but peace due to the overthrowing of the Romans, not an eternal peace won by an atoning death! 

-What would any normal, sane human being think about this situation? A ghost!  Everyone has heard a good ghost story! Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

-Look at vs. 37 startled, frightened, thought they were seeing a ghost. What is one of the common stories made about the resurrection? That it was just a spiritual resurrection, surely Jesus didn’t actually come back from the dead! They literally think their sense are deceiving them (at least eyes and ears)

-Since Jesus knows everything (including thoughts, as we’ve seen in Mark), he asks them what’s wrong? Why would they remain troubled, and why do they have doubts? Can’t they see that it’s the person they’d followed for years?

-He invites them to come and touch Him. Confirm with all their senses that He is back, just like He promised. 

-This is important: Jesus meets the disciples where they are. He could have told them “Just have faith! Why don’t you believe?” Instead He invites the doubting, He accepts their skepticism, and He breaks all their expectations. 

-Their skepticism about the way the world works has just started to be turned on its’ head, but that’s just the beginning!

• Paradox (40-43) Christianity is full of paradoxes 

-Not only does Jesus invite their questions and answer their doubt, He shows that it’s really Him by showing His nail scarred hands and feet. 

-Once again, in John’s account we have a little more info, doubting Thomas is encouraged to come and touch the scars. Jesus still has the marks of death on Him. Can you imagine seeing Jesus with his scars stand in front of you?

-But then we get to a weird phrase that I think bears some contemplation for us today in vs. 41 “While they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling.” Other translations word it slightly differently. I like the way the Message summarizes it: it seemed too good to be true. 

-Part of the reason people doubt Christianity is because it does seem too good to be true, doesn’t it? Perfect world, relational unity, brokenness fixed, sadness coming untrue. One of the biggest obstacle to belief: the fear of too good to be true. Why would we continue to get our hopes up when we know they’re just going to be broken again?

-We’re all trained to be cynics throughout our life. The older we get the more calloused we become, our joy becomes tainted and broken. Just like the disciples, we keep lowering our expectations so that we can try to hold on to what little joy we have left.

-I remember growing up dreaming of visiting a place called “Disney.” The commercials I saw of Tinkerbelle flying around, getting to meet Mickey. And then I finally went! And it was magical, until I had to stand in line for an hour! (And then it got worse after being there as an adult with crabby kids who didn’t nap, it’s FAR less magical than the ads would lead you to believe)

-Or if you’re married, think of all the dreams you had of how your spouse would (to quote Jerry Maguire) complete you, but then 5 days in you have your first fight. Or you find out after you get married, that after decades of not snoring, the moment you got married your spouse caused you to become a snorer. 

-Life at some point seems to become more about managing expectations than it does about living a joy filled life, and the older you get the lower those expectations are. 

-As I’ve heard it summarized, life is hard, and then you die! And I think this is especially true today! Deaths of despair are on the rise (suicide, drugs, alcohol liver disease), the age expectancy of an American has decreased over the past couple years for the first time in decades. Isn’t being joyful a childish thing reserved for either the ignorant or uninformed?

-What if I told you not only is it possible to be joyful, but that’s what Jesus actually wants us to be marked by? But here’s the thing: it’s not by refusing to get hopeful or becoming cynical, it’s only by believing. Unlike the disciples, at least in this part of the story, we can believe! And once we believe, we have every reason to be joyful!

-This is where, as someone grows in their faith, there should be an increase of joy in their lives, a grumpy Christian shouldn’t exist!

-One of the best examples of this is the last person the Risen Lord appeared to (who said he was one “untimely born”) the apostle Paul.

-Long before everyone knew what “tebowing” was, Paul wrote that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. Wasn’t referring to football! 

-Joy comes because we know Christ is working in us. Joy comes by knowing how to be content in any and every circumstance. Look at how Paul begins this section: “I REJOICED” (had joy) If Christ is raised from the dead (and He is), then we can rejoice all the time!

-Paul even takes this a step further in another letter that he wrote called 1 Thess. Where he commands believers to “rejoice always.” Doesn’t mean to bury your feelings, to pretend like everything is ok, instead he’s recognizing that whatever is going on around you, God is still at work.

-That’s where in the midst of a school shooting in Nashville, the parents of a child who’s now in the arms of Jesus can say “death doesn’t have the final word.” This is where Christians who are gunned down during a worship service can forgive the shooter. We have a supernatural joy that doesn’t need to change based on our circumstances.

-But Jesus doesn’t stop at the disciple’s disbelief, or asking if it’s too good to be true, He continues to draw near to them.

-This is where we need to remember that faith isn’t an abstract concept where we’re asked to believe in something without proof. Do you see all the evidences Jesus gives of His resurrection throughout this section? Contrary to popular opinion, faith isn’t in a feeling, faith is placed in facts and empirical evidence. Our faith is as certain as the tomb is empty. 

-Before the disciples have faith, while they’re still disbelieving, Jesus moves toward them relationally, and asks if they can share a meal together.

-How many of your greatest memories involve good food and good friends where you lose track of time? We had the opportunity this week to share a small meal together on Thursday! And one of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten is if you need to have a difficult conversation with someone, do it over food because it’s really hard to stay angry with someone when you’re eating!

-What’s the last good memory the disciples had with Jesus? The last supper. Do you think maybe Jesus is redeeming their memories and helping them move to belief and joy?

-We see the same response many of us have to the news of Jesus’ resurrection: disbelieving for joy, or surely this is too good to be true. You’re right, it is. But this is just a tiny picture of how good things could actually be! The story is just starting

• Proclaim (44-49)

-After dinner, Jesus goes back to remind them of everything He’d been saying up until His death, but they hadn’t been able to understand it yet. They’re basically like teenagers who are at that stage where their parents don’t understand ANYTHING, but Jesus is helping them get to the point where they can understand and comprehend what He was saying (like your 20s when you start to realize that maybe your parents know a little more than you gave them credit for)

-But it wasn’t just Jesus who was saying these things, they were written about in the Law of Moses, Prophets, Psalms – summary of the OT

-“Opened their minds” doesn’t mean they’re dumb, but now they can see and understand everything Jesus had been saying. Think of reading a mystery (Sherlock Holmes), you miss all these clues at the beginning but then when you see the whole picture, it all makes sense.

-St. Anselm (11^th Cent. Theologian) “faith seeking understanding” Faith isn’t different from understanding, nor is understanding meant to be independent from faith, they work together and center on the risen Jesus. Also said “I believe in order to understand.” Jesus is helping the disciples learn how to interpret everything around them. Since God’s Word is true, everything it says can be believed, and will help us to make sense of the world we find ourselves living.

-Then, in order to emphasize exactly what He means, Jesus says (46ff.) There are 3 words that are emphasized in what Jesus says (how we bold or underline today) suffer, rise, proclaim. That’s a great summary of the gospel, isn’t it? Jesus was prophesied about that He would need to suffer, then rise from the dead, and that message of good news needs to be proclaimed worldwide! 

-This becomes the gospel message that disciples share as soon as the resurrection takes place. Peter’s first sermon centers on this 3-fold idea! And it’s the same message that we should be proclaiming every chance we get today. Just like the disciples are eyewitnesses to these events, we have a transformed life that we can proclaim to others about how God transforms us.

-Jesus then says He will send the promise of His Father.

-Think of the change these disciples experienced. Let’s just take Peter, who is too embarrassed about being outted during Jesus’ trial that he backs down to a little girl. Weeks later, he stands up in front of thousands and preaches this exact message!  (suffer, rise, repent)

-Do you want reason to believe? Even a Jewish theologian believes the resurrection happened! This ragtag group of disciples overnight go from hiding behind a locked door, to screaming in the middle of Jerusalem that Jesus was resurrected. They go from disbelieving to try to hold on to what little joy they had, to being the most joy filled people on the face of the earth.

-After Peter has proclaimed the peace that come through Jesus in Acts 2, the crowd asks him how they should respond. Do you know what He says? “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That’s part of the paradox of Christianity: all you need to is repent and believe. When you do that it leads to:

-And here’s the crazy thing: guess where Luke’s account ends: with the disciples worshipping Jesus, and being full of “great joy.” 

-How does Easter change your expectations, or maybe I should ask DOES Easter change your expectations? What we should be marked by is joy! Jesus is alive! What can this world do to me!? We have something to look forward to forever: life in perfect union between God and us! Therefore, we will rejoice always!

-Have you ever been hanging out with a group of people that’s new to you that have what feels like a different language that they speak?

-One of the things I’ve noticed since as my family has expanded by adding in-laws is that we have to take time to bring the new family members up to speed. We’ve got inside jokes, family stories, favorite movie quotes that unless you’re on the “in” just go right over the in-laws heads!

-When I first got here, Pastor Jeramy and I would often speak in movie quotes to each other! Heather and Tami didn’t even try to keep up.

-One of my favorite TV shows has an iconic line: “I love inside jokes” 

-Inside jokes are great when you’re inside! But what about when you’re on the outside looking in?

-In today’s passage, Jesus is going to use stories to train those who are “in” and confuse those who are “out.”

READ/PRAY

1. A Sower (1-20)

-Does anyone remember the primary focus of Jesus’ ministry yet? Teaching! So guess what Jesus does again here? Teaches! Once again, the crowd has discovered Him, and once again it’s a HUGE crowd, so he leaves the land to get into a boat.

-Every author of the Gospels has a specific point to their writing, including Mark. None of them are trying to include every single story about Jesus, or provide a biography in the way we think of them today. (John 21:25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”)

-Matthew, Mark & Luke all have this exact same story, and Mark actually tells us why we need to understand this story, as we’ll see in vs. 13, which also means we’ll be spending most of our time today in these first 20 verses, because Jesus says we need to understand this parable to able to understand the rest of them!

-Jesus tells a story about a farmer who goes out to plant his seed. As the farmer goes about his work, the seed is scattered across 4 different types of soils that all lead to different outcomes for the seed. 

-1 – The Path. As the field wasn’t used for a few months, paths would have been worn by people walking through the field. If you’ve ever gone to college you’ve seen this! Colleges should never begin with any sidewalks, because over time the students will show you where the sidewalks should be placed! At my alma mater, there were sidewalks running in (what looked like) all these crazy directions because the students refused to be bound by things like cement! Eventually the administration figured that out. But if seed were to be planted on one of those paths, how successful would it be? I guess if you’re trying to feed birds, this was the best one! But if you’re hoping to get a harvest and plant these seeds into the ground you’ve got a terrible success rate, because Jesus says these seed all become bird food! There goes that group of seeds. Let’s look at the next one:

-2 – Rocky ground. When I grew up in North Dakota, by best friend’s dad was a farmer, and do you know what the boys got to do when they were growing up? Rock picking! If you drive by fields look and see, many of them have a huge rock pile somewhere nearby in order to make sure they don’t break the plow or interfere with the growth of the seeds. The issue with trying to plant seeds in rocky ground is it’s deceptive. Until you actually start doing some work on the field, it looks like it’s good soil, so you’d be tempted to double down on that area and plant a bunch of seeds there! Unfortunately, it’s shallow soil. Initially it would probably look like that will be the most fertile area, but as soon as the heat of the summer sun comes (which should give life to plants who have a good base to build from), the plants die, leaving the farmer with 0 for 2 on his sowing!

-3 – Thorns. This one is tricky just like the rocky ground, because you once again can’t tell that there’s going to be a problem! In fact, this may look even better than the good soil initially, because weeds just don’t give up, and as seedlings you can’t tell much of a difference between the weed and the what you’re trying to go (at least when you’re as good at planting as I am!). Just like the previous 3 soils, this seed dies because of the competition from the thorns, so I’m not liking this farmers shooting average so far! He’s at a solid 0%! Thankfully, there’s 1 more:

-4 – Good soil. Now we’re at the good stuff! The place where he should have been sowing the whole time! This is literally the entire purpose of planting seeds, to get a harvest, to help the seed to flourish, and these seeds make up for the deficiency of the others, giving 30, 60, 100 times the return!

-This would have been a well understood story to the people of the day. An agrarian society would have seen farmers going to work every year, the effort it takes to take care of the seeds, the plowing of the fields. To those listening it would have been common sense! Obviously, that’s how sowing works! It’s a basic as being told today: invest in the stock market, ride out the highs and lows, you’ll get a solid return if you keep your money there!

-There is something unique about the way this sowing takes place: the farmer sows the seed before plowing. Generally you plow the field first in order to rip out the thorns and pull out the rocks, but not this one. This has led some people to argue that this is normal Palestinian planting method: sow seed first, then plow after. Others argue that’s only one of the methods. The point remains: Sower sows indiscriminately! And once we get to Jesus’ explanation of the parable, I think you’ll see that there’s a reason why Jesus doesn’t talk about the plowing

-At some point after the teaching, the 12 needed to ask Jesus what in the world He was talking about! No one had any idea what Jesus was talking about, including those were closest to Jesus. But don’t worry, Jesus will explain it to them! And the purpose is so that there can be a distinction between those who are Jesus’ disciples, and those who are not. 

-Essentially, those who are “in” will be able to understand and apply the parables, those who are outside are left in the dark. It’s not enough just to know what Jesus meant, you need to believe and apply the truths Jesus is saying. Why is this? It’s the fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah 6.

-All of this is meant to confirm for those who are believers what their lives should look like, and until someone repents of their sin (180 turn), they won’t be forgiven and able to understand and apply God’s message. This tells us there’s only 2 way to live: either for Jesus, or opposed to Him, there is no in between when it comes to Jesus! If someone were to turn away from opposition to Jesus and put their hope and faith in Him, they would begin to understand these parables! 

-So let’s look at the meaning of this parable:

-Sower has 1 job: sow the seed, which means the Word! Church: don’t miss this! A disciple of Jesus is someone who is marked by faithful sowing of the Word. This is why Paul talks about the need to preach the Word “in season and out of season” (that is when people are for the message or when they’re against the message) Here are some of the responses you’re going to get:

-Path is a hard heart, this is someone who refuses to acknowledge what is true and are thus taken away by Satan. Has no time to germinate, no time to plant roots, it’s in one ear and out the other as quickly as possible. 

-Rocky ground is someone who looks like they’re all in! But as soon as something difficult happens, they blame God, who does and will allow testing to come! If you’ve heard the phrase “God won’t let you be tempted beyond what you are able” just tell that person to stop lying! God will absolutely let you be tested beyond what you’re able so that you realize the only think that will last is Him! 

-Story of someone who was saved, dog died the next week and he quit following Jesus. Or a friend I have who used to be a pastor, and then realized that the world wouldn’t judge him by the same standards as the church, so he’d rather use someone else’s standards, and last time I talked to him, he wasn’t any happier than he was before he gave up following Christ!

-Thorns is someone who hears, looks like they respond, but then they also want to add in other things to their faith (care of the world, riches, desire for things not from God)

-This is where you’ll often see Christian “social media influencers” (I feel like I dunk of social media a lot, it’s not all bad, but it’s definitely not all good either) Jesus tells us that the world will hate us, just like it hated him, why would we want recognition from the things that are going to pass away at some point? I feel like you see examples of this all over! Musicians who now claim to be agnostic, “pastors” who have shipwrecked their faith, you don’t have to look far to see this lived out today!

-Good soil are those who respond in faith and trust in God, and “bear fruit,” that is the multiplication that comes about from being in Christ.

-Let’s take all this back to the beginning: we need to be actively sowing the word if we’re disciples of Jesus, so as we sow, we should be paying attention to:

-How and where is this person’s heart? Where are you sowing the seed? (The need to sow doesn’t change! Did you notice that! Even those who are good soil will regularly need more seed added to help continue bearing fruit)

-A helpful way of summarizing where people at (continuing with the arrow that I used for our ‘Demystifying Discipleship’ series back in Nov/Dec.) is with 4 Es:

-Engage: this is someone who’s heart is the rocky soil. They’re not yet ready to be given an explicit gospel message and invitation to turn to Jesus, they just need a Christian to reach out to them and befriend them. Then as the Spirit works in them, they’ll slowly move to:

-Evangelize: this would be that moment where now they’re ready to be given more explicit calls of the Word, and more intentional sowing then you may have been doing up until that point. After someone hears the message and responds by putting their faith, hope, and confidence in Jesus, then we need to help them become:

-Established: this is help them learn, grow, and understand what it means to follow Jesus so their hearts don’t become either rocky soil or thorny soil. If you work with someone to help them understand where the thorns or rocks are in their life, they’ll be able to grow seed there instead of fall away.

-Finally, those who have weathered storms, been tempted by the cares of this world and endured, they’ll need help being equipped (think of Eph. 4:12), more intentionally and carefully trained so that we can have multiplication happening instead of just addition. The Christian faith isn’t a spectator sport, everyone has a job to do and a necessary role to play, otherwise God would take you somewhere else!

-There’s also the caution to be careful how you’re receiving the Word. Which soil is your heart?

-Even for those of us who are in Christ, we need to ensure we’re bearing fruit as we read, study, and apply the full breadth of God’s Word. As Micah reminded us in the NCC devotional this past week, we must submit ourselves to the full way God has revealed Himself to us through His Word. Where is your heart?

-Lastly, we need to acknowledge that the softening of the soil is the job of the Holy Spirit. Remember I said early that I think Jesus intentionally left the plowing out? That’s because it’s not our job! We sow the seed wherever and whenever we can, but it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to have been plowing the soil of someone’s heart to make them receptive to the seed! And that’s true of our hearts too: pray for the softening of your heart!

• A Mystery (21-29)

-Jesus asked His disciples in vs. 13 why they couldn’t understand that first parable, because if they don’t get that one, none of the others will make sense. We don’t see Mark going back to the boat, but can be understood that these are examples of the kinds of parables Jesus would have used to teach the crowd. So view this as a cut scene back to Jesus teaching from the boat!

-The next parable relates to a lamp. What is the point of a lamp? To bring light. It would be a waste of time (and money) to buy a lamp and stick it under a basket or under a bed. (Hate to say it, but kind of like the superfluous pillows that get added around the house, ESPECIALLY to beds)

-The point is that Jesus is the light of the world, He has come to reveal the truths of who God is and what it means to be in relationship with Him, or what the kingdom of God is like. It’s like a light that shines into the darkness of the world, drawing people in, and exposing the darkness for what it really is 

-This is an idea that I’ve really been captivated by over the past few months: Jesus, and thus Christianity, provides the ultimate answer to every longing in the human heart. Jesus is both the source and end to every desire people have. Think of your favorite food (nice medium rare steak with all the fixings, if it’s anything more than medium just get a hamburger!) Did you know that when Jesus comes back, He’s planning a feast with us? Think of taste buds that haven’t been ruined by age or sin! And that’s just a small piece! The eating of your favorite food is meant to serve to remind you who gave you those tastebuds in the first place. Food isn’t meant to be an end in and of itself. 

-We have a tendency to view God as some cosmic killjoy who sits in heaven looking down at us frowning. No! God wants what’s best for us AND wants us to be in relationship with Him forever! Not to belittle or demean us, but to provide for us everything we need, and then some! It’s not a coincidence that He refers to Himself as our Father (not to say those who have strained relationship with their fathers should get over it)

-The next parable Jesus tells (24-25) means we need to pay careful attention to Jesus’ message! To those who pay careful attention to Jesus’ message, and obey it, they will get even more of that message! And if their hearts remain like the hardened soil, they’ll have nothing left.

-Jesus then adds another parable of sowing seeds. Think of the seeming insignificance of a seed! I remember one summer my parents decided to plant a big garden. My sister and I were each given a little portion to plant whatever we wanted, and I excited got my bag of seeds, opened the bag, and was super disappointed because they’re TINY! How in the world am I supposed to take care of these? But miraculously, they turned out! And it was exactly as Jesus described it here: I stuck it in the ground, watered it, and out came the corn, cucumbers, and peas that I had planted! It was a miracle! And then at the end of the summer we got to eat our food!

-How does seed work? At some level it is a mystery! (especially when you’re not good at taking care of plants!) I remember in science class in elementary school planting seeds and then being amazed as the roots would always go down, and the leaves would always go up, even changing direction as you moved the cup! 

-How does the gospel work? At some level, it’s a mystery! I remember being an 8 year old kid meeting some neighbors and asking them why they didn’t go to church. Guess who showed up at church the next week! See our job is to be faithfully sowing, then watch in amazement as we see fruit being born from ordinary people like you and me.

-The outcome of the planting is bearing a harvest. It seems like a miracle, and it is from our perspective, because it’s completely a work of God. The kingdom of God is like that: seems little, seems like such a basic ordinary thing, but what comes out of it is nothing short of a miracle.

• The Smallest Seed (30-34)

-That brings us to our final parable, that of a mustard seed.

-Once again, no small amount of ink has been spilled on this issue! Mostly related to mustard seeds definitely NOT being the smallest in the world, and it’s not SO big that a bird can plant itself in it! 

-Mustard seed is representing the smallest seed in the world. It looks so insignificant when you think about the size of the plant it becomes. Some mustard plants can grow as high as 20-30 feet! No small plant! Birds could easily find a safe place to nest in a group of these!

-Like that seemingly insignificant seed, the kingdom of God begins by looking like something that is tiny and insignificant (a baby being born in a manger), but eventually will grow to the point of encompassing everything in the world!

-One of the commentators I read this week summarized Jesus’ point helpfully by saying: “The paradox of the gospel—indeed, the scandal of the Incarnation—is disguised in such commonplaces.” (James Edwards, Pillar)

-Think about that: the way God’s kingdom works is by using things that appear trivial, like you could throw it away and it wouldn’t matter at all, but then over time it slowly grows and grows to the point that it literally casts its shadow over everything else that exists. Do you want to know what that looks like? Look at our world today! I talked in Sermon Scraps last week about all the ways the world tries to say Christians are backwards, bigots, opposed to progress, yet they don’t realize that every advancement of human rights is connected directly to Christian ethics and a Christian worldview. This little message that Jesus shared 2,000 years ago has literally changed the entire course of human civilization. I was just listening to a podcast yesterday on just war theory, which has profoundly influenced the way the Western world has generally approached war. Do you know where that comes from? The Bible! Do you want to know the places in the world that have the most rights for women in the world today? Look to the places that had 19^th Century Protestant missionaries! Jesus’ message has shaped everything we live on today, and it’s only because of Jesus that we have any hope for a more blessed future.

-These parables were meant to help Jesus’ followers understand and believe in the truths of what He says! The kingdom of God can’t be summarized in a few word descriptions, it will never be fully understood (until Jesus returns), but it is like a tiny seed that seems trivial until it’s planted in someone’s life and takes root. And once it’s taken root, there’s no turning back! If you let it, it will literally transform you from the inside out. So as we saw in the first parable: what kind of soil do you have? Is your heart letting the kingdom of God grow in you? Are you on Jesus’ side, or are you opposed to Him? 

PLEASE NOTE: these are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube video.

-One of my favorite TV shows has a character who is obsessed with being the healthiest human being possible. He has a quote where he says “Scientists believe that the first human being who will live 150 years has already been born. I believe that I am that human being.” 

-I don’t know anyone that doesn’t want to be healthy. But what does that look like? How would we pursue it? And how do we ensure that we’re healthy holistically?  

-I listened to a fascinating podcast this weekend that was talking about the unbelievable technological changes that have taken place over the past century. If my great grandparents were able to see our world today they would assume we must be the most grateful people in the world! We can access the world’s info at our fingertips, yet there are more suicides in our country today than ever before. It’s not enough to just have physical health, there’s some deeper angst that people have that can only be healed by coming to Jesus. That’s exactly what we’ll see in today’s text!

READ/PRAY

1. Jesus Brings Physical Healing (1-12)

-Remember last week we saw the healing of the leper, and Jesus exchanging places with him so that Jesus had to go out into the desolate places instead of traveling openly among the people. After a bit, he snuck back into town to come home, and pretty soon the whole town knew about it. 

-Most likely the same place we saw last week, Peter’s house that Jesus stayed at while he was in Capernaum. 

-As soon as the word started to travel, people came running to see what Jesus was going to do this time. Last week Mark described it as the whole town coming to be healed, this week it sounds like the whole town has tried to force their way into Peter’s home. 

-If you’ve ever participated in Black Friday shopping (before they went fully online), or attended a concert, you know what this feels like. Everyone is crammed in together, no room to move, feel like you’re being slowly suffocated, but it’s worth it to get access to the thing you’ve most been wanting, and Jesus is the best show these people have ever seen! 

-If that feels flippant to you (and it should!) that is the way the people are treating Jesus here. Everyone wants something from Jesus, the question is what? They’d all seen the demon possessed man healed, they’d seen the leper suddenly have clear skin, what do you think Jesus is going to do next? Yet what does Jesus do, once again?

-“He was preaching the word to them.” Instead of immediately giving in to their wants, He has a specific aim and focus to his life and ministry. Healing (at least physically) isn’t his primary aim, it only serves to enforce his teachings. In the midst of the teaching, there’s a desperate group of friends who want to get to Jesus. 

-However, as had been stated by Mark up to this point, just as when Jesus was born, there was no room for them in the inn. 

-The crowd serves a specific purpose throughout Mark’s Gospel, they’re often in the way of people getting to Jesus, they often are neutral in their response to Jesus, and there’s also a unique interplay between the crowd and the home. In the Greek, those 2 words are very similar to each other: ochlos vs. oikos. In this passage the ochlos has invaded the oikos. The crowd doesn’t get the inside look at Jesus’ ministry, those in the home do.

-So these 4 friends of the paralytic decide they need to be a part of the inside group. They knew this was their chance! Their lame friend could finally get up and walk and run and play with them! They knew Jesus was both able and willing if only they could get to him.

-If only they had tried what the leper would have had to say last week shouting UNCLEAN then watch the people part in front of them (Or what you should NEVER do in a crowded room, yell FIRE!)

-Instead of pushing or force their way through, they take a slightly less conventional approach: Upstairs!

-Houses in the first century, 2^nd level was like a deck for us today. Didn’t have A/C, so they’d sleep under the stars. Many times, covered with mud, which in the summer would grow grass! These men are performing an excavation to get to Jesus!

-Think of what it would have been like to have been in the house. You’re listening to Jesus when suddenly you hear the grunting and digging taking place in the ceiling.  You’d clean out your ears to make sure you weren’t hearing things, when a piece of dirt falls to the floor. Now you KNOW you’re not crazy. Everyone’s eyes are looking up at that spot as a hole appears, that hole gets bigger and bigger and you see 4 faces peering down into the hole, then you hear more grunting and heaving as a paralyzed man is lowered down in front of Jesus. There’s NO WAY Farmers Insurance had seen a claim like this before! And you KNOW they won’t cover it!

-But this act of desperation amazingly works! The friends got their paralyzed friend to the feet of Jesus, the rest is in his hands! All it would take is a word and their friend would walk! But instead:

-Son (child) your sins are forgiven. How do you think the man responded to this? Or his friends? All that work, outsmarting the crows, and he forgives his sins? Thanks, but we were hoping for something else.

-Then Mark shifts the focus from the paralytic and his friends to some specific people in the crowd: the scribes. Remember them from last week? The people who couldn’t teach like Jesus! Luke’s account of this story tells us that Pharisees were with them.

-The scribes and the Pharisees would have been threatened by Jesus’ growing fame. They’re used to being consulted on every issue, they’re supposed to be the experts of the law and how to be obedient to the law, but people are chasing after this new teacher. But this doesn’t change Jesus’ approach to his ministry. Jesus would have seen the scribes and the Pharisees in the crowd, he would have known they were there to ensure everything was as it was supposed to be. And how do you think they would respond?

-BLASPHEMY! Who do you think you are??

-I like to think they were in their “holy huddle” off in the corner whispering to each other, making sure everyone say their judging and disapproving glances

-And Jesus calls the out in front of everyone. No hiding from him!  Even their thoughts are exposed to the one who knows everything! Literally nothing is hidden from the sight of God. Just thinking something is enough for Jesus to address it.

-(9) Here is one of the places I wish Mark was a little more clear, which is easier? I’ve read scholars arguing for both sides of this. We all know it’s easier to SAY “your sins are forgiven” because there’s no empirical evidence to back that up. But it’s WAY easier to tell someone to get up and walk than it is to actually forgive someone’s sins. I think that Jesus’ point here is to remind the “experts” that he’s able and willing to do both. Last week we read the story of the healing of a leper, this week we’re reading that the healings are the easy part, the forgiveness is the hard part.

-In both of these instances, it’s a whole lot easier to talk the talk than it is to walk the walk (literally in this case)

-Priests, unable to actually heal a leper so they stay as far away from them as they can, and what does Jesus do? He brings him near.

-Priests, unable to forgive sins, they even say that only God can do it, so what does Jesus do? Forgives the man’s sins!

-Priests, unable to heal a paralytic, so what will Jesus do now?

-If you think about this, isn’t this the same message we’re bombarded with every day? Here’s how to live your best life now, this will make you happy, just think positively and everything will be ok!

-All of those are empty promises! They have all the will but NONE of the ability. As many cars as Oprah wants to give away, at some point even that car that was once brand new will break down.

-The only person alive who is able to back up everything he says with perfect action is Jesus.

-Do you remember the primary difference between Jesus’ teaching and the teaching of the scribes? Authority. Jesus picks up that idea again in this healing to show exactly what is taking place in His ministry. Regardless of what Jesus says, unless something changes he can’t be trusted, right? If this man is healed, then it means his sins have been forgiven, AND that Jesus’ has completely authority. 

-Jesus then turns his attention back to the paralytic and utters a brief command: rise, grab your bed, and go home. 

-How long did it take for the man to be healed? IMMEDIATELY! I don’t think it’s Mark’s overuse here, I think it’s pointing out the reality of what has happened. There’s no waiting, no questioning, no uncertainty, as soon as Jesus speaks it happens. And everyone saw it!

-You can kind of think of this as a Wild West shootout. On 1 side you have Jesus who’s claiming He can forgive sins, on the other side you have the scribes/Pharisees who are there to keep an eye on everything, and who emerges victorious? Jesus. Which is easier for Jesus? Yes. The man who created the universe has the authority to forgive sins AND to heal a paralytic. 

-Think of how the people responded in this story: amazement and glorifying God. 

-When God works, the proper response is to worship and glorify Him. Micah and I had the privilege of attending the EFCA Theology Conference this past week, speaking with someone with a PhD in NT who said all the mental knowledge of God MUST drive him to worship and glorification, what God has designed feels like it must be fake, it’s way too good to be true. Sins forgiven, lepers cleansed, paralytics walking and leaping and praising God!

-One of my professors from seminary calls miracles “living parables” pointing to a greater reality than just the miracle, what’s the bigger reality here? Who’s really paralyzed? 

-Those who should have seen it, who should have been preparing the way for the Messiah, who should have fallen at his feet and worshipped him, the priests and experts in the law, were the ones who were paralyzed. Their “faith” had crippled them.

• Jesus Brings Spiritual Healing (13-17)

-Just as the healing took place for the paralytic, Jesus isn’t done bringing healing into people’s lives, and potentially trying to escape the crowds again (or to give Peter’s wife a break from the crowd!), He goes out to the sea. But who follows him (again!) and what continues? Teaching. 

-In his journey, he stumbles across Levi/Matthew who happened to be a tax collector. Tax collectors were despised by the Jewish people, I struggled trying to communicate how terribly they were viewed because tax collectors bowed the knee to Rome (political betrayal), grew wealthy off God’s chosen people (financial betrayal), and were excommunicated from the synagogue (religious betrayal). Additionally, the disgrace towards this person was also heaped on the man’s family. 

-Benedict Arnold can’t hold a candle to a tax collector! No upstanding Jew would pursue this vocation! They had to abandon everything they had been trained to hold dear. 

-When it says tax booth, don’t think of it like a CPA firm, think of it more like one of those terrible toll booths in IL. As people would pass by him, he would get to determine their taxes, and the way tax collectors would get paid anything was by adding to the required taxes. Since Jesus is in Capernaum again, Peter, Andrew, James and John all would have known Levi. And how does Jesus treat him? The same way the faithful Jews were treated, calls him to follow him. This might be the only instance where Mark missed one of his immediately!

-How does Levi respond? He’s so excited he throws a party and invites all his friends! 

-Reclining at table is a weird phrase to our ears! Remember we can’t project our 21^st century ideas onto this text. Reclining was the way people feasted together. Think of it like relaxing over a gourmet meal today. Levi was most likely very wealthy, with a large house and hung out with the other social outcasts of the day. But Mark makes a very interesting note about these people: there were many who followed him.

-At this time, meals were meant to be spent with people in a similar social standing to you. So Jews wouldn’t be caught dead joining a feast with the social outcasts. On top of that, these gatherings would have been in the courtyards of the homes, which would have been visible to those passing by, there was no hiding what was going on at your house. Couldn’t drive into your garage, close the garage door and never see your neighbors!

-The scribes (same as the ones that were called out during the story of the paralytic) caught wind of what was happening at Levi’s house and came down to see if it was true. They’d just seen him heal a paralytic (and read their minds) and they’re convinced that something isn’t adding up. So they decide to ask Jesus’ disciples a question about this: “Why does he eat with such scum?” NLT

-They had learned their lesson this time! Instead of merely thinking these thoughts, they say them out loud! Their judgment was noted, how do you think Jesus will respond?

-The first part of this is a well-known and used proverb at the time: healthy people don’t need a doctor. It’s the sick who need help! Jesus is referring to the spiritual realities that the scribes are continuing to miss, but I think this idea has continued down to today too.

-The scribes, and thus the rest of the Jews viewed sin like a contagious disease. We don’t associate with “tax collectors and sinners” because we might catch whatever it is they have. The problem with that idea is we’re all born with a sin nature that can only be dealt with through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring complete healing, but our perception of healing is too temporary, Jesus wants eternal healing! Jesus came to be the perfect physician and provide the only antidote to the sin problem that the entire cosmos has been struggling through since Genesis 3.

-Let’s think about a necessary implication of this. Both last week and today we’ve seen people who were outcasts. The leper was physically separated from people, and the tax collectors were the socially separated from people. Does Jesus allow those man-made separations to define his ministry? No! And neither should we! 

-I’ve heard people describe the church as judgmental, and unfortunately some of that is earned. The natural tendency of any group of people is to create strict rules about those who are “in” and those who are “out.” You see this in social clubs, in politics, business, religion. But Jesus doesn’t play by those rules. Since someone much smarter than I brought it up in our NCC devotional this week I’ll piggyback off him and quote from The Chosen: “get used to different.”

-Friends, this is where the rubber meets the road: we cannot assume that everyone who walks through our doors has their life put together, or knows who Jesus is, and we need to reach out to them and welcome them in, just like Jesus did. But we can’t just stop there, we also need to go out to them and invite them to join us! You’re not going to “catch” their sin, you already have your own sin problems, work on yours and pursue holiness, and join others to come with you in pursuing Christ together.

-Trevin Wax in an article: 

“The problem for Christian parents isn’t in the desire to shelter children; it’s in the warped perspective that such sheltering can foster.

We begin to believe that sin and rebellion is a problem outside of our home, not inside.

We start thinking our kids are basically good and in need of moral direction, rather than recognizing that our kids are basically bad and in need of heart transformation.

We communicate to our kids that it’s “us” (good) versus “them” (bad) rather than helping them see our family’s role as one of service (“us” for “them”).

Then, when evil shows up on the inside of our home, we diminish its significance or hide it rather than bring it out in the open.

The reason we shelter our kids shouldn’t simply be that there’s evil outside, but also that there’s evil inside. The line of good and evil runs through every human heart, as Solzhenitsyn once said. No one is immune to temptation. No child is a tabula rasa. We’re born in sin and, apart from the grace of Christ, we’ll die in sin. That’s why we need a Savior who rescues us, not a shelter that protects us.”

-“The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.” This isn’t a place for you to come show off your holiness, this is a place to be reminded how much you need Jesus’ grace to cover your sin. In salvation, no one is a worse sinner than the other, and Jesus’ death is sufficient to cover every sin any person has ever committed.

-Where are you at in this story? Are you like the tax collector who needs to be called to trust in God and turn away from your eventual destruction? Are you like the scribes who are sitting in judgment instead of sharing the good news of the gospel with even “sinners” around you? Or maybe you’re like the crowd and just here for the spectacle. Wherever you’re at, you need Jesus to bring holistic healing int your life! It may not come on this side of heaven, but it will come! Put your hope and trust in him, just like the 4 friends. 

PLEASE NOTE: these are the notes I use to preach from, if you would like to hear them in context, please watch our YouTube video.

-Last week, we looked at the beginning of Jesus ministry as Mark sets a very brief stage for Jesus’ entrance. We started with a statement of who Jesus is (Son of God), moved quickly to John the Baptizer, then Jesus enters the scene and remains the focal point of the rest of Mark’s book. Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River, is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested, emerges refusing to give into the temptation, and begins His ministry by calling 4 disciples to follow Him: Peter and Andrew, James and John. 

-This week, we’ll see what it looks like when someone is completely dedicated to one aim. Have you ever met anyone with a drive like that? They are obsessed with that one goal, and nothing else matters. I had a friend like that in high school who was obsessed with basketball. Nothing else mattered except that. The rest of us would try to hang out and he wouldn’t until he got his shots in for the day. Even during other sports, he was still getting his shots in! He was so dedicated to basketball, that during the football season he got a stress fracture in his back from shooting too much! He was allowed to keep playing football, but not basketball, it almost killed him!

-Jesus was similar. He wouldn’t let anything distract Him from His one aim and goal in his earthly ministry. But what do you think that goal was?

-This is an important question for us to ask! We are supposed to continue Jesus’ ministry today! There’s a tendency for people to take things that are implications of Jesus’ ministry and try to move them into the center, which leads to an imbalance in how we’re living out and demonstrating the Christian faith. There are things that come out of Jesus’ primary ministry, but He always comes back to that which should be the most important. Let’s read the text and see what Jesus says is the primary purpose to His ministry.

READ/PRAY (488)

-As soon as Jesus calls his disciples, He brings them straight into ministry. There’s no waiting period! Friends, as soon as you’re saved, God brings you in to His eternal plan to draw others to Himself. The minute you’re saved (brought from spiritual death to spiritual life) is the minute you’re given a job to do: to become a fisher of men. But how did Jesus demonstrate that? 2 things come out in today’s text: teaching and healing.

1. Teaching (21-28)

-A majority of Jesus’ ministry takes place around or near the Sea of Galilee. 70 miles north of Jerusalem, about 13 miles away from His hometown of Nazareth. Freshwater lake over 600’ below sea level. 13 miles long, 8 miles wide

-Today’s text focuses on the ministry in Capernaum, which served as Jesus’ homebase during his ministry. It was also the home of Simon/Peter and Andrew. In fact, archaeologists believe they have uncovered Peter’s home, just steps away from the 1^st century synagogue. This may be the exact place where Jesus stayed when He was in Capernaum, yet another evidence of the validity of what we’re reading here today!

-Capernaum was also the “big city” of its area, gathering place from many of the surrounding cities.

-What’s the first things Jesus does? Jumps in to teach

-Scribe doesn’t quite convey their position, “teacher of the law” or “religious authority.” Essentially they served as pastors, judges, and teachers all rolled up into 1 position.

-Look at the difference between the way they taught instead of the way Jesus taught. Jesus taught as one with authority. The scribes were only subservient to other people’s authority, so they would quote from other people to build their arguments. Apparently Jesus didn’t do that! And he didn’t need to, He was with Moses as the Law was written, He doesn’t need to appeal to anyone else!

-But someone was there who shouldn’t have been! A man with an unclean spirit, someone who is possessed by a demon comes into the synagogue to try to get rid of Jesus.

-Notice what the unclean spirit calls him the first time: Jesus of Nazareth. Contrast that with how Mark introduces us to Jesus twice already! vs. 1 (the Christ, the Son of God), 11 (Beloved Son with whom God is well pleased). 

-Also follows spiritual ideas prevalent at the time: to use someone’s name invoked some spiritual power over them. We’ve uncovered some Jewish exorcism material that started by finding the demons name to demonstrate who the authority in this situation is. Jesus wasn’t the only person in the 1^st century performing exorcisms, but He had the best batting average!

-But after first trying to demean Jesus, this spirit then admits who Jesus really is “The Holy One of God” Everyone in the world at some point will admit who Jesus really is! Even the demons will bow the knee to Jesus when He returns and fixes this broken world.

-How does Jesus deal with the situation? No incantation, no chants, or magic potions. He speaks. That’s all he needs to do! God’s words carry power and are effective. The same voice that created the world out of nothing can bring healing to the broken. 

-People don’t have a category for this. But notice what is emphasized: the teaching! The primary focus people have isn’t on the exorcism, instead it’s on the teaching. The healing is only done to validate Jesus’ teaching. Then it’s out of the teaching that comes the healing. And because of Jesus can both walk the walk and talk the talk His fame spreads quickly

• Healing (29-34)

-But Jesus (at least in Mark’s Gospel) doesn’t stay in 1 place for too long! Immediately goes to Simon and Andrew’s house. House was most likely pretty close to the synagogue (remember that house they had uncovered? That was less than 100’ away from the synagogue. Someone in their home is sick

-Really briefly want to point something out here. How does one get a mother-in-law? You can’t even argue for an alternative translation of this word, no other interpretive options. Paul even brings up the fact that Peter is married in 1 Cor. 9:5. This points to the wide variety of backgrounds Jesus called as His first disciples. The fact that Peter was married meant He was willing to give up quite a bit to follow after Jesus!

-Fever was thought to be its own unique sickness, unlike us today who view it as a symptom of something else. We also see in Deut. 28:22 that a fever was viewed as divine punishment. And how does Jesus heal her?

-Takes her hand and lifts her up. No words even needed! No magical incantations, no potions, just pulls her up and she’s healthy. The word translated “left her” isn’t quite strong enough, it has more force in the Greek, more like it was forced away from her.

-Serving doesn’t denote a lower position or status, signifies how effective her healing was, she goes from being divinely chastised, to serving the Savior!

-“That evening” Sabbath was done, observed Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. 

-“All” could be a slight exaggeration (just as when you’re telling a story) or it could be literally everyone in the town who was sick was brought, just as in vs. 33 says the “whole city” (approximately 1,500 people at this time)

-“sick OR oppressed by demons” I’ve read all sorts of arguments that people in the 1^st century just didn’t understand sickness the way we do today, they weren’t dumb! There is a difference between being sick and being affected by demonic powers. We often miss this today! It is tricky because it’s not always demonic forces. We are complex beings, mind, body, soul. Micah talked about the in detail last month, and we can’t just pick and choose one that we want to work on, they all interplay with each other. Carson (one of the best NT scholars in the world) says:        Don’t forget that Jesus is fully human. We have a tendency to read the NT accounts and just dismiss it as “well He’s God” which is true! But He’s also a human, just like you and me. 

-“Healed many” doesn’t mean some were left out, just that there was a LOT of healing taking place!

-Why can’t the demons speak? They prematurely knew him. Demons have better theology than we do because they see the spiritual realities that we often neglect or ignore around us. We’re only 34 verses into this book and we’re already seeing how important Jesus’ identity is! Remember, I shared that’s a theme throughout this book that the disciples constantly miss, so far the only ones who know Jesus’ real identity are the demons, and by silencing them He’s allowed to continue about His primary ministry, which we’ll see in the next section.

• Teaching (35-39)

-After a long night of healing (have you ever thought of how exhausting that would have been to Jesus?) Jesus gets up early to pray.

-Descriptive, not necessarily prescriptive, the prescriptive reality is you should be spending time praying, talking with God. Create space somehow and some way to commune with Him.

-Sometimes it means sacrificing something good to focus on what God has actually called you to (a friend giving up fantasy football)

-“searched for him” is much more hostile: to pursue relentlessly or another stated “an attempt to determine and control rather than to submit and follow.” Once again we’re seeing the worst of the disciples! They have in their minds what the Messiah should look like, but Jesus doesn’t fit that mold.

-Jesus practices “subversive fulfillment.” Jesus subverts everyone’s expectations, twists them on their heads to cause people to reevaluate everything they think they know. But He doesn’t stop there, He goes on and provides an even better solution than the one people come up with on their own! So He practices subversive fulfillment. (subverts in that it confronts, unpicks, and overthrows the world’s stories” and “fulfils in that it connects and is shown to be worthy of our hopes and desires.”

-So often people think they know what they want, but they’re not even aware of the bigger realities taking place around them. Which is why Jesus tells so many people to be quiet, it’s not the right time or place, nor do they really know what they’re saying. It’s disconnected from reality. The way that Jesus demonstrates that He is what all these demons are saying is when He’s resurrected from the grave. We know it’s coming! His disciples don’t, they’re thinking Jesus has come to overthrow the Romans and establish Israel as THE nation on earth, but they’re thinking far too small.

-Jesus doesn’t let his newfound fame distract Him from His mission: to preach.

-Early disciples, and the crowds, thought Jesus’ primary ministry was healing and exorcising demons, and I think we see Jesus’ ministry similarly today! We see all these miraculous stories and think that’s the reason Jesus came, but notice how Jesus defines His ministry. 

-We today unfortunately separate these 2 realities: preaching and care for physical needs. We need both, but 1 has eternal significance. And this is what makes the church unique. The church has 1 thing that makes her different from any and every other organization: making and maturing disciples. The application or implementation of maturing leads to care for the poor and marginalized, but we cannot replace the primary focus with the implementation, otherwise our views will become distorted. 

-Massive differences in the way generations view evangelism. My generation is all social action, possibly in response to a previous generation that only emphasized preaching.

-Also a difference between what we as a church are called to do, and what we as individuals are called to do. Go and seek the welfare of our city! Invest deeply in your areas of influence, we pray that you will be successful in those pursuits! But not everyone has the same gifting or calling as you. That’s why we’re called a body throughout the NT, each part specializing in one area to help all of us function better together.

-“Preaching in their synagogues.” Wasn’t a rogue preacher, he was contextualized and intentional even in the places he preached. Example of why we need the church.

• Healing (40-45)

-The last example of healing centers on an unclean person.

-Josephus, a 1^st century Jewish historian recorded that lepers were regarded as walking corpses. They were just as unclean as a corpse, relegated to a life outside any community or other people. Had to dress and sackcloth, wear scraps as clothes, and walk around yelling “Unclean!” anywhere they’d go.

-As this man would have approached Jesus, it would have been like a tidal wave of people actively trying to run away from him. Think of the desperation this man felt as he disregarded all social norms and expectations and threw himself in front of Jesus. 

-“If you WILL, you CAN” It’s not a question of ability, it’s a question of desire

-Some debate about the word “pity” as some manuscripts have the word “anger” 

-Same word Paul uses on Eph. 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin.” Our anger tends to lead us to really bad places, Jesus’ anger is redemptive and restorative. Think of how frustrating it would have been to be Jesus, knowing how the world is supposed to be: a world without sin, without death, without sickness. Do you think he ever got angry at the state of the world?

-Touching was a BIG no-no. Leprosy was highly contagious, anyone who was touched immediately became unclean. But that’s not how it works with Jesus. 

-Think of it like this: what’s the best way to get rid of darkness. Light! How effective is the dark at defeating the light? Not a fair competition! That’s how any sickness or darkness is when held up to the light of the world. It’s gone! Instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the sickness is consumed in the cleanliness of the one, holy, perfect one. 

-Dear friends, this is true of all of us too. What’s that one secret sin you have, or issue you’re too ashamed and embarrassed to admit? One of the most difficult things to do is to admit we need help, to admit that we need cleansing so we don’t actually give all our needs to Jesus. Yet that’s exactly what He invites us to do. 

-Notice where Jesus ends up in vs. 45. He and the leper have exchanged places, which is what Jesus’ death on the cross has done for all of us. Don’t run away from Him, run towards Him. 

-And how do you run towards Him today? By embracing all the things He taught us. There’s an interplay between the teaching and the healing. We need the teaching to transform us, to conform us into His image. That’s why when Jesus commissioned His disciples (including us) He commanded to “teach everything He had commanded.” We now get to join with Jesus in bring teaching and healing to those we interact with, but that must begin with all of you.

-How would you summarize the primary point of Jesus’ ministry today? It begins with teaching, then works its’ way out into a transformed life. Will you listen to His teaching, and then be transformed, or will you continue to look away and try looking to the wrong solutions that Jesus wants to both subvert and fulfill? Wherever you’re at on that scale, you’re welcome here! We believe God created us as a church to demonstrate what subversive fulfilment looks like, seeking and saving the lost, being a unique people, loving and caring for each other.