Make Way (The Inescapable Story of Jesus #1) | Ben Zornes

our text this morning is Mark chapter 1 these are the words of God the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God as it is written in the prophets behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before Thee the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins and there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem and

were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan confessing their sins and Johan was clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of a skin about his loins and he did eat locusts and wild honey and preached saying there cometh one mightier than I after me the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose I indeed have baptized you with water but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in

Jordan and straight with way coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened and the spirit like a dove descending upon him and there came a voice from Heaven saying Thou Art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and immediately the spirit driveth him into the Wilderness and he was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him now after that John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the

time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were Fishers and Jesus said unto them Come Ye after me and I will make you to become Fishers of Men and straight way they forsook their net Nets and followed him and when they had gone a little farther then he saw James the son of zebede and John his brother who also were in the ship mending

their Nets and straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him and they went into Capernaum and straight way on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught and they were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught them as one that had Authority and not as the scribes and there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying let us alone what have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth Art Thou come to destroy

us I Know Thee that who Thou Art the Holy One of God and and Jesus rebuked him saying hold thy peace and come out of him and when the unclean Spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice he came out of him and they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves saying what thing is this what new doctrine is this for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits and they do obey him and immediately his Fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee and forth with when

they were come out of the synagogue they entered into the House of Simon and Andrew with James and John but Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever and Anon they tell her tell him of her and he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her and she ministered unto them and at even when the sun did set they brought unto him all that were diseased and them that were possessed with devils and all the city was gathered together at the door and healed many that were

sick of diverse diseases and cast out many devils and suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him and in the morning rising up a great while before day he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed and Simon and they that were with him followed after him and when they had found him they said unto him all men seek for thee and he said unto them let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also for therefore came I forth and he preached in their synagogues throughout all

Galilee and cast out devils and there came a leper to him beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying saying unto him if thou wilt thou cast make me clean and Jesus moved with compassion put forth his hand and touched him and saith unto him I will be thou clean and as soon as he had spoken immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed and he straightly charged him and forthwith sent him away and saith unto him see thou say nothing to any man but go thy way show thyself to the priest

and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them but he went out and began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the matter in so much that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city but was without in desert places and they came to him from every quarter let's pray Our God and Father we thank you for this Gospel of our Lord Jesus we thank you that he came uh was was born of the Virgin and dwelt in our midst that he might redeem us unto you Lord

I pray that as we work through this Gospel of Mark I pray that you would open our eyes that we we might see wondrous things out of your word and so we might live according to your word and glorify you we pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus and amen I'm going to be diving into the gospel of Mark over the next several weeks and months working chapter by chapter uh through uh Mark's gospel uh many um many uh scholar speculate as to which order the gospels were written in and they they

point to the the urgency with which Mark writes as as proof that it was the first one written I'm of the mind that Matthew was the first gospel written and and Mark's gospel is at at such a frantic pace for a number of reasons which we'll get into in just a moment it's it's deliberate you might say um he he writes the way he does uh to catch our attention perhaps you've had the experience as parents of you're on one side of the house the kids are on the other side and they're playing they're playing

sweetly with each other and all of a sudden you hear it get quiet right the the the noise of playing quiets down and you think to yourself uhoh somebody's pouring out all the glue on the floor someone's cutting the other sibling's hair I better go check I better go check and make sure the kids are not getting into into somebody sticking a fork in a socket that sort of thing I better go check make sure the kids are all right and you you you go to the other side of the house where the kids are

playing and perhaps you've you've heard it as you as you come close your your footsteps are coming you hear one of the kids say quick dad's coming and and you hear the Scurry of of children uh putting the putting the mess away or or tidying up or putting the rascally any traces of rascally behavior um they're they're hiding all the evidence or or perhaps you've been at work and your boss comes out of his office and begins doing the rounds with all the employees and you know oh great he's going to come to my desk

and he's going to ask me how that report is coming um and and uh that I'm I know it's du at the end of the week he's going to come and so you straighten up you you click off mind sweeper right and you you you you make sure that you're uh um you're working working quickly to make sure he can see your you're busy or perhaps you you've had it happen where a friend um calls out of the blue and they say hey I'm an hour away and I'm coming through your town and and I

thought hey it'd be great to see you again and could I stay the night too and and you go yes yes it be we'd love to have you and you quickly scurry and make sure you put new sheets on the guest uh the guest mattress in the in the guest room and tidy it up and tell the kids get in the vacuum and mop the floor that is um that is a sort of frantic scurrying that uh is depicted here in uh Mark's Story the opening of Mark's story of Jesus there's this announcement of the

coming of Yahweh into their midst and a summons to Israel to sit up straight get the guest guest bedroom ready put put the put the rascally Deeds of the flesh away the gospel of Mark is a flurry of action some some commentators have pointed out that whereas Matthew is a bit more of a thoughtful if it were a film it would be much more of a thoughtful film Mark Mark's gospel would be an action film with explosions and and all sorts of action sequences it's a flurry of activity it grips us with the activity of

this one Jesus Mark doesn't spend as much time on what Jesus taught unlike Matthew does in particular but but rather Mark wants us for sort of forces us even to look intently on all that Jesus did Mark is full of action and and activity and the things that Jesus did and all his doing all that Jesus did was to confirm the opening thesis of Mark's gospel look at how it begins it it it opens actually fairly similar to uh The Book of Proverbs and so Jesus is set up Mark is setting us up to see

Jesus as the wisdom of God he's the beginning of wisdom uh but the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God this is Mark's thesis that Jesus is the son of God and therefore has brought the kingdom of God unto us this son of God has brought the kingdom unto us that's Mark's thesis and he goes out of his way the rest of the book to prove that point to make that point abundant and he does so primarily through the vehicle of Jesus activities Jesus actions the the the Deeds which Jesus did

so what I want to do is work through this chapter and I realize it's a long chapter uh but that's that's part of the I think that's a feature not a bug that it's crammed full of activity such that you're you're you're trying to pay attention to all that he accomplishes in just a short space of time and it's it's meant to impact us with all that Jesus is say all that Jesus says and does in order to catch us up short Mark's gospel starts with a bang and it doesn't let up he steps on

the gas and he continues through the entire gospel at a frenzied Pace no sooner does one event happen then the next thing comes right on its heels Christ leaps off the page to us this is no passive narration uh Jesus is not just floating gently through the promised land you know with um passing out flowers as if he's some hippie Jesus Is In Action here it may be part of where Mark got his nickname catilus how about that for a nickname it means basically little Stumpy fingers little little little hobbit hands is what Mark was

nicknamed as and and there's a couple explanations for why he got that nickname perhaps it was because he actually was born with short little stubby fingers little hobbit hands and and they say well it's maybe because of this deformity or he had short little hands he he he had to write quicker he he couldn't spend as much time writing or some say in some sort of persecution perhaps he had his fingers removed or I I would I would make the case that it's it's the manner in which he wrote by Design the the Hasty frantic

um urgent nature in which he wrote which earned him that nickname we are invited by Mark to sit on this front row the front row of this story of the ministry of the Messi mesiah the Son of God the narrative is in this in is in the historic present which is intended to make the action Vivid and close and indeed it is the message of the Gospel this message of the Gospel of the Kingdom presses in Upon Us Mark wants to make sure you don't look away from all that Jesus does Mark opens with blending

two prophetic citations first he cites Malachi 31 and then he Blends it with Isaiah 40:3 but both of those are actually standing on the shoulders of Exodus 2320 which says this as Israel is coming out of the promised land God promises to Moses he makes this promise and this is what Isaiah and Malachi are they're building on the shoulders of this promise to Moses behold I sent an angel a messenger before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared and so Mark then cites Malachi who's

citing Exodus and and and Malachi actually does this this funny thing where he sort of inverts the the the meaning where the promise in Exodus is that the messenger of the Lord would go before his people and and cast out all their all the Canaanites from the land and and keep them uh keep Israel safe and bring them in into the peace that God was delivering them into by by The Exodus Malachi flips it on its on its head in in one sense as they've returned from Exile Malachi is using that verse as a rebuke

to Israel they've returned from Exile and yet they've not gotten rid of the compromise they've not ousted the the the syncretism of of idol worship they've not cleansed the land and and and the messenger the the messenger that's coming is coming in in judgment it is coming to clean house and so Mark Blends these these several Old Testament references right at the beginning to to make the people of God to jar their attention to be that dad is coming the footsteps of the father are are in the hallway you better make adjustments to how you're

living the Living God is on his way and in order to get his people ready God God sends a messenger ahead of him to summon both Jews and Gentiles to prepare themselves to meet Yahweh God is coming the messenger is coming and that messenger is John we're told his min Miner of baptism in the wilderness caused crowds to to swarm to submit themselves to his summons to cleanse themselves in order to make ready to meet their God John bursts on the scene and is calling the people to repentance he's calling them to confess their sins

and it's like a a uh it snowballs in in interest in what John is proclaiming he's this voice calling out making the path straight for the coming of Yahweh the one who had come after him the the Yahweh In the Flesh was on his way and John is a messenger saying get ready to meet the the almighty God John is were as the footsteps of the coming of Yahweh and the crowds swarm to him they want to they want to hear and heed and Obey this message to be cleansed to be made right with God

to be made ready to meet their God verses four and five John of course is figured here that the imagery that's used to describe uh John his um camel camel skin and the and the eating wild and wild honey and Locust is is to image to us uh that he's a new Elijah but he then informs the crowds that he's that there's one coming after him just like Elijah was followed by the prophet Elisha and Elisha had double the Miracles that Elijah had performed and Elisha comes in the footsteps of Elijah with great power and

potency in his ministry great Mir mirales in Old Testament times were done by the prophet Elisha so John is saying that I'm to my Elijah there is an Elisha on the way and he is going to follow on my heels and he is greater than me and his baptism will not just be the Waters of baptism to wash away your sins it will be that of spirit fire god coming to to cleanse his people thoroughly by the by the coming of the spirit fire in verses s and 8 so in Isaiah's citation here it is

Isaiah said that the way must be made straight that's the word ethos and throughout the rest of Mark's gospel A variation of that word is used or a close synonym of it is used 67 times and and we see it used right away uh so so Mark begins with a bang and he says there's a voice crying in the wilderness Make Way prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight get out of the crooked ways and begin to walk in the ways of Jehovah begin to follow after Jehovah the the way is being

made plain the way is being made straight that God might come in all this Holiness and might truly abide with us which means our sins need to be cleansed our compromises need to be dealt with the unclean spirits must be driven out and this this synonym of the of that word straight is used right away we're told that as Jesus himself self comes out to be baptized by John you you'll see the word straightway used or immediately or forth with every time that pops up in Mark's gospel it's that same word that uh is used

in the Isaiah pass in the Isaiah citation at the beginning of the chapter straight way Jesus comes up out of the water and then the spirit descends upon him and the the father publicly declares his love for his son the ways being made plain for the coming of God and immediately then after the baptism the spirit sends Jesus to a 40-day combat with Satan amongst wild beasts and then he's ministered to By Angels the the reference there to wild beast I think is and we'll get we'll see a couple other indications of this it's it's

one more clue that Mark is giving us depicting Jesus as this as a new David coming into the land to drive out the enemies of Israel to to do battle to the wild beasts which threaten the flock of Israel but Jesus is sent into the Wilderness for 40 days combat testing tempting by by Satan amongst the wild beasts and then he's of course we know from the other gospel accounts he conquers and resists Satan's uh Temptations um unlike Adam and Eve had done unlike Israel had done in the wilderness and Jesus uh conquers as it

were Jesus overcomes the devil's Temptations and he's ministered to By Angels Mark skips over a a pretty long period of Jesus ministry and sort of gets right into the height of Jesus ministry and that's sort of kicked off by John's imprisonment so the the land of Israel is the king of the time is Herod the the the scoundrel and and the Romans are occupying um Israel and the and the the Sadducees are in charge of the religious order and there's all sorts of Topsy the land is all all Topsy Turvy it is not as it

should be and and John's rebuke of Herod lands him in prison and and the powers that be think that they they're confining this movement of repentance and Revival and renewal they think that they've imprisoned it they think that they've uh siphoned it off and and isolated it but this imprisonment of John does not do anything to contain the kingdom of God in fact the kingdom of God bursts forth with greater vehement upon them the kingdom of God had come upon them and Jesus at the Mark makes it plain that as as John is in prison

what then Jesus does is this is now his time to come and preach the gospel of the Kingdom Jesus message is that God's kingdom the Glad Tidings that God's kingdom had come and he He commands all men to repent and believe this news that the kingdom of God had come verses 14 and 15 the Lord Jesus by the Sea of Galilee called calls fishermen to be his disciples and these men once again straight way follow him all things are being put in order for the coming of Yahweh for for for Christ's work as Yahweh as

God In the Flesh everything is being put in order that the work of Yahweh is going to be accomplished the Redemption that Yahweh has promised that the cleansing of the land the cleansing of his people which Yahweh had promised all things are being put in order and are taking are being put in place this calling of the disciples and it and it should be noted that um there's going to be a couple cycles of callings and Mark wants to put places all these callings almost always he puts them right next to a body of water

just as the spirit of God hovered Over The Waters at creation uh Mark is wanting to depict Jesus as the the bringing about by the power of the spirit bringing about a new creation calling man to follow him in a new creation this call calling of his disciples is followed by an exercise then of Christ's Authority he has the right to do this he straightway once again verse 21 and 22 he straightway goes into the synagogue in Capernaum and teaches with authority on the Sabbath day and then to confirm this authority of word with authority

indeed Mark relates that a man with an unclean Spirit raved against Jesus and this I think is really striking and important to grasp to to sort of set the the thermostat for the for what the land of Israel was like at the time of Jesus in the synagogue was this man with an unclean Spirit tolerated this this raving uh spirit was present in the synagogue instead of the people of God being clean instead of them being holy instead of them being righteous we see that in their midst is the Toleration of unclean spirits and Jesus

does not put up with it Jesus then commands the unclean Spirit to depart and it does and this leaves all the the the scribes and Pharisees and all the teachers of the LW leaves them perplexed and astonished that Jesus not only teaches with authority but he commands demons with authority and immediately once again Jesus Fame after this event Jesus Fame spreads like wildfire there in verse 28 and in Galilee Jesus then hastens that's that same word again he hastens to Simon Peter's house heals his mother-in-law and raises her up enabling her to service and Mark

is going to do this a number of times this is sort of his one of his um his uh literary moves is that each time there's a healing a restoration it's a a restoration unto service that the the mother-in-law is raised up in order to be put to work in order to serve in order to Minister unto the needs of those around her she's made whole in order to uh serve the crowds begin to swarm begin swarming around uh Simon Peter's house and and people begin bringing all all the unclean of body and mind both

both possessed of devils and um with various ailments and maladies they bring them to be made clean by Jesus I hope you get to see that one of the things Jesus is doing is is a Ministry of cleansing but the devils were not permitted to speak because and this is again striking they knew him they spotted it they spotted that Jesus was coming in power and and Jesus refuses to let them um uh pipe up and and identify him to the crowds we we'll I'll touch more on that in just a moment why Jesus muted

the demons Jesus then is found in prayer in the early morning and then he takes his ministry to the next town Simon comes and finds him says let's days a Wast and let's get back to work here in here in Galilee here in Capernaum and Jesus says no it's time to move to the next town time to begin to go into these other towns for this is why I came this is why I've come forth is to preach the gospel to all the lost sheep of Israel and his his preaching and cleansing continues in those

towns as well verses 35-39 once again it's noted that devils are cast out of the synagogues that the the religious system of the day was uh permeated was contaminated with uh devilry as it were verse 39 this chapter closes then with a leper coming to Jesus once again for cleansing the leper comes to Jesus for cleansing and Jesus in compassion gives it gives this cleansing immediately that's the same word all things are being put in place for the coming of Yahweh in Christ the leper is sent away straight away once again by Jesus with the

instructions to not declare his healing until he had fulfilled the righteous requirements of Moses law verses 43-44 but the leper had loose lips and Jesus ministry only grew in Fame and in Renown it I love the way it puts it that the the the leper goes out and begins to publish it much and to blaze abroad the matter in so much that Jesus no more openly could enter this city this is at a fever pitch Christ's Ministry Mark introduces it as as it's at a fever pitch so I want to highlight a cycle of the

of that we'll see a couple times throughout Mark's gospel and I want to follow that pattern here through this chapter uh to make some applications and point out what Mark is trying to get across to us in this introduction to the life and Ministry of Jesus Mark's gospel will trace a a few have a there will be a steady pattern uh throughout the gospel that follows this pattern of callings followed by commands to unclean spirits and cleansing of fleshly infirmities calling commands and cleansings in this opening chapter we have a few callings Mark begins with

this assertion this uh thesis that Jesus is to be called The Son of God Jesus is to be called The Son of God that's his thesis that's his point that's The Thing Mark wants us to make sure we don't that doesn't escape our notice Jesus is the son of God Mark calls him that John calls out to Israel to make ready for Yahweh to come in their midst and then Jesus is called the Son of God by his father and so in in the baptism of Jesus one of the things that Mark does is he

sort of frames the whole gospel with this assertion that Jesus is the son of God and then in the opening opening Salvo he he gives us this um announcement from Heaven that Jesus from the father's own mouth Jesus is the son of God and he'll do this two other times throughout throughout the Book of affirming that Jesus is indeed the Son of God this is the first of three times that Jesus is confirmed is called to be the Son of God in Mark's biography of Jesus in Mark 9:7 at the Mount of transfiguration you have

Moses and Elijah and Jesus is transfigured and uh the The Voice from Heaven go God's voice from Heaven Thunders with the announcement that Jesus is the son of God and then at the end of the biography you have in the mouth of the Roman Centurion announcing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God so this is the first in Mark's uh case that Jesus is the son of God the announcement from on high that Jesus is the son of God so then Jesus's refusal to allow the demons to name him has at least I think

two purposes the the demons try to name him try to try to out him try to identify him as the Messiah of God and I think there's at least two reasons why Jesus tells them zip it why Jesus says knock it off this is not your to the to the demons zip it don't don't identify me first I think very clearly it's not their prerogative to identify the Messiah of God it is the Lord it is yahweh's uh uh honor and Glory uh to identify the Messiah of God in Jesus but I think secondly Mark

uses this as an opportunity to paint Jesus once again as a new David David if you remember was anointed by Samuel and was therefore the rightful king of Israel and then um we find out that David has a hard there's a hard row seven-year period where David is not king of Israel he's on the he's on the run from Saul is persecuted by Saul is hunted down by Saul there's Spies of Saul all throughout Israel and it forces David into this um uh period of hiding and avoiding um Saul and his minions I think Mark

is wanting to paint Jesus as a new David he's anointed in his baptism just like David was but not yet exalted to the throne and thus Saul's enity the the the the spies of Saul must be dealt with shrewdly and even evasively Israel is not right there's not a a clear path you might say to the throne and so David uh some Scholars call it the Messianic secret uh David knows that he's the anointed and he's he's biing his time until the Lord raises him up to the throne I think Mark is wanting us to

see Jesus in a similar manner that Jesus is he knows he's the Messiah but he's waiting for the the Declaration from on high to reveal it to all men and so then we also see Jesus calling his first first four disciples uh God had promised Jeremiah that in restoring Israel he would use fishermen to fish for men in in Jeremiah 16 this isn't just Jesus uh telling um Simon and Andrew uh a quaint saying that you'll be Fishers of Men Jesus is actually drawing upon something that was prophesied of these times of restoration uh when

when Jeremiah foretold the the restoration of Israel Jeremiah said behold I will send from many Fishers sayith the Lord and they shall fish for them they shall hunt them down it goes on to say in other words Jesus is identifying his ministry with the restoring work that Jeremiah had foretold that that the Fisher the Messiah in restoring Israel would send out fishermen to fish for men to hunt down men to follow him he calls the four disciples by the Sea and they drop everything to follow Jesus what we see seeing all this in these callings

in Mark's opening chapter we see that the call of Jesus is not to be ignored God's voice calls out G the voice in the wilderness calls out Jesus calls to the disciples and he is not to be ignored for he has come to remake the world you will not close your ears to him he calls and you must answer there are some more parallels to David and how Mark presents this commen ment of Jesus's Ministry both are anointed David by Samuel Jesus by John's baptism and the spirits descent upon upon him and after each of

these anointings it's striking that what does David do after he's anointed well he goes and he has to fight Goliath and then he ministers to Saul who we we read in Samuel that he's possessed he's afflicted by an evil spirit so David goes and must deal with someone plagued with an evil spirit Saul and the demoniacs so Jesus goes and and is faced with Satan and then the um the demon-possessed man and this is just one more parallel that Mark is drawing drawing us to see is as Jesus as the new David A A Man

of Action driving out the enemies of Israel what's what's striking is that in David's day in David's life he's King but not King yet right he's anointed but he's not been exalted to the throne and so there's this interesting thing that um David begins to do he goes to to Goliath and what does he say to Goliath how how and and to the Israelites he says how are you going to let this unclean Philistine mock the armies of the Living God how long are you going to tolerate this uncleanness in the land and so David

then goes and he does battle with the unclean Gentiles in the land of Israel he goes out and drives them out while while s is chasing David down David is doing what well he's chasing all the Philistines out of Israel David Goes to clean out the unclean spirits as it were in Israel Jesus is doing much the same thing David chased out the human enemies of Israel Jesus comes to drive out the spiritual powers and principalities which had come to occupy Israel's life both David and Christ act with humility despite being the rightful king of

Israel both begin to drive out the enemies the Philistines for David and the demons for Jesus and so when we see Jesus commanding the demons and teaching the word of God with authority what should this show to us it's not just that Jesus calls out us it's that Jesus has come to command he's not only come to call us but he's called to command he's called to Comm he's he's he's come to command your sin to be subdued to to drive out all the unclean spirits of the land to drive out all the enemies that

would oppose his glory in his majesty the modern indulgent Jesus is a false Christ the the Jesus that is often times depicted by modern culture that is just the Jesus that just wants to love on everybody is in many respects of of an un an incomplete portrait of Christ Jesus came to command men everywhere to repent he called calls men to forsake their sin he calls men to flee their Temptations He calls men to obey all that he has commanded them yes we find in Christ an ocean of love but his love is not a

syrupy sweet kind of love it is a potent wine Jesus then came to command not to ring his hands pleading for you to open your heart he came as the greater David to drive out all evil from the land of Israel the evil must go and as Jesus shows up on the scene he comes and He commands the unclean spirits to go and they must go there is there is no room for compromise as the kingdom of God is being established in the ministry of Christ there is no room for compromise the evil must go

that the land may be fit for the for yahweh's presence and this leads us to the third event in the cycle the the call of go of Christ to his people the command of Christ to the Demonic powers and lastly this Mark goes through this cycle where the last element in the cycle is that of cleansing and this leads to the third event in the cycle Jesus came to cleanse this won't be the first time that Mark pairs the commanding of unclean spirits with the cleansing of bodily ailments and this is because Jesus came to

make you whole Jesus came came to make man fully alive Jesus came to restore man fully body and soul inside and out Jesus came to cleanse you of all your filth all your enmity towards God all your enity towards your brother Jesus came to cleanse and restore Mankind and we see this in the story of the the Simon's mother-in-law being raised up being made whole and we see this in the story of the leprous man being made whole the leprous man was cut off due to his the the the malady that was afflicting him he

was cut off from the Commonwealth of Israel and Jesus comes and restores the man to partaking of the fellowship of Israel uh leprosy would be a a skin disease that would was sort of a catchall term for various skin diseases that were contagious and given that they weren't quite certain of the severity of them the the the basic rule of thumb was let's just send any lepers outside of the city outside of the camp ostracized from society that they they might not contaminate the the land however we see that the land is not just Afflicted

with Leprosy but it's full of unclean spirits which Jesus has come to deal with but Jesus in taking compassion upon this leper he restores him to The Fellowship of the Commonwealth and in this story I think Mark is drawing out one more thread of the Old Testament to us je Mark is emphasizing he's already emphasized that Jesus is the Elisha to John the Baptist Elijah he's the one who had come in the power of the Holy Ghost come to baptize with fire come with a greater Ministry than the Elijah the spirit of Elijah that John

represented Mark draws our attention I think to one other um Old Testament um old Old Testament uh story that that's found in 2 Kings 7 to to draw out Jesus as the new Elisha there's a story in Second Kings um chapter 7 Elisha goes to King Ahab Samaria is surrounded the Kingdom of Israel the capital of Israel is surrounded by the syrians they've laid Siege to it folks are starving and Elisha comes with a very cheery word uh in the midst of a famine in the midst of a Siege Elisha comes to Ahab and says

listen this time tomorrow all the cupboards are bare right now but this time tomorrow you're gonna not know what to do with all the food that that that comes tomorrow he says about this time shall a measure of fine flow be sold for a shkele and two measures of barley for a shekele in the gate of Samaria you are not going to know what to do with all the abundance that's about to land upon you and some scoffer there listening in says yeah right how is how are you going to bring all we're we're in

a Siege we're surrounded by the syrians how are we going to find food to feed us all and Elisha rebukes the man and says you're going to see it but you're not going to partake of any of it strikingly enough the story includes there are four lepers in Elisha's day that were outside the gate and they say to each other what are we doing here we're we're not going to we're just going to die sooner or later why don't we go see if the the syrians have any food to give to us we could beg

for them maybe they'll take pity on us and give us food and so these four lepers go out to the to the camp of Syria and what do they find but that God Yahweh has driven out the unlean um Invaders had driven out the syrians had driven them out and and the syrians are terrified and it says that they threw their their their Rich garments and their gold and their silver I guess you brought your nicest garments and your gold and your silver to to battle but there's a trail of gold and silver and and

um garments and food they had brought to the camp and these four lepers find that the the camp has been abandoned and there is plunder abundant to be had and these lepers are are like hot dog we've hit the jackpot and begin just apparently scaring it down putting hey does this look good on me I'm stuffing their pockets full of the the gold and the jewels and this is great and then their their conscience sort of twinges and they go uh we should probably go tell King Ahab we should probably go let other people know

that uh God has delivered us that the unclean syrians have been driven out of the land and God has delivered us and so they go in and they tell Ahab they and it says explicitly in in 2 Kings 7 it says that they how can we keep these Glad Tidings to ourselves and so they go back in and they tell Ahab and and what do you know Elisha's word comes true abundance uh and and and The Siege is Ended as it were but the man who doubted is trampled in the gate and so we have

in Mark's opening I think we have an indication of him trying to to drawing our attention to see Jesus as this new Elisha who would bring about a great uh restoration of Israel the four disciples the lepers and the the cleansing of the land draw our attention to see that Jesus has come to deliver Israel from her enemies these lepers in Second Kings are the first to discover the good news of yahweh's miraculous cleansing of the land and then they make it known to the king of Israel in order that all of Israel might partake

of this cleansing but the unbeliever is trampled in the gate and does not partake of this Bountiful Deliverance the cleansing of the leper the raising up of Peter's mother-in-law and the driving out of demons all make one thing clear Christ came to cleanse the land in order that the holy God might dwell in fellowship with his people how will this holy God dwell in the midst of his people with all the the filth and the sin that they've accumulated how will how will they how will this be well the answer is in Jesus the order

he gives here the order Mark gives to us here is very is gives us a very important Doctrine The Voice Goes Forth the word Goes Forth first the call to repentance comes and the duty of cleaning things up comes after that word that goes forth that voice that calls us to repentance is a begetting word it is a word that makes alive it is a word that that re generates us and calls us to New Life that word goes for Goes Forth and then summons us to be made clean the duty of obedience the duty

of being made clean comes after but the cleansing like everything else in this chapter is gloriously rapid and Hasty and so as we progress through Mark's gospel there is one thing which Mark insists upon you must not look away from Jesus Jesus Mark writes so as to get in your face Mark is no an uh slowly telling his tale with Meandering thoroughness rather he writes so that you hear clearly that Jesus command Jesus calls out to you to follow him he commands the unclean spirits to be gone and he has come to cleanse you let's

pray Our God and Father we thank you for your word to us we thank you that your son came he is indeed the son of God given to us that we might be made new that he is the word of God given to beget us into New Life Lord I pray that you would give us Grace to apply all of this to our lives that we would as Mark exhorts us and tells us here that we would not take our eyes off of Christ we would not take our eyes off of Jesus all he said

and all he did and so now we pray back to you father the words that our lord Jesus taught us to pray saying in Matthew chapter 8 a centurion comes to Jesus on behalf of his sick servant and it's a remarkable story on a number of levels why is he so concerned about his servant why did he come to Jesus and how did he come to have such great faith but most surprising of all is the fact that Jesus seems to be surprised Jesus Marvels at his faith imagine giving the Creator cause to wonder upon

seeing his faith Jesus says everyone around that he has not seen such great faith in all Israel and he declares that many will come from the East and the west and will sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven and We Gather this morning in fulfillment of that word you are the faithful following the example of the faithful Centurion coming from the East and West and sitting down at the table of God and receiving from him the riches of the Kingdom receiving from God his very self two things about this one

the work of redemption is Cosmic in scope and is not limited to place or tribe God is working the restoration of the world and we are the joyous recipients of that work having been brought from afar and joined to Christ the blood of Christ was shed for the life of the world Christ allowed his body to be broken that the world might be mended this meal is token and foretaste of that great restoration and two more pointedly we come in faith and we come only by faith to this table there's only one other instance that

I know of where Jesus is said to Marvel and it is over the unbelief of his own countrymen recorded in Mark 66 the central thing in all your life is whether or not you are trusting in Humble Reliance upon Christ it is easy to place faith in adjacent things in postmill theology or Covenant renewal worship or well-managed households or witty inter internet Banner banter all good things in their own place but it's easy to neglect Christ crucified for the Forgiveness of sins so don't come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ let's pray almighty God

we give you abundant thanks for this Meal which is true food to our R souls and true drink to our parched Spirits thank you for this bread your body broken sign and seal of your presence with us thank you for this wine your blood shed for us men for our Salvation in Jesus name amen so charge is this as we work through Mark's gospel but particularly with this opening chapter Mark's testimony of Jesus is written so that we see Jesus as preeminently active and the takeaway I think for us is to remember that Jesus is

still in action so it's incumbent upon you as a follower of Christ to keep your eyes open to see Jesus at work and to follow him in that work there are many people around us many many friends family neighbors who need the cleansing which the call of Christ brings and so be his voice be his hands be his body and so here with believing hearts and Open Hands the benediction of God your father the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his

son Jesus Christ Our Lord and the blessings of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon and remain with you always and amen amen