Thank you, Chris.
That is probably not the first time you've heard that song.
That song, whether you realize this or not, is actually an African American spiritual,"Just Give Me Jesus".
It was written during the era of slavery in our country.
It was written by an unknown slave.
It was sung by people in slavery that knew many sufferings, many, many hardships, and so it really expresses the truth that even in the midst of hardship, in the midst of loss, in the midst of deprivation, when a person has absolutely nothing earthly to hold onto, if they follow Jesus, if they know Jesus as Savior, as Lord, they have a true inheritance, an inheritance in the Kingdom of God.
I love what Lavinia-- painter says:"Anyone who knows Jesus knows He's everything, and if you've got Him, you've got everything.
If you don't have him, you don't have anything.
I know what it's like to wake up before day," she writes,"and to sense His presence." Really that's in the meaning of those lyrics.
"In the morning when I rise, I think of the many times when dark midnight was my cry just before the break of day.
Oh, give me Jesus." That's my prayer.
That's really what my prayer is for all of you as we go through this fall, as we work through the Gospel of Mark every week, that if you don't know Jesus, that you would come to know Him, that you would come to know that He truly is everything, and that if you have Jesus, you know Him already, but maybe it's been a long time since you've really sensed His presence powerfully in your life, that you would see Him in a fresh, new way in the Scriptures, in the Gospel of Mark, that it would move you to seek His presence, maybe anew, maybe afresh every morning, that it would move you to call out to Him and the dark midnight of your life.
Dan Werthman: "So just give me Jesus." So that's my prayer.
Dan Werthman: If you are visiting this morning, we're glad to have you.
Dan Werthman: We are working through the Gospel of Mark.
Dan Werthman: We're still in chapter one.
Dan Werthman: We are up to verse 21 today, so I'm going to pick it right up with where we left off last week.
Dan Werthman: This is in Jesus's Galilean Ministry, and Mark records, starting at verse 21.
Dan Werthman: "Then they(that's Jesus and His disciples) went into Capernaum, and right away, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.
Dan Werthman: They were amazed at his teaching, because unlike the scribes, he was teaching them as one having authority." Now Capernaum, Capernaum is on the north-- the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Dan Werthman: And, and that is where Jesus moved His ministry from His hometown of Nazareth, perhaps because those in Nazareth, where He grew up, weren't open to His ministry, but he moved His ministry, or at least the headquarters, the base of His ministry to the town of Capernaum.
Dan Werthman: And the text records that this episode, they went into a synagogue.
Dan Werthman: I've got a photo that I think we'll put up there in just a moment there.
Dan Werthman: That photo is one that, again, I was privileged to tour Israel two summers ago, and that is a photo of the synagogue in Capernaum.
Dan Werthman: Now that that synagogue that you're looking at was probably built a century or two after Jesus, but it was built right on top of the foundation where the synagogue, the actual synagogue, where Jesus was.
Dan Werthman: What is a synagogue?
Dan Werthman: There is only-- you may know this, but there is only one temple, the temple in Jerusalem.
Dan Werthman: That's where animal sacrifices were made.
Dan Werthman: But everywhere else in Israel, when there were at least 10 Jewish males, they could form a synagogue, and the synagogue is a place where the Torah, the part of the Old Testament they had at the time, where it was read, where it was interpreted.
Dan Werthman: There was a leader of the synagogue, and that's what Jesus and His disciples went into.
Dan Werthman: He began to teach-- I ask myself the question, how was it that, going into the synagogue, He was suddenly allowed to teach.
Dan Werthman: He was probably, at that time, already recognized as having a teaching ministry.
Dan Werthman: Word about Him had spread.
Dan Werthman: And so I'm guessing that the leader of the synagogue invited Him to teach.
Dan Werthman: And again, we see this word:"they were amazed".
Dan Werthman: Every week we've seen that word.
Dan Werthman: And we're going to see it over and over again: the reaction of people to the ministry, to the life, to the teaching of Jesus, is they are amazed and they are astonished.
Dan Werthman: Here, they are amazed because Jesus taught with authority.
Dan Werthman: Authority, and he distinguishes, unlike the scribes had when they taught.
Dan Werthman: What does Mark mean by that?
Dan Werthman: Well, really, when we talk about authority, what do we mean?
Dan Werthman: We mean that we are asking the question,"How do you know what you believe?" Think about that question for a moment.
Dan Werthman: Think of all the messages that you hear every day: you turn on your television and you hear the cable news of whatever your preference is.
Dan Werthman: You hear all kinds of opinions.
Dan Werthman: You hear all kinds of truth claims.
Dan Werthman: How do you know it's a belief?
Dan Werthman: You go on the Internet, you read things on the Internet, you're already well aware.
Dan Werthman: There's a lot on the internet as there is a lot on cable news, that is really what we could call"fake news".
Dan Werthman: How do you know what to believe?
Dan Werthman: That's really the question that we're asking this morning.
Dan Werthman: There are so many conflicting claims of truth out there.
Dan Werthman: How do you know what to believe?
Dan Werthman: Do you rely on your feelings?
Dan Werthman: If it subjectively feels right to you?
Dan Werthman: Is that kind of your indicator, your barometer, of whether something is true or not?
Dan Werthman: That will lead you astray.
Dan Werthman: You rely on the opinions of others: maybe your friends, maybe your parents, kids, brothers, sisters.
Dan Werthman: Again, those are all fallible people, so that is not a solid base of authority.
Dan Werthman: Do you rely on tradition?
Dan Werthman: Do you rely on what you learned growing up?
Dan Werthman: Again, your perspective is limited, as mine is.
Dan Werthman: That's not a reliable basis of authority.
Dan Werthman: So what is the authority, the grounds, the convincing source for what you believe?
Dan Werthman: And by the way, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus and you can't answer that question,"What is the authority?""What is the source for what you believe?" Here's what the Bible says about you: it warns that if you don't know what your solid source of authority for what you believe is, that you will be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching and every deceiving message of this world.
Dan Werthman: You'll be batted about by public opinion.
Dan Werthman: You'll be blown about by whatever new is coming out in our culture and getting popular opinion, if you don't know solidly what the source of your authority is.
Dan Werthman: The scribes-- the scribes, by the way, they were the ones who were supposedly the experts in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, they were the ones who who gave authoritative interpretations.
Dan Werthman: "This is what this line means.""This is what this verse means." And the scribes had an authority that was what we call mediated.
Dan Werthman: What does that mean?
Dan Werthman: Well, we see an example of it a few chapters later, in chapter seven, verse eight, when Jesus accuses the scribes, and this is what He says about them:"You ignore God's law and you substitute your own tradition." Now, what is He talking about?
Dan Werthman: Their basis of authority was, well,"Rabbi So-And-So said that this verse means this, the rabbis from a century ago, or two centuries ago, said that this part of Scripture means this," so all of their authority, all of their source, all of their ability to say,"This is the grounds for what we believe," was mediated through someone else.
Dan Werthman: Another human being, by the way.
Dan Werthman: They spoke nothing directly.
Dan Werthman: It was all what this person says.
Dan Werthman: And, you know, often we do that.
Dan Werthman: Often, the authority that we rely on is mediated authority.
Dan Werthman: We say,"Well, I heard this on Fox or on CNN," or,"I read this on the Internet," or,"My father, my brother, my friend said this to me," and we form our opinions and base what we believe on mediated authority.
Dan Werthman: It has come through someone else, but infinitely superior to mediated authority is immediate authority.
Dan Werthman: Immediate authority is direct from the source, direct from the source.
Dan Werthman: The reason the people were amazed at Jesus's teaching and why it was so different from the scribes is the scribes were quoting rabbis and church fathers or Jewish fathers.
Dan Werthman: Jesus didn't quote anyone.
Dan Werthman: Jesus simply read, or most likely, He quoted from memory.
Dan Werthman: He quoted the Old Testament Scriptures and He explained what it meant, and when He explained it, those who were there, those who heard it, those who had ears that were open, those who were teachable, they knew it had the ring of truth.
Dan Werthman: This isn't what somebody 100 years ago had said; this is what they were hearing directly from the source, directly from God.
Dan Werthman: He had an immediate authority.
Dan Werthman: It was direct from God the Father, the author of Scripture.
Dan Werthman: God Himself says this about Jesus.
Dan Werthman: In chapter nine verse seven, we'll get there in a few weeks, but during the transfiguration, remember what God Himself says about Jesus?
Dan Werthman: "This is my beloved son.
Dan Werthman: Listen to Him." In other words, He speaks directly from Me as My son.
Dan Werthman: So again, I'd ask you, what is the authority for what you believe?
Dan Werthman: You must be able to answer that question as a follower of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Even if you're not a follower of Jesus, you must be able to answer that question, or you'll just be blown about by the winds of popular opinion.
Dan Werthman: Let me, if you are a follower of Jesus, let me stress what I think are a few truth applications for all of us of what this means.
Dan Werthman: First of all, truth is what we find in the teachings of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Truth is what we find in the teachings of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: There are all kinds of competing truth claims out there.
Dan Werthman: Truth is ultimately anchored in what Jesus has taught and what Jesus has modeled in the way He has lived, and even if you're not swayed by the alternate truth claims that are out there, there is also, in our postmodern society, there is this belief that there is no truth, that everything is relative, that it depends on what you feel, that it depends upon your perspective and where you came from.
Dan Werthman: No, no, no.
Dan Werthman: If you are a follower of Jesus, truth is not shifting, and truth is anchored in the teachings of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Secondly, Jesus is the true authority for what we believe, so what our culture has to say about sexuality, what our culture has to say about gender, what our culture has to say about you-name-it, about economics, about law, about society, all of those things are not the authority for what we believe.
Dan Werthman: Jesus is the true authority for what we believe, and we live in a time-- I don't think I need to tell you this.
Dan Werthman: We live in a time where it is going to become increasingly more challenging to stand upon the authority of Jesus Christ against the competing, pushing-back authority claims of our culture, but that's what it's going to mean to follow Jesus in the years and the decades ahead.
Dan Werthman: And thirdly, every earthly teaching, every earthly teaching, every everything we hear, must be judged and measured against what Jesus taught.
Dan Werthman: You know, there's much that we can gain from disciplines like psychology and sociology and economics.
Dan Werthman: There's much we can learn from law, even from politics, but all of that can't be our grid, our guidelines, or the guide irons on the side of the road.
Dan Werthman: Jesus is the one through which we have to run all of that.
Dan Werthman: He is our filter for that.
Dan Werthman: Even the truth that you may have learned or what you think is truth, growing up in the family that you grew up in, has to be subjected to what Jesus taught, and if you learn something growing up that does not fit within the teachings of Jesus, if He challenges some of what you learned as you grew up, what you are taught to think, if you follow Jesus, Jesus is your authority.
Dan Werthman: Everything that you learned, ever, from your cultural heritage, from your family heritage, from your experiences in life, must be judged and measured against what Jesus taught.
Dan Werthman: That's what it means to follow Jesus.
Dan Werthman: Well, Mark goes on in verse 23.
Dan Werthman: Here they are in the synagogue.
Dan Werthman: Jesus is teaching with authority and look at what it produces.
Dan Werthman: Look at the result.
Dan Werthman: "Just then, a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue." What's an unclean spirit?
Dan Werthman: That's a term that Mark uses frequently.
Dan Werthman: He uses it, I think I counted, 11 times in his Gospel, but he uses that term"unclean spirit".
Dan Werthman: He uses it interchangeably with another term,"demon", which he uses about an equal number of times.
Dan Werthman: He uses these almost synonymously, interchangeably.
Dan Werthman: We see it a few verses later in verse 32:"The people brought to Jesus all the sick and those who were demon-possessed." So an unclean spirit is a demon.
Dan Werthman: A demon is an unclean spirit.
Dan Werthman: "Demon" is the Greek term.
Dan Werthman: "Unclean spirit" is the more Aramaic term, and Jesus spoke and taught in Aramaic.
Dan Werthman: "Unclean" carries with it the idea of"polluted", of"contaminated".
Dan Werthman: An unclean spirit is morally impure.
Dan Werthman: Now what are we talking about, whether we're talking about a demon or an unclean spirit?
Dan Werthman: Well, the Bible teaches us that a demon, an unclean spirit, is a fallen angel, originally created by God, but fallen, that now serves the devil, now serves Satan.
Dan Werthman: There's only one devil.
Dan Werthman: There's only one Satan, but he has many demons who serve him.
Dan Werthman: He's not omnipresent like God is, but through his demons throughout the world, he's able to function somewhat where he can operate everywhere in the world, at many, many different times and places And so that's really a quick overview of the demonic realm.
Dan Werthman: We see demons in the Old Testament, but they're not mentioned very often.
Dan Werthman: In fact, the term"demon" only appears maybe a handful of times in the entire Old Testament, but that doesn't mean there's no demonic activity in the Old Testament.
Dan Werthman: In fact, God tells us, through the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, speaking of the Israelites and the way that they were drawn off time and time again to worship the gods of the nations around them.
Dan Werthman: Moses writes,"They stirred God to anger with strange gods.
Dan Werthman: With abominable practices, they provoked him to anger.
Dan Werthman: They sacrificed to demons, which were no gods." What's God telling us there, through the words of Moses?
Dan Werthman: That when the Israelites were attracted to the gods of pagan nations around them, it wasn't pagan gods that they were worshiping.
Dan Werthman: Whether they realized it or not, they were worshiping demons who used the false identity of these pagan gods to get control over people, and by the way, that's just as true today.
Dan Werthman: Wherever you go in the world and people worship false gods of any kind, behind that identity of a false god is a demonic presence, and whether people acknowledge it or not, when they worship a false god, they are worshiping a demon.
Dan Werthman: And so demonic activity, even though we may not always see it clearly here in our current culture and our society, it is still there.
Dan Werthman: It is just sometimes covered up and takes other forms.
Dan Werthman: Well, verse 23 tells us that the unclean spirit was with a man in the synagogue.
Dan Werthman: What does it mean that an unclean spirit is with a person?
Dan Werthman: It means that it had invaded his personality, it had established its control over his will, and that is what is frequently noted, or frequently called in the scripture"demon possession" or the actual Greek word for that, really, we could say that"demonization" is the word for it.
Dan Werthman: It's an unclean spirit.
Dan Werthman: It is a demon that gains control, that invades the personality, that gains control over a man or a woman's will.
Dan Werthman: Charles Rye redefines it as this:"a demon or demons residing in a person, exerting direct control and influence over that person with certain derangement of mind and/or body," and we'll see many forms of this as we go through the Gospel of Mark.
Dan Werthman: So what does it mean?
Dan Werthman: That means that those who don't know God, who don't follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, that that they can be demonized, they can be demon-possessed, that unclean spirits can gain, whether they really, consciously recognize it or not, can gain a hold over their mind and exert control over their will.
Dan Werthman: Now, if you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit residing in you.
Dan Werthman: A demon cannot possess you in that way, but we read in the New Testament, we read of occasions where demons can still oppress, not possess, but oppress, a believer.
Dan Werthman: A demon can, we write, or Satan is able to gain a foothold.
Dan Werthman: Ephesians tells us where there are certain sins of the flesh that that are unrepented-from, it gives Satan an ability to gain a foothold and oppress a believer in their life.
Dan Werthman: It's interesting to me that, here in this account, this demon possessing this man had him continuing to go to the synagogue.
Dan Werthman: Isn't that interesting?
Dan Werthman: This man with his demon is in the synagogue during a time where a normal synagogue service was being conducted.
Dan Werthman: Perhaps it was keeping up appearances.
Dan Werthman: I don't know.
Dan Werthman: Perhaps it was to stir up trouble or division.
Dan Werthman: And the implications of this for us today, I think, are sobering.
Dan Werthman: If you believe, as I do, that demonization, that demonic oppression still happens, isn't it logical to assume that Satan will use a similar strategy in churches as he did in the synagogue?
Dan Werthman: That there may be people who don't know yet know the Lord, who Satan has a hold in their life, a demon has a hold in their life, or those who are oppressed by demons, who Satan actually wants to go to church, because it is a way to stir up trouble and division.
Dan Werthman: We read, in verse 24, what happens when this man with this unclean spirit encounters Jesus: he cries out,"What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Dan Werthman: Have you come to destroy us?
Dan Werthman: I know who you are.
Dan Werthman: The Holy One of God.
Dan Werthman: What do you have to do with us?" That's a common expression of the time.
Dan Werthman: Really, it has the meaning,"Go away and leave me alone.""Don't interfere with me.""Don't interfere with us." And the expression,"Have you come to destroy us?" What does that reveal?
Dan Werthman: That reveals that, even though the human beings in that synagogue really didn't fully recognize who Jesus was, the demon did.
Dan Werthman: The demon understood enough about Jesus, enough about Jesus's mission, to realize that He is a threat to the entire demonic power structure, and that's behind his cry.
Dan Werthman: I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Dan Werthman: Some commentators say that this is a demon's attempt to resist Jesus's power, that somehow, by naming His identity, there was the belief of gaining control over him.
Dan Werthman: I don't particularly believe that that's all that convincing.
Dan Werthman: I do agree with those who say that this is more reflective of the demon's fear of Him.
Dan Werthman: Again, even though every human being in that building did not know who this was, the demon, as a spiritual being, had some level of spiritual insight that gave it an understanding of Jesus's true identity: the Holy One, the sinless one of God, fully God.
Dan Werthman: The demon knew what so many people, both then and now, fail to recognize, that Jesus is God, that He has come in the flesh to save us if we turn to Him and to judge us if we turn away from him.
Dan Werthman: Well, verses 25 and 26:"Jesus rebuked him and said,'Be quiet and come out of him,' and the unclean spirit convulsed him, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.""Be quiet." That's the same command, by the way, that Jesus uses, as we'll see later, to still the sea during the midst of the storm.
Dan Werthman: You'll notice that Jesus doesn't go through any ritualistic rite of exorcism here.
Dan Werthman: We see His authority just and the mere fact that, whether it's casting out a demon or stilling a storm, He speaks, and that's enough.
Dan Werthman: He speaks, and His authority accomplishes what He calls for.
Dan Werthman: The demon convulsed the man as it led him.
Dan Werthman: I think that indicates that this demon didn't want to give up its hold on this man.
Dan Werthman: It didn't want to yield, but it had to yield before the absolute authority of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: That's why we we call on Jesus's name.
Dan Werthman: We don't believe that every person struggling with sin is possessed with a demon.
Dan Werthman: We don't believe that every person, like was often believed in that day, that is sick with something or has a mental illness, is possessed with a demon, but in those rare cases where we come upon that, we don't appeal on our own name.
Dan Werthman: We don't appeal on our own expertise.
Dan Werthman: We appeal to the name of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: We know that He is the one who has the absolute authority over all the angelic realms, both angelic and demonic.
Dan Werthman: We appeal to His name.
Dan Werthman: What is the response of the rest of the people in the synagogue?
Dan Werthman: Again, that word:"They were all amazed." They were amazed so that they debated or questioned among themselves, saying,"What is this?
Dan Werthman: A new teaching with authority.
Dan Werthman: He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him.""A new teaching." What's new?
Dan Werthman: What is new about what they have seen and Jesus's power over the demons?
Dan Werthman: And here's where we need to understand where this falls in God's salvation history.
Dan Werthman: If we go all the way back to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve first listened to Satan in the Garden of Eden, when they were deceived by him, they didn't just lose their influence.
Dan Werthman: They lost their freedom.
Dan Werthman: John writes, in 1 John 5:19, that"the whole world fell under the power of the evil one", and that occurred there, beginning in the garden of Eden.
Dan Werthman: And so from Adam to Jesus, if you think about the whole period of time of salvation history, from when Adam and Eve fell in the garden up to just before the coming of Jesus, we read that Satan was in a position as the one who ruled over the world, holding people in bondage.
Dan Werthman: Galatians reminds us of this.
Dan Werthman: Galatians 4:3:"We were in bondage under the forces of this world." You can see that bondage clearly in cases like this, of demonic possession, but it's also true of us, all of us apart from Christ.
Dan Werthman: Paul writes in Ephesians 2 that we all followed the ways of this world.
Dan Werthman: We all followed the ways of the prince of the power of the air.
Dan Werthman: We may think apart from Christ that we're free and we're choosing our own destiny, but really we're in bondage, and we are following the ways of the prince of the power of the air, of Satan himself.
Dan Werthman: Well, I want to skip, just for a moment, over what happened when Jesus came.
Dan Werthman: I want to go up to the point in time when Jesus returns, at the beginning of the millennium, which precedes the new heavens and the new earth.
Dan Werthman: What do we see looking ahead to the millennium when Christ returns?
Dan Werthman: Then we see-- Revelation 22, that Satan will be bound for a thousand years, and eventually, in the new heavens and the new earth, Satan and all his demons will be cast into the lake of fire.
Dan Werthman: So we see that when Jesus's kingdom comes, when it comes on earth as it is in heaven, and the millennium, we see the total restraint of Satan and all his demonic hordes.
Dan Werthman: But what about now?
Dan Werthman: We're not in that period of Adam, up before, just before the coming of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: We're not yet in the millennium.
Dan Werthman: What is really going on now, in terms of Satan's power?
Dan Werthman: There is something new that that is going on here, that the people in Capernaum saw displayed here, that while the Kingdom of God has not yet come in its most complete and fullest sense, what Jesus has been preaching is true: the Kingdom of God is in your midst.
Dan Werthman: God's Kingdom is active in the Ministry of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: That is true at the time that Mark is recording this; that is true now, that even though the Kingdom has not come in its fullest, God's Kingdom is active in the Ministry of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: God's Kingdom is now active in the Ministry of the Holy Spirit and through Jesus.
Dan Werthman: The Kingdom of God is attacking and prevailing over the Kingdom of Satan, and though we can't see that, that does not make it true, but that is the reality.
Dan Werthman: That is what is demonstrated there.
Dan Werthman: Jesus gave us a word picture for all of this that is right now happening during the time that you and I live right now.
Dan Werthman: In Matthew 12:29, he writes,"How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong men?
Dan Werthman: And then he will plunder his house." Who is the strong man?
Dan Werthman: It's Satan.
Dan Werthman: What is the strong man's house?
Dan Werthman: The strong man's house is this present age, this age that we live in, in which the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.
Dan Werthman: And what are his goods?
Dan Werthman: His goods are the people that he, Satan, holds in bondage.
Dan Werthman: Some he holds in bondage by demonic possession, like this man that we read about here; the rest he holds in bondage by the deceit of sin.
Dan Werthman: What a clear word picture that is, and what is Jesus saying?
Dan Werthman: When Jesus came as the King of the Kingdom of God, He effectively bound the strong man.
Dan Werthman: His presence on Earth and his power, such as we see here, broke the power of Satan to bind all men and women.
Dan Werthman: And in breaking his power, Jesus has bound him.
Dan Werthman: In some sense, He has limited Satan and his demons so that He can plunder his goods, so He can rescue men and women like you and me from bondage to Satan's power.
Dan Werthman: So what do we see here, in this deliverance of this man with the unclean spirit in the Capernaum synagogue?
Dan Werthman: Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:28:"If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you." There again is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Dan Werthman: We've seen Him preaching since the very early verses of chapter one.
Dan Werthman: "The Kingdom of God is in your midst.""The King is here, even though you don't see him as King.
Dan Werthman: His power has begun to change things.
Dan Werthman: It's not the Kingdom yet, in its fullest and most complete sense, but its Kingdom power is operating.
Dan Werthman: And if the Kingdom of God has come upon us, and that is the time that we live in, what should be our response?
Dan Werthman: Again, what did Jesus preach?
Dan Werthman: Mark 1:15:"The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Dan Werthman: Repent and believe in the Gospel.""Repent.""Turn away.""Change your mind about the old beliefs, the old way that you believe, before Jesus.""Believe.""Change your mind to what it means to follow Jesus as Savior and as King.
Dan Werthman: Where we see more displays of this new Kingdom power, as Mark continues in verses 28 and on:"News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee." You can imagine that, that news of this would get out.
Dan Werthman: This is really the first time that Satan's ability to possess people, that power had been broken.
Dan Werthman: You can imagine that news traveling quickly.
Dan Werthman: "As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.
Dan Werthman: And there, in Simon and Andrew's home, Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever.
Dan Werthman: And they told him about her at once, and so He went to her.
Dan Werthman: And He took her by the hand, and He raised her up.
Dan Werthman: When He did that, the fever left her, and she began to serve them with a fever." Now, Mark is brief on details, but Luke tells us in chapter four of the same account that it was a high fever, and so the indication is that she'd been sick for some time and that this was a very serious, even life-threatening affliction to her, and what does Jesus do?
Dan Werthman: He touches her.
Dan Werthman: He takes her hand, and that is significant when you think about some of the interpretation that the rabbis made of the Old Testament purity laws is you never, ever touch a sick person, or else you become impure, and so that had invaded that cultural thinking.
Dan Werthman: And that really is the last thing that a teacher like Jesus should have done is touching a sick person.
Dan Werthman: But what does he do?
Dan Werthman: He extends His hand to her in compassion toward her.
Dan Werthman: He touches her, and instantly as He touches her, she's healed.
Dan Werthman: The fever left her, and she began to serve Him.
Dan Werthman: The ability for her to get up out of bed and to start serving them showed that the healing not only was instantaneous, but that it was complete, and no longer was she afflicted with this.
Dan Werthman: Mark goes on in verse 34:"And He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons, but he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him.""He healed many who were sick with various diseases." Again, Mark is so sparse with his prose, with his detail here, but by this brief summary, it's evident that Jesus can heal all kinds of sickness.
Dan Werthman: And as we continue reading through Mark, Mark will record Jesus healing leprosy, paralysis, hemorrhaging, deafness and speech disorders, blindness, and even death.
Dan Werthman: We'll see Him raise people from the dead.
Dan Werthman: "And He drove out many demons." And again, we see Him demonstrating that the Kingdom of God is advancing, that the strong one, the strong man has been bound.
Dan Werthman: His house is being plundered, and we'll see more occasions of that in the weeks to come.
Dan Werthman: It is interesting, is it not, that he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew who He was.
Dan Werthman: They knew Him.
Dan Werthman: We'll also see, kind of, I think paralleling in that, that often, as He heals people, as Jesus heals people, he tells them,"Don't tell.
Dan Werthman: Don't spread the news about what I've done for you." He tells people not to tell others about His healing acts.
Dan Werthman: Why is that?
Dan Werthman: Why did He prevent the demons from speaking?
Dan Werthman: Why did He tell people not to spread the news about His healing acts?
Dan Werthman: We don't know for sure.
Dan Werthman: It's one of those mysteries that we see in Mark, at least at this point.
Dan Werthman: Here's one thought: my belief, that I don't think He wanted to be known simply as an exorcist, as a healer, as a miracle worker.
Dan Werthman: He came, and He did cast out demons.
Dan Werthman: He came, and He did heal people.
Dan Werthman: He came, and He did do miracles, but that's not what He primarily came for.
Dan Werthman: Those were only signs that pointed to, really, His mission.
Dan Werthman: He came to be Messiah.
Dan Werthman: He came to be King, the King of the Kingdom of God.
Dan Werthman: He came to free people from whatever held them, whether that was sickness or demonic possession, so that they could become citizens, subjects, of the Kingdom of God.
Dan Werthman: And news getting out about Him being a miracle worker or an exorcist may have simply given people the wrong impression, an unclear idea of who He really was.
Dan Werthman: He came to be what God promised through the Old Testament prophets.
Dan Werthman: It's all over the Old Testament, but let me just read you one.
Dan Werthman: You know this one, probably.
Dan Werthman: Isaiah 61, speaking of the Messiah who would one day come.
Dan Werthman: See how Jesus lines up in what we're seeing here, in Mark, with what Isaiah spoke of Him:"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted.
Dan Werthman: He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.
Dan Werthman: What do we see Jesus doing here, in Mark?
Dan Werthman: We see Him bring good news to those who are afflicted, even healing those who are afflicted with physical diseases.
Dan Werthman: We see him coming to bind up the brokenhearted, to minister those who are in pain.
Dan Werthman: We see him proclaiming liberty to captives, to setting free prisoners bound by Satan.
Dan Werthman: Does God still heal?
Dan Werthman: Does God still heal, as we see Him here in Mark?
Dan Werthman: Here's the reality: you and I, we still live in that same period of salvation history, from the first coming of Jesus to the second coming of Jesus.
Dan Werthman: What do we know about the second coming of Jesus?
Dan Werthman: When Jesus returns again, that will be the Kingdom of God coming on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Dan Werthman: That will be the time, culminated in the new heavens and the new Earth, when we will see full and complete healing, where scripture says there will be no more crying.
Dan Werthman: There will be no more pain.
Dan Werthman: There will be no more death.
Dan Werthman: But right now we live in that period where we anticipate that, where we look forward to that, where the Kingdom of God has come near, but the Kingdom of God is not yet come in its fullest and most complete sense.
Dan Werthman: But the Kingdom of God has come near in Jesus, and God still heals.
Dan Werthman: Sometimes, Jesus still heals physically.
Dan Werthman: Sometimes, Jesus heals us emotionally.
Dan Werthman: Sometimes, Jesus heals us spiritually.
Dan Werthman: Often, there is some combination of those three.
Dan Werthman: And so here's what I would say to you this morning, whether you are suffering from some physical affliction this morning, whether you are struggling with some emotional burden, something that has happened to you in your childhood or somewhere in your life that is a weight upon your shoulders emotionally, maybe even spiritually.
Dan Werthman: But you're in a time of testing.
Dan Werthman: You're in a time of trials right now and you are suffering spiritually.
Dan Werthman: Jesus always heals those who trust Him.
Dan Werthman: Sometimes physically, sometimes emotionally, sometimes spiritually.
Dan Werthman: And as we turn to Him, remember, repenting and believing is an ongoing activity.
Dan Werthman: We continue to repent away from our own direction of our life.
Dan Werthman: We continue to believe, go toward Him as Savior and King.
Dan Werthman: Here's this promise: He brings good news to those of us who are afflicted, afflicted, maybe with anxiety, with worry, with fear.
Dan Werthman: He comforts those of us who are brokenhearted, maybe brokenhearted with grief, with loss.
Dan Werthman: He sets free those who are captive, maybe captive to habitual sin, maybe to temptation overcoming you time and time again.
Dan Werthman: And He casts out the unclean spirits, the demons of lust and pride and jealousy and bitterness.
Dan Werthman: What do you bring this morning with you?
Dan Werthman: What is weighing you down?
Dan Werthman: What has you captive this morning?
Dan Werthman: Maybe it's not actual demonic possession, but maybe it's an emotional burden.
Dan Werthman: Maybe it's spiritual struggling, maybe it's your physical afflictions this morning.
Dan Werthman: Jesus wants to meet you.
Dan Werthman: Repenting and believing says,"I turn away from my own ways of trying to deal with this.
Dan Werthman: I turn away from the world's messages of how to deal with this.
Dan Werthman: I turn again and again to Jesus." We would love to help you do this this morning.
Dan Werthman: There are people who will be in the back.
Dan Werthman: There are people who will be up here at the front.
Dan Werthman: Maybe this is this morning where you need to come forward and you need to ask for healing or for freedom, maybe from something physically, maybe from something relationally, emotionally, maybe for something spiritually.
Dan Werthman: These men and women who are here to pray want to lead you to the throne, want to lead you before Jesus, the one who heals us physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Dan Werthman: Turn to Jesus.
Dan Werthman: May your prayer this morning, may my prayer this morning, be,"Just give me Jesus." Let's pray.
Dan Werthman: Jesus, we turn to you as Savior.
Dan Werthman: We turn to you as King.
Dan Werthman: We are such needy people, Lord God.
Dan Werthman: If we lay aside our pride and we are real before you and we acknowledge what we know in the midnight hours of our lives, we are such needy people.
Dan Werthman: Needy physically, needy emotionally, needy spiritually.
Dan Werthman: You are so worthy.
Dan Werthman: You are so faithful.
Dan Werthman: You are so all-sufficient.
Dan Werthman: Help us this morning to repent and believe, to turn from our own ways of managing our pain, whatever source it would be from, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and turn to You to repent and believe, to follow You, to allow You to change us, to transform us, to free us, to heal us.
Dan Werthman: Even as we close with a song this morning, Lord, I pray that there would be men and women here who would respond to this in faith that their active repenting and believing would be to come forward or go to the rear and pray, to pray for healing, to pray for freedom.
Dan Werthman: We lift up these prayers to you, Lord Jesus, believing in You as our Savior, as our King.
Dan Werthman: Amen.