Messages from Pastor Raddatz

HEALED TO SERVE, Mark 1:29-39

Mount Olive, Houston, TX February 7, 2021

Main Idea: God's purpose in healing us is to increase our ability to serve Him.

I invite you to pray with me...

Today we continue to follow the first few days of the ministry of Jesus. In the last few weeks we have seen him call his first disciples, tell them he will make them fishers of men and watch as he casts a demon out of a man in the Tabernacle. In Mark 1:29 we begin by reading, "As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began to wait on them." Here we see a woman who is healed and begins serving. This is not always the case.

AS SINFUL PEOPLE, WE CAN DESIRE HEALING FOR SELFISH REASONS

• Philippians 2:21, NIV, "For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ."

Healing is what Jesus is about. Jesus is also wanting us to see by Simon's mother-in-law's example that healing occurs so that others can be served. They can be served by their faith being strengthened. The miracles of Jesus are to increase our faith. But after healing not everyone wants to serve. The passage above is from the Apostle Paul writing about the blessing of Timothy. Paul says, "I have no one like him". Timothy is like a best friend to Paul because he has served with Paul in the work of spreading the good news that Jesus has come to heal us from our illness of sin.

I feel the need to address the question, why are some healed and why are others not healed? The answer to that question is a true mystery. I do not know. I do know that God, in his own wisdom, chooses to heal some and allows others to continue with an illness. This is why I have included the following bible passage:

• Psalm 119:50, ESV, "This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life."

The interesting thing about a person who has been healed from a disease is that they eventually will die. There is not one person who has beat death after a miracle healing. Death is still the final enemy. The only one to have beaten that is God himself in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.

Oswald Chambers in Run Today's Race

Fahling: It was, however, not His purpose to establish a clinic at Capernaum. This seems to have been what the people at Capernaum expected.

Let's take a closer look at how Jesus approaches the illness in Peter's Mother-in-law. This is a healing that comes not for selfish reasons, but a healing that comes for the purpose of service.

GOD'S HEALING COMES SO THAT WE CAN SERVE

As soon as Peter's Mother-in-law was healed from her fever, she begins to wait on Jesus.

It is interesting to note the personal caring nature of Jesus in this situation. He is told about Peter's Mother-in-laws fever, "he took her hand and helped her up". Note both the humanity and divinity of Jesus. He grasped her by the hand. That is so human. But raising her up was more than human. A person with a high fever is very weak. Jesus did not lift dead weight by grasping her hand. His divinity, working though His humanity, caused her to rise. Luke adds that "He rebuked the fever," the same verb, in Greek, used to rebuke the winds and waves. His Word brought the fever to an end.

"Left" at Mark 1:31, is plainly resultative, which expresses "that something or someone has undergone a change in state as the result of the completion of an event" -Wikipedia. It is the same verb used for "forgive." When God forgives, the sins are no more. God's forgiveness causes our sins to leave us!

When Jesus spoke, the fever was no more. The koine text, followed by KJV and NKJV adds the word "immediately." If it is not textual, it is implicit in the text. She did not become well gradually but immediately.

• Why did he not let the demon's speak in v. 34?

The news about the Rabbi who heals, this Jesus is spreading so fast that after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and the demon possessed. He heals them all. He would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Jesus would not let the demons speak because he wanted the people to know him by his words and actions. He would not let the demons frustrate this intent (CSB). Satan used the title "Son of God" only to divert Jesus from His true mission. Cf. Matthew 4:3.6. He tempted Jesus to be a self-serving and popular Savior. (Bul's notes)

How might we apply this to our situations?

AS HE HAS BRINGS YOU TO SUFFERING, LET GOD USE YOU

• Jesus went to other towns to "Preach", to proclaim or "live out" that the Kingdom of God has come. This is the true work of Jesus. The miracles are to call people to faith and trust in God who will see you through.

And it is sad to note that none of the people who were healed or witnessed the healings acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God. Luke 4:23 tells us of the many works Jesus performed in Capernaum. Matthew 11:23.24 and Luke 10:15 tell us how cold and impenitent these miracles left these people. Their judgment will be worse than that of Sodom. "He came unto His own but His own received Him not." John 1:11. What a grief that must have been to Jesus Who was not only divine but also human! (Bul's notes)

• Wait on the Lord: His timing will probably not be our timing. Like our Old Testament reading for today, "...but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" Isaiah 40:31 (ESV).

• Ask God to show you "what" he wants you to do. In your prayers, avoid the "why"?

Jesus rises early to pray (v. 35), because the people of Capernaum want him to be something he is not. The disciples tell Jesus, "everyone is looking for you". Jesus replies, "let's go somewhere else so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."

• Be careful of the temptation of popularity instead of divine purpose.

After the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:15) when they wanted to make Him King by force, He went away, all alone, to pray. Why? For strength to overcome this temptation to popularity. Jesus' purpose was to go to the cross to save us from our soul sickness of sin.

We praise and thank God that his son healed our soul from our sin. We thank him that he cares for us. We can even thank him for the illnesses he allows and the struggles he brings us to. God's journey for us is to build our faith. We praise God who will bring to completion this work of faith that he has begun in us, Philippians 1:6. Amen.

Will you pray with me...Soli Deo Gloria=To God Be The Glory, Pastor John F. Raddatz