There's Still Room For One Series

There’s Still Room For One

Aim: To show the authority and willingness of Christ to forgive sins.

Text: Mark 2:1-12.

Introduction: This is not a sermon for the claustrophobic, for it speaks of a room so tightly packed with people that one could not move. Have you ever been in a room like that? I will never forget a meeting we had in Belfast many years ago. We had invited a former Roman Catholic priest, Frank Eberhardt, to share his testimony. It was at the end of a full week of mission, and it came on a Monday evening. Monday evenings are not usually good for church meetings, attendance wise, but that Monday night was an exception. Our little hall which was packed with about 100 people in it, had to house around twice that number as people came in their droves. There were so many that we had to send out for extra chairs, and by the time the meeting started we had standing room only, with people crammed onto the platform packed around the pulpit. I can remember thinking of it as a mixed blessing. In truth we were overcrowded, and I was glad that so many folks were getting to hear the gospel, but I was also worried the whole time what would happen if we had some kind of emergency. It was quite a night.

As Mark 2 opens up Jesus has returned from the wilderness. You will recall that he had retired there following the cleansing of the leper, but the desert provided little solace for Him as, during this time of popularity, many went out from every quarter to see Him there. At some point He decided He might as well be in the town as in the desert, and so privately, maybe under the cover of darkness Jesus returns to Capernaum. In verses 1 & 2 we read of:

I. A House Full – vss 1-2

A. Now, there is some discussion as to whose house this was.

1. Some suggest that Jesus may have hired a house in Capernaum, as they reason, Peter’s humble dwelling could not have sustained the numbers coming to see Him.

2. But I would remind you that the Lord Jesus testified, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

3. Given that, and the context of Mark’s writing it seems to me that this must indeed have been Peter’s house.

B. Regardless of whose home it was, one thing we know for sure, that having arrived there in secret, the rumour mill was soon pointing to the Saviour’s presence in that palace.

1. “…it was noised that he was in the house…”

2. Literally, people were running through Capernaum shouting, “He’s in the house! He’s in the house!”

3. How glad they were to have him back within the precincts of their city!

4. Of course, no sooner was word out that He was there than the people started coming, and they came in their droves.

5. Soon Peter’s modest home was filled and people were pressing at the door and peering through the window to get a peek at Jesus.

C. What happened next is very telling.

1. The Bible says, “And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.”

2. He preached the Word. We are not told from which passage he preached, nor does Mark convey the subject matter He dealt with, but of this we are convinced Jesus was a preacher of the Word.

3. And I am sorry to say that a lot of people are getting away from that today, and in some churches one might just well here a sermon on the minister’s holiday, hobbies or home life as hear anything from the Word of God.

4. Others are seeking some Word from God in places outside the Bible.

a. Illus: I recently received a letter from a fellowship group in this city, inviting me to a meeting, that contained the following line, “Many Christians have sensed that the recent discovery of the Staffordshire gold hoard could be a prophetic sign pointing to a future opportunity when God will reveal more of the ‘gold’ of His presence across our area.”

b. Then some of them wonder why I won’t go to these things.

c. My friends, God is not speaking to us through the Staffordshire Hoard, no matter what some Christians “sense”.

d. I tell you what I sense, I sense that some people need to stop all this nonsense and get their heads out of the clouds and into God’s Word.

e. Jesus preached the Word; that is, He taught them from the Scriptures, he opened the Old Testament up to them and expounded its truths.