Healing The Hurting Series

Healing the Hurting

Mark 1:29-34

Rev. Brian Bill

October 10-11, 2015

Have you noticed how many mother-in-law jokes are out there? Mothers-in-law have been the brunt of jokes since the beginning of time, well maybe not because Adam and Eve didn’t have any in-laws. When I did a Google search on mother-in-law humor, over 43 million results came up! Some sites are devoted exclusively to this unique relationship.

I don’t tell these kinds of jokes because I’ve been blessed with an extremely loving, humble and caring mother-in-law. Her sweet spirit has been stamped on Beth and all four of our daughters.

A couple mothers-in-law come to mind in the Bible. Ruth had such a close relationship with Naomi that she ended up embracing her faith and we’ll see today that the disciple named Peter cared so much for his wife’s mother that he brought Jesus to her.

Here’s the big idea for today: When you bring Jesus to your home, your home will become headquarters for ministry.

We saw last week that astonishing things happen when Jesus shows up in a service. Our main point was this: A response is expected when Jesus is encountered. We ended with the challenge to make Jesus famous by how we live and by what comes out of our lips. How have you done with this?

In our study of the Gospel according to Mark, we’ve noted how Jesus establishes his authority as the Son of God. Mark 1:1 says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark moves quickly from event to event in the first chapter to prove that Jesus is who He says He is.

• John the Baptist testifies that his job was to prepare the way for the Lord in verses 2-3 in fulfillment of the prophecies found in Isaiah and Malachi.

• At His baptism in verses 9-11, the heavens are torn open, the Holy Spirit descends visibly and the Father declares verbally, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

• Jesus then conquers some terrible temptations from Satan, preaches real repentance and proclaims demanding discipleship in verses 12-20.

• He then goes to a synagogue service and shows His power over a demon by quieting him and casting him out in verses 21-28. We learned that Jesus doesn’t want our amazement; He wants our allegiance.

• In our passage today we’ll see the power of Christ displayed over physical diseases in verses 29-34.

All of this is overwhelming evidence that Jesus is the Son of God.

Bring Jesus Home

Let’s take our big idea today in two parts. The first half goes like this: When you bring Jesus to your home… We see this in verses 29-31: “And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”

1. The setting. Look at verse 29: “And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.” After the synagogue service everyone headed to Village Inn, only they didn’t have one. It was common for this service to end at noon and then people would gather in homes for Sabbath lunch. The scene now moves from a public power encounter in the synagogue to a very private event in a home.

We know from John 1:44 that Simon and Andrew were originally from Bethsaida. It’s likely that Peter had purchased this home in Capernaum because that’s where they had moved their fishing business. Note that Peter still had a house and that he used his home for hospitality. He fully followed Christ and yet as a follower he was to care for his family and use His home for God’s glory and to make Jesus famous.

Archaeological excavations have uncovered a home in Capernaum that is near the site where the synagogue stood. Beth and I have been to this house. Ancient writings have been discovered on the walls with the words “Lord” and “Christ” in Aramaic, Greek, Syriac and Latin. They’ve also found first century fish hooks and graffiti references to “Peter.” Tradition says that this house was only about 100 yards from the synagogue.

When Peter left everything to follow Christ that meant that he gave everything to Christ. Too often we categorize the spiritual and the secular. We put worship and prayer and Bible study into the spiritual pile and things like work and hobbies and relationships and family into the secular pile. Listen. When you repent and receive Christ, when you forsake all to follow Christ, it means that everything becomes spiritual – your family, your house, your possessions, your finances, your job, your hobbies, your relationships, your schoolwork, your activities, because everything matters to Jesus.