Healing More Than Hands Mark 3:1-6
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who was intent on simply arguing with you rather than listening to you? When that happens do you feel like the person is waiting to get a word in edge wise? (EDGE WISE) do you feel trapped? These folks aren’t really interested in having a conversation with you are they? They are interested getting their point across. You just hate to see them coming don’t you?
I would imagine that’s how Jesus felt whenever the Pharisees or Scribes or Sadducees were watching and questioning him. These religious folks weren’t really interested in learning more about Jesus. They weren’t interested in seeing what God was doing in this new movement, they weren’t interested in helping people, they were only interested in gathering evidence against Jesus.
These guys weren’t interested in serving others unless it involved elevating their own reputations at the same time. They didn’t care about doing ministry unless it fit into their own little box and they certainly weren’t interested in listening to the needs of the world around them. And, with all that said, they missed out on a tremendous move of God right there in their midst, they missed out on the healing power of the cross.
I heard a pastor once say it this way:
• Blinded by their hostility, they missed the holiness.
• Blinded by their hatred, they missed the healing.
• Blinded by their duty, they missed the divinity.
• Blinded by the old way, they missed the new way.
We are in the second week of a sermon series called “The Healing Power of the Cross”. Last week we talked about the Spectrum of Healing. We discussed how the healing ministry of Jesus is available to all people regardless of social or economic status. We talked about how the healing ministry of Jesus should be a part of every church’s ministry and we agreed that the healing ministry of Jesus and therefore the church, brings hope to people.
This week we are looking at a passage of Scripture that records yet another incident of the status quo trying to rob God’s people of healing and wholeness. Did you realize that? When we allow skeptics, when we allow naysayers, when we allow negative Nancys to bully the church into relinquishing the healing ministry of the church to the lunatic fringe, i.e. the Robert Tiltons of the world, we are allowing them to rob us of a tremendous gift of God.
That’s what was going on with the Religious leaders in Jesus’ day. They didn’t understand what Jesus was doing; they didn’t want to understand him. They couldn’t control what he was doing and they couldn’t stop the people from flocking to him, so they set about to discredit Jesus and discourage people from following him.
I believe this happens all too often in the church today. This is where most of the church is now. We don’t hear of the miraculous taking place much anymore, we don’t hear about people getting healed much anymore, we don’t see many churches laying hands on people and praying for healing.
Don’t believe me? Let me ask those of you who grew up in mainline denominations: Before you came to NewSong, how many of you had heard a series of sermons on the Healing Power of the Cross? Or heard a Bible study on healing? How many of you have attended a church that had an ongoing healing ministry? How many of you have been anointed and received healing prayer? How many of you have laid hands on someone and prayed for healing?
Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not saying the modern church has devolved into a bunch of 21st century Pharisees (or am I?). What I am saying is this: I think, due to years of shying away from the power of the healing ministry of the church, we now find ourselves in need of healing.
Fortunately, if we read beyond the words on the page, we see that in this passage from Mark, Jesus was healing more than hands. Let’s take a look…
I. Jesus Heals Us of Loving Church More Than People (v 1, 2)
Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees loved their institution more than they love God. They loved their buildings and altars and robes and finery more than they did the people they were called to serve.
I’ve heard it said pastors can get so caught up in the P’S of a church, the prestige of the pulpit, the proportion of the paycheck, and the proportion of the pension, they forget about the most important P, the people.
Please hear me on this: I love the church. I love this church. I love the Body of Christ. The church is the bride of Christ, a pure and spotless bride according to the Book of Revelation. So, I’m not talking about organized religion in broad, sweeping terms. I’m not talking about the universal church of Jesus Christ. I’m talking about individual churches that have turned so inward and become so narcissistic and self-serving they can’t see needs and lives of the people right outside their doors.
I’m talking about the church who after years and years of having no kids at all, had a young woman start a youth group that had kids from all over the neighborhood coming to church for the first time. You’d think the church would have been thrilled. Instead, they called the youth leader on the carpet for leaving two liter cokes and a bottle of ketchup in the church fridge after youth group on Sundays. That’s loving the church more than people.
I’m talking about a church that had a new church member start a Girl Scout group to reach out to the kids in the neighborhood and had dozens of unchurched kids and their families coming to the church each week, but closed the program because someone tracked glitter onto the carpet in the sanctuary.
I’m talking about the church that refused to allow its pastor to hold healing services using anointing oil because the oil might drip down and stain the carpet.
Tragically, these are all true examples.
Consider the following from the web page “Love Jesus, Hate the Church.com”:
During the past 10 years, approximately 50 million Christians left the church. In fact, the percentage of American adults who attend religious services has dropped from 49% to less than 32%. And more recent studies have shown that the problem of the decline in church attendance is actually getting much worse.
In addition, a recent USA Today/Gallop poll reported that almost half of all Americans appear to be alienated from any form of organized religion.
If the current trend continues, most Americans will not call themselves religious in just a few years.
Of the roughly 140 million Americans who do make their way to church on any given weekend, an amazing 74% are not engaged in their church at all. That follows the rule of 80/20 which says 20 percent of the members do 80 percent of the work in any given organization.
Moreover, a study from the Barna Institute concluded that by the end of the next decade, up to 40% of all church-attending Christians will be worshipping God, serving others, studying the Bible, etc., outside of a congregational church setting.
Clearly, the data indicates that “church” isn’t working.
To quote Barna:
“We find these developments truly remarkable! Some factor appears to be actively driving church-goers away from organized religion. And yet, this is happening at a time when Americans have an unprecedented interest in spirituality.”
Did you ever wonder what factor is actively driving people away from church?
If you’ve ever wondered why we don’t look like every other UMC here at NewSong, that’s why. We don’t want to be like every other church. You’ve heard me say, “We’re not your grandfather’s UMC.” Unfortunately, your grandfather’s UMC is probably a shrinking gathering of people average of 65 who have been lulled into contentment, happy to wait out the grim reaper in familiar surroundings. That scene is repeated in every mainline denomination across the country.
Could it be the Body of Christ needs to be healed of loving the church more than loving people?
Perhaps we have forgotten Jesus’ words: “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)
In other words God gave humanity the Sabbath to benefit humanity, not humanity to benefit the Sabbath. Allow me to bring it home, God gave humanity the church to benefit humanity, God did not give humanity the church to benefit the church.
Secondly…
II.Jesus Heals Us of Obeying Habit Over Him (v 3, 4)
Jesus said to the man, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.
If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Mark chapter 12 verse 28. I want you to remember a passage of Scripture where a teacher of religious law approached Jesus to ask which commandment was the most important. Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)
32The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
34Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Why would a teacher of religious law ask Jesus that question? If it were so clear and so simple wouldn’t he have not only known it, but also have taught it to hundreds of people? He asked Jesus the question because by the time Jesus began his earthly ministry, the religious hierarchy had so convoluted worship and faith in God that no one, including the religious teachers knew which rules were important and which were superfluous, manmade regulations.
Instead of watching Jesus and learning his methods of teaching and ministering, the Pharisees skulked around on the fringes waiting for opportunities to catch Jesus in violation of one of their manmade regulations. Jesus was interested in obeying His Father’s instructions and commands. The religious folks were interested in obeying their habits, not listening to God.
The great preacher and author Charles Spurgeon once wrote: I have found, in my own spiritual life, that the more rules I lay down for myself, the more sins I commit. The habit of regular morning and evening prayer is one which is indispensable to a believer's life, but the prescribing of the length of prayer, and the constrained remembrance of so many persons and subjects, may gender unto bondage, and strangle prayer rather than assist it.
In contrast to the two commands of Christ, the Pharisees had developed a system of 613 laws, 365 negative commands and 248 positive laws...By the time Christ came it had produced a heartless, cold, and arrogant brand of righteousness. As such, it contained at least ten tragic flaws.
(1) New laws continually need to be invented for new situations.
(2) Accountability to God is replaced by accountability to men.
(3) It reduces a person's ability to personally discern.-- Not listening to Holy Spirit, just listening to men.
(4) It creates a judgmental spirit.
(5) The Pharisees confused personal preferences with divine law.
(6) It produces inconsistencies.
(7) It created a false standard of righteousness.
(8) It became a burden to the Jews.
(9) It was strictly external.
(10) It was rejected by Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote to his young apprentice Timothy warning him about people who reject true faith for rules and regulations.
They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! (2 Timothy 3:5)
There it is. When we allow our faith to be reduced to a set of rules and regulations instead of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we reject the power for living godly lives. When we begin following old habits over following him, we are in need of healing.
Jesus heal us of obeying habits rather than Him.
III. Jesus Heals Us of Worshipping Systems Instead of The Savior (5, 6)
He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
His heart was saddened.
“We see it graphically in Mark 3. The Son of God walked into their lives and they tried to kill Him. He tried to teach them love and they would not listen. They had their ways, they had their systems, and Jesus was upsetting their applecart. So they plotted against Him.”
Pastor Jim Moore tells a story which took place while he was serving FUMC in Shreveport, LA. He writes: “Sunday morning during Sunday School, a ninth-grader turned on the fire alarm. Bells began ringing loudly and in just a few moments, three fire trucks with sirens blaring were there to answer the false alarm. When we asked the ninth-grader why he turned on the fire alarm, he said, “I didn't think it would work!””
Isn't that what we say to God? On page after page of the Scriptures, God urges us to love Him with heart, soul mind and strength, to put love first, to have good will toward all people, to pray for others, to help others, to care for others, to serve others.
“I didn’t think it would work.” We think that about our faith and its claims from time to time, don’t we? And, to be honest with each other we’ve all been through trying times or had friends and family members go through difficult seasons when we thought God had abandoned us. We’ve all prayed for certain people to be healed and healing not take place. We’ve all asked God for this favor or that blessing only to have our desires crushed by life’s realities. We’ve all been disappointed with God at some point in our lives.
But here’s the deal…do you really want to worship and serve a God whom you think doesn’t work? Do you want to have a faith devoid of the miraculous or stripped of power because we either can’t understand it or explain it? If that’s our choice we wind up serving systems instead of the Savior.
Here’s what I mean: you can’t separate the Jesus of history from the Jesus of 21st century scientific understanding. Either Jesus is who he says he is or he’s not. He either still brings healing and wholeness or he doesn’t. And my question is: wouldn’t we rather err on the side of a faith filled with compassion and grace in which we just don’t have all the answers than on the side of a faith with all the answers that has degenerated into a cold, empty orthodoxy?
Methodism’s founding father John Wesley once wrote: “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” Funny, today we are concerned that Methodism should cease to exist. Perhaps we should return to the doctrine, spirit and discipline that once made Momma Methodism great.
God spoke to the Prophet Isaiah about a people who had fallen into rote performance of religion in place of relishing a palpable relationship with God.
And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. (Isaiah 29:13)
CONCLUSION
In his sermon to the graduates of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, theologian Paul Tillich preached on the theme of healing, casting out demons, and leading people to faith. He told the graduating seminarians that they would experience difficulties as they went to their new parishes with this message of healing, casting out demons, and repentance. Why would there be difficulties? Many people say that they do not need to be healed; many laugh at the absurdity of casting out demons that rule their lives; and many reject the idea of their need to trust in Christ for salvation. "Therefore," Tillich said, "the first task of the minister is to make people aware of their predicament."
Hopefully, that’s what I’m accomplishing with this sermon series. I hope to help us see our predicament and open ourselves to the possibility that we all need to be healed of something at some time or another.
1. http://www.esermons.com/theResultsPage.asp?firstLogin=
2. http://www.lovejesushatechurch.com/
3. Charles Spurgeon, in Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 235.
4. Outlined from Fan The Flame, J. Stowell, Moody, 1986, p. 52.
5. http://www.esermons.com/theResultsPage.asp?firstLogin=
