The Message of Mark #5:
The Touch of Jesus
Text: Mark 1:29-45
Thesis: To note that we must be touched by Jesus in order to be healed.
Introduction:
(1) Jesus is now fully involved in His earthly ministry.
(2) Along the way, He comes into contact with many people who needed His touch:
Discussion:
I. The Story:
A. In Mark 1:29-34, Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law and many others who were sick and demon-possessed.
1. Jesus and the disciples had just left the Sabbath service, but “instead of a delicious, hot Sabbath feast, they found a sick cook” (Hughes 1:46).
2. Therefore, “the Guest became the Host” (Wiersbe 1:113).
3. “Jesus’ extended hand was simply an expression of his genuine love and his desire to tenderly meet the woman’s need” (Hughes 1:46).
4. “The touch of Jesus brought instant healing; and the consciousness of healing brought grateful devotion to Him, expressed in the way in which she served or ‘waited at table’” (Cole 115).
5. “The item Mark wanted to stress is no doubt the miraculous healing as another illustration of Jesus’ authority” (Black 59).
6. Many other people came to Jesus to be healed.
B. In Mark 1:35-39, Jesus decided to go to Galilee to preach.
1. “Healing may therefore have been an exhausting experience to Him” (Cole 116).
2. “Late hours did not keep Jesus from His appointed meeting with His Father early the next morning” (Wiersbe 1:113).
a. Jesus habitually prayed to God.
b. “If Jesus prayed in order to live a godly life full of power, so must we” (Hughes 1:49).
3. Jesus wants to go to Galilee because “the healing heart of Jesus was not as interested in physical healing as in spiritual healing” (Hughes 1:50).
C. In Mark 1:40-45, Jesus touched and cleansed a leper.
1. This man “had not been able to feel for years, and his body was full of leprosy, mutilated from head to foot, rotten, stinking, repulsive” (Hughes 1:54).
2. “Lepers were supposed to keep their distance and warn everyone that they were coming, lest others be defiled (Lev. 13:45-56)” (Wiersbe 1:114).
3. According to Leviticus 13, leprosy is:
a. Deeper than the skin (v. 3)
b. Spreads (vv. 5-8)
c. Defiles and isolates (vv. 44-46)
d. Renders things fit only for the fire (vv. 47-59)
4. According to Josephus, lepers were treated “as if they were, in effect, dead men.
5. “This man knew that Jesus was able to heal him, but he was not sure the Master was willing to heal him” (Wiersbe 1:114).
a. “Wherever the compassionate Christ and the yearning sinner meet, there then comes instantaneous and complete cleansing” (Cole 117).
b. “Jesus touched the leper before he healed him. He touched the leper while the leper was still unclean … The miracle of the touch is that Jesus was willing to share another person’s suffering in order to bring about healing” (Ortberg 55).
6. “According to the law of Moses a leper was still unclean, in the legal sense of the term, after the leprosy had entirely departed from him. When the disease had departed he was to be examined by a priest, to see if this were a fact, and then he was to procure two birds, one of which was to be slain and its blood caught in a vessel of running water; he was to be sprinkled seven times with this bloody water; was to wash his clothes, shave off his hair, and bathe his body in water, both on that day and the seventh day thereafter; and after all this he was clean. He was then allowed to approach the altar, where certain other offerings were to be presented (see Lev. 14:1-20)” (McGarvey 272).
II. Application:
A. Jesus is able and willing to heal us.
1. He does not want anyone to be lost (2 Pet. 3:9).
2. He desires for everyone to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4).
B. Jesus died and shed His blood so that we may be healed (Matt. 26:28).
C. When His blood touches our lives, our sins are washed away and we are completely healed (Rom. 6:3-5).
Conclusion:
(1) Jesus wants to touch your live and cleanse you wholly.
(2) Have you experienced the touch of Jesus?
