Tell Jesus

TITLE: Tell Jesus

Mark 1:29-39 (NIV)

29 And immediately He [or, they] left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

The Greek word translated as "immediately" is significant in the gospel of Mark. It is used 42 times in Mark's fast-paced version of Jesus's story abruptly and moving quickly from one of Jesus's actions to another.

Jesus can be unpredictable in good ways. He specializes in surprises. He sometimes moves quickly through our lives rearranging things and bringing things back into their intended order.

In Mark, Jesus has just entered the synagogue on the Jewish day of worship, served eviction papers to a demonic spirit that was possessing a member of that synagogue, and stirred up the religious crowd who didn't understand.

He entered Simon and Andrew's house immediately. They didn't have time to clean the house as we often do when we know guests are coming.

We sometimes say things like Jesus is a gentleman and he won't impose upon us, but I am not sure that is true. Tell that to the wayward prodigal prophet Jonah. I am grateful that there have been moments in my life when Jesus insisted on coming over to my proverbial house even when things were not all tidy and neat!

In a story in the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus inviting Himself over to Zachaeus's house for dinner. "When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today" (Luke 19:5).

In the book of Revelation Jesus gives one of the greatest invitations to the church that nobody wants to admit that they are a part of, the lukewarm church at Laodicea. His invitation is, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev 3:20 KJV). Things were not tidy in the church of Laodicea and Jesus said I want to come over anyway!

Early this morning I was reminded of a song sung by the Davenports that speaks of someone's heart being like a house that Jesus enters but contains one little room that is off-limits, even to him. A small, insignificant room, an area that is not tidy or neat. Something that we are sure Jesus doesn't want to see. We may have a junk drawer, a little room, a closet, a glove compartment, or a medicine cabinet that is crammed with stuff we do not want to see, but if Jesus is going to help you fix it you've got to let Him in.

When Jesus taught about prayer in the sermon on the mount, He admonished His disciples to enter their "closet" (Matt 6:6). The word for closet can mean "a store-chamber, secret chamber, closet; a granary, barn." Luke 12:24 speaks of the way the Lord provides for the birds who have no "barns" to store their food in. This is the same Greek word. Sometimes it may not be the areas that we are ashamed of that we do not want Jesus to see, but the safe behind the picture on the wall where we hide our favorite secret sin or nurse our grudge or resentment. He wants the combination to that too! Luke 12:3 says whatever is whispered in the "closets" will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

We should make sure that we talk good about people behind their backs. I can remember one of the lessons that my wife and I learned from Mike and Leona Talley. They always talked good about people, always. There is something powerful about blessing people in secret, it will come back to you in public. Be careful.

When we pray we should enter into the areas where we usually don't take anyone and invite Jesus in.

He walks the line between chaos and order and as He walks through our lives, just as He walked through the Gospel of Mark, He has a way of bringing order to our chaos and overthrowing the old order with a little new chaos in order to progressively bring about change. God brought order to the waters of chaos in Genesis 1, but he brought chaos to the old order of Egypt when their order was oppressing the children of Israel. He is Master of both our order and our chaos!

Invite Him in! Get him there!

30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

We read the entire little seemingly insignificant story this morning, but Simon and Andrew did not have that privilege as they lived the story out. The narrator of Mark is omniscient. He often tells us what people are thinking, even what Jesus Himself is thinking, and the entire story, but the characters int eh story don't know what is going to happen until it does. All they knew was they were on a journey with Jesus (Who they had just met and didn't know very well) and He wanted to come over to their house. Someone said, "We live life forwards, but we only understand it backward." Hindsight is 20/20.