5th Sunday after Epiphany: Date: February 4, 2018
– THE SERMON: Mark 1:29-39
Theme: Jesus’ Healing Ministry Reveals Jesus Is Powerful to Save.
I. To Deliver Us from Physical Maladies
II. To Save us from the Devil’s Power
III. To Save Us from Our Sin
( Pastor Theodore Barthels )
Bulletin: Read Bulletin
Sermon: Read Sermon
THE ORDER OF SERVICE: p. 5 (38:1-3)
HYMNS: 364; 134; 53; 644
THE EPISTLE LESSON: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Paul found meaning and purpose in life in preaching the gospel. It was not a matter of choice. He was a servant of Christ. It was his duty; he could do nothing else. To that end he endeavored to
THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Job 7:1-7
In his sufferings Job feels the fleeting futility of life. He looks forward only to deliverance from the toil of life with its tribulation.. Our help and our deliverance is found only with the Lord, for our lives have no more substance than a breath. Job was brought down by grief and pain almost to the point of despair, that he thought, “My eye will never again see good.” (v.7) But the Lord knew better
Sermon
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
2100 16th Street SW
Austin, MN 55912-1749
Pastor Ted Barthels
Sermon preached on
February 4, 2018
5th Sunday after Epiphany
Scripture Lessons: Job 7:1-7, 1 Corinthians9:16-23
Hymns: ^364; 134; 53; 644 (38:1-3)
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Text: Mark 1:29-39
29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.
32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.
35 Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons. (NKJV)
This is the Word of God.
Sanctify us, oh Lord, through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
In Christ Jesus, God our Savior, dear fellow Redeemed:
INTRO: “I’m tired.”
When I get home from church on Sunday’s those are often the first words out of mouth. “I’m tired.” I know it doesn’t seem like I’m doing much even on a Sunday morning, but it takes a lot of energy to preach and teach and meet and greet, and by the time noon on Sunday rolls around I’m thinking about myself and how tired I am. I ready for a good lunch and my recliner and a little nap. My thoughts get pretty selfish as soon as everybody else has left church. Those Sundays when I have a full schedule that takes me into late afternoon or evening really become a task.
Why am I bringing this up in the opening of our sermon this Sunday morning? Because our text is all about Jesus’ schedule on a particular Sabbath day. He had gotten up and gone to the synagogue with His disciples, Peter and Andrew and James and John. He opened the Scriptures and taught the assembly that morning. Of course He taught them well. He taught them as one having authority. The authority of Jesus was made quite evident that morning for there was a man there that was suffering from demon possession, and Jesus exercised His divine authority over that demon. The people marveled at His authority as they rightly should. It was absolute confirmation that Jesus was, (and is) the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.
However that was not the end of the day, (you know that point where I as telling you I would have become quite self-focused and telling others how tired I am). No, that was just the beginning of Jesus’ day. Everybody at synagogue that morning took off to their respective parts of town and told everybody what they had witnessed at synagogue that morning. Meanwhile Jesus went home with Simon and Andrew, their friends James and John going along as well. What became evident in the remainder of that day was not only how tireless Jesus was in ministering to others but more wondrously than that, how —
THEME: Jesus’ Healing Ministry Reveals His Power to Save.
We see Jesus’ power–
I. To Deliver Us from Physical Maladies.
Our text reports that as soon as they arrived at Simon Peter’s house they were confronted with one of those situations in life. Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. “So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.” (v.31) Jesus’ response was immediate. Right away they turned to the Lord, and right away the Lord responded. He took her by the hand and lifted her up and she was well. She was completely well, not just feeling a bit better, but well enough that she immediately got busy in the kitchen serving them.
That was only the beginning of a long line of people that was appear at Simon Peter’s door. As soon as it was evening, and the Sabbath was officially over, people came streaming to their door bringing their sick that Jesus might heal them. Our text reports, “The whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases.” (Mark 1:33-34) There was a confidence in the people that they could find the help they needed and desired in Jesus, and they knew where to find Him. Jesus did not turn them away. He healed many with a variety of diseases.
This seems a little academic for us I’m afraid. Really, I am afraid that this becomes academic for us. It’s Sunday school. We get kind of jaded by knowing the lessons of Jesus’ miracles. Jesus healed people and that teaches us that Jesus is the Son of God our Savior, and then we might yawn. God forbid! This is important for us to take to heart. Jesus is powerful to save! When we are afflicted we can turn to Him for deliverance and relief. Jesus is powerful to save. He can and does hear our cry. He hears our prayers. He cares. He cares! He is not self-centered because He is tired. He is not bothered. He cares and invites us to call upon His name, to call upon Him in every trouble. We read in Psalm 34:
Psalm 34:6-8 “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
Jesus is the Angel of the Lord. He does surround us with His love and His abiding presence He cares for us and hears us and delivers us out of all our troubles. That isn’t academic. It is very real, and while it shows the depth of His love and concern for us, it also shows His power to save. Yes, it isn’t just Bible story time. This is the gospel truth. Jesus’ power is real. How He chooses to deliver is always gracious, though not always as we imagine or would spell out for Him.
Remember the sufferings of this present time are here because this world has been corrupted by sin, sin brought on by the temptation of the devil. The devil still strives to tempt us to sin, to unnecessarily complicate our lives, to bring bitterness into families, to alienate us from our Lord and to torment consciences to the point of despair. The devil would bring us to eternal ruination by any means. What our text teaches us is that Jesus is powerful —
II. To Save us from the Devil’s Power.
Again we read verse 34 of our text:
Mark 1:34 “He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.”
Well, in our modern day and age we are even more likely to discount the power and reality of the devil than we are of Jesus. After all, isn’t demon possession the stuff of horror movies? That doesn’t mean it can’t happen. It probably does where and when it serves the devil’s purposes. And remember that the devil doesn’t always use physical possession to gain his ends, and neither does he have to make possession scary to obtain his ends. The devil can appear as an angel of light to deceive and destroy. His end and goal is to undermine the faith of the child of God. If the devil can do that by scaring us, then he will endeavor to scare us. It may be that he will find it more effective to deceive us into trusting something other the Lord, even superstitions and soothsaying and Spiritism, all of which receive kinder treatment in America than does reliance upon the truth of God’s Word and trusting Jesus’ power to save. His easiest tool among us is to ensnare us in the sins of the lusts and desires of the flesh. Sexual immorality and covetousness run rampant among Americans, including American Christians. It serves the devil’s ends quite well, and we seem powerless against him.
Remember the devil would try to lead us to believe that God does not deal with us fairly or in love, but that the Lord is trying to deprive us of what we want or need, just because He can, or chooses to do so. The devil and his minions (and they are legion) have you under continual surveillance. The devil is a master of human nature. He knows how to deceive. He knows how to play the world, and how to use our weaknesses against us. He probes to find that chink in our armor where he can get through with temptation and then guilt, and then the despair of unbelief.
Peter experienced this first hand when he thought he could stand up against the devil on his own, even though Jesus had warned him that the Satan desired to sift him as wheat. Peter warns us;
1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
The Apostle Paul also exhorts us in –
Ephesians 6:10-12 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
This is where the lesson we learn from our text comes into the picture. While we are not powerful against the devil Jesus is. Jesus is powerful to save. When the devil would toy with us and seek to destroy our faith we have Jesus standing by our side as our Champion, our Defender. We dare not minimize the danger of the sin that Satan would bring into our lives, but wholly lean of Jesus’ name. John wrote for our instruction in his first epistle.
1 John 3:8 “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Yes, Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devil. In Jesus we are victorious. The devil has no power over us. This is true because Jesus is powerful —
III. To Save Us from Sin.
One of the lessons concerning Jesus that should always be front and center in our thoughts is captured by Jesus’ words to His mother when he was but a 12 year old boy, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)
Our text reveals exactly how mission minded Jesus was.
Mark 1:35-39 “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.”
Without doubt Jesus had had a long day, and yet He was up early, before daylight, so that He could give Himself to prayer without being disturbed. He was about His Father’s business. “Christ Jesus came into the word the save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Yes, Jesus is powerful to save from sicknesses. Yes, Jesus is powerful to save from the demons. All that means little or nothing without the fact that Jesus is powerful to save from sin. He came into the world to give His life as that sacrifice for sin that would undermine the devil once and for all, and pay God the ransom we owe for our sins. He came and shed His holy precious blood as the propitiation for our sin, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2). There was nothing more important to Jesus than to bring this message of the gospel, this message of God’s love and forgiveness to sinners. That was His life’s work. That was the goal of His ministry. So He went about throughout all of Galilee and later Judea, and yes through the farthest regions of Sidon and Decapolis, preaching to Jews and Gentiles the saving good news of God’s love and forgiveness that is secured for us by Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus can free us from our sins. And so He has. And so we are the recipients of His grace and power.
Jesus’ Healing Ministry Reveals for us in unequivocal terms that Jesus Is Powerful to Save!
AMEN.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen. (Romans15:13)