Enjoying God (Mark 1:35-45)

We're in Mark chapter 1.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Last week in chapter 1.

And then we'll finally move on to chapter 2.

But we're going to be in verses 35 through 45 here today.

If you need a Bible, we have the handout Bibles.

We're going to be reading out of the CSB here this morning.

And if you have one of those, we'll be on page 902.

So grab one of those and I'll wait till you get there.

And before we even start the reading this morning, there's a question that I want to pose to everybody to just start thinking about, because it's something that we're going to be jumping into throughout this text this morning.

But do you enjoy God?

Just think about that.

And then just hang on to that answer.

Or maybe the non-answer or the debate you're having in your head right now.

And then that's something that I want to address and that we're going to be looking a little bit more into as we see how Jesus enjoyed God.

So let's stand for the reading of God's Word.

Mark chapter 1, starting in verses 35, and we'll go through 45.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

So it's very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place, and there he was praying.

Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him, they said, Everyone's looking for you.

And he said to them, Let's go on to the neighboring villages, so that I may preach thereto.

This is why I have come.

He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons.

Then a man with leprosy came to him, and on his knees begged him, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him.

I am willing, he told him, Be made clean.

Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Then he sternly warned him and said to him, Away at once, telling him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.

Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for each person that you brought here today.

Lord, I pray that we would approach you with open hearts and open minds and open ears to the things that you want to speak specifically to each one of us, Lord, and that this wouldn't just become head knowledge, Lord, but that it would be heart knowledge and things that we can apply to our own life, things that we can use to help sharpen others as well.

Lord, I pray that you would help me to rightly divide your word here this morning, that you would be glorified above all else.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So last week we saw Jesus ministering in Galilee when Ben was teaching.

He did a phenomenal job with that.

And Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, and everybody is amazed at the authority of which he's teaching.

And we see Jesus casting out demons, healing many that were sick, that had various diseases, including Peter's mother-in-law.

And then today we're going to see what Jesus does after that extremely busy day of ministry.

And we're going to see him heal a man that's in dire need of help.

So we're just going to pick up right there in verse 35.

It says, Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place, and there he was praying.

So what did we see Jesus doing right before this?

An extremely busy day of ministry.

That sounds like a good opportunity to sleep in, doesn't it?

Could you imagine Jesus saying that?

Hey disciples, that was a tough day.

That was a long day.

Let's just sleep in.

We'll go out to a late brunch, maybe afterwards.

But that's not Jesus.

We see Jesus rising very early.

And some of the Bibles you're holding might even say long before daylight to pray after a long, exhausting day of ministry.

Jesus realized that his strength didn't come from sleep, it came from spending time with God.

Spurgeon puts it this way: he said, Look no man in the face till thou hast seen the face of God.

Speak thou with none till thou hast had speech with the Most High.

Meaning, just like Jesus, our day needs to start with God.

You'll remember from the message that we did two weeks ago, Jesus stayed up all night praying before he chose his twelve disciples.

That's an incredible discipline to have, to be able to stay up all night and to pray.

And I want you to remember that he's fully God, but he's also fully man.

So he experienced exhaustion just like we do.

He needed to recharge his batteries just like we do.

Yes, he slept and yes, he needed sleep, but he didn't rely on that alone.

He needed and he craved time with the father.

So much so that he would lose sleep just to be with him.

When Michelle and I started dating in college, we had a midnight curfew because we're told nothing good happens when you're dating after midnight.

And so we thought, okay, that's gonna be our curfew.

We're gonna say, you know, we wanted to do things right, you know, before the Lord.

But we so badly wanted to hang out with each other and not have to say goodnight that we hit that curfew, I'm pretty sure, every night of college that we were dating.

And I had a lot of 7 a.m.

classes when uh the days that I was working, I had to be up at 6 a.m.

But man, I wanted to spend time with her so bad that I could easily miss a few hours of sleep to do so.

I think when you're in love, sleep's optional.

And God desires that level of intimacy with each one of us, where we can miss a few hours of sleep to pray or to spend time in his word because we want to.

Not because we think we should.

Could you imagine if I told Michelle that?

Well, I'll stay up, you know, to our curfew because I think we should.

Or, you know, guilt and obligation are telling me that we need to hang out a little bit longer.

That's not how it works, right?

This isn't an encouragement to us to try harder.

This is an encouragement to us to enjoy God.

To enjoy him.

And I think for some of us, this is such a foreign concept.

We know that he loves us, we know that he desires us, but enjoying him can seem so foreign.

The Westminster Abbey, or not the West the Westminster Assembly at the Westminster Abbey, gathered in the 1640s, 120 years after Martin Luther's Reformation.

They gathered 121 ministers together because they felt like the Church of England was still holding on to too many of the traditions of the Catholic Church.

So they gathered this 121 ministers together to answer 107 theological questions just based off of scripture, not off of the traditions that they had learned.

The first question that they were tasked to address was this What is the chief end of man?

The purpose of our existence, the meaning of life.

Why are we here?

That was the first question.

What is the chief end of man?

And they poured over scripture and they narrowed it down to this the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

I'm gonna read that again.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And I think for a lot of us, the first part really makes sense.

You know, yeah, glorify God, of course, that's why we're here.

But enjoy him forever.

For us, I think sometimes that's the hardest part of that sentence.

To enjoy him.

And if that is hard for us, I think the only explanation is that we might not have the right view of God if we're not fully enjoying him.

So often I think we see him as a taskmaster with his arms crossed, you know, you haven't done enough today, or you've failed too many times today.

And I really think that we need to correct our view of God before we can truly enjoy him and all that he is.

In our mind's eye, a view of God that is well pleased with us, that's smiling on us, that's singing over us, that sees us as precious sons and daughters, that he delights in.

That's the view of God we should have.

The view of God that paints sunsets just to wow us, that makes food taste so good, just to see the pleasure on our faces.

You ever think about that?

He didn't have to give us taste buds.

Food could have just been a chore, like I need this to survive.

But no, he's like, no, I want them to create the things that I'm I want them to enjoy the things that I've created for them.

This week, as I was prepping for the message, I put a survey out on Facebook just to get some ideas of how different people enjoy God.

And so I just asked the simple question what helps you enjoy or appreciate God?

And I was blown away at the response.

Uh, and I want to read you some of the things that people responded with.

This is these are the things that help people become in awe of God or enjoy him or appreciate him more.

Somebody said fingerprints, just you know, the uniqueness of our fingerprints, sunsets and sunrises, rainbows, old couples holding hands, peaceful lakes.

Many said kids are babies laughing.

That was a common one that I saw many times.

Intricacies of flowers when you just sit and study them, really good music, thunderstorms, which birds chirping, clear starry skies, snow-capped mountains.

Someone said even hard times because it brings a sense of appreciation that God is so near.

Changing colors in the fall, a good meal and a long talk with a friend, gardening, sweet fellowship, the smell of hot coffee.

I can say amen to that one.

The next one was actually my favorite.

Ribbeye steak.

To me, I mean answered prayer, worship, peace that only God can give, children, ocean waves crashing, puppy kisses, or the smell of fresh baked cookies.

These are all things that God gave us to enjoy.

And not only enjoy the things, but enjoy the one that created those things.

He wants us to see and enjoy him in those moments as we are loving and appreciating and enjoying the things that he's created.

We see here that Jesus wanted to hang out and enjoy God.

He didn't see it as a chore.

So I want to challenge all of us that the next time we don't feel like hanging out with God, that we'd ask ourselves why.

And I think the answer is always gonna be that we don't have a clear picture of who God is in that moment.

And regardless of our view of God, I think we need to expand our view of how we hang out with God, how we appreciate Him and how we enjoy Him.

You know, I'm always gonna steer you to His word and to prayer.

You can never go wrong with that.

But maybe we need to do that on a walk from time to time instead of in our cozy bed, you know, in the morning.

Or maybe we need to start listening to audio scripture, you know, while we're doing something else during the day.

So I just wanted to encourage us all to get creative in the things that we enjoy God in, because sometimes we can enter into a period of our relationship with God just becoming stale.

And it a lot of times it's because we've just kind of gotten stuck in a rut or in a routine.

But just like any relationship, sometimes I think we need to mix things up a little bit in the way that we're enjoying God and the way that we're consuming scripture, the time and place that we're we're setting aside to pray with him.

So I just want to encourage all of us, let's get creative in our relationship with God because there's so much to enjoy that if we're not enjoying him, that's our own fault.

So the point is, Jesus enjoyed his time with God, and that's why he was found with God so early in the morning in our setting here.

Let's pick up in verse 36.

So Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him, they said, Everyone is looking for you.

And he said to them, Let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach thereto.

This is why I have come.

Now, as Ben mentioned last week, he wasn't trying to get famous.

That wasn't Jesus' goal.

He wasn't trying to get famous.

If you tell somebody that's trying to get famous, hey, there's a bunch of people that want to admire your abilities and want to hear and hang on every word that you say, that person's gonna run to that crowd, right?

So they come to him and they tell them that, and Jesus says, Oh, they're over there?

Okay, let's go this way.

Let's go over to the neighboring towns and villages.

And then at the end of verse 38, he says something that's very important.

He says, This is why I have come to preach.

The miracles are not why Jesus came, it was to preach.

The miracles backed up the preaching.

If anyone ever had a doubt, you know, of you know, can we believe this radical teaching of this new guy, Jesus, that just came onto the scene?

They would say, oh wow, the blind are healed, the demons are exercised, the withered hand is made whole.

Oh, he has the authority of God.

We better believe every word that he's telling us.

So Jesus came to preach the good news that he is the Messiah, that God's kingdom is here, and that he's making another way for each one of us.

So he took that message, and we see in verse 39 it says, He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

So, Galilee, if you remember from our geography lesson a couple weeks ago, it's the very northern region of Israel.

Uh Galilee, we had uh Samaria and then Judea.

And Galilee up in the very north is the blue-collar region of Israel at this time.

And what Jesus is doing, he's going into their formal settings, into their synagogue, and he's preaching the good news of God.

And I want us to note that in these five verses that we've looked at so far, you'll see, and you'll see this actually throughout all the gospels, Jesus is teaching and praying.

He's teaching and praying.

And this also happens to be two things that pastors are to play place their priorities and their focus on as well.

We see it in Acts 6.4 when the servants were appointed to serve the widows, and we see the appointment of Stephen.

They were appointed to serve so that the apostles could focus on prayer and on the ministry of God's word.

To be found doing what we see Jesus doing.

And it's my desire to be found doing the same thing as your pastor here of this church.

And I want to pray for you, and I want to pray for specific things for you.

You know, I really enjoy it when somebody comes up after service and they ask for prayer, like right there at the moment.

Or they shoot me an email or a text and say, hey, can you be praying for this?

I have a job interview, I have a surgery, I have a doctor's appointment, whatever it might be.

I really enjoy knowing the specifics of how to pray for each one of you.

So please let me know how to pray for you.

My desire and the elders' desire of this church is that this would be the best tended flock anywhere.

But it's impossible to pastor or to shepherd if you don't know your sheep.

And if we don't know their needs, then it's gonna be impossible to pastor and to be elders of this church.

So please let us in, let us know how to be praying for you.

Shoot us emails, texts, the prayer requests, all those that come to us, that you know, as Pete was saying, through the email, through the prayer cards, whatever it might be.

But really, we really want to be a praying church that's really caring for one another.

Let's pick up in verse 40.

It says then a man with leprosy came to him and on his knees begged him, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

So, first off, what do we notice about this guy?

Just in this one verse.

He has a nasty disease.

This is a skin disease where stuff just starts dying and falling off of you.

It's a slow and painful death.

We also notice that he's willing to do anything.

And you can tell that through his posture.

He's on his knees begging.

We also notice that he has incredible faith.

There's no doubt he knows that Jesus can do it if Jesus is willing.

And the last thing that we notice, he's desperate.

And you kind of get the impression from this guy that he's probably tried everything that he can to get rid of this disease.

And in Jesus, he finally finds hope.

Think about it.

I wonder the last time that this guy actually felt hope.

So, verse 41, we see Jesus' response.

He says, Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him.

I am willing, he told him, be made clean.

Jesus was moved with compassion.

That's the God that we serve.

In Luke's gospel, it says that this man was full of leprosy, meaning he was in the advanced stages of being a leper before right before death.

He's probably missing fingers and toes.

In the advanced stages, people would actually lose their nose.

It'd just kind of rot and fall off.

Not to mention the stench of rotting flesh that's probably coming from this guy.

Not only was this a slow and painful death sentence, the most painful part might be that the lepers were outcasts, that they were living outside of the city all alone.

We see in Leviticus 13, 45 a little bit of a description of the life of a leper, really.

Says this.

It says, the person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his closed horn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, unclean, unclean.

He will remain unclean as long as he has the disease.

He is unclean.

He must live alone in a place outside of the camp.

So put yourself into his shoes for a second.

You get a rash, you get checked out by the priest, you're deemed unclean, and then you're told that you need to live like in California Valley or something like that, you know?

Just way out in the middle of nowhere, all alone.

And if anybody comes near you, you have to shout out, unclean! Unclean! I encourage you after church, go down to like Lake Park where all the kids are playing, rip your clothes a little bit, mess up your hair, and start yelling, unclean! Unclean! Yeah, I could just see you.

Officer, really, my pastor told me I was supposed to do this now.

But think of the humiliation of that.

To to be stuck in that plight and to have to yell at when whenever human contact was coming towards you, just tell him, I'm unclean, you cannot approach me, I am unclean.

And here's Jesus willing to touch the untouchable.

As this guy is in the advanced stages of leprosy, he's been this way a while.

As David Guzig mentions in his commentary, can you imagine the last time that this guy felt a loving touch from anybody?

And think about Jesus' options here.

We see him healing in a lot of different ways.

But he could have said, you know what, just go wash in that pool over there and you'll be fine.

Or, you know what, just touch the hem of my garment, but not my skin.

He could have just said, hey, I'm you're healed.

My words are enough.

Just you know, go, you're healed.

But he chose a loving touch.

Which, according to the law, would have made Jesus unclean.

But it's the opposite.

Jesus' touch makes him clean.

I think this is symbolic of the reversal of the law.

Old covenant, new covenant.

The law says, you touch Jesus, therefore Jesus is unclean.

But grace says, no, no, no.

Jesus will touch you, and he will make you clean.

I like option two much better, don't you?

Verse 42.

Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Then he sternly warned him and sent him away at once, telling him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them.

So this guy's worst case scenario was just made into his best case scenario.

What had been killing him and torturing him turned into his biggest praise after he got healed.

And we're going to see that in the next verses.

But Jesus says, Go and show the priests as a testimony to them.

So go show the priest that this incurable disease has been cured as a testimony of God's power.

And this always baffled me growing up when Jesus would say, Don't tell anyone what just happened.

I never fully understood that.

Or don't tell anybody that you know that I'm the Messiah.

Again, not trying to get famous.

He's not trying to build a following.

But he's serving and he's showing compassion to an outcast from society.

Jesus was trying to keep those looking for entertainment away so that he could minister to the ones that needed it the most.

And as we'll see in chapter 2, Jesus says, those that are well don't need a doctor, but it's those that are sick that do.

He came to rub elbows, not with emperors, but with the sick and the weak and the poor and the sinners.

Jesus is selflessly giving of himself to those that could offer him nothing in return.

And I hope, honestly, to have a church full of those people someday.

Just like the people that Jesus came to minister to.

That people would flock to this place that can give us nothing in return, and we could just pour out the love of Jesus Christ on each one of those persons.

And as we talked about the first Sunday that we opened, Mark, this is a plot-thickening verse that we see here, these last three verses.

Remember, we talked about Mark being written to be told in an evening, or to actually be acted out in an evening.

In verse 42, we see the word immediately again.

That's we see that all the way throughout Mark.

There's that sense of urgency.

And then we see again the don't tell anyone about this.

These are all plot-thickening things that kind of pull you into the story of what's going on.

And the guy disobeys.

Exactly what Jesus tells him right here in verse 45.

So look at verse 45 with me.

It says, Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly.

But he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere.

And here it is, right here.

And the result of Jesus' fame was spreading.

Jesus could no longer enter into a town openly.

These people were coming from everywhere.

So the word is out about this guy.

But we have to ask about all these people that are coming in.

We have to ask the question how many were coming for a show?

Just so they could experience a miracle and then go back and tell their friends, I was there for that, you know.

How many were coming for a military or a political leader?

You know, because that's what a lot of people back then thought the Messiah was coming for.

How many were coming to be healed and had nothing to offer, just like this leper here?

And how many were coming for a savior?

You know, I think those same questions have to be asked by every church as well.

And I want you to notice that the more people that are there for the wrong reason, the less accessible Jesus becomes.

It's one of my favorite stories in the New Testament.

And I'm not just trying to get you here next week.

But I just I love that story that we're going to go through next week.

You see, we worship a humble servant in Jesus Christ that doesn't make us get all cleaned up and healed up before he'll even look at us.

He's a God that reaches out while we're filthy and while we're diseased, and he gives us a loving touch and says, be cleansed.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus wants to extend that healing touch, to cleanse our filth, to forgive us of our sins and our shortcomings, of our rebellion, and to make us whole again.

To offer us a relationship with him.

Through the work of Jesus on the cross and raising from the grave, Jesus is now offering us unhindered access to God, to enjoy him, to enjoy him forever.

So I want to go back to that question at the very beginning.

Are we enjoying God?

Do we need a tweak in the way that we think about God, in our mind's eye of what we think of God?

Do we see him as that loving Father, or do we see him as the task master that's crossing his arms, looking at us, you know, through one eye?

Or maybe enjoying God is a foreign concept to you, and you've never asked Jesus to extend that healing touch.

My question for you is what are you waiting for?

We have the God of the universe, so loving in every way, that wants to extend that healing touch to us, just like he did for the leper before our sins, to wash us and to make us clean in the sight of God, so that we can boldly come into the presence of God and enjoy him.

And if that's you, then you've never made that decision, I would love to pray with you afterwards.

It's just as simple as saying, Jesus, come and be Lord of my life.

Come and cleanse me and wash me and make me whole into the person that you made me to be.

Let's pray.

Lord, I pray that we would be a people that is found enjoying you, enjoying your word, enjoying prayer, enjoying each other, enjoying singing these songs together.

Lord, and I pray that that would just project out of us.

Lord, help us to think of you in the right way.

And when we think of the task, Master, to know that that's not real, that when we've been saved through Jesus Christ, that we are made whole, that we are your sons and your daughters, we are a new creation.

And we thank you so much for offering that free gift of salvation to each one of us.

We pray for that cleansing touch of Jesus.

We thank you that you love us so much, that you offer that loving affection and that loving touch to each one of us.

Lord, help us to enjoy you this week like we never have before.

That we would look for opportunities to enjoy you.

Lord, that our relationship with you would stay fresh and that we would find ways to enjoy your word and to enjoy prayer and fellowship and whatever it might be.

God, you are so good and it is such a pleasure to be called your sons and your daughters.

We love you so much.

In Jesus' name.