Grace For Your Day February 11

In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, William Barclay writes:

The things that Jesus did in the early verses of Mark 1:21-28 could not be concealed for too long in the small province of Galilee. The emergence of so great a new power and authority was not something which could be kept secret. So, by the time you come to verses 29-39, the crowds had begun to besiege Him seeking His healing touch.

They waited until evening came because the law forbad the carrying of any burden through a town on the Sabbath day. To have carried such a burden would have been to work and work was forbidden. They had no clocks or watches in those days … and the law was that the Sabbath was ended and the day had finished when three stars came out in the sky. So the people of Capernaum waited until the sun had set and the stars were out and then they came, carrying their sick, to Jesus; and He healed them. We have already seen Jesus healing someone. Once, He healed in the synagogue but now He will do it in Simon and Andrew’s house and out in the street because Jesus helped anyone who needed it.

The people flocked to Jesus because they recognized in Him someone who could do things. There were plenty who could talk and expound and lecture and preach; but here was one who dealt not in words but in actions. Jesus could, and did, produce results… But there is the beginning of tragedy here.

The crowds came, but many of them did so merely because they wanted something out of Jesus. They did not come because they loved Him; they did not come because they had caught a glimpse of some new vision; in the last analysis they wanted to use Him. That is what nearly everyone wants to do with God and the Son of God. For every one prayer that goes up to God for God’s sake ten thousand go up for selfish reasons.

Many a man who has never prayed when the sun was shining on life begins to pray when cold winds come merely so that they can make it stop. … Religion to him is a crisis affair. It is only when he has got life into a mess, when life deals him some kind of knock-out blow that he begins to remember God.

It must always remain true that we must all go to Jesus for He alone can give us the things we need for life; but if that going does not spring from a true, saving faith there is something tragically wrong. Jesus is not someone to be used in the days of misfortune only. He is someone to be loved and remembered every day for the rest of our lives.

The reason I mention that is because this week we are talking about “The Healing Power of Jesus” since that is how Jesus continues His ministry in the Gospel of Mark. He begins by preaching in Verses 14-15 and now He heals people in Verses 29-45. According to Mark, He will heal Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in verses 29-31 and all those who were ill and demon-possessed in Capernaum in verses 32-34. Then He will cast out demons “throughout all Galilee” in verse 39 and heal a leper in verses 40-45.

In fact, Jesus will heal so many people that verse 35 says “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left he house, and went away to a secluded place” in order to pray because He was so busy that He could not find the time to do it otherwise. The crowds would not leave Him alone which makes you wonder: Why? What made Jesus so compassionate?

He did it because that is the heart of God. Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” which means that God is not calloused to the suffering of this world. He does not forget the sick and dying and that is why Jesus spent much of His ministry with them. He could not help it which is what we are going to study this Sunday morning at Grace Fellowship Church.

If you would to learn more about that, the service will begin at 9:30 and the sermon will be recorded and placed on our You Tube Channel afterwards for all those who cannot make it in person.

- Jeremy Cagle