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Mark 1:31-45 Lesson 3
SUCCESS OR OBEDIENCE
I. Greetings:
The first chapter of Mark presented the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and therefore His “career”. Jesus is Almighty God but also a human being. Therefore, there was a presentation of Him facing what many of us have to face in our lives as human beings. For example, we have to face the pressure of meeting expectations and so did Jesus.
II. Introduction:
Q How many of you want to be in a leadership position, let me see your hands?
Q How many of you want to be full time in ministry?
Q How many of you want to serve God in a significant way but do it as a lay-person?
Note: Many of you are like me in that I was brought to Christ primarily by the personal witness and life of a lay person. I was also taught that it is good to desire a position in God’s church. Both desires are legitimate according to Scripture.
Q Why do many want a position in the church, if they were honest?
An = Many times it is because along with the position comes prestige, there is honor with being in a high position. There is prestige in being the starting pitcher for a World Series Game, but with the prestige comes something else, expectations. There is prestige in being the head of a business but with the perks there comes the pressure to produce. There is enormous pressure to succeed.
Q Would you think ministers or youth directors have the same struggle or pressure to succeed?
Q How many of you have been in charge of a ministry? Was there pressure to succeed?
III. Jesus Handles Success by Keeping His Eyes on the Goal: Mark 1:32-39.
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:32-33.
Q How many people were there?
An = The whole city was at the door.
Q What did they want?
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:34.
Q How successful was Jesus?
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:35.
Q What did He do in the height of success?
An = He went off alone to pray.
Q Why pray when you are successful?
An = It is easy to pray before we do something that puts our ego on the line, before we sing, speak, or perform in an athletic event. It is rare to pray after, especially if the effort was a success. Charles Spurgeon once said that we should pray before we preach and after or we will think that by our eloquence we bring men to God. Also, my wife once said to me when I shared with her the funny feeling I had after something went well and I was driving home. She said, “Surely you pray before you speak and ask for God’s blessing, and then pray after and give it back to Him”.
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:36-37.
Q Simon and company want to find Jesus for what reason?
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:38-39.
Q What has Jesus’ prayer time seemed to have led Him to do?
An = He is going to move.
Note: It is very easy to get side-tracked with initial success and not keep our eyes on what we are really supposed to be doing. Perhaps, there is a place in our lives when we have to move in order to accomplish our real goals.
Q What were Jesus’ reasons for moving from a successful ministry site?
An = See Mark 1:38 (in order that…I may preach….).
Q Was Jesus impressed with His own miracles? How did He get free from this?
An = See Mark 1:12-13. The other Gospels give us more information about this experience, and show us how Jesus worked through (in the difficult times in the 40 day desert experience) a lot of ego issues.
Q Is it easy to get our eyes off our real goal after we have immediate success, why?
Q Do we, as humans, have trouble leaving something or some place when we are successful? Why?
Note: Some in High School hate leaving if they were a success. Many never do leave mentally for several years. Others in college, who are comfortable with academic expectations do not really want to graduate and move on, they keep changing majors or stay in academia. Others of us will not try certain things again because we have not been successful.
Q Do we stay in some jobs for the same reason?
An = Sometimes we should stay. However, if we stay because it is secure, it needs to be what we know we are to do. If we stay just because we are comfortable, then we know we could be out of step with what God wants from us.
Note: It is easy to forget the real goal! Just as High School or college was not the real goal but a means to the goal, a dating relationship is not the end goal. We must look to the end. We have to decide what we want to end up with. We have to have, in some situations, the courage to move on, especially if we have not completed the full measure of the goal or it is not the proper goal. In ministry, the goal is obedience to the call to a task and not immediate success.
Note: There is another issue here. Jesus’ goal was not to do miracles and impress the crowd. His mission was to speak forth the will of God.
>>> Turn with me to Genesis 1 and let’s read together 1:3, 6,9,14, 20 and 24.
Q What do we learn about the Word of God in these verses?
An = It is unbelievably powerful. God created the Universe with His voice, His Word has creative power.
>>> Have someone read Isaiah 40:3-8.
Q In verse 8 what do we learn about the Word of God?
An = It is eternally powerful. Healing the body is good and should be done but eternal healing comes from the power of God’s Word.
Note: Jesus was not asking us to do anything He did not already do. He left success for obedience. He learned in the desert experience the true goal alluded to in Mark 1:12-13 (See also Matthew 4:4).
IV. Obedience not Praise: Mark 1:40-45.
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:40.
Q What did this man want?
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:41-42.
Q Was Jesus short on power?
An = He spoke and the deadly disease was gone. Molecules rearranged themselves on this leprous body at Jesus’ will. This was unbridled power.
Q What was Jesus’ motive for healing?
An = Compassion (1:41).
Q Was Jesus willing to touch the unclean?
An = He was. Many Christian workers are willing to play music or to speak and preach but do not want to touch the unlovely. They do not want to get down and dirty. Many will speak words of Scripture to an HIV patient or a cancer patient but do not want to touch them.
RQ Who are the folks in our office at work, at the shop, school, or in our family that is like this leper? Are we willing to be the “touch of God” to them?
>>> Have someone read Mark 1:43-44.
Q What was Jesus doing here? Why the command to be silent? Would not Jesus welcome positive publicity?
Q Why the command to go show himself to the priest? What was Jesus after?
An = In ancient Jewish society the priests were the guardians of public health. If someone thought they might have leprosy they would go to the priest who was trained on what to look for. If the person looked infected, they would be asked to return in seven days and if the symptoms persisted then they knew for sure what it was. If there was leprosy then the priest would pronounce them unclean and they had to remove themselves from the village, their home, their synagogue, etc. Otherwise the whole village or town could become infected. If the infected person thought the disease had cleared then they were to present themselves to the priest, if they looked free of the infection, he would still send them away and then after seven days they would be inspected again. If they were still clear of the infection then they would be pronounced clean and be able to come home, go back to work, to synagogue, etc. Jesus wanted the man to submit to God’s Word, it was given to the people for a reason. He was also after something else.
Secondly, he did not need the publicity. This man’s lack of self-control and disobedience to Jesus’ commands hampered Jesus’ ministry to others. What was seemingly an exuberant act of gratitude hurt others and Jesus Himself. The excessive press hurt Jesus’ personal access to others. Crowds thronged Him and he had to stay in the unpopulated areas (Mark 1:45). Jesus was always more spiritually effective with people He met with one-on-one. The popularity hurt things in the beginning.
Note: In verse 41 Jesus was full of compassion, but in verse 43 the words translated “sternly warned” or “strong warning” have behind them in the Greek the word “angry”.
Q Why was Jesus so stern?
Q Why was Jesus moved from compassion to angry, stern commands?
An = Jesus wanted more for the man than temporary healing. He wanted the man to be spiritually healed and therefore eternally changed. When we obey God we begin to create in ourselves something much more valuable than the tangible gifts healing can bring. Obeying the Word of God has creative power. If we obey God’s word, we choose to get the higher gift.
Q Did this man gain anything of permanent value from the healing?
Q Was Jesus more interested in physical or spiritual healing?
An = It would be cruel indeed if all we did as Christians was to heal or help people with their physical problems and not help them with their real problem. Jesus never lost sight of the real objective. He modeled for us what we should do.
Q By not obeying did the man miss the real healing?
Q Can a Christian worker or the church have their ministry get side-tracked?
An = It can let the “good” get in the way of the “best”. Compassion ministries are a natural outflow of the true Christian. If it was not present we would be very unbiblical. However, we must keep our eyes on the goal as we help those in physical need. I think God wants us to take our acts of mercy to a higher level. This is difficult to do and will not be appreciated, but if we seek His help it can be attempted.
Q If we are in the leper’s position today, what does He want us to obey or what act of discipline does He want after we have experienced His touch?
We are in great danger if we stop halfway. It is sometimes a lot easier to talk about Jesus helping us than obey Him.[:]