3/17/24 Mark 1:29-39 “Rest, Work, Rest, Work”

14 Mar 3/17/24 Mark 1:29-39 “Rest, Work, Rest, Work”

3/17/24   Mark 1:29-39       “Rest, Work, Rest, Work”

I don’t think that you would know this but I might not be the most organized person in the world.  Any time that I have taken a spiritual gifts test, I have scored really low in administration.  If you take a look at my study area, you will probably agree with this.  I also remember when I took the psychological profile test before I could become a pastor.  This was one of those tests where there were several hundred questions on two or three different tests.  Then they had a doctor interview me for quite some time.  They decided that I wouldn’t be a good candidate for a pastor because of my low scores on administration and my inability to be the boss.  Well, I’m still doing this after almost 18 years.  I told them at the time that I wasn’t the boss and that Jesus was the boss.  The person doing the interview didn’t like this answer.  It seems that I was supposed to have a worldly answer.  Anyway, I stick by that answer today.  However, I’m still not good at administration but I have learned how to get things done.  I may not show it, but I have a logical order in which I do many things.  I try to write my sermons and other things in a certain order so that they get done.  I have learned that there are certain steps to take that make this job easier.  Today, we are finally back in the New Testament.  We are going to take a look at how to make our lives easier and more productive.

I would guess that most of us are busy, actually too busy to fit much else into our schedules.  We have talked about this before and you know that I don’t think that you are too busy but that your priorities are such that you have a hard time to fit new things into your schedule.  Many have come to the point where families can’t even have a meal together.  It is to the point where our bosses expect us to have our noon lunches at our desks while we are working.  And moms, you know what busy is because you are writing the book on this.

This is what happens when we get too busy or, I like this better, when our priorities are out of whack.  We start going faster and faster.  Next thing we know we start forgetting things or leaving out important things because we are out of time.  We are going too fast.  Going too fast can have terrible consequences!  Here is a true story about a jet in the Air Force or some other military branch that released a missile on a training flight.  The pilot fired the missile.  It took off to do what it was supposed to do.  Then the pilot caught up to it and hit the missile.  The pilot was going too fast.  This is also what happens when we go too fast or don’t have our priorities right.  How many people do we know who have crashed and burned, so to speak?  It happens all the time but it doesn’t have to be that way.

We begin today with Jesus in the synagogue and please notice that Mark has the tendency to move the story right along.  The book of Mark is considered to be the first one of the Gospels written and Mark details action and authority.  I would like us to realize what Jesus had just been doing.  He had been to the synagogue to worship.  That is what people did at the synagogue.  Jesus spends a lot of His time in some form of worship.

I would like to stop here for a minute and ask ‘Why do you come to a church building or this broadcast?’  I think that you have many reasons for this and this is ok.  Here is what I mean.  I remember once that we had to have people come to church to bring furniture upstairs and then back down again.  We did this so we could have a better floor in the basement.  Therefore, we could have better worship and, in the process, we were honoring God.  I think this makes sense.

Another time, we had to climb up on the roof of a different church building to unplug a vent.  We did this so that we could improve the odor inside.  When we did this, then we could have better worship.  Just about all the things that we do in or to our church buildings have some sort of tie to having better worship.  Over the years I have read several books where they suggest ways to have better worship.  The downside to better worship is that you might grow.  The lost might end up at your door seeking refuge.  Often our church priorities are wrong.  Sometimes I just don’t understand people because there are many churches like this.

There are times when I will invite people to come and worship with us so that they may rest.  Often times the world seems to close in around us.  We get caught going too fast to the point where we just don’t know where to turn anymore.  Come and rest with us during worship.  If you don’t know Jesus, that is fine.  Come and rest.  You don’t even have to listen or anything else.  Just let the Holy Spirit give you rest.  Sometimes finances get to be really tight and they pass that plate every Sunday.  If you can’t give, don’t worry about it.  Come and rest.  Jesus might have been enjoying a good rest when He was at this particular synagogue.

He was probably resting spiritually and then He immediately goes to the house of Simon, or Peter as we know him a little better, and He heals Peter’s mother-in-law.  Let the action begin!  We don’t know if this is the Sabbath or not because we aren’t told.  If it is, then Jesus heals her on the day of rest.  If it isn’t, He goes right to work after some rest.  I would take a guess that it was the Sabbath because people from the town don’t bring their sick to Him until after sunset.  The people were trying to honor the Sabbath by not bringing work for Jesus until after sunset.  The Sabbath was from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday.  For Jesus, it doesn’t matter what day it is.  If people need help, then He helps them whether it is Sabbath or not.

I think one of the real travesties of today’s society is that we don’t honor the Sabbath.  I think people do a pretty good job in some places but our society does terrible.  We have talked about this before so you know what I mean.  God gave you a Sabbath for your own good.  It is not good for you to be working 7 days a week with no rest.  God even goes so far as to say that we are to let our land lay fallow once every 7 years.  Everything needs rest.  Begin your rest with worship here and carry it out to the rest to the world when you leave.  This isn’t a rule that we have to obey or else.  It is there for our own good.  And yes, there are places where people have to work on Sundays, like hospitals, nursing homes and maybe even gas stations because cars are so integral to all we do.  So we do need to make schedules so that these people may also rest.  Sleep isn’t the only rest you need.  You also need rest in the arms of Jesus also.  Even Jesus needed rest with God.

I knew a man once who worked all the time.  I was visiting with a mutual friend once and he told me that this man had recently worked 440 days in a row.  Then he got upset because they wouldn’t let him do this anymore.  So he fixed them.  He went out and got two part time jobs so he could work all weekend.  I think I can feel the adjectives that describe this man coming from your minds.  This man needs rest and he may not even realize it.  We all need rest.  Satan would have us working all the time if he could.

Also notice that Jesus healed all the sick and demon possessed from this whole town.  We can’t be real sure of the size of the town but I would guess that many were healed.  We have talked before about how doctors were few and far between.  Even if there was one in the area, he would be for the rich people.  But in this case Jesus heals all who come to Him.  We have noticed before how sometimes Jesus only healed a certain person, but here all are healed.

This is a case where Jesus is working with the common people.  Peter was a common man in a common neighborhood.  There are times when Jesus tries to minister to the rich and powerful but this was not one of them.  Most of the time during the ministry of Jesus, we find Him healing and helping the poor, the hurt, the needy and the sick.  Jesus was right at home with the untouchables of His time.  He is showing us that this was His main field of work and it should be ours also.

As Jesus is working here, I think there are two things going on.  First notice the demons.  We live in a country where we don’t believe in demons as a whole.  We have become so sophisticated and arrogant that we have an explanation for all our ills and these do not include demons as being a problem.  I have told you how I have been attacked by demons many times and I have cast them out.  Many of you have told me of similar experiences.  These demons don’t have a chance against Jesus.  And yet, yet we have institutions full of patients who are suffering from demons.  I have read that it could be up to 40-50% of all patients in various mental hospitals are suffering from demons.  Maybe it is time we start to think of these less fortunate people and help them get rid of their demons.  It is a much more complicated problem than I present today.  However, the solution is Jesus Christ.  It seems to me that we have an epidemic of various mental illnesses and we have the ability to cure many of them.  Jesus Christ is the answer to everything we do.

The second thing that is happening in our reading is that Jesus healed all who came.  This is very important for us.  Jesus can and will take care of all your needs.  There is nothing outside the realm of Jesus.  I would guess that there are people here today who don’t pray enough.  You don’t ask Jesus to take care of you.  Here are some prayer suggestions that you might follow.  Pray about where your crops will be planted.  Pray for the ground they are to be planted in.  Pray for the prices you set for your products.  Don’t just go to some profit and loss statement to figure it, go to Jesus.  Pray for any decisions or projects you have at work.  Pray for your children’s school, their work and their friends.  Pray that this pastor will say something that makes sense.  What I’m trying to say here is that you should pray for everything.  Don’t pick and choose what to pray for and about.  Just pray.  And when you are done, then pray some more.  Jesus Christ changes lives for the better and He does it through prayer.

The last thing I want to bring up about this passage is also the first thing I brought up.  Early the next morning Jesus leaves the house to go alone so that He can pray.  We began this reading with Jesus finishing his corporate rest as He came from the synagogue.  Then He went out and He worked by healing many people.  Finally He goes off by himself for some private rest where He could pray.

We have talked a lot about prayer and I would guess that I will talk a lot more about it in the future because it is so important.  One of the things that are almost hidden here is the rest/work cadence that Jesus uses in His ministry.  He rests, works, rests, works and on and on.  That is the cadence that we should all have.  If Jesus needed to go to prayer as often as He did, then think how much you need to also.  It is not enough to pray about your crops or projects or families just once before you begin something.  You should be in prayer about this every morning and every evening.  I would like to say from experience that if you get yourself into a time of deep prayer with Jesus, you will come away from that prayer time more rested than you have ever been before.  This is what Jesus does.  He loves to hear you and He will take care of all your needs.  That is His promise to you.

What I want you to take away from this is that you need periods of rest followed by periods of action.  This is a cycle that you are to repeat over and over.  If you see someone with an obvious sad face, ask them if you can help.  Ask them if you can pray for them.  There are thousands of things you can do in our periods of action.  Even when you get older and think there is nothing we can do, you can still pray.

And if you feel that we are too old to do something, or too crippled or too whatever or even too busy, listen to this story!   Davon Huss tells of a young widow of 84 years of age who had gotten tired of watching TV, reading books, reading the paper and going to Arizona.  She decided that she could still minister to others so here is what she did.  She took out a small ad in the local newspaper which read, “Pianist will play hymns over the phone to shut-ins.”  Within 3 days of placing the ad, she had received 300 phone calls.  She played the favorite hymns of people and she listened to those who were all alone.  She eventually ministered to over 12,000 people.  She did this because she knew she still had a little work left in her.  When people asked why she did it, she replied, “Church taught me to love hymns and to love people.”

In your periods of rest this week, ask Jesus to help you to find a ministry.  It might be as easy as playing the piano over the phone.  Whatever you and Jesus decide to do, you have the guarantee that Jesus will be with you all the way.  Just follow the simple formula of rest, work, rest, work.  Jesus loves you, this I know.  He wants to reach out to you with His big, loving arms and engulf you in love as He helps you to love your neighbor.  Go to Him at least daily.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.