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.
Notice the urgency: as soon as... at once...
immediately.
Consider the Timing: Kairos (God’s Divine
Timing).
Sunday,
in our study through Ezekiel, we learned that Ezekiel had a wife.
Today, in our study
through Mark, we learn Peter had a wife.
What are the odds, that type of personal info
would line up in back-to-back services?
The odds would be good, IF we were studying the topic
of married couples in the Bible.
But that’s not how we study. We take a Book from the
Old Testament on Sundays and a Book from the New Testament on Wednesdays, and
we walk through, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. So, the odds are impossible.
Unless God is leading. Then,
the odds are unbeatable. Providential.
So, we ought to pay attention.
It gets even more Providential.
Sunday, in Ezekiel, his wife died.
Today, in our text in Mark, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick.
The day before this message was given, Dolly Parton, passed away.
Every day, lately, women are under attack.
We better pray.
Lord Jesus, because You Divinely brought
this to our attention, we pay attention and pause and pray for all the women in
our lives. There’s no need to define what “women” means to You. But many have willingly
rejected Your Truth and have fallen under a strong delusion and a corrupt mind.
Exactly as You said would happen in Romans 1:28 and 2 Thes. 2:11. We don’t pray
for them, since Your judgement has already begun on them. We trust Your
righteous judgement. We do pray for Your Protection and Peace and Justice for the
ladies. Please expose this vile, demonic, perverted wickedness for what it is:
an attack against our females’ identity, and their rights given by You, to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Lord, according to Your Divine
timing and prompting we are praying, for You to step in and stop this evil. Man
can’t fix this, but You can. So, we appeal to heaven. Please have mercy, save
US from this perverse sin sweeping our nation. Tell US what to do, and we’ll do
it. Thank You. We trust and love and serve You, forever. Amen.
Okay, back to our Bible Study.
For the first time in Mark, we see Jesus step out of
the public spotlight, and into the private life, of a couple
redneck fishermen.
The Bible is personal.
God is personal.
The Kingdom of God is personal.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
is personal.
It isn’t confined to stained glass and steeples,
Church bells and preaching.
It’s skipping Church to help a neighbor who’s fallen.
It’s sleepless nights in a hospital room chair,
because your loved one’s there.
It’s a sore back from folding clothes to give to the
mission.
It’s tears and prayers for that soul that’s lost, and
that heart that’s broken.
It’s giving.
And receiving.
It’s showing up.
Being faithful.
(I've witnessed all those things lately in our beautiful little congregation).
This awesome Gospel reaches where we’re sick and scared and weak and
messy, where we don’t want anyone to see.
It raises us, to who we’re meant to be.
It enables us to fulfill our Divine Eternal Purpose,
Service and Calling.
It’s not private, but it is personal.
Like a backdoor friend.
Many of you have come through our front door.
None of you, or maybe just one or two, have come
through our back door. The tool room door. More accurately the junk room. My “tool
room” is like a junk drawer on steroids.
Only me and Jesus know how to find anything in there
(mostly Jesus). It’s where stuff gets stored. Where broken things go to wait
until someday, maybe, they’ll be fixed. It’s where tools to fix the broken stuff,
gather dust.
It’s where I don’t want anybody to see—but me. It’s a
mess.
But the back room, the junk room, is the favorite
place Jesus likes to go.
He doesn’t just sit prim and proper on the sofa in the
front room or on the front row at Church. No, He goes, without even asking, all
the way to the back room. He finds the messiest place. The place where the old,
broken, washed up, worn out, sick and tired goes.
He doesn’t condemn. He rolls up His sleeves, smiles, and
says, “Gimme a hand, we can fix this.”
We all have a junk room, if not in our house, surely
in our soul.
In our text, Mark 1:29-31, Jesus steps out of the public
spotlight of the synagogue and walks straight to the back room of Peter’s
place. Past the well-lit front room filled with polite smiling faces, past the amazing
aroma coming from the kitchen, back to where the light is dim, where Peter’s
mother-in-law is broken, sick and tired, filled with fever and pain.
He doesn’t condemn. He rolls up His sleeves, smiles,
and says, “Gimme your hand, we can fix this.”
The Kingdom of God is, Personal, Powerful
and Purposeful.
Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered
the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Personal
According to archeological discoveries Simon and
Andrew’s house was less than a hundred feet from the synagogue. So, literally,
as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house
of Simon and Andrew.
 |
Credit: Bethel Cornerstone |
 |
| Credit: Bethel Cornerstone |
In the first century, Peter’s house was converted into
a House Church.
Then, in the fifth century a Church was built over the
remains of Peter’s house.
Then, in 1990 a Church with an observation deck was
built on pillars over all of it.
 |
| Credit: Early Church History |
Now, let’s make it personal, put yourself in the story.
Imagine, Jesus just stepped out of the shining
synagogue spotlight where the crowds were astonished at His teaching and
amazed by His authority over unclean spirits. (Mark
1:21-28).
The news went viral.
He’s famous.
Now, instead of leaving with the elite, the synagogue
leaders, the influential, the wealthy and powerful...
Jesus is heading to your house.
Your simple, big, noisy, messy, chaotic, always smells
like fish (cuz you’re fishermen) house.
Jesus must be tired.
Hungry.
He’s coming to your house for some of the fish you’ve
been bragging about. And your mother-in-law’s awesome fresh baked bread...
30 But Simon’s
wife’s mother lay sick with a fever...
But wait. What? Mom’s sick? Oh no. Now what?
Did anybody bake bread?
What about mom? We can’t take her to the physician,
it’s Sabbath.
We can’t bother Jesus. He’s, our Guest.
We can’t even tell Him. If He finds out He might leave.
He’s an honored, famous, Holy Man. He can’t risk being made unclean.
Why oh why did He want to come here?
Why does He want to get so personal!?
Why couldn’t we just keep our relationship within the
walls of the synagogue?!?
Don’t tell Him about mom. Stick her out back. In the
junk room...
Is that what happened?
Is that what they did?
Is that what you would do?
What does it say?
30...and they
told Him about her at once.
Oh good. Much better. They did not
try to hide her, or fix her; they told Jesus about her, at once.
That’s how a disciple acts.
Peter wrote about it later in 1 Peter 5:7:
Cast all your cares on Him, for He
cares for you.
He cares. He’s a personal Savior.
He’s God. He already knows everything anyway.
Pray right away.
Philippians 4:6: Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.
They didn't wait or worry; they simply told Jesus.
Psalm 46:1. He is an ever-present help in time
of need.
Psalm 50:15: Call upon Me in the day of
trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Their family was having a day of trouble, and
their first instinct was to call upon Jesus.
Do we?
When we have an ache, a pain, a fever, do we first
google the symptoms, first call the doctor, or first call
on our Great Physician?
Jesus wants to be first in every room of your
life, especially, the back room, the tool room, the junk room, the messy,
painful, chaotic, sick and broken rooms.
Seek first the Kingdom of God and
His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew
6:33.
31 So He came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and
immediately the fever left her.
Powerful
Psalm 147:3: He
heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Remember, this was Saturday—the Sabbath. Under strict
Rabbinic oral traditions (the Mishnah), practicing medicine or healing
on the Sabbath was forbidden unless a person's life was in danger. A fever was
not considered life-or-death, so protocol demanded they wait until sundown (for
them, sundown was the start of a new day).
Furthermore, it wasn’t socially acceptable for Jesus to
touch a feverish woman, plus He risked being deemed ceremonially unclean.
But Jesus says in Mark 2:27: The Sabbath was
made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Jesus prioritized her pain over their
protocol.
He took her by the hand. Took
is the powerful word, krateó. It is a strong verb meaning to firmly
grasp control of.
When His Holiness touched her brokenness, she was made
whole.
There’s no sickness, no fever, no disease, no unclean
spirit, no power of hell, no anything, that can stand against the Power of
God’s Love.
He took her
by the hand and lifted her up... Lifted her up
is egeiró. The same word used for the Resurrection of Christ.
Jesus didn’t just relieve her fever; He infused her
with His Resurrection Power.
Philippians 3:10.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.,
Ephesians 3:20.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works in us.
And she served them.
Purposeful
In Middle Eastern culture, hospitality was a sacred
duty and a matter of intense family honor. Because of her fever, she would’ve
been so ashamed for not being able to serve them. Jesus didn't just cure her
physical symptoms. His amazing grace restored her honor and gave her the ability
to say, “thank You for the honor of serving You.”
Serving is not a chore or an obligation, it is
a joy, an honor, to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
This beautiful, precious, unnamed, mother-in-law, is
the first person in Mark’s gospel, to imitate the mission of Christ.
Mark 10:45: "For
even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many."
Galatians 5:13: "For
you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one
another."
Romans 12:1: I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service.
We are saved, to serve.
No matter the mess, the junk, the feverish situation,
Jesus in us and through us is Personal, Powerful and Purposeful.
He raises us to who we’re meant to be.
Enables us to fulfill our Divine Eternal Purpose,
Service and Calling.
He doesn’t condemn. He rolls up His sleeves, smiles,
and says, “Gimme your hand, we can fix this.”
John
3:17
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming, without
asking, into our mess. For not condemning but extending Your hands, on a cross,
and thereby saying, I’ll fix this. We pray to ever show our gratitude by
sharing Your Goodness, Your Love, with everyone You give us. So, they too, will
know Your Personal, Powerful Purpose.
Thank You.
We love You, forever.
Amen.
Prayer Requests:
Call or text: 612-554-2522
Email: pray4measap@aol.com
Facebook: Church at WPV
Books: amazon.com/author/dougspurling
Watch online:
Facebook: Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law,
Mark 1:29-31
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Mark 1:29-31
This was feed for you to read. Now it’s
Seed for you to sow.
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