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Sermon notes Mark 6:53-56

Posted onAuthorKen Corder

Healing Hands: Draw Crowds                     Mark 6:53-56

Illustration: Basketball triple threat stance.

The Back Story: In our passage from Mark, we find Jesus and his disciples about to engage in some serious, demanding ministry.  They disembark from their boat at a place called Genneserat, a fertile region known as “The  Paradise of Galilee.”  It was a beautiful land, but just as in our rich and blessed nation of the United States, there was much suffering.  Jesus and the disciples are greeted by a flash mob of sick and diseased.  As the crowd approaches I can see Jesus and his disciples getting in their triple threat stance, girding their loins (to use NT language), ready for action, ready to serve, ready to make the beauty, healing, peace and fullness of the kingdom of God known to a hurting world.

We better get ready.  The world is hurting.  Our families are hurting.  Our neighbors are hurting.  Even today in this wonderful United States, in every neighborhood from the poorest ghetto to the wealthiest gated community, there is physical, emotional and spiritual sickness all around us.  Every day you and I face a “crowd” of people who are hurting.  Some of you have people in your lives who are dealing with serious emotional issues, anxiety, mental disorders, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anger issues.  Some of you are caring for people with chronic physical health issues.

For this reason, Jesus tells his followers, you and me, to be ready.  Paul says to the Christians in Corinth, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).  The biblical Greek word for watchfulness is awake.  Be awake, the Scriptures tell us!  Wakefulness is the triple threat stance of disciples of Jesus.

Main idea:  From the triple threat stance of wakefulness, we are positioned to be a powerful vessel of the Lord, an effective servant to share with others the fullness of Jesus’ love, grace, mercy and healing.   What are the three threats that we possess when we are spiritually awake?  At the beginning our our passage, Mark cleverly introduces the image of a boat approaching the shore, and this image is not to be overlooked.  It is illustrative of three important steps that you and I each need to take if we are to be able to face the hurt in the world – in our families, neighborhoods, church – that we are called to minister to and overcome.  Those three steps are 1) Willingness to go, 2) Physical and spiritual rest, and 3) Take risks.

Ready to Go Where the Holy Spirit Would Have you Go (Crossed Over)

  1. They crossed over…Think about the significance of that small phrase.
  2. Willing, active, pliable, flexible, on the move
  3. Gathering/going is rhythm of church.
  4. Physically – 30 minutes a day, 5 days/week; improves heart health, flexibility,  balance,  endurance
  5. Spiritually – Likewise, spiritually must keep moving. “Here I am,  Lord.  Send me.”
  6. Christian life is active, not sedentary; Jesus always passing through.  Gospel passages do not begin with, “As Jesus was mindlessly surfing the internet,” or “As Jesus was binging on YouTube videos.”  No, they often begin with, “As Jesus was passing through,” or, “And Jesus entered such and such town.  He was about his Father’s business, which is being attuned his voice and going where he sends, each moment of the day.
  7. Scriptures: Gen 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”; Proverbs 10:5 “He who gathers crops in the summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.”; Eph. 5:15-16 “Be very careful,  then, how you live-not as unwise but wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil”
  8. At a practical level, spiritually speaking, are you making the most of every opportunity? Are you praying without ceasing, always giving thanks, as Paul says.  Do you introduce yourself to people with the thought of how can I be Christ to this person in this moment?
  9. Get involved in Church ministry.  Much to do.  Where can I help?
  10. Crossing over (or keeping on the move in Christ) can be a joyful experience.  Acts 3:8.  When lame man was healed he went walking, leaping and praising God.

Physical and Spiritual Rest (Landed, Moored)

  1. Next, they landed, or more true to the Greek text, they moored or rested calmly.
  2. As we move through each day as God’s  faithful, it is essential we make room for periods of rest and reflection in the rhythm of our life in Christ.
  3. Greek Prosomizo – to moor, to tie up boat.  Derives from Greek root that means to lull, rest calmly
  4. Importance of rest.  Sabbath – daily  weekly  seasonally.  Our relationship with God begins with listening.  The fundamental law for the people of Israel and which Jesus reiterated is the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:.  “Hear, O Israel.”  Essential to remaining in the triple threat stance as a Christian is resting in the Lord, the center of which is listening.  When the Lord calls the child Samuel, Samuel responds, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1 Sam. 3:10)
  5. Recovery is critical to our physical and spiritual health – e.g., Don’t lift weights every day or run at gym. Likewise, spiritually.  You must make time to get a way from the crowds, so to speak.  The demands will be there when you get back.  Go get some rest and come back later.
  6. Refreshment precedes another new season of creativity.
  7. Scriptures: Matt. 11:28 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened,  and I will give you rest. ” Gen. 3:3, “…he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. ” Mark 6:31 “…Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest “. Exodus 33:14 “My Presence will go with you  and I will give you rest.”
  8. How many of you take purposeful time to rest and recover?  Or is running ragged a more apt description of your life?
  9. What if I asked you right now to take five minutes, close your eyes and relax?  Some so tired would fall asleep immediately.  Others could not because don’t know how to follow the Lord’s instruction to, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
  10. Spiritual rest as well as physical rest.  Silent prayer.  Contemplation.  Listening.

Get out of the boat (Take risks)

  1. What to do when a crowd of sick and diseased coming running toward you?
  2. In the boat there is security, an escape route.  We are called to get out of the boat.
  3. Rudyard Kipling “If”- There is a time for thinking, but don’t make thinking your aim.
  4. When you get out of the boat, you take a risk, become vulnerable.  Necessary in our line of work as ambassadors of Christ.
  5. When the angel comes to the virgin Mary and tells her that she will conceive and bear God’s son, her response is, “Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said.” (Luke 1:38).  We don’t always know what the future holds, but only those who take risks for the kingdom of God will see God’s kingdom unfold in their lives and in the lives of those around them.
  6. John Ortberg: If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.
  7. We are to go and get out of the boat.  This is important as individuals and as a church.  It’s time to get out the boat and meet the crowd of hurting around us with the love of Jesus.  We are not to be risk averse.  A common scriptural refrain is: Do not be afraid.  Christ walks with you.
  8. Scriptures: Matt. 28:20 “Lo, I am with you all of the days.”; Rom. 8:37 “Yet in him we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
  9. Corrie Tenboom: There is no pit that his love is not deeper still.

Wesley’s Three Rules to Remain in the Triple Threat Stance of Watchfulness

  1. John Wesley introduced what are now called Wesley’s Three Simple Rules, which we can employ every day to ensure we keep in the triple threat stance of watchfulness: Do no harm.  Do Good.  Attend to the Ordinances of God.
  2. Do no harm. Do not take Lord’s name in vain.  Avoid drunkenness.  Don’t gossip.  Don’t sing songs for read books that don’t keep you in love with God (add movies and YouTube videos today).  Don’t lay treasures upon earth.  Don’t self-indulge so much.
  3. Do Good. Help others in their physical poverty by giving them food and clothing, and by visiting the sick and those in prison.  Take care of other’s souls by offering Christian counsel and correcting each other when appropriate.  Notably, Wesley says, we should go about “trampling under foot that enthusiastic doctrine that “we are not to do good unless our hearts be free to it.”  Sometimes you don’t feel like doing good, but do it nonetheless.  If you wait until you feel like it, you will never do it.
  4. Attending upon all the ordinances of God. Public worship. Hearing the Word proclaimed.  The Lord’s Supper.  Family and private prayer.  Searching the Scriptures.  Fasting or abstinence.  Sometimes attending upon the ordinances of God is reinterpreted for our modern ears as “staying in love with God.”  That works, too.  In means keep our heart and our actions, our internal lives and our external lives, in the triple threat stance. When the crowds of hurting enter into our lives we will have the willingness and strength to be healing hands to a hurting world.

 


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