Mark 1:27-34

Mark 1:27-34  The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this?  A new teaching — and with authority!  He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”  News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.  As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.  Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her.  So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up.  The fever left her and she began to wait on them.  That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.  The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.  He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. 

Jesus validated his messiahship by healing many people of their sicknesses and by driving demons from the possessed.  The Bible indicates Jesus did that which no man from the beginning of time had done.  Along with his miraculous deeds, He taught as a man of authority, as one who knew God in reality.  Jesus' ministry impressed the Galileans by his deeds and by his words.  They followed Jesus everywhere.  In the above text, they gathered at Peter's mother-in-law's door, beseeching Jesus to meet their needs.  Jesus, as God's hands, did meet many of their needs, and many of them became his followers because of his powerful ministry to them.  However, there is a difference between being a follower and a born-again believer.  The latter requires faith in Jesus Christ's vicarious work on the cross; the former follows Jesus for the fishes and loaves, what they can receive from him.  People who want something will walk many miles with Jesus as long as they believe they will benefit from doing so.  Jesus knew many people wanted only what He could give them.  In one instance, He said: I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.  (John 6:26-27)  The Bible says, only faith in Jesus Christ's saving works opens the door to God's domain, to his eternal blessings.  This transforming faith is not based on what we can get or on what we perceive around us: saving faith is based on believing that GOD IS and that He is a giver of eternal life through his Son.  This kind of faith is not based on our natural senses or on our knowledge of the world around us.  Faith in God through Jesus Christ is not based on empirical knowledge or evidence.  We believe God because we have a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ.  

Notice, how Jesus would not let the demons respond.  They knew who Jesus was, understood his identity.  Their reaction to Jesus was based on their empirical knowledge of the spirit world: they knew Jesus was the Son of God, the creator of all things.  Of course, we humans are not like the demons; for they have been present with God in the spirit world and know God through observation and experience, and we have not had that experience.  God's plan for adding new members into his intimate family comes through the door of faith, blind trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind.  The demons knew Jesus empirically, but that knowledge doesn't open the door to God's heart; only unmitigated faith in Jesus accomplishes that reality.  Jesus would not let the demons talk, for they would spoil God's plan by convincing people of the reality of God through knowledge.  Surely, the demons could have convinced many of God's true existence if they would have been allowed to babble.  But Jesus wanted to usher in God's plan: unadulterated faith in Jesus Christ's birth, death, and resurrection without the empirical evidence to back it up.  The demons' understanding of God would never open the door to God's holy family, never lead to eternal life with Father God.   Only the beloved of God, washed in the blood of Jesus, children of faith, have that privilege and inheritance.  We read in the Word that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  We also learn that without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.  (Hebrews 11:1 & 6 KJV)  This is the faith of the children of God, a persevering, steadfast belief that never fails. 

Therefore, breakfast companions, how should we live?  We should live as those who know they have attained this privileged and blessed position with God.  As his children, we should reflect the family spirit of God, the likeness of Jesus, who came to reveal the Father.  Because God is good, we also should reveal his goodness in an evil world.  He is longsuffering, patient, generous, and kind.  The world should see his attributes in us.  The Holy Spirit should reap a harvest of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  We cannot ignore scriptures that tell us clearly how to live: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  (1 John 4:7-11)   This is the love of the Father to love completely and unconditionally.  God's love in us translates into a life of godliness and servanthood.  But we cannot love as God loved or serve sacrificially as Christ served on our own, through our own strength.  We love and serve through the power, strength, and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Faith makes us willing to put the flesh down and to lift Christ up.  We must recognize our flesh wants preeminence and will lead us into darkness, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to lift up Christ in our lives, He brings us into his glorious presence and fills our lives with his light and his love.  We read in the gospel of Matthew the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  (Matthew 4:16)  That same great light has shined on every believer to this very day who has accepted Christ as Lord and has come out of the darkness into the light.  Therefore, we should strive to bring his image, his goodness, and his words, into our plans, our conversations, and our actions.  Yes, we are born with the nature of Adam, but we have been born again as new creatures through Christ Jesus into the family of God with the Holy Spirit abiding within us.  We break Adam's stranglehold on our lives by serving others, by loving the unlovely, by forgiving our enemies, by praising God forevermore. The more we love others, the less we will battle our self-nature.  We have the victory through Christ in us our hope of Glory.  Glory to God in the highest.  Peace, good will to all people!