Sermon Notes: Mark 1:29-39
Mark 1:21-28 takes place on the same Sabbath day as verses 29-34. It’s like worship in the morning and then head to Simon and Andrew’s house for afternoon lunch, and that afternoon lunch leads to some ministry activity after the passing of the Sabbath at sundown.
Mark 1:35-39 takes place the following day, Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus kicks off the new week with early prayer to set the pace. Jesus connects with the Father and is then ready for the ongoing mission. And that mission includes preaching in other towns and taking authority over the forces of evil.
Jesus doesn’t exist in some isolated conceptual universe. Jesus was doing something in time and space that happened in time and space and has titanic impact in all realms of creation, seen and unseen. Jesus is still doing something in and through his church in all those realms.
Jesus was and is reestablishing what was lost in Eden. Reestablishing all that was lost in Eden is an absolutely all-encompassing work. It is the coming of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven.
NOTE: God brings his kingdom. We don’t bring God’s kingdom. We engage in joyful and loving obedience to employ God’s means, and God makes those means effective. Jesus sets the example on what to do and how to do. That example is seen in our third observation.
There has been ongoing conflict between the descendants of the woman and the descendants of the Serpent. This has been since Genesis 3. This conflict informs the genealogies of the Bible and helps us see the teams: seed of the woman and seed of the Serpent. Not everyone on team seed of the woman is friendly to the team. There are weeds planted among the wheat, and they cause problems. Clearly, team Serpent is always on the prowl looking for someone to devour.
This conflict happens in human-on-human clashes.
This conflict happens between the unseen supernatural forces of darkness and humans.
This conflict happens between humans and the myriads of horrible messengers of death like disease, famine, and war.
All that conflict has shaped human civilization since Genesis 3.
God promised the Seed of the Woman would come in the fullness of time and crush the head of the Serpent and put an end to all that conflict.
All of humanity has been waiting for that moment, and Israel in particular was looking for the promised One to lead them to be the missionary messengers of his kingdom to all nations.
Jesus is that One. When Jesus, the Seed of the woman, comes, his kingdom begins to break in.
The spiritual universe goes on high alert. Physical creation begins to reap the healing fruit of Jesus’ presence.
The curse of sin in all its forms and the evil forces of the Serpent are on notice.
Jesus shows us what the breaking in of his kingdom looks like, what the work is, and the rhythm for that work by his power.
Let’s read about it: Mark 1:29-39.
What do we see?
1. Jesus goes home with Simon and Andrew to heal Simon’s mother-in-law. V. 29-31
HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTE: This house is a traditional “insula” complex, sort of like a compound you might see in other countries, where the doors and windows of rooms that function as a family house open up to the inside and make a courtyard. The backs of the family homes form a wall on all the outsides of that complex that make it secure and can only be entered by a gate. Families would live in their individual houses that make up the complex. So, when a young man would marry, he may build onto his father’s complex either by building up or building in, a room that would be his house for he and his bride, and even his bride’s extended family as needed.
So, it is not uncommon that Simon would have his mother-in-law living in his family’s “insula” that his brother Andrew also still lives in.
Archaeologists have uncovered these family complex structures in Capernaum dating back to the first century, and there is one in particular that has a great many Christian inscriptions on the walls, and it is believed to possibly be Simon and Andrew’s home.[1] If so, that is a place Jesus spent time in. That’s pretty dope.
We are told by John Mark “immediately”, first principle, mission: Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to Simon and Andrew’s “insula”. Jesus going to Simon and Andrew’s house is on purpose. Jesus is not just wandering about.
Did Simon and Andrew invite Jesus? Does Jesus invite himself? Was the home visit the plan? We don’t know.
Mark’s theme of “immediately” grips us with a sense of missional intent on Jesus’ part. Jesus seems intent on making sure he gets to Simon and Andrew’s home. I believe it is safe to say that Jesus intends to cause his kingdom to break out because there are needs and opportunities.
How does Jesus address need and provide opportunity?
Simon’s mother-in-law is sick, and Mark hits us with the theme of “immediately” again.
This time Mark lets us know “they” (whoever “they” happen to be) are the ones on a mission. “They” let Jesus know about Simon’s mother-in-law. Why?
They believe Jesus can do something about it. They believe there is something to his kingdom, so they don’t waste any time. Immediately, they tell Jesus about Simon’s mother-in-law.
What does Jesus do in response? Does Jesus rebuke them for immediately asking him for help? Not at all.
Jesus, with the breaking in of his healing reign, takes Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand, lifts her from her laying position, and as he is lifting her up, he causes her fever to leave her body.
NOTE: We will talk about healing soon. Please flush the trash we see on tv and social media and many of us grew up watching with “faith healers”. Our healing ministry looks like using God’s means and dependance on his power to see the restoration of Edenic order in short and long-term ways. It is not pronouncing spells over people and making their ailment instantly go away. I’m sure there are times and places where Jesus like miracles occur, and it’s probably not because some fool waved their suit jacket over the sick person.
She is made well so fast that as she gets up, she transitions from being incapacitated by sickness to serving (deaconing) the crew gathered at their family complex.
Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, and she begins to serve everyone.
Listen to this: The word for “serve”[2] (Gk. diakonein) is the same word used for the angels’ “ministering to” Jesus during the temptation (1:13). It is, moreover, the same word translated “to serve” in 10:45, where Jesus declares that the Son of Man comes “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Serving is the way of Jesus and those who follow him, and thus it describes an essential characteristic of the kingdom of God that Jesus introduces and exemplifies. For Mark, the proper response of one who has been touched by Jesus is to serve the fellowship.[3]
It’s really important that we see and understand when Jesus heals, he is showing that the reverse of the curse is underway.
What gets lost in some of Jesus’ healing, is the little gem that as Simon’s mother-in-law is being restored, she begins to take the servant posture of the Son of God who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
She is restored and begins acting from a heart and restored body that acts very much more like the image of the One who restored her.
Perhaps the greatest healing that took place in Jesus’ missional entrance into Simon and Andrew’s home is that love in the form of service accompanied being raised up from the debilitating fever.
Even uglier than physical illness is the illness of the soul that causes us to assume the position of wanting to be served and an unwillingness to serve as a right we have in the kingdom of God.
No, Jesus is the ultimate deacon/servant, and when he heals and transforms, he creates a royal priesthood of servants who imitate him who is the King of servants.
2. After the Sabbath, the entire town gathered at Simon and Andrew’s home. Jesus healed many and he cast out many demons. V. 32-34
The Sabbath is sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, so at sundown, the town was free to travel with no fear of breaking the Sabbath.
They honored the Sabbath as the One who instituted the Sabbath was waiting on them and intended to bring a Sabbath of rest from sickness and demonic oppression.
They have clearly heard about Jesus from his time in the synagogue, so they show up to see if they can see or experience some of what they heard about.
Jesus heals more folks with various illnesses, and then Mark tells us that Jesus cast out many demons and would not let the demons speak.
What is happening here?
First, let’s identify what Jesus is casting out. What are demons?
In Michael Heiser's book “Demons: What the Bible Really Says About the Powers of Darkness”, Heiser concludes that demons are not fallen angels. That idea is a widespread popular misconception with no direct biblical support. Heiser argues that demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim who are the hybrid offspring of the rebellious “sons of God” and human women in Genesis 6:1–4.
These disembodied spirits, released when the giants were killed at the flood and afterward (like Goliath at the hands of David), are the “unclean spirits”, “evil spirits”, or “demons” of the New Testament Gospels. Remember last week we identified what Leviticus called unclean as forbidden mixing of species in the agricultural world and the animal/creature world. Thus, the indicator of these thing’s identity when the New Testament interchangeably calls demons “unclean spirits.” Demons are unclean spirits that are unclean because they are a forbidden mix of supernatural beings and human women.
Because of the rebellious nature of their creation and breaking of boundaries the Lord set up in the species of creatures he created, these beings are evil and created with evil intent and always seek to inhabit or harass humans for their pleasure to cause sickness, disease, and oppression.
These unclean spirits operate within the Serpent Dragon’s subversive, temporary, and rebellious (little k) kingdom as part of the powers of darkness that Paul says we are at war with in our spiritual conflict.
These unclean chimeras seek the destruction of the seed of the woman because that is why they were created, and until they are dealt with, they will continue to seek the destruction of human beings.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood.
This helps us make more sense of Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:43-45: Matthew 12:43-45 (ESV) 43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
Heiser roots his conclusion in the Bible’s ancient near eastern worldview as well Second Temple Jewish texts we get more insight from in the Dead Sea Scrolls such as Jubilees and Enoch.
Heiser does a fantastic job of unpacking the original language to exegete biblical texts and articulating the worldviews of the biblical world rather than passing on assumptions.
NOTE: If Peter and Jude quote those books (as well as “The Assumption of Moses”) it means they found their content acceptable at least in part even though they did not consider them to be “Bible”. That means we can also explore the content of those writings and make connections as we need to in order to help us make sense of the worldview of the inspired biblical authors so we can share their presuppositions.
Thus demons, through the rebellion, are a distinct category in the spiritual dimension, and a dimension that is very much multi-layered.
What we find in Mark’s gospel is that Jesus, as the Creator Son of God, has authority over these things and they are rightly afraid of him, and they know who he is, and he is their Judge.
So, why won’t Jesus let the demons speak?
Jesus will tell some people and tell these unclean spirits to keep quiet about his identity. This is referred to in scholarly circles as the “Messianic secret”.
Why would Jesus want folks and demons to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?
There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the Seed of the woman is and how the
Seed of the woman would crush the head of the Serpent Dragon.
Until the right time (which will be the resurrection), The Father keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work. This spiritual conflict ongoing since Genesis 3 is real, and God is not foolish in his execution of his plan. God, of course, exercises great wisdom.
In fact, the Lord Jesus will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into the Father’s plan by his humble ministry of service and refusal of popularity. Jesus will lure them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keeping his identity on the down low. This gives them the illusion they have stopped the plan. They don’t understand that by his death he tramples over death, the curse, and crushes their Serpent leader’s noggin.
Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand that has now been revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers (this is a word Paul uses to describe spiritual forces of evil as well as human systems of rule, and sometimes they overlap if you understand Deuteronomy 32:8-9 as connected to Genesis 11 and Psalm 82.) of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
SUGGESTED READING: Michael Heiser and Clinton Arnold
We know the mystery now. It is no longer a mystery. What used to be a mystery is the good news that is validated by Jesus’ resurrection.
From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show us the teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s declaration of how he would work out the redemption of his family.
What we are to understand when we see Jesus casting out these agents of hurt, disease, and rebellion is that the kingdom of God has come, and the King of that kingdom is present.
Listen to Zechariah 13:2 (ESV) 2 “And on that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness.
Looking forward to the day of Jesus, Zechariah preaches that the LORD will cut off the names of the idols (thus cut off their power) from the land, and he would remove the spirit of the uncleanness.
When Jesus takes authority over and casts out these unclean spirits, he is declaring that he is the fulfillment of Zechariah’s word.
The time has come, the kingdom of Jesus Christ has come, repent and believe the good news.
If you have believed, don’t doubt the mission. Rather, bear down and get after it more.
We will learn more in the coming weeks how we can join in that mission in some powerful ways.
3. Jesus sets the pace and order of their kingdom work. V. 35-39
Jesus sets their pace. The pace is not hurried and frantic. Jesus sets a Sabbath like pace by rising early, going to be alone with the Father in prayer.
Jesus sets the order of ministry for himself and his disciples: prayer, preaching the word of God, and taking authority over the forces of evil in service of the people of God to heal.
NOTE: Sometimes Jesus’ healing is merely physical. Sometimes it is casting out demons. Sometimes it is casting out demons that are the cause of physical illness. We are going to have to learn the discernment Jesus has.
Jesus will send them out later and tell them to heal and preach.
Prayer. Healing. Preaching.
That is not any church growth strategy I know about.
That is not any church planting strategy I know about.
That seems to be Jesus’ rhythm.
Frankly, I don’t know what to tell you or myself what to do with that.
I do believe it.
We are going to make sense of it as we study Mark. I’m not going to let us skip over details to the best of my ability. I hope you will join me with a Spirit enabled mind, a Jesus centric heart, and a focus on the glory of God the Father through Jesus the Son by the work of the Spirit.
Application
1. How is your servant heart?
The world is full of people who love to serve regardless of their belief in Jesus. I’m convinced that is because all image-bearers of Creator Jesus have the capacity to serve like Jesus whether they acknowledge it is Jesus they are acting like or not.
That does not make them followers of Jesus unless they repent and believe.
The curse of sin marred the image of God in man; it did not destroy it, so even marred image-bearers act like their Creator at times.
How much more will a person display the servant heart of their Creator when an image-bearer is healed by the saving and transforming work of the good news.
When Jesus raised up Simon’s mother-in-law, her instant response was to serve like her Saving Servant God Jesus.
I don’t intend to use Jesus’ healing Simon’s mother-in-law to guilt you into doing something or doing more.
I do want us to see that she took on the deacon heart of Jesus when he healed her and raised her up.
Serving will happen when the heart gets healed by the Chief Deacon, the CEO of Service, Jesus who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
Has your heart been liberated from the unclean spiritual influence of self-seeking at the expense of everyone else or the sickness of the consumption mentality of getting from a rainbow of services while giving nothing of substance to anyone?
How is your servant heart?
Our hearts can be weighed down by many things. Our hearts can be weighed down by the heaviness of a season of suffering, personal stretching of our capacity, sin, a lack of clarity about what we need to be doing, or a host of other things, and in that weight we can have our sense of liberating service thwarted.
Don’t let a joyful heart to serve be destroyed by anything.
Ask Jesus to touch your heart with a desire to serve and love each other supernaturally and in so doing to overcome a multitude of things that might subdue a serving heart.
There is something healing to getting outside of ourselves and serving and doing for others that helps the human’s mental and emotional well-being.
So, if you have been transformed by the good news, cultivate a serving heart.
If you have not received the good news, repent today and let Jesus heal your dead heart and put in you a new heart of service.
2. Ask the Lord for eyes to see, discernment to know when you encounter the forces of evil in the heavenly places so you can employ Jesus instruction in his word in taking ground from the enemy for God’s glory and the joy of those liberated.
As we work our way through John Mark’s gospel account, we will learn some things to help us.
As you work your way through the New Testament, you’ll be surprised at the almost casual nature of the disciples of Jesus in dealing with unclean spirits.
We all need to learn together how to keep ourselves in the lines of God’s word and by no means miss anything he has for us and our city and world by failing to bind and loose in the spiritual conflict of the kingdom of God taking over enemy held ground.
Don’t get proverbially “out over your skis”. Don’t pretend you know when you don’t, and don’t act ignorantly when you should admit you need to learn something.
Ask the Lord for help. Come see me and let me help you get into the right resources to learn.
We have lots of gospel labor in front of us. Ask. Seek. Knock.
3. Learn Jesus’ rhythm.
Jesus rose early to spend time in prayer alone with the Father before he set out to the work. This was Jesus’ routine.
Whatever the good and right work may look like, should it not begin with connection to the Father in prayer?
Prayer is one of the ways we exercise faith. Luke 18:1-8 couldn’t be more clear. The faith is not found in preaching or casting out demons more than the discipline of rising early to be alone with the Father and seeking his help, power, and fellowship in prayer.
Appendix
1. Discipleship
Discipleship begins with knowing who one is a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus and identify him for us. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so the disciples are to be with Jesus.
The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father. Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples.
Jesus’ disciples struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father also sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus.
Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness knowing him, hearing him, and obeying him.
2. Faith
“For Mark, faith and discipleship have no meaning apart from following the Son of God. Faith is
thus not a magical formula, but depends on repeated hearing of his word and participation in his
mission.” - James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 17.
There are two groups: Those with great faith and those who are faithless.
There are those who show great faith who have no reason to show faith in Jesus. They are on the
outside of Jesus’ circle and seem to have no advantage, yet they display great faith. These folks
have an assurance of things hoped for and conviction about unseen things hoped for. They
display their faith in their deep desire and effort to get to Jesus for help.
The faithless and those struggling with faith should have the advantage: his hometown, the
religious insiders who are supposed to be the theological experts, and even his own disciples.
These folks struggle to take Jesus at his word.
This group is full skeptics, blasphemers, and those who are slow to believe.
3. Insiders and outsiders
The theme of insiders and outsiders distinguishes those who are enemies of God and those who
are not.
Jesus will tell us that he teaches in parables because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are for
the insiders and the parables keep the outsiders from understanding.
That’s a little hard to swallow, but it is what Jesus says. This theme will uncover the bias of those who think they are insiders based on their status and are not. This theme puts the last first and first last.
The insiders are those who live by faith and begin to understand Jesus’ teaching.
The outsiders are the faithless.
The problem is that the faithless and outsiders of the kingdom of God are in power and are the
ones who are believed to have the answers and should be insiders.
The outsiders are enemies of God.
The insiders are those who have been cast out due to the deceived nature of the faithless who think they are faithful.
That feels confusing, but it becomes clear as you walk through Mark’s gospel, and it should
cause each one of us to take account of ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure we are not a self-deceived and perceived insider who is actually an outsider because we are an elite and
faithless hack.
4. Gentiles
The emphasis on Jesus working in the North parts of Israel among the Gentiles and close to
Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy portions shows us the Lord’s intent on
reclaiming the nations and conquering the land and people taken captive by the forces of
darkness.
The emphasis you will find in the prophets on the north is important, and it’s a theme for a whole
Bible exposition not for a study through Mark alone. But Mark picks up on it because it is
geographically significant in the prophets, and Jesus actually works from the north of Israel.
The point is that it is Gentile, unbeliever territory.
Jesus’ work in Israel was not for them to have him to themselves, but to redeem and invite them
to mission with him to rescue the Gentiles taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.
5. Messianic secret
Mark is full of Jesus telling folks he heals to keep it quiet, and they usually don’t do it. He tells demons to keep quiet also.
Why would Jesus want folks and demons to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?
Paul said it in Ephesians 3, and we read it last week.
There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the Seed of the woman is and how the
Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent dragon.
Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.
In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into his trap by his humble ministry
and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low not realizing that by his death he tramples
over death, the curse, and crushes the Serpent’s noggin.
Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand has been
revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature
we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are
doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed
before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation.
This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross
have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show us the teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s
declaration.
Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection.
6. Focused journey
After Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah (8:27ff), Jesus sets out with focus to the cross, and
Mark captures Jesus’ journey very starkly. Jesus’ focused journey to the cross becomes his
invitation to us to join in the focused journey of being with him on mission as the way of the
cross.
7. Immediately
Mark uses the Greek word “euthus”, translated as “immediately”, in his account of Jesus’s work.
I believe that the entire New Testament uses this word about 51 times. John Mark uses “immediately” 41 of the 51 times, thus making John Mark the predominant user.
What is Mark communicating?
“Euthus” means “to make straight” regarding physical things.
“Euthus” is also used regarding immaterial things like the heart of a matter, and when applied to things like that it means “right” and “true”. Its synonyms are firm, unwavering, and ready.
The Greek word as Mark uses it is not so much about time. We hear “immediately” and think
being in a hurry. Jesus was not in a hurry.
Mark is telling us that Jesus was walking in the unwavering and always straight way of truth.
Jesus was deliberate about the mission.
Jesus’ way is deliberate not hurried.
[1] Although the dwelling in question underwent various developments in succeeding centuries, archaeological investigations have discovered sacred and devotional graffiti in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Aramaic scratched on the plaster walls, indicating that it was venerated as a gathering place for Christians, and perhaps as a church, from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second. There is a strong probability that the site preserves Peter’s house. (See Anchor Bible Dictionary)
[2] I substituted the ESV for the author’s choice of translations that are in quotes.
[3] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 60.