This weekend, over 200 college age men and women went to the Shine Retreat with our college age ministry called The Underground. Pastor Bill was there. Matt Shew was there. They were worshiping late into the night in Palm Desert. In fact, some of them might be watching this on their way home right now, as they've wrapped up their time together. Over 200 college age young men and women talking about Jesus all weekend long. It's almost as many people as who were at this retreat last year. And I think that's remarkable, because between last year and this year, I don't know if you guys remember what happened? We planted a whole new church in Long Beach this last year, and a lot of the people who went to Long Beach were college age, zealous young men and women. So, the college ministry, they lost a lot of their students to Long Beach. There were nine super helpful leaders in our college ministry that went out to Long Beach. And so, it's remarkable that there are as many people out there at that retreat as a year ago, even with so many going to Long Beach. In fact, this weekend, Compass Long Beach had their first ever college retreat just up there in Long Beach. It was like a staycation retreat, and it was led by this guy. Maybe you've heard this name before, Brad Comstock. Anybody remember him? He used to be the nicest guy at our church. Now he's out leading college retreats in Long Beach. So, praise the Lord for what he's doing among our young men and women.
And I want to welcome all of you here on Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is our American holiday to remember those who died in the service of our country. And as we gather together right now, we want to remember the one who died for our freedom. And we're going to take communion to remember the death of our Lord Jesus, and to get our hearts and minds prepared for communion. I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Mark, chapter 1, verses 40 to 45. We're going through the Gospel of Mark. We're just finishing chapter one. I don't know how long it's going to take us to go through this book, but we are on the road with Jesus. We want to learn everything about what it means to follow Jesus. And so today, we're going to look at Mark 1:40-45. And out of respect for God's Word, I'm going to ask if everyone would stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I want to encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. So please follow along as I read Mark. chapter 1, verses 40 to 45. This is the Word of God.
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
That's the reading of God's Word. Go ahead and grab your seat. And in your bulletin, there is a handout there, if you want to take notes, and it has the text printed on the right hand column. This is always in the bulletin. And what's the key word of the gospel of Mark, everybody? Do you remember? Immediately. And so, circle that “immediately” right there in verse 42. It comes from the Greek word euthus. It's “immediately”. Sometimes it's “at once.” Sometimes it's like “straight” or “straight away.” And we're getting this all the way back from the Scripture there, from Isaiah 40, “Make his path straight away.” Make his paths “at once.” Like Jesus is coming, the Lord is coming. And we need to get ready immediately. And so that becomes the theme of Mark's gospel.
And you can see when Jesus touches this man, immediately, the leprosy left him, and he's made clean. That's verse 42, and then in verse 43 circle “at once,” because that's the same word. And so, “at once,” Jesus is sending this man away and speaking sternly to him. So, we have two things we want to look at, the immediate cleansing of the man and then the immediate sending away of the man. These are the two actions here that we want to really learn. What can we consider here about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I need you to really think with me here today, because the key idea here is “clean”. You can see that at the end of verse 40, the request is, will you make me clean? And then Jesus says, I will be clean. And then in verse 42 he was made clean. So, if you want to circle that, that's clearly what we're talking about here. Is not just the miraculous healing of the skin disease of leprosy, but the making of the man to be clean. Now, we're not talking about personal hygiene here. Okay? We're not. This isn't like you wash your hands, so they are clean. This is an idea really baked into it, going all the way back to the law of Moses into the Jewish mindset. You and I don't really think about “clean” like this. And to really understand what happens in this passage, we need to get into the context and understand the mindset that if you were going to offer a sacrifice at the tabernacle, or if you were going to go see a priest in the temple, which Jesus actually tells this guy to do, he says, go to the priest. Do what Moses commanded.
Well, you can't dare to go into the presence of God unless you are clean. And so, we think of the presence of God like his spiritual presence. That God is always with us. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. But the presence we're talking about here is the spatial presence of God to actually go to a holy place where God's glory is dwelling. And that's the idea in the tabernacle and in the temple. You’d better not go near the presence of God because he's holy and you're not. So, unless you are clean, don't even think about approaching God. You could die.
So, we have to get into that mindset like, hey, can you imagine if somebody told you, hey, what are you doing this summer? Well, I'm going on vacation. Oh, great. Where are you going on vacation? And I know people who are going on vacation. I’ve got a brother going to Spain shortly. I’ve got a friend who's going to Italy shortly. I have another friend here at the church, he's going to Hawaii, and they're going to go see family members. They're going to go see this destination wedding, some concert over here, all these different things they're doing. Imagine if somebody said, well, I'm going to this city. Oh, why are you going there? Because God is there, and I want to go in the presence of God. That's not a thought you and I have ever really thought before. Maybe we think someday, after we die or Jesus comes, we'll experience the holy presence of God, but that's what we're talking about here. How do you go into the spatial presence of God? How if God's holy? How do people like us actually get to go to his presence? Well, you’d better be clean, that's the idea.
So go back with me to Leviticus 13 and 14. There are two chapters in the Bible all about leprosy. Leviticus 13 and 14. You may not have memorized any of these verses, my friend, but I want to take you to them. It's over a hundred verses about leprosy. So, leprosy is, first of all, a brutal disease, because it would basically take out the nerves, and so your fingers, your toes, your hands, your feet, you're starting to lose your sense of feeling. So, it's this skin disease that's spreading over you, and then you're losing your sensitivity. You're becoming numb. So, in studying for this, I read stories about leprosy, like somebody goes and they try to open a door, and they can't open the door because it's locked, so they give up. Well, maybe a person who has leprosy, when they're trying to open that door, they'll just keep turning, and they'll just keep going for it, and then they'll just fling the door open because they can't really feel it. And so now you look at their hand, it's all bloody. They just cut themselves trying to open that door, but they don't even know. And so, this is how leprosy really works. You're over here, and you're doing things with your hands and feet, with your body. You're bumping up against this, you're scraping up against that. You get cuts, you get open wounds. You don't even feel the pain of those things. So now you're getting all these infections, and then those infections are spreading over your body, and you're like, unaware that that's even happening, because you don't feel it. So, leprosy was this very brutal experience if you had this disease.
But then there's also this idea that someone with leprosy is unclean, and therefore they can't go into the presence of God. In fact, they can't even go around other people, because if they touch other people, then those people will be unclean. So, this category of “clean,” it's similar to sin, but it's not exactly the same as sin. You're not in sin because you get a skin disease. That doesn't mean you have fallen short of the glory of God in that you've done something wrong, see. So, this category, glory of “clean,” we’ve got to really get this in our minds. Like there were certain animals you can't eat because that animal is unclean. There were certain things like bodily discharges. If you do that, then you're unclean. Even if you touched a dead body, then you were considered unclean. And they give you the procedures of how to then get clean again. And until you are clean, you can't go offer your sacrifice. You can't go before God at the tabernacle or the temple. So, chapter 13, look at it with me. It's fifty-nine verses to help the priest diagnose who has leprosy so that they can be declared unclean. And in fact, here's what it says that person is supposed to do. Look at verse 45 of Leviticus 13. Now, before I even read this, let me throw up our Leviticus chart here, up on the screen.
I don't know when the last time you've read Leviticus. There are a lot of people these days make fun of Leviticus. Some of us here at the church, we've really grown to love the book of Leviticus, reading it together. And this was the chart we used last time we read through it, that the whole book takes place at the mountain where Moses and the people of Israel are meeting with God. So, the whole book of Leviticus, they come to the mountain in Exodus. They leave the mountain in Numbers. All of Leviticus is God giving his people instructions how God is going to live in the middle of his people. His holy presence, the cloud of glory, is going to be there in the tabernacle. And so, for God, who's holy, to dwell with the people of Israel who are definitely not holy, how's that relationship going to work? Well, you guys are going to need to do these sacrifices. You're going to need to have these priests. And then you can see, there's this whole section, verses 11 to 15. If you can't see it, it's saying, here's how you have to be clean. And then the Day of Atonement. Kinds of the highlight of the book, like the high priest is going to go into the holy place, and he's going to offer this sacrifice on behalf of the people, so the people can have this relationship with God.
And then the second half of the book is like, here's how you need to live, because your God is holy. And if you're going to be one of his people, you need to be holy as he is holy. So, make sure you don't do this and treat other people like this. And there are all these instructions if I'm going to be your God, and you're going to be my people, and you're going to come into my presence. Well, then it has to be like this. That's how it has to be for God to be in the midst of his people. And so, if you've got this skin disease, they aren't like sin things. They're just human, unclean body things. Well, somebody with that going on in their body, you can't go into the holy presence of God, and that's what these laws are about. And so, look at what it says. This is intense. Verse 45 of Leviticus 13, “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’” So, you’ve got to wear torn clothes so people can see that you have a skin disease, and you’ve got to let your hair grow, so people can know right by looking at you that they don't want to come near you, they don't want to touch you, because they'll be unclean, too. So, you have to warn everybody, watch out for me. I'm coming through, and I could make you unclean, too. In fact, look at what it says. “He,” this leprous person, “shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
So, now that we have this context, let's just think about what we read in Mark 1, a man with leprosy comes up to Jesus and kneels right in front of him, and I'm sure there were other people around. They see a leper boldly come right up to Jesus like that. He's not shouting “Unclean”. He's not keeping his distance. That's like a gasp moment. That's like a shocking thing. And then you're looking to see how is Jesus going to respond to this bold unclean man coming so close to him. What does Jesus do? Jesus reaches out and touches the unclean man. And instead of Jesus becoming unclean, he declares that the man is clean, and he heals him of his leprosy. And immediately, the man is made clean before God. Who is Jesus, in his power and his care for this man, that just by a touch, Jesus can make the unclean clean? So, this is like, I can't believe that leper just walked up to Jesus. Oh, wow. I can't believe Jesus touched him, and now Jesus is declaring him clean. I mean, this is an amazing scene, because lepers were supposed to be out of the camp, out of the town, out of the city. They don't just come walking right in like this.
So, I don't know if you just read over this in Mark 1, but I think the reason that this story is given to us, and it's in Matthew 8, it's in Luke 5, is this isn't just Jesus healing a disease. There's this interesting dynamic of what it means to be clean, and Jesus is touching the unclean and making them clean. And that's profound. That's powerful, because you can see being unclean was a very intense situation where you were then kind of outcast from society, not just from the presence of God, but from everybody, because if they touched you, they would be unclean, too. Now, in chapter 14 of Leviticus, it gives the instructions of how you go to the priest and how you get declared clean. And that's what Jesus tells the man to do. He says, go to the priest and keep what Moses commanded. So that's a direct reference from Jesus to Leviticus 14. And let's think this through. Where would the priest have been at the time Jesus said that? He would have been in what city? Jerusalem, where the temple is. So, think what Jesus just said to an outcast man who's not even supposed to be going in the cities and towns, not even supposed to be staying with his own family. He's supposed to be separate, set apart from everybody. Jesus just told him to go to the holy city, to go to the temple, to go to the priest, because now you are clean. And so, here's what Moses commanded, Leviticus 14, verse 1. It begins here, like a lot of Leviticus that the Lord or Yahweh spoke to Moses. That's what Leviticus is. It's what God said on the mountain to his people. “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop. And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.” And then it says he was to be cleansed.
And it goes on, look at how long this chapter is. It goes on to verse 57 of things this person needed to do to be clean. It happened over days, but they had to go to the priest. They had to sacrifice the bird, dip this bird, sprinkle the blood in the water, and then let the bird go free. And that's how the priest declared you clean. So that's what Jesus says to go to the guy. But you’ve got to see this isn't just like he got healed of leprosy. This is like he got brought into access with God. He could now not just even get restored to society, he got restored to access to God. So, the idea of being clean means you can go into the presence of a holy God.
And so, let's get that down for number one, if you are taking notes, we want to “Consider the ACCESS Jesus is willing to give you.” Consider the access Jesus is willing to give you that that now this guy who's an outcast, go to the priest in the temple and you can be cleansed and made right with God to go offer sacrifices there, to worship there. That's what we're talking about here. So, this is something even though we don't have this category from the law of Moses, like the Jews, of clean and unclean. Jesus declared all foods clean. So, we haven't learned to think in this way of what is clean or unclean. There's something very important we can learn from this, though, in fact, something I want to really encourage you to consider here today. Do you think that you can just casually go into the presence of God? Because if you have this casual, well, anybody can just go into the presence of God idea, that's never how we were taught the presence of God works. God is holy. God is radiant in all of his glory. We are fallen beings, living in a fallen world. Our bodies are frail. We have a sinful nature. We don't get to just casually go into the presence of God.
Every single person in this room, everybody watching this right now, if they're coming home from the retreat, everybody, we will all be before God. And when you are before God, will you be clean? God dwells in unapproachable light and glory and splendor, and you're going to see that someday. You're not just going to be in his presence, like how he's with us right now, someday, you will actually be in the same space as the holy one. Will you be considered clean in that moment, or not? That's actually a major issue. In fact, a lot of people, they don't think about this. They just think, well, I'll just go pray to God. Here, they are living in sin. Here, they are not obeying God's commands. They're doing things that contradict God. But then in a moment of great need, they cry out to God, and then they get angry. Why doesn't God answer my prayer? Well, are you even in a right position to approach God if you're living your life in sin?
See, this idea of being clean before a holy God, this is something worth considering. In fact, turn with me to 1 John, chapter 1, where it addresses this idea towards people like us in the Church of Jesus Christ. In John, starting out here in 1 John with his point that God is light and in God is no darkness. Make sure that when you're thinking about God, you're seeing him holy. You're seeing him high and lifted up. God is not like us. He is other than us. God is set apart from all sin. God is pure. He is radiant. He has splendor that will dazzle you and probably cause you to fall on your face. That's who God is. And so, John's calling people out. If you want to say you're in the light as he is in the light, but you're really in the darkness, well then that's a lie. You can act like you're right with God, but God knows who's really right with him. And then look at 1 John 1:7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And look at this, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from how much sin, does it say? From all sin? So let me just make it clear, no birds will be killed here today at church. All right? We will not be letting birds go after the service. Although that kind of does sound nice to some degree, there will be no birds killed or living here. The sacrifice that makes you clean is the blood of Jesus, Christ, and the only reason anybody in this room can ever hope to have your prayers answered or not to be condemned when you go before the Holy God on judgment day is the blood of Jesus, his Son, has cleansed you from all your sin. You have to get clean through the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus is the only way to get access with God. It's through his blood.
Now, maybe you're thinking, Well, I'm not that bad. I don't think God has that big a problem with me. Well, look at verse 8. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.” Notice that he cleanses us from what? All unrighteousness. So, we all have to agree with God. We all have to acknowledge that I am a sinner before a holy and set-apart God, and I am not worthy to go into his presence. I confess, I agree, and then what is God? God is faithful and just. He forgives us because of the sacrifice of his Son Jesus. He forgives us for our sin. And what does he do? He cleanses us from all of it, so that we can go into his presence. And then, well, I don't want to confess my sins. Well, look at what it says. “If we say we have not sinned,” verse 10, “we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” So, the Bible is very clear about who God is. He's holy, and the Bible is very clear about who we are. We are sinners. And we have to agree with that. We have to acknowledge that the only way to cleanliness is through confession and acknowledging, agreeing with God I'm not worthy of you, but then I trust in Jesus, and through that, I am cleansed through the sacrifice of his body and his blood. In fact, look at chapter 2, verse 1, “My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate. We have someone who stands to defend us. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation.” Propitiation is the atoning sacrifice. It's bearing the wrath of God and satisfying God's wrath. That's who Jesus is. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
So, even though we don't work in these kind of Jewish categories of clean or unclean, if you want to be able to go into the actual presence of God, you need to be cleansed. You need to have Jesus standing there to defend you. You need the body and the blood of Jesus to be clean, and then you can go before the Father in his glorious splendor, in his holy presence. So that's really what this is about. This isn't just another healing. This is about the idea of being clean and going into the presence of God with the priest in the temple. Now go back to Mark 1, because this has been a really difficult passage, really difficult sermon for me to prepare to be here with all of you, because in verse 41, do you see how it says in Mark 1:41, “Moved with pity”? It's the word “compassion” in Greek there. And I love this idea of compassion. So, when I was studying Mark, and I was planning out what we would do every week, and I knew we would get to this sermon, I was ready to talk about the compassion of Jesus. I was ready for us to go and talk about it in our Fellowship Groups. But as I started digging deeper into the Greek language, I started seeing that not all of the manuscripts that we have of the Scriptures, of the Greek New Testament, not all of them use the word “compassion” here. And see, compassion has become, for me, such a compelling idea. I mean the word “compassion,” what it means is you feel someone else's pain. And so, Jesus, when he looked at a crowd of people, he saw them how they really were, their souls and they're lost, and they need a shepherd to lead them. They need someone to come and save them. So, Jesus, he would see the needs of other people, and then he would feel their pain inside his own body, inside his own bowels. That's what compassion is. You feel somebody else's need inside of yourself. He feels compassion even in this gospel, like these people are hungry, they've been following me around, and they don't have anything to eat. He feels like their hunger, their physical need, he feels compassion. He says, we’ve got to give them something to eat. That's why he does these miracles of multiplying the loaves and the fish.
So, Jesus, he is compassionate, and he cares about other people's need. And then he feels that need himself. But then I started reading, no, the word here is actually this other word. It could be a different word that means “indignant”. It means, like, angry or annoyed. And I was like, Jesus makes this man clean, and he's angry with him. At first I was just like, what are we talking about? So, this is an issue of Textual Criticism. I don't know what you know about Textual Criticism, but of the Greek New Testament, there are over five thousand ancient manuscripts that they have found. Of these books of the Bible, that is way more than any other ancient work of literature, that there are thousands of these manuscripts. And when they look at all these manuscripts, what it means is, over the years, if anybody tried to change anything, well, we have so many manuscripts as the scribes copied it down as it was preserved. If there's any discrepancy, we can find it, because there are so many of these manuscripts. And so, this is a word where there is a discrepancy, and some of the manuscripts have the word for “compassion,” but then some of the manuscripts have the word for “being indignant.” And if you've ever studied Textual Criticism, and you try to see, well, if somebody would change a word, first of all, why would anybody do that? But usually, they wouldn't take a nice thought like “compassion” and then make it “indignant”. No, they would probably take a thought, like, Jesus was angry with the man he made clean, and they'd be like, that doesn't sound very nice. How about Jesus had compassion for the man he made clean? So, it's possible here that it the word was, Jesus was indignant with this man. And the first time I'm hearing this because I'm in the compassion mindset. I'm like what? This doesn't even make sense. Why do you make someone clean when you're angry with them? But, look at verse 43. Look at what it says here. “And Jesus,” notice this “sternly charged him,” that sounds intense. Chapter 14, verse 5, the same word is translated, “scolded,” and sometimes the word is even translated “snorted with anger,” is the idea. So, here's Jesus, right after he declares the man clean, and immediately the leprosy leaves him, and he is clean. Well then Jesus is like scolding the man. And then notice it says “he sent him away.” And how fast did he send him away? “Immediately,” like he was ready for the guy to go. In fact, when it says he sent him away, it's the same exact word as when Jesus has been casting out demons here in Mark 1. So, Jesus, after he declares the guy clean, he scolds him, and he immediately, “at once,” casts him out. And what does he say to the guy? Say nothing to anyone. Just go to the priest. Just go get declared clean as Moses commanded. Don't say anything to anyone. And what does the guy go do? He blabs it to everybody, right? He becomes one of the great evangelists, telling the message of Jesus when Jesus told him not to.
And so, all of a sudden, you start to, oh well, that would make sense, maybe, why Jesus would be indignant, why Jesus would strictly speak to this guy and why Jesus would send him away at once. Like, go to the priest. Go do what Moses said, because he already maybe knows what the guy's really going to do is go talk to all these people and like, hey, Jesus just totally cleansed me. He totally healed me of leprosy. And then what happens? Well, it creates this massive interest, this massive popularity, and now all these people are coming and looking for Jesus. And so, you realize, oh, this is what actually happens in these six verses. In Mark 1 is a guy who's a social outcast, and he can't even come into the towns. He comes to Jesus. He gets cleansed. He goes and tells everybody about it. So many people now are looking for Jesus that guess what? Jesus is now a social outcast who can't come into the towns. And so, it's like, wow, Jesus and this guy just traded places, and he just got the benefit of going anywhere he wants, even to the priest in the temple in the presence of God. And now Jesus can't go where he wants, and can't do the mission that he was on. Now, Jesus, he's out in the desolate places, out in the wilderness, and still the people are coming and looking for him. It's like from now on Jesus, if he's going into town, he's sneaking into town like a ninja, wearing a disguise, or he's coming in in the darkness of night. Jesus just can't walk into town. He's too popular now. People are getting on board this hype train, and that's not really what Jesus was about. In fact, go back to verse 38 because it's been a couple weeks since we were in Mark. Remember what Jesus says when he was getting really popular in the city of Capernaum, because he was casting out demons, he was giving authoritative teaching. He was healing all the diseases. What they said, everyone's looking for you Jesus. And what did he say to them? This is verse 38, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also for that is why I came out.”
Jesus just wanted to go to the synagogue. And Jesus had his message. And do you remember what the message of Jesus is? Going back to verse 15, “Now is the time the kingdom of God.” It's right there. You could reach out and grab it. You could seize it. Here's what you need to do, repent and believe in the gospel. That's the message Jesus wanted to go around and give to everybody in their synagogue and their town. Is that the message this clean leper now went to go tell everybody, repent and believe in the gospel? Or what was his message, hey, look what this guy will do for you.
See, there was this expectation among the Jewish people of a Messiah. And there they had this idea of the Messiah, but their idea of the Messiah did not really match the mission of Jesus. And so, the Jewish people, they have an expectation of someone who's going to come and overthrow the Romans who are oppressing them and restore Israel as the nation above all nations. And it's going to be a great time of wealth. And now we're saying this guy can heal diseases, this guy's over here sharing a message of prosperity. Hey, you want health. He can give it to you. Hey, maybe he's the one who could give us the political victory that we're looking for. Hey, here's what Jesus can do for you. And that's not the message that Jesus wanted to go and give in the towns. The message that Jesus wanted to give is, here's what you need to do. Turn from your sins, change your mind, trust in what I'm here to do. I'm here to give my life away and die, and on the third day I will be raised. That's the real message of Jesus. That's not what this guy went down to give. And so, Jesus, he's indignant, is possibly how to read this, he's sternly speaking to the guy. He's sending him away because he understands that this guy is going to make his life more difficult, and he's not going to be able to go to the towns like he wanted to and spread his message.
So, there's a trading of places. A social outcast comes into the scene, and Jesus is put out of the cities. That's what's happening here. Now, whenever you go through Mark, a lot of people always ask this question, which is, why does Jesus tell people not to say what he did for them? It's referred to as “The Messianic secret.” So, a lot of people ask this question. So, let's really try to answer this question once and for all together here today, because in Mark, we are regularly told that after some kind of miracle, Jesus will say, or after some kind of revelation, Jesus will say, don't tell anybody about this. Let's keep this with us. Why does Jesus do that? Why does he not want this man, who just got clean, who has a positive experience with Jesus, why does he not want him to go and talk to everybody? What's that really all about? Well, go back here in chapter 1. Go back to verse 25 and you'll see that this already happened once with a demon. Right? The Demon knew who Jesus was in the synagogue at Capernaum. “You're the Holy One of God.” And what did Jesus say to the demon?” But Jesus rebuked this demon, saying, ‘Be silent and come out of him.’ And the unclean spirit,” so that's how demons were referred to, is unclean spirits, spirits who don't belong in the presence of God. They don't have the access that they used to when they were an angel, before they were a fallen angel, these unclean spirits. Jesus doesn't want them talking to people about who he is. He doesn't want them announcing who he is. So that kind of makes sense.
You would not want to spread the Good News of who Jesus through the voices of demons. That would be a very weird way to go about spreading the good news, but why not these people who have received miracles? Why not them spreading the Good News of Jesus? Well, let's really study this. Go with me to chapter 5. I want to show you some of the other passages where Jesus asked people to not share what happens, to keep it a secret. And here in Mark, chapter 5, you can go to verse 43, this is the end of the story of Jairus’ daughter. We talked about this a few weeks ago. Jesus, he had great power to heal, great care for people, to heal them. And often times when Jesus healed, he would touch the person and he would raise them up, or he would call for them by the power of his word to rise. And here they think this girl has died. And so, Jesus, it says in verse 41 “Taking her by the hand.” This is Mark 5:41-42, “he said to her, ‘Talitha cumi,’ which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.” This amazing moment, here's dad, here's mom, here's their 12-year-old girl, and she's now walking around. We thought she was dead, she was alive. Wouldn't you want to go tell everybody that? Well, look what happens. Verse 43 “He strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat.” So, this is something Jesus regularly did, and Mark is recording it.
And there's something we're supposed to understand about this. Go over to chapter 8. Let me show you a couple more examples of this. In chapter 8, he heals a blind man at Bethsaida, and it's a really interesting miracle, because he does something with spit, and the man can kind of see, and then he touches him and restores his sight, and the man can completely see. So, it's kind of interesting how Jesus goes about that miracle. And look at verse 25 of Mark 8. “Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” Verse 26, “And he sent him to his home, saying, ‘Do not even enter the village.’” I want you to go straight home after this, right? I mean, you get the idea of the stern kind of strict talking is how a parent might speak to their kid. Look kid, we're going straight home after this. No dessert for you. That's kind of, hey, I'm glad you can see but go straight home. You're like, whoa, Jesus. Why are you so intensive? Don't even go in the village? Don't even let anybody see that? You can see that Jesus clearly has a thought about this, and he's really trying to get people to be on the same page with him. Look even at the next passage here. This is when Jesus goes to Caesarea Philippi with his twelve Disciples. And look at verse 29, “And he asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Christ.’” You're the Messiah. You are the Anointed One of God. All the prophecies are about you, and you are here to fulfill all the promises of God to his people. We know who you are. You're the one, and in celebration, here's what Jesus says in verse 30, “And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.”
Now maybe, if you're familiar with that, in Matthew, Peter's like, “You are the Christ, the Son of God,” and Jesus is like, yes, Peter, “and on the rock,” on the right answer that you just gave, on the revelation of who I am, “I will build my Church.” We love that verse here at this church, we're like, yeah. “and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Mark really tells the story a little bit differently here. You're the Christ. That's right. Let's keep that between us for now. Let's keep that on the down low. Let's not go around telling people I'm the Messiah. He's saying this to his own twelve Disciples when they have the right answer of who he is.
Now go with me to chapter 9. Maybe this will start teaching us why Jesus did this. Because in Mark 9, Peter, James, and John go up on the mountain with Jesus and he's transfigured. They get to see Jesus unveiled in all of his glory. Have you heard that story? Before Moses shows up, Elijah shows up. And God, the Father in heaven, says, “This is my son with whom I'm well pleased.” Listen to him, Peter, listen to him, James and John. And then it says in verse 9 of Mark 9, “As they were coming down the mountain, he charged them,” here we go again, “he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” See Jesus wanted the message to be the gospel message. And the gospel message is that the Christ came to suffer, came to be handed over to the bad guys, came to die, and then on the third day he would be raised. That's the message Jesus wanted everybody to go spread. It wasn't this, hey, he's going to heal you. Hey, he did this amazing thing. That wasn't the message. It's not even he's the Christ and he's coming to reign. Well, that's true, that's going to happen, but that wasn't why he came here. And so, after the resurrection, feel free to tell him all of it. Tell him about my glory, tell him who I am, but make sure that the death and the resurrection is a part of the message.
So, you can see here what Jesus' message is. He doesn't want everybody thinking that he's back to reign and to rule. And that's like what the Jews wanted. That's what some of the prophecies are about, that there's going to be a king on the line of David. He's going to reign in the land promised to Abraham. He's going to reign in the city of Jerusalem. And when Jesus comes, when this kingdom comes, and he reigns, Israel will become again the nation above every nation. And that's what the Jews wanted. And they were expecting it. They were ready for it. But Jesus did not come to do that. Jesus came to suffer and to die and then to rise from the dead, to offer everyone, Jew and Gentile, a whole new way of life. That's what he wanted everybody to know. And people were ready to jump straight to victory without seeing that the only way to get to glory is through suffering. And Jesus wanted people to see the suffering. That's why he came. He humbled himself to become obedient to the point of death on the cross. That's the message Jesus came to preach. That's the message he wanted to go out. That's not the message all these people were going to go and say, in fact, let me just show you. Go back to chapter 8. Look what Jesus says right after he tells them. And I really think this is the secret to understanding the gospel of Mark, right here is what Jesus tells them, you're the Christ. Okay, don't tell anyone I'm the Christ, right now. But let me teach you something. Look at Verse 31, “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days, rise again.” Okay, great. You guys know I'm the Christ. You understand I'm the Messiah. Let me tell you the game plan from here on out. I'm going to suffer. The elders, the scribes, the chief priests, the guys, I'm always speaking against the bad guys. Yeah, I'm going to be handed over to them, and they're going to kill me, and then on my third day, I'll rise from the dead. How does Peter take this message that Jesus gives him here? Peter pulls Jesus aside and what? Rebukes him, to which Jesus has to say to Peter, “Get behind me,” who everybody? Satan. Do you see how, not even Peter, who's getting the right answer that “you're the Christ,” but he's not getting the right gospel. He's not understanding what Jesus really came to do. Peter doesn't think the Messiah is coming to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. He thinks the Messiah is going to reign as a glorious King. You're not going to suffer, you're not going to die. That's not for you. “Get behind me,” who? “Satan”.
Now go over to chapter 9. He says it again in verse 30. It's like he wants to really teach his disciples this. In Mark 9:30-31, “They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples.” Here it is guys. To go in stealth mode, right? We're going like ninjas, right? We don't want anybody to know what's going on. Why? Because he's “teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’ But they did not understand.” Even the twelve Disciples don't understand what Jesus is doing. In fact, what's the heading above the very next paragraph, who is the what, everybody? Here's Jesus over here saying, I'm going to suffer. They're going to kill me. This is about to get really rough, and they're over here being like, well, who do you think is the best disciple? I'm pretty sure it's me, because I'm definitely way better than you. I mean, what's your opinion? Do you agree that it's me? Because that's the conversation they're having over here, while Jesus is saying, let's go towards suffering over here. It's almost like the reason Jesus has a messianic secret is the real reason he's here is a secret only to himself, that nobody else is even getting in on, even his own. Guys don't understand, if you're going to follow me, I'm on the road to suffering, I'm carrying a cross, I'm going to die.
That's the invitation of Jesus Christ. And to this very day, many people are ready to say what Jesus will do for you, but they're not really saying what Jesus did. And they're not really saying, if you want to follow Jesus, you’ve got to go like this, suffering, death. That's the way. And Jesus's disciples are arguing about who's the greatest disciple, while the one who's leading them and setting the example is laying his life down willingly. He tries to tell them again here in chapter 10, verse 32. They're on the road. They're going to Jerusalem, and then in verse 32 they're all amazed. There are people afraid. They're not quite sure what to think about Jesus. “And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him.” Verse 33, here he goes again, third time, saying, see, we are going up to Jerusalem. Look how specific he gets. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. You guys think I'm going to overthrow the Romans. I'm going to be handed over to the Romans. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him. That means, whip him, and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. Guys, just to make sure you've got the right expectations about what we're going to do in Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders are going to hand me over to the Roman authorities, who will have me hit in the face. They will strip me naked. They will beat me up. They will say prophesy, who hit you, they will whip me, and they'll kill me. And on the third day, I will rise, and you can see the very next paragraph, if James and John saying, that's nice, Jesus, but when we get to the kingdom, we're going to get to sit next to you, right? Like, can we start talking about the seating order? Because we're pretty sure we should be the closest to you. Do you agree Jesus?
Do you see the level of disconnect that is happening in the Gospel of Mark? Jesus is indignant because people are talking about him in a way that is not true to the reality of why he came, because there's a gross misunderstanding going on. Because Jesus is like, guys, I came to give my life away as a ransom for many, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. I came to cleanse people, and they're going to go tell everybody, and I'm going to become an outcast. See Jesus, what he understands that a lot of us maybe really need to consider here today is, yes, there's a great freedom from your sin in being cleansed by Jesus, but there was a great cost that Jesus paid so that we could be clean.
Let's get that down for point number two. You want to “Consider what it COST Jesus to take your place.” Consider what it cost Jesus to take your place. Maybe this story I’ve got to tell you. As I've been studying this, I went from getting hyped about compassion to totally understanding why Jesus would be angry with this man, this man who just took the cleansing and made it all about telling everybody what Jesus told him not to do, and how that made it more difficult for Jesus. When you see the trading of places where the social outcast is now accepted and Jesus is now kind of cast out of the cities and towns, you realize, wow, that guy really did Jesus dirty. That doesn't seem right. How that worked out for Jesus. Jesus helped him out, but it made it harder for Jesus. And then, all of a sudden, as I'm studying, I start to think, yeah, well, what did it cost Jesus for me to be able to get right with God? What did it cost Jesus for me to be clean so that I could go into the presence of God, that I could have the hope of life after death, that I could behold the glory of the Lord and be in his holy presence. How does somebody like me get to really go into the glory of God? Wow. What did it cost my lord for me? See, you start to realize, wow. Jesus really went through it. Jesus, he really got humbled. He really suffered. And why did he do all that? He did it for me. See, the man who's a leper only considered what happened for himself, and he did not really consider Jesus, who did it for him. And I want to make sure that as our church, we don't just go take the blessings and run, but we come and say, wow, Jesus, why would you do that for somebody like me, a sinner, someone who's unworthy. You're worthy. I'm not worthy, and yet you treated me in the way that you should have been treated. I want to take a moment to say, wow, thank you Jesus for what you did.
In fact, go with me to Luke 17, because there's another story of lepers being cleansed. In fact, in Luke 17:11-19, there are ten lepers who get cleansed. And it's very similar, go to the priest. Show yourself to the priest. And so here in Luke 17, verse 11, “on the way to Jerusalem,” and he's in between here, Samaria and Galilee. So, you’ve got to kind of know the geography. There's Jerusalem in the south, where a lot of the Jews are, there's Galilee in the north, where a lot of the Jews are, and in between is Samaria. And remember Samaria, when the Assyrians kind of invaded the northern kingdom of Israel, they brought in other people, foreigners, and then the foreigners and the Jews mixed and intermingled there in Samaria. So, the other Jews thought people from Samaria were like half breeds, and there was definitely racism going on there in Israel against Samaria. And so that's important here in this story. “As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers.” And these guys, they're not boldly coming up to him like the guy in Mark 1. No, they're at a distance. And they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests, which is Leviticus 14 in action. And as they went, they were cleansed. So, as they're going to the priest at the temple in Jerusalem, all of a sudden they begin to notice there's no skin disease. They have been made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. He's one of these people where the Jews have intermingled with others. And then Jesus answered. Look at what Jesus says about this. “Were not ten cleansed. Where are the nine?” Here's Jesus cleansing people. Here's Jesus blessing people. And Jesus is very aware who comes back to give thanks and who just takes the blessings and runs. Hey, where are the other nine? Weren't there ten guys cleansed? How come only one is coming to give thanks? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner. How come the Jews don't get this? You see how Jesus is exposing that he said to him, “Rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well.
And if we're going to take some time to take communion and give thanks here, in a moment, I want to strongly encourage you, don't be like the nine. Thank you, Jesus, but I’m going to be like this guy, the Samaritan, who comes to the feet of Jesus and praises God and gives thanks. See, part of the problem, I think of the Messianic Secret is Jesus knew that the Jewish expectation of the Messiah did not match the reality of what he came to do. And so, go with me to Mark 5:18. This is really interesting, because in Mark 5 we have the story of the man who was possessed by many demons. In fact, they said their name was Legion, for we are many. So, this is the guy in Mark 5. He's kind of the ultimate example of demon possession. He's out there with the tombs. He's this crazy guy. No one can bind him. He's got all these demons in him. And if you know the story, Jesus casts out the demons, and he cast them into what, everybody? Pigs. Now, let's think this through, if you're going back through our whole sermon.
Now, if you know anything about clean and unclean, to the Jews, pigs are clean or unclean? Which one? Okay, so if there's a bunch of pigs over there, we are not where the Jews are here in Mark 5. We've gone over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to the land of the Gerasene, over here, to this place called the Decapolis, where there's Decapolis, ten cities, but they're Gentile cities. They're not Jewish cities. And so, look at this interesting answer from Jesus here in Mark 5:18, “As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. Jesus, thank you for saving me from those demons. I want to come with you. I want to be one of your disciples. And Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. And he went away and began to proclaim in these ten Gentile cities, the Decapolis, how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone marveled. Why such a different response from Jesus? Why is Jesus over here being strict? Tell nobody. And then over here, he's like, go tell all ten cities what I did for you, because these Gentiles didn't have this Jewish expectation that the Messiah was going to be the king. They didn't want a political victory. They weren't looking for some health victory, and so maybe the message of Jesus, they could understand it for what it really was. But the Jews don't go telling them, because they're going to take it the wrong way. They're not going to see what I really came to do.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 12, because it actually explains the Messianic Secret here in Matthew chapter 12, if you can, turn with me to verse 15. Jesus is doing his healing, and then he's telling them not to tell anyone. Here in Matthew 12, if you go to verse 15 here, this is, I think, a really important passage. If somebody ever asks you the question of the Messianic Secret, it would probably be good to use these verses to help in your explanation of why would Jesus want people to be quiet about it? Well, hopefully you're starting to understand they're going to give the wrong version of the message, and they're not going to say it like this. Matthew 12:15, that they're already getting ready to destroy Jesus, the religious leaders of the Jews. And so, Jesus aware of this, he withdrew from there. Many followed them. He healed them all. And then look at verse 16, “He ordered them not to make him known.” Hey, I'll heal you, but let's not go tell everybody about this. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. And now we have here Isaiah 42 verses 1 to 4 here, which is the first of the Servant Songs in Isaiah, the suffering servant. He goes by from Isaiah 42 to Isaiah 53. There are four different Servant Songs where God talks about his servant who's going to come and suffer. Most famously in Isaiah 53 “A man of sorrows, who will be well acquainted with grief. He will be pierced for our transgressions, He will be crushed for our iniquities. Upon him is the chastisement that brings us peace, and by his wounds, we are” what, everybody? Ready to run with the healing, but who's coming back to thank him for the wounds?
See, there might even be people here today. You want all the life that Jesus will give you. You just don't really take the time to think that it cost him his very life to give it to you. And that's the story of Jesus. It's a story of how he came to serve, and he came to suffer, and he calls us to follow him that we could share in the fellowship of his suffering. Is there glory to come? Yes, unbelievable glory to come. There's only one way to get there, suffering, death. That's how you get to glory. That's the Messianic Secret.
And so, look at this description of this servant. “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.” Here's God speaking about his son. “I will put my spirit upon him.” We saw that at the baptism of John the Baptist. “And he will proclaim justice to the nations, to the Gentiles. He is going to show people the way of righteousness.” And look at these two descriptions of him. Verse 19, “He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.” He's not trying to be mister popular. He's not trying to start a hype train that everybody can get on board. If you think Jesus cared about being popular in the crowds, you don't know Jesus. He came to do his Father's will, not to please people. He wasn't out there making a big deal about himself. In fact, look at verse 20, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings the justice,” until he accomplishes that justice. See, I love these two pictures. Here a bruised reed is like a little plant that's already ready to break. This reed, shooting up, but it's already bruised. It's fragile. It's frail. It's about ready to fall over. In fact, if you just brush up on it, if you step on it, you probably could snap this. And see Jesus, even though Jesus has the almighty power of God, he comes in with such a gentleness, such a care, that even the bruised reed, he doesn't break, even the smoldering wick, even the little flame of a candle that's about to burn out, it's about to run out of oil, it's about to extinguish, that flame is about to go into darkness. Well, when Jesus comes through, he doesn't even just extinguish the fire. It doesn't get just, by the wind of him passing, it's not blown out. No, even just the people who are broken, even the people who are about to expire and pass away, the hurting, the sick, the hopeless, oh, he cares for all of them. See, there's a suffering like Jesus is here to bear people's burdens. He's inviting you to come in because his yoke is easy and his burden is light, but just because your burden gets carried, don't forget who came to carry the burden, and it was a great weight upon him to go and face the wrath of God for your sin, to go and get a just punishment for everything you've done, said, or thought, Jesus, it cost him a lot so that you could be clean.
And we need to take a moment to really feel that right now. And so, I'm going to invite the guys to come, and they're going to do a worship song, but there's not going to be any singing. There's not going to be any lyrics. The song is, Jesus, keep me near the cross, and you're going to give the lyrics. You're going to have a time of prayer right now to prepare your heart for communion. This is your moment to consider what it costs Jesus so that you could be cleansed. It cost him his body and his blood, these two things that we're going to remember about his death. And so, this is a chance for you to come and fall at the feet of Jesus and to thank him, and to maybe feel afresh, or maybe even for the first time, what Jesus had to carry, because he had to carry your sin when he died on that cross. And now I'm telling you that someday, when there's a great city and Jesus is on the throne, the City of God, where God dwells, someday you'll be able to go right into the heart of that city. And the reason you'll be able to go into the heart of that city is because Jesus was taken outside the city, and he was nailed to a cross, and his blood flowed down to the ground, and he sacrificed his body. So, he's the bird that died, so to speak, and we're the bird that gets to live. That's what Jesus did for you. What do you have to say to him about it? We're going to give you a chance to say it right now.
Father in heaven, we just must confess that we want to be clean and we want to go to heaven, and we want to be right, but sometimes we don't really think about what that meant for Jesus, and sometimes we just want the blessings, but we don't want to carry the cross and really follow Jesus. So, God, I pray that a secret of Jesus would not be a secret to us, that we would see that he came to suffer, that he didn't come to overthrow the Romans. He came to be handed over to the Romans. He didn't come to defeat the enemies. In fact, the enemies falsely accused him, and he was killed on the cross. He was offered as a sacrifice. His blood was shed, and the reason all of that tragedy happened was for our sins. It was by his wounds that we're healed. It's by his blood that we’re made clean. And so, I pray that in this moment, right now, that you would keep us near the cross and that we could say thank you to Jesus. I pray that we would not be the nine who ran on the way, but that we would be the one who comes back, falling at the feet of Jesus, saying thank you so much for bearing the weight of my sin. Please hear our prayers now, and the only way that we can come to you is in the name of Jesus Christ.