At the end of Jesus’ life, the night before he died, Jesus said to the Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. How could Jesus say that? There were still hundreds of lepers who needed healing, prostitutes who needed the restoring power of Christ’s love, and Pharisees who needed to be rebuked for their moralistic arrogance that blinded them to their need of a savior.
Yet, he was certain that he had brought glory to the Father by accomplishing the mission marked out for him. Jesus had to wrestle with all the incessant demands that cried out for his energy and attention, just as we have to in the 21st century—but he stayed focused on his mission. This episode examines HOW.
Last week, we examined three powerful reasons why faithfulness to Christ's calling for us requires intentionality.
- Adam and Eve were not created to be on vacation in paradise. God explained to them that they were created to shape, to impose their will upon creation using five action verbs to communicate their responsibility to them. “BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, FILL the earth, SUBDUE it, and HAVE DOMINION OVER creation. So, at the core of humanness is the calling to order our lives and shape our surroundings.
- We saw further that Jesus restated the original calling of Adam and Eve to spread righteousness over the earth, in the words of Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. By definition, the word, seek requires intentionality, meaning to pursue, to go after. It means deciding to move towards a goal, whether it is seeking a better paying job or the quickest route to the shopping center. It means NOT being preoccupied, says Jesus earlier in Matthew 6, by 1) the fear of what others think of us, 2) by the love of control that money gives us, or by 3) everyday worry. In contrast, says Jesus, your energy and focus are to be upon spreading Christ righteous rule over every aspect of your life, and beyond your own life through those you influence in the world around you.
- We further saw last week that our core motivation as Christ-followers, i.e. loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength requires intentionality—for one reason. Jesus is crystal clear that his love language is obedience to his commands. If you love me, you will keep my commandments (vs 15) ….Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me (vs 21). When you love someone, you find out what pleases him. Active devotion to knowing and thinking through how to implement what Jesus commanded of us in our everyday lives is the only path to true allegiance to our Lord. Such devotion requires a game-plan.
Last week we also did a brief drone fly over of Jesus’ three-year ministry observing how he constantly took charge of his life, guiding and shaping it according to the mission he was assigned by the Father. Now, we want to put on the zoom lens for a close-up look at HOW Jesus stayed focused on the Father’s mission for him. (Mark 1:32-39).
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, "Let us go to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came." And he went throughout Galilee,preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
On Saturday night, sundown marked the end of the Sabbath, so the whole town of Capernaum made its way to Peter’s home, which was less than 100 feet from the synagogue. Earlier that day, in the synagogue, the people had seen Jesus’ striking display of power in casting out an unclean spirit. Perhaps word had also gotten out about Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother-in-law just that afternoon. So, Mark tells us, “The whole city was gathered together at the door.” Luke tells us that Jesus laid his hands on every one of those who was sick, healing them. Finally, Jesus turns in for the night. But while he catches a few winks, many of Capernaum’s town folk excitedly head out in the dark to nearby towns to tell their sick or paralyzed aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends about Jesus’ miraculous healing power. Sunday (Jesus’ first day of the work week in that culture) was about to become more chaotic for Jesus and his disciples than Saturday evening had been. But incredibly, Jesus is nowhere to be found. In fact, even more incredibly, when the disciples do find Jesus, he says, “We are moving on to the next town.” What?
Jesus had found a quiet time of the day and a quiet place, where he could shut out the world to reflect upon his mission with his Commander In Chief. In fact, this was the pattern of Jesus’ life. Later in Jesus’ ministry, after he had cleansed a leper, Luke writes, But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray (Luke 5:15-16). Jesus continually withdrew to a place where he could shut out the world, to reflect upon his mission, and undergird it with prayer. We know he undergirded his mission with prayer, because he taught US to undergird our mission to seek the reign of Christ’s righteousness by praying, “May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We also know Jesus bathed his mission in prayer because he told us so. He said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22-31-32).
Back in Mark 1, during the early morning hours in Capernaum, in those quiet moments of reflection with his CO, how did Jesus know that he needed to adjust his game plan and move on to the next town? How did he know that he needed to keep healing from getting in the way of preaching and focus less on healing? That is the decision that Jesus’ words conveyed. “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may PREACH there also, for that is why I came.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. We are not told how Jesus decided in prayer that he should move on to the next town to preach. But, there is a logical explanation. Just before he had arrived in Capernaum, Jesus had been in Nazareth where he had gone to his boyhood synagogue, opened the scrolls to the great description of the Messiah given by the prophet Isaiah. He read it and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Here are the words from Isaiah revealing the messianic job description, quoted by Jesus:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:18-19)i
This prophecy of the coming of the Messiah (Anointed One), which Jesus claimed to fulfill, is the good news (gospel) of Adam’s kingdom being set free from its slavery to Satan, sin, and death, and the kingdom of Christ’s righteousness, (wholeness) taking its place. These words from Isaiah picture total restoration—both spiritual and physical—where the curse upon Adam’s kingdom for his sin, earth, causing sickness, pain, and death is reversed. Because the coming of Christ inaugurates a new spiritual kingdom and the renewal of everything broken by sin, this renewal portrayed by Isaiah is both spiritual and physical. The Messiah exhibits both WORD ministry and DEED ministry—the WORD being the primary weapon in the spiritual battle. But equally important is the Messiah’s DEED ministry—demonstrating mercy to the poor, sick, & dying.
So, the job description of the Messiah is to fix everything broken both spiritually and physically. That is what the phrases used in the prophecy convey. The Messiah will: 1) proclaim good news to the poor. Whether the oppressor of the poor is the injustice by which men treat the weak, or their own sinful nature leading them to make destructive choices, Christ kingdom will set the poor free. He will 2) proclaim liberty to the captives. Jesus’ casting out of demons is a visible picture that the Messiah has come to overthrow the Evil One, and a reference to our races’ slavery to sin being broken. He will 3) proclaim recovery of sight to the blind clearly pointing to Jesus fixing the broken, physical world. The Messiah will 4) set at liberty those who are oppressed, which may refer to the oppression of all three tyrants, 1) by their own sinful nature or unjust oppression because of the sin of others, 2) by Satan, and the demonic host, 3) by incurable diseases, paralysis and death. All are overthrown by Christ’s restoration of Adam’s fallen, diseased kingdom. He 5) proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor. This is a reference to the Year of Jubilee, which was to require all the individual parcels of the promised land in Israel to be returned to their original owners every fifty years. This concept celebrated that no matter how badly we mismanagement of our lives or how much we are oppressed by injustice, our inheritance will still come to us. It is a picture of the GRACE of Messiah Jesus overcoming SIN and ITS CONSEQUENCES.
What does this detailed description of the Messiah’s mission have to do with Jesus’ prayer time in the wilderness outside of Capernaum? I believe he was wrestling with the balance of his WORD and DEED ministries. His Word ministry, preaching, his deed ministry healing. His healing Saturday night was not only an expression of the Lord’s love and mercy for those suffering; it also portrayed the kingdom Jesus was inaugurating—where all bodies are made whole. Nevertheless, Jesus tweaks his mission, saying it is time to move on to other villages, and he adjusts his focus away from healing to PREACHING.
This snapshot of the sun rising over Jesus at prayer reveals Jesus modeling a foundation principle for his followers—the need to regularly find a time to get away to a quiet place and shut out the world to review our mission with our CO. You and I might say, “That’s great, but I can’t just get up from my job to go into the wilderness or shut out my busy family, especially since my wife and kids need MORE of me not LESS of me.” But, what if all along, God created this world with a designed cycle—to go hard for six days but then take a day to rest, to reflect on our mission, to reenergize, and to refocus? Could Sunday be the place to steal an hour?
Let’s listen to God’s wisdom about the creation of the seventh day and the principle of rest. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation (Gen 2:1-3).
I believe that one of the great tragedies of Christianity today is that for the most part we are shaped by one of two imbalanced views of the fourth commandment: Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy (Ex 20:8). One view argues that the fourth commandment is part of the OT law and therefore not relevant for Christians. This view misunderstands the various categories of OT law. The CEREMONIAL law, which had to do with feast days and purification rituals, was designed to point to God’s holiness and according to Hebrews, is fulfilled in Christ. The second OT category of law was CIVIL. Such laws spelled out justice for society. They were specific to Israel’s unique calling to be a theocracy. Most Christians believe that so far as a nation patterns its laws after the general equity of these laws, it will be blessed (with the exception of laws like the death penalty for adultery, or Satan worship). The third category of OT law is the MORAL law, which is summarized by the Ten Commandments. NT teaching reinforces nine of the ten commandments, proving that the moral law of the OT does come into the NT. The fact that God puts the fourth commandment right up there with, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not lie, You shall have no other God’s before me, makes it problematic for Christians to just ignore this commandment. Yet it is the fourth commandment that is the one commandment not repeated in the NT.
The opposite view imports the fourth commandment, which was originally given just to one nation, into the NT era and demands that Christians all over the world make the same commitment to obeying the fourth commandment that was required of Israel: “Christian, you must obey this commandment,” which says, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Ex 20:8-11).
I am personally committed to obeying the moral principle behind the fourth commandment—remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. I believe the Bible teaches us to set apart the Lord’s Day in some way for the Lord. That is what the word, holy means. The early Christians changed the Day of worship from the Saturday Sabbath of Judaism to Sunday the Lord’s Day, because Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. However, the early Christians did not rest from work on the Lord’s Day. They would have, had they thought it was a moral imperative. Their Sunday was like our Monday, the first day of their work week. So, they met for worship after work, which explains why Paul talked until midnight in Acts 20: On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them…until midnight…. Eutychus, sitting at the window…being overcome by sleep, fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. (Paul raises him from the dead). Sunday, the first day of the week has been celebrated by Christians as the day of worship since the Sunday of Christ’s resurrection. But that day of worship was not a day of rest until 300 years later, when Constantine made Sunday a day of rest in the Roman empire.
I believe there is both a compelling moral principle revealed to us in the fourth commandment and a compelling creation principle. Above all, I believe that the whole concept of sabbath—a day for rest, reflection, renewal and recalibration was designed by God to be a great blessing to us. Some Christians have turned it into a legalistic rule about whether you can eat out at a restaurant or watch football games on Sunday afternoons. (Believe me, I know. I was one of them!) But the fourth commandment, as all God’s commandments are, IS GIVEN TO US BY GOD AS A GREAT BLESSING, which is why Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).
The compelling moral principle is, in my view, to set apart in some way the first day of the week as the day of Christ’s resurrection. The way the church has done that is by worshipping on that day. When I must travel on the Lord’s Day, I still try to set it apart by giving God at least some special minutes to adore him. However, it is the compelling creation principle of setting apart at least one day in seven for physical rest, reflection, renewal and recalibration that most attracts me to the wisdom of the fourth commandment. What if God deliberately designed a day of rest—the cessation of his work assignment for us for physical rest. French factory workers concluded there may be a ratio of exertion to rest bult into the physical world. When they tried a ten-day work week, the machinery broke down, causing them to return to one day in seven and shut down the factory one day. Could this “rest day” also be to enjoy and reflect upon our work. When Genesis 2 tells us that God rested from his work of creation, resting had to mean more than just taking a break from the exertion of working. God doesn’t get tired from working! Resting must imply at the very least reflecting upon and delighting in what he had made. Could a rest day be for renewal of our emotional, and spiritual energies, not just for our bodies? Could a day to rest be for recalibrating our efforts to fulfill our mission, as Jesus did outside Capernaum?
Last week, I stressed that no Super Bowl coach would step onto the field without a game plan. I mentioned that the generic game plan that our ministry offers men is one that breaks down our mission into three callings: 1) the call TO Christ—to enjoy a love relationship with him, 2) the call to BE LIKE Christ—growing into Christ like heart attitudes, 3) the call to EXERCISE DOMINION FOR Christ—implementing Christ’s agenda in our roles as husband, father, employee/employer, neighbor, church member, steward of resources, and ambassador of the kingdom. (By the way, we have a tool in our bookstore to help you design your own gameplan for achieving these objectives.)
But there might be something dumber than playing a Super Bowl game without a game plan. That is HAVING A GAME PLAN AND NEVER LOOKING AT IT DURING THE GAME. Luke tells us that the busier Jesus’ life became, the more he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. What if you made a commitment to use the gift of rest God has given to us each week? What if you committed to finding one hour sometime on Sunday—before church, in the afternoon, evening, or before you went to bed to do what Jesus did—meet with your Commander In Chief, bask in his unconditional love for you no matter how much you’ve failed him the past week, pour out your needs to him and the needs of your loved ones, receive fresh inspiration to honor him with your life, and had time to tweak how you are trying to prove fruitful for him. Is there any better way to way to honor him? By this is my father glorified—that you bear much fruit and so prove that you are my disciples.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- Do you agree that one thing dumber than not having a game plan for the Superbowl might be HAVING a gameplan but NEVER LOOKING AT IT DURING THE GAME? How is this analogy for our efforts to implement Christ’s agenda in each sphere of our lives a fair analogy or unfair one.
- Why might Christians be impoverished by either ignoring the fourth commandment or by becoming legalistic about it? How would you present the fourth commandment as a blessing?
- How would you answer the argument, “I can’t imagine taking an hour just to sit and talk with Jesus each week when what I really need is more time spent with my wife and children?”
