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Mark 1:35-39

January 22, 2023

He Went Out to a Desolate Place to Pray

Part 1

One of the most astounding scenes in the gospels is to witness God the Son talking privately with God the Father.

“He Went Out to a Desolate Place to Pray, Part 1”; Mark 1:35-39 0294 Our champion has endured this fatiguing day of yesterday, he has endured the healings and the authoritative teachings, and the casting out of the demons. And all of this took a great deal from him. After this, Jesus will get just a few hours of sleep, and then he will rise early in the morning, to find some time alone, a time and a space of solitude in which he can then go to the Father. And then we will read that he will be interrupted while engaging in prayer with the Father. And this will be our passage for today. So, let's read our passage from verse 35, through verse 39. 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 on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went through all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and casting out demons. So, as we pick up in our text from verse 35, we read these words; and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark. So, rising early in the morning tells us that after this day that Jesus had yesterday of this, this fatiguing, very tiring day, he at least got a little bit of rest, because as he rises, he would have at least laid down for a period of time, maybe a power nap, or maybe a sleep of an hour or two or three or four hours. It's easy to see that the events of the previous day would have spilled into the early hours of the morning, or at least past the midnight hour, which would then leave Jesus, if he's going to rise before the rising of the sun, maybe just a handful of hours of sleep. So, rising early in the morning, he departs out to pray. And remember, this is the account, these are the memoirs of Peter. Mark is writing this for us, but he's writing down the stories and the memories of Peter. And so, Peter himself being a fisherman would have been someone who was accustomed to rising early and before the Before the rising of the sun. So, perhaps Peter was somewhat awake, perhaps he was awake enough to hear Jesus get up and leave out, or perhaps not. Perhaps he as well as the others just sort of woke up and saw that Jesus was gone, and then knew that he had left prior to the rising of the sun. But in either case, Jesus rises, mark says, very early in the morning, while it was still dark. And he departed, and went out to a desolate place. So, here Mark has now used the same word five times. The word here translated ‘desolate place’ is the same word that we saw earlier translated as ‘wilderness,’ same word. Eremos in the Greek, and so, it means just this desolate wilderness sort of place. Earlier, as Jesus was forced, or cast, sent out into the wilderness for his period of temptation, Mark used the same word there to describe a desolate place that was physically desolate; desolate of water, desolate of food, desolate of shelter, a very hostile place to be, a hostile place to live. And that was where Jesus was at for his time of temptation and trial. Here, Mark uses the same word to describe a desolate place that he seeks in order to find a solitude for prayer. So, we talked a couple of times previously about Capernaum. And in Capernaum, there would not have been a place near Capernaum that Jesus could have walked to that could be described as physically desolate. So, what Mark means here is not desolate in the sense of treeless and waterless and foodless, and shelterless. But I think what he means here is desolate in the sense of desolate of people, void of people, absent of people, a desolate place. So, Mark, as we talked about this on this past Wednesday, Mark is someone who loves to make contrasts. He loves this kind of bookending stories with this, this point, in which he puts the point at the beginning and the point at the end, and he's accenting what he's, what he's teaching in the middle, of what he's recounting in the middle. And here's another one of those occasions where I think that perhaps Mark wants us to see a connection here between Jesus’ going into the wilderness for temptation, and Jesus’ going to the desolate place for prayer. So, the place of the wilderness desolation that was a place of great trial and temptation. But now this place of this wilderness, this desolate place, is not a place of temptation, but it's a place of strengthening, a place of communing with the Father. So, perhaps, perhaps Mark wants us to see here, that the place that was the wilderness that was the place of trials and temptation, there's a connection between there and the place of strengthening the place of communing with the Father. So, he goes into this desolate place, and we read this; that there, he prayed. And so, this is an invitation for us to just pause here and just reflect upon the prayers of Christ, the prayers of Jesus. And so, as we begin to think about the prayer of Jesus, as Jesus prayed here to his Father, we are reminded that the Scriptures, of course, tell us that Jesus was a person of prayer, a man of prayer. We're told that he prayed quite frequently. Mark will tell us of three occasions of Jesus's prayer. And all three occasions, as I said―Mark likes to track themes through, and he likes to use this to bookend certain points that he's making. And so, Mark is going to take the prayers of Jesus, three prayers of Jesus, chapter one right here, the next one will be in chapter six, right before he walks on the water. And the final one will be of course, in chapter 14 in the Garden of Gethsemane. All three of those instances of prayer that Jesus that were told in Mark's gospel of Jesus prayer, all three of those instances take place at night, all three of them take place in a solitude, place of desolation, and all three of them take place within the context of Jesus's temptation to avoid the hard way of obedience to his Father, and instead, take the easy way. So, here Jesus will experience this temptation. Just a few verses of the disciples, we know the story, they come, and they say; the crowd is clamoring for you Jesus. You were a big hit last night. Why would you want to leave all this? Stay here and enjoy this popularity. Chapter six, we're going to see the same sort of thing; Jesus will pray right after the feeding of the 5000. The feeding of the 5000 was when they clamored for him to be king, they wanted to take him and make him king. Why do this cross thing Jesus? Just be king, we will anoint you. And then of course, the final one will take place in chapter 14 in the Garden. As the temptation comes to Jesus there to avoid the cross, to avoid the hard way of obedience to the Father. So, all three times take place at night. They take place alone in solitude, and they take place in the context of Jesus being tempted to avoid the harder path of obedience, and instead, take the easier path of earthly recognition and earthly ease. So, these instances of Jesus prayer, three of them come to us in Mark's gospel, but many more instances of Jesus' prayer comes to us in the other gospels. We’re told of Jesus praying on so many different occasions; Jesus will pray before he chooses his apostles. He'll pray before he feeds the 5000. He prays before the Mount of Transfiguration, he'll pray before he raises Lazarus from the grave, He will pray from the cross, He will teach His disciples to pray. In fact, the only thing Jesus's disciples ever asked them him to teach them was how to pray. Nothing else is recorded in the gospels that the disciples came to Jesus, and said: teach us how to forgive, or teach us how to preach. Instead, the only thing they asked Jesus to teach them was how to pray. And then of course, he teaches them how to pray. So, Jesus is portrayed for us in the gospels as a man of prayer. And so, this is, this is a moment for us to pause and just reflect upon the prayer of Jesus. And in two ways, let's think about the prayer of Jesus as regards his prayer. But then we'll also think about the prayer of Jesus as it relates to us, as it relates to our prayers. So, as we approach this, one of the things that I want to do is just set the context to set the mindset, to avoid us approaching the passage wrongly, because this is a passage that's quite easy for us to come to with the type of a flippant sort of attitude, and just take it as something that's showing us how Jesus prayed and how he rose early in the morning and sought his Father in prayer. And so, therefore, we should be people who seek solitude and seek to pray and commune with the Father before our day as well. There you go, right? And that's in the text, that's in the text. But that is not the main point of the text. The main point of the text is not to show you how you are to pray. The main point of the text is to present us with a stunning picture, an astounding picture of something that we only see in the gospels just a handful of times. Because what was shown in this passage is nothing less than the Son of God talking to God the Father. We see God talking to God. And so, we should be careful to approach the passage with appropriate reverence of what we're being shown here. Because what we're being shown is not just a 45 second grocery list that Jesus is lifting up at the beginning of his day. What we're being shown is the perfect sinless human Jesus and the sinless Son of God, denying themselves the necessities of life―in this case, sleep―after a very long and exhausting day. Denying the necessities of life, to instead go to a secret place, and wrestle with the Father in the labor of prayer. I feel like that if we had been here and we had stumbled upon Jesus praying in this solitary place at this time, we would have been shocked to have seen and observed what was taking place, as the Son of God is communing with his Father in private, with no one watching, and with no one listening. You know, if we had been there at the synagogue, when Jesus preaches with this authoritative, life changing preaching, then we would have also had a great deal of trepidation―at least those of us who stand and, and preach and teach―we, I think we would have had a great deal of trepidation, to stand up and preach after witnessing him do that. And I think, to the same degree, had we been here and seen the Son of God, in private with his Father, and we heard from his lips that word, “Father,” the a word that we use, quite frankly―we're right to use that in prayer―but quite frankly, we use it in prayer so often, without really thinking that the Maker of heaven and earth is pleased to be called our Father. If we had heard that word from his lips―Father―we would have been something like the seraphim, in Isaiah’s vision, who cover their face with their wings, because they cannot bear to look upon this. The shame, the embarrassment of our prayerlessness, of our littleness of prayer, in the face of the Son of God in private with his Father, would have been startling for us, I think. And so, this is a scene that's this portrayed for us, as something that, above all else, we should come away from the scene being just stunned at this man, Jesus, this perfect sinless man, Jesus and the Son of God, who would deny themselves the physical necessities of life in order to go into commune with their Father. So, we're told that he departed, and went out to a desolate place, and there, he prayed. So, that invites us to once again just ask the question, Well, what was his prayer like? What was the substance of his prayer? What did he say to his Father? What were his words? What was the content of his prayer? We're not told, there are other places in the Gospels in which we are told the content, something of the content of Jesus's prayers. We're not told that here, but we're told elsewhere, that Jesus, for example, in the prayer in the Garden, he's going to ask the Father to allow him to not have to drink this cup of His wrath. In John chapter 17, we have a whole chapter of Jesus's words to the Father in which he prays that long extended prayer for his children, for his people, that they were―three things; First of all, be unified be one as he as they are one. Secondly, that they would be sanctified―sanctify them Father, in your word for Your word is truth. And thirdly, that they will be protected against the evil one, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but did you leave them in the world, but you protect them from the evil one. So, we know substance, something of the substance of Jesus prayers elsewhere. We're not told the substance here. But we can speculate as to what some of the things might have been that Jesus would have spoken to his Father. And I think the place to begin would be to recognize what Jesus would not have said. Something that would have been conspicuously absent from the prayers of Jesus, something that is very much present, or at least should be very much present, in our prayers to a great degree, and that would be the confession of sin. The confession of sins should take up a great deal of your time and your personal prayer. Yet the confession of sin would be completely absent in Jesus’ prayer. There would be no―Father, forgive me for the impatience that I showed yesterday with Peter. Father, forgive me for the poor attitude that I had after the third hour of healing. Father, forgive me for my selfishness. Father, forgive me for that. There have been none of that. Because the sinless Son of God―First John chapter three, verse five, he is without sin, there is no sin in him―he would have no need for confession of sin. Also, he would have no need to plead the Father's help, to plead the Spirit’s help to empower him to overcome his sin nature, as you and I do. Our prayers should also contain a great deal of pleading with the Father, that in great earnestness, that he would give us the power, that he would anoint us, that he would equip us with the power of the Spirit, that we might overcome our sinful nature. But there'll be none of this from Jesus lives. Jesus would not ask the Father―Father, help me tomorrow to be patient, once again with these disciples. Help me tomorrow to have a better attitude. Help me tomorrow to not be so short-sighted, none of that. But what would have been contained in Jesus's prayers? What things would he have lifted up? And again, speculation here, but certainly it's right to consider that perhaps Jesus would have asked the Father something of some marching orders for the next day. Something of; Father, I kind of have in mind here that that my time, my time here is done. I sort of feel like that the healing that I did last night, has gotten them all starry eyed, and, and just fixated upon the power of the miracles. And I kind of feel like that they they're no longer hearing what I say. So, I sort of feel like my time here is done, and I might need to move on. What do you think, Father? I want to know your mind on this Father. Should I move on? And if I should, where should I go? Should I go north? Should I go west? Should I go to Bethsaida? Should I go to Chorazin? Where should I go Father? Certainly, the Father had a plan for Jesus each day. We know of instances in which Jesus had these encounters with people―in fact, every encounter Jesus had with people was planned; the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, we could go on. And so, certainly the Father had these appointments, these plans for Jesus. And so, perhaps Jesus pleaded with the Father; Father, what's your plan for tomorrow? Who would you have me see tomorrow? What must I be prepared for tomorrow? Who am I looking for? What am I looking for? Am I looking for a leper? Is there a demon possessed person you want me to encounter? What do you want me to say to them? And so, perhaps Jesus, the perfect human Jesus in the power of the Spirit is pouring out to the Father, Father helped me, aid me, show me tomorrow. Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, tells us that God has prepared beforehand good works that we should walk in them. So, if God has prepared good works for us to walk in, how much more would God have prepared good works for Jesus to walk in day by day. So, perhaps something of that; Father, I want to know your mind about tomorrow. But I think also it would be entirely reasonable to consider that Jesus would have lifted up to the Father, probably names of those whom he encountered that day, or the day before. You think maybe Jesus had a perfect memory of every name, of every person that he touched last night? Do you think perhaps Jesus lifted up to the Father―Father, Benjamin. Remember Benjamin last week? Benjamin, has been set free of that demon Father, but he has a long ways to go. He's still in love with himself, Father, so, I lift up Benjamin to you. I set him free from the demon yesterday, I pray that my words would find home with him. Deborah, Father, you know, Deborah. I healed her of that disease that was attacking her, giving her the headaches, I healed her last night, Father. And I pray Father that that healing would not only have physical life in her, but I pray that would have spiritual life, that the words I spoke to her, cause her to remember those words. Or Joshua, Father, Joshua, I straightened his leg last night, Father. You remember Joshua, he was born with the leg that was crooked. I straightened it last night Father. And so, I pray for Joshua. I pray that those words I spoke over him, I pray that they will find soil in his heart and I pray that they would grow to life, Father. And so, he's lifting these up. Also the disciples Father, Peter, Peter. He's about to come in about 30 minutes, he's going to come. So, I pray for him. I pray that he will receive these words rightly. And so, he would have likely lifted up these prayers to the Father, and likely asked the Father, Father, I seek to know your mind on these things.

Part 2

Jesus sees the value of secret conversation with the Father as greater than the need for sleep.

“He Went Out to a Desolate Place to Pray, Part 2”; Mark 1:35-39 0295 But also, we would see something and Jesus's prayers of his submission of his dependency upon not just the Father, but also the spirit. So, the fact that Jesus is even here praying the fact that he finds this time to get alone and to pray, says to us an enormous thing, an enormous truth about not only the sinless Jesus, but also the Son of God, that they would go and they would find time to pray. Because as they pray, what is Jesus doing? Jesus is submitting to the Father, submitting to His will, submitting to his direction. And he's also submitting to the dependency that he has upon the Spirit. So, what does Jesus say in repetition, particularly in John's Gospel? Jesus will say this over and over; I can do what? Nothing. I can do nothing without the Father. Or as we read in John, chapter five, verse 30; I do nothing on my own, I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. Or chapter eight, verse 39; for I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father. Or John chapter 12, and verse 49, and 54; I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who has sent Me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. What I say, therefore, I say, As the Father has told me. So, Jesus says, I don't do these things in my own will, I'm not going around doing what I want to do, I do the Father's will have submitted to the Father's will. So, he's expressing a submission to the Father's will, but he's also expressing a dependency upon the spirit. Luke chapter four, Jesus goes into the synagogue, and he says; The Spirit has anointed Me, the Holy Spirit has anointed Me to proclaim the good news. So, as we've said before, everything that Jesus will do, he will do in the power of the Spirit that has anointed him. That's what he says. He will do the miracles, He will do the teaching, all these things will be done in the power of the Spirit that anoints him. And so, therefore, Jesus is expressing not only submission to the Father, he is expressing dependency upon the Spirit. He is expressing his dependency upon the Spirit, which is really what prayer is. Prayer is a putting a voice to our dependency. It's saying to God, this is how much I depend upon you. I depend upon you, I need you to such a degree that this is what I do. I come to you in prayer. Look at the words of Albert Martin in your notes, prayer is dependence and faith vocalized. Did you catch that? Prayer is dependence and faith vocalized. Prayer is dependence upon God, and faith that he will hear and answer, prayer is putting voice to that. Prayer is dependency and faith, vocalized. And this is what Jesus is doing. He's coming in prayer to express his faith and his dependency upon the Spirit. In the power of the Son of God, Jesus could have gone around doing what he wanted to do. Nevertheless, he submitted to the will of the Father, as he says, in his own words, I do nothing but his will. And he submitted to the empowerment of the Spirit. It is by the anointing of the Spirit, Jesus says that I do these things. And so, in prayer, he is expressing his dependency upon the Spirit. Do you know, one of the things that we can be really good at is, as believers, we can be really good at saying just how much we depend on Jesus, how much we need Jesus. That's one of the things that often comes out of our mind, right? I can't do a thing without Jesus, I need Jesus from the moment I get out of the bed. I need Jesus on the way to work, if I don't have Jesus with me on the way to work, then I'm going to be for certain giving the one finger wave, right? We so, we're really good at saying how much we need Jesus. But do you want an accurate gauge for how well your heart perceives your need for Jesus? Look to your prayer life. Because the degree to which your heart grasps your need for God, is the degree to which you pray. The degree to which you pray little. The degree to which you are prayerless, is the same degree to which you might say the words, you might profess a need of God. But you really don't believe it deep down. Because deep down if you really believed it, if you really knew each day how much you needed him, you would as Jesus does―pray. Because prayer is the vocalizing, is the speaking of our dependency upon God. And this awareness, this knowledge of our dependency upon God, this in itself is a work of the Spirit. Do you know that none of us in our fallen condition just know that we need God? None of us know that. We might kind of grasp it to some degree. And we might deep down we wouldn't put it in words like this but we might think something like this you got a really need your help in this area. Need your help to defeat this sin, I really need your help to do this thing over here, you know. And if you don't help me, then I certainly won't do as good of a job. And I might mess things up, but I'll give it my best. But if you'd help me things would come out a whole lot better. That's how the fallen heart tends to think naturally. It's only by the power of the Spirit that the Spirit teaches us―we can do nothing. As he says in John 15, apart from me, you do nothing. That is spiritual knowledge, that is supernatural knowledge that the Spirit of Truth must teach to our heart―the depth of our need for him. And so, Jesus comes, and he displays this need, but we also see something of his character, don't we, we see something of his nature. Because let's not forget that this is the God-man. This is the God-man, this is the one who is not only the perfect, sinless human Jesus, but he is also the Son of God, who is equal in power and equal in authority with God, the Father, and God the Spirit. And yet he willingly, intentionally and purposely submits to the Father's will―not his own, and to a dependency upon the Spirit, to do the things that he, in his own power as the Son of God, could have done. But he comes here in this heart of meekness, to submit to the Father's will, and to submit to the need for the power of the Spirit to come in to anoint him. So, this shows us something of his heart. You know, the only place in all of Scripture in which we are given a glimpse into the heart of Jesus is Matthew chapter 11, verse 29; Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek, or gentle, and lowly in heart. Jesus says here that his meek. Now that word meek, what the word meek means is; it's a character trait. It's a character quality, that causes someone to not insist to be treated has they should be treated as they deserve to be treated, but instead to accept a treatment as something lesser―for the good of others. That's what meekness is. Meekness is the willingness to be treated worse than you deserve, in order to benefit others. And that's the heart of Jesus. Jesus says; If you want to know my heart, my heart is meek. My heart is meekness. My heart is one that willingly accepts treatment that's beneath me, for the good of others. And here he is showing us his meekness as he comes in submission to the Father. So, this shows us something, something about the prayer of Jesus, but this also shows us something of our prayers. Now, that's not the main point. The main point is for us to see the Son of God going to the Father of prayer like this. But also, in addition to this, we can also learn something of our own prayers. Because Jesus, of course, is given to us as an example. Peter tells us the very thing in First Peter, chapter two, verse 21; Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps. Now, the context of what Peter says is the context of suffering. Christ suffered so that you have an example in suffering. But the same thing applies to all of the Christian life. Christ is our example in all of the Christian disciplines. He is our example in forgiveness. He's an example in loving others. And of course, he's our example in prayer. He’s given to us for us to see and to observe and to follow. So, we learn something about how our prayer life should reflect Jesus's prayer life here. So, we'll see here once again, verse 35, while it was still dark, very early in the morning, he departed, and went out to a desolate place, and there, he prayed. So, what we see is Jesus intentionally once again, denying himself a physical need, in order to find a place of solitude, a place of secret, so, that he may engage with the Father without distraction. Now the Scriptures teach us that our communion with God our fellowship, our conversation, if you will, with God, should be multiple different natures. We should have a spirit of prayer, an attitude of prayer that the Scriptures tell us should be an attitude is pervasive throughout our whole day, and throughout our throughout our whole our week, right? Paul says to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. He says to the Ephesians in chapter six verse 18; praying all at all times in the spirit. So, we should have this attitude of conversationality with God. We should have the spirit that, as we go about the events of our day, our heart should be quick to pray God help me in this God show me. Tell me what I need to do, God. Give me the ability to be patient right here, right? That we should have that spirit of prayer fullness. But that does not give us the full summary of our prayer life. In addition to an attitude of conversation with the Father, we should also seek times of solitude and secret to commune with the Father. So, think about think about your prayer life like a conversation between you and a spouse. And just think of what a healthy conversational life between you and a spouse would look like. That conversational life would certainly include small bits and pieces of information throughout the day that are not particularly profound, or deep, right? You might speak with your spouse about well, you know, who's going to the store on the way home and, and who's going to do this, and, oh, we need to put some laundry in. You have these sorts of mundane things of life That's part of a healthy conversation. But if that's your entire conversation between you and your spouse, then that's not a very healthy conversational life. But the flip side of that is, let's say, for example, that you and your spouse don't speak to each other, except every fourth day, in which you go and you get alone, and you just have an hour and a half deep conversation. And then you don't speak again for another four days. That's not any healthier. The healthy conversation needs both right? It needs the moment by moment, the day by day sort of interaction, but it also needs those times of deeper connection. The same thing is true with our prayer life. Our prayer life needs those moment by moment types of interactions. But it also needs those times of seclusion and solitude and focus and intentionality―free from distractions. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew chapter six, verse six; when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. So, Jesus here sees the value of sacrificing sleep. You know, sleep is certainly pleasant, but not only pleasant―it's a necessity. Jesus had a long, exhausting day yesterday. So, he sees the value of solitude, communing with the Father as greater than the need for sleep. So, he intentionally sacrifices the sleep, in order to find the solitude, the seclusion the secret context in which he and the Father can, intentionally, and with great purposefulness engage one another. So, we see here how Jesus values that seclusion. Now one of the things that we need to make sure that we don't do because sometimes we can easily do this, we can sometimes build a whole theology out of one passage. You ever, sort of feel like sometimes you build a theology out of a whole passage? Because here's what Mark doesn’t tell us―let's be careful to see what Mark doesn't tell us―Mark doesn't tell us that Jesus does this every day. He might. Mark doesn't tell us that though. He might do this every day. Or he might do this on those occasions in which he feels particularly pressed to get alone with the Father. But for us to say―and we've all heard this said―see how Jesus got up before the Sun to go in and commune with the Father. So, that's what we must do every day. Not that that's a bad thing. But that's saying something the passage doesn't say. Kind of like―you ever heard somebody say, you know that you should take a nap every day, because you should be like Jesus, because Jesus took naps? That’s building a theology out of one instance, right? I mean, I'm all for taking naps. But Jesus―were not told he took a nap every day. And in the same way, we're not told specifically that this is what he did every day. So, here's what I'm getting at. When we come to the topic of our prayer, the topic of our prayer is kind of like this great big sledgehammer, that's really easy from this vantage point up here, to take that big sledge hammer and just sort of pound you. Because you know what? I have yet to meet the follower of Christ who would honestly and truly say to me; You know what, that prayer thing, got it. I've moved on to other things. I'm working on other things, because I have got that prayer thing down. I'm totally pleased with the content of my prayers. I'm totally pleased with the regularity of my prayers. And I'm totally pleased with the earnestness of my prayers. I have yet to meet that person. And so, my guess is that person is not here in the room. And so, one of the easiest things to do is to look to the prayers of Jesus, and say; See, see how far short you're falling? Now that is part of it. We are to see Jesus and we are to also look to ourselves and see that we fall short. But that's something that has to be approached with caution. Because none of us, none of us are there. None of us are there with a prayer life that is anything like Jesus's prayer life. Instead, what we're shown here is the Son of God, wrestling with his Father, in this secluded time in the secluded, the secluded time. So, here's what we're to really take away from the passage is this, that seclusion with the Father, just like Jesus is to be something that we value, it’s to be something that we prize. That might mean that like Jesus, you need to get up two hours before the sun. And it might mean that you need to do that every day. It might mean something else. But it means at least this, it means nothing less than you must value that solitary time with the Father. Just like Jesus, you must see in that a value that's worthy of sacrificing other things in your life, in order to have that. You must see in your life that, you know, well, I mean, the only time I could find would be at 3am. So, be it. It's worth it, to have that time with the Father. That might be where you are. But the place to start for all of us is to say, we need to absolutely see what Jesus saw the value in solitary time with the Father. That time with the Father in which there were no interruptions, but we're going to say just a minute, he's going to be interrupted, but he's seeking that time of interruption freeness. You know, one of the most helpful things that you can do for your time of solitude with the Father, is take that little black rectangular thing, and get it far from you. Put it on silent Turn, turn it off. Put it in another room, get it away from you. Because the whole idea is to get to a place where no one's seeing. You can't be seen here in secret. And you don't have to worry about people looking at you. You don't have to worry about somebody texting you. You don't have to worry about somebody interrupting you. Instead, it's you and the Father. And in secret, just like Jesus is in secret. That's where this business with the Father is done.

Part 3

“He Went Out to a Desolate Place to Pray, Part 3”; Mark 1:35-39 0296 So, we see that he went there and he prayed. And then in verse 36, he said to them; (I'm sorry) verse 36; and Simon and those who were with him, searched for him. And they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” So, one of the things that we see here is, just for lack of a better word, I put it as the interruptible-ness of Jesus. The interruptible-ness of Jesus. Now I know interruptible-ness is not a word, but I couldn't really think of a better one. Accessibility? But that didn't really get it. Interruptible-ness. Jesus was supremely interruptible. He was supremely approachable. Jesus at no point in the gospels ever rebuked anyone for interrupting him. He never rebuked anyone for for coming―now, imagine where Jesus is right now. He has sacrificed sleep on a morning in which he is certainly exhausted physically, emotionally, mentally, and above all, spiritually. And he has sacrificed sleep in order to get alone with the Father. And then here comes Peter in the others. :”There he is! Jesus, what are you doing out here? We've been looking for you!” And there's Jesus. Approachable, Jesus. Available, Jesus. Interruptible Jesus. Now, the reason I point this out is because Jesus’ interruptible-ness says a whole lot about his heart, just like your interruptible-ness says a lot about your heart. It's really a wonderful window into the workings of your heart. Because your interruptible-ness says to you something very powerful about how you value other people. Because our interruptible-ness―if being interrupted by others is something that frequently frustrates you or aggravate you, then that's a that's a real indication that you need to do some work on how you value other people. Now that may be hard to hear. It's even harder to say. But it's true. Your frustration and your aggravation at being interrupted by others can often be just a powerful window into how you love others, how you view others, how you value others. Because aggravation and frustration at those who interrupt us shows that our heart value self more than them. It values what I was doing right now, more than them. Now what could be more important than the Son of God communing with the Father right now? Yet Jesus is completely interruptible here. And this is how his ministry always was, wasn't it? If you read the Gospel accounts, you will see a man that's interrupted over and over and over again. He's on his way to Jairus’ house, and there's the one with the flow of blood. He's on his way over here, and here's the blind man shouting, “Son of David! Son of David! Stop!. Come over here.” Jesus is constantly being interrupted by people and yet, never on his lips was a rebuke for those who interrupted. Jesus even didn't even rebuke his enemies. His enemies would come with snarky questions for him while he was teaching, and he didn't even rebuke them for their interruptions. He rebuked them for their wrong theology. But he didn't rebuke him for their interruptions, because he loved them. Because he valued them. Because He is the embodiment of Philippians chapter two, verses three and four; do nothing from selfish ambition or rivalry or conceit. But in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others. And so, we see something in Jesus's approachableness, of his openness, of his accessibility, of his interruptible-ness. We see one who is our example, and how he values others. And even at a time in which he has sacrificed His own sleep to commune with the Father. And here comes this group to interrupt him from that time. Even then, we find no rebuke on his lips. But now let's look further into this. This verse, verse 36, once again; and Simon and those who are with him, searched for him. Now, what Mark is doing here with this word searched, that's really not a great translation. Because it's really too gentle of a word. It's too weak of a word. The word that Mark uses has a distinct hostile tone to it. It's a word that carries with it a distinct sense of hostility toward the one that you're searching for. And it also carries with it the idea of being frustrated to having to search for them. So, maybe a better translation might be something like―hunt down, or track down. That's the word that Mark uses here―hunted down. So, what Mark is doing is; he's using this word that does not say; Simon and the others search for Jesus, what he says is; Simon hunted Jesus down. Now that's communicating something to us about the frustration that Peter experienced. Because here's what didn't happen. Peter and the others didn't wake up in their house and their mother in law, all feeling better, gets up starts cooking breakfast. And they look around―where's Jesus? Wasn’t Jesus here? Didn’t he sleep over there in that corner? Where's Jesus? Anybody seen him? Well, he'll show up. Maybe we should go look for him, make sure he’s okay―that's not what happened. Here's what happened; Where is Jesus!? Where did he go!? Does he not know? Half the people from last night are still outside. And there's more coming today. What was he thinking? Does he not know the excitement? Does he not know how popular he is? Where did he go? This is the worst time to leave Jesus! That's the attitude. Now something else that Mark is doing. Notice how he singles out Peter there―Simon and the others. Take a look with me at Luke's parallel account. In Luke chapter four, verse 42, Luke says this; the people sought him. So, Luke is telling the same story. And Luke says the people sought him. Yet Mark singles out Peter, and says Peter, or Simon and the others―they're telling the same story. So, here's how it kind of went―the confusion begins to arise. Where's Jesus? Anybody see Jesus? Where'd he go? And then here's Peter―I'm going to go find him! I'm going to find him. We're coming with you, Peter. And so, Peter then leads the charge. That's how it happened. But Mark singles out Peter, and uses this word that clearly is saying something about the misunderstanding, something about the veiled hostility of Peter, something about this rebuke that Peter has for Jesus when he's going to find him. Because remember, who's writing the gospel of Mark? These are Peter's memories. And this is how Peter is telling Mark. This is the words that the Peter is using. Remember how Peter―and we said this at the beginning―Peter and Mark were both men who failed Jesus publicly and visibly, and were restored visibly. And so, here's Peter, in his recollection, he said―it was me. It was me. I was the one. And so, one of the other things, remember we talked about Mark, and his bookends? How Mark loves to do this? Okay, so, this is the first instance. There's another one coming in chapter eight. Two instances in which Mark singles out Peter to teach us something of Peter's misunderstanding of the mission of Jesus, and how Peter attempts to side rail Jesus's mission. How Peter attempts to take Jesus off of his mission. How Peter attempts to tell Jesus―he's not going to continue in obedience. And we know what the other ones come in chapter eight, Lord, you're not going to that cross. Let me let me set you straight Jesus, you're way too popular. This is way too good of a thing that you got going on here. You're not going to that cross. And Mark says Peter took Him aside and rebuked him. Here's the first instance. There's the other instance, both instances in which Mark says to us; Peter, misunderstanding the Messiah, took steps to derail the Messiah's mission, took steps to tell the Messiah, you're not going to obey the will of God. So, one of the things that we see here is how oftentimes―you ever noticed this―how oftentimes, it can sometimes be the very people of God, friends and family and loved ones and other believers in the body of Christ, who can themselves, with great intentions, be the ones who attempt to divert us from the will of God? You have noticed that with the best of intentions, you know, Peter does not have ill intentions right here. Those who are with him, they don't have ill intentions, either. They have the best of intentions, they are excited about Jesus, and they're excited about his power and what he did last night. So, they don't have evil motives. Nonetheless, in their ignorance of the Messiah, they come attempting to convince Messiah not to continue with the will of God. The same thing happens in our life to sometimes. Those who are close to us, those who also know the Lord can have the best of intentions. Yet, they can also divert us, or attempt to divert us, from the will of God. Now here at Disciples Fellowship, we are big believers in the fact that the Spirit communicates to the body through the body. And so, oftentimes, we look to others in the body for affirmation, for confirmation for where the Spirit might be leading to, leading us and saying to us, and so, that is very true. But at the same time, we are fallen humans, and we don't always get it right. Sometimes, like Peter and the others, the best of friends, the closest of friends, fellow believers can be the ones who, with the best of motives seek to divert us from the will of God. So, this is the first thing you'll see here. But secondly, we see this. Simon and those who were with him, searched for him, hunted him down, tracked him, Jesus did a good job hiding. Because the word here that Mark uses means that they had to look a long time. He uses it in the imperfect tense, meaning that they were sort of looking for a while, Jesus didn't just sort of go down the corner and duck into an alleyway. Jesus hid himself well. And so, they looked and they looked, and they searched. And they finally found in verse 37, and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you. So, there we have ‘searching for you,’ he ‘searched for him,’ but now we have’ looking for you’, everyone's ‘looking for you.’ So, the word that Mark uses there is a word that he's going to use eight times, eight times, every single time Mark uses it, he's going to use it in a clear context of speaking of those who are seeking or searching to oppose the Messiah. The instances are here in your notes. Just one of them, from Mark chapter 12, verse 12, and they were seeking to arrest him. Eight times. 100% of the time Mark uses that word, he's using it to communicate those who are seeking or looking to oppose the Messiah. So, here we see Mark is already teaching us this, this this theme that he has, that the disciples―you know, the disciples were not a help to Jesus, they were a hindrance. The disciples hear Jesus's call in chapter one, Peter and Andrew, James and John, follow me, and they do―and that is the one and only instance in all of Mark's gospel in which the disciples are portrayed completely positively. From this point on the disciples are a hindrance to Jesus. You know, there is a popular TV show about the life of Jesus right now, that's portraying the disciples, and Jesus’ gathering of the disciples, a―collecting around him helpers to help him. That's not how the Gospels portray it. Jesus didn't collect the disciples around him to be his helpers. They were more of a hindrance than a help, as is Peter here, as are the crowds. The crowds are a hindrance to Jesus, the crowds are an obstacle that he must overcome. Everyone is looking for you, Jesus Don't you know? You couldn't be more popular, Jesus. What are you doing out here, there's still more people to heal. Word is spread even further. Why would you come here right now Jesus? Don't you get it? You know what, I think we can put up a big tent and you can heal more people. Maybe we can send some flyers to some neighboring towns and gets more people to come. We really hit it big here. Jesus, don't you understand? Everyone is looking for you. But Jesus will not allow even his own popularity to be an obstacle for his mission. So, he says to them, verse 38; and he said to them, let us go on to the next town. Everybody's looking for you, Jesus, you were a tremendous hit last night, Jesus’ response―time to go. Let us leave. Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came. So, Mark has hinted to us three times in the passage earlier of the primacy of Jesus's preaching. The primacy, the focus, the central focus of Jesus's earthly ministry―we know that the ultimate reason is for him to make the atonement for him to die. That's what he's going to say in chapter 10, verse 45, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as ransom for many. So, that's his ultimate purpose. But his purpose in this three-year period, his central purpose is not to heal. It's not to do miracles. It's not to cast out demons and cleanse lepers. His central main purpose is preaching. He says it explicitly here. This is why I came, I came to preach. Jesus came as a preacher. Jesus didn't come as a healer. Even though he healed a lot of people. He didn't come as a healer. Jesus didn't come as a demon, caster -outer, even though he cast out a lot of demons. He came as a preacher. He came as one, Luke chapter four, when Jesus says in the synagogue, the spirit has anointed Me to proclaim the good news. He came as a preacher, just as Paul will say to the Corinthians. First Corinthians one, verse 17, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Acts six and verse four. The apostles here say, you know, we should not be diverted from our central task, which is prayer and the ministry of the word. Or Paul's words to Timothy, Second Timothy chapter four, and verse two; Preach the word. That's what I exhort you, Peter, (or Timothy), preach the Word, preach the Word. So, Jesus comes as a preacher. This is his central focus. Jesus is heavily invested in preaching. Heaven is heavily invested in preaching. Because preaching the word is how the Kingdom of God is established, and how the Kingdom of God moves forward, through the proclamation of the Word. It's not the miracles. The miracles are a confirmation for what Jesus says. Even Nicodemus recognizes this. I John three, you remember, when Nicodemus says, Well, you must be from God because no one can do the things that you're doing if they weren't from God. So, therefore, the things that you're saying, I must listen to. The miracles were always an affirmation, a confirmation for what he says. What he says, what he preaches, is always the central focus. Because Jesus came as a preacher, he's invested in preaching. His priority is preaching. So, the question I'll leave us with is this. Are we as a church, do we have the same commitment to the straight simple preaching of God's word as did Jesus? The answer right now is clearly yes. Preaching is the central focus of what we do. But are we prepared to maintain that focus? Are we prepared to be intentional and purposeful in maintaining that focus? Because if God will be pleased to bless us with more disciples, more faces, new faces―you know what new faces mean new ideas. And the only way that a focus on the primacy of preaching can be maintained, is if the church is purposeful and intentional about it, and commits from day one―this is the central thing that we do: we preach the wor. Not the only thing that we do, but that is the central thing that we do. Jesus was committed to preaching, his church must be committed to preaching as well.
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