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| Mark 1:35-39 - Jesus Will not Follow You |
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You may have a heart for people and you may want to make a difference in our day, but please know that Jesus will not follow you on your journey. The faster you learn this, the faster you will enjoy life. Until you learn this, you will go through the motions and may even become religious, but you will lack the joy, grace, peace and freedom that Christ gives to those who follow Him.
On the first Sabbath of Jesus’ earthly ministry recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus ministers all day and late into the night. He performs an exorcism in the Synagogue (Mark 1:21-28), a healing in a house (Mark 1:29-31) and numerous healings and exorcisms in the streets of Capernaum (Mark 1:32-34). He has to be physically tired, as although He is the Son of God, He is ministering on earth in a human body as the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, Jesus gives us an example to follow. As the Son of God He reveals His Kingdom to us in words and actions as He heads towards the cross to take God’s judgment of our sins upon Himself. He has to be physically tired after such an eventful day so He gets off by Himself and prays.
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 throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
(Mark 1:35-39 ESV)
Prayer is a powerful privilege given to us by God. Prayer is the opportunity to communicate to Him all of our burdens and anxieties while receiving from Him strength, endurance and direction for the journey that He has in front of us. Preaching and ministering at the point of need are important, but they will become powerless and ineffective without prayer. Prayer must be a priority in every Christ follower. In fact, if we don’t pray, we are not following Christ because He prayed and left us that example to follow.
We can learn much from this paragraph of Scripture.
- We learn that although the needs of people are great, we can not neglect prayer to minister.
- We learn that there are times that we must get alone in a quiet place to pray.
- We learn that there is a time to pray and a time to work.
- We learn that prayer is a place to refuel and refocus.
- We learn that prayer is a place to receive direction and confirmation.
Prayer is priority in this paragraph of Scripture, but I don’t want to focus all of this teaching on prayer and neglect the full meaning of this Scripture. There is a deeper meaning than what appears on the surface that I would like to articulate to you.
First of all, notice that Simon (Peter) is beginning to take a leadership role as a follower of Christ. Notice also that Peter has the right heart. Peter sees all of these people in need of healing and in bondage to evil and he desires to see them healed and set free. Peter is beginning to get a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God is all about – love, grace, peace and freedom with race, gender, health and economic equality for all. He still does not fully understand, but he is getting a glimpse of it and he desires that people experience the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. So Peter and others with him go looking for Jesus. They know that Jesus is the answer, but He has disappeared! What were they to do with all of these people that still needed healing and deliverance?
When Peter finds Jesus praying, He couldn’t believe it. The actual Greek here has tones of a sense of hostile pursuing. It was like Peter was saying “What are you doing here? Everyone is looking for you! Don’t you know that there is still work to be done? People are in need!”
Notice how Jesus responds to Peter. Jesus said "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." Jesus is showing through His words and actions that He was not following Peter. He was not doing it Peter’s way and He was not on Peter’s time schedule. Peter was called to follow Jesus. Jesus says here that His main focus is to preach the same sermon in every town - “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).”
Peter would eventually learn to follow. It would not be an easy lesson, as it’s not an easy one for most of us, but he would learn to follow Christ. And when he does, he will reach his full potential in the Kingdom while using his words and actions to reveal the Kingdom to others.
Beloved, Jesus does not follow us, we are to follow Him. There are those who, like Peter, expect Jesus to do it their way and in their timing. If Jesus doesn’t, they become hurt and discouraged allowing unbelief to rob them of what God has in store for them.
To be a good leader in the Kingdom of God, one must first follow Christ. It is Jesus that is ruling over His Kingdom. We are to always remember that we are to follow Him and He will make us into what He wants us to be in His timing and in His way. We are just simply to follow Him. He will do the rest and we will enter into our full potential in the Kingdom of God.
So far in the Gospel of Mark we are leaning that the Kingdom of God is already victorious and triumphing over evil. We are learning that Jesus is ruling over the Kingdom that is established in Him. So far, we are learning that in the Kingdom there is love, grace, peace and freedom with health equality. We are learning that we are to take time to pray so that we can refuel, refocus and receive direction for the next steps that we are to take. We are learning that we are called to follow Jesus and reveal His Kingdom through our words and actions.
Beloved, there will be those times that you will need to get by yourself in a quiet place and just spend time with God. It’s there that you will refuel, refocus and receive endurance and direction for your journey. If you don’t take the time to pray, you will burn out, fizzle out and be used up. That is not God’s desire for you. He wants to spend time with you and impart Himself to you so that you can continue the point of need ministry of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. There’s a time for prayer and a time for action. As we follow Jesus, He will lead us in reaching our full potential in His Kingdom. Follow Jesus Beloved. Don’t expect Him to follow you. Follow Jesus. It’s an exciting journey full of love, grace, peace and freedom.
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