Renewing Our Strength
To renew our strength physically,
psychologically, and spiritually,
we must plan times to be alone with God.
Here's Gene:
Jesus was God. And Jesus was man.
Fully God. Fully man.
And as a man, he needed renewal.
He needed to sleep. He needed to eat.
He needed rest. He needed times alone with
the Father. Jesus himself--think about it--
needed to renew his strength
physically, psychologically, and spiritually.
And that's why he can identify
with us as our great high priest.
Because he was fully man in that sense.
And we see that need uniquely demonstrated
here in the book of Mark.
And notice Mark 1:21.
"They went into Capernaum,
and right away he entered the synagogue
on the Sabbath and began to teach."
Now, let me just give you just a
little geographical perspective here.
We have the Galilean region.
South of that, of course, is Samaria
and then the Judean region.
But you notice the Sea of Galilee.
And there are a number of villages at that time.
One of the main villages
where Jesus stayed for about two years while he
was in this area was in "Capernum" or "Capernaum".
And you see it located there on the Sea of Galilee.
So he comes to Capernaum.
He enters the synagogue on the Sabbath
and he begins to teach.
Now, what I'd like to do is
to take you to Capernaum.
Not literally, but I was there.
And while I was in Capernaum,
I was sitting by this synagogue.
And take a look as I share what
we read here in the book of Mark.
Well, today I'm sitting here in Capernaum.
A very, very significant place
in the life of Jesus. It's here by the Sea of Galilee.
And Jesus, of course, spent about 18 months
of his life ministering right here in this area.
Around the Sea of Galilee,
out into Galilean region.
And this is where Jesus had his home base.
And there's a very important
passage, really, in Mark chapter 1.
It's really a day in the life of Jesus.
And it summarizes some things
that I want to point out to you
as I sit here in the reconstructed archeological
renovation of this city.
Basically, what happened,
we read here in Mark verse 21, chapter 1.
"Then they went in to Capernaum
and right away he entered the synagogue
on the Sabbath and began to teach."
Now, if you look behind me,
you will see the ruins of an ancient synagogue.
What you see, obviously, has been reconstructed.
But in the time of Jesus, if you go up close,
you will actually look down on the foundation.
You'll see the normal foundation.
Below that foundation,
you will see another foundation,
which was probably the foundation
of the very synagogue where Jesus is teaching.
And while he's there, he's teaching.
But he also, it says, he healed an unclean spirit.
He cast that spirit out and,
of course, that amazed everybody.
And they had a discussion--a dialogue--
because they're trying to figure out
who in the world is this man
who can actually cast out demons?
Well, the next event is, we read in verse 29,
as they left the synagogue.
In fact, it says:
"As soon as they left the synagogue,
they went into Simon and Andrew's house
with James and John."
There were the four guys with Jesus. And it says:
"Simon's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever,
and they told him about her at once.
So, he went [in] to her,
took her by the hand, and raised her up.
[And] the fever left her,
and she began to serve them."
Now, if you'll look behind me.
What happened was, Jesus left the synagogue,
and he walked out of that synagogue
and he walked probably about fifty yards,
and there was a house.
And that house is probably the very house that
Mark is referring to,
which was Simon and Andrew's house.
And Simon's mother-in-law had this fever
and he healed her.
Now, notice what happened as a result of this.
Basically, the word spread.
Now, Jesus had been teaching.
We know before that he had been healing.
So his reputation was spreading.
But when this happened here in Capernaum,
and they knew that he was in that house,
the whole city came and gathered at the door.
We read about that:
"When evening came, after the
sun had set, they began bringing to him
all those who were sick
and those who were demon-possessed.
[And] the whole town was assembled at the door..."
If you can imagine.
"...and he healed many who were
sick with various diseases
[and he] drove out many demons."
And this was an amazing day
in the life of Jesus.
But now notice, Mark goes on to say:
"...Very early in the morning, while it was still dark..."
You see, he began to heal the night before
when the sun had already gone down.
Late into the evening.
And after that very busy day,
he gets up while still dark.
"...he got up [and he] went out,
and [he] made his way to a deserted place."
Somewhere, just outside of Capernaum, here,
"he was praying."
And that gives us a very important principle
that I think is so important.
A Principle to Live By. And that is that
if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, needed
time to be alone to pray, what about us?
I think that's a very important principle
that we need to consider.
It's a beautiful lesson from the life of Jesus.
A day in the life of Jesus here in Capernaum.
While Jesus definitely needed time alone
with the Father to renew his strength.
We see that here in this passage
in the book of Mark.
But the interesting thing is that
as the story of redemption unfolds,
Jesus came to do something else--
to build his church.
And he introduced to the apostles
and to the new believers
a whole new concept that they didn't understand.
Corporate prayer.
They had not prayed. The apostles, for three and half years, they hadn't gotten together
to pray with each other.
In fact, at one point they said:
Teach us to pray.
They didn't really understand how to pray.
But after Jesus rose from the grave
and he was about to ascend back to the Father,
he said something to these men.
He said: Go back to that upper room.
And notice they had learned a significant lesson.
Because in Acts chapter 1, verses 13 and 14,
notice what we read:
"When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs..."
And by the way, that may have been Mary's home.
The mother of John Mark who recorded this.
We're not sure where it was.
But they did go to the room upstairs
"...where they were staying:
Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip,
Thomas, Bartholomew, [probably that's Nathaniel,]
Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
They all were continually [What?]
united in prayer, along with the women that were there,
including Mary [another Mary]..."
"...Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers."
They were all there in that upper room--
devoted to prayer.
So Jesus introduced a whole new concept for prayer
and that's literally to pray for one another.
And I think that is just a wonderful addition to our lives as believers to get together to pray for one another.
And from that point forward in the New Testament, you see a tremendous emphasis
on corporate prayer.
Praying for one another. Gathering together.
Sharing our needs. And praying for one another.
After the church was born,
look what we read in Acts 2:42. These new believers:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching..."
They didn't have a New Testament but eventually they would.
First, the apostles spoke and then they wrote to give us the New Testament.
But they devoted themselves, literally, to the word of God.
"...to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread,
and to prayers."
That became a very significant part of the way
in which we can renew our strength,
as believers, when we gather together
and we pray for one another.
And that leads to, I think,
a significant question for application.
In view of our varied schedules and
demands in our lives, in what creative ways
can we plan times to be alone with God,
reading His Word, and spending time in prayer?
Now, though the New Testament, when the church was born,
emphasizes corporate prayer. Corporate prayer.
It still emphasizes personal prayer.
And Jesus certainly modeled that.
If he needed time with the Father, we certainly do.
Now, we have to be realistic.
In fact, I don't think Jesus did this every day.
He was too human for that.
Where he went all day long, into the night,
and then he got up before dark, and he went out to pray.
He probably didn't do that every day.
But he sets us an example that there
are times that we need strength
from the Father to renew our strength.
And he did because of the intense situations
that he had been involved in that day before.
And we do need to spend time with God in prayer.
Now, creatively, how do we do this?
I think we have to be very careful
we don't become legalistic.
We don't become unrealistic
in terms of what we do.
And to me, it's more than the amount of time,
it's quality of the experience.
And I think we all need to develop
ways in which we do spend time with the Lord.
And I know I haven't done that very well over the years.
But more recently, I've spent more time in journaling.
In fact, just recently I was journaling. In fact, just several days ago
because I'd just come back from a trip
where I was ministering with a
small church, really, in Ohio.
And the next day, I recorded this,
really, in a little restaurant where I was eating.
And then I took out my journal and I wrote these words.
God, my eternal Father,
I come to you as your son.
Thank you for a good weekend with Chris and Kathy.
Now, you need to understand.
This pastor and his wife, several years ago now,
had a horrible tragedy.
They had a wonderful daughter who loved the Lord.
She was engaged to a wonderful guy.
They were on the west coast.
They'd been in a camp.
They were engaged. But they decided to spend over night on a beach.
So they both took their sleeping bags.
Nothing illegitimate in their relationship according to the will of God.
They had time praying together. They know that. They recorded some things in their journals. Went to sleep.
Someone came with a high-powered rifle.
They never knew what happened.
They woke up in heaven.
He shot them both through the head--close up.
To this day, they haven't found out
who it is, though they think they know.
But they've never been able to bring them to justice.
And I got to know them that after that happened.
And I had a chance to minister to them.
And this was a wonderful experience
to go back to the church where they were ministering.
And so I recorded these words.
Thank you for a good weekend with Chris and Kathy.
Lord, I cannot identify with there loss. I can not understand
except to recognize the
power of sin in this world.
I can only trust you,
but I'm thankful for them.
They're a great example to us all.
Lord, forgive me for my own humanness,
though I'm thankful that you understand
through my wonderful mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ
who faced all the same temptations as me.
Lord, help me to never forget your grace,
to be motivated by that grace
to live a godly and holy life,
to love you and to love your eternal Word.
And there I was paraphrasing from
what Paul wrote in Titus [2:11-13].
That the grace of God that brings salvation
should teach us to live holy and godly lives
while we live our lives here in this world
Now, I've just read to you the words
exactly how I wrote them that day.
Didn't take me long, but it was a
meaningful moment with God
because of my experience with those two people.
So, let's not forget this Principle to Live By.
To renew our strength physically,
psychologically, and spiritually,
we must plan times to be alone with God.