A welcome visit

Sermon notes from Sunday 3 November 2019

Mark 6 verse 53 - 56

Mark sets out for us a challenge.  The thought of a welcome visit.  Here we see the Lord approaching Gennesaret.  It is a welcome visit.  Many will feel the benefit of his visit there.  Maybe God tonight will touch our hearts.  Maybe he will speak as he did to Lydia at the riverside on the Sabbath day.  As Mark puts forth this challenge there is a challenge for each of us saved or not.  How big is God?  Jesus exercises his power and authority over the very natures around us.  Not many could take 5 loaves and 2 fishes from the hand of a young boy, break them and feed over 5000 people.  Not too many would step on the waters and walk to Jesus himself.  He was able to do that.  Not too many could heal.  Many of you are saying `I couldn`t be saved.`  The Lord is able to save.  He walked on water and says "all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  He can make you a new creature, give you a new name, new aims and goals but he starts with your sin.

The plight Jesus faces.  As he steps off this boat and steps onto the shore and makes his way into Gennesaret the people recognised him.  In the midst of that voyage there was a real storm in the boat.  Jesus walked across the waters and brought comfort to his disciples.  We find the people recognised him.  They brought all out to meet him.  People that were in beds of sickness just to let him touch those people.  Do we see the consequences of seeing people going out into a lost eternity tonight?  What a terrible plight for such people.  Here was a people who recognised the need, gathered all that were sick in those villages.  Verse 55 they were sick but none too sick for him to heal.  Verse 57 "that they might touch" and "as many as touched him were made whole."  There are many who need that touch from the Lord tonight.  Only if you reach out and touch the Lord.  Maybe the Lord has spoken to you before.  Clinging onto something that is not real.  The Lord cannot save you if you will not reach out.  They were not only sick but they had to be carried.  Could do nothing to help themselves.  Not one of us can help ourselves because of our sin.  God in his great love for us had to send his only son because he loved us, he cared for us, doesn`t want to see us lost.  He died and shed his blood that we might be saved.  What a Saviour.  Verse 55 they brought them to where Jesus was.  No point in bringing them to a place where he wasn`t.  So too we need to bring people to where Jesus is.  Not to a place whre his name is never mentioned.  We cannot do that.  Think of the woman bound for some 18 years sitting in the synagogue.  She hadn`t straightened for 18 years.  Sabbath after Sabbath going through the motions.  She would hear all the singing and preaching, came in and out just as she was.  One day the Lord sought her, called her to where he was, brought perfect healing to her body.  The Lord still calls us to himself.  The situation in our lives when he went out on the streets.  He saw all the sick, he did not rush away from it.  Another time he went into the temple, saw those lying around the pool of Siloam, some couldn`t walk, some were blind.  He didn`t shy away from coming for everyone.  That night in Gethsemane when he realised what would happen in days to come, when he had to die on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world he said "not my will but thine be done."  The Lord has done that for you and I.  Will you come to Christ, will you trust him?  The Lord wants you to be saved.  That is why he took the form of a servant, why he came into the world in the first place.

The passion he saw.  He saw people who wanted to be well, to be healed.  He saw those who maybe were helped on the streets.  Friends had gone out and brought them to the place where Jesus was.  They wanted those people to come to Jesus.  A ray of hope is in their hearts, jumped at the chance to meet Jesus.  People had to consent to come and be healed.  I`m sure there were those who said no to the invite to come and be healed.  There are those tonight as we meet them they cannot be bothered to come and hear the message of God`s salvation.  These are the lies and excuses of the enemy, the devil.  Remember how Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, spoke to them about their sin.  They were those who stood in the synagogue, brought and preached the word of God.  They would not come and have eternal life.  This people acknowledged they were sick.  That is what we must do first - acknowledge that we have sinned.  People acknowledged they were sick and if so they could be healed.  The Pharisees stood in condemnation of Jesus when they socialised with sinners.  They couldn`t get over this, never thought they were sinners in need of Christ themselves.  Jesus rebuked them.  "they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick."  If you want to be saved you have to acknowledge you are a sinner.  It is the greatest acknowledgement we have to make.  If you haven`t done that you are not saved.  Here were a people who had a passion to be saved.  Jesus says "him that cometh to me he will not be cast out."

The privilege Jesus offers.  Simplicity of it all.  Just to touch the hem of his garment.  People recognised Christ, then they lifted up their voices, prayed that if they could touch the hem of his garment these people could be saved.  Maybe there is one who is praying for you right now.  Jesus came right where they were, offered this great remedy for those people.  Like the woman who suffered for 12 years, one touch of the masters garment and she was gloriously healed.  Have you called on the Lord tonight?  Called on his name to save you?  There were many on that day when the woman touched his hem.  The people were pushing and shoving but only he recognised and acknowledged the woman.  Maybe there is only one call tonight that God will recognise.  You have come to the point where you realise you need to be saved, you have to call on the Lord.  Coming from a heart that is broken.  A heart that is truthful.  Will you call on the Lord?  What a privilege it was for Bartimaeus that day.  Jesus passed by him.  He also passed by Zacchaeus in the tree.  "For by grace are you saved through faith it is not of ourselves it is a gift of God."  Have you that grace tonight?  Are you saved?  You cannot have a foot in both worlds tonight.  Jesus didn`t ask how long they had been sick.  They touched his garment and they were healed.  Didn`t ask what manner of sickness they had or what was the nature of that illness.  Knew only one touch and they were healed.  Are you afraid to come tonight?  To acknowledge you are a sinner?

The prize they achieved.  "As many as touched him where made whole."  Christ has taken your sin, made it his very own on his body when he died.  He bore it on the cross of Calvary.  He hung and suffered until he cried "it is finished."  Are you saved by God`s grace?  Has your sin been placed on him?  Have you eternal life tonight?  Will you make sure tonight?