The Healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring the message of the miracle, focusing first on Jesus' accessibility. He highlights that despite Jesus' weariness from public ministry, he remained…

Martin uses the analogy of a preacher's physical and spiritual drain after true preaching to explain Jesus' weariness, making his accessibility even more remarkable.

And there's everything to indicate that he anticipated that this would be a legitimate time of retirement from the pressures and the demands of public ministry. Now, take my word for it, and you who are preachers will understand something of this. Only one who preaches understands the level of the drain upon this frail humanity in the act of true preaching. Now, I am not saying that everyone who preaches experiences that drain upon his humanity.

18:43 - 19:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in living contact with people in the community to saturate it with the gospel, and be prepared for the time and energy this demands.

He describes the hours of preparation and sacrifice involved in teaching children in the church, highlighting the cost of dedicated service and the need for motivated volunteers.

teachers going to come from who are willing to give themselves not just a half an hour to breeze through a teacher's manual. I live with someone who teaches the little ones, and I know the hours, the hours spent in preparing to teach those little ones week after week after week. The sacrifice, the relinquishment of personal liberties, the sacrifice a husband has to make from time that he'd like to spend with his wife while she's holed up with her Bible and her books and her flannel graphs and her other teaching materials or scouring National Geographic magazines looking

38:00 - 38:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Maintain a fresh awareness of being constant recipients of Jesus' gracious omnipotence, as this is the key to willing service.

Paul's 'madness' and relentless service are presented as an example of being constrained by the love of Christ, stemming from his never forgetting his conversion from spiritual blindness.

but He came, He took the initiative, He came, He touched us, He raised us up. Then we'll be able to say with the Apostle, Paul, for the love of Christ constrains us. It holds us in its grip. It held him in such grip that some people thought he was crazy.

41:25 - 41:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Anticipate increasing demands for self-giving, self-sacrificing service as the church confronts this generation with the gospel, rooted in constant amazement at Christ's grace.

He imagines Peter's mother-in-law dancing a jig while preparing a meal, illustrating the sheer joy and lack of drudgery in service born from fresh gratitude for Christ's healing.

And may we come back again and again and remember what we were and what he in grace has made us. As you go home to finish up the preparations on your meal, just try to think what it must have been like for Peter's mother-in-law. She went about fixing the meal that day. An hour before, she lay bedridden in the grip of a great fever.

44:58 - 45:24 Read in full sermon