Our Lord's Ministry in Gennesaret

Driving home: But the distinguishing character of this passage is that there is no reference whatsoever to our Lord being engaged in His primary ministry of teaching.

Martin uses the analogy of a mural painting to describe Mark's vivid word picture in verses 53-56, showing different aspects of Jesus' ministry in Gennesaret.

but that the primary emphasis fell upon His work of teaching, and His healing, though expressions of benevolence and mercy, were primarily attestations of the validity and the uniqueness of His teaching. But the distinguishing character of this passage is that there is no reference whatsoever to our Lord being engaged in His primary ministry of teaching. Now, He may have taught, but Mark does not underscore anything of the teaching ministry, and there must have been a purpose for that, and I think the purpose will unfold in the course of the exposition. Consider with me then, having briefly lo...

7:12 - 8:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the passage as a 'vivid word picture' or 'mural' with three groupings: the arrival in Gennesaret, the immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants, and…

Martin mentions secular historians who wrote in glowing terms about the fertility and beauty of Gennesaret, adding historical color to the setting.

Mark describes it this way, And when they had crossed over, they came to the land unto Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. Either in the termination of their perilous journey across the storm-tossed sea, the night before, or shortly after a brief visit at Capernaum, where our Lord may have delivered the discourse on the bread of life, our Lord's disciples cross over to a place called Gennesaret. Now, unlike Bethsaida, either Bethsaida, Julia, or Bethsaida in the other section of that northern part of Galilee, Gennesaret is not the name of a particular town, or city. Rather, it refers to a fam...

9:53 - 11:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin presents the passage as a 'vivid word picture' or 'mural' with three groupings: the arrival in Gennesaret, the immediate recognition and response of the inhabitants, and…

He describes the people 'scurrying about in all directions' like heralds, announcing Jesus' arrival, to convey the urgency and widespread response.

It was impossible for our Lord not to be recognized. So in the minds of these dwellers in the area of Gennesaret, there was an inseparable relationship between Jesus and both his power and his willingness to heal sickness and disease. And because that connection was inseparable in their minds, immediately they began to run off in all directions. Another unique word in the New Testament, and we would probably say in current Americanese, they scurried about in all directions.

14:48 - 15:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He details the continuous action of people bringing the sick to Jesus in marketplaces, seeking to touch the border of His garment, and being made whole by faith, not superstition.

Martin compares the 'marketplaces' where the sick were laid to modern 'town squares' or 'town greens' where people gather, making the ancient setting relatable.

It could have been that. But more literally, the open places, the gathering places. In some rural areas of this country, we still have the town square, the town green, that place in the center of town where on a Saturday evening the townsfolk gathered to chit-chat about the news of the week. Well, it's speaking of those places where there perhaps might be shade trees to protect people from the burning Palestinian sun.

19:49 - 20:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin vividly describes the scene as a 'season of holy disorder and sanctified frenzy,' with people scurrying to bring the sick and the healed leaping with joy.

He references the lame man in Acts 3 who leaped and praised God after healing, to illustrate the unbounded joy and physical exuberance of those healed in Gennesaret.

They are either of or of degeneracies to such an extent that they cannot carry themselves to Jesus. And loved ones who have seen them languishing, loved ones whose hearts are concentrated upon in other aspects of the gospel record as hearts that yearn and break over sick sons and daughters and servants and friends. One can only imagine as the news reaches their ears, Jesus has come and someone comes into the village and says he's on his way here. Now can you begin to picture the sanctified frenzy, the holy disorder, people shuffling to get by one another and into the place of greatest accessib...

23:47 - 25:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin vividly describes the scene as a 'season of holy disorder and sanctified frenzy,' with people scurrying to bring the sick and the healed leaping with joy.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'flock of grasshoppers' descending upon the plain to vividly portray the 'jumping, leaping season' of joy and activity after Jesus' healings.

You know, I feel good. Isn't this nice to be able to walk? No, the scripture says when that man who had been lame from his birth received strength and he had no reason to doubt. But this was a jumping, leaping season around Gennesaret.

25:00 - 25:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that Jesus is accessible to the vilest of sinners, perfectly suited to meet your desperate need.

Martin states that Jesus was 'never a healing computer who pushed a button in Himself and out came virtue,' emphasizing that His healing involved His holy humanity and passion.

When they were come out of the boat and there was that immediate recognition at that point Jesus could have said oh no, not the multitudes again, not the clamoring for virtue that will go out of me again. I've just come through that traumatic night with my own walking upon the water. The draining experience of teaching all day to the thousands and multiplying the bloves and the fishes. Though there was recognition and Jesus knew that the recognition would lead to more acts of self-giving for I remind you when that woman touched Him He felt virtue go out of Him because she was healed by His wil...

29:31 - 30:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that Jesus possesses gracious saving omnipotence, capable of breaking any chain of sin and cleansing every stain.

He uses the metaphor of 'chains which you have forged by your repeated willful' sin to describe the bondage of sin, highlighting Christ's power to break them.

but that there is a gracious saving omnipotence because once we begin to take our sins seriously and God begins to give us some sight of the death not only of our guilt the inrunk and react contrary to the norms of God and the harm and a sink and sewer of uncleanness who cannot only be accessible in His but who is omnipotent in His graciousness that there is no chain which you have forged by your repeated willful until that which you pursued as your path to liberty has now become your very prison house and I would be very surprised if there is not someone here who fits that

36:10 - 37:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ with a consciousness of desperate need, recognizing that you cannot meet it yourself.

Martin uses the analogy of a doctor coming for sick people, not healthy ones, to explain that Christ came for sinners conscious of their desperate need.

You'll never have Christ as your Savior. For he said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Healthy people have no need of a doctor. I have come as the great physician of men's souls, and I come for sick people.

42:48 - 43:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ with a consciousness of desperate need, recognizing that you cannot meet it yourself.

He uses the metaphor of 'band-aids and the mercuric home and the salves of your own conceiving' to describe self-righteous attempts to meet one's own spiritual needs, contrasting them with coming to Jesus.

There is no saving context but that of the consciousness of desperate need that I cannot meet in and of myself. You'll never go out of yourself to Jesus as long as you're playing around with the band-aids and the mercuric home and the salves of your own conceiving and of your own application. There was the consciousness of desperate need. Then there was the conviction of the accessibility and power of Jesus to meet the need.

43:06 - 43:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Express saving faith through a determination and actual embrace of Christ, receiving and resting upon Him.

Martin quotes Professor Murray's definition of saving faith as 'the most beautiful, uninspired... definition' he's found, to provide a precise theological understanding.

as many as touched Him, with His person and the virtue of His power, and so saving faith is a receiving and a resting upon Him, or in the language of the late Professor Murray, the most beautiful, uninspired, that is divinely inspired definition of saving faith I've ever found. Saving faith. What is it? Saving is this faith,

49:04 - 49:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Jesus, confessing your chains and lack of power, asking Him to break them.

Martin asks listeners to reflect on who brought them to Christ on a 'pallet of intercession' and 'sanctified efforts,' emphasizing the role of others in evangelism.

true that most of us can look back upon someone who loved and cared enough to put us on a pallet of intercession and bring us to Christ in their prayers who cared enough to bring us under the means of grace and the preaching of the word if I were to do a survey the duration of that survey would be overwhelming that very few of you were brought to Christ by an isolated independent search of the word of God most of you were brought on the pallet of somebody's prayers and sanctified efforts to get you under the sound of the word some of us were brought on that pallet before we ever came out of ou...

56:31 - 57:55 Read in full sermon