The Healing of Peter's Mother-in-Law

Introduction: The Good News of Jesus Christ, Son of God

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 11, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me please in your Bibles to the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel, Chapter 1. And in our continuing studies of Mark's Gospel, we come this morning to this incident recorded in verses 29 through 31. I begin the reading in Mark 1, 29.

0:45 And straightway, when they were come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Now Simon...

0:58 Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and straightway they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and raised her up, and the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer and ask God by the Spirit that what is here recorded of our Lord may become a living word and a living word for us to hear. Amen.

1:29 To each one of our waiting hearts, let us again pray. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. And as we have sung together, we do delight to pursue the steps of our Lord Jesus as they are recorded for us in the Scriptures. And we pray that as we examine this incident in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus, that he, by the power of the Spirit, will, as it were, leap from these very pages and come and pass before the eyes of our hearts,

2:12 and that we may find our hearts running out to him in fresh expressions of faith and love. Show us the glory of Christ and minister to our waiting hearts by the Spirit through the word. Hear our cry, O God, and help us. As we look to you in faith to meet us in the ministry of the word.

2:40 Amen. Now, the central theme that Mark is concerned to set before us, he very conveniently announces in the opening words of his gospel record, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And in our ongoing studies of Mark's gospel, we must never,

3:11 Never forget that it's Mark's concern to tell us good news, and that that good news focuses upon this person, Jesus Christ, identified as the Son of God.

3:27 Now, in the unfolding of that good news, we have completed our study of that first recorded incident in the synagogue at Capernaum, bounded by verses 21 and 28, the record of our Lord's preaching with authority, and then casting out a demon with authority, with the result being that his fame began to spread everywhere. Throughout Galilee.

4:00 And now in the passage read in your hearing, there's a very marked contrast from that very public place, the synagogue in Capernaum, before no small number of people, in whose presence Jesus taught with authority and cast out a demon, we now are drawn by Mark, through the guidance of the Spirit, into this very

4:27 remote home incident, this very private incident, in which the Lord Jesus, in companionship with the four whom he's recently called into this more intensified relationship, in preparation for their distinct role as apostles, are found in a home, a private dwelling, in the presence of the Lord Jesus. And now in the passage that is before us, we consider what it contains of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as given to us in verses 29 through 31.

The Facts of the Miracle: Time, Place, Subject, and Circumstances

5:11 And the outline by which we'll seek to gather our thoughts is very simple. We'll first of all consider the facts of this miracle, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, the facts of the miracle, and then secondly, the message of the miracle. First of all, then, the facts of the miracle. And as we open up the passage, our attention is directed, first of all, to the time and to the place of this miracle.

5:44 And straightway, that is immediately after leaving the synagogue, when they were come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. As soon as the events recorded in verses 21 to 27 are completed, and while the men who beheld these events are spreading the news throughout that immediate area concerning the authority of the word of Jesus in teaching and in casting out a demon, Jesus, in the companionship of the four fishermen, quietly retires from the crowd and makes his way to the home.

6:28 The home of Simon and of Andrew. Now, we read in John 144 that Bethsaida was the city of Andrew and of Peter. And in seeking to bring that together with what we read here, in all likelihood, Peter had purchased a home, or perhaps his father and the family, in this city of Capernaum. Bethsaida speaks.

6:58 Primarily of the occupation of fishing, and it could be that Bethsaida was the fishing headquarters, or the headquarters of the fishing business, and this is their home proper. But be that as it may, the text tells us that the Lord Jesus, in the companionship of these four, comes into the house of Simon and of Andrew. So in any event, though Peter had left all to fight, he was still in the house of Andrew.

7:27 And in all likelihood, Peter was still the proper owner of this home, and was free to use it, and to have it, as it were, subservient to the purposes of Christ, and to the call of Christ upon his life. And that's true of all disciples. No one can be a disciple of Jesus. No one can be a disciple of Jesus, who does not renounce everything that he possesses.

8:02 Jesus says that in no uncertain terms in Luke chapter 14. So likewise, whosoever he be of you who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple. But the renunciation from the heart of all idolatrous attachment to whatever we possess, does not necessarily mean the actual relinquishment of the title. And use of those possessions.

8:31 Now in some cases it does. In the case of the rich young ruler, Jesus said liberally, sell everything you have. Relinquish title and possession, and use of it. But he doesn't say that to all.

8:45 He does say to all, we must renounce all that we possess. But not necessarily relinquish title and use of it. And so this home of Peter, seems to be the headquarters where Jesus now spends much of his time in this northern Palestinian part of his ministry, his Galilean tour of preaching. So the time of this miracle is immediately following the ministry in the synagogue.

9:19 It is still the Jewish Sabbath day, probably beginning to draw toward the evening of that, Jewish Sabbath day. And the place of that miracle is the home of Simon and of Andrew, and he's in the companionship of at least these two others, James and John. Now then, we are directed in the next verses to the subject and the circumstances of the miracle. Not only the time and the place, the Jewish Sabbath, the home of Andrew and Peter, but now, the subject,

9:57 subject and the circumstances of the miracle in verses 30 and 31a. Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever. When they arrive at the house, the disciples find a woman who is described or named only as Simon's wife's mother. We would say Peter's mother-in-law. And by way

10:26 of an aside, there's only one way to get a mother-in-law, and that's to get a wife. So Peter obviously had a wife. And Jesus never called him to relinquish that wife. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9.5, do we not have a right to lead about a wife as do the

10:49 rest of the apostles and Cephas? So the Roman Catholic Church's notion that celibacy is an elevated state of piety, and certainly the most elevated of the pious ought to be the pope, and Peter is supposedly the first pope, he certainly is de-elevated in his piety for he had a wife and he kept a wife. So much for that infallible church and its claims.

11:19 The subject of this miracle is Peter's mother-in-law, his wife's mother. And apparently she lay bedridden with a high fever. And if you consult the parallel passages in Matthew 8 and in Luke chapter 4, the circumstances seem to fit together as follows. The Lord Jesus, in the companionship of the four, arrives at the home. Arriving at the home, the Lord Jesus remains in one

11:49 room while probably Peter, at the suggestion of his wife, goes into another room where he finds his mother. And Peter's mother-in-law, lying upon a bed in what Luke calls in the grip of a great fever. Luke the physician is more precise in the medical description. And she is lying in the grip of a great fever. And then putting together what we read here with what we read

12:16 in Matthew, they come out of that room and they then inform the Lord Jesus that Peter's mother-in-law is indeed sick. She's not just got an upset stomach. She's got a lot of pain. She's not sick with just some little sickness, but she is bedridden with this great fever. And upon hearing of this information, the passage tells us that straightway they

12:43 tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and raised her up and the fever left her. When we take the facts of Matthew's account, Matthew says Jesus seeing her in the condition touched her. Mark tells us that he came and took her by the hand and raised her up. Luke tells us, again the physician, that he stood over her and he rebuked the

13:14 fever. And so you have these different little side lights from the three gospel records. And when we put them all together, the picture is clear. They come to the Lord Jesus with the information.

13:27 Jesus comes to the Lord Jesus with the information. Jesus comes to the place where she lies there in her bed with her brow no doubt wet with the sweat of her fever. Perhaps a look of delirium in her eyes. She's obviously a sick woman. And the Lord Jesus standing over her reaches out and touches her. From the touch

13:49 he takes her hand and possibly in the language of Mark puts one of his arms around her and actually raises her up. And as he raises her up, the text says, the fever immediately leaves her. And not only does her fever leave her, but she is given an infusion of strength and recuperative power so that she is immediately able to do the work of an ordinary person. So the miracle lies particularly in the fact that there was this immediate,

14:28 sudden release from the grip of the fever apart from the use of means and no period of subsequent recuperation until she comes back to the level of her ordinary strength and vigor. Well enough immediately to minister to the needs of others. So we move then from the place and the circumstances of the miracle, the subject of the miracle, to the place of the miracle. And we move then from the subject of the miracle to the last part of the text. So she ministered, literally she deaconed them. She

15:12 ministered unto them. And in the context, that ministering unto them probably means that she now prepared the meal that originally they had hoped to receive upon coming back from the synagogue. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who gives us the food, the food of the Spirit, the weary from his preaching and that encounter with the demon-possessed man, coming to the home expecting refreshment, no food perhaps has been prepared, in all likelihood Peter's wife has been ministering to the fevered mother, perhaps taking cold cloths and placing them on her brow, precluding her spending the time she would normally spend preparing a meal,

15:55 but she is no sooner healed than the text says that she ministered unto them. Matthew says she ministered unto him, Mark and Luke tell us she ministered unto them. And again, there's no contradiction, there was a peculiar concentration of service directed to the Lord Jesus, but also to the Lord Jesus and his companions. So then, here are the...

16:25 The essential facts of this private, domestic miracle. A miracle that, apart from the direction of the Holy Spirit, that it should be included in this record of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would no doubt have been passed over as inconsequential. What can there be in a little, private, domestic miracle that causes an...

16:55 What can there be in an unnamed mother-in-law to be taken out of the grip of a fever? What can there be in that that should be a constituent element of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Well, that's a legitimate question, and I believe it deserves an answer, and I think you will see that the answer is not long in forthcoming as we move from the basic facts of the miracle to consider the message of the miracle.

The Message of the Miracle: Jesus' Accessibility

17:25 What is the essential message of this domestic miracle? And let me suggest that the message has two prongs. First of all, it contains a glorious word about our Lord himself. And there are at least three characteristics of our Lord vividly displayed in this miracle.

17:53 Characteristics which do... Do indeed constitute an essential element of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That is, news that we sinners desperately and continually need to hear.

18:11 And what is that glorious word about our Lord? Well, first of all, this miracle sets before us a beautiful example of the accessibility...

18:26 ...of Jesus. The accessibility of Jesus. Remember, it was immediately after the incidents recorded in the synagogue that Jesus goes to the home of Peter and of Andrew.

18:43 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.

19:20 Some men merely mouth words which do not in any way... ...that draw upon the whole structure of the inner life. And they preach in such a way as to make very little demands even upon their physical frame.

19:37 But when it is said of our Lord that he spoke as possessing authority, whatever else was involved in that, there was that involvement of the Spirit of God so operating upon the totality of his sanctified humanity... ...that virtue was going out of our Lord in his preaching.

20:00 And there are clear indications in the Gospel records that Jesus was an animated preacher. It says on that last day of the feast he stood in the temple and he cried, saying, "...if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink."

20:21 And so in his preaching with authority, there was the... engagement of his whole being. There are many indications in the gospel records that our Lord

20:32 experienced the full emotional impact of the word of God upon his own person as he was conveying that word to others. It is recorded of him that he shuddered with rage at one point, that he sobbed and he wailed with a broken heart at another point. There are many indications that our Lord was a preacher who knew what it was when the current of divine truth was going through his humanity to feel that drain, that virtue that goes out of a man who truly preaches. Well, he's been preaching in the

21:13 synagogue and there has been that drain upon his humanity. And then there was that encounter with the demon. And again, that was not something that he went through without sensing and feeling the impact of that upon his own humanity. And though he was the son of God, he was true man. The very one who was

21:35 wearied in his journey, as we read in John chapter 4, the one who became so weary at one time that he was sound asleep in the stern of a ship in the midst of a raging storm. As though he were drugged, he was so fast. He was so fast asleep. And there is every indication that at the point that he left the synagogue, there was that anticipation that a preacher has when he leaves the sanctuary of God's people on a Lord's Day morning and anticipates a quiet time at home to reflect upon his labors, to refresh himself in the Lord. And our Lord is a true

22:16 man, no doubt, had all of those feelings when he left the synagogue. And at the invitation of Peter and Andrew makes his way to their home. And if there was ever a time when our Lord could be excused from being accessible, it was this time. But here we note with beautiful simplicity, Mark is able to record that the moment they discover that Peter's mother-in-law is held in the grip of a fever, that they come and they tell him. They

22:50 come. Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and straightway they tell him of her. And Luke says they made request of him. And here is a beautiful picture of the perpetual accessibility of our Lord Jesus Christ. The disciples instinctively knew that no matter how drained he was, that in the face of human need, the Lord Jesus Christ was

23:21 would be accessible to them. And so they felt liberty to come and tell him of her. And in the language of Luke, to make request of him. And they didn't get a busy signal. They got no look of indifference. They got no sigh of irritation that his expected rest was interrupted. What they found was their gracious, inviting, accessible Savior.

23:50 And what he was then, he is exactly this day. What a wonderful thing to know that in preaching the gospel to saint and sinner alike, that we preach the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in all of his present accessibility, so that whatever fever rages in our breast, whatever fever of humanness,

24:21 whatever human need and sin is our portion this morning, we will never find the Lord Jesus sending out busy signals. We'll never find him with a look of irritation that we've intruded upon a period of much deserved and much needed rest. But we will find him, as the scripture tells us, forever seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, in the freshness and power of an everlasting light. Amen.

24:51 High priest after the order of Melchizedek, in the never-wearying power of that resurrected life. And he is accessible to you and accessible to me this morning. Not only accessible in terms of telling him about the need of our loved ones, but accessible when we come with our own need. They came and tell him of her, but there is nothing.

25:22 to indicate, but that he welcomes our coming to tell him of our own need. But further, the passage contains a glorious word not only about our Lord's accessibility, but also about the compassion and the condescension of Jesus. They told him about her. Well, who was she? The only place we hear anything about her is here in the Bible.

The Message of the Miracle: Jesus' Compassion and Condescension

25:53 Here in this passage. And she's only called Simon's wife's mother. This unnamed mother-in-law, who is the mother-in-law of one who's to become very famous in the gospel records, who's to have a very unique place in the history of the church, Peter. And yet this unnamed, unsung person is one concerning whom Mark can write the moment Jesus,

26:23 hears of her need. He comes and in Luke's words, he stands over her. In Matthew's words, he touches her. In Mark's words, he takes her hand and he raises her up. And here we see in beautiful object lesson form, a picture of the compassion and the condescension of our Lord Jesus. With our Lord, there are no little people.

26:54 There are no inconsequential people. Wherever there are people in need, there our accessible Savior is prepared to manifest his compassion and his condescension to men in that need. He came to where she was. He stood over her. He identified himself with her in her need. And he met her in that need.

27:23 Until all who beheld his mighty work could not deny that a great miracle had been done. The scripture tells us Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. As then, so now. His compassion draws him to human need. His condescension causes him to stoop to contact human need.

27:52 And if you're sitting here, here this morning is one who is yet in your sin, bound by the chains of your own iniquity, bound by the cords that will forever bind you. The good news that you need to hear is that Jesus Christ is not only accessible, but he's full of compassion and condescension to meet the need of sinners. He is full of the compassion that causes his heart to be moved.

28:25 He is full of the compassion that causes his heart to be moved in the face of human need. And condescension that moves him to come in contact with that need. And it was that very compassion and condescension that caused him to go even to the depths of the death of the cross. But then in the third place, it contains a glorious word about our Lord that not only points to his accessibility, to his compassion and condescension, but thirdly, to the gracious omnipotence of Jesus.

The Message of the Miracle: Jesus' Gracious Omnipotence

29:01 It points to the gracious omnipotence of Jesus. With captivating simplicity, he stands over that dear woman held in the grip of what Luke calls a great fever, takes her hand, and in Luke's words, he simply rebukes the fever. And immediately, her fevered brow is back to normal. She rises up in the full vigor of one who never had known a moment's debilitating influence from that fever.

29:39 And our Lord here displays to her and to the four witnesses and any others in that household that the same word that can speak to a demon-possessed man and say, be quiet and come out, can say to a fever, be gone! And to one who has felt the drain of that fever upon her body, be well again! And immediately, with this touch of his gracious sovereign healing omnipotence, she is brought to health and strength again. That's good news, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not only accessible

30:23 to us in our needs, not only compassionate and condescending to us in our need, all of that could only bring intensified frustration if we knew that He was accessible and we knew He was compassionate and condescending. But, if He could not join to His accessibility and His compassion and condescension, gracious omnipotence, actually to meet the need, it could only intensify the sense of frustration and disappointment that we had been in the presence of a kind and gracious, compassionate, condescending man, but one who, like us,

31:07 could only sigh in the face of desperate need. But He could do more than that, and I say to you who may be sitting here this morning held not in the grip of a great physical fever, but held in the grip of sin's fever, held in the grip of the fever of lust and of pride and envy and greed and jealousy or perhaps a crippling grief, whatever it is, the Lord Jesus in all of His accessibility, His condescension and compassion, is the Christ who delights to put forth gracious

31:51 omnipotence to the meeting of human need. And He is here in the midst of His people this morning, in all that gracious omnipotence, in all of that omnipotence that He exercises, not to destroy but to save. For He said, I came not to judge the world but to save. Now is the day of salvation, and the door of mercy is open.

32:21 What is true for sinners who have never yet fled to Him is true for us, His people, who need to come to Him again and again and again and again. Whatever is your fever this morning, child of God, Jesus Christ waits with gracious omnipotence to meet that need. That's good news. That's good news.

Mercy Received and Service Rendered: The Inevitable Relationship

32:46 Good news that a living Son of God is accessible, is compassionate in condescending, and waits in gracious omnipotence for those who will come to Him in their need. But then the message of this miracle is not only one that points to the Lord Jesus and tells us at least those three things about Him, but it also contains a word concerning the intimate and inevitable relationship between mercy received and the grace of God. Look at the text.

33:25 No sooner does the Lord Jesus lift her, raise her up, and the fever is gone, but Mark tells us, and she ministered unto them. There is no indication that the Lord Jesus made any request of her. There is no indication that Peter and Andrew or James and John gave her orders. No sooner.

33:52 Does she feel the fever purged out of her body and strength surge back, but reflexively she channels that strength given to her by grace to serve the Lord Jesus and His companions. And the passage contains a beautiful illustration of that intimate and inevitable relationship between mercy received and service received. The Lord Jesus rendered. There was no coercion, no pressure.

34:30 Here was the spontaneous, reflexive response of a heart full of gratitude to the Lord Jesus. And what was true of Peter's mother-in-law is true of everyone who knows anything of the grace of Christ coming to us in our need. One of the most telling texts of whether or not you have truly embraced the mercy of God in Christ is right here. Do you find it in your heart to long to serve Him?

35:07 Do you have to be cajoled and enticed and bullied and pressured to render the least amount of service to Christ and to His people for those two cannot be separated? She ministered unto Him. She ministered unto them. Jesus said, inasmuch as you've done it unto them, inasmuch as you've done it unto them, the least of these, my little ones, you've done it unto me. You cannot separate loving

35:30 service to Christ and to his people. They are inseparable. And where you have true and vital Christianity, you will find that service which flows out primarily from a sense of gratitude for sovereign mercies received. That's why Paul can appeal as he does in Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual service. Let

36:07 me ask you as you sit here this morning, do you have a heart that longs and delights in finding a channel of service born out of gratitude to Jesus Christ himself? Not service, imposed upon you by your elders, not service imposed upon you by your peers, they're doing it, I ought to, or I'll be thought unspiritual. But like Peter's mother-in-law, Christ has come to you in your need. In all of his accessibility, his condescension and compassion, cutting

36:49 a channel of sovereign mercy and grace that has met you in your need. Does your heart run out in the language of the hymn, Here, Lord, I give myself to you, it is all that I can do. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. And here I want to bring a very pointed and relevant application. One of the great concerns

The Taproot of Service: Sustaining a Sense of Wonder

37:26 on the heart of your elders, as we anticipate, is that you have a heart that longs and delights in finding a channel of service, you need to find something that longs and delights in growing. You have the love in the heart of your God. And let me tell you, my children, I walk through these classrooms and I think of what you see, I think of the children. And I walk through those classrooms and I look up at them and I say, Lord, where are the children that you have gathered here? I say, Lord,

37:56 where are the children that you have gathered here? And that's the children I'm looking at. Lord, how many are there? How many of them are going to be asleep? How many of them

38:00 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

38:39 for appropriate pictures. It costs! And all the service that will need to be rendered just to provide a teaching staff for those new rulers. And as we think of our vision to saturate this immediate community, not with impersonal things that are simply dropped off in a mailbox, but by living contact with living people that takes time and energy. And then when we think

39:07 of the vision that from this place God will send out men and women to the ends of the earth with the proclamation of the gospel and in legitimate service ministries that express the compassion of Christ and all that will demand of service as an adequate support system. And as we think of that, we say, Lord, Where is it all going to come from? Where will there be the motivation to sustain, let alone not to even speak of, first of all, create such a mass of helpers? My friends, here's the key right here.

39:44 To the extent that there is kept in our hearts a fresh awareness that we are the constant recipients of the gracious omnipotence of Jesus, service will not be a difficult thing for us. But you let the sense of His sovereign mercy to you in your need become distant. Let it become something that is dry and no longer warms and thrills your own heart. And then preachers can stand and exhort and plead and admonish, and nothing will be done.

40:28 Or if it is done, it is simply done. Done to shut the preacher up and to get him off your back. My friend, God wants no such service, nor do we. There's no cajoling in this place.

40:45 There's no psychological pummeling. But there is an attempt, albeit poor, I'm sure, but at least an honest attempt, to hold up the glory and the wonder of God's grace and mercy in Jesus Christ to the likes of us. And to the extent that our hearts are filled continually with the love of Christ, with the amazement that He would come to us and touch us in the midst of our fever of sin, in the midst of our being held in that over which we had no power,

41:25 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.

41:46 He said, if we be beside ourselves. He took the language right out of their mouths. There are times when they said, Paul is a madman. There's no explanation for that character.

41:57 He's willing to run the risk of shipwreck and imprisonment and beating and stoning. He's driven like a madman. But you know what drove him? It was the love of Christ.

42:10 He could never forget. He could never forget. While breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church, while held in the grip of the fever of his own spiritual blindness and madness, Jesus Christ in sovereign mercy said, That's enough, Mr. Saul of Tarsus.

42:31 I'm going to make you a vessel of mercy. And he knocked him. He knocked him off his horse and blinded his physical eyes and opened up his spiritual eyes. And he never got over it.

42:42 He never got over it. And that's the problem with some of us. We've begun to get over it.

42:51 We've not maintained the sense of wonder. We're no longer amazed when we get up on a Lord's Day morning and find ourselves putting on our clothes to go to church. You can remember the time when you used to stop and think and say, Is this me? Can't he not Sunday morning go into church?

43:09 And not only go. Go into church. Go into it.

43:13 And then you think back and remember and you look under the rock from whence you were hewn and under the hole of the pit from whence you were digged. And your heart welled up with a fresh sense of wonder and amazement that Jesus Christ in all of his accessibility, all of his condescension, all of his gracious omnipotence came to you and touched you when you didn't deserve his mercy. Oh, dear people. To the extent that there is kept up in our hearts that fresh sense of wonder, there will be the motivation to serve.

Conclusion: Living in Amazement and Gratitude

43:52 And not simply to serve up to the point of respectability, but to serve beyond that point, to serve to the point where some may call us mad because we are consumed with the love of Christ. And that's what we need as we anticipate all of the increasing demands, that will be made upon us. As we've said over and over again, that building's not our resting place, it's our launching pad. And with the ministries that under God we envision by which to confront this generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

44:31 there is going to be a constant need for increasing degrees of self-giving, self-sacrificing service. And what will form the taproot? Nothing less than the constant sense of amazement that Christ has come to us in grace. Oh, may God keep that upon our hearts.

44:58 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.

45:25 I'd like to think that once in a while she stopped and danced a little jig in the kitchen for sheer joy that Jesus had come and touched her.

45:38 Do you think she found peeling the potatoes a chore? You think she found fixing that meal a chore? A drudgery? Of course not!

45:48 She was strong! In her heart, with a fresh sense of wonder, that coursing through that fevered body was now coursing vigor and strength! And when we remember what we were in the midst of the most mundane task done as service for Christ, we too will want to dance a jig. We'll think of the privilege that is ours to be alive in Christ, purged of the fever and the madness of our sin, that we might render service to the Son of God.

46:27 May the Lord take this simple account of this domestic miracle and write its message upon our hearts and enable us to live in its life. Let us pray.

46:48 Our Father, we thank you for the record of the activity of your dear Son coming into that unassuming home, confronting human need, and there manifesting his grace and power in the meeting of that need. And we pray that even this day, some who in their need have wondered if there were any answer to their need, would be given a sight of the Lord Jesus in his gracious omnipotence, in his compassion and condescension, and in his present accessibility to all who come unto you by him,

47:31 and, O Lord, we do pray for us who have known his gracious touch upon our lives, that there would be engendered in us a new and an intensified measure of gratitude to him, and that we, as it were, would be chomping at the bit to find new avenues of service by which we may demonstrate our love and express our gratitude. Amen. We pray that as a church we may have a fresh baptism of the sense of the love of Christ, that we may be constrained unto holy service, that we would never be marked as a people

48:15 who need to be pummeled and bullied with constant exhortation to this, that, and the other, but, O God, that our hearts would ever long to serve you and long to show our gratitude, by our loving and devoted service. Seal, then, your word to our hearts, and may it bear abundance of fruit to your praise. Hear us as we commit ourselves and our petitions to you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.