5-30-21 Stretch Out Your Hand - Mark 3:1-6

 We'll be back in the gospel of Mark today, continuing our study in this book. Last week, if you missed it, Autumn talked about Romans 8. She talked about how we fulfill God's righteousness (or grow to become holy like Jesus) by living in the power of the Spirit and walking according to the Spirit. And if you read Romans chapters 6-8, they'll talk about how we can overcome sin now that we're alive in Jesus. In Christ, we're now dead to the powerless system of the law. Remember, the law just shows us how sinful we are and how we need God to step in on our behalf. The law also can't give us any power to obey. The power we need to be holy and to obey God comes by walking in the Spirit, not through us trying harder or working more - that's the old way that didn't work. Romans 8:6 MSG sums it up nicely: "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them-living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life." In other words, when we change our mind-set to focus on God and other people instead of on ourselves, what our selfish human nature wants, and all of our failings, we will begin to hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us more because we're focusing on Him more. And as we grow in response to the voice and promptings of the Holy Spirit, we will find that God Himself will control the sin-nature within us.1 I don't want to overcomplicate it too much, but basically, if you keep your eyes on Jesus and focus on following Him, everything else will fall into place. Matthew 6:33 NKJV "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." And learning how to quickly respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit is so important because it gives practicality to what God says to us. The fastest way to get a hardened heart, the quickest way to shut down your ears to hear what God says is by being non-responsive to His voice. I beg you today to have some sort of response whenever you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you - don't ignore Him. If possible, do something when God speaks to you. For example, maybe God puts someone on your heart; you could call, text, or reach out to them in some way. Maybe the Lord does something amazing or out of the ordinary for you, so you respond by praising and thanking Him. Maybe there's a situation you're not connected to that you are thinking about a lot - give it to the Lord in prayer. There are literally millions of different ways you could respond to what God speaks; but the key is keeping an open dialogue with the Holy Spirit and responding (if possible, literally doing something) when God speaks.2 To respond to what God says heightens our ability to hear His voice. It also produces growth in holiness and righteousness by the power of His Holy Spirit working through us. That was the gist of Autumn's message last week from Romans 8. Two weeks ago was the last time we were in Mark and we watched Jesus' disciples walk through a grainfield on the sabbath day. We talked about how Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and how He provides for our rest as well as our physical needs because He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. There is a lot to the fact that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, so I won't do a full recap; but I bring it up because in Mark chapter three, which we'll look at today, it's still the Sabbath day and Jesus will continue to provide for people. He is going to heal a man with a withered, shriveled hand on the sabbath in the synagogue. You can listen to the sabbath message later if you want that extra content and context for this story, but we'll take a look at Mark 3:1-6 today. Let's pray before we jump in. Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. I ask Your kingdom to come and Your will be done in us today by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Help us hear Your voice and respond to it in faith; help us keep our minds on the things of Your Spirit, not on the things of the flesh so that we can be your hands and feet to a lost and dying world. We worship you today and ask that You would meet every need in this place. We ask for your grace, mercy, love, kindness, conviction, and power to fall upon us today. Bless Your word in the place today; in Jesus mighty, powerful, beautiful Name, amen. Mark 3:1-6 NKJV "And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 3 And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward." 4 Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him." Jesus enters the synagogue on the sabbath day, and he meets a man with a withered hand. He then heals this man's hand in front of the Pharisees and reinforces His point that He's the Lord of the Sabbath. I'm going to put verse 1 back up; Mark 3:1 NKJV "And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand." I want us to focus on this man who received his healing. His hand was withered. The word 'withered' means that his hand was shriveled or dried up. In layman's terms, he couldn't use his hand at all - it was unusable. I think we know what our hands are (I hope; the things at the end of your arms)- but just for a second take a look down at your hands - go ahead. The Hebrew word for hand, "yad," doesn't just mean your physical hands. It does mean that, obviously, but it also means that a person has a way to accomplish something, to do work, to have power or strength. This word is used over 1,500 times in the Old Testament and is used in literal, figurative, and symbolic language. For example, to be 'put in the hands' of someone means you're under their power or authority; to be rescued 'out of someone's hands' means freedom and deliverance. One form of this word means to praise and worship; it literally means 'to thank or praise God by way of lifting up the hands.' As you know, our hands are involved in a very large percentage of our activity.3 I bring up our hands and all the things we use them for to try to illustrate how horrible life would be for a person whose hand was withered and useless. This man who Jesus meets in the synagogue has no power left, no strength. He can't do any work, he can't accomplish anything on his own and he has no hope that anything will ever get better. How horrible to be completely stuck, without hope. Maybe you're in a place today where you feel like you have no strength left, no hope, no power to overcome in your circumstances or accomplish anything good in a certain area of your life. Maybe you feel like your strength, your faith, even your ability to praise God has withered away and dried up. I want to tell you that the same Jesus who met this man in a synagogue on a sabbath day 2,000 years ago is here with us now, and He will meet you here, right where you, at your point of need as you invite Him to do it. As much as it is true we read this story quickly and think, "this guy's hand was deformed and Jesus healed him," there's a lot more to it than that. Having withered hands is a very common condition spiritually, even though we often don't notice. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that humans are actually totally withered without Jesus Christ. And it's their spirits, not just their ability to move forward in life. But without Christ, we have no power to do anything of lasting, eternal value. John 15:6a NTE If people don't remain in me, they are thrown out, like a branch, and they wither." No matter who you are, you'll wither away in your spirit without Jesus. If you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today and stop the withering, the shrivelling process of death that comes to all who don't have life in Christ. That's a salvation side note, but we will see in this story that the healing of this man's withered hand (like coming to salvation) is not a passive activity. When I say that salvation isn't a passive activity, I mean that we have to repent of our sins, accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and then follow Him, or do our best to do what He says. Those steps are very different than just intellectually agreeing with the fact that Jesus is God. James says, 'big deal - even the demons believe that Jesus is God, and they tremble!" Knowing Jesus is God is different from following Jesus. And my point as far as our story of healing in the synagogue is that Jesus doesn't just walk into the synagogue, touch the man's hand and move along. No, the man who receives healing has a part to play, has some action he needs to take. The man who is healed obeys Jesus; he follows instructions Jesus gives Him. Before we look at how this healing happened, we need to mention the Pharisees hanging out in this scene, watching to see if Jesus will break even more sabbath rules. Mark 3:2 NKJV "So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him." This is really sad, because the Pharisees aren't looking to help the man with the withered hand, they're just watching Jesus to gather evidence about how He is wrong and breaking all the rules. We've seen this theme keep popping up in recent weeks about how God loves people, not rules, and here we see that the Pharisees' minds are made up even before they see what Jesus is going to do. They don't care about whether or not a miracle happens or if a man is healed and set free; they just care about getting dirt on Jesus so they can accuse Him of violating the law. Do we ever see this in church today? Sadly, there are people so obsessed with criticizing how the church is doing things that they never end up ministering to anyone in their own circle. Now I'm not saying we can't lovingly look at what we're doing and try to improve; I'm talking about a critical heart that cares more about accusing others of wrong than actually ministering Jesus Christ to hurting people. The Pharisees were so focused on whether Jesus would break the law of Sabbath that they failed to see God Himself, the Messiah, in their midst, about to bring healing, breakthrough, new life, and new purpose to a man who had no hope. Remember, God cares more about people than He does about religious rules. He, of course, does care about obedience and growth in holiness, too, which we talked about briefly with Romans 8. But my point is that this conflict with the Pharisees over whether or not a person can be healed on the sabbath creates even more drama and pressure as everyone in the synagogue is drawn into this clash between Jesus's authority and his opponents' theology.4 How many of you know that theology, that's the study of God, is man-made? God is bigger than our theology. Of course, theology is good, helpful, and is useful for us to learn about God and how to follow Him. But God is not confined to our theology, amen? And so, in this high-drama moment, in front of everyone, Jesus asks this man in need of healing to do something. I wonder if it made this man nervous. Jesus will ask the man to do two things, but He starts by asking this man to do something he has the ability to do. In other words Jesus gives him an easy question, something easy to do. He'll ask the man to do something difficult later, but first, he asks him to do something he can handle quite easily. I want you to know that as Jesus heals you, as He brings you your breakthrough, as He grows you to look like Him, He also wants to grow your faith in Him. In other words He doesn't typically fast track us to the 'highest maturity ever!' in one day or in one moment - it's usually a process of obeying Jesus step by step, moment by moment. Jesus knows exactly where you are today in your walk with Him, and it's right where you're supposed to be. The Holy Spirit is also a gentleman, he won't force anything on you you don't want to do. That's where our free will comes in, our desire and will to follow Him from our hearts. He will ask you to step out in faith and obedience in some way and He'll give you the choice; but He won't force you or push you, because, like a small mustard seed, faith has to be grown. And our faith grows as we obey Jesus and see Him come through time and time and time and time and time again. My point is that even the smallest bit of faith paired with obedience to the word of God will result in amazing things as Jesus is allowed to work. And Jesus asks the man with the withered hand to step out in faith, He asks him to obey a simple command that he was totally capable of doing. Mark 3:3 NKJV "And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward." The way Jesus tells this man to step out in faith is by asking Him to walk forward and stand in front of the synagogue with everyone watching, including the nay-sayers, the haters, the religious, accusatory pharisees. I want you to know that before you receive your breakthrough, your healing, your growth, your miracle, Jesus is always going to ask you to step forward, to step out in faith, to move towards Him in some way just like He asked this man to do. And honestly it might be scary. You may feel your heart beating out of your chest, you may feel like you're hanging out on a limb and going crazy, but if Jesus asks you to do something and you have confirmation from His word, the Bible, you can know it's going to turn out for His glory and your good. In this scenario, the man with the withered hand was asked to step up and stand in front of a large crowd with Jesus. That's scary enough for most people. This man becomes the entire focus of the synagogue's attention. And He's getting negative attention from the Pharisees because He's doing what Jesus asked Him to do. Unfortunately, people don't always respond well when we step up or step out in obedience to the Lord. But I want you to notice that even though this man is asked to walk up in front of the synagogue crowd, he is able to do what Jesus asked of him. By that I mean that Jesus asked him to use his legs, not his hands. Jesus asked him to use what little strength he had, in the area that he had it (his legs) and obey even though it was scary. And the man steps forward, he obeys. But his healing doesn't come immediately after he steps forward, after he steps out in faith. In other words, he does what Jesus says, and now he's in this scary position up in front of a large crowd, and nothing has happened! His hand is still withered! The difference is that now he is up front with Jesus, he's obeyed enough to be identified as a Jesus-follower. And he's still waiting. Maybe he thought Jesus wasn't going to heal him on the sabbath. I mean, the Pharisees had a point, right? That the sabbath was a day to rest and worship? We went into that last week, but maybe he thought Jesus would give a teaching and come back tomorrow. We don't know what was going through this man's head, but we do know that at this point his hand still didn't work. But his healing is coming. Jesus won't leave him there to suffer one more day. Mark 3:4-6 NKJV Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they kept silent. 5 And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him." After Jesus asks this man to step up in front of the crowd with Him, Jesus asks the man to do something else. Remember, He started by asking the man to obey with what ability he had; to walk forward with his legs because he couldn't do anything with his hand. And now Jesus supernaturally calls him to do something impossible in his own physical strength. The man's hand doesn't work in the physical realm, to obey is impossible in this man's strength, but Jesus calls for him to stretch it out anyway. And He does. He obeys and sees His hand miraculously restored as He does what Jesus asks. And it's important for us to follow the command Jesus gives this man, too. Jesus asked the man his hand before the Lord. We are also called to stretch out our hands towards the Lord for breakthrough and healing. In other words, we can follow the instructions given to this man today - Step forward in faith; accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and choose to follow Him and do what He says, and stretch out your hands to Him. It's a formula for breakthrough. Paul writes to Timothy and echoes this command to stretch out hands for the church. 1 Timothy 2:8 NKJV "I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;" Paul says, pray and lift your hands. And don't be angry about lifting up your hands and don't doubt that Jesus will do something with your physical action, because it's a big deal that you step out in faith, and in obedience. It matters, make no doubt about it. Did you know that Jesus modeled out-streched hands for us? Luke 24:50 NLT "Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them." You know, there are a lot of reasons why people resist this practice of lifting hands as a form of worship and obedience. One simple one is that if you didn't grow up around it, it honestly can just feel kind of awkward at first. Another reason is that some think it's only something Pentecostals do. But the lifting of hands towards the Lord isn't pentecostal dogma, it's Bible doctrine. In other words, the Bible says we should make the lifting of hands a normalized part of our praise and worship to Him. I want to pause here for a quick point of practical help; if hand-raising feels like a difficult expression of praise and worship for you, or you feel a little awkward about it, try going outdoors sometime when no one else is around and lifting your hands up toward heaven. No one will see you (as though that really mattered!) and you can get away from any distractions or inhibitions.5 I hope that idea may help some of you get more comfortable with raised hands during worship. And so Jesus heals the man in the synagogue by having him step forward in faith and stretch out his hand. We find a type of this story in the Psalms, as well. By that I mean we see similar themes and actions in what David did and how He worshipped God. David, when writing this Psalm, was in a bad place. He couldn't do any work for his country, Israel, because he was hiding and being hunted by Saul. He was thirsty for the Lord, he longed for God because he was experiencing a withered dryness of the soul. Don't know if you've ever experienced that. But the antidote for that soul-dryness comes the same way it does as Jesus is in the synagogue - it comes by stepping out in faith and stretching forth hands. Psalm 63:1-5 NKJV O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips." In this Psalm, David talks about how his flesh is withered and dry. Then he goes to the sanctuary, the synagogue, or the church. Next, he engages in worship and lifts up or stretches out his hands. And then his soul is healed, it's satisfied with the best foods, with marrow and fatness, with the fruit of the Spirit, the product of new life satisfied fully by God. You see, the Bible says that our hands are an extension of our heart. Lamentations 3:40-41 NKJV "Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord; 41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven." There's a very real way we present ourselves before the Lord; it's by looking at our hearts, examining them, and then lifting them, along with our hands, to God. We talk about examining our hearts a lot because it's important; we won't be able to approach God at all if we hold back anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, rebellion, or other crummy attitudes in our hearts. And here in Lamentations, we see that the method we employ as we examine our ways and come to God is by lifting up our hearts and our hands. It's inward and outward, it's an internal thought and act of the will and an external action and movement of the body. And so stretching out our hands to the Lord means a lot. I'm going to run through a quick list of what some of the implications of lifted hands are,6 but first, stretching out our hands to God is a confession of our commitment to Jesus. It means we're committed to following Him fully. The first instance in the Bible of hands being stretched forth in the name of the Lord takes place with Abraham. Genesis 14:22-23 NKJV "But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich'-" Abraham's lifting of his hands was a confession of his commitment to the pagan king of Sodom. He declared what side he was on. He was saying that he refused to be identified with things alien to the way of the Lord. Remember how the man was called to step up in front of the crowd with Jesus? This is a similar thing. In Romans 4 it says Abraham is father of us all, and we do wisely to learn that as a part of the pathway of faith. Like so many great principles in the Bible, you find the law of first usage. Upraised hands require a commitment on your part, to declare yourself to the Lord. It's like being in a courtroom and raising your hand to take an oath; it shows our commitment to stand with Jesus. Stretching out our hands can also determine victory, both for us and others. You may remember Moses stretching out his hands during a battle; as long as his hands were up, the Israelites won the battle, but when they fell, they lost. Exodus 17:11 NKJV "And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." Now here, Moses hands symbolize intercessory prayer. I'm not saying that intercessory prayer can only happen with our hands raised. I'm also not saying that by lifting our hands we're automatically interceding for others in prayer. I am simply saying there's a relationship, a connection, a correlation between hands stretched forth in worship and praise as symbols of our hearts and our prayers being answered. And then the stretching out of our hands is also for blessing others. Acts 5:12 NKJV "And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch." You'll also see many instances in the Bible where the disciples laid hands on people and prayed for them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, healed, set free, and had a myriad of other needs met by the power of Jesus Christ. With our hands of worship, we reach out to people and snatch lost ones from the fire. Let those hands be lifted up in intercessory prayer; let those hands be lifted up in acknowledgment of whose side you're on; let your hands be lifted up, no matter what the trial is; confront it by standing in praise before God; let your hands come before the Lord in intercession; and then reach out to people with the blessings of the Lord. The Bible says there's a very real way in which I present myself before the Lord. I lift up my heart with my hands to God in heaven. I want to close today with Mark 3:5 NKJV And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other." What area of your life do you need restoration in today? Is there an area where you feel powerless, like you can't make it, like there's nothing you can do to fix it? Jesus is here. And He calls us to step forward, to step out in faith, believing that He is God and that He is trustworthy. And then He repeats the same call to us that He said to the man with the withered hand in the synagogue - stretch out your hand. Will you do something with me right now? Can we all respond to Jesus' call to 'stretch out your hand?' Will you close your eyes first so that we can get rid of any barrier today of embarrassment as best we can. We're just going to close our eyes and stay in this moment for a very short time; 60 seconds maybe. As we do, I'm going to pray; we reach up to You, O Father, acknowledging how great You are, asking for more of You in our lives, and putting ourselves in a position of growth, obedience, and availability to You and Your will in our lives. I ask You to fall upon us now, Holy Spirit, and have Your way. Speak to each heart here today what You want to say, and fill us with Your peace and joy. Heal each person in need right now in the same way you healed the man with the withered hand. We stretch out our hands in faith at Your word today. In Jesus Name, amen. 1 Hayford, Jack W., editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, p349. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. 2 Lord, Peter. Hearing God, p38-40. 13th Ed, 1995 ed., Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book House, 1988. 3 Hayford, Jack W., editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, p634. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. 4 Stein, Robert H. Mark (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), p288. Baker Publishing Group, 2008. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/read/234999829/Mark-Baker-Exegetical-Commentary-on-the-New-Testament. 5 Hayford, Jack. The Heart of Praise: Daily Ways to Worship the Father with Psalms, p67-68. Ventura, CA, Regal Books, 1992. 6 Hayford, Jack. On the Upraising of Hands. Sermon #1563. 2 April 1980. Gateway Legacy Library, https://app.gatewaylegacylibrary.com/legacy-library/4/sermon/2435. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Stretch Out Your Hand |