A Taste of Heaven

Steve Bowyer

Words & Works of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Luke 4:38–44

Matthew 8:14–17

Mark 1:29–39

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Israel

I would love to be able to bring Israel to you. But, obviously, I can’t. We went last fall and had a life-changing time there. Our experience added so much depth to our spiritual lives, I can’t describe it.

I have hesitated to share stories and pictures b/c I wanted to do it at the right time, and in the best way to convey everything. But, I’m finding, that’s impossible. I cannot do justice to everything we saw, did, and felt in one, or even several meetings like this.

Some have suggested we do it all in one sitting. The group from the church could share their own stories as we shared the pictures. But we would overwhelm you. Your brains would be full before we got it all out.

In fact, I’m still processing and trying to understand what it did to me to be there.

We packed a lot into 2 weeks. 3 countries. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. Pyramids, Petra, and the Holy Land.

How do we possibly package all that we experienced there in such a way to for you to understand it. There’s no way. B/C, we don’t understand it all, yet.

I can show you pictures. In fact, I will. But the pictures don’t do the place justice. You just need to be there. It all happened there, in a relatively small place.

You think of our country, NY to LA. But, Israel is only 8,550 sq. mi. That’s the same area as New Jersey. One of our smaller states.

We did all we could do in those two weeks. We ran out of time and energy. In fact, we have decided if we go back, we will take a day of rest in the middle. The Sea of Galilee would have been a great place to relax for a day.

But, that would mean we see less. There is so much to see. Something significant happened on just about every hillside.

We were on the highway, from the Sea of Galilee to Jerusalem, and our guide, Itai, would talk about the places we passed and didn’t stop.

“See that hill over there? That’s where King Saul and his son Jonathan were killed in battle. And the valley behind it is where Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.”

We passed Nazareth and didn’t stop. Jesus’s parent’s home town.

He pointed out Nain. It’s a town of some size now. In the c.1 it was the village where Jesus was walking thru and encountered the funeral procession of the widow’s son. He was the only male in her family and he died. Jesus touched the dead body and resuscitated the son. We didn’t stop there.

Something happened everywhere. To be where it happened was powerful and impactful. To stand on the hill, walk the steps, be in the places we’ve read about and studied all our saved lives. I cannot impress upon you how deeply it impacted all of us and how important it would be for you to go someday, too. So you can experience it, too.

This is the Sea of Galilee at sunset.

This is the place where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan. The river has moved over 2000 years.

This is me baptizing Mary Krongaard

This is the Pool of Siloam. Men would wash here, repent and ceremonially cleanse themselves before presenting themselves to God in the temple.

Once cleansed, they would walk up these steps, thru the gate in the wall, to the temple to worship God.

Jesus did this. He was in this pool and walked these steps like we are, here.

This is a pic of me walking out of the empty tomb where Jesus was buried.

This is the empty tomb, inside.

This is the ruins of the synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus cast the demon out of the man that I talked about last week.

Then, this is Peter’s house where Jesus went next, and healed Peter’s MIL. This is the place where what I’m talking about today actually happened.

These pictures don’t do these places justice. They are small, 2-dimensional representations. You can’t see the surrounding territory that we saw there. You can’t feel what we felt there.

I can try to describe it. So can the rest of us who were there.

Sara can tell you how to get there. She made our plane reservations and connected w/ out guide, Itai.

This is just a taste, a sip, a tiny small sampling of what it’s like in Israel. I would love to bring Israel to you. But I can’t. I can only show you these things that give you a small idea of what it’s like to be there so that, hopefully, you will want to go and make the trip someday.

Me giving you this taste of Israel is the same thing Jesus did when He was here giving us a taste of heaven.

He didn’t come to bring heaven to earth. He came to get us to heaven. He didn’t heal everybody while he was here. He healed enough ppl to give us an understanding of what heaven is like. Though a small sampling, he showed us enough, so that hopefully, you will want to go and make the trip someday.

You don’t have to buy plane tickets or arrange for a guide. You just have to know what Jesus did, believe what He said and believe in Him as your Savior and your reservation is secure.

This becomes clear when He went to Peter’s house after the synagogue that’s described in 3 passages: Matthew 8:14-17, Mark 1:29-39, and Luke 4:38-44.

We are going to spend most of our time in the Mark passage. Here, he gives us a little taste of heaven. Much of what happens on earth doesn’t happen in heaven.

But we need a little taste to know what heaven will be like when we get there.

A Little Taste

Mark 1:29–31 NIV

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Just after Jesus freed the man from the demon in the synagogue where the ppl saw his authority and ability in the delivery of his message and the deliverance of the man, they went to Peter’s house.

It’s still the Sabbath Day. Only 4 disciples are w/ Him. Peter, his house. Andrew, Peter’s brother. James and John, two brothers, the sons of Zebedee.

This was another private miracle, not for the masses. Very few ppl knew what happened here. Besides these men, Peter’s wife was there and no one else is mentioned.

At the same time Jesus is pulling the curtain back on heaven, he is training the disciples to be ready to be leaders after He is gone.

This message is vital for them to get. To understand what Jesus can do and understand why He does it and why He doesn’t do it all the time is very important for them as they pick up the pieces after Jesus ascends to heaven.

It will get a little chaotic over night. More on this in a minute. This won’t be the first time, nor the last, these disciples will be left holding the bag, or basket of fish and loaves, needing to explain why Jesus just did what He did. Or, didn’t do what He didn’t do.

And some ppl might be upset about it.

The language here indicates she suffered from a chronic condition that involved a high fever. It was getting worse and she was critically ill. The fever was severe. We all know that if an adult has a high fever brain damage and worse is possible.

They sought help from Jesus. They knew what He could do. They had seen it all first hand. Jesus, demonstrating compassion, went in to do what He could, which is a lot.

Mark wrote, “He took her hand and helped her up.” Remember, he wrote about Jesus as the Servant of God. He served Peter’s MIL by helping her up.

Matthew wrote, “He touched her hand and the fever left her.” Matthew’s book is about Jesus is the King w/ authority. It only takes a touch and the fever obeys.

Luke wrote, “He bent over her and rebuked the fever.” Luke was physician himself. So, He noted Jesus examined her and his words were a powerful prescription enough to treat her and heal her.

The illness obeyed Jesus. Her healing was immediate and complete. Anyone who had been this sick for so long would have been so weak she would not have been able to get up and do what they all said she did next. She served them. They were in her home, that she shared w/ her daughter and SIL, so she fed them next. Not only did Jesus restore her health, he restored her strength, too.

What role did faith play in this? We know the disciples believed. It is very likely Peter’s MIL had faith. But where is the mention of faith in the text? It isn’t mention. It is not an issue.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have enough faith for Jesus to do a miracle in your life. Your faith is secondary to His purpose for your life. If faith was a requirement for a miracle, all 3 writers would have said so.

In fact, of the 35 miracles written about in the NT that Jesus performed, faith is not mentioned in a third of them. In fact, in some cases, the recipient of the miracle did not have faith before the miracle. And a few of these, no faith even after being healed.

Our faith, the faith of the ppl, is not the point. Jesus is pointing out what heaven will be like when we get there. He is claiming to be the Messiah who has the authority and ability to save us. These miracles prove he is who He says He is and can do what He says he can do. And, they give us a small taste of what we will scarf up in heaven.

In fact, toward the end of Jesus’s ministry, He said this about Capernaum and the effect the miracles had in bringing ppl to faith:

Matthew 11:23 NIV

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.

Miracles rarely lead ppl to faith. The message leads ppl to faith. The miracles prove the message that He is the Messiah. He is who He says He is and can do what He says He can do.

Here, he demonstrates his authority over disease. He had just come from the synagogue where he had demonstrated authority over the demonic. And shortly before that, he had demonstrated his authority over nature when he told all those fish to jump into the disciples’ net at the wrong time of day in the wrong depth of water.

Word still got out what happened at Peter’s house. Desperate ppl will do desperate things to be relieved of their desperation. Still they waited till the Sabbath was over and the entire town gathered at Peter’s house.

There was something there they all wanted and they believed Jesus could do it for them.

We Want This

Mark 1:32–34 NIV

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

The time marker, after sunset, indicates the Sabbath was over.

Our day is midnight to midnight. Their day was sundown to sundown. So, the Sabbath began on Friday evening at sundown and ended Saturday evening at sundown.

Now, all those who were reluctant to travel too far on the Sabbath felt from from the restrictions of the law to travel as far as they wanted to go to see Jesus.

There was a limit to how far a person could walk on the Sabbath and still be w/in the allowance of the law. A Sabbath’s day journey was about a half mi.

It’s a little over a mile from the church to my house on the upper east side.

The whole town gathered, some were sick and some were demon possessed. Jesus, showing compassion, and wanting to show them, give them a little glimpse of what life in heaven will be like, worked late to heal every one of them.

Luke, the doctor, wrote Jesus laid hands on them to heal them. Why? The relational touch. Jesus want’s more than just to make our lives on earth better. He wants a relationship w/ us that will lead us to Heaven. He could just speak and keep his distance. But he gets up close and personal w/ the ppl he helps.

Also, Luke the Gentile, writing to a Gentile audience, would have been less concerned w/ violating the law of a Rabbi touching a sick person. According to the law, if any person came in contact w/ a sick person they were considered unclean and needed to quarantine or isolate for a week.

We know what that’s like. It was a practical solution to prevent germs from spreading.We did that during the pandemic. Masks, washed hands (also in the OT law), and social distancing.

Long before germs were discovered as the cause of disease and its spreading, the law provided practices that helped keep people from getting sick.

Jesus was not susceptible to disease so not a concern of his. He wanted the relationship. We know how important a hug, warm handshake, or even just a sensitive touch of the arm when having a convo is to the depth of the relationship.

Jesus forbade the demons from talking. Just like in the syn. He was not going to give them any opportunity to give good news. They knew Who Jesus is. They knew He is the One and only Savior, Son of God, Holy One.

But he was not going to give them a platform to speak even good news like that.

Shut up. Go away. Don’t go away mad, just go away.

This was a little taste of heaven. The people of Capernaum. Imagine the joy, the celebration that night. The party. PPL who’d been lame danced. PPL who couldn’t speak sang. PPL who’d been possessed were freed.

People don’t get sick in heaven. They don’t need t/b healed there b/c they never suffer w/ an illness.

PPL don’t get possessed or oppressed or tormented by demons in heaven. There is no demonic presence or activity there. Satan and his assistants are banned from heaven.

No one goes hungry in heaven. We may get to fish for sport, and we’ll have work to do, something that satisfies, challenges and occupies us. But there will be no hunger, no concern about getting skunked on the water in heaven.

Who wouldn’t want this? We all want heaven. But maybe we don’t want to do what we have to do on earth to get there.

Maybe we want it too badly here, on earth.

But Jesus didn’t come to bring heaven to us. He came to get us to get us to heaven.

Just a little taste. A sip. A nibble of what life in heaven will be like.

Next, Jesus makes the point that this isn’t heaven. As great as heaven will be, earth will continue to be a struggle. And in order to get all the heaven offers, we need to get there.

Not Heaven

Mark 1:35–39 NIV

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

What an opportunity this could have been! Catch early momentum. Establish the first mega-church. No need for hospitals. No one goes hungry. No one suffers. The power. The music. The teaching. The signs and wonders. People would have come from all over the world to be a part of this.

But Jesus wasn’t interested in ppl coming to Capernaum for this. He wanted to go to them. And, Capernaum is definitely not heaven!

Jesus rose early, before sunup. It had been a late night and strenuous day. He was exhausted. But, He needed to go pray. Jesus needed to pray. If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray.

Let me offer a little more about what prayer is. We tend to think of it as a convo w/ God. Or, at least when we ask God for things.

Prayer is more than a convo. It involves convo. But it also involves quiet.

Prayer is an intentional, active action of dependence on God. We communicate that verbally, and non-verbally.

Jesus prayed. He was completely dependent on His Father for his life and ministry here on earth. He spoke. He listened. He gave. He got.

We don’t know specifically what went on between Him and God. It doesn’t say. He didn’t need information. He knew it all. He needed to receive strength and guidance. So, He prayed.

Imagine what it was like back at Peter’s house that morning. How early did the crowd arrive? From where? This time it would have been a regional crown, not just Capernaum. The needs of the ppl. The anticipation of seeing Jesus and being healed by Jesus.

They had heard what happened there the day before. They wanted their little piece of heaven. They couldn’t wait to see Him.

Where was He, anyway?

Imagine Peter. A little proud. This was his house. His family. His town. His chance to boost his rep among his peeps. He is close to Jesus. The association made Him look good.

The crowd showed up. He was eager to greet them. But they would have grown restless b/c Jesus was nowhere to be found. They came to get help. Some were desperate. And desperate ppl might do desperate things if Jesus didn’t get there soon.

They go out and find Jesus, expecting him to want to come back and help everyone there again that day. The momentum! The excitement. The power. The good Jesus could do for the ppl and his cause.

But Jesus’s response? Let’s go somewhere else.

What?! You’ll make us all look bad. The ppl will be furious. What do you mean go somewhere else? There are plenty of ppl here you can heal and deliver.

Why? Why would he go somewhere else, leaving all those ppl t/b disappointed, mad?

Why doesn’t Jesus heal all of us. Why do only some of us get healed from cancer? Why do only some of us get freed from addiction?

B/C Jesus didn’t come to be a miracle-worker and heal everybody. He came to be our Messiah. Heaven is where we’ll all be healed. Earth is where we suffer.

He wanted to move on to the next village to preach, Luke wrote, about the kingdom, that is, Heaven. He does enough to give us a little taste of what heaven is like, then explains how we get there.

Something is going to have to take us from this life to the next. For some of us, it will be quick, painless. But for others, it may a difficult transition. But, we will all be healed once we get there.

I would love it if all of you could go to Israel and experience everything we did when we were there. I would love to be able to bring Israel to you, but I can’t.

I hope I have been able to whet your appetite to encourage you to go some day. If not, I’m sure we’ll experience that and more in heaven.

Jesus would love it if all of us would go to heaven. He wouldn’t bring heaven to earth. He only gave us a taste. He and I hope, He has been able to whet your appetite so you will do what you need to do, believe what you need to believe, to get there someday and experience everything He already has when He was there before He came here.

That’s why Jesus came the first time. He came to save us. He came to introduce himself to those who don’t know Him so we can all get to heaven.

Next time He comes, it won’t be so pleasant for those who don’t know Him.

So, the main objective is, how do we get to heaven if heaven isn’t coming to earth? Faith.

Applications

Pray

Be intentional about depending on God.

Speak to Him. Quote Scripture. Show God you know Who He is by quoting what the bible says about Him.

Listen. It’s a learned skill Learn to differentiate the difference between God’s voice and your own wishful thinking. God will teach you if you want to learn.

Be more dependent on God this week than you were last week.

Compassion

Show compassion to serve.

No one is above serving and no one is beneath being served.

Jesus’s example shows us this. If anyone was too good, too special, too important to lower Himself to serve it’s Jesus.

One aspect of the definition of grace is the greater kneeling, bending down, offering a hand to the lesser who does not deserve the hand up or the help.

And no one is beneath being served. Jesus washed the nasty feet of his disciples. He touched lepers whose wounds oozed puss and other nasty stuff. The smell would have been so offensive, yet got up close and personal w/ everyone no matter how nasty they were.

Be compassionate and gracious. Is there someone in your life you need to serve?

Sickness

Even followers of Jesus get sick. Those who love Him and are close to Him, those who sacrifice their lives for Him, get sick.

Isn’t that part of the sacrifice? Giving up wealth and health to serve Jesus.

If we can be followers of Christ in our imperfect state, anyone can be a follower of Christ.

Everyone gets healed in heaven. This isn’t heaven.

We may have the opportunity to glorify God and show those around us how to praise God even when we are suffering.

Hang on. Things will be that much better in heaven when we get there.

I would love it if all of you could go to Israel and experience everything we did when we were there. I would love to be able to bring Israel to you, but I can’t.

I hope I have been able to whet your appetite to encourage you to go some day. If not, I’m sure we’ll experience that and more in heaven.

Me giving you this taste of Israel is the same thing Jesus did when He was here giving us a taste of heaven.

You don’t have to buy plane tickets or arrange for a guide. You just have to know what Jesus did, believe what He said and believe in Him as your Savior and your reservation is secure.

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