One of the greatest reminders of the presence of sin among us, is the continued sickness, and illness, and death that is all around us. And it's been all around us since the very beginning, since Adam left the garden, sickness and illness and death have been all around us, indeed, just at the very door. And this is a great reminder that the depravity of man is here, it's all around us. And sometimes, you know, we live in this age of such medical advancement. And sometimes we can lose perspective a little bit. And we can begin to think that with all the medical advances and surgery techniques, and medicine, and antibiotics and everything, we can begin to think that mankind has gotten so, smart that we're just on the verge of eliminating sickness and disease. Well, you know, medical researchers tell us that there are some 10,000, give or take, some 10,000 known, diagnosed, illnesses in mankind. And anybody want to take a guess out of those 10,000 How many we have either treatments or cures for? Five hundred. Five hundred of the 10,000 known diseases we have treatments or cures for. So, that gives us a little bit of perspective. We are not on the verge of stamping out sickness and illness, indeed, they will remain until Christ returns. However, the Scriptures teach us that when the kingdom of God comes, sickness and disease and death will be banished. And, in addition to that, Jesus Christ came to earth, and for three years, He showed us he demonstrated for us something of what the kingdom of God would look like. And one of the things that Jesus demonstrated for us is how the Kingdom of God will banish sickness and illness from it. And so, Jesus Christ goes around for three years, literally just banishing sickness and disease, and leprosy, and demon possession, just banishing it from his presence. He will heal untold numbers of people. As we read through the Gospels, we read a number of accounts that tell us of Jesus's healing miracles. But so, very few of the healing miracles of Jesus were actually narrated to us in detail. We can start to feel like well, that there's maybe what 20 or 30 people that Jesus healed. But as we read through the Gospels carefully, we will see that Jesus healed untold thousands of people, literally banishing from his presence, sickness, disease, leprosy, demon possession. Look at the notes in Matthew chapter nine, and verse 35. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease, and every affliction. Or just a few chapters later, in Mark chapter six, and verse 56; and wherever He came in villages, cities or countryside, they lay the sick in the marketplaces and implored Him, that they might touch even the fringe of His garment, and as many as touched it, were made well. Jesus will banish from his presence, sickness and disease. Now, as we said, last week, the healing, the miracles of Jesus are never to be seen as the focus. It might seem that way, particularly in Mark's gospel, because Mark's gospel is the gospel of action. Mark wants to tell us of the things that Jesus did. And so, Mark takes no time in his Gospel to tell us of the substance of Jesus's teaching, he just tells us that Jesus is teaching. And so, particularly in Mark's gospel, we can lose sight of the fact that the preaching, the teaching of Jesus was always the central focus. Now, Matthew, Luke and John, they're going to give us the content of what Jesus taught. But Mark focuses on what Jesus does. But let's just be careful to notice that even Mark's gospel will tell us very clearly that the teaching is always the priority. We saw this last week, we'll be reminded of this again today. And we'll be reminded again next week of this, that the teaching of the word, the teaching of the truth is always the priority in Jesus's ministry. And indeed, that's the first thing that we're going to see this morning because this morning, we're going to pick up in the story. We left off last week, in that we looked at Jesus's time in the synagogue, He goes into the synagogue and gives this authoritative teaching. And people are just flabbergasted at not only the things that Jesus teaches, but the way, the manner in which He teaches them. They've never heard anything like this. They've never heard one who has the heart of God, the mind of God, and also knows the hearts of the people He's teaching. And he's teaching directly into their hearts, the truth of God. They've never heard anything like this. And so, they are stunned at what they hear. But then, this man with the unclean spirit cries out. This demon, this unclean spirit can no longer take the truth that he's hearing proclaimed in the synagogue. And so, he cries out, I know who you are the Holy One of God, are you here to destroy us? And then Jesus rebuked the demon tells him to shut up and get out. And the man is freed from the demon. And the people are even more amazed. However, we left off last week at the reaction of the people to the casting out of the demons. So, that's what we'll pick up this morning. And in doing so,, will be reminded once again, that the teaching is always of preeminent importance. Let's begin from verse 27. And they were all amazed. So, that they question among themselves, saying, what is this a new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him. So, notice there, you might miss that if you if you read over it too quickly. You might miss the fact that their reaction is a little bit different than what you might would have expected. You might would have expected the people to have said something like this, Mark would say, and they were amazed at the power of Jesus as He cast out this demon. But that's not what Mark says. They were amazed and they say, what is this a new...teaching? A new teaching? Look at Luke's account of the same instance in Luke chapter four, and verse 36. And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this? What is this word for with authority and power? He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. What is this word? What is this teaching? So, you see how they the people just connect together, the teaching the authoritative, teaching the authoritative word, and what the word accomplishes. The authoritative word, and what happens when the word is proclaimed. The authoritative word, and the reaction of the demonic to this authoritative word. You see here, the authority, the amazement of the people, if you will, their recognition of Jesus's authority is rooted and grounded in his teaching of the word, his proclamation of the truth. You know, it is the word that Scripture tells us will last forever. It is the word of God, that is unfading, and ever-enduring an everlasting, not the works. The works are evidence of the truth of the Word, the works are a manifestation, that the One who is proclaiming this word is true and right and should be listened to. That's what the Scriptures teach us, that the works, the signs are done in order to affirm, to verify the one preaching and teaching. And so, the works are not what we are told will last forever. It is the word that we are told that will last forever, and the people recognize this, they instinctively know they see the demonic flee from this man. And they instinctively know that the authority that he cast this demon out with is an authority that's rooted and grounded in the Word of God. You know, Satan would be content, I believe, had Jesus come and just spent three years just healing everybody in sight, casting out demons even, cleansing lepers, even calming storms, and multiplying bread and fish. I think Satan would probably have been content had Jesus done that without preaching the word that He preached. In verse 28, and at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. From this point on, from verse 28, on Jesus's life will never be the same again. For the rest of the time that He is here on earth, people will be clamoring for him everywhere he goes, every single day. Whether it be crowds that want to hear him teach, whether it be crowds that want to be healed, lepers that want to be cleansed, demon possessed people that need to be freed from their from their demons, or people that want Jesus to feed them again, people that want him to perform a sign or a miracle, or people that want to argue with him, or people don't want to kill him. So, for one reason or another, from this point on from verse 28, on Jesus will never have peace once again, He'll never have solitude that He doesn't have to actively seek out and get up before dawn in order to find. Instead he will be the center of attention everywhere he goes. And verse 29, and immediately He left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. So, here, once again, we see Mark's favorite word--immediately. So, he leaves the synagogue immediately. He is at the house of Peter and Andrew Peter's brother Andrew here. So, the house that He enters into is the house of Peter and Andrew, and then James and John, we're told are still with him. But then Mark says immediately. So, this house that they enter, we talked a couple of weeks ago about the synagogue in which Jesus was teaching here. We have (or, not 'we', but) historians, archaeologists have discovered the ruins of the synagogue in Capernaum. And we talked a couple of weeks ago about how this synagogue was rebuilt in the fourth century. And on the on top of the rebuilt synagogue, there are the ruins of the original synagogue. And the original synagogue would have been the one in which Jesus taught and cast out this demon. Now this synagogue, very, very close to it, historians tell us that literally within a stone's throw--and I know that's a phrase we often use, just to say something's very close by--but literally within the distance that you could throw a rock is a site that archaeologists tell us is almost certainly the house of Peter. This is one of those biblical archaeological sites that historians tell us, there is a high degree of certainty that that we have actually discovered the actual house of Peter. And this site is literally a stone's throw from the synagogue. And I know we use that word, stone's throw sometimes just to mean a distance is not very far. But literally, the distance that a person could throw a rock from the synagogue is this historical site. And historians tell us that we're almost certain that this was Peter's house. Now this house is a little bit different from most ancient houses in Capernaum, dating to the same timeframe. This house had a door or a gate that opened to the street. But then once you entered into that door, there was a large, open, outdoor courtyard. And the house was sort of circular around the courtyard, and all the rooms opened into the courtyard. And on the walls had been discovered all kinds of Christian paintings, and depictions, as well as Christian sayings and scriptural writings, written in the languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin. And this site, and they're almost certain that this was used as a church well into the 3rd century. But prior to that is known to be the house of Peter. So, that's quite interesting. So, let's just kind of put into our mind as we begin thinking about this, let's just sort of let our our mind rest on this for a little bit. And just try to picture, just try to create a context in our mind of what this would have looked like. So, Jesus enters into this house just a short ways from the synagogue, he enters into this house of Peter, and his brother Andrew. Now remember--it's also easy to easy to forget--that all of this is taking place in the same day. Everything from verse 21 all the way down to verse 38, from verse 21 to verse 38--all of that takes place, within the same what we would call a day, because the way that we reckoned days are, you know, either from midnight to midnight, or from sunrise to sunrise. But the Jew, of course, they reckoned the day, from the setting of the sun to the setting of the sun. So, in Jewish ways of timekeeping, this actually spanned over into another day. But regardless, it's all one 24-hour period. Most of this is going to take place on the Jewish Sabbath, but all of this, even into next week, is still taking place within this one 24-hour period. So, Jesus here, this is a Sabbath day, He's been at the Sabbath, at the synagogue, Sabbath service. And remember what happened there? He stands up and He reads through the scroll, He sits down and He gives this incredible authoritative teaching. And then after that, there's this encounter with the kingdom of darkness in which He does battle with the kingdom of darkness, and cast out the unclean spirit. Now, imagine, if you will, what would have taken place after the service? You know, when our service here is over on Sundays, our service concludes, and some of us have somewhere to go, maybe a lunch to get to or something to do or whatnot, but many of us we just stay, because we love each other and we stay, we talk, and we just like being with each other, particularly if it was a powerful surface. Many will linger. And my family will affirm for you that many are the Sundays that I get home at two o'clock. So, I imagine if you will, just what would have taken place after this Sabbath service. When the Son of God taught with all of the authority of God Himself--of the One who knows the hearts of man, of the One who knows the mind of God. And He laid open the Scriptures and applied it directly to their bare souls. And then all of that was followed up by this incredible experience of watching the kingdom of darkness be cast out. Do you think that they would have want to linger after that service? Do you think that Jesus would have had a crowd around him at the conclusion of that service? When he finally finished speaking, the demon was cast out, the teaching was concluded, surely Jesus would have been flocked by people who had questions, who want to know more, who maybe didn't quite understand something, He said, and wanted to delve into it even further. Is it safe to say that Jesus would have probably been at synagogue for hours? And would have left completely exhausted? You know, there is one aspect of the story that perhaps of all those in the room, perhaps I can relate to, I don't know, maybe the easiest. And that's just the aspect of Jesus's fatigue. When I get done preaching, there's a type of fatigue that comes over me. And it's not exactly a physical fatigue, although I am physically fatigued, there's not exactly a mental or an emotional fatigue, although that's there is well, but I guess I would call it a spiritual fatigue. Because when you open the Word of God, and the Word of God comes out of you to other people, there is a type of spiritual fatigue that results from that. So, I can relate just a little bit, just a tiny bit to how Jesus must have been fatigued. The human Jesus, as He left the synagogue, tired, hungry, walks just a short distance to Peter's house, enters in, and then immediately--even as they're walking, I can imagine Peter and Andrew are saying to one another; you know, let's tell them about mom. Let's tell them about my mother in law. You know, she's been sick. She's got this really bad fever, maybe He will look at her. Maybe He will do something. So, verse 30, now Simon's mother in law lay ill with a fever. And immediately, they told Him about her. Now, this is at least one thing in the passage that nobody in the room needs a biblical expositor to stand up and point out to you--and that's just simply this. They told Jesus about her. They told the Master, they had this problem, this sickness, this loved one was down with a fever, and they told Jesus about it. First Peter five, verse seven says, to cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you. Or Philippians, four, verses six and seven; Don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. They just tell Jesus. Jesus, we've got to to tell You, my mother in law, she's really sick. Can you look at her?