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THE DISCIPLE’S DISCIPLINE - by Darren Choo
Texts: Mark 1:32-39, Psalm 46
13 January 2008

Introduction

There is a popular children’s book simply titled “Richard Scary’s Busy, Busy World”. If you were to open this book you will notice that every page is a colorful mass where the characters are seen to be very busy running about and doing all kinds of things. Well, I guess this book is a clear reflection of the world in which we live in today - a very busy, busy one.

Add to the advancement of technology plus man’s insatiable need for wanting more, it seems that our lives will become even busier than ever before! Companies and organizations have become victims of their own success in that they strive to do better than what they did in the previous year and the outcome means only one thing – get busy! We reason that if we lay up on our busyness even for a moment, we will fall behind in the rat race. We conclude that if we ease up on our many schedules and activities, we will we fail to reach our projected targets. For many, the very idea of slowing down, let alone stopping is threatening, if not risky.

And I’m afraid that even the church has fallen into the same mindset that busier is better. It seem to have this mistaken idea that the busier the church, the better it is. As a result, we have far too many meetings to attend; too many services to conduct and preach and we long for programs to be organized. Now don’t me wrong! I am not saying that the church shouldn’t be doing all these things. We should and we must! But the point is this: the moment Pastors, leaders and even members of the church are too busy involving in these activities and not spending time regularly in communion with God, then I’m afraid it becomes a major problem.

And if we are indeed guilty of being too busy and have no time for God, then we need to heed the words of the late Henri Nouwen, who rightly pointed out that:

“A life without a quiet centre easily becomes destructive.”

If we pause and reflect for a moment over this phrase, we discover that it is a reality check upon our own lives. Are we so busy that we have no time with God in prayer and in the reading of His Word? Is our life so caught up that we miss out on the things of God? Are we so busy that our lives become destructive and we end up being physically burnout as well as spiritually dry?

These are hard questions that we must consider. As Christ’s disciples in a busy world, we are all in need for a quiet centre. We have to learn and practice slowing down, to get away and sometimes perhaps even stop to what we are doing. If we are to experience God in a deeper way, we have to make time and space to be with the Master. As the Psalmist rightly reminded us in Psalm 46:10 - Be Still and Know that I am God.

The Example of Jesus
That is why our Gospel reading for today is critical especially when we are focusing on the theme on discipleship and the disciplines that it involves. It is a text that reveals that Jesus like us also lived in a busy world and yet as we will discover, He disciplined Himself to be with His Father.

So, how busy was our Lord, you may ask? Well, look with me in your Bibles to V14. We read that soon after His fasting and temptation by the Devil, Jesus began His earthly ministry with a list of busy schedules …

a) calling His first disciples: Peter, Andrew, James and John (v16-20);

b) teaching in a synagogue (v21);

c) casting out an unclean spirit (v25-26);

d) healing Peter’s mother-in-law (v29-31)

And then we see in our appointed passage for this morning in V34, that Jesus healed the sick and demon possessed. Our Lord was truly busy!

But in the midst of all these franticness and activities of calling people, casting out demons, healing the sick, teaching and traveling, there is that beautiful, quiet words of v35 which reads:

In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He (Jesus) went out and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed.

Did you hear what Jesus did? Mark tells us that Jesus got up way before first light. Was our Lord suffering from insomnia that He couldn’t sleep? Maybe it was all the excitement of the previous day’s event, after all we read it was a resounding success that the people came to Him. No! It was neither. It is clear from the text that Jesus got up early to do one thing: pray and be in the Father’s presence. As Nouwen pointed out, in the centre of breathless activities, there is now the welcome sound of restful breathing; surrounded by hours of moving, there is now find a moment of quiet stillness; and in the heart of much involvement, there is now withdrawal.

The truth that our Lord is demonstrating here is something that we must not miss: In the midst of our hectic lifestyle, the discipline to commune with the Father regularly is vital! In other words, Jesus understood that a life without a quiet centre easily becomes destructive.

But more importantly, we discovered something else. In v33, Mark records that the whole town - which included the sick and … demon possessed (v32) - came to seek Him for help. I don’t know why Jesus as God didn’t just with one sweep of His hand healed the entire crowd. Certainly it would be a lot faster and easier. Obviously, Jesus must have gone round laying hands and praying for the crowd individually, very much as what we would be doing if we had been on a mission trip. And if you have been to such a trip you will realized that it takes time ministering and praying for the people and sometimes it ends past midnight and still the work is not finished.

Likewise, we read that in V34 that although the whole town came to see Jesus, only many were healed. It was therefore not surprising to find in V36-37 that Simon Peter searched for Him the very next morning wanting to inform Him that the people was still coming and waiting to see Him.

You could almost imagine the excitement to what Peter was thinking here:

“Hey Jesus, where are you? Time to wake up! Last night’s work was a success and was not yet completed. There’s much yet to be done. The queue is growing but if we start now, we might finish by noon.”

In fairness to Peter, it is the human tendency to carry on, to finish off the good and successful work and subsequently heap the praises and adoration of the crowd. Certainly, I believed Peter expected Jesus to agree with Him. However, notice Jesus’ response to Peter in V38:

Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.

The words of Jesus must have shocked Peter (and perhaps we too).

“What?! Go to the next town?”

What prompted our Lord to say what He said to Peter? The answer is simple: Jesus realized that it wasn’t His Father’s purpose for Him to continue what He was doing even though it was a success! He realized this because He abided with the Father. The lesson to remember is that it is easy for us to be busy in a successful and growing ministry and yet crowd out what God is trying to say to us because we have not been listening. We can assume that because of the success, we are doing what is right and is what the Lord wants, when in fact it might not be so. Jesus knew the purpose of the Father for His life in the midst of His many activities simply because He made time with God

Application Steps

What of us? Do you enjoy the presence of God? Do you find satisfaction in reading and absorbing the Word of God? As Christ’s disciples, do you take your Christian walk seriously and not make busyness as an excuse? As Jesus set the example for us, we must follow the Master.

Here are some practical disciplines for every disciple of Christ to apply in their lives

a) Personal Quiet Time
- Maintain a consistent QT (not 5 minutes devotion)
- Read through the Bible within a year

b) Silent Retreat
- Take a silent retreat once a year, depending on your schedule

c) Spiritual Disciplines
- Meditating, Studying, Fasting

d) Church Corporate Prayer
- Hour of Power

Conclusion

A young man was looking for a job and approached the foreman of a logging crew. To show how good he was with an axe, the young man had to chopped down a tree which he did quite confidently and skillfully with much speed and ease. The foreman was impressed and immediately gave him the job. Monday came, Tuesday passed by and by Thursday the foreman began to show some concern for the young man. Knowing that he was a hard worker, always being the first to arrive and the last to leave, yet the chart showed that he had fallen behind from first place on Monday to last place on Wednesday. Noticing the problem he asked: “Have you been sharpening your axe?” The young man’s reply was: “Well, no sir. I have been too busy working to take the time to do so.”

Does this sound like us? Are we too busy to sharpen our axe? Are we too busy in our lives with our work that we don’t have time with God in prayer and Word? Without the discipline of prayer and Word, the more work we do in the ministry, the duller we’ll get. We all need to stay sharp as we go about the work of the Kingdom. In a world that sees busyness as a good thing, Jesus leads the way and calls us as His disciples to discipline ourselves to departed to a solitary place and … pray. Remember “A life without a quiet centre easily becomes destructive.”

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