Walk this way. The way towards Jesus. The way towards the King. The way towards eternal life where endless life is forever your right and inheritance. Walk this way. The way towards love. The way towards peace. The way towards laughter. The way towards increase of joy and purpose on the inside. He is the only way to find what you are looking for. He is what we are looking for. The one we were made for. Jesus is everything. He carries the mark of one who walked with His people. With Him walked the disciples who lived and breathed to learn from Him and cherish every word on His tongue. They wanted to work for this Kingdom. A different Kingdom. So they left everything else behind. When Jesus beckons you to get up and go, will you? He wants you to come with Him wherever He goes. Walk with His radiance on you. A radiance that bears the marks of Jesus intertwined with you.
The Marks of Jesus we will talk about in today’s study.
Verse 11: The Mark of Command
Verse 12: The Mark of Exposure
Verse 13: The Mark of A Teacher
Verse 14: The Mark of Walking
Introduction
This week in Marked by Jesus: Mark 2:11-14, we continue in the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man whom him friends lowered through the roof. The religious folks have been questioning Jesus but Jesus will not cower to their hard hearts nor their criticism. He continues on with authority and power. Now he commands the man to get and go. Go home. Move and thrive again. Live and breathe again the way he was created to. Jesus does this anytime He walks into our lives… He breathes dead things back to life and revitalizes paralyzed places that needed lifeblood flowing. Then he makes you head onward in the life He gave you, knowing that His healing of you will reverberate to the people around you. Jesus’ miracle in your life sparks a testimony for others to see and desire Him because of your life’s exposure. Let God expose your need so that He can expose His miraculous answer on your behalf. Teach us Your ways, Jesus. We want Your ways, not the world’s ways and not religion’s ways. We don’t want tradition. We want the real thing. Your heart. Your soul. Mark us with You, Jesus. The one who broke the status quo so that we could be one with You.
Verse 11: The Mark of Command
“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”
Mark 2:11
Take charge. Take command. Tell winds to move and tell seas to stand in liquid blue fanned into paths where your people charge ahead on dry land. He leads you towards the promised land. That is why He is a trustworthy commander. A trustworthy God. A royal King. The only One who came to breathe in the earth’s oxygen although His home is in Heaven. He would not let anything separate us from Him. So He spoke His vision for eternity over us, just as in the beginning when He formed us.
Jesus’ voice… there’s nothing like Jesus voice. I want to hear what He says. I want to hear what He thinks. I want to hear what He knows and what He speaks every moment of every day.
When Jesus says something, it carries the final weight. The final authority.
Jesus holds command over the universe.
“He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together.” Colossians 1:17
In Genesis, God created the world through commands… Let there be light. Let there be sky. Let there be land… let there be sea… and so on. He carries the highest commanding authority.
Jesus holds command over spirits and diseases. Thus, He is called the miracle worker for a reason. The Savior. The healer.
Here in verse 11 of chapter 2, Jesus has healed the man with paralysis and now he commands him: get up! Walk! Go home! You’re healed now… you don’t have to operate like you did before. Now you live a new lifestyle of freedom and liberated cultivated by the God who made him.
God made you… and so any command He gives you is a command to heed to.
Don’t listen to any other command except for the one Jesus spoke.
In verse 11, the word for “get up” is “egeire.” It means to “arise from sleep” or “cause to appear.” Awakening takes place when Jesus tells you to get up. Listen to His words and don’t miss the miracle of awakening!
Verse 12: The Mark of Exposure
“He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Mark 2:12
Jesus provokes you to wholeness. He also provokes you to a public display of your healing. By saying… go! Get up and move forward!
Can you walk out in full view? Let everyone see you? And how God healed you?
This is the result of radical liberation. The kind of liberation that detonates into the atmosphere sparking an epiphany for everyone in proximity that God is near.
Walk around in full view of everyone in your midst when Jesus liberates you. They need to see the miracle with their own eyes.
It saves others when they see tangibly a Savior is in the room. A healer. A restorer. A King. Jesus Christ.
Everyone was amazed, verse 12 says. Then their amazement channeled “praise” unto God because they “had never seen anything like this.” God opens up your eyes to see things you’ve never seen. Not just in the abstract space made visible. But in the real tangible people around you. God’s healing is visibly seen in people when they are healed and touched by Him. It is called transformation. And it is beautiful to witness.
In this moment, the man is exposed. His new self is shown and unable to be hidden and the former self that needed a touch from God is also exposed in order to be changed. Just as the man is exposed when lowered through the roof to see Jesus, Jesus is exposed in front of the religious people in the room who questioned him. Yet he kept healing anyways and did not let the exposure of His divinity and power make him lose him strength or edge. He did what He came to do and that is heal, teach and save people whom He created to be in relationship with Him. Nothing will keep Jesus away from us. He comes to us. Because He wants us.
The man’s new identity as a healed man is also exposed in a room full of onlookers who watch with amazement in Jesus’ miraculous healing. This exposure is good exposure. God exposure. Right exposure. Because it points to Jesus and reveals Him as the King.
When you are exposed, what does it reveal in you? Jesus or something else?
If you find yourself exposed, let it reveal more of Jesus. Let it be because of Jesus. Let is shine the supremacy of Jesus as your Lord. No one can stop the magnitude of Jesus’ power being exposed in you and made known to a world that needs Him.
The mark of exposure can only reveal the glory of God when He is at work in your life. Often times, this exposure will be messy and invasive but it is meant to create a testimony of Jesus’ at work in your life. Don’t hide this transformation. Let it be seen! Let it be known so that people will see God.
When Jesus is exposed in you, all of the other parts of you may come rising to the surface. Be patient with yourself and God as He refines you and shapes you into who He created you to be. Our lives are a work in progress not a static existence. But God is faithful and Philippians 2:13 says He will complete the work He started in you.
David said in one of his psalms to the Lord, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Psalm 119:18
Open your eyes to Jesus when you are exposed.
Be confident in Jesus when exposed.
Look at Jesus when you feel exposed.
Look at Jesus when you are exposed.
Look at Jesus because He is exposed in all He is.
He wants us to be exposed for all we are in the light of His love, to be connected with us authentically and intimately. Let Him into the deepest places of your heart.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” John 14:1
Exposure to Jesus exposes your heart to peace. You don’t worry about anything when your heart is exposed before God, because He touches it with heavenly essence. He came to save you. And He came to show you who He is.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26:3
Focus your mind on Jesus and you are lifted above the world so that nothing here carries the weight that the world tries to convince you it does. I promise you nothing matters more than eternity. But if you are going to live here, make the most of your time. Philippians 1:21 says, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Live for Jesus and you will see Him thriving in places you would never expect.
You see what you have never seen before when you give your life to Jesus.
He opens up the Heavens to show you His unseen wonders and plants the hope of Heaven in your heart to anticipate His coming.
“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” Psalm 27:14
Verse 13: The Mark of A Teacher
“Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to Him, and He began to teach them.”
Mark 2:13
Jesus is a teacher who is constantly on the move.
Verse 13 says, “once again” He went out. Jesus always keeps moving in Marks’ gospel and there is a powerful rhythm of momentum present. This reminds us that Jesus’ mission is urgent and vital. There is no time to waste. Furthermore, as a teacher he knows how to make the most of his time. And he needs very little to draw a crowd. He does that all by Himself. Because of His presence emitting an allure that makes other people want to come closer to Him and hear Him. They like to listen to Him. They like to feel empowered by Him. They like to be taught by Him. They like to be challenged by Him.
A good teacher challenges and inspires. Here in verse 13 Jesus begins again doing just that, as he has already done in this gospel and will continue to do until the end of the book.
Verse 13 says, “a large crowd came.” The mark of a good teacher is known by their attraction.
People want to be around Jesus when Jesus teaches. His words gave a new hope to them, one that was real and secure. The ways of 1st century antiquity were barbaric and ethically questionable, which furthermore created a divide between Jesus’ teachings and that of the philosophers and other religious traditions. When people heard Jesus, they knew the truth was being spoken and how their inner soul experienced liberation and alignment with truth. We need this. Alignment with truth. In order to know what to do and how to live in a world where everything but truth is spoken as vogue. Jesus’ truth will always be the one truth regardless. And those who desire the truth respond to it with the desire to embrace it and know it deeply.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Matthew 24:25
Jesus words will always be there for you to embrace…
How do you respond to Jesus’ teachings?
When Jesus teaches truth, respond to Him with a desire to know more and to follow it. His teachings are life and peace for us. You will not go wrong listening to His words. Don’t follow somebody else’s words. Follow Jesus.
Jesus’ words are 100% reliable. Yield to His teachings.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15
Verse 14: The Mark of A Walk
“He got up, took His mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
Mark 2:14
How do you walk?
God said to His people Israel in Leviticus 26:12, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”
Jesus came and dwelt among us, to walk among us and be with us. We walk among one another carrying Jesus in our hearts and soul because of His liberation in us. Let His power show!
Walk like Jesus transformed you.
Have you ever seen anything like a miracle of God?
There is nothing like it. Nothing like life beginning, sparking, renewing, restoring. This is why Jesus came! To give us eternal life. When you experience Jesus in your life there is nothing else like it. Nothing else that can usurp His place as God. He is so close and so involved in our lives, and we can trust Him. This does not eliminate suffering but it does promise that we will grow strong from the trials as 1 Peter says. You deepen our spiritual maturity because of trials that you encounter in your lives.
Keep walking no matter what is going on around you.
Your purpose needs your feet to keep moving. Your hands to keep working. Your heart to keep beating. This does not equate to putting pressure on yourself to perform. It simply means you keep in step with God and His timing, and you will know what to do and when to do it.
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22
You are held in Jesus’ arms forever. Evil cannot penetrate you because Jesus is strong in you. Remember, Jesus is the way, not your tradition or religion. Much evil can take place in the name of religion but in the name of Jesus strongholds are broken and the Holy Spirit can move in power.
“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” Psalm 119:10
How do you maintain good in your heart? Seeking Jesus. Don’t seek change and don’t seek striving. Seek Jesus. Exposure to Jesus is how your heart changes. Meet with Jesus every day and continually throughout your day as you keep Him on your mind and talk to Him all day.
“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” Amos 3:3
Agree to meet with Jesus. And walk with Him.
My Favorite Takeaway of The Passage
“…walked out in full view of them all.” Mark 2:12
We see Your glory. Heaven’s amoré. The light of life. Your love on high. We want to see You in the clear view of your face beholding breakthrough in the ones you love… we believe Your love.
“Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40
Jesus wants you to see His glory.
See Him like the velvet stars of navy in cascading hues of thunder. Wonder is all around when His feet touch down on holy ground to quake the symphony of divinity dwelling among us. Witness His essence. The radiance of Jesus.
“Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13
They saw it… in the flesh. The glory of Jesus. Miraculous Jesus. Manifest in the man he healed heart, mind, body and spirit in Mark chapter 2.
“So he got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.” Mark 2:12a
Jesus’ works in your life are meant to be seen by everyone around you.
Can you walk around in full view? Let everyone see Jesus in you?
Walk this way… the way of full exposure of God at work in you.
“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” Psalm 119:45
Freedom is an asset.
When Jesus touches you with a miracle, you walk confidently. Unabashedly. Triumphantly. Exposed before God and people. Because others need to see Jesus in you. Don’t hide the liberation He sparked in you.
Liberation marks you.
Liberation makes you walk boldly in full view.
Liberation sparks communal passion for God in new views.
“This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:12b
The whole room was astonished and overjoyed from what they saw. The panoramic view of Jesus’ miracle on tangibly expressed.
We have not seen anything yet when we think of the glory still to come… Jesus still plans to do His greatest miracles. The kind of astonishing displays that makes you react with a gasp. The glory of The King is at hand.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
Walk in the grandeur of His miracles. His panoramic miracles
“And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Luke 3:6
Expose your flesh to Jesus… encounter the sighting of Jesus… receive the healing of Jesus. Walk with confidence.
“Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” Genesis 13:17
I want them to see you in me, Lord. I want to walk out in full view. Where Your glory in me is exposed. Fully exposed. Nothing to cloak you from my being. You’re fully seen because You are my King and you live in me. I choose to walk confidently in Your love. Walk beautifully because You chose me to be Your Beloved, and I always will be. Let them see Your beauty in full view. Let them see Your royalty in full view. Let them see Your wondrous light in full view. Full view is the best view. The strongest view of everything Jesus is inside of you. Showcase His love to the world around you… I want everyone to see and feel Your love, Jesus.
full view
we walk out
in full view
of You
eyes beholding You
awaiting You
enthralled with You
be in the full view
of the moonlit night
be in the full view
of the sunlit sky
as the rainbows shine
and orchids thrive
in the Garden of Zion
we lift our eyes
to full view of the King
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
Life and God 