#7 When Jesus Came To Church Series

#7 When Jesus Came to Church

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

February 2, 2020

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 1:21-28 – "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. 28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee."

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – If Jesus were to personally walk into church this morning, what would it be like? We all have our stereotypical opinions of what it would be like: some think we’d feel an awesome peace; others think a heavenly love would pervade; others, a feeling of tenderness and compassion. In today’s text, Jesus shows up for Sabbath worship, and it was WAY different than anyone expected.

Before we launch into our text, let’s get our bearings with a little background this morning. In the very first verse of the Gospel of Mark, John tells us his theme. He says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Everything in Mark’s book was written to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God.

Each section of chapter 1 we’ve looked at so far was written to reinforce this truth: The fact that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah in verses 2-3, the baptism of Jesus wherein God the Father gave His verbal approval of Jesus and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove to anoint Jesus for service, how He overcame Satan in that titanic 40 days of temptation in the wilderness and finally in His immediate success in His preaching and His remarkable attraction such that when He called believers to be his Apostles, they immediately responded.

All of these sound like someone who is not your average, run-of-the-mill rabbi. No, Jesus is unique—the very Son of God, in fact.

In verses 21-35, Mark records a single day in the ministry of Jesus. In a single twenty-four-hour period, Jesus demonstrated that He was the Son of God by His extraordinary authority. That’s the key word in verses 21-35—authority. In this passage, and indeed in His whole life, Jesus exercised the type of authority reserved only for God Himself. That’s the point Mark tries to convey.

The word “authority” is found 10 times in Mark. The Greek word [exousía] has several shades of meaning, but I can sum up all the language lexicons and dictionaries by saying that it means “inherent ability and power and the resultant right to exercise that power.”

In verses 21-35, the subject of today’s and next week’s sermons, we will see how Jesus suddenly and beyond anyone’s expectations assumes power possible only to God and rights and prerogatives reserved only for God, thereby proving that He is indeed the Son of God.

I. NOTE FIRST THAT JESUS TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY – Verses 21-22 – “And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”

A faithful follower of God, Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath in Capernaum, the hub of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. The Temple was the place of worship and sacrifice; the synagogue was the place of teaching and instruction. There was only one Temple (in Jerusalem), but wherever there were at least ten families, it was a rule of Judaism that a synagogue must be established. Therefore, the synagogue was by far the more in?uential, and the logical place for Jesus to begin to establish His divine authority.

When He entered the synagogue, Jesus began to teach. Mark doesn’t bother to tell us WHAT Jesus taught that Sabbath; he only tells us the response to His teachings. He said they were “astonished” at His teachings.