A New Teaching

A New Teaching

Mark 1:21-28; Luke 4:31-37

Boiling a frog by slowly turning up the heat

Reality Check #1: There Is A Pervasiveness About Life

From the Latin word pervado, which means "to penetrate"

Matthew 16:6 "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." (New Living Translation)

Luke 12:1 "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—beware of their hypocrisy." (New Living Translation)

Personal Syncretism

Screwtape letters- let them feel confident and comfortable

Cultural Syncretism/ Pluralistic society

acceptable lying -white lies; lies to protect dignity-feelings

acceptable sexual misconduct -OK to be sexually active-almost expected; virginity is

questioned

acceptable stealing -keep extra change

*There are gradations of lies and, says Feldman, there are three broad categories at to why we lie: to make others feel better about themselves, to boast and make ourselves look better, and to protect ourselves. ( ABC News Primetime 031501 :The Truth About Lying. ABCNews.com)

*Any of these sound familiar?

"I can’t make it in today. I’m sick."

"No, that doesn’t make you look fat."

"My computer crashed with everything on it."

"I tried you — the line was busy."

"The check is in the mail."

"I had a nice time tonight, too. I’ll call you." (Ibid)

*The Global Strategy Group of New York conduced a 1999 poll of 200 children and 224 parents. They discovered:

Parents responding to the survey agreed in large measure (77 percent) that it’s "never OK to lie," or that it’s only all right to lie to avoid hurting someone (7 percent). But only 32 percent of children responded that it’s "never OK to lie," and 28 percent argued that it’s OK to lie in order to avoid hurting someone.

*The George Barna Group reports:

That 6% of Americans would keep the money if a cashier gave them too much change.

51% of Christians said that they favored the idea of making it illegal to distribute movies or magazines that contain sexually explicit or pornographic pictures. (1997)

19% of Christians said that whether or not it is acceptable to see pornographic videos or pictures is a matter of taste, not morality. (1997)

35% of Christians vs. 57% non-Christians said that to get by in life these days, sometimes you have to bend the rules for your own benefit. (1997)

( www.barna.org © 1995-2001 Barna Research Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Beware the leaven

Galatians 5:9 little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough! (New Living Translation)

Power of sin to corrupt us slowly

*How the Nazi’s took control

This morning we will read how Christ confronts this normalcy, makes it known for what it is, and is able to remove it.

TEXT

People doing weird things

Desert Joke

Guy spends his whole life in the desert. He decides to come visit a pen pall friend. He’d never seen a train before or the tracks they run on. While walking down some tracks on the way to see his friend, he hears this whistle, but has no idea what it is. So he just stands there. And sure enough, he’s hit by the train. Luckily, it was only a glancing blow. The guy was thrown, head over heals to the side of the tracks. He came to with only a few minor cuts and scrapes and bruises, along with a broken leg. After about a week in the hospital recovering, he’s at his friend’s house one evening. While in the kitchen, he suddenly hears the tea kettle whistling. He grabs a baseball bat from the nearby closet and proceeds to batter and bash the tea kettle into an unrecognizable lump of metal. His friend rushes into the kitchen, sees what’s happened and asks the man, "Why’d you ruin my good tea kettle?" The guy who had grown up in the desert replied, "Man, you gotta kill these things while they’re still small."

( Http://www.sermoncentral.com. "The J Files" by Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn (Mark 1:21-28) Link: Http://web2.airmail.net/revbilly/000130.htm.)

Immediately the man speaks out

Enterprise beaming man down into synagogue; Star Trek has pervaded our lives.

Power Rangers

eu\q’ews -used over 30 x’s in Mark

immediately speaks, not immediately appearing

Here, during the middle of a church service a disturbed man speaks out.

*maybe say something about his state as possessed

Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message, calls him "deeply disturbed".

( Peterson, Eugene. The Message: The New Testament, Psalms, & Proverbs. (Navpress, Colorado Springs, Co, 1995).)

2 things we should immediately note about this man:

1. He is in the synagogue. (located)

Why is he here?

Subversive- "Have you come to destroy us"

Ephesians 6:10-12 A final word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. (New Living Translation)