Mark 1: 21-28
The Devil Comes to Church Too
We have a whole lot of things going on in these verses. We have the deep desire to keep the Sabbath, the desire to be in synagogue, the desire to teach and preach, we have the desire of those who want to be taught and learn the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. We have the preaching of the word with authority to declare the mind of God. We have people being astonished by it. We have the fame of Jesus being spread far and wide. We have commands being given, “ Let us alone!” “Hold thy peace and come out!” We have statement of affirmation, “ I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” We have a man in convulsions. There are people being amazed by what they have heard and seen. We have questions, “What have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth? “Art thou come to destroy us?” “What thing is this?” “What new doctrine is this?” What authority is this, that unclean spirits obey him? Who is this man? Oh yes, and one more thing we have, we have the devil in church!!!
Don’t be surprised by that. We have far too many folks in far too many assemblies who quietly attend services while formal, feel good, warm and fuzzy teachers and preachers go about their duties. As I was preparing this message a comment that was made to me months ago, following one of my messages, came to mind and that statement was, “good shootin’ Tex, I can still smell the gun smoke.” In other words, God’s word hit home, someone was challenged and even perhaps a life was changed. This world needs preachers and teachers who come with the Lord, faithful ministers and holy doctrine and with the convincing power of the Holy Spirit, so those who are sitting quietly in service begin to cry out, and ask, “What have we to do with thee Jesus of Nazareth?”
This unclean spirit cried out in pure agony at the presence of Christ. Make no mistake, the devil and all his minions believe and tremble and have a fear of Christ. They have no hope in Him or reverence for Him. We read what this unclean spirit asked, “what have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth, art thou come to destroy us?” “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” This unclean spirit knows his doom. Even the devil here states the humanness of God ,in the man Jesus ,and His deity as well, the Holy One of God. He wants nothing to do with Jesus, he fears being saved by Him and yet dreads the thought of being destroyed by Him.
What has caused this demon to cry out? The power and authority of God’s word! When God’s word is taught and preached with authority and the power of the Holy Spirit, nothing that attempts to keep us from the truth and the beauty of the gospel can stand against it, nothing or no one! So we see Jesus rebuke this spirit in this man, and now it knows it can no longer cause further pain and mischief within this poor man. It yields to the power of the word and the authority of Jesus. It could not touch Jesus but in its fury at Jesus it disturbs this poor man so badly that he convulses. The spirit knows it is doomed, but yet he wants to cause as much harm and pain as it can before it leaves this poor soul. Just as Jesus taught with authority he also healed with authority. The spirit obeyed and left the man. And they were all astonished who witnessed this.
When they heard and saw this, there was no doubt, that this man was possessed and it was very evident that the devil was forced out by the authority of Jesus. So now the questions are flying, what new doctrine is this? Who is this, that even spirits obey his commands? Then they begin to think, hey, this must be of God, maybe we should begin a friendship with this man who can control evil spirits. Great idea huh, don’t you think so too?
We see that immediately because of this removal of the unclean spirit in the synagogue, the fame of Christ spread near and far, and it was concluded that he was a teacher come from God. Now when folks heard of this we know that some did choose to form a relationship with Jesus and His teachings and ministry, and of course some did not. The curing of a demonic man by simply speaking the words brought astonishment then, and it would have the same effect today I imagine. When the word is given with authority of God and by faith and by the convincing of the Holy Spirit, lives are changed, transformed as we see in this passage. Today lives can and have been and will continue to be changed when the truth is spoken.
As I said earlier this world needs preachers and teachers who come with the Lord, faithful ministers and holy doctrine and with the convincing power of the Holy Spirit. Last year I attended a conference with Dr. James MacDonald, the pastor of Walk in the Word. I am sure most of you have heard his ministry on FLN. He shared 5 points that form a pattern of ministry, and it is so evident in this story for all of us to see.
The first is communication: God does not want ministers pussyfooting around, he wants the truth to be told, God wants certain things to be spoken from the pulpits of our churches today. He wants the truth preached and taught. Jesus taught it that day in the synagogue, the truth forced the demon to cry out and set a man free. He wants the word of God to be spoken to have folks be challenged, to hit their hearts, to make them think, to have the Holy Spirit lead and guide them on their daily walk of life, and to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just a warm and fuzzy feel good on Sunday morning relationship. God wants you, and for you to have a relationship deep and rooted in faith, unshakeable, free from unclean spirits.
Second is opposition: Not everyone is going to applaud the message of truth. We see here in our story the demon was not applauding, not even smiling. There will be folks who will distain the truth and reject the gospel and continue to sit quietly and try as they may, to cause hurt, pain and discontent in the family of God and to let their demons control them still. I suggest to you that they are not hearing the word taught and preached as it should be. They are being given the easy way, the feel good about themselves, watered down, politically correct, placebo message of the truth. But if they can hear the truth preached with God’s authority, the convincing of the Holy Spirit and the word given with faith and the leading of the Holy Spirit, they will be changed.
Third is perseverance: if there is no perseverance then there is no growth and no joy. If Jesus had not preserved to be in synagogue to teach and to preach that day then that man may have never been healed by God’s authority. We must persevere in all things for our reward is the joy of the Lord. You think you can’t stand any more, too much pressure, to much stress, things not going your way? Think on Job and his problems. We have all heard it said, so and so has the patience of Job, well I have always believed Job had perseverance, he persevered through it all. And because he did he was rewarded with growth and joys even greater than he had before.
Fourth is fruit: Lasting fruit that remains in the word and fruit that is of the vine, rooted deep in God. Lives that are changed, transformed, made new in the newness of Christ. We see a man cleansed of a demon and I dare suggest to you, this man remained forever in Christ, he was fruit that abides still.
And number 5: Glory. All glory goes to God the Father. Jesus speaks in John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. In all that we do we are to glorify God, God created us to glorify Him. We are to bring forth the fruits of love and discipleship and give all the glory to God. As the old hymn says, “To God be the glory, great things He hath done.”
Amen
